customs dues. He was able to borrow enough to construct 9 fair-sized ships and about 100 smaller ones before he lowered the rates and began siphoning off Genoa's income. When they did declare war, however, they were able to sink or capture his fleet by early 1349. The Genovese were forced to negotiate after major areas of Galata were burnt, including its wharves and warehouses, but the Byzantine Empire thenceforth was forced to turn to an alliance with the Republic of Venice for naval protection. This led to their involvement in Venice's 1350 war against Genoa, but Paganino Doria was able to force (and the twelve ships he had fielded) out of the war by a Pyrrhic victory off Constantinople the next year. In 1351, Kantakouzenos oversaw the Fifth Council of Constantinople, wherein Gregory Palamas' mystical hesychastic theology was declared Orthodox over the objections of Barlaam of Calabria and other Byzantine philosophers. By this time, Stefan Dušan had taken Albania, Macedonia, and Epirus. secured help against further incursions by again allying with the Turks. Following an earthquake, they annexed Callipolis (Gallipoli)—their first foothold in Europe—in partial payment of his many debts in 1354. He made his son Matthew Kantakouzenos another co-emperor in 1353, but 's attempts to expand taxation to repay the government's debts had long been displeasing. He was soon removed from power by , becoming a monk on 10 December 1354. Retirement Kantakouzenos retired to a monastery, where he assumed the name of Joasaph Christodoulos and occupied himself with literary labors, which have been called eloquent. His 4-volume History of the years 1320–1356 served as an apologia for his actions. They are therefore not always trustworthy, including defects in matters where he was not personally involved, but are supplemented by the contemporary work of Nicephorus Gregoras. It is nevertheless remarkable for being the only surviving account any Byzantine emperor gave of his own reign. In 1367 Joasaph was appointed the representative of the Eastern Orthodox Church to negotiate with the Latin Patriarch Paul to attempt a reconciliation of the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches. They agreed to call a grand ecumenical council to be attended by the pope and all the patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops of both the eastern and western churches. This plan was subsequently refused by Pope Urban V and eventually nothing came of it. Kantakouzenos died in the Peloponnese and was buried by his