Ioannis D. Polemis. Notes on a short treatise of Nicolas Cabasilas. Revue des études byzantines,...

8/3/2019 Ioannis D. Polemis. Notes on a short treatise of Nicolas Cabasilas. Revue des tudes byzantines, tome 51, 1993. p

1/7

Ioannis D. Polemis

Notes on a short treatise of Nicolas CabasilasIn: Revue des tudes byzantines, tome 51, 1993. pp. 155-160.

Abstract

REB 511993 France p. 155-160

I. D. Polemis, Notes on a short treatise of Nicolas Cabasilas. A short treatise on secular learning by Nicolas Cabasilas is

examined in comparison with the Triads of Gregory Palamas. Probably Cabasilas composed his work in order to rebut the views

of Gregory Palamas on the usefulness of secular education.

Citer ce document / Cite this document :

Polemis Ioannis D. Notes on a short treatise of Nicolas Cabasilas. In: Revue des tudes byzantines, tome 51, 1993. pp. 155-

160.

http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/rebyz_0766-5598_1993_num_51_1_1874
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/author/auteur_rebyz_316http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/rebyz_0766-5598_1993_num_51_1_1874http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/rebyz_0766-5598_1993_num_51_1_1874http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/author/auteur_rebyz_316


2/7

NOTES ON A SHORT TREATISEOF NICOLAS CABASILAS

Ioannis D. POLEMIS

The text of Nicolas Gabasilas upon which I propose to commentdeals with the problem of the usefulness of secular education and isentitled . It has been published byA. Angelopoulos, as an appendix to his study of Cabasilas's life andworks, from th e ms. Parisinus gr. 1213, f. 286v-287vl. It is also preserved in the ms. Meteor. Barlaam 202, f. 57-60v, described in detailby V. Laurent many years ago2.The editor believes that by writing this text Cabasilas wanted tocombine into a coherent theological system the two main intellectualtendencies of his time, namely Byzantine hesychasm and westernhumanism3. According to Angelopoulos, Cabasilas regarded such acombination as the only possible solution to the spiritual problemsof his age. Angelopoulos' view is somewhat similar to Loenertz'sopinion, who, discussing the problems of this text, comes to theconclusion that Cabasilas, like Nicephorus Gregoras and DemetriusCydones, wished to reconcile the traditional monastic ideal of Byzantium ith the humanistic tendencies of the fourteenth century4.Before proceeding to a detailed examination of the text, I shouldremark that Cabasilas expresses similar views on the usefulness ofsecular education in a letter sent to the ostiarios Synadenos, where he

1 . A. Angelopoulos, . , Thessaloniki 1970, . 111-113.2. V. Laurent, Un nouveau tmoin de la correspondance de Dmtrius Cydons etde l'activit littraire de Nicolas Cabasilas Chamatos : le codex Meteor. Barlaam 202, 9, 1936, p. 193.3. A. Angelopoulos, op . cit., p. 83.4. R.-J. Loenertz, Chronologie de Nicolas Cabasilas, OCP 21 , 1955, p. 214-215. Onthis work of Cabasilas, see also C. Tsirpanlis, The Career and Writings of NicolasCabasilas, Byz. 49. 1979, p. 423.Revue des tudes Byzantines 51, 1993, p. 155-160.


