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disputing and writing, they corrupted many. Therefore they were also condemned to prison by the emperor and lived there for a time; but as many of them as were more prominent were confined in their own houses, to come into conversation with no one. And so, fearing, they ceased from their evil-doing; but if some of them, even after the permission to meet with everyone had been taken away, wrote to some, or disputed about the dogmas, they did so secretly and with great precaution to remain unseen. 24. But Nikephoros Gregoras had ceased neither before nor after, but first he wrote to his associates in Trapezus and accused the church of the Byzantines of perverting the correct dogmas, and he taught fearlessly that it was necessary to cut oneself off from it, as it had become diseased; then also to his friends in Cyprus, and most of all to a certain George Lapithes, against whom he made accusations not only of the church in general, but also of its leaders individually. He never wrote anything sound to anyone, but deliberately fabricating falsehoods and slanders, he made accusations concerning the dogmas of things that neither existed nor had been spoken. Since 3.172 it was not possible for such audacious acts to remain hidden, it seemed terrible both to the emperor and the patriarch alike that he was the cause of the same destruction not only for himself, but also for many others, they commanded the monks in the monastery called of the Uncontainable Place of Christ the Savior, since Gregoras had also been with them for a long time, to allow no one to visit him, and to prevent him with as much force as possible from sending letters to those outside and corrupting the many by deceiving them. But since he was prevented from acting according to his opinion, raging no less against the emperor than the church, he wrote against both. And of the outrage against the church, he set forth the accusation of the tome composed at the third synod concerning the dispute of Akindynos and Palamas, always promising that he would refute it for being false and containing things contrary to the theologians, but he was never able to fulfill any of his promises. For whenever he comes especially to the very height of the proofs of the matter in question, as if forgetting what was at hand, he is led away to some other irrelevant things, either insults and slanders of some people—for these are especially dear to him in every writing—or some irrelevant narratives, and he goes astray, engaging in pointless and vain verbal battles and 3.173 uttering nothing to the point. And since he was not able to attack the emperor in person, he set up as the subject of his discourse the war of the Palaiologan emperors against each