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The Byzantine Church and Hellenic Learning in the Fourteenth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 March 2016
Extract
In the middle of the fourteenth century Sir John Mandeville, travelling through Macedonia, came across the grave of Aristotle. In a place called Strages, he writes, ‘there is an altar upon his tomb, and there they make solemn feast ilk a year, as he were a saint. And upon his altar they hold their great counsel and assembly; and they trow that, through inspiration of God and him, they shall have the better counsel’.
In the thirteenth century the tomb of Plato was said to exist in a church at Konia in Asia Minor. There was a spring and a river of Plato nearby, for it was believed that ‘the plain of Konia was once a sea, which Plato caused to disappear’. In the chapel of the Panagia Portaitissa in the monastery of Iviron on Mount Athos one may still see among the rows of saints and prophets painted on the walls the figures of Plato, Aristotle, Plutarch, and even Thucydides. At the lowest level of enlightenment in the Byzantine world the ancient philosophers were revered as magicians or prophets. But among educated people Plato and Aristotle were universally admired for their literary merits, if for no other reason. It was they who, in their differing ways, had set the style and standard of literacy for all Greek Christian writers, philosophers, and theologians.
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References
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Page 38 of note 2 Verpeaux, op. cit., 184.
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Page 40 of note 4 Theodori Metochitae Miscellanea philosophica et historica (Ύπομνημα- τισμοΐ καΐ Σημειώσεις γνωμικαί), ed. C. G. Müller and T. Kiessling, Leipzig 1821 (reprinted, Amsterdam 1966).
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Page 41 of note 4 Despite the publication of the Quadrivium of Pachymeres some years before his time, Metochites repeatedly applauds his own role as the restorer of the lost sciences of mathematics and astronomy; e.g., in the Introduction to his own astronomical treatise, ed. Sathas, K. N., Μεσαιωνική Βιβλιοθήκη, I, Venice 1872, p. ρια′ Google Scholar; also in his poems and in his polemical works against Nikephoros Choumnos. See, e.g., Guilland, , ‘Les poésies inédites’, loc. cit., 181, 200 Google Scholar; Ševčenko, , Études sur la Polémique, 78 n. 3, 109-11Google Scholar, 115 n. 2, 201-03 (Logos 13, cap. 13).
Page 41 of note 5 Προεισαγωγή είς τήν τοϋ Πτολεμαίου Σύνταξιν, and Στοιχείωσις έπΐ τη άστρονομικη έπιστήμη. Both remain unedited, save for the introduction to the former and the introduction and chapter-headings of the latter, which are printed in Sathas, op. cit., I, pp. πδ′-ριθ′.
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Page 42 of note 3 Beck, Kirche und theol. Lit., 700-01; Hunger, ‘Theodoros Metochites’, loc. cit., 9; Verpeaux, Nicéphore Choumnos, 191.
Page 43 of note 1 Beck, Theodoras Metochites, 63; Tatakis, op. cit., 253-4.
Page 43 of note 2 Metochites, Logos 13 (‘Réfutation des hommes de lettres incultes’), ed. Ševčenko, Études sur la Polémique, § 5, p. 193.
Page 43 of note 3 Metochites, Misc., 370-77; Gregoras, , Historia, xix, 1 Google Scholar: II, 930 line 5 f. Part of the treatise of Nicholas Kabasilas against the Sceptics is edited by Elter, A. and Radermacher, L., Analecta Graeca, Bonn 1899 Google Scholar. Cf. Beck, Kirche und theol. Lit., 781-2; Guilland, Essai sur Nicéphore Grégoras, 206-07; Beck, Theodores Metochites, 67; Verpeaux, op. cit., 191.
Page 43 of note 4 Metochites, , Misc., 484-91, no. 73 Google Scholar. The eremitic life he describes as being undesirable (p. 486) for the following reasons: πόρρω γάρ δήτοΰτο πάνυ τοι της Χριστιανικής νομοθεσίας, καί τών καθ’ ήμδς, ώς ούκ άλλο τι, καθάπαξ άλλοτριώτατον. Cf. Misc. 491-511, nos. 74, 75, 76. Beck, Theodoras Metochi ies, 31 f.
