Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/509

 OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 487 CHAPTER LXIII Civil Wars, and Ruin of the Greek Empire — Reigns of Androniais, the Elder and Younger, and John Falxologus — Regency, Revolt, Reign, and Abdication, of John Cantacuzene — Establishment of a Genoese Colony at Per a or Galata — Their Wars with the Empire and City of Constantinople The long reign of Andronicus ^ the Elder is chiefly memorable superstition by the disputes of the Greek church, the invasion of the Cata-LdthetSies' lans, and the rise of the Ottoman power. He is celebrated as ^°' ^^^^ the most learned and virtuous prince of the age ; but 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 Palaeologi, 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 mis- chievous or contemptible. By his intemperate discipline, the patriarch Athanasius - excited 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 [a.d. 1294] the universal clamour, Athanasius composed, before his retreat, two papers of a very opposite cast. His public testament was 1 Andronicus himself will justify our freedom in the invective (Nicephorus Gregoras, 1. i. c. i) which he pronounced against historic falsehood. It is true that his censure is more pointedly urged against calumny than against adulation. '^ For the anathema in the pigeon's nest, see Pachymer (1. ix. c. 24), who relates the general history of Athanasius (1. viii. c. 13-16, 20-24 '< 1- •^'- c. 27-29, 31-36 ; 1. xi. c. 1-3, 5,6; 1. xiii. c. 8, 10, 23, 35), and is followed by Nicephorus Gregoras (1. vi. c- 5. 7 ; '• vii. c. I, 9), who includes the second retreat of this second Chrysostom.