CABASILAS, NICOLAUS (d. 1371), Byzantine mystic and theologian. In 1355 he succeeded his uncle Nilus Cabasilas, like himself, a determined opponent of the union of the Greek and Latin churches, as archbishop of Thessalonica. In the Hesy chast controversy he took the side of the monks of Athos but refused to agree to the theory of the untreated light. His chief work is his IIEpc rns iv X pcvr4i (ed. pr. of the Greek text with copious introduction, by W. Gass, 1849; new ed. by M. Heinze, 5899), in which he declares that union with Christ is effected by three great mysteries of baptism, confirmation, and the eucharist. He also wrote homilies on various subjects and a speech against usurers, printed in Migne, Patrol. Graeca.
See C. Krumbacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Literatur (1897), and Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie.