Mesarites, Giovanni and Nicolaos

MESARITES, GIOVANNI AND NICOLAOS. - These two brothers distinguished themselves in the religious controversies at the time of the Latin Empire of Constantinople. Giovanni (d. 1207) embraced the monastic state and was appointed by Alexius III professor of exegesis in the school of Constantinople. His brother Nicolao (d. ca. 1216-22), formerly deacon of Hagia Sophia, from 1208 referendary of the patriarch of Nicaea, was called in 1212 to occupy the metropolitan see of Ephesus.

G. is the author of a commentary on the Psalms, now lost. To N. belong several synodal letters and other writings edited by A. Heisenberg and concerning the disputes of Dec. 1204 between the papal legate Peter of Capua and G. M., that of Aug. 1206 between the Latin patriarch of Constantinople, Thomas Morosini, and N. M., and finally the controversy of Dec. 1212 between the representative of Card. Pelagius - probably Ponzio of Ilerda - and N. himself. In these disputes the subject was the Roman primacy, against which the M. adopted a position of total intransigence, denying even the primacy of the apostle St. Peter, and the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son. On this subject the M. uphold the doctrine of Photius, his explanations of Holy Scripture, and repeat the well-known dialectical argument against the Filioque.

Maurizio Gordillo