Cantacuzenus was invested with the purple buskins: his right leg was
clothed by his noble kinsmen, the left by the Latin chiefs, on whom he
conferred the order of knighthood. But even in this act of revolt, he
was still studious of loyalty; and the titles of John PalÊologus and
Anne of Savoy were proclaimed before his own name and that of his wife
Irene. Such vain ceremony is a thin disguise of rebellion, nor are there
perhaps any personal wrongs that can authorize a subject to take arms
against his sovereign: but the want of preparation and success may
confirm the assurance of the usurper, that this decisive step was the
effect of necessity rather than of choice. Constantinople adhered to
the young emperor; the king of Bulgaria was invited to the relief of
Adrianople: the principal cities of Thrace and Macedonia, after some
hesitation, renounced their obedience to the great domestic; and the
leaders of the troops and provinces were induced, by their private
interest, to prefer the loose dominion of a woman and a priest. [271] The
army of Cantacuzene, in sixteen divisions, was stationed on the banks
of the Melas to tempt or to intimidate the capital: it was dispersed
by treachery or fear; and the officers, more especially the mercenary
Latins, accepted the bribes, and embraced the service, of the Byzantine
court. After this loss, the rebel emperor (he fluctuated between the two
characters) took the road of Thessalonica with a chosen remnant; but
he failed in his enterprise on that important place; and he was closely
pursued by the great duke, his enemy Apocaucus, at the head of a
superior power by sea and land. Driven from the coast, in his march, or
rather flight, into the mountains of Servia, Cantacuzene assembled his
troops to scrutinize those who were worthy and willing to accompany his
broken fortunes. A base majority bowed and retired; and his trusty band
was diminished to two thousand, and at last to five hundred, volunteers.
The _cral_, [28] or despot of the Servians received him with general
hospitality; but the ally was insensibly degraded to a suppliant, a
hostage, a captive; and in this miserable dependence, he waited at the
door of the Barbarian, who could dispose of the life and liberty of a
Roman emperor. The most tempting offers could not persuade the cral to
violate his trust; but he soon inclined to the stronger side; and his
friend was dismissed without injury to a new vicissitude of hopes and
perils. Near six years the flame of discord burnt with various success
and unabated rage: the cities were distracted by the faction of the
nobles and the plebeians; the Cantacuzeni and PalÊologi: and the
Bulgarians, the Servians, and the Turks, were invoked on both sides
as the instruments of private ambition and the common ruin. The regent
deplored the calamities, of which he was the author and victim: and his
own experience might dictate a just and lively remark on the different
nature of foreign and civil war. "The former," said he, "is the external
warmth of summer, always tolerable, and often beneficial; the latter is
the deadly heat of a fever, which consumes without a remedy the vitals
of the constitution." [29]
[Footnote 271: Cantacuzene asserts, that in all the cities, the populace
were on the side of the emperor, the aristocracy on his. The
populace took the opportunity of rising and plundering the wealthy as
Cantacuzenites, vol. iii. c. 29 Ages of common oppression and ruin had
not extinguished these republican factions.--M.]
[Footnote 28: The princes of Servia (Ducange, Famil. DalmaticÊ, &c.,
c. 2, 3, 4, 9) were styled Despots in Greek, and Cral in their native
idiom, (Ducange, Gloss. GrÊc. p. 751.) That title, the equivalent
of king, appears to be of Sclavonic origin, from whence it has been
borrowed by the Hungarians, the modern Greeks, and even by the Turks,
(Leunclavius, Pandect. Turc. p. 422,) who reserve the name of Padishah
for the emperor. To obtain the latter instead of the former is the
ambition of the French at Constantinople, (Aversissement ‡ l'Histoire de
Timur Bec, p. 39.)]
[Footnote 29: Nic. Gregoras, l. xii. c. 14. It is surprising that
Cantacuzene has not inserted this just and lively image in his own
writings.]
The introduction of barbarians and savages into the contests of
civilized nations, is a measure pregnant with shame and mischief; which
the interest of the moment may compel, but which is reprobated by the
best principles of humanity and reason. It is the practice of both sides
to accuse their enemies of the guilt of the first alliances; and those
who fail in their negotiations are loudest in their censure of the
example which they envy and would gladly imitate. The Turks of Asia were
less barbarous perhaps than the shepherds of Bulgaria and Servia; but
their religion rendered them implacable foes of Rome and Christianity.
