There were two other currents in play during this period (900-1600). One of them was the revolt against both Eastern Orthodox and Benedictine spirituality. Keltic monasticism which came to Ireland and Wales from Egypt in the late 4th and 5th century was totally discarded. At the start of this period there was even a Benedictine monastery on Mt. Athos.
Starting with the Cluniacs and including the Cistercians, Franciscans, Dominicans and Jesuits, the spiritual emphasis was on the either the development of the intellect or the emotions. The actual hesychastic goal of the Acquiring the Holy Spirit within oneself (like St. Seraphim spoke of) was not important at all to these heretical orders.
And the doctrines which imbued them with the prelestian confidence to pursue their emotional and intellectual goals were threefold:
- Purgatory:
I once told my heretical father that I needed go confession. I had just converted to Orthodoxy 7 months earlier. He stared at me with worry creased on his face and asked while studying my face intently,
"Have you killed somebody?" I exclaimed, "No!."
He laughed and said "Forgetaboutit, lets go play golf."
I was to forget about confession because from 900 on Purgatory became central to the heretical mindset. 95% of the Latins saw Heaven in the bag since the Cluniac Revolution in the 10th century. You live, you sin continually, you obtain and pay indulgences for a good papal lawyer and you go to jail (Purgatory) for as little time as possible (if you have followed the Papal rules and have paid enough into the indulgence retirement system). You get paroled and you enter Heaven for eternity. 95% of the heretical population saw themselves destined for Dante's Purgatory in the 13th century.
There was no such thing as a narrow road to Heaven. It was a wide road to Heaven that seduced the Latin celilbates into these religious orders and drugged the more sinful hoi polloi into a false sense of security.
How seductive was Purgatory? Most of the Orthodox bishops at the Council of Florence in 1437-39 did not know the difference between the Filioque and a piroshski. St. Mark knew the difference and backed the Council of Blachernae (1285) which had condemned it.
Metropolitan Bessarion knew the difference and was a believer in Thomas Aquinas'd view of the Filioque (and Puragtory) even before he got there but the vast majority of bishops sat through the theological sessions on the Filioque nodding themselves to sleep. They woke up occasionally and agreed that the Latins did not have the power to insert the Filioque into the Creed but the actual doctrine of the Filioque was beyond them. The Dominican Papal argument for the insertion was based on Papal power trumping any Council.
But for the vast majority of Orthodox bishops and the Tsar, Purgatory was a huge temptation. It was seen as a great way to extort more money from the Byzantine hoi polloi if believed and enforced through the indulgence system which was on full display in Florence and Ferrara during the two years they were there.
It also gave their consciences a free pass for their own transgressions (including betraying the faith at Florence in the pursuit of peace with the Latins and the military elimination of the Turks). They could simply pay for some more indulgences if wrong and get their Purgatorial jail sentence reduced for signing the "peace" of Florence.
Purgatory was also easily understood by even the most theologically dense Orthodox bishops and Tsar. And if they understood it, they could sell it to the hoi polloi easily once they got back to the East, or so they thought.
- Hellenism: The Foundation of the Renaissance.
Getting to Heaven requires an ascetic, heyshcastic life of denial. But Hellenism does not. When you mention the word Hellenism, most Greeks puff up their chests at their glorious pagan past. Hellenism requires intellectual and artistic work but not "the one thing needful."
It does not require prayer or fasting. It does not require reading the Fathers of the Church or the Bible. Central and Northern Italy was drooling over the Orthodox bishops and assorted big shots as they got off the boat in Venice. They walked by St. Mark's heretical church which had half of the stolen religious Constantinople stuffed inside and did not say a word of protest.
The Italians praised the Orthodox because they were Hellenic, not because they were Orthodox. They had the texts, translators and tradition from the ancient Greek world at their finger tips and Renaissance Italy was literally dying for it. They were dying and drooling for the pagan world to return in full force. They got their wish and the Orthodox who got off the boat in Venice delivered it to them on a silver platter.
- The Papacy- The Enforcer of Pagan Hellenism and Purgatory.
It is always easy to hand over one's moral choices to someone else. At the 2nd Coming, how many times will we hear when we are condemned, "I was just following Papal orders."
It was the Papacy from the 10th century that embarked on innovation. Purgatory was their salvation too. It gave them the false moral confidence to enshrine the belief that that the ends justify the means writ large.
Both Francis of Assisi and Pope Innocent III in 1215 were both quite satisfied with the rape of Constantinople which happened 11 years earlier. The words "Thou shalt not steal" meant as much to them as it meant to Custer looking at the Black Hills in 1869.
The end of suffering (Purgatory) for both of these heretics was the end that was hoped for spiritually. The Pope wanted to become both the Roman Emperor and High Priest at Florence. Dostoyevski talks about the human nature of the hoi polloi at length in his last book. He said that people do not love moral freedom at all. They hunger to give it to a Pope, a Stalin or a Hitler and then at the 2nd Coming, they can offer the excuse: "I was only following orders." even if those orders are Hellenic, Masonic, Communistic et al and have nothing to do with the orders given in the Gospels.
The Orthodox bishops who kissed the Popes ring in Florence wanted to surrender their moral compass to the Pope, save Hellenism/the physical city of Constantinople from the Turks and rely on Purgatory/Indulgences for any mistakes or sins committed along the way.