Gregory

ON SAINT GREGORY, BISHOP OF NYSSA IN CAPPADOCIA,

AROUND THE YEAR 390.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa in Cappadocia (S.)

§ I. Gregory of Nyssa's brothers, sister, and wife before his episcopate.

[1] Eusebius and Emmelia, of whom we shall treat on May 30, a married couple most praiseworthy for their own virtue and that of their children, gave to the Eastern Church not only Basil, From the same parents great both in substance and in name, but also (besides several others, whose names and honors we partly know, and partly remain ignorant of, to be learned in heaven) this Gregory, of whom we must now speak — nearly equal to Basil in learning and holiness. That he was, however, much younger than Basil is clear from those writings which he addressed to Peter, Bishop of Sebastia, the tenth and last child of their mother Emmelia, after the death of Basil. Younger than his brother Basil, For in the proem of his work on the Hexaemeron and of the other on the Making of Man, in which he treated certain questions passed over by Basil, as if appending a kind of supplement to that great work, he repeatedly addresses Basil as father and teacher; and Peter, when his brother Gregory consulted him as to whether he should publish the treatises he had written against Eunomius — the adversary of Basil while living and the persecutor of him when dead — responded in such a way as to wish that by publishing them he might become an example to posterity of how dutiful sons ought to be disposed toward good parents. He reveres him as a father; For if while the Saint was still alive, he says, you had shown such zeal in defending his reputation from the darts of adversaries, perhaps you would not have escaped the suspicion of flattery; but now the candor and sincerity of your mind, and what your affection toward him is, and your opinion of him who brought you forth by spiritual birth, are clearly demonstrated partly by the devotion with which you honor the deceased, partly by the indignation with which you are inflamed against his enemies.

[2] That therefore Gregory is called the elder brother of Basil in the Preface customarily prefixed to his works is an evident error (σφάλμα) of the typesetters rather than of the author; St. Macrina his sister as his teacher, for the contrary is proved by the reason that is added — namely that when speaking of Basil, he always calls him his teacher — so that it is remarkable that so manifest a contradiction in the first two lines should have remained unnoticed until now, and been subjected to the press so many times. We can also easily infer that the zeal of his eldest sister Macrina — whose panegyric, written by Gregory for Olympius the monk, is extant for July 19 — was by no means ordinary in forming the adolescent Gregory, from the care which he himself writes she bestowed on Peter, the youngest child, although out of modesty he says nothing about himself. Certainly, in that disputation which he wrote on the soul and the resurrection, presented as having been held with that same sister when she was near death, he perpetually calls her his teacher.

[3] And she indeed maintained her commitment to virginity, after the premature death of her betrothed, to the end of her life, and she inspired her brothers Basil and Naucratius She and certain of the brothers maintain celibacy: to the same pursuit of preserving chastity — and perhaps Peter also, although a certain Life of Basil raises some doubt about him; but on account of many errors, it is entirely unworthy of Amphilochius, the most holy and most learned Bishop of Iconium, under whose name it circulates, and therefore does not carry great weight of authority for the opposite view. Gregory, however, was one of those of whom Gregory of Nazianzus says in his eulogy of Basil, that in their marriages they applied such force upon themselves that marriage brought them no harm in aspiring to an equal glory of virtue, and they made it so that these were choices of the kind of life rather than of a way of living. Gregory had a wife For that he was bound by the bond of marriage, the Nyssen himself clearly confesses, beginning the third chapter on Virginity thus: Would that it were somehow possible that from this pursuit something more should also fall to my lot ... but now the knowledge of virginal praises is in a way empty and without fruit for us ... who are prevented, as if by some chasm in the earth, from approaching this glory. He then proceeds to compare the hardships of his condition with the happiness of those who preferred to cultivate perpetual virginity, and as a spectator of others' praise, he applauds those who followed wiser counsels.

[4] He had not, however, married a wife unlike himself, but one who maintained by her very way of life the profession of divine worship that she bore in her name; Theosebia, praised by Nazianzus; whom Gregory of Nazianzus, praising her in Epistle 95, seems unable to satisfy his mind in heaping up titles of encomium: What shall we do, he says, against the law of God, which has long been living and ruling, which has my Theosebia (for I call her mine, who lived as was fitting according to God's laws, since spiritual kinship surpasses that of the body) — Theosebia, the glory of the Church, the ornament of Christ, the benefit of our age, the confidence of women; Theosebia, the most beautiful and most illustrious amid so great a beauty of brothers; Theosebia, truly sacred and the wife of a priest, and equal in honor and worthy of the great mysteries; Theosebia, whom even time to come shall receive in immortal columns — that is, planted in the minds of all, both those who now know her and those who shall come hereafter. And do not think it strange that I call her by name so often, for I take delight in the memory of that blessed woman. So far Nazianzus: by whom she is called both sacred and equal in honor to a priest (insofar as it is lawful for women to approach the sacred rites), and Cardinal Baronius thinks this was said at the year 369 because she held the office of deaconess in the Church — an office that belonged only to widows or to wives of priests who were separated from the marriage bed.

[5] Living thereafter with her as with a sister, Nor indeed would it be entirely unreasonable to believe that after Gregory was initiated into the priesthood, chastity was maintained by him and his wife by mutual consent; for this is suggested by the words of Nazianzus, who calls her his holy and blessed sister, whose death Gregory bore (as Nazianzus writes to him) as a good and perfect man standing before God, one who has a better knowledge of things divine and human than anyone else, and who judges what is most grievous and bitter to others in such matters to be most light — namely, having as a great source of consolation the fact that you lived with such a woman and sent her forth, and stored her away in heavenly dwellings, and widowed, as a heap of grain carried timely to the threshing floor; and indeed so that she herself shared in the joys of life, but through the measure of her age escaped its troubles, before she mourned you, adorned by you with a glorious funeral befitting such women. From these words, a not unfounded conjecture is drawn that Gregory was widowed of his wife before he was joined in spiritual marriage to the Church of Nyssa; for otherwise mention would have had to be made not only of the joys of life, in which she shared, but also of the calamities, from which, though separated in bed and dwelling, she could not have been free, with her husband driven into exile by the machinations of the factious Arians, and the affairs of the Church most deeply disturbed under the reign of Valens.

[6] Before he became Bishop of Nyssa, For it is entirely uncertain how many years before the election of Basil — which occurred in the year of Christ 369 or the following year — Gregory was made Bishop of Nyssa, or indeed whether it was before that event at all. Nevertheless, to the most eminent author of the Ecclesiastical Annals, it seems certain that Gregory was a bishop when he was driven into exile, eight years before the death of Valens — that is, in the year of Christ 370. How many years his exile lasted, the Nyssen writes in express words in his letter on the Life of his sister Macrina: A great interval of time had passed in which we could not enjoy the sight of one another (that is, he and his sister, Whence he was in exile for eight years under Valens, who died in the same year as Basil), the hardships of the temptations which I suffered everywhere, driven from my homeland by the leaders of the heresy, preventing us; for when I measured the span of time that had meanwhile passed, during which our meeting was hindered by such disturbances, it seemed about eight years, more or less. That Gregory was a bishop when he was driven by Valens into exile, through a synod of bishops favoring the Arians, tumultuously convened in Galatia in the middle of winter, is clearly gathered from those words of Basil in Epistle 10: These men have now banished my brother from Nyssa and put in his place a man — or rather, a worthless slave. For what other position could be meant here but the episcopal dignity?

[7] Before he was driven into exile, however, Gregory (whom we commonly call Nazianzus, because he was born at Nazianzus and during his father's lifetime administered the vicarious care of that Church) visited him the day after he had allowed himself — Compared to Aaron by Nazianzus, at the most urgent prayers and almost commands of Basil — to be consecrated Bishop of Sasima. On which occasion Nazianzus delivered that oration which is the sixth in order, in which he compares our Gregory to Aaron and Basil to Moses; by one of whom he was anointed and brought forth, though unwillingly, while the other was present, having come for the purpose of consoling and composing him and calming his spirit — for he could hardly acquiesce in this election of himself, Bishop of Sasima; foreseeing that he would never obtain that See in peace, which, although it truly belonged to the first Cappadocia and was therefore subject to Basil, Anthimus, Bishop of Tyana and Metropolitan of the second Cappadocia, nevertheless claimed by right, or rather by force.