To acquire the friendship of their emirs, the two factions vied with
each other in baseness and profusion: the dexterity of Cantacuzene
obtained the preference: but the succor and victory were dearly
purchased by the marriage of his daughter with an infidel, the captivity
of many thousand Christians, and the passage of the Ottomans into
Europe, the last and fatal stroke in the fall of the Roman empire. The
inclining scale was decided in his favor by the death of Apocaucus, the
just though singular retribution of his crimes. A crowd of nobles or
plebeians, whom he feared or hated, had been seized by his orders in
the capital and the provinces; and the old palace of Constantine was
assigned as the place of their confinement. Some alterations in raising
the walls, and narrowing the cells, had been ingeniously contrived
to prevent their escape, and aggravate their misery; and the work
was incessantly pressed by the daily visits of the tyrant. His guards
watched at the gate, and as he stood in the inner court to overlook
the architects, without fear or suspicion, he was assaulted and
laid breathless on the ground, by two [291] resolute prisoners of the
PalÊologian race, [30] who were armed with sticks, and animated by
despair. On the rumor of revenge and liberty, the captive multitude
broke their fetters, fortified their prison, and exposed from the
battlements the tyrant's head, presuming on the favor of the people and
the clemency of the empress. Anne of Savoy might rejoice in the fall of
a haughty and ambitious minister, but while she delayed to resolve or
to act, the populace, more especially the mariners, were excited by the
widow of the great duke to a sedition, an assault, and a massacre. The
prisoners (of whom the far greater part were guiltless or inglorious of
the deed) escaped to a neighboring church: they were slaughtered at the
foot of the altar; and in his death the monster was not less bloody and
venomous than in his life. Yet his talents alone upheld the cause of the
young emperor; and his surviving associates, suspicious of each other,
abandoned the conduct of the war, and rejected the fairest terms of
accommodation. In the beginning of the dispute, the empress felt, and
complained, that she was deceived by the enemies of Cantacuzene: the
patriarch was employed to preach against the forgiveness of injuries;
and her promise of immortal hatred was sealed by an oath, under the
penalty of excommunication. [31] But Anne soon learned to hate without a
teacher: she beheld the misfortunes of the empire with the indifference
of a stranger: her jealousy was exasperated by the competition of a
rival empress; and on the first symptoms of a more yielding temper, she
threatened the patriarch to convene a synod, and degrade him from
his office. Their incapacity and discord would have afforded the most
decisive advantage; but the civil war was protracted by the weakness
of both parties; and the moderation of Cantacuzene has not escaped
the reproach of timidity and indolence. He successively recovered the
provinces and cities; and the realm of his pupil was measured by the
walls of Constantinople; but the metropolis alone counterbalanced the
rest of the empire; nor could he attempt that important conquest till he
had secured in his favor the public voice and a private correspondence.
An Italian, of the name of Facciolati, [32] had succeeded to the office
of great duke: the ships, the guards, and the golden gate, were subject
to his command; but his humble ambition was bribed to become the
instrument of treachery; and the revolution was accomplished without
danger or bloodshed. Destitute of the powers of resistance, or the hope
of relief, the inflexible Anne would have still defended the palace,
and have smiled to behold the capital in flames, rather than in the
possession of a rival. She yielded to the prayers of her friends and
enemies; and the treaty was dictated by the conqueror, who professed a
loyal and zealous attachment to the son of his benefactor. The marriage
of his daughter with John PalÊologus was at length consummated:
the hereditary right of the pupil was acknowledged; but the sole
administration during ten years was vested in the guardian. Two emperors
and three empresses were seated on the Byzantine throne; and a general
amnesty quieted the apprehensions, and confirmed the property, of the
most guilty subjects. The festival of the coronation and nuptials was
celebrated with the appearances of concord and magnificence, and both
were equally fallacious. During the late troubles, the treasures of
the state, and even the furniture of the palace, had been alienated or
embezzled; the royal banquet was served in pewter or earthenware; and
such was the proud poverty of the times, that the absence of gold and
jewels was supplied by the paltry artifices of glass and gilt-leather.
