Basil the Great

ON ST. BASIL THE GREAT,

BISHOP OF CAESAREA IN CAPPADOCIA.

A.D. 379.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY

Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, in Cappadocia (St.)

BY THE AUTHOR F. B.

§ I. On the twofold feast, of the Ordination among the Latins, and of the Death among the Greeks.

Basil the Great, Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, has chiefly two days in the sacred Calendars anciently consecrated to his memory; in the East indeed the first of January on which he died; His cult through the West, in the West however this 14th of June on which he is thought to have been consecrated Bishop, the Latins preferring to occupy the whole first day of their year by recalling the mystery of the Lord's Circumcision. The more recent piety of the Greeks added, in the 11th century, a third, to be celebrated in common to him and to Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom. Of this we defer to treat until after the Acts of his life are more fully explained: of the first two it pleases to say a few words by way of preface. To the Latin Martyrologies, therefore, St. Basil is ascribed on this 14th of June: the 14th of June in the manuscript Martyrologies yet those are not the most ancient: for all the copies of the Hieronymian Martyrology are silent about Basil; and so too the genuine Beda, and all the ancient Supplements of Beda, together with Florus of Lyons, and finally Wandelbert of Prüm. The first in naming him, from some common source I know not what, were Usuard and Ado: of whom the first, briefer after his manner, writes thus on the 18th of the Kalends of July in almost all the copies: "At Caesarea of Cappadocia, the Birthday of St. Basil the Bishop, who in the time of Valens, distinguished in learning and wisdom, on the day of his Ordination: and founded in all virtues, shone forth wonderfully." By "birthday" we can here understand nothing else than the anniversary of his Ordination, as St. Leo the Great, in his third Sermon on the anniversary of his own assumption, calls it "the birthday of his servitude." Therefore the present Roman Martyrology, the other words of Usuard being kept, in place of "Birthday," put "Ordination"; and added that "he defended the Church against the Arians and Macedonians with wonderful constancy."

[2] Ado, whose former words his abbreviator the Anonymous transcribed, who is circulated under the name of Beda, and deceived and deceives Baronius and many others; Ado, I say, in a commemoration almost like Usuard's, here conceived in the words, "At Caesarea of Cappadocia, of St. Basil the Bishop, brother of Gregory and Peter," pursues the same with a more prolix eulogy thus: "Who, when he was founded in all virtues, and at a certain time was forced into exile for the faith by the Emperor Valens; A eulogy from Ado presented to the tribunal of the Prefect, he began to be dealt with by terrors (as is the manner of that power) and the greatest threats, that unless he obeyed the precepts of the Prince, he should expect destruction now-now to be hanging over him. Then he, intrepid and without any perturbation of mind, is said to have answered the Prefect threatening these things: 'And would that I had something of a worthy gift, to offer to this man, who would the sooner release Basil from the knot of this bag.' And when the night which was the middle was given him, for the space of deliberating; he is said to have answered again: 'I tomorrow will be the very one I am today; would that thou wert not changed!' And on that night the wife of the Emperor, as if handed over to torturers, is tormented; but his son, who was their only one, dead, paid the penalty of his father's impiety; so that before light there were sent men to ask Basil to intercede by his prayers for them, lest they too, and indeed much more justly, perish. So it happened that, when Valens had expelled all the Catholics; Basil endured in the Church up to the end of his life, with the unstained sacrament of communion." These things, as for the most part they are true as to substance, so in the circumstances they err much from history; which will appear to one considering the Acts to be given below. From Ado, however, it is shown that St. Basil, eight hundred years ago, was wont to be venerated on this fourteenth of June; and thence it is persuaded that he was consecrated Bishop on the same day; although it is unknown whence the Latins received this, the Greeks being silent.

[3] This feast is wrongly ascribed to a Translation, The authors of the Usuard printed at Lübeck and of the Florarium of the Saints, since perhaps they were ignorant for what cause this day was held sacred to Basil, devised a certain Translation of him, but unknown to all others. The first: "At Caesarea of Cappadocia," he says, "the translation of St. Basil, Bishop and Confessor." The Florarium adds to the same, "brother of Gregory and Peter, who in the time of the Emperor Valens, distinguished in learning and wisdom; when the Emperor himself wished to write a sentence concerning his exile; the first, second, and third pen was broken; whence indignant he broke the paper. He flourished in the year of salvation 369." The manuscript of St. Gudula ascribes the feast of this day not to a Translation but to an Elevation: and rightly; if, beyond the ordinary manner of speaking, by "Elevation" it understood his exaltation to the Episcopal chair. There is added in the same Florarium a eulogy, different from the other copies of Usuard, and not free from error. "At Caesarea of Cappadocia, the Elevation of the blessed and great Basil, Bishop and Confessor, or to an Elevation. brother of St. Gregory Nazianzen and Peter: to whom Christ appearing with his Apostles, taught the Ministry of the Mass: and by whose prayers Ephrem the Syrian spoke Greek: and who knew the death of Julian the Apostate by revelation, who, going to the Persian war, had threatened him with the destruction of Caesarea on his return." Whether by an error of understanding, or of a pen hurrying too much, "Nazianzen" is here read for "Nyssen," you would not easily say. Of the truth of the other things here narrated you will decide, when you have read through the Acts to be given below.

[4] The Greeks in the West also keep this feast. In the ritual books of the Greeks, on this 14th day of June I find no one who makes mention of St. Basil, except the Horologium or Horary, for the use of the monastery of Grottaferrata and other monasteries of the Order of St. Basil, printed at Rome by the care of the most Eminent Cardinal Nerli, where is read this title of the Divine Office: "Of our holy Father Basil the Great": then there is prescribed an Order, most of it taken from the first of January: for in the aforesaid Horary the feast of St. Basil is had, to be solemnly performed, together with the feast of the Circumcision. And of Basil at the Mass this Troparion is sung: "Into all the earth thy sound has gone out, The same they all do on the 1st of January, that it might receive thy word, by which thou didst divinely and fittingly instruct us, explaining the nature of things, and adorning the morals of men. A royal Priesthood, holy Father, intercede with Christ our God, that our souls may be saved." To this is subjoined of the Circumcision a like Troparion: "Thou who sittest in the heights upon a throne splendid like fire, with the eternal Father and thy divine Spirit, didst deign to be born on earth of thy intact virgin mother, together with the Office of the Circumcision: and to be circumcised a boy of eight days: glory to thy best counsel, glory to thy incarnation, glory to thy supreme condescension toward us, only lover of men." Hence again to Basil: "Thou unshaken base of the Church, offering to all mortals an inviolate refuge, and confirming thy dogmas; shining like heaven, holy Basil." Likewise also the first and older Office, described in the Menaea, mixes the encomia of the Feast and of the Saint; and at Vespers indeed has three Verses called "similar"; of which the first, on the Feast, is ascribed to Byzantius; but two, on the Saint, are said to be of Basil and John the Monks, of whom the latter seems to be the Damascene, the same also author of the prolix Canon on the same Saint, into which a eulogy on his life is inserted, this distich preceding: "Basil lives, even dead, in the Lord;

"Basil, even dead, lives to the Lord; and lives to us, speaking in his books."

There is extant in Combefis an oration of St. Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium, on the Circumcision of the Lord, in which he speaks thus of St. Basil: "This man, having with a great soul preached the circumcision which is made in the spirit and in divine baptism, did, very clearly if any other worshipper of God, set aside circumcision in the flesh: and therefore also his release and migration to God from the earth and the body, not without reason, nor (as one might beyond reason have suspected) by chance, coincided with the present day of the circumcision of Jesus, in the middle between the divine nativity and baptism of Christ: which the Oration of St. Amphilochius also proves, but as one who, that most blessed man, in the renunciation and exaltation of the nativity and baptism of Christ, exalted spiritual circumcision, on the sacred day of his memory, he himself also more freely deserved to be exalted to Christ: and it was decreed that at that time his yearly memory and celebrity should be recalled: therefore the universal Church of all the Saints through all parts of the world, keeping and glorifying his most holy and sacred memory on this day, with praises most pleasing to God, together celebrates and glorifies in songs Christ, who is glorious in his Saints."

[5] The Menaea also printed at Venice, on the first of January, as I have already begun to say, and his Memory in the Menaea. prescribe the Office of St. Basil to be solemnly celebrated, together with the Feast of the Circumcision, with various hymns and songs to the honor of the Saint inserted in the text, by which his orthodox doctrine, his pastoral solicitude, his chaste conversation, the grace of miracles divinely granted, are praised. Let these be examples, the rest omitted: "Grace is poured out on thy lips, holy Father, and made Pastor of the Church of Christ thou didst teach the rational sheep to believe in the Trinity, consubstantial in one Deity. Adorned from heaven with the grace of miracles, thou didst confound the fraud of idols by thy preaching, prince of Prelates, glory, support, most blessed Basil, and pattern of the doctrine of all the Fathers. Having obtained confidence with Christ, beseech him, that our souls may be saved." From the Metrical Synaxarium also or Calendar the day of his death is announced in this verse: "Thou diest, Basil, on the very Kalends of January." Then too his feast is celebrated with special cult in the most holy great Church at Constantinople, as is read at the end of the historical Eulogy, which on this day is prescribed to be recited in the printed Menaea. This Eulogy is not without faults: wherefore, omitting it, I think it enough to produce another, briefer, but older and more accurate, from the Menology of the Emperor Basil, composed about the year 984, in this form of words.

[6] [Greek: Our holy Father Basil flourished under the reign of Valens, whom—this Valens being of the mind of Arius the heretic—he reproved by admonishing him boldly, and persuaded him almost to abjure the heresy, had he not seen that he was ashamed; yet, even though he did not perfectly abjure the heresy, he nevertheless came to the church, while the great Basil was performing the liturgy, and offered gifts. Now the great Basil was the son of Basil of Pontus, and of Emmelia of Cappadocia, who in wisdom and knowledge conquered all even the ancients, and was so exceptionally pious that he became also a high-priest of the throne of Caesarea, where, having endured many contests for the orthodox faith, and astonished kings and prefects, and stopped the mouths of the heretics with his words, and written very many books, and wrought ten thousand miracles, he departed in peace to the Lord.] "St. Basil our Father flourished under the reign of Valens. Valens, indeed, infected with the Arian heresy, he reproved by admonishing him more freely, The eulogy from the Menology of the Emperor Basil and persuaded him almost to abjure the heresy, had he not feared that this would be a disgrace to him: for although he did not fully abjure the heresy, yet he came to the church, the great Basil performing the divine service, and offered gifts. Now the great Basil was the son of Basil the Pontic, and of Emmelia the Cappadocian. This excellent man surpassed in wisdom and learning his contemporaries as well as the ancients. But he was of such exceeding piety that he was raised to the Episcopal Throne of Caesarea; where he sustained many contests for the orthodox faith; striking at once astonishment and terror into Emperors and Prefects, and stopping with the force of his speech the mouths of the heretics: and at last, when he had written many books, and wrought very many miracles, he migrated in peace to the Lord."

[7] When also some Latins made mention of him. Nor only in the sacred calendars of the Greeks is St. Basil ascribed on this day; but so great a solemnity of the feast, which through the East was instituted on the first of January for his veneration, gave occasion to the older Latin Martyrologists of making at least some memory of him on the same day. Among them the supposititious Beda has, "Of St. Basil the Bishop." The Cologne Usuard, "At Caesarea of Cappadocia, the deposition of St. Basil." Maurolycus, "At Caesarea of Cappadocia, the deposition of St. Basil the Bishop, whose celebrity is recalled chiefly on the eighteenth of the Kalends of July." To these the Florarium adds a eulogy, and the year of death wrongly designated; Notker takes the eulogy from the Pseudo-Amphilochius. "Who," he says, "in the time of the Emperor Valens, distinguished in learning and wisdom, and founded in all virtues, shone forth wonderfully. He died about the year of the Lord 383." Notker, weaving a eulogy most different from all the rest, on the same 1st of January says, "At Caesarea, the metropolis of Cappadocia, the deposition of St. Basil the Bishop, who composed a Rule of the Brothers and many other useful things; and, besides the many wonders which he did, deserved by praying to recover the bond of a lost man, which he had made to the devil; and put off the day of his death on account of the conversion of Joseph the Hebrew, and even when dead abolished the writing of a certain nefarious crime." But these are taken from the Pseudo-Amphilochius; how little credit they deserve will appear below.

§ II. The contemporary authors and others, from whom and from the works of Basil himself the Acts are to be collected.

[8] St. Ephrem first wrote a eulogy of Basil Several of the holy Fathers made mention of Basil in their writings: various ones also wrote Eulogies of him, and weaving certain wonders wrought by him into their orations, commended them to memory. But no one related all his Acts, no one in fitting order, as the deeds were done. The first to write a Eulogy of St. Basil was St. Ephrem the Syrian, and it is extant among his works given in Latin by Gerard Voss, Provost of Tongeren, published at Cologne 1603. Tom. 3 p. 722

[9] John Bolland, our predecessor, in Tome 1 of February, where he treats of St. Ephrem at page 51, judged that that Eulogy can be believed, if a grave reason persuades it, to have been composed while St. Basil was still living; since it contains nothing that cannot be taken of a living man: although the Latin translator was persuaded otherwise; and therefore everywhere praises and addresses the Saint in the past tense, as if placed among the Heavenly ones: which indeed could not be done while Basil still lived; but only when, reigning in the heavens, he could look upon and hear those praising him and entreating his prayers. But what prevents, in encomiastic orations, attributing to a living man also praises equal to the Heavenly ones, and, by apostrophe (as the Rhetoricians speak), turning the speech to one absent, and so entreating the prayers of one not hearing? But if the manner of speaking seem to signify something more, it can be attributed, and probably ought to be, to the translator, believing the Saint dead, not to the first writer: and much more if Ephrem first wrote in Syriac, and another thence translated it into Greek, and from this Voss into Latin. For in the Syriac language, no less than in the Hebrew, the tenses of verbs are not rarely confused. But lest it seem incongruous to run out so profusely into the praises of a living man, Ephrem himself anticipates at the beginning of the eulogy, saying: "To keep the secret counsels of kings is fine; but to reveal the mysteries of God is good." Let there be added to these, that St. Ephrem narrated very many things of himself in writing, commemorating the benefits conferred on him by God. Let therefore the opinion of Bolland stand, that Ephrem, who died before Basil, wrote this eulogy of him while he yet lived.

[10] It certainly behooved the Reverend Father Pagi, in his Critica on the Baronian Annals, while the Saint was still living. when at the year 378 he said it was clear that Ephrem survived Basil from this eulogy of him composed by him, to support his opinion with greater arguments; and to show that in the aforesaid eulogy something is said which can in no way be taken of a living man. Otherwise a sufficient reason will be lacking for departing from St. Jerome, who, in times and places nearest to the deed, in his book on Writers, asserts that Ephrem died under the Prince Valens; but Basil, while Gratian reigned. Nor can the Life of Basil attributed to Amphilochius give support to Pagi; for granting that this were not fabulous, and wrongly ascribed to such an author, which we shall show below; what, I pray, can a Life prove against Jerome, which by its own defenders is admitted to be interpolated in many places? Who will make me secure that these words, "Basil rested on the first of January in the fifth year of Valens and Valentinian," are not the interpolator's? especially since they cohere so badly; so that Combefis, Pagi, and Baronius dispute among themselves of what year they are to be understood; indeed Combefis admits that the words "of Valens" were rashly added by some smatterer, contrary to the truth. After Ephrem, Gregory of Nyssa delivered an oration in praise of his Brother, on the very anniversary Festivity of the Saint. "After Stephen," he says, "Peter, James, John, Paul, of whom the solemnity had been celebrated on different days, its own order being preserved, Gregory of Nyssa too, our Pastor and Master inaugurates for us the present celebrity." In that Oration he shows Basil, a divine man, that great vessel of truth, to be numbered with those famous Saints, Paul, John the Baptist, Elijah, Moses; setting forth his chief virtues and his more illustrious acts, yet with no account had of the time at which each thing happened.

[11] and Nazianzen after several others. But neither did Nazianzen, although he in some way preserved the order of history, either relate all things, or explain them clearly enough; as we shall see in the course of his life. He came to praise Basil after many others, who had adorned him with praises privately and publicly, later indeed than would seem fitting; yet not by negligence or contempt did he pass over the office of friendship, nor because he thought this duty of praising more fitting to anyone else than to himself; but he declined to deliver the first oration (just as those who approach to sacred things) before he had thoroughly purged his voice and mind. Then he had been occupied in the business of true doctrine in peril, beautifully constrained, and not without the divine power having set out abroad; namely to the Episcopate of Constantinople, and not against the will and mind's judgment of Basil, that brave defender of truth, who never breathed anything else than pious and world-saving doctrine. After which then Gregory, the Episcopate of Constantinople laid down, returned into the solitude dear to him, and devoted himself wholly to sacred lucubrations; and among them wrote an encomiastic oration on the praises of Basil; which, coming to Caesarea, he recited on a certain solemnity of St. Basil, before the clergy and people of the same Church, as Nyssen had done before.

[12] from these the chief things are gathered These three Eulogies of Basil are the chief monuments, from which his deeds are to be described by us. Yet since all are related encomiastically, the historical order being neglected; they remain to be elucidated from other historians of contemporary or near-contemporary age, and to be supplemented from the other writings of Basil himself and of Gregory Nazianzen, especially their Letters. and are illustrated from others, But these, because in many places they are so obscure that they shed darkness rather than light upon the history (for we are usually the more obscure, the more familiarly we write of known matters to those who, without further explanation, understand each thing) since, I say, the Letters are often obscure; in reducing them to their time and the matter which they concern, it will sometimes be necessary, all other light being lacking, even by conjectures. to grope among conjectures; by which, however, it will happen that very many things, even otherwise sufficiently clear, are more illustrated.

[13] When this is done, there will perhaps be someone who will marvel that Letters are sometimes copied whole, from the papyrus, as they say, onto paper, and so that these Acts are made more prolix than the things elsewhere printed, and here less necessary; but this seemed expedient to me, that the whole matter might be set more clearly under view than could be done through truncated fragments of the Letters, in which for the most part neither the occasion of writing appears, nor the design of the writer, nor the quality of him to whom it is written: of which, however, the first contributes not a little to the Chronology, the second and third to the history. Nor did this seem of small moment, that in the Letters the affection of the writer shines forth more, and his virtue is given to be beheld as in a mirror. And from the Letters of Basil indeed you will easily know because they elucidate the Chronology and history, how great was his charity toward God; with how great greatness of soul, to undertake anything for him, however arduous; with how great patience to endure anything, with how great lowliness of soul, with how great zeal for the orthodox faith and Ecclesiastical discipline, with how great gentleness toward delinquents, with how great mercy toward the penitent; finally how solicitously he always labored for the peace and concord of the Churches. For these causes I judged that the Letters both of Basil and of Gregory should sometimes be related whole, at least for the greater part; only those things being omitted which were wholly particular, and concerned the history in nothing.

[14] Yet not always, when I use Basil's words, am I so scrupulous as to think that nothing can be changed. but the words are somewhat altered, For sometimes I change both the tense and the persons; as when he speaks of himself in the first person, I of him in the third; when he writes in the present tense that he is doing something, I narrate it as done in the past. In this an eminent man went before me as an example, Godefroy Hermant, Doctor of the Sorbonne, by whose work I gladly acknowledge that I have been very much helped. He published in French the Life of Saints Basil and Gregory Nazianzen, by the example of G. Hermant writing the Life in French. embracing together the Ecclesiastical history of that time, especially of the East. He collected everything from the writings of the holy Fathers, and other Historians of the same century, in changing and fitting the numbers, moods, and tenses of words to a neat narrative, using the same liberty as I, indeed greater, which the translation into the French tongue seemed to allow, nay even to demand. But in this it seemed to me to recede from his plan, that he often lowers himself to inserting into his history minutiae of so small moment, that it seems by no means worth the labor to dwell on them. For example, when he makes mention of a Letter, containing nothing pertaining to virtue or history, except the name of Hyperechius, to whom, set in a certain dignity, the Saint wrote a courteous Letter, which is the 367th: such things being passed over, I have taken only those which either elucidate the history or commend virtue.

[15] There is moreover something of which I have thought the reader should be warned. Since again and again in the course of this historical collection places of the holy Fathers or of Historians are to be assigned, Of the citations in the margin from which the things narrated are taken: lest, sometimes at almost every line, I be forced to interrupt the narration or even the periods, and interpolate by designating the places (which is usually difficult for readers and hearers, especially if they are read aloud publicly to others) I, imitating Hermant, the abbreviations. have decided to set the notes, the indices of the places cited, in the margin: among which the chief are: B. Ep., a Letter of Basil; G. Ep., a Letter of Gregory Nazianzen. Or. F., the Oration in praise of his Brother Basil by Gregory of Nyssa. Or. 20, the twentieth Oration of Gregory Nazianzen, which is the funeral one of the great Basil. But when a number is added to "Or.," it signifies an Oration of the same Nazianzen inscribed with such a number. Vit. Macr., the Life of St. Macrina the Younger, by Gregory of Nyssa, which is otherwise called the Letter to Olympius. The rest, which occur more rarely, will be written almost in full, that they may be easily understood. For the rest, I have used the Letters of Basil, in that order and number in which they are had in the second tome of his works, of the Paris edition, at the press of Michael Sonnius, in the year 1618; and the Letters of Nazianzen, as they are had in the 1st tome of his works, of the Paris edition of C. Morel 1630; the Histories of Socrates and Sozomen of the Geneva edition, by Pierre de la Rovière 1612; of Theodoret, from the translation of Henri de Valois published at Paris 1673. These things being thus prefaced, we proceed to the Chronology of the life of St. Basil, about to render account, how much, and for what causes, we recede from other Authors.

§ III. On the year of the Nativity of St. Basil.

[16] Let us begin from that which is most uncertain, namely the year of his nativity: The year of his nativity is uncertain; for neither to the happy passage of Basil from this world, nor to his assumption of the Episcopate, nor to any other memorable deed, is his age joined, from which the year of his nativity could be gathered: nay scarcely a fit indication is found, by which the chronology can in this part be established. Hence it came about that the most celebrated Historians, Baronius, Combefis, Pagi, in this matter thought nothing even to be attempted. Godefroy Hermant establishes St. Basil born in the year 328; which time my predecessors and Masters anticipated by a decade, thinking it more probable that Basil was brought to light about the year 317. Tom. 7 of May p. 242 Hermant brought no reasons for his opinion; my Masters therefore thought Basil older, because otherwise Macrina, the Saint's grandmother, could not have been instructed in the faith by that great Gregory Thaumaturgus, from the fact that Macrina was instructed in the faith by Gregory Thaumaturgus, and then have taught her grandson the first principles of the faith: which both the Saint seems to assert, writing thus to the Neocaesareans: "But of our faith, what proof can be more evident than that we were brought up by our nurse, a blessed woman, who came forth from your bosom (I mean Macrina, that illustrious one), by whom also we were taught the words of the most blessed Gregory, which she retained kept with her by the benefit of memory"; in Greek, "whatever, having been preserved by a sequence of memory unto her, she herself also kept": where the words "unto her," another renders, "up to her age": which indeed the Greek text does not require. Plainly inept, as it seems at least to me, would be Basil's boast, immediately if Macrina had learned the dogmas of the faith from Gregory Thaumaturgus no otherwise than by tradition preserved up to her age, namely in that manner in which all the Neocaesareans had learned: nay it would be in vain to make mention of Macrina in that place; and it would contribute nothing or little to the commendation of his faith, which he intends.

[17] But she, you will say, was both illustrious, and in great esteem among the Neocaesareans. What then? Basil does not wish his faith proved by her authority, but by Gregory's own: to which it would contribute little to have been instructed in the principles of the faith by Macrina, if Macrina received the faith from Gregory only by tradition: and he could have said what he says of Macrina, by a better right, of his own parent Basil, whom Pontus had as a common master of virtue. Or. 20 Nor does it stand in the way that in the same letter Basil calls all the Bishops of Neocaesarea his spiritual Fathers and Doctors of the mysteries of God. B. Ep. 75 For that they may be called such, it suffices if they follow the dogmas of their faith, just as the Church and Theologians call their Doctors, and then instructed Basil, St. Augustine, St. Thomas, and others; and Religious orders call their Fathers their first Founders. Let it therefore remain certain and indubitable, that St. Macrina the elder learned the dogmas of the faith immediately from St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, which she then taught Basil.

[18] But in this, just as I judge the opinion of my Masters, indicated in January and May, is to be followed; so I am compelled to recede from another opinion of the same, thinking that to the Emperor Maximinus, who in the year 235 most savagely persecuted the Christians, that persecution of Maximinus is to be referred, on account of which, by the testimony of Nazianzen, the ancestors of Basil on his father's side, "those who were fathers to this man before his father," and the same endured exile in the last persecution, lurking in the Pontic solitude, sustained their life with food miraculously supplied: I am compelled, I say, to recede from this their opinion proposed in May, and to return to that which on the 14th of January, where St. Macrina was treated of, they held with Baronius. Or. 20 I assert therefore that that persecution of Maximinus, of which Nazianzen speaks, can be understood as no other than that of Diocletian and Maximian, or of Maximian Galerius, called by the Greeks by the name of Maximinus.

[19] as is shown from Nazianzen. Whoever shall weigh the words of Nazianzen, and the things which are everywhere related of that persecution, will judge this assertion firm. The Theologian speaks thus: "There was a persecution, and indeed the most atrocious and most horrible of all persecutions (I speak to those to whom the persecution of Maximinus is known) which, when it had come on after many that had existed a little before; brought it about that all seemed to have been humane and easy; he, namely, raging with enormous audacity, and striving with the utmost zeal to obtain the primacy of impiety. Or. 20 Very many of our athletes overcame this man, both contending unto death, and almost unto death; left, namely, thus far, that they might be survivors of the victory, and not depart together with the very contests, but be left as anointers of others to virtue, living Martyrs, breathing columns, and silent proclamations." So Nazianzen, manifestly asserting that in the year 381, in which he recited this oration in praise of Basil, there were still survivors of some who had seen the savagery of that persecution of Maximinus: and who, having overcome its torments, had stood forth as Confessors and victors: which indeed could not have happened, if the speech were of Caius Julius Maximinus, who raged in the year 235. Secondly, the same Nazianzen says the persecution was the most atrocious of all and most horrible, such as is everywhere held and named the last persecution. Thirdly, he says that Maximinus came on after many others, who had existed a little before; and that this brought it about that all seemed to have been humane and easy.

Likewise Lactantius, in his book on the deaths of the persecutors, speaks of Maximian Galerius or Maximinus: "Maximian Galerius, worse not only than Diocletian and Maximian Hercules, whom our times felt, but than all the evil men who ever were."

[20] and from Nyssen. Since therefore Nazianzen so clearly designates the last persecution, and one cannot recede from his authority; it altogether follows that food was miraculously supplied to no other progenitors of Basil than to Macrina and her husband, the paternal grandparents of Basil: and this the authority of Nyssen confirms; saying that "for the confession of Christ the parents of his father were attacked": and that "Macrina, the mother of his father, in the time of the persecutions fought for the confession of Christ." Vit. Macr.

[21] these things being reconciled with the time of the death of the Thaumaturge, These two points, of the teaching of St. Thaumaturgus and the persecution of Galerius, being, as I think, sufficiently proved; it remains to be seen whether they can be reconciled with a correct chronology: and in ordering this I judge that nothing is to be receded from that which my Masters established on the 30th of May. For let us suppose, as was said there, that Macrina the elder was born in the year 250; she could in that case have heard Gregory Thaumaturgus explaining the dogmas of the faith, from the seventh year of her age to the sixteenth, which at least she had reached before he departed from this life; since he was present at the Council of Antioch against Paul of Samosata, by the testimony of Eusebius, saying: "At Antioch there assembled … Firmilian, Bishop of Caesarea of the Cappadocians; Gregory and Athenodorus the brothers, Bishops of the Churches in Pontus, &c." Hist. eccl. book 7 chapter 27 That Council was held about the year 266; but I do not wish to decide the question whether that Council of Antioch was celebrated in the 11th, 12th, or 13th year of the Emperor Gallienus; for there will be elsewhere, at least at the Life of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, a place and a greater necessity of disputing on that matter.

[22] The persecution of Diocletian and Maximian at Nicomedia took its beginning from the overthrow of a church, of the last persecution, on the sixth of the Kalends of March, both the old men holding the Consulate for the eighth and seventh time, that is in the year 303. But on the next day the edict of persecution was set forth, by which the whole earth except the Gauls was harried, and from East to West three most savage beasts raged; namely Diocletian and each Maximian; until after eight years, Maximian for the eighth time and Maximinus for the second time being Consuls, that is in 311, on the day before the Kalends of May, Galerius Maximian, before he departed from this life, by a public edict caused the persecution to cease. Lactantius, on the deaths of the persecutors In the year therefore in which the persecution was begun, Macrina was passing her 53rd year of age, but her 61st when it ceased: and from this it is to be seen how fittingly the same Macrina is said both to have learned the principles of the faith from the Thaumaturge, and to have fought for the faith in the last persecution.

[23] But, you will say, the persecution lasted eight years; whereas Nazianzen assigns only seven years and something more to the exile of the ancestors, to their exile. But it is to be considered that the persecution, as soon as it was begun, did not so immediately boil over with one impulse, that all thought they must take counsel for themselves by flight. For Diocletian, since he was more timid and less ferocious than Galerius, had to be much pressed by the latter, to urge so severe an execution of the edict which he had ordered to be published. For therefore fire was set under the Emperor's palace by Armentarius, and this was imputed to the Christians; but also other things like this fraud were perpetrated, that Diocletian's fury against the Christians might blaze more; all which could scarcely be carried out, but that at least two or three months ran by. Moreover, before Galerius, failing, by a public edict caused the persecution to cease, he had for a whole year been afflicted with an ulcer arising in the lower part of his genitals, and the upper part of his body up to the wound had withered, and with miserable emaciation the livid skin had sunk far in between the bones, and the lower part, without any form of feet, swollen in the manner of wineskins, had spread out … when at last, subdued by his ills, he was compelled to confess, crying out at intervals from the new pain pressing on him, that he would restore the temple of God, and make satisfaction enough for his crime. What wonder, then, if, the chief author of the persecution feeling the divine vengeance so grievously, the fury of the persecuting Prefects somewhat abated, a few months before the edict was promulgated. If therefore from eight years and two months, which ran from the first published edict up to the revoked one, you subtract two or three months, before the fury of the persecution so boiled over that Macrina and her husband thought they must take counsel for themselves by flight; and again suppose that, six or five months before the edict published for the liberty of the Christians, the persecution had so remitted that at least they could safely lurk in their own house, you will find the time of their glorious exile defined by Nazianzen, namely a whole seven years and something more.

[24] These things being thus elucidated, let us briefly set in order the remaining Chronology which concerns the nativity of Basil, and other things pertaining to this, for the sake of which we have disputed these things; about to make plain in the course, how rightly the several things agree among themselves, even by the testimonies of the Fathers and the conditions of the times. In the second year therefore after the death of Galerius, that is 313, Constantine for the third time and Licinius likewise for the third time being Consuls, on the Ides of June, by the same Emperors full peace was restored to the Churches throughout the whole Empire: so that in this same year, or at the beginning of the following 314, Basil the father, who in the time of persecution, having probably set out from his country for the sake of studies, had kept himself elsewhere than with his parents; now passing his thirty-third or fourth year of age, perhaps even his fortieth, could marry Emmelia, a virgin of sixteen years; whose father, probably at the end of the persecution, the King's indignation had carried off. Vit. Macr. For she married not of her own accord, but in a way unwilling. For, bereaved of both parents, since she was in the very flower of her age and the fame of her beauty; that she might take counsel for her safety, she chose for herself a man tried and consummate in gravity of life. it is determined that the Saint was born in the year 316. Then in the following year 315 was born Macrina the younger; and in 316, Basil the Great; but Macrina the elder was then passing her sixty-sixth year. But she, if she lived up to her eightieth year, as she could, had our Basil as a nursling in the faith up to his fourteenth or fifteenth year of age, and taught him the dogmas of the faith, which she had herself learned from Gregory Thaumaturgus.

§ IV. On the year of the death of St. Basil.

[25] The other point of the Basilian Chronology is the year of his death. That he migrated to the Lord on the Kalends of January, is confessed by all: The Pseudo-Amphilochius being rejected of the year there is a very great and intricate dispute. The Pseudo-Amphilochius wrote "the fifth year of Valens and Valentinian": which if it be understood of the Consulate, is nowhere found; if, with Baronius, of the year of the reign of Valentinian the elder, Basil would have died scarcely, or not even scarcely, a Bishop. For this cause Combefis interpreted the place of Valentinian the younger. But in the fifth year of his reign, which falls on the common year 380, Valens had departed from the living: yet Combefis judged that this year should be retained; and that it should be said that the name of Valens was rashly added by some smatterer. But why, Gratian and Theodosius being omitted, should not they, with no less right at least than Valentinian the younger, be named as Emperors? To me indeed the Pseudo-Amphilochius, who had made Valens the grandfather of Julian, seems to have known the years and consulates of the Emperors so confusedly, and the opinion of Combefis on the year 380; that he wished the fifth consulate of Valens and the first of Valentinian the younger, the year of the common era 376, to be understood; and that instead of "the fifth year of Valens and Valentinian," it should have been written, "the fifth consulate of Valens and Valentinian." But not even this being granted, would the Pseudo-Amphilochius have assigned the true year of death. For that Basil could be said to have died on the Kalends of January of this year, a Council of orthodox Bishops should have been held at Antioch in the month of October of the same year; which it is clear could not have been done, since Valens was staying there, and the orthodox Bishops were almost all in exile.

[26] The second is the opinion of Baronius, who establishes Basil to have died on the Kalends of January of the year 378, likewise that of Baronius on the year 378, and thinks to demonstrate his opinion thus. Basil died nine months before the Council of Antioch, at which his brother Gregory of Nyssa was present: and this indeed is manifest, Nyssen himself testifying. Vit. Macr. Pagi assigns the year 380. But as Baronius thinks that that Synod was held not long after the death of Valens, who in that year, in his sixth consulate, miserably perished on the 5th of the Ides of August; so he infers that it cannot be deferred beyond October of this year. But Pagi, in his Critica at the year 378 number 6, defers the Synod of Antioch up to the year 380, and the death of Basil to its Kalends of January: he is moved indeed chiefly by this reason, because of the Theodosian Law then published, that Theodosius in that year, on the 3rd of the Kalends of March, promulgated at Thessalonica an edict, by which he ordered all to be in that religion which Damasus the Pontiff and Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, followed. That Law is the second in the Theodosian Code on the Catholic Faith. That it was given by Theodosius, not by Gratian, as Valois thought, is gathered from the subscription, by which it is said to have been given at Thessalonica, where Theodosius then was, Gratian and Valentinian the Emperors staying in the West. The Law therefore being given, as Theodoret narrates in book 5 chapter 2 (not of Theodosius, but of Gratian), together with the Law, he sent also Sapor the Master of soldiers, and the arrival of Sapor at Antioch, who was then held most celebrated; and ordered the preachers of the Arian blasphemy, like certain wild beasts, to be excluded from the sacred shrines; but the same to be restored to the best pastors and the divine flock. And this indeed in the several provinces was carried into execution without controversy; but at Antioch, which is the metropolis of the East, a contention of this kind arose. Then from the following chapter is narrated the contention between Paulinus, Apollinaris, and Meletius over the Episcopate of Antioch.

[27] in whose presence the Council was celebrated: These things being proposed, Pagi reasons thus: The Council of Antioch, held nine months after the death of Basil, and at which Nyssen was present, was celebrated in the presence of Sapor the Master of soldiers: but he did not come to Antioch except after the Law "All peoples" was promulgated by Theodosius, which was promulgated in the year 380: therefore before this year the Council of Antioch was not held; and so neither did Basil die. But this argument of Pagi, the very base on which it rests wavering, collapses. For I ask: is Theodoret here to be believed, or not? If not to be believed, as Baronius thinks, his authority is brought in vain: if to be believed, as Pagi says, it must be said, with him affirming, that Gratian, the Law being passed, commanded that the Pastors but the testimony of Theodoret about these things being examined who had been cast into exile should return; and that the sacred shrines should be handed over to those who communicated with Damasus; and that with that Law he sent Sapor the Master of soldiers, &c.: and so that the reign of Theodosius and the year 380 are by no means to be awaited for that Council of Antioch. book 5 chapter 2 Let it be so indeed. Let Theodosius have promulgated the Law "All peoples" at Thessalonica: why could he not in the preceding year, of almost the same

tenor make an edict, Gratian, Sapor having been sent into the East to execute it? Then, Sapor coming to Antioch, Theodoret does not say that a Council was held: but only that the Antiochene Presbyters contending over the Episcopate held a meeting among themselves, before the Emperor's Envoy. But neither Socrates nor Sozomen says that that compromise over the Episcopate of Antioch, between Meletius and Paulinus, was devised or approved by a Council of Bishops; nay, if so illustrious a Council had approved it, how would the Council of Constantinople have had no account or little of it? It is plain therefore that nothing certain can be gathered from the promulgation of the law "All peoples," as to the time at which Sapor came to Antioch; his opinion too is rejected. and from this, nothing as to the time of the Council of Antioch; and so also nothing as to the year in which Basil migrated from this life: but rather, if the time of his death can be found from elsewhere, consequently the time of that Council too will be understood, which was celebrated nine months after that loss. Vit. Macr.

[28] But that we may establish something certain about the year of his death, A passage of Jerome is explained, the contemporary authors being silent, let St. Jerome come next, who says that Basil died while Gratian reigned. What thence, you will say, is certain? From the year 367 to 383 Gratian reigned; and so, if within the space of so many years Basil migrated from this life, it will be enough for the truth of such a testimony. But, if we turn our mind to Jerome's manner of writing, we shall see that the precisely required year is designated. For Jerome, as often as in his Catalogue of Ecclesiastical writers he designates by the Emperors the time at which they died, does not always name two, although two reigned: but when he of whom he writes lived in the West, he either names each emperor, or that one alone who presided over the West at his death. Thus at the death of Lucifer of Cagliari, he names Valentinian alone; at the death of Aquilius Severus, who died in Spain, likewise Valentinian alone. Eusebius of Vercelli, Hilary of Poitiers, Optatus of Milevis, he says died under Valentinian and Valens. But if he of whom he treats died in the East, he names one Emperor of the East alone; thus he writes that Athanasius of Alexandria died under Valens; Titus also, Bishop of Bostra, and Ephrem the Syrian; whereas Valens never reigned without a Colleague. Marcellus of Ancyra he says flourished only under Constantius and Constans; because, namely, driven from his Church by Constantius, he went into the West to implore the aid of Constans; otherwise he was never wont, in designating the time of the death of those who had died in the East, to name another besides the Emperor of the East.

[29] These things being premised, observe what he says of Basil. He dies, by which Basil is said to have died under Gratian; he says, while Gratian reigned, to whose reign he refers the death of no one else: by which it is given to understand that Basil then died, when, Valens slain, and Theodosius not yet taken to the Empire, Gratian reigned over the East as well as the West. Otherwise you will never give a reason why Jerome referred the death of St. Ephrem the Syrian to the reign of Valens: for at his death Gratian reigned with Valens. Nor is this knot loosed by asserting that Jerome wished to refer the death of Basil, so orthodox a Doctor, to the times of an orthodox Emperor, rather than to the time of Valens the Arian; and in this to attribute some honor both to Basil and to Gratian. This reason, I say, does not suffice to loose the difficulty. For why would Jerome not have done this in the case of St. Ephrem the Syrian, whose death he assigns to the reign of Valens? Further, just as he says Basil, who died in the East, died under Gratian, because at his death there was no other Emperor of the East; and hence it is inferred, so too he says that Damasus the Roman Pontiff, who died in the West, departed under Theodosius; because, Gratian being slain one year before the death of Damasus, Theodosius also was obtaining Italy, as also the whole Empire, Valentinian the Younger being killed, when Pacianus is said by the same Jerome to have died at Barcelona in the ridges of the Pyrenees under the Prince Theodosius. If therefore we conclude from what has been said, as we seem rightly able to conclude, that Basil migrated from this life at that time at which Gratian reigned over the East as well as the West; the consequence will be that he died on the Kalends of January of the year 379; that he died in the year 379. and that in the same year the Council of Antioch was held, in the month of September or the beginning of October. For Valens fell in the month of August, of the year 378; Theodosius was taken to the Empire on the 19th of January, of the following year. This is our opinion and that of Godefroy Hermant, on the year in which St. Basil migrated from this life, against Baronius, Pagi, and Combefis related above.

§ V. Certain consequences concerning the age of Gregory Nazianzen, father and son.

[30] These two points being established, of the time of Basil's nativity and the year of his death; there remain certain things pertaining to the Chronology of his life, of which some necessarily follow from these, others are inferred by probable conjecture. From what has been said it is understood, Of the several we shall more conveniently defer in the course of the life, each in its proper place; lest we be forced to repeat the same things too often. Further, among them will occur certain things contrary to those which the Reverend Father Daniel Papebroch my Master established in the life of St. Gregory Nazianzen on the ninth day of May: which, since they are rather minute, it is of no consequence to relate the several here, to be more conveniently read in their own proper places. Yet I would have the reader forewarned of this, that I recede in nothing from those things which were afterward said by the same in the Appendix of the seventh Tome of May, on the ninth day, concerning the age of St. Gregory Nazianzen: first, that this Saint died in the year of Christ 391, and in this Jerome is to be adhered to; secondly, Nazianzen equal in age to Basil, that Gregory was equal in age to Basil; which there was asserted almost by conjecture, here I confirm by the authority of the Theologian himself, at the end of the funeral Oration of the Great Basil, addressing him thus: "Thou hast these things from us, O Basil, that is, from a tongue once most sweet to thee, and equal in honor and age." Or. 20 Therefore, as Basil, born about the year 317, and dead in 379, lived only 63 years; so Gregory had almost as many when he came to Constantinople. This age indeed is suitable and fit for the things done by him there, and which would still three years after suffice, for so prolix an oration to be delivered to a most crowded assembly, in praise of the Great Basil; nor worthily enough to be recited, except by an Orator still strong in voice and powers.

[31] Nor does the same age contradict the things which he himself, about the year 371, in his Poem on his own affairs, wrote of his old age: and his often-repeated old age. "Now my head grows white with gray hairs, and my wrinkled limbs are borne, sad, prone to the setting of life." For since he then was passing his 56th year of age, and so had passed far beyond the half of the time of human life, defined by the Prophet, he could describe himself in a poetic verse, as one hastening to old age or the setting of life, nay even bending toward the earth; which whole hyperbolic paraphrase is expressed by the single word "I grow old." Ps. 89 But ten years after, passing his 66th year, with much greater right he thus addressed Olympius the Governor by letter: "Let our gray hair move thee, and his gray hair which has already before, and indeed very often, moved thee." G. Ep. 172 And these things and the like, not rarely to be found in the writings of Basil and Gregory, that they may be conveniently reconciled with their true age; it is not necessary to devise a premature gray hair. For what praise does this deserve? or what force has the white color of hairs above the rest for moving, if it be premature? Nor on the contrary is it necessary to understand such old age, neither premature nor decrepit which through defect is wont to beget contempt rather than praise, when men are called decrepit and doting old men. Let there be understood therefore an age of about sixty years, joined with gravity and prudence; for such old age and gray hair is truly venerable, and has force and authority for persuading, according to Cicero's saying on Old Age: "Mind, and reason, and counsel are in old men."

[32] We escape also, in the Chronology here proposed, the difficulty which the great age of nearly a hundred years of Gregory the elder, Bishop of Nazianzus, brings to others, likewise the great age of the parents, and of Nonna his wife, his contemporary. For since he, about the year 373, died at nearly a hundred years, forty-five having been passed in the Episcopate; it will follow that he was ordained Bishop in the year 327, in his 55th year of age, and was born about the year 273. Or. 19 He could therefore, between his fortieth and forty-fifth year of age, at the end of the last persecution, about 313, marry St. Nonna: who, although perhaps she was not forty, could yet be called his contemporary, since, with respect to the number of a hundred years, which her husband reached at his death, if she counted at least four or five years above thirty, when she married. For, as it is held worthy of praise that equals be joined in matrimony to equals; and the long-deferred matrimony: so it is not wont to displease that a bride be five or six years younger than the bridegroom. But that the marriage was so long deferred by both, the cause, as it seems at least to me, could not incongruously be assigned the calamity of those times, not only because of the persecutions against the Christians, such as Gregory was not yet; but more because of the continual wars among the four Emperors, by whom the Roman Empire was torn, and in a pitiable manner despoiled by tributes and taxes. Nay, since Nonna was always a Christian, most piously brought up by her parents, it is not credible that she would have wished to take a husband addicted to the errors of the Gentiles; unless, first renouncing them, he was reckoned among the Catechumens; which probably was not done before the most savage persecution was taken away.

[33] For the rest, let these things be said by conjecture; but those who, after the Council of Nicaea, establish Basil and the Theologian to have come to light in the year 327 or 328; cannot explain, their opinion standing, how Macrina could have received the dogmas of the faith from the Thaumaturge, whence the son was born about 327, as well as Basil. or how she could have taught the same to Basil; nor can they reconcile with their opinion the old age and gray hair so often alleged by each Saint. Then they must admit that Nonna and Gregory the father began to beget children when they were fifty years old, and that after the husband received the Episcopate, when before in matrimony they had lived without children; which is altogether incredible, especially in the absence of any graver testimony. This our Chronology, established above, we shall therefore follow, that in the Life soon to be given we may assign a fitting time to the rest of Basil's deeds: in which, if, in thy judgment, reader, we sometimes stray from the truth, pardon those groping amid darkness, while we intend to illustrate obscure things.

LIFE

Collected from the writings of himself, of Gregory Nazianzen, of Nyssen, and of other ancients.

Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, in Cappadocia (St.)

BY THE AUTHOR F. B.

PROLOGUE.

Embracing the Eulogy of the saint, from St. Amphilochius.

Oration on the Circumcision of our Lord The great Basil, a great Pontiff in the Church while he lived, not one who penetrated the heavens in body; but who in contemplation and spirit, imitating that first and most divine prince of the sacred Prelates, Jesus Christ, himself also entered within the veil, and to the law of the Spirit placed there, and heard the voice thundering with great dogmas; although he abolished and set aside the law of the letter and of circumcision in the flesh, by the sublime discourses of the Gospel. This is the Basil of great name, Basil is praised and that celebrated torch of the Catholic Church, and the conspicuous sun of Gospel truth, who shines before the whole earth with the rays of his Theology; and whose action no one easily imitates, nor can attain his contemplation. He was perfect in life, and most wise in discourse, accomplished in virtue in all numbers, consummately cultivated in divine and human learning, and nowhere deficient in any matter. Who, before exercised and instructed in all secular wisdom and knowledge, then cast it all down at the footsteps of the disciples of Jesus: who, most accurately and holily taught in all the sacred ancient and prophetic books, was by them rightly advanced to the most consummate faith of Jesus Christ, and made strong in it; who, the Gospel his guide, from secular instruction as by a new Ark, used it for the true prophetic knowledge; but the prophetic and divine doctrine, for the accurate knowledge of the sacred Gospel; and by both, was raised beyond measure to the recognition of the divine Sovereignty.

This is that sublime and excelling column of the Church of God, the lighthouse of Theology, the glory of the Pontificate, and from sacred: the truest man of the Father, the most ardent messenger of the Only-begotten, the dispenser and most faithful scribe of the Holy Spirit, the offspring of wisdom, the fullness of prudence, the storehouse of knowledge, the school of piety, the doctor of sacred and divine counsel, and the most firm and immovable tower of the virtue and power of Christ. This is that narrator and teacher of the fear of God and of the Lord's precept and of virtue, the Great Basil, the royal trumpet of the divine Word, embracing the bounds of the world with an excellent and magnificent voice … By his work the Church, freed indeed from every heresy, is established in the dogmas of all piety; and alienated from the heretical doctrine of every heterodox of whatever sort, devoutly cleaves to the Lord's faith alone and to its domestic doctrine. For by the thundering tongue, or lightning, of this sacred Doctor, Arius was struck and slain; by which he overcame heresies, but Eunomius was routed, and, falling like a thunderous whirlwind into ashes, was consumed by his refutation. Sabellius too thereupon withdrew and faded away; but Macedonius, that furious one against the Holy Spirit, was driven off by the spirit of Basil, and given to destruction: Apollinaris also, that mad and most foolish one, is convicted by his divine discourses, and handed over to everlasting reproach. And, to say it in a word, every growing plantation of tares, and however many other heresies hateful to God there are, both those which the age far before brought forth, and those which the time following his departure to God was about to produce, all, brought near the divine fire of Basilian Theology, blaze and are consumed; no less than, the fire being sent down from heaven at the prayers of Elijah, his holocausts, and the altar and the wood.

This sublime Basil is shown to be a useful and most wholesome teacher to Christians, not only of the Church of the Caesareans, of which he was declared Bishop; and resisted impious Kings. nor only to his own time, and to the men of that age; but also to the regions and cities of the whole world, and so to this whole age and all mortals. Indeed, what his nativity from the beginning, his conversation and training was; what his study and labor in the sacred disciplines; how also the most blessed man, having passed from gentile and profane wisdom to the Christian religion, surpassed, both in his most approved morals and in his most graceful eloquence, almost all the Philosophers who either preceded or followed him; and how thence, ascending the Pontifical throne, and like a wholly splendid lamp placed on the candlestick of the Church, he effectively illumined the whole world with sacred discourses composed for morals; how also, fighting bravely against the heresiarchs and the adversaries of truth, he drove the same Arabian wolves from his sacred flock; and, taking up a contest against impious Kings, and engaging with wicked Prefects, raised the most illustrious trophies of victory over all; how he kept the sheep of Christ in good and rich pastures, by the exhibition of sacred miracles, and by the narration of heavenly and perfect discourses and laws; and himself, as a good Pastor, and as a holy Pontiff, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners, and (for something must be ventured) made higher than the heavens, having himself also wrought the salvation of many in the Gospel, at last released from that humble tabernacle, passed into the place of the admirable tabernacle, even to the house of God; and in the voice of exultation and confession, the sound of those feasting, with the firstborn children of the heavenly Sion reclined and rested—let us undertake to tell.

CHAPTER I.

St. Basil's country, parents, kinsmen, nativity, education, baptism.

[1] Basil a Cappadocian by race, The Great Basil had as his country Cappadocia, especially in the fourth century fruitful of holy and learned men. "There are extant also the books," says St. Jerome, "of the Cappadocians, of Basil, Gregory, and Amphilochius: who all so stuff their books with the doctrines and sentences of the Philosophers, that you would not know what you ought first to admire in them, the learning of the world, or the knowledge of the Scriptures." Nazianzen, of himself and Basil, speaks thus: "Athens held us, like a certain flux of a river, divided from the same fountain of our country into different regions, again coming together." And elsewhere more distinctly he asks Basil why he fled Cappadocia, when he had Cappadocia as his country. Or. 20, G. Ep. 6

[2] But the city, illustrious by his birth, and afterward more illustrious by his Episcopate, born at Caesarea, was Caesarea, as he himself hints, writing to the Caesareans. B. Ep. 141 "Many a time," he says, "I have wondered what has affected your minds toward us, … that you exhort us by writings, through the commemoration of friendship and of country." Sozomen thus describes it: "Caesarea, situated at Mount Argaeus, an ample city and abounding in wealth, and the metropolis of all Cappadocia." book 5 chapter 4 This city the Emperor Julian expunged from the List of cities, the city having suffered much for piety. and took away the surname of Caesar; which it had merited in the reign of Claudius, when before it was called Mazaca. Of this its ancient name and splendor testify Josephus, Philostorgius, Ammianus Marcellinus, and others. Yet it seems chiefly to have been memorable for piety, that, the Christian Religion scarcely yet emerging from the long storms of persecutions, it then flourished with so great a multitude and zeal of Christians, that they dared to destroy the temples of Jupiter the Governor of the city, and of Apollo the Ancestral; and even, while the impious Julian himself reigned, to overthrow the temple of Fortune, which remained; the Gentiles, who were very few, in no way resisting; by which they stirred up against themselves the hatred of the Apostate, being harried by him with more than one penalty on that account. But also Basil himself deplores his country, having suffered many things on various occasions, to Sophronius the Master: "The greatness," he says, "of the calamities which have shaken my country, would have forced me, having set out to the camp, to set forth before thee, magnificent man, what and how great are the things which vehemently afflict our city." B. Ep. 331

[3] His family was illustrious, no less by secular dignity than by eminent sanctity. sprung of an illustrious race, Nazianzen wonderfully extols it, in the funeral Oration of the great Basil. "For indeed," he says, "if I saw him glory in his race and the splendor of his race, or in any of those things which are altogether small, and by which those who have their eyes fixed on the ground are wont to be lifted up; another catalogue of Heroes would surely appear, so many and so great things could we receive from his ancestors for adorning him, and we would yield nothing in this part even to the histories, being certainly superior on this account, that we should be adorned not with feigned and fictitious narrations, but with the very things, of which there are many witnesses. For Pontus furnishes us many narrations from the paternal side (and indeed in no way inferior to the ancient wonders, of which both the volumes of Historians and of Poets are full); many venerable things also this my country Cappadocia, the good nurse no less of youths than of horses; whence we set the splendor of the maternal race over against the paternal race. But of some, both military commands, and governments of peoples, and power and authority in the courts of Emperors, and besides wealth and lofty thrones, and the splendors of public honor and of discourses, were either more or greater? … Of other families, or even of any single man, there are other insignia and narrations, either greater or less, which, like a certain paternal inheritance, begun either more remotely or more nearly, are handed down to posterity; but for Basil, the glory of each race was piety."

[4] He had as father Basil, from whom he also received his name, sprung from Neocaesarea in Pontus; son of St. Basil the Bishop, Nazianzen above asserting that Pontus furnishes many narrations, for the praise of Basil, from the paternal race: but as mother Emmelia, from Caesarea of Cappadocia, as they commonly think; for the reason that our Saint was born in that city; and that Nazianzen affirms and St. Emmelia, that Cappadocia could contribute much to the splendor of his maternal race. Each parent we praised for sanctity of life on the thirtieth of May, on which day they are inscribed in the Roman Martyrology. He had as grandmother on the paternal side St. Macrina, whom for distinction's sake they call the elder, on account of the sister of the great Basil herself bearing the same name. he had a holy Grandmother and sister, She taught our Basil from his tender years the dogmas of the faith, which she had learned from Gregory Thaumaturgus. Of her we treated separately on the fourteenth of January: where we related her glorious exile for the faith, and that of her husband, and the food divinely supplied, from Nazianzen, and proved that it ought to be attributed to them and not to other ancestors of Basil, in the preliminary Commentary at number 75. a grandfather on the maternal side a Martyr, But lest the splendor of the maternal race seem inferior, he had on that side a grandfather, whom, fighting for the confession of Christ, in the persecution of Diocletian and Maximian, the Royal indignation carried off, and distributed all his goods to other masters, by the testimony of Nyssen. Vit. Macr. Basil had likewise an uncle by the name of Gregory, and he adorned with the Episcopal dignity, an uncle Gregory a Bishop, for whose sake probably the name of Gregory was given to Nyssen. Of him Basil makes mention to his brother Nyssen: "Thou hast woven for me one letter," he says: "and, as if written by our most venerable and common uncle, thou hast brought it; deceiving me: for what reason I know not. B. Ep. 44, Ep. 45, 46 I received it, as brought by thee, as if from a Bishop and common father." There are extant to the same his uncle Letters of Basil, in which he praises his gentleness, and his love of peace and concord: but of this it will be treated more fully elsewhere.

[5] That certain of Basil's ancestors, moreover, were sprung from Sebaste in lesser Armenia, we gather from the Oration of Nyssen on the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste, addressing the people of that city thus: and other kinsmen at Sebaste in Armenia. "For you, when

I see, I need to seek no other parents; for you are my fathers, who are also to me the fathers of those fathers: for the country of one's parents contains in itself also the dignity of the parents." And since the cult of those Martyrs was celebrated throughout all Cappadocia, lest we doubt whether that Oration was recited at Sebaste, the words of the same holy Orator make it clear, which could rightly be uttered to no other than the inhabitants of that city. "Do I seem to you," he says, "superfluous and a trifler, who set forth your miracles among you, and caress your ears with your good things?" and a little after, treating of the lake in which the Martyrs were tortured: "The lake," he says, "near at hand, does it need any signs by which it may be recognized to be the lake?" And in the first Oration, or rather the first part of the same Oration: "Let us turn our praise to the things by nature more excellent. But these will no longer be shown to you through words; but it is permitted to look upon the very head of your good things. For who is ignorant of your fruit, that you have produced an ear of Martyrs, this fruitful and copious one, which beyond the number of thirty is enlarged by the multitude and abundance of crops? See this sacred field: hence the sheaves of Martyrs were collected. But if you desire to know of what field I speak; look not far from that which is present. What is this place, which embraces the assembly?" Nor can it be said that Nyssen therefore calls his country Sebaste, because it was of his parents, on the ground that this was anciently numbered in Cappadocia: for in that case he would in vain make mention of his parents, since he himself doubtless was a Cappadocian. Bolland, 3 Feb., on St. Blaise number 1.

[6] That the brothers and sisters of St. Basil were all together ten, The brothers and sisters of Basil. we learn from Nyssen, who narrates that the mother Emmelia addressed the Lord with her last words thus: "To thee, O Lord, I dedicate both the firstfruits and the tithe of the fruits of my womb. Vit. Macr. For this firstborn holds for me the place of the firstfruits; but of the tithe, this last tenth son." If therefore the last was the tenth, they had been no more nor fewer than ten. Further, of these ten four were brothers, Basil, Naucratius, Gregory, Peter, by the testimony of that same Gregory. "Of the four brothers, he who after Basil was the eldest by birth, was called Naucratius … But he was called Peter, in whom the mother had ended her pains of childbearing": which, if of the ten only four were males, it is necessary that the remaining six were females. Vit. Macr. These things being premised, the words of Nazianzen are easily explained, where, enumerating the various ornaments of the aforesaid holy marriage, he reckons the greatest and most illustrious to be felicity in children, and subjoins: "Which indeed that number of Priests and Virgins, to be proclaimed by the name of felicity, clearly demonstrates, and of those who in matrimony applied to themselves such force, that matrimony brought them no harm, so as to keep them from aspiring to an equal glory of virtue." Or. 20 No one can doubt that the great defender of the Trinity, the Theologian, understood the Ternary number, to be proclaimed by the name of felicity: as to the Bishops at least it is certain that they were altogether three. Hence my Master the Reverend Father Daniel Papebroch, on the 30th of May, rightly inferred; that of the six daughters three were virgins, and three joined in matrimony: but Naucratius was extinguished by a premature death. Of the pious education of all it was treated on the same 30th of May, where it was of the holy parents Basil and Emmelia. There remain a few others, of whom we find mention, joined by kinship with Basil. First, Gaudentius, Bishop of Brescia, praises the granddaughters of Basil by a sister. Serm. 17 on the 40 Martyrs. "When," he says, "I was going through the cities of Cappadocia to Jerusalem … in that greatest city of Cappadocia, Caesarea, and granddaughters by a sister we found certain handmaids of God, most worthy Mothers of a monastery of holy Virgins, altogether like Mary and Martha, whom Jesus deservedly loved; sisters by nature, faith, zeal, and integrity of chastity: to whom by their uncle, the Priest and Confessor Basil, were once handed over the venerable Relics of the Martyrs of Sebaste."

[7] I find also among the kinsmen of Basil Poemenius; whom the Saint, not only on account of kinship, and mutual familiarity with each other from boyhood; Poemenius the Bishop his kinsman: but chiefly on account of the excellent ornaments of his virtues, so loved that he did not hesitate to name him the pupil of his eye. B. Ep. 183 & 290 This man (as is to be said more fully below), after he had employed him in various businesses, in a great necessity of the Church, he gave to the people of Satala as Bishop, worthy of the name and office of Pastor which he bore; not, as is the manner of many, hawking the word of God; but one who could please vehemently in the name of the Lord; to those, I say, who desire the sincere faith of God to be preached, Palladia likewise a kinswoman and another a relation. and gladly embrace that life which is conformed to the precepts of the Lord. I find also Palladia, a most grave woman, whom the Saint deigned to call Mother; and whom not only the closeness of race had united to him, but sweetness of morals had set in the place of parents. B. Ep. 366, B. Ep. 422 Finally Basil commends another, the name suppressed, to Helladius the count, calling her Sister, joined to him by affinity, and afflicted with widowhood, and occupied in the guardianship of her orphan son and in managing his affairs. He himself increased the splendor of his race by virtue. And these are the things which I have hitherto been able to gather concerning that holy stock; few of many and for many, to use the words of Nazianzen; which yet I have commemorated not for this, he says, that I might bring some heap of glory to him (for neither does the sea need the rivers which flow into it, even if very many and very great flow in; nor does he whom we now praise need those who contribute something to his encomium) but that I might show with what ornaments he was endowed from the beginning, and looking at what pattern how much farther he shot. Or. 20 For if for others it is great to have received something from their ancestors for glory; greater indeed it is for him to have added something of himself to his ancestors.

[8] Having set forth therefore those things which he had from his ancestors, and which befit his life, let us turn ourselves to him; Born in the year 317 since the discourse is established about a man who wishes nobility to be weighed by virtue. Or. 20 The holy infant Basil came to light, the firstborn among his brothers, about the year 317, as we have shown, like another Samuel: for, as Nyssen says, "the nativity of Samuel and of Basil was divinely given and granted; and as the mother begot him, so also the father begot this one, asked of God." Or. F. And when he had come to that age that he could speak, and be instructed in certain precepts; the first care of his mother Emmelia and his grandmother Macrina was to imbue his tender mind with the first dogmas of the faith, and to form him to all virtue, as he himself testifies to the Neocaesareans: "In this one thing," he says, "I would dare to glory in the Lord, that I have never had false opinions of God, nor by thinking otherwise have afterward changed the judgment of my mind: but the opinion of God which from boyhood I received from my blessed mother, then from my grandmother Macrina, that, increased and grown by just increments, I have preserved in myself … But of our faith what proof can be more evident, than that we were brought up by a blessed woman, our nurse, B. Ep. 79, B. Ep. 75 who came forth from your bosom (I mean Macrina, that illustrious one): by whom also we were taught the words of the most blessed Gregory, which she retained kept with her by the benefit of memory; with which she fashioned and formed us, still infants, as with dogmas of piety." Hence flowed forth that love which shines in his writings toward St. Thaumaturgus: hence, when he was called into suspicion of heresy by calumny among the Neocaesareans, he appealed to Gregory Thaumaturgus; protesting most solemnly that he had never either learned or taught anything foreign to his faith and doctrine. "This contributes very much to concord," he says, "if it is granted to use the same teachers. B. Ep. 75 Now the same are teachers of the mysteries of God and spiritual Fathers both to us and to you, who from the beginning founded your Church; I mean Gregory, that ancient one, and however many after him received the Episcopal See among you; who, rising in succeeding order like the stars, entered into the same footsteps."

[9] then instructed by his father But neither was the diligence of Basil his father in educating his son less. For he praises each parent for so pious a solicitude, in his book on the Judgment of God, writing thus: "By the goodness of the best God and his kindness toward us, through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, freed from the superstition handed down through the hands of the Gentiles, and even then from the first beginning of my age, brought up in the discipline of Christian parents, I was imbued by them, even from boyhood, with the knowledge of the sacred letters, which led me to the recognition of the truth." Nor did his father imbue him only with sacred knowledge, he is taught virtue and the liberal arts. but also with profane learning: for he seems to have publicly taught Rhetoric and Philosophy. For the Armenians, who attacked Basil with contentious questions at Athens, Nazianzen says were joined to him, by friendship still in part and an old fellowship: for they had been instructed in that school. Or. 20 In his first age therefore, under his great father, whom Pontus at that time set forth as a common master of virtue, he is, as it were, wrapped in swaddling-bands; and is formed by that best and purest molding, which David rightly calls daily and opposed to the nocturnal. Ps. 38 That is, by the interpretation of Nicetas, the father formed him better, by imbuing him with morals and knowledge, than by begetting him bodily. Under him, both his life and his discourse alike growing, and rising on high, the excellent youth is instructed; not boasting some Thessalian and mountain cave, as a school and workshop of virtue; nor an arrogant Centaur, the preceptor of the heroes of his time. Nor indeed does he receive from him the art by which to pierce hares with arrows, or to pursue fawns in the course, or to hunt stags, or to excel in warlike matters, or to tame fierce horses excellently (using namely the same as horse and as master); nor is he nourished with the fabulous marrows of stags and lions; but he is taught the liberal arts, and is cultivated for the worship of God; and, to embrace all in one word, through his first and boyish disciplines, he is led to future perfection. For those who have attained either morals alone, or doctrine alone, and are deserted by one or the other; these seem to me to differ in nothing from the one-eyed; for whom, while there is that great defect, there is indeed a greater shamefulness, whether they see others, or are seen by others. with notable progress after his father's example. But those to whom it has happened to excel in each praise,

and to be as it were ambidextrous; these are accomplished in all numbers, and live a life with the blessedness of the other life. Which indeed happened to him, as was fitting; having a domestic pattern of virtue, on which directing the keenness of his eyes, he was straightway the best. And just as we see the foals of horses and the calves, as soon as they have come to light, leap upon their mothers; so he followed his father from close at hand, with an equine and generous impulse, nor did he yield to him by a long interval in the exercise of the highest virtue; nay, if you prefer, even in the very adumbration of virtue, he hinted at the beauty of future virtue, and bore the marks of a more accomplished life before the time of full age.

[10] So pious a solicitude of the father about rightly educating his son God willed to reward with a notable miracle, Nyssen affirming it. "And when Basil," he says, "was once seized by a deadly disease, while still in youthful age; the father saw in a vision in his sleep the Lord, who in the Gospel saved the son for that Ruler, appearing to him; and saying to him those things which the Lord had said to him; namely: Go, The youth is healed of disease by a miracle at the prayer of the same father thy son lives. Or. F. Whose faith he too imitating, received the same fruit of faith which the other received, the safety of his son being recovered through the kindness of God." But that Hermant infers hence that Basil was by nature rather weak, contradicts Nazianzen, saying: "And the praise indeed of beauty, and strength, and stature, with which I see most men delighted, we will leave to those who wish it; not however that in these too he was inferior to any of those who hold small things in price, and roll about the body, when he still flourished in age, nor had philosophy subdued his flesh." Or. 20 And so, that through a longer part of his life he used so weak a health, that nature itself affirmed him to be sickly; not a vice of the body, but the virtue of his soul was the cause: by which, subduing his body, he afflicted it, and frequent diseases, by patient endurance, almost turned into nature. B. Ep. 257 Among these came into the world Peter, afterward Bishop of Sebaste, the tenth of the children: who was at once born and orphaned: for at the time when he was brought to light, the father departed from the living; namely about the year 329, when Basil was reaching his 14th year of age. Vit. Macr.

[11] Bereaved of his father, Basil seems to have dwelt for two or three years with Macrina the elder, and at his death he dwells with Macrina his grandmother. his nurse and grandmother, not far from the city of Neocaesarea, by the river Iris, in a suburban house; in the same place in which afterward Peter ruled a monastery of men, to which Basil himself gave a part of his goods, left him by his parents, and from him received, as long as he lived, the things necessary for his sustenance. Of this house of his education, turned into a monastery, and his goods given to it, there is extant a letter of Basil, which others have understood differently: for it is rather obscure, being written to a certain collector of tributes, perhaps a heathen, or at least less skilled in ecclesiastical matters: but the cause of writing was that this house was burdened with tributes greater than usual. B. Ep. 248 "I confess," he says, "that I have very many at home, namely in my country, joined to me both by blood and by friendship: in a suburban house, afterward turned into a monastery, I acknowledge myself set in the place of a parent, on account of this habit which the Lord has put around me. But I have this son, brought up in that country, which also brought me up: and I pray that that house, in which he was nourished, may always remain in the same habit and state, that thy presence here, most ornate Man, which has done well to all, may by no means give an occasion of sadness to that man. But since even now I am fed and sustained from that house (since indeed I possess nothing else at all of my own, content with the means supplied me by those who love me) I ask thee, so to spare that house in which I was brought up, as one who in that way wilt supply me with an abundance of the things necessary for life and sustenance. But may God for these things deign to grant thee that eternal rest. and endowed with his goods. But I desire thy Dignity to know that it is altogether most true, that the far greater part of the servants which it possesses, which had been left me by my parents, was transferred by me to him, in payment for my education and nourishment. But that payment is not an absolute gift, but a usufruct to the term of life; that, if in any matter they shall be burdened, it may be lawful for them to remit those things back to me at last."

[12] Since Basil acknowledges himself set in the place of a parent to very many, on account of the habit which the Lord had put around him; the son, whom he affirms brought up in the same house with himself; I understand a spiritual one; and perhaps his brother Peter, set over the other Monks, when he wrote this letter. Hermant understood the son of the nurse: wrongly indeed, in my judgment; for the Saint had no other nurse besides St. Macrina. More clearly he treats of the same house to the Neocaesareans: "I," he says, "both on account of the familiarity of this place, to which I became accustomed from boyhood (for here I was brought up with my nurse) and also because afterward too I was for the most part engaged in this place; which (when I fled the urban tumults; and because, by reason of the silence of solitude, I knew it to be convenient for the study of philosophy) I inhabited for several continuous years." Indeed, if anyone consider these fragments of each letter, he cannot doubt of those things which I established at the beginning of this number: but, insofar as they concern the monastery, there will be a place elsewhere of treating of them more fully. B. Ep. 64 As to the education of Basil; since it is certain that he dwelt for some time in the suburban house with his nurse; I find no more fitting time for this sojourn. For in his first years (as we saw above) he was nourished under the care of his mother Emmelia and his grandmother: for the rest of the time his father instructed him, and so in the very city of Neocaesarea. But after the father had departed from the living, it could be that Macrina the elder, with her Basil, and perhaps with Gregory of Nyssa, withdrew to that place; about to pass the few years of life which remained to the octogenarian, outside the tumult of the city and the cares of the family. But Emmelia, with the little ones and Macrina the younger, who now reached the sixteenth year of age, (until the rest grew up) remained in the city, or rather passed to Caesarea, whence she was sprung.

[13] As a youth he knew Dianius the Bishop of Caesarea, But neither did Basil pass his boyhood and adolescence so continuously in Pontus; but that he often ran to his country Caesarea, either for the sake of visiting his mother, or his kinsmen: on which occasion from his first age he looked up to the virtue of Dianius, then a Priest, and from the year 341 Bishop of Caesarea, as Basil himself testifies he did, answering the calumnies of his adversaries, objecting that out of contempt he had been unwilling to communicate with that Bishop. "But did I," tell me, I pray, he says, "anathematize the most blessed Dianius? (for this they have proclaimed of us for the sake of accusing) Where, or when? Before whom, on what pretext? Whether in bare words, or in writing? Whether following others, or from my own authority and audacity, did I first attempt it? O the impudence of men, speaking everything rashly! O the contempt of the judgments of God! They are not content with that fiction, unless they add also in this tragic manner, that I became at some time so insane, that I did not understand my own words. From the time I was master of reason, I know that nothing such was done by me, nor did I ever wish any such thing: whom he denies he ever anathematized, but on the contrary I am the more conscious to myself, that, brought up from my first age in an affection of love toward him, I looked up to the man. For he was of a very honest and illustrious aspect, and endowed with a venerable and sacred gravity. But after the use of a more perfect reason came to me, I acknowledged him venerable for the goods of his soul, and rejoiced in his society, but he always looked up to his virtue; knowing the open and excellent and ingenuous morals of the man, and whatever else was native and proper to him; as proper and peculiar were the placidity and excellence of his soul, joined with gentleness, a becoming modesty, a breast that knew not anger, alacrity and ease of meeting, beautifully tempered with gravity. For these causes, I held him numbered among the men most illustrious for virtue."

[14] baptized by him and ordained Lector. It is indeed this same Dianius, by whom Basil was baptized, then, through the office and order of Lector, brought to the ministry of the Church; as he himself testifies in his book on the Holy Spirit. Cap. 29 But at what time he received Baptism, whether in the first years of adolescence, or after his profane studies were done, before he received the order of the Lectorate, is wholly uncertain. The first is suggested by the piety of the parents and of the son; the other, by the custom of that time; and the example of Gregory the Theologian; who lacked neither piety, nor his parents; and yet was washed in the sacred font only about his 40th year of age. Moreover, if you say Basil was baptized as an adolescent, you will not easily find a reason why he preferred to be baptized at Caesarea rather than at Neocaesarea; unless perhaps he received baptism at this time, when his mother, after the death of her husband, dwelt there, and he himself remained somewhat longer with her. But this could quite fittingly be said: and it would favor such an opinion, that the Saint says he was brought up from his first age in an affection of love toward Dianius, who at that time indeed was not yet a Bishop, but a Priest.

A LITTLE NOTE.

* These words of Nazianzen, "and of those in matrimony who applied no force to the conjugal state to be harmed, &c.," the translator expressed in the masculine gender, "and of those who in matrimony applied to themselves such force, &c." But I, since it is clear that the discourse is of women, judged that the Greek termination common to either gender should in Latin be expressed in the feminine: "And of those women who in matrimony, &c."

* Ep. 84

* book 1 of the Antiquities chapter 7

* book 9 number 12

* book 20

* book 1 chapter 5

CHAPTER II.

Basil's studies at Caesarea and Constantinople.

[15] The Life of Blessed Macrina the elder, grandmother and nurse of our Basil, Macrina being dead, we said must altogether be circumscribed within the space of eighty years or one or another more, on the 14th of January at her Acts; and we confirmed it more fully in the preliminary Commentary. num. 74 and following. But when she had passed to the Lord, namely in the year 332; about the same time, or if you prefer one or another year later, Basil, when he had reached the just years of adolescence, namely the sixteenth or eighteenth; and when he had already gathered from his paternal and domestic instruction a doctrine sufficiently rich: and since it behooved him not to be ignorant and inexperienced of any honest thing; and, in the manner of the little bee, which from any flowers whatsoever gathers the most useful,

and whatever it gathers, to be surpassed by labor and diligence; he made for Caesarea, that he might be a partaker of her Schools: this, I say, illustrious and our city, for it was the guide and mistress of my studies too, the metropolis no less of letters and doctrine than of the cities over which it excels and rules: which, if anyone should despoil of the palm of doctrine, he would snatch away the fairest thing of all and the most proper to it. Or. 20 Basil studies at Caesarea: For while other cities glory in other ornaments, either ancient or new, as I think being adorned either with histories or with certain things to be seen; this one, on the contrary, as arms or tragedies certain marks and insignia, so the glory of letters ennobles and renders illustrious.

[16] One Caesarea is the metropolis of Cappadocia, another of Palestine. whether in Cappadocia? That the former is here to be understood the reason of his journey would persuade; since Basil, as will be said below, set out from Caesarea to Byzantium before he came to Athens. Nor did the fame of doctrine fail this city: for Eusebius, in the life of Constantine, treating of the Bishops who had assembled at Jerusalem for the Dedication of the church; "from Cappadocia," he says, "Bishops who excelled in learning and eloquence, shone out in the midst of the assembly." book 4 chapter 43, B. Ep. 373 And Basil himself, now an old man, deploring the calamities into which his country had fallen, among its fallen ornaments numbers learning: "For the gatherings," he says, "and the speeches through the assemblies, and the conversations of learned men in the forum, and the things which before rendered this city illustrious, have all long since deserted us; so that anyone illustrious for learning and discourse is now more rarely seen through the forum … the Gymnasia are shut, &c." but more probably, nay rather in Palestine: Yet firmer arguments militate for the metropolis of Palestine. For to this, above the rest of the cities, truly a certain chief ornament was learning. For in it Origen established Schools of secular letters or liberal arts, with so great a fame of learning, that wondrous concourses of Students were made to him; to whom he interpreted daily, and therefore received them, that under the occasion of secular literature he might instruct them in the faith of Christ. Jerome, on Writers. Then in the same the same Origen began a celebrated library, which Pamphilus the Martyr and Priest augmented, which survived even to the times of St. Jerome. If therefore in this place Nazianzen had wished the Caesarea of Cappadocia to be understood, he would have praised it in vain for the palm of doctrine, as so proper to it, that by this one thing it was to be distinguished from other cities; since in this praise it could scarcely be compared to the other city of the same name. And how could the holy Orator say that Basil, having gone out from Pontus, made for Caesarea of Cappadocia for the sake of fuller learning, in Greek "he hastened," which signifies a setting-out undertaken with a certain impulse and effort. This, I say, can scarcely be understood of the Caesarea of Cappadocia; since Basil, while still a boy (as was said at numbers 12 and 13) came to the same more often, and sometimes stayed there longer. Finally Nazianzen here speaks of a Caesarea which was the guide and mistress of his own studies too: but that he himself studied in Palestine he affirms: "I," he says, "inflamed with love of the oratorical art, fixed my foot in the academies of Palestine, then flourishing": Basil too therefore fixed it there. Or. 10

[17] Nor let anyone object Gregory the Priest, who in the 10th century wrote a Life of Nazianzen, against which Gregory the Priest seems to think, and in it says that this Saint set out from Nazianzus to Caesarea, thence into Palestine for the sake of studies; and therefore that Caesarea of Cappadocia, not of Palestine, was the guide and mistress of the Theologian's studies, and consequently of Basil's. Nor did that Priest Gregory say or think this so incongruously: for it could be that Nazianzen, who in his own country, not a great city, found no master fit enough, came to Caesarea of Cappadocia to learn Grammar, and perhaps dialectic, in his tender age: for there were there schools of such arts, as in other more celebrated cities; and it was fitting for one still almost a boy not to go far from home. Yet the authority of Nazianzen, who is silent, casts a scruple into me, lest Gregory the Priest was deceived therein, in that he thought of only one Caesarea, and that of Cappadocia. But although in his first age, to be imbued with the first principles of doctrine, Gregory Nazianzen had dwelt at Caesarea in Cappadocia, he is not therefore to be thought to treat in this place of that city: for something more is required, that it may be called the guide and mistress of studies. Let us think therefore that the Theologian, Nazianzen meanwhile remains in Palestine in his 16th year of age, in the year of Christ 332, having left his country, set out into Palestine for the sake of studies, and stayed at Caesarea for about two years, a hearer of Thespesius the Rhetor, as Jerome affirms; and about the year 334, when Basil came to the same in his 18th year of age, he, now eighteen years old, went to other academies of Palestine, drawing out his stay here and there, as the opportunity of hearing the more celebrated masters and love of the oratorical art persuaded. on Writers. For inflamed with it, as he himself testifies, not in one only, but also in the rest of the academies of Palestine he fixed his foot; until, after about four years, he went to Alexandria, about to find there his brother Caesarius, almost two years younger than himself; who at the same time as Gregory had gone out from his country, by the testimony of Gregory himself saying: "Our mother, by a certain maternal vow, and full of love toward her sons, wished this, with his brother Caesarius that, as she had sent forth both at the same time, so she might also see both returning together at once." Or. 10

[18] But if the reason be sought, why Basil, who equaled Gregory in years, yet went out from his country later; this can be assigned; that Gregory had at home indeed a holy father, but not a doctor of letters; but for Basil his father could be a master no less of virtue than of doctrine; and so what Gregory and Caesarius had to learn abroad, Basil had learned at home while his father lived. If however the age of Caesarius, scarcely fifteen years, displease, as immature for such a peregrination: consider that he indeed went away together with his brother Gregory, his parents being left at Nazianzus, but that the latter stayed longer at Caesarea in Cappadocia, before he set out thence to Alexandria. Indeed something similar must be admitted, if Basil and Gregory learned the liberal arts at Caesarea in Palestine. For that they never dwelt there together, these words of Nazianzen sufficiently prove, besides the silence of each: "Athens held us, like a certain flux of a river from the same fountain of our country, divided, by desire of doctrine, into different regions; and again, as if by agreement, God namely so impelling, coming together": by which similitude indeed he seems clearly enough to assert that they never met together, before they came to Athens. Or. 20 Since therefore they never dwelt there together; it is necessary that Gregory, before Basil came to Caesarea, had departed thence: for the latter came from Caesarea to Constantinople, where he stayed no long time; from Constantinople he came to Athens, where Gregory had preceded him by a few months, as will be said in the following chapter.

[19] if however Basil ever studied in Palestine. For the rest, this opinion, of Basil's philosophic studies at Caesarea in Palestine, as the more probable I have hitherto followed, and will further follow: although those ample encomia leave no slight scruple in my mind, with which Nazianzen adorns that Caesarea of which he treats; so that he seems by them to have wished to conciliate the minds of the Caesareans, to whom he spoke: and the scruple is increased by those words with which he seems to address those present: "Let them set forth," he says, "those who educated him with them, or took fruit from his learning; how great, namely, he was to his masters, how great to his equals, &c." These things however, since they do not so press but that they suffer a benign interpretation; I preferred the Palestinian to the Cappadocian, the liberty of thinking otherwise being left to each. But if anyone think Nazianzen here spoke of Caesarea of the Cappadocians, he must detain Basil there, up to his 26th year of age, the year of Christ 340, according to the things which will be said below, by the more probable opinion supposed.

[20] And these things indeed occurred to be disputed as to place and time; but as for what concerns Basil, with how great progress he gave himself here to learning thoroughly all the arts, how great an estimation alike of learning and of virtue he obtained among all, Basil advances in doctrine let them set forth, says Nazianzen, who educated him with them or took fruit from his learning; how great, namely, he was to his masters, how great to his equals, equaling the former, surpassing the latter in every kind of doctrine; how great a glory among all, both plebeians and the chief men of the city, he obtained in a short time; showing a learning greater than that age bore, and again a constancy and gravity of morals greater than his learning; a rhetor among rhetors, even before the sophistic chair; and advances in virtue: a philosopher among philosophers, even before the decrees of philosophy; and what is greatest, a Priest to Christians, even before he entered the Priesthood, so much did they concede to him in all things. Or. 20 But the study of eloquence he held only as an accession and as it were a corollary: gathering only this fruit from it, that by its help and aid he might use it for our philosophy … But his serious and chief study was occupied in this, that he might give himself to true philosophy, and break himself off from the contagion of the world, and join himself to God, and through earthly things gain the heavenly; and through the fluxing and frail things, procure those which are firm and eternal.

[21] over a space of 30 years How long Basil remained at Caesarea cannot be gathered from elsewhere than from the number of years which he spent on profane studies. Nazianzen defines that time as a space of about thirty years, which since it ought to end before the year 356, according to the things said in tome VII of May, which was the fortieth year of their age; it follows that it is to be begun from the year 326, about the tenth of their age; and so that the years are to be numbered which they spent at home on grammar. Pag. 656 Let us establish therefore that Basil stayed at Caesarea for six years, then two at Constantinople (for there, as will be said in the following number, he stayed a short time) and so in his 26th year of age, the year of Christ 342, he came to Athens. But Gregory, at the same time at which Basil stayed at Caesarea and Constantinople, was free for learning thoroughly the sciences in other academies of Palestine, and then at Alexandria: until he too, a few months before Basil, burst through to the same citadel of doctrine. And so it could easily be that Basil, whom he had never seen before his sojourn at Athens, he had in some way known from fame, which we shall show from Nazianzen himself in the following chapter.

[22] He departs from Caesarea to Constantinople, Let us meanwhile pursue with the same Nazianzen the philosophic itinerary of Basil: "From Caesarea," he says, "he is sent to Byzantium, the city holding the primacy of the whole East: for it flourished with most excellent orators and philosophers, whose best things he in a short time gathered by the celerity and magnitude of his genius." Or. 20 That among them was Libanius, the heathen philosopher, seems to me altogether certain; he hears Libanius: but before I establish this by historical arguments, the opinions of others about the teaching of Libanius must be related and examined by me. And

the first indeed that occurs is that of Socrates and of Sozomen agreeing with him. He says that, when Gregory and Basil were adolescents, they were hearers at Athens of Himerius and Proaeresius, the most celebrated Sophists of that time; not at Antioch and afterward, frequenting together the school of Libanius at Antioch in Syria, they came to the highest summit of eloquence. book 4 chapter 26 But these things cannot easily be made persuasive to one considering the letter written by Libanius to Basil: nay they are even convicted of manifest error from this, that, when Basil departed from Athens, and Gregory a little after followed him; each returned not into Syria, but straight into Cappadocia his country. B. Ep. 143 But the journey which Basil afterward made through Syria was not destined for hearing philosophers or rhetors; but for inspecting the life of the Monks, which he desired to imitate: but Gregory so many and so great affairs detained at home, that he could not for a long time even come to Basil, which was most in the wishes of each. And indeed that Gregory was ever a disciple of Libanius at Antioch, he himself being silent of that matter, I cannot believe; but rather that the error crept upon those historians thence, that, since they knew that Libanius had taught at Antioch with a more celebrated fame than elsewhere, and that Basil had been his hearer at least for some time; they thought it consequent that it was done at Antioch: and then thought it a sacrilege to themselves to separate from him even for a little their inseparable Gregory.

[23] The second is an opinion, or rather a conjecture; that Basil, while he stayed at Caesarea in Palestine, nor at Caesarea in Palestine, numbered himself among the disciples of Libanius; who in the year 341, during the earthquakes at Antioch, perhaps fled thither; or, if you prefer, you may believe it done at Antioch, whither Basil turned aside from his journey, setting out from Caesarea to Constantinople, or from Constantinople to Athens. Tom. 7 of May p. 659 But Nazianzen, while before the arrival of Basil he stayed at Athens, ran thence to Antioch, summoned by the fame of Libanius, and impelled by his own impulse, by which he was borne to hearing the more celebrated masters. But I cannot persuade myself that Libanius was ever at Caesarea, much less that he had any disciples there. For in the oration which he entitled on his own fortune, and in which he relates almost to minutiae all things which happened to him in life either prosperously or unhappily, he sometimes mentions earthquakes, more often a pestilence, for fear of which his disciples passed elsewhere; yet he himself either remained in the city, or at most was absent for a short time. But neither is the authority of Socrates and Sozomen in this place of such weight to me, that I should believe that Basil, from his Constantinopolitan or Athenian journey, turned aside to Antioch, Nazianzen being silent, nay openly enough denying it in the preceding number, unless violence be done to his words. But that Gregory ran from Athens to Antioch, contradicts Gregory himself, affirming nor with his Athenian sojourn interrupted, that he was at Athens only a little before Basil, and that the latter came straightway after. Or. 10 But if it were necessary to believe that each Saint gave himself into the discipline of Libanius, I would rather suspect that they, together, in the space of the fourteen years in which they probably studied at Athens, set out to Antioch to hear Libanius, and returned to Athens not long after. To this opinion, however, is opposed, besides that which is great, the silence of Nazianzen, the Letter of Libanius to Basil, in which he says: "But since you thought it worthwhile that you should see Athens too, and had persuaded Celsus of this, I congratulated Celsus that he was joined to your friendship": for from these things it is permitted to gather that Athens had not yet been seen by Basil, when he departed from Libanius; and that he departed not with Gregory, but with Celsus: for how would Libanius, who makes mention of Celsus, have been silent about Gregory, if he had then been with Basil? B. Ep. 143

[24] The third opinion is that of Cardinal Baronius; who in the Life of Gregory Nazianzen, published by us on the ninth of May, nor at Athens; numbers Libanius among the philosophers whom they heard at Athens; and this very thing, he says, Basil affirms. Num. 20 But that Libanius never taught at Athens is plain from Libanius himself in the Oration on his own fortune, and from Eunapius in the Life of Libanius. B. Ep. 146 But Basil, in a certain letter of his to Libanius, asserts that he was in some way instructed by Libanius, but he does not say that this was done at Athens. Pag. 19 The fourth opinion is that of Godefroy Hermant, who says it is probable that Libanius was one of the preceptors whom Basil heard at Constantinople; but at Constantinople. and in his Notes on the same place, the opinions of others being rejected, he shows that either at Constantinople, or nowhere, was Libanius heard by Basil. And rightly indeed, as I think, as to the matter; but wrongly, in his principles. For since he says Basil was born in the year 328, and came to Athens in 344, it would be consequent that, before the sixteenth year of age, Basil studied at Constantinople, under the discipline of Libanius: which will immediately appear incredible to one considering that Basil did not go out from Pontus or Cappadocia before his twelfth year of age; and that at least six years were needed, that, at Caesarea in Palestine or elsewhere, he might attain the great part of the disciplines, as great as he had attained, when Libanius first knew him. B. Ep. 143

[25] This is proved by the testimony of the Saint What therefore is to be said? First it cannot be doubted that Basil at some time used Libanius as a teacher of some sort: for he writes thus to Libanius: "We indeed, O illustrious Man, dwell with Moses and Elijah, and like blessed men, who hand down their doctrine to us in a barbarous tongue; and we speak what we hear from them, true indeed in sense, but rude in words, as these very things which we write indicate: for even if we have attained anything, instructed by you; meanwhile in the time it has slipped away through forgetfulness." B. Ep. 146 Basil therefore was instructed by Libanius; but when and where? Let Libanius himself bring us light, in the oration on his life or fortune. In this, after he had narrated the death of Julian the Apostate, and the beginnings of Jovinian, he subjoins: "The Olympic games were being celebrated among us, and it was my fiftieth birthday year." The brief reign of Jovinian falls in part on the first year of the 286th Olympiad, and from the life of Libanius: in which the Consuls were Jovinian Augustus and Varronianus; and so the year of Christ 364, Libanius was in his fiftieth year of age. From it if you go back fifty years, you will come to the year 314, which would be his birth-year. The same, describing his boyhood, says: who was born in the year 314 "My mother paid money to those who had undertaken the task of educating the boy; but the greater part of the year was spent by me in the fields rather than in the studies of letters. But in this way, four years having now elapsed for me, I had reached the fifteenth year of age (it was the year of Christ 329), then there came upon me a certain ardent love of discourses and eloquence; so that the charms of the fields were no more any care to me: but doves were also given … I was with a man endowed with a most happy memory, who could make adolescents very knowing … and I clung to him pertinaciously … nay even through the forum a book was in my hands. So for five years, with all the nerves of my mind intent and turned to this, when no disease called me back from this course … A companion was joined to me, a Cappadocian, by name Jasion … He whispered to me daily what he had received from older men about Athens, and the things which were done there; while … he related at length the strength of the Sophists, and the orations by which they had conquered others, and had been conquered by others: by which sayings a desire of seeing that region came upon my mind."

[26] If you add the five years, in the time of which these things were done, having set out for Athens in the year 334 to the fifteenth of Libanius's age, and to the year of Christ 329; you will find that he, in his twentieth year of age, the year of Christ 334, set out for Athens. But how long he remained there, gather from himself, speaking thus. "I had it indeed in mind, four other years being now passed, so to depart from Athens, that, my mind still needing it, I might make greater progress in probity … Indeed it has happened to many adolescents, that, when they could not obtain there the first oratorical seats, they came to old age with silence: but, that this might not happen to me, something of this kind was devised by my genius. Pag. 10 I was on familiar terms with Crispinus, an adolescent of Heraclea. … He, summoned home by his uncle … since he needed a companion and friend … ought not to seek another while I survived." Their journey, described more fully, I thus abridge. Setting out from Athens through Macedonia, they came to Constantinople: from Constantinople, the straits of the Pontus being crossed, through Chalcedon, through Astracia, and through a certain third city, they come to the city of Hercules. Then Libanius proceeds: "At Heraclea, all Crispinus's affairs being accomplished, for the sake of which he had undertaken the journey with me as companion, he again stayed at Constantinople: … and after I had gone down to the great harbor, I, going about, inquired who was sailing to Athens. then invited at Constantinople Then one of the teachers, having seized my cloak (it was Nicocles the Lacedaemonian) turned me to himself, and said: 'You ought not to undertake this voyage, but another.' 'What other,' said I, 'who am desirous of Athens?' 'Because,' he said, 'it would be expedient for you, sweetest of things, staying with us, to govern the children of these many and blessed men. Leave therefore the ship, and obey me; and harm neither yourself nor us, nor flee the many and ample goods which come of their own accord; nor, when it is permitted you to command here, sail that you may obey. This very day I will hand over to you a kingdom, forty adolescents, the sons of those who hold the first place among the citizens; and if the foundation be once laid, you will see great wealth flow in thence …' I said I would do so, and would not be unobliging: but yet secretly from him I withdrew myself into the ship … But not, because I sailed there, having promised Nicocles I would stay, was I a liar or a deceiver, nor did I delight in imposture; but I established an oath, bound by which I had departed on this condition, that I would return. Wherefore when I had come, and had not perjured myself; in a two-wheeled carriage, winter coming on, enduring the troubles of the storm, I went, that to the words given to Nicocles I might add the whole work. But this office was, that I should preside over the youths."

[27] These things I have thought should be related in Libanius's own words, that it may appear he undertakes to educate adolescents there, that that Sophist was not of advanced age, when he came to Constantinople; and that among the first four years passed at Athens, easily one, and perhaps another, flowed by, before, on the occasion of Crispinus departing to his country, having set out for Heraclea, returning thence through Constantinople to Athens, from Athens again to Constantinople, he at last fixed a stable seat there: for he did not fly over those cities in passing; but everywhere seems to have drawn out at least some stay. Since therefore we have shown above that Libanius, in his twentieth year of age, the year of Christ 334, came

to Athens; if we add the four years which he passed at Athens; then two, consumed in various journeys; it will be consequent that he began to instruct disciples at Constantinople in the year of Christ 340, in his twenty-sixth year of age. About that time it could easily be that Basil came from Caesarea to the same Royal city, namely in the year 342, himself twenty-six years old. For on account of the things which we said about the age of Basil, we do not think him to have been younger than Libanius by more than two years; nor properly to have used him as a master; but rather, where Basil found him in the year 342, to have associated familiarly with him as with a learned man and master of the youth, and to have profited not a little from so learned a conversation. All these things Libanius himself confirms, writing thus to Basil: "For I, whom you think to have forgotten you, long ago revered you, when you were still an adolescent; because I saw you so endowed with temperance, that you contended even with old men; and that in that city which teems with pleasures; then having already attained a great part of the disciplines." B. Ep. 143

CHAPTER III.

Basil's studies at Athens: the friendship contracted with Gregory Nazianzen.

[28] About the year of Christ 343, Gregory Nazianzen passing about his twenty-eighth year of age, They come to Athens Basil being born just as many years, is sent from Constantinople to Athens, the chief seat and dwelling of letters, by God and at the same time by an insatiable and illustrious desire of learning: Athens, I say, truly golden to Gregory (as he himself says), and, if to anyone else, the parents of good things. For they presented to him Basil, not indeed before unknown to him, but yet to be more fully known: and so, seeking learning, he found blessedness; and to him in an unequal manner happened what happened to Saul, who, seeking his father's asses, found a kingdom; and gained more in the thing which he did in passing, than in that which was his care. Or. 20 Athens therefore held Basil and Gregory, like a certain flux of a river, divided from the same fountain of their country into different regions, Basil and Gregory, by desire of learning; and again, as if by agreement, God namely so impelling, coming together. And Nazianzen indeed it had a little before, but Basil not much after, and indeed awaited with a wonderful and brilliant hope: for he was on the tongues of many before he had arrived; nor was there anyone who did not think it went splendidly with him, if he should first occupy what he awaited with the highest zeal. From these things, as it is manifestly understood that Basil, before he came to Athens, was in some way known to Gregory; so also it can be gathered fairly certainly that it was not necessary, for contracting such an acquaintance of any kind whatsoever, that they had dwelt together before. For it could be, as was said in the preceding Chapter, that Gregory, from fame alone, conceived so great an esteem of Basil. If however anyone wish that they, before they went away into Palestine, stayed together for some time at Caesarea in Cappadocia, of more advanced age than usual; I will easily grant it. And of Basil indeed it is clear that he sometime studied there, as I showed in Chapter I: of Nazianzen Gregory the Priest affirms it. It also seems congruous to this narration, that Basil and Gregory came to Athens not wholly as youths, otherwise than very many other adolescents: which certainly is clear of Libanius and Eunapius. For the latter, in his sixteenth year of age; the former in his twentieth, came to that city. But our Saints were of more advanced age, as having before been instructed in other academies, and attained a great part of the sciences, so that thereupon they were held in veneration by the rest: by which the chronology hitherto set down by us is confirmed.

[29] At that time there flourished at Athens various Sophists, Epiphanius, Diophantus, Hephistion, Himerius; among whom, where, among their Masters, the chief was Proaeresius, both in number of disciples and in eloquence, Proaeresius excelled, by the testimony of Eunapius, his disciple, now an octogenarian. That he himself was a Cappadocian from Caesarea, Hermant affirms, but proves by no authority. But Eunapius, in his book on the Lives of the Philosophers, says he was sprung from interior Armenia, which is contiguous to the region of the Persians. Yet it is no wonder that Basil and Gregory were numbered among his disciples: since all Pontus and the neighboring nations sent him disciples, admiring that man as a good native, and born among them. There joined themselves to him, with all Bithynia, the Hellespont, who, summoned by Caesar Constans into Gaul, and whatever of lands runs out above Lydia through what is now called Asia, even to Caria and Lycia and Pamphylia, whatever also is included by the Taurus: nay even all Egypt, for his celebrity in speaking, fell to him as a peculiar possession; and the region which is drawn out above Egypt toward Libya, and is bounded by unknown but yet inhabited limits. This Proaeresius, summoned by Caesar Constans into the Gauls, was held in such esteem, that among the purple-clad and the most honored he was admitted to the table as a fellow-diner: there too he was much esteemed, for his stature and the rigor of his life; but since the men of that climate could not, by inspecting, fully attain his disquisitions, nor measure or admire with their eyes the secrets of his mind; transferring their admiration to the sight and to the things subject to the eyes, they were astonished at the beauty of his body and his eminent stature; beholding with difficulty, as it were, a colossus and some more august statue: for he stood one foot taller than the rest, eminent among the very tallest of his time. Those who contemplated the man's temperance, judged him bereft of affections and altogether iron; because, using a worn and obsolete cloak, and unshod, he turned the Gallic winters and frosts into delights, and drank the Rhine almost frozen; by which reason indeed he passed his whole course of life, and his rule of living, never having tasted a hot drink. The Caesar therefore sent him to Rome, led by a certain ambition, that they might see of what sort were the men subject and obedient to the Empire. But the Romans had nothing to admire singularly; so far did all things exceed mortal nature. At last, when they had resolved to commend and honor the man for his various gifts, they consecrated to him a statue of bronze of equal size, with this inscription: "Rome the Queen of things to the King of Eloquence." To him preparing his return to Athens the Emperor granted that he should ask a precarious gift. But he, as was worthy of himself, demanded islands, not few in number nor small, then honored at Rome for his eloquence, tributary and tax-paying to the city of Athens in paying grain: these the Emperor granted, and added a chief dignity, that he should be called Prefect of the camps: lest anyone should envy that he carried off so great a force of wealth from the public.

[30] He was moreover in esteem with Julian the Apostate, whose instructor he had been, as his letter to him indicates: he displeased Julian on account of his Christianity. yet with greater honor, by the testimony of Suidas, he attended Libanius the heathen Sophist, against the judgment of the learned; that he might afflict Proaeresius the Christian with grief, by preferring the other to him. But this profited him most for an immortal name, that he had Saints Basil and Gregory as disciples, and that he endured a persecution of some kind from the Apostate; nay that he was unwilling even to use the privileges granted him by him, that he might the more detest his impiety: for, as Jerome writes in his Chronicle, a Law being given that Christians should not be teachers of the liberal arts, when Julian specially granted to Proaeresius that he might teach Christians; he of his own accord deserted his School. Of Himerius, whom Socrates and Sozomen name, the other master of Basil and Gregory, I find nothing singular written: for he was unknown even to Eunapius, although he confesses that he lived at the same time as himself.

[31] So far of the preceptors of each Saint: let us add about the fellow-disciples. Among them one was Celsus, The companions of his studies, Celsus, who together with Basil heard Libanius at Constantinople; and thence, that man persuading and accompanying, went away to Athens: which Libanius, however much he bore their departure ill, yet esteemed Celsus happy, that he was joined in friendship to Basil. B. Ep. 143 This Celsus was heaped with great honors under Julian the Apostate, and brought to chief offices. Another was Sophronius the master, Sophronius to whom Basil writes in favor of Gregory Nazianzen. B. Ep. 84 A third is assigned, a certain Eusebius, probably a Bishop; for to him Basil commends Cyriacus the Priest, and makes mention of their old friendship in these words: "For of how great moment do you think it was to me, Eusebius, to see and embrace Eusebius the best of all; and by the benefit of memory to return again to youth; and to recall to mind those days, in which we had both one dwelling, and one hearth, the same pedagogue too, at once both recreation, and study, and delights, and want, and all things among us equally common? B. Ep. 11 Of how great moment do you think I would have esteemed it, if through your presence it had been permitted to enjoy all these things by remembering; and, this grievous old age shaken off, again from an old man to be seen made a youth." But was this so great familiarity between them at Athens? So Hermant believed; but I have no ground to affirm or deny it: for they could have dwelt together at Caesarea in Cappadocia or in Palestine.

