Demetrios Kydones | |
|---|---|
| Δημήτριος Κυδώνης | |
| Born | 1324 (1324) |
| Died | 1398 (aged 73–74) |
| Philosophical work | |
| Era | Byzantine philosophy |
| Region | Western philosophy |
| School | Thomism |
Demetrios Kydones, latinized asDemetrius Cydones orDemetrius Cydonius (Greek:Δημήτριος Κυδώνης; 1324,Thessalonica – 1398,Crete), was aByzantine Catholic theologian, translator, author and statesman. He served an unprecedented three terms asMesazon (ImperialPrime Minister orChancellor) of theByzantine Empire under three successive emperors:John VI Kantakouzenos,John V Palaiologos andManuel II Palaiologos.[1]
As Imperial Premier, Kydones'West-Politik effort during his second and third stints was to bring about a reconciliation of theEastern Orthodox andCatholic Churches, in order to cement a military alliance against the ever-encroachingIslamic conquests, a program that culminated in John V Palaiologos' reconciliation withCatholicism.
His younger brother and somewhat-collaborator in his efforts was the noted anti-Palamite theologianProchoros Kydones.
Kydones was initially a student of the Greek classical scholar, philosopher and PalamiteNilos Kabasilas. Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos, a staunch follower ofPalamism, theHesychast doctrine ofGregory Palamas, had befriended Demetrios Kydones as a young man and had employed him as his ImperialPremier orMesazon (1347–1354) at the age of 23; at the Emperor's request, Kydones began to translate Western polemical works againstIslam, such as the writings of the DominicanRicoldo da Monte Croce, from Latin into Greek, and which the Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos used as references in his own writings againstMuhammad and Islam (although his own daughter was married to the Turkish Muslim EmirOrhan ofBithynia). 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 toThomistic 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 the Palamist doctrine espoused by John VI Kantakouzenos.
His younger brotherProchoros Kydones was a monk onMount Athos, and he too learned Latin, but did not follow Demetrios to Rome. Prochoros admired and translated some of the works ofAugustine of Hippo andThomas 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 byAugustine of Hippo (5th century) andThomas Aquinas'Summa theologica. He also realized the first two Greek translations of theQuaestiones disputatae,De potentia,De spiritualibus creaturis, and theSumma contra Gentiles, the latter translate on behalf of the theologian emperorJohn VI Kantakouzenos.[2] By 1365 he had made a profession of faith in the Catholic Church.[3]
In 1369, Emperor John V Palaiologos recalled Kydones toConstantinople and named him Imperial Prime Minister orMesazon, the second time he held this position, 1369–1383. At the same time,Patriarch Philotheos Kokkinos of Constantinople was removed and his deposed predecessorPatriarch Kallistos of Constantinople restored.
In the spring of 1369 John V Palaiologos set sail from Constantinople with Demetrios Kydones andFrancesco I Gattilusio. The destination was Italy; their immediate goal was to meet withPope 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 theOttoman Turks.
Kydones' efforts culminated in Emperor John V'sprofession 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 toVenice, which helped introduce Greek culture to Italy, and is credited with fostering the nascentRenaissance.[4] He formed, moreover, the nucleus of a group of Byzantine intellectuals that strove to propagateUniatism.
Recalled to Constantinople in 1391 by his former pupilEmperor Manuel II Palaiologos, 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 ofCrete, then ruled by the Venetians. He died there the following year, in 1398.
With the support of his younger brother Prochoros, Demetrios opposed aspolytheistic orpantheistic thePalamites' commitment tohesychasm (Greek,silence orstillness), at the time a controversial practice ofmystical contemplation throughuninterrupted prayer, taught by the Orthodox monks ofMount Athos and articulated by the 14th-century ascetic theologianGregory Palamas. ApplyingAristotelian logic to hesychasm (sometimes claimed by Latin critics to be rooted inPlatonism),[5] the Kydones brothers accused Palamas of promoting pantheism or polytheism, only to be condemned themselves by three successive synods that concurred with Palamas' theology and affirmed hesychastic practice. He is the author of the moral philosophical essayDe contemnenda morte ("On Despising Death"), anApologia 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 the Eastern Roman Empire's gradual submission to the Turks is Kydones'Symbouleutikoi ("Exhortations"), urging the Byzantine people to unite with the Latins in order to resist the Turkish onslaught.
Kydones' most famous statement against the Greeks who opposed his efforts at reuniting the East and the West is from hisApologia:
