assembly, influenced by the veneration in which the writings of the
pseudo-Dionysius were held in the Eastern Church, overawed Barlaam, who
recanted and returned to Calabria, afterwards becoming bishop of Hierace
in the Latin communion. One of his friends, Gregory Acindynus, continued
the controversy, and three other synods on the subject were held, at the
second of which the Barlaamites gained a brief victory. But in 1351
under the presidency of the emperor John Cantacuzenus, the uncreated
light of Mount Tabor was established as an article of faith for the
Greeks, who ever since have been ready to recognize it as an additional
ground of separation from the Roman Church. The contemporary historians
Cantacuzenus and Nicephorus Gregoras deal very copiously with this
subject, taking the Hesychast and Barlaamite sides respectively. It may
be mentioned that in the time of Justinian the word hesychast was
applied to monks in general simply as descriptive of the quiet and
contemplative character of their pursuits.
See article "Hesychasten" in Herzog-Hauck, _Realencyklopadie_ (3rd
ed., 1900), where further references are given.
HESYCHIUS, grammarian of Alexandria, probably flourished in the 5th
century A.D. He was probably a pagan; and the explanations of words from
Gregory of Nazianzus and other Christian writers (_glossae sacrae_) are
interpolations of a later time. He has left a Greek dictionary,
containing a copious list of peculiar words, forms and phrases, with an
explanation of their meaning, and often with a reference to the author
who used them or to the district of Greece where they were current.
Hence the book is of great value to the student of the Greek dialects;
while in the restoration of the text of the classical authors generally,
and particularly of such writers as Aeschylus and Theocritus, who used
many unusual words, its value can hardly be exaggerated. The
explanations of many epithets and phrases reveal many important facts
about the religion and social life of the ancients. In a prefatory
letter Hesychius mentions that his lexicon is based on that of
Diogenianus (itself extracted from an earlier work by Pamphilus), but
that he has also used similar works by Aristarchus, Apion, Heliodorus
and others.
The text is very corrupt, and the order of the words has often been
disturbed. There is no doubt that many interpolations, besides the
Christian glosses, have been made. The work has come down to us from a
single MS., now in the library at Venice, from which the editio
princeps was published. The best edition is by M. Schmidt (1858-1868);
in a smaller edition (1867) he attempts to distinguish the additions
made by Hesychius to the work of Diogenianus.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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