[32] The fourth, and he the most memorable of all, was Julian the Apostate; and Julian. to whom Basil writes thus: "I recall to mind for these things your zeal, with which we learned together the sacred and best studies at Athens, and came together to reading the divine letters." B. Ep. 208 Nor yet did that impious man, by love of profane or sacred sciences, thrust himself into the close familiarity of Basil and Gregory: for, having long since embraced in his mind idolatry and magic, he aimed only at this, to conceal his impiety, that he might lurk the more securely. But of this enough was treated on the 9th of May in the Life of Nazianzen by Baronius: where we noted that Julian came to Athens in the year of Christ 355, after the slaying of Gallus, perpetrated at the end of the preceding year.

[33] Now let us explain whence, and in what way, and from what beginnings the friendship was forged between Gregory and Basil, or (to speak more truly) the conspiration of souls and conjunction of nature. Of the adolescents at Athens By a certain insane zeal toward the Sophists, very many and most foolish adolescents are held at Athens, not only the ignoble and obscure, but also the noble and illustrious; as being a certain miscellaneous multitude, and youths, and so made that their impulses can scarcely be repressed. Or. 20 That therefore which we see happen in equestrian contests to those who are delighted with horses and spectacles; for they leap up, shout, throw dust into the sky, sitting manage the reins, beat the air, join the horses with their fingers as with goads now to one side now to another; and, when none of these things is in their power, easily exchange among themselves the charioteers, the horses, the stations of the horses, the leaders of the contest, (and that who, indeed? for the most part the poor and those laboring in want, and to whom food does not suffice for even one day) this very thing also plainly happens to them about their preceptors, an immoderate zeal toward their masters: and other professors of the same art, and their rivals; laboring namely at this, both that they themselves may be more, and may by their work make them more wealthy.

And that thing is vehemently absurd and prodigious. The cities, the roads, the harbors, the peaks of the mountains, the plains, the solitudes, finally all the parts of Attica and of the rest of Greece, and indeed the greatest part of the inhabitants, are preoccupied: for they have them too drawn into parties for their studies.

[34] But when some youth has come, and has come into the hands and power of those by whom he is captured (and he comes either of his own accord, or compelled) then indeed this is the Attic custom for them, and a game mixed with a serious matter. Of the companions arriving First he is received in hospitality by some one of those who first seized him; either of his friends or relations, or who are of the same country, or who are especially skilled in the art of sophistry, and procure gains for the masters, and on that account are held in the highest honor and price by them; since for them it is in the place of pay, to have those who study their advantages. Then he is harassed with jeers by any one: which indeed, if I am not mistaken, a playful exercise they do for this, that they may contract the minds of the novices, and from the beginning bring them into their power. But he is harassed by some more boldly, by some more learnedly, according as that man is either of rustic and inept manners, or endowed with urbanity. And this indeed seems to the ignorant very horrible and inhuman; but to those who know this beforehand, exceedingly pleasant and sweet: for this display of threats is greater than the thing itself. Then through the forum he is led with a procession to the bath: but the procession is in this manner. Those who perform the office of leading the youth, set in order, and distinguished by equal spaces, two by two go before him to the bath: but when they have come nearer, as if seized by a fanatic frenzy, and an inept one. they raise an immense clamor with leaping (but this clamor forbids them to go further; but that they should halt, as if the bath by no means admitted them) and at the same time, the doors being struck, when through the din they have struck fear into the youth, afterward, entrance being granted, then at last they assert him into liberty; and returning from the bath, thenceforth receive him as an equal and a companion: and this to them is the most pleasant of this whole ceremony, namely to be freed as soon as possible from those who show annoyance.

[35] Then therefore his own and great Basil, not only Gregory himself attended with veneration; From this Basil is freed through Gregory; because he beheld both the gravity in his morals, and the maturity and prudence in his discourses; but he persuaded others also, to whom he was not so known, that they should do the same. So among many he was straightway in veneration, as those who by fame and hearsay had already known him beforehand: from which it was effected that he, almost alone of all who came to Athens for the sake of studies, was freed from the common law, having attained a greater honor than the condition of a novice seemed to bear. This was for Basil and Gregory the prelude of friendship, hence the little spark of their conjunction, so were they wounded with mutual love. and disputing against the Armenians Afterward something of this kind also happened. The Armenians are not a simple and open nation, but rather very covert and dissembling. Then therefore some, long since joined to Basil in familiarity and friendship, and that either from his father or from old fellowship (for they had been instructed in that school) came to him under the appearance of friendship; but led by envy, not benevolence, pressed him with contentious rather than learned and subtle questions, and at the first onset tried to subdue him; both because they had long since known his excellent disposition, and because they bore it very ill that so much honor was held to him at that time: for they thought it grievous and not at all to be borne, that those who had first put on the philosophic cloaks, and had before bestowed labor in pouring out words, should by no means be preferred to a foreigner and novice. But Nazianzen, a lover of Athens, and (as he confesses of himself) foolish (for he had not felt the envy, trusting in the covering of the brow) bore it with an unworthy mind that the glory of Athens was crushed in them, and so very swiftly despised. And so, supporting the now succumbing and back-turning adolescents, by bringing the disputation back; and bestowing on them the weight of his aid (in matters of this kind even a very small accession can do anything) first attacked by him. he set, as Homer says, the heads equal. But when he understood the head of the disputation, which now could not even lie hidden, but plainly betrayed itself; suddenly changed, he turned his rowing to the stern; and standing on Basil's side, rendered the victory not ambiguous. From which thing, as Basil was of a most acute genius, he straightway took great pleasure; and suffused with alacrity, pursued those strenuous youths disturbed in disputation, nor before ceased to strike them with argumentations, than he had wholly turned them to flight, and attained a victory not doubtful. Hence therefore for the Saints another, he contracts friendship with him, no longer a spark of friendship, but a clear and lofty torch, is kindled. And they indeed thus departed, the business unfinished, both much accusing their own temerity, and on account of the snares conceiving so great indignation against Gregory, that they even declared open enmities against him, and objected betrayal, not only of themselves, but of Athens itself: since at the first onset they had been confuted by one man, and affected with ignominy, and that of such a kind, as had no confidence as yet of the time spent there.

[36] and receives consolation in his grief. But Basil (for it is a human affection to grieve, when, great things being conceived in hope, we suddenly fall short of them, and see them inferior to our opinion) seeing that the same had happened to himself too, was mourning, was distressed, had nothing on which to congratulate himself about his arrival; sought what he had fashioned for himself in hope; called Athens a vain felicity. But Gregory took away from him the greatest part of his grief, both engaging with arguments, and soothing him with reasons; suggesting to him what the thing was, that a man's morals are not recognized straightway, but in a long time and most perfect familiarity and habit of life; nor learning perceived by those who make trial of it, from few and brief arguments. By this reasoning, when he recalled him to tranquility of mind, and at once both gave and received a specimen of benevolence, he bound him to himself with closer bonds. But when in the progress of time they confessed their desire mutually to each other, and that philosophy, namely Christian perfection, was what they sought; They mutually declare their desire of virtue. then indeed each was now anything to the other, comrades, fellow-dwellers, concordant, looking to one and the same thing, gathering for each other day by day a more fervent and firmer desire. For the loves of bodies, because they are of fluxing things, themselves also flow, no otherwise than the flowers of spring (for neither does matter joined to flames remain, but is extinguished together with it; nor does desire, the fuel withering, subsist) but chaste loves and pleasing to God, since they are of a stable and firm thing, are therefore also more lasting; and the greater the appearance of beauty set before them, the more closely also do they bind both themselves, and among themselves, the lovers of the same things: for this is the law of heavenly love.

[37] When therefore they were of this mind toward each other, and of such a kind, having, as it were to a chamber endowed with beautiful walls (as it is in Pindar) subjoined golden columns; Hence friendship increased, then at last they proceeded further, using God and desire as helpers … An equal hope of learning, that is, of the thing of all most envied, led them: and yet from the hope envy was absent, emulation from zeal; this being the contest of each, not which should bear the first place, but which should yield it to the other: for each held the other's glory as his own; one soul seemed to be in both, bearing two bodies. But if no faith is to be given to those who say that all things are situated in all; yet to them certainly it is to be believed, that each was wholly in the other and with the other. One work and care for each, was virtue; and by the common study of virtue and learning, and to live for future hopes, and so to prepare themselves, that before their departure from this life, they might migrate hence: which indeed setting before their eyes, they directed their life and all their actions to this, that they might follow the leading of the divine precept, and each sharpen for the other the zeal of virtue; and so each was for the other a norm and rule, by which the right is discerned from the crooked. For they had familiarity not with the most petulant and most shameless of their fellows, but with the most chaste; nor with the most pugnacious, but with the most peaceful, and those whose familiarity brought the greatest fruits: having this namely explored, that it is easier to contract vice, than to impart virtue: just as it is also easier to be infected with another's disease, than to bestow health. Moreover they delighted in disciplines, not so much most pleasant, as best; for hence too, bad familiarities either to virtue or to vice, youths are formed. Two ways were known to them, the one first and more excellent, the other second and of inferior price; that namely, which led to the sacred houses and those who teach there as doctors; but this, which led to the external preceptors: all the rest, which led to feasts, spectacles, celebrated gatherings, banquets, and spectacles they avoid: they had left to others with an equal and willing mind. For nothing is to be made much of, which contributes nothing to living rightly and honestly, nor makes its zealots better.

[38] Now while others have certain surnames, either received from their parents, In the Christian name alone they rejoice, or procured from themselves, that is, from their own studies and institutes of life: to them on the contrary it was a great thing and a great name, both to be and to be called Christians; and by that they were more elated than Gyges by the turning of the ring-bezel (if indeed this were not fabulous) by which he seized the tyranny of the Lydians; or Midas by the gold, which procured destruction for him, when, having obtained his wish, he possessed nothing besides gold; which also is a Phrygian fable. For why should I mention the arrow of the Hyperborean Abaris, or the Argive Pegasus? to whom it was not so much to be borne through the air, as to them by mutual work and at the same time to be lifted up to God. And, to bring the matter into few words: Athens is pestiferous indeed to others, as far as concerns the salvation of the soul (for this is not rashly thought by pious men: for they abound, beyond all the rest of Greece, in evil riches, that is, in tricks; and it is difficult not to be hurried into error together with their praisers and patrons) but to them no harm was done by them, as being fortified and fenced in mind; nay rather, what is scarcely credible, hence they were confirmed in the faith, recognizing the fraud and imposture of them, and there despising the demons, and they despise the idols; where the demons are held in admiration. But if there is, or is believed to be, any river flowing sweet through the sea; or an animal leaping in the fire by which all things are consumed; this they were among the herds of their equals.

[39] But this is the most illustrious, that with them

there was a certain not ignoble fellowship, others too from their society become more celebrated. having Basil as preceptor, and following him as leader, and rejoicing in the same things; although otherwise pedestrians, (as the old proverb says) running to the Lydian chariot, that is, to his course and morals; from which they attained this, that not only among the preceptors and companions, but among all Greece too, and especially the most illustrious men of Greece, they were famous and illustrious. Nay they even went beyond the bounds of Greece, as became clear from the many commemorating these things. For their preceptors indeed, but especially he himself and Gregory. Proaeresius and Himerius, were celebrated among as many men as Athens; but among as many men as there was talk of their preceptors, among just as many was there also talk and proclamation of them: and they were and were called a certain pair, not obscure and uncelebrated, among them. Nor indeed were Orestes and Pylades anything of this kind among them, nor those sons of Molion celebrated in the Homeric verse, whom the society of calamities and the excellent art of charioteering ennobled.

[40] On such an occasion the friendship was contracted and grew between Basil and Gregory, which they cultivated first at Athens, then through the rest of life. But the praise of Basil from knowledge and virtue Nazianzen thus pursues: "Who was so gray in prudence, even before gray hair, Basil zealous of virtue and learning, since by this thing Solomon too defined old age? Or. 20 Who was so venerable, whether to old men or to youths? I speak not only of the men of our memory; but also of those who lived a long time before. Who needed learning less on account of his morals? who yet joined a richer learning with morals? What kind of discipline is there, supreme in the several parts of it: in which he was not versed; and so excellently versed, as if he had labored in that alone; thus namely embracing all things, as not even one could anyone; the several things again so to the summit, as if he had learned nothing else besides? For to the keenness of his genius zeal was added, from which mastery over arts and sciences is procured: for since by the celerity of his nature he needed labor and effort least, just as neither labor on account of the greatness of his genius; he yet so joined each, that it was not clear enough by which title he was the more admirable. Who in Rhetoric, that I mean breathing the force of fire, was to be compared with him, although his morals differed from the morals of rhetors? Who in Grammar, which forms the tongue to Greek style, collects histories, presides over meters, prescribes laws to poems? Who in Philosophy, doubtless a lofty knowledge, and stepping upward? whether you regard that part which is placed in action and speculation, or that which is occupied in logical demonstrations or oppositions and contentions, which they call Dialectic; in which he so excelled, that for those who disputed with him it was easier to extricate themselves from labyrinths, than to escape the snares of his arguments, whenever the matter so demanded.

[41] But astronomy, geometry, the proportions of numbers, also in Mathematics, he was content to have learned only so far, that he might not be surpassed by those who are skilled and learned in things of this kind; whatever beyond, as unfruitful for the worshippers of piety, he prudently despised: so that what he chose may be more admired and proclaimed, than what he left; and again that which he left be extolled with greater praise than what he chose. For the skill of medicine, which is the fruit of philosophy and labor and industry, the disease of his body and the cure of disease had made necessary to him; whence beginning, he came at last to the habit of the art. But I understand that part of that art, not which is occupied about the conspicuous and things subject to the eyes and humble, but which consists in doctrine and philosophy. But what are all these things, however great and illustrious, if they be compared with the doctrine of his morals? For these earthly things could not satiate a soul gaping after heavenly things. Or. F. Whence Nyssen compares him to Moses, the Legislator of the Hebrews: "No one," he says, "will envy, if it be shown; that our Master, in what things he could, imitated the life of the Legislator. But in what things did that imitation consist? yet more in virtue, The woman who, ruling the Egyptians, had adopted Moses, took care that he should be instructed in domestic discipline, not departing from the maternal breasts, as long as it was fitting that his first age be nourished with such nourishment: but this the truth testifies also of our Master: for when he was educated by external wisdom, he always clung to the breasts of the Church, growing and increasing spiritually by her doctrines."

[42] concerning a letter to Apollinaris But although Basil with so great innocence of morals stayed at Athens, yet the envy of the malevolent once found something to carp at. He himself, when he was at Athens, wrote a courteous letter to Apollinaris, afterward a Heresiarch. This his adversaries afterward abused, to bring a calumny upon him, as if he agreed with the Heretics: which he refutes, writing thus: "Let my words judge me; but for the errors of others let no one condemn us; nor let anyone object the letters which we wrote twenty years ago, he excuses himself. in the place of proof, as if I now made common cause with those who afterward composed heresies. For we, since before such compositions we were laymen, wrote to laymen, nothing about the cause of faith, nor such as these now circulate to our calumny; but that we might greet friends, we simply addressed them by letters."

CHAPTER IV.

The departure of Sts. Basil and Gregory from Athens; his pious peregrination through Syria and Egypt.

[43] In the year 356 or at the end of the preceding, almost one after Julian the Apostate had come to Athens; Basil and Gregory, when they were now most excellently instructed in all the sciences which are taught there, and no less wearied of profane studies; Basil, it was to be done by them that they should return into their country, and begin a more perfect kind of life, and seize the things conceived in hope and compacted among themselves. Or. 20 The day of departure was at hand, and whatever pertained to departure; final addresses, escortings, recallings, groans, embraces, tears; for nothing is so troublesome and bitter to anyone, as for those who were educated there together, with great feeling of the Athenians, to be torn both from Athens and from each other. Then therefore a sad and miserable spectacle worthy of commemoration happened: a choir of companions and equals and even of some masters stood around them; utterly denying that they would grant them the power of going away; beseeching, compelling, exhorting, finally doing and saying all those things which it is likely are done by those who are in grief. But Basil, when he had set forth the causes why he so earnestly contended for his return, proved superior to those who tried to retain him; and, though with difficulty, yet obtained the power of going away. But Gregory was left at Athens, partly softened by the prayers of his friends, partly betrayed in a certain part by Basil; for he suffered himself to be drawn away by him, so as to dismiss one who did not dismiss; and to give his hands to those by whom the latter was drawn: a thing indeed, before it happened, that seemed incredible to Nazianzen: for there was made as it were the cutting of one body into two parts, he returns to his country. and the slaying of each; or the disjunction of oxen which were nourished together, and drew the same yoke, a certain mournful disjunction of each on account of those bellowing, and bearing the separation very ill. But this calamity was not drawn out for long for Gregory; for he could not endure to be seen miserable any longer, Gregory soon following. and to render to all the reason of his separation. But not so long a time afterward staying at Athens, by the desire of his soul he imitated that Homeric horse; and the bonds of those by whom he was retained being broken, he beats the plains with his feet, and is borne with an impulse to his companion. Yet he did not overtake him: for, as he himself narrates, finding at Constantinople his brother Caesarius, carried to this city from Alexandria by sea, he returned with him into his country Nazianzus, to satisfy his parents' vow. Or. 10 Nor yet could he have come before the end of the year 357; since the things which he narrates as done at Constantinople, and which are related in his Life, require much time.

[43] After their departure After the departure of the Saints from Athens, the glory of Athens began more and more to vanish. From the time indeed of the Apostle Paul, the primacy which they had held among the cities of Greece had been transferred to Corinth, by the testimony of Chrysostom; only the fame of learning persevering there, by which they still excelled among all the academies. on 1 Corinthians But that too, after Basil and Gregory had migrated thence, in the space of twenty years so failed, that, by the testimony of Synesius, scarcely anything survived, except some ruins, preserving the memory of great things: for writing to his brother he derides Athens in these words: "I gather the fruit of Athens however much, and so I seem to myself made wiser by more than a palm and a finger: the glory of Athens vanished: but let me here too give you a certain experiment of my new wisdom. Ep. 136 For, for example's sake, I write to you from Anagyrus, and I have been at Sphettus, and at Thria, and at Cephisia and Phalerum. May the shipmaster perish miserably, who carried me here: for Athens at this time has nothing venerable, except the famous names of the places. And just as, a victim being slain, the skin is left, for an indication of the once-living animal; so philosophy being expelled hence is left, that one walking about may admire the Academy and the Lyceum, and, by Jupiter! the varied Portico surnamed of Chrysippus the philosopher; which now is not varied, for the Proconsul took away the tablets, into which Polygnotus of Thasos had put his art. Now indeed in our times Egypt nourishes excellent offspring: but Athens, which once was the dwelling of the wise, at present the makers of honey adorn. Here therefore is a pair of Plutarchic wise men, who gather youths in the theaters not by the fame of studies, but by their honey-jars." Reading these things you will easily assign the cause, why afterward Basil sent the young Cappadocians, to be instructed in philosophy and rhetoric, not to Athens, but to Antioch to Libanius the Sophist.

[44] Basil, returned home But having returned home, Basil to Caesarea, Gregory to Nazianzus, when they had served the world and the stage somewhat, that they might in some way satisfy the desire of very many (for they themselves indeed abhorred ambition and the theatrical ostentation of genius), are made their own masters as soon as possible, and from beardless youths are reckoned among men; ascending more bravely and manfully to philosophy, embraces the zeal of virtue, joined not indeed in body, but in desire and love. For Basil is retained by the city of Caesarea, as another founder and preserver: but Gregory piety toward his parents, and the care of their senile age, and the assailing calamities, held drawn away from his society. Here Nazianzen interrupts the thread of the history, passing straightway to the Priesthood received by Basil. Vit. Macr. Therefore the things done in the meanwhile we shall seek from elsewhere. Nyssen writes that St. Macrina the younger contributed not a little to Basil's sanctity. "From the public gymnasia of letters, in which he had long been engaged," he says, "the Great Basil returns,

when his sister Macrina urged him, the Great Basil returns, the brother of that same Macrina: whom she, thinking him exceedingly puffed up with knowledge and eloquence, and despising all dignities, and surpassing in arrogance those who were in magistracy, incited with such celerity to the same zeal of Christian wisdom, that, the glory of the world being set behind him, and the glory of eloquence despised, embracing through perfect poverty this laborious and toilsome manner of living, the glory of profane wisdom being set behind, he built for himself a ready way to virtue. This decree indeed had been made by Basil and Gregory before they departed from Athens: but Macrina, being ignorant of this, did not cease to exhort her brother to contempt of the world and Christian perfection, and to add such a spur to one already running of his own accord, that at last the Great Basil, like another Moses, renounced and repudiated the feigned and fictitious kinship of the falsely-named mother, unwilling to be celebrated and to shine by the name of that study of which he was ashamed: for when he had repudiated all the glory begotten of letters and external disciplines, he transferred himself to a humble institute of life, and preferred the Hebrews to the Egyptian treasures. Or. F.

[45] Then Basil, since he lacked Nazianzen, entered upon certain necessary peregrinations, He travels, and by no means alien from the goal of philosophy proposed to himself. Orat. 20 Basil himself narrates the fruit of those peregrinations. I, he says, after I had spent much time on vanity, and had worn away almost all my youth in vain study, by which I was held, while I lingered in laying hold of the disciplines of the wisdom infatuated by God; at length at last, when, as if awakened from a heavy sleep, I looked back to the admirable light of the Gospel truth, and recognized the uselessness of the wisdom of the princes of this world who are brought to nought; desirous of learning virtue, having greatly bewailed that former and miserable life, I wished a guide to be given me, who might introduce me to the doctrines of piety. B. Ep. 79 But among the first this was my care, that I should institute some correction of morals, which through long custom, contracted with the wicked, I had perverted. Having therefore read the Gospel, and observing there, that it brings very much occasion and weight to the zeal of perfection, if one sells his goods, and shares them with those needy brethren, and is held by absolutely no care of this life, nor suffers his mind to be disturbed by any affection of present things; I desired that someone of the Brethren be given me, to whom this kind of life was pleasing, with whom together I might be able to overcome the deep sea of this life. through Egypt and Palestine; I found indeed many at Alexandria, and not a few throughout the rest of Egypt, then others too in Palestine and Coelesyria and Mesopotamia, whose temperance in their manner of life I admired, and their endurance in undergoing labors; at whose vigor and constancy in praying I was astounded, when I observed in what manner, neither overcome by sleep, the strict life of the monks nor turned aside by any other necessity of nature, they always kept a sublime and unconquered sense of mind, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness; neither themselves taking account of the body, nor enduring that any care be spent upon it by others; but, as if they dwelt in another's flesh, showing by the very deed, he emulates. what it is to be a sojourner in the things of this life, and to have one's conversation in heaven. When I admired those things, and judged the life of those men blessed for this, that by the very deed they declared themselves to carry about the mortification of Jesus; I desired also myself, as far as it was possible for me, to emulate them.

[46] There flourished at that time throughout Egypt and Syria very many masters of great virtues and monastic exercises, no less by example than by doctrine: What sort were they? Pachomius in the Thebaid at the monastery of Tabenna, Macarius the elder in Egypt, and Macarius the Alexandrian; Paphnutius, surnamed Bubalus; Paul the simple, Pior, Isidore the Presbyter of Scetis, Joseph of Panephysis in the desert of Nitria, Cronus and Hierax once disciples of the great Antony, and others. But since all these are numbered among the Saints, I do not think they should be treated of here more at length; that will have to be rendered on each one's proper day. Nicetas, the interpreter of Nazianzen, writes that Basil set out for Seleucia to the temple of St. Thecla, either for the sake of praying, or also from zeal for a quiet and tranquil life. But coming to Alexandria, he did not find Athanasius, but George disturbing all things: and of how great austerity who, having seized that Chair by force in the year 356, had compelled him to withdraw himself. That on the same journey Basil went to Jerusalem and Jericho, the passage adduced by Hermant from the twenty-first Oration little proves. But concerning Jerusalem the epistle scarcely allows us to doubt, which he wrote after some years to a Monk who had fallen into adultery, in which he commemorates his former sanctity and monastic exercise, in order to lead the penitent back to the same.

[47] it is declared by the example of one, Wholly, he says, sublime and turned to the passage, like a sojourner and a wanderer, changing fields and cities, you ran down to Jerusalem; where I too, conversing with you, proclaimed you blessed on account of your athletic labors; when, living fasting through periods of weeks, you philosophized with God, at the same time also fleeing the company of men according to the manner of your change; but adapting to yourself quiet and solitary manners, you declined the civil tumults. But pricking your body with a rough sack, and binding your loins with a hard girdle, you patiently compressed your bones; and making your sides hollow through hunger, you made them sag even to the parts of the spine: and you renounced indeed the use of the soft bandage, but drawing in your abdomen within to the likeness of a medicinal gourd, then fallen into sin. you forced it to be glued to the renal places; and emptying out all the fatness of the flesh, you strenuously dried up the channels and passages situated under the belly. But your belly itself being contracted through fasting, you made the costal parts, like a certain eminence of a roof, cast a shadow over the parts of the navel; and the whole organ being contracted, confessing to God through the nocturnal times, you smoothed out with rivers of tears the hairs of your beard made wet. And what need is there for me to recount each thing? At Caesarea he adheres to the Eustathian Monks … But what now? The tower of fortitude has not fallen, O brother; the medicines of conversion are not reprehended; the city of refuge is not closed: do not remain in the depth of evils, do not give yourself up to the murderer. The Lord knows how to raise up the crushed, etc. To this holy peregrination I judge the summer and autumn of the year 356, and the beginning of the following, should be assigned. But having returned to his country in the year 357, and kindled both of his own accord and by the examples of so many Saints with love of the solitary life, he was unwilling to defer any longer to emulate, as much as was possible, the life of the holy Monks, which he had observed in Syria and Egypt.

[48] Eustathius, sprung from Caesarea of Cappadocia, there, before he was raised to the Episcopate of Sebaste, had embraced the monastic kind of life with Aëtius, and had joined to himself many disciples: for (as St. Epiphanius writes) as regards the institute of his life, he begot admiration in not a few; would that he had clung to the right and sincere faith! Haer. 75 He was also very dear to Basil, before he had detected his heretical hypocrisy; and among those in whom he had faith in the greatest of all affairs, whom, conversing with men, he so looked up to, as though they had something beyond the human lot. B. Ep. 370 He, when Basil was returning from the East to Caesarea, had indeed attained the Episcopate of Sebaste; yet he had left his Monks at Caesarea; and even then, visiting them at intervals, he instructed them in monastic exercises. These therefore when Basil saw, in his own country, to have begun to follow the institute of the Monks of Egypt and Palestine; he thought he had found some convenience for getting to know the invisible affections of the soul, taking in those things which can be seen an experiment. For indeed, since the things which are hidden in each of us cannot be known, he thought there was enough indication in the Eustathian Monks, for declaring the humility of the soul, that they were clothed in humble dress; and that it sufficed for him to make him believe the matter, the coarse and rude cloak and girdle, and shoes of rude leather. B. Ep. 79 Thus deceived by the appearance of external virtues, Basil entered into close familiarity with those Monks: in which although he persevered after taking up the Episcopate, yet he seems neither to have cohabited with them, nor to have assumed their habit; nor to have dealt familiarly with them otherwise than for the sake of spiritual doctrine and monastic exercise.

[49] deceived by their hypocrisy, Nevertheless, although the propensity of those Monks toward heresy, and the hypocrisy of their master Eustathius himself, lay hidden from Basil; it had indeed become known to others, who warned Basil: although there were many calling him away from the company of those Monks; yet he did not acquiesce, seeing them prefer to a delicate life a life enduring labors (so much had the desire of the religious life and the more austere discipline preoccupied his mind) but rather, on account of the admirable and unusual manner of their conversation, he was held by a certain emulation toward them; whence also, when they were accused for the sake of doctrines, he by no means admitted the accusations, although many asserted that they did not have right opinions concerning God; but that, subject to the discipline of Eustathius (whose heresy long afterward burst forth into public), they secretly scattered his doctrines: which, because he himself had never heard from them, he held those who reported them for calumniators. B. Ep. 79 Further, this is to be pardoned in the Saint, that he did not have faith in the things which were said about them; since, not yet instructed in the frauds of heretics, he was persuaded that those are not led by the Holy Spirit, who nourish false suspicions within themselves; thinking also, because he turned away from rash judgment. that there is need of much care and solicitude, and the vigils of many nights to be endured, and that the truth must be sought from God with many tears too, by him who wishes to cast off the friendship of a Brother. For if, he says, those who hold power over things in this world, when they are about to adjudge some criminal to death, draw veils over, and call in all the most experienced to the handling of the case, and spend much time, now regarding the rigor of the law, now revering the communion of nature; and groaning much and bewailing the necessity of judging, make it manifest to everyone, that not from their own desire, but from the necessary ministry of the law, they bring in the sentence of condemnation: how much ought it to be reputed worthy of greater diligence, care, and the consultation of more, if anyone tries to tear himself away from the friendship of Brethren, now confirmed by long time? B. Ep. 79

[50] But for the rest Basil was not ashamed to confess that, deceived by simulated virtue, he had only late detected the hidden heresy of Eustathius and his disciples. But as the long and familiar conversation with those hypocrites availed nothing to sprinkle upon him heretical depravity; Libanius praises the institute of his life. so the external examples of virtues profited not a little, to the exercise of true virtue: Since to those who love God all things cooperate unto good. This institute of life, by which Basil, the vanities of the world being despised, consecrated himself wholly to the service of God; Libanius the Heathen Philosopher, although a despiser of the divine mysteries, after some years writing to Basil, thus praised: But after you had returned and were settled in your country, to myself, What now, I said, is Basil contriving for us, and to what kind of life has he betaken himself? B. Ep. 143 Is he engaged in forensic actions, emulating those old rhetors,

or does he instruct the children of the rich? But when certain men had come, announcing that you had entered upon a way far better, and that you were looking rather to this, how you might be rendered a friend to God, than how you might gather riches; I called both you and the Cappadocians happy; you indeed, who had preferred to be such; but them, who had been able to show forth such a citizen.

[51] About the same time, for the year is altogether uncertain) Basil was admitted to the ministry of the Church by Dianaeus, Bishop of Caesarea, a man for much time engaged in the service of God, Basil ordained Lector in the church by whom he had also been baptized, being marked with the order of Lector. For since St. Gregory Nazianzen affirms, in the book on the Holy Spirit, that Basil, before he was ordained Priest, read the sacred books to the people; and that he was ordained Lector, as I have just said, by a man much engaged in the service of God, by whom also he was baptized; no fitter time can be assigned, nor any other Bishop besides Dianaeus, who from the year 341 for twenty years administered that Episcopate. chap. 29, Orat. 20 But this perhaps was done by him, that he might hold him as it were bound to his own Church, after the manner of that time; fearing lest so great a man should be called to the ministry of another Church. But probably too some fear made Basil anxious, lest by force he should be promoted to a higher Order: and however pious the conversation with the Eustathian Monks seemed to him, yet it could not fulfill in him the desire of the solitary life, long since conceived at Athens, and increased by the exhortations of his sister Macrina, and by the examples of the Egyptian Monks; but he panted, all impediments being broken off, to withdraw himself from men into solitude; where, free from human cares, he might then transfer himself wholly to Christian Philosophy. he desires Nazianzen as a companion of the solitary life But Gregory was the delay; who himself too, ever since from Athens, and the friendship of that place and the connection of souls, had undertaken that he would have a fellowship of life with Basil, and would philosophize together with him. G. Ep. 5 But him at that time both piety toward his parents, and the care of their senile age, and the assailing calamities, held drawn away from his fellowship; not rightly indeed nor justly, as he himself complains, but yet they held. Orat. 20

[52] whom he in vain invites to it. Meanwhile Basil with frequent letters rendered him mindful of his promise, and inviting him to himself, begged that he would not break faith: Yet Gregory broke faith, not of his own accord and willingly, but compelled; because one law overcame another; namely that which bids us cherish parents, the law of fellowship and familiarity. G. Ep. 5 In order therefore both not to afflict his parents with grief, and to enjoy Basil, he in turn invited the latter to himself; that at Arianzus, in the estate which his parents there, and then he himself, possessed, he might live the solitary life with him not far from Nazianzus. Thus, says Gregory, I shall not wholly break faith, if indeed this will be pleasing to you. For partly we shall be with you, partly do not, I pray, find it grievous to be with us, so that all things may be common and the friendship equal. Nor did this counsel displease Basil: as one who had already decided to betake himself thither: yet afterward, changed in mind (I know not for what cause), he, as if jesting familiarly, alleges the inconvenience of the Tiberine region, in which Arianzus was, on account of the multitude of mud and ice and the harshness of winter: but Gregory, who then had perhaps run out to Arianzus; thence by a letter equally jesting, reproaches Basil, still tarrying at Caesarea, that he prefers to dwell among the urban tumults, than for a while at Arianzus. B. Ep. 19 I do not bear, he says, that the Tiberine be cast at me, and the ice and winters of this place; O man, quite free of mud, walking on the tips of your feet, and treading on planks; and winged and hovering, and at the same time borne with the arrow of Abaris, so that, although you have Cappadocia as your country, you flee Cappadocia. G. Ep. 6 Or indeed do we do you injury, that whereas you yourselves are pale, and receive the sun to a fixed measure; we on the contrary are fat and sleek, and are filled, and are not circumscribed by the narrowness of any place? But these things are yours. For you indulge in delights, and abound in wealth, and frequent the forum. This I by no means approve. Wherefore either cease to reproach us with mud (for neither did you found the city, nor we the winter), or we will offer you, instead of mud, tavern-keepers, and whatever base and wicked things cities bear.

CHAPTER V.

Basil with Gregory leads the solitary life in Pontus.

[53] His Mother and Sister having become Monastics Emmelia, the mother of Basil, while her son was traveling through Syria and Egypt, in the year 356 or the beginning of the following, had withdrawn herself with her daughter Macrina into a monastery, which not far from Neocaesarea, adjacent to the river Iris, was distant seven or at most eight stadia from a village, belonging, as he himself says here to Nyssen, to that in which the relics of the most blessed Forty martyrs rested: nor was a small city far off, which they call Ibora, Episcopal in Pontus. Or. 3 on the 40 Martyrs. Basil therefore, returned from Syria, meanwhile while he invites, admonishes, exhorts, and in vain expects Gregory to come from Nazianzus, with whom he might withdraw into solitude; set out into Pontus, Basil visiting, to visit his mother and sister; and that he might take counsel for his life, perhaps about to cure some infirmity contracted by change of climate. B. Ep. 9 And when he had arrived at the place of his upbringing, in which we said he had dwelt for some time with his nurse after the death of his father; he found not far from it a place, he finds a hermitage in Pontus. exceedingly suited to his purpose, and such as he had long ago wished for, and had fashioned for himself in thought. While he stopped here a little, I think it happened, that the city of Neocaesarea invited him to educate its youth, after the example of his grandfather Basil the elder; and a legation of men was sent to him, who exercised magistracy among them: and all the people everywhere poured around, gave much, promised more, He refuses the office of teaching the youth of Neocaesarea. that he might undertake that care: but yet they could not obtain him: since he was rather zealous for this, that he might be wholly withdrawn from the memory of men, than for those things which they who study glory desire, that they may be illustrious. B. Ep. 64

[54] And so, returned to Caesarea, about the year 358, and thinking Gregory should not be awaited any longer; he returns to his hermitage, he hastened, all things being settled, to run back into Pontus to the desired solitude; especially since a certain necessity urged him to hasten his departure, probably that, lest otherwise he be compelled to admit the Priesthood or some other ministry of the Church. B. Ep. 19 But when he was on the point of departing, letters of his brother Gregory are brought, by which it is announced that Nazianzen will be present as soon as possible. But the aforesaid necessity did not indulge delay, nor did the so often vainly promised coming of Gregory persuade it; wherefore he believed he would do enough for their mutual friendship, if he should excuse his flight by letters, and invite him to himself, by the pleasant description of his solitude, into Pontus. But it will not be amiss for us to represent that solitary place in Basil's words, and to confirm by the same the things which we have already related. B. Ep. 19 I, he says, when my brother Gregory wrote me, that it had long since been in your wishes, and he excuses himself, about Gregory not having been awaited: that you might enjoy my conversation; nay adding, that this too was now certain to you yourself; that indeed I scarcely believe, because I am so often deceived; but this, both distracted with affairs I could not await. To return into Pontus at length, the present necessity itself compels me; to which place restored, God willing, I shall cease to wander. For scarcely, those vain hopes being despaired of, which I once fashioned for myself concerning you, nay rather dreams, if something truer must be said (for I praise him who said that the hopes of the waking are dreams) in order to take counsel for my life I went off into Pontus; where God showed me a place exceedingly suited to my morals; so that, such as we were often wont to fashion in mind through leisure and jest, such I am now permitted to see in very deed.

[55] he describes his solitude, For there is a lofty mountain, covered with a great and shady wood, watered toward the North with cold and pellucid waters. At its roots a plain lies stretched out, which is perpetually made fruitful by the mountain moistures; and a wood, of its own accord, embracing it round about with distinct and manifold trees, girds it almost in place of a rampart and enclosure; so that even the island of Calypso, which Homer above all seems to have celebrated for the grace of its beauty, is small compared with it. For not much is lacking to it for this, that it be an island, because it is on all sides enclosed as it were by certain fortifications: for deep valleys cut it off on two sides: but on the side a river running down from a precipice, is itself too in place of a continuous and not easily surmountable wall; and from the other side the mountain, open and stretched out, joined to the valleys through curved windings, shuts off the lowest passable parts of the mountain. But there is one entrance thither, which we have in our power. The dwelling itself a certain other neck receives; extending in its extreme part a certain lofty ridge; so that the plain itself is open and exposed to view, and from on high it is permitted to look down on the river gliding below; which seems to me to afford no less delight, than the river Strymon, known to the Amphipolitans. For that one indeed, stagnating around in a more tranquil course, lacks little, on account of its silence and tranquillity, of having lost the name of river: but this, the swiftest of the rivers known to me, is a little rougher at a neighboring rock; and poured back from it, rolls down into a certain deep eddy, and affords to me and to everyone looking on the most pleasant of all spectacles, and a most sufficient use to the inhabitants; at the same time also nourishing an ineffable multitude of fish in the eddies.

[56] What shall I say of the exhalations of the earth, or of the breeze ascending from the river itself? The abundance of flowers, or also of the singing little birds, someone else perhaps might admire; but for me there is no leisure to turn my mind to these. But what we can chiefly report of this place, is this, that, although it is fitted, on account of its convenience, for every kind of fruit; it nourishes for me the most pleasant fruit of all, quiet and tranquillity: not only because it is alien from urban disturbances; but because it does not admit even any traveler, except those who are joined to us from time to time for the sake of hunting: for besides the things we have recounted, it nourishes also wild creatures, not bears or wolves, such as there are among you (far be it) but herds of deer and wild goats and hares, and if there are any others of this kind. Do you therefore consider how much peril I, mad, would have wished to summon, who would have striven to exchange such a place with the Tiberine, which is the abyss of the world? You will pardon me now as I hasten to this: for indeed not even Alcmaeon, after he found the Echinades, could bear his wandering any longer. Thus Basil

concerning his hermitage. How innocent and abstracted from all earthly things a life he led in that solitude, it is permitted to gather from his very epistle, which he wrote to Nazianzen, on the life to be led in solitude: for he is not to be believed to have done otherwise. And so, as Baronius in the Life of Nazianzen, published by us on the 9th of May, described in Gregory's own words their pious and arduous exercises of the anchoretic life; so it will not be amiss, to learn this same thing in this place from Basil himself.

[57] But he answers, as it appears, Gregory asking, with what advance in virtues, in that pious retreat, with what food, drink, sleep, and with what pious exercises he was occupied. Thus I recognized your epistle, he says, as those are wont to do, who recognize the children of friends from the likeness conspicuous in them. For as to your saying that you think it does not much matter, the appearance and structure of the place, for stirring up in your mind the desire of a life to be led with us, before you have something ascertained about the mode and manner of our life; this is truly your disposition and the sense of your mind, who reckon the goods of this world as wholly nothing, in comparison with the blessedness which we have laid up in the divine promises. he thinks humbly of himself, Indeed I do not bear to write to you for shame, who in this retreat of the farthest bounds spend day and night. For although I held the urban occupations as abandoned, as the causes of six hundred evils; yet I have not yet been able to hold even myself too as abandoned: and I am affected similarly to those who, unaccustomed to sailing, are wretchedly afflicted with nausea. For they, offended by the size of the ship, as one violently tossing, when they have leaped over into a skiff or little boat; thus too no less labor from nausea: namely with trouble and bile accompanying them, wherever they pass over. Something therefore of this kind has befallen us, who, carrying our domestic disturbances around to whatever nations, everywhere alike are engaged in tumult: wherefore we have not been greatly helped by this solitude. This was the thought of one thinking humbly of himself.

[58] Then he thus continues: But what ought to have been done by us? and whence ought he to have begun, he loves solitude who wished to cling to the footsteps of Christ, going before us on the way of salvation? If anyone, he says, wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his own cross, and follow me. Long since it was fitting to have a pacified mind: for as the eye, turned about by continual circling, and now bent hither and thither, now raised up and depressed in turn, cannot see exactly; but it behooves it to lean with its gaze upon the thing seen, if indeed it is going to make the sight of the thing clear; in this manner it can scarcely come to pass, that the human mind, distracted by six hundred cares of the world, evidently discern the truth, … but of this evil there is at last one only precaution, if he who has resolved to avoid this trouble has renounced himself from all the world. But the secession from the world is, not to be outside the world in body, but to disjoin the mind from the consent of the body and its mutual affection; not to be a citizen, not to possess a house; not a household, to have nothing of one's own; not to cultivate the offices of fellowship, not friendship; to have no estates, no faculties; to be free for no affairs, not to know the contracts of the law of nations and human disciplines; so to dispose oneself, that the human heart be apt to admit discipline, formed from the divine monuments. of the body and the heart. But the disposing of the heart is of this kind, when those doctrines are unlearned, which by a depraved custom have occupied a seat in it. For neither can you write on waxen tablets, unless you first erase the letters which were written before; nor will you accommodate to the soul the divine ordinances, before you have removed from it the anticipated opinions. But to attain this, solitude affords a great reward of labor: useful for taming the passions, inasmuch as it is wont to lull asleep the disturbances of the mind, and then to grant space, of rooting them out of the soul utterly by the force of reasoning. But as wild beasts, stroked by a coaxing hand, are overcome in a gentle struggle; so lusts, angers, fears, griefs, the evil sorceries of the soul, lulled asleep by custom, and not made savage by perpetual irritation, become afterward more easily struggled with by the force of reason.

[59] Let there be therefore some place of this kind, such as this of ours, for pouring forth Prayers, so free from the company of men, that constant meditation be not interrupted by any of outsiders bursting in: for the meditation of piety nourishes the soul with divine thoughts. What therefore is more blessed, than for a man on earth to imitate the concert of the Angels; to go into prayers at the very beginning of the day; to venerate the Creator in hymns and canticles; thence, the sun now growing bright, to turn to works, nowhere without prayer; finally to season the actions with canticles, as with salt: since the hymnic exhortations confer a cheerful and brisk evenness of the soul. The quiet state therefore of spiritual expiation is well begun; delights to be fled, when neither the tongue speaks the things which pertain to men, nor the eyes look around at the brightness of colors in bodies, nor the harmoniously fitted proportions of the limbs; when neither the ears make the intention of the soul grow faint, stretched to listening to modulations accommodated to stirring up pleasure, nor with the ridiculous or scurrilous sayings of witty men, which thing is most especially fitted for breaking the intention of the soul. For the mind, neither dissipated outward, nor diffused into the world through the organs of the senses, returns to itself, and presently of its own nod escapes to the notion of God: whence it comes to pass that the understanding, illustrated everywhere by that beauty, temperance and other virtues to be exercised, and illuminated from above, is seized also by forgetfulness of nature itself; nor does it any longer let down the mind to the care of food, nor to anxiety about clothing: as one who, immune and free from the care of earthly things, transfers all his zeal to those goods, which are sought with great struggle. For he tries to attain this, by which he may fill all the numbers of fortitude and temperance; by which he may absolutely cultivate justice, prudence, and the other virtues; and besides others, which, distributed under these kinds, admonish the zealous man, that he may dutifully execute all things, for instituting life rightly and in order.

[60] Furthermore the greatest of the ways leading to the investigation of the true, which are to be learned by the reading of the Scriptures. is the meditation of the divinely inspired Scriptures: since in these are found both the precepts of things to be done, and the lives of blessed men handed down to memory and recorded, which, like certain animated images of life instituted according to the divine norm, are set forth to those who desire to imitate the examples of good works. Accordingly, in whatever each of us shall have perceived something necessary to be lacking to him, leaning assiduously upon that, as from a certain medical workshop, he will be able to find a medicine suited to his infirmity… But as painters, when they paint an image from an image, looking again and again at the exemplar, try to transfer its lineaments with great zeal to their work; so he who meditates to render himself perfect in all the numbers of virtue, ought to look upon the lives of the Saints as certain breathing and acting images, and to make their good works his own by imitating. But now prayers succeeding to readings receive a fresher and more vigorous soul, attentive prayer is commended, as one already burning with desire of God. And that prayer is good, which engenders in the soul an ascertained notion of God (but the indwelling of God is, to embrace by memory God seated within) and by this means we are made the temple of God, when neither the continuous tenor of memory is interrupted by earthly cares, nor is the understanding thrown into tumult by unforeseen disturbances. But fleeing all these things the man endowed with the love of God secedes to God himself, then shaking outside the affections, which provoke to intemperance, then willingly engaging in those studies, which lead to virtue.

[61] And first indeed we have this to be procured with great zeal, that we may be able skillfully to converse; that we neither inquire too contentiously, nor answer those affecting a quarrel; modesty in speaking, that we do not gainsay one discoursing, nor desire to interrupt and break in, with an absurd ostentation and bearing arrogance before us; finally that we keep measure both of conversing and of listening. Nor indeed ought one to be ashamed for learning, nor … but by no means keeping secret … but the author and teacher of it malignant; for what you have safely learned from another, it is fitting to disclose the parent of knowledge with grateful commemoration. Furthermore the intention of the voice is to be tempered with moderation, so that neither, too thin, it deceive the ears, nor, too straining, it strike with hateful clamor. It is to be weighed first what you are going to say, gentleness; and so at last it is to be uttered and published. But in companies it behooves one to address kindly, and in intercourse to be pleasant, yet not to hunt pleasure with witty discourses. By the benignity of exhortations, an opinion of clemency and gentleness is to be gathered; nor anywhere is it fitting to show oneself bitter, even if there be need of rebuke: but for the most part the manner of reproof will be more conducive to us, which the Prophet followed; who did not fasten the measure of damnation upon David, guilty of sin, from himself; but using an invented person, set him up as the very judge in estimating his own crime: whence, a prejudgment having been made against himself, he afterward had nothing for which he might be angry at the one rebuking.

[62] And consonant indeed with submissive and humble minds would be a sad eye and turned downward, a neglected appearance, squalid hair, in the habit of the body humility, sordid clothing: so that the things which mourners do deliberately and of set purpose, those would seem to have arisen in us of the soul's own accord and as it were spontaneously from habit. Let the tunic, pressed by the girdle, be close and bound to the body: let the girding neither, in womanish fashion, rise above the flanks; nor, too loose, make the tunic flowing. Let the gait neither be sluggish, nor declare a dissolute mind; nor again, vehement and insolently hurried, signify the consternated impulses of the mind. Let there be only one purpose of clothing, that a covering may exist apt and suitable to defend the body from the injury of heat and cold. Let not the pleasantnesses of colors be sought, nor the delicacies of workmanships, very thin and soft. For indeed to pursue in clothing the elegances of dyes, in clothing necessity and poverty: is just the same as if we should accommodate to ourselves womanish adornment… Let the tunic be coarse to such a degree, that there be no need of another covering for warming the body covered by it. Let the footwear be of mean price indeed, but such as can fulfill its function. And, to comprehend all in one word at once, as in procuring clothing the account of utility ought chiefly to stand; so in food, let the use of bread fulfill that which is needful for nourishment. The drink of water quenches the thirst of a man of sound health: to which will be added those pottages, in food and drink thinness, which are made from legumes only for the necessary uses of guarding the sound firmness of the body. While feasting it is fitting to beware of this, that we do not give the appearance of gluttons.

[63] But let us everywhere retain both constancy and moderation, and in perceiving pleasures an equal continence; during eating the elevation of the mind to God, and not even then ought we to be so idle in mind, that we are free from the contemplation of divine things: as those who have the nature of foods and the workmanship of the body's nourishment, as an argument for beginning the divine praises;

at least when it comes into our mind, how the various kinds of food, accommodated to the quality of bodies, were invented by Him who moderates and rules all things. Furthermore prayers are to be made, before we take food, for the acknowledgment of the divine benignity in the bestowal both of those things which at present are divinely conferred on us, and indeed of those which for hereafter are laid up. And again after the care of the body let prayers be made with giving of thanks, for the things already received; and let those things besides be entreated, which God has further promised us. Finally, let the hour of taking food be single and fixed, and the same always returning through the circuit. Let this, as the one for caring for the body, be scarcely a whole one, out of the four-and-twenty, which the vicissitude of day and night comprehends through the interval of time: sleep light and short, but in the remaining hours let the mind be occupied in contemplating, of a man certainly, who has devoted himself to exercising the mind in solitude. Let sleeps be light, and of such a kind as can easily be shaken off; suited, at least according to the prescript of nature, to the manner of living. But this meanwhile is to be carefully and zealously attained, that the very sleeps be fed by contemplating arduous things: for to be seized by a deeper drowsiness, and the limbs of a contemplative man to be dissolved by such lethargy, that meanwhile an entrance lies open to absurd visions creeping in, this surely is the likeness of a daily death. What dawn is to others, the half-night is to those who have devoted themselves to the zeal of cultivating piety: for then especially the nocturnal silence grants leisure to the soul, when neither the eyes admit importunate sights, nor the ears admit disturbing hearings within to the heart.

[64] finally morning prayer. But for the rest the mind, having business with itself alone and with God, and correcting itself by the recollection of its sins, prescribes to itself bounds for turning away from vices; imploring also help divinely for attaining those things, to which it has been incited with great zeal. From these things it is permitted to see, what manner of living Basil kept in his hermitage; what clothing he used, with what parsimony of food and sleep, how he spent all his time on sacred reading, prayer, or pious contemplation. Furthermore these things he wrote not only for himself and Gregory, but also for other disciples to be gathered by himself. For there is no doubt that, from his return from Palestine and Syria, he always had it in mind to institute monasteries of Monks, according to that form which he had there observed and approved.

[65] This epistle being received from Basil, and his affairs at home being settled, Gregory comes to Basil in solitude Gregory set out into Pontus to him, about to begin the monastic life with the same, the year 358 not yet ended. But they lived together, in the same Pontic solitude indeed, but in diverse cells, as Baronius judged; although this is not altogether clear from the epistle of Nazianzen to Amphilochius, which he himself adduces to prove his opinion. G. Ep. 12 & 13 For this seems to regard other times, when namely the Saints dwelt in diverse, yet not far distant regions. For Nazianzen praises the herbs, which that place bore, in which Amphilochius dwelt, but the corn of his own region: which do not seem fittingly enough understood, of men dwelling almost in the same wood. Surely if the cells were diverse, they must have been so near to one another, that by night together for prayer and the contemplation of the sacred letters, but by day for cultivating the garden, and for other laborious works, they could be free even together: for that their occupation was of this kind, Nazianzen himself testifies.

[66] But neither do I believe that they themselves dwelt there alone for long: since Nazianzen makes mention of a Gymnasium, and a Monastery, and other disciples, and a School; although in jest he calls them caverns of mice. G. Ep. 8 & 9 Nay he affirms that several Brethren lived there with Basil, saying: Who will give … the concord and conjunction of souls of those Brethren, who were made gods by you, and were carried up on high? who the contest of virtue to that incitement which we strengthened by written laws and rules? G. Ep. 7 & 9 From this too it is learned, for whom he writes a Rule, that Basil, in writing the monastic Rules, employed Gregory as a partner; and that they together labored in considering and constituting them. Yet I do not on that account think, that during this retreat of theirs, there were written by them the Rules, whether the longer or the shorter, which are extant among the works of Basil: but another which has perished, for the few Hermits, perhaps not greater than is the epistle related above, on the life to be led in solitude. Then, after the departure of Gregory, Basil, as the instructor of all, may have handed down to his disciples the Rules more fully disputed, through interrogations and responses: for in the proem, no mention being made of Gregory, of himself, as the superior of a monastery constituted in solitude, he thus prefaces to his subjects: After by the grace of God, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have come together into one, who have proposed to ourselves one and the same end of living according to true piety; and explains it more fully. and you by no means obscurely bear before you, that of those things which pertain to your salvation, you seek to learn something; and on me in turn lies the necessity of announcing the justifications of God (since I turn over assiduously in memory those words of the Apostle day and night, when he says, For three years night and day I ceased not, with tears admonishing each one of you) since the occasion of this time is excellently accommodated to this very thing, so no less suitable also is the opportunity of the very place; as one which is most far removed from all external din and tumult; and that we may be able to do this, it grants us a most pacified quiet.

[67] Basil therefore handed down the aforesaid Rules to his Monks, in solitude far from all external din and tumult; although probably, after taking up the Episcopate, he from time to time changed or added something in them, as it seemed expedient to him. But for the rest how he joined the anchoretic life to the cenobitic in his institution, Nazianzen sets forth: Orat. 20 Since therefore the solitary life, and that which rejoices in society, for the most part disagreed and fought between themselves; Beautifully he joins contemplation to action. and neither of the two at all had its advantages or disadvantages pure and unmixed; but the former was more tranquil and composed, and coupled souls to God; yet for that cause was not free from arrogance, because virtue was not tested, nor came into comparison; but the latter was indeed more active and useful, yet less free from tumults; he excellently reconciled and mingled them between themselves, building namely gymnasia and monasteries of piety; yet not removed by a long interval from those who live in fellowship, nor distinguishing them as by some interposed wall, and separating them from one another in turn; but joining and dividing them close together; so that neither was contemplation devoid of communication, nor was action without contemplation; but, as land and sea, so also these two lives, communicating their advantages between themselves, might concur to the single glory of God.

[68] But this anchoresis of each Saint lasted for three years, Gregory ordained Presbyter at home, until the end of 361: at which time, when his father most urgently recalled his son, Nazianzen returned home: and at the beginning of the following year Gregory the father, that he might bind his son with the stronger bonds of a holier life, on the feast of the Nativity or of the Epiphany or of the Lights, ordained him Presbyter, unwilling and reluctant. Carm. on his own life, But that tyranny befell the Theologian so grievous and so troublesome, that, all things being immediately left, friends, parents, country, and household, he seized flight into Pontus, about to have as a remedy of such great evil and grief his friend Basil, still engaged in his hermitage. When with his soft discourses he had cured the sickness of his soul, and when the very length of time had much diminished his grief; he returns to his father, languishing with years and with desire of his son, and returns to Basil: Easter being at hand, lest he should deny him the due offices of honor and piety, hastening to the end of his life. But Basil himself accompanied him, for the sake of solace and friendship; and heard him pronounce his first oration after his return in the presence of his father, in the beginning of which he thus speaks concerning both: Nothing is stronger than old age, nothing more venerable than friendship. By these I was led to you, bound in Christ, not with iron chains, but constrained by the most tenacious bonds of the spirit. Indeed I before seemed to myself to be strong with a certain unconquered strength of mind, and (O stolidity!) I did not bear to impart discourses even to these my most loving brethren, as one who had left all things to all; but in order that, free from all business, I might tranquilly philosophize, and have conversation with myself and with the spirit, I revolved in mind the Carmel of Elijah and the desert of John.

[69] thence again to his father with Basil as companion; Hence Basil returns again into Pontus; unless perhaps he made straight for Caesarea: for he was summoned thither by Dianaeus, the Bishop of that city, now near to death, which cannot be deferred beyond the year 362. We saw that Dianaeus above marvelously praised by Basil: but as he was mild and placid, so too credulous of the fallacies of the Arians, and easy to subscribe to anything, he brought no light trouble to Basil; as he had before done to Athanasius and the orthodox Bishops in the Council of Antioch and Sardica: not because he thought ill of the faith; but because, too timid and languid, he did not dare to resist those thinking ill. He therefore, when about the year 361, induced by fraud or fear, had subscribed to the Constantinopolitan faith, the formula of which at that time was sent by the heretics to the Bishops to subscribe, the emperor Constantius so willing; when, I say, Dianaeus had subscribed, he vehemently moved all his subjects, among whom he was beloved, and especially Basil; who indeed did not excommunicate him openly (as he afterward complains was through calumny objected to him) but as if by dissimulation abstained from his communion, which was easy for one engaged in the Pontic solitude.

[70] Here he is present at the dying Dianaeus Thus Basil himself narrates the matter: About the last times indeed of his life (for I will not conceal the truth) I was affected with intolerable grief on his account (Dianaeus), with others in the country who, being very many, feared the Lord; because he had subscribed to that faith, which those who pertained to George had brought back from Constantinople. B. Ep. 86 But as he was of a mild and humane disposition, he so satisfied all, that he was tolerated with paternal affection. But when he fell into the sickness, from which he also died; we being summoned he said, that the Lord was witness, a witness of his orthodoxy. that with a simple heart he had consented to the writing of the Constantinopolitan faith: but that in no respect had he wished to make void that faith, which was set forth at Nicaea by the holy Fathers; nor had he had anything else in his heart, than what he had received as handed down from the beginning. Nay that he also prayed, that he might not be separated from the lot of those blessed

three hundred and eighteen Bishops, who promulgated to the world that pious preaching of the faith: and by that satisfaction he so moved us, that, all hesitation of our hearts being loosed, we came to his communion, and rested from the grief we had conceived. Such are the things which passed between us and this man.

CHAPTER VI.

Basil, ordained Presbyter, flees into Pontus, on account of quarrels with Eusebius his Bishop.

[71] Basil is ordained Presbyter. Dianaeus being dead, Eusebius succeeded to the Episcopate of Caesarea: but he, made Bishop, since he had Basil present, hastened to promote him to the Priesthood: nor so much he himself, but (as Nazianzen says) the manifold benignity of God, and care and dispensation toward our race, inscribed him, tried beforehand in many offices, and found daily clearer and more illustrious, into the sacred Order of Presbyters, and sets him forth as a splendid and celebrated torch of the Church, and through the one city of Caesarea he shines forth to the whole world. Orat. 20 But in what manner? Thus namely, that he did not carry him up suddenly to this grade; nor at the same time both wash him and instruct him with wisdom, not promoted suddenly like others, as he does most of those, who now seek the office of Prelates; but by order and by the law of spiritual progression, he affected him with this honor. For neither is that disturbance and rashness approved by me, which among us sometimes and in not a few Presidents of the Church exists… Just as namely the Poets feigned the Giants, born in one day; so we feign saints, and bid those be wise and learned, who have learned nothing; nor have contributed anything to the Priesthood beforehand except to wish… But not so the great and distinguished Basil: but first tried in the sacred offices. but, as of all the other virtues, so also of order in these matters and of discipline, he presents himself as an exemplar to others. For when he had first read the sacred books to the people, who afterward expounded them, nor had thought this grade of Priesthood unworthy of himself; thus at last in the chair of Presbyters, and then of Bishops, he praises the Lord; not having stolen this power, nor seized it by force, nor pursued the honor, but having been sought by the honor; nor having obtained the Priesthood by human favor, but divinely and by the grace of God. But let the discourse on the principate of the See await us in this place; and on that which pertains to the lower place of dignity, let us linger somewhat.

[72] yet he was not ordained Deacon And one little question indeed is to be inserted; namely, since Basil is set forth as an example of those, who not by a leap, as they say, but through the grades of the sacred Orders ascended to the Episcopal throne; whether he also received the Diaconate at Antioch from Meletius, as Socrates relates; although Nazianzen mentions only the Order of Lector and Presbyter received; by no means about to omit the Diaconate, if Basil had really received this. bk. 4 ch. 25 Hence Godfrey Hermant thinks, that an error crept upon Socrates from this, that he confounded our Basil with a certain other Basil, by Meletius, who was known to St. Chrysostom. And indeed it is not probable, that Basil, who hastened to flee into the Pontic solitude, lest he be promoted to the sacred Orders; having set out for Antioch, sought of his own accord elsewhere, what he had escaped in his own country, against the 16th Canon of the Council of Nicaea. But if anyone object to me the 10th Canon of the Council of Sardica, by which a Bishop is forbidden to be ordained, before he has performed the ministry of Lector and Deacon and Presbyter; nor is it gathered from the Council of Sardica. so that in each grade, if he be esteemed worthy, he may be able to ascend by progression to the summit of the Episcopate; I will answer, that that Canon was not then received with such rigor, or that an error crept into the manuscript of Hervet, to be corrected by the interpretation of Dionysius Exiguus; namely that, where it has, of Lector and Deacon and Presbyter; it should be written, of Lector and Deacon or Presbyter.

[73] Sad on account of his ordination Furthermore Basil, after he was unwillingly admitted to the sacred altars, openly indeed dissimulated his grief, but could not conceal it from his Gregory: to whom by epistle he signified his ordination, and the sickness of soul conceived from the ordination. And as in the preceding year, on account of a similar ordination, he had led back Gregory, not lightly moved, to tranquillity of soul by bland and apt discourses; so now in turn through letters he received some consolation from him, I praise the proem of your epistle, Nazianzen consoles him: says Nazianzen. Epist. 11 But what of yours is not to be praised? In the manner by which you were taken, we too were circumscribed: since we were dragged to the grade of Presbyter, which truly was not sought by us. For each of us can be richer witnesses to the other, if to anyone else, than to ourselves, how a pedestrian and ground-pressed philosophy was at heart to us. But perhaps it would not have been better that this be done, or by what other word I should use I am uncertain, until I have had the counsel of the Holy Spirit ascertained? But since it has been done, it is necessary to bear it (as it seems to me at least) and especially on account of that time, which brings upon us many tongues of heretics; and we can be neither to the hope of those who had faith in us, nor a disgrace to our former life.

[74] By these and other pious considerations, conforming himself to obedience and the divine disposition, Basil began to perform the office of Presbyter strenuously and holily, and to explain the divine Scriptures to the people by the command of his Bishop, he explains the book of Proverbs to the people the book of Proverbs being selected for this: in the Exordium of which he himself declares, with what mind and spirit he undertook that office of teaching. Excellent, he says, is the reward of obedience. Let us therefore obey our good Father, setting before us the prizes of the contests from the oracles of the Spirit, who wishes, like hunters in trackless places, to take an experiment of our course, as by the indication of a certain hunting whelp. But he has set before us for expounding the beginning of Proverbs. But how difficult to grasp is the understanding of this saying, is known to anyone who has even moderately approached it. Hom. 12 Nevertheless nothing is to be hesitated about its treatment, for those who have hope placed in the Lord, who, on account of the prayers of our Pastor, will give us speech in the opening of our mouth.

[75] But although Basil was compelled to desert his solitude, he instructs the Monks at Caesarea: yet from his mind the desire of living solitarily never departed. Hence amid the tumults of a most frequented city, he found solitude in his own house; where, no otherwise than in the Pontic hermitage, with some disciples gathered, he was free for monastic exercises: and it is believed that at that time he handed down his Rules, through shorter, and therefore but more numerous periods. This is confirmed from their Proem, where he says, that the office of teaching was imposed on him, both publicly in the church, which is the Priest's, and privately. The benignant God, he says, who teaches man knowledge, to those indeed to whom the gift of teaching has been entrusted, enjoins through the Apostle, that they abide in doctrine; but those who need edification, which is drawn from the fountain of heavenly doctrine, He exhorts through Moses saying; Ask your father, and he will announce to you; your elders, and they will tell you. Wherefore it is necessary that we, to whom the office of teaching has been entrusted, be ready in mind and prompt at all times, to win souls to God and to instruct them; that we may attest some things publicly to the whole church, others privately; making free power to each of those who shall come to us, by their own judgment to inquire of us separately, and proposes to them his Rules. those things which pertain to the soundness of faith, and the truth of that rite of living, which is from the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: from both of which the man of God is constantly and in every way made perfect. Likewise also you too ought to omit nothing, whence you may take some fruit, or where you may not exercise your industry; but besides those things which in common with the rest you will learn, also separately to inquire about things looking to your utility, and to direct all the leisure of life to this one thing, that you take counsel for your utility. If therefore God has gathered us together for this, and we enjoy much tranquillity from external disturbances; let us not, I pray, turn ourselves to any other work, nor again deliver our bodies to sleep; but in attentive meditation and inquiry of necessary things, let us pass that part of the night which remains; doing that, which was said by the blessed David, In the law of the Lord he will meditate day and night.

[76] In that manner of living Basil, until the beginning of the year 363, fulfilled the office of Priest, Discord arisen and (if it be permitted so to speak) of Abbot. Meanwhile Julian, having gained power after the death of Constantius, vexed the whole Church. But at Caesarea the enemy of the human race, to tear apart that Church too, sowed some discord between Basil and Bishop Eusebius: by what occasion this was done, no one has explained: yet the Theologian conjectures the fault to be in Eusebius, having suffered something human: perhaps from envy, by which he thought there departed from himself, whatever of praise and glory accrued to Basil from eloquence, sacred doctrine, and fame of sanctity. Vit. Macr. Orat. 20 Hence he who before him presided over the Church exercised a certain quarrel with Basil: but for what causes or in what manner, between him and Eusebius; it is better to dissimulate in silence: but for the rest he exercised it, a man indeed in other things strong and endowed with marvelous piety, as the persecution of that time and the keen contention undertaken against him plainly declared; but yet having suffered something human in regard to Basil: for Momus touches not only vulgar men, but even the most excellent men; so that it belongs to God alone to be free from all sin, and to be immune from disturbance of mind. And on this account against him the more select and wiser part of the Church is roused; if indeed those are to be held wiser, than most, who have separated themselves from the world, and consecrated their life to God. I mean our Nazaraeans, and those placing the greatest zeal and labor in matters of this kind: who, when they had thought it grievous and unworthy to suffer, that he who held the principate among them, should be affected with contumely and reproach and rejected; undertake a most dangerous deed, and resolve to defect from the great and not seditiously to be divided body of the Church, The Monks favoring Basil, drawing away with them no small part of the people, both of those who were of the lower order, and of those who bore dignities. But this for three causes, and those most firm, was very easy. meditate a schism, For first Basil was held in such great veneration among all, as I know not whether any of the Philosophers of our age; and he had such force, that to his cohort, if he had wished, he could bring courage and confidence. Then he who exhibited trouble to him, on account of that tumult which had happened in his election, under the pretext that Eusebius was not rightly ordained. was suspect to the city; as one who had received the prefecture not so legitimately, and according to the prescript of the Canons, as by force.

Lastly there were present certain Bishops from the West, who drew all the orthodox to their side.

[77] Godfrey Hermant thinks, that those Bishops were SS. Lucifer of Cagliari and Eusebius of Vercelli; Among the supporters of Basil was not Lucifer of Cagliari, and he could strengthen his opinion by the authority of Nicetas, interpreting Nazianzen in Billius on this passage: From Rome, he says, two Bishops had come to Caesarea, Lucifer and Eusebius, to compose the disturbances of the Church of Caesarea. But although I should concede to Hermant, that the Western Bishops, whom Nazianzen says then favored Basil, were Lucifer and Eusebius; yet I could not assent to Nicetas, that they were sent from Rome to compose the disturbances of the Church of Caesarea. For after their return from exile into the West, no mention is found among the Historians of another legation undertaken by them into the East; nor is it probable, that legates should have been sent from Rome for so light a cause, as this could seem at least to the Romans, a certain quarrel between one Presbyter and his Bishop. But neither do I sufficiently understand, how the same Hermant adduces Rufinus and Socrates for his opinion. For if he wishes to stand by their narration, it must be said, that those Saints never met together in Cappadocia. For since at the beginning of Julian's reign they were recalled from exile to their Churches in the year 362, Eusebius invited Lucifer, that they should go together to Alexandria (for they had been relegated into Egypt) to see Athanasius, and by common deliberation with those Priests who had survived to decide about the state of the Church, as Rufinus narrates: but Lucifer, denying his presence, sends as legate for himself his Deacon, who on account of the ordination of Paulinus, and himself goes to Antioch; and there (the parties still dissenting, but yet hoping that they could be recalled into one, if such a Bishop were elected there, toward whom not one people, but both would rejoice) he placed as Bishop indeed a catholic and holy man, and in all things worthy of the Priesthood, Paulinus, yet too prematurely, in whom both peoples could not acquiesce… bk. 10 ch. 27

[78] Eusebius of Vercelli not approving that it was done, But Eusebius, after the Council celebrated at Alexandria, when he had returned to Antioch, and had found there a Bishop ordained by Lucifer against the promise; compelled both by shame and indignation, departed, relaxing his communion to neither party: because departing thence he had promised that he would act in the Council, that one should be ordained Bishop for them, from whom neither part would defect. For that people which had followed Meletius, long ago driven from the Church as if for the right faith, had not joined itself to the former Catholics, that is those who had been with Bishop Eustathius, of whom also Paulinus was; but held its own principate and its own conventicle. These therefore when Eusebius had wished to recall into one, and yet, forestalled by Lucifer, could not, he departed … Meanwhile Lucifer, grieving the injury, that Eusebius had not received at Antioch the Bishop ordained by him, neither does he himself think to receive the decrees of the Alexandrian Council: but he was constrained by the bond of his own legate, who in the Council had subscribed by his authority: for he could not cast him off, because he held his authority: but if he had received them, he saw all his undertaking would be frustrated. Deliberating therefore long and much about this, since he was concluded on both sides, he chose, his legate being received, to keep toward the rest a sentence at variance, but pleasing to himself. Thus, having returned to the parts of Sardinia, whether because, forestalled by a swift death, he had no time to change his sentence (for otherwise things rashly begun are wont to be corrected by the space of time) or whether he had immovably fixed his mind to this; or rather (as Socrates says) assenting to the Faith and the Church; he withdrew into Sardinia to his own See. These things as to the matter are taken from Rufinus and Socrates: for although in the circumstances the narration of the latter varies somewhat, nor was he again with him, yet from both we gather certainly enough, that Lucifer and Eusebius, after they had departed from Antioch, whether they stayed there together for some time, or one departed before the arrival of the other, were never again so joined in body, much less in mind, that they can be believed to have come together to Caesarea, and there to have labored for the concord of that Church.

[79] I believe therefore that St. Lucifer set out from Antioch straight for Cagliari, but rather Eusebius of Vercelli. and spent the rest of his life in governing his own Church; for Rufinus indicates that his death followed not long after. But Eusebius the Bishop of Vercelli, going around the East and Italy, performed equally the office of Physician and of Priest, and recalled each several Church, infidelity abjured, to the health of the right faith. bk. 10 ch. 19 Hence it becomes credible to me, that St. Eusebius was one, nay the chief, of those Western Bishops, whom Nazianzen says were unwilling to undertake the Bishop's cause: to whom if I add St. Hilary of Poitiers, I shall perhaps err nothing from the truth: and perhaps Hilary of Poitiers. for he too at the same time was returning from exile. Nor does it obstruct this conjecture, that St. Hilary is said to have arrived in Italy before the Bishop of Vercelli; for it could be said, the contention being somehow lulled after Basil's departure, that the Bishop of Vercelli passed to other cities of Cappadocia; but Hilary set out straight into Italy. If however this conjecture displeases, there will not be lacking at this time other Bishops returning from exile, one of whom at least could have been with the Bishop of Vercelli at Caesarea.

[80] Now let us return with Nazianzen to Basil. What therefore did that excellent man, and the disciple of the Peacemaker? For neither could he struggle against those who had affected him with contumelies, or who were zealous for him; nor was it his to fight, or to tear the body of the Church, which even otherwise was assailed by the heretics, But Basil withdraws into Pontus from zeal for peace who then held power and command, and was perilously affected. Orat. 20 At the same time also using us in this matter as counselors and sincere admonishers, he fled with us hence into Pontus; and moderated the gymnasia of piety, which were there: with Elijah and John, the highest Philosophers, embracing solitude; and judging this more conducive for himself, than in the present business to take up a certain thought unworthy of his philosophy; and to lose, in the tempest, the rudder of counsel and prudence, and there again lives with Gregory. which he had held in the tranquillity. Thus through this adversity of whatever kind, by the provident disposition of God it came to pass, that again Basil and Gregory, by mutual fellowship and pious tranquillity, enjoyed in the Pontic solitude; if only the impious Julian had not disturbed them, who was throwing the whole Church into confusion. And indeed so great was the splendor of their name that into whatever hiding places they withdrew themselves, they diffused their rays in every direction, of Julian the Apostate and especially caught the eyes of Julian, once joined to them in friendship: who perhaps wished to seize some occasion of showing off his eloquence. Therefore with most friendly letters he invites Basil to him; but with what hope or with what mind, I cannot divine: nor do I think it credible, that the Apostate could conceive any hope, that by his conversation he might lead Basil over to some impiety. And that he indeed replied to the Imperial letters, is gathered from the second epistle of Julian: what however he replied, is uncertain: unless some fragment of the reply be the epistle 205, an excellent (if it be true) monument against this impious one, and the innovators of our time, for the religion of Basil and the catholics.

[81] According to the immaculate, he says, faith of the Christians, which we have divinely obtained by lot, to the letters he replies intrepidly: I confess and promise to believe in one God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit: one God, three Persons I adore and glorify. I confess also the dispensation of the incarnate Son, and the holy Mary the bearer of God, who bore him according to the flesh. But I receive also the holy Apostles, Prophets and Martyrs, and through the supplication which is to God I invoke these, that through them, that is their intervention, the merciful God may be propitious to me, and there may be made for me redemption and pardon of faults: whence I also honor and adore the characters or images of them, especially since this has been handed down by the holy Apostles, and is not prohibited, nay it is shown depicted in all our churches. But that this can be reckoned a genuine writing of Basil, it would have to be believed that the Apostate had reproached him, by blaspheming, not only the faith of the true and one God and the mystery of the Holy Trinity, but also the cult of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the Saints, and of the sacred Images, which seems to suit an Iconoclast more than an Apostate; if however any impiety be unsuited to the latter. But for the rest Basil seems to have objected to him, that he by no means understood the sacred Scriptures, which he had read to the people in the church: as Nazianzen reproached him by sarcasm, saying; Why should he not know these excellently, who was once Lector of the divine oracles, and increased and adorned with the honor of the great Bema: concerning whom I first marvel at this, in what manner, when he had been diligently and accurately engaged in these books, he yet did not read that, or deliberately passed it over. Orat. 3 Something similar, I say, Basil reproached the impious Julian with, and to one demanding 1000 pounds for the war for he thus concludes his second Epistle: What I read, I understood, and afterward neglected. But in this, after he had boasted of the power of the Empire, and the legitimate succession to it; he exacts from Basil a thousand pounds of gold for the Persian war.

[82] Then the Saint, using Christian liberty, writes that epistle, which here deservedly is to be inserted, that it may be seen, with what greatness of soul he resisted the sacrilegious Emperor, and with what poverty and austerity of fasts he himself lived. What you read, he says, you certainly did not understand: for if you had understood, you would by no means have condemned. B. Ep. 207 Your deeds excellently done are at present moderate, and many wickedly in things done bravely, not so much against us, as (as they say) against your own head. I am indeed shaken with horror, when it comes into my mind your Purple with which you are clothed, and the Crown with which your head is girt, when, attributed to you without piety, they show your head not to be honored, but dishonored. he reproaches his impiety, More ridiculous than you, hitherto I have seen no one. For emerging and made magnificent, you ascended to that, to which the impious and hostile demons dragged you: for these lately, as you yourself are wont to proclaim, flying to the crown of your head in the appearance of bees, formed a crown. You began therefore, ruling, not only to show forth great spirits, but also to be lifted up above God, and to affect with contumely the mother and nurse of all, the Church. Using therefore command over me, you exact from a most slender man a thousand pounds of gold: which weight of gold yet would not disturb my mind, and excuses his poverty. although it be set down as very great: but I am indignant remembering your zeal, by which we learned together at Athens the sacred and best arts, and approached together to read the divine letters. And you indeed were ignorant of nothing: now on the contrary you appear base

and unseemly, having professed military service with such a mind. May it please you meanwhile to spare us, O best one, who scarcely possess so much, as, if it were pleasing to consume it, would not be enough for today. For the art of cooking lies neglected in our house, and the knife does not touch blood: our most sumptuous foods are leaves of herbs, with a little bread and limp wine; so that our senses are not stupefied by the gluttony of the belly, nor through delights neglect their offices.

[83] After these things Julian, having set out against the Persians, transfixed by an arrow paid the penalties of his crimes, His death in the year 363, in the year 363, on the 26th of June. His fall became known to various Saints throughout the world by divine revelation, by whose prayers it was obtained, that that plague not be permitted to rage any longer: but also to Basil? Thus it is narrated in the Alexandrian Chronicle. But that narration, as fabulous, I reject in the Appendix. For in it Basil is said to be Bishop, who, after passing the night, in which he had divinely learned that Julian was slain, at dawn, his Canons being gathered for prayer, indicated that slaughter; when yet the same Basil, when Julian was dying, was neither Bishop, nor had Canons. was it revealed to Basil? For indeed if he had indicated to anyone a revelation made to him about the death of the Apostate, he would surely have indicated it then to Gregory cohabiting in the Pontic solitude: and he would not have omitted to report it, at least in one or the other of those Orations, in which he inveighs against the impiety of Julian, by which the latter merited so unhappy a death: for these Orations Basil and Gregory elaborated together, in the same Pontic anchoresis. Whence I marvel that this was not noticed by Hermant, in all things so accurate.

CHAPTER VII.

The occupations of Basil and Gregory, during the quarrel between him and Eusebius.

[84] The people of Caesarea recall Basil: Under the reign of Jovian, the citizens of Caesarea were held by the greatest desire of Basil. For it irked them, as I think, in so great a peace of the Church, in so great an abundance of holy Doctors throughout the East, to lack him, by whom no one could with greater eloquence, piety, and spirit, explain the divine doctrines to them. Letters therefore being sent they exhort him, that he revisit his own and his country: but to these the Saint writes back in such a way, that he does not bring Eusebius into envy; casting back the cause of the longer delay upon the love of the solitary life. B. Ep. 143 Often, he says, have I marveled, what has affected your minds toward us, and whence it is that you are so greatly surpassed by our mediocrity, so modest and slender, and in no respect lovable; that you exhort us by writings, through the commemoration of friendship and of country; and, as parents are wont to do to fugitive sons, here he excuses himself. try to recall us to you with paternal bowels. I indeed confess that we have been made fugitives, nor would I deny it: but the cause of the flight you yourselves now know, if indeed you desire to know it: but this is the chief, that then, when I was among you, struck unexpectedly, just as if anyone is consternated by sudden motions, I did not restrain the considerations of my mind, but fled far off, and stayed much time separated from you; but afterward there came upon my mind a certain desire of the divine doctrines, and of the philosophy which is engaged about them: for by what other means could I; by what, I say, by what other means could I tame the malice dwelling together with us? O if there be given me some Laban, on account of the desire of the solitary life. who may free me from Esau, and lead me to the philosophy of the heavenly life! Now since by the grace of God we have been made, according to our strength, partakers of our vow, having obtained a blessed organ and a deep well (I mean Gregory, that mouth of Christ) grant us, I beseech, a little while, a little while this small delay: which we ask not for this, that we may follow the delights of cities (for it is not hidden from us, in what manner that crafty enemy of ours imposes on mortals through them) but that we may enjoy the company of the Saints, which we judge to be most useful. For while frequently something of the divine doctrines is both said and heard, we put on a certain habit of divine contemplations tenaciously inhering. And to this manner our affairs stand: but you, O divine and dearest of all to me, observe the shepherds of the Philistines, lest any of them secretly stop up your fountains, and render turbid the purity of the knowledge, which concerns the faith of Christ. He then proceeds to explain the most holy mystery of the Trinity, and the divinity of Christ, that even absent he may instruct and confirm his own in the orthodox faith. [A schism having arisen between Gregory the elder Bishop and the Monks of Nazianzus]

[85] Not long after, another care again, and that most grievous, took hold of Nazianzen, and compelled him to return home. Namely a schism between the Monks of Nazianzus and Gregory the father. For he, like many other Bishops, deceived by fraud by the heretics, had subscribed to the Constantinopolitan faith; which I believe was done about the year 361, Constantius still living: for it is not probable, that in the time of Julian, when all the Bishops driven into exile were recalled, the Arians or their followers would have wished or could have extorted from the orthodox the subscription of the Symbol of Ariminum or Constantinople. Yet not on that account did a schism immediately blaze up in the Church of Nazianzus, as is gathered from the Theologian: For although, he says, we were not superior to that disease which occupied all things; but we too received a part of the public calamity; nor did we retain the paternal inheritance, that is the good of concord, even to the end; yet here too we surpassed others not a little, in that, having fallen last into this fraud, we were first raised up. Orat. 12 From these things it may be gathered; that the Monks of Nazianzus did not begin to make tumult against their Bishop immediately after the lapse (for while Constantius reigned that would have profited little; while Julian ruled, the minds of all Christians were turned elsewhere) but Jovian being raised to the Empire, the orthodox were brought into hope, no less of idolatry, than of heresy to be extirpated: and therefore with new fervor they began to inveigh against everything, which smacked even from afar of heresy. Hence discord arose among the people of Nazianzus; which progressed so far, that the Monks, having acquired for themselves Presbyters from elsewhere for the divine service, believed all communion with their Bishop to be interdicted to them, so that they even drew very many of the faithful to their side. Orat. 12 These things pressed and disturbed Gregory's mind: since those who loved God and Christ in a greater degree, divided Christ.

[86] Therefore the zealot of peace and concord, for the paternal Church, his son the Theologian returns home and reconciles the peace, of which he himself bore no small care, returned from Pontus to Nazianzus about the beginning of the year 364; and the minds being happily reconciled, he had three orations on peace. Then on the feast of the Lights, that is of the Baptism received from Christ, which was celebrated at the beginning of March or the end of February next following, he pronounced that oration, in which he thus speaks: Like John I bring forth happy news, not indeed as that Precursor, but coming from solitude. Orat. 39 For the truth of this assertion, it suffices, and by a public oration he congratulates; if three or four months before Nazianzen came from the hermitage: nay nor would it greatly repugn that assertion, if this oration be deferred to the following year. For he who by profession is solitary or a Monk, ever again returning into solitude, can always be said to come from solitude. But for the rest as regards Basil, these words of Nazianzen are to be explained; Where iniquity abounded, grace superabounded. Orat. 12 by which he praises a certain Monk who was a Presbyter, Since when I had lost the grain, I received ears of corn; when I mourned the sheep, I obtained besides Shepherds. Nor is there doubt, that I shall take up the most excellent of Shepherds, although for certain spiritual reasons he still refuses to undertake the office of Shepherd. For although he has the spirit entrusted to him, and the negotiation of the talents, and the care of the fold committed, and is anointed with the oil of the Priesthood and of perfection; yet still in his wisdom he hesitates to preside over the flock to be ruled, and keeps the lamp under the bushel (which is indeed soon to be placed upon the candlestick, that it may affect all the souls of the church with its splendor, and predicts that he will soon be a Bishop: and illuminate our paths) but still looks around at the mountains and forests and streams, and devises snares for the wolves the ravishers of souls, that he may in due time receive also the herdsman's staff itself, and with the true Shepherd feed this rational flock; placing it in the place of pasture, that is in the perpetually green discourses of God; and leading it forth with the water of refreshment, that is the Holy Spirit. And this indeed we both hope and wish.

[87] Elias of Crete, commenting on this passage; He understands, he says, Basil the Great, who, after another had been elected Bishop of Caesarea, had withdrawn into Pontus; and wisely, that he might not yet preside over the Church, drew out the matter. Which withdrawal, instituted by a certain counsel, that he might yield to the envy of many, Gregory deservedly calls wisdom. That Basil was then a Bishop is convicted of manifest falsity. But neither do I believe that a Bishop is here treated of, but only a Priest of the second Order, on whom the office was imposed of ruling the faithful under the Bishop, and feeding them with the divine word. Surely these words of Nazianzen; When I mourned the sheep, I obtained Shepherds; are said only of Priests of the second Order: since among the Solitaries, whom he had reconciled to his father, there were no Bishops: whatever Elias of Crete may say, who however does not seem to have been Basil. that some of them were afterward promoted to the Episcopate. For this Gregory could not know at the time when he was speaking; and if any during the schism were raised to the Episcopate, these had departed to their own Churches, nor was their reconciliation to be treated of in this place. And by this reasoning (if namely only a Presbyter be treated of) these things could have been said of Basil: for it is not to be doubted, that before his departure from Pontus, Gregory conceived some hope, of removing the quarrel between Eusebius and Basil; especially after he had seen the letter of the citizens of Caesarea, given for recalling Basil. Yet I prefer that the aforesaid passage of the Theologian be understood, of a certain Monk of Nazianzus, and at the same time a Presbyter: who, distinguished above the rest in eloquence and virtue, in the time of the schism had withdrawn himself into the desert, lest he should have to minister divine things to the people; and had not yet, when these things were said, returned to office. But if you think, that the words of Gregory designate, not only a Presbyter, but at the least an elected Bishop; consider that this Solitary is therefore so praised, because the holy Encomiast judged him worthy of the Episcopate, and hoped he would at some time be elected.

[88] Meanwhile on the 17th of February Jovian dies; and Valentinian succeeds him, Valentinian and Valens reigning on the 25th of the same month: who about the beginning of the following April took as partner of the Empire his brother Valens, and commended the East to him to be governed, or rather left it to be torn apart by heresy. But the Theologian, peace between his father and the Monks of Nazianzus excellently confirmed; added his mind, that he might likewise reconcile Eusebius to Basil, of the happy success of which business he had conceived great hope, as I said, before he departed from Pontus to Nazianzus. But a few things are to be touched upon which Gregory

regard more than Basil, and which have been more fully narrated in his Life. Gregory is present at Nazianzus with his father; His occupations through this three-year period, until the year 367, were chiefly, to rule the Church of Nazianzus in place of his father, afflicted by old age and various successive diseases; and I believe at this time the miracle happened, that to Gregory the elder, lying ill on the feast of Easter, suddenly and against the course of nature health was restored. From time to time also Nazianzen ran out to Caesarea, either summoned thither by Eusebius, who used much his counsel and work; or of his own accord, that he might pave the way, for bringing back Basil. Yet he was not so bound by these matters, that he did not from time to time withdraw to Arianzus, to taste again somewhat the delights of the solitary life; sometimes also with Basil in Pontus; or even into Pontus, for mutual conversation with Basil, through which they might console each other in turn, and confer counsels, in so great a necessity of each Church. But if Gregory was absent longer, Basil jokingly invited him to himself and his solitude: in jest, I say, not in earnest: for it is not credible, that Basil seriously wished Gregory snatched away from the Church of Nazianzus, whom he himself, a few years before, fleeing of his own accord, had brought back to undertake the Sacerdotal office: and since we have the responsory letters of Nazianzen, certainly written in jest not in earnest, we cannot assign a fitter time for their writing.

[89] Thus therefore take it. Basil had complained that he was as it were despised by Gregory, who, the Pontic solitude being left, alone at home or at Arianzus leaned upon Christian Philosophy, that is the pious exercises of the Religious and holy meditations. Nazianzen returns an epistle, filled with the praises of Basil; which if he had written in earnest, he would by no means escape the mark of flattery: yet what forbids one laughing to speak the truth? G. Ep. 10 How small to us, he says, and cheap are your affairs, O divine and sacred head? what word is this that has escaped the hedges of your teeth? or how have you dared to say this? that I too may boldly say something. How did even your mind propose it, or the ink write it, or the paper receive it? O studies and Athens, and virtues and literary sweats! By your letters you make me almost tragic. Do you not know us, or yourself? you, I say, the light of the world, the great voice and trumpet, the palace of doctrine. Are your affairs small to Gregory? What other therefore of the things which are on earth could anyone admire, except Gregory admires you? One spring among the parts of the year, one sun among the stars, one heaven embracing all things in its embrace, one your voice triumphing over all; if only I am enough my own master, to bear judgment about matters of this kind, nor does love impose upon me; which I do not think. But if on this account you are angry at us, that we look up to and admire you less than your virtue merits; you ought to be angry at all mortals too: nor has any other praised you worthily enough or will praise you, except yourself and your sublimity in speaking; if indeed it could be done, that anyone himself should proclaim his own praises, and the law of discourses would allow it. As for the contempt of you which you object to us; nay rather may I first go mad. But are you indignant that we philosophize? Let it be permitted me with your good leave to say, in this one thing you are more sublime and more excellent even than your doctrine and erudition.

[90] When again Basil had written I know not what familiar vituperation about the Tiberine; Nazianzen sent back equally a ridiculous description of the Pontic solitude in two epistles. To relate these here will not be incongruous; both that a fuller knowledge of the Basilian solitude may be had; and that it may be seen, that the Saints were not always of so severe and morose a mind, amid the most serious matters and the gravest cares, but that from time to time they delighted each other with certain honest pleasantries. Do you indeed assail and abuse our affairs with cavils, he says, doing this whether in jest or in earnest: this is nothing, only smile, and enjoy doctrine to satiety, and take fruit from our friendship. G. Ep. 7 All things, which proceed from you are sweet to us, whatever at last they be, and however they may stand: for the affairs of this place too you seem to me to harry and assail with cavils, not that you may cavil, but that you may draw me to yourself (if however I understand anything of your mind) just as those who block rivers, that they may draw them back into another part and divert them: for in this manner you always deal with us. But I will admire your Pontus, and the Pontic gloom, and a seat worthy of exile, and the mounds overhanging the head, and the wild beasts testing your faith, and the solitude lying below, nay the cavern of mice, with the specious names of gymnasium, and monastery, and school; and the woods of rustic shrubs and the crown of precipitous mountains, by the density of shadows, with which you are not so much crowned as confined; the air too measured out to a fixed degree, and the desired sun, by which as through a chimney you are irradiated, O Pontic Cimmerians, and lacking sun, nor condemned only to a six-month night, which is reported of certain peoples; but not having even any part of life free from shadow, but one long night the whole space of life, and truly the shadow of death, to speak with Scripture.

[91] But I praise also that narrow and pressed way (I know not whether leading into the kingdom, or into the pit; but for your sake may it lead into the kingdom) and that intermediate Eden, and the fountain divided into four sources, from which the world is irrigated, what do you wish me to name falsely? This dry and moisture-lacking solitude, what Moses will soften, drawing forth from the rock a fountain by the stroke of his rod? For where it is not rough with crags, it is a torrent; where again it is not a torrent, it is precipitous; and balanced on both sides, and by the noise of the river, it gathers the mind of those entering, and exercises it to security. The river furthermore in the lowest part is borne with a din (which you compare to the Amphipolitan and quiet Strymon) not more fertile of fish, than of stones: not poured out into a pool, but flowing into chasms, O too grandiloquent man, and architect of new names: for it is great and horrible, and surpasses and overwhelms with its din the psalmodies of those who dwell in the higher place. Cataracts and waterfalls are nothing compared to it, to such a degree does it resound to you day and night; and it is so rough, that it is meanwhile not fordable; so again turbid, that it cannot be drunk: in this title only human and kind, because it does not roll down your seat, when by torrents and tempests it is driven into fury. You have what we think about those fortunate isles, or about you the fortunate ones. Nor indeed is there reason why you should extol with praises those crescent-shaped windings, those parts, and by the multitude of mountains. by which the roots of that mountain can be approached, not so much walling around and as it were girding with a wall, as wretchedly compressing; and that summit overhanging your head, which makes for you a Tantalic life; and the flowing breezes and vapors of the earth, which restore you laboring with faintness of soul; the tuneful birds too, chattering indeed, but hunger; flitting around indeed, but solitude. Nor does anyone come there except for the sake of hunting, you say. Why do you not add? that he may also visit you the dead. These things indeed are perhaps more prolix, than the measure of an epistle demands; yet at least smaller than a comedy. But you, if indeed you bear these jokes with an even mind, will have done rightly: if otherwise, we will add more too.

[92] But in the following epistle Nazianzen pursues the description of the Basilian solitude with equal style: Since, he says, you bear with an even mind what we wrote to you in jest; come let us add what follows, taking our beginning from Homer. G. Ep. 8 Now come, advancing, sing, I pray, the inner adornment--- namely the hut, by the cheapness of the hut, lacking roof and doors; the hearth, free of fire and smoke; the walls, dried by fire, lest we be assailed by drops of mud, like Tantalus, and mulcted with the same penalty, namely thirsting in waters; those hungry and miserable banquets too, to which from Cappadocia, not as to the want of the Lotus-eaters, but as to the table of Alcinous we came, new and toilsome shipwrecked men. For I remember that bread and broth (for so they were named) and I will always remember, my teeth sticking together around the fragments, and afterward raising themselves, and as it were emerging from mire (which you of course will exaggerate more sublimely; your own calamities namely supplying you the magnitude of speech) from which unless that great and truly poor-loving mother of yours had freed us as quickly as possible, and had stood forth as a port to us tossed by tempest, we should long since have ceased to be among the living, obtaining by the name of the Pontic faith no greater praise, than moving compassion. But in what manner shall I pass over those sterile gardens lacking herbs; and the dung of Augeas, by the sterility of the gardens: carried out from the house, with which we filled them? when that mountainous cart, both I the vintager, and you the witty man, with this neck and these hands, which even now bear the traces of labors, we dragged (O earth and sun! O man and virtue! something a little in tragic manner I will exclaim) not that we might join the Hellespont, but that we might level a steep and precipitous place. If the commemoration of these things is not going to offend you, certainly neither us: but if you will conceive offense from it, how much more we from the things themselves? and we will pass over the greater part of many other things, by which it happened to us to be deterred by shame.

[93] Furthermore another succeeded these on the same subject; written more in earnest, but yet pleasantly; by which he shows the desire of his soul, eagerly courting the Pontic solitude and the society of Basil. What about the Pontic, he says, dwelling I wrote before, all things suited to the exercise of virtue: I wrote in jest, not in earnest; but what I now write, I write quite in earnest. Who will restore me according to the state of those former days, in which I with you held affliction for delights? since trouble undertaken excels by no means voluntary pleasure. Who will give those psalmodies and vigils, and the peregrinations to God through prayer, and that life as it were vacant of matter and incorporeal? Who the concord and conjunction of souls of those Brethren, who were made gods by you, and were carried up on high? Who the contest of virtue and the incitement to it, which we strengthened by written rules and laws? Who the study and light of the divine oracles, found in them under the guidance and auspices of the Holy Spirit? or, to say smaller and lighter things, who the daily turns and labors of works, who the carryings of wood and the quarries, who the plantings and waterings of trees, who that golden plane-tree and more excellent than the plane-tree of Xerxes, in which not a King flowing with luxury, and therefore he desires to be there with Basil but an afflicted Monk sat? which I planted, Apollo watered, that is your excellence; but God increased in our honor, that a monument of our diligent labor and industry

might be preserved among you; just as that rod of Aaron, which had flowered, is said and believed to have been kept in the Ark. But to wish these things indeed is very easy, but to attain them not equally easy. But you be present to me; and foster virtue for me by your conspiration and work; and that profit, which we once gathered, preserve by your prayers; lest otherwise we slip away little by little, like a shadow as the day draws toward evening. Indeed I breathe you more than the air; and live this only, that I am with you, whether present or absent through the image of the mind. Thus, through mutual letters from time to time sent, Basil and Gregory cultivated a pious friendship between themselves, until the end of the year 366.

[94] In the same space of three years probably happened those things, which Basil narrates to Eustathius of Sebaste; refuting the calumny fastened upon him, whom Eustathius visits there as if he consented to the heresy of Sabellius or Apollinaris. Question, he says, yourself. E. Ep. 79 Often you visited us in the monastery by the river Iris, when my most beloved brother Gregory was with me, and strove toward the same goal of life; (Gregory namely of Nyssa, who then, his wife Theosebia being either dead, or consecrated to God by a vow of continence, had likewise betaken himself wholly to the religious life) did you hear any such thing, or receive any signification of this whether small or great? For some time in the villa, which is beyond the bank of the river, at my mother's, we conversed mutually between ourselves after the manner of friends, and night and day we mingled colloquies; were we here detected to have anything akin to heresy in mind? When we visited the blessed Silvanus together, did we not on that journey contemplate these matters? … When I visited the dwellings of the Brethren, and together with them spent the night in prayers, without any contention, assiduously saying and hearing the things which pertain to God, did I not there exhibit evident marks and indications of my mind and thoughts? How comes it then that by the experience of so much time, it seems to be less than a feeble and weak suspicion?

[95] But neither in this whole three-year period was Basil so fixed to the Pontic solitude, that he did not from time to time, and with him the latter sets out the necessities of the Church urging, undertake certain journeys: for thus he writes about the Synod of Lampsacus, which was celebrated in the year 365, to the aforesaid Eustathius. B. Ep. 79 But when you summoned me to Eusinoë, with several Bishops about to set out to Lampsacus, to Eusinoë and Chalcedon: were not our discourses about the faith? were not your secretaries present to me disputing against heresy through all that time? were not your dearest disciples with me all that time? … But whom ought I to have as a witness of my mind besides you? The things which at Chalcedon were said by us about the faith, which also often at Heraclea, and before in the suburb of Caesarea, were they not all consonant to us and all concordant among themselves? But from this that he says he was also at Chalcedon, namely about the same time, I think, that then he saw the multitude of fish, just like a torrent, flowing through the Propontis into the Euxine Pontus. That he saw this he himself testifies, and that in all things he admiringly looked up to the wisdom of God.

[96] But that in the same peregrination he came to Constantinople, he runs out also to Constantinople; there can scarcely be doubt, at that time, when in the year 365 there was held there the conventicle of Eudoxius, Acacius and other Arians or Anomoeans. We gather this from Nyssen, replying to the calumnies of Eunomius: That reproaches, he says, are bare words, which do not reach to the truth itself, it is permitted to demonstrate from the proper writings of Eunomius. Book I He adduces a certain passage, in which he entered a contest for the truth of doctrine: but he neither names the place, nor designates it by any certain sign, so that the hearer must necessarily fluctuate and be carried about by uncertain conjectures. He says that men summoned from all places convened in this, and childishly luxuriates in words; subjecting namely to the eyes and representing the apparatus of that assembly. Then he says, that to certain judges (neither does he name these) the ultimate punishment was set forth, but that here our Preceptor and Father too subscribed. But the judgment conferring on the adversaries the greater parts, where the encounter with the Arians was declined he says he suddenly fled, his rank deserted, and followed straight a certain smoke of his country; and he is profuse in traducing and deriding the man on account of his timidity… But what is that nameless place, in which there was held a disquisition about the truth of doctrines? At what time, on what occasion were all the most excellent summoned to the contest?… Let him only say, who is that unconquered fighter, with whom our Preceptor was afraid to engage. For if this is not fabricated and lyingly devised, let him conquer again, and bear off the palm of vanity, and we will be silent… But if he speaks of the things done at Constantinople, and means that conventicle, and lingers in describing the tragedies acted there, and names himself a great and unsurpassable athlete; I confess that at the time of that fight we avoided the encounter of the adversaries, although present. Let him who reproaches Basil with timidity teach, whether he himself came forward into the midst, whether he uttered a voice for his own defense and his doctrine, Nyssen excuses him. whether he amplified his oration in a juvenile manner, whether he generously joined hands with the adverse party. But he will find nothing, that he may say, unless he wishes manifestly to fight with himself. Thus Nyssen replies to Eunomius, who in the manner of heretics exultingly reproached Basil with timidity. But there were altogether other reasons, by which the latter, persuaded, by no means wished to be present at such a conventicle of heretics: since both he and Gregory would be the only orthodox among very many Arians: nor by disputing nor by exhorting could they have profited anything, with minds obstinate in heresy: and so their presence would have availed for this only, that they might be numbered among the heretics, and as such be calumniously torn to pieces by the malevolent.

CHAPTER VIII.

Eusebius and Basil reconciled. He resists the Arians and the Prefect strongly, writes the Liturgy.

