MICHAEL
5. BALSAMON, Magnae Ecclesiae Constantino politanae Magnus Chartophylax et Archidiaconus, was probably a native of Constantinople.
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. (Cave,
Hist. Lit. ad an. 1440; Fabric.
Bibl. Graec. vol. x. p. 373, note.)