[8] And refreshed by a consolatory letter of the same, Amid these calamities of the Eastern Church, while the tyranny of the Emperor Valens had either ended or was already drawing to its close, Basil the Great also reached the end of his life. Concerning whose death, Nazianzus sent consolatory letters to his brother Gregory, being himself prevented by a dangerous bodily illness from going to kiss the holy ashes, and from being at hand to assist him as he philosophized on matters befitting the occasion, and from offering consolation to their common friends. This is Epistle 37 among the letters, which closes with these words: And as for me who write this, what time or what reason will console me, except your company and fellowship, which that blessed man left us in place of all things — so that, beholding his virtues in you as in a beautiful and clear mirror, we may believe that we still have him? At the death of Basil, That the Nyssen Gregory was present at his dying brother's side, or at least not far away, although we have it nowhere expressly stated, nevertheless seems to be indicated by the words previously cited from Nazianzus, in which he professes that he would have offered a kiss to the ashes, counsel to the bereaved brother, and solace to their common friends, had he not been prevented by illness from discharging these duties of kindness.

[9] This will seem all the more plausible to one who, moved by the authority of Socrates (Book 5, chapters 2 and 4), asserting To which Nyssenus could have been present. that the Antiochene Synod was celebrated when Theodosius had been declared Augustus, under the consuls Ausonius and Olybrius, would consider it to follow that Basil died at the beginning of the year 379; for thus nearly five months would have intervened between the deaths of Valens and Basil, during which time it is established that by a decree of Gratian, churches were restored to bishops to whom Valens had been compelled to grant a return to their homeland the year before. It is not

credible, however, that if the Nyssen had been restored to his See before his brother died, he would not have wished to hasten to the comfort of the dying man, given the great proximity of their locations, or, if the hastened death gave him no time to come, that he would have been absent from his brother's funeral rites. The same can be understood of Peter, even if he had already been Bishop of Sebastia at that time, which we do not believe; for Nyssa, Sebastia, and Caesarea form a nearly equilateral triangle according to Ptolemy's mapping, and each is separated from the others by a journey of only three days. More recent geographers place less distance between Nyssa and Caesarea, but greater between these and Sebastia.

§ II. Acts in the Synods of Antioch and Constantinople: books against Eunomius.

[10] The Synod of Antioch on the matter of the schism, It was about the ninth month after this loss, or a little more, says the Nyssen in his Life of Macrina, when a council of bishops was convened at Antioch, in which we also took part — on the matter, of course, of a most dangerous schism, by which not only were the Catholics divided from the Arians, but the Catholics themselves were also divided among one another, some of them adhering to St. Meletius, whose election Basil approved, while others, wishing to be considered entirely free from all communion with heretics, by whom Meletius had been consecrated, followed Paulinus, who had been installed by Lucifer of Cagliari, the Apostolic Legate, who had never suffered even the slightest suspicion of a polluted Catholic faith, but had rather defended it with great praise amid so many and such great dangers. This controversy, which had already split the Antiochene Church for fifteen years, could indeed have drawn the Churches of the entire world into factions; but a middle course was found by the Synod, to which both sides consented — namely, that when either Paulinus or Meletius should first depart this life, the survivor would succeed to the place of the deceased, with no other being appointed. As for the Arians, who had substituted Euzoius when Meletius was deposed by Valens, so that three bishops of Antioch were named at the same time, no account had to be taken of them under a Catholic Emperor.

[11] After this Synod, when each of us had departed for his own home, says the Nyssen, a desire came upon me to visit my sister; From here Gregory returned to visit his sister, for a great interval of time had passed in which we could not enjoy the sight of one another ... When therefore I had already completed much of the journey, and no more than a single day's travel remained, a vision appeared to me in my sleep that gave a clear indication of what was to come. For I seemed to carry in my hands the relics of martyrs, from which a splendor shone forth, such as comes from a smooth mirror if it is held facing the sun, and by this radiance of light my eyes were dazzled. This vision came to me three times in the same night, and I could not entirely conjecture what it portended. Anxious therefore in mind, I pondered and observed, He is warned by a vision of her approaching death: so that I might judge its meaning from the outcome. At length, drawing near to the retreat where she was leading an angelic and heavenly life, I asked one of the household, first whether my brother was present; and when he replied that he had departed four days earlier, learning that he had gone out to meet us by another road, I then also inquired about that great woman; and when he answered that she was suffering from some illness, I was kindled with greater eagerness and hurried through the remainder of the journey.

[12] So he writes, meaning Peter, as we said seemed to us on January 9, not yet Bishop of Sebastia, with whom he conversed in the paternal home, but the superior of men living a solitary life together — in the front part of those same buildings whose interior the sacred virgins occupied with Macrina. It is likely that these buildings belonged to this family and were converted to these uses by their mother Emmelia. The Nyssen then proceeds to describe his meeting with his sister and their conversation — prompted by mention of Basil's death — concerning the human soul and the resurrection, He writes the book On the Soul: from which was born that distinguished book that bears this title among the works of Nyssenus and contains the sublime philosophy of the Blessed Macrina. And finally, commemorating his sister's death — truly precious in the sight of the Lord — and his own duties toward the deceased, he describes the order of the funeral rites, in which he himself and the bishop of that region, Araxius, together with two other distinguished men of the Clergy, placed their shoulders beneath the sacred burden. Would that we might find the See of Araxius expressed more clearly somewhere, for there would then be a means by which we might learn the place that was the homeland of this holy family, which is found designated only by the vague name of the broadly extending Cappadocia.

[13] That the Nyssen was designated, upon returning from the same Antiochene Synod, Journeys undertaken for establishing the churches. for the task of restoring the state of the churches that had collapsed under Valens, we have from the already cited Life of St. Macrina: For they send you, she herself says, addressing her brother who was asking about his labors, to bring help, you to restore the affairs of the Church. And indeed that he set out for Armenia on this account after the death of his sister will soon become clear from his letter to his brother Peter, prefixed to the books against Eunomius. I would rather believe, however, that it is to this rather than to the time of exile that the letter of Nazianzus to the Nyssen (Epistle 34) pertains, in which he consoles him as he bears these continual travels and wanderings, in this manner: You are troubled by the circuit of places and seem to yourself to be unstable, like pieces of wood carried about by the waters. Far be it, excellent man, far be it that you should be so affected, unless indeed one should accuse the sun because it runs its course in a circle, pouring forth its rays and bringing life to all things it visits — or even praising the fixed stars while blaming the planets, whose very wandering is itself well-ordered and harmonious.

[14] Within two years there followed the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, namely in the year 381, at which, To the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople. Maximus having been expelled, Nazianzus was placed in the See of Constantinople, with the Nyssen undoubtedly contributing greatly to this matter, for he was present and subscribed. He also, since he knew that the Fathers assembled there would act against the heresies of Macedonius and Eunomius, brought to Constantinople the books against Eunomius that he had written, so often cited by Theodoret and long desired by learned men, until Father John of St. Francis, a Feuillant monk, brought them to light, translated into Latin He brings his own books against Eunomius; by his father Nicolas Gulonius, royal Professor of Greek letters at the University of Paris, after he had obtained from our James Gretser, from a Bavarian codex, the first book, which was lacking in other manuscripts, together with a Latin translation. Jerome, who was then at Constantinople, saw this work and speaks of it thus in his catalogue of Ecclesiastical writers: Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, brother of Basil of Caesarea, read his books against Eunomius to me and to Gregory of Nazianzus.

[15] Their praise, With what effect this same work is believed to have been read by the Fathers of the Synod, after the most learned refutations of Theodore and Sophronius, hear Photius explain: The book of Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, was likewise read, written in defense of Basil against Eunomius. His style, if anyone among orators, is illustrious and instills delight into the ears ... more concise than Theodore and broader than Sophronius ... Another work of the same Gregory of Nyssa was read on the same subject, in which, joining battle with the same Eunomius with more powerful arguments, he defeats him by force, undermining all the foundations of impiety; and the beauty of his speech and his splendor mixed with delight also display themselves powerfully in this work. Eunomius, namely the bishop of Cyzicus on the Arian side (as Jerome reports in his catalogue), breaking out into the open blasphemy of heresy, and the occasion for writing, had begun to profess publicly what the others concealed; against whom, when Basil had wielded his pen, composing that work which is everywhere in people's hands, they say that Eunomius spent many Olympiads of years shut up in his little chamber, says Photius, and scarcely at last, after an interval of many years, by an abortion cast into the light that wicked and monstrous offspring which he had conceived in furtive intercourse. Indeed, even then he did not rashly display that miserable birth, nursed within, even to the followers of his own sect, fearing most of all lest this work too, coming into Basil's hands before it had matured, would be scattered.

