A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

PALAMAS. PALAMAS. 91
upon Barlaam the charge of blasphemy and per- wife of Cantacuzenus, by persuading her that the
verseness. In the end the council decided in recent death of her younger son, Andronicus (A. D.
favour of the monks, and Barlaam, according to 1347), was a sign of the Divine displeasure at the
Cantacozenus, acknowledged his errors, and was favour shown by the emperor Cantacuzenus to the
reconciled to his adversaries. Mortified, however, Palamites. To restore peace, if possible, to the
at his public defeat, he returned to Italy, and re- church, a synod was summoned, after various conconciled himself to the Latin church. Nicephorus ferences had been held between the emperor, the
Gregoras states, that the decision of the council on patriarch Isidore, Palamas, and Nicephorus Grethe question of the Massalian heresy charged against goras. Isidore died A. nD. 1349, before the meeting
the monks, was deferred, that Barlaam was con- of the synod, over which Callistus, his successor,
victed of malignity and arrogance, and that the presided. When it met (A. D. 1351) Nicephorus
heresy of Palamas and his party would probably Gregoras was the champion of the Barlaamites, who
have been condemned also, had not the completion numbered among their supporters the archbishop of
of the business of the council been prevented by the Ephesus and the bishop of Ganus or Gannus * the
emperor's death, A. D. 1341. (Cantacuz. c. 40; archbishop of Tyre, who was present, appears to
Niceph. Gregor. c. 1].) have been on the same side. Palamas was the
The cause which Barlaam had forsaken was leader of the opposite party, who having a large
taken up by another Gregory, surnamed Acindy- majority and the support of the emperor, carried
nus [AcINDYNUS, GREGORIUS]; but the party of every thing their own -way; the archbishop of
the monks continued in the ascendant, and Palamas Ephesus and the bishop of Ganus were deposed,
enjoyed the favour of John Cantacuzenus, who Barlaam and Acindynus (neither of whom was
then exercised the chief influence at the court present) were declared to be excommunicated, and
of the emperor, John Palaeologus, a minor their followers were forbidden to propagate their
[JOANNES V. CANTACUZENUS; JOANNES VI. PA- sentiments by speech or writing. (Cantacuz. tIist.
LAEOLOGUS], to such a degree that it was reported iv. 23; Niceph. Gregor. IIist. B//z. xvi. 5, xviii.
that Cantacuzenus intended to procure the depo- 3-8, xix., xx.) The populace, however, favoured
sition of the patriarch of Constantinople, Joannes the vanquished party, and Palamas narrowly
or John Calecas or Aprenus [CALECAS, JOANNES], escaped their violence. Of his subsequent history
and to elevate Palamas to his seat (Cantacuz. Hist. and death nothing appears to be known.
iii. 17). In the civil war which followed (A. D. 1342 The leading tenets of the Palamites were the ex-1347), between Cantacuzenus and the court istence of the mystical light discovered by the more
(where the Admiral Apocaucus had supplanted eminent monks and recluses, in their long exercise
him), Palamas, as a friend of Cantacuzenus, was of abstract contemplation and prayer, and the unimprisonedl (A. n. 1346), not however on any po- created nature of the light of Mount Tabor, seen at
litical charge, but on the ground of his religious the transfiguration of Christ. The first attracted the
opinions; for the patriarch now supported Gregory notice and animadversion of their opponents, but
Acindynus and the Barlaamites against the monls the second, with the consequences really or appaof Athos, who were favourable to Cantacuzenus. rently deducible from it, was the great object of
The Barlaamifes consequently gained the ascend- attack. The last seven books (xviii.-xxiv.) of
ancy, and in a council at Constantinople the Pa- the Historia BLyzantina of Nicephorus Gregoras
lamites, as their opponents were called, were con- are taken up with the Palamite controversy: and
demned. The patriarch and the court were, how- in the bitterness of his polemic spirit he charges
ever, especially anxious to clear themselves from Palamas with polytheism (xviii. 2. ~ 4); with conthe suspicion of acting from political feeling in the verting the attributes of the deity into so many disimprisonment of Palamas. When the entrance of tinct and independent deities (xxii. 4. ~ 9); with
Cantacuzenus into Constantinople, in January 1347, affirming that the Holy Spirit was not one alone, or
obliged the court to submit, Palamas was released, even one of seven (an evident allusion to Revel. i. 4),
and sent to make terms with the conqueror. (Can- but one of " seventy times seven" (xxiii. 3. ~ 4);
tacuz. Hist. iii. 98; Niceph. Greg. Ilist. Byz. xv. with placing in an intermediate rank between God
7, 9.) The patriarch Calecas had been deposed and angels a new and peculiar class of uncreated
by the influence of the empress mother, Anna, just powers (tKaIlyd' Tio rai ILo dtET'Oc'vy y/'los
before the triumph of Cantacuzenus, and Gregory evepyielc2v) which he (Palamas) called " the brightPalamas persuaded Cantacozenus to assemble a ness (Aay/lrpdr'rTa) of God and the ineffable light"
synod, by which the deposition was confirmed, and (Qbs aPr71roy); with holding that any man by parto banish Calecas to Didymotichum. Acindynus taking of the stream of this light flowing from its
and the Barlaamites were now in turn condemned, inexhaustible source, could at will become uncreated
and the Palarrites became once more predominant. and without beginning (dhisKTTrp EOhAoT7I tYve(-CoaL
Isidore, one of their number, was chosen patriarch. cKal dvapXt (xxiii. 3); and with other errors
(Cantac. flist. iv. 3; Niceph. Greg. xv. 10, 11.) which our limits do not allow us to enumerate
Palamas himself was soon after appointed arch- (ibid.). It is plain, however, that these alleged
bishop of Thessalonica; though, as that city was errors were for the most part, if not altogether, the
in the hands of some of the nobility who were inferences deduced by Nicephorus Gregoras and
hostile to Cantacuzenus, he was refused admit- other opponents from the Palamite dogma of the
tance, and obliged to retire to the isle of Lemnos, uncreated light, and not the acknowledged tenets
but he obtained admittance after a time. This of the Palamite party. The rise, continuance,
was in A. D. 1349. (Cantac. c. 15; Niceph. Greg. and vehemence of the controversy is a singular
c. 12.) Meanwhile, the ecclesiastical troubles con- manifestation of the subtilty and misdirection of
tinued: the Barlaamites withdrew from the commu- the Greek intellect of the period. The dogma of
nion of the church; their ranks received continual the uncreated light of Mount Tabor has apparently
increase, and Nicephorus Gregoras, the historian, continued to be the recognised orthodox doctrine
adroitly drew over to their side the empress Irene, of the Greek Church (Capperonnerius, Not.,4