Early Career
Bernardo moved to Constantinople in the 1320s, where he soon gained entrance into ecclesiastical and political circles, especially those around the emperor Andronicus III Palaeologus, who gave him a teaching position at the university. He was made basilian monk at the monastery of Sant'Elia di Capassino and assumed the name Barlaam.
Eventually, he was made the Hegumen (abbot) of the Monastery of Our Savior, and two confidential missions on behalf of the emperor were entrusted to him.
Colin Wells characterizes Barlaam as "brilliant but sharp-tongued", describing him as "thoroughly versed in the classics, an astronomer, a mathematician, as well as a philosopher and a mathematician. However, according to Wells, "this formidable learning was coupled with an arrogant, sarcastic manner, so caustic at times that he put off even friends and allies."
During the years 1333–1334, Barlaam undertook to negotiate the union of churches with the representatives of Pope John XXII. For this occasion he wrote twenty-one treatises against the Latins in which he opposed papal primacy and the filioque doctrine. Emperor Andronicus III sent Barlaam on important diplomatic missions to Robert the Wise in Naples and to Philip VI in Paris. In 1339, he was sent to the exiled Pope Benedict XII at Avignon to suggest a crusade against the Turks and to discuss the union of churches, but he was not successful in this endeavour. On this occasion he met Petrarch.
Returning to Constantinople, Barlaam worked on commentaries on Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite under the patronage of John VI Kantakouzenos.
Read more about this topic: Barlaam Of Seminara
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