Writings of Gregory of Nyssa - Letters.
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Translated, with prolegomena, notes, and indices,
by William Moore, M.A., Rector of Appleton,
Late Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford;
and Henry Austin Wilson, M.A.,
Fellow and librarian of Magdalen College, Oxford.
Edited by Henry Wace,
Kings College, London, 6th November, 1892.
VI. Letters.
Letters [2161] .
.
Letter I.--To Eusebius [2162] .
When the length of the day begins to expand in winter-time, as the sun
mounts to the upper part of his course, we keep the feast of the
appearing of the true Light divine, that through the veil of flesh has
cast its bright beams upon the life of men: but now when that luminary
has traversed half the heaven in his course, so that night and day are
of equal length, the upward return of human nature from death to life
is the theme of this great and universal festival, which all the life
of those who have embraced the mystery of the Resurrection unites in
celebrating. What is the meaning of the subject thus suggested for my
letter to you? Why, since it is the custom in these general holidays
for us to take every way to show the affection harboured in our
hearts, and some, as you know, give proof of their good will by
presents of their own, we thought it only right not to leave you
without the homage of our gifts, but to lay before your lofty and
high-minded soul the scanty offerings of our poverty. Now our offering
which is tendered for your acceptance in this letter is the letter
itself, in which there is not a single word wreathed with the flowers
of rhetoric or adorned with the graces of composition, to make it to
be deemed a gift at all in literary circles, but the mystical gold,
which is wrapped up in the faith of Christians, as in a packet [2163]
, must be my present to you, after being unwrapped, as far as
possible, by these lines, and showing its hidden brilliancy.
Accordingly we must return to our prelude. Why is it that then only,
when the night has attained its utmost length, so that no further
addition is possible, that He appears in flesh to us, Who holds the
Universe in His grasp, and controls the same Universe by His own
power, Who cannot be contained even by all intelligible things, but
includes the whole, even at the time that He enters the narrow
dwelling of a fleshly tabernacle, while His mighty power thus keeps
pace with His beneficent purpose, and shows itself even as a shadow
wherever the will inclines, so that neither in the creation of the
world was the power found weaker than the will, nor when He was eager
to stoop down to the lowliness of our mortal nature did He lack power
to that very end, but actually did come to be in that condition, yet
without leaving the universe unpiloted [2164] ? Since, then, there is
some account to be given of both those seasons, how it is that it is
winter-time when He appears in the flesh, but it is when the days are
as long as the nights that He restores to life man, who because of his
sins returned to the earth from whence he came,--by explaining the
reason of this, as well as I can in few words, I will make my letter
my present to you. Has your own sagacity, as of course it has, already
divined the mystery hinted at by these coincidences; that the advance
of night is stopped by the accessions to the light, and the period of
darkness begins to be shortened, as the length of the day is increased
by the successive additions? For thus much perhaps would be plain
enough even to the uninitiated, that sin is near akin to darkness; and
in fact evil is so termed by the Scripture. Accordingly the season in
which our mystery of godliness begins is a kind of exposition of the
Divine dispensation on behalf of our souls. For meet and right it was
that, when vice was shed abroad [2165] without bounds, [upon this
night of evil the Sun of righteousness should rise, and that in us who
have before walked in darkness [2166] ] the day which we receive from
Him Who placed that light in our hearts should increase more and more;
so that the life which is in the light should be extended to the
greatest length possible, being constantly augmented by additions of
good; and that the life in vice should by gradual subtraction be
reduced to the smallest possible compass; for the increase of things
good comes to the same thing as the diminution of things evil. But the
feast of the Resurrection; occurring when the days are of equal
length, of itself gives us this interpretation of the coincidence,
namely, that we shall no longer fight with evils only upon equal
terms, vice grappling with virtue in indecisive strife, but that the
life of light will prevail, the gloom of idolatry melting as the day
waxes stronger. For this reason also, after the moon has run her
course for fourteen days, Easter exhibits her exactly opposite to the
rays of the sun, full with all the wealth of his brightness, and not
permitting any interval of darkness to take place in its turn [2167] :
for, after taking the place of the sun at its setting, she does not
herself set before she mingles her own beams with the genuine rays of
the sun, so that one light remains continuously, throughout the whole
space of the earth's course by day and night, without any break
whatsoever being caused by the interposition of darkness. This
discussion, dear one, we contribute by way of a gift from our poor and
needy hand; and may your whole life be a continual festival and a high
day, never dimmed by a single stain of nightly gloom.
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Footnotes
[2161] The first fourteen of these Letters have been once edited; i.e.
by Zacagni (Rome, 1698), from the Vatican ms. See Prolegomena, p. 30.
They are found also in the Medicean ms., of which Bandinus gives an
accurate account, and which is much superior, on the authority of
Caraccioli, who saw both, to the Vatican. Zacagni did not see the
Medicean: but many of his felicitous emendations of the Vatican lacunæ
correspond with it. They are here translated by the late Reverend
Harman Chaloner Ogle, Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford (Ireland
Scholar), who died suddenly (1887), to the grief of very many, and the
irreparable loss to scholarship, on the eve of his departure to aid
the Mission of the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Armenian Church.
The notes added by him are signed with his initials.
[2162] Sent as an Easter present to Eusebius, bishop of Chalcis, in
Coele-Syria, a staunch Catholic, who attended the Council of
Constantinople. For this custom amongst the Eastern Christians of
exchanging presents at the great festivals, cf. On the Making of Man
(p. 387), which Gregory sent to his brother Peter: Gregory Naz. Letter
54 to Helladius, and Letter 87 to Theodore of Tyana.
[2163] apodesmo.
[2164] Evidently an allusion to the myth in Plato.
[2165] The chusis tes kakias is a frequent expression in Origen.
[2166] A corrupt passage. Probably some lines have been lost. A double
opposition seems intended; (1) between the night of evil and our
Saviour's coming like the Sun to disperse it; and (2) between walking
in darkness and walking in light on the part of the individual (H. C.
O.).
[2167] en to merei, or "on her part" or "at that particular season."
To support this last, Col. ii. 16, en merei heortes, may be compared,
as Origen interprets it, "in a particular feast," c. Cels. viii. 23:
"Paul alludes to this, when he names the feast selected in preference
to others only `part of a feast,' hinting that the life everlasting
with the Word of God is not `in the part of a feast, but in a complete
and continuous one.' Modern commentators on that passage, it is true,
interpret en merei "with regard to," "on the score of." But has
Origen's meaning been sufficiently considered?
.
Letter II.--To the City of Sebasteia [2168] .
Some of the brethren whose heart is as our heart told us of the
slanders that were being propagated to our detriment by those who hate
peace, and privily backbite their neighbour; and have no fear of the
great and terrible judgment-seat of Him Who has declared that account
will be required even of idle words in that trial of our life which we
must all look for: they say that the charges which are being
circulated against us are such as these; that we entertain opinions
opposed to those who at Nicæa set forth the right and sound faith, and
that without due discrimination and inquiry we received into the
communion of the Catholic Church those who formerly assembled at
Ancyra under the name of Marcellus. Therefore, that falsehood may not
overpower the truth, in another letter we made a sufficient defence
against the charges levelled at us, and before the Lord we protested
that we had neither departed from the faith of the Holy Fathers, nor
had we done anything without due discrimination and inquiry in the
case of those who came over from the communion of Marcellus to that of
the Church: but all that we did we did only after the orthodox in the
East, and our brethren in the ministry had entrusted to us the
consideration of the case of these persons, and had approved our
action. But inasmuch as, since we composed that written defence of our
conduct, again some of the brethren who are of one mind with us begged
us to make separately [2169] with our own lips a profession of our
faith, which we entertain with full conviction [2170] , following as
we do the utterances of inspiration and the tradition of the Fathers,
we deemed it necessary to discourse briefly of these heads as well. We
confess that the doctrine of the Lord, which He taught His disciples,
when He delivered to them the mystery of godliness, is the foundation
and root of right and sound faith, nor do we believe that there is
aught else loftier or safer than that tradition. Now the doctrine of
the Lord is this: "Go," He said, "teach all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Since,
then, in the case of those who are regenerate from death to eternal
life, it is through the Holy Trinity that the life-giving power is
bestowed on those who with faith are deemed worthy of the grace, and
in like manner the grace is imperfect, if any one, whichever it be, of
the names of the Holy Trinity be omitted in the saving baptism--for
the sacrament of regeneration is not completed in the Son and the
Father alone without the Spirit: nor is the perfect boon of life
imparted to Baptism in the Father and the Spirit, if the name of the
Son be suppressed: nor is the grace of that Resurrection accomplished
in the Father and the Son, if the Spirit be left out [2171] :--for
this reason we rest all our hope, and the persuasion of the salvation
of our souls, upon the three Persons, recognized [2172] by these
names; and we believe in the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is
the Fountain of life, and in the Only-begotten Son of the Father, Who
is the Author of life, as saith the Apostle, and in the Holy Spirit of
God, concerning Whom the Lord hath spoken, "It is the Spirit that
quickeneth". And since on us who have been redeemed from death the
grace of immortality is bestowed, as we have said, through faith in
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, guided by these we
believe that nothing servile, nothing created, nothing unworthy of the
majesty of the Father is to be associated in thought with the Holy
Trinity; since, I say, our life is one which comes to us by faith in
the Holy Trinity, taking its rise from the God of all, flowing through
the Son, and working in us by the Holy Spirit. Having, then, this full
assurance, we are baptized as we were commanded, and we believe as we
are baptized, and we hold as we believe; so that with one accord our
baptism, our faith, and our ascription of praise are to [2173] the
Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. But if any one makes
mention of two or three Gods, or of three God-heads, let him be
accursed. And if any, following the perversion of Arius, says that the
Son or the Holy Spirit were produced from things that are not, let him
be accursed. But as many as walk by the rule of truth and acknowledge
the three Persons, devoutly recognized in Their several properties,
and believe that there is one Godhead, one goodness, one rule, one
authority and power, and neither make void the supremacy of the
Sole-sovereignty [2174] , nor fall away into polytheism, nor confound
the Persons, nor make up the Holy Trinity of heterogeneous and unlike
elements, but in simplicity receive the doctrine of the faith,
grounding all their hope of salvation upon the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit,--these according to our judgment are of the same mind
as we, and with them we also trust to have part in the Lord.
Footnotes
[2168] Marcellus of Ancyra had been deposed in the Council of
Constantinople in 336, for teaching the doctrine of Paul of Samosata.
Basil and Athanasius successively separated from their communion all
who were united to Marcellus; and these, knowing that Valens the
Emperor had exiled several bishops of Egypt to Diocæsarea, went to
find them (375) and were admitted to their communion. Armed with
letters from them, they demanded to be received into that of the other
bishops of the East, and at length Basil and others, having examined
the matter closely, admitted them. Gregory followed Basil's example,
being assured of their Catholicity: and to justify himself wrote this
letter to the Catholics of Sebasteia.
[2169] idios, i.e. as a distinct matter from the previous apologia; or
perhaps "privately."
[2170] peplerophoremetha; a deponent, the same use as in Rom. iv. 21,
of Abraham, plerophoretheis hoti ho epengeltai k.t.l.: cf. plerophoria
pisteos, Heb. x. 22: plerophoria tes elpidos, Heb. vi. 11. The other
N.T. use of this word, as an active and passive, is found 2 Tim. iv.
5, "fulfil thy ministry;" 2 Tim. iv. 17; S. Luke i. 1,
peplerophoremenon, "most surely believed" (A.V.): in all which the
R.V. follows the Vulgate interpretation. In the Latin translation of
this passage in Gregory, "(professionem) quâ sacris nos Scripturis ac
Patrum traditioni penitus inhærere persuasum omnibus foret," the
meaning put upon plerophoreisthai by A.V. in the last text is adopted,
"we are fully believed to follow," with a very harsh construction.
[2171] There is some repetition and omission here. Gregory ought to
have said in one of the clauses, "Nor is Baptism in the name of the
Son and Holy Ghost sufficient, without the name of the Father" (H. C.
O.).
[2172] gnorizomenen looks as if it ought to be gnorizomenais, and the
Latin translator renders accordingly (H. C. O.).
[2173] The same preposition eis is used after baptisma, pistis, and
doxa.
[2174] monarchia, i.e. the One First Cause or Principle. See p. 84,
note 7.
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Letter III.--To Ablabius [2175] .