[97] Meanwhile by the favor of Valens, the Arian heresy had resumed its strength: Valens, the rebels for he, Procopius and Marcellus, who had as rebels invaded the Empire, being slain; and others, who had adhered to them, being mulcted with life, exile, or other penalty, resolved to take vengeance on the Goths: because, as Ammianus Marcellinus says, they had given supports of arms to Procopius, waging war against the legitimate Princes. bk. 17 ch. 5, And while he prepares this war, baptized by Eudoxius he bound himself by oath, as Theodoret narrates, to drive from the churches all who adhere to the Orthodox doctrine. bk. 4 ch. 12 And so about the end of the year 366 a rumor grew that the Arian Emperor would soon come to Caesarea. A rumor, I say; for before the winter of the following year he did not actually come: but first, as Ammianus Marcellinus narrates, the spring of the same year growing, Valens, an army gathered into one, pitched camp near a fortification by the name of Daphne; and a bridge being constructed and laid above the decks of ships, the Hister being crossed with no one resisting, he was lifted up into great confidence, because, running to and fro, he found no one whom he could overcome or terrify: for all, struck with dread of the soldier approaching with ambitious apparatus, and the conqueror of the barbarians, sought the mountains of the Serri, steep and inaccessible except to those very well acquainted. Lest therefore, the whole summer being consumed, he should return without any effect, Arinthaeus the Master of foot being sent with predatory bands, he seized a part of the families, which, before they came to the precipices and winding ways, could be taken, wandering through the level of the plains. And this only, which chance had given, being obtained, he returned with his men unharmed, neither having inflicted a grievous wound, nor received one.

[98] Matters against the barbarians being thus happily conducted through the summer; against the orthodox Churches he undertook war in winter: about to come to Caesarea, but meanwhile he had granted them a truce of preparing themselves for the holy war, that not unprepared they might receive the coming Emperor, attended by several heretical Bishops; and about to draw over to his side that Church, hitherto indeed unstained by heresy, yet shaken by the quarrel between Basil and Eusebius. So great a peril of the Church, as it increased the solicitude of the Theologian, so likewise increased his desire, of bringing Basil, as quickly as he could, reconciled to Eusebius, back to Caesarea. But Eusebius was a good man and exceedingly catholic, as was said above: into whose friendship Nazianzen had insinuated himself, which he declared not obscurely. Hence, the occasion being seized, Gregory solicitous, admonishing him by epistle about the concord with Basil to be renewed; Since I have, he says, discourse with that man, who neither loves a lie himself, and surpasses all men in acumen for detecting it in another, however much it be wrapped in various enough labyrinths; he writes to Eusebius and besides since not even to me does deceit and artifice please (for I will say it though it be more troublesome) being both so framed by nature, and instituted and formed by Scripture; therefore I write what occurs to my mind. G. Ep. 20 And I would wish you to take my confidence in good part: or certainly you will be injurious to me, taking away from me liberty, and forcing me to contain the grief I have conceived, like a certain malignant and festering disease, deep in my breast.

[99] That I am affected with honor by you I rejoice (since I am a man, as someone said before) and that I am called to councils and spiritual assemblies: but that contumely has been brought upon my dearest Brother Basil by your piety, and is even now being brought, I bear ill: as one whom I both chose from the beginning, and now have, as a partner both of life, and of studies and of the most sublime philosophy; nor am I at all angry at myself on account of my judgment about him: for thus it is better to speak more sparingly, lest otherwise, proclaiming his virtues, I seem to praise myself. But you, while, despising him, you affect us with honor, seem to me to do just as if someone should stroke the head of one man with one hand, and strike his cheek with the other; or even, the foundations of a house being shaken, should paint the walls, and adorn the external parts. and praying that he be reconciled, Accordingly if you will think anything is to be complied with by me, this you will do; but that you comply, I ask of you and contend: for it is just. For if you cultivate him as is fitting, you yourself too will in turn be observed by him: but we will follow, just as shadows the bodies; as being small, and more inclined to peace. For our affairs are not in so wretched a state, that in other matters we should indeed wish to philosophize, and follow the better part; but should despise love, which is the head of our whole doctrine, and reckon it for nothing; especially toward a man a Priest, and so distinguished, whom both in life and in speech and in conversation, we recognize to be the most excellent of all whom we know. For neither will the grief, with which we were affected, spread darkness over the truth.

[100] Eusebius seems to have been offended by so great a liberty of writing, as he was more tenacious than was just of his dignity; for he complained that Gregory had written to him contumeliously and insolently: but on the contrary the latter replied, that he had spiritually

and philosophically, and as was fitting, written. G. Ep. 169 For although Eusebius surpassed in grade of dignity Basil and Gregory; yet it was just that some just liberty and license be given to them; nor was Gregory's epistle to be held as that of a servant, he placates the one offended, or of such a man, who ought not even to look at him. For thus, he says, we shall even receive blows, and not even send forth tears; will this too be given us for a crime? Finally, that he may somewhat soften the moved mind, he admonishes that it belongs to a man, endowed with greatness of soul, to embrace rather the liberty of friends, than the blandishments of enemies. By this admonition Gregory, when he understood Eusebius made milder, sends him another epistle, by which he excuses himself, that he had never been of a malevolent mind toward him (for do not, he says, blame me on this account) but that, after he had used some liberty, namely that he might soften and cure the grief conceived in mind, he immediately yielded, and subjected himself to the rule of humanity, because he had the laws of the spirit known to him. G. Ep. 170 But now, he says, even if I were of a malevolent and idle mind, on account of the necessity of the Church, yet the very time does not suffer me to labor with this affection; nor the wild beasts, which made an onset against the Church; nor finally your generous and strenuous mind, so sincerely and without deceit fighting for the Church. Namely by this art he ingeniously instructs Eusebius, with what mind he ought to be in so great a necessity of the Church. Finally promising his work dutifully, We will come therefore, he says, if so it seems, both to join our prayers with yours, and to fight together, and to ply work for you; and, as boys cheering on the most excellent fighter, to whet and incite him with silent voices.

[101] And thinking he should not stop here, Nazianzen set out to Caesarea, and found Eusebius pacified; or by pleasant conversation brought it about that he was; so that he even wished to write friendly letters to Basil, by which he might allure him to himself and his Church. Then Gregory as soon as possible makes Basil more certain of the success of the matter; and exhorting him, inclined enough of his own accord, to concord; It is a time, he says, of good counsel and of toleration, he informs Basil about it, and we are so to dispose ourselves, that no one appear more excellent than us in greatness of soul, nor our many labors and sweats collapse in a point of time. G. Ep. 19 Why I write these things you ask? Our Bishop Eusebius, dearest to God (for thus must we henceforth think and write about him) is of a mind very friendly toward us, and inclined to compose quarrels, and is softened by time like iron by fire; and I think it will be, that deprecatory and summoning letters too will come to you, just as both he himself signified to me, and many who plainly know his affairs assure us. Whom let us anticipate, coming to him or writing, and then betaking ourselves to him; lest afterward we be ashamed, if we have been conquered, and exhorts him to come to the aid of the Church. when we could have conquered; namely excellently and philosophically yielding that which most demand of us. Obey me therefore, and come, both for this cause, and also for the time: since the heretics with conspiring minds run through the Church; partly now present and stirring up tumults, partly (as the rumor is) about to be present soon. And there is danger, lest the doctrine of truth be torn up, unless at the first time the spirit of Beseleel be roused, that is of a wise architect of disputations and doctrines of this kind. But if it seems to you worth the labor that I myself be present, and administer this, and join myself to you as a companion of the journey, neither will we flee this office. After Nazianzen had written these things, he himself went into Pontus, about to be a companion to Basil returning, as he had been of him departing.

[102] But although Basil's withdrawal was so philosophical and admirable; yet Nazianzen thinks his return was more excellent and more admirable, thus narrating and adorning it. Orat. 20 When in these studies, or monastic exercises, Basil and Gregory were engaged; suddenly there rushed on a cloud, full of hail and stridently destructive, which crushed all the Churches on which it fell, especially that of Caesarea and whatever it invaded; namely the Emperor Valens most loving of gold and most hostile to Christ, and laboring with these two most grievous diseases, namely insatiable avarice and blasphemy; after a persecutor a persecutor, after an apostate not indeed an apostate, but yet showing himself in nothing better than he to the Christians, or (to speak more rightly) to the most pious and purest part of the Christians and the worshipper of the Trinity; which alone indeed is to be called piety and salutary doctrine. For we do not weigh out the divinity as if by a balance, nor separate the one and inaccessible nature from itself by alien disjunctions; nor cure evil with evil, dissolving the impious contraction of Sabellius, by a more impious division and sections: by which disease seized that Arius having his name from fury, shook and shattered a great part of the Church: because he neither honored the father, and affected with dishonor the things which are from him, while he introduced unequal grades of the Divinity. But we recognize one glory of the Father indeed, the equality of the Only-begotten: the Arians invading it and one equation of the Son and the Holy Spirit: and if we place any of these three below, we so think, that the whole Trinity is overturned and destroyed by us: venerating and recognizing three indeed as to the properties, but one as to the Divinity. Since he noticed none of these, nor could see upward, but was depressed by those who led him; he did not hesitate to depress with himself the nature of the Divinity, and showed himself a wicked creature; namely dragging down dominion into servitude, and placing the uncreated nature and that which is more sublime than time among created things.

[103] And with this mind indeed and with impiety of this kind he undertakes an expedition against the orthodox: for that matter is to be esteemed nothing else, than a barbaric incursion, not overturning walls, not cities, not houses, or other small and handmade things, and which again can be repaired and restored; but disturbing souls themselves. He makes an onset together with him an army worthy of him, the wicked governors of the Churches, the savage and monstrous tetrarchs of that world, which was subject to his command and dominion. Who when of the Churches they now held some, attacked others, hoped that others would come into their power by the zeal and power of the Emperor, which was partly applied, partly threatened; came also to Caesarea, that they might reduce it too into their dominion; relying and supported by nothing so much, as the quarrel of those of whom we spoke before, and the inexperience of him who then presided over that Church, and the diseases which raged among us. A great contest therefore was set forth even to the no idle alacrity of many: but the battle-line was weak, as lacking a champion and an experienced defender in the virtue of speech and spirit. What therefore did that generous and lofty soul of Basil, Basil returned thither, and truly endowed with the love of Christ? He had no need of many discourses for this work, that he might be present to his own, and bring supplies: but as soon as he saw Gregory undergoing the legation (for this contest was common to both, as those who were designated champions of the faith) immediately he yielded to the legation, and to spiritual reasons; distinguishing with himself excellently and most wisely, that there was one time for quarrel (if anything were to be indulged even to an affection of that kind) namely of security and tranquillity; but another for longanimity and patience, namely the time of necessity and dangers.

[104] This therefore reckoning with himself, he immediately departs from Pontus with Gregory; briskly and prudently and fervent with zeal for the imperiled truth, freely and of his own accord he offers himself as a partner of the war, and delivers himself wholly to mother Church. But perhaps indeed he undertook this matter briskly, but by no means fought, as was worthy of that alacrity of soul; or he fought strenuously indeed, but not with counsel and prudence; or so prudently, that yet not without danger; or he performed all these things indeed perfectly and beyond what can be said, but in his soul there resided certain remnants of the old quarrel. By no means. For he performs all things at once, lays aside enmities, deliberates, draws up the battle-line, removes the scandals and stumbling-blocks, which were in the midst, and all those things in whose confidence they had thought we should be assailed by war. he renders their attempts vain. Some he takes up, some he retains, some he repels; to some he is made a firm wall and rampart, to others an axe splitting the rock, or fire among thorns, as the divine Scripture says, easily consuming the men of brushwood and contumelious against the divinity. And they indeed thus departed with their matters unaccomplished, many badly then first put to shame and overcome, and taught, that even if they despise all other men, the Cappadocians at least are not so rashly to be despised and reckoned for nothing: of whom nothing is so proper, as firmness of faith, and faith toward the Trinity and sincerity of soul: by whose benefit too they have this, that they are joined in souls and concordant, and are strong in forces; receiving namely the same helps which they bring to the Divinity, and much more excellent and firmer.

[105] These things Nazianzen in general. But Nyssen, about to reply to Eunomius, accusing Basil of timidity, describes this contest of his more distinctly: which passage others have wrongly referred to another encounter of Basil, now Bishop, with the minister of Valens: Nyssen describes the same contest more clearly: for in this place, among the other promises by which the Prefect allures Basil, that he may yield to the will of the Emperor, he promises the Episcopate of Caesarea: by which it is manifest, that Nyssen treats of this encounter, which happened before Basil's Episcopate. Let him be heard in the book against Eunomius thus writing. Who does not know, he says, how great that fighter, at the time when the Emperor Valens harassed the Church of Christ, stood with unconquered mind for the house of God, superior to all those disturbances and terrors, greater than all the threats devised by the loftiness of his mind? Who of men toward the East, who dwelling in the farthest shores of our world, was ignorant of that excellent battle for the truth against the attempts of the more powerful? Who was not astounded, looking at the adversary, who was not one of the common crowd, or who had the force and hope of victory placed in sophisms and painted discourses, in which to excel is inglorious, and to lose the victory is free of loss; but he was one, who held under his dominion the whole Roman Empire; and although he presided over so great a kingdom, was depraved by calumnies against our doctrine; namely how by Valens about to come to Caesarea, Eudoxius, the Bishop of Germanicia, drawing him by fraud to his side. But all who were of any dignity, both courtiers, and those who presided over affairs to be done, he had as helpers of his own lust: of whom some, on account of agreement of wills, of their own accord joined themselves to him; but others, many, through fear of the Emperor, promptly and briskly did that, which was pleasing to him; and on account of dissension from the professors of the orthodox faith,

they cultivated him with all observance: namely then, when he decreed flights, confiscations of fortunes, exiles, threats and exactions, dangers, prisons, chains, scourges, and all the gravest punishments to those, who would not subscribe to his lust and unbridled cupidity; when it was more perilous to be caught pious and catholic in the house of God, than in the basest crimes … He was therefore, with whom Basil had to fight, the Emperor himself; but the minister of his lust and impiety was he, who after the Emperor ruled the whole Empire: and the helpers of that cupidity were all the courtiers without exception.

[106] the Prefect sent ahead Let the very time too be added to these, that thereby the more accurately and plainly may be demonstrated the unconquered and lofty mind of that generous athlete. But what time was it? The Emperor had gone from Constantinople into the East, lifted up in mind by the things not long before happily conducted against the barbarians, and thinking that nothing at all ought to oppose his cupidities. Before him went the Prefect, in appearance indeed as if he ought to prepare the things necessary for the Emperor's arrival, but in truth that he might exterminate the orthodox from their own seats, and in the place of those ejected substitute others not legitimately called and ordained, to the contempt and injury of the Church. With this mind therefore, like a certain cloud of evils, when the violence and agitation against the Churches had advanced into the Propontis, and had unexpectedly desolated Bithynia, and without labor laid waste Galatia, and all things had flowed for them to their will; Basil intrepidly approached, now to the creeping evil our region was exposed, as the nearest. What therefore did the Great Basil, that timid one (as he calls him) and fearful, and wont to be afraid in arduous matters, and entrusting his safety to a certain obscure little house? Did he fall in mind, at the onset of that calamity? Did he wish the things which befell others, to be for him an example and lesson of safety? Did he acquiesce in the admonitions of those, who thought that for a short time one should yield to their fury; and that he should not cast himself into open peril, by resisting men accustomed to slaughter and blood? But all the abundance of speech and weight of words in this matter is far less and inferior, than the truth of the thing done. For by what speech could anyone unfold that contempt of all dangers? How could anyone subject to the eyes and represent that new and unusual fight, which neither by men, nor against men undertaken anyone would rightly affirm; but rather anyone would say that the virtue and liberty of a Christian man contended against the violence of a Prince, seeking slaughter and blood.

[107] The Prefect was calling him to himself, anticipating the presence and arrival of the Emperor; and the power of the Emperor, in itself to be dreaded, he made more dreadful by the multitude of punishments: and after those tragedies in Bithynia, and the Galatians conquered with the usual facility, he thought it no trouble even among us to rage at his own discretion. But to the things to come his speech gave a beginning, mixed at once with threats and promises: and if indeed Basil obeyed, he promised all honors from the Emperor, and besides the helm and rudder of the Church; if he resisted, he set forth all things, which bitterness of mind, joined with the power of doing anything, can devise. And those things indeed which they did were of this kind: but our man was so far from being struck with fear, on account of the things which he saw or heard; that, like some physician, or a faithful counselor summoned, that he might bring help to deplorable and abandoned affairs, he even admonished them, on account of the things which they had perpetrated, to do penance, by threats of exile, and for the rest to cease to seek to slay the servants of God: for they could effect nothing against those, who seek only the kingdom of God, and worship that immortal force and power. For neither could those who wish to afflict these with losses find anything either said or done, which might injure or sadden a Christian. The confiscation, he says, of goods does not harm him who possesses faith alone: exile will not terrify him who in his mind transcends the whole world, and who reckons every city as alien, on account of the time of his sojourn; and again every one as his own, on account of the condition of the same nature and state. But to endure blows, labors, death, when it is demanded for the defense of truth, is not wont to strike terror even into women; and of torments for all Christians count it in the place of the highest felicity, to undergo even intolerable torments, for the hope of that life. He said they only grieved at this, that nature had decreed only one death to each, nor was it permitted by dying more often to fight for the truth.

[108] When furthermore Basil in this manner directed his mind against the threats, and by his blandishments; and reckoned all the arrogance of power and command as nothing; soon as on the stage, in the sudden changes of persons, one is produced in place of another; in the same way here too the harshness of the enemies was turned into blandishments: and the speech being changed, he who hitherto had been terrifying and threatening, betakes himself to bland and moderate discourses. Do not, he says, reckon as nothing that the great Emperor desires to be inserted into your people: nay rather suffer yourself too to be named his master, and do not resist obstinately: but he wishes this to be done, one little word being removed, which is written in the Symbol of the faith, and so broke the onset of the heretics. namely the term Homousion or Consubstantial. But that the Emperor be received into the Church, replied our Master, is a matter of all the gravest. For it is a great thing to save a soul, not because it is the Emperor's, but because it is a man's. But he said he was so far from either taking away or adding anything to the faith, that he would not even think to change the order of the formula of the faith. These things that timid one, and unwarlike, and trembling at the noise of the door, to him who threatened with so great dignity: and what he said in words, he afterward performed and confirmed in the very deed: who the overthrow of the churches, like a certain torrent, raging with great force through the provinces, by the opposition of his own body restrained and turned aside: alone sufficient for checking the incursion of the calamity, like a certain great and immovable rock, of the sea, which breaks and dashes the vast waves of the sea by its mass.

[109] All these things Sozomen has comprehended in few words; Valens, he says, Nicomedia being left, The same things are given more briefly from Sozomen. takes his journey toward Antioch. bk. 6, ch. 15 On which journey indeed when they had come to Cappadocia, he labored to afflict the orthodox after his manner with grievous troubles, and to hand over their churches to the Arians: which he hoped he would easily accomplish according to his wish for this reason, that between Basil and Eusebius, who then governed the Church of Caesarea, from a certain dissension enmities had been undertaken: for which cause too Basil had withdrawn into Pontus, and there with Monks, cultivating a holy and severe discipline of living, was living. But the people, and especially those who excelled the rest both in greatness of soul and in wisdom, had begun to hold Eusebius suspect; and as if the cause, why Basil, a man on account of his pious life and singular eloquence praised by all with full mouth, was fleeing thence, resolved utterly to desert him, and to hold assemblies separately. But Basil, for no other cause had given himself to a quiet life in the monasteries of Pontus, than lest the Church, which otherwise was grievously harassed by the rebellion of the Arians, should also on his account receive some loss. And so both the absence of Basil, and the hatred of the people conceived against Eusebius, made it that the Emperor and the Bishops, whom he had about him (for the Arians were always engaged with him) with much greater alacrity of mind attempted to accomplish their attempts. But the matter succeeded little for them according to their wish. For Basil, their arrival in Cappadocia being announced, Pontus being left, came of his own accord to Caesarea, and returned into favor with Eusebius; and at the opportune time was by his doctrine a help to the Church. Valens therefore, his attempt repelled, together with the Bishops, the matter then being unaccomplished, departed thence.

[110] But the next business and zeal of Basil was this, to cultivate and observe the Prelate, Basil observes his Bishop to extinguish suspicion; to persuade all mortals, that the trouble which he had received had been a certain temptation and struggle of that evil one, envying honest and laudable concord: but that he was not ignorant, what the ritual laws of obedience and order demanded: and accordingly that he was present, taught, showed himself obedient to the word, admonished, was finally anything to him, an upright monitor, a convenient helper, an expounder of the divine oracles, a fore-shower of things to be done, a support of old age, a prop of faith, the most faithful of domestics, the most apt of strangers for conducting affairs; and helps in all things that I may say in one word, as great toward benevolence, as he was before thought to be toward enmity. Orat. 20 From which it followed, that even if the Chair was lower, yet he obtained the command of the Church. For in return for the benevolence, which he brought, he received authority: and there was indeed a marvelous concert and connection of power. The one led the people, this one the leader; and he was like a certain keeper of lions, soothing him who held the principate by art. For as one lately placed in the Chair, and still breathing something of worldly matter, and not yet instructed in the things which were of the spirit, with great fruit of the Church. and besides a huge tempest surging on all sides, and the enemies of the Church threatening, he had need of a man, by whom he might as by a hand stretched out be led and supported: and accordingly he embraced his help and aid, and with him ruling judged that he himself ruled. But now of his care and protection toward the Church although there are also many other indications, his liberty toward the Presidents, both others, and all the most powerful of the city; the settlements of controversies by no means suspect, but formed and constituted by his voice, and using moderation as a law; the patronages of the needy, more indeed spiritual, but yet not a few corporeal (for that too often tends to the soul, subduing through benevolence and as it were dragging into servitude) the zeal of feeding the poor, of receiving guests, of caring for virgins; the institutions of monastic laws, partly handed down in writing partly in voice; the descriptions of prayers, the trimmings of the sanctuary; finally all those things, by which anyone truly a man of God and joined to God, can profit the people.

[111] Of the monastic Rules, written by Basil, we treated above: Basil wrote a Liturgy, now of the Liturgy, handed down by the same, let us speak in few words; since Nazianzen makes mention of it here. Proclus the Archbishop of Constantinople, who lived in the following century, on the tradition of the Divine Liturgy in volume 5 of the Library of the Fathers, says: Very many indeed and others, of the number of those who succeeded the holy Apostles, Pastors and Doctors of the Church distinguished by piety, handed down to the Church an exposition of the mystic Liturgy, left in writing. But among these easily hold the first place, that Blessed Clement, who was a disciple of the Prince of the Apostles, and was declared his successor by the holy Apostles themselves; and the Divine James, he to whom the administration of the Church of Jerusalem fell by lot, and who was constituted its first Bishop by the highest and greatest Pontiff Christ our God. But afterward Basil the Great, since he saw the listlessness of men disdaining the prolixity of the liturgy,

and proneness (not because he himself judged it to be long and prolix; but that he might take counsel for the convenience both of the listeners, and of those praying together, and might chastise and utterly remove their sloth, flowing from the delay of a longer time) reduced into a compendium, shorter than the earlier ones: exhibited it to be recited by the Church. After our Savior was taken up into heaven, the Apostles, before they were dispersed through the world, with conspiring minds turned themselves to praying through the whole day: and when they had found much consolation placed in that mystic sacrifice of the Lord's Body, they chanted the Liturgy most copiously and with long prayer. For these Divine things, joined together with the manner of teaching, they esteemed to be set before all other things, and burned with greater and brisker zeal and desire of divine things and of the most holy Sacrifice, for the more prolix ones handed down by the Apostles and embraced it at length; because they always had in memory that word of the Lord, saying, This is my body; and, Do this in my commemoration; and, He who eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, abides in me, and I in him: wherefore with contrite spirit they chanted many prayers, earnestly praying the divine Numen. 1 Cor. 11, John 6 For indeed both from the Jews and from the Gentiles, the newly enlightened, accustoming them to those things which made for obtaining grace, and teaching the things to be omitted before the gift of grace, since they themselves were the shadow of grace, they piously formed the same. Through these prayers therefore they awaited the coming of the Holy Spirit, that by his divine presence he might make the bread set forth for the Sacrifice, and the wine mixed with water, that very body and blood of our Savior Jesus Christ.

[112] Which glorious rite indeed is observed to this very time, the faithful weak in spirit disdained. and will remain to the very end of the age: but those who afterward, the ardor and constancy of faith being cast off, intent on the actions and cares of this world, began to disdain the prolixity (as I said) of the Liturgy, could scarcely and hardly even be brought, to be present at the divine recitation of the Lord's words. By which thing too the Divine Basil being moved, that he might find a medicine for this evil, handed down a manner and method of reciting, as briefly as he could. A little after our blessed Father John, who on account of the golden river of his eloquence is said to have a golden tongue, singularly solicitous about the salvation of the sheep as becomes a shepherd, and having regard to the weakness of human nature, was zealous to pluck up by the roots every handle of excuse and satanic pretext. He removed therefore many things, and prescribed a shorter manner of performing it: lest soon men, lovers especially of liberty and leisure, circumvented by the disputations of the adversary, should be led away from this such apostolic and divine tradition, as not a few to this day in many parts have very often been detected to have attempted this very thing. The Quinisext Council, celebrated toward the end of the 7th century treating of water to be mixed with wine in the sacred chalice, Trullan Council chap. 32. thus speaks: For both James, the brother according to the flesh of Christ our Lord, to whom the throne of the Church of Jerusalem was first entrusted; and Basil, the Archbishop of the Church of the people of Caesarea, whose glory pervaded the whole world; in the mystic Sacrifice handed down to us in writings, thus published the sacred chalice to be consecrated in the divine Mass from water and wine.

[113] and the book against Nestorius, Of the same Basilian Liturgy makes mention the Author of book 2 against Nestorius and Eutyches, which is attributed to Leontius of Byzantium in volume 6 of the Library of the Fathers, and which was written at the end of the 5th century or the beginning of the 6th, these words demonstrate; It belonged only to the impiety of Paul, Marcellus, Photinus, Nestorius and Theodore, to think thus; who openly defined Christ to be only a man, which indeed each one privately, and in common all the divine Masters of the Church, with concordant sentence accused and exploded: and especially the last of all the Synod of Chalcedon, the seal and sealing of all the holy Synods that went before, which utterly overturned your bulwark of impiety, and strengthened the Symbol of faith; and proclaimed with illustrious encomia the overthrower of your impiety; truly Leo, they made mention of the Basilian Liturgy, who against Eutyches the crafty fox justly rose up, and the hidden impiety by refutations dissipated and extinguished; whom the Synod celebrated with praises befitting him. Of this, I say, book the Author, among the crimes of Theodore of Mopsuestia numbers this too, that he blabbed out another Mass, besides that which was handed down by the Fathers to the Churches; neither revering that of the Apostles, nor that of the Great Basil written in the same spirit; which however nowhere exists entire. in which his own Mass with blasphemies, not with prayers, he filled τὴν τελετὴν, that is the mystery of the Eucharist. But, although that most holy Liturgy, as is to be perceived from what has already been brought forth, was praised by all, and in use in very many Churches throughout the East; yet no copy of it has hitherto been found, which is not mutilated or interpolated, as James Goar affirms; who in the Euchologion of the Greeks brings forth various copies of it. And let these things indeed be said about the Liturgy of Basil.

CHAPTER IX.

Basil comes to the aid of the poor in a time of famine.

[114] But while Basil by doctrine, religion, and observance toward his Bishop, adorned his Priesthood; this among those things was one of the greatest, and exceedingly illustrious and distinguished, that the Lord provided him an occasion, that at the same time he might present himself as an exemplar of charity and mercy toward the poor. Orat. 20 In the consulship of Lucinus and Jovian, says Socrates, After a monstrous hail on the sixth before the Nones of July, hail of unusual size, like stones, fell at Constantinople: and it is in the mouth of many, that that hail, God being angry that many Priests, who had refused to communicate with Eudoxius, had been relegated by the Emperor, fell down. So strong a striking having crushed the fruits of the earth; a famine arose, and indeed the most atrocious within the memory of men. bk. 4 ch. 10 The city languished, nor was aid brought from any quarter, nor any medicine of the calamity. Orat. 20 For maritime cities indeed easily endure wants of this kind, giving namely those things in which they abound, a famine arisen and in turn receiving from the sea those things which they lack. But Caesarea, and those who dwell far from the sea, neither take advantage from those things in which they overflow; nor can they by any art procure those things which they need: as those who can neither export the things they have, nor import those they lack. But in evils of this kind nothing is graver and more bitter, than the cruelty and insatiable cupidity of those, who have corn. For they observe the difficulties of the times, and traffic in famine, and make a harvest from the calamities of others; not hearing that he who pities the poor lends to God; nor again that he who hides corn is execrable to the people; the avarice of the merchants is increased: nor finally anything else of those things, which Scripture either promises to men endowed with kindness, or threatens to the hard and inhuman: but they are more greedy of gain than is fitting; and badly take counsel for themselves; as they shut up their goods to others, so shutting up to themselves the bowels of God, of whose help they know not that they are more in need than others need their aid. And these things indeed the buyers and dealers of corn do, who neither are moved by the right of kinship, nor render the return of a grateful mind to God, by whose benefit they themselves have corn, when others are oppressed by famine.

[115] To pour down bread from heaven by prayer, and to feed a fugitive people in the desert Basil could by no means; Basil relieves it, not by miracles. nor to provide gratuitous sustenance, gushing like a fountain from little vessels, which (a thing which human senses scarcely grasp) were replenished by the very emptying, that he might feed his nurse as a reward of hospitality; nor lastly to feed many thousands of men with five loaves, of which the very leftovers too were such, that they would suffice for many other tables. For these things were of Moses, and of Elijah, and of my God, from whom to those too power of this kind had flowed; perhaps too they suited those times, and that state of affairs, since signs are given to the unbelieving, not to the believing. but he relieves it by prayer and exhortation, What therefore should Basil do? Those things which are consonant with the aforesaid, and tend to the same, with equal faith he thought and accomplished. For the granaries of the wealthy being opened through his prayer and his exhortations, he does what is in Scripture, breaks food to the hungry, and satiates the poor with loaves, and feeds them in famine, and fills hungering souls with good things. In what manner at last? for this too is of no small moment for the heap of praise. When he had gathered into one those whom famine afflicted, ministering by his own self to the poor, some even scarcely drawing breath, men, women, children, old men, and every miserable age; collecting all kinds of foods by which famine is wont to be repelled; and setting forth full pots, of legumes and of our native salted relish, and accommodated to relieving the famine of the poor; and then imitating the ministry of Christ, who girt with a linen cloth did not count it grievous to wash the feet of his disciples; and at the same time using the work of boys or fellow-servants for that matter; he cared for the bodies and souls of the poor, connecting namely honor with the necessary nourishment, and on both sides relieving their calamity.

[116] Such was our new procurator and second Joseph: nay we have even something more, that we may say. with regard to mercy alone, For he sought gain from the famine, and by his kindness toward the wretched bought Egypt, disposing the years of abundance for the time of famine, since he was ordained to that matter by the dreams of others. But this one was kind for nothing, nor in this help of distributing corn sought any lucre, looking to this one thing, that he might procure for himself mercy through mercy, and through the present largesse of provisions might obtain future goods. There was added besides the nourishment of speech, and a more perfect benefit, and a largesse truly heavenly and sublime: for the bread of Angels is speech, by which are nourished and watered souls hungering for God; and seeking food, not flowing and passing away, but perpetually abiding; of which food he himself was the dispenser, and indeed exceedingly wealthy; a man otherwise the poorest and most needy of all whom I have known, not healing the hunger of bread or the thirst of water; but fulfilling the desire of that word truly vital, and having the force of nourishing, and leading him who is rightly nourished, to the increase of spiritual age.

[117] So great a charity in satiating the famished Nyssen too adorns with deserved encomia, and therefore he is likened to Elijah: comparing his brother to the great Elijah. Or. F. Nay even, he says, of the consolation and relief in famine, which the great Elijah furnished in one widow, our age too has some likeness in the Master. For when a famine sometime grievous and savage afflicted both the very city in which he dwelt, and all the subject region everywhere; his estates and possessions being sold, and the monies converted into food (since it was even rare, that those who had well provided for themselves and were furnished, could make and supply for themselves the things which pertain to the table and victuals)

he persevered through all the time of the famine, not only to feed those who flocked together from everywhere, but also the youth of the whole urban populace; so much so that he made even the children of the Jews equally partakers of this kindness and liberality. But it makes no difference at all, whether one execute the divine command through an oil-vessel, or through some matter and occasion: for the consolation of the needy does not ask whence you take, but looks to that which it is. he is defended against the impudence of Eunomius And again the same Nyssen in book 1 against Eunomius, replying to the calumnies heaped by Eunomius upon Basil, one of which was impudence, thus says; Let Eunomius himself say, I wish, who deserves the name of impudence: this one, who distributed liberally to the needy his paternal faculties, even before he was initiated into the Priesthood; especially then, when there was a great want of provisions? Namely at that time he so presided over the Church, that he was still reckoned in the number of Presbyters; and after these things he made nothing remaining for himself: so that he himself could glory with the Apostle: Because I have not eaten bread for nothing. How much rather will that one incur the name of impudence, who holds the profession of his doctrine for gain; who, not called, insinuates himself into others' houses; by no means covering the insolence of this deed by his manner of living, nor considering, how naturally averse from men of this kind are those, whose mind and reason is sounder? Namely he (Eunomius) thinks nothing of the kind, who by the ancient law on account of the likeness of signification, was exterminated from human society. From these testimonies of Nyssen we are taught not only that mercy was exhibited by Basil to the famished; but also that which Nazianzen had passed over, namely whence money sufficed Basil for so profuse an almsgiving, professing poverty now for ten years or thereabouts. Namely, although he had long ago distributed much of his goods to the poor, and in all things pursued true poverty for Christ; yet he had kept up to that time some estates, from whose proceeds he might come to the aid of the poor, which then, on the occasion of a greater necessity, he sold, the price being distributed to the needy.

[118] After the hail and most bitter famine, not yet did the divine goodness cease to provoke sinners, and especially heretics, to repentance; by sending in new plagues, which might profit even the good for the increase of virtue. bk. 4 ch. 10 Therefore in the year 368, Valentinian and Valens being consuls for the second time, on the fifth before the Ides of October, in an earthquake his brother Caesarius was saved an earthquake (as Socrates writes) happening in Bithynia afflicted the city of Nicaea: by whose ruin Caesarius, the brother of Nazianzen, was all but overwhelmed: the roof under which he was staying collapsing. Him, so marvelously saved by the divine mercy, both Gregory and Basil were zealous to lead from the Emperor's court to the monastic life; and therefore the latter exhorted him with such an epistle. Thanks be to God, who manifested his marvels in you, and preserved you, snatched from a death so near, safe for your country and for us your friends. B. Ep. 362 That one thing remains, lest we be found ungrateful, or unworthy of so great benefits, but according to our strength and faculty proclaim the miracles of God; he exhorts him so to live henceforth, and laud that goodness, of whose deed we are made partakers. Nor does it become us to give thanks with bare words only, but also to show ourselves in very deed such, as we judge you to be at present; making conjecture, from the miracle done in you. Nay I exhort you in greater degree to serve God, and to add his fear as it were a heap to gratitude, and in it always to make progress, that we may be prudent dispensers of that life of ours, for which the benignity of God has guarded us.

[119] Surely, if to all this is commanded, to show ourselves to God as if raised from the dead; how much more ought those to perform that, who were lifted from the very gates of death? This, as my opinion bears, will then best be done, if we wish to be always affected in the same manner, in which we are in the article of our peril. The vanity surely of our life appears nowhere not; nor is anything to men trustworthy or fixed, who are so prone to slipping. And surely it is probable, that we, touched with true penitence on account of things past, will be tenacious of our promises for the future, so that he may desire to be found in death. if, freed from dangers, we show ourselves to God faithful servants, and accurate guardians of our ways. For if the peril of impending death supplied you some useful thought, I think that either those very ones, or ones most like to these, at that time you reckoned in your mind, that we may be found debtors of a certain necessary name. These are the things which I thought should be suggested somewhat more boldly to your perfection, while at once I rejoice on account of God's benignity, and at once also am solicitous about things to come. It will be yours to take my words in good part, His and Gorgonia's death. which in our familiar company of old you were wont to do. Inflamed by these and other exhortations of Basil, and especially of Gregory his brother, Caesarius had resolved to transfer himself wholly to the divine service, which he also did: but, prevented by death, he could not embrace the solitary or cenobitic life: for, baptism being received, not long after the earthquake, or at the beginning of the following year 369, he died. But after no long interval, to eternal life there followed him his sister Gorgonia: at whose dying Basil, her spiritual father, stood by.

CHAPTER X.

Basil is elected and consecrated Bishop.

[120] In the year 370 dies Eusebius, the Bishop of Caesarea; and the distinguished among the Saints Basil the Great was declared Prelate of Caesarea; for since Nyssen says that his brother died in the Episcopate, eight years being passed, in the very ninth year; and we have shown in the preliminary Commentary that the Saint died on the first of January 379; beyond the present year neither the death of Eusebius, Eusebius being dead, nor the Ordination of Basil can be deferred. V. Mac. But whence the Latins, who keep the Ordination of St. Basil festively, took the month of June and its fourteenth day, all the Greeks however ancient being silent: or from what calculation they gathered it, I confess that I am ignorant. Selden on the Sanhedrins, in the second Coptic Calendar, on the eleventh of the month Thoth, which corresponds to the eighth of our September, reports some feast of St. Basil and Theodore Bishop of Nyssa, whence perhaps someone could have suspected that that day was of the Ordination: to the excelling Episcopate, that one but this conjecture rests on no foundation grave enough. For who will prove to me, that that Basil, of whom it is there treated, is the Bishop of Caesarea, whom the same Calendar reports on the first of January? and, supposing it were the same; who will render me secure, that the Copts too anciently took the true day of the Ordination? who, that on account of the Ordination made on that day, that feast is celebrated? since another reason can underlie it. These things about the time. Let the narration set forth the matter itself: When therefore he, who fittingly took his name from piety, Eusebius, had migrated from this life, and had willingly breathed out his soul in the hands of Basil; the latter is carried up to the lofty throne of the Episcopate, Truly lofty, not only on account of the dignity of the order, which is common to all Bishops; but also on account of the ecclesiastical prerogative of the See itself. Orat. 20, D. Nicon. Bibl. PP. Tom. 3. For, as they relate, the Great Gregory, who was Bishop of Greater Armenia, took care that the Bishop of Armenia be ordained by no other, than by the Archbishop of Caesarea of Cappadocia of that time, where he himself too was ordained; and an anathema of horrendous execration was threatened against those, who do otherwise. And so the Bishop of Caesarea used a certain Metropolitan right, not only over the Cappadocians, but also over ten other Provinces, which under the one name of the Pontic Diocese were comprehended. Hence in the Councils of Chalcedon and of Ephesus under Dioscorus, he obtained the second place after the Patriarchs, only the Bishop of Ephesus being interposed, who was of equal dignity with him, as the Most Illustrious de Marca shows. In this sense although it could be that the Bishop of Caesarea had subject to him fifty Suffragans, yet I would not with certain ones have Nazianzen understood of them, in the Poem on his own life, when he assigns just so many Chorbishops to him: for it is more probable, that in that place the discourse is not of Suffragans, but of Chorbishops properly so called; and furnished with 50 Chorbishops. since Gregory seems amicably to reproach Basil, that having fifty Chorbishops, he wished to increase the number by one, by creating him Bishop of Sasima, which place was scarcely worthy of a Chorbishop. Since therefore so great was the Episcopate of Caesarea an enticement to the ambitious, no wonder if it brought it about, that Basil could not be carried up to so lofty a throne without labor, Basil to be elected, and without envy and a fight, both of those who presided over the country, and of all the most abandoned citizens of the city, who had joined themselves to their side. Orat. 2 But it could not be otherwise but that the Holy Spirit conquer, and indeed he conquered abundantly. But let us narrate the series of the thing done more distinctly.

[121] He summons Nazianzen, Scarcely had Eusebius departed from the living, when Basil, before the fame of his death was divulged, summoned to Caesarea Gregory, and that he might fly thither more quickly writes that he is held by a grave infirmity, and by a great desire of conversing with him. By these things no less struck than impelled Gregory, hastily seizes the journey, both sad about his friend's sickness, and prompt to comply. But as the rumor of the death of Eusebius reached his ears, his all but mourning was turned, I will say rather, into laughter, or indignation: and with the same haste with which he was hastening to Caesarea, he returned to Nazianzus: and thence wrote this epistle to Basil: Do not marvel, if I shall say something beyond your opinion, nor before said by any man. You indeed seem to me to have the estimation of a constant and solid man and one endowed with firmness of mind: yet you consult and execute many things more simply, than cautiously and circumspectly. G. Ep. 21 as if sick unto death; For he who is free from vice, is also wont to be slower to the suspicion of vice: of which kind something now too happened. To the metropolitan city you summoned us, when consultation about creating a Bishop was set forth. But, what a specious pretext and apt for persuading you used! You feigned that you were sick, and drawing your last breaths, and desiring to see us, and to address us a last time: with what counsel you did this, I cannot attain, nor what utility our presence would bring to that matter. but he, the trick known But I girded myself for the journey, bearing this matter most ill (For what is to me more sublime than your life, or sadder and more bitter than your departure?) and I poured forth a fountain of tears, and groaned, and now first felt myself affected otherwise than the reason of a philosopher would demand; finally with what epitaphs did I not fill? But after I understood that the Bishops were convening to the city, I broke off the plan of setting out; and began to marvel first, if, what

was becoming and honest, you did not perceive; nor did you think one should meet the tongues of the wicked, who very quickly devise calumnies against all the most simple: then, if you do not think the same things suit you and us, he refuses to come, for whom both life, and doctrine, and all the rest are common, namely associated by God thus from the first age: thirdly (for let it be permitted to say this too) if you judged elections of this kind to belong to pious men and those endowed with the fear of God, but not to the powerful and those gracious among the vulgar. And I for these causes turned the prow of the ship, as it is wont to be said, lest, the Bishops convening for the Election and refused to set out: but if it seems good to you, let this too be fixed and established, to flee amid the tumults and depraved suspicions. But your piety I shall see only then, when both the business shall be settled, and it shall be permitted by time; and I will reproach you with more and graver things.

[122] Basil should commend him present. In this purpose Gregory persisted, nor did he come to Caesarea before Basil was created Bishop; nay not even then, but long after the consecration was performed, as we shall see below. But the reason, on account of which he avoided coming there, we rightly suspect to have been this, lest he himself be elected Bishop; although he pretended altogether another, namely lest he should furnish the envious a handle for calumniating, as if he himself sought the Episcopate for himself or for Basil. And so it seems to have been Basil's purpose too, to labor for the election of Gregory, whom for that reason he desired present. But what infirmity he alleged for summoning him, I believe to have been so great in a man almost always sick, that he could write it without a lie. Meanwhile there was being born among the people of Caesarea discord over the election of the new Bishop, and therefore the Clergy and among them Basil feared, lest, with the factions dissenting among themselves, the Arian power might intrude a Bishop of its own heresy; wherefore, letters being sent to the suffragan Bishops, they all exhorted, that as quickly as possible they should fly thither and dispel the peril of so great an evil by the swift consecration of an orthodox Bishop. The votes of the electors differing, These things understood Gregory, the father of the Theologian, the Bishop of Nazianzus, since the spiritual man knew well the things that were of the spirit, and on that account judged that all low and abject sentiments of mind were to be cast off, and that one should not contend by cabals and anticipated opinions, nor attribute more to the favor of men than to God, but set before the eyes only the one utility of the Church and the common salvation of all, his son probably exhorting too, applied his mind to promoting in every way the election of Basil. Orat. 19 the elder Gregory busies himself for Basil And accordingly, among all the Suffragans himself the elder Bishop, he wrote letters, admonished the people, conciliated the Priests, both others and especially those who are of the altar he conjured, decided, even ordained though still absent, granted this to his hoary age, that among strangers as among his own he used authority.

[123] He sent therefore to the Clergy, People and Senate of Caesarea letters, drawn up by his son (for they smell of Athens) earnestly commending Basil: I am indeed, he says, a small Pastor, and Prelate of a small flock, and among the last ministers of the spirit: but grace is by no means narrow, nor circumscribed by places. G. Ep. 22 Wherefore let the power of speaking freely be granted to the small too, a letter being written, especially to those having discourse about common and the greatest matters, and about to bring to the consultation so great hoary age, which has perhaps something of greater prudence and skill, than most of the vulgar. We deliberate not about small and light matters; but about those, by which, whether rightly or otherwise disposed, the commonwealth too must necessarily be disposed in this or that manner. For our discourse is about the Church, for which Christ underwent death, and about him who may set her before God and reconcile her. For the lamp of the body, as Scripture teaches, is the eye; not only this one which in a corporeal manner sees and is seen, but that one too which spiritually beholds and is beheld. But the lamp of the Church is, the Bishop; just as you yourselves plainly know, even without us writing. And so, just as when he is pure and whole, to whom, the magnitude of the matter to be done being set forth the body too is rightly led; but when he is impure, not rightly; by a like reasoning too, in whichever manner the Prelate of the Church is disposed, all the parts whatsoever must necessarily be partakers either of peril or of safety. Furthermore since all Churches, as the body of Christ, must be provided for with the highest care and solicitude, and the dignity of the Church of Caesarea; then especially yours, which both anciently was, and now is, and is reckoned, the mother of almost all the Churches; and upon which the whole Christian commonwealth casts its eyes, no otherwise than a circle circumscribed by a center; not only on account of the integrity of faith, long ago proclaimed to all; but also for the grace of concord, doubtless granted to her by divine benefit.

[124] Since therefore to the deliberation, which you hold about this matter, you have summoned us too, as was just, and as the ecclesiastical rule demanded, but we are detained by old age and disease; if indeed we ourselves too, the Holy Spirit confirming our strength, can be present (for nothing is incredible to those endowed with faith) this surely will be both better for the public utility, and more pleasant for us; that we both confer something on you, and ourselves be made partakers of the blessing: but if through the infirmity of the body it shall not be permitted to be present, that at least which the absent can, we confer. And indeed I trust that there are others too worthy of the principate among you, as in a most ample city, and so excellently and by Prelates of this kind long ago governed; but of all, who are in honor among you, no one to our son Basil the Presbyter dearest to the divine majesty, Basil can I prefer (but these things I say as with God as witness) a man purged both in life and in speech, and who either alone of all, or certainly as much as possible in both respects can stand as it were on guard against the whirlwind of the time, and the flourishing itch of the heretics' tongue. These things I write both to those who perform the office of the Priesthood, and to the Monks, and to those who bear dignities and are of the Senatorial order, finally to the whole people. If therefore there be assent to this opinion; and our suffrage, so sound and whole, and conformed to the divine will, shall prevail; both spiritually I am present and will be present; nay even on him so elected I lay hands, relying on the confidence of the Spirit. he urges that he be elected concordantly. But if something else rather than this please, and through cabals and kinships matters of this kind be weighed, and a promiscuous crowd again tear up and distract the sincerity of judgment (as in the election of Eusebius it had happened) do separately indeed that which pleases; but we will gather ourselves within ourselves.

[125] This epistle obtained indeed at that time no other effect, Hence the solicitude of those zealous for another being increased. than that those who were zealous for the election of another strengthened those adhering to them, and solicitously provided, by what obstacles they might exclude Basil from the Episcopal throne: and this they especially effected, that to the election, but as it were secretly and under another pretext, the other Bishops convening, the Bishop of Nazianzus was not summoned; contrary to what was just, as one who preceded the rest in the years of his Episcopate and of his age. But he by no means acted idly, but drew to his side St. Eusebius of Samosata, a Bishop distinguished in doctrine and prudence, and illustrious for the confession of the orthodox faith: for it was permitted him too to be present at this election, although he was not of the province of Caesarea, according to the sixth Canon of the Council of Sardica (if the Canons are legitimate, edited in Greek by Labbe) by which it is enjoined that to the election of a Metropolitan the neighboring Bishops of the province too should be convened. To this Eusebius, I say, Gregory wrote an epistle, wrongly hitherto attributed to Basil, as will be plain to one considering it. B. Ep. 4 The elder Gregory conciliates to himself Eusebius of Samosata Who will give me wings, he says, like a dove, or in what manner will my old age grow young; that I may betake myself to your dilection, and satiate my burning desire toward you, and lay down at your place the sad cares of my soul, and obtain from you some solace of my tribulations? For indeed on account of the death of the blessed Bishop Eusebius, a no moderate fear has invaded us, lest perhaps those who of old presided over our Metropolitan Church should wish now, the occasion being seized, to infect it with the tares of the heretics; and to eradicate the piety, with great labor sown in the minds of men, by their depraved disciplines, and to divide its unity into diverse things, which also in very many Churches they have repeatedly done. But after the letters of the Clergy came to us, praising Basil as the most apt before all; asking that at this time they be not deserted by us; to me looking around on every side there came especially into my mind your dilection, recalling the memory both of your right faith, and of the zeal with which you are affected toward the Churches of God. And for this cause I have sent my beloved, the fellow-minister of the word Eustathius, who may incite your gravity, that to your other labors strenuously undertaken for the Church you may add this one too, and refresh my old age by your company, and restore the piety of the true Church everywhere celebrated; giving us yourselves, if you deign to undertake the good work together, a Pastor according to the will of God, one who may rightly govern his people. For we have before our eyes a man, not unknown to you: whom if we can obtain, we shall acquire great confidence with God, and bestow the highest benefit on the people who appeal to us. But I exhort again and often, that all sloth of mind being laid aside, we anticipate and forestall the peril of the tempest.

[126] Eusebius moved by this letter, did not refuse the labor of a longer journey for the Church, but with brisk mind undertook it toward Caesarea. The nearer Bishops, who meanwhile had convened there, and summoned as though not about to come, lest they seem to have excluded the elder Gregory by their number, by letters invited him to their assembly; thinking probably it would be, that he would excuse himself on account of old age, and perhaps would not even reply; meanwhile they themselves would seem to have performed their office toward him, and to have satisfied the Canons, which enjoin that the suffrages of absent Bishops be sought by letters. On the same occasion it seems to have been signified to the same Gregory, that the adversaries of Basil were pretending his weak health. Orat. 20 With what mind this new Abraham and best old man received all these things, it is easy to perceive from the reply. G. Ep. 23 How sweet you are, he says, and humane and endowed with singular charity! he dissembles the injury. To the Metropolitan city you called us, about to enter (unless I am mistaken) upon some counsel about a Bishop (for this I perceive you had in mind) you indeed neither announcing that we ought to be present, nor for what cause, nor at what time, suddenly declared to us what you are undertaking to do; as though namely you had resolved not to affect us with honor, but had sedulously wished to impede our presence, lest you should fall upon us unwilling and resisting. And such indeed is your deed: yet this contumely

we will bear, but we will set forth what we ourselves think. Others indeed will elect others, and propose them in the midst, namely each according to his own morals or advantages, just as in matters of this kind is wont to happen: but we can prefer no one to our dearest son Basil the Co-presbyter. For whom of all, whom we have known, either more approved in life, and he commends Basil: or stronger in speech and doctrine, and more on every side polished to the elegance of virtue, shall we find? But if anyone alleges his infirmity; you will not of course be creating an athlete, but a doctor; and at the same time in this his virtue shines, who, if such there be, supports and corroborates the infirm. If to this suffrage you add your vote, both I will be present, and will profess myself a helper to you either in a spiritual or a corporeal manner. But if the way is to be undertaken on fixed conditions, and factions and dissensions are to prevail against right and equity; we rejoice that we are despised. Let the work be yours. But pray for us.

[127] Therefore on account of the election of a Bishop the city labored with sedition, which, as the Theologian says, the keener and more fervent it was, but the dissension of the people of Caesarea being known so much the more foolish and absurd also it was. Orat. 19 For it was not obscure who excelled (just as neither the sun among the stars) but exceedingly clear and conspicuous; both to all others, and especially to the most select and purest part of the people, that is to those who stand around the altar, and the Nazaraeans of our time, to whom alone or certainly chiefly, elections of this kind ought to be committed (for thus it would never be ill with the Churches) and not to those who are strong in wealth and power, or to the impulse and rashness of the populace, and even to the basest and most contemptible of the plebeians. But now it lacks little, but that I should think popular governments to consist in better order and discipline than ours, to which divine grace is attributed by the voice of all; and that matters of this kind are administered more by fear than by reason. For unless it were so, who of sound mind, you being left, Basil, divine and sacred head, would have betaken himself to another? You, I say, being left, who are depicted in the hands of the Lord, who know not the yoke of wedlock, who possess nothing, who are well-nigh without flesh and blood, who in words are after the Word, among philosophers wise, among the worldly more sublime than the world? But to return to the intended discourse; the Spirit indeed knew who was his own, but envy stood in the way; but of whom, it is shameful to say: and would that it were not permitted to hear it even from the discourse of others, who zealously tear up our affairs. But let us pass these by like the rocks of a river, which they strike against in mid-course; and the Bishop of Samosata being persuaded to be present, and let us press in silence the things which are worthy of oblivion. Caesarea therefore labored with dissensions, the Clergy with the Solitaries urging for Basil, the People with the Magistrate opposing; incited to this perhaps by certain Bishops, whose names Nazianzen by silence wished to spare; until there arrived Eusebius of Samosata, a man clear in piety and burning with zeal, roused from foreign regions by the Holy Spirit (But he arrived probably after the Paschal feast celebrated on the 12th of April in his church) by whose zeal and prudent persuasion it came about, that all, or at least most, seemed about to consent to Basil. Orat. 20

[128] But since the election had to be canonical, he himself, though sick, sets out for Caesarea; lest even one of the number of those, who were about to proclaim a Bishop, be missing, Gregory the father drew himself from his bed, a man now broken both by old age and disease, and with youthful vigor strove to the city; or rather is borne with body dead and slightly breathing, persuading himself that this zeal and diligence would be to him in place of an excellent funeral, even if something humanly should befall him. Orat. 19 It will be worth the labor here for a moment to inquire, what was prescribed for a canonical election or ordination; although I think it is disputed in vain, whether for the election of Basil the presence of the elder Gregory was required, or rather for the ordination: for in the Greek idiom the words which the Theologian uses signify both election and ordination: and just as several Bishops were required for ordination, so also for approving and completing the election. according to the Nicene Canon These things are drawn out clearly enough from the Nicene and Sardican Canons. The fourth Nicene runs thus: It is fitting that a Bishop be ordained especially indeed, by all the Bishops who are in the province: but if this be difficult; either on account of pressing necessity, or on account of the length of the journey; yet three at all events convening for the same, and the absent also in like manner deciding, and consenting through writings, let the ordination be celebrated. But the confirmation of the things done, and the Sardican, in each Province let it be attributed to the Metropolitan Bishop. The sixth Sardican Canon, from the interpretation of Hervet, thus prescribes: If it happen in one Province, in which there are very many Bishops, that one Bishop be not present at the assembly, and he through a certain negligence be unwilling to convene, and to assent to the institution and election of the Bishops; but a gathered multitude of the people insist, that there be made the institution of the Bishop who is requested by them; that absent Bishop ought first to be admonished by letters of the Primate of the Province, namely the Metropolitan Bishop, that the people asks a Pastor be given to it: and I think it right, to await this one too that he be present. But if, asked by letters, he be not present, and not even write back, let the will of the people be satisfied. But Bishops ought to be summoned also from the neighboring Province, to the institution of the Metropolitan Bishop.

[129] First therefore the Clergy and People asked for a Bishop, then the present Bishops at the least three, the judgments of the absent being required by letters, if all, or at least most, agreed among themselves in suffrages, approved the request of the People and Clergy: which done a legitimate election was reckoned, and proceeding was made to ordination by the present Bishops; no account being had of those who were unwilling to convene, or to vote by letters. For what cause then was the presence of the Bishop of Nazianzus necessary? That there were three Bishops at Caesarea no one will deny; for the Bishop of Samosata was present, and there were present also at least two others, about to make a legitimate election, for to several was written the epistle of the elder Gregory cited above; in which also he himself confesses, that the election could be completed in his absence, and against his suffrage: and so the Theologian seems to be understood altogether otherwise, when he says that his father came, lest even one be missing of the number of those, who were about to proclaim a Bishop; namely, not for a legitimate election merely, but for a solemn one and complete in all ceremonies, such as the Canons do not indeed prescribe, but wish: for, they say, it is fitting that a Bishop be ordained especially by all, and more celebrated by all the ceremonies being observed. who are Bishops in the Province. Since therefore, one Bishop of Nazianzus excepted, all the rest were present; and the business, the Bishop of Samosata busying himself for the exaltation of Basil, was rightly promoted, and now a certain hope of happy success shone upon the best old man; that he might strengthen by his presence the wavering, of whom there were not a few, and that the election and consecration might be the more celebrated, he did not suffer himself to be missing, to whom, as the Bishop prior in time, if he were present, the office of consecration seemed to be due. For these causes Gregory, although not only worn out with old age, but also broken and weakened by disease, and at the point of death; yet did not hesitate to undertake the journey, relying namely on the help and aid of the Spirit, and (to bring the matter into few words) placed on a vehicle, no otherwise than a dead man on a bier. Orat. 20

[130] The Theologian to his father setting out, or to someone accompanying him, handed letters to Eusebius of Samosata, The Theologian by letters, by which he addresses him thus: Whence shall I take the beginning of your praises, and by what name properly shall I call you? G. Ep. 29 Shall I call you the column and firmament of the Church, or a luminary in the world, using the same words with the Apostle? or the crown of glorying to the uninjured part of the Christians, or a gift of God, or a support of the country, or a rule of faith, or a legate of truth, or all these together, and more than these? And these almost incredible praises, I will confirm through the things which we see. For what rain, equally ripe and seasonable, fell upon the thirsting earth? what water from the rock, overflowing for those who stayed in the desert? what such bread of Angels did man eat? to what disciples going to the bottom did Jesus, the common Lord of all, so opportunely stand by, that he both calmed the waves, and brought safety to those in peril; as you appeared to us laboring and grieving, and now as it were making shipwreck? he gives thanks to the Bishop of Samosata, And indeed of others what need is there to speak, with how great joy and pleasure namely you have suffused the minds of the orthodox, and how many men fallen into despair you have raised up? But our Mother, I mean the Church of Caesarea, now surely on account of the sight of you puts off the garments of widowhood, and assumes the robe of gladness; and will shine forth even more, when she shall have obtained a Pastor, worthy of herself, and of her predecessor Bishops, and of your hand. and he praises the magnanimity of his father. For what is the state of our affairs you yourself too perceive, and how great a miracle your zeal has wrought, and your sweats, and your confidence pleasing to God, and your liberty. Old age is renewed, disease is overcome, those afflicted in bed leap up, the infirm are girt with power. Which things bring me to the conjecture, that our affairs will succeed according to our wish. And a father indeed, both in his own name and in ours, you have, about to impose a beautiful end to his whole life and venerable hoary age, namely this present struggle for the Church. But I hold it certain that it will be, that by your prayers, relying on which everyone ought to promise himself anything, we shall receive him firmer and stronger. But if in this care too he discharge his last day of life, that is by no means to be reckoned in the place of loss, such a one, and on account of such things to obtain the end of life. But pardon me, I beseech you, if yielding a little while to the tongues of the wicked, somewhat afterward I run to your embrace, and the things which now in the praise are passed over, I myself add in person.

[131] When Gregory had arrived at Caesarea, here too a certain sign is given, to which faith is by no means denied: from labor he procures strength, with alacrity he grows vigorous, administers the business, prepares himself for the conflict, places him on the throne. Orat. 19 And so after his arrival it seems to have been brought about in a short time, Basil being elected and consecrated, that to the ordination of Basil at least most consented; and that thus he was consecrated by the elder Gregory himself, among others the Bishop of Samosata assisting. This the words of the Theologian intimate, saying; to anoint him the Holy Spirit roused men illustrious in piety and burning with zeal, from foreign regions, Gregory returns home more vigorous, and among them the new Abraham and our patriarch, my parent, I say. Orat. 20, Orat. 20 And again, describing his father returning; A young man, he says, he returns, firm and strong, having eyes erect; from the imposition of hands and the unction,

I add, even also strengthened by the head of him who was being anointed. Let this therefore be added to the former narrations, that labor brings health, and alacrity of soul rouses the dead, and old age leaps up anointed with the Spirit. Thus therefore, the consecration performed, Gregory is brought back home, using the vehicle, no longer as a tomb, but as a divine ark. Orat. 19 Yet nevertheless (as is often found to have happened on a like occasion in those times) those who had been present at the election and consecration, and (as is credible) had assented, at least then when they saw themselves overcome in number, having departed; began somehow to be led by penitence for the suffrage given, and on that account gave to the best Father much material for exercising patience. Yet he bore it, and here too more amply demonstrated the gentleness of his soul. Orat. 19 For when his own Colleagues bore with an unequal mind the ignominy of that contention in which they had been overcome, and that authority and power which the old man obtained in all matters, bearing patiently those who spoke against the election, and on that account were hostile to him, and assailed him with reproaches; he overcame these too by his patience, having obtained as the greatest support meekness and easiness of manners, and that, provoked by curses, he did not return curses: for he did not judge it grievous, if, when he had conquered in the things, he should suffer himself to be conquered with the tongue. For which reason he so took these too by his gentleness and patience, especially time being called to the aid of his opinion, that, turning their indignation into admiration, they excused themselves, fell at his knees, were suffused with shame on account of the things they had before done, and, hatreds being cast off, used him as patriarch, lawgiver, judge.

[132] And that not only among the Bishops against the elder Gregory, but also at Caesarea against Basil something was disturbed by the envious, the Theologian indicates by that epistle, in which he congratulates him on the new dignity. B. Ep. 24 The Theologian congratulates Basil. After, he says, I understood that you were placed on a lofty throne, and that the lamp, before not obscurely shining, was by the victorious Spirit set above the candlestick exposed to the eyes of all; I rejoiced, I confess, (why not indeed?) since I saw the body of the Church ill affected, and having need of leadership and aid of this kind. Yet I did not immediately fly to you, nor will I fly; nor would I wish you to demand this of me. First, that I may keep your authority and veneration safe and whole, he excuses himself that he does not come to him. and lest through a certain ineptitude and fervor of mind, as detractors might say, you seem to gather those zealous for you; then, that I may procure stability for myself, and meet envy. When therefore will you come? perhaps you will say; and how long will you delay? As long as God shall command, and the shadows of those who now lie in wait and labor with envy shall have passed: for the lepers, I know well, will not resist longer, excluding David from Jerusalem.

CHAPTER XI.

Basil tries to reconcile to himself the suffragan Bishops, and his uncle Gregory.

[133] When Basil had been raised to the honor of the chief See, Basil raised to the throne, as was worthy of the life he had led, the grace he had obtained, and the esteem he held among men; he by no means allowed himself afterward in any matter to be a disgrace either to his philosophy, or to the hope of those who had entrusted this office to him: nay rather, as much as he before conquered others, so much daily he conquered himself, thinking best and most wisely about these matters. Orat. 20 For thus he judged; that the virtue of a private man consisted in this, that he lack vice, or in some way cultivate probity; but that a Prince and Prelate, and especially one bearing command of this kind, cannot escape the mark of wickedness, unless he far excel, and become better day by day, and bring a virtue equal to his dignity and throne: for it is scarcely possible, that anyone attain by the highest that which is the mean; or otherwise than through an exuberant amplitude of virtue, draw the vulgar to mediocrity. virtue worthy of a Bishop Nay rather, to discourse more rightly about these matters, what I perceive in the Savior, and also (as I think) any of the wiser, that for as long a time as he was with us, being that which is above us, and formed to that which was ours; this too I observe to have happened here: For He progressed, says the sacred text, as in age, so also in wisdom: not that these took increase in him (for what can be more perfect than that which from the beginning was perfect?) but that these were little by little uncovered and shone forth. it shines forth more. In the same manner I think Basil's virtue at that time took, not increase, but a greater operation: power supplying richer material to virtue: whence first it became evident to all, that the office which he had obtained, had befallen him not by human favor, but by divine benefit.

[134] Basil therefore, having approached the Episcopal office with a huge fervor of spirit, designed various things in mind, profitable not only to his own Church, but to the whole Christian world: but especially he had resolved to take up the Theologian into a fellowship of labor and honor, by granting him the chief place among the Presbyters of Caesarea, vacant perhaps by his own election. But Gregory, he resolves to take up Nazianzen into a part of the labor; although to all others there was no doubt, that after the election of Basil he would immediately run thither, and be suffused with the greatest pleasure of soul (which perhaps some other would have done) and would rather share command with him, than have an authority and power next to his, and they conjectured this from their friendship; he himself nevertheless, in all matters fleeing the suspicion of arrogance, if any other did, and at the same time avoiding the envy of that time, especially since Basil's affairs were still swelling and being disturbed, put a bridle on his desire, by which he was borne toward Caesarea, and kept himself at home. Orat. 20 Yet he gave an epistle to Basil for the sake of excusing himself, which above at number one hundred and seven we related. But the latter at first indeed expostulated with him over this matter: him refusing, he changes his counsel. but when he perceived him firm in his purpose, he gave pardon, and applied his mind, that he might conciliate to himself his suffragan Bishops, murmuring against his exaltation. For some, after the departure of Eusebius the Bishop of Samosata, immediately flocking together, spoke indeed many sad and deplorable things, and no less lamentably perpetrated many; finally there was such a departure from all, that schism rather and contention prevailed. B. Ep. 254 Basil wrote these things at the end of this year 370, and is zealous to conciliate the Suffragans to himself: in which Demophilus was ordained Bishop of Constantinople, or at the beginning of the following: and then indeed there was as yet no hope for him of the schism being quickly removed, for thus he subjoins: But whether our affairs will be in a better state at some time, and whether these will desist from their wickedness, I believe is most unknown to anyone (if you except God alone).

[135] In this state and time of affairs, it seems that Gregory came to Caesarea, whom perhaps Basil had more solicitously invited for the sake of entering upon counsel: for he seems to interpose his meeting with the latter into the reconciliation of the Suffragans, discoursing thus about these things: And afterward when I had come to Basil, and for the same cause (namely lest I should stir up against myself or him the envy of others) had refused the honor of the chair and the more distinguished place of honor among the Presbyters; praised for this by the Theologian. not only did he not blame this deed of mine, but even, as he ought, approved it; and chose rather to be accused of arrogance by some, who were ignorant of his reason, than to do anything by which he might be opposed to his reason and counsels. Orat. 20 But in what manner could he have given a more luminous specimen of a mind alien from all flattery and assentation, and looking only to the law of the honest, than by so deciding about us, whom he held in the place and number of his chief friends and intimates? But then he softened those dissenting from him, and cured them by the reasons of a sublime and lofty medicine: for he did this not flatteringly and servilely, but exceedingly bravely and magnificently; as one who had regard not only of the present time, but also procured future obedience. For since he perceived that that which is soft and tender is dissolute and languid; and again that that which is austere is rough and contumacious; he remedies each evil by the other, tempering namely hardness by meekness and easiness, but softness by gravity and firmness of mind: but needing not much speech for the cure of souls, he accomplished very many things by deed: not subduing men by crafty artifice, but conciliating them to himself by benevolence; nor using the power of command, but alluring them through the indulgence, which he applied in his power: and what was of the greatest moment, because all yielded to him in acuteness of mind, and knew that virtue of his to be such, that no one could aspire to it; they at last thought this one thing to be their safety, if they placed themselves with him and under him; but one and the most certain peril, if they ran into offense against him; and to be disjoined from him they judged to be nothing else, than to be alienated from God. So of their own accord they yielded, and gave their hands, and as it were at the sound of thunder submitted themselves; one anticipating another in giving him satisfaction, and changing the force of hatred before conceived against him into a no less benevolence and increase of virtue: since indeed they found this one most firm manner of giving him satisfaction; unless someone, on account of deplorable wickedness, were neglected and cast off.

[136] That dissension harmed the Churches much. Yet nevertheless before Basil accomplished all these things by his prudence and virtue, much time was consumed: for that dissension persisted long in the minds of certain Bishops, which harmed all the Churches much. For the Arians, using this dissension, into one or another Church, or even several, intruded Bishops of their faction. For what should Basil have done, the rest dissenting from him? since the Canons forbid a Bishop to be constituted by one alone. B. Ep. 262 That matter afflicted him almost to death, as he complains writing to St. Eusebius of Samosata; to whom he excuses himself, that invited by him to a certain private assembly, he had not come, impeded by a disease contracted from grief of soul. And first, he says, as regards the absence, most true is the excuse which I write: but I think that the fame of this very thing has reached even to your holiness: namely that I lay confined by a disease, which had led me even to the very gates of death, of which indeed I retain the remnants by me, even now while I write these things; and those such, that they may be reckoned intolerable for the health of others. But as for the other head of the letter, that it be by no means through our sloth, that the state of the Churches be betrayed to the enemies; I wish your piety to understand, that the Bishops communicating with us, either through sloth or because they held us suspect, and were not well and sincerely affected toward us, or at least through the opposition of the devil, who is wont to oppose good works, by no means wished to conspire with us. In pretext indeed and in appearance, several of us conspired together, and afflicted Basil almost to death. that good man Bosporius coming to our side: yet these

all in absolutely no necessary matter are willing to consent with us, so that on account of the sadness contracted therefrom, very much time must be spent by me in recollecting my strength, which is the chief impediment to me, infirmities recurring from time to time from a more vehement grief of soul. For indeed what kind of ministry did I not undergo? what judgment at last did I not call to mind, partly through letters sent to them, partly in person and by meetings? For they ran out even to the city, the rumor of my death being spread abroad. But when by the grace of God they found me living among the living, I discoursed with them on the things which I deemed fitting. The present state surely shames them: they promise they will do all things which are fitting: but returned home, they go back to the old. This is surely at present the condition of our affairs which we have: the Lord openly forsaking us, and charity in many growing cold, because iniquity has abounded. But your most powerful and strongest intercession with the Lord, will abundantly satisfy us for all these things. Perhaps we shall spend our by no means vain little labor on the present state of affairs: or, if we shall labor in vain and to no purpose, we shall at least escape the rigor of judgment and condemnation.

[137] At this same time the afflicted man's affliction was increased by a certain quarrel, arisen between Basil and Gregory his uncle: whom indeed the interpreter of Basil's epistles names Paternal Uncle, Among the dissenters seems to have been Gregory the Saint's uncle because the name θεῖος (theios) signifies indifferently Paternal Uncle or Maternal Uncle: yet I am led to believe; that he was rather the brother of Emmelia than of the elder Basil: because he, if he were now living, would either reach or have passed the hundredth year of his age, and Gregory at least the eightieth, and that granted gratuitously that Macrina was fruitful for twenty years. But if we say he was the brother of Emmelia, he could, born at the beginning of this century, have grown up with him, and have counted the seventieth year of his age when this discord happened. For the time seems rightly fixed at the beginning of the assumed Episcopate, on account of these words of Basil written on such an occasion: After we entered upon a life, which afflicts our body equally and our mind, beyond what our strength is able to bear. B. Ep. 44 The cause and origin although it is nowhere expressed, yet can be held by a probable conjecture; that Gregory the uncle, drawn over to their side by the other suffragan Bishops, conceived a certain aversion of mind from Basil, so that he withdrew outside his own Episcopal city, lest he should have to acknowledge Basil his Metropolitan by some public act. For he in the epistles, written to soften his mind, instantly asks, that with the other Bishops gathered by mutual consent, he may meet him; about to render an account of the things which they brought against him, perhaps for the justification of his schism of whatever kind. From wherever however that alienation of minds arose, it affected Basil surely with grave grief, and the Bishops dissenting from him with joy, which made them even more pertinacious in their schism; since they openly boasted, whom Nyssen being zealous to reconcile, that the nearest blood-relations of Basil by no means agreed with him. The holy man therefore wished, an end to be put to this evil; Nyssen his brother wished it too, who probably, about to explore Basil's mind, whether he inclined to reconciliation, and in what manner he wished to enter upon it; composed an epistle, and brought it to Basil, as written by the venerable and common uncle. B. Ep. 44

[138] He received it, as was fitting as if from a Bishop and common uncle brought by his brother; showed it to as many as possible of his friends with prior joy; gave thanks to God, having attained his desire in great part (as he thought): but to his brother departing he handed a reply to the uncle, by which he especially signifies his joy, on account of the hope conceived of a friendship soon to be renewed, and then luminously shows his love toward his uncle and his observance. B. Ep. 45 And first, a feigned letter to Basil, and the same replying to it. he says, I gladly saw my brother (for what would I not do, since he is both my brother, and such a one?) and now too I embraced him with the same affection, when he had come from abroad, in no way changed as regards love. For far be it that any such thing come into my mind, which makes me both forgetful of nature, and an enemy to domestics: nay rather I thought the presence of the man to be a solace both of corporeal sicknesses and of other sadnesses of soul. At the same time I was delighted beyond measure with the letters of your dignity, which he brought with him; which also already for a long time I gladly expected, for no other reason, than lest we ourselves should burden our life with this sad fame, as if even the most intimate mutually dissented among themselves; whence indeed joy would be brought to enemies, but calamity to friends, and God would be irritated, who wished the character of his disciples to be in perfect love. Wherefore also of necessity I write back, beseeching, that you pray for us; and the things which remaining concern us, you would care for as your own. But the reason of the things which have been done, since on account of our rudeness we cannot understand it, we have resolved to esteem as a truthful instructor, whomever you yourself shall have deigned to designate to us. But it will be necessary, that the rest too be determined by your prudence; namely our meeting, the suitable time, and a fit place. And so if at all your dignity will undergo this trouble, to descend to our humility, and have some regard of us, whether with others, or apart by yourself you shall wish to meet us, we will obey: since we have once for all established this counsel with ourselves, to serve you in charity; and to do in whatever manner, the things which your piety shall have prescribed to us as making for the glory of God. The most venerable brother we did not compel to indicate anything to us by word: since beforehand he had nothing of the things which are to be done determined enough that he might say.

[139] the fraud being detected makes the matter worse After the departure of his brother Gregory, the fiction was detected, the Bishop himself, namely his uncle, denying with his own voice the epistle written by him. B. Ep. 44 This fraud therefore Basil bore most ill: and I blushed, he says, over this epistle: we wished the earth to gape open for us, because we were exposed to the reproach of fallacy, lie, and seduction. But Nyssen, since he did not yet know the fraud detected, again handed another epistle to his brother, as if sent by the Bishop himself, through his Domestic Asterius: yet the Bishop had not truly sent him, as the venerable Anthimus indicated to Basil, whom Hermant thinks to have been Bishop of Tyana. But when Adamantius had brought a third epistle feigned by Nyssen; with what sentiment of mind Basil received it, he himself declares, I wished, saying, that my heart were of stone, lest I should either recall things past, or feel things present; that we might, about which Basil expostulates with him: after the manner of cattle struck down to the earth, endure all this blow. B. Ep. 44 Then addressing his brother, he expostulates with him very lovingly. But what should I do, he says, against my own mind, which, after one and another experience, can admit nothing unexamined? These things I wrote that I might reprehend this simplicity of yours, (which, neither otherwise suited to Christians, I see does not befit the present time) that hereafter you may both guard yourself, and spare me: since of these matters (for I must speak to you confidently) you are not a very trustworthy minister. Nevertheless whoever they were who wrote, we have replied to them as was fitting. Whether therefore you yourself wished to take an experiment of me through snares, or whether you truly sent an epistle received from the Bishops, you have the replies. But it became you to care for other things at the present time; since you are both a brother, and not yet forgetful of nature, and do not see us do the things which the enemies do, after we entered upon a life, which afflicts our body equally and our mind, beyond what our strength is able to bear. Nevertheless, since I have so prepared myself for war, you ought now for this cause to be present, and in disposing the business to bring common help: For brethren, says the proverb, are of use in necessities. But if the most venerable Bishops are going to admit our meeting, let them both determine a place for us and fix a time, and through designated men summon us. For just as I myself will not disdain to meet my uncle; so, if I have been summoned not with a decent form, I will not come.

[140] and at last writing to his uncle, By this to his brother, and another to his uncle epistle, since Basil had profited nothing at all, nor had obtained from them any letters or conversation, by which, whatever quarrel at last being removed, they might be mutually reconciled in every way; at last, lest he should leave anything unattempted, he himself writes letters to Gregory his uncle: and with all the submission he can, he asks and conjures, the commemoration of his prudence and meekness and of mutual love being interposed, that he use his accustomed benevolence toward him: I was silent, he says: shall I always too be silent? and shall I bear that this most intolerable loss of silence rule and prevail against me any longer, while I neither write myself, nor hear one addressing me? B. Ep. 46 he imputes that trouble to his own sins, I indeed have hitherto kept myself in that sad purpose; but I think this too ought not undeservedly to be said by me with the Prophet, Because I was silent, like one giving birth I endured. I always indeed desired either a meeting, or the handling of the cause: but always, my sins so deserving, I was frustrated of my wish: for I cannot devise another reason of the deeds, than that I am persuaded that I pay the penalties of my old offenses, in this separation of your dilection: and in this conforming himself to the divine will if however separation ought rightly to be called in you, from whomever at last you separate yourself, much less from us, to whom from the beginning you were in the place of a father. But my sin, like a certain dense cloud, has given me, occupied, ignorance of all those things. For when I consider, that no other fruit has been brought to me from that separation, except the grief which it bore; how shall I not deservedly ascribe the present things to my sins? But whether sins are the cause of the things, which have happened, here let there be for me an end of troubles; or whether by divine dispensation it was done, let that which was sought be utterly fulfilled: for we have endured a loss of no small time. Wherefore bearing it no longer, I first broke forth into voice, beseeching that you have both regard of us, and of yourself, who through all your life showed greater care of us, than kinship itself demanded; and that you now love the city for our sake, nor on our account alienate yourself from it. If therefore there is any consolation in Christ, he conjures him by his former benevolence; if any communion of the Spirit, if any bowels of commiseration, fulfill my wish: dissolve here the things which are troublesome: make a certain beginning to a more cheerful condition of affairs for the future, you who are both in other things a teacher to the best, and follow no one to things unlawful. For neither has the proper character of anyone's body been so reckoned, as that zeal of peace and placidity in your mind

befits; as one such a man, who draw the rest to yourself, and fill any approaching you, like the fragrance of a certain precious ointment, through zeal for peace, with the affability of your manners. For although now something contrary is in the midst, yet shortly afterward the very good of peace too will be acknowledged: for as long as the calumnies which are from dissension have place, necessarily suspicions are increased for the worse. Nor surely is it becoming for them, that they neglect us, but much less for your dignity: for even if we have offended somewhat, yet we shall be better if we have been admonished (but this cannot be done without mutual meeting and address) but if we bring no injury to you, for what cause are we held in hatred?

[141] through the utility of the Church This therefore my own as it were two-horned reasoning I put forward: but the things which could be said by the Churches themselves, which took no utility from our dissension, it is better to keep silent. For I do not address you for this, that I may affect you with grief; but that I may lull asleep the sad matters. But nothing at all escapes your prudence, but you yourself attain by the acuteness of your understanding things much greater and more perfect, than we think, and declare them to others: who both before us saw the things which were a loss to the Churches; and grieve even more than we, having long ago been taught by the Lord to despise no one even of those who are least. But now this loss occupies not one and another, but whole cities and peoples are partakers of our calamities. For of the fame of our affairs among foreign nations it is not fitting to say, through our own fame and that of our people, what they are going to say about us. It becomes therefore that dexterity of your mind, to permit contention indeed to others (nay rather to remove it from their minds too as far as it can be done) but to conquer through patience the things which are sad. For to wish to avenge, belongs to any kindling mind: but to conquer this at last is yours alone, and if any other be like you in virtue. But this I will not say, that he who is troublesome to us, pours out his anger on those who brought no injury. Whether therefore among us in person, or through letters, or whether we be called to you, or in whatever other manner it shall please, deign to honor our mind with some consolation. We would wish indeed that your piety appear before the Church, and cure both us and the people equally both by your very sight and by the discourses of your grace. This therefore if it can be done there, that they may meet together: will be best; but if something else shall seem good, that too we will embrace; provided only it be solidly signified to us, what to your prudence shall have seemed opportune for consoling us. By so great submission and testification of love what Basil obtained, is unknown. Hermant thought that then Gregory of Nyssa set out to him, and brought him letters from the uncle, which he seems to have obtained. to which Basil replied by the fortieth epistle, the fifth brought forth above. I however, various circumstances being considered, judge it more probable that that Epistle is a reply to the former letters of Nyssen, feigned in the name of his uncle: since at the end of the forty-fourth Epistle he affirms, that he himself has replies to the letters of the uncle, whether true or feigned: and so what was done after the last letters of Basil I think is utterly unknown. It is however altogether credible, that the former benevolence again grew together between them, since no memory of any quarrel is found after this.

CHAPTER XII.

For the extirpation of the Arian heresy and the peace of the Churches, Basil busies himself through letters with Athanasius and Damasus.

[142] His domestic affairs being somehow settled. Thus his (Basil's) domestic affairs were settled according to his wish, says Nazianzen: whom I think is here to be understood, as intending to affirm, that the chief Bishops and his Suffragans, and among these Gregory his uncle, were reconciled to Basil, all offense being removed, which they had conceived from his election: although some persisted in their obstinacy, for one or another year, as was shown above. Orat. 20 But while he privately sweats over bringing these back, he begins to revolve in mind something greater and more sublime. For whereas all others see only that which is before their feet, and labor that their own be in safety (if however that can be safe enough) nor advance further, looking around at the state of the universal Church, nor can either embrace in thought or accomplish anything great and strenuous; he on the contrary, however moderate he was in other matters, here yet by no means kept measure. Orat. 20 But his head being raised on high, and the eyes of his mind being cast in every direction, he comprehends all those parts of the world, which the salutary doctrine of Christ pervaded. And when he saw that great inheritance of God, acquired by his doctrine and laws, and by torments; that holy nation, that royal Priesthood, ill disposed and distracted into six hundred opinions and errors; and that vine, which from Egypt, that is from impious and dark ignorance, torn apart by heresy, had been translated and transplanted, and had come to so immense a beauty and magnitude that it covered the whole earth, and rose above the mountains and cedars; this, I say, when he saw shaken and laid waste by the depraved and savage boar, that is by the devil; he by no means judged it enough, if he silently deplored that calamity, only raised his hands to God, and prayed that the pressing evils be repelled by him, himself meanwhile sleeping soundly: but he thought it must be done by himself too, that he bring some help, and pay out something of his own: For what is sadder than this calamity, or for what at last ought he who looks upward more to labor? For by one man behaving rightly or ill, nothing is hence portended to the Commonwealth; but the Commonwealth being disposed in this or that manner, individuals too must necessarily be affected in the same manner.

[143] These things therefore that procurer and prelate of the public good reckoning and pondering with himself; since the moth of the bones is a heart endowed with sense, as pleases Solomon and the truth: and as to lack grief is glad and pleasant; so to be touched with commiseration is sad and bitter, he wastes away with commiseration, and a long-continued thought consumes the breast. Therefore he grieved, was anguished, was wounded: the same befell him, which befell Jonah, which befell David; he despaired in mind, nor granted either sleep to his eyes, or slumber to his eyelids: whatever of flesh remained, was consumed by cares, until he had found a remedy for this evil: he implored the divine and human help, which might check the public conflagration, and dispel the gloom spread over us, he implores help from God, and meanwhile devises one thing very salutary. Namely, when he had gathered himself as much as could be done, and had shut himself up with the spirit, and had roused all his human senses, and had perused all the deepest and most obscure passages of Scripture; he consigns pious doctrine to letters: thus equipped, by struggles and frequent battles he breaks and repels the huge audacity of the heretics; by his writings he confounds the heretics, crushing indeed at close quarters with the arms of his tongue those who had dared to join hands; but striking with arrows fashioned of ink those who were far distant from him, in no way inferior to those letters, which of old were carved on tablets. Nor only for the one and small nation of the Jews about foods and drinks, and perishable sacrifices, and purgations of the flesh; but for all men, and all parts of the world, about the doctrine of truth, from which salvation is procured, he establishes laws. Then, since action destitute of speech is an equally imperfect thing, and speech removed from action; therefore he joined the help of action to speech; and in diverse ways he promotes their conversion. namely approaching some, sending a legation to others, summoning some, admonishing, arguing, rebuking, pursuing with threats, assailing with reproaches; undertaking the contest for nations, for cities, for individual men too; devising every kind of salvation; applying medicine to the disease from wherever: that Beseleel, that, I say, fabricator of the divine Ark, accommodates all material and art to the work, and weaves all things into a certain choice beauty and harmony of one work.

[144] For reconciling the Emperor Valens to the orthodox These things in general about Basil's solicitude for the Church Nazianzen: let us subjoin certain particulars for the sake of elucidation. Since the holy man was persuaded, that it could contribute very much to promoting the peace of the Churches, if the favor of the Emperor Valens were conciliated to the orthodox, or at least the fury of one raging against them were broken: by which the Bishops ejected for the cause of the faith might return to their Churches; he thought he must strive especially for this. There were in the Emperor's court some orthodox Generals, of great authority with him; among whom were numbered, Trajan, Terentius, Victor and Arintheus: he implores the aid of the Princes, he tried their minds, whether they would be willing to busy themselves with the Emperor for the ejected. But he understood, that they, although they were powerful with the lords of affairs, neither wished nor were able to suggest anything to them about the cause of the ejected, but reckoned it for gain, if nothing worse were seen to be done in the Churches. B. Ep. 57 He turned therefore his thoughts elsewhere. Long ago he had known, he himself says, according to the knowledge of conducting affairs measured out to him, and of the Western Bishops, and knew that there was one way of acquiring help, if with the Eastern Churches the Western Bishops conspired and agreed. B. Ep. 48 For indeed if these were willing to show themselves solicitous also for the parish of the Eastern parts with the same zeal, which they used against one and another (namely Auxentius and Saturninus and other heretics throughout Illyricum) who were defamed in the West: perhaps something could be done which would profit all in common; whence both those who hold power would be moved by the authority of the multitude, and the peoples in every direction would follow them without contradiction. Ibid. Therefore he judged, that through the Western Bishops, especially the Roman Pontiff, the miserable state of the Eastern Church should be set forth to the orthodox Emperor Valentinian, and to whom Valens owed the Empire, that he might compel his brother to be more placated toward the orthodox.

[145] Furthermore he thought no one grieved so about the present state or confusion of the Churches, as St. Athanasius of Alexandria, for often he weighed and thought, that if to himself the corruption of the Churches appeared miserable, how could it be credible that he should be affected in these matters, who had taken an experiment of the ancient constancy and concord of the Churches of God concerning the faith: and so, just as much sadness occupied Athanasius, so Basil judged it suited to that prudence, through St. Athanasius, that it should have joined to it an excellent solicitude for preserving the Churches: especially since there was no one more able for those things which were to be accomplished in the West; no one who more acutely weighed what was to be done; no one more efficacious for doing the things which were useful, no one more endowed with a condoling affection for considering the necessity of the Brethren, no one in the whole West more venerable for his honorable hoary age: for he was advanced in years, and had completed the 44th year of his Episcopate. Him therefore through letters he thus exhorts. Ibid. Leave some monument worthy of that life of your conversation, most worshipful Father: confirm by this one work those innumerable labors which you bore for piety.

Send some men of your Church, powerful in sound doctrine, to the Western Bishops; who may set forth to them, by what calamities we are occupied and pressed. Instruct them, with what form they ought to use in narrating these things. Be a Samuel to the Churches: be a partaker of the affliction of the laboring peoples: offer pacific prayers; ask grace from the Lord: bring and leave some monument of peace to the Churches. I know how feeble Epistles are, for contributing help to so great a business: but neither do you yourself have need of the solace and aid of others, no more than the most dexterous of athletes of the acclamation of boys; nor do we teach you ignorant, but to one sedulous and busy we direct the impulse of attempting.

[146] This epistle Basil sent to Athanasius, through Dorotheus, Deacon of the Church of Antioch, which was under Meletius: the Antiochene schism since it labored under a pitiable schism. B. Ep. 50 & 51 For not only did the Orthodox and the Arians have a different Bishop, but even the Orthodox themselves were divided among themselves, partly adhering to Paulinus, partly to Meletius. But about the origin and progress of this schism, it has been treated of more fully on the twentieth of May, where about St. Lucifer of Cagliari, in the fifth Chapter. And this was another of Basil's cares, that the Orthodox among themselves, the schism being removed, might be conciliated. But because those who were with Meletius surpassed the rest in number, though not even sufficiently united among themselves; he judged it more fitting, that all be united to Meletius; both because that seemed congruous to his virtue, and because he thought it too would not displease the Western Bishops (although Paulinus enjoyed their communion). And so by the same Dorotheus an epistle being sent, he exhorts Athanasius, to hasten to compose the matter by himself, the legates from the West not being awaited. The state, he says, of the Antiochene Church manifestly depends on your piety, that you may both edify some, and check and render quiet others, he urges that it be removed, and restore the strength of the Church through unanimous consent. B. Ep. 48 For that, according to those who are the wisest of physicians, you ought to take the beginning of curing from those who labor most dangerously, there is no one who understands you better. But now of all the Churches of the world, which at last is more opportune, than the Antiochene? which if it happen to return to concord, nothing will prohibit but that, like a strengthened head, it supply health to the whole body. But truly the sicknesses of that city have need of your wisdom and evangelical commiseration; which is not only torn by heretics, but is also rent by those who are said to think the same. But to compose these things, and to reduce them to the harmony of one body, belongs to him who even to dry bones, that they might again be restored to nerves and flesh, granted by his ineffable virtue. For indeed great and altogether grand things the Lord works through his Saints: and here again we hope that your excellence is suited to the administration of such things, that the disturbance of the people may be laid low and removed, and the factious and sectarian prelacies may cease: and all may be mutually subjected one to another in mutual dilection, and the ancient strength of the Church may be restored.

[147] After the departure of Dorotheus by another Epistle Basil explained his mind even more clearly, an outstanding eulogy of Meletius being added: To me indeed, he says, in my former letters to your dignity it seemed enough, if I only showed, that the strength of the people of the Holy Antiochene Church concerning the faith ought to be conciliated to one concord and unity, that it might be declared, and that Meletius should be confirmed in the Episcopate, that there is need of the most pious Bishop Meletius, for uniting those things which have now been cut into several parts. B. Ep. 50 But since that very beloved fellow-Deacon of ours Dorotheus sought for himself a clearer memory about these matters, of necessity we subscribe: since both to the whole East this is in their wishes, and especially to us, who are in whatever way joined to him, that the Church may see this desirable man, adhering to the Lord, and irreprehensible in faith and in life; to whom also the rest can in no way be compared, so that the peace of others may be provided for. worthy to preside over the whole (so to speak) body of the Church, and in respect of whom the rest are as it were cut-off particles: therefore on all sides it is both necessary and useful, that the rest be conciliated to this man, just as the lesser to great rivers. But about the others a certain economy is to be instituted, which both suits them, and renders the people pacified, and is suited to your prudence and to your illustrious skill and diligence. But altogether your immense prudence knows, that the same things pleased the concordant in the West, as the letters indicate, which were brought to us through the blessed Silvanus.

[148] Not long after these things, since he judged that the authority of Athanasius could contribute very much to renewing the peace of the Churches, for which he himself singularly strove; He asks the same, that to certain Bishops, willing to return to the Church, and since he concluded as it were from a most evident argument, that he thought rightly in the greatest heads of faith, who communicated with him; letters being sent again he asks, that to certain Bishops, willing to return to the union of the Church, he would deign to write the first letters of communion. B. Ep. 337 Who these were, we shall perhaps more happily trace, when we have set forth the epistle itself. When, he says, we look at the things themselves indeed, and weigh the difficulties, by which all efficacious operation of good is impeded and held, as by a certain check; we slip back to this, that we utterly despair of ourselves: but when we turn to that honest gravity of yours, and think, that our Lord has constituted you a physician of the Ecclesiastical infirmities; we resume courage, and from the fall of despair are raised to the hope of better things. B. Ep. 51 The whole Church is dissolved, just as neither does your prudence not know: for you altogether see, as from a certain watchtower of your mind and contemplation, the things which are done everywhere; just as in the sea, when, with many sailing together, all the little ships alike are dashed among themselves by the violence of the storms; and there happens shipwreck, partly because some external cause violently disturbs the sea, you yourself, as a physician of the Ecclesiastical infirmities, partly because the sailors themselves confusedly run against one another in turn, and are impelled against themselves. Let it be enough in this image to behold the calamity of the Church depicted, that in it we may end our discourse, since both your wisdom does not require more, nor does the present state grant us this liberty of speaking. And for these things who is a sufficient steersman? who of so great faith, that he be believed about to rouse the Lord, who may rebuke both the wind and the sea? But who other, than he who from a boy contended in the contests of piety? Since therefore whoever among us are sound concerning the faith, dexterously approach the concord and unity of those who are of the same doctrine; with good confidence we come to the consolation of your clemency, that you write to all of us one Epistle, which may admonish what is to be done: for they wish, that from you the beginning be made for them, of knowing what is in common to be said and held. But since to you, on account of the memory of things past; first through letters may offer his communion: they perhaps seem suspect and enemies; do this, most pious Father; transmit to me the epistles, written to the Bishops, whether through one of those whom you have there faithful, or also through our Brother and fellow-Deacon Dorotheus; which received I will not give to them before I have received replies from them: but if I do not so, I shall be a sinner against you all the days of my life. But altogether this is not subject to greater fear for me, who speak to you my spiritual Father, than it was for him who from the beginning spoke to the Father. But if this is plainly despaired of with you; permit us to sustain this cause; who without deceit and with simple mind, from desire of peace and mutual union among us, thinking the same in the things which are the Lord's, will approach that legation and meditation.

[149] There were indeed several Bishops, who dissented from Basil and Athanasius, yet it is not altogether clear who those were, about whose reconciliation it is here treated. For those who bore Basil's ordination with an unequal mind, although even now some persisted in their obstinacy, had not yet separated themselves from the communion of Athanasius, nay nor of Basil. Besides to them does not suit what Basil asserts, these were perhaps Eustathius and his companions namely that they desired to be taught by Athanasius, what was in common to be said and held: for this not obscurely indicates, that they wished to be instructed about the faith by Athanasius, who wished to return into concord with him. Yet neither on that account can these things be understood of the Arians: for these under the reign of Valens thought rather about establishing their heresy, than about deserting it. Wherefore I do not find, of whom this epistle can be understood with more probable conjecture, than of Eustathius of Sebaste and his companions, who already about six years before in the Council of Tyana, the letters of Pope Liberius being exhibited, had been all but received into communion; certainly they were to be received in the Council of Tarsus, to be gathered for this end, unless Valens, induced by the Arians, had forbidden the Synod to convene. And since they at that time made a show of penitence, and of an entire reconciliation with the orthodox; so much so that they deceived Pope Liberius, and Basil himself; no wonder if he, from desire of peace and mutual union, asked Athanasius, that he receive them into communion; although he judged them, on account of the memory of things past, deservedly suspect to him.

[150] Athanasius, with the mind which was fitting, received Basil's letters: and that he might satisfy his wishes, he sent back Dorotheus the Deacon, who (as it is right to believe) had handed him the epistle, of which he elsewhere thus makes mention: I, when I had received the letters of the most blessed Father Athanasius the Bishop of Alexandria, [Athanasius replies, that they are to be received, if they profess the Nicene faith,] which even now I have in my hands, and set before those requiring them to be read; in which he manifestly declared, that if anyone from the heresy of the Arians should wish to pass over to us, he was to be admitted; nor anything to be hesitated about in taking him up, if he confess the faith of the Nicene Council: and when he had alleged to me as partners of this doctrine all the Bishops both of Macedonia and of Achaia; I thought it necessary, that I should comply with so great a man, on account of the faith-worthy authority of those who had decreed it: and at the same time desiring to obtain the prize, destined for those zealous for peace, I inscribed those who confessed that faith to the part of those communicating. B. Ep. 75 But after the departure of Dorotheus, By the same is sent to them Peter the Presbyter there set out also by the command of Athanasius, from the sacred assembly of his Clergy, the most reverend Peter the Presbyter: not indeed that one who was his successor in the Episcopate, never recognized by bodily eyes by Basil; but another, whom he, coming to him after some weeks, received with much joy, and approved the good labor of his peregrination: whom he showed to have executed the commands of his Bishop, the things which were contrary being reconciled,

and the things which were divided being joined. B. Ep. 320, B. Ep. 52 By which it is given to understand, that Peter came to Basil not by a direct route; but first approached those Bishops, for whose reception into communion Basil had asked Athanasius. For he, although he approved his zeal, yet, taught by long experience, how little heretics simulating penitence are to be trusted, by no means judged Basil's counsel should be followed by him, that he himself should first send to them letters of communication; but preferred through Peter the Presbyter to explore their minds. But here too he seems to have been led into some fraud by them, but these deceive him by a feigned conversion, since he believed and asserted to Basil that the things which were contrary were reconciled, and the things which were divided were joined: and so perhaps not cautious enough, he slipped into the error, which Basil narrates crept upon himself too: If, he says, we sometime received some disciples of Arius into communion, we so admitted them, as also Basil. that, intimately concealing their disease, they spoke the words of piety, or certainly opposed nothing of our doctrine. B. Ep. 75 And in this matter we used not our own judgment toward such persons; but rather followed the decrees of our Fathers, by which they long ago established what is to be done about such persons.

[151] Here he again writes to Athanasius While these things are being done, Basil considering, how many things were proposed for the peace of the Churches, how few were accomplished, since it was difficult to obtain legates in the name of the Western Bishops, and yet Athanasius judged that they were to be awaited, before he could remedy the Antiochene schism: again sends to him Dorotheus the Deacon, for that end which he signifies by letters. Most accommodating, he says, we have thought it, if, as to the head of us all, we take refuge in your integrity; and use you both as counselor, and as leader and prince of the things to be done. B. Ep. 52 For this cause I have sent back our Brother Dorotheus, through Dorotheus the Deacon the Deacon of that Church which is under the most worshipful Bishop Meletius, having used good zeal concerning the right faith, and desiring himself too to see the peace of the Churches, to your piety; that you may apply him, obeying your counsels (which both the time and the experience of affairs, and the spirit of counsel in which you excel the rest, can render more certain in him) to the affairs to be done and pursued. You will receive him without doubt, and look upon him with pacific eyes; comforting him with the aid of your prayers, and instructing him by letters; nay also by certain of your zealous ones there, you will lead him to the enjoined purpose.

[152] But it has seemed consonant to me, that there be written to the Bishop of Rome, that he consider the things which are done here, and bring forth his opinion. proposing what is to be asked of the Roman Pontiff, And since it is difficult that by a common and synodal decree some be sent from there; let him, using his own authority in this cause, choose men, not only suited to bearing the troubles of the journey, but also fit for this, that by the meekness and easiness of their disposition they may correct those who among us are distorted and crooked; aptly and dispensingly tempering their speech, and having with them all things necessary, such as are to be sent by him into the East, for rescinding the things which at Ariminum were done by force and violence. But let them, no one knowing it, without din, come by sea to those who are here; lest any enemies of peace get a foreknowledge of their arrival. But this too is asked by some there, which seems necessary to us ourselves too, that they exterminate the heresy of Marcellus, when they have come there, as evil and noxious and alien from the sound faith: since to this day, in all the letters which they write, while they turn Arius indeed of evil hearing up and down, they cease not to anathematize and to eliminate him from the Churches; but Marcellus, what is to be done in the cause of Marcellus of Ancyra, who brought an impiety, responding diametrically to the Arian, and against the same essence of the Only-begotten and of the Divinity acted impiously, and badly usurped the appellation of the Word, they seem not even once to accuse: who teaches that the Word indeed is called Only-begotten, by reason of ministry and dispensation, and inasmuch as he came forth born in time; but, returned to him whence he had gone forth, he neither was before going forth, nor after returning subsists. And of this indeed the books of that iniquitous writing laid up with me contain the experiment and demonstration; yet they themselves seem by no means to reprove him, and therefore come to be blamed; as those who from the beginning received him, through ignorance of the truth, even into ecclesiastical communion. Therefore the present business demands that fitting mention be made of him too. And so lest those who seek occasion have occasion from this, about whose heresy he says it is established for him; that those who are sound in faith are joined to your holiness, those are to be manifested to all who limp toward the true faith; both that hereafter we may recognize those agreeing with us; and not, just as in a nocturnal battle, make no distinction between friends and enemies.

