Introduction,
see 18th of March]
Chapter 1. Trials of Basil
"As a servant longeth for the shade, as the hireling looketh for the
end of his work, so I also have had empty months, and wearisome nights have I
numbered unto me."
1.
As Athanasius was the great champion of the Catholic Faith, while the
Arians were in the ascendant; so Basil and Gregory in the East, and Ambrose in
the West, were the chief instruments of Providence in repairing and
strengthening its bulwarks, by word, writing, and deed, when the fury of their
assaults was spent. I am not concerned just now with the great Western
luminary, Ambrose, but with Basil and Gregory. Of these two saints, one had to
contend with an Arian sovereign, the other with an Arian populace; and they
gained the victory, each on his own field of battle, the one with the loss of
his see, the other at the sacrifice of his life. Premature death, a solitary
old age, were the contrary destinies of two great saints and dear friends; the
labours of Basil were cut short, and the penances of Gregory were lengthened
out. The scene of Gregory's struggle was the imperial city of Constantinople;
of Basil's, the length and breadth of Asia Minor and the adjoining provinces.
These countries had from the first been overrun by the heretics, and, as far as
religion was concerned, {4} were, in the middle of the fourth century, in a
deplorable state of confusion. Basil's care of the churches, in that time of
trouble, as that of a Missionary or Preacher, extended far beyond the limits of
his own jurisdiction; for by ecclesiastical right he was only priest first, and
afterwards bishop, of the church of Cæsarea, and exarch of the remote and
barbarous Cappadocia, from A.D. 358 to A.D. 379.
At the former of these dates, Dianius was in possession of the see. He
seems to have baptized Basil, who speaks warmly in his praise, expressing the
affection and respect he felt for him, and the pleasure he took in his society;
and describing him as a man remarkable for his virtue, as frank, generous, and
venerable, while he was amiable and agreeable in his manners. However, he fell
in with the fashion of the age, and had for nearly twenty years sided with the
court faction against Athanasius and his holy cause. Accordingly, he signed
without scruple the heretical formulary of the council of Ariminum, which was
presented to him A.D. 360, and in which the test of the Homoüsion, or Consubstantial,
contained in the Nicene Creed, was abandoned, and the Catholic doctrine evaded
under the pretence of expressing it only in terms of Scripture. Basil felt
bitterly this weakness, to give it its mildest name, on the part of one he so
much loved; and though he did not consider that there was a call on him for any
public protest, he ceased to hold intercourse with him, nor did he come near
him till two years afterwards, when Dianius sent for him to attend his
death-bed, and professed solemnly his adherence to the faith of the Church.
Eusebius, the successor of Dianius, was a bishop of orthodox profession,
but had little of the theological knowledge or force of character necessary for
coping {5} with the formidable heresy by which the Church was assailed. For
some reason or other, perhaps from a feeling of jealousy, he manifested a
coldness towards the rising theologian, who is to be the subject of this
chapter; and Basil, who was now a priest, unwilling to excite the people, or
create parties in the Church, retired from the metropolitan city.
2.
His retreat, both now and in the lifetime of Dianius, was the wild region
of Pontus, where he had founded a number of monasteries, over one of which he
presided. He had retired thither first about A.D. 355, (the year in which the
Egyptian St. Antony, the first Solitary, died,) for the purposes of study and
mortification; and to a mind ardent and sensitive, such as his, nothing was
more welcome than such a temporary retreat from the turbulence of ecclesiastical
politics. Nor was his life at this time one of inaction or solitude. On
occasion of a famine in the neighbouring town and country, he converted his
lands into money, to supply the wants of the people; taking upon himself
particularly the charge of their children, besides relieving all who applied to
him, among whom the Jews are mentioned as receiving a share in his liberality.
His monasteries became, in a short time, schools of that holy teaching which
had been almost banished from the sees of Asia; and it is said that he was in
the practice of making a circuit of the neighbouring towns, from time to time,
to preach to them the Nicene doctrine. This indeed was a benefit which was not
unfrequently rendered to the Church, in that day of apostasy, by the ascetics,
according to the promise that they who have a clean heart shall see God.