The Lord, as was meet and right, brought us safe through, accompanied
as we had been by your prayers, and I will tell you a manifest token
of His loving kindness. For when the sun was just over the spot which
we left behind Earsus [2176] , suddenly the clouds gathered thick, and
there was a change from clear sky to deep gloom. Then a chilly breeze
blowing through the clouds, bringing a drizzling with it, and striking
upon us with a very damp feeling, threatened such rain as had never
yet been known, and on the left there were continuous claps of
thunder, and keen flashes of lightning alternated with the thunder,
following one crash and preceding the next, and all the mountains
before, behind, and on each side were shrouded in clouds. And already
a heavy [2177] cloud hung over our heads, caught by a strong wind and
big with rain, and yet we, like the Israelites of old in their
miraculous passage of the Red Sea, though surrounded on all sides by
rain, arrived unwetted at Vestena. And when we had already found
shelter there, and our mules had got a rest, then the signal for the
down-pour was given by God to the air. And when we had spent some
three or four hours there, and had rested enough, again God stayed the
down-fall, and our conveyance moved along more briskly than before, as
the wheel easily slid through the mud just moist and on the surface.
Now the road from that point to our little town is all along the river
side, going down stream with the water, and there is a continuous
string of villages along the banks, all close upon the road, and with
very short distances between them. In consequence of this unbroken
line of habitations all the road was full of people, some coming to
meet us, and others escorting us, mingling tears in abundance with
their joy. Now there was a little drizzle, not unpleasant, just enough
to moisten the air; but a little way before we got home the cloud that
overhung us was condensed into a more violent shower, so that our
entrance was quite quiet, as no one was aware beforehand of our
coming. But just as we got inside our portico, as the sound of our
carriage wheels along the dry hard ground was heard, the people turned
up in shoals, as though by some mechanical contrivance, I know not
whence nor how, flocking round us so closely that it was not easy to
get down from our conveyance, for there was not a foot of clear space.
But after we had persuaded them with difficulty to allow us to get
down, and to let our mules pass, we were crushed on every side by
folks crowding round, insomuch that their excessive kindness all but
made us faint. And when we were near the inside of the portico, we see
a stream of fire flowing into the church; for the choir of virgins,
carrying their wax torches in their hands, were just marching in file
along the entrance of the church, kindling the whole into splendour
with their blaze. And when I was within and had rejoiced and wept with
my people--for I experienced both emotions from witnessing both in the
multitude,--as soon as I had finished the prayers, I wrote off this
letter to your Holiness as fast as possible, under the pressure of
extreme thirst, so that I might when it was done attend to my bodily
wants.
Footnotes
[2175] This Letter must have been written, either (1) After the first
journey of Gregory to Constantinople, i.e. after the Council, 381; or
(2) On his return from exile at the death of Valens, 378. The words at
the end, "rejoiced and wept with my people," are against the first
view.
[2176] 'Earsou. The distance prevents us conjecturing "Tarsus" here,
though, Gregory was probably coming from the sea (and the Holy Land).
But "Garsaura" is marked on the maps as about 40 miles south of Nyssa
with the "Morimene" mountains (Erjash Dagh) intervening. (Nyssa lay on
a southern tributary of the Halys, N.W. of Nazianzum.) The Medicean
ms. is said by Migue to read heauton here--"we left behind us."
Nothing is known of Vestena below.
[2177] Adopting the conjecture of the Latin translator bareia for
bracheia. His translation, however, though ingenious, would require
something different in the Greek. It runs "jamque nubes, quæ nostro
impendebat capiti, postquam acri vehementique vento abrepta alio
delata fuit, hiemem peperit." As the text stands hupolephtheisa cannot
bear this translation (H. C. O.)
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Letter IV.--To Cynegius [2178] .
We have a law that bids us "rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep
with them that weep": but of these commandments it often seems that it
is in our power to put only one into practice. For there is a great
scarcity in the world of "them that rejoice," so that it is not easy
to find with whom we may share our blessings, but there are plenty who
are in the opposite case. I write thus much by way of preface, because
of the sad tragedy which some spiteful power has been playing among
people of long-standing nobility. A young man of good family, Synesius
by name, not unconnected with myself, in the full flush of youth, who
has scarcely begun to live yet, is in great dangers, from which God
alone has power to rescue him, and next to God, you, who are entrusted
with the decisions of all questions of life and death. An involuntary
mishap has taken place. Indeed, what mishap is voluntary? And now
those who have made up this suit against him, carrying with it the
penalty of death, have turned his mishap into matter of accusation.
However, I will try by private letters to soften their resentment and
incline them to pity; but I beseech your kindliness to side with
justice and with us, that your benevolence may prevail over the
wretched plight of the youth, hunting up any and every device by which
the young man may be placed out of the reach of danger, having
conquered the spiteful power which assails him by the help of your
alliance. I have said all that I want in brief; but to go into
details, in order that my endeavour may be successful, would be to say
what I have no business to say, nor you to hear from me.
Footnotes
[2178] Cynegius was "prefect of the prætorium," from 384 to 390. Cod.
Medic. has on the title, ;;Ieri& 251; ;;Egemoni: but this must be
wrong. It was this Cynegius, not then Prefect of the East, whom
Libanius was to lead however unwilling, to the study of eloquence (see
end of Letter xi.). The four Prætorian Prefects remained, after
Diocletian's institution of the four Princes, under whom they served,
had been abolished by Constantine. The Prefect of the East stretched
his jurisdiction "from the cataracts of the Nile to the banks of the
Phasis, and from the mountains of Thrace to the frontiers of Persia."
From all inferior jurisdictions an appeal in every matter of
importance, either civil or criminal, might be brought before the
tribunal of the Prefect; but his sentence was final: the emperors
themselves refused to dispute it. Hence Gregory says, that, "next to
God, Cynegius had the power to remove his young relative from danger."
How intimate Gregory was, not only with the highest officers, but at
the Court itself, is shown in his orations on Pulcheria and Flacilla.
He must have been over sixty when this letter was written.
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Letter V.--A Testimonial.
That for which the king of the Macedonians is most admired by people
of understanding,--for he is admired not so much for his famous
victories [2179] over the Persians and Indians, and his penetrating as
far the Ocean, as for his saying that he had his treasure in his
friends;--in this respect I dare to compare myself with his marvellous
exploits, and it will be right for me to utter such a sentiment too.
Now because I am rich in friendships, perhaps I surpass in that kind
of property even that great man who plumed himself upon that very
thing. For who was such a friend to him as you are to me, perpetually
endeavouring to surpass yourself in every kind of excellence? For
assuredly no one would ever charge me with flattery, when I say this,
if he were to look at my age and your life: for grey hairs are out of
season for flattery, and old age is ill-suited for complaisance, and
as for you, even if you are ever in season for flattery, yet praise
would not fall under the suspicion of flattery, as your life shows
forth your praise before words. But since, when men are rich in
blessings, it is a special gift to know how to use what one has, and
the best use of superfluities is to let one's friends share them with
one, and since my beloved son Alexander is most of all a friend united
to me in all sincerity, be persuaded to show him my treasure, and not
only to show it to him, but also to put it at his disposal to enjoy
abundantly, by extending to him your protection in those matters about
which he has come to you, begging you to be his patron. He will tell
you all with his own lips. For it is better so than that I should go
into details in a letter.
Footnotes
[2179] diegemasin. "He believed in fidelity, and was capable of the
sublimest, most intimate friendships. He loved Hephæstion so
fervently, that....he remained inconsolable for his loss."--F.
Schlegel. Achilles was his hero: for he too knew the delight of a
constant friendship.
.
Letter VI.--To Stagirius.
They say that conjurors [2180] in theatres contrive some such marvel
as this which I am going to describe. Having taken some historical
narrative, or some old story as the ground-plot of their sleight of
hand, they relate the story to the spectators in action. And it is in
this way that they make their representations of the narrative [2181]
. They put on their dresses and masks, and rig up something to
resemble a town on the stage with hangings, and then so associate the
bare scene with their life-like imitation of action that they are a
marvel to the spectators--both the actors themselves of the incidents
of the play, and the hangings, or rather their imaginary city. What do
I mean, do you think, by this allegory? Since we must needs show to
those who are coming together that which is not a city as though it
were one, do you let yourself be persuaded to become for the nonce the
founder of our city [2182] , by just putting in an appearance there; I
will make the desert-place seem to be a city; now it is no great
distance for you, and the favour which you will confer is very great;
for we wish to show ourselves more splendid to our companions here,
which we shall do if, in place of any other ornament, we are adorned
with the splendour of your party.
Footnotes
[2180] thaumatopoiountas...thaumatopoiias; something more than
ordinary mime playing, or than the optical illusion of
tableaux-vivants, but less than what we should call conjuring seems to
be meant (H. C. O.).
[2181] ta katallela ton historoumenon
[2182] oikistes autoschedios
.
Letter VII.--To a Friend.
What flower in spring is so bright, what voices of singing birds are
so sweet, what breezes that soothe the calm sea are so light and mild,
what glebe is so fragrant to the husbandman--whether it be teeming
with green blades, or waving with fruitful ears as is the spring of
the soul, lit up with your peaceful beams, from the radiance which
shone in your letter, which raised our life from despondency to
gladness? For thus, perhaps, it will not be unfitting to adapt the
word of the prophet to our present blessings: "In the multitude of the
sorrows which I had in my heart, the comforts of God," by your
kindness, "have refreshed my soul," [2183] like sunbeams, cheering and
warming our life nipped by frost. For both reached the highest
pitch--the severity of my troubles, I mean, on the one side, and the
sweetness of your favours on the other. And if you have so gladdened
us, by only sending us the joyful tidings of your coming, that
everything changed for us from extremest woe to a bright condition,
what will your precious and benign coming, even the sight of it, do?
what consolation will the sound of your sweet voice in our ears afford
our soul? May this speedily come to pass, by the good help of God, Who
giveth respite from pain to the fainting, and rest to the afflicted.
But be assured, that when we look at our own case we grieve
exceedingly at the present state of things, and men cease not to tear
us in pieces [2184] : but when we turn our eyes to your excellence, we
own that we have great cause for thankfulness to the dispensation of
Divine Providence, that we are able to enjoy in your neighbourhood
[2185] your sweetness and good-will towards us, and feast at will on
such food to satiety, if indeed there is such a thing as satiety of
blessings like these.
Footnotes
[2183] Ps. xciv. 19.
[2184] diaphorountas. This letter is probably written during his
exile, (375-8) and to Otreius, the bishop of Melitene. See Letter 14,
note.
[2185] ek geitonon.
.
Letter VIII [2186] .--To a Student of the Classics.
When I was looking for some suitable and proper exordium, I mean of
course from Holy Scripture, to put at the head of my letter, according
to my usual custom, I did not know which to choose, not from inability
to find what was suitable, but because I deemed it superfluous to
write such things to those who knew nothing about the matter. For your
eager pursuit of profane literature proved incontestably to us that
you did not care about sacred. Accordingly I will say nothing about
Bible texts, but will select a prelude adapted to your literary tastes
taken from the poets you love so well. By the great master of your
education there is introduced one, showing all an old man's joy, when
after long affliction he once more beheld his son, and his son's son
as well. And the special theme of his exultation is the rivalry
between the two, Ulysses and Telemachus, for the highest meed of
valour, though it is true that the recollection of his own exploits
against the Cephallenians adds to the point of his speech [2187] . For
you and your admirable father, when you welcomed me, as they did
Laertes, in your affection, contended in most honourable rivalry for
the prize of virtue, by showing us all possible respect and kindness;
he in numerous ways which I need not here mention, and you by pelting
me with [2188] your letters from Cappadocia. What, then, of me the
aged one? I count that day one to be blessed, in which I witness such
a competition between father and son. May you, then, never cease from
accomplishing the rightful prayer of an excellent and admirable
father, and surpassing in your readiness to all good works the renown
which from him you inherit. I shall be a judge acceptable to both of
you, as I shall award you the first prize against your father, and the
same to your father against you. And we will put up with rough Ithaca,
rough not so much with stones as with the manners of the inhabitants,
an island in which there are many suitors, who are suitors [2189] most
of all for the possessions of her whom they woo, and insult their
intended bride by this very fact, that they threaten her chastity with
marriage, acting in a way worthy of a Melantho, one might say, or some
other such person; for nowhere is there a Ulysses to bring them to
their senses with his bow. You see how in an old man's fashion I go
maundering off into matters with which you have no concern. But pray
let indulgence be readily extended to me in consideration of my grey
hairs; for garrulity is just as characteristic of old age as to be
blear-eyed, or for the limbs to fail [2190] . But you by entertaining
us with your brisk and lively language, like a bold young man as you
are, will make our old age young again, supporting the feebleness of
our length of days with this kind attention which so well becomes you.
Footnotes
[2186] Perhaps to Eupatrius (Cod. Medic.).
[2187] The text here seems hopelessly corrupt. Or the meaning may be,
"Our main text shall be his exultation at the generous rivalry between
Ulysses and Telemachus, though his mention of his exploits against the
Cephallenians shall also contribute to illustrate our discussion;" but
this can hardly be got out of the Greek. The reference is to Odyssey,
xxiv. 514. Gregory was evidently fond of Homer: the comparison of
Diomede to a winter torrent (Iliad, v. 87) is used De Virginit. c. 4:
and Menelaus' words about the young and old (Iliad, iii. 108), c. 23:
and in Letter II. of the seven edited by Caraccioli (Letter XV.)
describing the gardens of Vanota, Od. vii. 115, xiii. 589. For other
quotations from the classics see Letters XI. and XII. of this Series
(H. C. O.).