[153] Finally we admonish, that soon with the first navigation the aforesaid Deacon be sent, what finally is to be cared for by the legates when they have come to Rome. so that in the following year something may be done of the things, which we so greatly desire. But this too, before the other discourses, which we have touched on, you will consider and take care of; namely, that when those, who are to be sent, by God's will have arrived, they bring not schisms to the Churches: but rather, thinking the same, may in whatever way draw to union, even if they find some, who put forward certain peculiar arguments of dissension between themselves; lest they separate the orthodox people from their Prelates, and divide them into many parts. For care must be taken, that all things be set behind peace, and especially that a remedy be brought to the Antiochene Church: lest the sincere part which is in it, being made weak, be split by respect of persons. But you yourself will at last care for these things more than we: since, as I both pray with God's help, you understand, that all permit and commend to you the things which concern the state of the Churches. he signifies to Meletius, Thus when Basil had set forth his opinion to Athanasius; lest he should dismiss Dorotheus unknown to Meletius, whose Deacon he was, he committed letters too to him to be carried to him, by which he sets forth to him the things which have been done, and which are still to be done; First, that hitherto he wished to detain the most religious Brother Dorotheus with him, that, dismissed toward the end of the business, he might be able to signify to him each thing done. E. Ep. 57

[154] Since, he says, while we draw day from day, we are deferred to a long time and at the same time from the very matters proposed: but then, because (as is wont to happen in the most difficult affairs) a counsel had been born to us under our hand; Dorotheus to be sent to Rome we have sent this aforesaid man, both that he may meet your holiness, and that through him each thing be reported, and that he may show what we suggest; that if our thoughts seem convenient and useful, this zeal be spent by your integrity, that they be accomplished in deed. Finally he signifies, that it has been decreed, that Dorotheus himself will set out as far as Rome, that he may move some from Italy, to visit the Easterns; and that by sea, that they may escape those by whom they could be impeded: since those who are powerful with the Lords of affairs neither would nor could suggest anything about the cause of the ejected there; but reckon it for gain, if nothing worse be seen to be done in the Churches. whom he desires to be instructed by him by letters, Therefore if, he says, our counsel seem useful to your prudence, you will deign both to form epistles, and to give advice, about which he ought to treat; and to whom, and when. But that the letters may have greater faith and authority, you will plainly take companions, concordant with us, even if just now they be not present with us. But Dorotheus, after some weeks returned to Caesarea, when Basil understood that his counsel was approved by Athanasius and Meletius; immediately sent him off into the West, the commands, which are contained in the former letters, being handed over in writing. He added also an epistle to St. Damasus the Pontiff, which is found without inscription as the two hundred and twentieth: for it appears that this was written, to some chief Bishop, he himself hands to the one setting out his letter to Damasus separated by long spaces of lands, who had the necessity of the East less perceived, and yet could through himself or his legates bring a remedy to those imploring it. For since all these things suit the Roman Pontiff, more than any other, no doubt is left, but that this very one is the epistle, which Basil sent through Dorotheus to Damasus.

[155] The ancient, he says, laws of dilection to recall, and the peace of our parents (that heavenly and salvific gift of Christ, by which, by the commemoration of charity, but by time grown faint and deflowered) to restore to its pristine vigor, is indeed necessary for us; but most useful and pleasant (I know well) it will seem to your most Christian disposition. B. Ep. 220 For what can be more pleasant to see, than to see those, separated from one another by so many interposed spaces of lands, through the union of love, like members, joined and compacted into a certain harmony, in the body of Christ? Almost the whole East indeed, most worshipful Father, that is whatever extends from Illyricum even to Egypt, and the most miserable state of the East being set forth, is struck by a vehement tempest and agitation of waves, through the heresy, long ago disseminated by Arius the enemy of truth, but in these days sprouting again, and impudently anew putting itself forth, and as from a most bitter root bringing forth a deadly fruit, and now aspiring indeed to some force: because everywhere through all the dioceses of the Bishops, those who are the first and princes of defending the sound and orthodox doctrine, through false calumnies and injurious contumelies are driven from the Churches; but the power of conducting affairs is conferred on those, who lead captive the souls of the simpler. Of these evils certainly we judge there to be one only remedy, the visitation and solicitude of your mercy. In times past the magnitude of your dilection affected our souls with solace; we were refreshed, even if for a little time, and confirmed in our minds, by that most serene rumor, by which it was said, that you would impart to us some care and visitation. But after we had fallen from that hope, since we could no longer contain ourselves, he implores his aid, we descended to this, that through our letters we should make ourselves a little solace, if you, roused by them at last, would take up care of us; and would send here some of the same confession with us, who could either conciliate the parts discordant among themselves, or recall the Churches of God to friendship and union; or at least make those openly manifest to you, who were the causes of that fluctuation, that for the rest it may be clear to all of you, to whose communion at last you ought to come. Yet we desire nothing at all unseasonable, but what was of old set in custom for blessed men dearest to God, and is familiar to all, and especially to you yourselves. For we know, partly by the benefit of memory, through

the succession of matters brought down from the Fathers to us, partly taught by letters, which are even now kept among us, that that most blessed Bishop Dionysius, who of old among you was most celebrated both for sincere faith and for his other excellent virtues, by his letters cared for our Church of Caesarea, by the example of St. Dionysius his predecessor, and sent here of his own who freed the Brethren from captivity. But indeed the present state of our affairs is much more depressed and calamitous than that was, and demands much greater solicitude: for we now bewail not the demolition of earthly roofs, but mourn the captivity of the churches: nor do we now fear the servitude of bodies, but see the captivity of our souls, every day procured by those, especially since there is peril in delay; who present themselves as leaders to this heresy: so much so that unless you, with all haste, be roused to refresh us, you will scarcely a little after find those, to whom you can, however willingly you would, give helping hands; namely all things being reduced under the power of the heretics.

[156] That most blessed Bishop Dionysius, of whom here Basil makes mention. and that by the example of Dionysius the Roman Pontiff, After Sixtus II he was raised to the Apostolic Chair, in the consulship of Aemilianus and Bassus in the year 259; namely the same in which Valerian Augustus, who although in a short time he shed much Christian blood, captured by the Persians, lost not only the empire which he had insolently used, but also the liberty which he had taken away from the Churches, and living in a most base servitude, left the borders of the Romans to the barbarians; the Christians, to the Presidents of the Provinces to be harassed, (as Lactantius writes in the book on the deaths of the Persecutors) until his son Gallienus, who came to the aid of Cappadocia in the time of the Emperor Gallienus, not long after terrified by his father's misfortune, stayed the fury of the persecution. In this state of affairs therefore Dionysius could have had an excellent occasion, by which he might through letters care for the Church of Caesarea, and send there of his own who might free the Brethren from captivity. And that this was a pious custom of the Roman Pontiffs, Eusebius testifies in his Ecclesiastical History; which it held even to the persecution raging in his own age; and he confirms this by the authority of Dionysius of Alexandria, thus writing to the Romans: Among you this custom has now grown old, that you affect all the Brethren with various benefits, and to very many Churches, which are in each city, send supplies of life. bk. 4 ch. 22 Thus plainly, as the Roman Church is praised for having done at other times also, that you not only relieve the want of the needy; but also bring help to the Brethren, who are condemned to the mines: and so through those supports of beneficence, which already from the first foundations of your Church being laid you have been wont to send everywhere, since you are Romans, you sedulously observe the Roman custom handed down by your Fathers: which indeed certainly your blessed Bishop Soter both hitherto guarded diligently, and in a marvelous manner increased by his propense zeal; and that not only by kindly supplying the wealth delegated for restoring the Saints, but also exhorting to virtue the Brethren coming to him, like an indulgent and clement father toward his children, by blessed and pious discourse.

CHAPTER XIII.

Basil incurs the suspicion of the Macedonian Heresy: he is defended by Athanasius and Nazianzen.

[157] Dorotheus having set out into the West, another trouble took hold of Basil. Basil moved by desire of peace, The cause was furnished by the desire of peace, for which he labored so greatly. For when he saw the Macedonians, Semiarians, Arians, and other heretics fighting among themselves, yet agreeing in this against the Orthodox, that they denied the Divinity to the Holy Spirit; he thought that each separately could be vanquished more easily, than all at once: and so he judged that the Divinity should be so asserted to the Holy Spirit, that yet he should nowhere openly call him God, lest he should seem to have added something to the Nicene Symbol. This his purpose he indicates and persuades to be followed to the Presbyters of Tarsus, who had sought his counsel over that matter: Great is, he says, he persuades the Presbyters of Tarsus the inclination of the time toward the overthrow of the Churches. And this indeed we have long since understood. There is no edification of the Church, no correction of errors, no commiseration of humanity toward the Brethren if they are weaker; but if they are sound, no defense at all of their salvation, nor even any protection, which can either cure the present disease, or repel the impending. B. Ep. 203 And the state of the Church is now altogether like (to use a similitude, although it may seem viler, yet an evident one) an old garment, which even for a slight cause is easily torn apart, but can in no way recover its pristine solidity. Therefore in such a time, there is need of great zeal, and great diligence in aiding certain Churches: but they will be aided, if the things which are now torn apart be joined; and they will be joined, if in those matters in which we bring no detriment to souls, we are willing to accommodate ourselves and to comply with the weaker. Since therefore the mouths of many have opened themselves against the Holy Spirit, and the tongues of many have whetted themselves to cast blasphemies upon him; to accommodate ourselves to the weaker we judge it best to be done, that as much as is in you, you diminish the number of blasphemers, and reduce them to few: and that you receive into communion those who deny that the Holy Spirit is a creature; that the blasphemers alone be left, and thus either through shame be led to the truth, or if they remain in sin, on account of their fewness be thought unworthy, that faith be had in them. as far as professing the divinity of the Holy Spirit Therefore let us seek nothing further, but propose to the Brethren who wish to enter society with us, the faith which was sanctioned at Nicaea; and if they agree in it, let us exact this too, that the Holy Spirit ought neither to be called a creature, nor those who say so to be received into communion with them. There is nothing else which besides I think should be inquired by us. For I am persuaded, if there is anything which needs to be added for fuller evidence, that the Lord will give it to frequent conference, and to the least contentious exercise among us, because to those who love him all things cooperate unto good. Then to Heretics willing to return to the union of the Church he prescribes these things. B. Ep. 204 But the things which both to you, as far as I persuade myself, are by no means adverse, and thus he prescribes how Heretics are to be received. and to the Fathers whom I have commemorated are apt to fill the mind, are these, that you confess that there is received by you the faith set forth by our Fathers, who once convened at Nicaea, and that you reject none of the sayings which are in the Symbol, but hold it most ascertained, provided he be not said to be a creature. that the three hundred and eighteen Fathers, who by no means desirous of contention convened, spoke not without the act and operation of the Holy Spirit; adding this too to that faith, that the Holy Spirit by no means is to be called a creature, nor is one to communicate with those who say so, that the Church of God may be pure, having no tare mixed in with it. But for the orthodox he thus pledges: In this matter, if your intimate dilection shall have satisfied them, they themselves too are prepared to render to you the subjection which is fitting. Ibid. For I pledge for the Brethren, that they will contradict in no matter, but with mind in greater degree propense toward you, will apply all modesty, if this one thing which they seek from you your perfection shall willingly have given them.

[158] Thus taking counsel for the quiet of the Church, Another reason by which Basil was moved, not openly and plainly to name the Holy Spirit God, was, lest he should expose both himself and the Church to the fury of all the heretics. And about himself indeed he was little solicitous: but he wished his own Church of Caesarea preserved in peace, as far as it could be done with the orthodox faith safe. But lest meanwhile the faith should take detriment from his silence, he exhorted the Theologian privately, that so much the more strongly he should preach the Divinity of the Holy Spirit in his discourses to the people. This counsel, although it seemed inspired by Christian charity and prudence, yet was not equally approved by all. For it alienated from him the minds of the Religious, whom he had always held most joined to himself; but now some of them accused him, as too timid; as if he did not dare to profess the truth of the faith, he is accused of betraying the faith by a Monk much less defend it as became a Bishop: but others argued that he by his silence favored the heretics: for thus Nazianzen to Basil: Many, he says, accuse us as little strong in faith, those namely who, and rightly indeed, establish that all things between us are common: and some plainly charge us with impiety, others with timidity: with impiety namely those, who persuade themselves that we do not even speak piously; but with timidity, those who impute to us the crime of dissimulation. G. Ep. 26 And what does it avail to report the discourses of others? But what lately happened, you will hear from me. And hence he proceeds to narrate that which had happened.

[159] There was a certain banquet, at which very many most illustrious men, joined to Gregory and Basil by friendship, during a banquet: reclined; and among them a certain man, bearing before himself the name and habit of piety. The cups had not yet been come to, when (as nearly always happens at feasts) discourse is stirred up about them, like another certain adventitious matter proposed in the midst. But while all extolled with the amplest praise the virtues of the absent Basil, and joined Gregory to him, as given to the same studies of life, and commemorated their friendship and Athens, and in all things their concord and conspiration of souls; this philosopher took it indignantly; And what is this, he says, exclaiming quite furiously, O men? how very lying and flattering you are? Let the other things indeed of those men be praised, if so it pleases, I oppose nothing: but what is the greatest, I will not concede to them. By the name of orthodoxy Basil is praised in vain, in vain Gregory: the one because by his discourses he betrays the truth, the other because by his patience he is a partaker in the same betrayal. Here Gregory who was present; Whence is this, O vain man, he says, and by the name of arrogance a new Dathan and Abiron; Whence come you to us as an arbiter of doctrines? Will you thus set up yourself as judge of such great matters? Then he; From the synaxis of the Martyr Eupsychius I now come, and I have it as witness of my saying (for thus the matter stood) and there I heard the great Basil, about the Father indeed and the Son, discoursing best and most perfectly, and as scarcely anyone else could easily do; but tearing apart and distorting the Holy Spirit. And he applied a similitude, as of a river, which in passing by hollows out rocks and sand. For otherwise, why do you, admirable man, he said, looking at Gregory; with such plain words assert the Holy Spirit to be God (and at the same time he commemorated a certain saying of Gregory when, speaking in a most frequented assembly about the Divinity, where, Gregory the Theologian defending him in vain, you had interjected that well-known saying about the Holy Spirit; How long shall we hide the lamp under the bushel?) but Basil obscurely shows the doctrine of the faith and as it were adumbrates it, nor freely professes the truth, more politically than piously overwhelming it, and covering his craftiness with his faculty of speaking?

[160] Gregory replied: I, since placed in obscurity, and unknown to most, so that

men scarcely know either what I say or whether I speak, philosophize without danger: but of him there is held a greater account, as one whose name, both on account of his own virtue, and on account of the splendor of the Church, is much more illustrious; but whatever is said about him is in the open; and there is a huge war about him, the heretics namely desiring to snatch a bare and open voice from the very mouth of Basil himself, that he indeed may be expelled from the Church, who alone almost remains as a little spark of truth, and a vital faculty, all the neighboring ones being captured and subdued; but that the heresy may strike roots in the city, and from this Church, no otherwise than from a certain rampart and bulwark, lay waste the world. It is better therefore that a certain economy be added to the truth, we namely yielding somewhat to the time as to a certain mist, than that it be overwhelmed on account of the perspicuity of the preaching. For we make no loss from that matter, and the guests assenting to the Monk, if from other sayings too, by which it is certainly gathered, we acknowledge the Holy Spirit to be God: for the truth is not placed in the sound of words, rather than in the mind and meaning: but the Church is going to receive a grave wound, if on account of the ejection of one man the truth be cast down. The Theologian indeed excused Basil's silence by reasons of this kind: but this economy, those who were present, as vain and insipid and mocking themselves, not only did not approve; but even assailed both with clamors, as taking counsel rather for their cowardice, than for their orthodoxy: for they said it was far better, to defend and preserve one's own through the truth, than through an economy of this kind namely to shake them, nor meanwhile to gain those who are alien. After these things narrated, addressing Basil, Gregory thus concludes his epistle: For indeed the things which I both said and heard; and how greatly, and beyond measure and my custom, I was indignant against those who strove against, to set forth one by one would now be prolix, and perhaps by no means necessary: but that I may make an end of speaking, thus I dismissed them. These things were done, I pass to several calumnies. as appears, after the feast of St. Eupsychius, the Martyr of Caesarea, which is celebrated, both among the Greeks and the Latins, on the 7th of September. But this perverse judgment about Basil's silence stood not in one Monk only, nor in one altercation only over the table: for that Solitary seems to have drawn over to his side several, who were familiar to Nazianzen:

[161] The letters being received Basil thus replied, so as not altogether to dissemble his grief (for it is most grievous for a Bishop to be openly accused of heresy) yet he generously despised the rash judgment of others about himself, thinking it would shortly be, that by an excellent contest for the faith he might show openly to all, how far he was from all timidity and heresy. But that he about whom you wrote, he says, (who lately so greatly strove to inspect the life of the Christians, and finally hoped for some authority from this, Basil making light of this, if he were engaged with us) both asserts the things he did not hear, and disputes the things he did not understand, there is no cause why you should marvel; nay this would be worthy of marvel and a paradox, that for these things he has hearers, most genuine to me, of the Brethren who are among you; and not only hearers, but also (as it appears) disciples too. B. Ep. 33 Although this too is especially a paradox, that such a one usurps the office of teaching, and that such hearers endure him, and that I am torn apart and rent. Nevertheless the very catastrophe of these times has so instructed us, that we bear nothing of the things which happen with trouble: for long ago things more ignominious, our sins so deserving, have been wont to befall us. I therefore, since I have hitherto given the Brethren no experiment of this my opinion about God, not even now have I anything to reply. For those whom the prolixity of time did not persuade, how will some brief epistle persuade? But if that will be enough for satisfaction, the things which the calumniators feign are to be held for trifles. Nevertheless if we permit, that unbridled mouths and rude hearts speak about whatever they wish, and we have ears prepared to receive anything; it will be, that not only do we receive the things which are others', but others too receive the things which are ours.

[162] But of these things the cause is that, which I formerly prayed might not be, he invites to himself Gregory by whom he had been admonished: but now wearied out I am silent; namely, that we do not meet together. For if, as formerly we had agreed between us, according to that care and solicitude which we now owe to the Churches, we had met more often through the year; we certainly would not have opened the door to the calumniators. But you, if it seems good, bid farewell to those, allow yourself to be called here, that you may labor in the present contest with me, and be with me against him who assails us. For if you have only even been seen, immediately you will dissolve and ruin the onset of him, and of those who conspire with him to pervert the affairs of the country; and you will show them, that you yourself by the grace of God are the author of our meeting, about to stop every iniquitous mouth of those, who speak iniquity against God. If you do this, the matter itself will declare, who follows you to the things which are right, and who limps, and through fear betrays the doctrine of truth. But if the ecclesiastical affairs be betrayed, I shall have little care, to instruct and promote those, who esteem me as much as they will be able to esteem, who have not yet learned to measure themselves by their own measure: and he says his innocence is to be proved by tribulations borne for the faith, for soon by God's favor, the very demonstration of the things done will evidently convict these slanders, and produce them into the light. Wherefore we even expect, that it will perhaps be, that for the doctrine of truth somewhat more of tribulation is to be borne: but if not, at least this altogether, that we be ejected both from the churches and from the paternal seats. But if none of the things we hope shall happen, the tribunal of Christ is not far off. or to be declared at the last judgment. Thus if for the sake of the Churches you will wish us to meet, I am prepared to run wherever you call: but if to dissolve and refute slanders, there is now no leisure to reply about them.

[163] Gregory invited, that present he might contend with Basil against the Arians, soon to come to Caesarea; promised that he, God helping, would be present, and at the same time fight, and spend manful work: whence it is probable, that he ran out to Caesarea, before Valens with the Arians arrived there; and conferred with Basil, about asserting the Divinity to the Holy Spirit, and about the other calamities of the Churches. G. Ep. 27 But however much Nazianzen acted for Basil in this cause, he could scarcely remove from all the rash preconceived opinion about him: and so to his own grave inconvenience St. Basil learned, and was an example to others, how perilous it is to dissemble even the least with heretics, in hope of peace and their conversion: for he neither gained the heretics for the Church, except for a time (namely as long as it was permitted them craftily and with impunity to conceal their heresy) and so gravely offended the orthodox, that St. Athanasius himself had to draw his pen for Basil, by which he might preserve the Church of Caesarea in peace, St. Athanasius draws his pen for Basil writing to Palladius and free the holy Bishop from the stain of heresy. He wrote therefore to Palladius the Presbyter, who with a certain Innocent had first begun the monastic life under Basil, then had withdrawn himself to the mount of Olives, and there sustained his life by manual work together with the same. Him Athanasius among other things thus addresses: Vol. 1 But what you signified about the Monks of Caesarea, this very thing too I learned from our beloved Dianius, that they are burdened and resist our beloved Bishop Basil. To you certainly, that you indicated the matter to me, I give thanks; but to them I wrote what was fitting, that like sons they should obey their father, nor contradict the things which he approves. For if he were suspect in the business of truth, they would rightly fight: but if they are confident, as we all are confident, that he is the glory of the Church, while he so contends for the truth, and teaches those who need doctrine; it is not right to join battles with such a man, but he is rather to be loved on account of his pious mind. For from the things which I learned from our beloved Dianius, for no cause do they bear him heavily: for he himself, as I plainly persuade myself, is made weak among the weak, that he may gain the weak. But our beloved Brethren, looking to his aim by which he tends to the truth, let them glorify the Lord, that he has given such a Bishop to Cappadocia, as the several provinces wish for themselves. But you, beloved, would wish to indicate to them, that they may believe that I have written these things. For that will render you benevolent toward the Father, and will preserve peace in the Churches. To John likewise and Antiochus Similarly Athanasius gravely reprehends John and Antiochus the Presbyters, who at that time stayed at Jerusalem: You, he says, since you have … the confession of the Fathers about the truth in the Nicene symbol, turn away from those who wish to speak more or less than is in the confession, and spend greater effort on the utility of the Brethren in fearing the Numen and keeping the precepts; that by the doctrine of the Fathers and the observation of the precepts, you may be able to appear pleasing to the Lord on the day of judgment. But I greatly marvel at the audacity of those, who do not dread to bark at our beloved, and truly God's servant the Bishop Basil: since from barking of this kind they can be detected and convicted, that they neither love nor embrace even the confession of the Fathers.

[164] So irrefragable a testimony of St. Athanasius, for the doctrine of St. Basil, ought to have utterly plucked out all suspicion of evil: but so great was the obstinacy of certain ones in their preconceived opinions, and so firm the tenacity which had once badly imbued the vulgar, that even long after the death of the Saint, Nazianzen believed it fitting, to set forth this whole matter, as it was done, in his funeral oration; and to show, that it neither proceeded from any pusillanimity, on account of which he by no means dared to profess the Faith openly; or from any benign inclination of mind toward heresy, as some at that time persuaded themselves. Orat. 20 But since, Nazianzen too defends him deceased, he says, I have made mention of Theology, and of that sublimity in speaking, which he chiefly used in that kind of argument, this I will still add to the above: for it is most useful to provide for the simple and unskilled, lest they be affected with loss, thinking ill and sinisterly about him. But my discourse is to the wicked and malignant, who from this that they assail others with calumnies, contrive to bring help to their vices. and his constancy for the divinity of the Holy Spirit being adduced, For he for the right doctrine, and the conjunction and co-deity of the holy Trinity, or if by some more proper and perspicuous word that matter can be noted, would not only have borne with prompt and brisk mind to be thrown down and cast off from the throne, to which he did not even from the beginning eagerly leap forth,

but also would have endured exile and death, and before that various torments, with prompt and brisk mind, and would have reckoned it gain rather than peril. But that this is so the things, which he both did and suffered, openly declare: as one who even, mulcted with exile for the defense of truth, undertook no other business, than to command one of his followers, that, his writing-tablets being taken, he should follow him. he shows that he prudently dissembled; But for the rest to dispose his discourses with judgment, he judged to be necessary, from the counsel and opinion of David, and to tolerate for a little the time of war and the principate of the heretics, until the time of liberty had succeeded, and had brought liberty and license of tongue. For they were zealous to snatch a bare and open voice about the Holy Spirit, that he was God (which indeed although it was true, yet seemed impious to them, and to the wicked prelate of impiety) that they might indeed drive him together with his Theological tongue from the city, and themselves occupy the church, and make it a bulwark of their wickedness; and hence then, as from a certain citadel, lay waste all that which remained.

[165] But he by other voices indeed taken from Scripture, while meanwhile he defended the same doctrine both by written books; and by testimonies by no means doubtful, having the same force, and by necessary arguments, so checked the adversaries, that they could in no way resist and strive against; but (which is the greatest virtue and prudence of speech) were constrained by their own voices: just as the book will plainly show, which he published on this argument: in which he moves his pen as from the box of the Spirit. Yet meanwhile he deferred to usurp his own voice, asking it as a favor both from the Spirit himself, and from his sincere defenders, that they be not offended by this his counsel; nor commit, that while they tried to hold one little word tooth and nail, on account of insatiable cupidity they should lose all. Namely, piety being torn apart and distracted in a turbulent time, they would receive no inconvenience and detriment, if the words were a little changed, provided the same things were taught in other words: for our salvation does not consist in words rather than in things: since not even the Jews are to be rejected, if, asking that for a time the voice of the Anointed be conceded to them in place of Christ, they wish to be inscribed into our number and order: but no greater ruin and plague could be brought to the Commonwealth, than if the church were occupied by the heretics. For that he otherwise, better than any others, acknowledged the Holy Spirit to be God, is plainly established from this, than by public and private discourses, that he both often preached this from the higher place, as far as was permitted by the time; and privately among those by whom he was questioned, confessed it without hesitation. But in his discourses to me he demonstrated it more openly (for he never had anything, when he conversed with me about these matters, covered and hidden in mind) not simply affirming this; but, what before had very rarely befallen him, imprecating on himself the most horrible thing of all; namely that he might fall from the Spirit himself, unless with the Father and the Son he venerated the Spirit, as consubstantial and equal in honor.

[166] But if anyone will have admitted me as his partner in such great matters too, I will divulge something which before was unknown to most: namely, that, when the time reduced us to the greatest straits, he himself entered upon this plan, [especially then by admonishing Gregory, that he should inculcate that faith to the people.] that he should commit to himself indeed the dispensation of the word; but to us, that which, on account of the obscurity of our name no one would bring into judgment and eject from our country, the liberty of speaking: and so our Gospel was firm and strong, supported by the protection of both. Nor indeed are these things commemorated by me, that I may defend his estimation by my discourse (for he is too excellent, that to accusers, if however there are any, anything against his fame should be permitted) but lest some, thinking the norm and rule of piety to be only those voices, which are found in his books, should have a weaker faith; and should draw that manner of discoursing about the divinity, which that time not without the Numen of the Spirit brought to him, to the confirmation of their depravity: but, weighing the sense and aim of the things which were written by him, which he proposed to himself, while he wrote these things; both they may approach more to the truth, and may stop the mouth of those who are engaged in impiety. Would that to me, and to all to whom I am dear, his Theology be present! Surely of this excellent man, as far as pertains to that matter, I so confide in his purity, that besides all other things this too I do not refuse to have common with him: so that to him my things, to me in turn his things all, both with God and with all the most candid men, be ascribed.

CHAPTER XIV.

Virtues and deeds pertaining to the Episcopate, and the rest of his life.

[167] The order of pursuing the history seems to require, that in this place we treat of the virtues of St. Basil, which through all the time of his life, and especially in the Episcopate, Basil as Bishop has no servants, except amanuenses, he so exercised, that they can or ought to be referred to no single deed or determinate time. The voluntary poverty for Christ, which he had cultivated before the Episcopate, he did not desert. He nourished no household, for the sake of honor or convenience; having only some amanuenses and notaries with him, whom he used for writing and sending his letters: nor did so great a man disdain to admonish them, that they should form their characters rightly, neatly, and diligently. B. Ep. 178 Discourses, he says, have a winged nature. whom he teaches to form characters rightly, Wherefore men use the marks of letters, that the writer may catch the swiftness of the flying discourses. You therefore, boy, draw the marks of letters perfect, and place the forms in right order: for a moderate error of the writer wears off very much of the discourse: but the diligence of the writer, that which was said is entirely accomplished and perfected. B. Ep. 180 And elsewhere: Write rightly, he says, and draw the lines straight; and let the hand neither be carried upward, nor below to the steep: nor force the pen to go through the oblique, like an Aesopic crab; but let it go straight, as to the rule of artificers. Surely everywhere keep equality, and cut off whatever is unequal: for that which is oblique, is unseemly; but the straight, is pleasant to those seeing, not allowing the eyes of the readers to be carried up and down, just as the wood from which the drawing-urns of wells hang, which befell me reading your writings. For the steps of the lines, where one must pass from one to another at the end of the following, ought to be straight.

[168] Furthermore those, whom he instructed to write rightly, he no less also formed to all virtue, as was fitting: but many of them could not bear his strict manner of living. Hence it came about, that when he had letters to be sent to Poenius the Presbyter, no scribe was present and at hand to him, no notary, or one accustomed to write in marks: for those, whom he had accustomed to both, had fled away, to the institute of their former life: others afflicted more vehemently by long-lasting diseases, were not going to be sufficient for the labor. B. Ep. 341 Other domestics besides if he had any, he had very few. A cook certainly he did not need, because in his house the art of cooking was neglected, and the knife did not touch blood. B. Ep. 208 His most sumptuous of foods were leaves of herbs, with a little bread and limp wine; so that his senses were nothing stupefied by the gluttony of the belly, nor through delights neglected their offices. 1 Tim. 3 By this manner of living Basil fulfilled the precept of the Apostle, who requires a Bishop, well set over his own house. By so great austerity of fasting he imitated the fasting of Elijah: of whom, he himself by fasting imitates Elijah. says Nyssen, if you bring forth the abstinence of forty days; we on the contrary will bring into the midst the parsimony in food preserved in the whole life of the Master: for in a certain manner the scantiness of food and the parsimony of victuals is neighbor to abstinence; especially since the former indeed was done in a short time, but this lasted through the whole life for our Master. Or. F. Besides even there indeed that barley and sub-ashen bread preserved the Prophet's vigor and strength, because it had something of that kind in itself, by which whoever took this food, his strength would be preserved: of which thing the argument is, that none of the common people had set before him bread made for food, but he was satiated by food prepared by Angels: whence also there remained full and entire, and did not flow out and expire those strengths, which through that food were engendered in the body. But here, since nothing of the accustomed was innovated and changed, reason moderated the food, providing to the body, not as much as it would wish, but as much as the law of temperance bade.

[169] How great diligence he had for the Church of God, his writings abundantly testify. He fed it, as a true Father and Pastor, with divine discourses, with public prayers, with frequent participation of the Sacraments. He had discourses to the people I might almost say daily, He feeds the sheep committed to him with the word of God, nay rather from time to time, for the sake of the listeners, he conciliated both morning nourishment to souls, and evening gladness. To so great a zeal of their Pastor responded the frequency of the listeners, not only of holy men or of nobles, whom, often free from other business, the eloquence of the admirable and most eloquent man could allure; but also of artisans exercising vulgar arts, who according to custom seek their living from day to day, and prepare their food for themselves by their daily works. To these, that they should be willing to be drawn away a little from their craft and their gain; he persuaded, that by no means did that portion of time perish for them, which they lent to God, but that it was wont to be repaid by him with great increase. B. Hexaem. Homil. 3 For he said that, however much fortuitous chances should make business for these, the Lord would remove all their difficulty, by supplying sinewy strength to the body, by inserting into the soul a prompt alacrity for work, by supplying an easy and convenient dexterity in exchanging wares: finally, that the same Lord would bestow joyful successes of things falling out according to their wish, in their whole life, to those, who would deem spiritual gifts to be far more excellent than these temporary ones. But if perchance their studies, if their labors diligently spent, should by no means obtain here such an issue, as they had presumed; yet certainly through this spiritual doctrine there would meanwhile be heaped up for them a huge and luminous treasure of goods for the life soon to follow. With such things he exhorted the plebeians, that even on workdays they should run together to hear the word of God: whereby it came about, that by hearing the desire of hearing so grew, that even weakened in strength, after a long disease, they all but forced him to speak before the assembly; and the Saint judged that their pious eagerness should be satisfied, yet so that he excused himself to many: in Ps. 59 I, he says, Brethren, He himself preaches, though sick. when I behold your alacrity for hearing, and weigh my own force for speaking, slender and weak; there comes upon my mind the likeness of a certain little child, who through his tender age

has advanced somewhat, but is not yet weaned, but harasses and tears turbulently his mother's breast, dry from disease; but the mother, even if she knows that the fountains of milk have dried up in her, yet distracted and plucked by the childish hands offers him the breasts such as they are, not that she may nourish the infant, but that she may quiet the childish wailing. And so, even if through this long-lasting sickness of the little body our little veins have dried up, they are nonetheless brought forth and exposed to you; not indeed that they may refresh you with a worthy or any sumptuous food of price, but that your wishes toward me may in some measure be satisfied: for to this excellent charity of yours I shall think satisfaction has been made, if your desire toward me shall be granted to be assuaged even by voice alone.

[170] He instituted in his Church a rite of public prayers or of the divine Offices, The rite of public prayers in his Church which was kept throughout both Egypt, Libya, the Thebaid, Palestine, Arabia, Phoenicia, Syria, and through the regions toward the Euphrates; and he thus describes it: By night the people rising at the time before dawn seek the house of prayer, and in labor and tribulation and unceasing tears, confession being made to God, at last rising from prayer, are led over to psalmody. B. Ep. 63 And now indeed divided into two parts, singing in turn they chant psalms, and from this at the same time both they strengthen the exercise and meditation of the oracles of God, and supply to their hearts attention and solidity of mind, vain thoughts being rejected; then this office being given to one of them, that he should first begin what is to be sung, the rest sing in response; and so by the variety of psalmody, and prayers from time to time interspersed, they pass the night. The day now growing light all alike, beholding them he spiritually refreshes them. as with one mouth and one heart, offer to the Lord the Psalm of confession, and each in his own words profess penitence. Hom. 4 on hexaem. But Basil, beholding so great a zeal of praying in his Church, and exulting in spirit, would break forth into these words: If the sea is good with God, if beautiful, if praiseworthy; in what manner is not far more beautiful this assembly of such a Church, in which the mingled sound, as of a certain wave approaching the shore, of men and women and infants, from prayers to our God rebounds and is sent forth? This a profound tranquillity preserves stable and unshaken, the malignant spirits being put to flight, who could by no means disturb it with heretical doctrines. In this therefore lean, that, the discipline of that most decent order being at last observed, you may bring back from the Lord a worthy praise.

[171] But who would not admire such perseverance in prayers, and so great a desire of the divine word, as the same Basil attests was in the faithful subject to him, persevering in the church from dawn even to noon by which they not only interrupted their crafts, but seemed even forgetful of refreshing their bodies: he himself explains this addressing those gathered in the church of St. Eupsychius and his companions. B. Homil. on Ps. 114 From even the very midnight, he says, since you have entered this temple dedicated to the Martyrs, rendering to yourselves placable and propitious the God of the Martyrs themselves by hymnic praises, yet meanwhile you have not ceased, even to this hour of noon, to await our coming to you. Prepared therefore is your reward, that you have preferred the honor toward the Martyrs and the divine worship to sleep and to rest; that there was need likewise for us of words, to bring a cause excusing this delay to be woven, and our longer absence. But this we will say was the one, that, according to the dispensation entrusted to us, we sedulously cared for another church of God, in no way unequal to this one, separated from you by no moderate space: for in undergoing this office we spent a good part of this day. Since therefore the Lord has given that I have fulfilled the ministry owed to them, nor on that account am I lacking to your charity, together with me you too repay to so beneficent a giver a giving of thanks, who this fragility of our body, which you yourselves not obscurely see, by the invisible virtue of his hand raised up and established. Wherefore that I may not torment your minds with a longer tedium, passing over by far the greatest part, soon when we shall have discoursed a few things, from that Psalm which we found being sung by you, with a short sermon he refreshes them. and according to the slenderness of our strength shall have fed your famished souls with a consolatory word, thus to the care of nourishing the body we will dismiss each one of you. Of the frequent participation too of the sacred Mysteries in his church writing to Caesaria the Patrician he thus testifies: Frequent use of the Eucharist, To communicate every day and to partake of the holy body and blood of Christ, is good and fruitful; since he himself said in perspicuous words; He who shall eat my flesh and drink my blood, has eternal life. B. Ep. 289 But now who doubts, that to participate of life more frequently, is nothing else at all than to live frequently? Four times therefore we communicate in each week; on the Lord's day, the fourth day, on the parasceve, and on the sabbath: but also on other days too, if the memory of some Martyr be celebrated. pastoral solicitude about all Nor did the pastoral zeal of Basil contain itself within one city, but he frequently visited his whole diocese, even amid almost continuous infirmities. B. Ep. 264 & 348. Finally made all things to all, that he might gain all to Christ, he wrote very many epistles, filled no less with erudition than with piety; partly for the instruction of those consulting, partly for the commendation of the needy and the consolation of the sorrowful; that thus he might exhibit a paternal affection to all, for whom he recognized himself placed in the place of a parent, on account of the Episcopal habit, with which the Lord had clothed him. B. Ep. 248

[172] In the time of his Episcopate, although the year cannot be assigned, a second time the city of Caesarea was vexed by famine; about which the Saint thus speaks: Not yet has the famine left us: wherefore it is altogether necessary for us to stay longer in the city, either for the sake of dispensation, The famine, arisen from drought, or on account of compassion for those, who are straitened by it. B. Ep. 267 During that calamity he had a discourse to the people, in which not without an affection of commiseration he thus describes it: I saw the sterile fields, and the dry country long since without fruits; and weeping I uttered sad complaints, that no rain was given us. Some seeds, before they germinated, were dried up; and remained in the same manner, in which the plow had hidden them; or if perchance born, while still tender, were consumed by the heat; so that beautifully that Gospel saying can be reversed, The laborers indeed are many, but the harvest little. The farmers sit through the fields with their hands clasping their knees, which is the posture of one mourning; and terrified by the sad aspect of the fields, grieve and weep vehemently that their own and their oxen's labors are going to perish; and looking at their born infants and lamenting, intending their eyes to their wives and weeping, touching and handling the dry stalks of the sprouts, utter miserable howls, no otherwise than fathers, who have lost their sons in the flower of their age. Furthermore imputing the cause of so great an evil to sins, he says. Basil attributes it to sins, Behold, I pray, now, in what manner the weight of our sins has changed the natures of the year and the seasons, and led the forms of things once established into alien temperaments and new mixtures. The winter did not retain the accustomed moisture with the dry, but went wholly into ice, utterly without snow and rain. The spring time showed indeed one part of its office, I mean heat, but joined to it no humidity. But an immense heat, and colds passing over the laws of nature, and conspired against us and our loss, drag mortals at the same time to the perils of victuals and life.

[173] Then he exhorts all to the amendment of morals, and especially to devout and assiduous prayer; he exhorts to penitence: the avaricious to liberality, the rich to almsgiving to be distributed to the poor: and it is credible that then too the Saint sustained the miserable people, food being given out, which before as a Presbyter he had done in a similar calamity; the benignant Lord (as Nyssen indicates) marvelously cooperating, and mercifully supplying him whence he might exhibit mercy. Or. F. For he himself, although a Bishop, lacked almost everything: he comes to the aid of the poor, himself poor: for at that time he neither possessed proper goods, nor were the revenues of his Church copious. Worthy indeed to satiate the hunger of others, who, subjecting his flesh to the spirit by almost continuous fasts, would placate God: nay rather so powerful was his intercession with the Lord, that he merited to avert that impending plague from his people. On account of this Nyssen likening him to the great Elijah; The blight, he says, and drought of the earth the Master neither removed, nor brought on. But that great Prophet, at another time by praying he averts the scourge of famine: when by the scourge of the want of rains he had beaten the earth, himself too stood forth as the physician of the wound, equal and equivalent to the torment of the scourge, and bestowing the relief and mitigation of the cure. But if even against this it is fitting to bring some miracle of our Elijah; when by the divine will a calamity of this kind once threatened, signified by the threats of heaven (for the whole winter time had passed in drought) and no hope of crops appeared; then the Master, supplicating God, did not suffer the terror to advance beyond threats; when by prayers he had placated the divine Numen; and through prayers had removed the grief, which on account of the want of rains had invaded men.

[174] His chief solicitude and most worthy of a Bishop, was the exact observation of Ecclesiastical discipline, he celebrates diocesan synods, especially in the Clergy: in which the chief place was held by the Chorbishops fifty in number, whom he sometimes gathered to the Assembly of the Blessed Martyr Eupsychius, that they might confer among themselves about matters pertaining to the government of the Church. Naz. carm. on his own life. B. Ep. 418 And since in their curia there were very many adopted into the Clergy, who were altogether unworthy of that ministry; he wrote this epistle to the Chorbishops; from which it may be learned, by how accurate an inquiry into their life and morals, Clerics were at that time to be elected. B. Ep. 181 he complains that the morals of those to be ordained are not inquired into, It greatly disturbs me, he says, that the Canons of the Fathers for the rest have failed, and all accurate discipline has been driven out of the Churches; and I fear, lest through negligence and contempt, proceeding by this way, the ecclesiastical affairs be reduced to every kind of confusion. Those who ministered to the Church, the custom, which was of old kept in the Churches, admitted only most diligently and most accurately proved, and all the account of their past life was curiously inquired into; whether they were not evil-speakers, whether not drunkards, whether not prompt to fights, whether they rightly educated and chastised their youth, that they might be able rightly to bear sanctification, without which no one shall see God. And these things indeed the Presbyters and Deacons who were engaged with them examined; but they referred to the Chorbishops, who, the suffrages of those truly testifying being received, and the Bishops being advised, and hence many unworthy intruded, co-opted the Minister into the number of the Ecclesiastics. But now, we being first thrust out, not caring to refer to us about them, you have transferred all authority to yourselves. Then, the matter being treated with the utmost sloth, you have permitted the Presbyters and Deacons, whom they would, to bring into the church, from affection

either of kinship or of some friendship, their life not being examined: and therefore many indeed are numbered as Ministers in each village, but no one is worthy of the ministry of the Altar, as you yourselves testify, who need men in the elections. Because therefore the matter has henceforth proceeded so far, the keen one decides a middle course: that it cannot be cured; especially since now very many, from fear lest they be enrolled in the military, thrust themselves into the ministry; of necessity I have betaken myself to renewing the canons of the Fathers; and I write to you, that you send me an index of the Ministers of each village, and by whom each was introduced, and what is his manner of living. But have also yourselves with you an index, that your letters may be compared with those which are laid up with us, and let it be permitted to no one to inscribe himself when he wishes. Thus therefore after the first indiction, if any have been introduced by a Presbyter, let them be rejected to the laity: but let an examination of them be made anew by us; and if indeed they are worthy of our suffrage, let them be received. Purge also the church, expelling the unworthy from it; and henceforth indeed examine and receive the worthy, but do not enroll them in the number, before you have referred to us: or know that he will be a layman, who without our sentence has been admitted to the ministry.

[175] These things Basil about the inferior Clerics: but in conferring the greater Orders, Among those ordained by him he so circumspectly behaved himself, that he thought nothing should be indulged to human affection, and wished them to be promoted rather by divine than by human election. And so writing back to Nectarius, his most beloved, who probably had asked that some Prelate be ordained; But about the election, he says, of those, who are to be set over a community, if anything I should sometime determine either bent by favor of men or by prayers, or broken by fear; I should not be a dispenser, but rather a peddler, exchanging the gift of God for the human friendship of any persons whatever. B. Ep. 323 But among those whom by regard of virtue alone, and in a certain way by divine instinct, he ordained; consecrating his brother Peter with mystic sacrifices, he promoted him to the sacred dignity of the Presbyterate: and hence the course of his life was directed to graver and holier things, eminent are Peter his brother, since the dignity of the Priesthood, joined to wisdom, was heaped up with zeal for virtue. Vit. Macr. Evagrius too, about whom Palladius in the Lausiac history chapter 113, he ordained Lector; whom then Nazianzen promoted to the office of the Diaconate: but since he was, Evagrius Lector, most instructed in the divine Scriptures, he flourished against all heresies; made afterward a Monk he lived in great austerity: but in the end to the great grief of all he slipped into the heresy of the Origenists. B. Ep. 73, & 322 There is numbered also among the Presbyters of Basil Meletius, the Presbyters Meletius whom he himself calls his most Religious and beloved Brother, fellow-worker in the Gospel and co-presbyter; who acquired for himself voluntarily a weak health, on account of the Gospel of Christ, reducing his flesh into servitude.

[176] Besides the Blessed Basil bore great care, (as Palladius says where above) of a distinguished man, and Philoromus, a most religious Presbyter, and most loving of God, Philoromus; in whose austerity, constancy, and diligence in work he delighted: who had not yet withdrawn from the pen and the paper, though he was born eighty years: and although he seems to have lived rather in a monastery, than among the Clerics in the city or in some village; yet it helps to touch here his chief virtues. a man of admirable virtue, He was born indeed of a mother a slave-woman, but of a father free; yet he showed so great a nobility of virtues in the institution of the Christian life, that even those who are in that kind insuperable, revered his life equal to the Angels, and the efficacy of his exercise. He renounced the world in the days of Julian the execrable Emperor, and freely spoke with this impious one, a generous athlete of Christ: but he ordered him to be shaved, and having suffered contumely from Julian, and, as he stood, blows to be struck by boys: which he bore bravely and patiently, and gave him thanks, as he narrated to us with his own mouth. This excellent man, as he said, in the beginning was assailed by a war of fornication and gluttony, which exercising tyranny harasses the greatest part of the multitude: but he, preserving chastity by fasting, like an immense conflagration with much water extinguished it, by preserving continence with the utmost care, by wearing iron, and by shutting himself up, and abstaining from foods; and, to say it once, from all things cooked; finally by bearing himself bravely in all things, and tolerating much for taming the gluttony. Which when he had conquered, he could sing the hymn of victory saying; I will exalt you, O Lord, because you have taken me up, and have not made my enemies to rejoice over me. Likewise variously assailed by the spirit of fornication, he persevered forty years in the monastery: conquering fearfulness, and about himself he narrated saying: For thirty and two years I touched no fruit. But when, he says, a certain dread had greatly assailed me, so that even by day I was afraid; I shut myself up six years in a tomb, and by that means came out superior, waging war from impassibility with the spirit, who imposed on me this servitude… living by the work of his hands, This Blessed one said; From the time I was initiated and regenerated of the Spirit and water, even to this day, I have not eaten others' bread for nothing, but that which came to us from our own labors divinely. Two hundred and fifty coins from the work of my hands I gave to those, who were maimed and mutilated, nor ever did I injury to anyone. He came on foot even to Rome, to Rome to pray in the martyrium of the holy Peter and Paul: but he arrived even as far as Alexandria, when he had vowed to go to the martyrium of the venerable athlete Mark. Furthermore worthy, he says, I was held, that for the sake of a vow, twice on my own feet I should come to Jerusalem, to honor the holy places; and I myself supplied my own expenses. and having gone on pilgrimage to Jerusalem. But he said to us, that we might take utility from it; I do not remember that I ever in mind departed from my God. Of this Blessed Philoromus such are the contests, and in these is an unconquered victory, and to him is rendered the end of blessed labors, and a crown of unfading glory. Thus far about Philoromus Palladius, having spoken with the same in Galatia: under which testimony I greatly marvel that he was not enrolled among the Saints, before so many others reported more obscurely in the Menaea and Synaxaria hitherto seen.

[177] There was also a certain Timothy, perhaps the same who is by Palladius there called Chorbishop of Cappadocia, Timothy the Chorbishop, a most sufficient man: in whom we have demonstrated, how great virtue Basil exacted in his fellow-ministers. For he, as for a certain chief offense, reprehended him, that he involved himself more than was just in secular affairs for the sake of friends. B. Ep. 340 To write out all things, he says, whatever I revolve in mind, neither is consonant to the formula of this salutation, nor easy to circumscribe within the limits of one epistle; and again to pass over all things in silence, seems to belong to a certain weak and impotent man; since with a certain just anger toward you my breast burns. A middle way therefore I am going to go, some things being omitted that I may write out others. Basil's former disciple is reprehended by him, My mind is to touch you, as far as is right and just, in the equal liberty of friends in speaking: since you and no other are that Timothy, whom I had known from earliest boyhood, tending with so intent a zeal, both to professing the orthodox faith, and to entering upon the ascetic life, that you were accused for the cause of immoderate propension. Who would ever believe, that you yourself at present, all care being cast off, by which altogether and on every side you might be joined to God; should look to those things, because, his former care of the spirit neglected which would please this or that man, and should compose the manner of transacting your life to the will of others; namely to be useless to friends, but ridiculous to enemies: dreading infamy among men as a formidable thing, and having no account or remembrance of this, that the more zeal and care you place in these things, so much the greater neglect of your past life and of that which before others is to be chosen you bear before you.

[178] you involved yourself in secular affairs: The divine oracles are full of testimonies affirming, that no man can be sufficient to embrace both, namely the affairs of this world, and that policy which is according to God. Nay even the very nature of things is most full of examples of this kind: for to revolve in our mind and thought diverse things at the same moment of time, is altogether impossible. But also in those things likewise which are perceived through the senses, the same may be beheld. With our ears we either do not perceive or cannot distinguish two sounds at once: although the twin passages of hearing are open to us. Nay even the eyes, unless both be intent upon one visible object, cannot exactly perform their office: and so it is in all natural things. Now to wish to cite to you the testimonies of the Scriptures, is just as absurd, as to wish to send owls to Athens. Why therefore do we mix the immixable? and is recalled to his pristine fervor. civil tumults with the ascetic life? Nay why, freed from these tumults, do we not cease to make business for one another, that we may not be in our own power? Why do we not strive in the very deed to attain that aim of piety, to which formerly we aimed? Why do we not make manifest to those speaking evil and wishing to affect us with calumnies, that it is not placed in their power to affect us with sadness? But this will be, if indeed we shall have freed ourselves, nor have furnished any occasion. And these things indeed thus far. But may the Lord grant us at some time, that, having met together, in a more exact manner we may consult about the state and conveniences of our souls; lest then, when we must necessarily emigrate hence, we be found occupied with care and thoughts about the most vain things.

CHAPTER XV.

Certain deeds of Basil for the utility of the Churches and the emendation of offenders.

[179] From the Clergy of St. Basil on account of the fame of sanctity So great a fame of sanctity the Clergy of Caesarea under Basil acquired, that Innocent, a distinguished Bishop of a certain chief city throughout the East, asked Basil; that one of his Presbyters be chosen for him as successor. The deed, and the Saint's pious prudence in cases of this kind, this epistle written back by him sets before the eyes. B. Ep. 319 As greatly as I rejoiced at receiving the letters of your dilection, so much the more vehemently I was saddened, because I perceived that the work imposed on me by you was of greater solicitude, than I myself was for bearing. For how, I pray, can I, separated by such great spaces of lands, be sufficient for so great and so important a dispensation? As long certainly as the Church shall have possessed you yourselves, it will rest on its own props: but if God shall have disposed anything about your life, who will there be equal to you in dignity, whom thence God may send forth to bear the care and inspection of the Brethren? That which you yourself in your letters desired to understand, rightly indeed and prudently by that very thing

you sought, wishing to know that man, who, you being dead, might take up that select flock of the Lord to be directed; which the blessed Moses not only desired, but even saw. But since the place is great by its celebrity, and your work most renowned among many; but the state of the times is difficult, and needs an exceedingly illustrious governor, on account of the repeated surges, to Innocent asking for a successor and the inundations of the waves rushing upon the Church; I judged it by no means to consist with the safety of my poor soul, to discharge this business negligently; especially since I was mindful of the things which were written by you: namely that you wish to appear before the Lord in judgment against me, and to convict me as guilty of neglected Churches.

[180] Lest therefore I descend into judgment with you, but rather obtain a partner of my defense at the tribunal of Christ; the assembly of the Presbyters, who are constituted throughout this city, being considered, he himself designates one, I have chosen as one to be honored among the first the vessel of the blessed Hermogenes, the genuine offspring of that Hermogenes, who in that great Synod, wrote that formula of faith of the greatest moment and strength; a Presbyter now for many years past ordained in the Church, constant in morals, skilled in the Canons, solid in faith, engaged in the ascetic and continent life even to this very day: so much so that that contented tenor of austere training has plainly consumed his flesh; poor besides, nor possessing any revenues in this world; nay so needy, that not even an abundance of bread is at hand for him; but by the labor of his hands, together with the Brethren who are with him, he hammers out for himself the necessary food. Him it has seemed good to me to send to you; provided that you need a man of this kind, and not rather another of less advanced age, as more accommodated to that matter, namely such a one who can undergo journeys, and perform the necessary functions of daily life. The occasion being offered write back at the first time as quickly as possible; that I may transmit that man to you, chosen by God and fit for the business, adorned with many virtues venerable to be to all who shall meet with him, and in the gentleness of his mind to form the adversaries by the opposite. It had been easy for me to give him immediately on the way: but since you, anticipating me, asked for that man, who indeed is good and dear to me myself, but in many respects inferior to the aforementioned; I wished to lay open to you clearly the opinion of my soul; that, if you need a man of this kind, you send off one of the Brethren, who about the time of fasts may take him up; or make us here more certain, whether you have anyone, who will be sufficient for enduring the difficulties of the ways, to be borne by one about to come to us.

[181] From this epistle besides we learn, that Basil was for the most part wont to send his letters through Clerics, Sending letters only through Clerics, especially if these were to be carried to Bishops: then how paternal a solicitude he bore about his subjects: thirdly, that his Clerics likewise cultivated voluntary poverty, and according to the precept of the Apostle procured for themselves their living by the labor of their hands. But on this account he excuses himself to Eusebius of Samosata, that he wrote to him more rarely, because he had no one who might carry letters, all being impeded by labor. Pardon me, he says, I beg you, if I write epistles more rarely. It was indeed for our interest, that we should send off someone of ours to you, nor yet did we do it: and therefore your prudence rightly expostulates with us, he excuses himself that he writes more rarely, nor without injury did you rebuke us: yet I would wish you to know, that there was so great an inclemency of the winter with us, that all the ways remained blocked up even to Easter; nor did anyone offer himself endowed with so great audacity, who would despise the difficulties of the ways. B. Ep. 263 For however numerous enough a flock we have, yet they are men incomposed for traveling; because they do not exercise commerce, nor would willingly act abroad: but they cultivate for the greatest part sedentary arts, whence they acquire daily living for themselves and their own. all being impeded by labor to carry letters. Nay this very Brother, whom now we send to your piety, called from the field we send off, that he may carry my epistles to your Holiness: that he may both teach you the state of our affairs, and accurately set forth to us in what state yours are engaged there; and that as quickly as it can be done, the divine grace aiding him.

[182] Immunity from tributes granted to Clerics Since therefore so great was the poverty of the Clerics of Caesarea, no one will marvel that so often he wrote to the Prefects of the Province and the exactors of tributes, that they be held free from tributes, especially to Modestus the Prefect of the praetorium: To a man so illustrious, he says, even to have written, although no other cause or occasion of writing be at hand, yet is the greatest thing, and of chief moment for conciliating honor to those, who are endowed with any sense; because to have conferred one's reasons, or to be engaged familiarly with those who before the rest are constituted in a more eminent place, is wont to conciliate the greatest dignity to those, who aspire to higher things. B. Ep. 279 But to me, who labored about the fall and peril of my country, and indeed a universal one, it was necessary to intercede with your greatness of soul. This my intercession therefore I ask, that according to your custom you be willing kindly to admit, and to stretch out a helping hand to our country, prostrate at your knees. But that for the sake of which we now address you, stands in this manner. Those who were consecrated to God through the ministry, he takes care that it be preserved: namely Presbyters and Deacons, the exactors of tributes and census of old suffered to be immune: but those who at present preside over making the registration, as if no pardon had been indulged them in this business, by your illustrious power, have brought all those too into the census tables, unless perhaps some have been excused by age. We ask therefore, that you deposit this monument of your beneficence toward us with us, that for all posterity henceforth, we may keep your illustrious memory; and that, according to the ancient customs and laws, those who serve God in sacred ministries, be left free from payments: lest on account of the favor of those who now are constrained by the necessity of paying, though perhaps otherwise unworthy. this immunity seem to be granted to them only. For thus the favor will be derived also to the successors of these, although they be not even so far worthy of the sacred Orders: but according to the custom observed of old in registration of this kind, a common indulgence and exemption will be extended to all the Clerics: whom everywhere serving sacred things, those to whom the administration and government of the Churches is committed will announce as to be held immune and exempt. This certainly will conciliate to your magnificence immortal glory among the good, and will procure for the Royal family and retinue very many intercessors with God: but it will also bring no slight help to the commonwealth and to the accounts of monies; while not only to the Clerics, but to all those using the afflicted state of affairs, through immunity you bring solace, in what way (as is most known to anyone) we have been affected in the liberty asserted.

[183] To this so illustrious testimony of the ancient custom, of keeping Clerics immune from tributes, Thieves likewise to be punished, who had despoiled a Priest let another be added, by which the zeal of the holy Bishop may appear, in vindicating his Clerics from all injury. When a certain man, whose name is nowhere expressed, who ought to have impeded it, had permitted the goods of a certain Presbyter to be snatched away, he rebuked him in this manner. B. Ep. 390 I marveled, he says, how it came about, that, you being mediator, some dared so great iniquity against a Co-presbyter, that the one means he had of sustaining life, this very one they snatched away: and, what is most grievous, that those who dared to perpetrate this very thing, transferred all the fault to you; whom it behooved by no means so to permit these and such things, that you ought rather by every means to impede them, perpetrated against anyone whatever, much less against Presbyters, and those especially who are concordant with us, and enter upon the same way of religion with us. If therefore you have any care of refreshing us in something, see that as quickly as possible these perpetrations be corrected: for you can, by the grace of God, both amend these and graver than these, if you will. I have written also to the Prefect of my country, that, if of their own accord they be unwilling to observe justice, through the tribunals of the judges, they be compelled to do what is right.

[184] Thus Basil with firm and intrepid mind defended the rights of the Ecclesiastics: He admonishes that it pertains to the Bishop's right but he also wished the jurisdiction altogether uninjured by the secular power; and therefore he wrote in this manner to a certain Commentariensis. Since there have been detected in this present synod some, who perpetrated impious deeds, and against the command of God stole certain cheap garments of the poor, whom it was rather fitting that they should wish clothed with them, than stripped; and the same thieves they detected who presided over the morals and ecclesiastical good order: but you might think that to you and to your cognizance pertains, the things taken from the church and the thieves themselves as one who were with a certain public command, the recovery of these things; I wrote to you letters, by which I make you more certain, that the deeds perpetrated in the churches pertain to our correction and emendation; nor on that account is trouble to be made for the judges. B. Ep. 417 Wherefore the garments sacrilegiously taken away, which the inventory deposited with you contains, the better ones to be returned, and the account in writing entered into about all things present, I have commanded to be received anew: and those indeed I have judged to be kept for those coming hereafter, but these to be handed into the hands of those present; and to lead back the men themselves, whom converted to the information and instruction of the Lord, in the name of God I hope hereafter I shall render better. For the things which the punishments of the tribunals could not effect, those we know the dreadful judgments of God themselves to have sometimes effected, and led to right reason. If it shall please to refer about these things to the Count, so great confidence certainly, both in the equity of the matter itself, and also in the justice of that man, we place, that we permit to your own discretion, to do whatever you will.

[185] Nor with less fortitude did he take care that those things be observed, which for the spiritual good of the Church, He urges the observation of the Canons, and the discipline of the Ecclesiastics had been sanctioned. In this matter Paregorius the Presbyter felt his zeal, who against the Nicene Canon having a sub-introduced woman, when he was compelled by the Chorbishop to dismiss her, had brought the cause by letters to Basil, excusing himself with many things, and among others, that on account of old age (for he was seventy years old) he needed her ministry; but accusing the Chorbishop, as if he wished that little convenience to be taken away from him, on account of the memory of some old enmity. This perhaps could have availed with another: but Basil, setting all things behind public honesty and the sacred Canons, sweetly indeed but at the same time strongly, replied in this manner. B. Ep. 198 I read your letters with great gentleness of mind, against whom the Presbyter having a sub-introduced woman, and I marveled, how you try to remedy incurable things with long discourses; when being able to satisfy us briefly and easily in the very deed, you have resolved to remain in those things of which you are accused. Neither first, nor alone did we sanction, Paregorius, that little women ought not to cohabit with men. Read the Canon constituted by our holy Fathers in the Nicene Synod, which manifestly forbade, that anyone have a sub-introduced little woman: but celibacy has its honesty in this, if one withdraws from the bond of a woman. And so, if anyone, having professed celibacy in name only, in the very deed does those things which are done by the married; it is manifest, that he renders the honesty of virginity by its appellation indeed,

but meanwhile does not desist from the unbefitting pleasure. So much the more easily could you acquiesce in our admonition, the more you affirm that you are free from corporeal affections: he is bidden to dismiss her, for neither do I believe, that a man born seventy years, with affections of this kind cohabits with a little woman; nor on that account have I determined these things, because you have designed anything absurd; but because we have been taught by the Apostle, that no offense or scandal is to be placed before a brother. But we know that it happens, that what by some is rightly done, turns to others into occasion of sin. For this cause, following the constitution of the holy Fathers, we have commanded, that you be separated from the little woman. Why therefore do you accuse the Chorbishop, and make mention of an old enmity? Nay why do you accuse us too, as if we have ears prone to admitting accusations; under penalty of excommunication. and do you not rather reprehend yourself, that you refuse to abstain from the company of the little woman? Cast her therefore out of your house, and hand her over into a monastery: let her be with the virgins, and you minister among the men, lest the name of God be blasphemed on account of you. Until you have done these things, even if you allege innumerable things by epistles, you will effect nothing; but you will die idle, and will give to the Lord an account of your idleness. But if without the correction of yourself you shall have dared to retain the function of the Priesthood, you will be anathema to all the people: and if any shall have received you, throughout the whole Church they will be excommunicated.

[186] It is credible that Paregorius, these letters being received, conformed himself to the most holy Canons. A more difficult disturbance, with greater scandal, was excited by a certain Glycerius a Deacon, which much exercised the longanimity of the holy Prelate. He, when he had moved the indignation of many by his ineptitudes, was compelled to flee to a certain Gregory, a man of great authority and a friend of Basil. He was perhaps Nyssen or Nazianzen, who, that with regard to the common good he might undertake the patronage of that wretched man, tried by letters to entreat Basil: but he wrote back to his intercession an Epistle, in which he narrates the matter most ill done. B. Ep. 412 You have certainly, he says, undertaken a moderate business, sweet, and full of humanity, who have gathered up the captivity of that refractory Glycerius (for thus we still name him); and have covered, as far as it could be done, our common dishonor and reproach. Nevertheless it will be worth the labor, Glycerius the Deacon that your piety not only wipe off this little stain of infamy, but also be taught the series and history of the matter done by him. He therefore, that Glycerius of yours conspicuous for so great gravity and arrogance, had been ordained Deacon of the Church of Venesa by me to this end, that with the Presbyter he should serve him, and be applied to caring for the ecclesiastical affair: for he is a man of morals somewhat unpleasant and absurd, yet not ill framed by nature for the business which is at hand. But after he had been ordained Deacon; who had set himself up as patriarch over some demented virgins, he so much neglected to do his office, as if none at all lay upon him. But having compelled by his own private authority and power some poor little Virgins, partly running up of their own accord (for they are, which by no means escapes you, young girls prone to things of this kind) partly led away even unwilling and resisting, he wished immediately to preside over this flock; and the title and habit of Patriarch being assumed, he began to wax exceedingly insolent: not advanced to it by any direct succession, or induced by zeal for piety; but calling this dignity to himself, as anyone else any other art, to a manner of life and victuals. He certainly came little short of ruining the whole Church, his Presbyter being trodden underfoot, to whom he was attached, a man venerable both for the purpose of his past life, and by his very age; and the Chorbishop being despised, and even myself, filling the city with tumults, as men not to be esteemed worth a trifle, he filled the city itself and the whole sacred order with tumults, disturbances, seditions.

[187] Do you wish me to expedite all things briefly? That he might not be rebuked by me and the Chorbishop with even any the lightest reproof, nor descend entirely into contempt of us (for he exercised also the youths induced to the same contumacy) he devised a deed exceedingly bold and inhuman. the youths being summoned for this For having sacrilegiously plundered as many Virgins as he could, and the opportunity of night being seized, he takes flight. These things I know well seem to you supremely intolerable: but consider also the very time. An assembly at that time of Bishops was being held in that place, and a huge multitude of men, as is wont to happen, had flowed together from everywhere: when this one over against led his own chorus, the youths following as forerunners, and briskly leaping around in dances, and in that immodest spectacle exciting great sadness to all the pious, but to the lascivious and impudent surely profuse laughter. Nor content with these so atrocious things, the parents of the Virgins themselves, publicly leading dances, who bearing ill (as I hear) their bereavement, wished both to gather up again and lead back their scattered daughters, and at their feet with weeping and groaning, as it is right to believe, were poured; this admirable youth, together with the predatory band of robbers, affected with contumelies, and with intolerable ignominy. These things I would wish your piety to consider: for it is the common mockery of us all. But especially command him, that he return with his Virgins: for it will be that he will be dealt with more kindly, if he bring letters from you with him: but if not, send him back, yet at least restore the Virgins to their mother, that is the Church. But if not even this we obtain on every part, at least those who have a mind to return, do not suffer them to be retained by force and as it were oppressed by tyranny applied, he is bidden to be checked and removed from office, but take care that they be led back to us: otherwise I call God and men to witness, that these things are administered by the worst counsel, nor according to the laws and customs of the Church. But Glycerius, if he return with your letters, and with that modesty which is fitting, this indeed rightly; but if he do otherwise, let him be removed from the ministry.

[188] If to Nazianzen or Nyssen this epistle was really sent, therefore I believe it written in a graver style, that it might be exhibited to Glycerius himself, to whom also before he had written, seriously admonishing that he cease so scandalously to rage: by which since he had as yet obtained nothing, he wrote also another to his friend, exhorting him that by every means he lead Glycerius back to saner counsels. Already before I had written to you, he says, about Glycerius and those Virgins. B. Ep. 313 then he pledges to receive him converted. But these have not yet even returned, but weave delays: with what confidence or for what cause, I know not: for neither can I bring myself to think, that this is admitted by you to this end, that it redound to my contumely, either on account of some offense of ours, or for the favor of any others whatever. All fear therefore being laid aside let them come: you offer yourself to them as surety: for we are anguished and saddened being weakened by some members, even if otherwise on account of the evil committed they are cut off: but if they still resist, let it then be the fault of others, we wash our hands. What effect all these things obtained, is nowhere indicated: yet it is clear with how great longanimity and patience the Saint dealt with this insane and wicked man, lest he should drive him into ruin, but rather gain him for God and the Church.

[189] Bishops ordaining simoniacally The zeal with which he himself burned for the Church of God, being zealous to kindle also in the other Bishops of his province; according to the authority of his office handed down to him he admonished them. B. Ep. 76 Let his Epistle especially be a document to us, in which he touches those who simoniacally conferred the sacred Orders. The absurdity of the matter, about which I write, he says, filled my mind indeed with sadness, because it altogether passed into suspicion and grew into a rumor; yet hitherto the matter seemed to me by no means credible. What therefore I write about it, let it be in the place of medicine, if anyone is ill conscious to himself: but to him who is conscious to himself of none of this, let it be in the stead of an amulet, by which he may fortify himself against the vice: but if anyone bears this matter up and down, which I would not wish detected in you, let it be to him for a protestation. But what is it that I say? Certain of you are reported to receive money from those who are ordained, and that (which is worse) to palliate it by the name of piety. For doubly to be punished he comes, he argues, setting forth the enormity of the sin; who under the pretext of good does that which is evil, both because he works that which is not good; and because, to accomplish the sin, he uses, as it is said, good as a fellow-worker. If these things are so, hereafter let them not be done, but let them be amended: otherwise of necessity it will be said to the receiver of monies, that which was said by the Apostles to him who wished to give money, that he might buy the communion of the Holy Spirit, namely, Your silver be with you unto perdition. For he sinned more lightly, who wished to buy for the sake of experience; than he who now sells the gift of God. For a selling has been made: and if, what you received for nothing, you shall sell; as one sold to Satan, you will be deprived of the grace of God. For after the manner of a peddler you bring gain into spiritual things and into the Church, where we have the body and blood of Christ entrusted to us. These things in this manner ought not to be done. But what here is the imposture I will say. They think they offend in nothing, because they receive money not before, but after the imposition of hands. But to receive money is, whenever it be done. I exhort therefore, that you decline this gain, nay this passage to gehenna; nor polluting your hands with such lucre, constitute yourselves unworthy to handle the holy mysteries. But pardon me. and rejecting the inept opinion about simony. First indeed I gave no faith to that rumor: but afterward as if persuaded I threaten. If anyone after this my epistle shall have designed any such thing, he will have nothing in common with our altars here, but will seek where he may sell again the gift of God bought up: for neither we nor the Churches of God have such a custom. I will cease, if I shall have added still one thing. On account of avarice these things are done: but avarice is the root of all evils, and is called idolatry. Be unwilling therefore for the sake of a little money to prefer idols to Christ; nor following Judas, he threatens deposition to offenders. for the sake of gain to betray a second time him who once was affixed to the cross for us: otherwise both the very fields, and the hands of those who reap these fruits, will be called Aceldama:

[190] Another epistle the torpor of a certain Bishop

Basil rebukes, He admonishes the Bishop of his office. and bids the rape of a virgin be punished with excommunication. B. Ep. 244 I grieve indeed greatly, he says, that I understand you by no means bear unlawful things indignly, nor repeat and recollect, that this very rape and contumely against men of free condition, offends against human life and condition, and beyond right and divine law is a certain tyrannical violence. For I know certainly, that if you were all of this mind and affected in this manner, nothing would have prohibited, but that long ago the custom of this wickedness would be exiled from our country. that he take care to restore the ravished Virgin to her parents Show therefore at present a Christian zeal, and be moved as the injury demands; and the girl, in whatever place at last she be found, snatched from the ravisher restore to her parents: but exclude him from your prayers, and as if by the voice of a herald proclaim him rejected: and those who were partakers and companions to him, according to what we already before announced, together with all their families for three years cast out and exclude from prayers: but the villa which shall have received that man, [and that he check the ravisher and those adhering to him by Ecclesiastical censures.] or even shall have protected him against those demanding him back, hold altogether suspended from prayers and from the communion of prayer; that all may learn, no otherwise than a serpent or any other venomous beast, to hate the ravisher, and to persecute that common enemy of all, and to help those affected with injury.

[191] Another time questioned by a certain Bishop, what is to be done with a versatile and crafty man, and one perjuring in trials, yet so that he could not be convicted, he replied in this manner: against one perjuring in trial It is most difficult and full of peril to have any business with this man: for the disposition of this versatile and crafty one can be of no use, and concerning which (as we detect from the things which are openly seen) it is altogether despaired of. B. Ep. 26 Cited he runs into the trial, and when he has flown to the matter at hand, he is strong with such abundance of speaking, oaths are so easy for him, that we think it goes well with us, if we are freed from him as quickly as possible. Nay I have not rarely noticed him turning back the accusers. To say it in a word, there is not among all the natures of things as many as occupy this earth, any so various and versatile and agile to wickedness, as that man is; and even one who has lightly experienced it will understand. he advises that he be excommunicated. But why do you ask my opinion, and do not rather bring yourselves to this, that you experience his injuries, no otherwise than divine wrath sent in upon you. But that you be not befouled from the society of his impieties, let him with all his family be separated from prayers and from the communion of all sacred things, until, declined by all, he return to a better fruit.

[192] But not only the suffragan Bishops, but also others, sought from his wisdom erudition, from his prudence counsel. This the epistles testify to Amphilochius Bishop of Iconium, A synopsis of his virtues. to Optimius of Antioch in Pisidia, to the Church of Sosopolis, and to very many others; by whom, no otherwise than a certain oracle of his time, he was heard. Furthermore his virtues, which conciliated to him so great authority and estimation among all, are enumerated by Nyssen in this order; Love and vehement zeal toward the faith, hatred against those spurning and reprobating it, dilection toward God; zeal and desire of him who truly and in very deed is, flowing out and bending to no material thing; a life through all things exact and exquisite, dry in victuals, the sharpness of the eyes and gaze equal to the vigor of the soul, gravity not affected, silence more efficacious than speech, care and contemplation of those things which are hoped, contempt of those which are seen; equality toward all, for whether one were perchance constituted in an excellent dignity, or appeared to be of the humble and abject, he received him with the same regard, and held him in the same honor. Or. F.

CHAPTER XVI.

Charity toward the Religious, a Hospice built.

[193] This among the rest makes especially for the praise of Basil, Basil accused on account of his affection toward the Religious that, raised to the Episcopate, amid manifold cares he by no means let go the love of the Religious life; which before, performing the office of Presbyter, he had fostered by daily exercises: and for this cause he embraced all the Religious or Monks with most tender love; that, as he had been their Founder before the Episcopate, of them in the Episcopate he might show himself the Father. About this matter, as about a crime, he was openly accused by the adversaries; God permitting it, that from the holy man's own reply to this calumny, there might be left to posterity a testimony, with how great desire he himself desired the religious life, and with what affection he pursued those cultivating it: We are accused, he says, that we have men Monks, zealous for piety, who have renounced the world, and all the cares of this age; which the Lord compares to thorns, impeding the fertility of the word. B. Ep. 63 Those who are of this kind, carry about the mortification of Jesus in their body; and each, having taken up his cross, follow God. But I would spend my whole life, that these faults could be charged upon me; and I would have with me men, who under me as teacher had hitherto embraced this zeal of piety. But now in Egypt indeed I hear there is such virtue of certain men; he counts this to his praise. and perhaps in Palestine too there are, who render the conversation of their life perfect according to the norm of the Gospel. I hear also that in Mesopotamia there are men perfect and blessed. But we, compared to the perfect, are boys. But there are also women, who have embraced the evangelical life; who prefer virginity to marriage, but subject the sense of the flesh to servitude; and lingering in blessed mourning, are blessed of purpose, wherever in the world they live: but with us these things, who are still instructed and initiated to piety in the first elements, are minute and rude: but if any of the women bring any dishonor and unworthiness to the life and state, there is no reason why I should wish to defend them: but this I assert and confirm to you, that what hitherto the father of lies Satan has not dared to say, that rash hearts and mouths held by no bridle of moderation, unceasingly and with the utmost license, speak. But I wish you to know, that we wish to be given to us assemblies both of men and of women, whose conversation is in heaven, who have crucified their flesh with the affections and concupiscences, and who are solicitous neither about foods nor about garments, but immovable and assiduous with the Lord linger night and day in prayers; whose mouth speaks not the works of men, but chants a hymn to our God; and who sedulously work with their own hands, that they may be able to impart to those who have need.

[194] Among those whom he had as Monks, was Heraclides; in whose name he wrote to Amphilochius, with whom he had resolved to seek solitude: but when he had come to the Saint to communicate some matter, he was detained by him, that he might be instructed in the monastic life. B. Ep. 392 There can besides be numbered among the Monks of Basil Festus and Magnus, about whom how paternal a care he had, writing to them he himself declares: Festus and Magnus Monks Parents indeed, he says, are befitted by care of their children, and farmers by zeal for plants and seeds; teachers too by solicitude for disciples, especially when by the dexterity of their genius, they give the best hope of themselves. B. Ep. 210 For the farmer himself in his labors rejoices in the swelling ears and the growing shoots: but disciples gladden their teachers, and children their parents; these indeed growing in virtue, those in doctrine. But we have so much greater care about you, and so much better hope, the more piety is on every part more excellent than all living things together with fruits: which piety, planted root and all in your tender and still pure minds and educed by me, we wish to see advanced to the perfect age and ripe fruits; your desire of learning meanwhile aided by our prayers and wishes. For you have well known both our benevolence toward you, and that God's help is in your geniuses, he animates to virtue: which when they need directing God called to aid, and uncalled, is present; but everyone who loves God, is of himself propense to the discipline of letters: but insatiable is the desire of those, who can teach something useful, provided the minds of the learners be free from all vice of contradicting. Not therefore does the separation of the body impede, but that it form you to the excellence of wisdom and humanity, not circumscribing the mind by the very bounds of the body, nor terminating the faculty of conversing by the tongue; but it gives something more than those who can profit on the spot, since it is able to transmit knowledge not only to those separated by a long interval, but also to those afterward to be brought into the light. But the experiment confirms to us the truth of this matter, when those now advanced in age instruct youths in letters with sound doctrine. We, separated by so great a space in bodies, are always in mind with you, and easily confer about doctrine, which can be contained neither by land nor by sea, if you have care of your own souls.

[195] But since he writes these things as to absent persons, it is necessary that Festus and Magnus, at least when this epistle was written, led the monastic life in Pontus or elsewhere outside Caesarea. For although in his own city he had with him the fellowship of Monks, nonetheless he also watched over other monasteries round about; and that pious dwelling-place, though too narrow, could so not satiate his desire, but that with huge ardor of soul he desired to visit the Pontic solitude, and to delight himself with the society of the Monks living there. God can, says the Saint, even grant us that pleasantness of mind, which comes from mutual meeting and living together, he desires to be present to the absent; who always desire both to see you, and to hear about your affairs; because in no other thing have we recreation of mind, than in your progress and the complete observance of the precepts of Christ. B. Ep. 73 But meanwhile, while this is denied, we judge it necessary, that through most dear and God-fearing Brethren we visit you, and through letters address your dilection… For night and day we pray the Lord, that you may be held approved; that both there may be confidence to us in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ through your salvation, and you may be clear in the splendor of the Saints, and our work be approved by the just judgment of God.

[196] Another indication of his benevolence toward the Religious was, that he gathered into one as many Solitaries as he could, He gathers the Solitaries into cenobia, and persuaded them to cultivate the cenobitic life: for, far and not undeservedly preferring this to the solitary, he says to them. B. Ep. 295 I think, you have no need by the grace of God of consolation or admonition, after those discourses which I myself in person had with you, in which I especially suggested this, that you should institute a common life, tending to the same end, in

imitation of the Apostolic institute: which very thing, having embraced as the best doctrine, you therefore gave thanks to God. Wherefore since they were not mere words uttered, but precepts to issue into work, prepared indeed for your utility, who were to undertake them; but for our consolation, who had suggested the same counsel to you; and furthermore for the praise and glory of Christ, whose name is invoked over us; I have sent our most longed-for Brother, and he busies himself for the progress of each, that, keeping watch in the spirit, he may explore, and make known to us, but spur on the slow, and designate to us the resisting; that so we may be made more certain about you, that you do not love a life without witnesses; but rather each of you desire both to become guardians of another's diligence, and witnesses of things excellently done. For thus it will be, that all receive their own proper reward consummated in all numbers, and besides that one owed on account of the progress of the Brethren, from the words and deeds, which we owe to exhibit one to another, in daily meeting and consolation.

[197] From the same affection it proceeded, that he exulted in mind, if anyone, the world being left, entered a monastery; as he himself testifies to the Superior of a certain monastery, perhaps Peter his brother, writing in these words. B. Ep. 238 To this Brother indeed I congratulate his felicity, he congratulates also those received there, who is both freed from these tumults of ours, and has obtained your piety as patroness. He has certainly chosen for himself an honest conversation with those who fear the Lord, the best provision for the way to that future age. But I commend him to your dignity. Indicating also his own desire of a quieter life Basil; thus continues. I beg also through him you and beseech, that you aid my miserable life by your prayers: that, taken out from these temptations, I may become worthy to serve the Lord according to the prescript of the Gospel. With all care too Basil provided, that the immunities granted to Monks remain inviolate. Hence writing to the Assessor: With your dignity, he says, I think even now the constitution holds, published in favor of Monks, and protects their immunities. so that there is no need for me to ask a private favor for them, to be indulged for my cause; but I command them to enjoy and be content with the common, and benignity diffused to all. B. Ep. 304 Yet since I think it pertains to the account of my office, that as far as is placed in me, I watch over the care of these men; to your prudence I send these letters, about to supplicate, that you be willing, command that those be immune from all contribution, who once indeed renounced the world, but mortified their body; so that now they can add nothing either of their family substance, or of corporeal ministries and labors, to the public revenues, or pay into the treasury. For if indeed they have lived according to their profession, they possess neither wealth, nor bodies: since they have sent away the former from themselves to the uses of the needy and the poor, but the latter they have utterly worn out by vigils and continual prayer. But I know with what reverence you pursue those, who institute their life in this manner, about to acquire for yourself helpers, who by their evangelical conversation render the Lord propitious and benignant to you.

[198] From the same laudable affection toward the religious life, he extended his paternal solicitude also to the monasteries of Virgins. Orat. 20 Whose are, says Nazianzen, the cenobia of Virgins? whose those precepts committed to letters? he bears care also of the sacred Virgins, By these he both restrained all the senses, and composed all the members, and admonished to cultivate virginity truly; converting beauty from those things, which are perceived by sight, to those which flee the gaze of the eyes; and weakening indeed that which is external, and withdrawing material from the flame; but offering that which is internal and hidden to be beheld by God, who alone is the spouse of pure souls, and leads in with him sleepless souls, if only with bright lamps and copious nourishment of oil we go forth to meet him. Then he also instructed those, who had consecrated their virginity to God outside the monasteries; of whom one seems to have been Theodora the Canoness, whom about the virtues befitting her state he teaches many things in few words: One thing, he says, deeply rests in my mind, to one of whom, Theodora, to keep the memory of your reverence, and with all wishes to ask from God the consummation of your course, and of that good purpose to which you pant. B. Ep. 302 For it is of no slight struggle, to perfect in work what one has begun, and to answer in act to one's promises something professed. It belongs not to anyone to choose an institute of living according to the evangelical rule, and in the least and most minute things to observe it rigidly, nor to pass over any of those things which are there written. This, as far as I can recollect in memory, very few have performed by the very effect: so as to be able both to speak with a tongue instructed, and to see with eyes formed from the Gospel, according to the will of God; and so to work with their hands, as the purpose of pleasing God demands: to move also the feet so, and so to compose any member, as the Creator from the beginning had disposed; to observe also modesty in dress, he sets forth the virtue of meeting suited to her state. in the meetings of the living to be engaged cautiously and guardedly; in victuals to seek only what suffices; in the account of possessed things, to set above what is superfluous and empty. All these things, simply and considered in themselves, are slight; but there is need of great struggle, that you attain an excellent grade in observing these, which I have truly experienced. But there is also a perfection of humility, not to remember the renown of ancestors, not to be lifted up if any excellent gift has befallen us, according to body or soul; not to snatch the opinion of men about us, for an occasion of inflating vanity or proud elation. All these things regard the profession of the evangelical life; and also the vigor of continence, the fervor and sedulity of prayer, the compassion of fraternal charity, the communication of useful things to the needy, the dejection of mind and spirit, the compunction and tribulation of heart, the soundness of the orthodox faith; in austerity equableness, the perpetual memory of that dreadful and inescapable tribunal, to which all we hasten, of standing at some time: but few seriously think about it and labor about the success, which they are going to find before it.

[199] From the Religious, who pursue voluntary poverty, I pass to those who are such by necessity; of whom Basil by charity and solicitude, as especially became a Bishop, He builds a Hospice for the poor was father and tutor. Besides the mercy, repeatedly exhibited in the time of famine, about which we treated before; he left not only an excellent monument of his liberality toward the poor, but also of his munificence; namely a house destined for receiving sojourners, the sick, lepers, and others needing help. Orat. 20 This Nazianzen describes, and greatly praises, showing equally how providently he provided for it all things necessary, Basil, and how lovingly he embraced those turning aside thither, especially lepers, all nausea and horror being set aside, with which those laboring with a disease of this kind are wont to burden those engaged with them. A beautiful thing is, says Nazianzen, benignity and zeal of feeding the poor, and to bring help to human infirmity. Step a little outside the city, and behold a new city; that, I say, storehouse of piety, the common treasury of the wealthy; into which not only redundant and superfluous wealth, but necessary faculties too on account of his exhortations are stored away, which neither feed moths, to be preferred to the seven wonders of the world, nor delight thieves, escaping the contest of envy and the corruption of time. There disease is borne with an even mind, there calamity is reckoned blessed, and mercy is tested. What shall I compare to this work Thebes, whether the Greek with seven, or the Egyptian furnished with a hundred gates? What shall I commemorate those Babylonian walls and the Carian sepulcher of Mausolus, and the pyramids, and the immense bronze of the Colossus, and shrines of marvelous magnitude and elegance, now overturned and laid low, and all the other things, which men admire, and have handed down in histories; and whence besides a certain vain and slight glory, no utility at all returned to their builders? To me no thing seems so admirable, as this compendious way to salvation, and easy ascent into heaven. There is set before our eyes a sad and pitiable spectacle, where also lepers are received, men dead before death, and prematurely dead in several members of the body; expelled from cities, houses, the forum, waters, even by men most dear to them; to be recognized rather by names than by the lineaments of their bodies; who are neither in public assemblies and meetings, carried through fellowships and companies, because now they excite not mercy on account of the disease, but hatred of themselves, utterers of miserable dirges, if however to any of them the very voice also remains: all which why should I pursue in tragic words, since no discourse can be found equal to this calamity?

[200] But he above all persuaded us, that since we are men, we should not despise men; to whom he himself ministering nor through our cruelty toward them, affect Christ the one head of all with ignominy: but in others' calamities, take counsel best for ourselves, and lend to God the mercy, which we ourselves have exercised. Wherefore not even his lips did the man, noble, and sprung from nobles and most illustrious in glory, find it grievous to apply to the sick, but he embraced them as brothers; not, as someone perhaps may think, hunting empty glory (for who more remote from this affection?) but through his philosophy prescribing this to his own, that they should not fear to approach to the cure of sick bodies. Thus, not only by speaking, but also by being silent, he performed the parts of a monitor. But perhaps in the city indeed it was done in this manner, but through the diocese and external places not so. Nay to all the Prelates of the people he set forth a common contest of benignity and munificence toward the poor. with the highest humility; To others were cares, cooks, and sumptuous tables, and the allurements of confectioners, and elegant chariots, and soft and flowing garments; but to Basil, the sick and wounded, and the imitation of Christ about these things; not by speech, but by deed purging leprosy. What to these will those say to us, who object to the man arrogance and a haughty brow, surely iniquitous and bitter judges of matters of this kind, and applying the rule to those who are not under the rule? Can it be, that he who kisses lepers and so far lets himself down, against the sound and strong raises a haughty brow? who consumes his flesh by continence and abstinence, is inflated with empty arrogance of mind? who condemns the Pharisee, and commemorates his depression from arrogance, and knows that Christ let himself down even to the form of a servant, and ate with publicans, and washed the feet of his disciples, nor refused the cross, that he might affix my sin; the same yet raises himself above the clouds, and sets himself before all?

[201] But not undeservedly did Nazianzen compare that building to a city, he cares also for the other necessities since it comprehended all those things, which Basil enumerates; We set up, he says, receptacles for sojourners, who hither as it may perchance happen shall have arrived; and besides these for the use of those, who need cure on account of infirmities

procuring for these the necessary solace. B. Ep. 372 We ought to have at hand hospital-attendants, physicians, bearers, guides, and the other workmen, both those who are absolutely required for life, and also those who are desired for a more honest manner of living; nay also besides other buildings, required for the works to be done. So great a charity of Basil contained itself not in the works of corporeal mercy alone; also spiritual: but this was especially his care, that he should rather often visit those staying in that house, and direct the conveniences spent on bodies to the cure and spiritual nourishment of souls, as Nyssen excellently noticed, comparing that building to the Tabernacle, of old erected by Moses by divine command. Or. F. A kind of Tabernacle of testimony, he says, and indeed corporeally in the suburb he constructed, making the poor in body, to be poor in spirit, through good doctrine; so that their poverty on account of blessedness was memorable, as conciliating the gift and grace of the true kingdom.

[202] At what time Basil began and completed so great a work, and at whose expense, it is difficult to say. About the time indeed it could be affirmed, that in the year 370 it began to be built: for it seems to have begun immediately after the Episcopate was undertaken: and Euippius, coming into Cappadocia with other Arian Bishops in the same year, took from the construction of such buildings material B. Ep. 39 of accusing him before the Prefect of the province. Then Heraclides, of whom we made mention above, in the year 372, as we shall see below, came to Caesarea, exhorting all to contribute Alms, to be instructed in the religious life by Basil, and received lodging in his Hospice. Made a neighbor, he says, to Caesarea, that I might understand the state of affairs there, not daring to approach the city, I betook myself to the nearest Almshouse, that I might at least be made more certain about the things, which I was eager to understand. But that the now poor Basil might suffice for making so great expenses, it is credible, that the rich and the ecclesiastics were roused by pious exhortations, by which he busied himself to stimulate them, to give out alms in aid of the poor. For all these, but especially those who had resolved to follow Christ, saying, Go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor, exhorting to more perfect things, he besides added; that it was not fitting, that one reserve to himself the distribution of his own faculties; but that those parts be assigned to him, to whom the care and dispensation of the poor is entrusted. B. Ep. 392 This very thing he confirmed from the Apostolic Acts, where the Christians, the things which they possessed being sold, laid the price of all at the feet of the Apostles, by whom it was distributed to each, as he had had need. For he said, there was need of great experience, for discerning the truly needy, and those begging from avarice. He who has given to the afflicted and straitened, Valens himself too conferring fields for the Hospital, gives to the Lord, and from the Lord will receive his reward: but he who has given to one wandering abroad, plainly casts the benefit to dogs, intolerable on account of their impudence, nor on account of poverty worthy of mercy. The divine providence too labored with Basil, suffering nothing to be lacking to those seeking the Lord: by whose disposition it seems to have happened, that the Emperor Valens himself granted him no moderate fields, which he applied to that work, beautifully joining magnificence and zeal for poverty. For although in public buildings, namely churches and hospitals to be built and founded, founded and named by Basil. he seems so profuse, that he suffered nothing to be lacking to them either for ornament or for convenience; yet from acquiring private conveniences and wealth he was so alien, that he so established about voluntary poverty, that its highest account consisted in this, that each reduce his possession to the last little tunic. B. Ep. 392 But for the rest this house, destined for so pious a use, took its name from its own founder, as Sozomen affirms, who about the middle of the following century thus wrote about Prapidius, a Chorbishop of noted sanctity: Prapidius, who now, although very advanced in years, performs the Episcopal office in many villages, presides also over a dwelling of the poor, whose name is the Basilias, that most celebrated one, built by Basil the Bishop of Caesarea of Cappadocia, from whom it both at the beginning received the name, and still retains it. bk. 6, ch. 34.

CHAPTER XVII.

The machinations of Euippius and the Arian Bishops, and of Modestus, against Basil.

[203] Meanwhile while Basil is raised to the Episcopal throne, and seated on it faithfully administers the Episcopate, Euippius and other Arian Bishops, busying himself for the peace of the Churches, the bringing back of heretics, ecclesiastical discipline, and the pious instruction of the faithful, that he might obtain the reward promised to the good and faithful servant; at the same time he obtained an excellent occasion, that by suffering persecution for the sake of justice, he might make the kingdom of heaven his own. For while he exhorts Damasus, Athanasius, and other chief Prelates, that they succor the disturbed affairs of the Eastern Churches; the Arians moved every stone, that into his Church, the proper Bishop being ejected, they might introduce a follower of their heresy. There was among them Euippius, a Bishop of advanced age, who was strong with great faculty of speaking, and for many years had cultivated friendship with Basil: but after he defected to the doctrine of the Arians, and with them in the Synod of Constantinople condemned the Semiarians, struck in turn by them with anathema; Basil had withdrawn from his communion. B. Ep. 57. 72, 265 He therefore in the year 370 came to Caesarea, as a forerunner of the Arians, about perhaps to invade the Episcopal See, by the work of certain Bishops from Armenia, Tetrapolis, and Cilicia, agreeing with him. But all these contrived nothing openly against Basil: they seem only to have accused him before Elias the Prefect of the province, under the appearance of the public good: they accuse Basil before the Prefect; as if indeed he contravened this by building buildings, necessary for his Church and Hospital. This calumny the Saint, who detained by disease could not approach the Prefect, tried to refute by letters, in which he also narrates the series of the matter done. B. Ep. 371

[204] I went out, he says, to salute your Dignity: lest if perchance I should not attain it, I should succumb to my accusers. But when the infirm health of my body, rushing on more vehemently than usual, did not suffer me to be present, I was compelled to take refuge in an epistle. I therefore, when long ago, excellent Man, I was engaged with your Dignity, wished certainly to set forth the accounts of my whole life to your wisdom: I wished also to treat about the condition of the Churches, lest a field be hereafter opened to calumnies. Yet I repressed myself, and thought it altogether superfluous, and beyond what was fitting ambitious, to expose a man, burdened more than enough with so many businesses, who by letters excuses himself to him, from time to time to new cares, and not altogether necessary ones: nay further I even feared (for I will say what the matter is) lest perhaps we should be driven, even unwilling, to wound souls mutually, by the contradictions of altercations; whereas in pure and sincere piety according to God, the perfect reward of your religion was to be rendered to you. For so it is: if we should render you wholly of our party, scarcely is there room for us to leave you space for undergoing public business: and we should certainly perform a matter not unlike, as if a freight-ship lately compacted, which scarcely through a more violent tempest the shipmaster, sitting at the helm, directs aright, we should besides overload with new burdens; when much rather should be subtracted of the cargo, and by every means the ship lightened. Hence it has happened, I think, that that great King, having perceived those cares of ours, suffers us to administer the Churches, in what manner we ourselves wish.

[205] But I would most gladly ask those, who are wont to dull your sincere ears, causing no loss to the Commonwealth what detriment is created to the commonwealth by us? In what great matter has our least dispensation at last in the Churches affected the commonwealth with loss? Unless perhaps it be said, that it is by no means for the public interest, to build a house of prayer as magnificently as possible from the foundations to our God, and then nearby to build a free and private habitation for the Bishop, but for those serving God their lower houses distributed, as reason and order demand, of which the use and utility may be common to you Prefects and to your household. What evil do we perpetrate, by building pious buildings, while we set up receptacles for sojourners, who hither (as it may perchance happen) shall have arrived; and besides these, for the use of those who need cure on account of their infirmities? Those who procure the necessary solace for these, hospital-attendants, physicians, bearers, guides, and the other ministers ought to have at hand, both the things which are desired for leading life, and also those for leading it more honestly; to the Prefect for praise, nay also besides other buildings, required for the works to be done. All these things will be to the place itself for ornament, and to the Prefect of the place for honor: as one to whom the praise thence flowing is to be ascribed. Nor do you seem to have been brought to administer this city of ours, as one who through the loftiness of your mind alone could both restore works collapsed by age, about to be to the city for utility: and fill deserted places with colonists, or transform solitudes into cities. Was it therefore fitting to drive away and assail with reproaches him, who has applied helping hands? and not rather to honor and embrace him? Nor think that I give you mere words, best man. The work is fervent, material is brought together. And let these things for defense, to you, as Prefect, suffice. But the things which, as to a Christian and friend, having care and account of me, were to be returned against the suspicions and reprehensions of enemies, I necessarily cover at present in silence, he admonishes that the accuser being heard, because I have already exceeded the measure of an epistle, nor can those things safely be committed to inanimate letters. Yet lest through that time, in which I shall not yet have met you, you be perhaps carried crosswise by the calumnies of enemies, and be compelled to remit something of your benevolence toward me; do what they narrate Alexander did. For when one of his friends was accused before him; he is said to have offered one ear to the accuser, and with a finger applied to have diligently closed the other. By this namely he wished to indicate, he keep the other ear for the accused. that a just judge ought not, forestalled by the accusation, to be carried to a side, but to reserve the half part of his hearing, untouched and entire, for receiving the apology of the absent, but accused. When Basil had written these things to the Prefect, and perhaps on occasion had dealt with him in person, he seemed to have given satisfaction, nor did he suffer any further inconvenience.

[206] But these were small, and only the preludes of what followed. The Emperor Valens comes from Constantinople to Nicomedia, For before Euippius came to Caesarea, the Arian Emperor Valens, peace with the barbarians being confirmed after a three-year war, since he thought that nothing further could resist him; and inflamed both by his own fury and by the instinct of the Arians, resolved either to expel all the Bishops from their Sees, or to lead them over to the Arian impiety. Ammian. Marc. lib. 27 cap. 5 So great a crime therefore being conceived, he departs from Constantinople in the year 370, after the dedication of the Martyrium of the Apostles was performed, which was done on the ninth of the month of April, about to set out for Antioch. Yet when he had come to Nicomedia, he was compelled to stop, on account of the disturbances excited at Constantinople after the death of Eudoxius, through the Ordination of two

Bishops, Demophilus the Arian and Evagrius the Orthodox. Idatius. For when he understood this one ordained by Eustathius, he ordered the soldiers to fly to Constantinople, to keep the city in its duty: thence to Antioch. but Evagrius and Eustathius, who had ordained with him, he commanded to be cast into exile. These things at more length Socrates: then the rest of the year Valens passed in the East, moving a lamentable persecution against the Churches, which pathetically described Nazianzen here exhibits in words. bk. 4, ch. 13, Orat. 20 But indeed the Emperor enemy of Christ and tyrant of the faith, and again to Caesarea with greater impiety, and a more fervent battle-line, as if about to have to do with a stronger adversary, came to us again (for he had come before under the Episcopate of Eusebius, Basil being still in the Order of Presbyters) after the manner of that impure and depraved spirit, which, driven from a man's body, and having long wandered, returns to dwell again in the same with a greater band of spirits, just as is had in the Gospel. Of him namely he showed himself a disciple, with much apparatus for terror, both that he might repair the defeat before received, and that he might add something to his former contests. For he thought it unworthy and miserable, when he held many nations under his command, and had obtained great glory, and had subdued all his neighbors by the strength and power of his impiety, and had subjected to his dominion whatever he had encountered; to be overcome by one man and one city; and to be a laughingstock not only to the patrons of impiety, by whom he was led; but even to all mortals, as his opinion bore.

[207] The King of the Persians indeed they narrate, when leading once with him an infinite multitude of men, and fervent with anger and audacity, he made an expedition into Greece, was not only on that account lifted up with pride, and immoderate in threats; but, that he might strike greater terror into all, by those things too which he designed in a new and unusual manner against the elements, rendered himself formidable. like another Xerxes; A new land, and a new sea was heard of from that new artificer, and an army sailing on the continent, and again traversing the sea on foot; islands likewise snatched away, and the sea beaten with stripes, and all the other things, which were the undoubted proofs of a frenzied army and leader; to the more cowardly indeed formidable, but to the braver and those endowed with a firmer mind foolish and ridiculous. But this one indeed had no need of any thing of this kind, when he prepared war against us; but what was worse and more pernicious than these, this he was reported both to do and to say. He set his mouth in heaven, and blasphemous against God speaking blasphemy against the Most High, and his tongue passed over into the earth. For beautifully David transfixed him before us, him, I say, who strove to incline heaven to earth, and to force the nature more sublime than the world into the number of created things; which not even any created thing can contain, although for the love of us it was for a while engaged with us, that it might draw us, lying on the ground, to itself. Furthermore although his first deeds were illustrious, yet more illustrious were those contests, which last he had against us. But which do I call the first? Exiles, flights, proscriptions of goods, snares both open and obscure; the allurements of discourses, where occasion offered itself; force, where there was no place for the blandishments of words. Some were thrust out from the Churches, variously he rages against the Orthodox namely those who professed the orthodox and our faith: others were introduced, namely those who held the pestiferous and deadly doctrine of the Emperor, who exacted the signatures of impiety, who prescribed things still graver than these, and exercised marine burnings of Presbyters; impious leaders of war, who did not overcome the Persians, did not reduce the Scythians into their power, did not cleanse some other barbarous nation; but waged war against the Churches, leaping about on the altars, and contaminating the unbloody sacrifices with the blood of men and victims, and affecting the modesty of virgins with reproach. And that for what cause at last? Namely that Jacob the Patriarch might be expelled, and that Esau be substituted for him, held in hatred even before he came forth into the light. You have the history of his first deeds, of which the bare commemoration too and hearing moves even now tears in many.

[208] It moved them indeed in Basil, who was not yet Bishop, when Valens departed from Constantinople; Basil praises the constancy of the Chalcidians but while he stayed in the East, he attained that dignity: it moved likewise tears in the people of Caesarea, as Basil testifies, replying somewhat after this time elapsed to the letters of the Chalcidians, who having suffered many things from the Arians, yet persisted strong in the faith, and exhorted the Church of Caesarea to the same constancy. B. Ep. 297 But to them Basil partly condoles, partly congratulates, and extols their virtue. Your piety's letters, he says, befell me no otherwise, offered in my hardest times, than water poured on the mouths of running horses is wont sometimes to bring refreshment, from whose letters he received great consolation while through the midday heats they draw in the dust with frequent panting in the midst of the stadium. For I breathed again from the continued temptation, and was both confirmed by your words, and by the memory of your contests rendered more brisk to the contest set forth, to be undergone without any fatigue. That conflagration certainly, which deformed most of the Eastern parts, even now creeps to our regions; and after it has consumed all around, it busies itself to involve the Churches throughout Cappadocia, which to this day, only the smoke brought from neighbors has moved to tears. It remains, that it try hereafter to lay hold of us too, whom may the Lord turn away by the spirit of his mouth, and divide the flame of this wicked conflagration. For who is so witless and pusillanimous? and the rest were animated to imitation, who to athletic labors so slothful, who is not kindled by your acclamations to the contest, and does not greatly wish to be declared to be crowned with you? For surely as if suffering in anticipation, prepared for the contest of piety, and you stand on guard, and you eluded not a few assaults of the heretical wrestlers, and underwent many ardors of temptations, not only you the coryphaei of the Church, to whom the care of the altar is entrusted; but also of the people individually all the chief. For this in you is especially admirable, and to be embraced with open arms, that all in the Lord you are one; these indeed standard-bearers and leaders to the good, but those pursuing with unanimous consent. For this cause, you stood superior to the attempts of your adversaries, exhibiting to your enemies no handle whatever from any part. Wherefore we pour forth prayers night and day to that King of the ages, that he keep the People in integrity of faith, protect the Clergy for himself, as an entire head, which constituted at the summit of the body, communicates its providence to the subject members.

