he court of Spain. The enlightenment of the 18th
century had penetrated as far as Madrid; the king, Charles III., was
favourable to reform; and a circle of men animated by the new spirit were
trying to infuse fresh vigour into an enfeebled state. Among these Cabarrus
became conspicuous, especially in finance. He originated a bank, and a
company to trade with the Philippine Islands; and as one of the council of
finance he had planned many reforms in that department of the
administration, when Charles III. died (1788), and the reactionary
government of Charles IV. arrested every kind of enlightened progress. The
men who had taken an active part in reform were suspected and prosecuted.
Cabarrus himself was accused of embezzlement and thrown into prison. After
a confinement of two years he was released, created a count and employed in
many honourable missions; he would even have been sent to Paris as Spanish
ambassador, had not the Directory objected to him as being of French birth.
Cabarrus took no part in the transactions by which Charles IV. was obliged
to abdicate and make way for Joseph, brother of Napoleon, but his French
birth and intimate knowledge of Spanish affairs recommended him to the
emperor as the fittest person for the difficult post of minister of
finance, which he held at his death. His beautiful daughter Therese, under
the name of Madame Tallien (afterwards princess of Chimay), played an
interesting part in the later stages of the French Revolution.

CABASILAS, NICOLAUS (d. 1371), Byzantine mystic and theological writer. He
was on intimate terms with the emperor John VI. Cantacuzene, whom he
accompanied in his retirement to a monastery. In 1355 he succeeded his
uncle Nilus Cabasilas, like himself a determined opponent of the union of
the Greek and Latin churches, as archbishop of Thessalonica. In the
Hesychast controversy he took the side of the monks of Athos, but refused
to agree to the theory of the uncreated light. His chief work is his
[Greek: Peri tes en Christoi zoes] (_ed. pr._ of the Greek text, with
copious introduction, by W. Gass, 1849; new ed. by M. Heinze, 1899), in
which he lays down the principle that union with Christ is effected by the
three great mysteries of baptism, confirmation and the eucharist. He also
wrote homilies on various subjects, and a speech against usurers, printed
with other works in Migne, _Patrologia Graeca_, c. i. A large number of his
works is still extant in MS.

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