CHRYSOBERGES, ANDREW

Byzantine Dominican scholar, archbishop of Rhodes; d. Famagusta, Cyprus, 1451. He was one of three Greek brothers who became Catholics and dominicans under the influence of Demetrius cydones and the controversy over hesychasm. He is first mentioned in 1410 as professor of philosophy at the Dominican convent in Padua. At the Council of constance he joined the Greek ambassadors in persuading the conciliar fathers and Pope martin v of Greek readiness for union. On Feb. 12, 1418, he became master of theology, and between 1418 and 1425 he was in Constantinople and Caffa. On Feb. 12, 1420, he was made a member of the papal household, and on July 9, master of the Sacred Palace. In 1426 Pope Martin sent him to Constantinople with the Greek ambassadors returning from Rome to treat of union and appointed him vicar-general of the whole Societas Fratrum Peregrinantium et Unitorum. Chrysoberges returned to Rome before May 9, 1427, and in 1428 to 1429 he was in Poland-Lithuania on a papal mission.

Although nominated bishop of Sutri (Feb. 23, 1429), he either refused or resigned the office. He acted for Martin V with the Greek envoys, who in 1430 drew up the agreement for a council of union in Italy that was in effect realized only at Ferrara-Florence in 1438. eugene iv made Chrysoberges archbishop of Rhodes on May 2, 1432, and sent him to Basel to mitigate that Council's conciliarism [see conciliarism (history of)]. He was unsuccessful but encouraged the papal party there and visited Emperor Sigismund of Hungary on his return trip. At the Council of Florence he delivered the reply to Cardinal bessarion's opening eulogy, and spoke in the debate on purgatory and on the addition of the filioque to the Creed. After the promulgation of union, he visited his archdiocese, was sent to Cyprus to investigate Greek complaints of Latin intolerance (Nov. 5, 1441), and brought into the Church certain Chaldeans and Maronites, who later confirmed the union in Rome (Aug. 7,1445). He was made archbishop of Nicosia (April 19, 1447) and apostolic legate for Cyprus and the Aegean Islands (July 30, 1447). A letter of his to Bessarion (c. 1437–38) has been preserved [E. Candal, ed., Orientalia Christiana periodica 4 (1938) 329–371], as has an unedited treatise to joseph of methone against the encyclical of Mark eugenicus.

Bibliography: r. coulon, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de geéographie ecclésiastiques, ed. a. baudrillart et al. (Paris 1912) 2:1696–1700. h. g. beck, Kirche und theologische Literatur im byzantinischen Reich (Munich 1959) 742–743. r. j. loenertz, Catholicisme. Hier, aujour d'hui et demain ed. g. jacquemet (Paris 1947– ) 2:1114–15; Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 9 (1939) 5–61. m. h. laurent, Échos d'Orient (1935) 414–438. j. gill, The Council of Florence (Cambridge, Eng. 1959).

[j. gill]