Demetrius Cydones
Encyclopedia
Demetrios Kydones, latinized as Demetrius Cydones or Demetrius Cydonius ' onMouseout='HidePop("55495")' href="/topics/Crete">Crete
), was a Byzantine
theologian, translator, writer and influential statesman, who served an unprecedented three terms as Mesazon
(Imperial Prime Minister
or Chancellor
) of the Byzantine Empire under three successive emperors: John VI Kantakouzenos
, John V Palaiologos
and Manuel II Palaiologos
.
As Imperial Premier, Kydones' West-Politik effort during his second and third stints was to bring about a reconciliation of the Byzantine and Roman Churches, in order to cement a military alliance against the ever-encroaching Islam
, a program that culminated in Emperor John V Palaiologos' reconciliation with Catholicism.
His younger brother and somewhat-collaborator in his efforts was the noted anti-Palamite theologian Prochoros Kydones
.
. Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos, a staunch follower of Palamism
, the
Hesychast or Quietist doctrine of Gregory Palamas
, had befriended Demetrios Kydones as a young man and had employed him as his Imperial Premier
or Mesazon
(1347–1354) at the age of 23; at the Emperor's request, Kydones began to translate Western polemical works against Islam
, such as the writings of the Dominican Ricoldo da Monte Croce, from Latin into Greek, and which the Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos used as references in his own writings against Muhammad
and Islam (although his own daughter was married to the Turkish Muslim Emir Orhan
of Bithynia
). At Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos' urging, Kydones acquired knowledge of Latin, and learned to speak, read and write it well. This led Kydones to undertake a deeper study of Latin theology, particularly St. Thomas Aquinas, and he attempted to introduce his compatriots to Thomistic Scholasticism
by translating some of Aquinas' writings into Greek. John VI Kantakouzenos also encouraged him in his Latin studies and he himself read some Thomist literature. However, this put Demetrios Kydones on a journey that eventually ended with his conversion to Catholicism.
Anxious to concentrate on his Latin studies, Kydones retired for a time to private life from the Imperial Premiership in 1354, just before John V Palaiologos succeeded in ousting John VI Kantakouzenos.
When Kydones entered the service of Emperor John V Palaiologos, as he soon did, he remained friendly to his former employer Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos. On the other hand, he found himself unable or unwilling to follow John VI Kantakouzenos into his Palamism, preferring the more logical and intelligible Thomism.
His younger brother Prochoros Kydones was a monk on Mt. Athos, and he too learned Latin, but did not follow Demetrios to Rome. Prochoros admired and translated some of the works of Augustine of Hippo
and Thomas Aquinas
, but parted company with Kantakouzenos by becoming an argumentative anti-Palamite.
On retiring from public office in 1354, Demetrios Kydones went to Italy where he studied the writings of the leading medieval philosophical theologians, and made Greek translations of the major works of Western writers, including tracts by Augustine of Hippo
(5th century) and Thomas Aquinas
' Summa theologica
. By 1365 he had made a profession of faith in the Catholic Church. (Source, Donald M. Nicol, The Reluctant Emperor)
and named him Imperial Prime Minister or Mesazon
, the second time he held this position, 1369-1383. At the same time, Patriarch Philotheos Kokkinos of Constantinople was removed and his deposed predecessor Patriarch Kallistos of Constantinople
restored. At that point, things began to take a bad turn for the Palamites
. John V did not cherish such tender feelings towards them as did Kantakouzenos and his son the
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 Nicephoros 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 the new dogmas of Palamism or 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.
Patriarch Kallistos, who died in August 1363, was succeeded once again by Philotheos Kokkinos on February 12, 1364; Kokkinos had been reconciled with John V Palaiologos through the good offices of Demetrios Kydones as part of an agreement restoring Philotheos Kokkinos to the Patriarchship; according to the terms of this agreement, Patriarch Philotheos was to allow those who did not subscribe to the Palamite doctrine to live in peace. But Philotheos, a fervent disciple of Palamas, did not keep his promise for long, and in 1368 he moved to crack down on Demetrios Kydones' own brother Prochoros, a monk and priest at Mount Athos. It is true that Prochoros was a formidable adversary to the Palamites. Possessing a good knowledge of Latin, very well versed in Augustinian and Thomistic theology, and practiced in Aristotelian dialectic, he demolished the theses of the hesychast theologian (Gregory Palamas) with astonishing ease and clarity. It is to him, and not to Gregory Akindynos that one must ascribe the work De essentia et operatione, in six books, of which only the first and the beginning of the second have been published (cf. PG 151, 1191–1242). It gives a true summary of Thomistic theology; Barlaam of Seminara himself never wrote anything as plain and forceful.