[2188] ballontes, with allusion to the darts hurled by Ulysses and
Telemachus (H. C. O.).
[2189] Reading mnesteres, for the unmeaning krateres; "they are
suitors not so much for the hand of Penelope as for her money" (H. C.
O.). The Medicean has brosteres, "devourers." Just below the allusion
is to Melantho's rudely threatening Ulysses, and getting hanged for
it.
[2190] hupo tes tou geros aponoias, an irrelevant phrase, and, as not
necessary to the sense, here omitted in translation (H. C. O.).
.
Letter IX.--An Invitation.
It is not the natural wont of spring to shine forth in its radiant
beauty all at once, but there come as preludes of spring the sunbeam
gently warming earth's frozen surface, and the bud half hidden beneath
the clod, and breezes blowing over the earth, so that the fertilizing
and generative power of the air penetrates deeply into it. One may see
the fresh and tender grass, and the return of birds which winter had
banished, and many such tokens, which are rather signs of spring, not
spring itself. Not but that these are sweet, because they are
indications of what is sweetest. What is the meaning of all that I
have been saying? Why, since the expression of your kindness which
reached us in your letters, as a forerunner of the treasures contained
in you, with a goodly prelude brings the glad tidings of the blessing
which we expect at your hands, we both welcome the boon which those
letters convey, like some first-appearing flower of spring, and pray
that we may soon enjoy in you the full beauty of the season. For, be
well assured, we have been deeply, deeply distressed by the passions
and spite of the people here, and their ways; and just as ice forms in
cottages after the rains that come in--for I will draw my comparison
from the weather of our part of the world [2191] ,--and so moisture,
when it gets in, if it spreads over the surface that is already
frozen, becomes congealed about the ice, and an addition is made to
the mass already existing, even so one may notice much the same kind
of thing in the character of most of the people in this neighbourhood,
how they are always plotting and inventing something spiteful, and a
fresh mischief is congealed on the top of that which has been wrought
before, and another one on the top of that, and then again another,
and this goes on without intermission, and there is no limit to their
hatred and to the increase of evils; so that we have great need of
many prayers that the grace of the Spirit may speedily breathe upon
them, and thaw the bitterness of their hatred, and melt the frost that
is hardening upon them from their malice. For this cause the spring,
sweet as it is by nature, becomes yet more to be desired than ever to
those who after such storms look for you. Let not the boon, then,
linger. Especially as our great holiday [2192] is approaching, it
would be more reasonable that the land which bare you should exult in
her own treasures than that Pontus should in ours. Come then, dear
one, bringing us a multitude of blessings, even yourself; for this
will fill up the measure of our beatitude.
Footnotes
[2191] For the climate, cf. Sozomen, H. E. vi. 34: "I suppose that
Galatia, Cappadocia, and the neighbouring provinces contained many
other ecclesiastical philosophers at that time (i.e. reign of Valens).
These monks, for the most part, dwelt in communities in cities and
villages, for they did not habituate themselves to the tradition of
their predecessors. The severity of the winter, which is always a
natural feature of that country, would probably make hermit life
impracticable."
[2192] For such invitations, cf. Greg. Naz. Epist. 99, 100, 102.
.
Letter X [2193] .--To Libanius.
I once heard a medical man tell of a wonderful freak of nature. And
this was his story. A man was ill of an unmanageable complaint, and
began to find fault with the medical faculty, as being able to do far
less than it professed; for everything that was devised for his cure
was ineffectual. Afterwards when some good news beyond his hopes was
brought him, the occurrence did the work of the healing art, by
putting an end to his disease. Whether it were that the soul by the
overflowing sense of release from anxiety, and by a sudden rebound,
disposed the body to be in the same condition as itself, or in some
other way, I cannot say: for I have no leisure to enter upon such
disquisitions, and the person who told me did not specify the cause.
But I have just called to mind the story very seasonably, as I think:
for when I was not as well as I could wish--now I need not tell you
exactly the causes of all the worries which befel me from the time I
was with you to the present,--after some one told me all at once of
the letter which had arrived from your unparalleled Erudition, as soon
as I got the epistle and ran over what you had written, forthwith,
first my soul was affected in the same way as though I had been
proclaimed before all the world as the hero of most glorious
achievements--so highly did I value the testimony which you favoured
me with in your letter,--and then also my bodily health immediately
began to improve: and I afford an example of the same marvel as the
story which I told you just now, in that I was ill when I read one
half of the letter, and well when I read the other half of the same.
Thus much for those matters. But now, since Cynegius was the occasion
of that favour, you are able, in the overflowing abundance of your
ability to do good, not only to benefit us, but also our benefactors;
and he is a benefactor of ours, as has been said before, by having
been the cause and occasion of our having a letter from you; and for
this reason he well deserves both our good offices. But if you ask who
are our teachers,--if indeed we are thought to have learned
anything,--you will find that they are Paul and John, and the rest of
the Apostles and Prophets; if I do not seem to speak too boldly in
claiming any knowledge of that art in which you so excel, that
competent judges declare [2194] that the rules of oratory stream down
from you, as from an overflowing spring, upon all who have any
pretensions to excellence in that department. This I have heard the
admirable Basil say to everybody, Basil, who was your disciple, but my
father and teacher. But be assured, first, that I found no rich
nourishment in the precepts of my teachers [2195] , inasmuch as I
enjoyed my brother's society only for a short time, and got only just
enough polish from his diviner tongue to be able to discern the
ignorance of those who are uninitiated in oratory; next, however, that
whenever I had leisure, I devoted my time and energies to this study,
and so became enamoured of your beauty, though I never yet obtained
the object of my passion. If, then, on the one side we never had a
teacher, which I deem to have been our case, and if on the other it is
improper to suppose that the opinion which you entertain of us is
other than the true one--nay, you are correct in your statement, and
we are not quite contemptible in your judgment,--give me leave to
presume to attribute to you the cause of such proficiency as we may
have attained. For if Basil was the author of our oratory, and if his
wealth came from your treasures, then what we possess is yours, even
though we received it through others. But if our attainments are
scanty, so is the water in a jar; still it comes from the Nile.
Footnotes
[2193] This and the following letter appear to have been written when
Gregory still publicly professed belles lettres. They are addressed to
one of the masters whom Basil had had at Athens. For these see
Socrates, H. E. iv. 26: it was probably Libanius; rather than
Prohæresius, who did not live in Asia Minor, or Himærius who
(according to Eunapius, Philosoph. Vit. p. 126) had become a Christian
before the reign of Julian, and it is clear that this Letter is
written to a pagan. The Cod. Medic. has Libanius' name as a title to
both Letters. No Letter to Gregory certainly is to be found amongst
Libanius' unpublished Letters in the Vatican Library, as Zacagni
himself testifies: but no conclusion can be drawn from this.
[2194] This passage as it stands is unmanageable. The Latin translator
appears to give the sense required, but it is hard to see how it can
be got out of the words (H. C. O.).
[2195] isthi me meden echonta liparon (ms. lupron) en tois ton
didaskalon diegemasin: but tou didaskalou perhaps should be read
instead of ton didaskalon (H. C. O.).
.
Letter XI.--To Libanius.
It was a custom with the Romans [2196] to celebrate a feast in
winter-time, after the custom of their fathers, when the length of the
days begins to draw out, as the sun climbs to the upper regions of the
sky. Now the beginning of the month is esteemed holy, and by this day
auguring the character of the whole year, they devote themselves to
forecasting lucky accidents, gladness, and wealth [2197] . What is my
object in beginning my letter in this way? Why, I do so because I too
kept this feast, having got my present of gold as well as any of them;
for then there came into my hands as well as theirs gold, not like
that vulgar gold, which potentates treasure and which those that have
it give,--that heavy, vile, and soulless possession,--but that which
is loftier than all wealth, as Pindar says [2198] , in the eyes of
those that have sense, being the fairest presentation, I mean your
letter, and the vast wealth which it contained. For thus it happened;
that on that day, as I was going to the metropolis of the
Cappadocians, I met an acquaintance, who handed me this present, your
letter, as a new year's gift. And I, being overjoyed at the
occurrence, threw open my treasure to all who were present; and all
shared in it, each getting the whole of it, without any rivalry, and I
was none the worse off. For the letter by passing through the hands of
all, like a ticket for a feast, is the private wealth of each, some by
steady continuous reading engraving the words upon their memory, and
others taking an impression [2199] of them upon tablets; and it was
again in my hands, giving me more pleasure than the hard [2200] metal
does to the eyes of the rich. Since, then, even to husbandmen--to use
a homely comparison--approbation of the labours which they have
already accomplished is a strong stimulus to those which follow, bear
with us if we treat what you have yourself given as so much seed, and
if we write that we may provoke you to write back. But I beg of you a
public and general boon for our life; that you will no longer
entertain the purpose which you expressed to us in a dark hint at the
end of your letter. For I do not think that it is at all a fair
decision to come to, that,--because there are some who disgrace
themselves by deserting from the Greek language to the barbarian,
becoming mercenary soldiers and choosing a soldier's rations instead
of the renown of eloquence,--you should therefore condemn oratory
altogether, and sentence human life to be as voiceless as that of
beasts. For who is he who will open his lips, if you carry into effect
this severe sentence against oratory? But perhaps it will be well to
remind you of a passage in our Scriptures. For our Word bids those
that can to do good, not looking at the tempers of those who receive
the benefit, so as to be eager to benefit only those who are sensible
of kindness, while we close our beneficence to the unthankful, but
rather to imitate the Disposer of all, Who distributes the good things
of His creation alike to all, to the good and to the evil. Having
regard to this, admirable Sir, show yourself in your way of life such
an one as the time past has displayed you. For those who do not see
the sun do not thereby hinder the sun's existence. Even so neither is
it right that the beams of your eloquence should be dimmed, because of
those who are purblind as to the perceptions of the soul. But as for
Cynegius, I pray that he may be as far as possible from the common
malady, which now has seized upon young men; and that he will devote
himself of his own accord to the study of rhetoric. But if he is
otherwise disposed, it is only right, even if he be unwilling, he
should be forced to it; so as to avoid the unhappy and discreditable
plight in which they now are, who have previously abandoned the
pursuit of oratory.
Footnotes
[2196] The custom of New Year's gifts (strenarum commercium) had been
discontinued by Tiberius, because of the trouble it involved to
himself, and abolished by Claudius: but in these times it had been
revived. We find mention of it in the reigns of Theodosius, and of
Arcadius; Auson. Ep. xviii. 4; Symmach. Ep. x. 28.
[2197] Or, not improbably, "they contrive lucky meetings, festivities,
and contributions."
[2198] Pindar, Ol. i. 1: ho de chrusos, aithomenon pur hate diaprepei
nuktos, megalanoros exocha ploutou.
[2199] enapomorxamenon
[2200] apokroton
.
Letter XII [2201] .--On his work against Eunomius.
We Cappadocians are poor in well-nigh all things that make the
possessors of them happy, but above all we are badly off for people
who are able to write. This, be sure, is the reason why I am so slow
about sending you a letter: for, though my reply to the heresy (of
Eunomius) had been long ago completed, there was no one to transcribe
it. Such a dearth of writers it was that brought upon us the suspicion
of sluggishness or of inability to frame an answer. But since now at
any rate, thank God, the writer and reviser have come, I have sent
this treatise to you; not, as Isocrates says [2202] , as a present,
for I do not reckon it to be such that it should be received in lieu
of something of substantial value, but that it may be in our power to
cheer on those who are in the full vigour of youth to do battle with
the enemy, by stirring up the naturally sanguine temperament of early
life. But if any portion of the treatise should appear worthy of
serious consideration, after examining some parts, especially those
prefatory to the "trials," [2203] and those which are of the same
cast, and perhaps also some of the doctrinal parts of the book, you
will think them not ungratefully composed. But to whatever conclusion
you come, you will of course read them, as to a teacher and corrector,
to those who do not act like the players at ball [2204] , when they
stand in three different places and throw it from one to the other,
aiming it exactly and catching one ball from one and one from another,
and they baffle the player who is in the middle, as he jumps up to
catch it, pretending that they are going to throw with a made-up
expression of face, and such and such a motion of the hand to left or
right, and whichever way they see him hurrying, they send the ball
just the contrary way, and cheat his expectation by a trick. This
holds even now in the case of most of us, who, dropping all serious
purpose, play at being good-natured [2205] , as if at ball, with men,
instead of realizing the favourable hope which we hold out, beguiling
to sinister [2206] issues the souls of those who repose confidence in
us. Letters of reconciliation, caresses, tokens, presents,
affectionate embrace by letters--these are the making as if to throw
with the ball to the right. But instead of the pleasure which one
expects therefrom, one gets accusations, plots, slanders,
disparagement, charges brought against one, bits of a sentence torn
from their context, caught up, and turned to one's hurt. Blessed in
your hopes are ye, who through all such trials exercise confidence
towards God. But we beseech you not to look at our words, but to the
teaching of our Lord in the Gospel. For what consolation to one in
anguish can another be, who surpasses him in the extremity of his own
anguish, to help his luckless fortunes to obtain their proper issue?
As He saith, "Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." But do
you, best of men, go on in a manner worthy of yourself, and trust in
God, and do not be hindered by the spectacle of our misfortunes from
being good and true, but commit to God that judgeth righteously the
suitable and just issue of events, and act as Divine wisdom guides
you. Assuredly Joseph had in the result no reason to grieve at the
envy of his brethren, inasmuch as the malice of his own kith and kin
became to him the road to empire.
Footnotes
[2201] The Cod. Medic. has "to John and Maximinian." In this letter
but one person seems to be addressed. Gregory here speaks, without
doubt, of his books against Eunomius: not of his Antirrhetic against
Apollinaris, which could have been transcribed in a very short time.
Therefore we can place the date about 383, some months after Gregory's
twelve Books against Eunomius, according to Hermantius, were
published.
[2202] Oratio ad Demonicum.
[2203] See Against Eunomius, I. 1-9.
[2204] i. e.the game of phaininda: called also ephetinda by Hesychius.
[2205] en euphui& 139;.
[2206] It is difficult to reproduce the play upon words in dexias, and
skaioteti, which refer to the kata to dexion e euonumon in the
description of the game of ball: the words having both a local
meaning, "right," and "left," and a metaphorical one, "favourable,"
and "sinister" (H. C. O.).
.
Letter XIII.--To the Church at Nicomedia [2207] .
May the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, Who disposeth
all things in wisdom for the best, visit you by His own grace, and
comfort you by Himself, working in you that which is well-pleasing to
Him, and may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ come upon you, and the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit, that ye may have healing of all
tribulation and affliction, and advance towards all good, for the
perfecting of the Church, for the edification of your souls, and to
the praise of the glory of His name. But in making here a defence of
ourselves before your charity, we would say that we were not
neglectful to render an account of the charge entrusted to us, either
in time past, or since the departure hence of Patricius of blessed
memory; but we insist that there were many troubles in our Church, and
the decay of our bodily powers was great, increasing, as was natural,
with advancing years; and great also was the remissness of your
Excellency towards us, inasmuch as no word ever came by letter to
induce us to undertake the task, nor was any connection kept up
between your Church and ourselves, although Euphrasius, your Bishop of
blessed memory, had in all holiness bound together our Humility to
himself and to you with love, as with chains. But even though the debt
of love has not been satisfied before, either by our taking charge of
you, or your Piety's encouragement of us, now at any rate we pray to
God, taking your prayer to God as an ally to our own desire, that we
may with all speed possible visit you, and be comforted along with
you, and along with you show diligence, as the Lord may direct us; so
as to discover a means of rectifying the disorders which have already
found place, and of securing safety for the future, so that you may no
longer be distracted by this discord, one withdrawing himself from the
Church in one direction, another in another, and be thereby exposed as
a laughing-stock to the Devil, whose desire and business it is (in
direct contrariety to the Divine will) that no one should be saved, or
come to the knowledge of the truth. For how do you think, brethren,
that we were afflicted upon hearing from those who reported to us your
state, that there was no return to better things [2208] ; but that the
resolution of those who had once swerved aside is ever carried along
in the same course; and--as water from a conduit often overflows the
neighbouring bank, and streaming off sideways, flows away, and unless
the leak is stopped, it is almost impossible to recall it to its
channel, when the submerged ground has been hollowed out in accordance
with the course of the stream,--even so the course of those who have
left the Church, when it has once through personal motives deflected
from the straight and right faith, has sunk deep in the rut of habit,
and does not easily return to the grace it once had. For which cause
your affairs demand a wise and strong administrator, who is skilled to
guide such wayward tempers aright, so as to be able to recall to its
pristine beauty the disorderly circuit of this stream, that the
corn-fields of your piety may once again flourish abundantly, watered
by the irrigating stream of peace. For this reason great diligence and
fervent desire on the part of you all is needed for this matter, that
such an one may be appointed your President by the Holy Spirit, who
will have a single eye to the things of God alone, not turning his
glance this way or that to any of those things that men strive after.
For for this cause I think that the ancient law gave the Levite no
share in the general inheritance of the land; that he might have God
alone for the portion of his possession, and might always be engaged
about the possession in himself, with no eye to any material object.
[What follows is unintelligible, and something has probably been
lost.]
For it is not lawful that the simple should meddle with that with
which they have no concern, but which properly belongs to others. For
you should each mind your own business, that so that which is most
expedient may come about [and that your Church may again prosper],
when those who have been dispersed have returned again to the unit of
the one body, and spiritual peace is established by those who devoutly
glorify God. To this end it is well, I think, to look out for high
qualifications in your election, that he who is appointed to the
Presidency may be suitable for the post. Now the Apostolic injunctions
do not direct us to look to high birth, wealth, and distinction in the
eyes of the world among the virtues of a Bishop; but if all this
should, unsought, accompany your spiritual chiefs, we do not reject
it, but consider it merely as a shadow accidentally [2209] following
the body; and none the less shall we welcome the more precious
endowments, even though they happen to be apart from those boons of
fortune. The prophet Amos was a goat-herd; Peter was a fisherman, and
his brother Andrew followed the same employment; so too was the
sublime John; Paul was a tent-maker, Matthew a publican, and the rest
of the Apostles in the same way--not consuls, generals, prefects, or
distinguished in rhetoric and philosophy, but poor, and of none of the
learned professions, but starting from the more humble occupations of
life: and yet for all that their voice went out into all the earth,
and their words unto the ends of the world. "Consider your calling,
brethren, that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things of the
world [2210] ." Perhaps even now it is thought something foolish, as
things appear to men, when one is not able to do much from poverty, or
is slighted because of meanness of extraction [2211] , not of
character. But who knows whether the horn of anointing is not poured
out by grace upon such an one, even though he be less than the lofty
and more illustrious? Which was more to the interest of the Church at
Rome, that it should at its commencement be presided over by some
high-born and pompous senator, or by the fisherman Peter, who had none
of this world's advantages to attract men to him [2212] ? What house
had he, what slaves, what property ministering luxury, by wealth
constantly flowing in? But that stranger, without a table, without a
roof over his head, was richer than those who have all things, because
through having nothing he had God wholly. So too the people of
Mesopotamia, though they had among them wealthy satraps, preferred
Thomas above them all to the presidency of their Church; the Cretans
preferred Titus, the dwellers at Jerusalem James, and we Cappadocians
the centurion, who at the Cross acknowledged the Godhead of the Lord,
though there were many at that time of splendid lineage, whose
fortunes enabled them to maintain a stud, and who prided themselves
upon having the first place in the Senate. And in all the Church one
may see those who are great according to God's standard preferred
above worldly magnificence. You too, I think, ought to have an eye to
these spiritual qualifications at this time present, if you really
mean to revive the ancient glory of your Church. For nothing is better
known to you than your own history, that anciently, before the city
near you [2213] flourished, the seat of government was with you, and
among Bithynian cities there was nothing preeminent above yours. And
now, it is true, the public buildings that once graced it have
disappeared, but the city that consists in men--whether we look to
numbers or to quality--is rapidly rising to a level with its former
splendour. Accordingly it would well become you to entertain thoughts
that shall not fall below the height of the blessings that now are
yours, but to raise your enthusiasm in the work before you to the
height of the magnificence of your city, that you may find such a one
to preside over the laity as will prove himself not unworthy of you
[2214] . For it is disgraceful, brethren, and utterly monstrous, that
while no one ever becomes a pilot unless he is skilled in navigation,
he who sits at the helm of the Church should not know how to bring the
souls of those who sail with him safe into the haven of God. How many
wrecks of Churches, men and all, have ere now taken place by the
inexperience of their heads! Who can reckon what disasters might not
have been avoided, had there been aught of the pilot's skill in those
who had command? Nay, we entrust iron, to make vessels with, not to
those who know nothing about the matter, but to those who are
acquainted with the art of the smith; ought we not therefore to trust
souls to him who is well-skilled to soften them by the fervent heat of
the Holy Spirit, and who by the impress of rational implements may
fashion each one of you to be a chosen and useful vessel? It is thus
that the inspired Apostle bids us to take thought, in his Epistle to
Timothy [2215] , laying injunction upon all who hear, when he says
that a Bishop must be without reproach. Is this all that the Apostle
cares for, that he who is advanced to the priesthood should be
irreproachable? and what is so great an advantage as that all possible
qualifications should be included in one? But he knows full well that
the subject is moulded by the character of his superior, and that the
upright walk of the guide becomes that of his followers too. For what
the Master is, such does he make the disciple to be. For it is
impossible that he who has been apprenticed to the art of the smith
should practise that of the weaver, or that one who has only been
taught to work at the loom should turn out an orator or a
mathematician: but on the contrary that which the disciple sees in his
master he adopts and transfers to himself. For this reason it is that
the Scripture says, "Every disciple that is perfect shall be as his
master [2216] ." What then, brethren? Is it possible to be lowly and
subdued in character, moderate, superior to the love of lucre, wise in
things divine, and trained to virtue and considerateness in works and
ways, without seeing those qualities in one's master? Nay, I do not
know how a man can become spiritual, if he has been a disciple in a
worldly school. For how can they who are striving to resemble their
master fail to be like him? What advantage is the magnificence of the
aqueduct to the thirsty, if there is no water in it, even though the
symmetrical disposition of columns [2217] variously shaped rear aloft
the pediment [2218] ? Which would the thirsty man rather choose for
the supply of his own need, to see marbles beautifully disposed or to
find good spring water, even if it flowed through a wooden pipe, as
long as the stream which it poured forth was clear and drinkable? Even
so, brethren, those who look to godliness should neglect the trappings
of outward show, and whether a man exults in powerful friends, or
plumes himself on the long list of his dignities, or boasts that he
receives large annual revenues, or is puffed up with the thought of
his noble ancestry, or has his mind on all sides clouded [2219] with
the fumes of self-esteem, should have nothing to do with such an one,
any more than with a dry aqueduct, if he display not in his life the
primary and essential qualities for high office. But, employing the
lamp of the Spirit for the search [2220] , you should, as far as is
possible, seek for "a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed [2221] ,"
that, by your election the garden of delight having been opened and
the water of the fountain having been unstopped, there may be a common
acquisition to the Catholic Church. May God grant that there may soon
be found among you such an one, who shall be a chosen vessel, a pillar
of the Church. But we trust in the Lord that so it will be, if you are
minded by the grace of concord with one mind to see that which is
good, preferring to your own wills the will of the Lord, and that
which is approved of Him, and perfect, and well-pleasing in His eyes;
that there may be such a happy issue among you, that therein we may
rejoice, and you triumph, and the God of all be glorified, Whom glory
becometh for ever and ever.
Footnotes
[2207] Euphrasius, mentioned in this Letter, had subscribed to the
first Council of Constantinople, as Bishop of Nicomedia. On his death,
clergy and laity proceeded to a joint election of a successor. The
date of this is uncertain; Zacagni and Page think that the dispute
here mentioned is to be identified with that which Sozomen records,
and which is placed by Baronius and Basnage in 400, 401. But we have
no evidence that Gregory's life was prolonged so far.
[2208] oudemia gegone ton ephestoton epistrophe, literally, "no return
from existing (or besetting) evils." The words might possibly mean
something very different; "no concern shown on the part of those set
over you" (H. C. O.).
[2209] The shadow may be considered as an accidental appendage to the
body, inasmuch as it does not always appear, but only when there is
some light, e.g. of the sun, to cast it (H. C. O.).
[2210] 1 Cor. i. 26, 27.
[2211] somatos dusgeneian, might possibly mean "bodily deformity;" but
less probably (H. C. O.).
[2212] Reading epholkon: if epholkion, "a boat taken in tow," perhaps
still regarding S. Peter as the master of a ship: or "an appendage;"
Gregory so uses it in his De Animâ. Some suggest ephodion, meaning
"resource," but epholkon is simpler.
[2213] i.e.Nicæa. "The whirligig of time has brought about its
revenge," and Nicomedia (Ismid) is now more important than Nicæa
(Isnik). Nicomedia had, in fact, been the residence of the Kings of
Bithynia; and Diocletian had intended to make it the rival of Rome
(cf. Lactantius, De Mort. Persec. c. 7). But it had been destroyed by
an earthquake in the year 368: Socrates, ii. 39.
[2214] Reading humon for humin.
[2215] 1 Tim. iii. 2.
