Matthew Blastares, 14th-century Byzantine monk, canonist, and theologian
Matthew Blastares was a Byzantine scholar of the 14th century. He was a monk and priest in the monastery of Kyr Isaac in Thessaloniki, where he died in 1346. Politically, he was an early opponent of religious or political reconciliation with Rome.
The Syntagma: Major work of Matthew Blastares
During his lifetime, he produced several works but the most significant was the Syntagma kata stoichieion (literally, Alphabetical Treatise), in 1335. In the preamble of this major work, Blastares defines his goal as gathering ‘all the canons,’ as well as interpreting and paraphrasing them. The Syntagma comprises 24 sections, most of them subdivided into chapters. Each chapter is devoted to a separate legal topic (e.g., on robbers) and contains first the statements of canon law, followed by those of civil law, the nomoi politikoi.
Blastares used a variety of sources, including the Basilika and other Byzantine compendia, as well as the Codex and Digest of Justinian I. He also referenced the novels of various emperors, including recent ones like the novel of Andronikos II from 1306. Additionally, he utilized the Nomokanon of Fourteen Titles and the commentary of Theodore Balsamon.
This attempt to reconcile canon and civil law sets his work apart from previous nomokanones, where civil legislation is merely an insignificant appendix, and from previous synopses that ignore canon law.
The Syntagma gained popularity beyond the empire’s borders and was translated into Serbian during the reign of Stefan Uroš IV Dušan.
Other Works by Blastares.
Apart from the Syntagma, Blastares authored several other legal works, including a lexicon of Latin legal terms and summaries of the Nomocanons of Niketas of Heraclea, Patriarchs Nikephoros I, and John Nesteutes. His further works include a poem on the offices and titles of the Byzantine court, a synopsis of rhetoric, theological treatises against the Latin Church, azymes, the Jews, and Palamism, a work on Divine Grace, a letter to Constantine II Lusignan on the Holy Spirit, as well as liturgical hymns and epigrams.