Prochoros composed other treatises and shorter works (On the light of Tabor, On the Anti-Barlaamite Synodal Tome of 1351, etc.), and turned many Athonites away from Palamism.
Accused before Patriarch Philotheos Kokkinos and called to adhere to official Palamite orthodoxy, he continued to argue against it and to throw his opponents into inextricable quandaries.
Finally, in April 1368, Philotheos Kokkinos gathered a synod against Prochoros Kydones. In spite of the delicate handling he received and the delays that were employed to bring him back to his senses, he remained unshakable in his convictions, and appeared a number of times more or less openly to mock his judges. In the end, they pronounced against him in his absence — for he did not show up at the final session — a sentence of excommunication and of perpetual suspension from the priesthood. A long tome was put together on that occasion; its contents are very curious, and it concludes with a decree declaring the canonization of Gregory Palamas (Text in PG 151, 693-716, following the edition of Dositheus in the Τόμος ἀγάπης, Bucharest 1698, Prolegomena, pp. 93–114).
The Tome of 1368 brings to an end the series of Palamite councils, with the Greek Church's canonization of Palamas, and with the establishment of the second Sunday of Lent as his feast, confirming once more the triumph of his doctrine in the Greek Church. The doctrine nevertheless met with strong opposition, even during the latter part of the fourteenth century, by authors like John Kyparissiotes
and Manuel Kalekas, who continued the earlier critiques of Palamism by men like Gregory Akindynos and Nikephoros Gregoras. Contrary to Byzantine tradition, the reigning emperor, John V Palaiologos, unable to accept the Palamite dogma, distanced himself from his Church's own theology and eventually abandoned it by making profession in 1369 of the Catholic faith.
In the spring of 1369 John V Palaiologos set sail from Constantinople with Demetrios Kydones and a large retinue. The destination was Italy; their immediate goal was to meet with Pope Urban V
and his cardinals in Rome. The purpose of that extraordinary journey, however, and the subsequent meetings between Pope and Emperor in the fall of that year, was twofold: to assure Pope Urban V that the Byzantine Emperor was no longer a schismatic, and to persuade the Pope and his Curia to support a new military initiative that would aid the Byzantines in fending off the ever-increasing threat to the Empire from the Ottoman Turks
.
Kydones' efforts culminated in Emperor John V's profession of faith as a Catholic in the presence of the Pope and cardinals in Rome on October 18, 1369.
However, with the weakening of Byzantine resistance to the Turks, Kydones retired to private life about 1383. In 1390 he journeyed to Venice
, which helped introduce Greek culture to Italy, and is credited with fostering the nascent Renaissance
. He formed, moreover, the nucleus of a group of Byzantine intellectuals that strove to defend and propagate Uniatism, the return of the Greek Church to Catholic Unity.
, the son of Emperor John V Palaiologos, Kydones resumed the position of Prime Minister ("Mesazon"), but in 1396 hostility to his Catholicism compelled him to retire permanently to the island of Crete
, then ruled by the Venetians. He died there the following year, in 1398.
or pantheistic
the Palamites'
system of Hesychasm
, a form of Quietism, the belief in a life of contemplation and uninterrupted prayer, taught by the Eastern Orthodox monks of Mount Athos
and articulated by the 14th-century ascetic theologian Gregory Palamas
. Applying Aristotelian logic to Hesychasm (sometimes said to have its roots in Plato ), the Kydones brothers accused Palamas of pantheism or polytheism, only to be condemned themselves by three successive Palamite synods that also canonized Palamas and Hesychasm.
His reply to the Hesychasts upon his excommunication under Patriarch Philotheos Kokkinos is a classic of Catholic polemic against Hesychasm. He is the author of the moral philosophical essay De contemnenda morte ("On Despising Death"), an Apologia for his conversion to Catholicism, and a voluminous collection of 447 letters, valuable for the history of Byzantine relations with the West.
One of the principal documentary sources for Byzantium's gradual submission to the Turks is Kydones' Symbouleutikoi ("Exhortations"), vainly urging the Byzantine people to unite with the Latins in order to resist the Turkish onslaught; these fervent appeals give a clear picture of the hopeless position of the Byzantine Empire in about the year 1370.