Page 44 of note 1 Guilland, ‘Les poésies inédites’, loc. cit., 184-5; Hunger, op. cit., 14-15.
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Page 44 of note 3 The published and unpublished works of Gregoras are listed by Guilland, Essai sur Nicéphore Grêgoras, xxxi-xxxv. Cf. Guilland, Correspondance de Nicépbore Grégoras; Krumbacher, , op. cit., 102, 293-7Google Scholar; Sarton, , op. cit., III, 1, 949-53Google Scholar; Beck, Kirche und theol. Lit., 719-21. His paper on the reform of the calendar and the computation of Easter is inserted in his Historia, viii, 13: I, 364-73.
Page 45 of note 1 Gregoras, , Historia, viii, 13: I, 364Google Scholar.
Page 45 of note 2 Gregoras, , Historia, x, 8 Google Scholar: I, 512-20. Gregoras, , Florentios ή περΐ σοφίας, ed. Jahn, A., Jahns Jahrbuch, X (1844), 531-2Google Scholar. Cf. Guilland, Essai sur Nicéphore Grégoras, 167-8, 205-06.
Page 45 of note 3 Gregoras, , Homily on the Nativity of the Virgin, ed. Schmitt, N., ‘Kahrie Džami’, Izvestila Russkago Archeologiüeskago Instituta v Konstantinopole, XI (1906), 280-94 (293)Google Scholar. Metochites, , ed. Treu, , Byzantinische Zeitschrift, VIII (1899), 11 lines 25–28 Google Scholar, similarly observes that ‘the most apposite passages to be found in these two men (Plotinus and Proclus) and their followers are not so very different or far removed from our own doctrines and the precepts of the truth’.
Page 45 of note 4 Gregoras, , Historia, ix, 5 Google Scholar: I, 411 lines 23-4 (ψευδομάντεις καΐ έγγα-στρίμυθοι); cf. 722. Guilland, , Correspondance de Nicéphore Grégoras, 143, no. 33 (letter to John Chrysoloras)Google Scholar; 188-93, no. 49 (letter to a bishop concerning the detractors of astronomy).
Page 46 of note 1 PG, CXLIX, 521-642. Cf. Guilland, Essai sur Nicéphore Grégoras, 211.
Page 46 of note 2 Gregoras, , Historia, ix, 14 Google Scholar: I, 460-61; viii, 15:1, 384-5; xi, 3: I, 536; xv, 2: II, 749-50.
Page 46 of note 3 e.g. Cf.Gregoras, , Historia, iv, 8 Google Scholar: I, 108-09 with xiv, 8: II, 722-6, where Gregoras declares divination from the stars to be a vain pursuit. When Andronikos II was dying he summoned Gregoras to ask him whether the stars could do any better for him than his doctors; but he declined and died before Gregoras had time to give an answer. Gregoras, , Historia, xi, 11 Google Scholar: I, 559.
Page 46 of note 4 Gregoras, Florentios, ed. Jahn, 531 f.
Page 47 of note 1 Gregoras, , Historia, xi, 10 Google Scholar: I, 555 line 10 f. The career and works of Barlaam are outlined by, e.g., Krumbacher, op. cit., 100-02; Sarton, , op. cit., III, 1, 583-7Google Scholar; Beck, Kirche und theol. Lit., 717-19.
Page 48 of note 1 See especially Meyendorff, J., Introduction à l’Étude de Grégoire Palomas (Patristica Sorbonensia, 3), Paris 1959 Google Scholar (English translation by G. Lawrence, Faith Press, London 1964); Lossky, V., The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, London 1957 Google Scholar.
Page 48 of note 2 This was the verdict of the Patriarch Neilos in his Encomium of Palomas, PG, CLI, 664 A-D.
Page 48 of note 3 Cf. Tatakis, op. cit., 271; Beck, Theodores Metochites, 52 f.
