Nicephorus Callistus Xanthopulus wrote an Ecclesiastical History, and indeed diligently, in the time of Andronicus the elder Palaeologus, around the year of the Lord 1311. In book 2, chapter 22, from the narrative of our Dionysius, whom he calls the Areopagite, in the said chapter 3 of On the Divine Names, he recounts the things which happened at the funeral of blessed Mary the Virgin. But in chapter 21 he speaks thus of our author:
“So great was his faith in Christ that not only was he worthy of the divine laver, but he was also designated Bishop of the Athenians by the hands of Paul himself, being endowed with altogether wonderful and divine charisms. He also lived on more familiar terms with the divine man Hierotheus. To each of these Paul, as he himself had been initiated when caught up into the third heaven and into Paradise, communicated and handed down the highest matters concerning theology, that is, the account of God the Word, and also concerning the Celestial Hierarchy and the most complete disposition and ordering of all things. These matters Dionysius afterwards also reported in writing.
“By magnificently preaching the word of piety and true worship, he used great freedom; and, after glorifying Christ for many years in the western regions, he came to great old age and was honored for him with the crown of martyrdom. They report that he carried his head, which had been cut off by the sword, in his hands for two thousand paces, and there handed it over, as a deposit, to the woman whom he encountered.
“The writings which he composed with sublime contemplation of divine things, with altogether admirable and excellent sentiments and expression, far removed from those things which have been published according to human capacity, are as follows. First, he wrote the work On the Divine Names in thirteen chapters, in which nearly a hundred other chapters full of divine wisdom are also added. The second book written by him he entitled On the Celestial Hierarchy, having fifteen chapters. The third, On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, of seven chapters. The fourth, On Hidden or Mystical Theology, of five chapters. He also left ten letters, of which the last was written to John the Evangelist, who reclined upon the Lord’s breast.
“And these writings of his are indeed circulated even today. He himself also makes mention of other studies of his, such as those which were named by him Theological Dispositions; likewise Symbolic Theology; besides these, On Angelic Properties and Orders; a commentary On the Soul; On the Just and Divine Judgment; On Divine Hymns; likewise On the Things Which Are Apprehended Either by Intelligence or by Sense. These commentaries, however, have not been seen at all, nor known either to us or to those who were before us.”
Thus far Nicephorus. Concerning the writings of the Areopagite, George Pachymeres plainly agrees with him. Pachymeres lived under Michael Palaeologus and Andronicus around the year 1260, a little earlier. We have his Aristotelian epitomes and his Areopagitic paraphrases on all the books which are extant, as well as the Scholia of Maximus. He gives the names of the remaining works which, he says, are not found: On Angelic Properties, On the Soul, On the Just and Divine Tribunal, On Divine Hymns, On Intelligible and Sensible Things, On Theological Outlines, and On Symbolic Theology.
As to the surviving books, Suidas also agrees with these witnesses concerning the titles; for as to the chapters they vary, which matters little. Suidas lists the books in this way: to Timothy, Bishop of Ephesus, himself a disciple of Paul, the books On Divine Names; and he adds the titles of the chapters. To the same Timothy, another book, On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy; to the same, On the Celestial Hierarchy; to the same, On Mystical Theology.
Then he lists these letters: four to Gaius the Therapeuta; one to Dorotheus the minister; one to Sopater the priest; one to Polycarp, hierarch of Smyrna; one to Demophilus the Therapeuta; one to John the theologian, the apostle and evangelist. Here you see that the letter to Titus the bishop is omitted, which Maximus, Pachymeres, and Nicephorus recognize. For the index of Maximus, or John of Scythopolis, is similar to the Pachymerian enumeration, except that it adds the places in Dionysius where he cites his books which are not extant.
Around the year of Christ 1371, when Greece was now collapsing, George of Trebizond, Theodore Gaza, and the most learned Cardinal Bessarion lived. Bessarion, disagreeing with Gaza and following his ancestors, attributed these works to the Areopagite. For in book 2, chapter 3, of the Platonic Defense, he writes as follows:
“The most holy man Dionysius the Areopagite, who was the first and highest author of Christian theology, had no writer on divine things before himself except the Apostle Paul and Hierotheus, Bishop of Athens, whom he used as his teachers.”
So Morellius from the codex of Budaeus. I ask: what other writings of Dionysius on divine matters did Bessarion praise in this place, except ours? In these matters I do not fear to prefer his judgment to ten Gazas and a hundred Scaligers.