Demetrios Kydones, latinized as Demetrius Cydones or Demetrius Cydonius, was a Byzantine Catholic theologian, translator, author and statesman.
12 Facts About Demetrios Kydones
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Demetrios Kydones served an unprecedented three terms as Mesazon of the Byzantine Empire under three successive emperors: John VI Kantakouzenos, John V Palaiologos and Manuel II Palaiologos.
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Demetrios Kydones was initially a student of the Greek classical scholar, philosopher and Palamite Nilos Kabasilas.
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At Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos' urging, Demetrios Kydones acquired knowledge of Latin, and learned to speak, read and write it well.
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Anxious to concentrate on his Latin studies, Demetrios Kydones retired for a time to private life from the Imperial Premiership in 1354, just before John V Palaiologos succeeded in ousting John VI Kantakouzenos.
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When Demetrios Kydones entered the service of Emperor John V Palaiologos, as he soon did, he remained friendly to his former employer Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos.
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Demetrios Kydones's younger brother Prochoros Kydones was a monk on Mount Athos, and he too learned Latin, but did not follow Demetrios to Rome.
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Demetrios Kydones realized the first two Greek translations of the Quaestiones disputatae, De potentia, De spiritualibus creaturis, and the Summa contra Gentiles, the latter translate on behalf of the theologian emperor John VI Kantakouzenos.
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However, with the weakening of Byzantine resistance to the Turks, Demetrios Kydones retired to private life about 1383.
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Demetrios Kydones formed, moreover, the nucleus of a group of Byzantine intellectuals that strove to propagate Uniatism.
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Demetrios Kydones is the author of the moral philosophical essay De contemnenda morte, an Apologia for his conversion to Catholicism, and a voluminous collection of 447 letters, valuable for the history of Byzantine relations with the West.
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One of the principal documentary sources for the Eastern Roman Empire's gradual submission to the Turks is Demetrios Kydones' Symbouleutikoi, urging the Byzantine people to unite with the Latins in order to resist the Turkish onslaught.