[209] Valens threatening the people of Caesarea, But for the rest when Valens, all the towns being traversed, had betaken himself to this firm and unoffended mother of the Churches Caesarea, that he might extinguish also that vital little spark of truth, which alone remained, then first he perceived that he had entered upon evil counsel. For as an arrow, falling on a harder and more solid body, is repelled and broken; so he, dashed against such a Prelate of the Church as against a rock, broke and dissolved himself. Orat. 20 And other things indeed it is permitted to receive from the discourse and commemoration of those, who then made trial of the peril: but there is no one, who does not hold at least these things by memory. But they before the rest are affected with admiration, to whom the contests of that time were more nearly known, the assaults, the promises, the threats; those who from the class of judges were sent to him, and tried to bend and move him; those from the military order; those from the gynaeceum, among women men, and among men women, having nothing virile except impiety, who since they cannot in a natural manner give work to lust, the one thing they can they play the whore with the tongue. About this his temptation Basil himself thus writes to Eustathius of Sebaste, before he had the frauds of the crafty heretic perceived: B. Ep. 308 Let your admirable piety understand, he says, that to this day there have been great and troublesome contests for me, with the chief of those who are in command: and among them the Prefect of the Praetorium and of the royal Bedchamber, and through Modestus the Prefect of the Praetorium. from their own private affections dealt with me, for the adversaries. For through the divine mercy know that I unmoved have borne all the assaults, God supplying me the aid of his Spirit, and strengthening my infirmity through the same Spirit.

[210] The Prefect of the Praetorium, of whom here it is treated, St. Ephrem with Nyssen calls Modestus, saying about the great Basil, He broke the madness of the Prefect Modestus. Orat. on Basil. He is thought to have succeeded Auxonius in the Prefecture of the Praetorium about the year 370. Gothofred Cod. tom. 4 But he had been under the reign of Constantius Count of the East, a man of ferocious disposition, and apt for the offices of an executioner; then by Julian the Apostate he was created Prefect of the city of Constantinople: in which dignity constituted, he moved the former persecution against Basil not yet Bishop. Ammian. Marc. lib. 19 cap. 12 Nor marvel, that Modestus, a man of versatile Religion, who had not a little harmed Julian by his counsels with Constantius, was so exalted by him: for the cult of the sacred Religion being denied or at least dissembled, he easily abolished or covered his ill deserts toward the Apostate, deserving his favor and friendship even on this account, that he had deserted the Christian Religion, or at least simulated idolatry: since with that impious one there was one vote, for obtaining honor and some dignity, defection from the Faith; and from him gifts were obtained by those, who took ill counsel for others, but worst for themselves, as Nazianzen says. Orat. 4 Then, Julian being slain, Jovian being dead, when Valens having gained the East openly declared himself an Arian and a persecutor of the Orthodox; Modestus, accommodating his Religion to the sect of the more powerful, just as from a Christian he had become an idolater, so from an idolater he became an Arian, baptized or rebaptized by the Arians baptized by them, nay perhaps rebaptized, as Nazianzen intimates saying, that by them too (the Arians) he had been initiated, or rather finished off. For since baptism conferred by heretics was held valid, whatever of impiety Nazianzen here recognizes in the baptism about which he treats, is either to be explained of its reiteration, or that, baptized by the Arians, he at the same time embraced their heresy, and accordingly was said rather to be submerged in the waters of baptism than to be salubriously washed. Orat. 20 It seems also credible, that the Arians under the reign of Valens began openly and publicly to reiterate Baptism, although the Church received them without a new Baptism into communion. Nor was Modestus a follower of Princes as to religion only; an inept flatterer of Princes. but also a flatterer so inept, that he praised the vices of upbringing or disposition even in them. Hence it came about, that the prodigious ferocity of Valens, after the manner of a most burning torch wandered more widely, lifted up by the base flattery of many, and especially of the Prefect of the Praetorium then Modestus; who while he was agitated daily by the dread of a successor, by the overshadowed neatnesses of blandishments, cavilling, brought Valens,

[211] Nazianzen comprehending these things in few words; To whom at last, he says, is that man unknown, who then among us performed the office of Prefect, both inflamed by his own audacity against us especially, and also serving the Emperor more than was necessary, and from this, that he obeyed him in all things, preserving for himself a longer command. Orat. 20 Then he sets about to narrate the matter itself. To him, Basil brought to this one, raging against the Church, and bearing before himself the appearance of a lion, and roaring after the manner of a lion, and such that by many he could not even be approached, the brave man is brought; nay rather he enters, just as if he were called not to a judgment, but to a feast. But in what manner shall I comprehend with a discourse worthy enough either the audacity of the Prefect, or the virtue and wisdom of Basil with which he resisted him? What is your reasoning, he says, hey you, addressing him by name (for he did not yet deign to call him Bishop) that you dare to resist so great an Emperor, and alone of all behave contumaciously? To what, replied Basil, does this discourse look, and what is this contumacy and arrogance? for I do not yet understand it enough. Because, he says, you by no means cultivate the Religion of the Emperor, all others now inclined and overcome. For my Emperor, says Basil, does not wish these things, nor do I endure to adore any created thing, since I myself am created by God and am bidden to be God. But we, says he, what at last do we seem to you? freely and wisely he replies, Nothing surely, says Basil, while you command these things. But come, says he, do you not think it great and honorific to be joined to our side, and to have us as associates? To this Basil: You indeed are Prefects, and very illustrious, I do not deny it: but by no means more excellent than God. But to have you as associates would indeed be ample and honorific for me (why not indeed, since you yourselves too are creatures of God?) but as certain others of those who are subject to us: for Christianity is distinguished not by the dignity of persons, but by faith.

[212] Moved by this discourse the Prefect, and kindled with greater anger, rose from the bench, and proceeded to deal with him in harsher words. What? do you not dread this power? the threats of the angry one he despises, But why should I dread it? says Basil; what will happen? what shall I suffer? What will you suffer? he retorted. One of so many things, which are of my power. What are these? subjoined Basil, for let us understand. The proscription, says he, of goods, exile, torment, death. Then Basil; If you have anything else, threaten us with that: for of these, which you have hitherto commemorated, nothing touches us. In what manner, says he? Because, says Basil, he who has nothing is not subject to the proscription of goods, unless perhaps you need these torn and worn-out rags and a few little books, in which all my faculties and resources are. But exile I do not know, who am circumscribed by no place; and neither do I have as mine this land, which I now inhabit: and all that, into which I shall have been cast, I reckon as mine; nay, to speak more rightly, I know the whole earth to be God's, of which I am a stranger and sojourner. Now torments what can they accomplish, when the body is lacking, unless perhaps you should say the first stroke? for of this alone is the discretion and power with you. and modestly he renders the reason of his liberty. But death will be to me in the place of a benefit: for it will send me more quickly to God, for whom I live and perform my function, and in great part I have already undergone death, and to whom I have long since been hastening. Astonished by this discourse the Prefect, No one, he says, (and added his own name) to this day has so addressed me, nor with equal liberty of words. For perhaps, says Basil, you have not fallen upon a Bishop; otherwise he would have discoursed in just this manner, coming into a contest for things of this kind. For in other matters indeed, O Prefect, we are mild and placid, and the most abject of all, just as this is prescribed to us by law; and I will not say, against so great an Emperor, but not even against any plebeian and man of the lowest order do we raise a haughty brow. But where God is endangered for us and set before us, then at last reckoning all other things for nothing, we look to him alone. But fire and sword, and beasts and claws tearing the flesh, are to us rather a pleasure than a terror. Accordingly affect us with contumelies, threaten, do whatever shall please, enjoy your power, let the Emperor too hear these things; you will by no means conquer us, nor make us assent to the impious doctrine: not if you should threaten even more atrocious things than these.

[213] After the Prefect had said and heard these things, and had recognized that the firmness of his mind was such, that no force could terrify and overcome him; he indeed sent him out and dismissed him, no longer with the same threats, Thus from the Prefect hearing the things done, Valens, but with a certain reverence and submission; but he himself as quickly as he could approaching the Emperor; Emperor, he says, we are conquered by the Prelate of this Church: he is superior to threats, firmer than discourses, stronger than the blandishments of words. Some other of the more cowardly is to be tried: but to this one either force is to be openly applied, or it is not to be awaited that he yield to threats. For which cause the Emperor, disapproving his deed, and pouring himself out into the praises of Basil (for virtue is an admiration even to an enemy) forbade force to be applied to him; he admires the Saint's virtue: and meanwhile the same befell him, which is wont to befall iron; that although it be softened by fire, yet it retains the nature of iron. The threats therefore being turned into admiration, he by no means embraced his society, because he was ashamed of the change, but for the rest sought a way by which he might most honestly satisfy him.

[214] The same meeting of Basil with Modestus, and the excellent strength of Christian fortitude Nyssen too exhibits against Eunomius, Nyssen narrates the same. some circumstances being added which were passed over by the Theologian, among which the name of Modestus the Prefect. The Emperor himself, he says, tries his fortune, inflamed with anger, because he saw that his first attempt had not succeeded according to his wish. And just as of old the King of the Assyrians, by the work of a certain cook Nabuzardan overturned the temple of Jerusalem, so this one too, this province being committed to a certain Demosthenes, a steward and set over the cooks, and more impudent than others, hoped that he would obtain victory. While he therefore mixed all things, and an impious man from Illyricum, who carried tablets in his hand (about this impious man nothing has become known to me from elsewhere, yet by conjecture I think it was Euippius the Bishop) that impious man, I say, calling all the Nobles to this work, and Modestus kindled with anger much more vehement than in the first onset; all these indeed were moved on account of the anger of the Emperor, angry with the angry one, and serving and gratifying his indignation, yet all their minds were suspended by the expectation of things to come. Again therefore the Prefect is present; again terrors are struck in, and graver indeed than the former: again threats are threatened, and the anger rages more bitter: there is present the forensic ministry, heralds, apparitors, lictors, bars, curtains, extolling the Christian fortitude of Basil, by all which minds can easily be struck, even of those who approach very prepared for all things. But again our generous athlete is beheld in the contest, far surpassing the glory of the former fight. Of this matter if you seek witnesses, behold the things themselves:

[215] For what place did the calamity of that time leave untouched? through which Cappadocia stood unshaken. What nation remained free of the heretical devastation and ravaging? Who of those who flourished in the Church, was not thrown down from his undertakings and labors? What province escaped that insulting? Not all Syria, not Mesopotamia even to the borders of the Barbarians; not Phoenicia, not Palestine, not Arabia, not Egypt, not the inhabitants of Libya even to the limits of our world; nor others who live in it, the Pontics, Cilicians, Lycians, Lydians, Pisidians, Pamphylians, Carians, Hellespontians, Islanders even to the very Propontis; not the nations of Thrace however wide it lies open, and all the neighbors even to the very Danube. Which of all these provinces was free of this calamity, unless perhaps that, which before was held by this evil? Alone of all the Cappadocian people did not feel the common defeat and tribulation, whom our great champion rescued from all temptations. These namely are the documents of timidity which our Master gave, these are the excellent deeds of one fearing and trembling at arduous labors: who did not in an assembly of wretched little old women like Eunomius beget glory for himself, nor was zealous to circumvent little women subject to every fraud and deception, nor judged it greatly to be sought to be made much of by desperate men and those of corrupt mind; but in the very deed demonstrated the force of his mind, and that undismayed and unconquered and generous spirit, whose excellent deed was the salvation of the whole country, the peace of our Church, the exemplar of all that is honest to those who live according to virtue; the overthrow of the adversaries, the patronage of the faith, the security of the weaker, the establishment of the stronger; and, to expedite it in one word, whatever of good can be devised, that is comprehended in this deed.

[216] About this last meeting of Basil and Modestus, certain other things others have written, The Things Omitted of the same meeting which indeed cannot be demonstrated to be altogether false, yet because they are passed over by both Gregories, do not merit so great faith, as others everywhere apply to them; confounding many things as to the order of time, as if all things had been said in one conversation: whereas yet from what has been said it is established, that Modestus tried Basil twice with promises and threats, a space of three years being interposed between the one and the other meeting. Their errors nevertheless being now dissembled; which will easily become known by comparing their text with the prolix oration of Nazianzen; I will report here only those things, which can be held as Things Omitted to the narration of both Gregories. from Socrates, Socrates adds these things: And when the President threatened him with death, Would, says Basil, that this truly befall me, that for the truth I be rescued from these bonds of the body. bk. 4 ch. 21 When again and again the President repeated, that he should accurately consider with himself; Basil is reported to have said: I indeed today and tomorrow am the same, and would that you do not change your opinion.

[217] But Theodoret thus narrates the matter. But when the Prefect had come to Caesarea, from Theodoret. he receives the great Basil summoned honorifically, addresses him with gentle and bland discourse, exhorts him to yield to the time, and lest on account of too curious an observation of doctrines, and one to be esteemed of little value, he betray so many and so great Churches. lib. 4 cap. 1 He promises that he will conciliate to him the friendship of the Emperor, and proclaims that benefits will thence come to many others. To whom that divine man: To boys,

he says, this discourse indeed suits; for that boy and those like himself eagerly snatch words of this kind: but those who are educated in the sacred letters, do not suffer even one syllable of the divine doctrines to be betrayed; but for the defense of these, if there be need, they gladly embrace every kind of death. But as for what pertains to the friendship of the Emperor, I esteem it greatly when joined with piety: but if it lack this, I say it is pernicious. But when the Prefect, gravely moved, said, that he was mad; then the divine Basil; This madness, he says, I wish always to have. But after he was ordered to go out, and to deliberate with himself what he should do, and on the following day to declare his opinion, and to this discourse threats too were added; that man, to be heaped with all praise, is reported to have replied: I indeed certainly, the same that I now am, will return to you tomorrow: but do you not change your opinion; but I would wish you to bring your threats into work.

[218] from Sozomen, Sozomen book 6 chap. 15. Furthermore, he says, when the Emperor came to Caesarea, the Prefect bids Basil summoned to accede to the opinion of the Emperor, and threatens death to him contradicting: but Basil then is reported to have said, that he would do that as the greatest, and would hold it in the place of the highest benefit, if he should as soon as possible be taken out from the bonds of the body. But when the Prefect had bidden, that both on that day and on the following night he should take counsel, and lest inconsiderately he cast himself into open peril, but on the day after that day be present again, and declare his opinion; I, says he, have no need of counsel: for the same that I now am, tomorrow too I shall be: for since I am a creature, I cannot bring my mind to it, that I should adore even my like and confess him God, or join myself to you and the Emperor as an associate in Religion. For, although you are men preeminently illustrious, and command no small part of the world; yet not on that account ought one to comply with your will (for you are men) and neglect faith in God: which I shall never betray, whether mulcted with the proscription of goods, or with exile, or at last with death itself: since none of these will be able to torment me. For I have no wealth, except a torn garment and a few books: and so I inhabit the earth, as one always about to migrate from it: but my body, on account of its weakness, one single stroke being received, will overcome both the sense of pain and torments.

[219] Rufinus, narrating somewhat differently from others, bk. II chap. 9, Not long after, he says, Basil, From Rufinus. the Bishop of Caesarea of Cappadocia, when by Valens he was compelled into exile for the faith, was exhibited at the tribunal of the Prefect; and by terrors, as is the manner of that power, and by the greatest threats began to be dealt with, that, unless he obeyed the precepts of the Prince, he should expect destruction now hanging over him. Then he, intrepid and without any disturbance of mind, is reported to have replied to this Prefect threatening him: Would that there were for me something of a worthy gift, which I might offer to him, who might more quickly absolve Basil from the knot of this bellows. And when the night, which was midnight, was given to him for a space of deliberating, he is reported to have replied again; I tomorrow shall myself be the one who now am: would that you do not change! Furthermore it is to be noted, that Basil, when he wishes to be absolved from the knot of this bellows, alludes to the difficulty of breathing, with which he labored from a fault of the lungs; but that this reply was given both to another judge, and in another cause, will appear below from both Gregories: meanwhile let us pursue this history.

CHAPTER XVIII.

The contest of Basil with the Emperor Valens and his other Prefects.

[220] The discourse with Basil being held, the Prefect having met the Emperor, announces to him what Basil had said, teaches his virtue, and sets forth with how manly and lofty a mind he is. Theod. lib. 4 cap. 17 On the feast of the Nativity At which time indeed the Emperor enters the palace silent. But not long after these things, while the feast of the Nativity of Christ was celebrated, with the chief men and his attendants he approaches the church, and offers gifts to the sacred table. Soz. lib. 4, cap. 15 The Nativity of the Lord was celebrated on the same day as the Epiphany in the East, as soon follows from Nazianzen thus speaking. Orat. 20 For when, attended by the whole band of his retinue (the Emperor) had entered the temple (but it was the day of the Epiphany and a most ample assembly) and had increased the number of the laity, in that manner exhibiting just honor to the community; Valens having entered the church. after he was within (for this altogether is not to be passed over) and his ears resounded with the singing of Psalms, no otherwise than with a certain thunder, and he saw the sea of the people, and all the order and harmony, which both in the Sanctuary and near the Sanctuary was, angelic rather than human; and him indeed (Basil) standing before the people with erect body, such as Scripture exhibits Samuel; moving himself in no part neither in body, nor in eyes, nor in mind (just as if nothing new had happened), he is struck by the majesty of Basil sacrificing, but fixed (so to speak) to God and to the altar; but those by whom he was girt, standing with a certain fear and reverence; these things, I say, as soon as he perceived (for he had never seen anything like) he suffered something human, and is wholly filled with a vertigo of the eyes and darkness. But this was then obscure and unknown to most: but when the gifts, which he himself had prepared, were to be offered to the divine table, and he is admitted to offering. and no one (as the custom bore) took them at the same time, because it was not clear enough whether Basil would receive them, then indeed he manifestly betrayed his condition: for he began so to totter, that unless one of the ministers of the Sanctuary had held the tottering man by a hand placed under, he would surely have miserably and lamentably fallen.

[221] What sort of gifts the Emperor offered, is not read elsewhere, What his offering was nor is it found whence it can be elucidated. Meanwhile it is little credible, what Nicetas the interpreter of Nazianzen says, that they were golden vessels, which the Emperor himself had fabricated; for Valens was not a goldsmith. If however by τὸ ἀυτουργὸς (the self-worker) the Emperor can be understood, not to have fabricated them himself by his own work, but to have ordered them to be made, I would easily believe they were certain precious ornaments for the use of the altar. No more distinctly does Theodoret explain the matter, saying, he offers the accustomed gifts to the altar: since nowhere is it explained what sort of gifts the Emperors were wont to offer. In the Roman Pontifical the King is bidden in his coronation to offer gold: but in the Greek rituals there is deep silence about the offering of gifts. Nor is it more clear at what time they were to be offered, whether about the beginning, middle, or end of the sacred Liturgy. In the Latin Church indeed gifts by the bystanders, and when made? both clerics and laity, if they are to be offered, are offered immediately after the Offertory said by the celebrant. But by the Greeks, although they have a double Offertory, at neither yet is there mention of other gifts to be offered, not even in the Consecrations of Bishops or the Coronation of Emperors. Yet perhaps some light will be brought by Theodore Balsamon, who writing about the beginning of the 13th century on the 3rd Canon of the Apostles, says; The Patriarchs too offer grapes at the altar of the sacred building of the Blachernae, the Sacred being performed on the feast of the Dormition of the most holy Mother of God. It seems therefore from the likeness of the deed that it can be gathered, that Valens, the Liturgy being finished, wished to offer his gifts: for first it is narrated that he suffered a vertigo of the eyes, it is gathered from the like. when he beheld St. Basil fixed to God and to the altar, which intimates the more sacred part of the Liturgy. If therefore the offering of gifts was not made at the Offertory, as it seems not to have been made; it is to be deferred to the end of the Sacrifice, when the Greeks distribute the Antidora, that is reciprocal gifts, namely particles of blessed bread, as if compensating the gifts brought by those present, in sign of Ecclesiastical communion: and because the offering of gifts likewise was a sign of such communion, with good right all doubted, whether these Basil would receive from a heretic and persecutor of the Catholics: yet here he used his accustomed benignity toward the erring one, hoping that he could thus be bound to him.

[222] But now what to the Emperor himself Basil, as Nazianzen says, Basil to the Emperor and with how great wisdom he spoke (when he somehow again betook himself with us into the church, and had been within the veil, and had come into his sight and conversation, which he had long since sought) what else is to be said, than that they were voices of God, which both those who were with the Emperor, and we who had entered together heard? Orat. 20 The veil within which Valens entered, does not seem able to be understood as that, which separated the sacred entrance, in which the altar was constituted, under a lesser conch or vault resting on four columns, from the rest of the temple. For into that place access was given to no one, except to Priests and Deacons, ministering in their order; otherwise admitted into the Presbytery, to the Emperor only at the time of the sacred Communion, if he wished to participate of the divine mysteries: and so in that sacred shrine, destined only for prayers and the sacred Liturgy, Basil would not have wished to speak to the Emperor, even about the mysteries of the faith; much less would Demosthenes, the Prefect of the cooks, have dared to interrupt the discourse, and to provoke Basil with threats. Wherefore the place within the veil, which Valens is said to have entered, I think to be that; which is assigned to Priests and other Clerics, for chanting the Psalms and prayers (the Latins call it the Choir) separated by a veil or lattices, which the Greeks called the beautiful gate, from the place deputed to the laity: for in that was the Episcopal throne, and the pulpit of the Lectors.

[223] Into this place therefore Basil bids Valens come, within the sacred hangings where he himself sat: and to him he institutes a long discourse about the divine doctrines, to which Valens too listened. Theod. l. 4 c. 17 he addresses him about the faith: But there was present a certain one by name Demosthenes, whom Nyssen and the Theologian call Nabuzardan the Prefect of the cooks, threatening with the swords of his art, more impudent than all others, in all things like the ancient Nabuzardan, in the court of the King of the Assyrians the Prefect of the cooks; namely according to the Greek version of the LXX: he represses the audacity of the Prefect of the cooks, for in the Latin Vulgate he is called the Prince of the army or of the Militia, and Master of the soldiers, through whom the temple of Jerusalem was overthrown. This Prefect therefore of the imperial kitchen, in a plainly barbarous manner reprehended Basil the master of the world. But the divine Basil smiling; We have seen, he says, an unlettered Demosthenes. But when he, kindling with greater anger, began to threaten; It is yours, says that great Basil, to care for the seasonings of broths: for since you have ears filled with filth, you cannot hear the most holy doctrines. And so it was replied to him by Basil: but the Emperor began so to admire Basil, that the most beautiful fields which he had there, he gave to the poor, of whom he had taken the care, and who in the whole body shattered

needed the greatest cure. Orat. 20 In this manner the great Basil avoided the first onset of Valens, according to Nyssen: with whom agreeing Nazianzen; Hence, he says, the beginning of the Imperial humanity and clemency toward us was born and established: this occasion broke and dissolved the greatest part of that impression, by which we were then vexed, no otherwise than certain waves.

[224] But this tranquillity did not hold long: for the more Valens exhibited some benevolence toward Basil, the more also he rendered the Arians solicitous, lest at last he should depart from their heresy. The Arians acting That they might avert this, they did not cease to recall to the Emperor's memory the oath, by which he had bound himself when about to receive baptism, to protect Arianism as long as he lived, and to draw the orthodox to it even violently. exile against Basil is decreed in vain: Hence (as the Theologian says) against Basil a persecution arose again, by no means inferior to the former. The impious conquered, and against Basil exile is decreed: nor was anything lacking, of the things which pertained to that matter. Orat. 20 Night was present, the chariot at hand, the enemies in applause, the pious in mourning: we, girt the side of the prepared and brisk traveler; nothing finally, which looked to an illustrious ignominy, was wanting. But what happened? God rescinds the decree of exile. For he who struck the firstborn of Egypt raging against the Israelites, the same affected also the Emperor's son with the stroke of disease. But this with what celerity? Thence the tablets of exile, hence the decree of disease; and the hand of the wicked writer is hindered, and the Saint is freed from peril; and the fever, restraining the Emperor's audacity, the pious man stands forth as a gift. What can be devised and thought of either juster or quicker than this judgment of God? Thus Nazianzen by a certain rhetorical transition concludes the history, among all the deeds of Basil most worthy of report; perhaps because he spoke to the Cappadocians, who had the series of the matter done sufficiently perceived. But now it, by the diverse narration of authors discordant among themselves, is so confused, for Valens terrified by his son's disease and his wife's vexation that it can scarcely be elucidated; although, as to the matter itself and the truth of the miracles, it is supported by the best testimonies. I have thought I should follow the order, which to me, all things considered, is more probable, and more conformable to Nazianzen. When it had been persuaded to the Emperor to relegate Basil into exile; that very night he saw plagues sent down from heaven into his family: for both his son afflicted with a grave disease, was now now about to migrate from life; and his wife was assailed by various calamities, and as if delivered to torturers is tormented. Ruff. lib. 11 cap. 9., Theodor. lib. 4 c. 17 He saw, I say, those plagues Valens, but was little moved: since his mind had been stormed by certain old tricksters. He exhorts therefore Basil, that he transfer himself to the adverse party: then, when he could not persuade him, he bids the edict about sending him into exile to be written: which when he tried to make valid with his own hand, he could not make even one stroke of any letter. For the pen was broken: and that not once, but again, and a third time it happened. Yet when he labored more intently to confirm that impious edict, his right hand was shaken, and a tremor occupied it; wherefore, his mind almost thunderstruck for fear, he tore the paper with his hands.

[225] Ephrem in his Encomium, no mention being made about the disease of the Emperor's son, nor able with trembling hand to subscribe the decree none about the vexation of the mother, mentions only the broken pens. For, when they moved every stone, he says, the offspring of vipers, that they might take the just one out of the way; assiduously wounded both by his words and miracles, as by certain darts, they approached, demanding that he be taken out of the way and exterminated. For grievous, they say, is he to us, even in aspect: since he greatly opposes our discourses; therefore it is impossible, O Emperor, that our faith take progress, while he survives. But the Emperor led on by their discourses, leaned toward the will of casting Basil into exile: but the pen, unwilling to serve the iniquitous counsel, of its own accord was immediately broken, instructing that foolish man, how enormous a deed he strove to perpetrate against the servant of Christ, preaching the one Divinity of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and the pen broken once and wisely reprehending those who thought or said otherwise, like rabid dogs. But since the tyrant did not understand (as one who was more insensible than the inanimate pen, and a son of error) he snatched a second one too, to subscribe the sentence of exile, and to accomplish his iniquitous will. again, But this one too, he saw broken, as if it were unwilling to communicate with the evil, which he himself strove to do. Why are you eager, O Emperor, to cast into a foreign region him, who contains within him the Indweller who fills all things? Why do you try to circumvent and oppress him, who can be captured or stormed by no one? For what cause do you drive from the city the heavenly citizen and domestic of God? For if you take up even a third pen, and was compelled to desist from the third begun. you will see it too broken, and unwilling to obey and cooperate with you. And so in the very deed it was found. Then plainly before all, and as if pronounced by the voice of a herald, victory was proclaimed, and an illustrious trophy raised to the unconquered soldier of Christ. Three pens, to him preaching the consubstantiality of the Trinity, gave their patronage. The hand hastened to bring forth the sentence, and the pens demonstrated it unjust: the hand hastened to write the wicked decree of exile, and the pens retarded the vain haste and zeal: and just as the rod of Moses confounded all the enchanters and other sorcerers of Egypt; so the pens too suddenly destroyed the counsel, suggested by the impious and the sons of darkness.

[226] His vicious disposition. Furthermore lest anyone marvel that the mind of Valens was so hardened in perverse counsels, that by so many prodigies exhibited by God he could by no means be bent; it will help to give the vice of his disposition to be known also from Ammianus Marcellinus, a heathen writer: for we are easily drawn into those faults at the instigation of the demon, to which the mind of its own accord inclines. In Valens, says he, this was inexpiable, that royally puffed up, by an equal and the same right he persecuted the noxious and the innocent, differing in no merits among themselves, with malignant harassing swiftly: so that while it was still doubted about the crime, the Emperor not doubting about the penalty, some learned that they were condemned before they were suspected? l. 29, c. 2 But his obstinate purpose grew, avarice applying the goads, both his own and of those who then were engaged in the palace, opening new gulfs, and if there had been any rare mention of humanity, calling this slowness: who by bloody flatteries depraving to the worst part the institution of the man, carrying death on the edge of his tongue, blew all things with an untimely whirlwind, hastening to overturn from the foundations the most opulent houses. For he was exposed to the access of those plotting and laid open, perniciously involved in a double vice, that he was intolerably angry, then more, when he was ashamed to be angry: and the things which with the facility of a private man he had heard in covered whisperings, omitting to shake out whether they were true through the pride of a Prince, he received as true and certain. Hence it came about, that under the appearance of clemency many innocent were thrust from their homes, driven headlong into exile, whose goods forced into the treasury he himself reduced to his own gains; so that the condemned lived on precarious food, worn out by the straits of formidable poverty; for fear of which Theognis, an old and prudent Poet, advises us to go even headlong into the sea. Which even if anyone should concede to have been right, yet the very excess was odious. Whence it was noted, that this was rightly defined, that no sentence is more cruel than that, which when it seems to spare is harsher. These things about the disposition of Valens Ammianus.

[227] his son relapsed into disease, Pursuing the history Nazianzen; Afterward, he says, the Emperor's son was sick (manifestly indicating, that not only once, but again on Basil's account he was struck with disease) and was afflicted in body: but the father, as a father, at the same time too was weakened, seeking a remedy for the disease from wherever, and selecting all the best physicians, and leaning on prayers if ever otherwise and prostrate on the ground: for calamity renders Kings too humble and abject. Nor is it a wonder: since Scripture testifies that David too before, on account of his son's disease, was affected in the same manner. But when he found no medicine for this evil, he took refuge in Basil's faith: and since, on account of the contumely recently brought upon him, he did not dare for shame to summon him in his own name; to others, whom he had bound to him by the closest familiarity and benevolence, at Basil's presence he is more lightly ill he commits this legation. But he, hesitating in nothing, nor, what perhaps another would have done, insulting against the time, immediately was present: and at his coming immediately the disease becomes lighter, and the father conceives a better hope in mind: who, unless he had mixed salt water with sweet, namely both summoning him, and trusting the heretics, would perhaps have received his son sound and unharmed too: and this they held for certain and undoubted, who then were present, and were partakers of the calamity. Socrates more openly asserts, that the Prince would have been healed, if his father had been willing to desert the Arian impiety: Not long after, he says, the son of Valens, by name Galates, who was of very tender age, perchance began to be so gravely sick, that the physicians utterly despaired of his life. l. 4 c. 11 but he is permitted to die on account of his father's obstinacy, Whose mother Dominica the Empress reported to the Emperor, that she had been greatly harassed in her rest by horrible visions; and that the boy was afflicted with disease, on account of the contumely, which Bishop Basil had suffered from him. Which things the Emperor diligently embracing in mind summons Basil; and, that he might make trial of him, thus addresses him: If your doctrines about the faith are true, pray that my son may not die. Then Basil: If, he says, you will believe, O Emperor, as I do, and bring it about that the Church be led back to concord, the boy will live. To whom when the Emperor by no means consented: Therefore, says Basil, about the boy let the will of God be done. Basil therefore, when he had said these things, he bids to be dismissed: but the boy immediately after went out of life. Yet Socrates errs in this, that he writes these things happened at Antioch; and that Basil by the command of Valens was detained in prison.

[228] But about the boy baptized by the Arians, Theodoret alone makes mention: Valens, he says, recognizing the cause of the miseries sent in, prays the divine man, whom he had threatened he would affect with punishment, that he come home to him: but the Emperor's generals carry out his commands. l. 4, c. 17 The great Basil therefore then having set out to the palace, and having beheld the Emperor's son near to death, promises that he will return to life, provided he be given the most holy baptism by pious men: which when he had said, he went out. But the Emperor bound by his oath, like the demented Herod, gives the business of baptizing the boy to certain of the Arian sect who were present, suffering him to be baptized by the Arians, but the boy immediately suffered death; and so Valens too repented, namely embracing in mind, how great inconvenience he had received from the observation of his oath; and the extinguished son, who was to him an only one, is believed to have paid the punishments of his father's impiety:

accordingly before dawn there were sent those who might ask Basil, that by his prayers he would intercede for the parents; lest they too, and indeed much more justly, should likewise perish. Ruff. lib. 11 cap. 9 Thus it happened, that although Valens expelled all the Catholics, Basil even to the end of his life endured in the Church with the unsullied sacrament of Communion. Whence God the moderator of all things showed clearly enough, both that to others by his permission these very things befell, and that Basil by his help was rescued from snares: and as in that business of Basil he showed his power, so in that other kind of his providence he took care that the fortitude of the most excellent men be openly proclaimed. Theodor. l. 4, c. 17 Valens therefore, making an onset in this manner, his hope was frustrated.

[229] Thus the enemies of Basil being conquered by divine aid, there remained Modestus the Prefect of the praetorium, in whom the Lord wished to exhibit some specimen of his mercy through the Saint. Orat. 20 For him too a certain disease arising prostrates beneath the hands of the holy man. Modestus penitent, is healed by Basil, And surely a stroke becomes a doctrine to wise men, and for the most part affliction is better and more excellent than prosperous success of affairs. He was sick in body, he wept, he was distorted, he summoned Basil, he besought; You have satisfaction, he cried; give health. And indeed he obtained this, as both he himself confessed, and persuaded many ignorant of this matter: for he did not cease to admire and proclaim his virtues. The epistles indeed testify, written by Basil to Modestus, a certain singular friendship, and from friendship a mutual confidence without flattery, but especially that fulfilled which before Basil had said to Modestus: For in all other matters we are mild and placid and the most abject of all, just as is prescribed by law; and he becomes his friend: but where God is endangered for us and set before us, then at last reckoning all other things for nothing, we look to him alone. Orat. 20 Thus that excellent defender of the Faith and the Church, who with so great fortitude had resisted Modestus the Prefect, when it was treated of the Faith; after contracting friendship with him, wrote to him the epistle related above, that he would be willing to have preserved the immunity from tributes, which the great Constantine had granted to the Churches.

[230] But those things which have been narrated about the persecution of Valens against Basil, seem to have happened before Easter of the year 371, which was celebrated on the 17th of April: yet this cannot be certainly affirmed: since nothing prevents but that these things could have been done in this whole year and the following, in which Valens stayed at Antioch or in the neighboring cities, and so it was convenient for him to run out to Caesarea rather often. But indeed since on the second of May of this year at Alexandria the victor Athanasius, after many contests accomplished, after just as many crowns also won, was rescued from the labors of this life, and translated to a life free from troubles; and Peter, a man easily the best, had obtained that Prelacy; the Arians seem to have had business enough, after the death of St. Athanasius. if they spent their authority with Valens, and the power of the impious agreeing with them, on disturbing the Alexandrian Church, and therefore permitted Basil and his Church to enjoy peace of whatever kind. Theodor. l. 4, c. 18 Yet that peace was not long-lasting, if at this time (which is credible) the Prefect of Pontus rose up against Basil: which, shall I rather call a persecution, or a tumult? It has seemed good to annex it to the persecution of Valens with Nazianzen, that under one view may be set forth all the things which the Saint suffered from the political Magistrate, on account of faith and Christian virtue.

[231] The Emperor therefore having departed, or at least not staying in Cappadocia, he who of old roused that nefarious one against Israel, the same moved against this Prefect of the province of Pontus too; under this pretext indeed, as if he were vexed for the sake of a certain little woman, but in truth undertaking the defense of impiety, and assailing piety. Orat. 20 I pass over all the other contumelies, by which he vexed Basil; which is just the same as if I should say God, against whom and for whose sake war was waged; because he both affected with the greatest ignominy him who brought the contumely, and greatly extolled our fighter (if only it is to be esteemed something great and lofty, by philosophy, and the praise thence born to go before the vulgar) but in what manner this was done, I will now pursue in discourse. To a certain woman, born of a most ample station, whose husband not long before had discharged the last day of life, an assessor of the judge was applying force, and dragging her unwilling to marriage. But she, since by no reason she could escape this force, takes a counsel full of no greater audacity than prudence. This woman Baronius thinks was that celebrated Vestiana, about whom thus Nyssen: There was in the monastery a certain woman most noble, perhaps Vestiana, the companion of Macrina; illustrious in wealth and birth and beauty of body and by other titles, constituted in her very adolescence. Vir. Macr. But she had been placed in matrimony with a certain most honest man, but had lived with him a short time: wherefore freed from marriage, she had chosen as guardian and mistress of her widowhood the great Macrina, and was engaged very much with the virgins, that she might learn from them the manner of living rightly and according to virtue. Vestiana was her name, her father was called Araxius, one of the number of the Senators of the great Council.

[232] She, I say, takes a counsel full of no greater audacity than prudence. She fleeing to the altar, For she flees to the sacred table, and adopts God as her champion against the injury. What therefore, by the Trinity itself (that I may use somewhat even the forensic kind of speaking among praises) was to be done, I do not say by the great Basil, and to others establishing laws about these matters; but by some other one far inferior to him, provided yet a Priest? What else than that he should assert her, retain her, protect her with all care; stretch out a hand to the clemency and law of God, which bids honor be had to altars; finally do and suffer all things first, rather than enter upon any too inhuman counsel against her; and thus affect with contumely both the most holy table, and that faith too with which she was a suppliant? By no means, says the new judge; but all ought to yield to my command, and the Christians to betray their laws. He therefore demanded the suppliant; this one with all force retained her. He again is roused with fury, and sends certain Magistrates, who might search the bedchamber of the holy Basil, doing this rather for the sake of ignominy, by Basil she is preserved untouched: than because anything of this kind was necessary. What do you say? The house of Basil, free from all motion of lust, whom the Angels embrace, whom even to look at alone women dread? Nor content with that, he bids him besides to be present and to plead his cause; nor that placidly and humanely, but as one of those who are condemned to death. And he indeed was present: but the other, full of anger and arrogance, sat on the tribunal. Basil stood, just as my Jesus before Pilate judging: furthermore the thunderbolts delayed, and the sword of God was still being sharpened and deferred, and the bow was so bent, that yet it was held back, namely awaiting the time and place of penitence: who therefore affected with contumely for this is set in custom and use with God. And here, I pray, behold for me another contest of the persecutor and the athlete. He bade his cloak be pulled off and torn: but he, I will put off besides, if so it pleases, even my tunic. He threatened that he would scourge him who was without flesh: he submitted his body. That he would tear him with claws; but he, By a tearing of this kind, he says, you will bring medicine to my liver, greatly (as you see) pressing me.

[233] And they indeed were engaged in these things: but the city, as soon as it learned of an evil and common peril of this kind (for everyone reckoned the contumely of Basil to be his own peril) is wholly seized and inflamed with fury; and, as smoke moving a swarm of bees, he calms the people moved for him, all of every kind and age are eagerly roused and rise up, especially the makers of arms, and the imperial weavers; for these in matters of this kind are more fervent, and on account of the liberty and license which they enjoy, more prepared for daring. Furthermore to each one there was in the place of a weapon, either what his art offered, or what in the matter at hand he had tumultuously fashioned. Torches in their hands; stones, clubs at the ready; one running of all, one clamor, a common alacrity of minds; fury, a vehement soldier, nay rather a leader of war. Not even the women at that time were unarmed; this occasion namely whetting their minds (but the spindles were to them in the place of spears) nay they no longer remained women, and rescues the sacrilegious one from death. since zeal had strengthened them, and led them over to manly fortitude and greatness of mind. Why many words? All thought they would then at last be partakers of piety, if they should tear and rend the Prefect to pieces; and he seemed about to have the greater praise of piety with them, who first should lay a hand on him, who had undertaken so great a deed. What therefore did that bold and insolent Judge? He was a suppliant, pitiable, calamitous, more cast down than anyone; until Basil, coming into sight, that martyr and victor without strokes, and holding back by force the people seized with fury on account of the shameful crime, vindicated from peril his own suppliant and harasser.

[234] Let Nyssen be added to these, who the truly Christian constancy of his great brother, both in this and in other persecutions, Nyssen praises his brother's fortitude and the fervent desire of martyrdom thus sets forth in few words: Basil, when like a torch he had appeared by night to those wandering through the sea, for the good of the Church, turned all to the right way; conflicting with Prefects and Presidents, encountering Leaders of forces, speaking freely before Emperors, crying out in assemblies and churches, conciliating to himself and joining to himself by the example of Paul through epistles those who were far away, and fleeing and avoiding the reprehensions of those conflicting, since he had nothing in himself, by which he might be held and conquered by the adversaries. Or. F. For he was stronger and firmer, than that he could be conquered and subdued by those who would confiscate his goods: since he himself had mulcted himself of goods, on account of the hope of the future kingdom. From the fear of exile he was free, because he reckoned the one country of men to be paradise, and the desire of martyrdom and looked on all the earth as the common exile of nature. But he who died daily, and through mortification was always willingly consumed, when at last could he have feared the death, which the enemies threatened? For indeed it was a defeat and calamity to him, that he could not often imitate the contests of the Martyrs for the truth, since nature is subject only to one death. Who to a certain Prefect, once threatening for the sake of terrifying that he would snatch his liver from his bowels, mocking by smiling at the insipid and impudent threats, I will have thanks to you, he says, on account of this will and purpose: for indeed not moderately troublesome is the liver, lying upon the bowels: if therefore you cast it out, as you threaten, you will have freed my body of a troublesome and odious thing. To all these let us subjoin in the place of an epiphonema. Orat. 20

These things the God of the Saints works, the help of God always ready who does all things and changes them for the better, who resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. But why should not he who divided the sea, and stayed the course of the river, and applied force to the elements, and through the extension of his hands raised a trophy, that he might be safety to the fugitive people; draw Basil too out from perils? And here the mundane and external war received its end, and had an issue by God's favor joyful and happy, and such as his faith merited…

CHAPTER XIX.

Basil again implores the aid of the Western Bishops: he consoles St. Meletius and the Antiochenes in persecution.

[235] After the departure of Valens from Cappadocia in this year 371, before Easter celebrated on the 17th of April, and so before the beginning of the month of May and the death of St. Athanasius; there returned from the West Dorotheus the Deacon, whom we saw the past year sent off into the West by Basil and other Eastern Bishops. He, the winter being passed there, returned to his own, carrying with him the slight fruit of his legation, Dorotheus returned from the West with letters, for the solace of those by whom he had been sent; namely letters to St. Athanasius of Alexandria, which he himself transmitted to other Bishops and to Basil. These letters reported, the testimony of the Nicene Faith, and a demonstration of unoffended unanimity and conspiration; that the Pastors too might show that they trod in the footsteps of the Fathers, feeding the people of God with knowledge. B. Ep. 61 All these things so cheered the Easterns, that they somewhat shook off their grief, and infused a certain slight laughter into their minds even in this sad state of affairs, in which they then were engaged. But especially their solace was increased, through the exceedingly religious Deacon Sabinus, who by the report of the things which were honestly done among the Westerns, and Sabinus having arrived in the East, fed their minds. It seems therefore that immediately after the return of Dorotheus, Sabinus too came into the East, sent off in turn to them by the Westerns: but he was a Deacon of the Church of Milan. Tom. 2 Concil. He handed the Synodical letter of the Roman Council to the Illyrians, to the Eastern Bishops from the authentic copy: then in the year 381 he was present at the Council of Aquileia as Bishop of Piacenza, and is venerated among the Saints on the 11th of December. Martyrol. Roman.

[236] But Basil, although he had not obtained that aid from the Western Bishops, Basil refreshed, which both he himself had asked and had persuaded others to demand; namely that they with joined forces should busy themselves with the Emperors for the peace of the Churches, and send legates into the East who might compose the dissensions among the Bishops; (neither of which they did, but took care only that a Synodical epistle be handed to them, which they had before sent to the Illyrians.) Thus, I say, frustrated of his hope Basil, yet rejoiced that Sabinus the Deacon was present, because he hoped it would be, that he might evidently announce to the Westerns the calamitous state of the Easterns perceived by experiment, and move them that first they should contend with them with assiduous and zealous prayer to God; then also not refuse to bring the solace which they could furnish to the laboring Churches. B. Ep. 61

[237] But that calamity of the Churches the same Basil thus describes: he sets forth its calamities, Here labors, most reverend Brethren, and is wearied out by the frequent assault of the adversaries the Church, just as a ship in the middle of the sea is agitated by wave after wave of the billows, unless quickly the Lord according to his goodness shall have looked upon us. As therefore we count your conspiration and unanimity among yourselves a proper good; so we are ill affected by dissensions. But not because we are separated by the situation of places, is it fitting that we be discordant: but since by the communion of the spirit we are united, we ought to receive ourselves into the conspiration of one body. Furthermore our tribulations even with us silent are known to you, as those which are divulged into the whole world. The doctrines of the Fathers are despised, the Apostolic traditions are held of no account, the inventions of more recent men dominate in the Churches; men dispute artificially not theologically; the wisdom of the World holds the first place, abominating the glory of the Cross; Pastors are driven away, grievous wolves are introduced, who pluck the flock of Christ; the houses of prayer are deserted by the ecclesiastical assembly, the solitudes are filled with those weeping; the elders groan, while they compare old things with present; the youths are more pitiable, because they do not see of what kind of things they are deprived. These things surely will be able to move those, who have been taught the love of Christ, to compassion. But for the rest if the discourse be compared to the truth of the matter, it is far from its dignity. Wherefore if there is any consolation of love, if any communion of spirit, if any commiseration of bowels, be moved to our aid, seize the zeal of piety, rescue us from this tempest.

[238] In so great a desolation of the Churches Basil besides judged it fitting, that in the name of a Synod or in the name of all the orthodox Bishops, someone again be sent off into the West, who might carry to them a second letter: and he thought no one more fit at hand for this than Dorotheus the Deacon. B. Ep. 273 Wherefore he asks St. Meletius, and writing in the name of all through Sabinus sent back into the West, that he be willing to order all things through the same Dorotheus, and to dictate the letters which were to be carried to the Westerns; then finally to dismiss him, immediately, the feast of Easter being completed, to Caesarea; that, if his counsel were approved also by St. Eusebius of Samosata, whose opinion he had sought by letters, the aforesaid Dorotheus might immediately set out into the West. But since thereafter Dorotheus is nowhere mentioned as having set out into the West, I believe the other Bishops thought, that satisfaction would be made to their duty and to the necessity of the times, if the letters to be carried to the Westerns were handed to Sabinus the Deacon: which was done. The epistle written in the common name is preserved among the Basilian ones as the 69th, which is proved to have been dictated by St. Meletius even from this, that among the calamities under which the Churches groaned it enumerates especially those, which were beheld around Antioch: namely that under the open air outside the Church the Orthodox held their assemblies.

[239] Besides these written in the common name, Basil, using the work of the same Sabinus, added his own private ones, from which we have related some things above. But he also wrote privately to some other Bishops, he gives also privately his own writings, who themselves too had given letters to him privately, among whom if there be numbered a certain Valerian, to whom is inscribed the epistle 324, he must have been not of the Illyrians, but Bishop of Aquileia: for among the Illyrian Bishops of this time none is found of that name. B. Ep. 324 But to whatever Bishop he wrote, the necessity of the East he vehemently commends to him; and thanks be to God, he says, who has given me to see the fruit of that ancient dilection in your purity: who although you are so far removed in body, yet have coupled yourself to me through letters, and have embraced me with your holy and spiritual desire; by which deed you have stirred up in my mind an inexplicable love. For indeed that which the old proverb has, I have learned by being taught, that as cold water to a thirsting soul, so also good news brought from a far country. For there is a huge famine of charity in these regions: but the cause is at hand, most worshipful Brother; to Valerian the Bishop, namely this, that because iniquity abounds, the charity of many has grown cold. For this cause your letters seemed to be greatly esteemed: but we therefore repay you in turn, through the same most religious man the fellow-Deacon and Brother Sabinus. Through him we make ourselves known to you, he earnestly asks prayers for the peace of the East, and beseech that you be willing to watch in pouring forth prayers for us, that to our affairs at last at some time God may grant peace and tranquillity; but may rebuke those winds and the sea, that we may rest from this tempest and agitation of waves, and the overturning in which we are constituted, while at every moment we expect to be absorbed by the waves. But the great God grants us at present, that we receive by report about you, that you are concordant in all things and unanimous among yourselves, and that the doctrine of piety is announced among you without any contradiction. For indeed at some time it will be necessary (unless first the times of the world be concluded, nor the days of human life be prolonged any more) that the faith, by your work throughout the East be renewed, and that by the work of the Westerns the faith be supported, and that you communicate to it the retribution of the goods which you thence derived. The sound portion among us, and about to vindicate the piety of our ancestors, labors in a vehement degree, the devil afflicting it with many and various machines applied, and shaking it with all artifice employed. But through your prayers who love God, that impious Arian heresy, and devised for deceiving the people, can perhaps be extinguished and abolished; and the doctrine of the ancestors anew shine forth, who at Nicaea convened in synod; that we may render to the holy Trinity the doxology, congruous to the salutary Baptism. But that which here Basil says, about the orthodox Faith to be at some time restored in the East through the Westerns, he wishes not in vain: can seem to have had a certain force of more hidden prophecy; since, the Saint approaching to the end of his life, Gratian the Emperor of the West, and Theodosius born in the Spains, made the orthodox Faith, oppressed by so long a persecution, at last breathe again.

[240] he consoles the afflicted, The persecution of Valens therefore raging, and devastating the Churches in every direction, through Syria, Palestine, Egypt; Basil, left for a while in peace, seemed preserved by Divine providence, that he might console those who were in every pressure. And therefore by his letters by soothing, exhorting, instructing, he in a certain manner took upon himself the solicitude of all the Churches. B. Ep. 187 Among these comes to be numbered St. Meletius, who at this time expelled into lesser Armenia, bravely endured his third exile; and he seems to have dwelt at Getasa, his own estate near Nicopolis. especially St. Meletius: How great and how pious a friendship Basil cultivated with him, is abundantly read everywhere in his epistles, but most of all in this which I subjoin: If in some way it had been known to your Piety, with how great joy you affect us, as often as you write; never surely, I know, would you have neglected an offered occasion of writing; but with zeal too you would always have given us many epistles; as one who knows that for the refreshment of the afflicted there is laid up with the divine benignity a reward. B. Ep. 56 much delighted by his letters For all things here are full of grief, and our only averting of evils is the thought of your Holiness, which the commemoration of your affairs, which abound in all wisdom and grace, renders to us more evident. And so if ever we take your epistle into our hands, first we inspect what its measure is; and we love it as much as it abounds in multitude of lines. Then while by reading we run through it, we rejoice indeed perpetually, as long as we linger in its discourse; but when we have begun to approach the end of the epistle, and desiring conversation, we grieve. Thus indeed whatever good you have said is contained in your letters: for that which flows from a good heart, is good. But if by the intervention of your prayers, while we are in this earth, we should be held worthy both of conversation present to your very sight, and from that living voice deserve to receive salutary doctrine, like a provision for the present and future age; that surely we would judge the greatest good,

and would reckon for ourselves a beginning of divine benevolence.

[241] Meletius being absent from Antioch, the care of his Church two Presbyters took up, while at Antioch they watch over it for him Flavian and Diodorus. l. 4, c. 23 About whom Theodoret thus speaks: These two take up the care of the Flock, and both resist the wolves by their fortitude and wisdom, and apply a fitting cure to the sheep: and so the sheep driven from the roots of the mountain, they fed on the banks of a neighboring river. For not after the manner of those, who of old were held captive at Babylon, did they hang up their instruments; but their founder and patron in every place of his dominion they celebrated with hymns. But for the rest not even in that place did that enemy suffer an assembly of pious Pastors, extolling Christ the Lord with divine praises, to be held. Accordingly those two admirable Pastors, the divine sheep being gathered as into a martial gymnasium, showed spiritual herbs: and Diodorus, Diodorus a most wise and most brave man, like a limpid and huge river, both watered the minds of his own with rivulets of fortitude, and utterly overwhelmed the blasphemies of the adversaries with the waves of sincere doctrine: who as he reckoned the splendor of his birth for nothing, so he willingly endured tribulations for the defense of the faith. But Flavian, the best man, although sprung from the Patricians, yet counted piety alone in the place of nobility, and like a master of the wrestling-school, anointed the great Diodorus, like an athlete most exercised in every kind of contest. For at that time, although he himself by no means preached in the ecclesiastical assemblies, yet to those who performed that office, and Flavian the Presbyters; he supplied a great abundance of arguments and sentences, drawn from the sacred letters. And as they bent their bows against the Arian blasphemy, so this one from his mind, as from a quiver, supplied them darts. Nay even the nets of the heretics, by disputing privately and publicly, he easily broke; and demonstrated that the arguments proposed by them were like the webs of spiders.

[242] Diodorus afterward obtained the Archiepiscopal Chair of Tarsus in Cilicia, of whom the former was afterward Bishop of Tarsus; St. Meletius probably laboring for it; but he shone more as a Presbyter of Antioch, than as Bishop of Tarsus. Him, as the foster-child of the Blessed Silvanus, Basil first received, then loved and embraced, on account of the grace of his speech, through which many of those who heard the man were rendered better; although on account of the intercourse which he had with him, he was accused by some. Hieron. de Script., B. Ep. 82 For Diodorus with many, even after death, the latter afterward, perhaps falsely, suspected in faith, came into suspicion of heresy. Nevertheless, if he was really contaminated with a heretical stain, his friendship ought not to be imputed to St. Basil as a crime; but he is to be numbered among those, who, having feigned piety, drew the Saint into admiration and love of themselves: for at that time, in which he administered the Antiochene Church for St. Meletius, he seems to have labored under no worse fame.

[243] There are extant to him two epistles given by Basil, of which I have thought the beginning of the former, since it is historical, should be here appended. B. Ep. 197 There were brought to us letters, he says, and accused of approving marriages. having the superscription of Diodorus; but the rest of them, seemed to suit some other rather than Diodorus. For someone of the artful ones seems to me to have put on your person for this, that in this way he might render himself worthy of faith to the hearers, as if questioned by someone, whether it be lawful to take in matrimony the sister of a deceased wife, he did not shrink from that question, but placidly accommodated his ear, and quite strongly excused an obscene concupiscence together with him. I would have sent this writing to you, if it had been at hand, and it would have sufficed both for you yourself and for the truth to vindicate yourselves. But since he who had shown it soon took it away, and carried it around against us in the place of a certain trophy, that we had at the beginning prohibited this matter, and said he had it in writing as authority; I have now written to you, that with both hands we may detect this adulterine writing, and leave it no strength, lest it can easily bring harm to readers. with the sister of a deceased wife; First therefore, which in matters of this kind is of the greatest moment, we can oppose the custom which is among us, that it has the force of law: because these sanctions have been handed down to us by holy men. But this custom is such. If anyone, seized by an affection of uncleanness, has strayed to the illicit communication of two sisters, this is to be esteemed neither a marriage, nor are such to be admitted to the ecclesiastical assembly, before they are separated from one another. Wherefore even if nothing else could be said, this custom would suffice for guarding against this evil. But since he who wrote this epistle, by an adulterine argumentation tried to introduce so great an evil into human life; it is necessary, that neither we cease, but that we bring the support of right reasoning; although in those matters which are quite perspicuous, there is greater foreknowledge with each one, than is any argumentation of discourse. The Saint then proceeds with several arguments to show, that such a marriage is incestuous, those things being refuted which by the author of the epistle, divulged in the name of Diodorus, he is admonished that those things are altogether incestuous. had been brought from the divine Scriptures for such a marriage. But whether that writing, which Basil here reprehends, was really Diodorus's, or supposed under his name by the heretics, or by the adulterer himself (which seems more credible) that they might kindle envy against Basil, and traduce his fame, as if he were introducing a certain pernicious doctrine as to morals into the Church, or permitted it to be handed down by those rightly thinking with him in faith; whether, I say, it was Diodorus's; is not altogether clear: since it is not known, what he replied here to this epistle of Basil. If however it was his, Basil shows sufficiently, that he loves the man indeed, not his errors.

[244] praising the same about one well-written little book, In another epistle Basil amicably instructs and reprehends Diodorus. He had sent him two books, which he had written against the heretics, seeking his judgment about them. The former little book Basil praises, and affirms that he was greatly delighted by it, not only on account of its brevity, as was fitting to happen to one who is now toward all things sluggishly and grievously affected; but also because it is dense at the same time and filled with sentences, and has the objections of the contrary and the responses subjoined to them, not confusedly, but digested in right order. B. Ep. 167 The unaffected and incomposed simplicity of the diction besides seemed to him becoming, and suited to the profession of a Christian man, whose part it is not to write more for ostentation than for the public utility. And this book indeed he detained with himself, desiring to take care that it be transcribed. But it was difficult to find anyone, who was strong in the faculty of writing; for to such want had the envious affairs of the Cappadocians come.

[245] in the other the Saint indicates certain things to be corrected, In the other volume, which was larger, the Saint reprehended various things. For, having the same faculty in matters as the first, he says, but in a more instructed diction and various figures of speech and adorned more ornately with dialogic festivity, it seemed to me to demand much both of time for reading through, and of labor for understanding, in order that the senses be both gathered, and committed to memory. For the calumnies of the adversaries and the contentions of our own interspersed, although they seem to bring a certain dialectical sweetness to the commentary, yet because they generate so much delay, confuse and tear up the intention of the mind, and render remiss too the vigor of strenuous discourse… Wherefore both for us, who gird ourselves to writing not for the sake of empty glory, but for this, that we may leave to the Brethren monuments of useful and salubrious discourses; if we have introduced some person, with friendly liberty, as he was wont. who on account of the obstinacy of his morals is already before both known and proclaimed to all, and about whose quality certain things are to be woven; it altogether befits us, the matters themselves being left, to touch such men: but if it be indefinite about whom we speak, those personal contentions indeed interrupt the connection of the discourse, but bring at last no utility. These things I write, that it may be declared, how you have sent your labors not into the hand of a flatterer, but have communicated them to a most dear Brother. And these things indeed I have said, not for the correction of the things which have been written, but for the guarding and caution of things to come. For altogether he who spends so much habit and zeal on writing, will hereafter not cease to write; since neither will those cease, who furnish arguments for writing. These things are therefore said, that it may appear, what measure and end the Saint proposed to himself in writing, and judged should be held by others, even those writing against heretics; and how not undeservedly St. Jerome wrote about Diodorus, that he followed the sense of Eusebius of Emesa, but could not imitate his eloquence, on account of his ignorance of secular letters: which yet is not necessarily to be so understood, that he fell into his and the Arians' errors when made Bishop, which existing as a Presbyter he had so strongly assailed. de Script.

[246] writing to the Antiochenes in persecution, Meanwhile when daily the persecution took great increases, the persecutor himself staying at Antioch, especially against the orthodox, who communicated with St. Meletius (for Paulinus, either because he had few communicating with him, or because the fury of Valens revered his sanctity, it passed over) the persecution, I say, growing heavier, SS. Aphraates and Julian Sabas joined themselves to Flavian and Diodorus. But with how great grief of mind Basil beheld this flame of persecution from afar, and with how great desire he was held to succor the Brethren present, he himself explains thus writing: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly to you, and fulfill the desire by which I aspire to the meeting of your Dilection? B. Ep. 60 But now not only am I destitute of wings, but of my very body too, which both is now long since worn out by long sickness, and now utterly worn down by continuous tribulations. For who is so adamantine in mind? who so plainly devoid of all commiseration and unkind? who when he hears, how on every side groans and mourning, as from a certain sad choir bewailing with a common and consonant lamentation, assail us; would not condole in mind, and be bent to the earth from mourning, and be utterly wasted by these immense cares? But the holy God can give some relaxation from immense and deplored cares, and grant a certain breathing from long-lasting labors. And so I beg you too, that you embrace the same consolation, and in hope of consolation let us endure with joy the mourning of the present tribulation. For whether we pay the penalties of sins, the scourges will avail for this, that hereafter they avert the wrath of God, which was impending; or whether in the contests, by which for the sake of piety we contend, we are corroborated through tribulations, he is just who invites us to endure the struggles by rewards, so that he does not suffer us to be tempted above that which we can bear: but for the labors of patience already endured renders to us also a crown of hope in him. Lest therefore for contending

the struggles of piety we be wearied out, nor through despair lose the things which have now been contended for. For not by one act of fortitude, nor by some slight labor is a specimen of a constant mind given; but he who proves our hearts, wishes us, declared victors by a long and prolonged proof, to obtain the crown of justice. Only let our mind be kept constant and faithful, he consoles them with the hope of future peace. let the strength of our faith in Christ be kept unmoved, and shortly and swiftly the helper will come, he will come and will not tarry. For tribulation upon tribulation is to be embraced, hope upon hope: yet a little, yet a little: for in this manner the Holy Spirit knows how to refresh his foster-children with the promise of things to come. For after tribulations follows hope: but the things which are hoped follow close at hand. For even if anyone should set forth the whole life of men, yet its space is very short, in respect of the infinite age which is laid up in our hope. By these things Basil indeed having consoled and exhorted the Antiochenes, has left us a better image of the internal affections of his mind.

CHAPTER XX.

He consoles in persecution the Chalcidians, the Beroeans, Barsus the exiled Bishop of Edessa, Peter likewise of Alexandria and his Church.

[247] Let us pass from the metropolis of Syria to the neighboring Churches, Basil replies to the letters of the Chalcidians in which a similar persecution furnished to the faithful much material of patience, to Basil of commiseration. From the Church of Laodicea was expelled into exile St. Pelagius the Bishop, who in this year had subscribed to the letter to be sent to the Westerns. That the Chalcidian Church suffered many things we showed above from a letter of Basil, and this can be confirmed from another epistle given by him to the Clergy, who besides their letters had sent Acacius the Presbyter, that he might teach Basil about all things. B. Ep. 299 He therefore, after thanks given, that God had imparted to him great consolation through their letters, which by no means represented a corporeal figure, but the very intimate disposition of the mind: The most longed-for, praising their contests for the faith he says, Brother and most religious Co-presbyter of ours Acacius, who reported more things than were consigned in your writings, while as if under the eyes he set forth to be beheld your daily contest, and your most intense contention for religion and piety. He led me into so great admiration, and kindled so great a desire of enjoying those goods of yours, that by prayers I contended with the Lord, that he would grant me at some time an opportune time, that I myself by experience might be able to know your affairs. and the concord of minds, For he reported to me not only your most exact sedulity, you to whom the ministration of the altar is entrusted; but the concord of the whole people conspiring: he proclaimed the magnificent and excellent morals of the Magistrates and Prefects of the city, and how they were endowed with a genuine affection toward God; so much so that I proclaimed that Church happy, which consisted of such and so great men; and I more vehemently entreat God at present, that he grant you that tranquillity, which is according to the spirit; that you may bring back the fruit of the virtue, which through the time of your contest you display, and he exhorts to persevere, and its enjoyment in the time of quiet and remission of evils. For so it is framed by nature, that those who have experienced adversities take pleasure afterward from the very recollection of them. As regards the present, we exhort you, not to be cast down by sloth, nor to wish to despair on account of the multiplied adversities by which you are pressed. For the crowns are at hand; the retribution of the Lord approaches. Do not pour out those things, which you have procured with labors drained to the dregs: do not render vain and empty the passions, which everywhere on earth are celebrated by the proclamations of all. The condition of human affairs is very brief. 1 Peter 1 All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass: the grass has withered and the flower has fallen, but the word of the Lord abides forever. Always most studiously mindful of that precept, let us have no account or care of the phantasy that is about to fly away. Your example certainly has raised up even now very many Churches: you have heaped up for yourselves a huge, and yet not expected, reward; because you have roused the inexperienced, to a like ardor of zeal. Rich is the remunerator, who is able to render to you the most worthy prizes of your contests.

[248] To the Church of Beroea, likewise groaning under persecution, as also the Beroeans. of which afterward that Acacius held the Episcopate, he wrote to almost the same effect: We have long since had you known, O most longed-for, he says, from that piety of yours so celebrated, as also the crowns too of your confession according to Christ. B. Ep. 298 But perhaps someone of you may say, And who is he, who carried these very things into regions so remote! The Lord surely, who makes the worshippers of his religion, like lamps constituted on candlesticks, diffuse his light through the whole world. Or does he not who have contended most excellently, make celebrated and illustrious by the prize of victory? Does not the excellence of works and exquisite artifice make the artificers illustrious? But if on account of these things eternal memory follows those; how shall he not make those, who lived holily and religiously according to Christ, of whom the Lord himself said, Those glorifying me I will glorify, known to all and most renowned, making the splendor of their renown equal to the sun's rays, flashing far and wide? You certainly have inflamed us with a greater desire of you, since you deigned to give letters to us; and letters of such a kind, by which, those true contests of yours for piety, before foreknown to us, you have heaped up with a fuller and more vivid praise of your magnanimity for the orthodox faith. For this cause we congratulate you, and rejoice with you, and with united wishes contend, that that God of all, whose this contest is, for which the wrestling, through whom the crowns are distributed, may engender alacrity of minds, confirm complete fortitude, and lead this work of yours to a consummated end for his own glory.

[249] he writes to Barsus the exiled Bishop of Edessa, Before all, at this time shone the fortitude of the Edessenes, over whom presided St. Barsus the Bishop, illustrated by us on the 30th of January. To him, engaged in exile, Basil wrote two epistles; in each testifying his ardent desire, by which he wished to see him in person, if the urgent necessity of his Church and his adverse health did not detain him. In the former, sent through Domninus, he asks his prayers, that the persecution be ended: To the most genuine Brethren about to set out to your Piety, he says, Domninus and his companions, I gladly seized the offered occasion of writing letters, and through them of saluting you, suppliantly contending with the holy God, that for a while I may remain alive in this life, until I can be held worthy to behold your face in person, and to enjoy the graces which are in you. But this I beseech together, that the Lord deliver us not forever to the enemies of the Cross of Christ, but deign to guard his Churches for a peaceful time, which the most just judge knows best of all when he will grant. He certainly will grant it, nor will he forsake us forever: but, just as for the vengeance of their sins he had determined seventy years of captivity upon the Israelites, so perhaps the Omnipotent, who has delivered us for a time appointed with himself, will at some time recall us, and lead us back to that peace and tranquillity which we once enjoyed: unless perhaps now close at hand is the apostasy, and the things which are done are preludes to the entrance of Antichrist. If this be so, entreat God, that either he transfer the tribulations, or by his goodness keep us indemnified and unharmed through these tribulations. The assembly which is with you at present salute all in my name, religious man. Your Piety those who are with me each one salute. May you live, may you rejoice, made a suppliant to the Lord for me, whom he greatly desires to see, may you be kept together with the Churches of God, through his grace and benignity. But this epistle does not seem to have reached the hands of the holy exile: wherefore another of almost the same argument had to be written, but in which he shows more, how great an opinion about his sanctity and merits with God he had conceived.

[250] With what propension, he says, I am toward your Piety, I would indeed have vehemently desired, that I myself should come, and in person salute your genuine dilection, and celebrate the Lord magnified in you, who had constituted your most illustrious old age, among all throughout the whole world who fear God, venerable in himself. B. Ep. 327 Yet nevertheless since both the afflicted health of my body wears me out, and I am overwhelmed by an immense mass of cares undertaken for the Churches, nor am of my own right or power, so that wherever the mind bears I may travel, and whomever I have wished I may meet; that desire by which I burn of enjoying those goods which are in you, through letters I somewhat relieve; and I conjure your excelling Piety, and asks his prayers for the Churches that you have both me, and the Churches commended in your prayers; that the days which remain, or perhaps the hours of this life, I may pass without any offense and lapse: may he grant us besides that we may behold peace in his Churches; and about your fellow-ministers and fellow-contenders may we hear by report no other things than those we would wish, and about you yourself no other than those which the people subject to you desire for you from the Lord of justice day and night. But know that I have not written frequently, nay nor as much as was fitting and congruous; but now I write having found some of our own, who were going to your reverence: for through others if I had written, perhaps they would not have held in memory by what name he who had given the letters was called. But to our Brethren I quite briskly handed the epistles, and at the same time certain little gifts, to whom he sends little gifts. which deign, I pray, by no means haughtily to receive from our humility, and to impart to us your blessing, after the example of the Patriarch Isaac. If anything, little mindful of decorum and fittingness, I have admitted, as one by no means of all the most idle, but having my mind deeply immersed in a multitude of cares; do not, I pray, impute that to a fault, nor be affected with any sadness thence; but rather imitate your own perfection in all things everywhere, that I may enjoy your own virtue, which all the rest enjoy. Alive and joyful in the Lord, and having me commended in your prayers, may you be kept for me and for the Church of God.

[251] The constancy in faith of the Edessenes How not undeservedly Basil pursued this holy Bishop with so great veneration and love, and had placed so great confidence in his sanctity, the fortitude of the Edessenes in this persecution abundantly proved, and their zeal for the orthodox Faith. For a great ardor of faith must have sat in his mind, who had kindled such and so great in his subjects, whose constancy was so illustrious and excellent, that it merited to be praised by almost all writers. We have given it described at more length from Theodoret on the 5th of May at the life of St. Eulogius: but lest I send the reader thither, I will give it described in few words from Rufinus: Edessa, a city of Mesopotamia of faithful peoples, is adorned with the relics of the Apostle Thomas. l. 11, c. 5 There when the Emperor had seen the peoples ejected from the churches hold a conventicle in the field; he is said to have been kindled with so great anger, that he struck his Prefect with his fist; why they had not been

driven out thence too, as he had commanded. But he, although he was a pagan and had been affected with injuries by the Emperor, yet from a consideration of humanity, about to proceed on the second day to lay waste the people, makes this very thing become clear to the citizens through secret indications, namely that they might be able to beware, lest they be found in the place. In the morning therefore about to proceed he stirs a greater terror than usual through his Office, and does all things that as few as possible, or if it could be done none, might be in peril. Yet he sees a more frequent people than usual tend to the place, run headlong and hasten, as if they feared lest anyone be lacking to death. He sees also a certain little woman, so hasty and hurried to burst forth from her house, and the fervor and passion of a certain woman. that she neither closed the door, nor cared to compose her womanly attire more becomingly; dragging also a little infant with her, and with rapid running, the column of the Office too being burst through, hastening. Then he, no longer bearing it; Seize, he says, the woman, and lead her here. And when she had been brought; Whither, he says, unhappy woman, do you hasten so hurried? To the field, she says, where the people of the Catholics convenes. And, have you not heard, he says, that the Prefect proceeds thither, that he may kill all whom he finds? I have heard, she says, and therefore I hasten that I may be found there. And whither, he says, do you drag this little one? That he too, she says, may merit to obtain martyrdom. Which things when that most moderate man had heard, he bids the Office return and the vehicle be turned to the palace. And having entered he says to the Emperor: To undergo death if you command, I am prepared, but the work which you enjoin I cannot fulfill. And when he had taught all about the woman, he repressed the madness of the Emperor. Modestus the Prefect, who is here called a most moderate man, was certainly not such when he persecuted Basil: but the disease divinely inflicted and the health miraculously restored through him, perhaps mixed somewhat of moderation into his fury. Hence however it appears, that he did not together with the health of the body receive also rectitude of mind: for neither did he withdraw from heresy, nor did he dare to profess the Catholic faith openly, nor did he repress the Emperor's madness, except perhaps for a short time.

[252] Through Palestine too no less than through Syria the fury of persecution raged: St. Athanasius being dead but since I have found nothing done by Basil in respect of them, I pass to the Church of Alexandria. This indeed St. Athanasius, as long as he was alive, preserved in peace by his authority, just as Basil that of Caesarea; but after he passed to heaven, and in his place Peter, commended to the Church by Athanasius, the companion of all his labors and heir of his virtues, to his successor Peter was substituted, a serener air could seem to shine; if a huge tempest of persecution had not immediately disturbed all things. B. Ep. 320 But before this arose, immediately after his exaltation, Basil, although he had never seen him, yet on account of his virtue, which he had learned from fame, loved him. For as the procurers and conciliators of corporeal friendship are the eyes, so long-lasting intercourse strengthens it: but a true and by no means feigned love, the gift of the spirit joins together, which indeed couples and joins together things separated as far as possible by places, and renders lovers known to one another, not through any corporeal characters, but through the properties of virtues. This very thing when the divine grace had worked between them, which had granted to Basil an opportune handle, Basil writes, of using the eyes of the soul upon Peter and embracing him with genuine love, he wrote, that he wished to become one with him by growing together, and through the communion of Faith to come into one union. For I trust, he says, that you, the foster-child of so great a man, with whom you long since had use and intercourse, walk with the same spirit as he, and adhere to the same footsteps of piety and doctrine. For this cause I address your reverence, and conjure, that you be willing to foster that most eminent man's affection toward me, just as it was taken up toward others; and to render me by your frequent letters more certain, in what state your affairs are engaged; and to take up the care of the Brotherhood diffused in every direction, with the same bowels, and the same alacrity, with which that most blessed man is found to have used toward all those, who in truth loved God.

[253] That friendly and pious commerce of letters, begun on this occasion between Basil and Peter, was thereafter so faithfully continued; that this one is found to have amicably expostulated with him, that about all things whether small or great which had happened among them, and contracts a close friendship he had not made him certain by letters. But Basil replied, as befitted a spiritual Brother, taught true dilection in the Lord, excusing that he had written nothing about a certain trouble brought upon him, because on account of the multitude of greater calamities he had not deemed it worthy of the pen. B. Ep. 321 The uninterrupted tempest of our afflictions, he says, and the manifold present surge by which the Church is shaken, bring it about, that I do not become a stranger to whatever befalls. For as those whose ears in the bronze workshops have grown accustomed to such continued blows, so that they are not struck by those sounds perpetually to be heard; [and teaches him, that he being accustomed to persecutions endures them more easily.] so we too, on account of the frequent reports of adverse things, are so accustomed, that hereafter against whatever even the most incredible we possess an undisturbed mind, and one cast down by no fear. The things which are against the state of the Church, long since procured by the Arians, although they be many and great, and disseminated through the world by the discourses of all; were nonetheless to be endured, because they proceeded from manifest enemies, and from those fighting against the word of truth with a hostile mind. We marvel at them, if it ever happens, that they do not obtain their old way, that from time to time they do not attempt something more audacious and criminal against piety. But these things seem to have been written, after Peter returned from exile was restored to his See. But in the time of his exile, what and how great things the Alexandrian Church suffered, are celebrated by all the writers of that age, and would here be passed over, him being relegated into exile, unless toward that Church, Basil too at that time had dilated the bowels of his charity; trying to bring some consolation and spiritual support, and desiring with so great ardor to communicate with the passions of the Alexandrian faithful, that he would have immediately run thither, if the disease of his body and the necessity of his Church had not detained him at home.

[254] About the persecutions, he says, at Alexandria and the rest of Egypt the report long since came to us, he writes to the Alexandrians, and affected our minds as was fitting. B. Ep. 71 For we weighed the cunning of the diabolic war; how it, when it saw the Church, from the persecution brought by the enemies, multiplied and flourishing more; changed its snares, so that now it assails us not openly, but builds hidden snares; covering its counsel by the Christian name, which the heretics pretend, that we may both suffer the same things with our fathers, and yet not seem to suffer for Christ: because our very persecutors are reckoned by the name of Christians. Considering these things, from the report of the things which were announced as done among you, long and much we hesitated, consternated in mind. For truly both our ears tingled, when we learned the impudent and human-race-hostile heresy of those, who persecuted you; how they neither revered any age, nor the labors of hoary hair, nor the people's dilection: but scourged and dishonored bodies, and cast them into exiles, and plundered goods, astonished by the report of the persecution brought upon them, whatever they could acquire: neither fearing human condemnation, nor foreseeing the terrible retribution of the just judge: these things stupefied us, and almost deprived us of sense itself. But there was added to these disputations of my mind this thought too, Has the Lord altogether left his Churches? Is it the last hour, and in this manner does the falling-away take its beginning, so that now henceforth may be revealed that iniquitous one, the son of perdition, who opposes and is exalted above all that is called God or Numen?

[255] Nevertheless whether that temptation be temporary, bear it as good athletes of Christ; to enduring which bravely however he exhorts or whether in every way our affairs have been delivered to corruption, let us not be slothful on account of the things which happen; but let us await the revelation from heaven and the appearing of the great God and our savior Jesus Christ. For if the whole creation shall be dissolved, and the figure of this world shall be changed: what wonder is it, if we too, who are a certain portion of the creation, have borne common afflictions, and have been delivered to tribulations; which according to the measure of our strength the just judge brings upon us, who will not suffer us to be tempted above what we shall be able to bear, but with the temptation too will give an issue, that we may be able to bear it? The crowns of the Martyrs await you, Brethren: the choirs of the Confessors are ready, to stretch out their hands to you, and to receive you into their number. Be mindful of the ancient Saints, how none of them, through delights and flatteries, by the example of the Saints, was made worthy of the crowns of patience; but all having entered through great tribulations, gave an experiment of themselves. For some were tried by mockings and scourges, others were tempted, were cut asunder, fell in the slaughter of the sword. These are the things from which the Saints glory. Blessed is he who is held worthy, to suffer for Christ: of a blessed mouth is he, who has borne more abundant afflictions; because the present afflictions are not equal to the future glory, which shall be revealed in us. But if I myself could have come to you, nothing would have been dearer than meeting you, that I might both see and embrace the athletes of Christ, and obtain the fellowship of prayers and spiritual gifts, which have been given to you. But since I have a body worn out by long-lasting disease, and he grieves that he cannot console them in person. so that I cannot even descend from my bed, and there are many who like rapacious wolves lie in wait for us, hunting for an occasion, whether in some way they can at some time snatch the little sheep of Christ, of necessity I have resolved to visit you by letters; beseeching first of all indeed, that you continually pray for us, that I may merit to serve the Lord the remaining days, or even hours, according to the Gospel of the kingdom; but then that you pardon both my unskillfulness and the slowness of my letters: for the abundance of that man has hardly been granted us, who can serve our desire. But I speak of Eugenius the Monk, our son, through whom I beseech you, that you pray for us and the whole Church, and write back about your affairs, that those being known we may be rendered more brisk.

CHAPTER XXI.

Cappadocia divided into two provinces. The contention with Anthimus the Bishop of Tyana: Nyssen ordained Bishop, and the Theologian of Sasima.

[256] Cappadocia, to be divided in two, Amid so many and so great tumults, by which almost the whole East was shaken, the province of Cappadocia could seem happy, from which the virtue and doctrine of Basil had driven away the tempest of persecution, which had almost oppressed (as we have already seen) very many Churches. It could, I say, seem happy to itself, unless another calamity had taken hold of it: which indeed compared to those past

could seem much lighter, but to Basil himself much more troublesome: as one upon whom lay not only the solicitude of the Churches, but also the paternal care which Christian charity had imposed on him about the conveniences of almost each of his subjects. The first origin of that tempest was the political division of the Province of Cappadocia into two, which had arisen to overturn the whole fortune and splendor of the city of Caesarea. The cause for which this division of the Province was devised, it is not permitted to attain except by conjecture. But it seems that a great part in that counsel was held by the avarice of those, who were with Valens, or presided over the treasury of the Empire. For its revenues either they themselves believed were to be increased, on account of the avarice of the Prefects, or persuaded others for the sake of private utility; as if indeed the Province divided in two could on both sides bring in to the treasury only as much, as the one whole had before brought in: which counsel of theirs Basil refutes. B. Ep. 379 Do not think, he says, that you will have two Provinces in place of one: for neither will they bring the other of them from a world unknown to us; but they will perpetrate something not much unlike, as if someone possessing a horse or an ox, when he has cut it asunder, should think he possesses two: certainly he has destroyed that one, nor has he constituted two. For the divine providence permitted, that that impious Valens, who had conceived against the orthodox Christians a fury equal to Diocletian and Maximian, by a like dementia too vexed the political Empire; which Lactantius Firmianus in the book on the deaths of the persecutors, among the losses of the Empire sets forth in these words. And that all things might be filled with terror, the Provinces too were cut into fragments; many Presidents and more Offices lay upon the several regions and now almost upon the cities, an example introduced of what was done by Diocletian, likewise many Rationals and Masters and Vicars of the Prefects, with all whom civil acts were quite rare, but only condemnations and proscriptions frequent; exactions of innumerable things I will not say frequent, but perpetual, and in the exactions injuries not to be borne.

[257] But for the rest that this division of Cappadocia might be carried out, it had been decreed that Tyana should be the Metropolis of the second Cappadocia; and therefore that a part of the Senate and of the chief citizens should be transferred to Podandus: which, as far as I attain by conjecture, was a certain place of Tyana, such as the Areopagus had been at Athens. When this had been reported from the court and divulged through Cappadocia, it excited various motions of minds: he implores the aid of Basil, but before the rest it filled Caesarea with disturbance and mourning. This too the money-census increased, on the same occasion to be exacted from each: for an exaction of money of this kind is numbered among those things, which of old the savagery of Galerius Maximian devised to vex the commonwealth, when, as Lactantius Firmianus cited above says, the cause of the public calamity and common mourning of all was, the census once sent into the provinces and cities; and Censitors being diffused everywhere, and shaking up all things, there were appearances of a hostile tumult and of a horrendous captivity. While such things are agitated at Caesarea, Basil was away from the city, about to visit a certain noble Martinianus his friend; but the people of Caesarea recalled their Bishop from the journey: for they had reposed great hope of disturbing that counsel, in his prudence and authority. He returned therefore, and sent to Martinianus on his own behalf an epistle, in which from his authority with the Princes, he asks aid for his citizens; and sets forth various things looking to this matter in whatever way, nor is there another from which more light as to this history can be drawn. B. Ep. 379 But what cause, he says, of letters at present has there been? It is just that I be present in person, since my ill-affected country calls me to itself. the influence here of the Prince Martinianus: How it is affected, is not hidden from you, best of men. The Maenad demons truly have torn it apart after the manner of Pentheus: they tear and cut it asunder, just as less skilled physicians render wounds graver through unskillfulness. Which since being cut asunder it so labors, it remains, that as to a sick woman we apply medical hands. To me therefore my citizens have sent, and have solicited me: but it is necessary that I run thither; not because I can be of aid to anyone; but lest I incur a just reprehension of forsaking: for you know how credulous those pressed by difficulties are: how easily they descend to accusing, the accusation turned into aid neglected, and not furnished.

[258] For this very cause, I ask you to meet the Prince, and bring forth your opinion: whom he asks to persuade the Emperor nay rather devise something more audacious, and which befits the greatness of your mind, and do not desert your country fallen from its noble state; but having set out to the court, and using your accustomed liberty, say: Do not think, that you will have two Provinces in place of one… Nay throw too at those who abuse power, that not by this way are the revenues of the Empire to be increased; since power is esteemed not by number, but by strength and resources. Surely we think, that some on account of the truth being unknown, others lest by their words they offend, others because they have no care of affairs, hold up and down the things which are done. If therefore you yourself approach the Emperor in person, this would be most fitting to the state of affairs, the division not only useless, and congruous to the institute of your whole life. But if this be troublesome, both for other causes, and even on account of the season of the year or your age, which you yourself excuse, which has always joined to it a certain heaviness; yet to deprecate by letter what labor is it? This epistolary support, if you indulge to your country, first you will be conscious to yourself, that nothing at all has been omitted by you, which was placed in your power: but also calamitous about to be for the country, then you would also bring solace to the afflicted, by this very thing that you bear before you that you condole with their evils. For indeed if it were lawful, that coming as an eyewitness to the matter at hand, you should behold our calamities with your own eyes; perhaps efficaciously moved by the very sight, you would utter some voice, which would be worthy of your greatness of mind and of the affliction of the city.

[259] Yet that you may not detract faith from our narration, I would wish we had hired Simonides or some similar Poet, who might efficaciously deplore these calamities of ours. which now deserted by learned men, But why do I tell of Simonides? I would have said Aeschylus, or if there is any other like him, who representing to you to the life the huge mass of the calamity, might lament in magnificent discourse. For the meetings, and the discourses through assemblies, and the conversations of learned men in the forum, and the things which before this rendered this city illustrious, all now long since have forsaken us; so that anyone illustrious in erudition and speech is now more rarely beheld through the forum, than at Athens of old were seen those who had undergone the judgment of infamy, or who had polluted hands. There has been introduced the unlearned barbarism of the Scythians or Massagetae: one voice of those demanding judgment, and of the demanded, and of those striking with whips: on both sides the porticoes resound something mournful, which seem to utter their own proper voice, groaning at the things which are done. The Gymnasia are closed, the nights moonless; nor does our solicitude about our own life suffer us to think anything. A peril certainly not the slightest impends to be, that the princes of the city being taken away, the Senate and chief men being led off to Podandus, together with them, as if the props being collapsed, the whole mass should fall. But what discourse can sufficiently express these evils of ours? Some have cast themselves into flight, not the last part of our Senate, and have preferred perpetual exile to Podandus. When I have said Podandus, suppose that I understand the Laconian Ceadas, or wherever on earth there is some natural pit (of which kind places some are wont to call Charonian) exhaling a pestilent and pernicious air. To a workhouse of this kind think that evil of Podandus most similar. The citizens therefore being divided into three parts, one together with their wives are fugitives hence, and even their very household gods; the other is led off as if captive; and these indeed are the princes of the city by far the most, exhibiting to friends a pitiable, to enemies a pleasant spectacle; if only anyone exists of so hostile a mind, it is to be utterly desolated. that he should imprecate on us so great an evil. The third portion indeed is left: but these not bearing the desolation of friends, and not sufficient for use and necessity, despair indeed of life itself. This I conjure you to make manifest to all, by your voice and that just liberty, which has accrued to you through the manner of your life. Announce, that it will be, that unless as quickly as possible they change their opinion, they will not have those in whom they can exhibit mercy. Certainly to the common affairs you will either be of aid or at least you will do that, which Solon of old is narrated to have done: who when, his citizens and city being left, he could not keep liberty safe and whole, the citadel being now occupied and beset, sat down armed before his door, by his very attitude testifying that he did not approve the present condition of affairs. This I know for certain, that however much at present few have approved your opinion, it will be, that not so long after, on account of your benevolence and prudence, you will merit no slight praise, when the events of affairs shall seem to agree in all things with your prediction.

[260] Nor Martinianus alone, but also others he addressed on behalf of his country, among whom was Abyrtius, whom elsewhere he calls a splendid Minister in the royal retinue. B. Ep. 359 & 361 Him Basil addresses by his letters thus. That very country, then, which begot and nourished you, has now come to such a condition, that those fabulous narrations of the ancients are no longer to be repeated. Likewise he asks Abyrtius too, If anyone should approach our city, of those who had it formerly most known, he would scarcely or hardly recognize it, so suddenly has it become desolate and deserted. Very many townsmen before this had been drawn off thence: but now almost all have migrated to Podandus. Hence those who are left as if mutilated, both have gone into despair, and have rendered all so cast down, that the city is almost empty of inhabitants, and a huge solitude is here seen: a pitiable spectacle certainly to friends, but about to bring joy and gladness to those who once machinated this fall for us. Who therefore will there be who will stretch out a hand to us? or who will pour forth tears in compassion with us? Is it not that gentleness of yours, who would condole even with a foreign city, so wretchedly afflicted, much more with that which brought you forth into life. If you are strong in any power, make that we see it in this present necessity. Surely with God you will enter into favor, who in no tempest forsook you, but exhibited to you very many demonstrations of his benignity toward you; provided only you be willing to be roused to our aid, and by your present power and authority succor these cares of ours.

[261] Sending a similar epistle too to Sophronius; The magnitude of the calamities, he says, which have shaken my country, would have compelled me, having set out to the camp, to set forth in person to you and others endowed with illustrious dignity and prefects of affairs, magnificent man, what and of what kind are the things which vehemently afflict our city. B. Ep. 331 and Sophronius, But since both the adverse health of my body, and also the incumbent care of the Churches prohibit me to undertake the journey; by letters

I have chosen to deplore before your Magnificence their condition; and at the same time to make you more certain, that no little ship ever, sometime immersed and overwhelmed in the deep sea by more vehement winds and waves, so disappeared from sight; no city, shaken by earthquakes or inundations of waters, so went to ruin, as ours now, absorbed by this new appearance of administering affairs, suddenly all at once has inclined into ruin, and has come to this that it becomes a fable. The civil form of the Commonwealth, and all order and assembly has gone, the minds namely being cast down, on account of those who are in command: through the fields and country they wander, the urban houses being deserted: it has ceased to be further provided for the necessary state of affairs: a plainly shapeless spectacle is made, that which once flourished with citizens and men excelling in erudition, and was sufficiently furnished with all the other things, by which happy and blessed cities are wont to be proclaimed. The only remaining consolation in these so great evils we think to be this, that it is permitted us to deplore our calamities before your Clemency; and to conjure, that you be willing to bring help, if in some way you can, and to extend a hand to our city prostrate on its knees. But that means, by which as a savior you may shine upon ruined affairs, I certainly can by no means insinuate to you. To you namely, such is your prudence, it is easy to find a means, and once found to use it happily, on account of that power which the Lord has granted you.

[262] to whom before he had commended Therasius, Furthermore since here I have made mention of Sophronius, another epistle of Basil to the same is not to be passed over in silence, in which he commends to him a certain former Prefect of Cappadocia; adorned indeed with many virtues befitting such a dignity, but falsely accused by rivals. But it is not improbable, that this very one is the great and admirable Therasius, who for a short time held the prefecture of Cappadocia, whose virtues praised by Basil, and required in those who preside over the commonwealth, it will be worth the labor to read under such a testimony. B. Ep. 226, B. Ep. 331 And who, says he to Sophronius, ever so loved his city? who honored the country in which he was born and bred, no otherwise than parents, equally as you, who both for the whole city in general, and for each of the citizens in particular, prayed for all the best things; nor only prayed, but fulfilled your prayers by the very deed and in truth. So much namely of power was granted to you, by God's benignity, and may it be granted as long as possible. But truly as if through a dream our country was made blessed, which had obtained such a man, sent there with command, as they had never known anyone here to have held the Magistracy; just as they themselves testified, who could remember and recall the past affairs of our country as ancient as possible. accused through calumny, But it was deprived of him again in a short time, through the calumnies of some, who seized the free morals of that man and alien from all soothing of flatterers as an occasion of undertaking war against him, and devised accusations for him by snares before your ears. For which cause we are all in general affected with sadness, being deprived of that Magistrate, who alone could raise up our city again, cast down and rolled onto its knees. For he was a most rigid observer of justice, easy of approach to those affected with injury, terrible to offenders, free equally toward the rich and the poor; and what is before all things, he led back Christian affairs to that old dignity of the ancients. I pass over to commemorate that of all men most he abhorred from receiving gifts, and never condoned justice for the sake of anyone's favor; for these are as it were small parts of the other virtues, with which he had been adorned. And these testimonies indeed we give to him, but the opportunity of time having slipped away; like those who sing privately to themselves, delighting their own ears: for nothing of utility accrues hence to our affairs. Nevertheless perhaps this too will have profited something, that we have laid up in your generous breast some recollection of that man; that thence you may be admonished to give thanks to him, praising his outstanding justice, who heaped with so great a benefit the country, which brought you forth; and that you may be able to be present as a prepared champion for him, and an advocate summoned to the matter at hand, if perchance any shall have risen up to calumniate him, because for observing justice he set behind their favor: that you may be able also to render most attested to anyone, that you have him especially dear; and your excellent testimony about his integrity, be a sufficient argument for persuading, that you number this man among those most closely joined to you domestically: to whom if you join the very experience from his deeds, it will be well. Many things certainly, for a space of time not long, he did excellently; and the things which scarcely in the course of many years would have been accomplished by anyone else, he in a quite short course of time most excellently consummated. Abundantly certainly you will have gratified us, and you will console the events of affairs, and asking the aid of Sophronius for him. if you have him too commended with the Emperors, and dilute the accusations falsely imputed to him. Think that the whole country does these things with you, through the ministry of my one voice; and that all and each ask with common wishes, that your dexterity be willing to procure for this man some convenience and utility.

[263] Now let us return to afflicted Cappadocia, whose division Basil, The tribute to be exacted since he could not avert it, whatever through himself or his friends he contrived, could not impede. But as to the Census imposed on each, the other head of the calamity, this he seems to have effected, that it be exacted not equally from each, but according to equity and the condition of each. Since therefore its exaction had been committed to a friend of his, a man loving justice as well as gentleness, and he therefore wished to withdraw himself from this burden; Basil, desiring that the tribute at least be collected by an upright man, since he could not impede that it be exacted, writing to the same exhorts, that he undertake that office to be administered according to equity. B. Ep. 352 You have made me, not ignorant, more certain by letters, that you bear more troublesomely the care of public affairs imposed on you: for it is an old proverb, he persuades a man of noted equity that men zealous for virtue are unwilling in magistracy. For I see the reason to be the same in all things, both of physicians, and of magistrates. They look at grave things, grow accustomed to unpleasant things, and in others' calamities gather their own proper griefs. A magistracy certainly being such, that those who pursue a gainful life, and have a mind intent on heaping up riches, or pant to this which seems a little glory, number it among the goods most especially to be desired, to be with some command; by which they may both do good to friends, and avenge themselves on enemies, and fulfill all their desires. But you are not among those. For who would you be, unless you had withdrawn yourself from the civil, and indeed so great a power to be exercised? who when you could rule the city no otherwise than your own private house, that he undertake that office. chose rather a quiet and least busy life: counting it much more important to make trouble for no one, or to experience trouble created by anyone, than others are wont to esteem themselves, on account of difficult and intractable morals. Since nevertheless it has seemed good to the Lord, not to permit the nation of the Iborites to be plundered by peddlers, nor the registration of the Census to be made no otherwise than of slaves in the forum, but each to be registered according to equity; undertake the burden imposed, troublesome indeed, yet about to conciliate to you approbation with God. Do not either dread the powerful, or trample on the poorer: but spend the equity of your mind on the affairs to be conducted so, that you become more level than the equilibrium of a balance. Thus the account of the just and the good had by you, will be rendered manifest to those who entrusted you with this office, and all others will admire you; or if it be hidden from them, it will not be hidden from our God, who has set forth for us excellent rewards of good works.

[264] And these things indeed Basil did and wrote, that from his city he might avert the calamity of this political tempest: From divided Cappadocia but from the same cause a far greater storm lay upon him and his Church, when between him and Anthimus the Bishop of Tyana, a controversy arose about Ecclesiastical jurisdiction; through which either the beginning or a great increase was taken by the dissension of the Bishops, and the war of those who had joined themselves as associates to them, both in itself quite base and ignominious, and also more pernicious to the subjects themselves. Orat. 20 the dissension among the Bishops is increased, For who can lead others to modesty, the Prelates being thus affected? And there were indeed three causes why many, even before, were of little mild and candid mind toward him. The first, that in the business of faith they by no means consented with him, except so far as that had to be done of necessity by them the multitude compelling: the second, that they had not yet altogether cast out of their minds the grief conceived from his election: the last, that they bore most bitterly that they were by far and much surpassed by him in glory, although to confess this was most base. All these things, I say, the quarrel arisen between Basil and Anthimus reulcerated. For when Cappadocia had been divided into two Provinces and Metropolises, and much was joined from the former to the new Metropolis, a dissension between them was excited for this cause. the Bishop of Tyana invading a part of that of Caesarea, For Anthimus said it was just, that with the public dioceses ours too should at the same time be divided: and for that cause those parishes, which had lately been joined to the new province, as now pertaining to himself, and drawn away from Basil, he claimed: Basil on the contrary adhered to the old custom, and to this division which had of old been made by the Fathers: but from this contention very many evils partly were already happening, partly impending. Assemblies were withdrawn by the new Metropolitan, revenues were plundered; the Presbyters of the Churches, partly were allured by the blandishments of discourses, partly were changed: from which it happened, that the affairs of the Churches were worse disposed, the subjects being split into parts and zeal; and the Bishops, after they were said to pertain to the province of Anthimus, immediately, as if they were reckoned aliens and strangers from Basil, seemed to have known him no less, than those who from the beginning had had no knowledge or experience of him at all, nor had at any time had discourses with him. B. Ep. 159

[265] and claiming the revenues for himself, But what drove Anthimus more into fury, were the revenues of Tauri: which since they were indeed seen by him in passing, but were conveyed to Caesarea through Mount Taurus, he esteemed it greatly to collect the revenues of St. Orestes; so much so that he once seized the mules of Basil making a journey, and with a predatory band prohibited them from going further. To this Nazianzen alludes, in the Epistle which he wrote when consecrated Bishop of Sasima, unwilling indeed, but yet by Basil consecrated, and that to favor him against Anthimus, contending that Sasima pertained to his province. Thus therefore, alluding to this, he jests: But I will explain what mind I have: nor be angry at me on that account. G. Ep. 31 For I will say what even to one burning

with grief I spoke, not so far either boiling with anger; or struck and astonished by the event of the matter, that reason withdrew itself, and I knew not what I said. I will not procure arms, nor learn the art of military affairs, which before I did not learn, when a more convenient time for this matter seemed to be, namely with all putting on arms and furiously engaging among themselves… nor will I receive the martial Anthimus in contest, although otherwise an immature warrior, namely I myself ignorant of military affairs and more exposed to wounds. Nay rather do you, if so it shall seem good, wage war with him (for necessity often makes even the weak warlike) or seek one who may wage war; since he has seized your mules, watching the narrows of the places, just as Amalek; when he kept Israel from passing: but to us, in place of all other things, grant quiet. For what need is there to fight for cattle and birds, and those another's, no otherwise than for souls and canons?

[266] Furthermore, lest by deeds so discordant Anthimus should incur some ignominy even with his own, a specious pretext was applied to these matters; spiritual sons, and souls, the doctrine of faith, and other things of this kind, the coverings of insatiable cupidity (a thing very easy to find) likewise this, that tribute was not to be paid to heretics: for whoever exhibited trouble, was held in the number of heretics. Orat. 20 Yet Basil, that Saint of God and truly Metropolitan of the supernal Jerusalem, neither was led away with those who erred, nor endured to dissemble and neglect this, nor devised a small remedy for this evil. But let us behold, I pray, how great and admirable, and worthy of his soul (for what else shall I say?) For he turned this dissension into the convenience and increase of the Church, and used this calamity most beautifully; namely the country being fortified with more Bishops: from which three most excellent things followed: for both greater care of souls was undertaken, and every city had its own revenues, and the war was by this means checked and extinguished. Basil remedies the evil by increasing the number of Bishops,

[267] Among the Bishops ordained on this occasion, besides the Theologian, without doubt was Gregory, among whom too was his brother, made of Nyssa, the brother of Basil, whom he set as first Bishop over the Church of Nyssa, although it was a small city and of obscure name. He was led namely by the same reasons, for which he had imposed on Gregory the Theologian the Episcopate of Sasima, a tiny and contemptible little town: yet by that deed he moved very many to admiration, and among the rest Eusebius of Samosata; to whom excusing his deed he thus writes. B. Ep. 259 My brother Gregory too I would wish himself to undergo the government of some Church, suited to his genius; that is, worthy of a greater Episcopate; to preside over all the Churches everywhere which are under the sun coalescing into one: but since this is impossible; therefore he is ordained Bishop, not one who derives glory to himself from his See, but who honors the Episcopal See. For a truly magnificent man is he; not who is procured fit only for managing great matters; but who is strong and endowed with that faculty, that he can add weight and magnitude to small things. For indeed since the province of Caesarea was no less vexed by the Arians, than it was rent by schismatic Bishops; he persuaded himself that the utility of the Churches would be provided for, if he had in his province Bishops illustrious in virtue and orthodox faith, and bound to him by consanguinity or long friendship: and for this cause he considered not so much, how illustrious was the city to which he gave a Bishop anew; but how distinguished in virtues was he whom he consecrated Bishop. For Basil, as Nazianzen says, in him thinking things more sublime than for the condition of a man, and from this even before he departed life having withdrawn, referred all things to the spirit, and the Theologian, Bishop of Sasima: and the offices of friendship, which otherwise he cultivated holily, here only spurned, where God ought to be set before; and held things placed in hope older, than fragile and perishable ones. Orat. 20 Of this counsel too as a certain appendix the same Theologian laments that he was, who how unwillingly he undertook the Episcopate of Sasima, has been narrated in his Acts.

