Emperor Matthew Kantakouzenos; instead, he saw their doctrines as an obstacle to the union of the Churches which he envisaged as a way of obtaining help from the Pope and Western rulers against the Turks. Thus, the persecuting measures that had been taken against the Anti-Palamites after the synod of Blachernae of 1351 were rescinded, and Nikephoros Gregoras was able to come and go freely to his cloister. In the course of the year 1355, the Emperor John V Palaiologos called Nikephoros Gregoras to hold a public disputation with Gregory Palamas, in his own presence and that of the papal legate, Paul of Smyrna. In the ensuing years, the imperial government of John V Palaiologos refused to involve itself, in a practical way, in the intestine quarrel that still divided minds; but the patriarch and the episcopate were henceforth wedded to Palamism and Hesychasm, and sanctions of a religious nature continued to be leveled against anyone who showed hostility to them. One of these sanctions was the deprivation of church burial.