It won. It's the official church doctrine.I also know nothing about hesychasm. What became of it OTL?
The church for the past several decades has also been to put it bluntly corrupt to a degree it is not even funny and in the pockets of the French crown (and its Anjou branches) which is why relations with Sicily were affected by such doctrinal religious issues like Syracuse refusing to pay tithes to Avignon and its relationship with the Angevin crown. Now that we are gradually entering a... shall we say more interesting period...So @Lascaris has the Catholic Church made any concessions at all when during negotiations with the Lascarid Empire?Even IOTL, they offered promises of help to the ERE instead of just say give us XYZ or we will get armies from the Latin West to invade you. Trying to use force alone against the Lascarid Empire after repeated failures seems a bit uncharacteristic of the Church.Usually they do try the carrot and stick approach. After all the failures thus far, I think they should be negotiating in good faith. Like I don’t think they would think that the kingdom of Cyprus is worthwhile compared to what the Lascarid Empire could offer. If they could get the Lascarid Empire to join the fold, then that’s potentially a powerful vehicle for the Church to regain the Near East.A smarter Church would be trying to turn the energy of the Lascarids towards the Turks instead of wasting effort trying to protect an obviously failed project like the various Latin Crusader states. The Church is usually REALLY GENEROUS towards kings who are willing to fight non-Christians.
Well, if you are looking for Hist. info think that besides from the page on the Hesychasm, also would do well to follow the links and/or to look for Palamas/ Palamism. But, even so, I think that the Wiki page on the Hesychast controversy, it 'd provide both a basic but still good enough, (for anyone without knowledge on the subject or in Theology/Philosophy) and for those interested, it, IMHO, would be a good enough 'kickstart' for further and/or more academically rigorous readings.And the wiki article (big surprise) is not that helpful. It explains how it developed far more than what the actual Theological differences were.
Monasticism and hesychasm[edit]
Hesychasm is a form of constant purposeful prayer or experiential prayer that, from at latest the 13th century, took the form of "a particular psychosomatic technique in combination with the Jesus Prayer".[1] Even before the adoption of that technique, hesychasm, as "the practice of inner prayer, aiming at union with God on a level beyond images, concepts and language", with or without use of the Jesus Prayer can be traced back much earlier.[1]
That you'd see God's light, the same seen by the Apostles in Mount Tabor by the simple expedient of looking at your belly button and chanting "god save me" for a few hours? Yes I can think that this would cause some controversy.How could that be controversial?
Well, besides of the similar or bigger numbers. I think that the combined arms way to fight from the Sicilians and the lack of the C.& C issues of the OTL Crusading Armies, would mark the difference against the Ottomans. C&C issues, ones which stemmed from some of the Crusading Aristocrats leaders mindset (same one that caused the French debacles before their English opponents and quite more relevant, the 'Golden Spurs' one, when faced with the Flemish rebelsThe other great development is the incorporation of Macedonia. In OTL, Manuel Palaiologos briefly recovered east Macedonia but within a decade it was lost to the Ottomans. While we all expect the two rising powers to clash, I doubt Lascarid Macedonia will simply collapse as a house of cards as in OTL. The eastern half of the Lascarid Empire can field armies as big as the christian armies of Kosovo and Nicopolis but under a single command and not composed by heterogeneous forces.
Argh…..Christians doing what Christians do best —come up with new ways to create controversy in the church……over minor things……./jThat you'd see God's light, the same seen by the Apostles in Mount Tabor by the simple expedient of looking at your belly button and chanting "god save me" for a few hours? Yes I can think that this would cause some controversy.
Even when there’s no disagreements, people invent disagreements./jIt´s like they took what peter or saul said about not splitting the church up and went wild
Wiki says the OTL Lucia was born in 1380. Butterfly or wiki error?Further to the marriage, negotiations would be opened for the betrothal of Theodore with Lucia Visconti....
Name change due to butterflies? Simonis became Adrienne.Wiki says the OTL Lucia was born in 1380. Butterfly or wiki error?
Well the Italian wiki say otherwise and I'm inclined to believe it more than the English one when it comes down to matters Italian.Name change due to butterflies? Simonis became Adrienne.
Well, besides of the similar or bigger numbers. I think that the combined arms way to fight from the Sicilians and the lack of the C.& C issues of the OTL Crusading Armies, would mark the difference against the Ottomans. C&C issues, ones which stemmed from some of the Crusading Aristocrats leaders mindset (same one that caused the French debacles before their English opponents and quite more relevant, the 'Golden Spurs' one, when faced with the Flemish rebels
Yeah I think the pike and shot + cavalry army would fare well against the early Ottoman army just bc the Ottomans would have to charge in, and the pikemen can wear heavy armour to protect themselves better, and Lascarid light cavalry can pin down the Ottoman cavalry while the heavy cavalry can be the hammer and the pikemen will be the anvil.Very much so! Especially since the Sicilians field pike-heavy armies, in contrast to knight-heavy armies of the Crusaders. Then it is how the sicilian army was evolved: Alexios Philanthropenos built that army, with the expertise he had from Asia Minor and from fighting turkish cavalry there. Emphasis was given on feigned retreat and ambush and then he developed pike blocks to stop heavy cavalry. This unique combined arms approach is very suitable to defeat early ottoman armies.
The existence of the Lascarid Empire produces another butterfly. Since it is doubtful that lascarid Macedonia and Thessaly will simply collapse, then the pattern of the ottoman colonization in the Balkans will be disrupted. At this point in history, the sustained war effort in the Balkans was immensely helped the settlement of militarized nomadic and and semi-nomadic Turkmen/Yoruk tribes in the balkan lowlands. At this point, the colonizing effort was in the thracian plain, but as soon as serbian and byzantine Macedonia and Thessaly collapsed, tribes moved to the lower Strymon valley, lower Axios valley, Pelagonia and Thessaly. These tribes provided most of the light cavalry used by the Ottomans and did most of the raiding as well. The Ottomans didn't regularly move light cavalry from Asia Minor to the Balkans back and forth : usually they operated with local forces.
So, without a lascarid collapse, Murad has two choices: limit the colonizing effort or concentrate the effort even more in Thrace and Bulgaria. If he chooses the latter strategy, there are certain drawbacks. First and foremost, more agrarian peasants are uprooted and replaced by pastoralists. Until the reign of Mehmed II, the tribes didn't pay taxes or at least paid very limited amounts mostly in booty from raids. From the mid-15th century the Ottomans started the process of the gradual agrarianization and sedentarization of the nomads. By then, they had a lot of sipahis, an expanded Janissary Corps and the Tatars to act as light cavalry. So, more concentrated nomads will mean much fewer taxes for the state.
I think these trends just help the Lascarids. Devastating the Balkans more just means the Lascarids can resettle the areas with their own ppl who're also Greek speaking when the Greeks increase in population, which is the same as in Anatolia. If the Lascarids play their hand right they'll be able to consolidate a lot more of the Balkans than their predecessors...Lastly, before Timur arrived at the scene, the Ottomans have some pragmatic restriction on how many tribes they can resettle. Timur's campaigns drove a lot of tribes further west, one tribe replacing the other and a lot of Turkmen crossed to Europe. Likewise, a number of Tatars fled from the Pontic Steppe to the Ottoman Balkans after they were defeated by Timur. The Battle of Terek River is still two decades in the future.