AKINDYNOS, GREGORIOS. — A Greek monk of the fourteenth century, whose life is almost unknown and whose works are for the most part unpublished. He played an active role in the Palamite controversy (v. ESICASMO; PALMAS), to which all his writings refer. At first favorable to Palamas, whom he hoped to bring back to orthodoxy, he later became his determined opponent. A. was mistakenly made out to be a friend of the Latins, a Latinophile well versed in Western scholasticism, because he had been a disciple of Barlaam (v.) of Seminara and, above all, because the work De essentia et operatione, which is by Procoro Cidone, was erroneously attributed to him. In reality, A. is a rigidly conservative Byzantine; and nothing indicates in him any knowledge of Latin scholasticism. In the Palamite controversy, A. belonged to the party opposed to every doctrinal innovation. Although he is usually associated with Barlaam in the anathemas of the Palamite councils, he is far from sharing all the Calabrian’s opinions, especially his view concerning the nature of the Taboric light. He agrees with him only on the fundamental thesis of the absolute simplicity of God.
His writings comprise 3 confessions of faith, 5 various refutations of differing length of the theology of Palamas, a Report to Patriarch Giovanni Calecas on the Origin of the Controversy between Barlaam and Palamas, a poem of 509 iambic verses against Palamas, several letters, and iambic verses addressed to Nicotero Gregoras. Apart from the Report, published by Teodoro Ouspenskii (Il sinodicon della domenica dell'ortodossia, Odessa 1893, pp. 88 ff., in Russian), the poem against Palamas published in PG 150, 843–63, two letters, and several iambic verses addressed to Gregoras (PG 148, 70 f., 84 ff., 29 f., 72 ff.), everything else remains unpublished and is found in Cod. 223 of Monaco and Cod. Mareiano 155 of Venice.
BBL.: K. Krumbacher-Ehrhard, Gesch. d. byz. Liter., 2ª ed., Monaco 1897, pp. 100-102; G. Mercati, Notizie di Procoro e Demetria Cidone, di Manuele Caleca, di Teodoro Meliteniota e altri appunti per la storia della teologia e della letteratura bizantina del sec. XIV, Roma 1920, a fundamental work on the Palamite controversy; M. Jugie, Palamite (Controversie), in DThC, XII, coll. 1802-1804.