XI Bekkos, to publicly reaffirm their allegiance to the Union at a synod in the Palace of Blachernae. John once more rejected Michael VIII's overtures for an acceptance of the Union, and on 1 May 1277, convoked a synod of his own at Neopatras which anathematized the Emperor, the Patriarch, and the Pope as heretics. In response, a synod was convoked at the Hagia Sophia on 16 July where both Nikephoros and John were anathematized in return. John convoked another synod at Neopatras in December 1277, where an anti-Unionist council of eight bishops, a few abbots, and one hundred monks, again anathematized Emperor, Patriarch and Pope. Only two bishops, those of Trikala and Neopatras, refused, and were punished. Michael VIII then launched another invasion, led by the pinkernēs Manuel Raoul, the prōtostratōr Andronikos Palaiologos, and others. Instead of confronting the sebastokratōr, however, they fraternized with him and gave every sign of their own opposition to the Union. Michael VIII relieved and imprisoned them and appointed new commanders, the John Synadenos and the megas konostaulos Michael Kaballarios. The latter were lured by John Doukas into an ambush and suffered a crushing defeat at Pharsalos. Michael VIII died on 11 December 1282, while preparing to invade Thessaly again. With the threat of an Angevin invasion having subsided following the Sicilian Vespers, his successor, Andronikos II Palaiologos (r. 1282–1328), was quick to repudiated the hated Union of the Churches. As a result, ecclesiastical ties between Thessaly, Epirus, and Constantinople were restored. Nikephoros of Epirus, a weak ruler dominated by his wife, and uneasy with his half-brother's ambitions—there are hints in the sources that John coveted Epirus, and that he had launched an attack on Ioannina—now drifted into the Byzantine orbit. Anna visited her cousin Andronikos II at Constantinople, and a plot was hatched against John: in 1283 or 1284 Nikephoros and Anna invited John's son Michael to Epirus to marry their daughter, and become the heir to their state. When Michael took the bait, he was arrested and shipped off to Constantinople, where he died in prison. Andronikos launched an invasion of Thessaly, but his troops were annihilated by malaria. In the next year (1284 or 1285), John took his revenge for his half-brother's treason by invading Epirus and raiding the environs of Arta. Following this punitive expedition, relations between Thessaly and Epirus settled down to an uneasy peace. For many years, modern