ssence of God himself; and as long as the folly was
confined to Mount Athos, the simple solitaries were not inquisitive
how the divine essence could be a _material_ substance, or how an
_immaterial_ substance could be perceived by the eyes of the body. But
in the reign of the younger Andronicus, these monasteries were visited
by Barlaam, [41] a Calabrian monk, who was equally skilled in philosophy
and theology; who possessed the language of the Greeks and Latins; and
whose versatile genius could maintain their opposite creeds, according
to the interest of the moment. The indiscretion of an ascetic revealed
to the curious traveller the secrets of mental prayer and Barlaam
embraced the opportunity of ridiculing the Quietists, who placed the
soul in the navel; of accusing the monks of Mount Athos of heresy
and blasphemy. His attack compelled the more learned to renounce or
dissemble the simple devotion of their brethren; and Gregory Palamas
introduced a scholastic distinction between the essence and operation
of God. His inaccessible essence dwells in the midst of an uncreated
and eternal light; and this beatific vision of the saints had been
manifested to the disciples on Mount Thabor, in the transfiguration
of Christ. Yet this distinction could not escape the reproach of
polytheism; the eternity of the light of Thabor was fiercely denied; and
Barlaam still charged the Palamites with holding two eternal substances,
a visible and an invisible God. From the rage of the monks of Mount
Athos, who threatened his life, the Calabrian retired to Constantinople,
where his smooth and specious manners introduced him to the favor of the
great domestic and the emperor. The court and the city were involved
in this theological dispute, which flamed amidst the civil war; but
the doctrine of Barlaam was disgraced by his flight and apostasy: the
Palamites triumphed; and their adversary, the patriarch John of Apri,
was deposed by the consent of the adverse factions of the state. In the
character of emperor and theologian, Cantacuzene presided in the synod
of the Greek church, which established, as an article of faith, the
uncreated light of Mount Thabor; and, after so many insults, the reason
of mankind was slightly wounded by the addition of a single absurdity.
Many rolls of paper or parchment have been blotted; and the impenitent
sectaries, who refused to subscribe the orthodox creed, were deprived
of the honors of Christian burial; but in