[2216] S. Luke vi. 40. Cf. Gregory's Treatises On Perfection, What is
the Christian name and profession, Sketch of the aim of True
Asceticism.
[2217] he ton kionon epallelos thesis.
[2218] petason.
[2219] periautizetai
[2220] For humility and spirituality required in prelates, cf. Origen,
c. Cels. viii. 75. "We summon to the magistracies of these churches
men of ability and good life: but instead of selecting the ambitious
amongst these we put compulsion upon those whose deep humility makes
them backward in accepting this general charge of the Church. Our best
rulers then, are like consuls compelled to rule by a mighty Emperor:
no other, we are persuaded, than the Son of God, Who is the Word of
God. If, then, these magistrates in the assembly of God's nation rule
well, or at all events strictly in accordance with the Divine
enactment, they are not because of that to meddle with the secular
law-making. It is not that the Christians wish to escape all public
responsibility, that they keep themselves away from such things; but
they wish to reserve themselves for the higher and more urgent
responsibilities (anankaiotera leitourgi& 139;) of God's Church."
[2221] Song of Songs, iv. 12.
.
Letter XIV [2222] .--To the Bishop of Melitene.
How beautiful are the likenesses of beautiful objects, when they
preserve in all its clearness the impress of the original beauty! For
of your soul, so truly beautiful, I saw a most clear image in the
sweetness of your letter, which, as the Gospel says, "out of the
abundance of the heart" you filled with honey. And for this reason I
fancied I saw you in person, and enjoyed your cheering company, from
the affection expressed in your letter; and often taking your letter
into my hands and going over it again from beginning to end, I only
came more vehemently to crave for the enjoyment, and there was no
sense of satiety. Such a feeling can no more put an end to my
pleasure, than it can to that derived from anything that is by nature
beautiful and precious. For neither has our constant participation of
the benefit blunted the edge of our longing to behold the sun, nor
does the unbroken enjoyment of health prevent our desiring its
continuance; and we are persuaded that it is equally impossible for
our enjoyment of your goodness, which we have often experienced face
to face and now by letter, ever to reach the point of satiety. But our
case is like that of those who from some circumstance are afflicted
with unquenchable thirst; for just in the same way, the more we taste
your kindness, the more thirsty we become. But unless you suppose our
language to be mere blandishment and unreal flattery--and assuredly
you will not so suppose, being what you are in all else, and to us
especially good and staunch, if any one ever was,--you will certainly
believe what I say; that the favour of your letter, applied to my eyes
like some medical prescription, stayed my ever-flowing "fountain of
tears," and that fixing our hopes on the medicine of your holy
prayers, we expect that soon and completely the disease of our soul
will be healed: though, for the present at any rate, we are in such a
case, that we spare the ears of one who is fond of us, and bury the
truth in silence, that we may not drag those who loyally love us into
partnership with our troubles. For when we consider that, bereft of
what is dearest to us, we are involved in wars, and that it is our
children that we were compelled to leave behind, our children whom we
were counted worthy to bear to God in spiritual pangs, closely joined
to us by the law of love, who at the time of their own trials amid
their afflictions extended their affection to us; and over and above
these, a fondly-loved [2223] home, brethren, kinsmen, companions,
intimate associates, friends, hearth, table, cellar, bed, seat, sack,
converse, tears--and how sweet these are, and how dearly prized from
long habit, I need not write to you who know full well--but not to
weary you further, consider for yourself what I have in exchange for
those blessings. Now that I am at the end of my life, I begin to live
again, and am compelled to learn the graceful versatility of character
which is now in vogue: but we are late learners in the shifty school
of knavery; [2224] so that we are constantly constrained to blush at
our awkwardness and inaptitude for this new study. But our
adversaries, equipped with all the training of this wisdom, are well
able to keep what they have learned, and to invent what they have not
learned. Their method of warfare accordingly is to skirmish at a
distance, and then at a preconcerted signal to form their phalanx in
solid order; they utter by way of prelude [2225] whatever suits their
interests, they execute surprises by means of exaggerations, they
surround themselves with allies from every quarter. But a vast amount
of cunning invincible in power [2226] accompanies them, advanced
before them to lead their host, like some right-and-left-handed
combatant, fighting with both hands in front of his army, on one side
levying tribute upon his subjects, on the other smiting those who come
in his way. But if you care to inquire into the state of our internal
affairs, you will find other troubles to match; a stifling hut,
abundant in cold, gloom, confinement, and all such advantages; a life
the mark of every one's censorious observation, the voice, the look,
the way of wearing one's cloak, the movement of the hands, the
position of one's feet, and everything else, all a subject for
busy-bodies. And unless one from time to time emits a deep breathing,
and unless a continuous groaning is uttered with the breathing, and
unless the tunic passes gracefully through the girdle (not to mention
the very disuse of the girdle itself), and unless our cloak flows
aslant down our backs--the omission of anyone of these niceties is a
pretext for war against us. And on such grounds as these, they gather
together to battle against us, man by man [2227] , township by
township, even down to all sorts of out-of-the-way places. Well, one
cannot be always faring well or always ill, for every one's life is
made up of contraries. But if by God's grace your help should stand by
us steadily, we will bear the abundance of annoyances, in the hope of
being always a sharer in your goodness. May you, then, never cease
bestowing on us such favours, that by them you may refresh us, and
prepare for yourself in ampler measure the reward promised to them
that keep the commandments.
Footnotes
[2222] To Otreius, Bishop of Melitene (in eastern Cappadocia, on or
near the upper Euphrates), to whose successor Letoius Gregory
addressed his Canonical Epistle about Penitents (Cod. Medic.). Written
when Gregory was in exile under Valens. Zacagni thinks that the "war,"
and the carping criticisms here complained of, refer to the followers
of Eustathius of Sebasteia or of Macedonius, who had plenty to find
fault with, even in the gestures and dress of the Catholics (cf.
Basil, De Spirit. S., end).
[2223] kecharitomenos
[2224] This passage is very corrupt, and I have put the best sense I
could on the fragmentary words preserved to us (H. C. O.).
[2225] prologizontas. But prolochizontas would suit the context
better; i.e. "they lay an ambush wherever their interests are
concerned" (H. C. O.).
[2226] Or "accompanies their power:" te dunamei may go with homartei,
or with akatagonistos (H. C. O.).
[2227] kat' andras, kai demous, kai eschatias. But the Latin, having
"solitudines," shows that eremous was read for demous. We seem to get
here a glimpse of Gregory's activity during his exile (376-78). Rupp
thinks that Macrina's words to her brother also refer to this period:
"Thee the Churches call to help them and correct them." He moved from
place to place to strengthen the Catholic cause; "we," he says in the
longer Antirrhetic, "who have sojourned in many spots, and have had
serious conversation upon the points in dispute both with those who
hold and those who reject the Faith." Gregory of Nazianzum consoles
him during these journeys, so exhausting and discouraging to one of
his spirit, by comparing him to the comet which is ruled while it
seems to wander, and of seeing in the seeming advance of heresy only
the last hiss of the dying snake. His travels probably ended in a
visit to Palestine: for his Letter On Pilgrimages certainly
presupposes former visits in which he had learnt the manners of
Jerusalem. His love of Origen, too, makes it likely that he made a
private pilgrimage (distinct from the visit of 379) to the land where
Origen had chiefly studied.
.
Letter XV.--To Adelphius the Lawyer [2228] .
I write you this letter from the sacred Vanota, if I do not do the
place injustice by giving it its local title:--do it injustice, I say,
because in its name it shows no polish. At the same time the beauty of
the place, great as it is, is not conveyed by this Galatian epithet:
eyes are needed to interpret its beauty. For I, though I have before
this seen much, and that in many places, and have also observed many
things by means of verbal description in the accounts of old writers,
think both all I have seen, and all of which I have heard, of no
account in comparison with the loveliness that is to be found here.
Your Helicon is nothing: the Islands of the Blest are a fable: the
Sicyonian plain is a trifle: the accounts of the Peneus are another
case of poetic exaggeration--that river which they say by overflowing
with its rich current the banks which flank its course makes for the
Thessalians their far-famed Tempe. Why, what beauty is there in any
one of these places I have mentioned, such as Vanota can show us of
its own? For if one seeks for natural beauty in the place, it needs
none of the adornments of art: and if one considers what has been done
for it by artificial aid, there has been so much done, and that so
well, as might overcome even natural disadvantages. The gifts bestowed
upon the spot by Nature who beautifies the earth with unstudied grace
are such as these: below, the river Halys makes the place fair to look
upon with his banks, and gleams like a golden ribbon through their
deep purple, reddening his current with the soil he washes down.
Above, a mountain densely overgrown with wood stretches with its long
ridge, covered at all points with the foliage of oaks, worthy of
finding some Homer to sing its praises more than that Ithacan Neritus,
which the poet calls "far-seen with quivering leaves [2229] ." But the
natural growth of wood, as it comes down the hill-side, meets at the
foot the planting of men's husbandry. For forthwith vines, spread out
over the slopes, and swellings, and hollows at the mountain's base,
cover with their colour, like a green mantle, all the lower ground:
and the season at this time even added to their beauty, displaying its
grape-clusters wonderful to behold. Indeed this caused me yet more
surprise, that while the neighbouring country shows fruit still
unripe, one might here enjoy the full clusters, and be sated with
their perfection. Then, far off, like a watch-fire from some great
beacon, there shone before our eyes the fair beauty of the buildings.
On the left as we entered was the chapel built for the martyrs, not
yet complete in its structure, but still lacking the roof, yet making
a good show notwithstanding. Straight before us in the way were the
beauties of the house, where one part is marked out from another by
some delicate invention. There were projecting towers, and
preparations for banqueting among the wide and high-arched rows of
trees crowning the entrance before the gates [2230] . Then about the
buildings are the Phaeacian gardens; rather, let not the beauties of
Vanota be insulted by comparison with those. Homer never saw "the
apple with bright fruit [2231] " as we have it here, approaching to
the hue of its own blossom in the exceeding brilliancy of its
colouring: he never saw the pear whiter than new-polished ivory. And
what can one say of the varieties of the peach, diverse and multiform,
yet blended and compounded out of different species? For just as with
those who paint "goat-stags," and "centaurs," and the like,
commingling things of different kind, and making themselves wiser than
Nature, so it is in the case of this fruit: Nature, under the
despotism of art, turns one to an almond, another to a walnut, yet
another to a "Doracinus [2232] ," mingled alike in name and in
flavour. And in all these the number of single trees is more noted
than their beauty; yet they display tasteful arrangement in their
planting, and that harmonious form of drawing--drawing, I call it, for
the marvel belongs rather to the painter's art than to the gardener's.
So readily does Nature fall in with the design of those who arrange
these devices, that it seems impossible to express this by words. Who
could find words worthily to describe the road under the climbing
vines, and the sweet shade of their cluster, and that novel
wall-structure where roses with their shoots, and vines with their
trailers, twist themselves together and make a fortification that
serves as a wall against a flank attack, and the pond at the summit of
this path, and the fish that are bred there? As regards all these, the
people who have charge of your Nobility's house were ready to act as
our guides with a certain ingenuous kindliness, and pointed them out
to us, showing us each of the things you had taken pains about, as if
it were yourself to whom, by our means, they were showing courtesy.
There too, one of the lads, like a conjuror, showed us such a wonder
as one does not very often find in nature: for he went down to the
deep water and brought up at will such of the fish as he selected; and
they seemed no strangers to the fisherman's touch, being tame and
submissive under the artist's hands, like well-trained dogs. Then they
led me to a house as if to rest--a house, I call it, for such the
entrance betokened, but, when we came inside, it was not a house but a
portico which received us. The portico was raised up aloft to a great
height over a deep pool: the basement supporting the portico of
triangular shape, like a gateway leading to the delights within, was
washed by the water. Straight before us in the interior a sort of
house occupied the vertex of the triangle, with lofty roof, lit on all
sides by the sun's rays, and decked with varied paintings; so that
this spot almost made us forget what had preceded it. The house
attracted us to itself; and again, the portico on the pool was a
unique sight. For the excellent fish would swim up from the depths to
the surface, leaping up into the very air like winged things, as
though purposely mocking us creatures of the dry land. For showing
half their form and tumbling through the air, they plunged once more
into the depth. Others, again, in shoals, following one another in
order, were a sight for unaccustomed eyes: while in another place one
might see another shoal packed in a cluster round a morsel of bread,
pushed aside one by another, and here one leaping up, there another
diving downwards. But even this we were made to forget by the grapes
that were brought us in baskets of twisted shoots, by the varied
bounty of the season's fruit, the preparation for breakfast, the
varied dainties, and savoury dishes, and sweetmeats, and drinking of
healths, and wine-cups. So now since I was sated and inclined to
sleep, I got a scribe posted beside me, and sent to your Eloquence, as
if it were a dream, this chattering letter. But I hope to recount in
full to yourself and your friends, not with paper and ink, but with my
own voice and tongue, the beauties of your home.