3/7

156 I. D. POLEMISwrites that the saints, like Amphilochius of Iconium, who have beendeprived of secular learning, are somehow inferior to the eruditesaints, such as Basil the Great5. Tafrali, the first editor of this letter,points out that such an optimistic view of the usefulness of secularlearning could have caused many difficulties to Cabasilas, implyingthat his opinion was not in accordance with the official positions ofthe Byzantine Church6. However, Tafrali, not knowing the shorttreatise which I propose to examine, did not try to find out whetherCabasilas had in mind any particular person who maintained viewsopposite to his own, when composing his letter. P. Enepekides, whorepublished Cabasilas's letter, realized that there is a connectionbetween the letter and our short treatise 7.It is certain that Cabasilas composed his treatise in order to refuteopinions held by somebody else. The arguments of his opponent whoconsidered any attempt at attaining secular education vain andharmful are summarised one by one before the main section of Cabasilas'sext. In my view a detailed examination of these arguments canprove that the target of Cabasilas's criticism was Gregory Palamas.The first argument of Cabasilas's opponent is that man can reachfulfilment, i.e. be deified, even without the help of secular learning;therefore secular learning is useless for a Christian : . , , . 8. * . . Gregory Palamas in the first treatise of his first Trias indefence of the holy hesychasls, which, quite significantly, is entitled , maintains thatsecular learning is profitless, since men who were completely illiteratemanaged to become saints. Palamas discussed in particular the caseof John the Baptist : ' ' ; ; . , ' , ; ; ...

5. . Tafrali, Thessalonique au quatorzime sicle, Paris 1913, p. 15 3 n. 4.6. Ibidem, p. 154.7. P. Enepekides, Der Briefwechsel des Mystikers Nikolaos Kabasilas. Kommentierteextausgabe, BZ 46 , 1953, p. 35-36. On Cabasilas' letters to Synadenos, see alsoI. Sevenko, Nicolaus Cabasilas' Correspondence and the Treatment of late ByzantineLiterary Texts, BZ 47 , 1954, p. 57.8. A. Angelopoui.os, op . cit., p. 111.


4/7

NOTES ON A SHORT TREATISE OF NICOLAS CARASILAS 157 , , , ..., 6 ..., ;(sc. Christ)9.

The second argument of Cabasilas's adversary is the following : " (se. ) - . 10. Palamas says something similar: ~Ap' ' ' , - ; ... (se. ) , ' , , , , ' , 11.We now come to the most striking case of coincidence between thetexts of Cabasilas and Palamas. Cabasilas's opponent's third argument runs as follows: " / . . 12. Palamas, quoting an extract from a letter of Basil the Great to Eustathius ofSebastia, writes: (sc. ) , , , , , , , , , , 13. The stylistic similarities between thesetwo texts suggest that Cabasilas's third argument reflects Palamas'sposition on this subject.The fourth argument of Cabasilas's opponent is that scientificknowledge, far from being able to help man to attain a knowledge ofGod, is defective in itself : " ' ' 14.

9. P. Ghrestou, , ', Thessaloniki 1962, . 364-365.10 . . Angelopoulos, op . cit., p. 111.11 . P. Chrestou, op . cil., p. 366.12 . A. Angelopoulos. op . cit., p. 111.13 . P. Chrestou. op . cit., p. 369. The text of Basil the Great in PG 32 , 824 AB.14 . A. Angelopoulos. op . cit., p. 111.


5/7

158 I. D. POLEMISDoubts about the possibilities of human science to acquire anaccurate knowledge even of th e objects of our world were expressedby Palamas in the first treatise of his second Trias against Barlaam: ' ,' * , . , , , , 15;The last argument of Cabasilas runs as follows: " , . 16. Plamasbelieves that knowledge by itself is morally neutral: ; ; ' 17. Earlier Palamas had asserted that (se. ) , ' , , ' / 1 Q .

The relations between Palamas and Cabasilas were carefully examinedy H. Mller-Asshoff a few years ago, who after a comparativestudy of the texts of these two authors came to th e conclusion thatCabasilas, while adopting some elements of Palamas's teaching, triedto correct tacitly some ideas of the hesychast leader, which seemed tohim somewhat exaggerated19. Mller-Asshoff adopts a middle position on the problem. A. Guillou expressed th e view that Cabasilasrejects the hesychastic ideals of Gregory Palamas20, while J. Meyen-dorff21 and some theologians22 maintain the view that Cabasilas, farfrom disagreeing with Palamas, tried to express the ascetic doctrines

