BLASTARES, MATTHÆUS: At first a secular priest and later a monk of the order of St. Basil, who made about 1335 a collection of laws, both civil and ecclesiastical, known as "Alphabetical Collection," Syntagma alphabeticum rerum omnium quæ in sacris canonibus comprehenduntur. The civil part ("political laws") is based upon the Novellæ of Justinian, the ecclesiastical ("canons ") upon the collection of Photius, with the commentaries of Zonaras and Balsamon. Such a dictionary of law filled a practical want, and so was universally used by the Eastern clergy, and even translated into Slavic. A complete reprint is found in Beveridge's Synodicon, ii, 2, and in vol. vi of the Syntagma tōn theiōn kai hierōn kanonōn (Athens, 1859).

(E. FRIEDBERG.)