[7] Based on his literary interests, Isidore received training in the scriptures, the Church Fathers, and the laws of the different dioceses and ecclesiastical jurisdictions.

[9] From 1420 to 1430, Isidore was in the Morea, during the time an offensive was launched by John VIII and his brothers against local Latin lords, including Carlo I Tocco.

[12] It was the time when the Court of Constantinople, on the eve of its final destruction by the Turks, was considering the chance of rescue from the Western princes as a result of reuniting with Rome.

[15] According to a letter written by Jonah, it was decreed by the patriarch "and the divine and holy council" that "when Isidor either by God’s will dies, or should anything else happen to him", then Iona was to be "metropolitan in Russia".

[19] On 8 September 1437, after promising Vasily II that he would "strengthen the faith and unite the Church in Orthodoxy", Isidore left Moscow with his retinue numbering one hundred.

"[21] Isidore was made cardinal and Apostolic Delegate "in the Province of Lithuania, Livonia and Russia and in the states, dioceses, territories and places of Lechia [Poland] which are regarded as subject to you in your right as metropolitan".

[24] In addition, the author of the Journey to the Council of Florence left Isidore's retinue in August 1440 and arrived in Russia the following month.

[24] From 15 September to 27 December 1439, Isidore was in Venice, before heading to Buda, where he issued an encyclical "to the Polish, Lithuanian and German [i.e. Teutonic Knights'] lands and to all Orthodox Christian Russia" in March 1440.

[26] According to Simeon, "realizing the delusion of the metropolitan", the grand prince ordered Isidore to be "cast out from his spiritual rank" and, "for such soul-destroying heresy, to be expelled from the town of Moscow and from all his land".

[28] According to John L. I. Fennell: "Clearly Simeon and the chroniclers distorted facts in their depiction of Isidor's reception in Moscow, colouring their accounts according to their prejudices.

"[27] Fennell noted that between 19 March and 15 September 1441, when Isidore left Moscow, he was at some time recognized by Vasily II as the lawful metropolitan.

[28] The Nikon Chronicle and grand princely codex of 1479 both agree that on 15 September 1441, Isidor escaped with two of his disciples, Gregory and Afanasy.

[29] The only action by Vasily it mentions is that he summoned a synod of six bishops, who concluded that "all Isidor's business.. is alien and different from the divine and holy canons".

[29] As a result, a decision was made to send envoys to Constantinople in order to request the appointment of a Russian metropolitan by "the God-loving bishops of our fatherland".

[29] Vasily II returned to power in February 1447 following a flare-up in the civil war and Jonah was finally appointed as metropolitan on 15 December 1448 by a council of Russian bishops.

[32] According to Pokhlyobkin, his work was a success as a tribunal ruled in favor of the Soviets, based mostly on his research that "proved" that the Poles began making vodka after the Russians.

[32] However, Mark Lawrence Schrad noted that there is no evidence in the archives of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague of any such legal action by Poland.

While the Turks were cutting off its head and parading it through the streets, the real cardinal was shipped off to Asia Minor with a number of insignificant prisoners as a slave, and later found safety in Crete.

[33] He warned of the danger of further expansion of the Turks in the multiple letters and even seems to be the earliest eyewitness to have compared Mehmed II with Alexander the Great.

[4] Pope Pius II (1458–64) later gave him two titles successively, those of Latin Patriarch of Constantinople and Archbishop of Cyprus, neither of which he could convert into real jurisdiction.