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
), was a Byzantine
Byzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
theologian, translator, writer and influential statesman, who served an unprecedented three terms as Mesazon
Mesazon
The mesazōn was a high dignitary and official during the last centuries of the Byzantine Empire, who acted as the chief minister and principal aide of the Emperor.- History and functions :...
(Imperial Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...
or Chancellor
Chancellor
Chancellor is the title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the Cancellarii of Roman courts of justice—ushers who sat at the cancelli or lattice work screens of a basilica or law court, which separated the judge and counsel from the...
) of the Byzantine Empire under three successive emperors: John VI Kantakouzenos
John VI Kantakouzenos
John VI Kantakouzenos or Cantacuzenus was the Byzantine emperor from 1347 to 1354.-Early life:Born in Constantinople, John Kantakouzenos was the son of a Michael Kantakouzenos, governor of the Morea. Through his mother Theodora Palaiologina Angelina, he was a descendant of the reigning house of...
, John V Palaiologos
John V Palaiologos
John V Palaiologos was a Byzantine emperor, who succeeded his father in 1341, at age nine.-Biography:...
and Manuel II Palaiologos
Manuel II Palaiologos
Manuel II Palaiologos or Palaeologus was Byzantine Emperor from 1391 to 1425.-Life:...
.
As Imperial Premier, Kydones' West-Politik effort during his second and third stints was to bring about a reconciliation of the Byzantine and Roman Churches, in order to cement a military alliance against the ever-encroaching Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, a program that culminated in Emperor John V Palaiologos' reconciliation with Catholicism.
His younger brother and somewhat-collaborator in his efforts was the noted anti-Palamite theologian Prochoros Kydones
Prochorus Cydones
Prochorus Cydones, also spelled Prochoros Kydones or Prochorus Cydonius was an Eastern Orthodox monk, theologian, and linguist...
.
First Premiership
Kydones was initially a student of the Greek classical scholar, philosopher and Palamite Nilos KabasilasNilus Cabasilas
Nilus Cabasilas was a fourteenth century bishop of Thessalonika, uncle of notable Palamite theologian Nicholas Cabasilas, and teacher of Demetrius Cydones...
. Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos, a staunch follower of Palamism
Palamism
Palamism or the Palamite theology is the theological synthesis of Gregory Palamas who, in order to maintain that humans can become like God through deification without compromising God's transcendence, distinguished between God's inaccessible essence and the energies through which he becomes known...
, the
Hesychast or Quietist doctrine of Gregory Palamas
Gregory Palamas
Gregory Palamas was a monk of Mount Athos in Greece and later the Archbishop of Thessaloniki known as a preeminent theologian of Hesychasm. The teachings embodied in his writings defending Hesychasm against the attack of Barlaam are sometimes referred to as Palamism, his followers as Palamites...
, had befriended Demetrios Kydones as a young man and had employed him as his Imperial Premier
Premier
Premier is a title for the head of government in some countries and states.-Examples by country:In many nations, "premier" is used interchangeably with "prime minister"...
or Mesazon
Mesazon
The mesazōn was a high dignitary and official during the last centuries of the Byzantine Empire, who acted as the chief minister and principal aide of the Emperor.- History and functions :...
(1347–1354) at the age of 23; at the Emperor's request, Kydones began to translate Western polemical works against Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, such as the writings of the Dominican Ricoldo da Monte Croce, from Latin into Greek, and which the Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos used as references in his own writings against Muhammad
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
and Islam (although his own daughter was married to the Turkish Muslim Emir Orhan
Orhan
Orhan is a Turkish given name for males. People named Orhan include:* Orhan I, Turkish Ottoman sultan* Orhan Ademi, Swiss footballer* Asım Orhan Barut, Turkish-American theoretical physicist* Orhan Boran, Turkish radio and TV host...
of Bithynia
Bithynia
Bithynia was an ancient region, kingdom and Roman province in the northwest of Asia Minor, adjoining the Propontis, the Thracian Bosporus and the Euxine .-Description:...
). At Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos' urging, Kydones acquired knowledge of Latin, and learned to speak, read and write it well. This led Kydones to undertake a deeper study of Latin theology, particularly St. Thomas Aquinas, and he attempted to introduce his compatriots to Thomistic Scholasticism
Thomism
Thomism is the philosophical school that arose as a legacy of the work and thought of St. Thomas Aquinas, philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. In philosophy, his commentaries on Aristotle are his most lasting contribution...
by translating some of Aquinas' writings into Greek. John VI Kantakouzenos also encouraged him in his Latin studies and he himself read some Thomist literature. However, this put Demetrios Kydones on a journey that eventually ended with his conversion to Catholicism.