[268] But on the day after this one had been ordained at Caesarea by Basil, there arrived there Nyssen, himself too recently created Bishop, returning from the visitation of a certain Bishop his friend, namely St. Meletius or Eusebius of Samosata: and since then the feast of certain holy Martyrs was being celebrated there, the new Bishop of Sasima had a discourse, Basil, Nyssen, and Gregory the father being present. These things performed the Theologian returns with his father to Nazianzus, thence about to set out for Sasima. But scarcely had he stopped a little at Nazianzus, when it happened that Anthimus came there, with other Bishops of his faction: about whose arrival and other things done by him the Theologian thus to Basil. G. Ep. 33 But for me to set forth all the things which the Bishops did, whom Anthimus, having in vain tried to subject to himself, and what that epistle by which you are tormented contains, and whence we began and to what we advanced, and where we made the end of writing, seems more prolix, than the measure of an epistle demands; nor is there need so much of an epistle, as of an apology. But that I may set forth the matter briefly, the most brave Anthimus came to us with certain Bishops, whether to visit my father (for that too he bore before him) or to do what he did. And when he had tried our mind in many ways, commemorating the parishes, and the Sasimene marshes, and our election; now blandly addressing, now using prayers, now threats, now expostulating, now praising, now vituperating; finally using various circles of discourse, twists and circumlocutions, as if he alone were to be set before our eyes, and the new Metropolis, as greater and more excellent; Why, I said, do you circumscribe our city, since we too make it a Church, as truly the mother of Churches, and indeed anciently? At last he departed with his matters unaccomplished, much panting, and throwing Basil at us as a kind of Philippism. Do we seem to you to be injurious to you in this? By no means, as I think.

[269] Now in what manner too that epistle of ours, that is of an insolent and contumelious man, was disposed, weigh. They forged a Synodal summons to us: but with me contending against it, and contending that contumely was being done to us; in the second place they demanded, that by my exhortation and request you should hold a consultation about these matters: which I (lest, what they were before contriving, should be done) undertook to do, making the whole matter of your discretion, whether you wish them to be gathered, and where, and when: which indeed was the part of a man affecting you, not with contumely, but with honor. to force he adds contumely too. But since not even here was anything of injury raised by me toward you, what remains I will commemorate. That you may not have to learn this from me, I will read to you Anthimus's very epistle; which, when he had invaded the marshes, we prohibiting and threatening, he sent to us, cutting us up with contumelies and reproaches, and as if singing a certain triumph against us, as conquered. But what reason has it, that since for your sake we run into offense against him, we should again displease you, as if favoring him? These things furthermore ought to have been known to you before, admirable man; and not even then to affect us with contumely, if nothing else, certainly as Presbyters. But if you are held by an excessive zeal of ostentation and glory, and address us from a higher place, as a Metropolitan the inhabitants of a small city, or even those without a city; we too have a haughty brow, which we may oppose. For this is very easy for anyone, and perhaps juster.

[270] Because he resisted less, Basil complaining. For by his letters Basil had accused Gregory of cowardice, that he had not more strongly resisted Anthimus for the Sasimene Episcopate, that he might claim it for the Metropolis of Caesarea. Besides he had expostulated about an injury in a way done to him, that Gregory had appointed a certain meeting, in which the matter should be transacted peacefully; whereas that pertained rather to Basil, about whose right it was treated. But Gregory had conceded this to public peace and private quiet, which he was not ignorant that Basil too greatly desired, to whose discretion he left all things to be decided. Meanwhile it comes to be noted, that although in the epistles of both Saints, during this controversy and on other occasions, written from time to time somewhat hardly, there occur forms of speech of a more moved mind; yet not on that account are the Saints to be thought to have violated their mutual friendship, but rather by such liberty of writing, and by the exercise of eloquence which they had together drunk in at Athens, the Theologian excuses himself, to have rather delighted than offended one another. Add, that very many things of this kind seem written more in jest than in earnest, such as at least is the beginning of the epistle commemorated above, where he says. How ferociously and after the manner of horse-colts you leap in your letters! Nor is it a wonder that you, lately raised to glory, wish to show off to us, what glory you have obtained, that by this means you may render yourself more august; just as painters, who depict choice forms. Surely Gregory could not thus write seriously, who had sufficiently known, and at last he resigns the litigious Episcopate. how great was Basil's humility of mind, and with how great reluctance he had been dragged to the Episcopate. But for the rest Gregory, when he saw that he could not obtain the Sasimene Church, unless either he should use force or acknowledge Anthimus as Metropolitan; the Episcopate, which he had unwillingly undertaken, he willingly dismissed, and withdrew to the solitude dear to him; until called thence by his father's prayers, when he could not be induced to set out for Sasima, he permitted himself to be persuaded, that he should relieve his father, on account of old age unequal to ruling the Church of Nazianzus; the greatest part of the burden, as long as he lived, being undertaken by himself. Since all these things have been more fully set forth in his Acts, let us return to Basil, for whose sake these things have been commemorated.

CHAPTER XXII.

Basil is deceived by the hypocrisy of Eustathius, is afflicted by the quarrel of Theodotus, cares for the Churches of Armenia, Terentius the Count exhorting.

[271] After Anthimus there comes onto the scene Eustathius of Sebaste, Eustathius about whom already rather often on occasion it has been treated; to be numbered among the chief, who, under the pretext of piety and faith, persecuted Basil. About him, Sozomen thus writes: Among the Armenians, Paphlagonians, and inhabitants of Pontus it is reported, that Eustathius the Bishop of the Church of Sebaste, which is a city of Armenia, was the first who began the monastic life, and to cultivate its austere institution: to abstain from the foods necessary for living, and from the garments which are to be used; and that he stood forth such an author of morals and of life accurately to be passed, that some constantly affirm, that the book of Basil the great Cappadocian, which is inscribed ἀσκητικὸς (Ascetic), that is, about the monastic life and discipline, was published by him. l, 3, c. 13 But Baronius arguing Sozomen of error in this place; So far is it, he says, that Eustathius of Sebaste can be called the author of the monastic life, which coalesced in Armenia, Paphlagonia, and Pontus, as is shown against Baronius that not even that he himself was a Monk can be proved by any worthy witness.

year 361 This his assertion Baronius proves, by the silence of Basil and Epiphanius. Basil, he says, unweaving Eustathius's life almost from the cradle, since he recounts his instruction at Alexandria under Arius as master, and reports his return to his country, and what abdications he suffered on account of the Arian heresy, before he was Bishop, or when made Bishop; never made any mention of the monastic institute undertaken by him: which certainly ought by no means to have been passed over. Nay besides, writing to the same Eustathius Basil himself, and on an opportune occasion recounting the Monks of diverse Provinces whom he had known, by a certain necessary inference ought to have made mention of Eustathius himself, that he was a Monk. But since he expressed not even a word, or at least a nod, every estimation and conjecture about Eustathius's monasticism utterly fails. But again St. Epiphanius, who lived at the same time, while he treats of Aerius the heresiarch, whom he relates to have been a fellow-disciple of Eustathius, as those who together learned the Arian heresy; made no mention at all about Eustathius's monasticism. Thus Baronius.

[272] I indeed assent to him, that all those were deceived, who ascribed to Eustathius the monastic Constitutions, handed down by Basil in voice and writing: but that Eustathius was neither a Monk, nor had any disciples, in this I am compelled to recede from the opinion of the most Eminent historian. For as regards the silence of Basil; where here he describes Eustathius and certain deeds of his life, this only he intends to teach, how often he relapsed into heresy, to which his monasticism pertained nothing: but when writing to Eustathius he recounts the Monks of diverse provinces whom he had known, the Eustathians certainly he does not pass over, for he immediately subjoins, that he was deceived by their hypocrisy. B. Ep. 74, B. Ep. 79 He passes over indeed the name of the Eustathians, but it is sufficiently understood that the discourse is about the disciples of Eustathius. As regards St. Epiphanius, where he treats of Aerius the heresiarch, he expressly mentions the monasticism of both; and, Aerius, he says, first a Monk, was a companion of Eustathius, Bishop of Sebaste (which is in the region of Pontus or lesser Armenia) for both embraced the monastic kind of life. Hær. 57 Eustathius was therefore first a Monk, then Bishop of Sebaste: then Bishop of Sebaste, whose craftiness and impiety not yet perceived Basil, loved the man very much and esteemed him, and held him among those, about whom he thus speaks: In whom we had faith in the greatest of all affairs, whom, conversing with men, we so looked up to, as if they had something beyond the human lot. B. Ep. 370

[273] Hence it came about that Basil, raised to the Episcopate, received certain disciples of Eustathius, as joined by an equal bond of friendship, into his domestics and associates; in truth explorers of his actions and iniquitous interpreters; who, an occasion being afterward seized, without fear of God, says the Saint, and against the common opinion of men, harass me with contumelies. B. Ep. 307 secretly through his disciples the Monks The chief among these seemed a certain one by name Basil, about whom thus the Saint to Eustathius: What and what kind of things that excellent Basil of yours machinated, whom I had received commended by your Piety as it were a guardian of my life, I certainly cannot recite for shame. Nor do I commemorate this that I may avenge myself on him (for I pray God it be not imputed to him) but to this end, that I may be able to keep your love toward me unmoved, which I fear lest they have shaken through innumerable calumnies of accusations, which it is probable they have woven, that they may patronize their own error and their own lapses. And then indeed the Saint had not yet detected, affects Basil with troubles, that these things were done by the instinct of Eustathius himself; and so he asks him, that he judge prudently about the calumnies of the informers, by which he complains that the profession of the ascetic life is injured rather than himself; either because those disciples of Eustathius were Monks, or because they enviously traduced his ascetic exercises.

[274] Whatever, he says, they have suggested to you, let your prudence diligently inquire from them, whether they have objected those things to me in person; whether they have demanded the correction of that fault, of which they accuse me; whether they have testified their grief for our sake, who now with cheerful and smiling countenance, and with feigned voices of dilection, bearing a certain immense fraud and a depth covered with most bitter minds, through silence nonetheless illiberal make it public. B. Ep. 307 How great grief by this their deed they have procured for me, what laughter they have excited to all those, who in this miserable city have always execrated the religious life, and who affirm it to be a certain artifice for finding faith; who even constantly pronounce that the person of humility is assumed, with the disgrace of the Religious state: that under this pretext deceit be made and snares laid! Such things, however much I have kept silence, yet to your prudence are most perceived: so that no manner of life is to our men here so suspect of wickedness, as is the profession of the ascetic life. By what way these things are now to be thoroughly healed, who ignorant of the fraud, asks him to provide a remedy. it will be of your prudence to consider. The crimes which Sophronius has woven and patched together against me, are not the prefaces of any good man, but the beginnings of division and separation; and tend to this, that the charity which is in us grow cold. Him I admonish that your mercy be willing to restrain, and to repress from that very noxious onset; and that you rather give your work, according to your dilection, to bind together the things which are divided, than to lease it out to those for greater distraction, who move everything, that they may introduce dissipation and distraction. G. Ep. 25 Sophronius therefore was likewise of the Eustathians, and perhaps one of those about whom Nazianzen says; Of those who gird your side, there are very many, who procure their own conveniences through you, and kindle the tinder of pusillanimity.

[275] And Basil indeed, as he indicates in the former epistle, was not free of all suspicion, but that these things at least were done with Eustathius dissembling; nonetheless in his wisdom he overcame the injuries and impressions of wicked men, and as in the deepest waves remained unmoved, while others were engaged in disturbance and tumult. G. Ep. 25 The hypocrisy of Eustathius Nor on that account did the charity grow cold with which he pursued Eustathius, and which that infamous hypocrite wished preserved, all the time blandly insinuating himself to Basil, nor without a certain stupor did the Saint afterward reconsider the depth of that hypocrisy, which elsewhere he describes at more length: Eustathius, he says, from Sebaste of lesser Armenia, once instructed by Arius, abjuring the heresy rather often, when he flourishing at Alexandria built impious blasphemies against the Only-begotten of God, was a follower of his and numbered among his most select disciples. B. Ep. 196, B. Ep. 74 But after, returned to his own, he saw himself condemned by the most blessed Hermogenes, Bishop of Caesarea, on account of his impious opinion; he offered him a confession of sound faith, and so obtained the imposition of hands from him. But when Hermogenes received his sleep, he soon betook himself to Eusebius of Constantinople: who himself too nonetheless defends the impious doctrine of Arius. Thence afterward driven out for certain causes, he withdrew to his country, and there again offered a purgation of his error; but so, that, the impiety of his mind being concealed and covered, but always retaining it in mind, he exhibited a certain rectitude of words. But soon when he had by chance obtained the Episcopate, he is detected to have written an anathematism against the Homousion, in the Synod held at Ancyra. Then having set out for Seleucia, with those whom he has of the same opinion he did those things which all know. But at Constantinople again he consented to the things which were proposed by the heretics: and so ejected from the Episcopate, because at Melitine he had been deposed, he devised for himself a way through which he might be restored, namely this, that he should set out for Rome. But what things were proposed to him by the most blessed Bishop Liberius, and to what he consented, is hidden from us; except that he brought a letter through which he might be restored: which when he exhibited to the Synod of Tyana, he was restored to his place. This one therefore now lays waste that faith, into which he was received: and acts with those, who strike the Homousion with anathema: then also patronizes the heresy of those, who despoil the Holy Spirit of Divinity.

[276] for a long time he deluded Basil, But before Basil perceived these things, Eustathius had rendered himself suspect of heresy to many others. Among these was Theodotus, Bishop of Nicopolis in lesser Armenia, whom Basil calls a most venerable and truly most longed-for Brother. B. Ep. 196 He showed so great an aversion of mind from Eustathius, but to others he became known more quickly, on account of the heresy which he secretly followed, that he openly separated himself from his communion: and yet Basil could not persuade himself, from the rest of Eustathius's constancy, conjecture rightly (as he thought) taken, that that man so lightly changed into contraries, so that now he confessed, now denied what he had said; and whom he esteemed, even in vulgar matters, to turn away from a lie just as from a horrible thing; he could not believe, that the same, in matters of such moment and so celebrated among everyone, would in any way be adverse to the truth. B. Ep. 187 Hence, on account of the friendship of one man, whom as falsely accused of heresy he had been unwilling to deprive of his communion, he incurred the enmity of innumerable Orthodox, who therefore even turned away from Basil; even of Bishops. B. Ep. 82 But of this counsel he seemed to render to himself an irrefragable reason: If some sometime, he says, disciples of Arius we have received into communion, we so admitted them, that, concealing their disease as intimately as possible, they spoke the words of piety; or certainly opposed nothing of our doctrine. B. Ep. 75 And in this matter we used not our own judgment toward such persons; but rather followed the decrees of our Fathers, by which they, about such persons long ago, established what is to be done. For I, when I had received the letters of the most blessed Father Athanasius the Bishop of Alexandria (which even now I have in my hands, and set before those requiring them to be read) in which he manifestly declared, that if anyone from the heresy of the Arians wished to pass over to us, he was to be admitted; here by the judgment of St. Athanasius he excuses himself. nor anything to be hesitated about in taking him up, if he confessed the faith of the Nicene Council; and when he had alleged to me as partners of this doctrine all the Bishops both of Macedonia and of Achaia; I thought it necessary that I should comply with so great a man, on account of the faith-worthy authority of those, who had decreed it; and at the same time desiring to obtain the prize, destined for those zealous for peace, I inscribed those who confessed that faith to the part of those communicating. For indeed Eustathius of Sebaste had first at Rome confessed the Nicene faith in writing, and the Consubstantial received thence, in a paper had brought even to the people of Tyana. B. Ep. 82 He feared therefore, the man of peace and concord, lest he should nourish false suspicions within himself; and he thought, that there was need of much care and solicitude, and that the vigils of many nights were to be endured, and that the truth was to be sought from God with many tears too, by him who would cast off the friendship of a brother. B. Ep. 79

[277] But those things which on Eustathius's account between Basil

and other orthodox Bishops a dissension arose, seems to have taken its beginning about the year 371, in the winter of which year Basil wrote to Eusebius of Samosata, He writes to Eusebius of Samosata, inviting him, that when spring returned he would visit his Church: But all, he says, pray God most earnestly, that next spring it be permitted to behold and address you in person again in these regions, and that the Churches be refreshed by that best and most salubrious doctrine of yours. B. Ep. 254 He gave besides to the same several times letters, both on account of other businesses which intervened, and also that they might meet together. B. Ep. 261 But of this hope of his he was cast down; because his letters did not come into the hands of St. Eusebius. For the blessed Deacon Theophrastus, to whom he had handed them, was of necessity compelled to wander astray traveling elsewhere: but the letters he did not send to Eusebius, because he was seized by a fatal disease, from which he also departed. For this cause Basil, ignorant of his disease and death, after the occasion had almost slipped away, again set about to write, and wrote letters through the straits of time most straitened. But he signified, that Meletius, the Bishop dearest to God, and also Theodotus, wished and bade, that Basil should set out to them: for this both pertained to declaring love, that he had been invited to a certain Provincial Council: and to reducing for the better those things, which at present brought grief and mourning. But they had prescribed the time of meeting, the middle of the coming month of June: they had destined the place for the meeting Phargamus, that celebrated and illustrious one on account of the apparitions of the Martyrs, and also the annual assemblies and panegyric gatherings, an infinite multitude flocking thither. But he understood that his former epistle, of which he here makes mention, was not sent to Eusebius about the twelfth of the month of May, and so thirty-three days before that assembly was to be held at Phargamus.

[278] But meanwhile, from the departure of the Deacon to that day, Basil had been absent from Caesarea, having set out for Sebaste, which is almost to be passed through by those going to Nicopolis, whither he had been invited to that as it were Provincial Council by Theodotus. But what he did at Sebaste, meanwhile having set out for Sebaste. and what was the cause of his hasty return, he himself thus narrates: When to the Synod, which was celebrated by Brother Theodotus, we had been called and had set out thither, that we might comply with the summons for the sake of charity; lest there we should seem idle and at leisure, we zealously took care, that we might mingle a conversation with the aforesaid Brother Eustathius; and we proposed to him the things which in the cause of faith were objected to him by Theodotus; and at the same time we asked of him, that he make manifest to us, whether he followed the right faith, that we might be able to be partners with him; but if he were alienated, that he should know plainly that we too would be alienated from him. B. Ep. 87 he treats much with Eustathius, whom he thought orthodox: Therefore when we had conferred about that matter between us, and had consumed that whole day in inquiring into this cause, evening approaching we are torn one from the other, no certain conclusion of our conversation yet placed. The following day again sitting down in the morning, we began to discourse about the same matters. But when both Brother Poemenius, a Presbyter of the Church of Sebaste, had approached, and vehemently urged the doctrine adverse to us; little by little we both diluted the things, which he seemed to object to us; and led them to agreement of the things which were sought by us, so that, by the grace of the Lord, we were not detected to disagree from one another even in the least. Therefore about the ninth hour we rose to pray, and gave thanks to the Lord, who had given us to both think and speak the same. Besides, as it behooved me to receive a certain written confession from that man, by which both to his adversaries his consent might be made manifest, and to the rest the purpose of this man sufficiently shown; so I wished, by conversing with much diligence with the Brethren adhering to Theodotus, hence Theodotus offended Basil returned home. to elicit a similar writing of faith from them, to be proposed to the said Eustathius, that both these things might be done; namely that he should confess the right faith, and they persuaded of this truth, should retain no occasion of contradiction, if the things proposed by them had been received. But Theodotus, before he had learned for what cause we had met, and what we had effected by that conversation, disdained to call us any further to the Synod: and so from the middle of the journey we returned, sad that he had rendered our labors, undertaken for pacifying the Churches, ineffective.

[279] Basil therefore returned home, when he had understood (as was narrated above) that that blessed Theophrastus the Deacon had died, he invites the Bishop of Samosata to a conversation and that the letters sent by him to Eusebius of Samosata had been in vain; by no means acquiesced, because there remained thirty-three days to the aforesaid meeting; but to the venerable Brother Eustathius, his fellow-minister, probably a certain Deacon of that name, he transmitted letters, that he should take care to convey them to St. Eusebius of Samosata, and that a reply to them be expedited with as great speed as could be done. B. Ep. 261 By these he signified to Eusebius, that they should meet together at Phargamus, if it were possible; and if it pleased him, he would most certainly be present; but if it seemed otherwise to him, he would come to Samosata (provided so it pleased the Lord, and no new impediment happened) and would pay that old debt of visiting Eusebius, which the preceding year he had contracted by promising. B. Ep. 259 But after the letters were returned to him from Eusebius, which being refused the Saint grieves: by which he denied that he would proceed thither, Basil utterly languished with grief of mind. For with him as companion and comrade he did not refuse to descend into the arena, against even the most urgent temptations; but alone and destitute of him, he said he would by no means dare to provoke even the lightest and dregs of afflictions. The Saint therefore having recollected all his weakness, there came still into his mind the dissimulation of those, who had summoned him: for since as if in passing they had called Basil to the meeting, through the venerable Brother Hellenius the Equalizer of Nazianzus; they did not afterward care to send in the second place either a guide of the journey or even a reminder. Wherefore when he saw himself suspect to them, he greatly feared, lest the most beautiful face of their meeting be as it were befouled by his presence; and therefore he suffered the time of that more solemn meeting to flow away, and deferred the meeting so far, until it might be permitted to be associated tranquilly and peacefully; since for procuring the affairs of the Church in a council, they had to meet with them.

[280] and at the same time he invites Meletius to Nicopolis: Then to Meletius dearest to God he wrote, that he should come, at least to Nicopolis, if it were burdensome to set out for Samosata: but if he were going to come to Samosata, he himself too would fly thither at once; namely after it had been established for him about Meletius's arrival and Eusebius's presence. What reply to these things Basil received either from Eusebius or from Meletius, I do not find: yet it seems that in this same year, after the month of June, he undertook another journey into Armenia; if not, that he might confer with Meletius about Ecclesiastical affairs, at least that he might in part comply with the royal command, and give Bishops to Armenia, for in several cities they had failed. then, he undertakes another journey into Armenia So great namely Basil with the Emperor, even an Arian, on account of his virtue had acquired esteem, that he committed to him the care of constituting Bishops; or, if that pertained to him from elsewhere, because by a certain Ecclesiastical right Armenia was subject to him, yet not to be esteemed of small account, to ordain Bishops. that an Arian Emperor not only permitted, but even enjoined an orthodox Bishop to execute his office. This very thing Count Terentius had asked Basil by letters; whom the Saint elsewhere calls a best, and most upright, and most venerable man. Yet nowhere does he make more excellent mention of him, than in the epistle given to the same, as Count Terentius, after he was again compelled to involve himself in caring for public affairs, who having dismissed them had betaken himself to a private life, that he might be free for himself alone and for God: for thus he begins his epistle. B. Ep. 272

[281] After I had heard your Gravity, was now again being drawn forth to administering public affairs, immediately (for I will confess the truth) I was disturbed, Basil's friend, reckoning in my mind, how against your will it had befallen you, that you who had once ceased from public solicitude, and had betaken yourself privately to the care of your soul, should be compelled to return again to those very things. B. Ep. 349 But when there immediately came the thought, that the Lord perhaps had resolved the infinite griefs, which constrain all the Churches among us, to foster with this one solace, by rousing your Gravity at last, and applying you again to managing affairs; this very thing made us of a more confirmed mind, that before we depart hence from life, we are about to visit your Dignity a second time. l. 4, c. 28 This was that same Terentius, about whom Theodoret thus narrates: When Terentius, a General by far the most excellent, and excellently adorned with the marks of piety, had returned from Armenia trophies of victory being raised; and Valens had commanded him, that he should ask some gift for his labors; and he had indicated to Valens the one thing which he desired, worthy of a man educated among the institutes of piety (for he asked, not gold, not silver, not fields, not a house, but that one church be granted to those who for the Apostolic doctrine had offered themselves to peril) Valens, the petition received, and the things which were contained in it known, quite vexed, tore it up, and bade him ask other things. But Terentius, the particles of the torn petition being gathered; I have now received from you, O Emperor, a gift, and I have it, nor will I ask another. For what I have purposed in mind, let him judge, who is the judge of this universe.

[282] perhaps he had persuaded the Emperor to command. Such therefore and so great a zealot of the orthodox faith Terentius, probably obtained a command from the Emperor to Basil and transmitted it, about constituting Bishops throughout Armenia, since he knew that by him only the orthodox would be taken up: and that compelled the Saint to undertake another journey this year into that province. But since on account of the journey toward Sebaste, and the conference with Eustathius, he had experienced Theodotus ill affected toward him, [But the Saint did not find suitable men, on account of the dissension of Theodotus,] who yet ought to have been a sharer and partaker of his cares, and with whom he hoped he would find apt and convenient men, because in his Parish there were religious and prudent men, and at the same time skilled in the language of the region, and who knew the other idioms of that people; and he knew the morals and genius of this man, and therefore wished to satisfy him, and to render to him an account of the things done under a faith-worthy witness; he came to Getasa, into the estate of the Bishop dearest to God Meletius, where the said Theodotus too appeared. There therefore Basil, since by him he had been accused on account of his connection with Eustathius, set forth what he had done by that meeting; whom having tried to satisfy, namely that he had detected him to think with him in all things. B. Ep. 187 But when Theodotus affirmed, that Eustathius,

after the departure of Basil, had denied this consent, and had affirmed to his disciples, that he had by no means consented to them in the cause of faith; Basil replied to these things: I persuade myself of this, conjecture being taken from the rest of this man's constancy, that that man is not so lightly changed into the contrary, so that now he confesses, now denies what he has said, who even in vulgar matters turns away from a lie just as from a horrible thing: so far is it that in matters of so great moment, and so celebrated among everyone, he would in any way wish to be adverse to the truth. Yet let it be, that the things which are scattered by you are true: he must be presented with a writing, which contains the whole demonstration of the right faith. But if I shall find him consenting, the writing being given, I will remain in his communion; but if I shall detect him refusing, I will defect from his fellowship. When Meletius the Bishop approved these things, and Diodorus the Presbyter (for he too was present) consented; the most venerable Theodotus exhorted Basil to descend to Nicopolis, and to visit his Church, and to receive him as far as Satala as companion of the journey, but in vain; and so he left this one at Getasa. But when Basil came to Nicopolis; Theodotus, forgetful of the things which he had heard from Basil, and which he had agreed with him, affected him again with those reproaches and contumelies, with which the former time he had received him, and dismissed him from himself.

[283] But the Saint, Theodotus being thus affected toward him, although he could not, yet he orders certain useful things there; according to the Emperor's command and the request of Terentius, give Bishops to Armenia; yet wished as much as he could to profit the same. And so at Satala, a city of Armenia, established, though weak in body, he accomplished and constituted certain other things. For the Bishops of Armenia being pacified by the grace of God, he proposed to them the things which he judged to be fitting, that they might cast off their accustomed negligence, and take upon themselves a sincere care for the Churches of the Lord, and at the same time he set examples before them, of those things which from negligence had been done illegitimately throughout Armenia, and how it befitted them to bear the care of these. This too was his care, that he should inquire into the blasphemy, objected to Cyril the Bishop of Armenia: and by the grace of the Lord he detected, that that calumny had been falsely raised by his enemies, which they confessed openly before him. The people of Satala too he proved to bear themselves moderately and placidly toward him, so that he no longer fled his communion. Here too he received suffrages from the Church of the Satalenses, containing a beseeching, that a Bishop be given them by him: for perhaps from the year 360, in which Elpidius the Bishop of Satala had been deposed by the Arians in the Council of Constantinople, they had had no other Bishop; so that Basil could deservedly affirm, that the Church of Satala, after that long-lasting desertion, depressed even to its knees, had need of much and strong help that it might be raised. Soz. lib. 4 cap. 23, B Ep. 183 And therefore he, moved by the prayers of the whole people of Satala, undertook the care of that Church; moved by the prayers of the Satalenses and promised them in the sight of the Lord, that he would leave nothing undone of those things which could be furnished by his strength. Wherefore when he returned home, he was compelled, according to what is written, as it were to touch the pupil of his own eye, by granting them as Bishop Poemenius, his kinsman, asked by them, then a Presbyter of Caesarea, or in the monastery at the Iris a Monk.

[284] he grants them as Bishop Poemenius, his kinsman, Thus that excellence of honor, with which Basil pursued the Satalenses, suffered him to recollect nothing, not of kinship, not of intercourse, contracted by him from boyhood with this man, before their petitions intervened; but forgetful of all those things, which to him by reason of familiarity were proper in this man; and no account being had of the many groans, by which the people groaned, deprived of the patronage and care of that man; nor weighing with an affection of commiseration the tears of all that kindred, nay not even of his mother now an old woman, and fluctuating in sadness, because she was deprived of the providence of the one she had; but at the same time despising all these things, although of such kind and of so great moment, he leaned upon this one thing, and commends him that he might adorn the Church of Satala with the care and government of such a man. Accordingly in his letters, in which he signifies these things to the Satalenses, he subjoins these things: From you we seek and demand the things which remain, that they be found no less than we hope, and than are the things which we promised to this man, when we sent him to his familiars and friends; so that each of you, by zeal and dilection toward him, may busy himself to excel others. That you may therefore show this honest honorific treatment, by excellence of office bring consolation to his heart, that he may both forget his country, and kinsmen, and at the same time his people; who, just as a newborn infant from his mother's breasts, is thus deprived of his government.

[285] About this same time, still established in the neighboring region of the Armenians, he received letters from Eusebius of Samosata, Receiving letters from Eusebius of Samosata he is refreshed, which he writes he saw no otherwise, than those carried in ships are wont to behold from afar a light kindled on a tower; especially if the sea has swelled exasperated by the blasts of the winds. But returned to Caesarea his bodily health had utterly forsaken him, so that he could by no means bear even the lightest agitations and motions without pain. B. Ep. 256 A difficulty besides not the slightest the peregrination had created for him, the affairs of his Church all being meanwhile neglected and held up and down: wherefore he invites Eusebius again and again to himself with most friendly words. But if God, he says, deign to grant us, that, while we enjoy this earthly life, we may see your Piety in our Churches, surely we shall henceforth be of good mind, nor shall we be reckoned as unworthy and rejected by the divine benignity. We conjure that this very thing, and invites him to himself, if it be possible, may happen, when the assemblies are held in the anniversary memory of the most blessed Martyr Eupsychius. Namely toward the day now near, the seventh of the month of September, those businesses impend and surround us, which greatly desire your work, both for ordaining Bishops, and also for considering more diligently and attentively those things, which are devised against us, by that good man Gregory of Nyssa, who now holds assemblies at Ancyra, and in every way lays snares for us. What this dissension of Nyssen from Basil was, is nowhere more clearly expressed. The Saint perhaps regards that, which (as was narrated above) on the occasion of Gregory the uncle arose between them; and which was of such a kind, that if it lightly injured the mutual charity between them, it more strongly renewed it. but in vain, As regards Eusebius, he invited him rather often, rather often proposed to go to him, nay even promised: yet every attempt lacked success, his health or other businesses standing in the way; if you except one time, about which he writes, that he tasted with the tip of his finger the honey of the Church of Samosata. B. Ep. 8

CHAPTER XXIII.

Faustus ordained by Anthimus against the Canons: Atarbius accused of a crime and of heresy: Eustathius subscribes to a profession of faith.

[286] The winter, which began the year 372, was long-lasting and most lengthily extended, so that not even a literary consolation could be expedited between Basil and his friends. B. Ep. 195 Whence although with Theodotus, Sanctesimus collects the subscriptions of the Easterns his rash zeal for piety notwithstanding, he kept a commerce of letters; yet he confesses that he rarely wrote, and received letters from him. But when Sanctesimus the Presbyter had resolved to set out for Nicopolis, he handed him an epistle to Theodotus, by which he both imparts a greeting, and beseeches that he pray for him, and accommodate his ear to the said Brother Sanctesimus, and that he learn from him in what state the Churches now are, and spend zeal according to his strength on caring for the things which will be proposed. about to go into the West, For since to the Western Bishops it had again to be written about certain ecclesiastical matters; that the epistle written by Meletius the Bishop might be subscribed by all consenting, Sanctesimus the Presbyter went around the East, gathering subscriptions and epistles from the Bishops; that these being had he might set out, about to fly to the Western Bishops. B. Ep. 58

[287] Basil, on account of Faustus ordained against the canons, Amid these cares and solicitudes another vexation took hold of Basil. For there came to him Faustus, sent by a certain Bishop, by name Papa, with letters, by which it was asked that he be ordained Bishop. For although Basil a little before had reconciled Cyril the Bishop to the Satalenses and others, and had absolved him accused through calumny; nonetheless, a contention having again arisen between them, Faustus was elected, that he might be ordained in the place of Cyril: but when he had come to Basil for this end, and this one before the ordination demanded the testimonies of Theodotus and the other Bishops of Armenia; he despising him went off to Anthimus, by whom, the just suffrages of the most venerable Cyril being despised, the ordination received he returned, so that he filled Armenia with seditions. B. Ep. 195 This was the effect of divided Cappadocia, and of the controversy between Basil and Anthimus; who rejoiced by this ordination, performed without his consent, to show off his power.

[288] What Basil did afterward, you will know from himself, thus writing to Poemenius the Bishop of Satala, of whom we made mention above. B. Ep. 313 That good man, he says, Anthimus, who for much time now cultivated peace with me and friendship; when he had obtained a sufficiently suitable occasion of manifesting his ambition, he complains about Anthimus, and of creating some grief and anguish for me; ordained Faustus with his own hands and by his own authority Bishop; when he had awaited the suffrage of none of you, and holding in derision that accurate observance of mine of the canons. Wherefore, after he trampled the order anciently instituted, and had no account at all of you, whose testimony I myself canvassed for: but accomplished the matter, I know not how acceptable to God himself. For this cause being saddened in mind, I wrote no letters at all to anyone from Armenia, not even to your own Piety; nor did I wish to admit Faustus to communion: nay besides I threatened him, that unless he had brought me your epistle, I would altogether be toward him at all times of a more alienated mind, and would procure that as many as are joined to me by any tie should be in like manner affected toward him. But if they bring a medicine, and the things which have been done can be cured; and he denies that he will communicate with this one, give your work, I pray, to write to me, giving him your testimony, if you have understood the man's life to be honest, and to do the same impel all the rest together with you: but if the matter is past hope, make me more certain even so, that I may not at all henceforth have faith in the same. until the deficiency be supplied. For if truly, as had been narrated, they have so acted, and so as to embrace the communion of Anthimus alone, no account being had of me, none of the Church, they are to be esteemed altogether inept for friendship.

[289] The controversy about the ordination of Faustus seems to have been followed and increased by other things, which from the accusation of Atarbius

[290] also of heresy, Of heresy too Atarbius was accused: for certain reverend Brethren, and altogether worthy of all faith, had made known to Basil, that in certain heads concerning the faith something had been innovated by Atarbius and some others, and the sound doctrine contravened; who were also the more moved, and underwent the contest more vehemently, fearing lest to those wounds, which the Church endures six hundred, inflicted by those who have sinned against the truth of the Gospel; another should anew arise, he asks him to come to him. the heresy of that ancient enemy of the Church Sabellius being renewed: for akin to this heresy were said to be the things which the said Brethren had narrated. For this cause Basil sent to Atarbius, that he would not be willing to bear it grievously, and to come to Nicopolis not so far removed; and by making most abundant assurance about these matters, would deign to mitigate his griefs, and to console the Churches of Christ, and seems to have absolved him, which were marvelously afflicted in the present sadness, and bore it ill, both the things which were narrated to have been done, and also the things which were narrated to have been said by him. Hence Hermant gathers, that Basil obtained something of supreme right over Armenia, since he cited Atarbius to plead his cause. But this seems to have been rather a certain solicitous invitation of the senior Bishop among the gathered Bishops, than a juridical citation to plead a cause.

[291] Whether Atarbius obeyed, either the one citing, or the one inviting, I do not find, nor what issue this matter obtained: yet of every crime he seems, whether present or absent, to have been absolved; if the other epistle of Basil to him was written after this one. B. Ep. 363 For it exhorts him, as still somewhat hostile on account of things past, to his friendship, to the union of the Church, and to mutual charity; That henceforth, he says, you may show the first and greatest fruit of the Holy Spirit, charity, and cast off that sadness of countenance, wont to be in the angry, which you seem to us to have shown through this silence; it being renewed with him, and that you receive joy in your heart, and peace toward the Brethren concordant with you, and declare zeal and solicitude toward the Church of God and its stability. For if for defending the Ecclesiastical cause we do not contend with equal zeal, with which those who resist sound doctrine strive to procure ruin and destruction for it; what will prevent but that the truth, moved from its place, through the enemies of truth, utterly perish; and that we be arraigned by the divine judgment, that not with all zeal and diligence, with mutual concord, and conspiration according to God, do we make manifest our solicitude and care, by whatever means at last, that the Churches may coalesce and be united? Remove therefore, I pray, from your mind that opinion, that we have no need of anyone else's communion. For it is not of a man, walking according to charity or fulfilling the commands of God, to cut himself off from the fraternal conjunction. and friendship with others at Nicopolis. For indeed that at Nicopolis the friendship of at least some was renewed with him, Basil signifies to St. Eusebius of Samosata; refusing to set forth to the same in writing, what things had there been done, lest he should seem in some way to wish to traduce and defame those, who, a change of mind being made, were exceedingly well joined to him. B. Ep. 253 To entering upon this concord at a very opportune time there came Jobinus, a Bishop dearest to God, sent to Basil by Eusebius whose disciple he had been, and who everywhere represented the express image and character of his gravity living. But for the rest in those various Synods at Nicopolis and the journeys to them, he does not so much complain that he suffered various things, but rather praises the most merciful God, who joins to his sufferings and tribulations proportioned consolations; and refreshes the humbled, lest they be absorbed by too immoderate mourning. For he had already said, that God supplied an equal consolation on every side to the afflictions which befell at Nicopolis.

[292] Deceived by the hypocrisy of Eustathius of Sebaste, While these things are being done, there began more and more to become known, and at last to burst into open heresy, the hypocrisy of Eustathius of Sebaste, by which even St. Amphilochius can be believed to have been deceived; if these words of Nazianzen to him (The Armenian, of whom you glory, is plainly a barbarian, and far removed from our praise and glorying) are to be understood (as it seems) about Eustathius. G. Ep. 162 He at the beginning of the year 372 still persevered in his hypocrisy, blandly insinuating himself to Basil indeed, but at the same time concealing his heresy less and less from others; on whom he both cast a sinister suspicion about himself, and stirred up against Basil the enmity of many. B. Ep. 196 But also those men who persecuted the Saint with hatred (for what cause they themselves know) hence having taken material for accusing, and therefore suspect to many, even he himself, burdened him with assiduous calumnies. B. Ep. 82 He cleared himself indeed once and again, and saw at last that this cause would run on to infinity, nor would anything profit if he perpetually defended himself, because, he being far distant, the lying detractors had at hand from nearby to wound with their accusations a heart easy and exposed to believing reproaches, nor taught that the other little ear is to be kept untouched for the absent. When therefore Basil was at Nicopolis; and the people of Nicopolis, to whom especially he was suspect, asked a certain profession of his faith; it seemed good to him that the service of letters should be undertaken, he bids a formula of faith be written, and that to Eustathius a profession of faith should be offered in writing, which Basil preached, that Eustathius might subscribe to it. For he thought that by this he would obtain two advantages, both to persuade the people of Nicopolis not to think anything sinister about Eustathius, and to stop the mouths of those detracting from him, while by the consonance of faith calumnies on both sides would be excluded. Immediately therefore a Faith was written, Theodotus the Bishop of Nicopolis and others present approving.

[293] The profession of Faith being written, Basil departs from Theodotus, carrying with him a copy of it to Sebaste, to be exhibited to Eustathius. B. Ep. 96 But it, since it contains not only doctrines, but also certain things concerning the frauds of the heretics, seems to be here annexed, standing thus. B. Ep. 78 by which heretics concealing themselves Both those, who, hitherto preoccupied with another confession of faith, now wish to pass over to the unity of the Orthodox, and those who now for the first time desire to be taken up to the doctrine and instruction of the truth, are to be taught that faith, which in the Synod, of old gathered at Nicaea, was written by the blessed Fathers. For this would be useful, against those too, about whom there is suspicion, that they are affected with a contrary sense against sound doctrine, and yet conceal the sense of their evil opinion by specious evasions: for it will suffice for these too if they be urged to this faith. For either they will amend the disease, which they have in secret; or if they have hidden it more deeply, they themselves indeed will bear the judgment of fraud, but for us they will prepare an easy defense for the day of judgment, when the Lord shall reveal the hidden things of darkness, and shall manifest the counsels of hearts. It is fitting therefore that they be received, if they confess that they believe according to the words which were set forth by our Fathers at Nicaea, and according to the understanding which is soundly signified through those words.

[294] the evasion to various senses of the doctrines being precluded: For there are some, who in this Faith deceitfully invert the word of truth, and twist to their own opinion the notion and sense of the words: since both Marcellus, thinking impiously against the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, and setting him forth to be a bare Word, dared to pretend, that thence he had taken the causes of this impiety, the understanding namely of the τοῦ ὁμοουσίου (the consubstantial) being badly set forth. And some of those who follow the impiety of Sabellius the Libyan, thinking the Hypostasis or Subsistence and the Essence to be the same, thence draw arguments for defending their blasphemy, that in that faith it is so written; But if anyone shall have said the Son to be of another essence or subsistence, this one the Catholic and Apostolic Church rejects with anathema. For those Fathers did not say that Essence and Subsistence were the same. For if those words had one and the same signification, what need was there to put both? But it is clear that they were therefore put, that since some indeed denied the Son to be of the Father's essence, but others themselves too said the Son to be of the Father's essence, yet of a certain other subsistence; they rejected both opinions, as alien from the ecclesiastical sense; and the word Consubstantial is explained, but when they declared their mind simply, they said the Son to be of the Father's essence, nor added; And of his hypostasis. And so the former indeed was put for reprobating the bad sense; but this has the declaration of the salutary doctrine. It is to be confessed therefore, that the Son is consubstantial to the Father, just as in the Symbol it is written: yet according to this too it is to be confessed, that in his proper hypostasis, that is person, is the Father; in his proper, the Son; in his proper, the Holy Spirit; just as the Fathers themselves manifestly set forth. For this they showed sufficiently and clearly, when they said; Light of Light. For one thing is the begetting Light, another that which is begotten: yet Light and Light on both sides, so that the word of Essence is one and the same.

[295] But let us insert here the Faith itself which was written at Nicaea: We believe in one God, the Father almighty, and the whole Nicene symbol is set forth to be held, maker of all things both visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father, that is of the substance of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God; Begotten, not made; Consubstantial to the Father, through whom all things were made, both those in heaven and those on earth. Who for us

men, and for our salvation came down from

heaven, and was incarnate, made man, and suffered,

and rose again on the third day, and ascended into the heavens, and will come

to judge the living and the dead: and in

the Holy Spirit. But those who say, There was a time

when He was not; and, Before He was begotten

He was not; and, That He was made out of things not existing,

or who say that He is of another hypostasis or substance,

or that the Son of God is changeable or alterable—such persons

the Catholic and Apostolic Church strikes with anathema.

Since therefore in this creed the remaining points have indeed been

determined with sufficient diligence—some for the correction

of harmful errors, others for the safeguarding against

things that may arise in the future—but the statement

concerning the Holy Spirit was set down, as it were in passing, without any particular

care; for the reason that this question had

not yet been raised, but the understanding concerning the Holy Spirit still

remained in the minds of believers secure and exposed to no snares;

yet gradually the perverse seeds of impiety put themselves forth,

which, having first been sown by Arius the author of the heresy,

and afterward nourished by those who took up Arius's impious

inventions to the ruin of the Churches;

and the very sequence and logic of impiety looked toward blasphemy

against the Holy Spirit; it is necessary

that against those who do not spare

themselves, nor foresee the inevitable threats which

the Lord has hurled against blasphemers of the Holy Spirit, and those are anathematized who declare the Spirit alien from the divinity

this caution be extended, that they themselves anathematize

those who say that the Holy Spirit is a creature,

and likewise those who think so, and who do not

confess that He is holy by nature, just as the Father is

holy by nature, and the Son is holy by nature;

but make Him alien from the divine and blessed nature.

[296] Now the declaration of right understanding lies in this, that He be not

separated from the Father and the Son: for we must be baptized,

according to what we have received from the Lord, and

believe as we are baptized, and glorify the Father

and the Son and the Holy Spirit, just as

we have believed. And after agreement has been reached on this matter,

it is fitting at the same time to flee the communion of those who

say that the Holy Spirit is a creature, as

openly blaspheming Him. Also necessary is

that we say the Holy Spirit is neither unbegotten,

(for we know one Unbegotten, and one principle

of the things that are, the Father of our Lord

Jesus Christ) nor do we call Him begotten (for we have accepted in the tradition of faith

that the Only-begotten is one),

but, having been taught that the Spirit of truth proceeds from the Father,

we confess that He is of God without creation. But it is necessary

to anathematize those who say that the Holy Spirit is a ministering

and servile spirit,

so that by that word they cast Him down into the order of creatures.

For Scripture has handed down to us that ministering spirits

are creatures, saying

that they are all ministering spirits, and they overthrow the order of the Holy Trinity sent

forth into ministry. But on account of those who confound all things,

and do not keep the doctrine of the Gospel, it is necessary

to explain this further, so that

those also may be fled who invert the order given by the Lord, as

openly opposing the truth; and those who set the Son

before the Father, and the Holy Spirit before the Son.

For it is fitting to preserve unmoved and untouched

the order of the Persons, which we have received from the very voice of the Lord,

who said: Go forth and teach all

nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son,

and of the Holy Spirit. B. Ep. 78 & 82. When this confession of faith had been

proposed to Eustathius, it was immediately subscribed by Basil,

To this faith Eustathius subscribes. and he too without any delay subscribed

in these words: I, Eustathius the Bishop, have read to you,

Basil, have acknowledged, and have approved these prescribed statements:

and I have subscribed together with the Brethren who were present with me,

our Fronto, and the Chorepiscopus Severus,

and certain other Clerics. But when it had been subscribed by

both, a place and time were also designated

by common consent for another Synod, so that throughout the Province—namely Cappadocia

and Armenia—the dispersed Brethren might be able to come together and be united

among themselves, and there might thereafter be a true and

sincere communion.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Eustathius of Sebaste excommunicates Basil; the latter too separates himself from the former's communion. St. Ephrem visits Basil.

[297] Eustathius soon repented of his subscription;

and as there had been much suspicion concerning him, Eustathius, repenting of his subscription, that

he was affected toward sound doctrine with a contrary mind,

and yet concealed the meaning of his evil opinion (from Basil

at least) by specious evasions, indeed even by lies;

so he neither amended the disease which he had in secret,

nor was he able to conceal it more deeply. B. Ep. 79. 73 For this distinguished

man saw—serving only his own interests and ambition,

and accustomed, with that view, perpetually

to defect to the prevailing party, and, trampling on weak

friends, to cultivate the powerful—he saw,

I say, that Basil's communion would be a hindrance to him in acquiring

power. Hoping therefore

to gratify Euzoius, the Arian Bishop of Antioch,

if he should alienate himself from Basil, and

that this would profit him among the Antiochenes, he defected from him:

and since he was forestalled by the subscription of faith,

which Basil (as has already been said) had

proposed to him, (not that he himself at that time

hesitated about his opinion, but because he desired to remedy the suspicions

with which he labored among many of the Orthodox)

since, I say, Eustathius was held forestalled by his subscription;

lest any hindrance from it should seem to befall himself and his own people, then those then dominant

denied communion to Basil so that they should not be received,

and, as far as lay in them, caused him to be excommunicated by all

the Churches of the whole world,

but feigned an altogether different cause for this separation,

which we shall see in what follows.

[298] When therefore the day appointed for assembling

drew near; Basil hastened according to what had been prescribed: neither appearing on the day fixed, for the place

designated for receiving those who came was in

his own diocese; and with him also the Brethren

(by whom he seems to mean the Bishops subject to him,

and the Chorepiscopi, and his Clerics and Monks)—

some were present, others were hastening; all glad and

eager, as if hurrying to peace; and letters

were sent by Basil and messengers, who should

signify that they were present. B. Ep. 82 But on the other side there was no one who

either came on ahead, or announced the arrival of those who were

awaited. So those who had been sent by Basil

were returning, reporting that there was very much sadness

and murmuring among the adversaries, because

and it was said that they had decreed that it should by no means

be permitted to their Bishop to set out to the appointed place.

But a certain man sent by them came, and

bringing letters refusing the meeting without any

mention of those things which had previously been agreed upon among them.

Thus first Eustathius tore himself away from Basil's communion,

separates himself from Basil's communion, since he neither would consent to meet

with him at the determined place; nor brought his disciples there,

as he had promised. But Theophilus

the Bishop, whom the Saint addresses as a most venerable

and most revered Brother, by sending

one of those whom he had with him, disclosed some things,

which he thought fitting both for himself to say, and for the other

(so the Saint speaks) to hear; for

Theophilus disdained to write, not

only because he feared reproach from a letter,

but because he was on his guard lest it be necessary to greet and address him

with the title of Bishop. Nevertheless, since

the words were vehement, with which the man sent by Theophilus

addressed Basil, and uttered from a very

heated breast; he, so shaken and confounded in mind

and dejected, sank down, and reviles him with many words: so that he had nothing to answer those who questioned him. Eustathius moreover, as if

fearing lest he should have few witnesses and accomplices of his opinion,

sent out his letters written against Basil to whatever neighbors there were,

and assailed him in very frequent Synods, together

with Theophilus the Cilician, with bare and manifest blasphemy,

as though he had instilled into the minds of the people doctrines alien from sound

teaching. B. Ep. 196 That Theophilus, of whom this is here treated, was

Bishop of Castabala in Cilicia; whom Basil—

although he had given him very many, and those not the least,

occasions of sadness and grief—nevertheless

addresses as a most Reverend and most longed-for Brother;

and testifies that no day was let pass by him in

which he did not recall his memory. B. Ep. 309

[299] Meanwhile, the state of affairs being changed from where it least

ought to have been; the Saint could not but be afflicted with the most grievous grief,

considering that he had been so basely deceived through the hypocrisy

of Eustathius, by him and through him excommunicated

by many, who now at last as manifest deserters

had gone off into the camp of the adversaries, whose communion

they had always greatly esteemed. Yet in order to recall

his mind from grief; he resolved, by setting his prosperous affairs

over against, as it were in a balance, against

the more bitter misfortunes, to apply his mind so that the better,

through the command of his will, should outweigh. But

the Eustathians, when they saw that they were accomplishing little by their slanders

and reproaches against the Saint, fled for refuge to another support

of the heretics, and pretended that they wished peace

and concord; namely, so that, if they were admitted to it,

they might enter upon such terms that, with it standing, it might be permitted them

to be heretics; but if they were rejected, they might lay all the blame on Basil,

that because of his pride and intractable

obstinacy, then pretending again that he wishes peace, he being willing in nothing to yield to others, the disturbance of the Churches could not be

calmed. They therefore have recourse

to St. Eusebius of Samosata, whom they knew to be able to do very much

with Basil; and they ask that he himself, as intercessor,

intervene for the common tranquillity of the Churches.

Eusebius performed what was asked, and Basil

replied that he would admit them to communion, if

they pronounced anathema against those who do not accept the Nicene faith,

and do not fear to name the Holy Spirit a creature.

When Eustathius had received this reply of Basil through

Eusebius, he was unwilling to answer directly and simply.

For if he denied, he saw that it would come to pass that the people

would thereby come to know his heresy; but if he admitted,

then he would fall away from all that moderation which he thought he should

keep for himself in the faith, so as not to displease the heretics. Therefore

he sent more lengthy writings to Eusebius, by which he might explain,

or rather wrap up in more obscure terms, the intercessor of Samosata is vexed:

what he thought concerning the Nicene faith and the Holy Spirit; and

in what sense he wished to admit those things which had been proposed to him by Basil. Eusebius sent these back to him, again and

again asking that he would show humility, and would dissemble

some things, in the hope of peace and concord, lest on his

account the Church should suffer many evils.

[300] But Basil, now sufficiently having experienced the hypocrisy

of Eustathius, resolved to recede in nothing from his prior proposal;

and thus, both as a witness of his own constancy, and of those things which were narrated above, he wrote back this Epistle to Eusebius (whom out of veneration

he calls his Lord):

I am unable in fact to repay to whom Basil replies, the zeal and industry of my Lord, for

reconciling peace to the Churches, since I cannot in very deed

praise him sufficiently according to his worth, I affirm that in my heart

so great a longing for it has been kindled, that

I would most gladly, at the cost of my own life, wish to render

utterly extinguished and lulled to rest that fire of hatred

and envy which that wicked spirit has stirred up:

but unless out of such affection and desire for peace I would

not unwillingly draw near to Colonia, may my life

lack all tranquillity. B. Ep. 265 I therefore passionately

desire peace; but the true peace, which the Lord left to us:

and when I have wished for myself

the most abundant peace, I had nothing else as my aim in that word

(although someone may interpret it otherwise, with the truth

subverted) than to understand that true peace. that he too desires nothing more, Let them moreover use their tongues as they wish:

there will one day come a time when they will repent of having said these things. But

I admonish your Holiness to remember your first

purpose, and not to excuse extraneous replies,

which lead away from the questions proposed; nor

to ratify the sophistries of those who, though endowed with no

faculty of speaking, instructed by the very

purpose of their own mind, most cunningly of all men

assail the truth. Certainly the most simple and

most perspicuous words, and those which can easily

cling to the memory, did I propose to those men. Those who

do not accept the Nicene faith, their communion

we refuse; with those too we decline to have

creature. But he, when he ought to have answered to the letter

the questions proposed, if he will accept the Nicene faith without evasions:

patched together for us those very things which you sent;

not indeed, as it seems, on account of the simplicity of his mind,

nor for that reason, that he could not perceive

the consequences; but because he had so resolved

in his own mind: if he should deny our question,

it would come to pass that it would thereby become known to the people; but if

he should grant us his assent, it would come to pass that he would fall away from all

that moderation, than which nothing has stood with him as more preferable or more cherished

up to this very day. Wherefore let us see,

lest by deceit done to us he be able to mock us; and lest he who

led the rest into fraud should also deceive you, most prudent man:

but let him send back a fitting and brief reply

to the proposed question, and let him either acknowledge that he

embraces communion with the enemies of the faith, or abjure

the same.

[301] If you persuade this man of these things, and send me

such replies as I desire, directly addressed to me;

I do not refuse to be guilty of all the crimes that in time past

have been wickedly committed. Whatever crime has been committed,

I willingly take upon myself. otherwise he will concede no more to him than to Euippius, Then at last you may demand a demonstration

of my humility. But as long as

I shall see none of these things done, forgive me, Father most beloved of God,

if I am unable to present myself at the divine altar with hypocrisy and dissimulation. For unless

I had feared this, what cause was there for me to withdraw from the communion of Euippius,

who excelled in so great a faculty of speaking;

who lived so long in a foremost place; who possessed so many

and so great, and that deservedly, distinguished tokens of his friendship

toward me? But if I did this rightly, and so as was fitting,

for the truth; then surely it could seem ridiculous

for me to be joined in communion with those who hold the same opinions

as Euippius, on account of the moderation and ambiguous

dispositions of these ingenious and

dainty men. But nevertheless I am not at once of

that opinion, so as to think that we ought to be utterly averse and

alien from those men who do not accept that faith; adhering only to the communion of the Orthodox, but, according to the most ancient laws

of charity, to exercise some consideration and care for them,

and to send to them, and with unanimous consent

to supply all the consolation we can from the bowels

of mercy; and also, with the faith of our Fathers

set forth, to invite them to the fellowship of the confession;

and if indeed we bring it about that they give their assent,

to be united with them in common; but if we fall short of our hope,

and do not persuade them, to be content with one another

mutually and in turn; but to remove from our conduct

that wavering between the two, being disposed toward the simple

and Evangelical polity, which

those used who from the beginning gave their names

to Christianity. a certain example which the men of Sebaste follow. For, says Holy Scripture,

the heart and soul of the believers was one. If they are willing to

hearken to you, that indeed is by far the most excellent thing:

but if otherwise, mark and make known the authors of contentions

and wars, and do not henceforth interrupt me

with any talk of reconciliation with those people.

When these letters had been received, there is no room for doubt that

Eusebius went over entirely to Basil's opinion. Indeed even

the men of Sebaste, who professed the orthodox faith,

uncovering the purulent ulcer of Eustathius's reprobate doctrine,

asked of Basil a certain ecclesiastical

administration, namely that he should undertake the care of that Church;

and therefore he himself asks Eusebius to indicate

what kind of reply ought to be given to the men of Sebaste.

Moreover we gather from a particular letter,

which Basil gave to Eusebius, that an ecclesiastical schism long

endured at Sebaste, many confessing the orthodox faith

with Basil, others adhering to Eustathius and his

heresy. B. Ep. 8, B. Ep. 264

[302] With these sad matters merciful God mingled certain

joyful things also: because He allows His Saints to have neither

tribulations nor joys continuously;

but, now from adversities, now from prosperities, He weaves the life of the just

as it were with a wonderful variety. For so that

Basil might have, beyond others, a distinguished witness of his struggles for the Church of God against

the heretics, He brought St. Ephrem the Syrian, who would consign to eternal memory both the things which he himself had beheld,

and which he had heard from the mouth of the holy Prelate, Ephrem the Syrian, coming to Basil

and especially might briefly comprise that which befell in the case

of Eustathius, saying: Wolves were again clothed in a

sheep's skin, and forthwith he refuted their

hypocrisy: the wicked one hastened to disturb the

spirit itself, and suddenly was overcome by the justice of the holy man:

the unfaithful strove falsely to imitate his faith

and doctrine, and at once their treacherous and

iniquitous opinion was uncovered: they sought to ensnare his

freedom, and immediately their folly appeared. Enc. Bas.

It seems altogether that this holy Deacon, by divine instinct,

came to Caesarea about these times, to visit St.

Basil, as the Anonymous testifies, as he himself testifies of himself, and Gregory of Nyssa, and another

Anonymous author of his Life: let us hear him.

There came, he says, to Caesarea of Cappadocia St. Ephrem,

where, having entered the church, he found St. Basil the Archbishop,

preaching to the people: and the most Blessed Ephrem

began with a loud voice to praise him.

But certain ones of the crowd were saying: Who is this

stranger, who thus praises the Bishop? for indeed

he rather flatters him, that he may bestow something on him. But when the sermon

was now finished, Basil says: Summon

to me the man, near his ear he sees the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove: who kept insisting on praising me:

and when he had been summoned, he says to him, Why were you so insistently crying out

in praise of me, Lord Ephrem? But answering,

the holy old man said: Therefore I persevered

in crying out and praising you, because I beheld

an immaculate dove, standing on your right

shoulder, and suggesting into your ears

what you were preaching to the people. But great Basil,

full of the Holy Spirit, recognized him, and

said to him: Are you Ephrem the Syrian? Truly, just as

I understood, so also have I found in you, a lover

of quiet. It is written in the Prophet David,

Ephrem is the strength of my head: for your meekness

and clemency and simplicity is clear, like

[303] the same Nyssen testifies, Similarly Nyssen in the Life of Ephrem: led by the divine

spirit to Caesarea of Cappadocia, the old man there

saw and recognized the very mouth of the Church, namely that golden

nightingale of doctrine, Basil, and began to venerate him

with auspicious acclamations. For indeed

with the keen eye of his mind he beheld a shining

dove sitting on his right shoulder, and supplying words

of wisdom, and the man himself bringing them forth to the people:

but he himself, from the same venerable dove,

had recognized the pilgrimage of this holy Father,

and that he was that Ephrem the Syrian. Very opportunely

therefore both enjoyed mutual fellowship with each other;

so that that laborious pilgrimage did not prove

useless to Ephrem himself.

[304] To these two must be joined he who is the foremost witness of this

matter, St. Ephrem himself, and Ephrem himself, who thus narrates concerning himself and Basil:

When therefore the Lord, an occasion for showing mercy

offering itself, was moved with mercy upon me in a certain city,

there I heard a voice saying to me,

Arise, O Ephrem, and eat thoughts

and judgments. Enc. Bas. To whom answering, I said in

great anxiety: Whence, Lord, shall I eat?

And he said to me, Behold in my house there is a splendid

and magnificent vessel, which will furnish you food. saying that he was divinely sent to Caesarea

But marveling much at these words, rising up

I came to the temple of the Most High: and when gradually

I had ascended to the vestibule, and out of longing had looked into

the entrance; I saw in the Holy of Holies

of sheep, adorned and distinguished with words full of majesty,

and the eyes of all fixed upon it.

I saw the temple quickened by that spirit, and his

compassions especially upon widows and orphans.

I saw there with him streams of tears like a river

flowing, and a fleece of life pouring forth upon all as it were

golden rays; and the Shepherd himself, with the wings of the

spirit, lifting up prayers on high for us, that he found him preaching to the people, and drawing out the thread

of prayer. I saw by him the Church

adorned and beloved, most aptly composed. I beheld

the doctrine of Paul flowing from him, the law of the Gospels,

and the fear of the Mysteries. I beheld there

up to heaven itself; and (to comprise the matter in few words) that whole assembly, gleaming with the splendors

of grace. And while all these things were thus religiously

flowering forth from the chosen vessel of the kingdom, I praised

the wise and kind Lord, who thus

glorifies those who glorify Him.

[305] But when the discourse was finished, the Holy Spirit

revealing it, he knew that I was present: who, taking care to summon my lowliness, through an interpreter inquired

of me, saying: Are you Ephrem, who nobly

subjected your bowed neck to the yoke of the saving word? and taught of his presence by the Holy Spirit,

And answering I said: I am Ephrem, who

separated myself from the heavenly course. And when he had

laid hold of me, he greeted me with his holy kiss;

and set out a table with the dishes of his wise and holy and

faithful soul, not indeed seasoned with corruptible

courses, but filled with immortal judgments.

For he said by what right deeds we are able

to reconcile the Lord to us, by what means we may

ward off the assaults of sins, by what means too

we may close off the entrance of the passions, by what means

we may take possession of apostolic virtue, and by what

means we may placate the incorruptible Judge. And lamenting

I cried out and said: You, Father, guard the remiss and

sluggish: you direct me into the right path:

you prick my stony heart. and congratulates himself on the things he heard; For to you the God

of spirits has cast me, that you may care for my soul.

You make ready the ship of my soul, and lead it

to the water of rest. Here attend diligently to the zeal of this distinguished master, from which my virtue

took hold, embraced the form and (to use that

word) the rod of the body; and plucking out the nature

of irrational passions, he stripped off my

husks, and the corruption of my eyes; and withdrawing from me

unripeness and immaturity, by emulation of his discourse

he captured me, and immersed me in the cups of his

doctrine. Then my womb conceived sense and thought

to bring forth the praises of the forty Martyrs:

for all the manner and measure of their

endurance did that distinguished man pour into my ears,

namely how they chose death for themselves for the sake of Christ,

and how great perils they despised, that

they might gain Him; then how many in number the Saints

were, and he recalled the rest of the contests

of their piety. Because therefore for such a notable effect

the faithful Pontiff deemed us worthy, that

we should leave behind, in another Oration, the praises

of those triumphant men, described from the so illustrious

victory won by their martyrdom, as also Basil, in turn taught something by him this it is, that this Saint of Christ,

honor, we may proclaim blessed and happy.

[306] These Saints also conferred among themselves about the understanding

of the divine Scriptures: for Basil eagerly used this opportunity,

so that he might receive certain more obscure

sentences of holy Scripture elucidated from the Syriac

interpretation. Hexam. Homil. 2 Hence it is everywhere believed that he speaks of St. Ephrem,

when, expounding among other things that passage of Genesis, The Spirit

of God was borne over the waters, he thus writes: In what

manner, you may say, was He here borne over the waters?

Indeed I will set forth to you not my own opinion, but that of a certain Syrian man,

who was as far removed from the wisdom of the world

as he was nearer to the knowledge of true things. He said therefore that the speech of the Syrians

was more significant and more evident, and, on account of

the affinity which it has with the Hebrew tongue, somehow more closely touched the meanings of the Scriptures:

and so he said that the meaning of this saying was such:

This word, Was borne, they take and interpret as Cherished,

and offered vital fecundity to the nature

of the waters, after the likeness

of a little bird brooding, and imprinting a certain vital force

into the eggs, which are warmed by it:

such a sense did he proclaim to be signified by that word.

CHAPTER XXV.

Basil's sickness: the death of Emmelia his mother:

likewise of Athanasius Bishop of Ancyra, and of Musonius of Neocaesarea.

[307] Basil, desiring to visit the man of Samosata, During all this time Basil wished to visit

or to receive as a guest with him St. Eusebius

of Samosata, that he might be able to use his counsel in so great a

disturbance of affairs: but a hindrance, by which he was prevented

from enjoying his wishes, was brought by his frequent illnesses.

For so great was the immense misery of his deplorable health,

that when he seemed to be a little better, his health

was more prostrate than those whose recovery was plainly

despaired of. B. Ep. 262 And hence a reckoning can most easily be made

by conjecture, of what kind it was when he was grievously

ill and lay confined by disease, which had brought him

even to the very gates of death. Concerning this same

infirmity of his he perhaps also speaks elsewhere, to

the same Eusebius: In what state of mind, he says,

do you think I was, when I received your letters, O pious man? B. Epist. 8

For if I considered the meaning of them, he is hindered by a long infirmity; I wished with an impulse

to fly straight to you: but if to the weakness of the

body by which, bound, I lay confined, not only

did I feel that I could not fly, but that I could not even

turn over in my bed. For these fifty days I lay sick,

during which there was diligently present to me our beloved and

most zealous of all Brother and fellow-minister

Elpidius. For I was much consumed by a fever,

which, on account of the lack of nourishing material, with this dry

flesh, as it were a lamp-paper surrounded, brought on a wasting

and long illness. An old wound added to this

withdrew me from food, then by his own, took sleep from my eyes,

and at last made me a neighbor of death and life,

allowing me to live only so much as is necessary for

feeling pain. And so I both used waters

naturally warm, and embraced certain treatments of the physicians:

but this robust and stubborn malady overcame all,

which another perhaps could have borne with the presence

of habit: but invading unexpectedly,

no one is so adamantine that he can

bear it; long vexed by which I was never so

afflicted as now, hindered by it from coming to

the meeting and embrace of your sincere love. B. Ep. 257 And not only Basil's infirmity

was a hindrance to his meeting Eusebius; then his Deacon's: but also

that of Eustathius the Deacon, who, struggling with a most grievous disease,

detained Basil even up to two months, while

from day to day he waited for him to recover: then all

who were with him were of weak health, until

he himself too, as said above, fell into illness.

[308] he is afflicted also by the ruin of the Church of Tarsus. While the Saint lay sick, or rather was gradually

recovering, the city of Tarsus was lost to the orthodox,

receiving an Arian Bishop, its Bishop

Silvanus having died. Basil, at the news of this matter,

could not keep silence, and sought a discourse

worthy of the deeds, so that his voice might not be likened

to a sigh but to a weeping, which might abundantly express

the gravity of the evil: that so great a city,

acting so happily that by its labor it had brought the Isaurians, Cilicians, Cappadocians, and Syrians

into concord, was going to ruin

through the deadly sloth of one or two

men; while we delay, he says, and deliberate, and

look at one another, and providing for our own

safety we regard the affairs of our neighbors as of no concern;

understanding little, namely, that it is altogether necessary

that the condition of individuals be reckoned as ruined,

when the Commonwealth has fared ill. B. Ep. 5, B. Ep. 257, B. Ep. 5 And so on account of

the sadness contracted thence, very much time

had to be spent by him in regathering his strength,

infirmities recurring from time to time on account of his

too vehement grief of mind, although he knew that it had by no means

happened by his own fault that the Church was betrayed to the enemies. B. Ep. 262

But neither had the man of Samosata omitted anything, [the man of Samosata striving in vain against it, when it was seized by the Arians.] by which to ward off so great

an evil by anticipating it: for as he had long before

foreseen and proclaimed all these things; so

he had stood ready and waiting, and had roused others through letters

and messengers, himself hastening to the matter on the spot,

what did he not do? what utterance

did he not send forth? B. Ep. 257 But the cause of the evil outcome

was (as has been said elsewhere) that the Bishops in communion with Basil,

either through sloth, or for this reason that

they held him suspect, and were not well and sincerely

affected toward him; or at least through the opposition of the devil,

who is wont to oppose good works, were by no means

willing to conspire with him.

[209] But just as there can be no doubt

that Basil's infirmity made a far more convenient opportunity for the Arians to invade the Church of Tarsus; he is hindered by the same or a similar disease

so also it was a hindrance, by which he was prevented from rendering other offices

of charity to his friends. Thus he could not commend in person

to Antipater the Prefect of the province the cause of Palladia,

nearness of family had united to him, but the sweetness of her character

had set in the place of a parent to him. Wherefore, when

certain disturbances and commotions were stirred up about her

household, to act for his friends before the Prefect,

he wished him to be entreated by letter, to defer somewhat the inquiry

of that controversy, and to await his

presence, that he might explain in person what it was not

fitting to commit to writing: Now most of all,

he says, I accuse my weak health,

and feel the damage thence inflicted, since with a man

so illustrious, administering the affairs of my fatherland, I myself

am necessarily compelled to be absent, intent on the care

of my body: for a whole month I must

sit by, for a treatment to be made by warm waters, as if

some help or aid were to come to me thence. B. Ep. 366

But I shall seem to many to have spent labor in vain,

indeed to not a few worthy of laughter, since I do not even

regard sufficiently that proverb, by which it is wont to be said that no profit

accrues to the dead, if they are bathed with warm waters.

No one indeed could certainly affirm that all these things

are to be referred to the same infirmity of Basil,

who testifies that he was by nature sickly: it seems

probable, however, on account of the similarity of the subject.

[310] meanwhile doing what he could, Whatever it be, that which more concerns the Saint

and demonstrates his sanctity, we learn virtues from it,

the exercise of which we would commend to all the sick.

For first of all, as we have just shown, as much as

his strength allowed, and the medicines to be applied

permitted, he did not omit the care of the Church, laboring no less

diligently for it. But amid grave pains,

with urbane and pious wit he from time to time delighted himself and others;

and what is the chief virtue of the sick, he acknowledged

that the disease was sent upon him by the hand of the Lord, and accepted

it, altogether conforming himself to the divine disposition.

Since, he says, the disease itself is the Lord's scourge,

adding moreover (and indeed most deservedly)

new heaps to torments and pains; and conforming himself to the divine will, I have acquired

infirmity upon infirmity; so that even children

henceforth may most easily understand, that it can altogether not

be otherwise than that the little skin, having flowed away, should vanish: unless perhaps

the divine mercy and longsuffering toward all,

by enlarging for us the times of penance, should give

and should set free those hindered on every side and inextricably

involved in miseries. B. Ep. 257 But these things, as it has seemed

to God, so will they come to pass, and as it shall have conduced

to our profit.

[311] Thus Basil, afflicted by diseases, and struggling

with Eustathius of Sebaste, was met by the snares of the Arians:

who, again beginning openly to persecute him, by their frauds

and slanders so far prevailed with the Emperor,

that they obtained a decree, The decree by which Basil was to be handed over to the Arians being changed, by which Basil should be left

to the disposition of his accusers. To this

perhaps refer these words of his to Meletius: From near at hand there

is hope that it will come to pass, that the things which the Arians threaten,

will at last reach their issue. B. Ep. 58 Nevertheless the heart

of Kings is in the hand of the Lord, for not long after the execution

of that decree was suspended by a contrary command of the Emperor,

as the Saint himself writes to the aforesaid Meletius:

There came, he says, a certain messenger from the court,

at the first movement of the Emperor, to which

those impelled him who had poured out slanders against us;

and he reported that another counsel had been taken,

so that we are not given over exposed to the accusers, nor are we handed over to their will, which

had been decreed from the beginning; but that meanwhile a certain

extension and postponement of the case might be made. and another about summoning him to the Palace, Whether therefore these things

remain, or something else more humane than these be decreed,

we will signify to your Piety: but if

the former shall prevail, you shall not be hidden from even this. That anything

beyond the decree was done, is not found; the Arians,

however, seem, disappointed in their hope, to have fled to other devices; and

to have sought that, under the pretext of peace, Basil be summoned to the Palace,

which the Saint signifies thus to a certain Bishop, perhaps Eusebius

or Meletius: But know that I, through

the slanders of the heretics, am in expectation of a summons,

to the Palace of the Emperor, under the cover and

pretext of making peace. B. Ep. 242 This report has been brought

to me.

[312] At the same time a certain Bishop, established

in Mesopotamia, sent a message to Basil

and made an effort that he himself might meet with him, in those parts

cleaving; and having convened in the localities of his opinion

those who dominate the Churches, excusably prevented by illness from another conference. accompanied by them he might hasten to

the King. But that plan was by no means approved by Basil:

for this poor little body of his

would not be sufficient to undergo a winter

journey. For the inclemency of winter was at the doors,

confining him at home, and not permitting him even to be

moved from the spot. For even if it should

turn out more tolerable than usual, it would nevertheless bring

hindrance enough to one infirm, so that not only by himself

could he not set out on a journey, but he could not even look out

from his very dwelling. B. Ep. 6 But neither did that journey seem

necessary to be undertaken: yet the counsel of him to whom

he was writing, the Bishop, he required on that matter. B. Ep. 242

[313] In these times also is believed to have fallen the death

of St. Emmelia, mother of St. Basil, concerning whom more

has been treated on the 30th of May; since he himself, on account of the persecutions of the Arians, His mother St. Emmelia dies:

could not be present to her as she died, the Churches being affected almost like

his own body, with no good hope shining forth,

but with affairs always slipping into worse;

although those who plotted against him

were not yet permitted to do anything

worthy of their anger and savagery. B. Ep. 7 How grievously that death

of his mother befell Basil, let him himself say. B. Ep. 7 But now, he says,

what was my one solace of life, my mother

herself, on account of my sins I have lost. Do not mock me,

who at this age am wont to bewail my bereavement: but know

this, that I by no means take ill the soul's departure,

to which I find nothing in the rest that corresponds in dignity.

Again therefore I have fallen into illness, and again

I lie in bed, fluctuating with altogether scanty strength,

and almost at each hour

expecting the necessary end of life.

[314] likewise Athanasius Bishop of Ancyra In the year 372, in which Emmelia died, Neocaesarea

and Ancyra were seen to have successors

of those who had departed. The first of these, Athanasius Bishop of Ancyra,

had had as father an Athanasius,

and had governed the principalities of nations and cities,

and was carried by a certain zeal toward the great

virtue of his ancestors, even to be set forth as an example

of probity. B. Ep. 54 But the son, Bishop of Ancyra,

endured great and distinguished contests for the protection

of the rectitude of the faith. On account of his

death Basil, made like a pelican dwelling in the wilderness,

groaned: and that he might signify the grief of his heart

with a mournful voice, he said he had need

of the lamentations of Jeremiah. For there has died, he says, another column of the Church,

of the Church; nay rather, taken up to the blessed life, he has departed

from us. But it is no small danger,

lest, this foundation being withdrawn, many fall

together with it, and the things that are putrid and

decayed in some be made manifest. B. Ep. 67 Closed is the mouth, which

hitherto with both fitting confidence and discourses

of grace gushed forth for the edification of the Brotherhood.

Taken away are the counsels of a mind, which truly was moved

by divine impulse. with great feeling of Basil's, O how often did my mind (for I will accuse

myself) feel some indignation against this

man, because he was wholly held by this desire,

to be dissolved and to be with Christ;

nor did he value this more highly, that for our sake he should longer remain

in the flesh. To whom henceforth shall we lay the care

of the Churches? whom in these sad affairs

shall we receive as a partner? whom shall we have as dispenser of modesty

and temperance? O great indeed

and sad desolation!

[315] But who would not wonder that a Bishop, so very

beloved and esteemed by Basil, could be deceived by the Eustathians,

so as rashly to judge the Saint guilty of heretical doctrine,

and to inveigh and threaten more vehemently against him.

So those who had heard reported it to Basil.

And he indeed laughed greatly at the threats,

for he did not, like a boy, fear such

bugbears: yet this seemed formidable and worthy of much

care, though once accused by him of heresy, that that most upright

man, whom he had believed himself to preserve, both as a support

of rectitude, and as a seedbed of old

and true charity, for the consolation

of the Churches, was so far a sharer

in the corruption of the present state,

that he valued the slanders of any common people more

than the long experience of the Saint; and was moved

to evil suspicions without certain proofs;

and not only to suspicions, but also to indignations

and threats; and had shown the anger not of one now suspecting,

but of one manifestly and undoubtedly persuaded. B. Ep. 53 But

Basil, deputing to the malice of those times the cause of this matter,

amicably expostulates with him: and uncovering the error;

How much labor, I ask, and therefore having anxiously complained to him he says, O distinguished man,

would it have been, in a brief letter, about the things you wished, as it were one alone

conversing with one alone? or, if you were unwilling to commit such a matter

to letters, you might have called us to yourself:

but if even this was altogether not

to be done, and on account of the untamed heat of your indignation you were unwilling

to await an opportune time; at least

you could have used some one of yours, who are suited and abound for covering up

secret matters, as a servant for the things which you wished

to signify. But now, into whose ears

do not those men make a din, who for the sake

of certain affairs sometimes approach you, as though we had written some harmful things or had subscribed

to others who wrote? For they say you used

that word. Me indeed, turned in mind and thought

to many things, nothing frees from uncertainty of counsel. And so

I began to suspect even such a thing, concerning so rash a judgment. lest perhaps some one

of the heretics has craftily inscribed my name

to his compositions, and thus has saddened

your rectitude, and has induced you to send forth

that word. For you would not have endured to inflict

that insult by our writings, with which we assail

those who have dared to assert that the Son and God

is not, as regards essence,

similar to God and the Father; or those who blasphemously

have taught that the Holy Spirit is a creature;

you who fought those great

and distinguished contests for the protection of the rectitude of the faith.

But you will free us from the perplexed labor of mind,

if you will openly signify by what causes you were

moved, to inveigh against us so bitterly. And that Athanasius did

this, and acquiesced in Basil's letters,

becomes probable from the grief

with which his death affected him.

[316] Similarly the Saint is affected by the death of Musonius of Neocaesarea. The other, whose death this year too Basil

mourned, was Musonius, Bishop of Neocaesarea;

although Basil did not have that blessed man

joined to himself for preserving the peace of the Churches,

on account of certain, as he himself said, anticipated suspicions.

But for that reason he never ceased to call him a companion

in the contests undertaken against the heretics,

nor did he omit, after his death, to commend him to posterity with a distinguished eulogy. B. Ep. 62 There has died, he says, a man of all

his time the most preeminent of all in all human goods together,

the pillar of his fatherland, the ornament of the Churches,

of the faith that is in Christ, the defense of his own,

unconquerable by any engines of the adversaries,

the guardian of paternal rites, an enemy to those zealous

for innovating things; who in himself presented for beholding

the ancient form of the Church, and as it were toward

the face of the Church committed to him; so that those who

enjoyed his fellowship seemed to have lived with those

who two hundred years and more before shone like

luminaries: thus nothing of his own,

nothing that savored of the invention of any new

thought, did this man bring forward: but, according to the blessing

of Moses, out of the very secret places of his heart and

good treasures, he knew how to bring forth the old things of the old,

and the things that before the face of the younger were old.

By this reasoning indeed, even in the counsels of his fellowship and equals,

he obtained the first honor:

for not on account of the prerogative of age, but because

he surpassed all in the antiquity of wisdom, by common

consent and concession he obtained the first place.

But how much profit such instruction gave, though not yet a quite aged man; let no one

ask, who has but lately regarded you, O men of Neocaesarea;

for alone among those whom we have known, or

with very few, in so great a tempest of affairs

and whirlwind, you led a tranquil life through his

governance. For the storm of heretical

winds did not seize you, which to lighter minds

and those easily exposed to seduction had brought forth

subversions and shipwrecks… Although, even if

this man did not reach extreme old age; yet

certainly, as far as time is concerned, he had life enough to preside

over you: and he obtained of bodily strength only so much

as he had need of for declaring the endurance of his mind

in sad affairs.

[317] Perhaps some one of you will say, that the long

duration of time among those and consoles the men of Neocaesarea who knew him by experience

will bring rather an addition to grief and

love than satiety; so that the longer

the more amply you feel the loss of him; and even

the shadow of a just man's body is among the pious worthy of any

honor. Be that indeed so, since even of us very many

are affected in this manner (for neither

would I myself say that this man is to be despised)

but, that what sad has happened may be borne in a human

manner, I urge. Since I myself

am not unaware of what things can be said by those

who deplore the loss received. The tongue is indeed silent,

which otherwise washed the ears like rivers; but the depth

of the heart comprehensible to no one, weaker than dreams

(as far as men are concerned),

has flown away. Who more sharply than he foresaw the future? Who

with so stable and solid a genius, and swifter than lightning,

sufficed to meet imminent causes?

O City, already indeed beset by many disturbances, by compassionating so great a loss:

yet by none of them ever afflicted with so deadly

grace that was yours: the Church laments,

the solemn assemblies mourn, the sacred council of elders

longs for its leader, the mystical discourses

await their interpreter; the sons their father,

the old men their equal, those in magistracy their chief,

the people their president, those deprived of nourishment

their nourisher; all invoke him with familiarly used names,

and with words fitting to each one's own

affection deplore him as lost. But whither

is my discourse hurried by the pleasure of tears? Shall we not

be restored to sobriety? Shall we not be given back to our very

selves? Shall we not look

to the common Lord, who, after having

permitted each one of the Saints to serve his own age,

at the fitting time again called them back to Himself?

[318] Hence Basil digresses to admonishing the faithful,

that, trusting in God and unanimous, and exhorts them to a harmonious election of a successor, they should be busy to elect

as soon as possible a vigilant and orthodox Pastor.

Now, he says, in that tempest, recall to memory

the things which Musonius said: who, when he preached to you,

perpetually admonished and announced, saying,

Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers. Many

there are who are dogs. Why do I say dogs? Nay, grievous wolves,

who, covering their fraud under the appearance of little sheep, everywhere

throughout the earth scatter the flock of Christ; against whom

you must be on your guard by the protection of some vigilant Pastor. without regard to any private advantage:

To seek this man with minds cleansed of all contention and ambition

is your part; but to designate him is the Lord's,

who from the time of the great President of your Church,

Gregory, even up to that Blessed man, always one

after another, as it were drawing forth and adapting them from a certain series

of precious stones, adding and fitting them together,

has bestowed an admirable beauty upon your Church.

And so neither henceforth must we despair of the future:

for the Lord knows His own, and will without doubt bring

them forth into your midst, of whom

perhaps nothing such was expected. Long since wishing

to impose an end on my discourse, the grief of my heart

does not permit me from adjuring you, by the Fathers, by

the right Faith, by that Blessed man, that with a vigilant mind

each of you weigh; what he seeks for himself;

and that, however matters fall out, whether well or ill,

he should think himself among the first to be a partaker of them:

nor cast off the care of public affairs, as many

are wont, upon his neighbor: lest afterward, while

each of you with the same disposition neglects the things to be done, before

you perceive it, each of you should bring upon yourselves your own evil

through carelessness. lest perhaps some Arian creep in. These things, whether spoken as it were

out of the compassion of neighbors, or out of the fellowship of those holding the same

opinion; or even, what

is truer, as from those who obey the law of love,

and flee the danger which to those who know

is to be feared, you will receive with all benevolence;

persuaded that you are our boast, just as

we are yours, in the day of the Lord; and that, on account of

the Pastor who will be given to you, it will come to pass, that either

we shall be united more amply and more closely by the bond of love, or

shall be altogether disjoined; which God forbid, I pray; nor will it happen, by

the grace of God. These things indeed Basil wrote to the men of Neocaesarea,

that he might preserve that Church in the faith, and

might strengthen the orthodox Bishops by the addition of one as by a new

defense. Nevertheless that solicitude lacked

success, for whoever was assumed to this Episcopate,

though he did no harm, accomplished nothing at least distinguished

for the Church.

CHAPTER XXVI.

The exile of Gregory of Nyssa. The Relics of St. Sabas the Martyr brought into Cappadocia to Basil.

[319] In the aforesaid year 372, which is the seventh

before the death of Basil, In the year 372 Demosthenes the Vicar, the eighth before the death

of Macrina the younger, there was added to Basil's afflictions the persecution

of the Arians against his brother Gregory of Nyssa,

and his exile from his Episcopate and fatherland.

Then Demosthenes, Vicar of the Praetorian Prefect, came into

Cappadocia, the head and origin of all evils;

perhaps the same who in the year 371, set over the Imperial

kitchen, when he interrupted Basil pleading before Valens,

was bidden by him with a sweet sarcasm to fall silent.

For the bulk of his body, on account of which

Basil calls him a most fat and huge sea-monster,

sufficiently declares that he had not much shrunk from the services of the kitchen:

but he is praised by Basil writing to him,

as a Christian first of all and Orthodox, and an accurate

observer of those laws by which the affairs of men

are read to be ordered—not that he was such, but that he ought to be

such. B. Ep. 395, B. Ep. 385 Such certainly do not approve the things he did, both against the Orthodox,

and against Gregory of Nyssa:

whence Basil, writing to Eusebius of Samosata far

otherwise, thus explains his opinion of him: There has come

here the Vicar, the head and origin of our evils,

whether imbued with heretical depravity, I do not know; a supporter and minister of the heretics, I think

rather that he, devoid of all doctrine, neither does

anything with care, nor anxiously cares whether he believe

heretical or orthodox dogmas: for his pursuits are other;

to other things does that man, both by night and also by day,

devote his body and mind in exercises. B. Ep. 264, B. Ep. 405 But certainly

he proves a supporter of the heretics, who with as great zeal as

he is carried toward them, with so great an enmity persecutes us.

For the just Judge has given us, according to the demand

of our works, an angel of Satan to buffet us

abundantly and more, defending heresy indeed more vehemently,

but waging war upon us to such a degree,

that not even the blood of many

believing in the Lord was spared.

[320] He therefore, through the midst of winter and the most violent

cold, held a council of the reprobate in

Galatia; namely at Ancyra, in the conventicle of Ancyra (deposing) Hypsius of Ancyra, where Eustathius of Sebaste

with his followers, through individual houses, embraced the fellowship

of the heretics, and was received into their fellowship

by them in this manner. In the same conventicle

Demosthenes, by the work of the same Eustathius of Sebaste,

having ejected Hypsius, the orthodox Bishop of Ancyra,

and successor of Athanasius likewise of Ancyra, substituted Ecdicius,

surnamed Parnassenus, perhaps

because he had been Bishop of the city so called in Cappadocia,

which Episcopate he left to invade that of Ancyra. B. Ep. 73

Whatever it be, an evil provision for the future life

he has procured for himself, who set him over the Church,

says Basil: for intruded into the Episcopate,

he was made the partner and accomplice of Basilides,

Bishop of Gangra in Paphlagonia, infamous for Arianism. and punishes Gregory of Nyssa with exile,

Nor did the impiety of Demosthenes stop here: he moreover commanded

Basil's brother Gregory to be led away: accused

by only one Philochares, and that a son of the earth, or

obeyed the one commanding: but since he labored with pleurisy,

and on account of an accompanying coldness of the kidneys

was from time to time more often afflicted with infirmity; he was compelled,

handled rather rigidly and inflexibly by the soldiers,

to be transferred, for the care of his body, and for acquiring solace

in bearing the troubles, to a place of rest

for the sake of refreshing himself. Hence by

having slipped from the hands of the soldiers leading him, betook himself to a safe

and quiet place, or into some hiding-places.

But the Arians seem to have objected against him before the Vicar two

heads of accusation. The first question was about

money, as though he had spent ill that falsely accused: which

was to be reserved for the use of the Church. But the keepers of the sacred moneys,

or the treasurers of the Church, were ready

to render an account to anyone demanding it, and

to convict the slanders of those who had dared

to accuse him. Nor was it difficult, from the very letters of the blessed Bishop,

to make the truth manifest, laid open to anyone

desiring. The other head of accusation was,

an Ordination made against the Canons. But if anything wrong had been committed in it,

those were at fault who imposed hands;

not he, who by force and constraint had taken upon himself that ministry.

[321] But Basil, in this calamity of his brother and of the Church,

thought he should by no means rest: but

first he wrote to Abyrtius, a certain noble and

old friend of his, who knew how to take up virtue, Basil commends his brother to Abyrtius, and

to compassionate the afflicted. B. Ep. 358 Wherefore, he says, since

troubles have seized our brother Gregory the Bishop, most beloved of God,

both troubles otherwise not to be borne by him,

and the most adverse disposition of the man himself;

it has seemed to us best to flee to imploring your

help, and to ask from you the relief of that evil:

for it is no small evil

to make troubles for him who is not fit to bear

troubles; that money too be extorted from a poor man,

that he be dragged into public, and be deafened with tumults, who

once out of zeal for tranquillity had entered upon a quiet manner of life.

But it will be for your prudence to discern this,

whether you wish him commended to the Count

of the treasuries, or to any others. Basil also wrote

to Demosthenes himself, and to Demosthenes himself. in the name of several Bishops,

and that with the greatest respect, although toward one

ill-deserving, inasmuch as he discharged a public office of judge;

yet strongly for the equity of the cause: which, briefly

demonstrated, he prays that the accused be heard in his own country,

and not be dragged into external regions, nor be compelled

to await an assembly of Bishops. B. Ep. 385

[322] Meanwhile the same year supplied a certain

matter of consolation to St. Basil. The persecution raging in Gothia, We have treated on the 12th of April

of St. Sabas the Goth, who under King Athanaric endured

an illustrious martyrdom. We gave the Acts in Greek and Latin

from a letter written by the Church of Gothia to the Church of Cappadocia;

at the end of these, where it is narrated how

the Martyr was drowned in the waters, concerning his Relics it is thus

reported: Then the murderers drew him out of

the water, and left him unburied. Pag. 98 num. 8 But neither beasts

nor birds touched his Relics; but

they were kept by the pious Brethren, and the most illustrious Duke

of Scythia, Junius Soranus, the body of St. Sabas who suffered there worshipping God, by sending

men worthy of trust, transferred them from the barbarian land into Romania;

and wishing to gratify his own fatherland, sent the precious

gift, the glorious fruit of faith, into

Cappadocia to your religion, by the will

of the Presbyters; the Lord so ordaining, who

bestows His grace on those who endure and fear

Him. is brought into Cappadocia, Wherefore, on the day the Martyr was crowned,

sacrificing, announce this to the rest of the Brethren,

that in every Catholic and Apostolic Church,

exulting, they may praise the Lord.

[323] Junius Soranus, Duke of Scythia, a Cappadocian by nation,

is probably believed to be he whom Basil praises,

because he tried to come to the aid of the Christians groaning under

persecution. B. Ep. 241 Julius Soranus Duke of Scythia taking care of it, You certainly, he says, whatever

good you do, privately remains a treasure for you: but

in as much as you refresh and cherish those who, for the name

of the Lord, suffer persecution, this, as great

as it is, you treasure up, laid by for you, against that day of retribution.

Then asking from him the Relics of those who suffered there,

he thus continues. But you will do rightly, if you also

take care to have the Relics of the Martyrs sent to your fatherland;

if only, as you wrote to me, that

persecution which flourishes in those places still

consigns Martyrs to the Lord. And Soranus seems to have fulfilled

Basil's desire, by sending into Cappadocia

the body of this holy Martyr Sabas. For since Basil,

writing to Ascholius Bishop of Thessalonica, makes notable

mention of a holy body of a certain

Martyr received, of no other can it more aptly be understood.

But Ascholius seems at that time to have dwelt among the Goths, and to Ascholius Bishop of Gothia, to the Cappadocians:

for confirming the Christians in the faith, lest

on account of the persecution they should fall away. He too contracted

of letters: by whose sincere love and

constancy in the orthodox faith Basil also was so delighted,

as those set in the thickest night are wont

to be revived by a light suddenly arising. Truly

now your condition, he says, seems to me most like

the stars which, through a cloudy night,

suddenly shine forth here and there, whose

splendor is in itself gracious, yet much

more from the fact that they shine forth suddenly. B. Ep. 339 Of this kind

are you, O lights of the Church, very few

altogether and easily numbered, in this difficult state

and condition of affairs, gleaming through the nocturnal darkness.

[324] who wrote the Acts of this martyr, And so Ascholius, amid the darkness of persecution

gleaming like a star to the Christian Goths, seems to have taken care,

together with Duke Soranus, of the translation of St. Sabas into

Cappadocia, and to have written concerning the Acts of the aforesaid Martyr

of Cappadocia, and to have joined his own particular letters to Basil,

who indicates all these things in his replies to those, and to others

sent from time to time. B. Ep. 338 Your narration, he says,

is entirely of athletic contests; of bodies,

celebrated in song for the sake of piety; of the furies of the Barbarians, Basil delighted by these,

trampled down by men undaunted and not to be made to tremble

by any terror; of various kinds of torments,

which the persecutors used; of continuous struggles,

of those fighting it out by water or by wood, through all

of which the Martyrs were consummated. Moreover I was affected

with multiplied gladness, because not only were you

then such as the testimonies of many declared;

but the illustrious actions of virtue in you

are the ornaments of our nation. B. Ep. 339 For just as

generous root, has filled foreign nations

with your spiritual fruits: so our fatherland, not indeed

unjustly, exults over its own offspring. And when

you recounted the contests undergone for the cause of faith, our fatherland glorified God,

because it had heard that that best inheritance of our forefathers

was guarded in you. What

and how great things have been accomplished by you at present, the same fatherland

bears witness to as to a novice Athlete.

Among the barbarian nations placed nearby,

you have honored the nation that produced you; like a worthy and honest

farmer, by transmitting the first-fruits of your harvests to those

who had supplied you the seeds.

Worthy of Christ are these gifts. The witness

of that truth is that very Martyr, who lately was crowned

with the crown of justice: whom we have received with joy;

and at the same time we have venerated God, who through

all the nations anew has fulfilled the course of the Gospel

of His Christ.

[325] Indeed how great a gladness Ascholius's letters

affected Basil with, to explain, he says, is not

ready to us. For they contained that miracle narrated about the Martyrs,

which expressly bore the form

and likeness of nature, so as to represent the deeds

before Basil's eyes. B. Ep. 338 [he represents to himself the former times of ecclesiastical union under the tyrants] And so when he himself

took that letter into his hands,

and surveyed it several times by reading,

perceiving the grace of the Spirit overflowing in it, he thought himself

dwelling among the former ages,

when the Churches of God still flourished,

rooted in faith, joined in charity;

so that in one body the diverse and

manifold members rendered a united respiration; when

the persecutors and those who had suffered persecution could be designated in open

light; when the people, assailed in war,

was rather increased, and that blood of the Martyrs irrigated

the Churches, and produced multiplied Athletes

of the truth, those that followed preparing themselves for the contest,

aroused by the zeal of those preceding. Hence the Saint, turning his eyes

and mind, and groaning at the present state of the Church,

cried out. Then we Christians among

ourselves cultivated that peace, which Christ left

to us; of which now not even a vestige remains,

so far with hostile minds have we driven it from one another.

Nonetheless his heart returned somewhat to

that ancient blessedness, when from remote regions

Ascholius's letters had come, hardly able to express the joy of his mind, about the beauty of love

reflowering: A Martyr, he says, is present to us

from those very barbarians who dwell beyond the trans-Danubian

regions, proclaiming the perfection of the faith set there

in profession. Who will be able to recount the gladness

with which on this very account our souls

are flooded? What great power or faculty of speaking can be supplied,

which may avail to depict to the life, with what affection

within our souls in secret exult? When

we beheld the Athlete, we proclaimed happy his

trainer, who also without doubt will one day receive a crown of justice

from the just judge, because

he animated very many to the contest of piety.

These things indeed Basil, and congratulating Ascholius himself exulting in spirit, on account of the Martyr's Relics

sent to him and received with great honor; and

on account of the mention made in Ascholius's letters of that blessed

man Eutyches, who had been a native of Cappadocia,

and among the first had led the Gothic nation, barbarous and fierce,

to the sweet yoke of Christ. B. Ep. 338

[326] But as Basil was delighted by the commemoration

of past things, so on the contrary he was affected with sadness

through compassion for present affairs; No one of us,

without doubt, he says, is to be named for virtue before that Eutyches;

we who are so far from rendering barbarians

pacified, through the power of the Spirit and the operation

of spiritual charisms; that rather we render most pacified men

fierce, by the immense mass of our sins.

For to ourselves and to our sins do we

impute it, laboring so usefully among the barbarians. that the power of the heretics

has so grown, and spread itself out immensely. For scarcely

any corner of the whole world has escaped the conflagration

arisen from the heretics… charity has grown cold,

the discipline of the Fathers has been betrayed, shipwrecks concerning the faith have been frequent,

the mouths of the religious fall silent; the people

are driven from the houses of prayer, and under the open sky and

cold heaven, they stretch out their hands to the Lord God in the heavens:

most grievous afflictions everywhere; nowhere

however a martyrdom; for the reason that those who

afflict us with these evils rejoice in the appellation of the same name

with us. In this manner Basil, with divine

consolation, soothed his labors and griefs for the Church;

beseeching the Lord, with the prayers of others also asked,

that, reconciled to the Churches, He would lead them back to that ancient

peace.

CHAPTER XXVII.

New consultations about sending a Legate again into the West.

[327] In the preceding year 371 the Orthodox Bishops

of the East, There is treatment of sending Dorotheus back into the West, through Sabinus the Deacon, had sent letters

to the Westerners, that they might implore aid for their Churches,

lest they be utterly absorbed by the heretics: but

since they had received nothing of the hoped-for help thence, this year

they again decreed that Dorotheus the Presbyter should be sent. B. Ep. 70

For although, on account of the bitterness of the persecution,

it would have been fitting for very many of them to hasten to the Westerners,

and for each one to become an expounder of his own affairs;

yet it was not granted to take that way

and set out. For if any of them had deserted his Church

even for the briefest moment,

he would have left his people exposed to plotters; and this very

thing was a proof of his affliction, in which

they lived a plainly miserable life. Therefore by the grace

of God they sent one for many, this most pious

and beloved Brother of theirs Dorotheus; who

could also fulfill by his own narration whatever was not sufficiently expressed

by the letters entrusted to him; with letters to ask for help:

inasmuch as he had diligently followed all things, and was led by zeal for the right

faith. But this they especially required of the Western

Bishops, that the disturbance and confusion of the Eastern

Churches might become known through them to Valentinian the Emperor of the West;

or, if this were difficult to do,

that at least some of them should come into the East,

to visit and console the afflicted;

who might behold with their own eyes the calamity of the East;

not sufficiently perceptible by hearing, because

they could express their affairs clearly by no discourse.

[328] The author of this counsel, that letters should again be written to the Westerners

about ecclesiastical affairs, Basil asks that the man of Samosata write these, was the most pious

Bishop Eusebius of Samosata, and indeed that they be written by

Basil. B. Ep. 59 But he, since he did not find

how to write about the things which the other had enjoined; sent a memorandum

to Meletius of Antioch, that he himself, having obtained it,

as his mind should suggest, might deign to write;

and might add the subscriptions of the Bishops, which were brought by the most holy

Presbyter: for he at the same time,

as we said before, was going round the East to seek

them. Meanwhile, before he received any reply from

Meletius, perhaps even before Dorotheus

had been designated to set out into the West;

Basil had again to write to Meletius; on which occasion

he asks that, after he has formed the letter to the Westerners,

he would deign to send the same to him, so that he himself

might take care to have it subscribed by all who consented; and that he advise dealing more cautiously with Easterners coming to them,

and he advises that the paper be so arranged that it may have a place suitable for subscriptions,

to which could be joined that letter,

which, having indeed been written before, was at that time being carried about

through the East to be subscribed. B. Ep. 58 He adds

finally another subject for writing, which had occurred to him,

hitherto untouched; namely, that the Westerners should be admonished

not to receive without discrimination the communion of any persons whatsoever

coming from the East; but, having once chosen one party,

to admit the rest from the testimony of those consenting, and not to assent to anyone

writing a formula of faith under the pretext of orthodox doctrine. B. Ep. 59 and seeking to be received into communion: For in this way

they would be caught favoring the adversaries, who very often

indeed pretend the same words, but among themselves

are at variance, as those who have been most divided and dissenting.

Lest therefore the heresy of those who

mutually disagree among themselves, through their writings, which they are wont to pretend

and put forward, should further seduce the incautious; they must be admonished

to make communions with judgment of those approaching,

and those which are made with writings, according to the ecclesiastical

form.

