Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/264

Rh 250 GEORGIUS. at Rome, and also to meet Frederick Barbarossa ; but he was detained six months by sickness at Brindisi or Otranto, and the council was closed before his recovery. He was therefore recalled by Manuel. Baronius gives a Latin version of several of George's letters. (Baron. Annal. Eccles. adAnnos 1176, 1178, 1179, 1180, 1188; Ailatius, ibid. p. 38, &c. ; Cave, Hist. Litt. vol. ii. p. 217 ; Oudin, Comment de Script. Eccles. vol. ii. col. 1536.) 17. Of CoRCYRA, or Corfu, the younger, was the author of several works, especially of one against the Minorite Friars, and of another on the use of leavened bread in the eucharist. Ailatius and Cave confound this George of Corfu with the preceding, but Oudin has shown that they must be distinguished, and fixes the date of the younger about A. D. 1236. Ailatius, in some of his works, has quoted passages from George of Corfu on the procession of the Holy Spirit, and on the fire of purgatory, but we have no means of ascertaining to which of the two these passages belong. (Ailatius and Cave, II. cc. ; Oudin, I. c. and vol. iii. col. 110.) 18. CuRTESius (Koupreo-Tj) or Scholarius, was author of some tracts on grammatical subjects ex- tant in MS. It is doubtful if he is the same as Georgius Scholarius, afterwards Gennadius, patri- arch of Constantinople. [Gennadius, No. 2.] The subject of the works ascribed to him would lead to the opinion that he is not. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. vi. p. 342.) 19. Of Cyprus, the elder, patriarch of Constan- tinople from A. D. 678 to 683. He held for a time the sentiments of the Monothelites, but afterwards, at the council of Constantinople (a. D. 680), re- nounced them. He was anathematized after his death at the iconoclastic council of Constantinople under Constantine Copronymus, A. D. 753 or 754. (Theophan. Chronog. vol. i. pp.544, 554, 660, ed. Bonn ; Ailatius, Ibid. p. 14 ; Fabric, Bibl. Gr. vol. xi. p. 151.) 20. Of Cyprus, the younger, afterwards Gre- GORius, has been said by some to have been of Latin parents, but this is shown by Rubeis, editor of the life of George, to be an error. He held the office of protapostolarius at Constantinople at the time of the accession of Andronicus Palaeologus the elder [Andronicus II.] (a. d. 1282). He was a man of learning and eloquence, and the reviver, ac- cording to Nicephorus Gregoras, of the long-dis- used Attic dialect. During the reign of Michael Palaeologus, father of Andronicus, he had been favourable to the union of the Greek and Latin churches, which Michael had much at heart ; and supplied the emperor with arguments with which to press the patriarch of Constantinople (Joseph) and the other opponents of the union ; but on the accession of Andronicus, who was opposed to the union, it is probable that George altered his views ; for on the death of the patriarch Joseph, Andro- nicus determined that George, though as yet a lay- man, should be appointed to the office. The Greek church was at this time torn by dissension. Beside the dispute about the procession of the Holy Spirit, there had been an extensive schism occasioned by the deposition of Arsenius, patriarch of Constantinople [Arsknius, No. 1] early in the reign of Michael (a. d. 1266). The emperor was anxious to heal these dissensions, and possibly thought a layman more likely to assist him in so doing than a pro- fessed theologian ; and George was recommended to the office by his literary reputation. The era- GEORGIUS. peror, by tampering with some of the bishops, ob- tained his purpose ; and George, after being rapidly hurried through the successive stages of monk, reader, deacon, and priest, was consecrated pa- triarch (April, A. D, 1283), and took the name of Gregory. The Arsenians, however, refused to re* turn to the church, unless upon the testimony of heaven itself ; and it was arranged at a synod or conference at Adramyttium, apparently just after the consecration of Gregory, that they and the party now predominant in the church (called Jo- sephites from the late patriarch) should each pre- pare a book in support of their respective views, and that the two volumes should be submitted to the ordeal of fire. Both books, as might be ex- pected, were consumed ; and the Arsenians regard- ing this as a token that heaven was against them, submitted, and were at once led by the emperor in person, through a violent snow storm, to receive the communion from the hands of the patriarch Gre- gory. They soon, however, repented of their sub- mission, and Gregory having excommunicated the refractory, the whole party broke off from the church again. This division was followed by troubles arising out of the controversy on the pro- cession of the Holy Spirit, aggravated by the harshness used under Gregory's influence towards the ex-patriarch, Joannes or John Beccus or Vec- cus, a distinguished advocate of the doctrine of the Latin church ; and a book, which Gregory had been ordered to prepare on the subject, and to the sentiments of which he had procured the approval of the emperor and several of the superior clergy, excited such animadversion and opposition, that, either in disgust or by constraint, he resigned the office of patriarch, A. P. 1 289, and retired to a monastery. He died in the course of the following year, as many supposed, from grief and mortifica- tion. (Pachymer, De Mich. Palaeol. v. 12, De Andron. Palaeol. i. 8, 14—22, 34—37, ii. 1— 11 ; Niceph. Greg. Hist. Rom. v. 2, vi. 1 — 4.) The published works of George of Cyprus are as follows: — 1. "EkOco-is tov t6ixov ttjs iricmuis Kara rov Be/c/cow, Eocposltio Fidei adversus Beccum (seu Veccujn). This was the work which led to his troubles and consequent abdication. 2. 'O/jLoKoyia, Confessio Fidei, delivered in consequence of the outcry against the preceding work. 3. 'A7roAo7io irpds TTJv Kara Tuv rofxov fxe/j-^iv itrx up wtc^ttj, Jie- sponsio validissima ad Erpositionis Censuram. 4. TliTTaKiov : this is a letter to the emperor Andro- nicus, complaining of the wrong done to him. These four pieces are given in Banduri's Imperium Orientale, pp. 942 — 961, ed. Paris. 5. 'EyKcifiiou els Trjv @da(T(Tav, Encomium Maris. Published by Bonaventura Vulcanius, with a poem of Paulua Silentiarius, 8vo., Leyden, 1591. These two pieces were published both in a separate volume, and with the Tlepi Koa-fj-ou, De Mundo, of Aristotle. The E71- comium Maris has been since reprinted. 6. Pro- verbia, in alphabetical order, subjoined to the edition of the Proverbia of Michael Apostolius by Pantinus, 8vo., Leyden, 1619. 7. Aoyos eh tov ayiov Ka fjieyaXofidpTvpa Kal rpoiraiocpdpov Fecopyiou, Oralio in honorem Sancti Georgii Magni Mart;/ris ac Vic- toris. This encomium on St. George of Cappadocia [Georgius, No. 7. above,] is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, April, Vol. III. A Latin version is given in the body of the volume, pp. 1 23 — 131, and the Greek original in the Appendix, pp. xxv — - xxxiv. 8. Sententiae, 8vo., Col., 1536. This is