GREGORY OF CYPRUS (1241–1290), known as Gregory II, was a patriarch of Constantinople. Born in Frankish-occupied Cyprus, Gregory traveled to Ephesus, Nicaea, and finally Constantinople, where he studied under Gregory Akropolites. His exceptional proclivity toward humanism gained for him a place in the select circle of academicians at the patriarchal school where he lectured on the Pauline letters. As one of the more creative personalities of the late thirteenth century, he was the very embodiment of the Paleologian renaissance that synthesized a renewal of ascetic spirituality and classical learning.

Upon his ascendancy to the patriarchate in 1283, Gregory inherited the political and religious problems that had been festering since the Fourth Crusade (1204) and the Council of Lyons (1274). Under the aggressive unionist attempts of Emperor Michael VIII and Patriarch John XI Beccus (r. 1275–1282), these issues became entangled with the filioque controversy.

The Synod of Blachernae (spring 1285) proved...