(Or B ASILIUS ). Cardinal ; b. at Trebizond, 1389, or according
to others, 1395, but most probably in 1403; d. at Ravenna 18
November, 1472. Some claim illustrious parentage for him, but,
as to this nothing certain is known. In 1413, while still very
young, he was sent to Constantinople, where he devoted himself
to study, achieving great success in the field of letters. In
1423 he entered the Order of St. Basil and in the same year was
sent to the Peloponnesus to study philosophy under Gemistus
Pletho. It is known that Pletho was a bitter opponent of
Aristotle, against whom he championed with immoderate zeal the
doctrines of Plato, without, however, distinguishing between
genuine platonism and neo-Platonism. The lessons of Pletho,
though making Bessarion a follower of Plato, did not prevent him
from perceiving the many points of contact between the two
philosophers, and, during the revival of ancient learning,
constantly defending the harmonizing of the two systems; he
criticized the unrestrained partisanship