[329] It does not seem to be doubted that St. Meletius

composed the letter which Basil had asked, which, however,

has not come into our hands, unless perhaps it be that such as perhaps are found among the Letters of Basil,

which exists among Basil's letters as the one hundred and eighty-second,

inscribed to the Western Bishops, that they might bring help to the Churches

infected with Arianism. There, however, no

mention is made of recourse to the Emperor Valentinian;

but, with the calamities of the East set forth for compassion,

the Bishops of the West are asked, who were proclaimed among all

mortals, because they remained unspotted in the faith,

and kept the Apostolic deposit unharmed;

that even now at last they would stretch out a hand to the Eastern

Churches, which already, as it were sunk upon their knees,

are bending; and that they would send some men,

who might admonish them of the rewards which are reserved

for patience and for sufferings endured for Christ. To this

or to another letter, written in the common name of the Bishops,

Basil joined his own particular one, and delivered it

to be carried by Dorotheus to the Bishops of Italy and

Gaul, in which he urges that recourse be had to Valentinian,

and sets the atrocity of the persecution thus before their eyes:

Persecution has seized us, most revered Brethren,

the gravest of all persecutions. B. Ep. 70 he himself certainly wrote one in his own name, For the Pastors

are driven off, that the flocks may be scattered: and, what

is hardest of all, neither do those who are afflicted

bear the sufferings inflicted with the hope and confidence of martyrdom;

nor does the people hold and venerate athletes in the place of Martyrs;

because the persecutors are covered by the name of Christians.

There is now one crime which is vehemently punished, if anyone

diligently observes the paternal traditions. For this cause

the pious are driven from their ancestral seats, and are compelled

to migrate to the wildernesses. With unjust judges there is no

reverence for a gray head, none for religious and pious

exercise, no account is held of a manner of life

led lawfully according to the rule of the Gospel from

youth even to old age:

but whereas no wicked man is condemned without certain proofs,

Bishops alone, with slander intervening,

are condemned and punished, with no evident proof

of the alleged crime preceding. Some

do not even know their accusers, nor have they seen the tribunals,

nor were they first denounced; but,

snatched away in the dead of night into exile, they have been put to flight,

about to endure the calamities of solitude even unto death.

[330] But what things accompany these is hidden from no one,

even if we keep silence; the exiles of Presbyters,

the proscriptions of Deacons, by which he declares the wretched state of the East, and of the whole

Clergy the plunderings. For it is necessary either to adore

the image of the beast, or to be handed over to the savage

flame of tortures. To these are added the groans of the people, continual

tears, all both through individual houses

and publicly, bewailing among themselves the things

they suffer: for no one is so stony of heart,

that, deprived of a father, he easily bears the bereavement. Sounds

are heard of those lamenting in the city, sounds in

the fields, in the roads, in the wildernesses; one voice of those speaking

pitiable and sad things: gladness has been taken away

and spiritual joy, our festivities have been changed into

mourning: the houses of prayer are closed,

the altars are void of spiritual worship: no more

assemblies of Christians, no more presidency of teachers:

the salutary doctrines have ceased, the panegyrics

and festive and public assemblies have ceased: the nocturnal

hymnodies are not held, nor is there left

that blessed exultation, [where, the orthodox being suppressed, all things are in the power of the heretics;] by which the souls of those believing

in the Lord are gladdened in the synaxis and communion of spiritual charisms.

It is now permitted to us to say,

that in this time there is neither Prince, nor

Prophet, nor oblation, nor incense, nor

place where a sacrifice can be offered before the Lord

and mercy obtained. These things we write

to those who know, because there is no part of the world

which is ignorant of our calamities. Wherefore do not

think that we speak these things to you for the sake of teaching

or of stirring up your diligence. We know

that you have never forgotten us, no less

than a mother the children of her womb. But just as

those who are occupied by some grief are wont through groans

to relieve their sadness; so we too do, and

that we may shake off somewhat the weight of our sadness, we narrate

our multiform calamities to your Love,

if in some way, moved somewhat more fervently to pray for us,

you may obtain from the Lord,

that He be reconciled to us appeased.

[331] who, unless they be checked there, will prevail even in the West. Then, imploring help for so many and so great evils,

he continues: But if these tribulations

had pressed us alone, it would surely have seemed good to us,

both to cover them with silence, and to glory in the afflictions inflicted

for Christ: since the afflictions of the present time

are not equal to the glory which

will be revealed in us. But now we fear, lest

at some time this evil, its strength received, like

and pouring itself out, after it has seized and consumed the things that are near,

should seize also the things more remote.

For this evil of heresy devours all things,

and will creep also to the sound part of your parish and dwelling.

For we, perhaps the first indeed

on account of our overflowing sins, are set forth

to be consumed by those raw teeth of the enemies of Christ.

But perhaps (which is indeed nearer the truth)

since from our places the Gospel of the kingdom arose

and went forth into the whole world; the common

enemy of our souls strives to transmit also into the whole world

the seed-plots of defection, which in these same our places

took their beginning. For upon those to whom the light of the knowledge of Christ

has shone, upon the same he plans to bring also

the darkness of impiety. Reckon therefore our afflictions

as yours, as true disciples of the Lord. We are not

assailed on account of money, not on account of the splendor

of glory, not on account of anything else of temporal things;

but on account of the common treasure,

on account of the paternal inheritance, on account of the sound

faith do we stand erect in the array of contest. therefore he asks that they have mercy on the Eastern Church,

Mourn with us, O lovers of the Brethren: for closed

are the mouths of the pious among us, but unlocked

are the bold and blasphemous tongues of those who speak

iniquity against God. The columns and support

of the truth are in exile and dispersion:

we, who on account of our slightness are despised, are bereft of confidence

in speaking: do you, I pray, even for these peoples

contend; and look not only to your own affairs,

since you have come to tranquil ports, by

the grace of God, which protects you from the whirlwind of evil spirits;

but stretch out hands also to those Churches, which are tossed

by the tempest; lest at some time,

altogether bereft of all help, they suffer shipwreck

of the faith.

[332] Groan for our sake: for the Only-begotten

is blasphemed, and there is no one to contradict: the Holy

Spirit is dishonored, and he who could reprehend

is put to flight. The error of many gods has prevailed.

Among them there is a great God; and a small Son,

reckoned not as a name of nature, but as an appellation of honor:

the Holy Spirit is taught to belong neither to the complement

of the holy Trinity, established in the present danger of losing the faith. nor to be a partner of the divine and blessed

nature, but to have been rashly added to the Father and the Son

from the number of creatures. Who

will give water to my head, and to my eyelids a fountain

of tears, that I may bewail for many days the people,

driven to perdition by these perverse doctrines?

The ears of the simpler are carried away crosswise,

and henceforth the heretical impieties pass into

custom. In discourses of this kind, of doctrine

more than impious, the infants of the Churches

are reared. For what else indeed will they do? Baptisms

are among the heretics; they accompany abroad

those traveling anywhere, they visit the sick, they console

the sad, they assist the laboring, and bring help

to the oppressed of every kind, and administer

the communion of the mysteries. This—that all things are dispensed

and accomplished through them—is as a kind of tether

to the people, by which they are bound to consenting

to them; so that in a short course of time, even if

some liberty be restored, yet no hope will remain

of leading back to the recognition of the truth

those who by the bond of long-lasting deception are bound

to the heretics.

[333] When already Dorotheus stood almost in readiness to set out into

the West, something else intervened which

persuaded that that journey be deferred longer. B. Ep. 8 Evagrius, having returned to the East, For the Presbyter

Evagrius, son of Pompeianus of Antioch, who

once had migrated toward the West, with blessed

Eusebius Bishop of Vercelli, returned from Rome, seeking

from Basil and other Bishops there letters, containing word for word the same things

written by the Romans; and in turn

he reported the things which had been written by Basil and others,

as though they pleased less the more learned who are there;

and he asked that a certain legation be now sent through men worthy of trust,

so that an honorable occasion might be given

of inspecting each matter in person. It would indeed be desirable, for

the elucidation of the history, that it were known what those writings

were, of which one was sent by the Easterners into the West, he brings letters other than Basil had hoped;

and did not please the more learned who were there;

the other was dictated by the Westerners, as

an exemplar of a letter to be sent to them. Evagrius

came into the East, Basil being still detained by infirmity,

as has been narrated above; and affected him with no

slight gladness; and when they treated among themselves the affairs of the Antiochene Church,

Evagrius promised that he would communicate with Meletius.

But the promises which he had given

he did not keep: for immediately after his arrival at Antioch,

Dorotheus the Deacon reported to Basil,

that Evagrius refused to be present at their council, and

in truth had joined himself to Paulinus, whom also he succeeded. For indeed

he persuaded himself that Meletius, hardened in his

schism with Paulinus, was harder to enter into concord;

and that Basil, on account of private contentions with Paulinus,

adhered too much to him. Therefore to him

he wrote a rather lengthy letter, exhorting to zeal for peace and

concord; and that, coming to Antioch, he would induce

Meletius to the same, who nevertheless holds them most welcome, and would procure another legation toward Rome;

he excused finally the length of his letters,

fearing lest Basil should be offended by it.

Nevertheless so far was it from that, that the letter seemed very brief to him,

on account of his own pleasure during the reading;

for indeed such a reply the urbanity of one excusing himself

demanded. B. Ep. 342 For what, he says, hearing could

be sweeter, than is the name of peace? or what more fitting

for a Priest, than to be consulted about such a matter?

what could befall more pleasing to Christ? He wishes

therefore that Christ would bestow on Evagrius the reward of peace procured,

since he undertook so distinguished a matter,

and so zealously applied himself to a business so useful; and he pledges

that he will yield to no mortal in the foremost

parts toward this care and solicitude; so that he may

at some time see, what he most wishes, and

with prayers strives for; namely to see the day, in which

those who are not torn from one another and separated in opinions

are to come together into one council.

[334] But that he may remove from himself all suspicion,

as though for the sake of private contentions he fostered the schism, and having removed the suspicion of a prolonged schism, he adds:

We should indeed be the most absurd of all mortals, if

we delighted in the schism and distraction of the Churches,

and did not reckon the coalition of the members of the Christian body

before all other goods: but, by how much

more vehement a desire we burn for it, by so much

know that the faculty is lacking to us. Know therefore, Brother

truly most reverend and most longed-for by us,

that I privately, by the grace of God, foster no contentions

with anyone: for as I have not noted the offenses,

to which each one is either truly subject or is said

commonly to be subject, as a curious explorer of another's matter;

so it befits you also to consider our opinion,

as those who can do nothing as

advocates, from a presumed accusation or suspicion against anyone:

let only the good pleasure of the Lord exist, that all things according to the Ecclesiastical

form, and as is fitting, be administered. To the other

thing he was asked, that he should come to Antioch, he replied:

On account of the bitterness of the impending winter it is not permitted

us—nay, in no way, though we wish, can we—

to run out so far; he excuses himself from undertaking the legation, not only because this poor little body,

broken by long disease, refuses it;

but because the passes of the Armenian mountains

will soon be utterly impassable, even for the strong

and those green in age. To the third, about the legation

into the West, he adds: For me to be sent to the Westerners

seems altogether impossible; inasmuch as I am in no way

prepared for this ministry. But if

among the Brethren who are there, there be anyone who is willing to undergo labors

for the sake of the Churches; he ought to know,

to whom he should set out, for what end, with what

letters also instructed and of what kind. I, with all things

indeed considered by me, perceive absolutely no one.

[335] and he judges this would be useless. What further was done concerning the Roman legation,

I do not find; except that it was concluded

that Dorotheus and Sanctesimus should be sent into

the West, almost against Basil's judgment, who hoped

for no help thence. B. Ep. 10 To Dorotheus, he says, departing,

letters of some kind must again be given.

Perhaps he will share the way with the worthy Sanctesimus,

who with great zeal goes about the East, and

brings subscriptions and letters from individual illustrious men…

For indeed, if the Lord be propitious to us,

what other support do we need? but

if the wrath of God shall remain, what help

will be at hand for us from the haughtiness and pride of the Westerners; who neither know the truth,

nor endure to learn it; but,

hindered by false opinions, now do those things

which before they perpetrated in the case of Marcellus? namely

they contend with those who announce the truth to them, among the differently-disposed Romans;

but establish heresy through their very selves. Such and

graver complaints about the Westerners did the holy man's

zeal against heresy, and his eagerness for the peace of the Churches, express;

which without doubt he would not have said, as neither

those things which he wrote elsewhere against Damasus, if he had had

this man's sanctity clearly perceived. There was deliberation moreover,

whether Dorotheus should set out with Gregory of Nyssa, who was exiled from his Church:

concerning which Basil thus declares his opinion

to Dorotheus: As to the journey to Rome, I do not know how it has come to pass that no one indicated to your prudence,

that it is utterly insuperable; since

whatever stretch of land extends between Constantinople and us

is infested by enemies overrunning those regions. B. Ep. 250 But if that journey be undertaken by sea, but that Nyssen is unfit for it.

it will hereafter be an opportune time, provided the Bishop Gregory,

most beloved of God, be willing to undergo the navigation,

and to undertake the legation for transacting affairs of so great

moment. I certainly know neither any who

could be sent as legates with him, and I know that he himself

is most inexperienced and most unpracticed in

the affairs of the Churches. His presence moreover and

his meeting, I know, to a man of equable mind would be venerable

and to be esteemed at any price; but contemptible

to a haughty and swelling man, and one set

on some lofty throne, and therefore not enduring

to hear the truth from anyone, who, creeping on the ground,

would dare to teach him; wherefore in no way do I see

in what matters his meeting

and negotiation could—he who is so disposed in character,

that he abhors most of all and detests that illiberal

zeal of flattering—profit our common

cause.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Basil congratulates Amphilochius, elected Bishop of Iconium: he consoles Eusebius of Samosata in exile; he leads back his fellow-citizens to concord; he is reconciled to the Bishops of Pontus.

[336] At the beginning of the year 373, Iconium, a city

in Pisidia, formerly first after the greatest, then

itself too presided over a part, which, as if collected from diverse

segments, had undertaken the administration of its own Province:

Basil, having excused himself from the excursion to Iconium, it itself called Basil, that he might visit it,

for the sake of creating a Bishop: for Faustinus

had died. B. Ep. 8 But he, doubting whether it might not

be fitting to decline foreign ordinations, consulted Eusebius

of Samosata: but what he replied is

unknown. It is established, however, that Basil was not present

at the ordination of him who was raised to the Episcopal

throne, Amphilochius: for whom nevertheless,

when he learned of it, he rejoices that Amphilochius was elected, he blessed the Lord, who through all

the generations of men chooses those pleasing to Him, and,

discerning the vessels of election, uses them for the ministry

of the Saints: who also caught Amphilochius the fugitive,

and on that account avoiding Basil's presence, or rather

that vocation which he supposed would come through him,

ensnared in the inescapable snares of His grace,

and led into the very midst of Pisidia, set him

for taking men and hunting them for God, and for dragging them

from the deep darkness into the light, and animates him to bear the burden.

whom the devil had taken captive for doing his will. B. Ep. 393

But to him lamenting that a burden was imposed beyond his strength,

Basil replies: Do not lament: if you be he,

whom it behooves to bear this burden, it will not be grievous to you

but certainly to be carried through: but if it is the Lord,

who will carry it together with you; cast upon the Lord

your solicitude, and He Himself will accomplish it.

[337] he is present at the funeral of Gregory Bishop of Nazianzus: Basil moreover, to whom (as said before) it had not been permitted to set out to Eusebius of Samosata, because

the famine had not yet left his own city of Caesarea,

and therefore it was altogether necessary for him

to remain longer in the city, either for the sake of administration,

or on account of compassion for those who were

distressed by it; on receiving the news of the death of the elder Gregory,

Bishop of Nazianzus (who this year about the beginning of spring,

full of days and merits, died), having set out

to Nazianzus, was present at the obsequies and at the funeral oration,

which Gregory the son delivered. B. Ep. 267 There died also,

probably in this year or the next in the month of August,

St. Nonna, mother of Gregory of Nazianzus.

[338] From the Paschal time, which this year 372

was celebrated on the 31st of March, continual fevers

tormented Basil, gravely ill, besides catarrhs

and gripings and tumults of the bowels and intestines,

from which, no otherwise than immersed and overflowed

by sea-waves, he could scarcely emerge: and therefore

again the journey to Samosata to Eusebius had to be deferred. B. Ep. 258 He had, however, no slight consolation

from the arrival of Amphilochius, recently consecrated Bishop:

whom then this same year he again asked to be present

at the city of Caesarea, that the assembly might be rendered more illustrious,

which every year, in honor of the holy

Martyrs, custom had appointed to be held. B. Ep. 394

For the faithful of Caesarea, who had had

knowledge of Amphilochius, desired the presence of no other

so passionately as his own. Such

he himself, from his fellowship with them not very long-lasting,

had left the sting of his love in them. Wherefore,

he says, for the glory of God Himself, for the consolation of the people

and gladness, for the honor of the Martyrs, and for the due

veneration of ourselves, now worn with old age, he asks Amphilochius to come to him; from a genuine son,

do not, I pray, be loath to set out

hither, and to anticipate the time appointed for the Council:

so that at leisure we may meet together among ourselves,

and through the participation of spiritual charisms may receive mutual consolation:

moreover the appointed day is the fifth of September:

by three days, I ask you, anticipate this day, that by

your presence you may make the commemoration of the Ptochotrophium great

and solemn.

[339] Amphilochius seems to have satisfied Basil's desire,

and in the month of September to have come together for the feast of St. Eupsychius;

when that happened which gave occasion and instructed more by his questions, for writing the book on the Holy Spirit, which Basil himself thus narrates.

When I was praying before the people, and

in both manners completing the glorification to God and

the Father, sometimes with His Son and with the Holy

Spirit, sometimes through the Son in the Holy Spirit; certain

others of those who were then present rushed upon us;

saying that we used not only strange and new

words, but even ones at variance with each other: Then

Amphilochius especially (namely consulting their

profit; or, if they were utterly incurable, he writes the book on the Holy Spirit

yet for the sake of the security of those who are wont to approach them)

demanded some clear teaching

about the force of these syllables to be popularly explained. Tom. 2 pag. 144 Moreover

Basil confesses that, by the questions of Amphilochius,

he was rendered more knowing and more prudent than himself, and was taught

many things which he did not know; so that the zeal of replying

became instruction to him. Ep. Can. 1 at the beginning. Certainly, he says, since the things asked by the questioner

had never come into our mind,

we are compelled both to consider accurately, and to recall to memory if we have heard anything from the elders,

and to think over with ourselves the things akin

to what we have learned.

[340] At this same time Eusebius, Bishop of Samosata,

placed a distinguished crown upon his afflictions for the cause of Christ,

and his sweats for the truth, Eusebius of Samosata exiled in Thrace driven into

exile by the command of Valens. B. Ep. 251

The place destined for the exile was Thrace. As he set out thither,

and passed through Cappadocia, probably

Basil met him (Gregory being detained at home by infirmity),

or at least Antiochus, Eusebius's nephew and

companion in exile. G. Ep. 28, B. Ep. 269 But when Eusebius had arrived in

Thrace, he often sent letters to Basil, informing him of his state

and of the place of exile; and he in turn,

congratulating the blessed Confessor and distinguished exile for Christ on his desired lot,

by letters thus speaks; he consoles him by letters. That virtue

of yours you have certainly made sufficiently known as tested: nor,

while a gentle wind breathed from the stern, were you only

carried borne on a straight course, or governing the souls

of others; but you bore also illustrious the storms

of temptations, and were made superior to those persecuting you, then

when from your native soil not unwillingly, but with a truly

great spirit, you withdrew as an exile. Let any other

inhabit his own native soil, we possess that supernal

city. The Episcopal throne perhaps others have occupied

that was ours, we possess Christ Himself.

O what and what kind of trade! how great things shall we carry off

in return for such despised things! Through fire and

water we have passed: we hope that we shall come out also into

refreshment. For neither will God abandon us to the end,

nor will He behold and suffer the truth laid prostrate by persecution;

but according to the multitude

of our griefs, His consolations will refresh

us.

[341] Moreover the separation and departure

of Eusebius most beloved of God could not but vehemently afflict Basil,

and render him solicitous for the orthodox flock, abandoned by

its Pastor: therefore Otreius Bishop of Melitene, he commends the Samosatans to Otreius of Melitene,

whom the departure of Eusebius had afflicted no less,

he asked, that he would make him informed of all things, which at Samosata

were done by the Arians or the Orthodox; he himself

in turn pledging to signify, whatever he should learn about Eusebius from

Thrace. B. Ep. 316 For indeed by Basil's care and hortatory

letters it came to pass that, although they had two Arian Bishops

intruded into the throne, namely Eunomius

and Lucius; yet toward both they showed such aversion

and hatred of heresy; most constant under two intruders. that those preferred to desert the Episcopate,

rather than to live longer among the people, to whom they were so

hateful; God so ordaining, and not

suffering such enormous persecutions to be stirred up by the enemies,

that some could be subverted and shaken

from that faith which they had in Christ: for

with certain futile enemies and easily to be overcome

led forth against the Orthodox into battle-line,

He rendered the reward of victory to them through patience easy and ready. B. Ep. 280 but dissenting among themselves: But that common enemy of our life,

who through his various arts and tricks fights against God's

goodness; after he had perceived

that the Samosatans, no otherwise than a certain

brazen wall, easily despised any siege however external;

took counsel that certain troubles

and offenses might be created among them mutually,

which at the beginning indeed would be small and to be cured with no trouble,

but with time advancing, increased through

ambitious quarrels, would be rendered altogether incurable.

[342] This consideration moved Basil to come to admonition

by letters. wherefore he himself exhorts them to a speedy reconciliation, For when the most religious

Subdeacon Theodore was present, and affirming that the Church

of Samosata was affected with grief,

and agitated by various tumults, touched with great

compassion, and his heart pricked with deep sadness,

he could not contain himself from exhorting,

that, the altercations and quarrels among themselves

being lulled to rest, they should weld peace among themselves; so that neither

might they bring pleasure to the enemies, nor betray

the boast of the Churches, by which, diffused throughout the whole

world, they were praised to lead a life

as one certain body, governed by one soul

and one heart. But if, he says, it could in any

way have been done, I indeed, coming to the matter on the spot,

would become a suppliant before you: but since the condition of the times

does not permit this, these suppliant letters

I have destined to be with you; that, revering my

admonitions, you may break off all mutual contention;

and as quickly as possible may send me the desired

message, that you have mutually remitted offenses.

For this I desire your prudence to understand,

that he is in great esteem with God, who humbly

has submitted himself to his neighbor, and not in vain, and without shame has taken upon himself

and not truly the case, so that thus peace and tranquillity

may be procured, that immense profit of the Church

of God. Let therefore a good contest exist among you,

who first before others shall be deemed to be called a son of God,

acquiring for himself by the procuring of peace this excellent

name and dignity. That this letter of Basil had weight

among the Samosatans, their constancy in the faith proves,

and their unshaken observance toward their Bishop Eusebius;

which without mutual charity could not have stood longer amid

discords.

[343] Then so great was the inclemency of winter throughout Cappadocia in the year 374,

that all the roads remained blocked

up to Easter, celebrated on the 13th of April.

Meanwhile diseases upon diseases from time to time seized Basil,

hindered moreover from ecclesiastical business,

The most rigid winter of the year 374 being past, and vexed by those who plotted against the Churches. B. Ep. 397 Wherefore through the whole winter

it was not at all possible for him to send anyone to

Amphilochius with letters, nor to look toward

him in any way: which nevertheless was most in his

wishes. But when, the winter being past, a certain Meletius,

about to dismiss the newly chosen soldiers, had offered his service

to Basil for carrying letters;

he gladly embraced that occasion of writing,

and the bearer of the letters, as from a higher

place, suddenly assailed; a man who could

himself perform the office of letters, on account of his supreme zeal for the truth,

and his exquisite knowledge of affairs.

Through him therefore, giving letters, Basil asked

Amphilochius, again he invites Amphilochius to him, to strive with prayers to God,

that it might at last be granted him to be freed

from this troublesome body, and that the Churches might

enjoy peace and concord. Thence he invites him, that after he has ordered affairs

through Lycaonia, according to the manner and institution

of the Apostles, as he had begun to do; coming to Caesarea,

he should there procure the business of that Church;

so that, whether Basil should still subsist in the flesh,

or be bidden to migrate to the Lord, gravely ill, Amphilochius

should undertake the care of the Caesareans, as of places

belonging to himself; should confirm the dislocated,

restore the languishing, and through the grace of the Spirit

order all affairs to the will of the Lord.

Nor without cause did he write, as though death were imminent to him:

for indeed he was sick from a most grievous fever, and

had come near to the very gates of death. B. Ep. 82 Yet when

by the goodness of God he had been called back, he somehow took ill

that restoration of himself, and panting toward death, weighing

to what evils he had again returned; and he thought

within himself, what it might be that was hidden

in the deep wisdom of God, for the sake of which

it was again granted him to pass these days in the flesh.

[344] But before he fell into the illness, he had wished to reply

to the questions proposed by Amphilochius;

but he had not sent the letters, partly indeed detained by

on account of the scarcity of ministers: for he had few

skilled in the way, and prepared for ministries of this kind. B. E. Can 2 Moreover the questions of Amphilochius gave occasion

to Basil of writing the Canonical Epistles, after writing the canonical epistles.

to which it seems worthy of all admiration that a man

oppressed by many calamities could have applied his mind.

For what and how great things at this time

he endured, he himself testifies, writing to Eusebius

of Samosata. B. Ep. 263 But know, most revered

head, that I, when I was writing these very things to you,

was so ill-affected, that I had cast away almost

all hope of living: for the number of the calamities which have assailed me cannot

very easily be reckoned;

the weakness of the body, the access of strengthening fevers,

and what indisposition

and bad habit is there not? all uniquely tending

to that end, that at last the term of my sojourn,

and of this miserable and calamitous life, should be consummated.

But when he recovered, he wished, if he could, to be carried

by carriage to the assembly and celebration of the Martyrs.

But he felt that the remains of the disease were such, that they

would not bear even the lightest commotion:

and it almost came to pass, that he relapsed into the very illness. B. Ep. 396

[345] But since some great business was at hand among

the orthodox Bishops, perhaps of giving

an orthodox Bishop to the Church of Isauria; Having set out into Isauria he prayed

that for a few days at least, if it could be done, the business

might be deferred, intending, with divine grace thus aiding, to be present,

and at the same time to be a partaker of the cares. But the desire

of the Saint was heard, and entirely restored

to himself, he came as far as Pisidia, that together with

the Bishops of the same nation, his Brethren, throughout Isauria,

he might order their affairs. B. Ep. 272 Hence having returned, he set out

into Pontus, to an assembly of Bishops, because Eustathius was wonderfully disturbing

Dazimonitis, and had induced several there

to withdraw from the communion of the Caesarean

Church. Dazimonitis seems to have been a tract near

the river Iris, between the cities of Amasea and Zela; and to it

are referred Basil's words about Eustathius and the Eustathians:

To what end do they still now invade the churches of Amasea

and of Zela, and by their own

authority appoint Presbyters and Deacons? B. Ep. 73 on account of the disturbances stirred up against him by Eustathius, For Eustathius,

under the mask of piety meditating a schism,

in appearance persecuted the Arians who were in those parts,

so that he even excommunicated Elpidius, the most pious Brother

named by Basil, because he had been joined

to the people of Amasea; thus studying to please the Orthodox,

so as to drag the incautious into schism.

The disturbances stirred up by Eustathius in Dazimonitis perhaps

also gave occasion to the Bishops, he is compelled to clear his faith even to the Pontic Bishops dwelling around the Pontic

sea, of fleeing Basil, as one excommunicated

or a heretic. Wherefore Basil too

lived in much sadness and grief, knowing

that he was bereft of their help; but in order to recall peace between

themselves and himself, with great desire he sought their meeting;

but to him seeking it some hindrance always

befell, by which he was prevented from becoming master of his wish: for either he was hindered by the weakness of the body,

or the solicitude for the Churches, or the contests,

by which he had to resist those assailing the word of truth,

delayed him. B. Ep. 77

[346] by letters, which he himself first gave to them, He waited therefore a long time, until

he should according to custom be visited by them. For when he himself,

like a rock jutting out in the sea, received the furies of the heretical

waves, which, when they break upon them,

by no means inundate or wash the things that are behind them;

when, I say, he himself was exposed to the heretics,

but they enjoyed the peace of the Churches;

it seemed fair that some of the beloved Brethren should be sent,

who might visit the afflicted and oppressed, and

that much more frequently their friendly letters should be destined to him.

But these obsequies due to him were not exhibited,

because by the malice of certain ones it came to pass, that

those Bishops, snatched away and preoccupied by the slanders

by which he was traduced, judged him unworthy of a friendly visitation.

But the Saint, who as much as was

in him strove for peace toward all, resolved to challenge them

first by letters, ready to be led by them into the arena.

This only we pray, he says, that if

you have admitted any who traduce and vituperate us,

they be placed in our sight before your piety.

For we, offering them all satisfaction, if we be convicted, will acknowledge our

sin: and to you, after that reprehension,

it will not be imputed by the Lord, if you decline our communion,

as that of a sinner:

and then they will have a reward, who have convicted

us; as those who have laid open our hidden malice.

But if, before we be convicted,

you condemn us; we indeed will receive nothing

of loss thence, because the most precious

of all our goods, namely the charity

with which we are endowed toward you, cannot be harmed;

but you will both suffer this very thing with us lost,

and will seem to repugn the Gospel, which says: Does

our law judge a man, unless it first hear

and know what he does? But he who pours slanders

upon us, and does not certainly prove what he says,

will seem to procure for himself the appellation of that name.

[347] and ready to submit himself to their judgment. Then, when he had shown how necessary

concord is to the Churches, he opens the way by which it can be reintegrated,

thus continuing: On account of what precedes, console us

with pacific letters; and with friendly salutations,

as it were with a certain mild and gentle handling,

mitigate the wound of our breast, which you yourselves

inflicted on us by your past negligence toward us. Then, whether

you wish to set out to us, and through your very selves to scrutinize

our infirm matters, whether they truly stand as you have heard,

or whether from false additions graver offenses about us have been

reported to you, let this too be done. For we are ready

to receive your coming with open hands,

and to set ourselves before a diligent examination;

provided only that in the things which are done, charity go before. If by your

judgment it shall please to designate some place,

in which we shall both fulfill the duty of visitation that concerns us,

and as much as can be done shall offer

experience of ourselves, that past things may be cured, and

no place for slander be left henceforth; through

us it shall be permitted that this too be done. For altogether, though we carry about infirm

flesh, yet so long as it is granted to breathe,

it is of our office, that we omit nothing

of the things which pertain to the edification of the Churches

of Christ. Do not therefore wish by crafty reasonings

to defraud us of this consolation which we seek; nor cast us into

that necessity, that we be compelled to reveal our grief also to others. For hitherto,

as you know, Brethren, we have covered our sadness in

our very selves; prohibited by shame, from

signifying to our partners far distant your alienation toward us;

lest we both trouble them,

and give occasion of rejoicing to those who persecute us with hatred.

[348] These things indeed Basil alone, but from the opinion of all

the Brethren of Cappadocia had written: and he commits them to be carried by Peter the Presbyter: who asked this

also, that he should not use any letter-carrier, but should send a man,

who could, whatever they had not attained through the letter,

by his own prudence sufficiently carry out.

And he sent the most longed-for and most religious Brother

and Co-presbyter Peter, praying that they would embrace him in

charity with peace, and send back the message of prosperous

affairs before his return. And

Basil indeed seems to have obtained what he desired:

since not long after, addressing Elpidius the Bishop, one of those

maritime ones, and perhaps the elder or the Metropolitan, and so he obtained that they decree to come together at Comana:

through Meletius the Presbyter with the greatest testification

of love; he asks that he would admonish the Bishops to

come together, and designate a place and time;

so that at the appointed, he says, time and place,

the business which they had at hand being intermitted, we may contribute something to building up

the Churches; and may take away

the causes of grief and sadness, which our mutual

suspicions have begotten: moreover let us make ratified the charity,

without which the Lord Himself attests to us that the observance

of any precept whatsoever is imperfect

and without fruit. B. Ep. 322, B. Ep. 348 But the place

chosen for coming together was in the territory of Comana,

and so in Pontus.

[349] These things were done while Basil was detained by that infirmity,

with which he had been afflicted from the beginning of this year.

But when he recovered, he set out to Iconium: whither having set out, he reintegrates concord, in the remaining

time he visited the dioceses throughout all Cappadocia, and

the rural churches. Meanwhile he thought it went well with him, if

he endured the tumults of his fatherland, which through that visitation

were necessarily stirred up against him. Then having set out to the appointed

day into Pontus, when, with those Bishops,

peace and concord had been reintegrated, he seemed to have gathered the desired

fruit. For having returned to his own affairs, he invited those same

Bishops of the Pontic diocese, in the name of his Church, by giving

letters, to celebrate together the feast of St.

Eupsychius, as they had been accustomed before. B. Ep. 291 Certainly the honor of the Martyrs,

he says, which by all who hope in the Lord is procured

with the highest zeal and care, and he invites all to the Synaxis of St. Eupsychius. ought by you before all

to be frequented, who carry virtue before your very

selves, and strive toward it; while through

the inclined affection of your minds toward

your fellow-servants, you declare the highest benevolence toward

the common Lord; and the more so,

because the profession of a life more exactly ordered has a certain

kinship with those who through patient fortitude

were consummated. Wherefore, since Eupsychius

and Damas excellently stand out among the Martyrs,

and the rest of their companions, whose anniversary

commemorations in our city and the surrounding

territory everywhere are celebrated; to be celebrated with him according to custom. the Church

recalls to memory to you, who are a certain common

ornament of it, and by the ministry of my voice admonishes,

that in the manner you were accustomed you renew the ancient

custom of visitation. Wherefore, no

otherwise than as if a great business lay upon you,

with that people, which expects edification from you,

and no otherwise than with the hope of reward, laid up

on account of the honor paid to the Martyrs, so

receive our invitation, and grant this favor

to be rendered to me, that by a labor undertaken,

indeed not great, you may procure for yourselves a great benefit

and profit.

CHAPTER XXIX.

The alienation and secession of the Neocaesareans from Basil, the accession of others to him:

[350] Before Basil returned to his own affairs, and

wrote that letter, he ran out from Dazimonitis

as far as the dwelling of his brother Peter. B. Ep. 272 This

monastery was in a solitude, not far from Neocaesarea.

Therefore, having obtained some brief respite from the affairs by which he was distracted; He visits the Pontic monastery of his brother, with joy he came to that

solitude, both to satisfy his brother's desire,

and on account of his familiarity with this place,

to which he had grown accustomed from boyhood; for here, brought up with his nurse,

and afterward for the most part there

he had dwelt, fleeing the urban tumults, and on account

of the silence of solitude, having found it convenient for

the study of Philosophy, and therefore for several

continuous years he had inhabited it; and especially

on account of the Brethren dwelling there, near Neocaesarea, and because there was the convent

of Macrina and the holy Virgins under her not far thence. B. Ep. 64 But the fact that the place

was near to Neocaesarea was the cause of many disturbances

to the Neocaesareans; nor did it supply slight

material for a slander that would also redound upon Basil

himself; although there were many and

great reasons, on account of which they ought immediately at the beginning to have been joined among themselves in the highest

friendship and unity. B. Ep. 75 But if anything

else, he says, certainly this too contributes very much to concord,

if it is granted to use the same teachers. But the same

are both for us and for you the Teachers of the mysteries

of God and spiritual Fathers, whose citizens, to whom he ought to have been most dear, who from

the beginning founded your Church: Gregory I mean, that ancient one,

and as many as after him undertook the Episcopal

See among you, who, in successive order

risen like stars, entered upon the same

footsteps, so that it is not easy for those willing to desert the traces

of their manner of life. But if also corporal

familiarity is not to be despised (for it too

conduces much to solid friendship and to the communion of life),

it is not lacking to you toward us.

For whose sake, therefore, O most adorned of cities (for through

you I speak to the whole city) do not your letters come

thence? not a voice that would declare your friendship toward

us? but your ears are open, and

exposed to those trying to slander? And so

I ought to groan so much the deeper, by how much more

I see that what they busied themselves about has been accomplished. he complains that they were alienated from him by false denunciations; For indeed

the work of denunciation has a manifest master

and teacher, who, since he is known from many

evil deeds, is yet designated from that malice of denouncing,

so that from this sin he has found a name.

But permit me to speak freely. You have unlocked

both ears to our denouncers; and whatever

they bring to you, without any examination

you admit; there being no one who discerns the false from the

true. Hence therefore false denunciations held the ears of the Neocaesareans

occupied; and both the life of Basil was deserted

and assailed with slanders, and the faith which he had toward God; probably

for no other cause, than because he had communicated with Eustathius.

[351] That alienation of the Neocaesareans had begun,

arisen from the chief men of the city, while Musonius the Bishop

was still living: but under his successor it broke out into open

war; concerning which the Saint thus speaks. B. Ep. 64 Is it not manifest to any boy,

that by the fault of those these things stand thus, and at last made enemies to himself,

who are the chief men among the people: whose

crimes indeed it does not befit me to bring forward, but for you

it is very easy to understand? For when bitterness

and dissensions have advanced so far,

that there is nothing at all which could be added to the savagery;

but the statement of the cause is uncertain, and resting

on no foundation and ridiculous; it is conspicuous

that there is a great sickness of mind, which indeed

is procured by another's goods, but is above all a domestic

evil to him who is held by it. The causes, on account of

which they thought the communion and meeting of the Saint

should be fled, they indeed feigned various;

yet he himself declares the most certain, saying: This is zealously

done among you, that the faith may be subverted, and that

by a subversion hostile to the Apostolic and Evangelical doctrines,

to pretend against him, hostile also to the tradition of the truly great

Gregory, and of those who followed him in order,

up to the Blessed Musonius: of whose dogmas

the memory is even now recent among you;

it is manifest. For the pest of Sabellius,

once indeed stirred up, but by the tradition of the great Gregory

lulled to rest, they try to renew; who, lest

they be caught and convicted, have feigned dreams against us.

[352] But they first invented, that he had come so

near to Neocaesarea, namely to the dwelling

of his brother Peter, in order to strengthen a certain faction of his own

in that city, and, the Bishop being expelled, to claim that

See for himself. This is gathered from the words of the Saint,

with which he seems to refute such a slander: To me,

he says, it has rather hitherto been a study to be wholly withdrawn from the memory

of men, than to those who study glory,

that they may be illustrious… What therefore is the need

to flee to vain dreams, and to hire

those interpreters of dreams, and to make us at public banquets

But I, even if these slanders had had a place among certain

others, would yet have called you as witnesses of my mind and opinion. Now therefore each one

of you I beg, that you recall those old deeds

which were done, when your city was calling us,

and a legation of men was sent, that he covets the Episcopate of their city who

discharge magistracy among you; then, how

everywhere all the people poured around us.

Here what did all not give, what did they not promise?

And yet they could not obtain us.

How therefore, I who then when I was called did not obey,

now without a calling should have tried to intrude myself?

How should I pursue and court

those now slandering, when once I fled those praising

and celebrating me? Do not believe this, best of

men: our affairs are not so vile. For neither

does any prudent man enter a ship

bereft of a steersman: nor will he rashly approach a Church,

in which those who sit at the helm themselves stir up a tempest

and whirlwind. For whence

is the city filled with tumult? From this, namely, that,

while no one persecuted, some fleeing; while no one threatened,

others secretly going out of the city,

the diviners and dreamers terrified everyone.

[353] There was objected secondly the rite of Psalmody peculiar to the Caesarean Church,

and alien from the common usage of others. The Saint thus sets forth that accusation:

If at any time our adversaries are asked the cause of that implacable

and irreconcilable war, they allege the psalms

and the manner of melody, by which the old

custom of singing among us has been changed, that he introduces a new Psalmody, and certain other things of this kind,

of whose pretext they ought to have been ashamed. B. Ep. 63 Then he replies: But to that for which

we are accused on account of the psalmody, by which especially

they terrify the simpler who traduce us;

this I have to say; namely that the rites which

now prevail are concordant and consonant with all the Churches of God.

For by night the people, rising up,

at the time before dawn seek the house of prayer;

and, in labor and tribulation and unceasing tears

having made confession to God,

at last rising from prayer they are led over to psalmody.

And now indeed, divided into two parts,

singing in alternation, they psalm, and thence at once strengthen the exercise

and meditation of the oracles of God,

and to their hearts supply attention and, vain thoughts being cast off,

solidity of mind; then, this office being given to one of them,

that he should first begin what is to be sung, the rest sing after; and

thus with the variety of psalmody, prayers being from time to time interspersed,

they pass the night. The day now dawning,

all together, and a new manner of praying publicly, as with one mouth and one heart,

offer to the Lord the Psalm of confession, and each

in his own words profess penance. For the sake of these things

if you flee us, you will at the same time flee the Egyptians,

you will flee both Libyas, the Thebans, the Palestinians,

the Arabs, the Phoenicians, the Syrians, and those who dwell at the Euphrates,

and (to say it once) all, among

whom vigils and prayers and common psalmodies are

in esteem. But you say that these things in the time of Gregory the Great

did not exist: but neither did the Litanies, which you

now have in use, exist in his time. Which

I would not say for the sake of reprehending: for I would wish

you all to live in tears and continual penance:

since we too do nothing else, than

that we supplicate for the remission of our sins,

except that not with human words,

as you are wont, but with the oracles of the Spirit

we placate our God.

[354] Then again taking up that part of the accusation,

by which they said that the rite of praying, which Basil and his

faithful used, was not in use in the time of Gregory Thaumaturgus

Bishop of Neocaesarea, he more sharply assails them;

since they themselves fall away from the ancient discipline. showing how far they had degenerated from the faith and morals

of the great Gregory. But that those things, he says,

which we do were not in use under the admirable Gregory,

by what testimonies will you be able to prove it?

Nothing of the things which he had in use have you, to this very

day, kept unspotted. Gregory, when set

in prayer, was not with covered head; and in this he was a genuine

disciple of the Apostle, who says: Every

man praying or prophesying with covered head, dishonors

his head; and a man ought not to veil his head,

since he is the image and glory of God. From oaths abstained

that pure soul, and worthy of the communion of the Holy Spirit;

to whom, on account of the commandments of the Lord, who says,

But I say to you, swear not at all,

it was enough, Yea, and, Nay. He did not dare to call his Brother

Swelling and anger and bitterness from his mouth

did not proceed. Reviling he pursued with hatred,

as that which by no means leads into the kingdom of heaven. Envy

and arrogance were far removed from that sincere soul and free of guile.

and they violate fraternal charity He did not approach the altar, unless

reconciled to his Brother. False speech, and artful,

and contrived for detraction, he so abominated,

as one who knew that lying is begotten of the devil,

and that the Lord will destroy all

those who speak a lie. If of these things nothing is in

you, but you are clean from all these, you are truly

his disciples, who was a disciple of the precepts of the Lord.

But if otherwise, see lest you strain out a gnat,

while in psalmodies disputing about the sound of the voice,

you dissolve the greatest of the precepts of God.

To these words the necessity of defense compelled me,

that you may learn first to cast the beam from your

eyes, and then at last to pluck out another's stubble.

Nevertheless we forgive all, although there is nothing

that God does not examine; provided only that the principal things

be safe, and that you restrain these novelties concerning the faith:

do not reprobate the divine hypostases,

do not deny the name of Christ, do not sinisterly interpret

the words of Gregory: but if you do otherwise,

as long as there is faculty of breathing and speaking, at so great

[355] Basil was accused thirdly, that he had men

who were Monks, zealous for piety, who

had renounced the world and all the cares of this age

… who carried about the mortification of Jesus in their body, likewise that he has Monks for his familiars,

and each, his cross taken up, followed God. B Ep 63

And lest the accusation should have no strength, the life

of those Monks was publicly traduced, as

less modest and chaste: and perhaps there had been

some sin through the imprudence of certain ones, which had given occasion

for the slander. The first part of the accusation,

that he had Monks with him, he so far esteemed not

unbecoming to himself, that he even gloried much

in it: But I, he says, would spend my whole

life, that these offenses could be charged

against me; and would have with me men, who, with me as teacher,

had hitherto embraced this zeal for piety.

Then digressing to the offenses objected to the Monks, he removes them

from himself and his own, and runs out into their praises,

saying: but if any disgrace, and any indignity

they bring upon the life and state of women, there is no reason

that I should wish to defend them. But this I

assert and confirm to you, that what hitherto the father

of lies, satan, has not dared to say, whom they themselves shunned. those rash

hearts, and mouths held by no bridle of moderation,

speak unceasingly and with the greatest license.

But I wish you to know, that we desire to be given to us

assemblies both of men and of women, whose conversation

is in the heavens; who have crucified their flesh with its affections

and concupiscences; and who

are not solicitous about garments, but immovable and

assiduous, with the Lord, night and day in prayers

abide; whose mouth does not speak the works of men,

but sings a hymn to our God; and who

diligently work with their own hands, that they may be able

to impart to those who have need.

[356] Such were the things which, secretly covering their heresy and schism

with these, they scattered among the crowd: infected with Sabellianism, but Basil

exhorted the Neocaesareans, that, bidding farewell to these drunken

heads, in which that fume

of revelry, boiling upward, begets phantasms,

they should learn their own loss from those who were vigilant, and

on account of the fear of God could not be silent. Then,

setting forth the heresy of Sabellius, into which almost inadvertently

the Neocaesareans were being led, he added; that the men of that faction,

who were held to be wiser, asseverated

and said, that the name of the Only-begotten was not received

by tradition, but was rather the name of the Adversary or

Antichrist, and in that, as in their own

invention, gloried and prided themselves very much. B. Ep. 64 But

they, when they were accused of so great a madness, with the wonted fraud of heretics

denied that they had said anything of the kind.

But, if they deny, says Basil, that they say these things, or teach

in this manner, that which we wish we have

obtained: although I see the denial difficult for them;

because we have several witnesses of those

discourses… nay, they have already consigned

these trifles in their books; which they first sent to Meletius

the Bishop, a man of God; and from him,

of the mutilation of nature, mothers are wont to be ashamed

who have brought forth monsters, so they too suckle and nourish

their base offspring hidden in fitting darkness.

The heresy and the hypocrisy of the heretical faction being set forth,

returning to his wonted clemency toward those repenting

of error, he pledges that he will hold no

account of past things, from whom he exhorts them to repent: provided present things

be healed: but if they persevere in these, we shall be compelled,

he says, to proclaim also to the other Churches the damage received,

and to bring it about that from many

Bishops letters be sent to you, by which the greatness of this impious

figment may be destroyed. For either to diligence

and caution that present attestation will somewhat profit;

or it will render us in judgment free from blame.

Thus the Neocaesareans, deceived by the heretics, gave Basil

much material of patience and occasion

of merit. But although it is not known what end at last

that machination of the heretics had; yet it brought it about

that there became known to us their impudence in slandering,

while distinguished rites, worthy of all praise,

and apt for fostering piety, namely Psalmody

and the common prayers of the Faithful in church, as

something new and alien from religion, by a sinister interpretation

they object, and almost as superstitious

observances traduce. and it declares the hatred of the heretics toward the Monks. Moreover it is evident that the hatred of the heretics

toward the Religious and the Monks is an ancient

and inveterate evil, which from their father

the devil they have always kept implanted in their minds; and finally

that this too is by no means a new invention of the heretics,

by which they deter orthodox Teachers from defending the faith,

namely by tearing apart their reputation with injurious libels,

ditties, and verses; even with poetasters

hired with pay for this.

[357] He designates a place for speaking with Amphilochius, In this same year 375 Basil, returned

from this long and difficult pilgrimage, when he had brought

home his weakened body and a soul not slightly afflicted,

received letters from St. Amphilochius:

which, as soon as he took into his hands, he seemed

suddenly to forget all evils,

when he had received the tokens of the voice most pleasing to him of all and the most friendly

hand. But Amphilochius was asking,

where they could meet together;

but Basil designated the house, which was Euphemias's,

on the way toward Nazianzus, and somewhat outside

the din of men; since, he says, I both

avoid the things which give me trouble, and hasten to your sincere

love. B. E. Can. 3 But also for another cause

he designated this place; for at this same time Gregory

of Nazianzus, near Nazianzus; his parents being dead, whose

grave old age had detained him at Nazianzus unwilling for that while,

suddenly withdrew himself to Seleucia. And

hence Basil suspected that it would come to pass, that it would bring upon him

the necessity of setting out as far as Nazianzus, that sudden

secession of the most religious Bishop Gregory,

for what causes it had been done, being hitherto

unknown. It is credible, however, that Gregory wished

by that secession to withdraw himself from the administration of the Church of Nazianzus.

But Basil seems not to have set out to Euphemias's

house or to Nazianzus, perhaps on account of

the disease, which from the trouble of the journey he contracted not long after his return:

for he writes to the same Amphilochius, that his poor little body,

but he is prevented by disease; shaken by that Pontic journey,

was tormented with an intolerable illness; although not even for that reason

would he wish to omit any occasion of caring for ecclesiastical peace and strengthening the orthodox

faith. B. Ep. 403 Wherefore,

when a certain pious and religious man from Lycia,

having traveled into the parts of Cappadocia, had reported to him,

that several Bishops and Presbyters wished to come to their

communion, he gave very great thanks to the Lord,

He gladly learns that some Bishops of Lycia side with him, because even anyone throughout

that tract of the Arians remained set outside the harm

of heresy. Among them the chief were named:

Alexander, made Bishop of Corydala from a Monk;

Eudemius, Bishop of Patara;

Hilarius, of Telmessus; and Lycianus, Bishop

likewise in Phelo; but Presbyters, Diatimus in

Limyra, Tatianus, Polemon, Macarius in Cyrae,

perhaps to be read Myra, on account of Tatianus Bishop

of Myra in the council of Constantinople. These and

several others someone had designated to Basil, as

Orthodox in faith. But that he might do nothing in that matter too hastily,

he asked St. Amphilochius, that he would be willing to send some diligent

and able man into Lycia,

who might inspect those following the orthodox faith,

and report to him about all things: so that if,

as he had received, all things were so; he himself wished through

letters to communicate with them, and thence to summon some one of them

to his meeting.

[358] It must altogether be believed, that Amphilochius did not fail

in his office, and that someone was sent by him who might in person

explore the mind of those Bishops: and through Amphilochius he replies to the letters received thence. through whom

also a letter was transmitted from one of these to Amphilochius, and from

him to Basil; to which the Saint, about to reply,

sent letters to Amphilochius, that he might further destine them to him

to whom they were inscribed. In these he first

praises his mind ready for concord; and,

granting whatever was asked, he adds: Lest therefore

we be caught last in this holy emulation,

behold, I salute back your Gravity in turn, and reveal that

will of mine, by which, our concord in faith

being confirmed through the grace of God, I judge that nothing else will be

body, and joined in one spirit, we who were called

in one hope through our calling. B. Ep. 398 It will therefore

be the part of your Charity, to weave to this happy beginning

the consequences; to attach to yourself those concordant in mind and will,

to designate a time and place of coming together;

so that through divine grace, in this way

refreshing one another, we may administer the Churches to that ancient

aspect and figure of love:

those Brethren, who go about divided on both sides, as

our own members, both to be led to as domestics,

and as having returned anew from domestics to be received.

Thus by the providence of God moderating all things it came to pass, that at the same time, in which

the Neocaesareans, bound to Basil by so many titles, spurned his communion,

men almost unknown and far distant

courted it more zealously.

CHAPTER XXX.

The dissension of the Westerners from Basil in the cause of Meletius, the defection of Eustathius of Sebaste, the vexation of the Churches by the Arians.

[359] But amid those joyful things there was not lacking, from another source too,

new material of affliction. He is afflicted on account of the Antiochene schism, Concerning the Antiochene schism

between Meletius and Paulinus there was treatment

on the twelfth of February, at the Acts of St. Meletius Bishop of Antioch.

To him Basil, with the other orthodox

Bishops throughout the East, strongly inclined. But Damasus

the Pontiff with the Westerners, deceived by certain false relations,

as Baronius says, was more inclined toward Paulinus. in the Notes to the Martyrology. There came therefore at this time letters of Damasus

to Paulinus, brought by Vitalis, Paulinus's Presbyter,

by which the Paulinians were wonderfully exalted

and exultant, and gave forth a confession of faith;

in receiving which they were most ready to be united with the Eastern

Churches. B. Ep. 272 Indeed it was even narrated to Basil,

he himself adhering to Meletius, while Rome favored Paulinus, that the Paulinians had brought over to their party

an excellent and most upright man, Terentius. To

him therefore at once he gave letters, retarding his inclination,

and informing him of the fraud and deceit

of those men. In these, besides certain dogmatic things

concerning the heresy of Sabellius, of which he undeservedly

held Paulinus suspect; he explains at greater length

the state of this schism at that time, and his feeling

of love toward Meletius; yet in such a way that he does not exclude Paulinus with

his followers from his charity. B. Ep. 349 Terentius therefore he thus

addresses:

[360] A divergent rumor has occupied us, by which you were said

to be staying at Antioch, a letter having been written for this, and, taken as a helper to the highest Magistrates,

to administer the matters that occur there. Together

with that rumor another was borne: for it was said that

the Brethren who favored Paulinus were entering into a conference with

your Rectitude about their union with us

(with us, I say, who stand on the side

of Meletius, the man of God, Bishop of Antioch), whom I hear

carry about the letters of the Westerners, by which the Episcopal See

of Antioch is adjudged to their party,

but the admirable man Meletius is abdicated from the Episcopate of the true

Church of God. Nor indeed do I wonder. For they

are wholly ignorant of the condition of our affairs:

and those who wish to seem to know, report it contentiously

rather than from truth. Nothing indeed

is more probable, than that they are ignorant of the truth,

or conceal the contrary; whence also

Athanasius, the most blessed Bishop, was led

to give letters to Paulinus. But we ask

your Perfection, that, since in that place you are able to meet

men well acquainted with the things which under

Jovinian the Prince were done among the Bishops, you would be willing

to be accurately informed of the truth by them. by which he denies that he can be moved. Here Basil hints,

that the Paulinians had studiously kept silent something, which

would favor Meletius, or excuse Athanasius. For indeed

since we accuse no one, but desire to keep love toward

all, especially toward the household

of the faith; we congratulate those who brought those letters from Rome;

and if they contain any illustrious and eminent testimony,

I would indeed wish it to be found true,

and confirmed by the very deed. Yet not

on account of these very things can I bring myself, either to ignore Meletius

and to forget that Church over which he

presides; or to think those questions to be despised,

which from the beginning gave occasion to the schism,

or as referring little or rather nothing to

the scope and end of piety. I would certainly not wish, if anyone,

having obtained a letter from any man whatsoever, carries great

airs on account of it, for that very cause to bear myself

more submissively and abjectly; nay, not even if it should come down

sent from heaven, but does not walk toward the faith by

him who brought it.

[361] There returned likewise at this time from the West

Dorotheus the Presbyter and Sanctesimus, The legates having returned from the West, who by the Easterners

had been sent the preceding year: but they reported,

that the Westerners, as it were clothed with the bowels of mercy,

condoled with their calamities, and were ready

to bring a swift and timely (if opportunity should be given)

remedy to their griefs. B. Ep. 74 Very little

consolation did messages of this kind give Basil, for the reason

that they had several times received similar promises, with no effect

following: but a present affliction was at hand, from that persecution which

his brother, the Bishop of Nyssa, was suffering.

When therefore about these same times he was writing back

to Amphilochius, who for the feast of the Nativity, with

dutiful letters, had sent certain sweetmeats; after he

had jocosely excused himself from eating them, because already long since, and Gregory being in exile,

partly on account of age, partly on account of diseases, his teeth had been knocked out;

he commends his brother, enduring so much, to his

prayers. B. Ep. 404 Certain tumults have here

disturbed us, he says, nor are we without dejection of spirits,

because our Brother, much beloved of God,

is in exile relegated. But you

beseech God for him, that He would grant him again to visit his Church,

cured of the wounds inflicted by the heretics.

[362] Nevertheless, as long as the Emperor Valens and

Basil lived, Nyssen was an exile from his Church,

because he would not endure the troubles of men exceedingly impudent. B. Ep. 395, B. Ep. 10 But the Bishops, An Arian Bishop is forced upon the Nyssenes. the same who had expelled Gregory,

introduced in his place a man, nay rather

very like to those who had set him over them.

This, however, not immediately, but after the conventicle

of Nyssa was done.

[363] But Demosthenes the Vicar, after he had for a little while been intent

on military matters and camp business,

returned again to Caesarea, breathing wrath

and envy, and by a single edict consigned to the Senate as many

as there were of the Sacerdotal Order. B. Ep. 264 The Orthodox at Caesarea are vexed by the Vice-prefect. Thence

having set out, he settled at Sebaste for some days, exercising

judgments tribe by tribe, and distinguishing the ranks. And when

he had named the Senators of catholic communion,

he assigned them to the ministry of public works; but

those who stood on the side of Eustathius, them he affected with the highest honors. B. Ep. 405 And then it happened that a certain Asclepius,

because he refused communion with Doëg, that is, Eustathius,

died bruised with blows,

or rather was translated to life through the strokes.

Nor did the condition of the rest differ from this:

the persecution of Presbyters and Teachers,

and whatever else the Arian Bishops had been able to do, abusing without restraint the authority of the Magistrates to their own

will. For indeed, having got Demosthenes

the Vicar, the minister of all the things which they designed against the Orthodox;

who, after he had done at Sebaste

whatever he had wished; appointed a Synod of Arian Bishops,

namely of the Galatians and the Pontics, to be held

at Nyssa. B. Ep. 264 But these, obedient to his

edict, ran together; and they sent off a certain man

to visit the Churches: who, of what kind he was,

it is easy to conjecture for one considering, of what kind

he must have been, who would play parasite to the wills

of these men, and under the appearance of visiting

the Churches would destroy them.

CHAPTER XXXI.

Eustathius of Sebaste defects to the Arians: by the translation of Euphronius of Colonia to the metropolis of Nicopolis religion is provided for, with Basil's approval. The Arian Doaris is intruded.

[364] A rumor also was borne about of a certain synod of the Arians

to be expected; Eustathius of Sebaste openly professes Arian communion, in which they should decree

either to bring Basil, first summoned,

to their communion, or to obtain their old purpose,

that is, then to eject him from the Episcopate, and to ordain another

in his place. B. Ep. 264 From Nyssa therefore that whole train of Arian

Bishops came to Sebaste, with this end,

that they might be able to associate themselves with Eustathius: called there by an honorable and

trustworthy legation, where they both received a church:

and erected the ministry of the altar, and gave the people

of their bread, and magnificently with authority

preached; called Bishops by

the Clergy of that Church, and through that whole region

by them, as holy and of the same communion,

led with honor; and thus,

surrounded by much retinue, and accompanied by their fellow-initiates,

they passed through their whole region. B. Ep. 82, 85 in a Synod of the same Thus at last

Eustathius openly and publicly defected to the communion of the Arians;

and it was manifest to all, so that even by

any boy it could be understood, that for no other cause

had he defected from Basil's communion, than because he

had hoped to gratify Euzoius and the Arians. For this

was his game, by which he mocked the Churches of God for his own advantage,

before seventeen years not yet fully

elapsed, by those Bishops who had come to Constantinople

to the number of five hundred, by common decree was cast down

from the Episcopal grade.

[365] whom he had once condemned as heretics, Their sentence he had then exploded, calling

that Synod a Synod of prevaricators,

and not even suffering them to be called Bishops, lest he confirm the sentence

brought against himself; and he had added

as he said, they presided over a depraved heresy, and were neither

partakers of the Holy Spirit, nor by the grace

of God governed the Churches; but through human power,

by desire of empty glory, had seized the governance

of the Churches. B. Ep. 82, 73 But the chiefs of those

by whom he himself had been deposed were Eudoxius, Euippius,

George, Acacius; whose successors, equally

Arians, and others ordained by them, now Eustathius

acknowledged as legitimate Bishops. The altars of Basilides, the Arian Bishop of Gangra

in Pamphilia, when he returned from Dardania,

Eustathius once overturned, as those of a heretic

and excommunicate, and substituted his own tables,

that on his own tables he might celebrate the office of the Mass:

and now he became a suppliant to Basilides, asking that

he receive him into communion. The most pious Elpidius,

because he had been joined to the people of Amasea,

he excommunicated: and now to the people of Amasea also

he became a suppliant, seeking to be joined to them. Horrible

are the things which against Euippius, having become a suppliant to them. as a heretic,

he proclaimed; and now those who hold with Euippius,

as teaching rightly he commends and celebrates,

if only they devote zeal and effort to his restoration,

such as were Anysius, Euippius's

pupil, and Ecdicius of Parnassus, unhappy men

and the home-slaves of home-slaves. B. Ep. 10

[365] At last, the hypocrisy of Eustathius being uncovered, which had much exercised Basil,

he, seeing in him an inconstancy of faith, Basil is thereafter rendered more cautious. the like of which in others he himself had never seen;

thought that the Lord had thus wished him to see

the Churches quiet from that disturbance, which

hitherto they had suffered through the separation of those

who, on account of a feigned gravity of honesty, obtained all things

by their authority. B. Ep. 82 Or perhaps the Lord had wished,

through an accession of understanding,

to render his mind thereafter more diligent and attentive,

so that he should not delay over the judgments of men, but

be absolutely instructed by the Evangelical precepts,

which are changed neither with the times nor

with the circumstances of human affairs, but remain the same,

as they were uttered by a truthful and blessed mouth. How

he was then affected in body, it is better, he says,

writing to Eusebius, to be silent, than to write through: for

if I shall say it as the matter is, I shall affect you with grief, and

to lie is not of my will or purpose. B. Ep. 264

[366] The Nicopolitans resist the Arians, Nor was the Catholic cause in less peril

at Nicopolis. There had died some time before this the most Blessed

Theodotus, Bishop of that city, as we have often

said; and the Vicar Demosthenes wished to persuade

the Clergy and People to receive Eustathius, and

the Bishop consecrated by him. But they generously and constantly repelled the first

assaults of the Vicar, as befitted

those who were sons of Confessors and Martyrs,

who had resisted sin even unto blood. B. Ep. 192, B. Ep. 264

But after the Vicar saw that they would by no means do this

of their own accord, by force and violence he tried to introduce the aforesaid

Bishop: and with him there came to Nicopolis

that train of Arian Bishops, who

had come from Nyssa to Sebaste, that, associated with Eustathius,

together with him they might ruin the cause and affairs

of the Nicopolitans. B. Ep. 72 These, after they had advanced

as far as Nicopolis, could bring nothing of the things which they had promised themselves

to effect; how they returned,

says Basil, and of what sort they were seen on their return, [and (the Nicopolitans) generously separating themselves from Fronto, the Bishop ordained by them,]

those who were present know. But truly the father

of the heretics, the devil, who had not been able to subvert the faith at Nicopolis

through either the cunning or the

violence of Demosthenes, found another way by which to ruin the Church,

the nurse of piety and metropolis of right doctrine.

Fronto, Presbyter of that Church, who with

Eustathius had subscribed to the symbol of Faith proposed by Basil,

imitating his hypocrisy, defected also to the Arians;

but it is left doubtful, whether he first lapsed before

his Ordination, or rather after the Ordination

received, which, however, whether for the sake of peace or out of heretical affection,

he received from the Arians.

[367] Basil explains the whole matter, not without tears,

to the man of Samosata, thus writing: But who could

follow with worthy sighs the affairs of the Nicopolitans and of wretched Fronto?

and therefore with all Armenia made infamous who first

pretended to undertake a certain patronage of the truth,

but at last betrayed both

the faith and himself basely: and the reward of his betrayal,

namely the name of ignominy, he

obtained. B. Ep. 10 For to the summit of the Episcopate, as he thinks,

he was carried up through them; but by the grace of God, he became

the common execration of all Armenia: while

the report wandered through all this neighborhood, and divulged the baseness

of him who lapsed. B. Ep. 191 Moved

by desire of empty glory, he contracted for himself the foulest

ignominy: generously they disjoin themselves: and besides that he fell away from the rewards

of faith on account of love of himself, even that

unhappy little glory itself, for the desire of which he was sold

to impiety, on account of the just hatred

of those who fear the Lord, he did not obtain.

But he by this his purpose brought forth a most evident

specimen of his whole life, and declared

that he had never lived by the hope of the goods laid up and promised

by the Lord; and therefore (the Nicopolitans) deprived of their church, but if he obtained for himself any

of human things, namely the words

of faith and the figments of religion, all those he conferred

and accommodated to this, that he might deceive those approaching him.

But the Nicopolitans, by zeal for preserving the faith, separated

themselves from his communion: and when he had occupied the house of prayer,

they under the open sky adored the Lord of heaven and

earth; cast out indeed outside the walls, but dwelling in

the protection of the God of heaven; because that Angel,

president of the Churches, had gone out with them. B. Ep. 192

[368] With similar things Basil exhorted them to constancy,

setting before them also the example of the Apostles, and compelled to gather outside for prayer, who

were shut up in the upper room; while meanwhile those who

had crucified the Lord, in the crowded temple performed the Jewish

worship. He also consoled the afflicted, a comparison being made of present calamities

to former times:

No one of you, he says, has been afflicted with stripes;

no one's house has been confiscated, you have not yet lived

in exile, nor have you experienced prisons. But what

evil have you endured? unless perhaps it is sad, that

you have endured nothing yet, nor been held worthy to suffer for

Christ. Then raising them up by the hope of divine help to be at hand

shortly; That storm, he says,

which has now seized us, a little after will not be;

provided we endure not to look at present things, but

to extend our hope to those which are a little further off. Basil consoles their souls also;

Wherefore, even if the storm be grievous, let us tolerate the things

that were troublesome: for no one is crowned, who

has neither been struck in the contest, nor wrestled. Among

the calamities, however, the Saint counts as the chief Fronto's

fall, that there may appear compassion even toward the impious.

For this one thing, he says, alone is worthy

of grief, that he perished, who for the sake of temporary

glory (if indeed that ought to be called glory which

is done with public disgrace) deprived himself

of everlasting honor.

[369] But although at the beginning the persecution seemed light,

and was, the harsher and gravest things not yet suffered: nor was it hoped that it would be long-lasting; it was nevertheless

increased. For it pleased the divine providence

both to prove the constancy of the Nicopolitans and the patience of Basil

by graver trials; these evils supervening upon

them, when they previously lacked them, he called the other inconveniences of persecution

light mockeries of the devil;

and the persecutors, troublesome indeed, because they proved ministers of such

an enemy, yet contemptible, because the Lord had joined

impotence to their malice. B. Ep. 192 but these things too coming on, The persecution therefore raged more atrociously at Nicopolis,

but how far and against whom it raged, and what Basil

did to come to their aid, from the Saint's own

letters, by which he replies to the Nicopolitans fleeing to him,

is easily gathered: When, he says, I had obtained

the letters of your Holiness, I greatly

groaned and lamented, for this cause,

that I perceived those evils with my own ears: namely

the stripes and reproaches inflicted on you, the plundering

of houses, the desolation of the city, the subversion of the whole fatherland,

the persecution of the Church, the flight of the Priests,

the insolence of the wolves and the dispersion

of the flocks. B. Ep. 190 But when I rested from groans and tears,

and looked up to the Lord in the heavens; I knew

and was persuaded, which I wish to be known to you also,

that help will quickly be at hand, he consoles them with the hope of help near at hand; nor are we

to be deserted even unto the end. For what we have suffered,

we have suffered on account of our sins: but

the benevolent God will declare His help,

on account of the love and mercy with which He is affected toward the Churches.

Yet we have not neglected, both

to supplicate present to those who hold

power, and to write to those who love us in the camp,

that they may restrain the wrath of the raging man (namely Demosthenes).

And I judge that he will be reprehended by many;

unless perhaps the time filled with tumult does not permit

so much leisure to those who

are occupied with public ministries, that they should act

about these matters.

[370] While Nicopolis thus groaned under persecution,

Poemenius Bishop of Satala, which is done, by the translation of Euphronius of Colonia to Sebaste, moved according to God

to succor the Nicopolitans, found this

counsel; that Euphronius, who then governed the Church

of Colonia in the borders of Armenia,

should be translated to the Metropolis; and this manner

of consoling them he undertook, in which Basil

not only praised the discovery of utility, but

also thought the dexterity and fortitude of his mind worthy to be celebrated,

by which he protracted this cause with no delay

(by which, even if he had dissolved the zeal of the inquisitors,

he would yet at the same time have given the adversaries occasion of caution,

in which the counsel of Poemenius of Satala, and stirred up the snares of the watchers)

but at once brought to effect the counsel which he had well

begun. B. Ep. 193 This translation indeed seemed

to repugn the sacred Canons, by which it is provided,

that a Bishop should not pass from one Church to another: nevertheless it was approved

by the common consent of the Bishops, Magistrates,

and people, and much also praised

by Basil, because, he says, a work done by one

or another pious man certainly persuades us that it was done

by the counsel of the Holy Spirit. For where nothing that

is human is before the eyes, nor are the Saints moved to act for the sake

of their own delight,

but they regard what is approved by God; it is manifest

that it is the Lord who directs their hearts. But where

spiritual men are the authors of counsels, and

the people of the Lord follows these with concordant opinion,

who will doubt that a counsel of this kind was made by the communication

of our Lord Jesus Christ, as suggested divinely he praises (it)

who shed His blood for the Churches. Whence also

you yourselves rightly judged, that our Brother

most beloved of God and fellow-minister Poemenius, was moved according to

God; who both in time succored you,

and undertook this manner of consoling you.

[371] Nor did Basil only praise the counsel of Poemenius,

but also promoted it. For after that translation

had been made by the Bishops, to whom the care of Ecclesiastical

dispensations had been entrusted; he insisted

that it be confirmed by the people, to whom he thus speaks: that which

concerned the Bishops most beloved of God has been fulfilled:

what remains, concerns you; and he commends Euphronius himself to the Nicopolitans, that

namely you may deign from the heart to embrace the Bishop given to you,

and may bravely repel the dangers threatening from without. B. Ep. 194 For nothing so deters,

both Princes and the rest, who envy you this peaceful

state, as concordant love toward the Bishop handed over

to you and unshaken constancy:

for it causes in them despair of all evil attempts,

if they shall have seen neither the Clergy nor the People

embrace their devices. Therefore

the mind which you have toward that good man, make

common to the city; and the things that are seemly to the peoples and

to all dwelling in that region, set forth, and

confirm their good purposes, that your sincere

love toward God may become known to all. It is altogether certain

that the Saint obtained altogether whatever

he had wished, and that at Nicopolis peace was preserved, concord

of minds, and faith, to which he was exhorting them.

But the Colonians moved a greater difficulty,

taking it very ill that their Bishop

and holy Pastor was snatched from them. and he advises not to exasperate the Colonians, Offended moreover by a certain harsher

reply of the Nicopolitans, as though, since their city was small,

it was scarcely held worthy of such a Bishop;

and they threatened that they would hand over their own Church to the Arians.

On which matter, when Basil had received letters from the Senate and

Clerics of Colonia, he thought he must act with all gentleness

and prudence. With paternal

affection therefore he admonishes the Nicopolitans, that they ought rather to approve the disposition

of the Colonians, than to irritate them as if contemptible on account of their slightness,

and to provoke them to contention by contempt. For those

who contend, he says, are wont to do most things more inconsiderately,

and to be more strongly affected by their own evils, in order to

disturb their adversaries. But no one is so slight,

that he cannot now furnish an occasion of great evils

to those who wish to supply it. B. Ep. 193

And this we speak taught not from conjectures, but from the experience

of our own evils.

[372] but to their Magistracy But to the Colonian Senate he signifies, that he, on receiving

their letters, had given thanks to God thrice holy,

because, although they were much tormented with the cares and

solicitudes of common affairs, they nevertheless by no means

held the business of the Churches of small account.

Then, to soothe their minds, he thus continues:

You wrote also that you were not lightly distressed, on account of the separation

of your Bishop from you, namely of Euphronius most beloved of God:

whom Nicopolis did not take from you

violently, but, lest it should contend pleading

its own cause, demanded its own citizen: kindly

but, addressed by you, it will send forth to you a voice,

altogether such as befits a most indulgent mother;

namely, that it will have a common parent with you,

who will to both, in alternate turns, communicate a share of His graces; and neither

will He suffer trouble to be created for them by their adversaries,

nor will He deprive you of any part of His accustomed protection

and providence. B. Ep. 291 Wherefore, reckoning within your mind the difficulty

of these times, and prudently recognizing the reason

of this dispensation and the necessity of the counsel,

you ought to forgive

those Bishops, who entered upon this counsel

especially for the constituting of the Churches; and you yourselves

will without doubt suggest to yourselves those things which it is fitting for men

of sound mind and perfect counsel to think, and at the same time

understanding as well as possible how to merit the obligations of those who love them.

[374] He sent letters of the same opinion also to

the Clergy of the aforesaid city, and writing to the Clergy, in some part of which,

to be annexed here, I exhibit the prudence of our Saint in handling

troubled minds, and his pious judgment about

the translation of this Bishop to another Church, as

done by the Holy Spirit. B. Ep. 292 But what at last, he says,

is found so beautiful, what equally praiseworthy to God and to men,

as love…?

Wherefore I vehemently embrace the fervor of your will and mind,

he praises their affection toward their Bishop, with which you pursue your Pastor.

For neither would a son, who loves his father,

wish to be bereaved of a most dear parent;

nor will the Church of Christ patiently bear that its Pastor

and Teacher be led away from it. Wherefore

you have exhibited to us a demonstration of your honorable and praiseworthy affection,

in that vehement love of yours with which you have pursued your Bishop. But

this more inclined will and best affection toward

the spiritual Father, ought to be praised circumscribed by reason and measure: for where

it has gone beyond measure, it is not acceptable in the same way.

It has been most excellently dispensed concerning our Brother,

Euphronius most beloved of God, by those

to whom the dispensation of Ecclesiastical affairs has been entrusted,

as the times demanded, for the no slight utility of that

Church, which however they ought to moderate, to which he was translated,

and yours too no light, from whom he was taken.

Do not think this done by human counsel,

nor instituted and accomplished by the counsels

of men who savor of earthly things; but think that those to whom

the solicitude and care of the Churches of God is incumbent, the Holy Spirit

itself cooperating with them, procured this.

Fix in your minds the persuasion of this cooperation,

and give effort that you may bring it

to perfection. and to bear patiently his translation, Patiently therefore, and indeed

with giving of thanks, receive what has been done;

thus persuaded in your minds, that those who resist,

and are unwilling to admit, what those who are chosen by God

prescribe to the Churches, repugn the divine

ordination.

[375] Do not litigate with the Nicopolitan, the metropolis of you

all, Church, made also for their own good: nor be too harshly disposed toward those

who have undertaken the care of your souls.

Certainly when the Nicopolitan matter is rightly ordered,

your portion too will be preserved: but if a storm

shall seize it, however much you obtain six hundred who

will guard you, yet it is necessary for the part

to be ruined, and to perish with its head…

But this greatly saddened me, and certainly

seems to have exceeded measure, and that they should not litigate on that account, that you said, If

we are not made masters of our wishes, we will appeal to the tribunals

of the Judges, and will set over our affairs those

whose chief of all wishes

is the pest and subversion of the Churches. Do not then, I beg,

let certain ones stirred by some insane fury ever

drive you by their persuasions, to refer these things to the public

benches; granting that there may follow from this a certain change,

but, upon the head of the authors and machinators,

as a certain heavy burden, the weight of the whole

business is to be turned. Embrace our counsel suggested

from paternal bowels, and

admit the ordination of the Bishops beloved of God, made according

to the will of God. Doubtless both the Colonians

and the Nicopolitans obeyed the most prudent counsel of the Saint:

but he himself promises to be present to both at some time,

and to bring solace and aid in person.

[376] Moreover not only at Nyssa and Nicopolis were tumults raised by the Arians,

For Eulalius the Orthodox but also at Doara, a town of Cappadocia,

where Eulalius had been ordained Bishop,

Gregory of Nazianzus honoring his consecration by a delivered

oration. Ep. 10, Orat. 30 But what was done there,

Basil narrates to Eusebius of Samosata in few and obscure words,

thus: The Arians force a heretic upon the people of Doara. The Arians with Demosthenes the Vicar

sent to the town of Doara a pestilent man,

namely a servant of orphans, who previously had fled from his own

Masters, but through the flattery

of an impious little woman (who first abused

George for the lust of her mind, but now has this man) as a successor

of him, afflicting the pitiable name of the Episcopate

with insult. Altogether obscure

are the words, by which neither the name of the pseudo-Bishop, there

ordained by the Arians against the orthodox Eulalius, is expressed;

nor is it understood who that impious little woman was,

by whose commendation he was promoted, or rather

thrust forward. Yet when they name George whom

he succeeded, and whom that little woman abused; they sufficiently

indicate, that George himself was not only a Bishop of the Arian

faction, on whose death the people of Doara chose the orthodox Eulalius

and had him duly ordained for themselves;

but also infamous with the mark of concubinage or adultery,

worthy that such a successor should fall to him, against

the sacred Canons, by which he is held irregular who

was or is joined to a widow, much less to a harlot.

CHAPTER XXXII.

Basil consoles the Monks vexed by the Arians: he refutes the slanders of Eustathius of Sebaste.

[377] Memorable too was the year 375,

for a persecution stirred up under Valens against the orthodox

Solitaries. B. Ep. 200 For immediately after Easter, says

Basil, those who had fasted for judgments and fights, The Solitaries in Syria, having suffered many things from the Arians,

rushing into the tents of the Monks, gave their labors

to the fire: but by this indeed they prepared for them

The chief among those Solitaries were Acacius,

Aëtius, and Paul Presbyters; Silvanus and Lucius,

Deacons; Acacius too and Paul were Abbots

of monasteries in Syria, toward Beroea and Chalcis,

according to the opinion of Baronius; and this perhaps is the same

Acacius, who afterward, made Bishop of Beroea, is mentioned

in the Life of St. John Chrysostom. an. 375 Basil indeed groaned

over what happened, not so as to condole with those suffering persecution,

but with those persecuting,

who were so far swallowed up by malice,

that they extended their wickedness even to so great a crime.

But he himself expected that it would come to pass, that those Solitaries

would at once all run to him, as to a refuge always

prepared; and he hoped that the Lord would give

that the sweat which on account of the truth they distilled, received

into his own body, he would have fellowship

of those rewards, which for them by the judge of truth

were laid up. But after he saw that this had not come into their

minds, he at once wished, that an occasion of writing to them

might be given him, that, just as

some acclaim those contending, so he too with some exhortation

through letters might acclaim their good contest. But this was not even

easy to do, and that for two causes: one, that he was ignorant

where in the world they were; Basil consoles them by a letter, the other, that there were not

so many who set out to them. But the Lord at last offered

Sanctesimus the Presbyter,

through whom he might salute them, and beseech that they would pray

for him, rejoicing and exulting that their reward

was great in the heavens. Since, he says, you have confidence

in the Lord, do not cease night and

day to cry to Him, that He may restrain this contest of the Churches,

restore Pastors to the peoples, and make the Church

return to its pristine dignity.

For I am persuaded, if any voice be found which

may bend the most good God, that He will not put far off

His mercies, but will give us hereafter,

together with the temptation, an outcome, that we may be able to bear it.

[378] There exists also another letter of his to Monks, similarly

sustaining persecution for the orthodox faith; [and he teaches, that they are no less Martyrs, because those who afflict them are Christians;] but

it is uncertain whether to the same, or to others. Ep. 303 For Valens,

not only throughout the Empire, but also throughout Syria and

Egypt persecuted the Solitaries. The letter indeed is worthy

to be read here equally, since it extols the merit of that

martyrdom, which we truly suffer on account of faith or virtue,

but in such a way that this is by no means openly apparent,

while it is inflicted by Christians, bearing right faith and virtue

before them, under a pretext seemingly honorable.

Which things indeed, he says, I silently sang to myself,

on receiving the news of your tribulation, which the enemies of the faith

had procured for you, the same things also through

because, when you expected tranquillity, you acquired for yourselves

that blessedness, which is laid up

for those who, on account of the name of Christ, suffer

affliction. For not because those who act impiously

are called by a gentle and mild name, ought the things

perpetrated by them to be reckoned not to have proceeded from a hostile

mind. For I judge that war to be more truculent,

which is brought by fellow-tribesmen,

and men of the same nation. For declared and proclaimed

enemies we can avoid with no great labor;

but it cannot be otherwise than that we be exposed and handed over to every injury

and calamity by enemies who live mingled with us:

and yet such is the state of your affairs. Your fathers too suffered persecution,

but nevertheless suffered from idolaters. [but even more so for that reason, because they are not commonly esteemed to be such:] Their

goods were plundered, their houses overthrown, they themselves

driven into exile; but by manifest enemies,

and that on account of the name of Christ. But those who now have appeared as persecutors,

persecute us with hatred certainly not less

than those persecute them; and to do fraud to as

many as possible, they have put on the name of Christ,

so that those to whom persecution is brought may not have

that consolation from the glory of confession; not a few

and those the simpler, confessing indeed that we are affected with injury,

yet not reckoning death undergone for the truth

my opinion holds, a greater reward and prize

is rather laid up for you with the just judge, than for those

ancient Martyrs: since they carried off

the esteem of martyrdom placed in open confession among men,

and received their laurels from God; but to you

are lacking, in an equal contest, the honors conferred by the people:

so that it is credible that you may expect in the future

age, for the labors undertaken in the cause of piety, a more abundant

retribution.

[379] We exhort you therefore, not to fail under tribulation,

but to be renewed in the love of God, and he exhorts them to constancy, and to your zeal

and contention daily always to add something;

recollecting that, that among you the remnants

of piety ought to be preserved, which, when the Lord shall have come

upon the earth, He will find. But whether from their Churches

the Bishops be put to flight, let this by no means shake you;

or whether among the Clergy some have proved traitors,

let not this make your confidence, which in the Lord

you have, wither away. For it is not

names and titles that save us, but the will and the sound

purpose of mind, and a genuine love toward God our maker.

Recollect, that in that conspiracy

against our Lord, the Pontiffs

and Scribes and Elders were the artificers and machinators of all the guile;

nay, even from the people very few

there were, who truly and sincerely had received the word; and that they may not be terrified by the multitude of adversaries.

and that to salvation by no means the multitude of men,

but those chosen by God aspire. Therefore let never

who, no otherwise than the sea-waves, are very lightly

impelled by the wind. But if scarcely one be saved,

as namely Lot in Sodom, yet from the state

of right judgment one must not depart, but hope in

God must be placed immovable; because His Saints

God will not abandon.

[380] The third year had now flowed by, since Basil

had publicly replied nothing to the slanders of Eustathius of Sebaste: Basil silent for a whole three years to Eustathius's slanders,

for considering the frequent and various attempts of his enemies

against him, he thought he ought to be silent, and that the crimes

which were brought against him ought to be borne with a quiet mind;

and that those should not be resisted who were armed with lying,

namely the worst armor, which often drives forward its battle-line through truth trampled. B. Ep. 80 Hence it came to pass,

that the Eustathians, bearing before them a notable

humility of mind, but who desired to please men

and not God, distributed everywhere

certain writings, as though his, but which were not his;

and so traduced him among the Brethren,

that thereafter those who seemed religious detested nothing more

than his name:

and Basil, to whom from the beginning it had been his wish to lie hidden and be unknown,

as no man more who has considered human

weakness; now, as one who,

with mind changed, was pursuing a different manner of life,

and desired to make himself known to all, through the sea

and through the lands everywhere was diffused in the discourses of all,

and was burdened with as many wagons of reproaches as the adversaries

could; but many seized upon his silence

to the end, that from it they might confirm the slanders intended;

and they thought that he, not for the sake of mildness and patience,

but because he by no means dared to open his mouth

for setting forth the truth, was silent. B. Ep. 345, B. Ep. 370, B. Ep. 73

[381] But when Eustathius at this time had openly

joined himself to the Arians, having embraced their communion, at last he replies to the now-openly apostate man

and at the same time with them persecuted the Church; Basil thought he must break

his silence, lest he should betray the truth,

Eustathius the physician, his friend, urging this very thing, but that the slanderers should be refuted;

lest, while against the truth lying gained success, as

many as possible should perish, who still adhered to the orthodox faith and to him. It will profit therefore to hear

the Saint himself, discoursing of the frauds of his adversaries,

and dissolving the heresies objected to him. There seem

to me, he says, those who have put on this inexcusable hatred against

us, to do not unlike to that which

the Aesopic fable has. For just as that

makes a wolf likening his enemies to the slandering wolf against the lamb bring forward certain faults against a lamb,

as if he should think it base and unbecoming to himself,

if beyond just reason he should slay a lamb, by

whom he is in no way injured; yet in such a way that, when the lamb had calmly dissolved every

accusation against himself from the contrived slander,

nonetheless the wolf would not restrain himself from the assault,

but, conquered by just reasons, with his teeth

would conquer the victor: so also those who, with hatred of us no

otherwise than as of an honorable thing, are zealous, perhaps thinking it base

if they should seem to persecute us with hatred without reason,

feign causes of hatred against us and crimes; but nothing

of the things which are alleged against us, dissolving in vain the things objected: do they constantly

maintain; but now this, a little after another,

and again yet another cause of enmity they assign:

and thus in no matter does their malice solidly

stand: but as soon as they have recoiled from this charge intended,

they fall upon others; and again, that one neglected,

they seize another: and when I have dissolved all the things of which they

accuse me, yet from hatred they by no means recede.

[382] namely accusing him now of tritheism, They allege that three Gods are proclaimed by us,

and with that figment they din the ears of many,

nor do they cease until they make this slander credible.

But the truth itself fights for us, both in general

against all, and separately against those who

attack us privately, while we show that it is condemned by us with an anathema,

whoever shall have said three Gods,

and that he is to be judged not to be held for a Christian. But

when they hear this, Sabellius is at hand for them against us,

and his disease is boasted to be detected in our

discourse. now of Sabellianism, But against this slander too,

our wonted shield, namely the truth, we oppose,

showing that we shun such a heresy no less

than Judaism. What then? After so many attempts

do they rest wearied? By no means:

but they object to us a zeal for innovation, weaving an accusation

against us, from the fact that we confess three

Hypostases. now of novelty, because he held three hypostases, Here they allege that we say, that there is one

goodness, and one power, and one divinity;

and this they do not say outside the truth;

for that we do in fact say. But for the sake of blaming

they say this, that it is against their own custom,

and that Scripture does not support it. What then do we say to

this? We do not think it fair, that the custom of speaking

which has prevailed among them, should be held for a law

and canon of right doctrine. For if

custom avails to prove doctrine, it is permitted also

to us altogether to oppose, from the contrary side, the custom prevailing among us. But if they do not admit this our

custom, it is plainly permitted to us

to imitate them. Let us therefore stand by the decision of Scripture inspired

by God, and among those with whom are found

dogmas consonant with the divine oracles, to them altogether

let the verdict of truth be adjudged. To the first then, that he

divided the Hypostases, Basil replies, with an argument

probable, that those who say there are three Substances,

should not also say there are three Hypostases. To

the other, that he said in divine things there is one goodness,

one power, one divinity; he replies, that this

manner of speaking is conformable to Scripture: since

in Him dwells all the fullness of Divinity. Coloss. 2, 9 But to extend

the number of Divinities to a multitude is

only of those, who labor with the error of many Gods

as with a disease. But, he says,

they more manifestly open the scope of this discourse. For

in the Father indeed they bear that He be said to be God, and

they consent that the Son likewise is to be honored with the name of Divinity;

but the Spirit, both with the Father and the Son

numbered through the appellation of Divinity, together

with the Father and the Son to be understood and comprehended,

they are unwilling: but they contend that from the Father to the Son the power

of Divinity is to be limited, and that the nature of the Spirit

is to be segregated from the divine glory.

Hence he proceeds, by several arguments demonstrating the Divinity of the Holy

Spirit, and at last concluding; and the divinity of the Holy Spirit.

whether therefore, he says, Divinity is the name of an operation,

so that as we say there is one operation of the Father and Son and Holy

Spirit, so we say also there is one

Divinity; or whether, according to the opinion of many,

the name of Divinity expresses the nature itself, since

no diversity is detected in the nature, not

undeservedly do we define the holy Trinity to be of one and the same

Divinity.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Basil writes a public Apology for his faith and doctrine.

[383] Just as the adversaries, by libels scattered among the crowd,

had defamed Basil; so also Basil

published a public Apology for himself, which he inscribed to Eustathius

Bishop of Sebaste, About to reply to the adversaries, especially Eustathius, concerning which he thus writes to

Genethlius the Presbyter: We have woven an Apology in our

cause, which will abundantly satisfy

all those who would wish these very things to be treated more accurately. B. Ep. 345

In this Apology he refutes two slanders fastened upon him,

which were objected not only by Eustathius, but also by

others. The first, that he had communicated with Eustathius's

disciples and with Eustathius himself, being ignorant of their

heresy, as above was narrated by us

at number 48: the second, that, being himself at Athens

twenty and more years before, he had written to Apollinaris,

as said at number 42. But both he refutes,

explaining with what good faith he had acted in all things; and

showing how with much greater right such things could be said

of Eustathius, who had been both a disciple of Arius, and a teacher

of Aëtius: unless one prefer to read Aërius. B. Ep. 79 For Aëtius

and Aërius were both heresiarchs, mentioned

by Epiphanius: from which it is established, that Aëtius could indeed

have been a disciple of Eustathius, but that Aërius in fact was.

From that Apology, although many things in this Life of Basil we have

related each in their places; let us yet hear the Saint,

replying for himself to his adversaries. There is a time, he says,

for being silent and a time for speaking, says

Ecclesiastes. And now therefore, he prefaces, that by the example of Job since abundantly enough

of silence has hitherto preceded, it will be opportune henceforth,

that for the disclosure of the things which are unknown,

we open our mouth: since

that great Job too, for a long time indeed bore his calamities

with silence, by this very thing declaring the fortitude of his mind,

that in the most troublesome afflictions he endured constant:

but when, with sufficient silence, he had borne that admirable

contest, and in the depth of his breast had perseveringly

pressed down his grief; then at last with open mouth

he spoke what is known to all. And to us

therefore, now even into the third year of silence, there has seemed imitable

that boast of the Prophet, by which he says; I have become

as a man not hearing, and not having

in his mouth reproofs: and therefore in the depth of our breast the grief, which the slander struck into us,

we have held enclosed: For truly slander

humbles a man, and slander carries about a poor man.

For so great is the evil of slander, that even

one already perfect (for by the appellation of man this proverb signifies

as a poor man, that is, one destitute of excellent disciplines; he was long silent:

just as it seems also to the Prophet, who says,

Perhaps they are poor, and therefore do not

hear; I will go to the chief men. Where he calls poor

those lacking intelligence: whence it is clear that those who,

according to the inner man, are not yet completed, nor

have attained the perfect measure of age, the proverb says

are carried about and tossed.

[384] but now, since they are no longer tolerable, Nevertheless I thought that sad things should be borne with

silence, judging that it would come to pass that, the very works at last

teaching the truth, they would be somewhat corrected: for neither

did I think that out of any malice, but through ignorance

of the truth, such things were said against us. But since

they have, together with time itself, more

grow strong, and I see my adversaries letting go nothing of the things

which at the beginning they scattered, nor expending

any care to remedy past things; but

rather being hardened by repeating them, and toward the goal fixed for themselves

from the beginning striving with composed step,

so as both to afflict our life, and to pollute the reputation of our name

among the Brethren by a crafty invention;

now it does not seem safe to me, that I should restrain myself by silence

any longer: but there comes to my mind that

saying of Isaiah; I have been silent: shall I always be silent and endure?

I have been patient as one in travail. he replies; Would that we may both attain the reward

of silence, and receive a certain power of refuting;

so that, while we refute those who vituperate us,

we may make to dry up that bitter torrent of lying overwhelming

us; that it may also be permitted us to say, Our soul has passed over the torrent;

and that, Unless the Lord had been among us,

when men rose up against us, they would surely have swallowed us alive,

perhaps the water would have absorbed

us.

[385] I indeed, after I had spent much time

on vanity, and had worn away nearly my whole youth

in the empty study by which I was held, that from the beginning of his conversion to God, while I lingered

in apprehending the disciplines of a wisdom infatuated by God;

at last at some time, when, as if from a heavy

sleep awakened, I looked to the admirable

light of Evangelical truth, and recognized the uselessness

of the wisdom of the princes of this age who are abolished;

having greatly deplored my miserable life, I wished a leader

to be given me, who might introduce me to the dogmas of piety:

and among the first this was my care,

that I should institute some correction of the morals,

which through long association contracted with the wicked

I had perverted. The Gospel therefore being read,

and there having perceived, that what most brings occasion

and impulse to the study of perfection is, if anyone

sell his goods, and communicate of them to the needy brethren,

and be held by absolutely no care of this life,

nor suffer his mind to be disturbed by any affection of present things;

I wished some one of the Brethren,

to whom this kind of life was pleasing, desirous of Evangelical perfection, and beholding it in the Monks and with whom

I might be permitted to overcome the deep sea of this life. But I found

many at Alexandria, and not a few

throughout the rest of Egypt, then also others in Palestine

and Coelesyria and Mesopotamia, whose

temperance in their manner of life I admired,

and their endurance in undergoing labors: but I was astonished

at the vigor and constancy of their praying;

when I observed how, neither overcome by sleep, nor

turned aside by any other necessity of nature, they kept always

in cold and nakedness; neither having any account of the body

themselves, nor enduring that any care be expended on it by others;

but as if they lived in another's flesh,

by the very deed showing, what it is to be a stranger in the affairs

of this life, and to have one's conversation in

heaven.

[386] When I admired these things, and judged the life of those

men blessed for this, that by the very deed they declared

that they carried about the mortification of Jesus;

I desired, as much as was possible for me,

to emulate them. For the sake of this therefore, known to him only by the appearance of exterior rigor, when I saw

certain ones in my fatherland begin to follow their institute;

thinking that I had found some convenience for that which I wished;

I took experiment of the invisible affections of the mind,

from the things that could be seen. Since therefore the things that

are hidden in each one of us cannot be known;

I thought it indication enough for declaring the humility of mind, if with humble

clothing I should be clad; and that it sufficed me for making

faith of that matter, a coarse and rude cloak and a girdle,

and shoes of rude leather. And although

there were many things which called me away from their company;

yet I did not acquiesce, seeing them

prefer to a delicate life the endurance of labors; but

rather, on account of the admirable and unusual manner of their conversation, I was held by a certain emulation toward them:

whence also when they were accused for the sake of their dogmas, I by no means admitted the denunciations;

although many asserted

that they did not hold right opinions about God,

but, subjected to the discipline of that heresy which now prevails,

secretly scattered its dogmas: which,

because I myself had never heard from them, I held for slanderers

those reporting such things.

[387] But after we were called to govern the Church,

who, to us, he took some of them into his household when made Bishop, as it were under pretext of help

and of communion pertaining to love,

were added as guards and watchers, I will be silent; lest I seem

either to traduce myself, as one who should pronounce things that would have no

credit; or certainly if I should persuade,

I should seem inhuman to those believing the same, which

would almost have happened to me too to believe, unless

the mercies of God had quickly preserved me: for it almost

came to pass, that I fell into a similar suspicion toward everyone,

so as to think there was no faith in anyone,

my mind being struck by the crafty actions of certain ones.

Nevertheless meanwhile there seemed to us to be some

just pretext of that necessity, which I had with

them: but we conferred once and again

about the dogmas, nor did we think those should be fled who held the same

opinions with us; because he had found them orthodox at least in words; when I found that on both sides we

said the same about faith in God, which they perpetually

had heard from us. Although the rest of our life is worthy

that we should groan for it, yet of this one thing

in the Lord I would dare to glory, that I have never had false

opinions about God, nor, by thinking otherwise,

have I afterward changed the judgment of my mind; (he tacitly reproaches

Eustathius that he himself had several times changed his faith) but

the opinion about God which from boyhood I received from my blessed mother, then

also from my grandmother Macrina, augmented with due increments

and grown up in myself, I have preserved. such as he himself had been from boyhood;

For not one opinion after another, as my reason matured,

did I assume: but the principles handed down by them I completed,

and brought to perfection. For just as

yet is the same as before, not

changed in kind, but perfected by increase:

so for me too, the same opinion, augmented indeed with its own

advances, but not such that what it now is is

adverse to that which was from the beginning, I judge it to be.

[388] though called into false suspicion by that pretext, Let each one therefore weigh his own conscience:

let them be mindful of the tribunal of Christ, whether anything else

ever from us they have heard than what we now

say, who have now divulged about us the rumor of a bad opinion,

and by infamous letters written against us

have thrust it into the ears of all everywhere; whence

we too have been driven to this necessity of this Apology. For we are accused

of blasphemy against God, neither convicted by any bond which we have given,

nor by those things which without writing, orally, publicly

in the churches of God we have disputed; but neither

has any witness been found, who says that he has heard anything impious

from us, which even in some obscure

place we have said. Whence therefore are we condemned, when

we have neither written anything impious, nor

have preached any harmful dogma, nor by domestic

conversations pervert those who meet with us? because he wrote to Apollinaris twenty years before;

O unheard-of figment of a record? In Syria,

they say, a certain Apollinaris wrote some things not piously:

but you, to him, twenty years and

even more ago, gave letters: you are therefore an associate of the man,

and the things which are reprehended in him, are your crimes also. But, O man, friend of truth, who

have been taught that lying is the offspring of the devil, how

do you know that that letter is mine? for neither

did you send to find out, nor did you inquire,

nor even from me (who can open to you what is true)

were you taught the truth. And even if the letters were mine,

whence is it clear, that this volume, which now

has fallen into your hands, is contemporaneous with my letters?

Who reported to you, that that volume is of twenty

years? Whence too is this clear, that

this volume is of that man, to whom this my

letter was sent? But let it be that he who wrote this volume,

and that I sent to him my letters;

let it agree also with my letters and his volume, in

time; whence is it proved, that I approved it,

and that I agree with him in sense?

[389] and that by Eustathius, who had experienced his sound faith, Inquire of yourself. Very often you

visited us in the monastery at the river Iris, when

with me was my brother Gregory, most beloved of God, and

strove with me toward the same goal of life; did you

hear any such thing, or did you receive any signification of this,

whether small or great?

For some time in the country house, which is beyond the bank of the river,

with my mother, like friends mutually among

ourselves we conversed, and night and day mingled conversations;

was it here detected that we had anything akin

to heresy in mind?

When we together visited blessed Silvanus, did

we not on that journey discourse about these matters? But at Eusinoë,

when you called me, about to set out with several Bishops

to Lampsacus, were not our discourses about

faith? Were not, through all that time, while I disputed

against heresy, your shorthand-writers at hand?

Were not your dearest disciples with me all that time? When I visited the dwellings of the Brethren,

and together with them spent the nights in prayers, for so long a time and on so many occasions,

without any dispute assiduously saying

and hearing the things that pertain to God, did I not exhibit there

evident marks and indications of my mind

and of my thoughts? How comes it then, that the experience of so long a time

seems to be less than a suspicion so withered

and feeble? But whom ought I to have

as witness of my mind rather than you? The things which at Chalcedon

were said by us about faith; the things which often

at Heraclea, and which before in the suburb of Caesarea, were they

not all consonant with us and all concordant among themselves?

except, as I said, that in these things which by

us were said, from an advance of understanding a certain accession

can be observed: which certainly is not

but a filling up of the defect by an addition of knowledge.

[390] who himself was a disciple of Arius, master of Aëtius, the heretics; How do you not also consider this, that

upon the father falls not the sin of the son, nor upon the son

the sin of the father, but each one in his own sin

will die? But to me he who is accused by you, Apollinaris,

is neither father, nor son: for neither

was he my teacher, nor my disciple. But if

the sins of those who begot are to be imputed to the sons;

it is much more just that the sins of Arius be imputed to his

disciples. And if anyone begot Aëtius the heretic,

let the offenses of the son whom he begot redound upon his head.

But if it is unjust, that on their account anyone

be blamed; much more unjust indeed is it,

that an account be exacted of us yet never suspect to himself, of the things which those who in nothing pertain to us

have said, even if they have altogether sinned,

and something has been written by them worthy of

condemnation. But I am to be forgiven, that

I did not give credence to those things which were said; since

accuse us of a proclivity to slandering.

For even if, seduced and having judged me to be of the same

opinion with those who wrote those words of Sabellius,

which they themselves carry about, they had come into this

slanderous detraction against me;

yet not even thus would they be worthy of pardon, without an evident

experiment forthwith assailing with slanders and

wounding those, who had neither any fellowship

with them; not to say, those too,

to whom they were bound by the highest friendship: whence it is certainly

proved, how they are not led by the Holy Spirit,

while within themselves they nourish false suspicions.

