The end of the controversy

In the controversy were subsequently involved other political, social and religious movements of the time. It thus developed into a social and political phenomenon, as it was drawn into the social conflict of the 14th century and the civil war of 1341-47.

The hesychast controversy ended with the victory of the Church, when the "anti-Palamites" were condemned by an ecclesiastical Council held at Blachernai in 1351.

It is possible to identify a number of political or social reasons which might have led to this outcome. On the intellectual level, however, the real controversy was that between the spirit of the Renaissance and that of Christianity. On the one hand, there was the ideal of a humankind that could determine its future according to its own rules and to the enduring conquests of ancient Greek thought, and on the other hand that of man "who can become God, since God became human". The Byzantine humanists could not impose the former view, because the prevailing circumstances in Byzantine society, where religion was dominant, did not allow them to acquire the truly revolutionary spirit that, during that same period, was transforming the Western European world. The Byzantines did bring about a revival of the ancient Greek heritage through the reproduction of the works and thoughts of their ancestors, but were never able to identify with them, since that would mean their transcending the basic principles of medieval civilisation. From the moment they rejected idolatry and embraced Christianity as a basic mode of thinking, the Byzantines would remain "invulnerable" to any revolutionary revival of classical antiquity.

In spite of all this, the victory of hesychasm played a substantially positive role, since it preserved the few eternal values that would help the Christians of Eastern Europe survive in the difficult centuries that were to follow.

At the end of the Byzantine Empire, this movement preached devotion to Christianity and to the human values it upheld, with faith as its only road. Moreover, it strove to protect its beliefs from the contamination of foreign ideas. In the end, hesychasm was vindicated when it was legitimised and imposed as the official state position.

Later, when the Empire collapsed and the people had to rebuild their lives without guidelines from a Christian authority, it was faith and remembrance and not logic or education which would be the forces that would direct them in the preservation of their religion and their culture.

See also : Civil war 1341-49