Footnotes
[2228] scholastikos, or possibly "student," but the title of logistes,
afterwards employed of the person to whom the letter is addressed,
rather suggests the profession of an "advocate," than the occupation
of a scholar.
[2229] Cf. Hom. Odyss. ix. 22.
[2230] The text is clearly erroneous, and perhaps stephanousi is the
true reading: it seems clearer in construction than stephanousai
suggested by Caraccioli.
[2231] Cf. Hom. Od. vii. 115.
[2232] The word seems otherwise unknown. It may be a Græcizing of the
Latin "duracinus," for which cf. Plin. XV. xii. 11.
.
Letter XVI.--To Amphilochius.
I am well persuaded that by God's grace the business of the Church of
the Martyrs is in a fair way. Would that you were willing in the
matter. The task we have in hand will find its end by the power of
God, Who is able, wherever He speaks, to turn word into deed. Seeing
that, as the Apostle says, "He Who has begun a good work will also
perform it [2233] ", I would exhort you in this also to be an imitator
of the great Paul, and to advance our hope to actual fulfilment, and
send us so many workmen as may suffice for the work we have in hand.
Your Perfection might perhaps be informed by calculation of the
dimensions to which the total work will attain: and to this end I will
endeavour to explain the whole structure by a verbal description. The
form of the chapel is a cross, which has its figure completed
throughout, as you would expect, by four structures. The junctions of
the buildings intercept one another, as we see everywhere in the
cruciform pattern. But within the cross there lies a circle, divided
by eight angles (I call the octagonal figure a circle in view of its
circumference), in such wise that the two pairs of sides of the
octagon which are diametrically opposed to one another, unite by means
of arches the central circle to the adjoining blocks of building;
while the other four sides of the octagon, which lie between the
quadrilateral buildings, will not themselves be carried to meet the
buildings, but upon each of them will be described a semicircle like a
shell [2234] , terminating in an arch above: so that the arches will
be eight in all, and by their means the quadrilateral and semicircular
buildings will be connected, side by side, with the central structure.
In the blocks of masonry formed by the angles there will be an equal
number of pillars, at once for ornament and for strength, and these
again will carry arches built of equal size to correspond with those
within [2235] . And above these eight arches, with the symmetry of an
upper range of windows, the octagonal building will be raised to the
height of four cubits: the part rising from it will be a cone shaped
like a top, as the vaulting [2236] narrows the figure of the roof from
its full width to a pointed wedge. The dimensions below will be,--the
width of each of the quadrilateral buildings, eight cubits, the length
of them half as much again, the height as much as the proportion of
the width allows. It will be as much in the semicircles also. The
whole length between the piers extends in the same way to eight
cubits, and the depth will be as much as will be given by the sweep of
the compasses with the fixed point placed in the middle of the side
[2237] and extending to the end. The height will be determined in this
case too by the proportion to the width. And the thickness of the
wall, an interval of three feet from inside these spaces, which are
measured internally, will run round the whole building.
I have troubled your Excellency with this serious trifling, with this
intention, that by the thickness of the walls, and by the intermediate
spaces, you may accurately ascertain what sum the number of feet gives
as the measurement; because your intellect is exceedingly quick in all
matters, and makes its way, by God's grace, in whatever subject you
will, and it is possible for you, by subtle calculation, to ascertain
the sum made up by all the parts, so as to send us masons neither more
nor fewer than our need requires. And I beg you to direct your
attention specially to this point, that some of them may be skilled in
making vaulting [2238] without supports: for I am informed that when
built in this way it is more durable than what is made to rest on
props. It is the scarcity of wood that brings us to this device of
roofing the whole fabric with stone; because the place supplies no
timber for roofing. Let your unerring mind be persuaded, because some
of the people here contract with me to furnish thirty workmen for a
stater, for the dressed stonework, of course with a specified ration
along with the stater. But the material of our masonry is not of this
sort [2239] , but brick made of clay and chance stones, so that they
do not need to spend time in fitting the faces of the stones
accurately together. I know that so far as skill and fairness in the
matter of wages are concerned, the workmen in your neighbourhood are
better for our purpose than those who follow the trade here. The
sculptor's work lies not only in the eight pillars, which must
themselves be improved and beautified, but the work requires
altar-like base-mouldings [2240] , and capitals carved in the
Corinthian style. The porch, too, will be of marbles wrought with
appropriate ornaments. The doors set upon these will be adorned with
some such designs as are usually employed by way of embellishment at
the projection of the cornice. Of all these, of course, we shall
furnish the materials; the form to be impressed on the materials art
will bestow. Besides these there will be in the colonnade not less
than forty pillars: these also will be of wrought stone. Now if my
account has explained the work in detail, I hope it may be possible
for your Sanctity, on perceiving what is needed, to relieve us
completely from anxiety so far as the workmen are concerned. If,
however, the workman were inclined to make a bargain favourable to us,
let a distinct measure of work, if possible, be fixed for the day, so
that he may not pass his time doing nothing, and then, though he has
no work to show for it, as having worked for us so many days, demand
payment for them. I know that we shall appear to most people to be
higglers, in being so particular about the contracts. But I beg you to
pardon me; for that Mammon about whom I have so often said such hard
things, has at last departed from me as far as he can possibly go,
being disgusted, I suppose, at the nonsense that is constantly talked
against him, and has fortified himself against me by an impassable
gulf--to wit, poverty--so that neither can he come to me, nor can I
pass to him [2241] . This is why I make a point of the fairness of the
workmen, to the end that we may be able to fulfil the task before us,
and not be hindered by poverty--that laudable and desirable evil.
Well, in all this there is a certain admixture of jest. But do you,
man of God, in such ways as are possible and legitimate, boldly
promise in bargaining with the men that they will all meet with fair
treatment at our hands, and full payment of their wages: for we shall
give all and keep back nothing, as God also opens to us, by your
prayers, His hand of blessing.
Footnotes
[2233] Cf. Phil. i. 6
[2234] Reading konchoeidos
[2235] That is, on an inner line; the upper row having their supports
at the angles of the inscribed octagon, and therefore at a point
further removed from the centre of the circle than those of the lower
tier, which correspond to the sides of the octagon. Or, simply, "those
inside the building," the upper tier showing in the outside view of
the structure, while the lower row would only be visible from the
interior. There is apparently a corresponding row of windows above the
upper row of arches, carrying the central tower four cubits higher.
This at least seems the sense of the clause immediately following.
[2236] Reading eileseos, of which this seems to be the meaning.
[2237] i.e.of the side of the octagon.
[2238] Reading eilesin.
[2239] i.e.not dressed stone.
[2240] The speira is a moulding at the base of the column, equivalent
to the Latin torus.
[2241] Cf. S. Luke xvi. 26
.
Letter XVII.--To Eustathia, Ambrosia, and Basilissa [2242] . To the
most discreet and devout Sisters, Eustathia and Ambrosia, and to the
most discreet and noble Daughter, Basilissa, Gregory sends greeting in
the Lord.
The meeting with the good and the beloved, and the memorials of the
immense love of the Lord for us men, which are shown in your
localities, have been the source to me of the most intense joy and
gladness. Doubly indeed have these shone upon divinely festal days;
both in beholding the saving tokens [2243] of the God who gave us
life, and in meeting with souls in whom the tokens of the Lord's grace
are to be discerned spiritually in such clearness, that one can
believe that Bethlehem and Golgotha, and Olivet, and the scene of the
Resurrection are really in the God-containing heart. For when through
a good conscience Christ has been formed in any, when any has by dint
of godly fear nailed down the promptings of the flesh and become
crucified to Christ, when any has rolled away from himself the heavy
stone of this world's illusions, and coming forth from the grave of
the body has begun to walk as it were in a newness of life, abandoning
this low-lying valley of human life, and mounting with a soaring
desire to that heavenly country [2244] with all its elevated thoughts,
where Christ is, no longer feeling the body's burden, but lifting it
by chastity, so that the flesh with cloud-like lightness accompanies
the ascending soul--such an one, in my opinion, is to be counted in
the number of those famous ones in whom the memorials of the Lord's
love for us men are to be seen. When, then, I not only saw with the
sense of sight those Sacred Places, but I saw the tokens of places
like them, plain in yourselves as well, I was filled with joy so great
that the description of its blessing is beyond the power of utterance.
But because it is a difficult, not to say an impossible thing for a
human being to enjoy unmixed with evil any blessing, therefore
something of bitterness was mingled with the sweets I tasted: and by
this, after the enjoyment of those blessings, I was saddened in my
journey back to my native land, estimating now the truth of the Lord's
words, that "the whole world lieth in wickedness [2245] ," so that no
single part of the inhabited earth is without its share of degeneracy.
For if the spot itself that has received the footprints of the very
Life is not clear of the wicked thorns, what are we to think of other
places where communion with the Blessing has been inculcated by
hearing and preaching alone [2246] . With what view I say this, need
not be explained more fully in words; facts themselves proclaim more
loudly than any speech, however intelligible, the melancholy truth.
The Lawgiver of our life has enjoined upon us one single hatred. I
mean, that of the Serpent: for no other purpose has He bidden us
exercise this faculty of hatred, but as a resource against wickedness.
"I will put enmity," He says, "between thee and him." Since wickedness
is a complicated and multifarious thing, the Word allegorizes it by
the Serpent, the dense array of whose scales is symbolic of this
multiformity of evil. And we by working the will of our Adversary make
an alliance with this serpent, and so turn this hatred against one
another [2247] , and perhaps not against ourselves alone, but against
Him Who gave the commandment; for He says, "Thou shalt love thy
neighbour and hate thine enemy," commanding us to hold the foe to our
humanity as our only enemy, and declaring that all who share that
humanity are the neighbours of each one of us. But this gross-hearted
age has disunited us from our neighbour, and has made us welcome the
serpent, and revel in his spotted scales [2248] . I affirm, then, that
it is a lawful thing to hate God's enemies, and that this kind of
hatred is pleasing to our Lord: and by God's enemies I mean those who
deny the glory of our Lord, be they Jews, or downright idolaters, or
those who through Arius' teaching idolize the creature, and so adopt
the error of the Jews. Now when the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost, are with orthodox devotion being glorified and adored by those
who believe that in a distinct and unconfused Trinity there is One
Substance, Glory, Kingship, Power, and Universal Rule, in such a case
as this what good excuse for fighting can there be? At the time,
certainly, when the heretical views prevailed, to try issues with the
authorities, by whom the adversaries' cause was seen to be
strengthened, was well; there was fear then lest our saving Doctrine
should be over-ruled by human rulers. But now, when over the whole
world from one end of heaven to the other the orthodox Faith is being
preached, the man who fights with them who preach it, fights not with
them, but with Him Who is thus preached. What other aim, indeed, ought
that man's to be, who has the zeal for God, than in every possible way
to announce the glory of God? As long, then, as the Only-begotten is
adored with all the heart and soul and mind, believed to be in
everything that which the Father is, and in like manner the Holy Ghost
is glorified with an equal amount of adoration, what plausible excuse
for fighting is left these over-refined disputants, who are rending
the seamless robe, and parting the Lord's name between Paul and
Cephas, and undisguisedly abhorring contact with those who worship
Christ, all but exclaiming in so many words, "Away from me, I am
holy"?