[33]
[Footnote 291: Nicephorus says four, p.734.]
[Footnote 30: The two avengers were both PalÊologi, who might resent,
with royal indignation, the shame of their chains. The tragedy of
Apocaucus may deserve a peculiar reference to Cantacuzene (l. iii. c.
86) and Nic. Gregoras, (l. xiv. c. 10.)]
[Footnote 31: Cantacuzene accuses the patriarch, and spares the empress,
the mother of his sovereign, (l. iii. 33, 34,) against whom Nic.
Gregoras expresses a particular animosity, (l. xiv. 10, 11, xv. 5.) It
is true that they do not speak exactly of the same time.]
[Footnote 32: The traitor and treason are revealed by Nic. Gregoras,
(l. xv. c. 8;) but the name is more discreetly suppressed by his great
accomplice, (Cantacuzen. l. iii. c. 99.)]
[Footnote 33: Nic. Greg. l. xv. 11. There were, however, some true
pearls, but very thinly sprinkled. The rest of the stones had only
pantodaphn croian proV to diaugeV.]
I hasten to conclude the personal history of John Cantacuzene. [34] He
triumphed and reigned; but his reign and triumph were clouded by the
discontent of his own and the adverse faction. His followers might style
the general amnesty an act of pardon for his enemies, and of oblivion
for his friends: [35] in his cause their estates had been forfeited or
plundered; and as they wandered naked and hungry through the streets,
they cursed the selfish generosity of a leader, who, on the throne of
the empire, might relinquish without merit his private inheritance. The
adherents of the empress blushed to hold their lives and fortunes by the
precarious favor of a usurper; and the thirst of revenge was concealed
by a tender concern for the succession, and even the safety, of her son.
They were justly alarmed by a petition of the friends of Cantacuzene,
that they might be released from their oath of allegiance to the
PalÊologi, and intrusted with the defence of some cautionary towns; a
measure supported with argument and eloquence; and which was rejected
(says the Imperial historian) "by _my_ sublime, and almost incredible
virtue." His repose was disturbed by the sound of plots and seditions;
and he trembled lest the lawful prince should be stolen away by some
foreign or domestic enemy, who would inscribe his name and his wrongs in
the banners of rebellion. As the son of Andronicus advanced in the years
of manhood, he began to feel and to act for himself; and his rising
ambition was rather stimulated than checked by the imitation of his
father's vices. If we may trust his own professions, Cantacuzene labored
with honest industry to correct these sordid and sensual appetites, and
to raise the mind of the young prince to a level with his fortune. In
the Servian expedition, the two emperors showed themselves in cordial
harmony to the troops and provinces; and the younger colleague was
initiated by the elder in the mysteries of war and government. After the
conclusion of the peace, PalÊologus was left at Thessalonica, a royal
residence, and a frontier station, to secure by his absence the peace
of Constantinople, and to withdraw his youth from the temptations of a
luxurious capital. But the distance weakened the powers of control,
and the son of Andronicus was surrounded with artful or unthinking
companions, who taught him to hate his guardian, to deplore his exile,
and to vindicate his rights. A private treaty with the cral or despot
of Servia was soon followed by an open revolt; and Cantacuzene, on
the throne of the elder Andronicus, defended the cause of age and
prerogative, which in his youth he had so vigorously attacked. At his
request the empress-mother undertook the voyage of Thessalonica, and the
office of mediation: she returned without success; and unless Anne of
Savoy was instructed by adversity, we may doubt the sincerity, or at
least the fervor, of her zeal. While the regent grasped the sceptre with
a firm and vigorous hand, she had been instructed to declare, that the
ten years of his legal administration would soon elapse; and that, after
a full trial of the vanity of the world, the emperor Cantacuzene sighed
for the repose of a cloister, and was ambitious only of a heavenly
crown. Had these sentiments been genuine, his voluntary abdication would
have restored the peace of the empire, and his conscience would have
been relieved by an act of justice. PalÊologus alone was responsible for
his future government; and whatever might be his vices, they were
surely less formidable than the calamities of a civil war, in which the
Barbarians and infidels were again invited to assist the Greeks in their