other, and partly through ignorance of the events, and partly through bias, he corrupted the truth, and with all license, as if in a fiction, he uttered falsehoods, then, proceeding in sequence to the war waged in our time against the emperor Kantakouzenos, he makes many other accusations against him, attributing to him enslavements and murders and slaughters and plunderings and whatever hardships befell the Romans in the time of the war, saying that on account of his love of power and desire for imperial honor he had made no account of those terrible things. But what he especially attacks him for and on which he dwells at greatest length, is this: that, while the emperor Andronikos was still living, loving the Roman empire exceedingly and not being able to obtain it, he went to the monks on Athos who seemed to lay claim to virtue and to know the mysteries of God, to inquire about the future, and if the Roman empire would come to him. Then turning to the monks, he makes many and terrible accusations, saying they are not only Massalians and corrupted concerning the correct dogmas, but also unrestrained in drinking and drunkenness; «For they eat,» he says, «more than pigs, and drink more than elephants. And whenever they sober up from their great drunkenness, they 3.174 claim to know the mysteries of God and prophesy about the future.» And he has made certain other accusations against them, from which anyone would have refrained except him. Then, having narrated the events of the war most mendaciously, and having arrived at the point where he was about to narrate the dispute concerning the church, the heterodoxy of the emperor

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διαλεγόμενοι πολλοὺς προσδιέφθειρον καὶ γράφοντες. διὸ καὶ δεσμωτήριον ὑπὸ βασιλέως κατεκρίθησαν καὶ ᾤκησαν ἐπὶ χρόνον· ὅσοι δὲ αὐτῶν ἦσαν ἐπιφανέστεροι, ἐν ταῖς ἰδίαις οἰκίαις εἴργοντο μηδέσιν ἔρχεσθαι εἰς λόγους. καὶ οὕτω δείσαντες ἐπαύοντο τοῦ κακουργεῖν· εἰ δέ τινες αὐτῶν καὶ μετὰ τὸ περιῃρῆσθαι τὴν τοῦ πᾶσιν ἐντυγχάνειν ἄδειαν ἔγραφόν τισιν, ἢ διελέγοντο περὶ τῶν δογμάτων, ἀλλὰ κρύφα καὶ πολλὴν τοῦ λανθάνειν πρόνοιαν ποιούμενοι. κδʹ. Γρηγορᾶς δὲ ὁ Νικηφόρος οὔτε πρότερον, οὔθ' ὕστερον ἐπέπαυτο, ἀλλὰ πρῶτα μὲν Τραπεζουντίοις ἔγραφε τοῖς ἐπιτηδείοις καὶ τῆς Βυζαντίων ἐκκλησίας παρατροπὴν τῶν ὀρθῶν δογμάτων κατηγόρει, ἐδίδασκέ τε ἀδεῶς, ὡς χρὴ ταύτης ἀποτέμνεσθαι νενοσηκυίας· ἔπειτα δὲ καὶ τοῖς ἐν Κύπρῳ φίλοις, τῶν ἄλλων δὲ μάλιστα Λαπίθῃ Γεωργίῳ τινὶ, πρὸς ὃν οὐ κοινῇ τῆς ἐκκλησίας μόνον κατηγόρει, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἰδίᾳ τῶν προεστηκότων. ἔγραφε δέ ποτε πρὸς οὐδένα ὑγιὲς οὐδὲν, ἀλλ' ἐξεπίτηδες ψεύδη πλάττων καὶ συκοφαντίας, τὰ μήτε ὄντα, μήτε λαληθέντα περὶ τῶν δογμάτων κατηγόρει. ἐπεὶ 3.172 δὲ τὰ τοιαῦτα τολμώμενα λανθάνειν οὐκ ἐνῆν, βασιλεῖ τε ὁμοίως καὶ πατριάρχῃ δεινὸν ἐδόκει τὸ μὴ μόνον αὐτὸν ἑαυτῷ, ἀλλὰ καὶ πολλοῖς ἑτέροις τῆς ἴσης ἀπωλείας αἴτιον εἶναι, τοῖς ἐν τῇ μονῇ τῆς ἀχωρήτου χώρας τοῦ σωτῆρος Χριστοῦ προσαγορευομένης προσέταττον μοναχοῖς, ἐπεὶ καὶ Γρηγορᾶς αὐτοῖς χρόνον συχνὸν συνῆν, μηδένα πρὸς αὐτὸν φοιτᾷν ἐᾷν, κωλύειν τε ὁπόση δύναμις, μὴ τοῖς ἔξω γράμματα πέμπειν καὶ διαφθείρειν τοὺς πολλοὺς ἐξαπατῶντα. ἐπεὶ δὲ ἐκωλύετο τὰ κατὰ γνώμην πράττειν, οὐχ ἧττον κατὰ βασιλέως, ἢ τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἐκμανεὶς, ἔγραφε κατ' ἀμφοτέρων. καὶ τῆς μὲν κατὰ τῆς ἐκκλησίας ὕβρεως τὴν τοῦ γενομένου κατὰ τὴν τρίτην σύνοδον τόμου περὶ τῆς Ἀκινδύνου καὶ Παλαμᾶ διαφορᾶς προεστήσατο κατηγορίαν, μεγάλα μὲν ἀεὶ ἐπαγγελλόμενος καὶ δεινὰ ἀπελέγξειν καταψευδόμενον καὶ τοῖς θεολόγοις ἐναντία περιέχοντα, οὐδέποτε δὲ οὐδὲν τῶν ἐπηγγελμένων ἐκπληρῶσαι δυνηθείς. ὅταν γὰρ ἐπ' αὐτὴν μάλιστα τὴν ἀκμὴν τῶν ἀποδείξεων τοῦ ζητουμένου καταστῇ, ὥσπερ ἐκλαθόμενος τῶν ἐν χερσὶν, ἐφ' ἕτερά τινα μὴ προσήκοντα ἐξάγεται, ἤ τινων ὕβρεις καὶ συκοφαντίας, ταῦτα γὰρ μάλιστα αὐτῷ φίλα κατὰ πᾶσαν συγγραφὴν, ἢ διηγήματά τινα μηδὲν προσήκοντα, καὶ παραπαίει εἰκῇ καὶ μάτην λογομαχῶν καὶ 3.173 μηδὲν καίριον φθεγγόμενος. βασιλέως δὲ ἐπεὶ μὴ αὐτοπροσώπως εἶχε καταφέρεσθαι, τῶν τε Παλαιολόγων βασιλέων πρὸς ἀλλήλους πόλεμον ἐνστησάμενος ὑπόθεσιν τοῦ λόγου, καὶ τὰ μὲν ἀγνοίᾳ τῶν πραγμάτων, τὰ δ' εὐνοίᾳ τὴν ἀλήθειαν παραφθείρας, καὶ κατὰ πᾶσαν ἐξουσίαν ὥσπερ ἐν πλάσματι καταψευσάμενος, ἔπειτα καὶ καθ' εἱρμὸν ἐπὶ τὸν ἐφ' ἡμῶν πρὸς Καντακουζηνὸν τὸν βασιλέα πόλεμον κεκινημένον προϊὼν, πολλὰ μὲν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἄλλα κατηγορεῖ, ἀνδραποδισμοὺς καὶ φόνους καὶ σφαγὰς καὶ λεηλασίας καὶ ὅσα δυσχερῆ ἐν τῷ τοῦ πολέμου χρόνῳ συμπέπτωκε Ῥωμαίοις, αὐτῷ προσάπτων, καὶ διὰ φιλαρχίαν καὶ τιμῆς βασιλικῆς ἐπιθυμίαν τῶν δεινῶν ἐκείνων οὐδένα λέγων πεποιῆσθαι λόγον. ὃ δὲ μάλιστα αὐτοῦ καθάπτεται καὶ ὡς ἐπιπλεῖστον διατρίβει, ἐκεῖνό ἐστιν, ὅτι, περιόντος τε ἔτι βασιλέως Ἀνδρονίκου, τῆς Ῥωμαίων βασιλείας ἐρῶν ὑπερφυῶς καὶ μὴ δυνάμενος τυχεῖν, ἐπὶ τοὺς ἐν Ἄθῳ μοναχοὺς δοκοῦντας ἀρετῆς ἀντιποιεῖσθαι καὶ μυστήρια θεοῦ εἰδέναι ἐφοίτησε, πευσόμενος περὶ τῶν μελλόντων, καὶ εἰ πρὸς αὐτὸν ἡ βασιλεία Ῥωμαίων ἥξει. ἔπειτα ἐπὶ τοὺς μοναχοὺς τραπόμενος, πολλὰ καὶ δεινὰ κατηγορεῖ, οὐ μόνον Μασσαλιανοὺς καὶ περὶ τὰ ὀρθὰ δόγματα διεφθαρμένους λέγων, ἀλλὰ καὶ περὶ πότους καὶ οἰνοφλυγίας ἀκρατεῖς· «ἐσθίουσι γάρ» φησιν «ὑπὲρ χοίρους, καὶ πίνουσιν ὑπὲρ ἐλέφαντας. ἐπειδὰν δὲ ἀνανήψωσι τῆς πολλῆς μέθης, μυ 3.174 στήρια θεοῦ εἰδέναι διατείνονται καὶ περὶ μελλόντων προφητεύουσι.» καὶ ἕτερ' ἄττα κατηγόρηκεν ἐκείνων, ὧν πᾶς τις ἂν ἀπέσχετο πλὴν αὐτοῦ. ἔπειτα διηγησάμενος τὰ κατὰ τὸν πόλεμον μάλιστα φιλοψευδῶς, καὶ γενόμενος ἐν ᾧ τὰ κατὰ τῆς ἐκκλησίας τὴν διαφορὰν διηγεῖσθαι ἔμελλε, κακοδοξίαν βασιλέως