[16] From Eunomius's furtive offspring, Therefore, studiously, like another Saturn in the fables, he concealed and hid the newborn by devouring it, as long as Basil, dwelling in this transient life, struck fear into him. But after that divine man, leaving his sojourner's dwelling, migrated to his own — that is, to his heavenly — inheritance, and that great fear was dispelled, the opportunity to publish at last slowly arrived; yet even then he dared not make it public to all, but only to his friends. The crafty man, however, could not so secretly attempt the light without falling under the eyes of the most keen defenders of the truth, Theodore and Sophronius — and especially Gregory of Nyssa, whose personal cause also seemed to be at stake in the defense of his brother Basil. And so, as he writes to his brother Peter, having obtained a brief respite to attend to his health after his return from Armenia, Which he could only see in passing; and to collect the papers he had written against Eunomius at Peter's urging, he advanced the matter to the point that his labor grew into the form of an oration, and the oration into a volume. I wrote, however, he says, not against both books of Eunomius; for not that much time was granted, since the one who had lent the heretical book demanded it back very importunately and uncivilly, and gave neither time enough for copying nor for reading through it at leisure; for having devoted only seventeen days to this study, it was not possible in so brief a time to refute both books.

[17] And he responds to the third. And from this it is understood why Photius says that Gregory does not criticize Eunomius's writing in order — that is, does not refute Eunomius's arguments word by word, which he had written Theodore had largely done; but (as the same Photius had previously said of Sophronius) he attacks particularly those things that seemed to contain the chief heads of Eunomian heresy, or the principal follies directed against Basil. And perhaps in this letter to Peter he treats only of the first two treatises, of which one was supplied by Gretser, and the other is found as the first in order among the twelve orations on this subject discovered by the Parisian translator. For Eunomius, who was forging new pamphlets again, The remaining eleven orations, which Photius could call Gregory's second work against Eunomius, and to whom he seems to attribute the principal praise for defeating Eunomius, he composed in response to two replies of the shameless heretic — and indeed in a far different order from that in which they are now printed, as seems clearly demonstrated from their very beginnings. For the oration that is now the twelfth has this opening: Already, with divine help, by our previous labors the first combats against Eunomius have been completed ... but since a second assault has been mustered by him against piety, like some plundering band, again with God's help the truth is armed through us against the enemies in battle array, placing all hope of victory in the author of victory and judge of the contest. Then somewhat later, lest anyone should be in doubt as to which first labors he here names, he has this: Wherefore I boldly began the first fight of my discourse from the pastoral fold — that is, from the ecclesiastical decrees (for upon these the force of the first oration chiefly rests) ... now I do not refuse to come to the second combats.

[18] And responds to the third. This oration is equal in bulk to the two first treatises I mentioned, taken together; and it is followed by the ten remaining intermediate orations in the Parisian edition — Gregory's third labor against Eunomius and of similar length. That this was by no means divided by him into ten parts, as they now are, but was written in one continuous text, we are compelled to believe by the fitting symmetry of all the parts cohering with one another, without any apparatus of exordia such as would be necessary at the beginning of each oration, and such as is found at the head of that oration which is now called the second, furnished with these words: For those who contend legitimately, this is the end of the labors endured in contests — either that the adversary, wearied and broken and languid from his labors, should voluntarily extend the grass to the one who has prevailed, and yield the victory; or that, according to the athletic law, being thrown three times, he should fall to the ground — by which means, by the judgment of the presidents, with the clear announcement of the herald, illustrious glory accrues to the victor for the victory achieved. Since, therefore, Eunomius, having been twice thrown in the previous orations, does not yet yield to the truth, nor allows it to carry off the rewards of victory against falsehood, but again for the third time stirs up the dust of writing against piety in his accustomed wrestling ground of falsehood, strengthening himself for repeated contests on behalf of error — of necessity also now through us the word of truth rises up against the overthrow of falsehood, placing all hope of victory in the author of victory and judge of the contest.

[19] Furthermore, at the Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, Socrates writes that a distribution of dioceses was made [In the distribution of dioceses to be organized according to the decree of the Synod,] that needed inspection and correction, in Book 5, chapter 8, speaking thus: Having apportioned the Provinces, they appointed Patriarchs and decreed that no bishop should leave his own diocese and migrate to foreign churches; for before this, on account of the storms of persecution, anyone had been free to do so. To Nectarius, then, fell by lot that great city of Constantinople and all of Thrace; the Patriarchate of the Pontic diocese fell to Helladius, Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia after Basil, to Gregory of Nyssa (this city too belongs to Cappadocia), the brother of Basil, and to Otreius of Melitene, which is in Armenia. Likewise, the Asian Patriarchate was received by lot by Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium, and Optimus of Antioch in Pisidia. Finally, the diocese of the eastern churches was held by the same bishops as before — namely Pelagius, Bishop of Laodicea, and Diodorus of Tarsus — with the prerogative of honor reserved to the Church of Antioch, which they bestowed upon Meletius, who was then present. These words so exactly match the Greek text that there can be no doubt that what St. Macrina had said was done by the Antiochene Synod — "They send you to restore the affairs of the Church" — Socrates wished to indicate was now done by a similar example, and therefore said of Pelagius and Diodorus, "the same as before."

[20] And from this decree was derived the edict of the Emperor Theodosius, And by an Imperial decree, Law 3, On the Catholic Faith, addressed to Auxonius, Proconsul of Asia, by which he orders that all churches be immediately delivered to the bishops ... who shall be established to be in communion with Nectarius, Bishop of the Church of Constantinople, and likewise with Timothy, Bishop of the City of Alexandria within Egypt; whom also in the parts of the East with Pelagius, Bishop of Laodicea, and Diodorus, Bishop of Tarsus; and also in Proconsular Asia and the Asian diocese with Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium, and Optimus, Bishop of Antioch; in the Pontic diocese with Helladius, Bishop of Caesarea, and Otreius of Melitene, and Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa ... shall be found to communicate. The Pontic diocese fell to Gregory, From which nothing else can be gathered than that these bishops were to be followed in the aforementioned dioceses as definers of matters pertaining to the faith — who, namely, unanimously confess the Father and Son and Holy Spirit to be of one majesty and power, of the same glory, of one brightness; making nothing dissonant by profane division, but professing the order of the Trinity, the assertion of the Persons, and the unity of the Godhead.

[21] But the drowsy translator Wolfgang Musculus, reading: And Nectarius draws by lot Megalopolis and Thrace; of the Pontic diocese, Helladius, who came after Basil; of Caesarea in Cappadocia, Gregory of Nyssa, brother of Basil, and of Melitene in Armenia, Otreius receives the Patriarchate — led the author of the preface to the works of Nyssenus into error, so that he wrote as if from Socrates: Caesarea, after the death of Basil, fell to his brother Gregory, formerly Bishop of Nyssa. This error is no less absurd and alien to all appearance of probability than that Gregory was the elder brother of Basil, and that the Synod Not the bishopric of Caesarea. of which Socrates treats was convened in the year 384. By a similar error, perhaps, John Ribittus, the translator of the Epigrams of Cyrus of Theodore Prodromus, would be recognized as having marred his author, if the Greek verses were at hand from which he made these Latin ones:

Memorable you through Caria, brother of Basil the Great, In whom both Nyssa and Caesarea boast of having their bishop.

This I scarcely believe Theodore wrote, but rather that he said of both brothers jointly that one was the boast of Nyssa, the other of Caesarea.

§ III. The power equalized between Gregory and Helladius: thence rivalries.