Anxious to concentrate on his Latin studies, Kydones retired for a time to private life from the Imperial Premiership in 1354, just before John V Palaiologos succeeded in ousting John VI Kantakouzenos.
When Kydones entered the service of Emperor John V Palaiologos, as he soon did, he remained friendly to his former employer Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos. On the other hand, he found himself unable or unwilling to follow John VI Kantakouzenos into his Palamism, preferring the more logical and intelligible Thomism.
His younger brother Prochoros Kydones was a monk on Mt. Athos, and he too learned Latin, but did not follow Demetrios to Rome. Prochoros admired and translated some of the works of Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
and Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, O.P. , also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian Dominican priest of the Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis, or Doctor Universalis...
, but parted company with Kantakouzenos by becoming an argumentative anti-Palamite.
On retiring from public office in 1354, Demetrios Kydones went to Italy where he studied the writings of the leading medieval philosophical theologians, and made Greek translations of the major works of Western writers, including tracts by Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
(5th century) and Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, O.P. , also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian Dominican priest of the Catholic Church, and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, known as Doctor Angelicus, Doctor Communis, or Doctor Universalis...
' Summa theologica
Summa Theologica
The Summa Theologiæ is the best-known work of Thomas Aquinas , and although unfinished, "one of the classics of the history of philosophy and one of the most influential works of Western literature." It is intended as a manual for beginners in theology and a compendium of all of the main...
. By 1365 he had made a profession of faith in the Catholic Church. (Source, Donald M. Nicol, The Reluctant Emperor)
Second Premiership
In 1369, Emperor John V Palaiologos recalled Kydones to ConstantinopleConstantinople
Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...
and named him Imperial Prime Minister or Mesazon
Mesazon
The mesazōn was a high dignitary and official during the last centuries of the Byzantine Empire, who acted as the chief minister and principal aide of the Emperor.- History and functions :...
, the second time he held this position, 1369-1383. At the same time, Patriarch Philotheos Kokkinos of Constantinople was removed and his deposed predecessor Patriarch Kallistos of Constantinople
Patriarch Callistus I of Constantinople
Kallistos I was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople for two periods from June 1350 to 1353 and from 1354 to 1363. Kallistos I was an Athonite monk and supporter of Gregory Palamas. He died in Constantinople in 1363.-Life:...
restored. At that point, things began to take a bad turn for the Palamites
Palamism
Palamism or the Palamite theology is the theological synthesis of Gregory Palamas who, in order to maintain that humans can become like God through deification without compromising God's transcendence, distinguished between God's inaccessible essence and the energies through which he becomes known...
. John V did not cherish such tender feelings towards them as did Kantakouzenos and his son the
Emperor Matthew Kantakouzenos
Matthew Kantakouzenos
Matthew Kantakouzenos or Cantacuzenus was Byzantine Emperor from 1353 to 1357.-Life:...
; 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
Blachernae
Blachernae was a suburb in the northwestern section of Constantinople, the capital city of the Byzantine Empire. It was the site of a spring and a number of prominent churches were built there, most notably the great Church of St. Mary of Blachernae , built by Empress Pulcheria in circa 450,...
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 Nicephoros 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 the new dogmas of Palamism or 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.
Patriarch Kallistos, who died in August 1363, was succeeded once again by Philotheos Kokkinos on February 12, 1364; Kokkinos had been reconciled with John V Palaiologos through the good offices of Demetrios Kydones as part of an agreement restoring Philotheos Kokkinos to the Patriarchship; according to the terms of this agreement, Patriarch Philotheos was to allow those who did not subscribe to the Palamite doctrine to live in peace. But Philotheos, a fervent disciple of Palamas, did not keep his promise for long, and in 1368 he moved to crack down on Demetrios Kydones' own brother Prochoros, a monk and priest at Mount Athos. It is true that Prochoros was a formidable adversary to the Palamites. Possessing a good knowledge of Latin, very well versed in Augustinian and Thomistic theology, and practiced in Aristotelian dialectic, he demolished the theses of the hesychast theologian (Gregory Palamas) with astonishing ease and clarity. It is to him, and not to Gregory Akindynos that one must ascribe the work De essentia et operatione, in six books, of which only the first and the beginning of the second have been published (cf. PG 151, 1191–1242). It gives a true summary of Thomistic theology; Barlaam of Seminara himself never wrote anything as plain and forceful.
