PALAMAS, GREGORIUS (a. 1296-1359)

This article appears in Volume V20, Page 593 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: PAI-PAS

PALAMAS, GREGORIUS (a. 1296-1359) , Greek mystic and

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

apologist of the Hesychasts (q.v.), belonged to a distinguished Anatolian family, and his father held an important position at

Constantinople

CONSTANTINOPLE
CONSTANTINOPLE, COUNCILS OF

. Palamas at an early age retired to Mt Athos, where he became acquainted with the mystical theories of the Hesychasts. In 1326 he went to Skete near Beroea, where he spent some years in isolation in a cell specially built for him. His

health

HEALTH

having broken down, he returned to Mt Athos, but, finding little relief, removed to Thessalonica. About this time Barlaam, the Calabrian monk, began his attacks upon the monks of Athos, and Palamas came forward as their champion. In 1341 and 1351 he took part in the two synods at

Constantinople

CONSTANTINOPLE
CONSTANTINOPLE, COUNCILS OF

, which definitively secured the victory of the Palamites. During the civil war between John Cantacuzene and the Palaeologi, Palamas was imprisoned. After Cantacuzene's victory in 1347, Palamas was released and appointed arch-

bishop

of Thessalonica; being refused admittance by the inhabitants, he retired to the

island

ISLAND (O.E. ieg =isle, +land')

of Lemnos, but subsequently obtained his see. Palamas endeavoured to justify the

mysticism

MYSTICISM (from Or. ľuety, to shut the eyes; ľuorrts, one initiated into the mysteries)

of the Hesychasts on dogmatic grounds. The

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

objects of his attack were Barlaam, Gregorius Acindynus and Nicephorus Gregoras.
Palamas was a prolific writer, but only a few of his works have been published, most of which will be found in J. P. Migne, Patrologia graeca (el., cll.). They consist of polemics against the Latins and their

doctrine

DOCTRINE

of the Procession of the Holy

Ghost

GHOST (a word common to the W. Teutonic languages; O.E. vest, Dutch, 'geest, Ger. Geist)

; Hesychastic writings; homilies; a life of St Peter (a monk of Athos); a rhetorical essay Prosopopeia (ed. A. Jahn, 1884), containing the accusations brought against the

body

BODY

by the soul, the defence made by the

body

BODY

, and the final pronouncement of the judges in favour of the body, on the ground that its sins are the result of inadequate teaching.
See the historical works of John Cantacuzene and Nicephorus Gregoras, the Vita Palamae by Philotheus, and the encomium by Nilus (both patriarchs of Constantinople) ; also C. Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur (1897).

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