[22] Therefore, to Helladius, Gregory, and Otreius — the last being Bishop of Melitene, the second of Nyssa, From the power equalized with Helladius, the first of Caesarea, as they had always been — the Patriarchate of the Pontic diocese had been entrusted as an extraordinary commission, not to be held as a personal possession by any one or by each of them individually with a patriarchal title communicated to the cities of Caesarea and Melitene (as that inept translation of Musculus gives to understand), but for the purpose of organizing the diocese after the Arian bishops had been expelled or reconciled — and indeed with equal power given to all of them to carry out the work of reform by common counsel, or to divide the diocese among themselves. So the Nyssen says openly of himself and Helladius in his letter to Flavian: An equal and identical privilege was granted by the Synod to each of us — or rather, the care of public reform — and that in the matter in which we were commanded to be on equal footing. Rivalries arose, This was the seed of the rivalry between them, which the same letter pursues at length; and it seemed good to transcribe some part of it here, since it expresses with notable clarity the humility of spirit in the Nyssen and a truly Christian modesty.

[23] There were those, he says, who reported to us that the most reverend Helladius was hostile in spirit toward us, Gregory tries to resolve matters through others, telling everyone that I was the author of the greatest evils against him. I, however, did not believe what was said, inasmuch as I looked at the truth of the matters themselves. But when the same things were reported to us by men speaking, as it were, with one mouth, and when the facts agreed with the rumors, I determined that it was proper for me not to leave this hostility uncured — especially since it had not yet taken root. And so I wrote letters to your piety and to many others, urging you to take this in hand. Finally, when I had celebrated the memory of the most Blessed Peter, which had then first begun to be observed among the Sebastenes, and likewise of the remaining witnesses of the faith, who, as they had lived at the same time as Peter, so were accustomed to be celebrated together with him, I turned my route and was making my way back to my own Church. He undoubtedly means the Forty Martyrs, whose memory both East and West observed on this ninth of March, and whose Relics Bishop Peter collected — a Peter entirely different from the brother of Gregory and Basil, and sitting at the helm of the Church of Sebastia at least sixty years before this one, which error of Baronius we corrected at the ninth day of January. The Nyssen continues: And finally he himself goes to Helladius, And when someone indicated to us that Helladius was staying in the nearby mountains and celebrating the memory of the Martyrs, at first I continued on my intended journey, because I thought it would be more fitting to meet the man in the metropolitan city itself; but when one of my relatives approached me deliberately and confirmed for certain that the man was suffering from ill health, I left my carriage there on the spot where I had received this report, and covered the remainder of the distance on horseback — a road that was precipitous and, because of the most rugged ascents, could scarcely be traversed by us.

[24] The distance itself that we had to cover was about fifteen miles; when I had completed this On a difficult journey, partly on horseback, barely by the morning hour and even some part of the night, I was already at Audumocina by the first hour of the day (for this was the name of the place where, together with two other bishops, he was preaching to a large gathering of people). And when from a distance, from a certain hill that overlooked the village, we had seen the crowd assembled for the open-air sermon, we then proceeded step by step on foot, both I myself and my companions, leading our horses by hand. By this means two things were accomplished at the same speed — namely, that he returned home from the assembly, and we arrived at the place of the Martyrs. Without any delay, we sent someone to announce our arrival to him; and shortly after, his attendant met us, whom we asked to bring the matter quickly to his attention, so that we might stay with him longer and find some opportunity so that nothing would be left uncured. After this, I was indeed sitting in the open air waiting for someone to call us inside, He is forced to wait in the sun for a long time, and I was so exposed to all who had gathered there as to be an unwelcome spectacle. Already no small span of time had passed, and my eyes were blinking and a certain torpor was taking hold, and the fatigue from the journey was increasing my distress, and likewise the intense heat, and people staring at us and pointing us out to one another with their fingers. All this and other things of the sort were so oppressive to me that the word of the prophet was truly applicable to me: My spirit has grown numb within me.

[25] Midday was now pressing in, and I greatly regretted this meeting, He is received discourteously having been the author of such an indignity to myself. And since this injury struck me more heavily than if it had come from enemies, my very thoughts were tormenting me, struggling with themselves, as it were, and changing their mind about the ill-advised plan they had formed. But when at last the sanctuary was barely opened to us, and we had entered the inner chambers, the common crowd of people was indeed prevented from entering, only my attendant going in with me, who propped up my body, exhausted from the labor, with his hand. I then addressed the man, and stood for a while expecting him to bid me sit. When nothing of the sort happened, I turned to some steps set at a distance, sat down on one of them, and waited to see whether he would say anything friendly or humane to us, or at least nod assent with his brow. With gloomy silence, But everything turned out contrary to our hopes; for there was a nocturnal silence, and a kind of tragic gloom and stupor, and in sum, no word at all was uttered. Wholly struck at heart by this — that he did not deign to address us even with an ordinary word, those words in common human use by which we customarily greet one another even in passing,

such as: Have you arrived safely? or: From where do you come to us? For what reason? Why did you hasten here? I imagined that silence to myself as a kind of image of life in the underworld ... especially when I considered in what great goods, received from the Fathers, we have become successors, and what sorts of stories about ourselves we shall leave to posterity ...

[26] I did not know how to discipline myself or how to contain myself, because my spirit was swelling inwardly at the insolence of what had happened, and was rejecting all thoughts of forbearance ... After, by the grace of God, what was driving things for the worse did not prevail, then at last I addressed him thus: Is anything pertaining to the care of your body being neglected on account of my arrival, And with his excuse rejected, so that now would be a suitable time for me to go out? When he said that he had no need of bodily care, I added some words by which I tried as best I could to cure the man's ailing spirit. And when he briefly showed that he was angry with us on account of many injuries, I replied: Falsehood has very great power among men for fraud and deception; but in the judgment of God, the falseness of fraud can have no place. My conscience has such confidence in these matters against you that I would wish to be pardoned for my other offenses, but for this to remain uncondoned forever. When he bore this speech with displeasure and annoyance, he no longer allowed any proofs to be added to what I had said. He is dismissed even more discourteously, The sixth hour had already passed, and a bath had been elegantly prepared, and a banquet was being readied, and the day itself was a Sabbath and a celebration of the Martyrs ... but he considered it a sacrilege to admit us to his table after that exhaustion arising from the journey, after such great heat in which we sat at his door under the open sky and were scorched, after that gloomy silence which we experienced after we came into his sight. Indeed, he sends us back again over the same distance, so that we might afflict ourselves along the same road, with our bodies now broken and worn down by labors; as a result, we barely caught up with our companions late at night, having suffered many hardships along the way.

[27] But who was that Flavian Which are written to Flavian of Antioch, to whom the letter is addressed? I hardly doubt that he was the Patriarch of Antioch, the successor of St. Meletius — substituted indeed against the agreed terms, by which the Church was to revert to Paulinus alone; yet always recognized by the Orientals as legitimate, which he was, at least after the death of Paulinus (which occurred ten years after the Synod of Antioch), even though the opposing party set up Evagrius against him, and the matter was scarcely in dispute. Certainly Flavian was a great man, conspicuous for his learning and integrity of morals, whom we have found from our Parisian manuscript Synaxarion to have been also enrolled among the Saints by the Greeks, Listed among the Saints by the Greeks. who celebrate his feast on September 26; nor can there be any doubt that Chrysostom was speaking of him when, in his funeral oration in praise of St. Meletius (which we have published at February 12), he said: The benign and merciful Lord, taking pity on our grief, quickly gave us another Pastor, who beautifully expressed and preserved the form of all that man's virtue; who, when he ascended the See, immediately clothed us in humble and mournful garments, and extinguished our sorrow.

§ IV. Gregory's eloquence; the journey to Jerusalem; death and sacred cult.

[28] Meanwhile our Gregory also devoted diligent care to cultivating his own Church; Too much given to the study of eloquence, and how great was the grace and authority of the speaker before the people is shown by the beginning of his oration on holy baptism: Now I recognize my flock; today I see the customary form of the Church, when, having set aside the business of carnal cares, you have gathered in full numbers for the worship of God; and the people indeed make the church too narrow, penetrating and pressing into the sacred inner chambers; and as many as are not admitted by those who are inside fill the outer space in the vestibules, in the manner of bees. And indeed Gregory was so devoted to the studies of eloquence He is reproved by Nazianzus, that he seemed to some to be excessive in them; nor did he escape reproof, as if he had cast aside the sacred and most sweet books which he once used to read to the people, and had taken into his hands false and bitter ones, and preferred to be called a Rhetorician rather than a Christian. On which account there is an outstanding letter from Nazianzus, number 43 in order, in which a friend kindly yet seriously reproves his friend for this silent and furtive decline for the worse. Hence Suidas: But being more addicted to the studies of rhetoric, he became as celebrated and distinguished in them as any of the ancients.

[29] To make it unnecessary to prove this at length, his outstanding works suffice — by which he either explained the Sacred Scriptures to the people, He speaks at the funeral of the Empress Flacilla, or defended the faith against heretics, or extolled persons distinguished for their holiness and dignity with deserved praises. Among these, the oration he composed on St. Gregory Thaumaturgus is especially praised by Nicephorus Callistus in Book 11, chapter 29 of his Ecclesiastical History. He also praised with the same distinction of his talent Flacilla Augusta, the first wife of Theodosius, mother of Arcadius and Honorius (whom Baronius shows from the inscription on coins was actually called Flacilla), upon her death in the year 385, with which not long before he had mourned the premature death of her little daughter Pulcheria, Her little daughter Pulcheria, snatched away in infancy: See, he says, with what great evils we are beset in a short time! We have not yet recovered from the former blow, we have not yet wiped the tears from our eyes, and we have fallen into so great a calamity again: then we mourned a tender blossom, now the very branch from which the blossom sprouted and grew. And indeed he declares in both orations that he was present at Constantinople when both funerals were conducted.

[30] Likewise, when all the Fathers who had assembled at Constantinople for the Ecumenical Council — those conspicuous above the rest for some distinction in eloquence — And of St. Meletius, had adorned the death of the great Meletius during the time of the Ecumenical Council (concerning which we treated at February 12), he also contributed his own share to the common tribute; so that in the very opening of the oration he declares that another oration had been delivered by him in the same place a few days before, of a more joyful theme, by which he had congratulated Nazianzus, his namesake, on the Church of Constantinople coming into his hands as a bride to a bridegroom through legitimate marriage. Also at the ordination of St. Gregory of Nazianzus. For he speaks thus: How contrary are the words now spoken by us in this place to those spoken recently! Then, as at a wedding, we danced and led the chorus; now we groan mournfully, lamenting. Then we sang a nuptial, now a sepulchral song. For you remember that day when, leading the Virgin home to the noble bridegroom in spiritual nuptials, we received you at a banquet, and we brought as gifts the wedding presents of our words, according to our ability. But now our joy has been turned into mourning, and the garment of gladness has become sackcloth.

[31] That the Nyssen undertook a pilgrimage to the sacred places of Jerusalem, although it is not sufficiently certain at what time, He set out for Jerusalem, that he did undertake it is made certain by that letter which Isaac Casaubon produced and translated into Latin — a man to be praised on his merits, were it not that he had contaminated his benefit with the venom of Calvinian poison, adding Notes by which the unwary reader's mind might be diverted from seeing confirmed by this published document the most ancient practice among Catholics of undertaking pilgrimages of this kind. But the reader will find a salutary antidote to these very bad Notes in the Parisian edition, following the Notes of Gretser upon the trash of Pierre du Moulin (a man of similar ilk) concerning the letter on those who go to Jerusalem, attributed to the Nyssen — which, as learned men have shown, has no force against Catholics, even if it were really by the Nyssen, since it only criticizes the dangerous wanderings of monks and virgins undertaken under the pretext of piety. The authority of this letter, however, which the Calvinists voluntarily supply to us, is irresistible, He even found Arians there, addressed: To the truly most distinguished and most devout sisters Eustathia and Ambrosia, and also to the most honorable and distinguished daughter Basilissa — in which, on the occasion of such a pilgrimage, he laments that he has learned that no part of the world is free from the impiety of Arianism (which he detests and refutes): For if the place itself, he says, which received the holy footprint of the true Life, is not free from evil thorns, what should we think of the rest of the world, which has only been sprinkled with a share of that good through hearing and proclamation?

[32] But when he says that he found these thorns, it was not at the time when heretical dogmas widely prevailed After the Council of Constantinople. and it was considered meritorious to oppose the powers through which the doctrine of the adversaries seemed to be established; but at the time when piety was equally and openly proclaimed throughout the whole world, from one quarter of the sky to the other. He clearly enough declares that he undertook the sacred pilgrimage after the Ecumenical Council was celebrated at Constantinople — yet not whether Hilary still held that See, having been intruded after Heraclius and Herennius by the Arians in place of Cyril, the true Catholic Bishop; or after the year 382 of that century, when the bishops, gathered in a particular synod at Constantinople after the Ecumenical Council, declared that Cyril was to be restored to his rank, in those letters which Theodoret reports and recites as having been destined for the Roman Synod, and Baronius from Theodoret at this year. After which, I say, whether Gregory was given occasion for complaints by those who had not yet vomited forth the poison of heresy, remains uncertain.

[33] Meanwhile, at the very beginning of the letter, he declares that the meeting with good people was a matter of the greatest joy and delight for him, And delighted by the sacred places, and the monuments of that immense kindness shown to us by the Lord, which are displayed there. For in both ways, he says, I experienced what it means to keep festival for God: both seeing the saving signs of the God who gave us life, and meeting such persons in whom one may spiritually contemplate those very marks of the Lord's grace — so that one may believe that there truly is in the soul of one who has God within him, Bethlehem, Golgotha, the Mount of Olives, the Resurrection. Concluding, however, that as soon as he returned and set foot in the metropolis, He warns them to beware of the frauds of heretics he says he poured out the bitterness he had conceived against those who think wrongly of the Son, in a letter sent to the aforesaid matrons, and he exhorts them that, following in the footsteps of the Lord, they should not yield to flesh and blood, nor give some people occasion for boasting, nor allow their ambition to grow on account of the women's manner of life. Be mindful, he says, of the holy Fathers to whom you were entrusted by your Blessed Father, and in whose place it was brought about by the grace of God that we should succeed, which has deemed us worthy of that honor. In which passage I believe Cyril is meant, who had commended the protection of these spiritual daughters of his, imperiled under the Arians, to the Fathers of the Council of Constantinople, and they in turn to Gregory.

[34] He left very many other monuments of his genius,

whose catalogue there is no point in weaving here. He dies at a very advanced age: How long he prolonged his life, the silence of writers has left uncertain. That he reached an extreme age, Baronius infers from that Synod which, in the case of Agapius and Gebadius, was celebrated at Constantinople in the year 394, and is found in Theodore Balsamon, with Amphilochius of Iconium and Gregory of Nyssa sitting among many other bishops. Certainly, the argument that he was already of great age when he was ordained bishop — twenty-four years before the date given here — would be made if the oration that bears the title, as translated by our Fronto Ducaeus, "On His Own Ordination," Whether he is the author of the oration on his own Ordination? truly allowed him to say of himself at that time that he was one of those whose hair is white and whose strength is broken by age, whose speech is trembling and somewhat halting, and to whom it should be permitted to amuse himself, like a retired athlete, by watching the contests of others. But just as in that entire oration there is absolutely no word that corresponds to that title or at all suggests it is by the Nyssen, who was always and especially then flourishing with the praise of eloquence, so the very subject of the oration, which is entirely about the divinity of the Holy Spirit defended in some Synod that was closer to the time of the Council of Nicaea, raises in us a not slight suspicion that it belongs to some more ancient writer who, advanced in years, spoke at the Synod of Alexandria celebrated in the year 362, after several others, against Eunomius, Macedonius, and other Semi-Arians, who had declared war on the Holy Spirit — calling him divine indeed, but not tolerating that he be removed from the number of creatures.

[35] Inscribed in the Martyrologies on March 9, It would be easy to support this conjecture with further evidence from the same oration, were it not that it pertains little or nothing to this place, except insofar as is necessary for recognizing that it is not by the Nyssen, whose solemn commemoration on this day the Latin Church celebrates, in which the Martyrologies — both printed and handwritten — following Usuard, say: At the city of Nyssa, the deposition of Saint Gregory the Bishop, brother of Basil of Caesarea, most distinguished both in life and in eloquence. In agreement with this, the Roman Martyrology of Cardinal Baronius adds: who for the defense of the Catholic faith was driven from his city under the Arian Emperor Valens. Among the Greeks, however, this feast is observed on January 10, celebrating his praises in various hymns with multiplied titles of praise, by which they designate him the Pen filled with the voice of the Holy Spirit, In the Menaea on January 10, the most eloquent Tongue of piety, the most brilliant lamp of divine splendor, the herald of truth, the summit of Theology, the fount of sublime doctrines, the torrent of honey-flowing erudition, the God-sounding lyre, the writer of heavenly canticles, the axe that cuts short the efforts of heretics, the two-edged sword of the Paraclete Spirit, the sickle that prunes spurious growths, the fire that consumes the branching heresies.