"The reason," says Sozomen, "why the doctrines" of the
heretics {6} Eunomius and Apollinaris "had not any extensive success, in
addition to the causes above mentioned, is, that the Solitaries of the day took
part against them. For those of Syria and Cappadocia, and the neighbouring
districts, firmly adhered to the creed of Nicæa. At the time, the oriental
provinces, from Cilicia to Phœnicia, were near becoming Apollinarian, while
those from Cilicia and the Taurus to the Hellespont and Constantinople were
exposed to the heresy of Eunomius; each heresiarch having success in his own
neighbourhood. And then the history of Arianism was acted over again; for the
populace in those parts had that reverence for the characters and the works of
the Solitaries, as to trust their doctrine as orthodox; and they shrank from
those who held otherwise, as impure, for their adulterate doctrine; just as the
Egyptians followed the Solitaries of Egypt and opposed the Arians."—Hist.
vi. 27.
Basil had lived in his second retirement about three years, when the attack
of the Arians upon the Church of Cæsarea, under the emperor Valens, made his
loss felt, and his friend, Gregory of Nazianzus, successfully interposed his
mediation between him and Eusebius. Gregory's letters are extant, and I here
present them to the reader.
GREGORY TO BASIL
"This is a time for good counsel and fortitude. We must surpass others
in courage, nor suffer all our past toil and labour to be undone in a moment.
Why do I write thus? Because our most gracious bishop (for such we ought to
think and call Eusebius henceforth) has most amicable and kind feelings towards
us, and like steel in the fire, is softened by time. I even expect that you
will receive a communication from him, with pleasant words, and a summons, as
he himself hinted to me, and many of his confidential friends assure me. Let us
then anticipate his advances, either by our presence or by writing, or, what
would be better still, by first writing and then making our appearance, lest we
be hereafter worsted with disgrace, when we might have conquered by a worsting
which was honourable and dignified; which, indeed, most men expect of us. Come,
then, according to my entreaty, both on this {7} account, and for the times'
sake. In truth, the heretical faction is trampling the Church under foot; some
of them are already among us and are at work; others, it is said, will follow
soon. Surely there is danger of their sweeping away the word of truth, unless
the spirit of our Bezaleel speedily awake, that cunning master-builder of
argument and doctrine. If you wish me to be present and to assist in this
business, or to be the companion of your journey, I am at your service."—Ep.
19.
It is impossible not to be struck with Gregory's delicacy in this letter,
in which he speaks as if he himself were estranged from Eusebius, as well as
Basil, though he stood at the time high in his favour. His next letter is to
the bishop himself, whose intentions he anticipates with equal delicacy.
GREGORY TO EUSEBIUS, BISHOP OF CÆSAREA
"I know I am addressing one who hates insincerity himself, and is
especially keen in detecting it in another, though cloaked in ever so artful
and subtle a disguise; and indeed, I may say, if you will pardon the
impertinence, I am myself averse to it, both by natural disposition and from
Christian education. So I write what is uppermost on my mind, and beg you to
excuse my freedom. Indeed it would be an injury to me to restrain me and bid me
keep my pain to myself, as a sore festering in my heart. Proud as I am of your
notice (for I am a man, as some one says before me), and of your invitations to
religious consultations and meetings, yet I cannot bear your holiness's past
and present slight of my most honoured brother Basil, whom I selected from the
first and still possess as my friend, to live with me and study with me, and
search with me into the deepest wisdom. I have no need to be dissatisfied with
the opinion I have formed of him, and if I do not say more to his praise, it is
lest, in enlarging on his admirable qualities, I should seem to be praising
myself. Now, your favour towards me, and discountenance of him, is as if a man
should stroke one's head with one hand, and with the other strike one's cheek;
or decorate a house with paintings and beautify the outside, while he was
undermining its foundations. If there is any thing you will grant me, let it be
this; and I trust you will, for really it {8} is equitable. He will certainly
defer to you, if you do but pay a reasonable deference to him. For myself, I
shall come after him as shadows follow bodies, being small, and a lover of
quiet. Miserable indeed should we be, if, while we were desirous of wisdom in
other matters, and of choosing the better part, we yet thought little of that
grace, which is the end of all our doctrine—charity; especially in the case of
one who is our bishop, and so eminent, as we well know, in life, in doctrine,
and in the government of his diocese; for the truth must be spoken, whatever be
our private feelings."—Ep. 20.
Great men love to be courted, and little men must not mind rebuffs. Gregory
did not succeed in this first attempt with Eusebius, who seems to have been
offended at his freedom; and he himself was disgusted in turn, at the Bishop's
stiffness. However, the danger of the Church was too great to allow of the
continuance of such feelings on either side, and Gregory had, in a little
while, the satisfaction of seeing Basil at Cæsarea.
