tever 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 Palaeologus, 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 Palaeologus!" 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 MS