[36] And praised with an encomium: After these and other such things, repeated at greater length, they finally recite for him this encomium: He was the brother of Basil the Great, distinguished in eloquence and a zealot for the orthodox faith; therefore he also presided over the Church of God; and together with those who celebrated the Second Council at Constantinople, he showed himself an unconquered champion against the impious heresies then rising up, routing the adversaries by the power of his speech and the proofs of the Scriptures. For being practiced in every kind of discourse and illustrious for the glory of his virtue, he obtained force and strength; and having advanced to a just old age, he fell asleep and departed to the Lord. He was in bodily constitution and appearance in all things similar to his brother Basil, except for his grey hair and a less gracious countenance. Among the Egyptians on October 14. The Copts, whose Martyrology is preserved in the Roman Maronite seminary, make the commemoration of Gregory on the seventeenth day of the month of Baba, which corresponds to the fourteenth of our October. And in the Egyptian Calendar And November 12. appended to John Selden's books on the Sanhedrins of the ancient Hebrews, you will find the same name inscribed at the twenty-sixth day of the month of Hathur, which corresponds to the twenty-second day of our November.

ON BLESSED BOSA, BISHOP OF THE DEIRANS, AT YORK IN ENGLAND,

YEAR 686.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Bosa, Bishop of the Deirans, at York in England (S.)

[1] York is a most illustrious city of England, adorned with an Archiepiscopal See, over which Bosa presided as the fourth bishop — also called Boza, Bossa, and Boso by others. That he had previously discharged the office of the altar as a priest in the monastery of Streneshalh under St. Hilda the Abbess Blessed Bosa, a priest under St. Hilda, is indicated by the Venerable Bede in Book 4 of his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, chapter 23. Certainly, showing with what great perfection of life that monastery was governed by her, he reports the following: She taught there the observance of much justice, piety, and chastity, and of the other virtues, but especially of peace and charity, so that, after the example of the primitive Church, there was no one rich and no one poor there, all things were common to all, and nothing seemed to be anyone's private possession. And she herself was of such great prudence that not only ordinary folk in their necessities, but sometimes even kings and princes would seek and find counsel from her. He devotes himself to Sacred Scripture and virtue: She caused her subjects to devote so much time to the reading of the divine Scriptures and so much to the exercise of the works of justice that very many could most easily be found there who seemed fit to undertake the ecclesiastical grade — that is, the office of the altar. Indeed, from that same monastery we afterwards saw five bishops, all men of singular merit and holiness, whose names are these: Bosa, Aethelheah, Oftfor, John, and Wilfrid. In the monastery of Streneshalh, Thus far Bede. Streneshalh was where Whitby now is, in the northern part of the Duchy of York, on the eastern shore of the German Ocean, near the bay of Dunum, where a monastery was founded in the year 658 by St. Hilda, after she had been in charge of the monastery of Heortheu for some years, greatly devoted to the instruction of the regular life — namely from the year 649. Heortheu, Or also in the Hertesey monastery? known to others as Hertesey, is now Hartlepool, on the same German Ocean in the diocese of Durham. Whether Bosa lived there with St. Hilda is uncertain. Of Oftfor, later Bishop of Worcester, who is placed in the middle among the five bishops listed above, Bede says that he devoted himself to the reading and observance of the Scriptures in both monasteries of Abbess Hilda. But what way of life or rule was prescribed for them, Bede also teaches in the same place. The handmaid of Christ Hilda, he says, being placed in charge of the government of the monastery, According to the Rule of St. Columba immediately took care to order everything there according to the regular life, as she was able to learn from learned men. For both Bishop Aidan (who had previously summoned her to himself and instructed her for one year on the northern bank of the River Wear) and whatever other religious men knew her, on account of her innate wisdom and love of divine service, used to visit her assiduously, love her earnestly, and instruct her diligently. Now St. Aidan and the other monks in the kingdom of the Northumbrians at that time lived according to the rule of St. Columba the Abbot; and afterwards St. Wilfrid, as some hold, brought the Rule of St. Benedict into those regions and imposed it upon the monasteries subject to him. But because St. Hilda and others at Streneshalh were less devoted to him, they seem to have persisted in the strict observance of their former Rule. St. Hilda died on November 17 in the year 680. But St. Aidan on August 31 of the year 651.

[2] Concerning the promotion of St. Bosa to the episcopal chair, Bede reports the following in Book 4, chapter 12: He becomes Bishop of the Deirans in the year 678 In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 678, which is the eighth year of King Ecgfrith's reign, a disagreement having arisen between King Ecgfrith himself and the most reverend Bishop Wilfrid, the same bishop was expelled from the see of his bishopric, and two bishops were substituted in his place to preside over the Northumbrian people — namely Bosa, who should govern the province of the Deirans, and Eata, who should govern that of the Bernicians. The former, that is Bosa, Ordained together with St. Eata having his episcopal chair in the city of York, the latter in the Church of Hexham or Lindisfarne: both were taken from the company of monks into the dignity of the episcopate. With whom also Eadhed was ordained bishop in the province of Lindsey, which King Ecgfrith had very recently acquired by defeating and routing Wulfhere in battle ... Now Eadhed, Bosa, and Eata were ordained at York by Archbishop Theodore. Eata was, as Bede says in Book 3, chapter 26, one of twelve boys whom Aidan received for training in Christ from the English nation at the very beginning of his episcopate; Formerly Abbot of Melrose and in the year 651, when St. Aidan died, he was Abbot in the monastery called Melrose; and in the year 664 he was placed in charge of the brothers by abbatial right in the Church of Lindisfarne. In both places the monastic order flourished according to the institution of St. Aidan and the rule of St. Columba the Abbot. Both Bosa and Eata, therefore, were taken from the company of monks living according to this rule into the dignity of the episcopate. St. Eata is venerated on October 26.

[3] The same Bede, Book 5, chapter 21, reports that Acca succeeded St. Wilfrid in the bishopric of Hexham, who from boyhood was nourished and educated in the clergy of the most holy and God-beloved Bosa, Bishop of York. He therefore esteems highly the virtues of this Acca, because he shows that they were implanted by Bosa. It is worth describing them here, The teacher of St. Acca, Bishop of Hexham, in studies and piety so that in the disciple Acca we may recognize the master Bosa. For Acca was a most energetic man, magnificent before both God and men, who enlarged the building of his own church — which was consecrated in honor of the Blessed Apostle Andrew — with manifold ornament and marvelous works. For he took care (which he does even today) that, having acquired from all quarters the relics of the blessed Apostles and Martyrs of Christ, he should erect altars in their veneration, with distinct porticoes built for this very purpose within the walls of the same church. But he also gathered with the greatest industry histories of their passions, together with the other ecclesiastical volumes, and made there a most ample and most noble library. He also most zealously prepared sacred vessels and lights and other things of this kind that pertain to the adornment of the house of God. He also summoned to himself an excellent singer named Maban, who had been taught the art of singing by the successors of the disciples of the Blessed Pope Gregory in Kent, to instruct himself and his people, and kept him for twelve years — so that he might both teach them those ecclesiastical songs they did not know, and restore by his instruction to their former state those which, once known, had begun to become obsolete through long use or negligence. For Bishop Acca himself was also a most skilled singer, just as he was most learned in the Holy Scriptures and most pure in the confession of the Catholic faith, and had been most diligent in the rules of ecclesiastical institution, and did not cease to remain so until he received the rewards of his pious devotion. For he was, as we mentioned above, from boyhood nourished and educated in the clergy of the most holy and God-beloved Bosa, Bishop of York. He was also aided by his association with St. Wilfrid, with whom he also traveled to Rome, and learned things useful for his Church. St. Acca is venerated on November 30.

