Matthew Blastares

Matthew Blastares was a 14th century Byzantine Greek monk in Thessalonica who in 1335 compiled the Syntagma alphabeticum, a systematic handbook reconciling Byzantine civil law with church law drawn from earlier legal collections. Where earlier compilers had generally treated canon law and civil law separately, Blastares organized both together under a single alphabetical scheme covering legal procedure and obligations owed by the state to the poor and persecuted. His Syntagma was translated into Slavonic within years of its completion at the request of King Stefan Dusan of Serbia, and it became a standard reference of Eastern Orthodox and Slavic civil and ecclesiastical law for centuries, appearing in later Bulgarian and Russian editions.