PLANUDES, MAXIMOS. - Byzantine theologian and humanist of the 13th-14th centuries, whose deeds were transmitted almost exclusively in his own correspondence. Born at Nicomedia about 1260, died at Constantinople in 1310.
He was compelled by Andronico II to abandon the Catholic faith that he had previously embraced during the period of the union under Michele Paleologo, and which he had also defended in a writing on the procession of the Holy Spirit. As a new element introduced by him into Byzantine life—a legacy of Latin influence—there should be noted the higher school that he founded and directed, as a monk, near the Imperial Palace; to the customary humanistic disciplines there was added that of the language of Lazio, which he possessed perfectly. His works are polemical-theological, hagiographical, and poetic, as well as a considerable number of Greek translations of actual treatises by s. Agostino and s. Tommaso. His correspondence comprises no fewer than 121 letters of great historical value.