G. Cowie and Co. Poultry; W. Baynes and Son, Paternoster Row; J. Dowding,
Newgate Street; Richard Baynes, Paternoster Row; Smith, Elder, and Co. Corn-
bill; W. Mason, Pickett Street; T. Lester, Finsbury Place; J. Arnould, Spring
Gardens; J. Bain, Mews' Gate; W. Booth, Duke Street; M. Iley, Somerset
Street; J. F. Setchel, King Street; M. Doyle, High Holborn; P. Wright, Broad
Street; H. Steel, Tower Hill; E. Wilson, Royal Exchange; T. Mason, Great
Russell Street; H. Mozley, Derby; M. Keene, J. Cumming, C. P. Archer, and
R. M. Tims, Dublin; and H. S. Baynes, Edinburgh.

2

THE

DECLINE AND FALL

OF

THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

CHAP. LXIII.

Civil wars, and ruin of the Greek empire.-Reigns of Andronicus the elder and the younger, and John Palæologus.-Regency, revolt, reign, and abdication, of John Cantacuzene. -Establishment of the Genoese colony at Pera or Galata.-Their wars with the em pire and city of Constantinople.

Supersti

dronicus

THE long reign of Andronicus" the elder is tion of An- chiefly memorable by the disputes of the Greek church, the invasion of the Catalans, and the rise of the Ottoman power. He is celebrated as the most learned and virtuous prince of the age: but

and the

times, A. D. 12821320.

such virtue, and such learning, contributed neither to the perfection of the individual, nor to the happiness of society. A slave of the most abject superstition, he was surrounded on all sides by visible and invisible enemies; nor were the flames of hell less dreadful to his fancy, than those of a Catalan or Turkish war. Under the reign of the Palæologi, the choice of the patriarch was the most important business of the state; the heads of the Greek church were ambitious and fanatic monks; and their vices or virtues, their learning or ignorance, were equally mischievous or contemptible. By his intemperate discipline, the patriarch Athanasius ex

a Andronicus himself will justify our freedom in the invective (Nicephorus Gregoras, lib. 1. c. 1.) which he pronounced against historic falsehood. It is true, that his censure is more pointedly urged against calumny than against adulation. b For the anathema in the pigeon's nest, see Pachymer, (lib. 9. c. 24.) who relates VOL. VIII.

B

cited the hatred of the clergy and people; he was heard to declare, that the sinner should swallow the last dregs of the cup of penance; and the foolish tale was propagated of his punishing a sacrilegious ass that had tasted the lettuce of a convent garden. Driven from the throne by the universal clamour, Athanasius composed, before his retreat, two papers of a very opposite cast. His public testament was in the tone of charity and resignation, the private codicil breathed the direst anathemas against the authors of his disgrace, whom he excluded for ever from the communion of the holy Trinity, the angels, and the saints. This last paper he inclosed in an earthen pot, which was placed, by his order, on the top of one of the pillars in the dome of St. Sophia, in the distant hope of discovery and revenge. At the end of four years, some youths, climbing by a ladder in search of pigeons' nests, detected the fatal secret; and, as Andronicus felt himself touched and bound by the excommunication, he trembled on the brink of the abyss which had been so treacherously dug under his feet. A synod of bishops was instantly convened to debate this important question; the rashness of these clandestine anathemas was generally condemned; but as the knot could be untied only by the same hand, as that hand was now deprived of the crosier, it appeared that this posthumous decree was irrevocable by any earthly power. Some faint testimonies of repentance and pardon were extorted from the author of the mischief; but the conscience of the emperor was still wounded, and he desired, with no less ardour than Athanasius himself, the restoration of a patriarch, by whom alone he could be healed. At the dead of night, a monk rudely knocked at the door of the royal bedchamber, announcing a revelation of plague and famine, of inundations and earthquakes. Andronicus started from

the general history of Athanasius, (lib. 8. c. 13-16. 20-24. lib. 10. c. 27-29. 31-36. lib. 11. c. 1-3. 5, 6. lib. 13. c. 8. 10. 23. 35.) and is followed by Nicephorus Gregoras, (lib. 6. c. 5. 7. lib. 7. c. 1. 9.) who includes the second retreat of this second Chrysostom.

his bed, and spent the night in prayer, till he felt, or thought that he felt, a slight motion of the earth. The emperor, on foot, led the bishops and monks to the cell of Athanasius, and, after a proper resistance, the saint, from whom this message had been sent, consented to absolve the prince, and govern the church of Constantinople. Untamed by disgrace, and hardened by solitude, the shepherd was again odious to the flock, and his enemies contrived a singular, and, as it proved, a successful mode of revenge. In the night they stole away the foot-stool, or foot-cloth, of his throne, which they secretly replaced with the decoration of a satirical picture. The emperor was painted with a bridle in his mouth, and Athanasius leading the tractable beast to the feet of Christ. The authors of the libel were detected and punished; but as their lives had been spared, the Christian priest in sullen indignation retired to his cell; and the eyes of Andronicus, which had been opened for a moment, were again closed by his successor.

e

If this transaction be one of the most curious and important of a reign of fifty years, I cannot at least accuse the brevity of my materials, since I reduce into some few pages the enormous folios of Pachymer, Cantacuzene,d and Nicephorus Gregoras, who have composed the prolix and languid story of the times. The name and situation of the emperor John Cantacuzene might inspire the most lively curiosity. His memorials of forty years extend from the revolt of the younger Andronicus to his own abdication of the empire; and it is observed, that, like Moses and Cæsar, he was the principal actor in the

e Pachymer, in seven books, three hundred and seventy-seven folio pages, describes the first twenty-six years of Andronicus the elder; and marks the date of his composition by the current news or lie of the day. (A. D. 1308.) Either death or disgust prevented him from resuming the pen.

d After an interval of twelve years from the conclusion of Pachymer, Cantacuzenus takes up the pen; and his first book (c. 1-59. p. 9-150.) relates the civil war, and the eight last years of the elder Andronicus. The ingenious comparison with Moses and Cæsar, is fancied by his French translator, the president Cousin.

e Nicephorus Gregoras more briefly includes the entire life and reign of Andronicus the elder. (lib. 6. c. 1. lib. 10. c. 1. p. 96-291.) This is the part of which Cantacuzene complains as a false and malicious representation of his conduct.