Granting that the knowledge which they believe themselves to have
acquired is somewhat greater than that of others: yet can they possess
more than the belief that the Son of the Very God is Very God, seeing
that in that article of the Very God every idea that is orthodox,
every idea that is our salvation, is included? It includes the idea of
His Goodness, His Justice, His Omnipotence: that He admits of no
variableness nor alteration, but is always the same; incapable of
changing to worse or changing to better, because the first is not His
nature, the second He does not admit of; for what can be higher than
the Highest, what can be better than the Best? In fact, He is thus
associated with all perfection, and, as to every form of alteration,
is unalterable; He did not on occasions display this attribute, but
was always so, both before the Dispensation that made Him man, and
during it, and after it; and in all His activities in our behalf He
never lowered any part of that changeless and unvarying character to
that which was out of keeping with it. What is essentially
imperishable and changeless is always such; it does not follow the
variation of a lower order of things, when it comes by dispensation to
be there; just as the sun, for example, when he plunges his beam into
the gloom, does not dim the brightness of that beam; but instead, the
dark is changed by the beam into light; thus also the True Light,
shining in our gloom, was not itself overshadowed with that shade, but
enlightened it by means of itself. Well, seeing that our humanity was
in darkness, as it is written, "They know not, neither will they
understand, they walk on in darkness [2249] ," the Illuminator of this
darkened world darted the beam of His Divinity through the whole
compound of our nature, through soul, I say, and body too, and so
appropriated humanity entire by means of His own light, and took it up
and made it just that thing which He is Himself. And as this Divinity
was not made perishable, though it inhabited a perishable body, so
neither did it alter in the direction of any change, though it healed
the changeful in our soul: in medicine, too, the physician of the
body, when he takes hold of his patient, so far from himself
contracting the disease, thereby perfects the cure of the suffering
part. Let no one, either, putting a wrong interpretation on the words
of the Gospel, suppose that our human nature in Christ was transformed
to something more divine by any gradations and advance: for the
increasing in stature and in wisdom and in favour, is recorded in Holy
Writ only to prove that Christ really was present in the human
compound, and so to leave no room for their surmise, who propound that
a phantom, or form in human outline, and not a real Divine
Manifestation, was there. It is for this reason that Holy Writ records
unabashed with regard to Him all the accidents of our nature, even
eating, drinking, sleeping, weariness, nurture, increase in bodily
stature, growing up--everything that marks humanity, except the
tendency to sin. Sin, indeed, is a miscarriage, not a quality of human
nature: just as disease and deformity are not congenital to it in the
first instance, but are its unnatural accretions, so activity in the
direction of sin is to be thought of as a mere mutilation of the
goodness innate in us; it is not found to be itself a real thing, but
we see it only in the absence of that goodness. Therefore He Who
transformed the elements of our nature into His divine abilities,
rendered it secure from mutilation and disease, because He admitted
not in Himself the deformity which sin works in the will. "He did no
sin," it says, "neither was guile found in his mouth [2250] ." And
this in Him is not to be regarded in connection with any interval of
time: for at once the man in Mary (where Wisdom built her house),
though naturally part of our sensuous compound, along with the coming
upon her of the Holy Ghost, and her overshadowing with the power of
the Highest, became that which that overshadowing power in essence
was: for, without controversy, it is the Less that is blest by the
Greater. Seeing, then, that the power of the Godhead is an immense and
immeasurable thing, while man is a weak atom, at the moment when the
Holy Ghost came upon the Virgin, and the power of the Highest
overshadowed her, the tabernacle formed by such an impulse was not
clothed with anything of human corruption; but, just as it was first
constituted, so it remained, even though it was man, Spirit
nevertheless, and Grace, and Power; and the special attributes of our
humanity derived lustre from this abundance of Divine Power [2251] .
There are indeed two limits of human life: the one we start from, and
the one we end in: and so it was necessary that the Physician of our
being should enfold us at both these extremities, and grasp not only
the end, but the beginning too, in order to secure in both the raising
of the sufferer. That, then, which we find to have happened on the
side of the finish we conclude also as to the beginning. As at the end
He caused by virtue of the Incarnation that, though the body was
disunited from the soul, yet the indivisible Godhead which had been
blended once for all with the subject (who possessed them) was not
stripped from that body any more than it was from that soul, but while
it was in Paradise along with the soul, and paved an entrance there in
the person of the Thief for all humanity, it remained by means of the
body in the heart of the earth, and therein destroyed him that had the
power of Death (wherefore His body too is called "the Lord [2252] " on
account of that inherent Godhead)--so also, at the beginning, we
conclude that the power of the Highest, coalescing with our entire
nature by that coming upon (the Virgin) of the Holy Ghost, both
resides in our soul, so far as reason sees it possible that it should
reside there, and is blended with our body, so that our salvation
throughout every element may be perfect, that heavenly passionlessness
which is peculiar to the Deity being nevertheless preserved both in
the beginning and in the end of this life as Man [2253] . Thus the
beginning was not as our beginning, nor the end as our end. Both in
the one and in the other He evinced His Divine independence; the
beginning had no stain of pleasure upon it, the end was not the end in
dissolution.
Now if we loudly preach all this, and testify to all this, namely that
Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, always changeless,
always imperishable, though He comes in the changeable and the
perishable; never stained Himself, but making clean that which is
stained; what is the crime that we commit, and wherefore are we hated?
And what means this opposing array [2254] of new Altars? Do we
announce another Jesus? Do we hint at another? Do we produce other
scriptures? Have any of ourselves dared to say "Mother of Man" of the
Holy Virgin, the Mother of God [2255] : which is what we hear that
some of them say without restraint? Do we romance about three
Resurrections [2256] ? Do we promise the gluttony of the Millennium?
Do we declare that the Jewish animal-sacrifices shall be restored? Do
we lower men's hopes again to the Jerusalem below, imagining its
rebuilding with stones of a more brilliant material? What charge like
these can be brought against us, that our company should be reckoned a
thing to be avoided, and that in some places another altar should be
erected in opposition to us, as if we should defile their sanctuaries?
My heart was in a state of burning indignation about this: and now
that I have set foot in the City [2257] again, I am eager to unburden
my soul of its bitterness, by appealing, in a letter, to your love. Do
ye, whithersoever the Holy Spirit shall lead you, there remain; walk
with God before you; confer not with flesh and blood; lend no occasion
to any of them for glorying, that they may not glory in you, enlarging
their ambition by anything in your lives. Remember the Holy Fathers,
into whose hands ye were commended by your Father now in bliss [2258]
, and to whom we by God's grace were deemed worthy to succeed and
remove not the boundaries which our Fathers have laid down, nor put
aside in any way the plainness of our simpler proclamation in favour
of their subtler school. Walk by the primitive rule of the Faith: and
the God of peace shall be with you, and ye shall be strong in mind and
body. May God keep you uncorrupted, is our prayer.
Footnotes
[2242] This Letter was published, Paris 1606, by R. Stephens (not the
great lexicographer), who also translated On Pilgrimages into French
for Du Moulin (see p. 382): and this edition was reprinted a year
after at Hanover, with notes by Isaac Casaubon, "viro docto, sed quod
dolendum, in castris Calvinianis militanti" (Gretser). Heyns places it
in 382, and Rupp also.
[2243] soteria sumbola. Casaubon remarks "hoc est tou soteros,
Salvatoris, non autem soterias poietika." This is itself doubtful; and
he also makes the astounding statement that both Jerome, Augustine,
and the whole primitive Church felt that visits to the Sacred Places
contributed nothing to the alteration of character. But see especially
Jerome, De Peregrinat., and Epistle to Marcella. Fronto Ducæus adds,
"At, velis nolis, soteria sunt illa loca: tum quia aspectu sui corda
ad poenitentiam et salutares lacrymas non raro commovent, ut patet de
Mariâ Ægyptiacâ; tum quia..."
[2244] epouranion politeian. Even Casaubon (against Du Moulin here)
allows this to mean the ascetic or monastic Life; "sublimius
propositum." Cf. Macarius. Hom. v. p. 85. enaretos politeia: Isidore
of Pelusium, lib. 1, c. xiv, pneumatike politeia.
[2245] 1 S. John v. 19.
[2246] psiles: this word expresses the absence of something, without
implying any contempt: cf. psilos anthropos, psilos logos (prose).
[2247] kat' allelon.
[2248] tois ton pholidon stigmasin. For stigma with this meaning and
connexion, see Hesiod, Scutum. 166.
[2249] Ps. lxxxii. 5.
[2250] 1 Pet. ii. 22.
[2251] Compare Gregory against Apollinaris (Ad Theophil. iii. 265):
"The first-fruits of humanity assumed by omnipotent Deity were, like a
drop of vinegar merged in a boundless ocean, found still in that
Deity, but not in their own distinctive properties: otherwise we
should be obliged to think of a duality of Sons." In Orat. Cat. c. 10,
he says that the Divine nature is to be conceived as having been so
united with the human, as flame is with its fuel, the former extending
beyond the latter, as our souls also overstep the limits of our
bodies. The first of these passages appeared to Hooker (V. liii. 2) to
be "so plain and direct for Eutyches," that he doubted whether the
words were Gregory's. But at the Council of Ephesus, S. Cyril (of
Alexandria), in his contest with the Nestorians, had showed that these
expressions were capable of a Catholic interpretation, and pardonable
in discussing the difficult and mysterious question of the union of
the Two Natures.
[2252] S. Matt. xxviii. 6. "Come see the place where the Lord lay."
Cf. S. John xx. 2, 13.
[2253] "Here is the true vicariousness of the Atonement, which
consisted not in the substitution of His punishment for ours, but in
His offering the sacrifice which man had neither the purity nor the
power to offer. From out of the very heart or centre of human
nature...there is raised the sinless sacrifice of perfect humanity by
the God Man....It is a representative sacrifice, for it consists of no
unheard-of experience, of no merely symbolic ceremony, but of just
those universal incidents of suffering, which, though he must have
felt them with a bitterness unknown to us, are intensely human." Lux
Mundi, p. 218.
[2254] antexagoge
[2255] As early as 250, Dionysius of Alexandria, in his letter to Paul
of Samosata, frequently speaks of he theotokos Maria. Later, in the
Council of Ephesus (430), it was decreed that "the immaculate and
ever-Virgin mother of our Lord should be called properly (kurios) and
really theotokos," against the Nestorian title christotokos. Cf.
Theodoret. Anath. I. tom. iv. p. 709, "We call Mary not Mother of Man,
but Mother of God;" and Greg. Naz. Or. li. p. 738. "If any one call
not Mary Mother of God he is outside `divinity.'"
[2256] me treis anastaseis muthopoioumen; For the first Resurrection
(of the Soul in Baptism) and the second (of the Body), see Rev. xx. 5,
with Bishop Wordsworth's note.
[2257] i.e.Cæsarea in Cappadocia.
[2258] Basil, probably: who after Cyril's exile had been called in to
heal the heresy of Apollinaris, which was spreading in the convents at
Jerusalem. The factious purism, however, which Gregory deplores here,
and which led to rival altars, seems to have evinced itself amongst
the orthodox themselves, "quo majorem apud omnes opinionem de suâ
præstantiâ belli isti cathari excitarent" (Casaubon). Cyril, it is
true, had returned this year, 382; and spent the last years of his
life in his see; but with more than twenty years interval of Arian
rule (Herennius, Heraclius, and Hilarius, according to Sozomen) the
communities of the Catholics must have suffered from want of a
constant control: and unity was always difficult to maintain in a city
frequented by all the ecclesiastics of the world. Gregory must have
"succeeded" to this charge in his visit to Jerusalem after the Council
of Antioch in 379, to which he refers in his letter On Pilgrimages:
but it is possible that he had paid even an earlier visit: see Letter
XIV. p. 539, note 5.
.
Letter XVIII.--To Flavian [2259] .
Things with us, O man of God, are not in a good way. The development
of the bad feeling existing amongst certain persons who have conceived
a most groundless and unaccountable hatred of us is no longer a matter
of mere conjecture; it is now evinced with an earnestness and openness
worthy only of some holy work. You meanwhile, who have hitherto been
beyond the reach of such annoyance, are too remiss in stifling the
devouring conflagration on your neighbour's land; yet those who are
well-advised for their own interests really do take pains to check a
fire close to them, securing themselves, by this help given to a
neighbour, against ever needing help in like circumstances. Well, you
will ask, what do I complain of? Piety has vanished from the world;
Truth has fled from our midst; as for Peace, we used to have the name
at all events going the round upon men's lips; but now not only does
she herself cease to exist, but we do not even retain the word that
expresses her. But that you may know more exactly the things that move
our indignation, I will briefly detail to you the whole tragic story.
Certain persons had informed me that the Right Reverend Helladius had
unfriendly feelings towards me, and that he enlarged in conversation
to every one upon the troubles that I had brought upon him. I did not
at first believe what they said, judging only from myself, and the
actual truth of the matter. But when every one kept bringing to us a
tale of the same strain, and facts besides corroborated their report,
I thought it my duty not to continue to overlook this ill-feeling,
while it was still without root and development. I therefore wrote by
letter to your piety, and to many others who could help me in my
intention, and stimulated your zeal in this matter. At last, after I
had concluded the services at Sebasteia in [2260] commemoration of
Peter [2261] of most blessed memory, and of the holy martyrs, who had
lived in his times, and whom the people were accustomed to commemorate
with him, I was returning to my own See, when some one told me that
Helladius himself was in the neighbouring mountain district, holding
martyrs' memorial services. At first I held on my journey, judging it
more proper that our meeting should take place in the metropolis
itself. But when one of his relations took the trouble to meet me, and
to assure me that he was sick, I left my carriage at the spot where
this news arrested me; I performed on horseback the intervening
journey over a road that was like a precipice, and well-nigh
impassable with its rocky ascents. Fifteen milestones measured the
distance we had to traverse. Painfully travelling, now on foot, now
mounted, in the early morning, and even employing some part of the
night, I arrived between twelve and one o'clock at Andumocina; for
that was the name of the place where, with two other bishops, he was
holding his conference. From a shoulder of the hill overhanging this
village, we looked down, while still at a distance, upon this outdoor
assemblage of the Church. Slowly, and on foot, and leading the horses,
I and my company passed over the intervening ground, and we arrived at
the chapel [2262] just as he had retired to his residence.