mutual destruction. By the arms of the Turks, who now struck a deep and
everlasting root in Europe, Cantacuzene prevailed in the third contest
in which he had been involved; and the young emperor, driven from the
sea and land, was compelled to take shelter among the Latins of the Isle
of Tenedos. His insolence and obstinacy provoked the victor to a step
which must render the quarrel irreconcilable; and the association of
his son Matthew, whom he invested with the purple, established the
succession in the family of the Cantacuzeni. But Constantinople was
still attached to the blood of her ancient princes; and this last
injury accelerated the restoration of the rightful heir. A noble Genoese
espoused the cause of PalÊologus, obtained a promise of his sister, and
achieved the revolution with two galleys and two thousand five hundred
auxiliaries. Under the pretence of distress, they were admitted into the
lesser port; a gate was opened, and the Latin shout of, "Long life and
victory to the emperor, John PalÊologus!" was answered by a general
rising in his favor. A numerous and loyal party yet adhered to the
standard of Cantacuzene: but he asserts in his history (does he hope for
belief?) that his tender conscience rejected the assurance of conquest;
that, in free obedience to the voice of religion and philosophy, he
descended from the throne and embraced with pleasure the monastic habit
and profession. [36] So soon as he ceased to be a prince, his successor
was not unwilling that he should be a saint: the remainder of his life
was devoted to piety and learning; in the cells of Constantinople
and Mount Athos, the monk Joasaph was respected as the temporal and
spiritual father of the emperor; and if he issued from his retreat, it
was as the minister of peace, to subdue the obstinacy, and solicit the
pardon, of his rebellious son. [37]
[Footnote 34: From his return to Constantinople, Cantacuzene continues
his history and that of the empire, one year beyond the abdication of
his son Matthew, A.D. 1357, (l. iv. c. l--50, p. 705--911.) Nicephorus
Gregoras ends with the synod of Constantinople, in the year 1351, (l.
xxii. c. 3, p. 660; the rest, to the conclusion of the xxivth book, p.
717, is all controversy;) and his fourteen last books are still MSS. in
the king of France's library.]
[Footnote 35: The emperor (Cantacuzen. l. iv. c. 1) represents his own
virtues, and Nic. Gregoras (l. xv. c. 11) the complaints of his friends,
who suffered by its effects. I have lent them the words of our poor
cavaliers after the Restoration.]
[Footnote 36: The awkward apology of Cantacuzene, (l. iv. c. 39--42,)
who relates, with visible confusion, his own downfall, may be supplied
by the less accurate, but more honest, narratives of Matthew Villani (l.
iv. c. 46, in the Script. Rerum Ital. tom. xiv. p. 268) and Ducas, (c
10, 11.)]
[Footnote 37: Cantacuzene, in the year 1375, was honored with a letter
from the pope, (Fleury, Hist. EcclÈs. tom. xx. p. 250.) His death
is placed by a respectable authority on the 20th of November, 1411,
(Ducange, Fam. Byzant. p. 260.) But if he were of the age of his
companion Andronicus the Younger, he must have lived 116 years; a rare
instance of longevity, which in so illustrious a person would have
attracted universal notice.]
Yet in the cloister, the mind of Cantacuzene was still exercised by
theological war. He sharpened a controversial pen against the Jews
and Mahometans; [38] and in every state he defended with equal zeal the
divine light of Mount Thabor, a memorable question which consummates the
religious follies of the Greeks. The fakirs of India, [39] and the
monks of the Oriental church, were alike persuaded, that in the total
abstraction of the faculties of the mind and body, the purer spirit
may ascend to the enjoyment and vision of the Deity. The opinion and
practice of the monasteries of Mount Athos [40] will be best represented
in the words of an abbot, who flourished in the eleventh century. "When
thou art alone in thy cell," says the ascetic teacher, "shut thy door,
and seat thyself in a corner: raise thy mind above all things vain and
transitory; recline thy beard and chin on thy breast; turn thy eyes and
thy thoughts toward the middle of thy belly, the region of the navel;
and search the place of the heart, the seat of the soul. At first, all
will be dark and comfortless; but if you persevere day and night, you
will feel an ineffable joy; and no sooner has the soul discovered the
place of the heart, than it is involved in a mystic and ethereal light."