Prochoros composed other treatises and shorter works (On the light of Tabor, On the Anti-Barlaamite Synodal Tome of 1351, etc.), and turned many Athonites away from Palamism.
Accused before Patriarch Philotheos Kokkinos and called to adhere to official Palamite orthodoxy, he continued to argue against it and to throw his opponents into inextricable quandaries.
Finally, in April 1368, Philotheos Kokkinos gathered a synod against Prochoros Kydones. In spite of the delicate handling he received and the delays that were employed to bring him back to his senses, he remained unshakable in his convictions, and appeared a number of times more or less openly to mock his judges. In the end, they pronounced against him in his absence — for he did not show up at the final session — a sentence of excommunication and of perpetual suspension from the priesthood. A long tome was put together on that occasion; its contents are very curious, and it concludes with a decree declaring the canonization of Gregory Palamas (Text in PG 151, 693-716, following the edition of Dositheus in the Τόμος ἀγάπης, Bucharest 1698, Prolegomena, pp. 93–114).
The Tome of 1368 brings to an end the series of Palamite councils, with the Greek Church's canonization of Palamas, and with the establishment of the second Sunday of Lent as his feast, confirming once more the triumph of his doctrine in the Greek Church. The doctrine nevertheless met with strong opposition, even during the latter part of the fourteenth century, by authors like John Kyparissiotes
John Kyparissiotes
John Kyparissiotes or Cyparissiotes , called “the Wise” by his contemporaries, was a Byzantine theologian and the leading Anti-Palamite writer in the period that followed the deaths of Nikephoros Gregoras and of Palamas himself . Of all the fourteenth-century opponents of Gregory Palamas, he was...
and Manuel Kalekas, who continued the earlier critiques of Palamism by men like Gregory Akindynos and Nikephoros Gregoras. Contrary to Byzantine tradition, the reigning emperor, John V Palaiologos, unable to accept the Palamite dogma, distanced himself from his Church's own theology and eventually abandoned it by making profession in 1369 of the Catholic faith.
In the spring of 1369 John V Palaiologos set sail from Constantinople with Demetrios Kydones and a large retinue. The destination was Italy; their immediate goal was to meet with Pope Urban V
Pope Urban V
Pope Urban V , born Guillaume Grimoard, was Pope from 1362 to 1370.-Biography:Grimoard was a native of Grizac in Languedoc . He became a Benedictine and a doctor in Canon Law, teaching at Montpellier and Avignon...
and his cardinals in Rome. The purpose of that extraordinary journey, however, and the subsequent meetings between Pope and Emperor in the fall of that year, was twofold: to assure Pope Urban V that the Byzantine Emperor was no longer a schismatic, and to persuade the Pope and his Curia to support a new military initiative that would aid the Byzantines in fending off the ever-increasing threat to the Empire from the Ottoman Turks
Ottoman Turks
The Ottoman Turks were the Turkish-speaking population of the Ottoman Empire who formed the base of the state's military and ruling classes. Reliable information about the early history of Ottoman Turks is scarce, but they take their Turkish name, Osmanlı , from the house of Osman I The Ottoman...
.
Kydones' efforts culminated in Emperor John V's profession of faith as a Catholic in the presence of the Pope and cardinals in Rome on October 18, 1369.
However, with the weakening of Byzantine resistance to the Turks, Kydones retired to private life about 1383. In 1390 he journeyed to Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, which helped introduce Greek culture to Italy, and is credited with fostering the nascent Renaissance
Renaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
. He formed, moreover, the nucleus of a group of Byzantine intellectuals that strove to defend and propagate Uniatism, the return of the Greek Church to Catholic Unity.
Third Premiership
Recalled to Constantinople in 1391 by his former pupil Emperor Manuel II PalaiologosManuel II Palaiologos
Manuel II Palaiologos or Palaeologus was Byzantine Emperor from 1391 to 1425.-Life:...
, the son of Emperor John V Palaiologos, Kydones resumed the position of Prime Minister ("Mesazon"), but in 1396 hostility to his Catholicism compelled him to retire permanently to the island of Crete
Crete
Crete is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, and one of the thirteen administrative regions of Greece. It forms a significant part of the economy and cultural heritage of Greece while retaining its own local cultural traits...
, then ruled by the Venetians. He died there the following year, in 1398.
