Manuel, Holoblius

Manuel, Holoblius, a Byzantine ecclesiastic of the 13th century, about 1261 or 1262 was cruelly mutilated by the cutting off of his nose and lips, by order of the ambitious Michael Palaeologus, because he had expressed grief at the deposition, persecution, and banishment of Joannes Lascaris, emperor of Nicwea, by Palaeologus, his successor in the empire. Holobolus was then confined to the monastery of the Precursor, where, having excellent abilities and opportunities, he pursued his studies with success. About A.D. 1267 Germanus III, bishop of Constantinople, procured for him the appointment of teacher of a school of young ecclesiastics, and prevailed upon the emperor to remit his punishment and allow him to quit the monastery. Germanus also conferred on him the ecclesiastical office of rhetor, reader and expounder of the Scriptures. When the emperor Paloeologus attempted a reconciliation of the Greek and Latin churches, he sought the counsel of Holobolus, but he declared against the plan of reconciliation. This brought upon him the emperor's indignation, and he was obliged to take refuge in the church sanctuary to escape violence from the emperor's courtiers; was banished thence to the monastery of Hyacinthus, at Nice, A.D. 1273; was afterwards taken back to Constantinople, and beaten and paraded ignominiously through the streets. In A.D. 1283, after the accession of Andronicus II, Palaeologus, son of Michael, who pursued with respect to the union of the churches an opposite policy to that of his father, Holobolus appeared in the Synod of Constantinople, in which Joannes Veccus was deposed from the patriarchate of Constantinople, and he took part in the subsequent disputations with that chief of the Latinizing party. Little else is known of Holobolus. See Smith, Dict. of Gr. and Romans Biog. and Mythol. s.v.