Stefan Uro IV Duan, Serbian ruler, having conquered the Albanian coastal territory (as far as Valona) from the Angevins, drove the Greeks out of the interior and took Janina. His conquest intensified the political and cultural hellenization of Serbia.
Civil war in the empire. John Cantacuzene, supported by the aristocratic elements, set himself up as a rival emperor. John V was supported by the popular elements. In the ensuing war, much of Thrace and Macedonia was ravaged. The war was the undoing of the empire, since both sides freely called in Serbs or Ottoman Turks to support them.
The HESYCHAST CONTROVERSY in the Greek Church added to the confusion. Hesychasm (literally, to be quiet) is a term used for the method of monastic prayer and contemplation designed to achieve union with God through interior quietude. Although hesychasm is commonly but misleadingly used to describe various currents of 14th-century spirituality, it became a social and political phenomenon when it was drawn into the civil wars of the period. The hesychasts supported and were victorious with Cantacuzene against John V, supported by the secular clergy. The dispute led to a great popular rising in Thessalonica where extremists tried to set up an independent state (1342–47).
IV Du