Page 48 of note 4 Gregoras, , Historia, viii, 8 Google Scholar: I, 327-8.
Page 49 of note 1 Meyendorff, Introduction, 45-50.
Page 49 of note 2 In his second letter to Barkam (unpublished) Palamas seems to have shown that, in his earlier days, he was more receptive to the uses of rational argument in theology. The title of this letter is given in PG, CL, 834: To αύτοΰ προς τόν Βαρλαάμ γράφοντα 8τι ούκ Ζστιν άπόδειξις έπ’ ούδενος τών θείων, Ζλεγχος, δτι ϊστιν έφ’ ών καΐ δτι κυρίως άπόδειξις αΰτη, ή δέ κατ’ Άριστοτέλην άπόδειξις άσύστατον καΐ το ύπέρ αύτήν άχρεΐον. Cf. Meyendorff, Introduction, 346-7.
Page 49 of note 3 Palamas, Physica, Theologica, Moralia et Practica Capita CL, in PG, CL, 1121-1225. Cf. Meyendorff, Introduction, 192.
Page 49 of note 4 Grégoire Palamas, Défense des saints hésychastes, ed. Meyendorff, J. (Spicilegium Sacrum Lovaniense, 30, 31), Louvain 1959, I, 1, § 11, pp. 34–37 Google Scholar. The whole of the first treatise in the series of Triads of Palamas (pp. 1-69) is on the subject of the use and abuse of learning (κατά τί καΐ μέχρι τίνος λυσιτελής ή περΐ λάγους τρφή). Cf. Meyendorff, Introduction, 192, 347.
Page 50 of note 1 Palamas, , Défense des saints hésychastes, Triads, II, 1, § 35, pp. 294-97Google Scholar. Cf. Meyendorff, Introduction, 349.
Page 50 of note 2 Rom. I, 18 f.
Page 50 of note 3 Palamas, Homiliae, XXXIV (On the Metamorphosis of Christ), in PG, CLI, 424 A-D.
Page 51 of note 1 Palamas, Capita, in PG, CL, 1137 A-C: Ού μόνον бе τό γινώσκειν κατά το έγχωροϋν έν άληθείαι Θεον άσυγκρίτως κρεΐττον της καθ’ “Ελληνας φιλοσοφίας έστίν, άλλά καΐ μόνον το είδένοα τίνα τόπον Ζχει ό ιϊνθρωπος παρά τφ Θεφ, πασαν ύπερβαίνει τήν κατ’ έκείνους σοφίαν . . . Cf. 1140 C.
Page 51 of note 2 John Cantacuzene, cited from Cod. Parisinus graecus 1247, fol. 94v by Tafrali, Thessalonique au XIVe siècle, 169: ΈπεΙδέ πασα ή τών Έλλήνων σοφία, λέγεται μέν οΟτω σοφία, έκτος δέ σοφία παρ’ ήμών τών πιστών ονομά-ζεται, δήλον οΐμαι πασι καθεστηκέναι, ώς ούκ άν το έκτος Ζνδον εϊη ποτ’ άν της τών θεολόγων διδασκαλίας• οΐσθα δέ πάντως καΐ αύτός, ώς δούλη καΐ θεραπαινίς έστί τε καΐ άνομάζεται της δντως σοφίας τών όρθοδόξων.
Page 52 of note 1 Philotheos, Contra Gregoram antirrhetici, I: PG, CLI, 783-5, 827-8.
Page 53 of note 1 Cited from an unpublished Homily of Isidore in Cod. Parisinus graecus 1192, fol. 238, by Tafrali, op. cit., 157 and n. 4. Cf. the similar remark of Roger Bacon on the superiority of the pagans to the Christians of his time, ‘in virtutibus quae communiter requiruntur ad vitae honestatem et ad communionem humanae societatis’, in Opus Majus, ed. Bridges, J. H., Oxford 1897-1900, II, 322-3Google Scholar.
