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As in the West wealthy Byzantines had been able to buy tax exemptions.
在西方，富有的拜占庭人甚至可以買免稅債券。
The Orthodox Church was one of the large land owners by itself and paid no taxes at all.
東正教是富有的大地主之一，它完全不用交稅。
The Byzantine small farmers, once the backbone of a Byzantine citizen army
拜占庭的農民曾是拜占庭民兵中流砥柱，
which had fought for its own land and its own culture had basically become serfs tied to their masters' land.
他們為了自己的土地和文化而戰，如今也成為了依附于主人的農奴。
Does that sound familiar?
聽起來是不是很耳熟？
Since these poor people no longer had any stake in the government they tended to make poor soldiers.
由于窮人在政府中不再有權利利益，他們就變成了窮苦的士兵。
And they often came to prefer rule by the Ottoman Turks who were often comparatively tolerant when compared to the fellow Romaioi.
他們往往還更喜歡奧斯曼土耳其人的統治，因為這些人和他們自己人羅馬人比起來相對寬容一些。
Pathetically the Emperor John The V was reduced in 1159 into making a national fundraising tour of Western Europe,
可悲的是，1159年約翰五世不得不向西歐游說，指望為國庫籌到一些資金，
which ended with him being thrown into a Venetian debtors prison.
結果卻被關進了威尼斯債務監獄。
As time went on the Byzantine Empire fell on even harder times.
隨著時間的流逝，拜占庭帝國的處境愈加艱難。
Once more Emperors reached out to the West this time offering the greatest prize by Byzantium could offer,
拜占庭君主又一次向西方求助，向他們獻出了拜占庭最貴重的禮物，
submissions to the Catholic Church and the Pope in Rome.
即向天主教和羅馬教皇臣服。
At the 1439 Council of Florence Emperor John the VIII of Byzantium agreed to merge the Orthodox Church back into the Catholic Church under the leadership of the Pope.
1439年佛羅倫薩會議上，拜占庭君主約翰三世同意把東正教并入天主教，共同接受教皇的統領。