whose catalogue there is no point in weaving here: He dies at a very advanced age: how long he prolonged his life, the silence of writers has left uncertain. That he reached an extreme age, Baronius infers from that Synod which, in the case of Agapius and Gebadius, was celebrated at Constantinople in the year 394, and is found in Theodore Balsamon, with Amphilochius of Iconium and Gregory of Nyssa sitting among many other bishops. Certainly, his already great age when he was ordained bishop — twenty-four years before this date — would be proved by the oration that bears, with our Fronto Ducaeus as translator, the title "On His Own Ordination," Whether he is the author of the oration on his own Ordination? if he could truly have said of himself at that time that he was one of those whose hair is white and whose strength is broken by age, whose speech is trembling and somewhat halting, and who should be permitted to amuse himself, like a retired athlete, by watching the contests of others. But just as in that entire oration there is absolutely no word that corresponds to that title, or at all suggests it is by the Nyssen — who was always, and especially then, flourishing in the praise of eloquence — so the very subject of the oration, which is entirely about the divinity of the Holy Spirit defended in some Synod that was closer to the time of the Council of Nicaea, raises in us a not slight suspicion that it belongs to some more ancient writer who, advanced in years, at the Synod of Alexandria celebrated in the year 362, declaimed after several others against Eunomius, Macedonius, and other Semi-Arians who had declared war on the Holy Spirit — calling him divine indeed, but not tolerating that he should be removed from the number of creatures.

[35] Inscribed in the Martyrologies on March 9, It would be easy to support this conjecture with further evidence from the same oration, were it not that it pertains little or nothing to this place, except insofar as is necessary for recognizing that it is not by the Nyssen — whose solemn commemoration on this day the Latin Church celebrates, in which the Martyrologies, both printed and handwritten, following Usuard, say: At the city of Nyssa, the deposition of Saint Gregory the Bishop, brother of Basil of Caesarea, most distinguished both in life and in eloquence. In agreement with this, the Roman Martyrology of Cardinal Baronius adds: who for the defense of the Catholic faith was driven from his city under the Arian Emperor Valens. Among the Greeks, however, this feast is observed on January 10, celebrating his praises in various hymns with multiplied titles of praise, by which they designate him the Pen filled with the voice of the Holy Spirit, In the Menaea on January 10, the most eloquent Tongue of piety, the most brilliant lamp of divine splendor, the herald of truth, the summit of Theology, the fount of sublime doctrines, the torrent of honey-flowing erudition, the God-sounding lyre, the writer of heavenly canticles, the axe that cuts short the efforts of heretics, the two-edged sword of the Paraclete Spirit, the sickle that prunes spurious growths, the fire that consumes the branching heresies.

[36] And praised with an encomium: After these and other such things, repeated at greater length, they finally recite for him this encomium: He was the brother of Basil the Great, distinguished in eloquence and a zealot for the orthodox faith; therefore he also presided over the Church of God, and together with those who celebrated the Second Council at Constantinople, he showed himself an unconquered champion against the impious heresies then rising up, routing the adversaries by the power of his speech and the proofs of the Scriptures. For being practiced in every kind of discourse and illustrious for the glory of his virtue, he obtained force and strength; and having advanced to a just old age, he fell asleep and departed to the Lord. He was in bodily constitution and appearance in all things similar to his brother Basil, except for his grey hair and a less gracious countenance. Among the Egyptians on October 14. The Copts, whose Martyrology is preserved in the Roman Maronite seminary, make the commemoration of Gregory on the seventeenth day of the month of Baba, which corresponds to the fourteenth of our October. And in the Egyptian Calendar And November 12. appended to John Selden's books on the Sanhedrins of the ancient Hebrews, you will find the same name inscribed at the twenty-sixth day of the month of Hathur, which corresponds to the twenty-second day of our November.

ON BLESSED BOSA, BISHOP OF THE DEIRANS, AT YORK IN ENGLAND,

YEAR 686.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Bosa, Bishop of the Deirans, at York in England (S.)

[1] York is a most illustrious city of England, adorned with an Archiepiscopal See, over which Bosa presided as the fourth bishop — also called Boza, Bossa, and Boso by others. That he had previously discharged the office of the altar as a priest in the monastery of Streneshalh under St. Hilda the Abbess Blessed Bosa, a priest under St. Hilda, is indicated by the Venerable Bede in Book 4 of his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, chapter 23. Certainly, showing with what great perfection of life that monastery was governed by her, he reports the following: She taught there the observance of much justice, piety, and chastity, and of the other virtues, but especially of peace and charity, so that, after the example of the primitive Church, there was no one rich and no one poor there; all things were common to all, and nothing seemed to be anyone's private possession. And she herself was of such great prudence that not only ordinary folk in their necessities, but sometimes even kings and princes would seek and find counsel from her. He devotes himself to Sacred Scripture and virtue: She caused her subjects to devote so much time to the reading of the divine Scriptures, and so much to the exercise of the works of justice, that very many could most easily be found there who seemed fit to undertake the ecclesiastical grade — that is, the office of the altar. Indeed, from that same monastery we afterwards saw five bishops, and all of them men of singular merit and holiness, whose names are these: Bosa, Aethelheah, Oftfor, John, and Wilfrid. In the monastery of Streneshalh, Thus far Bede. Streneshalh was where Whitby now is, in the northern part of the Duchy of York, on the eastern shore of the German Ocean, near the bay of Dunum, where a monastery was founded in the year 658 by St. Hilda, after she had been in charge of the monastery of Heortheu for some years, greatly devoted to the instruction of the regular life — namely from the year 649. Heortheu, Or also in the Hertesey monastery? known to others as Hertesey, is now Hartlepool, on the same German Ocean in the diocese of Durham. Whether Bosa lived there with St. Hilda is uncertain. Of Oftfor, later Bishop of Worcester, who is placed in the middle among the five bishops listed above, Bede says that he devoted himself to the reading and observance of the Scriptures in both monasteries of Abbess Hilda. But what way of life or rule was prescribed for them, Bede also teaches in the same place: The handmaid of Christ Hilda, he says, being placed in charge of the government of the monastery, According to the Rule of St. Columba immediately took care to order everything there according to the regular life, as she was able to learn from learned men. For both Bishop Aidan (who had previously summoned her to himself and instructed her for one year on the northern bank of the River Wear) and whatever other religious men knew her, on account of her innate wisdom and love of divine service, used to visit her assiduously, love her earnestly, and instruct her diligently. Now St. Aidan and the other monks in the kingdom of the Northumbrians at that time lived according to the rule of St. Columba the Abbot; and afterwards St. Wilfrid, as some hold, brought the Rule of St. Benedict into those regions and imposed it upon the monasteries subject to him. But because St. Hilda and others at Streneshalh were less devoted to him, they seem to have persisted in the strict observance of their former Rule. St. Hilda died on November 17 in the year 680. But St. Aidan on August 31 of the year 651.

[2] Concerning the promotion of St. Bosa to the episcopal chair, Bede reports the following in Book 4, chapter 12: He becomes Bishop of the Deirans in the year 678 In the year of the Lord's Incarnation 678, which is the eighth year of King Ecgfrith's reign, a disagreement having arisen between King Ecgfrith himself and the most reverend Bishop Wilfrid, the same bishop was expelled from the see of his bishopric, and two bishops were substituted in his place to preside over the Northumbrian people — namely Bosa, who should govern the province of the Deirans, and Eata, who should govern that of the Bernicians. The former — that is, Bosa — Ordained together with St. Eata having his episcopal chair in the city of York, the latter in the Church of Hexham or Lindisfarne; both were taken from the company of monks into the dignity of the episcopate. With whom also Eadhed was ordained bishop in the province of Lindsey, which King Ecgfrith had very recently acquired by defeating and routing Wulfhere in battle ... Now Eadhed, Bosa, and Eata were ordained at York by Archbishop Theodore. Eata was, as Bede says in Book 3, chapter 26, one of twelve boys whom Aidan received for training in Christ from the English nation at the very beginning of his episcopate; Formerly Abbot of Melrose and in the year 651, when St. Aidan died, he was Abbot in the monastery called Melrose; and in the year 664, he was placed in charge of the brothers by abbatial right in the Church of Lindisfarne. In both places the monastic order flourished according to the institution of St. Aidan and the rule of St. Columba the Abbot. Both Bosa and Eata, therefore, were taken from the company of monks living according to this rule into the dignity of the episcopate. St. Eata is venerated on October 26.

