Page:The Greek and Eastern churches.djvu/291

Rh moned a synod of bishops to consider his future prospects. The synod pronounced that only the man who had written the curse could withdraw it. So the emperor went on foot, accompanied by the bishops, to the cell of Athanasius, who was persuaded to absolve the imperial offender and resume his own position as patriarch.

Being in desperate straits, the next emperor, Andronicus ( 1328–1341), reopened negotiations with the papacy, and sent a message to Pope John  conveying his desire for union by the hands of some Dominican missionaries who were returning from Tartary, The pope replied by remitting preachers to Constantinople and by promising to do all he could to further the emperor's pious wish. On the death of Andronicus soon afterwards, the dangerous heritage of the throne of Constantinople fell to his son, John Palæologus, a child nine years of age, whose mother, Anne of Savoy, consented to the appointment of Cantacuzenus as regent; the next year ( 1342) he was proclaimed joint-emperor. Cantacuzenus was a theologically-minded emperor, who composed several controversial works of no weight or significance. He retired in the year 1355, and the junior emperor John held the reins of government for the following thirty-six years. This emperor signalised the individuality of his policy by reopening negotiations with the papacy, but they came to nothing. The last and most important of all the serious attempts to reconcile the two churches occurred in the reign of John (sometimes reckoned John ), who reigned during the years 1425–1448. He found his shrunken dominion in a desperate condition. The Turks, who were now established at Adrianople and other places in Europe, and who had actually besieged Constantinople three years before, though ineffectually, were continually threatening the very existence of the empire. In the year 1429, following the precedent set by Michael Palæologus, John sent to Pope Eugenius to reopen negotiations for union and asking to receive an envoy at Constantinople to arrange matters between the two parties. Two years later the council