CABASILAS, Nilus. — A dissident Greek theologian of the 14th century. Born in Thessalonica at the end of the 13th century into a noble family, he flourished chiefly under the emperors Cantacuzenus and John V Palaeologus, who showered him with favors and dignities, especially after, owing to the persecution of the Zealots against the nobles (A.D. 1345), C. settled definitively in Constantinople. At the end of his life he was elected archbishop of Thessalonica as successor to the celebrated innovator Gregory Palamas, but two years later (1363) he died without ever reaching his see. In the Synodikon of Thessalonica he is commemorated annually as a saint on the Sunday of Orthodoxy, and as such seems to be recognized by the entire Byzantine Church.
Noteworthy is the scholarly work he accomplished. For he was not only a teacher of rhetoric (his most devoted pupil was doubtless Demetrius Cydones), but also and above all a distinguished theologian, well versed in the positive study of the Fathers and in the dialectical arguments of Aristotelian metaphysics.
In favor of Palamism, to whose ranks he adhered from the beginning, he left the legacy of many of his works, and he had that famous encounter with the bitter opponent Nicephorus Gregoras (PG 148, 1328-1435), and together with Philotheus Coccinus he drew up the decisive Synodal Tomos of the Palamite Council in 1351, which paved the way for the official proclamation of the new doctrine as the only true one of the “Orthodox” Church.
But the most singular fact about C. is that he was one of the first Byzantines to become acquainted with St. Thomas, thanks to the translation of several of the Saint’s works made by his pupil Demetrius and the latter’s brother Prochorus Cydones. Not only that, but he was also the first to attack him vehemently after having once felt all his fascination. C. composed his voluminous treatise—his most prized work—on the Holy Spirit especially against Aquinas. The last fifteen questions of the final part, accompanied by an analytical study and a Latin translation, have recently been published in vol. 116 of Studi e Testi; the rest remains unpublished.
C. also wrote other interesting works of a historical and canonical nature against the Roman Church, and in defense of Palamism, whose number and doctrinal value have been established in the most recent study on C., indicated below in the bibliography.