Anti-Palamism
With the support of his younger brother Prochoros, Demetrios opposed as polytheisticPolytheism
Polytheism is the belief of multiple deities also usually assembled into a pantheon of gods and goddesses, along with their own mythologies and rituals....
or pantheistic
Pantheism
Pantheism is the view that the Universe and God are identical. Pantheists thus do not believe in a personal, anthropomorphic or creator god. The word derives from the Greek meaning "all" and the Greek meaning "God". As such, Pantheism denotes the idea that "God" is best seen as a process of...
the Palamites'
Palamism
Palamism or the Palamite theology is the theological synthesis of Gregory Palamas who, in order to maintain that humans can become like God through deification without compromising God's transcendence, distinguished between God's inaccessible essence and the energies through which he becomes known...
system of Hesychasm
Hesychasm
Hesychasm is an eremitic tradition of prayer in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and some of the Eastern Catholic Churches, such as the Byzantine Rite, practised by the Hesychast Hesychasm is an eremitic tradition of prayer in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and some of the Eastern Catholic Churches,...
, a form of Quietism, the belief in a life of contemplation and uninterrupted prayer, taught by the Eastern Orthodox monks of Mount Athos
Mount Athos
Mount Athos is a mountain and peninsula in Macedonia, Greece. A World Heritage Site, it is home to 20 Eastern Orthodox monasteries and forms a self-governed monastic state within the sovereignty of the Hellenic Republic. Spiritually, Mount Athos comes under the direct jurisdiction of the...
and articulated by the 14th-century ascetic theologian Gregory Palamas
Gregory Palamas
Gregory Palamas was a monk of Mount Athos in Greece and later the Archbishop of Thessaloniki known as a preeminent theologian of Hesychasm. The teachings embodied in his writings defending Hesychasm against the attack of Barlaam are sometimes referred to as Palamism, his followers as Palamites...
. Applying Aristotelian logic to Hesychasm (sometimes said to have its roots in Plato ), the Kydones brothers accused Palamas of pantheism or polytheism, only to be condemned themselves by three successive Palamite synods that also canonized Palamas and Hesychasm.
His reply to the Hesychasts upon his excommunication under Patriarch Philotheos Kokkinos is a classic of Catholic polemic against Hesychasm. He is the author of the moral philosophical essay De contemnenda morte ("On Despising Death"), an Apologia for his conversion to Catholicism, and a voluminous collection of 447 letters, valuable for the history of Byzantine relations with the West.
One of the principal documentary sources for Byzantium's gradual submission to the Turks is Kydones' Symbouleutikoi ("Exhortations"), vainly urging the Byzantine people to unite with the Latins in order to resist the Turkish onslaught; these fervent appeals give a clear picture of the hopeless position of the Byzantine Empire in about the year 1370.
Against the Greek Schism
Kydones' most famous statement against the Greeks who opposed his efforts at reuniting the East and the West is from his Apologia:- "So when someone comes along and says the Pope is in error and everyone ought to abjure such error, we really have been given no proof for such an allegation, and it makes no sense for anyone to pass judgment on what has first to be proven. What is more, we will not succeed in finding out why and by whom the Pope is to be judged, no matter how earnestly we try. But aside from the prospect that the one who has the Primacy in the Church is in error, what confidence can be placed in those of lower rank? If we continue to carry on like this, all shepherds of the Christian people will become suspect because what we accuse the Head Shepherd of is even more likely to befall all those who are less than he. Would not every matter of faith have to end with a question mark if there indeed be no final seat of authority in the Church? There can be no certitude anywhere, if none is worthy of credibility. Then we are no longer talking about the religion which St. Paul described as one; rather there will be as many religions as there are leaders, or worse still, none at all! Every believer will suspect everyone else and will proceed to pick and choose whatever belief suits him. Then, as in a battle fought in the dark, we will be striking at our own friends, and they at us. How the non-believers will enjoy our antics, because we Christians are now engaged in endless bickering among ourselves, since none of us wants to concede anything to anyone else. The whole missionary effort to spread Christian beliefs will be stopped in its tracks since no one will pay any attention to those who cannot even agree among themselves." (Apologia)
External links
- Encyclopædia Britannica
- Martin A. Jugie The Palamite Controversy
- Martin A. Jugie The Condemnation of Prochoros Kydones (1368)
- Martin A. Jugie The Triumph of Palamism
See also
- Prochorus CydonesProchorus CydonesProchorus Cydones, also spelled Prochoros Kydones or Prochorus Cydonius was an Eastern Orthodox monk, theologian, and linguist...
- Martin A. Jugie, A.A.
- Byzantine scholars in Renaissance
- List of Macedonians (Greek)