As a writer ^laximus is distinguished by a rare com- bination of dialectic power witli mystical profundity. His mind was receptive rather than creative, and in his works Platonic and Aristotelian thought, Chalcedonian orthodoxy, the theology of the Greek fathers, and the ideas of a Christian mysticism, which includes both the subjective ascetism of the Egyptian monks and the hie- rarchical tendencies of the Areopagite system, all meet and coalesce. The mysticism of the Pseudo-Dionysius exerted the greatest influence over him, and from it he derived his principal thoughts; and it is chiefly be- cause of his autliority that the wide-spread influence of this system upon the theology of the Middle Ages was pDssibk'. The influence exerted on Scotus Erigena by the writings of Maximus was especially imjiortant. Baur asserts that Erigena merely (levcloped the ideas of Maximus, and commented on them ; and otlier writ- ers have shoAvn in detail that the essential features of the system of Erigena are drawn from i\laximus, and mediately Ilinmgh him from the Areoi)agite. This monk Ilius brcdiucs important as a conned ing link be- tween the ideas of the T^ast and West, between the early fathers and the Jliddle Ages, and as a forerunner of scholasticism ; and in his genius, character, l)iefv, learn- ing, literary and ecclesiastical influence, <is well as in his eventful life, he appears one of the most remarkable Christian thinkers and martyrs. His Avorks have bee" largely transcribed and read, but there is no complete edition. Combefis has published a collection in two
volumes, folio (Paris, 1675). Catalogues have recorded the titles of fifty-three, his letters being mentioned as one work. Of these, forty-eight liave been printed. They may be classed as exegetical, which treat the Scriptures in allegorical style; commentaries on the Church fatliers ; dogmatico-polemical ; moral and ascet- ic ; epistolary ; and miscellaneous. He is commemora- ted in the Latin Church Aug. 13 ; by the Greek Church Jan. 21. See Herzog, Real-EncijMop. xx, 114 sq. ; Wet- zer und AVelte, Kirchen-Lex. xii, 783 sq. ; Kurtz, Church Hist, i, 205 sq. ; Hardwick, Hist, of the Middle Afjes, p. 72 sq. ; Gieseler, Eccles. Hist, i, 366 sq. ; INIilman, Hist, of Lat. Christianity, ii, 274 sq. ; Neander, Hist, of Christian Dogmas, ii, 423 sq. ; Smith, Diet, of Greek and Roman Biocj. and Mijthol. s. v. (G. M.)
Maximus the Gkeek, a celebrated personage in Russian Church history, was born at Arta, in Albania, towards the end of the 15th century. After studying at Paris, Florence, and other cities then distinguished as seats of learning, he took the monastic vows at the cloister of INIount Athos. The grand-duke Yassili I vano- vitch, having requested the patriarch of Constantinople to send two persons to arrange and describe a vast num- ber of Greek manuscripts and books that had recently been discovered in some part of the palace, Maximus was selected, and accordingly set out for Moscow. He was directed by Vassili to examine the books, and to se- lect such as were most deserving of publication ; but as he was then wholly ignorant of the Slavonic tongue, he had first to prepare a Latin version, which was after- wards rendered by others into Slavonian. It was thus that the translations of a Psalter with a commentary, and Chrj'sostom's Homilies on St. John, were produced. Desirous of returning to his convent, it was only at the instances of the Czar, who wished him to revise the ear- lier translated books of the Greek Church, that he de- cided to remain, and he then luidertook this task, for which he was now qualified by a successful mastery of the Slavonian. The diligence with which he executed it, reslilting in many corrections, tended however only to raise up numerous enemies against him, among the rest Daniel the metropolitan. But what more immedi- ately tended to his disgrace was the firmness with which he opposed Yassili's divorce from his first wife, Salome (on account of barrenness), and his marriage with the princess Helena Glinski (comp. Duncan, Hist, of Russia, p. 350). Maximus was condemned by a synod, excom- municated as a heretic, and imprisoned in the Otrotch monastery at Tver in 1525. In this confinement he was for some time treated with great rigor, though the bishop of Tver interceded for him. At length removed to the Monastery of St. Sergiu.s, he died there in 1556. A great number of works by him are extant, cliiefly in manuscript, on a variety of subjects — dogmatical, polem- ical, philosophical, etc., from which considerable infor- mation has been derived with regard to the opinions and prejudices of the clergy and people in that age ; nor was he at all timid in reproving the abuses and vices of the times. This alone would account for the persecu- tion Avhich he drew down upon himself; but after his death even those who had been among the more violent against him admitted his innocence, rior was it long be- fore his memory- came to be regarded as that of a holy man and a raartjT. — Enc/lish Cyckq). s. v.; Pose, New Gen. BivQ. Diet. s. v.
Maximus of Jerusaleji (HierosiJi/iiiil<inns), a Greek ecclesiastical writer, flourished in the latter part of the 2d century. Jerome {De ]'iris llhislr. c. 47) sjieaks of IVIaximus as writing on the questions of the origin of evil and the creation of matter, and as having lived under the emperors Commodus (A.D. 180-1113) and Severus (A.D. 193-21 1\ but he does not designate what olfice he held in the Church, or whether he held any; nor does he connect him with any locality. Honorius of Autun (/>e Scrij)tor. Eccles. i. 47), extracting from Je- rome, mentions the name of INIaximinus ; and Kuluius,