Michael, informed of the success of his arms, lost no time in repairing to Constantinople; and on the 14th of August held his triumphal entrance, saluted by the people with demonstrations of the sincerest joy, Con- stantinople, however, was no more what it had been. During the reign of the Latins plunder, rapine, and dev- astation had spoiled it of its former splendor ; trade had deserted its harbor, and thousands of opulent families had abandoned the palaces or mansions of their forefa- thers in order to avoid contact with the hated foreign- ers. To restore, repeople, and readorn Constantinople was now Michael's principal task ; and, in order to ac- complish his purpose the better, he confirmed the exten- sive privileges which the Venetian, the Genoese, and the Pisan merchants had received from the Latin emper- ors. Although the Nicaian emperors considered them- selves the legitimate successors of Constantine the Great, the possession of Constantinople was an event of such magnitude as to suggest to IMichael the idea of a new coronation, which was accordingly solemnized in the ca- thedral of St. Sophia. But Michael was crowned alone, without John— an evil omen for the friends of the young emperor, whose fears were but too soon realized, for on
MICHAEL PAL^OLOGUS
224
IMICHAELIS
Christmasi-day of the same year, 1201,, John was deprived of si<,'lit and sent into exile to a distant fortress. This hatefdl crime caused a general indignation among the peojjle, and might have proved the ruin of Micliael had he been a man of a less energetic turn of mind. The patriarch Arsenius, coguardian to John, was irreconcila- ble ; he fearlessly pronounced excommunication upon the imperial criminal, and years of trouble and commotion elapsed before Michael was readmitted into the commu- nion of the faithful by the second successor of Arsenius, the patriarch Juseph.
The loss of Constantinople pope Urban TV regarded as robbing him of the hope of effecting a union between the Latin and the Greek churches, and he therefore urged the European princes to undertake a crusade against the (Ireek schismatics; but Michael avoided the danger by promising the pope to do his utmost in order to effect himself a mediation between the belligerents, and, as both the parties were tired of bloodshed, peace was soon restored (12(33). In 1265 Arsenius was de- posed, because he would not revoke the excommunica- tion he had pronounced against tlie emperor; where- upon the prelate's adherents, the Arsenites, caused a schism which lasted till 1312. See Arsenius. In this skilful manner he also avoided troubles which threat- ened him in 1269, when Charles, king of Sicily, took up arms on pretence of restoring the fugitive Baldwin to the throne, and forthwith marching upon Constantino- ple, placed the capital in jeopardy. Jlichael, afraid that these hostilities were only the forerunners of a general crusade of all the Latin princes against him, made prompt proposals for a union of the Greek Churcli with that of Korae. The learned Veccus, accompanied by several of the most distinguished among the Greek clergy, were sent to the council which was called to assemble at Lyons in 1274; and there the union was cffcited by the Greeks giving way in the much disputed doctrine of the procession of the Holy Ghost, and submitting to the supremacy of the pope. See Lyons, IL The union, however, was desired only by a minority of the Greeks, and the orthodox majority accordingly did their utmost to prevent the measure from being carried out. Mi- chael, in his turn, supported his policy with force. The patriarch Joseph wa.s deposed, and Veccus appointed in his stead ; cruel punishment was inflicted upon all those who opposed the union; and Greece was shaken by a religious commotion which forms a remarkable event in the ecclesiastical history of the Kast. As space forbids us to dwell here longer ujjon these important transac- tions, we can only remark that the union was never effectually carried out, and was entirely abandoned upon the death of Michael. See Fii.ioqik; (iKEEk
CllLTRCH.
The manifest duplicitj- and the cruelty with which the emperor behaved tinally made him odious to his own sidijects and contemptible to his Latin friends, and the latter jiart of ids reign was an uninterrupted series of domestic troubles and foreign wars. His dearly-bought friendship with the Latin, and especially the Italian powers, was brought to a very speedy end. Upon the decease of the ex-em])eror Baldwin, his son Philip as- sumed the imperial title, and formed an alliance between pope Martin IV, Charles of Anjou, king of Sicily, and the Venetians, with a view of reconquering Constanti- nople and dividing the ( Jreek empire. But the invaders failed, and Michael, not satisfied with the glorj' of liis arms and the material benefit he derived from his vic- tory, resolved to take terrible revenge : he paid twenty thousand ounces of gold towards equipping a Catalan fleet, with which king Peter of Aragon was to attack Sicily ; and the " Sicilian Vespers," in which eight thou- sand Frenchmen were massacred, and in consequence of which Sicily was wrested from Charles of Anjou and united with Aragon, were in some degree the work of iMichael's fury. In the autumn of 12H2 he fell ill, and died Dec. 11, 1282, leaving the renown of a successful but treacherous tyrant. See Niceph. Gregor. lib. iv-v ;