Barlaam (2)

Barlaam a Calabrian monk of St. Basil. He was educated among the Latins, but afterward went over to the Greeks. He is chiefly known for his attack upon the Hesychasts or Quietists, as the monks of Mount Athos were styled, who held certain very peculiar views. The question was brought before a synod at Constantinople in 1341, but nothing was definitively determined. In 1339 Barlaam went to Pope John, at Avignon, to induce him to take up the case, but in vain. He was afterward condemned in various synods. He then forsook the Greek side, and took part with the Latins, strenuously opposing the dogmas peculiar to the Greek Church, for which service he was rewarded with the see of Gierace, in Naples. He was the Greek tutor of Petrarch. He died about A.D. 1398. He wrote a number of controversial books, and among them a Liber contra Primatum Pape (Oxford, 1592; Hanov. 1608). Also Ethica secundum Stoicos, lib. 2 (Bib. Mar. Pat. 26:4). See Cave, Hist. Lit. ann. 1340; Hoefer, Biog. Generale, 4:575; Landon, Eccl. Dict. 2:36. SEE HESYCHASTS.