Michael Apostolius, an eminent Greek scholar, who contributed largely to the revival of learning in Italy, flourished in the 15th century. He was an inti- mate friend of Gemistus Pletho, and an adherent of the Platonic philosophy, two circumstances which, together with his own merits, caused him to be -well received by cardinal Bessarion in Italy, where he settled about 1440. Later in life Michael retired to Candia, where he got a livelihood by teaching children and copy- ing manuscripts. There he died, some time after 1457, for in that year he wrote a panegyric on the emperor Frederick HI. His principal works are, a defence of Plato against Theodore Gaza, extant in IMS. in the Vi- enna library: — Menexenus, a dialogue on the Holy Trin- ity, investigating whether the Mohammedans and Jews are right in believing a Mono-Deus ; or the Christians, in believing a Deus Trin-unus ; extant in IMS., ibid. : — Oratio consultoria ad Socerum sibi irascendum cum ad secniii/ii.^- ti-diiaiiit iiiip/lns, extant in the Bodleian: — Appilldliii lul ('o,i.-<t(ii//iiiinn Palceologum idtitum Lmpe- ratorimi: — Oru/io ad loamiem Argyropulum: — Ejiis- tohe XLV; tliese letters are extremely important for the history of the writer's time, as Lambecius asserts, who perused all or most of them, and it is to be regret- ted that none of them are printed. The first is ad- dressed to Gemistus, the others to Manuel Chrysolaras, Chalcocondylas, Argyropuhis, Bessarion, and other cele- brated men of the time. They are extant in MS. in the Bodleian ; some of them are also to be found in the Vatican and at Munich : — Oratio Panegyrica ad Frede- ricum III, written about or perhaps in 1457 ; it was pub- lished in Greek and Latin by Freherus in the second vol. of his Rerum German. Script. : — Oratio Fumhris in Laudem Bessarinnis, does credit to the heart of Michael, for it seems that the cardinal had not behaved very generously towards the poor scholar. Still it is very questionable whether our Michael is the author of it ; Bessarion died in 1472, and as Michael, previously tq leaving Constantinople, in or before 1440, had enjoyed, during many j'ears, the friendship of Gemistus, whose name became conspicuous in the very beginning of the 15th century, and who was a very old man in 1441, he must have attained a very great age if he survived Bessarion : — Disceptatio adversus eos qui Occidentales Orientalibus supei-iores esse contendebant, extant in IMS. in the Bodleian: — De Figuris Grammaticis, which Leo Allatius esteemed so highly that he intended to publish it, but was unfortunately prevented:— .4m Etymological Dictionary; doubtful whether still extant; a work of great importance -.—'Imna, Violets, a pleasing title giv-
MICHAEL BALSMION
222
MICHAEL GLYCAS
en to a collection of sentences of celebrated persons, Arsenius, of Malvasia, made an extract of it (Awo(p^t- yfiuTci [ Kome, 8vo]), which he dedicated to pope Leo X, ■who rcii,me(l from 1513 to 1522 i—'Sivvayujyij llapoi^ii^iv, containing 2027 Greek proverbs, a very remarkable lit- tle work, which soon attracted the notice of the lovers of Greek literature ; it was dedicated by the author to Casparus Uxama, or Osmi, a Spanish prelate, whom Michael met at Kome. Editions: the Greek text by Hervagius (Basle, 1558, 8vo) ; the text, with a Latin version and valuable notes, by 1'. Pantinus and A. SchoU, (Leyd. 1G19, 4to); also cum Clavi Homcrica, by George > Perkins. See Cave, Hist. Lit. ad an. 1440 ; Fabricius, Bib/. Gtwc. xi, 189 ; Smith, Bid. Greek and Horn. Biofj. and Mythol. s. v.
Michael Balsamon, a noted Eastern ecclesiastic, floiu-ishcd in the latter half of the lotli century. He is ^ supposed to have been a native of Constantinople, where j j^..^ ^
bikld.
he always lived. He was one of tlie Greek deputies
sent in 1438 to the Council of Florence, discovered the
secret intrigues of the Latins, and prognosticated the
ultimate fate of the union of tlie two churches, to which
he subscribed reluctantly. He wrote and addressed to the
emperor Joannes Palreoiogus .1 miphura Cleri Constanti- \ die of the 1 1 th century. He gained great notoriety main
nopoli/(ini, of which Leo AUatius gives a few fragments ly by his violent attacks upon the Latin Church. II(
ficial report (1478) of Wenzel Koranda, the administra- tor of the Utraquist Consistory at Prague (I'alacky's Geschichte v. BO/imen, i, 191, 192) ; and by the earliest histories of Ulahoslaw, Lasitius, Kegenvolscius, and Co- menius; while the origin of the AValdensian ei)iscopa- cy is set forth in the official answers with which the Brethren met the attacks of the learned Jesuit, Wenzel Sturm, in the reign of Maximilian 11. These answers were written by tlie assistant bisliop Jaffet, and are pre- served in the archives at Herrnhut. The validity of the episcopate of the Brethren was not doubted either by the Iloman Catholic or by the National Church, and the fact that they had secretly secured it from the Wal- denses brought about a severe persecution immediately after the truth became known (14G8). Comjiare Ben- ham's Origin and Episcopate of the Boh. Brelh. ( Lond. 18t)7) : Schweinitz's Moravian Episcopate (Bethlehem, l'ahi(l<y\s Geschichte v. Bohmm, vii, 492 ; Ginde- rhirht, (I. B.B.i,37; CzeTwenka's Persekutions- ( (Giilir-^loh, 18G9), c. xx, n. 31 ; Crbger's Gesch. d. A hen Brmkrkirche (Gnadan, 18G5), vol. i. (E. de S.)