[3] The same Bede, Book 5, chapter 21, reports that Acca succeeded St. Wilfrid in the bishopric of Hexham, who from boyhood was nourished and educated in the clergy of the most holy and God-beloved Bosa, Bishop of York. He therefore esteems highly the virtues of this Acca, because he shows that they were implanted by Bosa. It is worth describing them here, The teacher of St. Acca, Bishop of Hexham, in studies and piety so that in the disciple Acca we may recognize the master Bosa. For Acca was a most energetic man, magnificent before both God and men, who enlarged the building of his own church — which was consecrated in honor of the Blessed Apostle Andrew — with manifold ornament and marvelous works. For he took care (which he does even today) that, having acquired from all quarters the relics of the blessed Apostles and Martyrs of Christ, he should erect altars in their veneration, with distinct porticoes built for this very purpose within the walls of the same church. But he also gathered with the greatest industry histories of their passions, together with the other ecclesiastical volumes, and made there a most ample and most noble library. He also most zealously prepared sacred vessels and lights and other things of this kind that pertain to the adornment of the house of God. He also summoned to himself an excellent singer named Maban, who had been taught the art of singing by the successors of the disciples of the Blessed Pope Gregory in Kent, to instruct himself and his people, and kept him for twelve years — so that he might both teach them those ecclesiastical songs they did not know, and restore by his instruction to their former state those which, once known, had begun to become obsolete through long use or negligence. For Bishop Acca himself was also a most skilled singer, just as he was most learned in the Holy Scriptures and most pure in the confession of the Catholic faith; and he had been most diligent in the rules of ecclesiastical institution, and did not cease to remain so until he received the rewards of his pious devotion. For he was, as we mentioned above, from boyhood nourished and educated in the clergy of the most holy and God-beloved Bosa, Bishop of York. He was also aided by his association with St. Wilfrid, with whom he also traveled to Rome, and learned things useful for his Church. St. Acca is venerated on November 30.

[4] He died after St. Eata, Concerning the death of Blessed Bosa, Bede narrates only the following in Book 5, chapter 3: When the most reverend Wilfrid had been received back into the bishopric of the Church of Hexham after a long exile, the same John was substituted as Bishop of York in place of Bosa, a man of great holiness and humility, who had died. Now, as Bede had related in the preceding chapter, at the beginning of the reign of King Aldfrith, upon the death of Bishop Eata, the holy man John assumed the leadership of the Church of Hexham. Aldfrith succeeded his brother Ecgfrith, who was killed among the Picts on May 20 in the year 685; in which same year, as Richard, Prior of Hexham, reports concerning the bishops of this Church in chapter 10, upon the death of the venerable Eata, who was honorably buried in the Church of Hexham, St. John took up his bishopric, over which he presided for one year. And in chapter 11: Wilfrid received back his See and bishopric of the Church of Hexham. But the holy John, transferred from Hexham, took up the governance of the Church of York in place of the deceased Bosa, and governed it laudably for thirty-three years. Then ... he retired to his monastery, which is at Beverley, and there, living in a manner worthy of God in greater peace for three years, in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 721, and the third year of Osric's reign, on the Nones of May, he rested in the Lord with a blessed end. Reckoning these years together, St. Bosa must be said to have migrated from this life to eternal life in the year 686. In the year 686,

[5] All the writers of England who touch upon those times in which he lived as bishop treat of the same Bosa; but they have either copied their material from Bede or they stray from the truth. I touch upon one error — namely, that in William of Malmesbury, Book 3 of the Deeds of the English Pontiffs, an error crept into the letter of Pope John to Ethelred, King of the Mercians, and Aldfrith, King of the Deirans and Bernicians, in the case of Bishop Wilfrid, The letter under the name of Pope John is spurious which is either very much interpolated or certainly fashioned as one from two separate letters. After St. Agatho, Popes Leo II, Benedict II, and then John V presided over the Church of Rome; to him Henry Spelman assigns this letter in the British Councils, page 179. He sat from July 22 of the year 685 until August 2 of the following year. Hence, around the middle of the letter, with the name of Berhtwald removed, one should read: Therefore we admonish Archbishop Theodore ... to convene a Synod together with Bishop Wilfrid, and to cause Bosa and John to attend the Synod, etc. These words, together with what follows, could have been written from information gathered during the eleven months over which John V presided, during which time both John and, at least for a considerable portion of that time, Bosa were living. The earlier part of the letter is either interpolated or pertains to John VI, who sat from October 29 of the year 701 until January 10 of the year 705 — because St. Wilfrid, having been expelled again from the See of Hexham, fled to that Pontiff in Rome, being chiefly concerned to retain the monasteries of Ripon and Hexham, which he had founded. Whether others prefer to attribute the earlier part to this pope, let them judge for themselves; indeed, even the whole letter, provided they allow that it is interpolated and that the name of Bosa was inserted, since William of Malmesbury asserts in these accounts of the deeds of St. Wilfrid that the Venerable Bede is a historian worthy, for the sobriety of his discourse, to be believed.

[6] Trithemius in Book 4 on the illustrious men of the Order of St. Benedict treats of Bosa in chapter 64, asserting that he was an assistant to Theodore in the English Council, together with the other archbishops, for the reform of that Church. Believed to be a Benedictine, He subscribed after Theodore to the donation of King Ecgfrith made to St. Cuthbert, Bishop of Lindisfarne, which we explain in connection with his Acts on March 20. Arnold Wion in Book 2 of the Lignum Vitae, chapter 22, places St. Bosa as the fourth among six holy Archbishops of the Church of York.

[7] In what month or on what day he migrated from this life to a better one, we have not yet been able to discover among the ancient writers. Hence he has been inscribed in various Martyrologies on different days: Inscribed in the Martyrologies on January 13 first, in the manuscript Calendar of the Saints of the Order of St. Benedict, which exists in the monastery of the Holy Savior of the Cistercian Order — though not an ancient one — under January 13 is read: Saint Bosa, Archbishop and Metropolitan of York in England, formerly a monk of the monastery of Streneshalh. March 9 But on March 9, Jerome Porter treats of him in his Flowers of the Lives of the Principal Saints of England, Scotland, and Ireland, and John Wilson in both editions of the English Martyrology; also Ferrarius in his General Catalogue of Saints, citing also the Records of the Church of York, by which are apparently meant the Catalogues of Bishops, whose authority is cited in the English Martyrology. Others refer him to March 10, And March 10. and Edward Maihew led the way in his Trophies of the English Congregation, who refused to believe the Worcester writer's assertion that he died in the year of Christ 686, and preferred to transfer his death to about the year 704, deceived by the letter mentioned above published under the name of Pope John by William of Malmesbury — to which he preferred to adhere rather than to the words of Bede and other ancient writers. Menard followed, who in his observations reports that he died around the year 705. Bucelin also celebrates him on the same day with his own encomium, and more prudently adds that he flourished under the year of Christ 678, when he was created Archbishop.

[8] So far the various Martyrologies, but of more recent authors, whom I see to have been led chiefly by the authority of the Venerable Bede, who called him most holy and beloved of God, Why we call him only Blessed. then a man of great holiness and humility, and indeed numbers him among the five bishops who lived with St. Hilda as men of singular merit and great holiness. Among these are Aethelheah or Aecca, who became Bishop of Dunwich in Suffolk, and Oftfor of Worcester, whom we do not yet know to have been inscribed in any calendars as Saints. Thomas Stubbs, known to others as Stobaeus, of the Order of Friars Preachers, who about three hundred years ago wrote a Chronicle of the Acts of the Pontiffs of York, and from among them calls Saints Paulinus, Chad, the elder Wilfrid, John of Beverley, the younger Wilfrid, Oswald, and William who died under King Stephen — and while treating of the Translation of his body under William Wykwane, calls him too a Saint, unless it is an error of the copyists. Meanwhile, when he treats of Archbishop Bosa, he abstains from that title, as Brompton, Diceto, and others do. We have therefore preferred also to honor him only with the appellation of Blessed, since we believe that no Ecclesiastical Office was recited for him.