On the eve of the conquest, the commander-inchief of the Byzantine navy said, “Better the turban of the Turk than the tiara of the Latin [Pope]”. 1 The Orthodox realized any call for Latin help would necessarily require doctrinal compromise as well. Rather than submit to the supremacy of the Pope, the Orthodox realized the city falling to Ottoman control was perhaps not the worst outcome.

XREF: Connects to the broader history of the Great Schism of 1054 and the doctrinal rift between Eastern and Western Christianity.

Ali Qureshi, The Fall of Constantinople, loc. 23