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GREGORIUS PALAMAS (a. 1296-1359)

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 593 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GREGORIUS See also:

PALAMAS (a. 1296-1359)  , See also:Greek mystic and See also:chief apologist of the See also:Hesychasts (q.v.), belonged to a distinguished Anatolian See also:family, and his See also:father held an important position at See also:Constantinople . See also:Palamas at an See also:early See also:age retired to Mt See also: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 See also:isolation in a See also:cell specially built for him . His See also:health having broken down, he returned to Mt Athos, but, finding little See also:relief, removed to Thessalonica . About this See also:time Barlaam, the Calabrian See also:monk, began his attacks upon the monks of Athos, and Palamas came forward as their See also:champion . In 1341 and 1351 he took See also:part in the two synods at Constantinople, which definitively secured the victory of the Palamites . During the See also:civil See also:war between See also:John Cantacuzene and the Palaeologi, Palamas was imprisoned . After Cantacuzene's victory in 1347, Palamas was released and appointed See also:arch-See also:bishop of Thessalonica; being refused admittance by the inhabitants, he retired to the See also:island of See also:Lemnos, but subsequently obtained his see . Palamas endeavoured to justify the See also:mysticism of the Hesychasts on dogmatic grounds . The chief See also:objects of his attack were Barlaam, Gregorius Acindynus and Nicephorus See also:Gregoras . Palamas was a prolific writer, but only a few of his See also:works have been published, most of which will be found in J . P .

See also:

Migne, Patrologia graeca (el., cll.) . They consist of polemics against the Latins and their See also:doctrine of the Procession of the See also:Holy See also:Ghost; Hesychastic writings; homilies; a See also:life of St See also:Peter (a monk of Athos); a rhetorical See also:essay Prosopopeia (ed . A . See also:Jahn, 1884), containing the accusations brought against the See also:body by the soul, the See also:defence made by the body, and the final pronouncement of the See also:judges in favour of the body, on the ground that its sins are the result of inadequate teaching . See the See also:historical works of John Cantacuzene and Nicephorus Gregoras, the Vita Palamae by Philotheus, and the encomium by Nilus (both patriarchs of Constantinople) ; also C . See also:Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur (1897) .

End of Article: GREGORIUS PALAMAS (a. 1296-1359)
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