Introduction

n the Late Byzantine period we observe that representatives of the Church were involved in various areas of intellectual life We note, that is, that apart from purely theological works, ecclesiastics also wrote books on subjects such as law and history, and even composed literary works. Of the epistles of the archbishop of Ohrid, Demetrios Chomatenos, 219 are concerned with legal issues, as are many others of the archbishop of Naupaktos, John Apokaukos, and the metropolitan of Kerkyra (Corfu), George Bardanes. These epistles deal with legal questions or other problems, besides being valuable from a literary point of view, since they are written in a scholarly language and in an elebant literary style.

In the domain of historiography, we have two works by Nikephoros Kallistos Xanthopoulos, in which is related the history of the Orthodox Church: the 18 books of his Ecclesiastical History cover the period from the birth of Christianity until 610, while the Narrative on the Bishops of Byzantium and Patriarchs of all of Constantinople covers the period until 1309.

The literary works written by clerics of that period are epistles, discourses and lives of saints. The authors of the most important among these works were the Patriarch Athanasios I, the megas logothetes Constantine Akropolites (son of George Akropolites), the monk Joseph Bryennios and the metropolitan of Philadelphia, Makarios Chrysokephalos. In all these works there are hints concerning the serious ecclesiastical and theological problems of the time, that is the union of the Churches and the dogmatic differences between the East and West, as well as the hesychast controversy.

More direct in their discussion of these issues are the theological works produced at this time by Gregory Palamas, Gregory Akindynos, Philotheos Kokkinos, Gregory II of Cyprus, Demetrios Chrysoloras, the brothers Mark and John Eugenikos, cardinal Bessarion and George Gennadios Scholarios.