Nicholas Mesarites (; ca. 1163/4 – after 1216) was a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also known as the Eastern Roman Empire, was the continuation of the Roman Empire centred on Constantinople during late antiquity and the Middle Ages. Having survived the events that caused the fall of the Western Roman E ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

churchman and writer, who eventually rose to the office of

Metropolitan of Ephesus The Metropolis of Ephesus () was an ecclesiastical territory (diocese, metropolis) of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in western Asia Minor, modern Turkey. Christianity was introduced already in the city of Ephesus in the 1st century ...

in the

Empire of Nicaea The Empire of Nicaea (), also known as the Nicene Empire, was the largest of the three Byzantine Greeks, Byzantine Greek''A Short history of Greece from early times to 1964'' by Walter Abel Heurtley, W. A. Heurtley, H. C. Darby, C. W. Crawley, C ...

Life

Born ca. 1163/4, Mesarites is first recorded in 1200, during the attempted coup of

John Komnenos the Fat John Komnenos (Latinized as Comnenus), nicknamed "the Fat" (), was a Byzantine Empire, Byzantine noble who attempted to usurp the imperial throne from Alexios III Angelos in a short-lived coup in Constantinople on 31 July 1201 (or 1200). The cou ...

. At the time, Mesarites was '' skeuophylax'' of the Church of the Pharos in the

Great Palace of Constantinople The Great Palace of Constantinople (, ''Méga Palátion''; ), also known as the Sacred Palace (, ''Hieròn Palátion''; ), was the large imperial Byzantine palace complex located in the south-eastern end of the peninsula today making up the Fati ...

, and wrote an eyewitness account of the events. After the capture of Constantinople by the

Fourth Crusade The Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) was a Latin Christian armed expedition called by Pope Innocent III. The stated intent of the expedition was to recapture the Muslim-controlled city of Jerusalem, by first defeating the powerful Egyptian Ayyubid S ...

in 1204, he initially remained in the city. In late 1206, along with his brother John he participated in discussions between the

Greek Orthodox Greek Orthodox Church (, , ) is a term that can refer to any one of three classes of Christian Churches, each associated in some way with Greek Christianity, Levantine Arabic-speaking Christians or more broadly the rite used in the Eastern Rom ...

clergy and the new

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

authorities, represented by the

Latin Patriarch of Constantinople The Latin Patriarchate of Constantinople was an office established as a result of the Fourth Crusade and its conquest of Constantinople in 1204. It was a Roman Catholic replacement for the Eastern Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantino ...

Thomas Morosini and the

papal legate 300px, A woodcut showing Henry II of England greeting the Pope's legate. A papal legate or apostolic legate (from the ancient Roman title '' legatus'') is a personal representative of the Pope to foreign nations, to some other part of the Catho ...

, Cardinal Benedict of Santa Susanna. The discussion failed to breach the rift between the two parties, as the Greeks refused to subordinate themselves to the Latin clergy. Following the death of his brother in February 1207, Mesarites left for the

, where he was appointed

soon after. As Metropolitan of Ephesus, he headed a mission in 1214/5 to Constantinople for discussions with the new papal envoy, Cardinal

Pelagius of Albano Pelagio Galvani (c. 1165 – 30 January 1230, Portuguese: Latin: Pelagius) was a Leonese cardinal, and canon lawyer. He became a papal legate and leader of the Fifth Crusade. Born at Guimarães, his early life is little known. It is repeated ...

. Mesarites wrote a report of his discussions with Pelagius, where he highlights his intransigence, intolerance towards the Greek Orthodox clergy and insistence on

Papal primacy Papal primacy, also known as the primacy of the bishop of Rome, is an ecclesiological doctrine in the Catholic Church concerning the respect and authority that is due to the pope from other bishops and their episcopal sees. While the doctri ...

. In 1216 he officiated at the marriage of Irene Laskarina, the eldest daughter of the Nicaean emperor

Theodore I Laskaris Theodore I Laskaris or Lascaris (; 1175November 1221) was the first emperor of Nicaea—a successor state of the Byzantine Empire—from 1205 to his death. Although he was born to an obscure aristocratic family, his mother was related t ...

, and Andronikos Palaiologos.

Writings

Mesarites' writing style, distinguished by "his interest in vivid details and in his own role in the events" (A. Kazhdan), marks a conscious departure from the conventions of Byzantine literature, which he on occasion mocks. This is particularly evident in his description of the 1200 coup, which is far more vivid and immediate than the far more stylized and abstract treatments of the same event by other contemporary writers. The

epitaph An epitaph (; ) is a short text honoring a deceased person. Strictly speaking, it refers to text that is inscribed on a tombstone or plaque, but it may also be used in a figurative sense. Some epitaphs are specified by the person themselves be ...

he composed for his brother contains also an eyewitness account of the fall of Constantinople and contemporary events. Mesarites also left a valuable description of the

Church of the Holy Apostles The Church of the Holy Apostles (, ''Agioi Apostoloi''; ), also known as the Imperial Polyandrion (imperial cemetery), was a Byzantine Eastern Orthodox church in Constantinople, capital of the Eastern Roman Empire. The first structure dated to ...

, and of the school that functioned in its premises.

Editions

* August Heisenberg, ''Nikolaos Mesarites. Die Palastrevolution des Johannes Komnenos'', Würzburg, 1907. * August Heisenberg, ''Der Epitaphios des Nikolaos Mesarites auf seinen Bruder Johannes'', in ''Neue Quellen zur Geschichte des lateinischen Kaisertums und der Kirchenunion'' I, Sitzungsberichte der bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Munich, 1922. * August Heisenberg, ''Die Unionsverhandlungen von 30. August 1206. Patriarchenwahl und Kaiserkrönung in Nikaia 1208'', in ''Neue Quellen zur Geschichte des lateinischen Kaisertums und der Kirchenunion'' II, Munich, 1923. * August Heisenberg, ''Der Bericht des Nikolaos Mesarites über die politischen und kirchlichen Ereignisse des Jahres 1214'', in ''Neue Quellen zur Geschichte des lateinischen Kaisertums und der Kirchenunion'' III, Munich, 1923. * Glanville Downey, ''Nikolaos Mesarites. Description of the Church of the Holy Apostles at Constantinople'', Philadelphia, American Philosophical Society, 1957.

References

Sources

* * * *

External links

Nicholas Mesarites, ''Ekphrasis on the Church of the Holy Apostles''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mesarites, Nicholas 1160s births 13th-century deaths 13th-century Byzantine bishops Byzantine writers Bishops of Ephesus People from the Empire of Nicaea East–West Schism 13th-century Byzantine writers Constantinopolitan Greeks Writers from Constantinople