Download PDF | Judith R. Ryder - The Career and Writings of Demetrius Kydones_ A Study of Fourteenth-Century Byzantine Politics, Religion and Society-Brill Academic Pub (2010).
295 Pages
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book arises from my masters and doctoral studies undertaken at the University of Oxford, as a member of the History Faculty and St John's Col- lege, during the years 2000-2005. It is impossible to acknowledge adequately all those who contributed, whether on a personal or academic level, to those years of study; I will therefore not attempt to do so, but will instead con- fine myself to mentioning the funding bodies, individuals and institutions of particular importance in supporting and advancing my work on Demetrius Kydones. First, acknowledgment is due to the Student Awards Agency for Scotland, which funded my M.Phil studies, and to the Arts and Human ities Research Board (now Arts and Humanities Research Council)
which funded my doctoral studies. Second, thanks on a more personal level are due to my supervisors: Dr Nigel Wilson, who supervised my M.Phil studies, and Professor Elizabeth Jeffreys, who supervised my doctorate, and who has been a source of much encouragement and sound advice over many years, before. during and indeed after my doctoral studies. Third, acknowledgement is due to St John's College which provided the backdrop to both my undergradu ate and graduate studies, and to my present college, Wolfson, which has pre- vided a friendly and supportive scholarly environment for me as a Research Fellow, enabling me finally to bring my work on Kydones to publication Kidlington, January 2010
INTRODUCTION
Demetrius Kydones (c. 1324-c. 1397) is a figure well-known to Byzantine historians, as well as to many others, particularly where questions arise con- cerning the intellectual and political relationship between Byzantium and the west.
He is known in various guises: as a political figure, whose career spanned over four decades, from the 1340s to the 1390s, involving him in major international political developments of the period, including negotia tions between Byzantium and the papacy, and crusading projects; as a writer, whose surviving works include a large letter collection and a range of politi- cal, theological and philosophical texts; as a translator, who made numerous works of Latin theology-principally Aquinas-available in Greek; and as a 'Catholic convert, who came to support Catholic doctrines and papal claims to universal authority, and encouraged his compatriots to do the same. Even this brief account of Demetrius is enough to show that, in the context of fourteenth-century Byzantium, he was an active, influential and controver sial figure.
He has, deservedly, attracted much attention over the years, and been generally accepted as one of the most important Byzantine figures of the fourteenth century. However, Demetrius is also a difficult figure to deal with, partly because of the extent of his reputation and variety of his activities, but partly also because of the difficulty of placing him in terms of conventional ideas of what constitutes 'Byzantine history. He is, in some ways, the Byzantine statesman par excellence: a highly-educated, highly-placed official, faithfully pursuing Byzantine literary traditions and promoting Byzantine political interests. His lengthy political career involved him at the heart of Byzantine foreign policy, and his writings frequently refer directly both to the developments of the period and to their impact Given this, Demetrius should by rights be seen as an invaluable source for the development of Byzantine politics and society in the period-and, indeed, he frequently is. But there can also be a tendency to lose sight of this because of the other aspects of Demetrius reputation his interest in Catholic theology, and personal conversion.
If the received wisdom is accepted according to which to be Byzantine must be to be Orthodox, to the exclusion of identification with the Catholic west, these factors cast doubt upon Demetrius Byzanting credentials, and thus his value as a source regarding Byzantine society. In short, Demetrius becomes an anomaly. An important anomaly, true; but an anomaly nonetheless. This study aims to restore Demetrius as a 'Byzantine' source, and, in doing so, to discuss what light his writings can shed on the development of his society.
To dismiss Demetrius as 'un-Byzantine' is to assume that the parameters of his society are clear-cut, and that he belongs at least in part outside them. This assumption, however, is flawed; the historical circumstances speak against it. The second half of the fourteenth century was a period of rapid political change in the Eastern Mediterranean, largely driven by the rise of the Ottoman Turks and their establishment in Europe, and the various populations across the region had to respond to the changing situation.
The Byzantines, who already existed within a set of very complex political, cultural and ethnic relationships, were also subject to this. Given these conditions, to assume from the outset that the Byzantine response was monolithic, and therefore that only certain types of source can be regarded as representative, would be unjustified. Instead, where possible, all sources should be given serious consideration, with a view to building up a picture of the situation based not on external, pre-conceived categories, but on observable phenomena. This study certainly cannot claim to do all this; its focus on Demetrius alone precludes this from the outset.
However, it is intended to contribute to the process of building up an understanding of the developments of the period. What it seeks to do is to give an account of Demetrius' background, thought and career which takes Demetrius seriously, both as an individual and as a source for the period; which sees him not as anomalous, in contrast to the mainstream of Byzantine developments, but as an integral part of those developments, and as such potentially able to play a central role in the development of a balanced account of the conditions prevailing at the time In doing so, this study concentrates on the first half of Demetrius' polit- ical career, from c. 1347 to c. 1373.
There are various reasons for focusing on this period. In terms of Demetrius career, his activities-political, the- ological and literary can be most clearly seen developing in these years. and their implications most profitably assessed In terms of Byzantine polit teal developments, the period is relatively cohesive, particularly in terms of negotiations with the west. Above all, however, the period calls for particu lar attention in its own right because of its transitional nature, as described above. In the early fourteenth century. Byzantine norms were still governed largely by a sense of the threat posed by western Christendom. By 1373. this bafbeen overshadowed by the Ottoman threat, which had come to dominate the political landscape of Byzantium and its Orthodox neighbours.
Between these two points lies an important period of re-evaluation of the Byzantine position. This period therefore richly merits study as one of the most impor- tant formative periods in Byzantine history-and one, moreover, in which it cannot be assumed that norms governing earlier and later conditions neces- sarily apply. In order to make proper use of Demetrius' potential as a source for the period, however, it is necessary first to give a balanced account of both his intellectual background and credentials and the ideas and policies he rep resents. Sections I and II of this study will attempt to do this. Section I will concentrate on Demetrius' intellectual context, dealing with both his cre- dentials as a Byzantine scholar and his more unusual interest in western theology, for which he is particularly renowned. Section II will then give an account of the characteristics of Demetrius' own thought, as expressed in his writings.
Chapter 2 will look first at his key political preoccupations, emphasising Demetrius role as a Byzantine political figure. Chapter 3 will then discuss Demetrius approach to theological issues of the period, includ- ing his approach to western theology. Section III will then attempt to merge the findings of the first two sections with the historical developments of the period, and Demetrius' role within those developments.
The central focus of this Section-and, indeed, of the study as a whole-is Chapter 5, which seeks to draw out the implications of Demetrius' career and writings when placed in their historical context, and by doing so to establish his pro western agenda as falling within the spec- trum of mainstream Byzantine developments, rather than as alien to them. Chapters 4 and 6 are designed to support the methodological approach and conclusions of Chapter 5 Chapter 4 seeks to justify the assumption that the ideas expressed in Demetrius' writings were in fact publicly associated with him, and hence are an important factor to take into account when assessing his public career.
Chapter 6 takes a rather different approach. Given that one of the main obstacles preventing Demetrius from being regarded as anything but anomalous within Byzantine society is his Catholicism, Chapter 6 looks at the other side of the com, asong whether Byzantine Orthodoxy was in any case sufficiently clear-cut and united in outlook in the period to justify dismissing Demetrius Catholic ideas as counter cultural.
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