Without any delay a messenger was despatched to inform him of our
being there; and a very short while after, the deacon in attendance on
him met us, and we requested him to tell Helladius at once, so that we
might spend as much time as possible with him, and so have an
opportunity of leaving nothing in the misunderstanding between us
unhealed. As for myself, I then remained sitting, still in the open
air, and waited for the invitation indoors; and at a most inopportune
time I became, as I sat there, a gazing stock to all the visitors at
the conference. The time was long; drowsiness came on, and languor,
intensified by the fatigue of the journey and the excessive heat of
the day; and all these things, with people staring at me, and pointing
me out to others, were so very distressing that in me the words of the
prophet were realized: "My spirit within me was desolate [2263] ." I
was kept in this state till noon, and heartily did I repent of this
visit, and that I had brought upon myself this piece of discourtesy;
and my own reflection vexed me worse than this injury done me by my
enemies [2264] , warring as it did against itself, and changing into a
regret that I had made the venture. At last the approach to the Altars
was thrown open, and we were admitted to the sanctuary; the crowd,
however, were excluded, though my deacon entered along with me,
supporting with his arm my exhausted frame. I addressed his Lordship,
and stood for a moment, expecting from him an invitation to be seated;
but when nothing of the kind was heard from him, I turned towards one
of the distant seats, and rested myself upon it, still expecting that
he would utter something that was friendly, or at all events kind; or
at least give one nod of recognition.
Any hopes I had were doomed to complete disappointment. There ensued a
silence dead as night, and looks as downcast as in tragedy, and daze,
and dumbfoundedness, and perfect dumbness. A long interval of time it
was, dragged out as if it were in the blackness of night. So struck
down was I by this reception, in which he did not deign to accord me
the merest utterance even of those common salutations by which you
discharge the courtesies of a chance meeting [2265] ,--"welcome," for
instance, or "where do you come from?" or "to what am I indebted for
this pleasure?" or "on what important business are you here?"--that I
was inclined to make this spell of silence into a picture of the life
led in the underworld. Nay, I condemn the similitude as inadequate.
For in that underworld the equality of conditions is complete, and
none of the things that cause the tragedies of life on earth disturb
existence. Their glory, as the Prophet says, does not follow men down
there; each individual soul, abandoning the things so eagerly clung to
by the majority here, his petulance, and pride, and conceit, enters
that lower world in simple unencumbered nakedness; so that none of the
miseries of this life are to be found among them. Still [2266] ,
notwithstanding this reservation, my condition then did appear to me
like an underworld, a murky dungeon, a gloomy torture-chamber; the
more so, when I reflected what treasures of social courtesies we have
inherited from our fathers, and what recorded deeds of it we shall
leave to our descendants. Why, indeed, should I speak at all of that
affectionate disposition of our fathers towards each other? No wonder
that, being all naturally equal [2267] , they wished for no advantage
over one another, but thought to exceed each other only in humility.
But my mind was penetrated most of all with this thought; that the
Lord of all creation, the Only-begotten Son, Who was in the bosom of
the Father, Who was in the beginning, Who was in the form of God, Who
upholds all things by the word of His power, humbled Himself not only
in this respect, that in the flesh He sojourned amongst men, but also
that He welcomed even Judas His own betrayer, when he drew near to
kiss Him, on His blessed lips; and that when He had entered into the
house of Simon the leper He, as loving all men, upbraided his host,
that He had not been kissed by him: whereas I was not reckoned by him
as equal even to that leper; and yet what was I, and what was he? I
cannot discover any difference between us. If one looks at it from the
mundane point of view, where was the height from which he had
descended, where was the dust in which I lay? If, indeed, one must
regard things of this fleshly life, thus much perhaps it will hurt no
one's feelings to assert that, looking at our lineage, whether as
noble or as free, our position was about on a par; though, if one
looked in either for the true freedom and nobility, i.e. that of the
soul, each of us will be found equally a bondsman of Sin; each equally
needs One Who will take away his sins; it was Another Who ransomed us
both from Death and Sin with His own blood, Who redeemed us, and yet
showed no contempt of those whom He has redeemed, calling them though
He does from deadness to life, and healing every infirmity of their
souls and bodies.
Seeing, then, that the amount of this conceit and overweening pride
was so great, that even the height of heaven was almost too narrow
limits for it (and yet I could see no cause or occasion whatever for
this diseased state of mind, such as might make it excusable in the
case of some who in certain circumstances contract it; when, for
instance, rank or education, or pre-eminence in dignities of office
may have happened to inflate the vainer minds), I had no means whereby
to advise myself to keep quiet: for my heart within me was swelling
with indignation at the absurdity of the whole proceeding, and was
rejecting all the reasons for enduring it. Then, if ever, did I feel
admiration for that divine Apostle who so vividly depicts the civil
war that rages within us, declaring that there is a certain "law of
sin in the members, warring against the law of the mind," and often
making the mind a captive, and a slave as well, to itself. This was
the very array, in opposition, of two contending feelings that I saw
within myself: the one, of anger at the insult caused by pride, the
other prompting to appease the rising storm. When by God's grace, the
worse inclination had failed to get the mastery, I at last said to
him, "But is it, then, that some one of the things required for your
personal comfort is being hindered by our presence, and is it time
that we withdrew?" On his declaring that he had no bodily needs, I
spoke to him some words calculated to heal, so far as in me lay, his
ill-feeling. When he had, in a very few words, declared that the anger
he felt towards me was owing to many injuries done him, I for my part
answered him thus: "Lies possess an immense power amongst mankind to
deceive: but in the Divine Judgment there will be no place for the
misunderstandings thus arising. In my relations towards yourself, my
conscience is bold enough to prompt me to hope that I may obtain
forgiveness for all my other sins, but that, if I have acted in any
way to harm you, this may remain for ever unforgiven." He was
indignant at this speech, and did not suffer the proofs of what I had
said to be added.
It was now past six o'clock, and the bath had been well prepared, and
the banquet was being spread, and the day was the sabbath [2268] , and
a martyr's commemoration. Again observe how this disciple of the
Gospel imitates the Lord of the Gospel: He, when eating and drinking
with publicans and sinners, answered to those who found fault with Him
that He did it for love of mankind: this disciple considers it a sin
and a pollution to have us at his board, even after all that fatigue
which we underwent on the journey, after all that excessive heat out
of doors, in which we were baked while sitting at his gates; after all
that gloomy sullenness with which he treated us to the bitter end,
when we had come into his presence. He sends us off to toil painfully,
with a frame now thoroughly exhausted with the over-fatigue, over the
same distance, the same route: so that we scarcely reached our
travelling company at sunset, after we had suffered many mishaps on
the way. For a storm-cloud, gathered into a mass in the clear air by
an eddy of wind, drenched us to the skin with its floods of rain; for
owing to the excessive sultriness, we had made no preparation against
any shower. However, by God's grace we escaped, though in the plight
of shipwrecked sailors from the waves: and right glad were we to reach
our company.
Having joined our forces we rested there that night, and at last
arrived alive in our own district; having reaped in addition this
result of our meeting him, that the memory of all that had happened
before was revived by this last insult offered to us; and, you see, we
are positively compelled to take measures, for the future, on our own
behalf, or rather on his behalf; for it was because his designs were
not checked on former occasions that he has proceeded to this
unmeasured display of vanity. Something, therefore, I think, must be
done on our part, in order that he may improve upon himself, and may
be taught that he is human, and has no authority to insult and to
disgrace those who possess the same beliefs and the same rank as
himself. For just consider; suppose we granted for a moment, for the
sake of argument, that it is true that I have done something that has
annoyed him, what trial [2269] was instituted against us, to judge
either of the fact or the hearsay? What proofs were given of this
supposed injury? What Canons were cited against us? What legitimate
episcopal decision confirmed any verdict passed upon us? And supposing
any of these processes had taken place, and that in the proper way, my
standing [2270] in the Church might certainly have been at stake, but
what Canons could have sanctioned insults offered to a free-born
person, and disgrace inflicted on one of equal rank with himself?
"Judge righteous judgment," you who look to God's law in this matter;
say wherein you deem this disgrace put upon us to be excusable. If our
dignity is to be estimated on the ground of priestly jurisdiction, the
privilege of each recorded by the Council [2271] is one and the same;
or rather the oversight of Catholic correction [2272] , from the fact
that we possess an equal share of it, is so. But if some are inclined
to regard each of us by himself, divested of any priestly dignity, in
what respect has one any advantage over the other; in education for
instance, or in birth connecting with the noblest and most illustrious
lineage, or in theology? These things will be found either equal, or
at all events not inferior, in me. "But what about revenue?" he will
say. I would rather not be obliged to speak of this in his case; thus
much only it will suffice to say, that our own was so much at the
beginning, and is so much now; and to leave it to others to enquire
into the causes of this increase of our revenue [2273] , nursed as it
is up till now, and growing almost daily by means of noble
undertakings. What licence, then, has he to put an insult upon us,
seeing that he has neither superiority of birth to show, nor a rank
exalted above all others, nor a commanding power of speech, nor any
previous kindness done to me? While, even if he had all this to show,
the fault of having slighted those of gentle birth would still be
inexcusable. But he has not got it; and therefore I deem it right to
see that this malady of puffed-up pride is not left without a cure;
and it will be its cure to put it down to its proper level, and reduce
its inflated dimensions, by letting off a little of the conceit with
which he is bursting. The manner of effecting this we leave to God.
Footnotes
[2259] The date of this letter is probably as late as 393. Flavian's
authority at Antioch was now undisputed, by his reconciliation, after
the deaths of Paulinus and Evagrius, with the Bishops of Alexandria
and Rome, and, through them, with all his people. Gregory writes to
him not only as his dear friend, but one who had known how to appease
wrath, and to check opposition from the Emperor downward. He died in
404. The litigiousness of Helladius is described by Greg. Naz., Letter
ccxv. He it was who a few years later, against Ambrose's authority,
and for mere private interest, consecrated the physician Gerontius
(Sozomen, viii. 6).
[2260] Sebasteia (Sivâs) was in Pontus on the upper Halys: and the
"mountain district" between this and Helladius' "metropolis" (Cæsarea,
ad Argæum) must have been some offshoots of the Anti-Taurus.
[2261] His brother, who had urged him to write the books against
Eunomius, and to whom he sent On the Making of Man.
[2262] marturi& 251;, i.e. dedicated in this case to Peter; but the
word is used even of a chapel dedicated to Christ.
[2263] ekediasen Ps. cxliii. 4 (LXX.).
[2264] chalepoteron tes para ton echthron moi genomenes hubreos. The
Latin does not express this, "quam si ab hostibus profecta fuisset."
[2265] ton katemaxeumenon (so Paris Editt. and Migne, but it must be
kathemaxeumenon, from hamaxa) touton ten suntuchian aphosioumenon
[2266] plen all' emoi, k.t.l. See note, p. 313.
[2267] en homotimo te phusei. Cf. hoi homotimoi, the peers of the
Persian kingdom.
[2268] Cf. Dies Dominica (by Thomas Young, tutor of Milton the poet):
"It's without controversie that the Oriental Christians, and others,
did at that time hold assemblies on the Sabbath day....Yet did they
not hold the Sabbath day holy," p. 35. Again, "Socrates doth not
record that they of Alexandria and Rome did celebrate those mysteries
on the Sabbath. While Chrysostom requireth it of the rich Lords of
Villages, that they build Churches in them (Hom. 18 in Act.), he
distinguisheth those congregations that were on other days from those
that were held upon the Lord's day. `Upon those congregations
(sunaxeis) Prayers and hymns were had, in these an oblation was made
on every Lord's day,' and for that cause the Lord's day is in
Chrysostom called, `dies panis'. Athanasius purgeth himself of a
calumny imputed to him, for breaking the cup, because it was not the
time of administering the holy mysteries; `for it is not,' saith he,
`the Lord's day.'" A law of Constantine had enacted that the first day
of the week, "the Lord's day," should be observed with greater
solemnity than formerly; which shows that the seventh day, the
Sabbath, still held its place; and it does not follow that in remoter
places, as here, both were kept. The hour of service was generally "in
the evening after sunset; or in the morning before the dawn," Mosheim.
[2269] kriterion
[2270] ton bathmon i.e."a grade of honour": cf. 1 Tim. iii. 13.
bathmon heautois kalon peripoiountai. So in the Canons often.
[2271] The Council of Constantinople.
[2272] the oversight of Catholic correction. "On July 30, 381, the
Bishop of Nyssa received the supreme honour of being named by
Theodosius as one of the acknowledged authorities in all matters of
theological orthodoxy: and he was appointed to regulate the affairs of
the Church in Asia Minor, conjointly with Helladius of Cæsarea, and
Otreius of Melitene:" Farrar's Lives of the Fathers, 1889.
[2273] He is speaking of the funds of his Diocese, which at one period
certainly he had been accused of mismanaging.
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