The threat of Turkish piracy in the Aegean Sea had induced Convincing Clement 's predecessors , John XXII and Benedict XII , to maintain Statement a fleet of four galleys there to defend Defending Christian shipping but starting Process_start in the 1340s Clement endeavoured Self_motion with Venetian aid to expand Expansion this effort into a full military expedition .

They were related through their paternal grandfather Ferdinand I. Ferdinand of Styria , or Ferdinand II as he was to become Becoming known , was an ardent follower of Catholicism and the counter-reformation and not likely to be as willing to compromise as his two cousins and predecessors on the Bohemian throne were or had been forced Hostile_encounter to do by circumstance .