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The Fall Of The Byzantine Empire

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The fall of the Byzantine Empire was more than just the end of a political and cultural entity, but the fall of the last remnant of the exalted Roman Empire, and for the Byzantines it heralded the end of the world. That is the historical context of Nicholas de Cusa’s “On the Peace of Faith”, written after the fall of the Byzantines and the massacre of Orthodox Christians on the orders of Sultan Mehmed II . This document is a product of the disbelief and can be considered a reactionary document that attempts to find a peaceful solution to the question of religious diversity. The structure and content of the document itself is a nod to Cusa’s background as a conciliarist priest and a participant in the Council of Basel . As out of place as it might have been with its message of religious toleration, the document reveals that the objective had less to do with actual toleration of diversity, and more with religious toleration through assimilation and conversion to Christianity .
Cusa´s efforts in this document to find a solution to this problem is passive, it does not foster religious toleration based on mutual respect of the differences between peoples, but that all differences between religions and their practices are manifestations of the same fundamental religion. In addition from being a passive and superficial effort, Cusa’s personifications of the different groups of people in the known world are not based on actual accounts made by the people these figures are supposed

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