[391] because he believed no one should be renounced unless well convicted: Much care and solicitude is needed, and the vigils of many

nights are to be borne, and with many

tears too truth must be sought from God by him who

wishes to cast off the friendship of a brother. For if those who hold

power in this world, when they are about to adjudge

some criminal to death, draw veils,

and call to the treatment of the cause those most expert

in law and statutes, and spend much

time, now regarding the rigor of the law,

now revering the communion of nature; and groaning much,

and deploring the necessity of judging, make it manifest to everyone,

that not from their own caprice, but from the necessary

ministry of the law, they bring the sentence of condemnation;

with how much greater diligence

and care, and worthy of the consultation of more persons, ought it to be reckoned,

if anyone should try to tear himself from the friendship of brethren,

already confirmed by a long time? But now from

one letter, and that an ambiguous one (For you will not say, but a letter is made the pretext of the dissension,

that you recognized it from the certain marks of the subscription,

since not that which was first written, but that which afterward

was transcribed, you took into your hands) from one,

I say, letter, and that an old one, friendship is endangered among

us: for twenty years, from when

something was written to this man, have flowed by. But meanwhile

of time I have no such witness of my purpose

and of my life, as those very ones who now,

by accusing, oppress me.

[392] the true cause of which is, that he might But that letter is not the cause of this

separation: there is another occasion of the dissension, which I indeed

am ashamed to bring forward, and which I would have pressed down with perpetual silence,

had not the things which have now been done made necessary

for me, for the utility of many, the disclosure of their purpose.

For these distinguished men think,

that our communion will be a hindrance to them in acquiring power: because, namely,

they are forestalled by a certain subscription of faith, which

we proffered to them; not that we ourselves hesitated about their opinion

(for I confess) but because we wished

to remedy the suspicions, with which among several Brethren concordant with us

they labored. repent of his subscription. Now, lest

any hindrance from that confession should seem to befall them,

so that they should not be received by those who dominate,

they denied us communion;

and for the cause of this separation, the pretext of those letters

they invented. But a most evident

indication of the things which I say is, that when they were defecting

from us, and feigning what accusations they wished against

us; they sent letters everywhere to all, before

they sent to us: for seven days,

before it came into our hands, their letter was seen;

and those who had received it from others, were about to send it

to others also: for they had so arranged,

that one should hand it to another, that forthwith it might be distributed into

the whole region. And these things had already then been narrated to me

by those, who most manifestly indicated to us their purpose: we resolved

nevertheless to be silent, until He who reveals deep things,

by the clearest and irrefragable indications, should disclose their counsels. Those letters, by which these heretics divulged

their slanders everywhere, were

in appearance written to a certain Daziza, but in fact

to all mortals: and with such hasty distribution

were they scattered, their letters scattered everywhere, they divulge their slanders: that in a few days they wandered through all Pontus

and Galatia; and there were those who said to Basil,

that these, namely the messengers of good things, had both

run through Bithynia, and reached the Hellespont itself.

But in them the Saint was accused, and

his doctrine was proclaimed to be fraud and cunning,

corruption of the Churches, and the ruin of souls.

But whether the aforesaid Apology has come to us entire,

as it was published by the Saint, is uncertain, since it omits very many things,

which it is established were objected to him by the adversaries;

unless perhaps he wished only to convict Eustathius, his chief

slanderer, of falsity and slander,

that he might lessen his authority in all the other

heads of accusations.

[393] as though he had first been excommunicated by Basil himself, But they objected moreover, lest they should seem

without cause to have withdrawn from Basil's communion, that they had first been excommunicated by

him; because the Chorepiscopus,

whom they had sent to him, to treat of the common business,

as they said, Basil had been unwilling to receive:

for the matter had been so transacted. The one who had been sent to the Saint,

of Icarius,* three days having been spent in the city,

where Basil too then was present; when he wished to return

to his own affairs, and it was already late evening and the other was sleeping,

was said to have come to his house. B. Ep. 73 But when he had heard

that he was sleeping, he went away; but the next day when he departed,

he no longer came to him, but in this

manner perfunctorily having executed, [who at an unseasonable hour did not at once hear the man sent to him by the other,] what he ought to do with

Basil, he returned to his own people. And this

is that crime, says the Saint, which we committed;

and those patient and mild men, to this fault

did not oppose, on the contrary, that service

which we previously exhibited to them in love: but on account of this

error and mishap they so gravely were angry with us,

that from all the Churches of the whole world, as far as

was in them, they caused us to be excommunicated.

But this is not in truth the cause of the dissension itself;

but because they thought they would gratify Euzoius,

if they should alienate themselves from us, these pretexts for themselves

they invented; that, made enemies to us,

they might in some way render themselves commended to them.

[394] The other thing of which they accused the Saint was, that

by fraud and craftily he had elicited from Eustathius a profession of the orthodox

faith. B. Ep. 82 and that he craftily elicited the subscription itself: This slander Basil thus proposes

and refutes. It is (as they think most certain)

the conviction of all, that we composed that insidious

prescript of Faith; not that we might serve the Nicopolitans,

but that by that counsel we might craftily elicit their

confession. Of these things indeed the Lord will be judge:

for what evident declaration can there be of the thoughts of the human

heart? But this in them

I marveled at. For did they, because they subscribed to the libel exhibited

to us, use so great a zeal of dissenting,

that they mixed both existing and non-existing things,

that they might make credence to the denouncers? They do not

consider, that their writing, by which they confessed the Nicene

faith, is kept laid up at Rome, nor

that, received from Rome, they offered to the Tyanene synod

this same faith. Hence, an occasion seized, the Saint reproaches

them, that so many times they changed their faith, never seriously,

but craftily, always complaining that they had been

deceived. Nay, forgetful, he says, of their own

discourse, by which, set in the midst at Tyana, about the seduction

they complained, by which, allured, they had consented

to the volume, which by the congregation of Eudoxius had been composed.

Wherefore for that error too they devised this

defense, that going to Rome they might thence receive the faith

of the Fathers; and thus the harm, by which

they had injured the Churches from evil fellowship, by the introduction of a better one

they might correct. But those who sustained the labor of so distant

journeys, and so wisely then composed these things, now revile;

so that you may recognize, and others with him, repeatedly changing their faith. that they discharged that legation craftily,

and under the pretext of charity concealed the fraud of plotters.

But the things which are now carried about,

make it manifest, that they condemned the Nicene faith:

for they saw Cyzicus, and soon,

their faith changed, returned. B. Ep. 72

[395] Such are the things which these do. But we

are of modest moment and humble; yet always

constant in the same by the grace of God, never

to the innovation of things have we consented: for the faith

among us is not one at Seleucia, not another at Constantinople,

another at Zela, another at Lampsacus, and another

at Rome: but as we received from the Lord, so we are baptized;

as we are baptized, so we believe; just as

we believe, so we glorify, neither from the Father

and the Son do we separate the Holy Spirit, nor

do we set Him before, nor say the Holy Spirit

to be older than the Son, nor do we endure that the glory due

to Him be denied, as the tongues of the blasphemers

contend. B. Ep. 73 These are those things, Basil being ever constant to himself in the same. joined with truth.

If anyone accuses us for the sake of these things,

let him accuse; if anyone persecutes us, let him persecute;

if anyone gives credence to slanders intended against us,

let him be ready for judgment: the Lord is near,

we are in no way solicitous: for equally both those who

are infected with the disease of Sabellius, and those who

maintain the dogmas of Arius, as impious we flee and anathematize.

* or of Iconium?

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Satisfaction given to the Bishops in common and to some privately. The lapse of Apollinaris. A letter to the exiled Bishops.

[396] He protests before the Bishops, Nor content to have published for himself in writing

some Apology, Basil also seized

the given opportunity of defending himself in an assembly of Bishops,

who had come together for the celebration of certain holy

Martyrs; and before them he delivered an oration

against those who slandered him

that he worshipped three Gods. For when with many words he had deplored,

that he had sought among the Bishops charity and the peace of the Churches,

he thus addressed those present: Let these things

be inscribed in your hearts: you will be witnesses to the truth

and to us against those, who divulge such things, that he is accused by slander, namely that

we have innovated the old gift of the faith. Homil. 29 For these

are the words of those not fearing the Lord, and

opening their mouth against us, as though we

should bring forth three Gods. He who proclaims three Gods, what does he seek

in the Church of the Lord? In one place is the multitude of Gods, and

in another is divine worship. He who says three, let him dare

also to say four, let him extend the number even

to twelve. What therefore is the madness of those, who

have a sharpened tongue against the truth? I am

not faint-hearted to refute these, but I await

the judgment of Christ: there they will be set against us, who

have woven this slander. The Lord knows His own:

and he who slanders a poor man, provokes Him who

made him.

[397] who holds nothing concerning the Trinity except the faith of the Fathers, If I follow the faith of the Fathers, why, the

Fathers being omitted, do you assail me with war? If I believe in the Father, if

I confess the Son, if I do not reprobate the Holy Spirit;

if he who confesses the Trinity names three Gods,

and affects baptism with ignominy and impugns

the faith; why, my person being substituted, do you assail the Lord

with war? Who sent to baptize in the name

of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit? I, or the Lord?

Whose are the words? Of the herald, or of Him who

sent? Why, my person, easily exposed to slanders,

do you through me impugn the truth, through me shake

the bulwark of the faith? I indeed am easy to capture;

but the faith stands immovable. One Lord

(learn, while Paul speaks) not two, not three. And,

if I shall have named the Lord the Son, I have not divided the dominion

into two Lords, not into many Gods.

The Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Dominion is

one, one Lord, one faith. Therefore

one faith: far from the error of the Tritheites. because one Lord. One follows

one, to one Lord: one faith, one baptism.

Thus one, from one, through one, is confirmed.

But if, because I do not affect the Spirit with ignominy,

nor place Him in the same order with the creature,

on that account I sustain this slander; do not say what I

do not say, and let us see the probable structure of your slander.

Why do you hide your own slander,

O man to be execrated for lying? saying, that among us

three Gods are proclaimed; and you do not say openly, that we

are those, who detest those who say the Holy Spirit

is a creature. This accusation I admit: for

this I will undergo both the sharpened sword, and the fire: and whether

the wheel crush me, or torments be moved against me,

in the same certitude and perfection will I undergo the punishments. With me consent also the Martyrs

who are placed here, who were made worthy of crowns, on account of

the accusation of those who maintained another opinion. By this

name therefore accuse me, that I do not

number the Holy Spirit among the creatures. But if

you shall say anything more, you will render an account to the Judge, when

that Paraclete shall have come.

[398] He also excuses himself to Patrophilus Bishop of Aegae, This public, although most just, defection of Basil from

Eustathius, stirred up various movements of minds.

Patrophilus first, Bishop of Aegae in Cilicia,

was struck in mind; and stupefied by so unexpected a change of affairs,

he hesitated a long time before he wrote to Basil; but at last,

whether of his own motion, or at Eustathius's persuasion, he gave letters to him through Strategius the Presbyter,

by which among other things he signified;

That he had hesitated, whether Basil, that one who so

strenuously had served that man from boyhood, who had done these

and these things at certain times, who for the friendship of one

man had undertaken the enmity of innumerable persons,

this very one had now become another from another, and

had changed friendship into enmity. B. Ep. 82 These and other graver things which Patrophilus had written;

although they could deservedly fall hard upon Basil, he yet did not take

ill, but according to his prudence and gentleness excused

his rather bitter letters. I am not, he says, of so

hard and stubborn a disposition, that the friendly corrections of Brethren

I should bear ill: that he withdrew from the communion of Eustathius, once dear to him, for so far am I from being offended by the things which

are written, that almost when I read them, I laughed;

that, although the things are so many and such as hitherto seemed to confirm the mutual friendship between us,

on account of such little complaints carried even to you,

you wrote that you had endured so great a stupor. Then,

about to render an account of the things which had been done between him and Eustathius;

That Apology, he says, which

I have prepared for myself for the great tribunal of Christ, I will not decline to make

known to you also.

[399] After therefore he had shown with many words, that from

the beginning of this cause no occasion for that dissension was given by him,

whether little or much; and that, compelled,

he had defected from Eustathius's communion, and had proceeded to public defense of himself against his slander; he concludes

the letter, thus addressing Patrophilus: We ask

that you write back through this same man, Strategius

I mean, our Co-presbyter, whether you still

constantly continue to be ours, or whether from their

meeting you too have been alienated: for it is not probable

that they have rested; nor that you, who have written such things to us,

have not also acted confidently against them. But if in our communion you persevere,

it is best, and most greatly to be wished: and he asks that he constantly adhere to him: but if

they have drawn you to their own opinion, it is indeed sad

(for how would the alienation of so beloved a Brother

not be sad?) but, although in no other

matter, in this at least we have been well trained by them,

so that we have learned to bear such losses patiently.

The reply to these letters of Basil, Patrophilus deferred a long time,

deliberating perhaps what he should do; and

at last he wrote back through Strategius, that he would remain in his

communion. These things received, Basil gave thanks

to the Lord: and when he had written some things in favor of

Eustathius, he himself, lest he be compelled again to weave a more lengthy

discourse, denies that he can communicate with the Eustathians.

Forgive us, he says, who cannot allow

ourselves to be partakers of the leaven of those teaching strange things.

And so, if it seems good, leaving aside those plausible

discourses, with all confidence reprove those who

do not walk with a right foot toward the truth of the Gospel.

[400] Through the same Strategius Basil sent letters

to Theophilus, he discharges the same office with Theophilus Bishop of Castabala, Bishop of Castabala in Cilicia

(for this man too had objected that change to him), that

he might render an account of his defection and inconstancy,

addressing him thus by his letters. B. Ep. 309 Know, most longed-for

and most religious Brother Theophilus, that I

esteem your love very greatly. And this

affection of my mind makes it, that, although very many occasions of sadness and grief,

and those not the least,

are supplied; yet no day, as far as

I remember, have I let pass, in which

I did not recall your memory. For indeed I resolved, with my prosperous things as it were set over against in a balance,

against the more bitter misfortunes thus to wish to apply my mind,

that my better affairs should outweigh. But since

the state of affairs has become changed, from where it least ought to;

forgive me, I pray, not changing my opinion, but

transposing only my order and station.

Nay rather, I do not change my station, but the old one

I hold; but there are others who from time to time are altered,

and now into the camp of the adversaries as manifest deserters

have gone off. How much I esteemed their communion,

as long as they stood on the sounder side, you yourself do not

not know: but if I neither now follow them,

and recede from the society of those who hold the same

opinion with them; certainly deservedly ought I

to be forgiven, who think nothing older than the truth and my own

safety ought to be reckoned.

[401] Among these things the year 375 was passed;

but at the beginning of the following year, he wrote to the Euaseni a letter,

by which he gives thanks to them, that in so great a disturbance of affairs

they faithfully remained in his communion. B. Ep. 72 and to the Euaseni, on account of their fidelity toward him,

Although we are overwhelmed, he says, with very many businesses,

and our mind is distracted with innumerable cares;

yet never have we suffered that solicitude, which toward

your love we bear, to fall from our memory;

praying our God, that

you may persevere in the faith, in which you stand and exult in

the hope of the glory of God. he prays well for them. For truly it is now unusual

and exceedingly rare, to see a sincere Church,

which is in nothing injured by the malice of these times,

but keeps entire and unoffended the Apostolic

doctrine; such as in present times yours

has shown itself, who in each generation manifests those worthy

of His calling. May the Lord give you

the goods of the heavenly Jerusalem, for this that

you have cast back the false slanders against us upon the heads of the vain-talkers,

nor permitted them to insinuate themselves into your hearts.

But I know and hold persuaded in the

Lord, that your reward is great, even for

this cause, in the heavens. For wisely have you

considered within yourselves this, which is also true,

that those who rendered me evils for good, and

hatred for my love, with which I pursued them;

now slander me for the sake of those things, which

they themselves are detected to have approved by confessions published in writing.

[402] The Saint is afflicted by the lapse of Apollinaris Meanwhile, while the friendship of Basil with Eustathius,

and the manifested hypocrisy and heresy of the latter held him entangled in most grievous

difficulties; to the heap of evils was added the lapse of Apollinaris, Bishop

of Laodicea. And all indeed, on account of the novelties

introduced by him, were afflicted with vehement grief,

who zealously sought the peace of the Lord; but to Basil

it created so much the graver trouble, by how much

more he seemed from the beginning to be of his number and society:

for what we suffer from a manifest enemy,

however much in itself it be most bitter, can nonetheless

be tolerated by the afflicted; according to that

which is written, If an enemy had reproached me,

I would surely have borne it patiently: but when one familiar and

joined to us brings damage and detriment,

this is altogether intolerable, nor to be soothed by any

solace. B. Ep. 293 Therefore him whom he had believed to have with him

as a champion of the truth, this very one he found in not a few things

to be a hindrance to salvation:

but just as Eustathius had long dissimulated a heretical mind,

so also Apollinaris.

Hence it happened about this year 376, that which

Facundus Bishop of Hermiana narrates from a letter

of the Egyptian Bishops who were in exile at Diocaesarea,

transcribing these things: The admirable Apollinaris, receiving such

letters in the name of those, and also

his own letter, in the name of Adelphus and Isidore,

chief among them, according to his own wish; so far

despised them, that he himself afterward dared by his

letters to accuse the irreprehensible and most religious

Archbishop of Antioch, Paulinus, who

always communicated with the thrice Blessed Pope Athanasius,

and with all the orthodox Bishops in the West. lib. 4 cap. 2 pag. 160

But the Nitrian Solitaries, moved by the receiving of such

letters, almost turned aside to Judaism, and having of the accused

to write back to him: but while these things were being done, by

the dispensation of God there were shown to them, both written, his

dispositions and definitions about faith,

consonant with those which previously many coming to them

had said to them about Apollinaris himself, that he held himself not

rightly concerning the incarnation of the Savior. To these also

he wrote other letters, in which he accused the venerable

Archbishop of Cyprus Epiphanius, orthodox

and always communicating with our most Blessed

Pope Athanasius: he also

unjustly disjudged Bishop Diodorus by his own letters,

if he should not have abstained from the communion of the aforesaid

orthodox Bishops Paulinus and Epiphanius.

[403] All these things when those distinguished Bishops, both for

faith exiles, had understood about Apollinaris: whom the exiled Bishops, therefore excommunicating, their zeal

in professing sincere piety by no means suffered,

although he wrote very many things in his own defense,

the strength and constancy of their mind to be moved from their

purpose, either by the multitude of his scribblings

or by the variety of his sophisms. Wherefore,

when Basil, through the benign grace of God, had recognized the sincerity

of their faith, celebrated commonly in the discourse of all;

he deemed it fair, that into this distinguished part he should come as their

associate, and should join himself through letters to their communion.

For this cause he sent to them his most beloved Subdeacon

Elpidius, who should both carry letters,

and present explain the things which had escaped the instruction of the letters.

But in the letters he narrates the miserable

fall of Apollinaris, once his friend, are strengthened by St. Basil: and how,

twisting minds elsewhere, he led them away from soundness of dogmas,

and through him the whole Church was cut in upon itself

and torn apart: especially that to the Churches,

rejoicing above all in Orthodox Rectors,

certain secret emissaries had been sent off by him,

who sets forth to them his heresies to make schism and to gather private conventicles.

Vitalis namely, endowed with the name

of Bishop, he had sent to Antioch, that he might be Bishop of his

heresy; yet walking without people and without

Clergy, and carrying about the bare name of Bishop.

Then he sets forth his heresy; Are not, he says,

his discourses about God, each and all, full and teeming

with impious dogmas, while he renews and resuscitates in his writings

the ancient impiety of that most futile little man

Sabellius? If indeed those things are not feigned by enemies

which the men of Sebaste carry about, but really

are commentaries proceeding from this man;

he transcends every height of impiety,

while he teaches that the Father, and the Son,

and the Holy Spirit are the same; and uses words

of this kind blasphemous and dark, which we have not even

perceived with our ears, because we

wish to have no fellowship, even the slightest, with those who use

discourses of this kind.

[404] Is there not with him something confused,

the doctrine about the incarnation? concerning the mysteries of the new Law is not the salutary dispensation of our Lord called

by many doubtful?

and that on account of the muddy and obscure questions of this man about the Incarnation: which singly

to heap up all, and from set purpose to refute,

would require a very long time and discourse.

And the passage about the divine promises, who ever

so blotted out or deleted it, as this man with his inventions

and fictions? who indeed dared so basely

and so abjectly to interpret that blessed

hope, laid up for those who shall have led a life according to

the rule of the Gospel of Christ, that he twisted it into old wives'

fables and Jewish inventions. He promises that the temple will be again

restored, and the legal worship again

to be taken up; that the typical Pontiff will again come forth,

after the true Pontiff has been revealed: that Sacrifices

for sins are to be offered, after that Lamb

of God, taking away the sins of the world; and partial baptisms,

after that one baptism; and the expiatory ashes

of the heifer for that Church, which has neither spot

nor wrinkle, on account of its faith in Christ;

besides, the cleansing of leprosy, after the impassibility

of Him who rose from death: the offering

also of jealousy, and the sacraments, when they shall neither marry nor

be given in marriage: the loaves of proposition

after that bread which came down from heaven: lamps

burning, after that true light: and to dispatch it briefly,

unless that Law of commandments be made void in dogmas,

it is manifest that not even then indeed

will the doctrine of Christ in the legal precepts

be abolished.

[405] The heresy so abominable being set forth, yet of the conversion

of Apollinaris the Saint judged that one ought by no means to despair: yet he does not despair of his reduction:

but with the highest testification of his grief

and love, he exhorts the holy Confessors, that

they should try to lead him back to the unity of the Church, perhaps

because they from time to time, either in person or by letters, dealt with him.

On account of these things, he says, shame and aversion have veiled

our faces, vehement grief has filled

our hearts. For which cause we exhort you,

as physicians knowing and learned, in courtesy

and patience to instruct the one struggling, that you may spend all effort,

that he be led back to the ordered subjection of the Church;

and persuade him not to trust

the loquacity and multiplicity of his commentaries.

Certainly the saying of the proverbialist he has made ratified,

that sin cannot easily be avoided in much speaking.

Constantly moreover inculcate to him the tenor of the orthodox

faith, that his emendation may become manifest,

and his repentance be known to the Brethren. Yet of his hope

Basil was disappointed; Timothy, one of Apollinaris's followers,

defaming himself to be a Bishop, that by this he might more confidently

do injury, and infringe the paternal laws. Fac. lib. 4 cap. 2

For he wished to anathematize Basil of Caesarea,

Peter of Alexandria, Paulinus and Epiphanius and

Diodorus the Bishops, and to communicate with Vitalis alone.

[406] Another cause of writing to those Confessor Bishops

was, and about the disciples of Marcellus of Ancyra, that they had admitted to their communion the Marcellians, or followers of the now

deceased Marcellus Bishop of Ancyra, who on account of his impious doctrine

had gone out from the Church;

which Basil had long since asked of them in vain. B. Ep. 293 For when eight of them from Galatia

had come to Diocaesarea for the sake of visiting them, and

had shown letters of communion written to them by the most Blessed

Pope Athanasius, having also exhibited a profession of faith

expressed in writing, by which they seemed to think nothing

that abhorred from the general and Ecclesiastical rule of faith,

which in the Nicene Synod was constituted;

and by an anathema to condemn clearly and distinctly enough

all the heresies ascribed to Marcellus, by those Confessors

they were received into ecclesiastical communion. Epiph. Hær. 72 But

when report had carried this to others, no small grief

affected many, that they had made such persons coming to them

partakers of the communion of the Church: for they did not

know by what profession of faith, or by what condition they had been

admitted to communion. Of this therefore the Saint thought they should be admonished,

that he might make them understand,

that it was fair that the things which are done should be done by the conspiring consent

of many, lest concord be unstitched, he advises waiting for the judgment of the Church. while some, others being rejected, are received

into communion: since by the grace of God there were very many

who maintained the orthodox faith, sanctioned by the Nicene Fathers

according to the rule of piety;

nor through the East were they alone left, or solitary in

this part, but with them conspired

also the whole West. B. Ep. 293 Therefore, he says, you ought

to have taken counsel, constantly indeed,

yet moderately, about matters pertaining to all the Churches throughout the whole

world. Meanwhile of time

deign to transmit those reasons of yours,

by which you were led to receive the followers and supporters

of Marcellus: by no means ignorant of this, that

however much, as regards your affairs and yourselves, you may seem to have

constituted all things mended and roofed; you ought not however

to have permitted yourselves a matter of so great moment,

but as many as are of your communion, whether through

the West or through the East, should have awaited their

votes and opinion. To these complaints of Basil and

his demand what those holy exiles replied, or

how they satisfied, nowhere do I find related. That that admission

of the Marcellians was not pleasing to the

Easterners, is evident from this, that in the letters to the Westerners,

this year too, but sent later, Paulinus is accused,

because he admitted the supporters of Marcellus to communion. B. Ep. 74

CHAPTER XXXV.

A new legation into the West against the new heresies, with no success

on account of minds at Rome preoccupied. St. Ambrose conciliated.

The Sozopolitans instructed.

[407] Moreover the orthodox Bishops throughout the East, more vehemently

afflicted by the fall of Eustathius and Apollinaris

than by Valens's persecution, again destined Dorotheus

and Felicissimus into the West in the common name:

for the wicked indeed, they say, A new legation into the West is decreed. and impudent

heresy of the Arians, manifestly divulged from the body of the Church, lingered in its own

error, and did little harm, because its impiety

was known to all: but Eustathius and Apollinaris,

clothed in a sheep's skin, simulating externally meekness and placidity,

internally cruelly tore the flock of Christ;

and by this name, that they proceeded from

the bosom of the orthodox, easily injured the simpler.

Therefore through their aforesaid envoys they prayed and besought the Western Bishops;

that those pernicious men, and who could not easily be guarded against,

through their diligence be published and made manifest to all the Eastern

Churches; so that either, walking rightly,

they might remain joined to the Orthodox; or if

they should continue to be perverse, they might keep their pest to themselves alone;

lest hereafter, through incautious communion, against Eustathius and Apollinaris,

they should be able to rub their disease onto those nearer them. Then that those who disturb the Churches and

beget stumbling-blocks they should make known to their own Churches too,

so that they could be avoided. But adding the reason, why they asked this from

the Westerners; the things which we speak,

they say, are suspect to many, as if on account of

certain private contentions we wished to strike fear and faint-heartedness

into them. But you,

by how much more remote you are from them in dwelling, by so much

more credit you have with the people; to which is added also this,

that for the curing of the oppressed you have as a help

the grace of God. But if more of you also, unanimous,

shall consent in the same, it is manifest, that

of the dogma undoubted to all.

[408] But as for what concerned Eustathius, since,

formerly deposed from the Episcopate, the defection of the first to the Arians is explained he had been

restored by the Romans; the Synod wished that, by those through whom he had received

the power of disturbing the Churches, by the same he might lose it.

There is one, they say, of those who most stir up

disturbances, Eustathius, from Sebaste of Lesser Armenia:

of whom, when they had set forth his inconstancy in the orthodox faith,

or rather his repeatedly simulated repentance from heresy,

through which by Liberius the Pontiff and the Synod

of Tyana he had been restored to his Episcopate, as

we above from Basil more amply deduced at number 275,

he thus continues. This man therefore now lays waste that Faith, into which

he was received; and makes common cause with those who

strike the homoousion with an anathema. Then also

he patronizes the heresy of those, who despoil the Holy Spirit

of Divinity. Since therefore from there he received the strength

of injuring the Churches and publishing his impieties,

using the confidence which you gave to the subversion

of many; it is necessary that from there too come

the correction of those evils, and that it be written to the Churches,

on what conditions he was received into communion;

and at the same time let it be added, how

now, his opinion changed, he renders void the grace received from the Fathers

who then were. But that they ask to be signified, on what conditions Eustathius

was received into the communion of Liberius; they seem

to have thought, that something more had been subscribed at Rome by Eustathius, than his suppliant libel,

exhibited with the letters of Liberius to the Council of Tyana:

then thus continue the Eastern Bishops.

[409] and how the latter resuscitates Jewish fables and rites; The other of those of whom we admonish you,

is Apollinaris, himself too not a little saddening the Churches.

For having joined to his facility of writing on any subject

he has filled the world with his books, despising

Ecclesiastes, who says one must beware, lest many become

books. For in a multitude it is certain that many things

are erred in: for how can in much speaking

sin be avoided? But there are things which he writes also

pertaining to Theology; having their construction not from the proofs of Scripture,

but from human arguments.

He has written also about the resurrection certain things

fabulously, nay composed in a Jewish manner: in which he says,

that we shall return again to the worship prescribed by the Law,

so that again we shall both be circumcised, and the Sabbath

shall observe, and from the foods prohibited in the Law

shall abstain, and shall offer Sacrifices to God, and in

the temple at Jerusalem shall adore, and altogether from

Christians shall be made Jews: than which what could

be more ridiculous, nay more alien from the Evangelical

dogma, be said? Then also about the incarnation he stirred up

such a disturbance among the Brethren, that few of those

who had some converse with him

preserve the ancient character of piety:

but many, attending to the novelties of things, to

questions and contentious inventions of useless words

have been turned aside. The ordination of Paulinus into

the Episcopate of Antioch, since the Romans defended it as legitimate,

they too left to their judgment;

they only complain, that he seemed to adhere to the dogmas

of Marcellus, and to admit his followers without discrimination

to communion. They ask therefore

and beseech, that to all the Churches of God throughout the East

they would exhibit the sought help.

[410] Basil, besides the letters written in the common name of the Easterners

to the Westerners, perhaps using the opportunity of this

legation, Basil congratulates Ambrose on his Episcopate, wrote back to St. Ambrose,

and congratulated him on his undertaking of the Episcopate of Milan,

glorifying our God, who in each

generation chooses those who please Him. B. Ep. 55

And that He who once from shepherds of sheep raised up for His people

with His spirit, and raised him to prophetic

dignity; now has drawn a man from the royal city,

to whom the principality of the whole nation had been entrusted,

sublime in wisdom, illustrious in nobility of family,

splendor of life, faculty of pleading, and in secular affairs,

to the care of the flocks of Christ; who,

the riches of this life all cast away, and held for

loss that he might gain Christ, has taken the helm,

in the faith of Christ, of the great and distinguished ship committed

to him, namely the Church

of God. Then continuing, to undertaking strenuously the Episcopal

office he exhorts in these words: Go to therefore, O man of God;

since not from men did you receive or

were taught the Gospel of Christ; but the Lord Himself,

taken from the midst of the judges of the earth, and he asks for mutual communication by letters to

the Apostolic Chair transferred you; fight the good

contest, correct and moderate the infirmity of the people,

if it has been touched by any stain of Arian madness: renew

the ancient footsteps of the Fathers. Lastly he asks, that

the foundation of love, which he had laid by letters,

by the assiduity of mutual converse through them, he would be eager to raise

and advance into a building, and in this way

they might be able to be joined in spirit, although in earthly

dwelling they were as far as possible distant one from another.

It is not to be doubted, that Ambrose satisfied Basil's desire,

although there do not exist his letters to him which would prove it. And the fruit indeed of the friendship cultivated

between them can be seen, that Basil

labored, that the body of St. Dionysius, Bishop of Milan,

who under Constantius, driven into Armenia,

died in exile, might be restored to the Milanese; as

Ado, Usuard, and other Martyrologists have, and the Breviary

of Milan, and we at the 25th of May, where about that

Saint at number 13. In turn also the affairs of the Easterners Ambrose

promoted, and by his zeal so stirred up the Westerners

to succor, that they decreed to send certain

of their own into the East, who might (if it could be done) conciliate

St. Meletius and Paulinus between themselves. But

the incursion of the barbarians into the Empire disturbed all things. At this same

time, Valens for the fifth time and Valentinian being Consuls,

Euzoius, who was Bishop of the Arian sect at Antioch,

ended his last day of life: in whose

place Dorotheus was substituted. Socr. lib. 4 cap. 125

[411] Dorotheus the legate finds the Romans Having set out meanwhile into the West, Dorotheus

the Presbyter, at Rome found Peter, Archbishop of Alexandria,

successor of Athanasius, driven from his See by the Arians,

who had betaken himself there to implore the help of the Pontiff.

Damasus received Dorotheus, and from him heard the demands of the Eastern Bishops,

Peter of Alexandria being present: but, prevented by false rumors or

persuasions against SS. Meletius and Eusebius of Samosata,

the desired help or its hope he either would not or could not

grant; and Dorotheus learned, not without grave indignation, that Meletius

and Eusebius were reckoned at Rome among the Arians: wherefore,

the matter unaccomplished, he returned into the East, and reported to Basil,

what discourses he had had with Peter before Damasus

the most Reverend Bishop; preoccupied against Meletius and Basil, and affected him with grief

when he narrated, that among the furious followers of Arius

were reckoned the Bishops most dear to God, Meletius and

Eusebius: for the demonstration of whose right faith

Basil asserts a great argument is held,

writing to Peter of Alexandria, that they are assailed by the Arian

war; and that, though there were nothing else, it would always suffice

with those who regard the matter with right eyes. B. Ep. 321 And so Your Piety,

he says, ought that fellowship of afflictions

for the cause of Christ join with those two. For the rest hold most persuaded,

man truly most reverend, that there is not

even any little orthodox word, which those

men have not freely and most confidently proclaimed: which,

God being witness, I, an ear-witness, affirm: who would not

even myself have endured their society for the space of a little hour,

if I had detected them limping in the faith even a tiny bit.

For indeed Dorotheus, when he saw at Rome thus

traduced Eusebius and Meletius, could not but altogether

take it ill; and therefore, with less moderation and gentleness than was fitting,

held words with

Peter of Alexandria, similarly persuaded about those holy exiles. Hence, when Basil had received the complaints of Peter,

he humbly acknowledges, that on account of the deserts of sins

such was the iniquity of the times, and complains of this to Peter of Alexandria; that not even the most diligent

Brethren were found sufficiently moderate;

nor well disposed for the ministries, or doing all things from

the opinion of their own mind; and so, if

anything had been sinned, it was done with him disapproving.

[412] But Peter had amicably expostulated, that

Basil had written nothing to him about Apollinaris and Eustathius, to whom Basil writing,

as neither about the exiled Bishops of Egypt, who

had admitted the Marcellians into communion, the other Orthodox

by no means consulted, and especially Basil,

to whom however the care seems to have been committed of reconciling the Marcellians

to the Church: but to the Solitaries he had written,

that they should abstain from such reconciliation, until all things

were lawfully composed through the canons. To Peter therefore replied

Basil, that on account of the frequent messages of adverse affairs,

he was so accustomed, that in future

at anything even most incredible he would possess an undisturbed

mind, and dejected by no fear.

The things which against the state of the Church had been long since prepared

by the Arians, he wonders at his too great credulity against him; although they were many and great,

and through the world disseminated in the discourses of all,

were nonetheless to be borne, because

they proceeded from manifest enemies and from those fighting against the Word

with a mind hostile to truth. He marveled

at those, if it should happen at some time that their old purpose

they do not obtain; not, if at any time anything more audacious

and criminal against piety they should attempt.

But that he was affected with grief and more vehemently disturbed,

on account of the things which were perpetrated by those, who in the same

manner were affected, and fostered the same opinions

with him. But these very things too, because they happened

more frequently, and were not the least that were brought

to his ears, did not seem altogether paradoxical.

For this cause he was by no means more vehemently

moved, on account of the things lately done most disorderly,

nor were his ears deafened by them; partly because he knew,

that report carried by chance would have brought those things

to his knowledge; partly also because he awaited the second

messengers, about to report the same sad things more certainly;

then because he judged it neither fitting nor fair, that

he should grievously and troublesomely bear such things, as if indignant

that he had been held of small account.

[413] But to the authors of these things he had written

and about the Marcellians tolerated by him those things which were fitting; namely by admonishing,

that, since a certain distraction of minds

divided the Brethren existing there; they should not

however fall away from mutual charity; but should await

until those, with whom the power

resided, through Ecclesiastical discipline should meet the errors

and remedy them: but since

Peter too had written this, he renders the reason. rightly, and as

was fitting proceeding, he had pursued him with praises,

and besides had given thanks to God, that the remnants

of that old most-ordered discipline still survived

with him, nor had the Church amid

persecutions lost its strength and fortitude,

and the Canons had not suffered persecution with it:

But as for what pertained to the conversion of the Marcellians;

to the Galatians, he says, who frequently stirred up disturbances for me

(for Marcellus, as has been said,

had been Bishop of Ancyra in Galatia) hitherto I have not

been able to reply anything, whom he seems to have led back into the way. because I awaited your

reply. At present, if the Lord shall will,

and they admit me into this business, there is hope

that I can lead back the people to the Church, so that

they cannot throw it in our face, that to the parties of the Marcellians

we have gone over; but it may appear that they

were members of that Church, which is the body

of Christ. Wherefore the malicious and infamous slander,

which was diffused everywhere, arisen from those heretics,

raged against my assumption and admission

(which however by no means suffused me with shame)

as if I fostered their parties.

Thus there were never lacking those who, whatever for the reduction of the heretics

or the peace of the Churches Basil did,

by a sinister interpretation enviously traduced, so that he himself

was then called a heretic, when most he labored to lead the heretics

back to the unity of the Church. It is credible however

that the merciful Lord favored his pious labors;

since St. Jerome, some years

after, enumerating the various sects of heretics, by which

the city of Ancyra was cut apart, is silent about the Marcellians.

[414] To the last years of Basil's life pertains also

it was announced to him, a new question about the Incarnation at Sozopolis that, besides the tumult of the Arians

raging in the Churches, and the confusion which they

had stirred up about the words of faith; still another new

contention had arisen among them, which rendered the whole

congregation of the Brethren vehemently

anxious. For the Sozopolitans themselves had written,

that new dogmas, and unaccustomed to the ears of the faithful, as

from the discipline of the Scriptures were introduced; and

that there were certain ones among them, who dissolve the salutary dispensation

of Jesus Christ, as far as is in them,

and deny the grace of the great mystery, which from the ages

was hidden, but in its own time was manifested.

For this is taken away by those who say, that the Lord,

having a heavenly body, came. What

use of the holy Virgin, if not from the mass of Adam was

the God-bearing flesh to be assumed? Who moreover so audacious,

as the dogma of Valentinus, long since suppressed, by sophistic

words and by the testimony of the Scriptures anew

now to stir up and renew? For it is not a more recent thing concerning

an apparent impiety, the Saint refutes, but long ago by the foolish and stupid

Valentinus it began: who, tearing apart a few words of the Apostle,

prepared for himself an impious figment,

saying that the Lord assumed the form of a servant, and not the servant himself;

and affirming that He was born in a figure,

not that man himself was assumed by Him.

Things bordering on these these men are wont to blurt out, which it is fitting

to deplore, introducing for us new tumults. Thus

Basil, understanding Apollinaris and his followers.

[415] Similarly in these same last years of his life

was written also another letter, to Urbicius the Monk, and another heresy of Apollinaris.

by which he equally refutes the impious error of Apollinaris, teaching,

that God had been converted into flesh; and had not

through Mary assumed that mass of Adam,

but the Deity itself, changed, had passed over into material

substance. B. Ep. 344 It would indeed be easy, says Basil,

to refute this absurd opinion; but since

of itself it is convicted of blasphemy, it will be enough

(as I think) with him who fears the Lord to have named it.

Yet there were at Sozopolis, who were said

to foster that absurd opinion. And so the Saint,

that heresy being refuted in few words, concluding says:

From the communion of the heretics keep yourselves pure in every way;

knowing, that to be indifferent in

these matters takes away our liberty, which in

Christ we have.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

The last acts of St. Basil, his death, his burial.

[416] When about the year 377 the Lord of all

wished to regard the tears and

hear the groans of His Church, under the tyranny of the Arians

laboring now for forty-seven years,

and almost oppressed; He brought into the Empire from

the treasures of His divine justice, barbarous nations,

Goths and Huns, In the year 377, the barbarians ravaging throughout the Empire by whom He might war down the heretical Emperor,

and vindicate the Church from his tyranny.

Therefore after the Goths, first by the Huns

crushed with many disasters, and made suppliants to the Emperor

of the Romans, almost out of compassion

admitted into the Empire, had crossed the Danube; they, with

their enemies the Huns, a treaty being established between them against their hosts,

moved arms, and inflicted the first disaster on the Roman

army under Lupicinus the general. But Valens,

having learned of the misfortune of his men and the rebellion of the barbarians,

peace with the Persians having been made on whatever conditions he could,

sent Profuturus and Trajan, generals of the armies,

with troops into Thrace, he himself

soon about to set out from Antioch to Constantinople. Meanwhile

through all that region the victorious barbarians ravaged.

Then Eusebius Bishop of Samosata was in exile in

Thrace: whom, surrounded on every side by the tumult of war,

the same God preserved, who was able to bring it about,

that holy Jonah remained unharmed in the belly of the whale,

and that in a fire so vehement without any harm

those fearing God could live. When Basil had learned these things from Libanius

the Deacon, Basil congratulates the exile of Samosata on God's protection, from whom also the rest

of the things which against the Orthodox there had been done he had been informed;

he gave letters to him, congratulating that the Lord had declared,

how He does not desert His Saints, while

with His great and powerful hand He protected his life on every side;

with a spirit almost prophetic adding,

And in future He will preserve you, who is able to perform this,

God. B. Ep. 9 May the same grant us, if we shall live, to see

that most desirable face of yours, or at least others,

who await your return no otherwise than their own

salvation. I am indeed persuaded, that

on account of the tears of the Churches, and those groans,

with which after you all groan, the lover of men,

God, will preserve you in life, until you impart His grace,

you who night and day implore His help.

[417] Thus Basil, as if foreboding, that shortly to his Church

Eusebius would return, and peace would be given

to the Orthodox, and that he himself in this life would not long survive.

But continuing, according to the order of time, the begun

discourse; and he forebodes a speedy return to his Church;

Meanwhile, he says, we hear that greater and graver

afflictions are inflicted on those places, about which (if indeed

it be possible) quickly; if not, through the most religious

Brother Paul our Co-presbyter returning to

us, as we ask, may we be informed, that

your life is kept unharmed and safe. But since

we hear, that the whole road is full of robbers

and raiders; we fear, lest if into their

hands the Brother fall, we may be the cause

of his death. But if the Lord shall have given moderate tranquillity,

as about the passage of the army

we hear; we will take care that some of our men too be sent,

who may visit you, and announce each thing that is done there.

From these things it is permitted to gather, that the letter was written

before the arrival of Profuturus and Trajan, as happened, Valens recalling the exiles, the barbarians still

depopulating Thrace. These then being conquered and put to flight,

and the aforesaid generals having tried in vain to hinder,

amid the narrows of the roads, the provisions to be carried

to the barbarians; Valens being compelled to leave Antioch;

just as, this war strengthening, distracted by other cares,

he had desisted from sending into exile those who

embraced the faith of the consubstantial; so now

much more, recognizing perhaps the avenging hand of God,

but led by late penance, our Orthodox from

the exiles he recalls. Socr. lib. 4 cap. 78 There returned then into their Sees the orthodox

Bishops: and among them Eusebius of Samosata, Peter

of Alexandria, Meletius of Antioch.

[418] But there followed a lamentable war in

Thrace: in which the Roman legions, deprived of the protection of cavalry,

surrounded by the Goths and even to slaughter

cut down. Chronic. Hieron. The Emperor Valens himself, when,

wounded by an arrow, he fled, and on account of too great pain often

slipped from his horse, was carried to the cottage of a certain little villa:

whither the barbarians pursuing, and the house being burned,

he lacked even burial. But these things it is in no way

fitting to explain more fully, since they scarcely concern Basil;

except that in the same battle, with many other chief

generals of the war, Trajan fell, familiar to Basil

and on account of his virtue most esteemed. by whose death too orthodoxy is restored: Valens being taken from the living,

the time had come, in which God, through Gratian and

Theodosius the orthodox Emperors, would give rest from

persecutions, and peace to the Churches, which to see Basil

had wished with his inmost sighs, and had asked with prayers

unintermitted. Nevertheless otherwise it seemed to the divine

providence, which did not permit its Saint more

than to behold the beginnings of the Church reflowering, that more quickly

he might enjoy eternal peace and tranquillity, like another

Moses; for to this Prophet Nyssen compares his brother;

who, when he had with many vows sought to enter the land of promise,

and now it was near that he could see it

from afar, was bidden by the Lord to die. Or. F.

[419] It remains that we hear the death of Basil,

and the pilgrimage of that holy soul, yet first Basil dies, by which from

us it departed abroad, that it might be present with the Lord,

through the whole course of life having meditated this one thing. G. Ep. 37

But the passage of this blessed soul, and what

followed it, the oration of the Theologian will explain to us;

Although otherwise to behold the desolation of the Church,

shorn and despoiled of such glory, and bereaved of such

be beheld with the eyes, nor perceived with the ears, by these

certainly who are endowed with mind. When therefore,

he says, the course finished and the faith kept, Basil

was held by desire of dissolution, and the time of crowns

drew near; and he had not indeed heard that,

Ascend the mountain and die; but, Die, and

ascend to us; here too he produced a miracle,

by no means inferior to the previous ones. For when

he was almost dead and lifeless, and for the greatest

part had finished his life, in this like Moses, who did not enter the land of promise, about his last discourses he becomes more robust,

so that with words of piety he departed, and

to his most faithful followers, to be advanced to Ecclesiastical grades,

extended his hand and spirit; so that they should not

be defrauded of the sanctuary, whom he had had as disciples and helpers in the Priesthood.

These words of Nazianzen,

although rather obscure, seem to indicate, that Basil,

now consumed by a long wasting, when, with the strength of his body

altogether spent, he was believed daily about to die,

nay perhaps from time to time suffered faintings of mind, the signs

of impending death; for that while was still restored to himself (which

is wont not rarely to happen to those who gradually waste away) so that

some of his disciples he might initiate into sacred Orders, especially

into the Priesthood; nay even perhaps some, in the place

of the deceased, he might consecrate Bishops. These things noted, yet before his death he still ordained some.

to the things which follow, says Nazianzen, grievously

indeed, yet at last will the oration betake itself, although

to others rather than to us this discourse befits.

For neither in grief can I philosophize (although that I might philosophize

I have vehemently striven) while in my mind

the common loss revolves, and that calamity

which has invaded the whole world.

[420] He lay drawing his last breaths, and

by the heavenly choir, To the body of one thus dead to which long since he had directed the keenness of his eyes,

longed for. But poured around him

was the whole city, the loss and this departure

most ill bearing; and his departure indeed,

as a tyranny accusing; and his soul,

no otherwise than as if it could be retained and by hands or prayers

compelled, striving to snatch. For the calamity

rendered them mad: nor was there anyone, who

would not, some part of his own life, if it could be done,

be ready to add to his life. But when they were conquered

(for it behooved that man to be caught) and

he himself, to the Angels, by whom he was led away, with these last

words had spoken; Into Thy hands I commend

my spirit; there is a rushing together from every side. he glad breathed out his soul;

not however before, than the sacrosanct doctrine

had somewhat instructed those who were present, and by last

addresses had made them better. But then a miracle,

of all that ever were the most celebrated,

is marked. The holy man was carried out, raised by the hands of holy

men: but each one

gave effort, one that he might snatch the fringe, another the

shadow, another the bier bearing the sacred body,

and might even only touch it (for what more holy

or pure than that body?), another that nearer to those who

bore the body he might approach, another that he might enjoy the sight alone,

as though that too brought some

utility.

[421] Full were the forums, the porticoes, the double and

triple stories of men, escorting, going before,

following, accompanying, mutually

pressing one another: many thousands of men, of every kind

and age, and before that day unknown. The psalmodies

were overcome by mourning: patience, by the magnitude of grief

was broken: and he being buried among his parents, our people contended with foreigners,

with the Heathen, Jews, strangers, and these in turn

with us, whose more abundant tears would bring more abundant

utility. Finally that calamity

ended in peril: for many souls, by the force

of the thrusting and compression, departed together with him,

who by the title of such an end were proclaimed happy,

as companions of his departure, and (as some one of the more fervent

would say) funeral victims.

At last the body, when it had scarcely escaped the hands of those snatching,

and had surpassed those following, in the parents'

tomb is laid; and to the Priests the Prince of Priests,

to the Preachers the great Voice resounding in my ears too,

to the Martyrs the Martyr is joined.

[422] And now he indeed is in the heavens; there too

(unless I am mistaken) offering sacrifices for us, and

pouring out prayers for the people: for neither has he so

left us, as to have utterly abandoned us. But I, in the middle

half dead and dissected Gregory, Nazianzen concludes the funeral discourse, inasmuch as from

that great companion torn away, and dragging an exiled and miserable

life (as is consonant for him

who is disjoined from him), I know not what

end, after his instruction, I shall obtain; by whom even now

through nocturnal visions I am admonished, and chastised,

if ever from my office I have withdrawn. Nor indeed

have I joined mourning to praises, and his

life with my oration adorned: but I have set forth a common

tablet of virtue, and a salutary example to all

the Churches and all souls; into which,

as into a certain living law, looking, our life

we shall direct: but to you, who from him

were imbued with sacred doctrine, what else should I urge,

than that you always behold him, and, as though he himself

both sees you and is seen by you, you be instructed in spirit?

Be present now, and stand around me, all his

choir, both you who are of the Sanctuary, and you of the lower

Order; both you of our people, and you of the foreigners;

make an encomium with me; each one setting forth

some one of his virtues; and seeking, you who

sit on thrones, a legislator; you who carry on the commonwealth,

inviting all to praise him, the chief of the city and as it were its founder; you commoners, a moderator; you students of letters,

to you; you cenobites, a judge; you simple ones, a guide of the way;

you lovers of contemplation, a theologian;

you cheerful ones, a bridle; you calamitous ones, a solace; you old men, a staff;

you young men, a pedagogue; you poor, a giver;

you wealthy, a dispenser. Nay, to me too

seem both the widows to praise their patron, and

the orphans their father, and the poor the lover of the poor,

and the sick the physician of every disease,

and the healthy the guardian of health; all in short

him, who became all things to all, that all,

or certainly very many, he might gain.

[423] You have these things from us, Basil, that is, from a tongue

once most sweet to you, and equal in honor and age:

which, if to the merit of your virtue they have nearly approached,

it is your benefit (for relying on you

I undertook this oration); but if far beneath his

dignity and your hope they have fallen short, and invoking him, as now received into heaven. what should I do,

worn out? although to God too it is pleasing

that which according to one's strength is accomplished. But you,

sacred and divine head, from heaven, I pray, look upon us; and the sting of the flesh,

given by God to us for discipline,

either by your prayers stay, or at least make that with a strong

mind we may bear it through, and all our

life to that which is most conducive direct:

and us, after we shall have migrated from this life,

there too in your tabernacles receive, that living together,

and the holy and blessed Trinity, of which

now a slight appearance and image we have received,

more purely and fully beholding, to our desires

we may set an end; and of those wars, which we have waged

or endured, this reward we may carry off. And

you indeed have from us this oration: but us,

exchanging life after you with death, who

will praise? if yet we supply anything worthy of praise to the oration.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

Concerning the Relics of St. Basil translated to Bruges of Flanders and preserved even to this day.

[424] To no one will it not seem worthy of admiration,

that of the Relics of so celebrated a Saint scarcely

any memory has been left, no elevation of the body anywhere made,

nor translation is read, whose monument

or history has passed to posterity. Yet of so great a treasure

the Head, an arm, and a rib are asserted to be held at Rome by

Paucirolius in the Index of the Relics of the City; but a part

not small for at least five hundred years has been possessed by the most celebrated city of Flanders, Bruges, the church of Saint Basil at Bruges

where there also exists from of old a church, dedicated under the same Saint's

name. The founder was Theodoric the Alsatian,

Count of the Flemings and the Vermandois from the year

1128 to '69: concerning which foundation we received at Bruges

the diploma of Philip his son, given in the year 1187;

and renewed by Robert III Count of Flanders,

in the year 1321. To this tenor:

[425] To all, both present and future,

who shall inspect the present letters, Robert III the Count testifies that it was founded and endowed Robert Count

of Flanders, greeting, and to know the truth of the deed done.

For the perpetual memory of the matter, we make known to all.

That things instituted wholesomely, in our times and those of our Predecessors,

confirmed by prudent and foreseeing,

and mature counsel through our Predecessors,

may by a certain sure notice be propagated

to posterity; nor in the process of time from the memory of posterity,

through the inept fog of oblivion,

vanish; they are wont to be armed with the public indications

of letters. We therefore, attending, that our Predecessors,

for the salvation of their own and their Predecessors' and Successors'

souls, at Bruges in the Burg, in

honor of God, the blessed Virgin Mary, and St. Basil

the Bishop, a church built at their own expense,

for God to be served there by four Chaplains

instituted there in their own person, founded,

and canonically established: for which they ordained revenues and other

things provided; as in the letters written below,

sealed with a certain Seal of Lord Philip of good memory,

formerly Count of Flanders, our Predecessor, by Theodoric the Alsatian.

appeared at first sight, these and other things among

the rest are more fully contained. Which letters we

have seen, and have caused to be diligently inspected, and a collation

of them to be made carefully: whose tenor is such.

[426] That in our times things instituted wholesomely

and confirmed with prudent counsel, may by a certain sure

notice be propagated to posterity, nor in the process

of time from the memory of posterity through the inept

fog of oblivion vanish, they are wont to be perpetuated by the

indications of letters. Wherefore I Philip, by the grace

of God Count of Flanders, according to the diploma of Philip his son, to posterity as well as to those present,

wish it to be known, that my father of worthy

memory Count Theodoric, and my mother

of pious recollection Countess Sibilla, moved by divine inspiration,

for the salvation of their souls and

of their Predecessors and also of their Successors,

at Bruges in the Castle, in honor of God and the blessed

Virgin Mary, and St. Basil the Bishop, a church

at their own expense caused to be built, and for God

to be served there in their own person, by four

Chaplains, canonically established, to each ten

pounds on the feast of Saint Martin from the office of Lambinus, to each

27 shillings from the ministry of Lambert…

There follows an accurate enumeration of the individual revenues;

which, for the sake of brevity omitted, the Diploma thus continues.

[427] But that all these things which afterward have come in addition,

or shall still grow further, may remain ratified and unshaken,

they committed them to the custody of letters, and

confirmed them by the safeguard of their privilege: signed in the year 1187, which a long

time after their decease, from the common fire

of Bruges, through carelessness perished. But lest

through this misfortune their posterity should lose what they had done well;

whatever in it worthy of memory

had been written, I caused to be rewritten and confirmed;

with the names of those who were present subscribed, of Gerard,

Provost of Bruges, Chancellor of Flanders;

of Hugh, Dean of St. Donatian; of John,

Castellan of Bruges; of Gilbert of Aria. Done at

Male, in the year of the incarnate Word 1187.

[428] The effect of which letters We Robert,

Count of Flanders aforesaid, for Us and

our Successors, by our Princely authority,

we will to obtain perpetual vigor and firmness of strength.

In testimony of which matter

our seal is appended to the present. Given

at Courtrai, present, Master Nicholas of Petra,

Provost of the church of B. Mary of Bruges; Master

Henry Bram, and renewed in the year 1321. professor of Laws, Canon of Tournai;

Master Christian, Provost of the church of Harlebeke;

Lord Christian, called Matam,

Dean of the said church of Harlebeke; Simon

Vastun, Receiver of Flanders; and Roger Tomun,

Counselor and Servant of ours; on Wednesday,

after the feast of B. Peter in chains, in the year of the Lord one thousand

three hundred and twenty-first: and to the Bull was appended

the Count's seal in white wax, and now almost

yellow. Below was written; A collation of this having been made,

with the Bull reserved in the chapel of the holy Blood

at Bruges; I, the undersigned Notary, also residing at Bruges,

found this copy to agree with that:

which I attest. And it was signed, Spetael

Notary 1671.

[429] Among the Cross-marked Princes, who for the recovery

of the Holy Land passed through Lesser Asia as victors,

and, Nicaea recovered, the barbarians slain, obtained Iconium

in Lycaonia, and Caesarea in Cappadocia

in the year 1097, the relics of this Saint brought into that church, was Robert II, thence called

the Jerusalemite, Count of Flanders. To him among the booty

the body of St. Basil could have fallen, which he sent into

Flanders, or, returning from Syria after two years, brought;

although of that matter no memory exists.

Of that Robert, by his sister Gertrude married to Theodoric Landgrave of Alsace,

the grandson was Theodoric, surnamed

the Alsatian, they were brought by Robert II about 1098, after the death of St. Charles the Dane avenged

and William the Norman abdicated, taken up

into the County of Flanders. He founded and endowed the aforesaid church of St. Basil,

warfare; whence, returning the first time about the year 1139,

he seems to have brought his wife Sibilla, daughter of Fulk King of Jerusalem,

with whom then he built the aforesaid

church, and dedicated it to St. Basil; whether on account of

some recent obligation toward him, or by reason of his happy return from Syria; unless one would prefer to think

that the bones of that Saint were then first brought into Flanders

by him himself. However it be, or by Theodoric himself about 1140 the same Count undertook a second

expedition into the East in the year 1144;

and thence in the year 1150 returning to Bruges, according to Meyer in

the Annals of Flanders, and on the seventh of the Ides of April, with incredible

joy and congratulation received by the Flemings, a portion of the most sacred

blood of Christ, carried in a crystal phial,

through Leonius Abbot of Bertin,

placed in the temple of St. Basil; to which, when

an immense concourse from everywhere and many miracles occurred,

and thus the cult and veneration of the former Patron was obscured, together with several other Relics:

it seemed that it would conduce to the renovating and adorning equally

of the Collegiate and primary church, if into it

the sacred bones of St. Basil were transferred; unless we prefer to think it was done

through the aforementioned fire of the Burg of Bruges,

as Robert III says; when, both churches restored,

it pleased thus to divide the Relics, formerly deposited by Theodoric

at St. Basil's, so that to this church, as being

the Palatine one, the sacred Blood remained; to the Collegiate and likewise

Parochial one, the rest collected from Asia, Gaul, Italy, and Belgium,

of which in the Diploma of Count Philip

there is notice.

[430] This Diploma we have transcribed under the public faith

of Claudius Agrettus, Apostolic Protonotary.

We have also another instrument of another Translation,

made in the year 1463; and finally

of a third Translation, this very year in which we print,

1697, celebrated; when in the old

opening of the chest, the Relic of St. Basil alone is narrated to have been found,

together with letters on parchment with a large

red seal, exhibiting an equestrian figure, and

with ancient silk bindings attached, the reading of which,

both on the seal, and on the parchment, could not

be done, on account of its too great antiquity. preserved with the ancient instrument, With great indeed

detriment to posterity, since from such a reading, if it could

have been done, we would probably have understood the name and time

of the first translator and donor. Oliver Vredius,

among the Bruges jurisconsults of this age the most

renowned, in the year 1639 published the Seals of the Counts

of Flanders, illustrated with a notable Commentary. The first

equestrian one there occurs Baldwin, called the Insulan from his fatherland,

but the Pious from divine worship, as Meyer testifies, and

from the year 1034 to 1067 holding the County. With

that and other following ones if one wishes to compare that old

seal, whose letters have vanished; perhaps from the greater

or lesser rudeness of the horse and rider, a not improbable

conjecture will be formed about the age of the seal itself, and of the things

depending on it: I pass to the instrument

of the year 1187, of which this is the tenor.

[431] In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy

Spirit. Amen. which are all enumerated. In the year from the Incarnation of the Lord

one thousand one hundred eighty-six,

on the 8th of the Kalends of June, in the church of B. Donatian at Bruges,

eight shrines were opened, in which were found

very many Relics of Saints, by the hand of

Philip Count of Flanders and Vermandois, son

of Count Theodoric, in the presence of Florence Count of Holland,

and Gerard Provost of our church;

likewise Gerard, Provost of Lille; and

the rest of our Confraternity, special, and very many others.

In one shrine therefore, which is called St. Basil's,

were found the Relics, which are written below,

placed with the truthful testimony of letters.

Relics of St. Basil, namely bones.

R. of St. Nicholas, a bone from his head.

R. of St. Andrew.

R. of St. George.

R. of St. Firminus.

R. of St. Martin.

Of the linen cloth of the Lord, with which He wiped the feet of the Apostles at

the supper.

Of the rock, where Christ was, when He fasted

40 days.

R. of St. Radegund.

Of St. Silvinus, one rib, a tooth, and one finger.

R. of St. Sebastian, of his rib.

Of St. Peter,

Of St. Mary.

Of St. John,

Of St. Vedast.

Of St. Folquin, one rib, and one finger.

R. of St. Peter, St. John, St. Vedast.

R. of St. Cosmas.

Of St. Peregrinus.

Of the garment of the Innocents.

Of St. Theodore.

Of the wood of the Lord.

Of the beard of St. Amandus.

R. of St. Paul, St. Remigius, St. Peter.

Of Mount Calvary.

Of the Crib of the Lord.

Of the Arm of St. Odulphus.

R. of Simon and Jude.

Of St. Bartholomew the Apostle.

Of St. Agnes the Virgin.

Of St. Eligius.

Of the column, where the Lord was scourged.

Of the basin, in which He washed the feet of the Apostles.

R. of St. Mary, St. Peter, St. Paul.

R. of St. Gregory, St. Germanus, St. Simplicius.

Of St. Andrew.

Of St. Remaclus.

R. of St. Jonah the Prophet.

R. a finger of St. Cecilia.

Of St. Bertha.

Of the wood of the Lord.

R. of St. Bertin.

Of St. Audomar.

Of St. Scholastica.

Of St. Felix the Pope.

Of the oil which St. Benedict blessed.

Of the rock, upon which the Lord stood.

R. of St. Paul, St. Cyriacus, Martyrs.

Of St. Hippolytus the Martyr.

Of St. Gengulphus the Martyr.

Of St. Pancras the Martyr.

Of St. Sabina the Virgin.

Of St. Odulphus.

Of St. Gerulphus.

Of St. Maximus.

Of St. Quintinus.

Of St. Machutus.

Of St. Ideberga.

Of St. Martin.

Of St. Gregory.

Of the Crib of the Lord.

Of the Rod of Aaron.

R. of St. James the Apostle.

Of St. Marcellinus and St. Geminianus.

Of the hairs of St. Christopher.

Of the hairs of the Apostles Peter and Paul.

Of SS. Matthias and Andrew.

Of St. John the Evangelist.

R. of St. Felicity.

The Arm of St. Severianus.

These things moreover Philip ordered to be safeguarded with his seal.

On the back was inscribed in the same character, Relics:

and added in a more recent hand, Visited

1186. But what is contained in the seven other shrines,

or what was afterward done with them, as placed in the same shrine of St. Basil. I leave to the men of Bruges to examine.

[432] Of another visitation of the Relics of St. Basil,

and their deposition in a more adorned chest, testifies the Register

of the capitular Acts of the aforesaid church

of St. Donatian of Bruges, marked F folio 246, page

verso 51: of which this is an extract. On the 18th day

of the month of April, in the year 1463 aforesaid,

it was concluded by the Lords of the Chapter,

that the Lord Suffragan of the Reverend Lord Bishop

of Tournai, license having been received from the same Lord

Bishop, should transfer, the most rightly and best, the sacred

Relics of the body of St. Basil, The same Relics in the year 1463 on the 31st of May, and others existing in the old chest,

and place them in a new bier, made for this

of gold and silver. Which translation

indeed was made in the year from the incarnation of the Lord

1463, in the 11th Indiction, in the month

of May, on the penultimate day, in the Pontificate of the most Holy

in Christ Father and our Lord, Lord

Pius by divine Providence Pope the Second in his fifth year, in

this church of St. Donatian of Bruges, a scaffold being well

constructed, before the rood-screen; and the sacrosanct Relics

designated below, lately from a certain old chest,

in which long before, namely from the year of the Lord

1186, on the 8th of the Kalends of June, Philip Count of Flanders

and Vermandois, son of Theodoric Count

of Flanders then reigning, they had reverently been

placed, by chance broken open, were extracted by

the Reverend in Christ Father, Lord William

Vasoris, Professor of sacred Theology, of the Order

of Preachers, Bishop of Sarepta; for this, having from

the Reverend in Christ Father and Lord, Lord William

Bishop of Tournai, Diocesan of the place, a special

mandate, translated, are transferred into a new chest, and in a new

bier, entitled to St. Basil, in the presence of the most Illustrious

Princes Lords, Philip Duke of Burgundy,

Lorraine, Brabant, and Limburg;

and Count of Flanders, Artois, Burgundy, Palatine, Hainault,

Holland, and Zeeland, and of Namur,

and Marquis of the Holy Empire; and Lord

of Frisia, Salins, and Mechlin: Charles Count

of Charolais, and Lord of Castellin and of Bethune,

legitimate son and heir of that lord Philip:

and also John Duke of Cleves; and of the Reverend

in Christ Father Lord Charles de

Bourbon, Archbishop of Lyon, Primate

of France; Louis Count of St. Paul, and of the Illustrious

Lady Agnes of Burgundy, Duchess of Bourbon;

and Adolph of Cleves Lord of Ravestein, said

brother of the Lord Duke of Cleves; in the presence of the Nobles of both estates, and also of the Reverend

and venerable in Christ Fathers, the two

Thomas of Assen, Bishop in the parts of England,

of the Order of Preachers; Nicholas Abbot of Eeckhout,

of Bruges; and Robert of Watten, of the Order

of St. Augustine; and also Nicasius of Puteus, of Bethune;

John of Vassaya, of Soignies, John

Vincent, of Cassel; and Charles of Campis, Provosts of the collegiate Churches

of Thorout; and Roland the scribe Dean, and almost all the Lords,

then Canons of this church of St. Donatian,

and other Ecclesiastical men, and the Canons of St. Donatian:

and in the presence of a multitude of the people, reverently and devoutly

stored away and enclosed.

[433] Thence follows the same enumeration of the Relics,

nothing added or removed. And first are named

very many Bones of St. Basil: of which afterward that nothing was lost,

perhaps translated elsewhere, I would not dare to affirm:

since in the last translation not very many

bones were found; but nothing of the rest of the Relics here again named;

but the specification of these is followed

by the nomenclature of the Canons, who were present at this translation,

namely;

John Mynheere,

Philip Syron,

Victor de Swavenaerde,

Baldwin Spoel,

James Maes,

Burchard Kederkin, whose names these were then

Presbyter.

James de Campis,

Richard de Capella,

Henry de Miret,

John Damiens,

Subdeacons.

Charles Soillot,

John de Feraye,

and James de Purgatorio.

Acolytes.

[434] The third translation of the Relics of St. Basil into

in this our age, namely in the year 1687; but with greater

celebration, if you except the dignity of the persons, who

were present at the prior ones. For all the ceremonies were employed,

which could render the solemnity more august,

the most exquisite music singing between. The Latin

oration was delivered by the Reverend and learned Lord Peter Maes, Canon of the same cathedral

church; the Flemish one, to the crowded

assembly of the people, was given by Father James Mols, of the Society

of Jesus, the most celebrated orator of his time. The rest

the public Instrument itself, which was drawn up on that matter, of the most Illustrious Lord Bishop, transferring the Relics,

will give you.

Humbert William, by the Grace of God and of the Apostolic

See Bishop of Bruges,

perpetual and hereditary

Chancellor of Flanders, of the Council of State

to his Royal Majesty, etc.

[435] To all and singular who shall see the present letters,

or hear them read, The Bishop, having been asked greeting in

the Lord. To the promotion of the cult of the Saints we have always studiously

attended, knowing that almighty God,

honored in His Saints, disposes the worshippers of the Saints

to the society of the Saints in eternal beatitude,

and more efficaciously leads them. Since therefore lately,

from the piety and munificent liberality of the Reverend

and most learned Lord Eugene de Vicq, Dean of the cathedral

church of St. Donatian, the work of the new bier being completed

of the sacred Relics of St. Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea

in Cappadocia and Confessor,

singular Patron, for many ages back in the same

cathedral church preserved, and exhibited to pious veneration;

the most Reverend and venerable

Lords, the aforesaid Dean and Chapter of the same

church, desiring as far as possible to commit to execution

the translation of the aforesaid holy Relics,

from the ancient into the aforesaid new bier, to transfer the bones of St. Basil,

have requested Us with due instance, that it be done with

the solemnities and ceremonies opportune and requisite for this.

[436] Hence it is that we, for that cause, in the year of the Lord

one thousand six hundred and eighty-seven,

on the 13th of June, with all ceremony, of the month of June, on the 13th day, the eve of the feast of the same

St. Basil, Pope Innocent the eleventh of that name sitting in the Chair of St. Peter at Rome,

Leopold Augustus ruling, and Charles

the second King of the Spains, Count of Flanders,

reigning, we came to the aforesaid cathedral church,

and there, clothed in Pontificals, with ministers and

light, the Clergy and the more honorable men

named below being present, and a crowded people, before

the high altar of the choir of the same church, the Hymn

Veni creator Spiritus having first been sung, with the Collect

of the same, after the Reverend and most learned Lord Dean,

with a loud voice, in his own name and that of the Chapter had set forth,

and again asked us, that we would deign

to transfer the aforesaid Relics of St. Basil from the ancient

into the new bier; we ordered to be brought to us the ancient

chest or bier of the said Relics

of St. Basil, before our arrival set out on a table on the side

of the Gospel: which, by a previous diligent

visitation, we found duly closed. from the old chest he takes the same out, And the said ancient bier being opened

by our mandate, there was found

in it a very small wooden box, painted red,

well closed with iron bands; in which we found three

bones, namely a large part of the spine of the back, to which is affixed

of Saint Basil the Archbishop; and

two others, wrapped together in cotton, and covered with white

Damascene silk, with letters on parchment,

with a large red seal, exhibiting an equestrian

figure, and with ancient silk bindings attached;

the reading of which, both on the seal and on the parchment,

could not be done, on account of its too great antiquity. And the said

bones, uncovered and found entire, we set forth and exhibited

to all present to be venerated:

and the aforesaid Relics, joined together in another clean

corporal, we decently wrapped with our hands,

and in our presence in the same corporal

caused to be sewn up with linen threads: to which the same

most Reverend and venerable Lords of

the Clergy of the same church, and the other more notable persons present,

both ecclesiastical and secular, to the kiss

before the high altar of the aforesaid choir in order

we admitted. Afterward all those same Relics, and he exhibits them to those present to be kissed,

enclosed in the said corporal, in new blue silk

with silk threads of the same color we wrapped. Finally

we enclosed the same wrapping in a new little box,

skillfully painted on the outside, and inscribed above in red

color: Relics of St. Basil the Great,

Translated 13 June, 1687; and within

covered with blue satin (which we previously, according to

the prescript of the Roman Pontifical, with the aforesaid

new larger silver bier, blessed) together

with our present letters, transfixed to that aforesaid very ancient

parchment, between two cushions

of blue satin made on both sides, and with a copy

authenticated and sealed by us of a certain testimony

of the year one thousand one hundred eighty-six, on the 8th

of the Kalends of June; by which it is evident, that by Philip, son

of Theodoric Count of Flanders, in the presence of Florence

Count of Holland, and places them in the new one: of Gerard Provost of St.

Donatian, likewise of Gerard Provost of Lille, and the rest

of the Clergy of the church of St. Donatian, the aforesaid Relics

of St. Basil the Great, and several others, were

visited with due ceremonies, and with the seal of the same Count

of Flanders attached, our seal being placed on the aforesaid new

little box, on both sides in red

wax.

[437] These things were done in the choir of the often-mentioned cathedral

church of St. Donatian at Bruges, in the year, month,

and day as above, in the presence of the Dean and Canons, there being present at the same solemn

translation the most Reverend and venerable

Lords, namely the Noble Lord Eugene

de Vicq, Licentiate of both Laws, Dean of the aforesaid church; Lord

John Pinckel, Licentiate of sacred Theology, Archdeacon; Lord James

de Crits, Cantor; Lord John de Blifsy, Licentiate of sacred Theology, Archpresbyter;

Lord John Francis de Baillencourt,

Licentiate of Civil Law, the noble Lord John van Volden, Licentiate of Civil Law, Lord

Francis van Torre, Lord Claudius Agretti, Doctor of Civil Law,

the Noble Lord Robert Alexander de Haynin, Doctor of both Laws,

Albert Claysman, Licentiate of both Laws, the Noble Lord Charles Triest,

Licentiate of both Laws, Lord Henry Mortel, Lord John Baptist Besoete,

Licentiate of both Laws, Lord Nicholas Rosignol, Lord Gaspar Gelson,

Lord Theodore Benoit, the Noble Lord Alexander

van Volden, Licentiate of Civil Law, Lord Charles Alexis de Baillencourt,

Licentiate of Civil Law, Lord John Baptist vanden Bogaerde,

Lord Louis Collaert, Lord Peter Maes, Licentiate of Civil Law,

the Noble Lord William Joseph Alverado y Braccamonte,

the Noble Lord James Francis de Aranda, Licentiate of Civil Law, Lord Peter Stalpaert; Canons, Presbyters, and

the rest of the Clergy of the same choir; and also the most Reverend

and venerable Lords, and other ecclesiastics, Lords Placidus

Ockerhout, and Martin Colle, respectively Abbots of St. Andrew and of the Dunes;

Lord Judocus Ranst,

Licentiate of Civil Law, and Dean of the Cathedral Church of St. Bavo

of Ghent; the Reverend Fathers Charles Claesman

and James Mols, Presbyters of the Society of Jesus.

[438] There being present also or invited the most Noble,

Generous and Honorable men, Lords: the most Excellent

Lord Procopius de Lalein, of the Counts

of Hooghstrate, Count of Renebourgh, of

the military council of his Majesty and Superintendent

of the militia of the Province of Flanders; the Noble Lord Ferdinand

Augustine de Vicq, Lord of Meulevelt

and Desmarreis; Schout of the city of Bruges; the Noble

Lord Francis Nans, Lord of Meetkerckhove,

primary Burgomaster of Bruges; the Noble

Lord Claudius de Corte, secondary Burgomaster

of Bruges; the Noble Christopher van Volden, first

Clerk of Bruges; the Noble Philibert

van Volden, and much nobility. Lord of Creugert, primary

Consul of the Franc; the Noble Lord Nicholas

d'Heere, Consul of the Franc; the most learned

Lord James de Steenberge, primary Clerk

of the Franc; the most Generous man Lord Ambrose

de Praecipiano Count of Soye, Prefect of the War

councils and of the militia to his Royal Majesty;

the most Generous Man Lord Albert de Merode, Count

of Wattou and Thian, Tribune of the legion of foot

of the Garrison of Bruges; the Noble James de Croonendaele,

Viscount of Vlieringe, Lord

of Breethaut; the Noble Lord Philip Albert de Vicq,

Baron of Cumtigh, Lord of Vissennacq;

the Noble Lord John Carillo, Lord of Cauwerbourg;

the Noble Lord Charles Gillon, Lord

of Snellegem; and in the presence of very many Reverend

and Honorable Men of both orders.

In faith and testimony of all which

we have signed these letters with our own hand, and also

with our greater seal, and the signature of our Secretary,

ordered them to be safeguarded.

H. G. BISHOP OF BRUGES

Below, by the mandate of the most Illustrious and most Reverend Lord Bishop Aforesaid

Brouckmans Secretary 1687.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Concerning the more recent common feast of the three Doctors of the Greeks, Basil,

Nazianzen and Chrysostom, instituted by John Metropolitan

of Euchaita, and their published images.

[439] Our Janning, on the 5th day of June, in the Corollary

concerning the three Saints named Dorotheus, John flourished from the year 1050 about to give the Life

of one of them named the Younger, the author being John Metropolitan

of Euchaita, about his age, See, and

writings treats more at length in the whole section 3; and teaches, from Andrew

Darmarius, who 464 years after copied his works,

and prefixed to them an epitome of his life, that he began

to govern the Church of Euchaita under Constantine

Monomachus and the Empress Zoe. Monomachus took up

the Empire in the year 1042, and held it until

1054, and his wife Zoe continued to reign until

1057. There succeeded in the scepters Michael Stratonicus,

Isaac Comnenus, and after the year 1081 he instituted this feast, Constantine Ducas, Romanus

Diogenes, Michael Ducas, and Nicephorus

Botoniates until the year 1081; when there was raised

to the throne Alexius Comnenus; and still living

was the aforementioned John. For in that year the occasion

given to the new feast, which we have here undertaken to treat,

is understood from the narration of the deed, which is read in

the printed Menaea on the 30th day of January, when that

feast is there thus proclaimed: "On the same

Month, the 30th." On the 30th day of the same

month. "Memory of our Fathers among the Saints

and economical teachers, Basil

the Great, Gregory the Theologian,

and John Chrysostom." The memory of our holy Fathers

and ecumenical Doctors, Basil the Great,

Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom.

[440] This proclamation is followed by a Sticheron, not

of one distich, as almost elsewhere, but of iambic distichs

altogether sixteen; and at the end there is a hexameter,

apt for a metrical Ephemeris, in this manner:

"There shone on the thirtieth a golden triple-pillared splendor."

The thirtieth of the month of Janus shines with a triple sun.

But the History of the instituted feast, which I mentioned, consequently

is set forth, and here is rendered into Latin by the Reverend Father

Nicholas Rayaeus, Professor of sacred Theology, now first added to these our studies, in hope

of continuing the succession and the work, by the will of the Superiors,

since the impression had proceeded thus far and the rest of the month of June was prepared for the press.

And so his name will recur less frequently here, but most frequently,

God granting, in the Supplement of the first Semester to follow after

June. Meanwhile, Reader, ascribe it to his work, well skilled

in Greek, if the Greek Acts, which will occur in the half of June that remains to be printed,

you receive considerably more corrected, whose History is taken from the Menaea. than

I was able to give in the prior part, manifoldly distracted

in hastening the Responses to the Carmelite Accusations,

and in preparing the defense at Rome and Madrid.

Leo Allatius in his Diatribe on the writings of the Symeons, page 112, indicates that there was found by him an "Encomium

to the three holy Hierarchs,

Basil the Great,

Gregory the Theologian,

and John Chrysostom" by John Metropolitan of Euchaita,

with this beginning, "Three urge me on to a three-named motion." Three urge me on to a three-named motion.

Would that Allatius had added, whence

the whole Greek context might be had! why should we not however

suspect that from it was taken this very

History which I subjoin?

HISTORY OF THE INSTITUTION.

From the printed Menaea, Translator Nicholas Rayaeus, S.J.

Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, in Cappadocia (St.)

AUTHOR F. B.

[441] "The cause of the feast came about thus.

In the reign of Alexius, who after Botoniates received the scepters of the empire,

in Constantinople a faction arose

among the learned and virtuous men, some

exalting the great Basil, calling him sublime in speech;

as one who searched out the nature of beings,

and in virtues nearly rivaled the angels;

and as one not condescending to what is at hand,

and weighty in character, and having nothing earthly;

but lowering the divine Chrysostom,

as being disposed, forsooth, contrary to that one, in being

ready-to-hand and drawing toward repentance;

while others exalted this same divine Chrysostom,

as more humanly disposed in his teachings,

and by the smoothness of his diction guiding all,

and calling them to repentance,

and by the abundance of his honey-flowing words,

and by his cleverness in thought, setting him before

both the great Basil and Gregory;

while others again clung to Gregory the Theologian,

as being elegant and varied,

both penetrating in discourses, and flowery in expressions,

surpassing all those renowned for Greek learning,

and those of our own day;

and giving him the victory;

while those others were exalting their man,

so that it came about that the multitudes were divided,

and some were called Johannites,

others Basilites,

and the rest Gregorites."

[442] "Over these names then, of those quarreling about discourses,

and these being so spoken of for some time afterward,

these greatest ones appear, one at a time first,

then also together (waking, not a dream),

to him who then governed the sacred things of the city of Euchaita,

John, the eminent man,

learned in other respects, and not unskilled in Greek learning,

as the things labored by him show,

but who had reached the summit of virtue;

and with one tongue they say to him:

We are one, as you see, with God,

and there is nothing among us opposed, nor warring;

but each, in our own times, struck by the divine Spirit,

composed teachings for the salvation of men,

and we delivered what we were initiated into;

and there is not a first among us, nor indeed a second;

but if you shall name the one, the two follow.

Wherefore rise and bid those quarreling on our behalf

not to be divided;

for it is our zeal, both living and departed,

to be at peace, and to lead the ends of the earth into concord;

but also join us in one day."

And as

(they said): perform for us the things of the feast,

as it befits you, and hand them down to those after you,

just as we are one with God,

and we too will altogether cooperate toward the salvation of those

who perform the commemoration;

for we too think we have some power with God.

Having said these things, they seemed again

to fly up into the heavens, illuminated with boundless light,

and calling one another by name.

[443] But that divine man, namely John of Euchaita,

did just as the Saints had suggested;

both the multitude and those quarreling

he calmed (for the man was indeed renowned for virtue),

and he handed down this feast to the church

to be celebrated to God. And consider for me the wisdom of the man.

For when he found the month of January

having these three, on the first the Great Basil,

on the twenty-fifth the divine Gregory,

and on the twenty-seventh the divine Chrysostom,

he again joined them on the thirtieth,

crowning them with canons and troparia and encomia

as befitted them; which, having been made

by their nod, as I think,

lack nothing of what pertains to praise,

so that they surpass all those things that

have been composed from that time, and that ever will be composed.

[444] But the disposition of body and the form

these Saints had as follows.

The divine Chrysostom, as to the appearance of his body,

was very short in stature,

bearing a large head on his shoulders.

His foot was most precise; he was prominent of nose,

wide of nostrils, very sallow with white,

having hollow sockets of the eyes,

and using large eyeballs of these;

on which it also came about that he gleamed

more gracefully in the face,

even if by the rest of his character he revealed one burdened;

bare and large of forehead,

and furrowed with many lines;

bearing large ears, and his beard small and very thin,

flowering with grey hairs;

having his jaws pressed inward,

by fasting to the extreme.

But this it is necessary to say about him,

that in discourse he surpassed all even the wise among the Greeks,

and especially by cleverness in thought,

and by the smoothness and floweriness of his diction;

and to such a degree did he clarify the divine Scripture,

as none of the others;

and he so accomplished under the Gospel preaching,

that if this Saint had not been (even though it is bold to say it),

there would have had to be again a second coming of Christ upon the earth;

and in virtue and action and contemplation

he became so great, as to surpass all utterly;

being a fountain of almsgiving and love,

and zeal outright, in brotherly love and teaching.

[445] But the great Basil was, in the disposition

of his body, of much length,

running up into an upright figure,

dry and lean of flesh, dark of complexion,

his face mingled with sallowness,

prominent of nose, with his eyebrows arched in a circle,

his brow drawn together,

resembling one in thought,

his face wrinkled with a few furrows,

elongated of cheeks,

hollow of temples,

cropped close to the skin,

his beard sufficiently flowing,

and half-grey.

This man in discourses surpassed not only those of his own time,

but also the ancients;

for having gone through all learning,

in each he acquired the mastery;

and no less having practiced philosophy through action,

and through it advanced to the contemplation of beings.

He was led up to the throne of the high-priesthood

when he was forty years old,

and presided over the church for five years.

[446] But the sacred Gregory the Theologian,

according to the type of the stature of his body,

happened to be of middling height,

somewhat sallow, a little with grace,

snub-nosed, having his eyebrows straight,

mild and gentle of look;

one of his eyes, which was the right,

he had somewhat narrower,

which a scar near the corner drew together;

his beard not deep, but thick along the straight,

sufficiently bald, white of hair,

showing the extremities of his beard as if smoked.

But this it is worthy to say about him,

that if there had to come to be among men an image

and statue in part, composed of all virtues,

this was the great Gregory,

surpassing by the brightness of his life those distinguished in action;

to such a degree was he advanced in theology,

that all were overcome by his wisdom,

both that in discourses, and that in dogmas,

whence also he acquired the appellation of Theologian;

and he presided over the Church of Constantinople

twelve years, having become over eighty years old.

[447] By the intercessions of these three, O Christ our God,

and of all the Saints,

cast down the risings of the heresies,

and preserve us in concord,

and in a peaceful state,

and deem us worthy of Thy heavenly kingdom,

for Thou art blessed unto the ages

of ages. Amen.

[441] The History interposed in the Office relates, The cause of this feast was as follows. While Alexius Comnenus

was reigning, who after Botoniates

took up the scepters of the Empire: there arose at Constantinople

Some commended the Great Basil,

saying, that he proclaimed lofty and great things, discussed by his genius the nature

of all things, in virtue nearly

surpassed the Angels, in what manner some (commended) St. Basil, or did not easily yield to them;

excelled in gravity of morals, and had nothing

earthly. But these same men extenuated

the Divine Chrysostom, as though altogether opposite to this one,

and such a one of whom every best person would most easily

grow weary. Others on the contrary the same Divine

Chrysostom extolled, some (commended) John Chrysostom as more earnestly devoted

to doctrine, and leading all by the gentleness of his oration,

and calling them to repentance; finally

by the multitude of his honeyed words and the subtlety

of his thoughts they preferred him to the Great Basil and

Gregory the Theologian. Others were more affected toward this one,

just as if by his elegant, some preferring Gregory the Theologian, varied, insinuating

and florid kind of speaking he had surpassed all who even

in our age were illustrious in the fame of Greek erudition.

And these gave the first place to this one, while others

transferred them to others. Whence it came about that, the studies

being split into contrary parts among the uncertain crowd, some were called Johannites, others

Basilites, and others were called Gregorites.

[442] Therefore while under these names the orators disputed among themselves;

hence a schism as it were having arisen those Greatest Doctors, of whom we treat,

first separately, then also together, offered themselves

to be seen by John, then set over the Sacred things in the city of Euchaita,

celebrated, and not (as the little works which he elaborated indicate)

unskilled in Greek erudition;

but more celebrated on account of his virtue, together they appear to John Bishop of Euchaita, of which he had attained the summit.

It was a true vision, not a dream: and this voice was sent to

John: We are one, as you see,

with God; and there is no dissension between us,

no strife; but what each of us in his own times,

impelled by the divine spirit, useful for the salvation of men,

handed down as precepts; and the mysteries which we learned,

we brought into the light. Nor indeed is anyone

among us first, nor second. If you name one,

two follow. Therefore rise, and tell the parties, not

to be at variance on our account: and they command that to them, as to one, a common feast be proclaimed. for in this thought and care

we are engaged, that between the living and us who have departed

from the living, peace may be reconciled, and that the ends

may be led back into concord. To which end join us on one day:

and, as befits you, that day

consecrate as a feast to us, and thus show us before

God to be one. But we together will give all

effort, that those about to celebrate the memory of this matter may receive

aids to eternal salvation: for we too seem

to be able to do something with God. These things having been said, they seemed

again to fly up into heaven, surrounded with much light,

and calling one another each by his own name.

[443] Rising therefore, that divine man, namely

the Prelate of Euchaita John, did as the Saints had advised. which he does But after he had

repressed the crowd and the attempts of the parties (for to this man through virtue

was conciliated the highest authority), he ordered the aforementioned feast

day to be kept in the Church of God. And

behold the prudence of the man. the 30th day of January being chosen for it. When he had observed that these three

are venerated in one and the same month of January,

the Great Basil on the first, the Divine Gregory on the twenty-fifth,

and on the twenty-seventh the Divine Chrysostom,

he joined the same to be venerated again on the thirtieth.

Nor did he omit to adorn them with due canons, and a new Office being composed.

and chants and praises; in which, inasmuch as

composed not without their assent (as I at least think),

you would find nothing wanting for laudation;

so far that they surpass whatever in that kind

has been published up to now, and hereafter

will be published.

[444] The form and stature of Chrysostom is described, As regards the constitution of the body and the form,

these Saints were such. The Divine Chrysostom,

as to the appearance of his body, was of quite short stature,

with a large and lifted head, of the utmost slenderness, with a proportioned

nose, with nostrils not unbecomingly parted, with a most pale

and white face, with hollow and bulbous eyes. Hence it came about,

that his aspect shone more gracefully, even if something sad

his remaining form displayed. He was bare and of large

forehead and plowed with many wrinkles; with ample

ears likewise, but with a thin and very sparse beard, venerable with grey

hairs. He had his jaws pressed inward,

from the most rigid abstinence with which he macerated himself. But this

it is necessary to say of him, that he surpassed all even the Wise men of Greece,

both in knowledge, and especially

in acumen of thought, and in the florid kind of speaking; he is to be praised

also that he explained the sacred codices with such clarity,

as none of the others; and that he so strove

to promulgate the Gospel, that, unless this Saint had been

(though this may seem said too confidently), there would have been need

of a second coming of Christ to the earth: and singular by the grace of his eloquence; to such a degree both

in virtue, and in the exercise of virtue, and in the commentation

of divine things he excelled the rest. A fountain also of mercy

and charity he was called. And certainly, just as

he shone in doctrine, so also he burned with zeal and incredible

charity toward his neighbor. He lived sixty-three years,

and governed the Church of Christ for six.

[445] What form of body Basil had The Great Basil, in his bodily habit, ran out into much

tallness of upright figure. He was dry

and lean, dark of color, his face tempered with pallor,

endowed with a becoming nose and eyebrows curved toward the corner;

more drawn together at the crown; like one in thought,

his face wrinkled with a few furrows; oblong of cheeks,

hollow of temples, shaved almost to the skin, nourishing his beard,

and that sufficiently flowing and half-grey.

He surpassed in genius, not only those who in his own time, and the gifts of his mind. but

also those who flourished many ages before: for indeed,

since he had gone through all the beautiful arts, in each one

he held the principality; but he exercised himself less in

Philosophy, holding it enough that with it as guide to the contemplation of divine things

he had passed over. To the throne of the highest Priesthood he was raised * forty

years old, and presided over the Church * five years.

[446] What (form) Gregory (had) The divine Gregory the Theologian was of middling stature,

somewhat pale, a little graceful,

snub-nosed, adorned with straight eyebrows, mild and placid

in aspect, somewhat sad in one eye (that was the right,

which a little tubercle near the corner had drawn together), not

prolixly, but densely bearded; very bald, white of hair,

with the extremities of the beard somewhat dark, and as if

smoked. But this is worthy to be

said of him: that, if anyone out of the whole race of men

were to be set forth, his name from the excellence of Theology. as a certain image and

effigy and simulacrum of all virtues, this would be

the Great Gregory; inasmuch as by the splendor of his life

he far surpassed every most-approved person. In

Theology he so advanced, that he had all

inferior to him, both in the elegance of his discourse, and in the gravity

of his thoughts, whence he also found the surname of Theologian.

He administered the Church of Constantinople

twelve years, and lived more than eighty.

[447] By the entreaty of these three and of all the Saints,

O Christ our God, restrain the insolence of the heresies,

but all are invoked together. and keep us in concord and in peaceful

tranquillity, and deem us worthy of Thy heavenly kingdom,

since Thou art blessed unto the ages of ages. Amen.

ANNOTATIONS OF D. P.

[448] To this triple description, just set forth, of the form

of each one, in the countenance perhaps in which the Saints

gave themselves to be beheld, there corresponds in the Menaea this common

one of all and most known to the Greeks.

The image of Basil alone, of Gregory the Theologian, and of Chrysostom

is found each on his own day in January of the same Menaea, but with more contracted descriptions of form,

which descriptions it is in no way necessary to relate here.

But for that which sets forth Basil on the 1st of January,

receive another description, but differing in words rather than

in sense, such as from a Vatican Manuscript received

Peter Frison, illustrator of the works of the Basilians, in the Paris

edition of the year 1618. And thus there it reads:

[449] "Basil among the Saints, surnamed the Great,

was both elongated in body and upright,

having indeed dryness, but his color dark

and sallow, and a height of gait,

he became erect of nose,

with circular eyebrows,

letting down his beard,

bearing moderately grey hairs,

somewhat long of eyelids, scarcely (open),

the hollow about the temple,

and pensive for the most part,

and drawn together within." St.

Basil, surnamed the Great, was tall of stature

and upright, of dry body, of dark and pale color,

of moderate gait, with a declining nose, with curved

eyebrows, with a flowing beard, of moderate greyness, with oblong jaws,

with cheeks little swelling; the concavity of the temples

was that of one in thought, as it is wont most often to be

of those who are gathered within themselves.

[450] This description, received from the Vatican Manuscript,

Peter Frison aforesaid placed under an older

image of Basil alone, taken from a very ancient Codex of the Most Christian King,

which (as is read inscribed)

was presented to Basil the Macedonian, who attained the Empire of the East

about the year 877, and governed it

until the year 86. It is therefore an image of this kind, older

than the apparition which we have related, by at least two

whole centuries; but is it for that reason also more exactly

(conformed) to the truth? I do not think so. For scarcely is it credible

that it was taken from any which had been drawn to the face of the living man. But if

the form of those three John of Euchaita so expressed in his own words,

such as he had beheld in the vision, and had firmly impressed on his memory;

perhaps those images which are commonly carried about,

and are seen in the Menaea, will seem to approach the truth more nearly.

It has seemed good meanwhile, to give to be beheld both the (image) of those three

from the Menaea, and the proper one of Basil alone from the royal Codex.

* rather, fifty

* rather, eight

APPENDIX

Concerning the apocryphal Life of St. Basil, and wrongly imputed to St. Amphilochius Bishop of Iconium.

Basil, Bishop of Caesarea, in Cappadocia (St.)

BHL Number: 1024

AUTHOR F. B.

[1] Just as no one took care to write the Life of St. Gregory of Nazianzus,

at the time when the memory of his Acts was still recent;

but first a certain Gregory the Presbyter about the 10th century undertook that work,

so unhappily, that his writing was deemed unworthy

to be reprinted by us: so neither did St. Basil find a writer

of a near age and of suitable knowledge;

but in the 8th or 9th century there came forth someone, of true or feigned

name Amphilochius, who dared something little suited to so worthy a subject:

to whom however in these last centuries

great authority was conferred by St. Amphilochius,

Bishop of Iconium and most familiar to the Saint himself, more easily

believed to have written Basil's Life, because some encomium of his,

which above served us in place of a Prologue, he was known to have

left to posterity; without doubt most worthy of all credit.

This matter deceived very many writers of a later age,

namely St. Notker in his Martyrology, as I said in the preceding Commentary

at number 7; Sigebert of Gembloux, in the Catalogue of illustrious

writers; Peter Bishop of Equilino, in the Catalogue

of Saints, book 2 chapter 28; Vincent of Beauvais,

in the Historical Mirror, book 14 chapters 78, 79,

and 80; St. Antoninus, Part 2 title 9 chapter 5 §8;

Sixtus of Siena, book 4 of the Holy Library, all

cited by Rosweyde at the Lives of the Fathers page 162; but to all

there went before Ursus, Subdeacon of the Holy Roman Church, translator of that Life

in the 9th century, as will soon be said.

[2] More cautious than all these, however, was Baronius, the study of Criticism,

neglected by the greater ones, gradually flourishing; in

the Notes to the Roman Martyrology, on the 1st of January he says:

There exists, written under the name of Amphilochius, a Life of Basil,

which however, in the opinion of all the more prudent,

is thought to be of some other person rather than of Amphilochius,

contemporary of Basil; since some things are there held,

which seem to suit him less. And

in the Annals at the year 378, what is borne under the false name

of Amphilochius as a Life of Basil, is held not sufficiently worthy

to be thrust on the ears of the learned; unless they are so

perspicacious, as in it to be able to discern and separate the true from the false. For that very many things

there are true, no one would deny;

as those especially, which from both Gregorys, of Nazianzus and

of Nyssa, and also from Ephrem are known to have been received,

or which the Author borrowed from Helladius. Thus far

Baronius: to whom as I assent, that those things are true, which by Pseudo-Amphilochius

from suitable authors were transferred into

that Life; so even from that I judge it evident, that these are not Amphilochius's:

but since the falsity of the others, which in it

are narrated, can easily be uncovered; the consequence will be

that there is nothing in it of Amphilochius. Whence deservedly Bellarmine

in his On Ecclesiastical Writers, on Amphilochius, says: There exists indeed,

under the name of Amphilochius, a Life of St. Basil the Great,

but without doubt false or supposititious. He then brings reasons;

such as we shall weigh each in its own place.

[3] All these things being weighed, let it be permitted me to wonder with

Godfrey Hermant, that even in this century there was found

namely the Reverend Father

Francis Combefis. He however so undertakes to defend it,

that he confesses it interpolated with fables; in

which perhaps in fact he does not dissent from Baronius. For indeed,

when he had related the authors, dissenting among themselves in this cause,

whom we too related above; thus he continues:

I, to say it in few words, think, that most eminent men

could have held with greater reverence a treatise,

prevailing now for so many ages and among the most learned;

and not, because certain things either in the matter, or in

the manner and circumstances offended; reject the whole

and impute it to the Author, and accuse him of falsehood,

and of falsely assuming so great a name, with which he himself

might color his lies. For perhaps not a few things could be defended:

certain things shown to have been corrupted by copyists, and

restored both by conjecture, and from the faith of codices; so that

scarcely a few blemishes would remain. If yet, blemishes; from which

so large a body, and of so great an age, and especially handled by so many hands,

sometimes also more unpolished, would not easily have been free,

it is the Life of the Father of the Monks

in the East, which innumerable Ascetics,

sometimes with greater piety than knowledge, copied out;

to which accordingly they could have added something of their own; yet he confesses it interpolated. so that it has perhaps not come to us with that purity,

with which it was published by Amphilochius, whether we regard the phrasing,

or the narration of the matters themselves; which, less

continuous, and divided by many titles, not so cohering,

unless corrected by hand and pen, would not have rejected

certain added supplements and fillings. Many things indeed

and most a fair reader, and accustomed to the Amphilochian

style, would find not unworthy of Amphilochius;

in the first place that easy use of Scripture,

by a pious and devout allusion; from which neither, while weaving a history,

and affecting a style altogether plain and simple,

could he abstain. Many things from time to time by explaining

the letter, yet with no one's prejudice. These reasons of Combefis

will afterward have to be weighed:

Meanwhile, since he confesses that those Acts, such as they are, by the Monks,

through whose hands they passed, were interpolated with fables;

in what matter, I ask, does he dissent from Baronius? who

advises, that in the same Acts the true from the false ought to be discerned.

It will therefore be worth the labor again to examine the supposed Amphilochius,

all prejudice laid aside; that

the truth, sought with all sincerity, may be able to be found.

[4] Ursus, Subdeacon of the Holy Roman Church, who is known first to have given that Greek

Life of Basil in Latin, lived

in the times of Anastasius the Librarian. For there exists, as Rosweyde

testifies, at Rome in the Vallicellan library a Manuscript codex

which contains that Life by Ursus; and from it

Rosweyde received his exemplar, or at least the first eight chapters, with

the preface. The aforesaid codex contains moreover certain miracles of St. Basil, Ursus, Subdeacon of the Holy Roman Church, makes it Latin in the 9th century, which are believed

to have been written by Helladius Bishop of Caesarea, likewise translated into

Latin by Anastasius the Librarian;

and there too is read his Preface to Ursus aforementioned:

but Anastasius the Librarian lived under

Nicholas I, who sat from the year 858 to the year

867. Scarcely had Ursus elaborated the Amphilochian Life,

when at once, as is credible, by

many, especially Monks, it was sought and copied;

by some even reduced into a compendium, by others adapted to the form of Lessons

to be recited in church; with some things changed, added, omitted; such

exemplars we have two from the Vallicellan library;

one from the Cassinese, all written in the Lombard character.

Both Vallicellan ones lack the Prologue, that however which to the translation of Ursus published by him, Rosweyde

prefixed; he himself received from the same Vallicellan library:

but each Manuscript too in many things differs from the Rosweydian

edition. There exists therefore also a third

exemplar of the Ursian version in the same library,

which Rosweyde, and from him Surius, published in print,

the Preface of the translator being added.

[5] and variously copied The Cassinese exemplar has a prologue of Ursus the Subdeacon,

altogether other than that which Rosweyde published,

worthy to be given here; because it seems to be the genuine writing of Ursus,

rather than the Rosweydian, and because it makes mention

of him at whose request he gave that Life to Latin;

namely Gregory II Duke of Naples, of whom, in

Ughelli volume 6 column 113, Bonitus the Subdeacon says, that

he was grandson and offspring, brother and father of the Dukes

of Parthenope. He therefore has it thus: Here begins the Prologue to the Life

of St. Basil the Archbishop and Confessor. After

that proud Lucifer was plunged down from the heavenly glory;

and, incited by the goads of envy, expelled the first-formed man

from the pleasantness of paradise, through the most savage serpent;

just as a languishing stomach loathes vital banquets,

so the whole human race was ignorant of the heavenly and

intellectual banquet. But that pious

sower and redeemer of human misery, condoled with pious

effect; and from the heavens through virginal womb into the valley

of this world descended: and the human race,

which once had been deceived by the guile of the rival, it is given from the Cassinese Manuscript, the Prologue being prefixed,

desiring to reconcile to the coeternal God the Father, the uncontemplable

fire of the Holy Spirit mercifully

kindled: by which fire indeed first

the holy Prophets were greatly set aflame, after them the holy

Apostles; the Martyrs, Confessors, Virgins, and

all the Saints of both sexes; who even to the goal

of the flesh, for the ardor of His love, with Him as leader,

manfully fought: of which holy bands indeed

Basil was a Saint; who without shedding