Page 53 of note 2 Nicholas, Kabasilas, Letters, ed. Enepekides, P., ‘Der Briefwechsel des Mystikers Nikolaos Kabasilas’, Byzantinische Zeitschrift, XLVI (1953), 36, no. 8 lines 1-21Google Scholar. Cf.Loenertz, R.-J., ‘Chronologie de Nicolas Cabasilas, 1345-1354’, Orientalia Christiana Periodica, XXI (1955), 205-31Google Scholar, especially 214-15.
Page 53 of note 3 On Isaac Argyros, see Sarton, , op. cit., III, 2, 1511-12Google Scholar; Beck, Kirche und theol. Lit., 729-30; Mercati, G., Notizie di Procoro e Demetrio Cidone, Manuele Caleca e Teodoro Meliteniota ed altri appunti . . . (Studi e Testi, 56), Vatican 1931, 229-42, 270-75Google Scholar.
Page 54 of note 1 Vogel, K., in Camb. Med. Hist., IV, 2, 277-8Google Scholar. Cf.Sarton, , op. cit., III, 2, 1512-14Google Scholar; Mercati, op. cit., passim; Pingree, , op. cit., Dumbarton Oaks Papers, XVIII (1964), 140 fGoogle Scholar.
Page 54 of note 2 Theodore Meliteniotes, in PG, CXLIX, 988 C-989 B, 993 A-B.
Page 54 of note 3 Cf.Turyn, A., Codices Graeci Vaticani saeculis XIII et XIV scripti annorumque notis instructi, Vatican 1964, 150-53Google Scholar. It is interesting with regard to the uses of the word ‘Hellene’ that Kydones refers to his translation as ‘the work of Thomas against the Hellenes’ (i.e. Gentiles) (το τοϋ Θωμα καθ’ Έλλήνων βιβλίον). Mercati, op. cit., 363 line 23. The literature on Demetrios Kydones and his brother Prochoros is exten sive; but see Krumbacher, op. cit., 102-03, 487-9; Sarton, , op. cit., III, 2, 1386-9Google Scholar; Beck, Kirche und theol. Lit., 733-9; idem, Theodores Metochites, 117-21; Guilland, Correspondance de Nicéphore Grégoras, 325-32; Mercati, op. cit., passim; Cammelli, G., Démétrius Cydonès, Correspondance, Paris 1930 Google Scholar; Loenertz, R.-J., Démétrius Cydonès, Correspondance, 2 vols. (Studi e Testi, 186, 208), Vatican 1956, 1960Google Scholar; Setton, K. M., ‘The Byzantine Background to the Italian Renaissance’, Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, C, 1 (1956), 52-8Google Scholar; Moravcsik, Gy., Bynantinoturcica, I. Die byzantinischen Quellen der Geschichte der Türkvölker, 2nd. ed. (Berliner byzantinische Arbeiten, 10), Berlin 1958, 244-46Google Scholar.
Page 55 of note 1 See Ševčenko, I., ‘The decline of Byzantium seen through the eyes of its intellectuals’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers, XV (1961), 169-86Google Scholar.
Page 55 of note 2 Demetrios Kydones, Apologie della propria fede, 1: Ai Greci Ortodossi, ed. Mercati, op. cit., 359-403; German translation by Beck, H.-G., ‘Die “Apologia pro vita sua” des Demetrios Kydones’, Ostkirchliche Studien, I (1952), 208-25Google Scholar, 264-82.
Page 56 of note 1 Cf. Setton, op. cit., 54-8; Ševčenko, ‘Decline of Byzantium’, loc. cit. , 176-7. On Manuel Chrysoloras and his successors in Italy, see G. Cammelli, Manuele Crisolora (I dotti bizantini e le origini dell’umanesimo, I), Florence 1941; Geanakoplos, D. J., Greek Scholars in Venice. Studies in the dissemination of Greek learning from Byzantium to Western Europe, Cambridge, Mass., 1962 Google Scholar, passim.
Page 57 of note 1 Pii II P. M. Orationes, I, Lucca 1755, Or. xiii, 268.
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