15 . P. Chrestou, op . cit., p. 482.16 . A. Angelopoulos, op . cit., p. 111.17 . P. Chrestou, op . cit., p. 370.18 . Ibidem, p. 366-367.19 . H. Mller-Asshoff, Beobachtungen an den Hauptschriften des GregoriosPalamas un d Nikolaos Kabasilas, BZ 70 , 1977, p. 22-41.20. A. Guillou, La civilisation byzantine, Paris 1974, p. 562.21. J. Meyendorff, Introduction l'tude de Grgoire Palamas, Paris 1959, p. 124;Idem, Saint Grgoire Palamas et la mystique orthodoxe, Paris 1959, p. 137-142.22. B. Bobrinskoy, Nicolas Cabasilas et la spiritualit hsychaste, La pense orthodoxe 12, 1966, p. 21-42; P. Nellas, , ThEE 12, 1968, col. 855;A. Angelopoulos, op . cit., p. 77-78.


6/7

NOTES ON A SHORT TREATISE OF NICOLAS CABASILAS 159of the latter in a somewhat different way. M.-H. Congourdeau, quitejustifiably, points out that Cabasilas was very near to Palamas'sthought, although he avoided the polemic dogmatism of the palamitetheological system23. Our investigation proves that Cabasilas disagreed with Palamas on the problem of secular education, comingthus nearer to Barlaam the Calabrian and some earlier Byzantinepredecessors of his. Barlaam discusses the problem in his second letterto Palamas, and remarks about the Greek philosophers : , , ' , , ' 24. Cabasilas's opinion is exactly the same: . ' ' , -, . , .We may add one final remark on the structure of Gabasilas's treatise. The juxtaposition of the arguments of his opponent, theirconnection between each other by the word and their subsequentrefutation one by one are quite original. One is tempted to believethat Cabasilas followed the pattern of the chapters of the SummaTheologiae of Thomas Aquinas translated into Greek by Cabasilas'sfriend Demetrius Cydones26. In each chapter of his Summa Aquinas,after quoting his opponents' arguments one by one, introducing themby the word etiam (translated as by Cydones), discusses the problem in general terms and then proceeds to the refutation of each ofthese arguments in turn, exactly like Cabasilas27. It is true that Cabasilas does not discuss the problem in general before moving on to therefutation of the arguments ; however a certain similarity does exist.The influence of scholasticism upon Cabasilas has been treated indetail particularly by S. Salaville28 and P. Nellas29. J. Gouillard poin-

23. Nicolas Cabasilas, La vie en Christ, ed. M.-H. Congourdeau, SC 355, Paris1989, p. 44-45.24. G. Schiro, Barlaam Calabro Epistole greche. I primordi episodici e dottrinari dellelotte esicasle, Palermo 1954, p. 290.25. A. Angelopoulos, op . cit., p. 112.26. See mainly S. Papadopoulos, ' , Athens1967, passim.27. A part of Kydones' translation is now to be found in 8, II, 16, ed. Ph. Demetrakopoulos, Athens1976.28. S. Salaville, Vues sotriologiques chez Nicolas Cabasilas, REB 1, 1943, p. 5-57.29. P. Nei.i.as, . , Piraeus 1975, . 45-47. Nellas affirms that , which is not justified.


7/7

160 I. D. POLEMISted out some cases of possible influence of Aquinas upon Cabasilas30;therefore my suggestion that Cabasilas in this treatise adopted thescholastic method of theological dissertation is quite plausible.Ioannis D. PolemisPalaion Patron Germanou 8KifissiaGR-145 61 Athens

30. J. Gouillard, L'autoportrait d'un sage du xive sicle, Actes du XIVe Congrsinternational des ludes byzantines, II, Bucarest 1975, p. 103-108. See also Cabasilas,La vie en Christ..., p. 45 n. 34.

Ioannis D. Polemis. Notes on a short treatise of Nicolas Cabasilas. Revue des études byzantines,...

Documents

Transcript of Ioannis D. Polemis. Notes on a short treatise of Nicolas Cabasilas. Revue des études byzantines,...