This light, the production of a distempered fancy, the creature of an
empty stomach and an empty brain, was adored by the Quietists as the
pure and perfect essence of God himself; and as long as the folly was
confined to Mount Athos, the simple solitaries were not inquisitive
how the divine essence could be a _material_ substance, or how an
_immaterial_ substance could be perceived by the eyes of the body. But
in the reign of the younger Andronicus, these monasteries were visited
by Barlaam, [41] a Calabrian monk, who was equally skilled in philosophy
and theology; who possessed the language of the Greeks and Latins; and
whose versatile genius could maintain their opposite creeds, according
to the interest of the moment. The indiscretion of an ascetic revealed
to the curious traveller the secrets of mental prayer and Barlaam
embraced the opportunity of ridiculing the Quietists, who placed the
soul in the navel; of accusing the monks of Mount Athos of heresy
and blasphemy. His attack compelled the more learned to renounce or
dissemble the simple devotion of their brethren; and Gregory Palamas
introduced a scholastic distinction between the essence and operation
of God. His inaccessible essence dwells in the midst of an uncreated
and eternal light; and this beatific vision of the saints had been
manifested to the disciples on Mount Thabor, in the transfiguration
of Christ. Yet this distinction could not escape the reproach of
polytheism; the eternity of the light of Thabor was fiercely denied; and
Barlaam still charged the Palamites with holding two eternal substances,
a visible and an invisible God. From the rage of the monks of Mount
Athos, who threatened his life, the Calabrian retired to Constantinople,
where his smooth and specious manners introduced him to the favor of the
great domestic and the emperor. The court and the city were involved
in this theological dispute, which flamed amidst the civil war; but
the doctrine of Barlaam was disgraced by his flight and apostasy: the
Palamites triumphed; and their adversary, the patriarch John of Apri,
was deposed by the consent of the adverse factions of the state. In the
character of emperor and theologian, Cantacuzene presided in the synod
of the Greek church, which established, as an article of faith, the
uncreated light of Mount Thabor; and, after so many insults, the reason
of mankind was slightly wounded by the addition of a single absurdity.
Many rolls of paper or parchment have been blotted; and the impenitent
sectaries, who refused to subscribe the orthodox creed, were deprived
of the honors of Christian burial; but in the next age the question was
forgotten; nor can I learn that the axe or the fagot were employed for
the extirpation of the Barlaamite heresy. [42]
[Footnote 38: His four discourses, or books, were printed at Basil,
1543, (Fabric Bibliot. GrÊc. tom. vi. p. 473.) He composed them to
satisfy a proselyte who was assaulted with letters from his friends of
Ispahan. Cantacuzene had read the Koran; but I understand from Maracci
that he adopts the vulgar prejudices and fables against Mahomet and his
religion.]
[Footnote 39: See the Voyage de Bernier, tom. i. p. 127.]
[Footnote 40: Mosheim, Institut. Hist. EcclÈs. p. 522, 523. Fleury,
Hist. EcclÈs. tom. xx. p. 22, 24, 107--114, &c. The former unfolds the
causes with the judgment of a philosopher, the latter transcribes and
transcribes and translates with the prejudices of a Catholic priest.]
[Footnote 41: Basnage (in Canisii Antiq. Lectiones, tom. iv. p.
363--368) has investigated the character and story of Barlaam. The
duplicity of his opinions had inspired some doubts of the identity
of his person. See likewise Fabricius, (Bibliot. GrÊc. tom. x. p.
427--432.)]
[Footnote 42: See Cantacuzene (l. ii. c. 39, 40, l. iv. c. 3, 23, 24,
25) and Nic. Gregoras, (l. xi. c. 10, l. xv. 3, 7, &c.,) whose last
books, from the xixth to xxivth, are almost confined to a subject so
interesting to the authors. Boivin, (in Vit. Nic. GregorÊ,) from the
unpublished books, and Fabricius, (Bibliot. GrÊc. tom. x. p. 462--473,)
or rather Montfaucon, from the MSS. of the Coislin library, have added
some facts and documents.]