Hugo Etherianis

Who was Hugo Etherianis?

Hugh Etherianus or Ugo Eteriano, was an adviser on western church affairs to Byzantine emperor Manuel Comnenus. Nothing is known of his family apart from a letter sent after his death by the Pope to his brother Leo, nicknamed Tuscus, which mentions a "nephew," possibly Hugh's son. He studied under Alberic in Paris some time before 1146, then was in Constantinople from about 1165–82. He and his brother Leo Tuscus, were Tuscans by birth, employed at the court of Constantinople under the Emperor Manuel I Comnenus. Hugh was a Catholic theologian and controversialist, who became a Cardinal at the end of his life.

He is notable for his work Contra Patarenos which is a treatise against Catharism surviving in two Latin manuscripts in Oxford and Seville. Latin Patarenes was an alternative name for Cathars, and the text sheds light on the relationship between western European Catharism and older Byzantine dualist movements such as Bogumils.

Hugo says that he was "occupied in translating the imperial letters", evidently an interpreter for Latin correspondence. Hugh, who does not seem to have held any official post at court, but was a very learned theologian, had many opportunities of discussing the questions at issue between the Greek Orthodox Church and Catholics.