METOCHITES, GIORGIO. — Byzantine writer, defender of the union of the Second Council of Lyon (1274), ambassador of his emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus to Popes Gregory X and Innocent V (v.) in the period 1275–76. He died in prison for the cause of Church unity in 1328.
M. wrote five books on the procession of the Holy Spirit, two books refuting the writings of Maximus Planudes and Manuel Moschopoulos, and a historical work on the origins of the Byzantine schism and the religious controversies of the reigns of emperors Michael VIII Palaeologus and Andronicus II. Only part of his writings has thus far been published, by Cardinal A. Mai and the learned Basilian Cozza-Luzi, and partly reprinted by Migne (PG 141, 1275–1418), and recently enriched by C. Giannelli.
