Balsamon, Theodore

Balsamon, Theodore an eminent canonist of the Greek Church, was born at Constantinople in the I twelfth century; was made chancellor and librarian of the church of St. Sophia, and about 1186 became patriarch of Antioch, without, however, being able to go there to discharge the functions of the office since the city was occupied by the Latins, who had intruded a bishop of their own. He died about 1200. His first work (which he undertook at the wish of the Emperor Manuel Communes and the patriarch Michael Anchialus) was Photii Nomocanon Canones SS. Apostolorum, etc. (with a Commentary on the Canons of the Apostles and the general and particular Councils, and on the Canonical Epistles of the Fathers), printed at Paris; 1615, fol.; also a Commentary on the Syntagma of Photius, given in Beveridge, Synodicon, sive Pandectai Canonum (Oxon. 1672-82, 2 vols. fol.). For an account of Balsamon and his works, see Beveridge's Synodicon, Prolegomena to vol. 1. — Cave, Hist. Lit. anno 1180; Hoefer, Biog. Generale, 4:311.