AMIROUTZES, GEORGE. - Byzantine Aristotelian philosopher, b. at Trebizond at the beginning of the 15th century, d. suddenly after 1469. Since he belonged to one of the foremost families of his native city, he held the highest offices, and several embassies were entrusted to him under the last kings of Trebizond. At the time of the capture of that city by Mehmed II (1461), it appeared that he had behaved almost like a traitor. This did not prevent him from being, at first, treated harshly by the victor and sent as a prisoner to Adrianople, then to Constantinople.

Thanks to the protection of his cousin, the famous renegade Mahmud Pasha, he became intimate with Mehmed II, who appealed to his erudition and discussed the Christian religion with him. A dialogue is preserved in Latin. His two sons converted to Islam, but it does not appear that he himself reached this extreme; although his conduct, toward the end of his life, was anything but Christian; in fact he contracted an adulterous union with the Duchess of Athens, widow of Franco Acciaiuoli, which the Patriarch of Constantinople Joasaph I (1465-69) refused to approve. A. took revenge by having him ignominiously driven from the patriarchal throne by Mahmud Pasha.

A. was not a man of character. Unfaithful to his wife and to his homeland, he was unfaithful also to his religious faith. At the Council of Florence (1438-39), which he attended with the Metropolitan of Trebizond Dorotheos, he showed himself a fervent unionist and fully adhered to the Catholic dogma of the procession of the Holy Spirit. Some time later, he returned to schism, attacking the decisions of the Council and the supremacy of the Pope.

His literary legacy is very scanty, and mention is made of the pamphlet in the Latin translation of Johannes Verner: De his quae geographiae debent adesse, Nuremberg 1914. In addition to the dialogue mentioned above (Bibliothèque nationale de Paris, cod. lat. 3395, fols. 83-144), he wrote to the Duke of Nauplia, Demetrios, « on the events of the Council of Florence κ περὶ τῶν ἐν τῷ Φλωρεντίᾳ συνάδῳ συμβεβηκότων.

Despite the title, history occupies very little space in this work, which is a polemical pamphlet of the worst kind against the Council, the supremacy and the infallibility of the Pope. On the procession of the Holy Spirit, remembering without doubt his profession of faith at Florence, he makes an ambiguous declaration, which is reconciled neither with Catholic dogma nor with the doctrine of Phaethon.

Bibliography7 works

BIBL.: M. Crusius, Tucnogracia, Basel 1904, pp. 21, 121, 123; S. Syropoulos, Vera historia unionis non verae, ed. Creighton, The Hague 1600, pp. 113, 175, 238, 239; S. Lampros, Πανήματα Γεωργίου τοῦ Ἀμυροδότη, ἡ Δελτίον τῆς ἱστορικῆς καὶ ἐθνικῆς ἑταφῆς τῆς Ἑλλάδος, II, Athens 1885-89, pp. 275-82; E. Legrand, Bibliographie hellénique des XVᵉ et XVIᵉ siècles, III, Paris 1903, pp. 195-204 (notice on the life and writings of A., where the sources used will be found indicated); A.A. Papadopoulos, Ἀμυροδότη, in Μεγάλη Ἑλληνική Ἐγυπλοκαθολία, IV (1928), pp. 279-81; M. Jugie, La profession de foi de G. A. du Concile de Florence (Greek text and French translation), in Ethos d'Orient, 36 (1937), pp. 175-80; id., La lettre de G. A. au duc de Napoléon Dénétrieux sur le Concile de Florence (Greek text, introduction and critical notes), in Byzantium, 14 (1939), pp. 77-93.

Martino Jugie

One of some 20,000 entries brought back from the twelve printed volumes (1948–54). Spotted something? Help us improve it.

Amiroutzes, George

About this entry