Michael Balsamon

Michael Balsamon a noted Eastern ecclesiastic flourished in the latter half of the 15th century. He is supposed to have been a native of Constantinople, where he always lived. He was one of the Greek deputies sent in 1438 to the Council of Florence, discovered the secret intrigues of the Latins, and prognosticated the ultimate fate of the union of the two churches, to which he subscribed reluctantly. He wrote and addressed to the emperor Joannes Palaeologus Anaphora Cleri Constantinopolitani, of which Leo Allatius gives a few fragments in his work De Consensu utriusque Ecclesiae. See Cave, Hist. Lit. ad an. 1440; Fabricius, Bibl. Grcea, 10:373, note.