NICOLAUS

CABASILAS (d. 1371)  , Byzantine mystic and theological writer . He was on intimate terms with the emperor John VI . Cantacuzene, whom he accompanied in his retirement to a monastery . In 1355 he succeeded 'his uncle Nilus Cabasilas, like himself a determined opponent of the union of the Greek and Latin churches, as archbishop of Thessalonica . In the Hesythast controversy he took the side of the monks of Athos, but refused to agree to the theory of the uncreated light . His chief work is his IIEpi T97S EY X purrs W?]S (ed. pr. of the Greek text, with copious introduction, by W . Gass, 1849; new ed. by M . Heinze, 1899), in which he lays down the principle that union with Christ is effected by the three great mysteries of baptism, confirmation and the eucharist . He also wrote homilies on various subjects, and a speech againt usurers, printed with other works in Migne, Patrologia Graeca, c. i . A large number of his works is still extant in MS . See C . Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur (1897), and article in Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie fur protestantische Theologie (1901) .