Ecclesiastical policy

ollowing the example of his predecessors, who, mostly for political reasons, had from time to time promoted negotiations for union with the Western Church, Andronikos III took similar initiatives between 1333 and 1339. He believed, however, that Western help in fighting the Ottoman Turks was a basic prerequisite for inducing the people to embrace the Latin dogma. The Pope and the cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church, on the other hand, retorted that union would have to be realised before help was sent. As a result, the negotiations fell through. Andronikos III, however, remembering the failure of previous efforts to achieve union, simultaneously followed a policy of cooperation with the Seljuk Emirates  against certain Westerners such as, for instance, the Genoese of Phokaia (1335).