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→The Controversy Concerning Western Influence
==The Controversy Concerning Western Influence==
An ongoing controversy concerns the extent of Western influence over the writings of St Nicodemus. What is not disputed is that some of his works are translations of Roman Catholic works, in particular (1) ''Spiritual Exercises'' of Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, using an Italian edition with commentary by Giovanni Pietro Pinamonti (1632-1703); and (2) ''Unseen Warfare'', which was a translation of ''Spiritual Combat'' by the Catholic priest Lorenzo Scupoli, He was not the first Athonite monk to translate a Catholic work as an Orthodox one: in 1641, Agapios Landros (17th c.) published ''The Salvation of Sinners'', but it was simply a translation of ''Dialogus Miraculorum'', written in the early 13th c. by a German Cistercian, Cæsarius of Heisterbach Abbey. Such works were influential at least in part due to the assumption that they were products of the Athonite monks who published them, rather than works by Roman Catholics.
There is continued disagreement about the provenance of Nicodemus' ''Exomologetarion'', his manual for confession. Like most of his writings, it is not an original work; Nicodemus says he compiled it from "various teachers." Protopresbyter George Metallinos argues that his sources were Eastern, alleging that "he had no direct contact with Western sources," but we know with certainty the Catholic provenance of ''Unseen Warfare'' and ''Spiritual Exercises'', which means he did have such contact. Metropolitan [[Kallistos Ware]] holds that the Exomolgetarion is "mostly a direct translation" of two books on confession by the Italian Jesuit, Paolo Segneri (1624-1694)<ref>In his "St Nikodimos and the Philokalia," in Graham Speake, ''Mount Athos, the Sacred Bridge: The Spirituality of the Holy Mountain'', p. 91. The two books by Segneri are ''Il confessore istruito'' and ''Il penitence istruito''.</ref>
