Matthaeus

• St. Matthew the evangelist: publicanus, Vulg. Matt. 10, 3: Mattheus, as a dissyl., Prud. Apoth. 982.

(Ματθαῖος ὁ Καντακουζήνος), co-emperor of Constantinople, was the eldest son of John VI., who associated him in the supreme government in 1359, with a view of thwarting the schemes of John Palaeologus, who, although then an exile in Tenedos, enjoyed great popularity, and had a fair prospect of seizing the throne. Both John and Matthaeus, however, were unable to prevent John Palaeologus from taking Constantinople in the month of January, 1355, an event which put an end at once to the reign of the father and the son, who both abdicated and retired into a convent. [Joannes VI.] Matthaeus, who died before his father, or towards the end of the 14th century, was married to Irene Palaeologina, by whom he had six children. [See Cantacuzenus, genealogical table.] Works Commentaries

Matthaeus Cantacuzenus was a learned man, and during his protracted residence in one of the convents of Mount Athos wrote different works, mostly commentaries on the Holy Scriptures, of which several are extant in MS., and one of which has been published, viz.--Commentarii in Cantica Canticorum, ed. Vincentius Richardus, 1624, fol.; he was perhaps also the author of Commentarius in Sapientiam Salomonis, extant in MS. Further Information

Cave Hist. Lit., Append. p. 37. [W.P]

(Ματταῖος), literary and ecclesiastical.

1. Angelus, surnamed Panaretus (Ἄγγελος ὁ Παναρέτος), was a Byzantine monk, who held the office of ecclesiastical quaestor, but whose time is very uncertain. Cave, however, thinks him to be identical with the monk Panaretus Protovestiarius, mentioned by Pachymeres (5.17, 21), and who was one of the ecclesiastical ambassadors, whom the emperor Michael VIII. Palaeologus sent in 1273 (74) to pope Gregory X. and the Council of Lyon, for the purpose of effecting a re-union of the Latin and Greek churches. Works Works extant in MSS

Matthaeus wrote: 1. Antithesis contra Thomam Aquinatem de Processione Spiritus Sancti. 2. Against the same a treatise on the purgatory, entitled Πῶς ἐστὶν ὁ ἐνδικὸν τόπος ἔνθα αἱ ψυχαὶ καθαίρονται πρὶν, &c. 3. Dissertatio contra Latinos de Primatu Papae. 4. Refutatio Sex Capitum a Latinis editorum in Defensionem Processionis Spiritus Sancti ex Patre et Filio. 5. Demonstratio in quot Absurditates Latini incident dum Spiritum Sanctum etiam a Filio procedere asserunt. 6. Dissert. de aliis XXII. Latinorum Erroribus. 7. Dissert. contra Latinos de Azymis. These works are extant in MSS. Further Information

Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. xi. p. 76; Cave, Hist. Liter. Append. p. 174, ed. Geneva.

2. Blastares. [Blastares.]

3. Camariota (ὁ Καμαριῶτα), a native of either Constantinople or Thessalonica, was the son of a Greek priest who perished during the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453. Matthaeus, the son, was also present at the capture, but survived the event.

Matthaeus was the tutor of Georgius Scholarius. It would seem that in 1438 he accompanied John VII. Palaeologus to Italy, and was present at the councils of Ferrara and Florence; and if we can trust Phranza (3.19), he became, after the fall of the Greek capital, patriarch of Constantinople, under the name of Gennadius, but finally abdicated and retired into a convent. Works

He is praised for his knowledge of philosophy and rhetorical talents.

He wrote: 1. Epistola de capta Constantinopoli, a very prolix production, the greater extant portion of which was translated into Latin by Theodore Zygomala, and published with the Greek text by M. Crusius in his Turco-Graecia. 2. Epitome in Hermogenem et Rhetoricae Liber. 3. Synopsis Rhetorica. [See the following, No. 4.] 4. Commentarii in Synesii Epistolas. 5. Encomium in tres Hierarchas, Basilium, Gregorium et Chrysostomum. 6. (perhaps) Matthaei Monachi et Presbyteri Thessalonicensis de Divina Gratia et Lumine, &c. 7. Tractatus de iis qui Spuria et Aliena docent. Further Information

Fabr. Bibl. Graec. vol. vi. p. 118, vol. xii. p. 107; Cave, Hist. Liter. Append. p. 110, ed. Geneva.

4. Camariota, a contemporary of the former, wrote : 1. "Synopsis Rhetorica," ed. Gr. et Lat. D. Hoeschelius, Augsburg, 1595, 4to.: this work seems rather to be the production of the foregoing Camariota. 2. " Orationes de Sacro Officio Pastorali." 3." Tres Canones Iambici s. Hymni." 4. " Canon Iambicus de Christo atque ejus Cruce ;" and others extant in MS. (Cave, Hist. Lit. Append. p. 110.)

5. Episcopus (Ioniae et Asiatidis Terrae Episcopus), a Byzantine bishop of uncertain age, wrote "Epistola ad Magnum Magnae Ecclesiae Constantinop. Chartophylacem," which begins Φφίνοντος τῆς πόλεως ἐσίοντος, and is extant in MS. (Cave. Iist. Lit. Append. p. 175.)

6. Hieromonachus, seems to be the same person as Matthaeus Blastares. [Blastares.]

7. Panaretus. [See No. 1.]

8. Patriarcha, was removed from the episcopal see of Cyzicus to the patriarchate of Constantinople ; abdicated in 1395, and died in 1408. He wrote several treatises on religious subjects, of which are extant in MS.: "Testamentum, sive Ultima Voluntas ;" "Hypotyposis sive Informatio ad seipsum et ad Episcopos sibi subjectos." If he wrote this in 1398, as is presumed, he seems to have abdicated after that year, and not as early as 1395. (Cave, Hist. Liter. Append. p. 54, ed. Geneva; Oudin, Comment. de SS. Eccles. vol. iii. p. 2209, &c., ad an. 1400.) [W.P]