“ At the same council was present the celebrated Platonist, Gemistus Pletho, the most powerful opponent of the then dominant Aristotelianism, and consequently the special object of reprobation to Georgios. ”

“ GENNADIUS II. [as layman Georgios Scholarios] (d. c. 1468) , patriarch of Constantinople from 1454 to 1456, philosopher and theologian, was one of the last representatives of Byzantine learning. Extremely little is known of his life, but he appears to have been born at Constantinople about 1400 and to have entered the service of the emperor John VII. Paleologus as imperial judge or counsellor. Georgios first appears conspicuously in history as present at the great council held in 1438 at Ferrara and Florence with the object of bringing about a union between the Greek and Latin Churches. ”