__________________________________________________________________ Title: NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works Creator(s): Schaff, Philip Print Basis: Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1895 Rights: Public Domain CCEL Subjects: All; Early CHurch; Classic; Proofed __________________________________________________________________ A SELECT LIBRARY OF THE NICENE AND POST-NICENE FATHERS OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. SECOND SERIES TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH WITH PROLEGOMENA AND EXPLANATORY NOTES. Edited by PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D., LL.D., PROFESSOR OF CHURCH HISTORY IN THE UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK. AND HENRY WACE, D.D., PRINCIPAL OF KING'S COLLEGE, LONDON. VOLUME VIII BASIL: LETTERS AND SELECT WORKS T&T CLARK EDINBURGH __________________________________________________ WM. B. EERDMANS PUBLISHING COMPANY GRAND RAPIDS, MICHIGAN __________________________________________________________________ The tREATISE dE sPIRITU sANCTO THE nINE hOMILIES OF THE hEXaeMERON AND THE lETTERS Of sAINT bASIL THE gREAT Archbishop of caeSARIA, Translated with Notes by The Rev. Blomfield Jackson, M.A. Vicar of Saint Bartholomew's, Moor Lane, and Fellow of King's College, London. __________________________________________________________________ Preface. ------------------------ This translation of a portion of the works of St. Basil was originally begun under the editorial supervision of Dr. Wace. It was first announced that the translation would comprise the De Spiritu Sancto and Select Letters, but it was ultimately arranged with Dr. Wace that a volume of the series should be devoted to St. Basil, containing, as well as the De Spiritu Sancto, the whole of the Letters, and the Hexaemeron. The De Spiritu Sancto has already appeared in an English form, as have portions of the Letters, but I am not aware of an English translation of the Hexaemeron, or of all the Letters. The De Spiritu Sancto was presumably selected for publication as being at once the most famous, as it is among the most valuable, of the extant works of this Father. The Letters comprise short theological treatises and contain passages of historical and varied biographical interest, as well as valuable specimens of spiritual and consolatory exhortation. The Hexaemeron was added as being the most noted and popular of St. Basil's compositions in older days, and as illustrating his exegetic method and skill, and his power as an extempore preacher. The edition used has been that of the Benedictine editors as issued by Migne, with the aid, in the case of the De Spiritu Sancto, of that published by Rev. C. F. H. Johnston. The editorship of Dr. Wace terminated during the progress of the work, but I am indebted to him, and very gratefully acknowledge the obligation, for valuable counsel and suggestions. I also desire to record my thanks to the Rev. C. Hole, Lecturer in Ecclesiastical History at King's College, London, and to Mr. Reginald Geare, Head Master of the Grammar School, Bishop's Stortford, to the former for help in the revision of proof-sheets and important suggestions, and to the latter for aid in the translation of several of the Letters. The works consulted in the process of translation and attempted illustration are sufficiently indicated in the notes. London, December, 1894. __________________________________________________________________ Genealogical Tables __________________________________________________________________ CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE TO ACCOMPANY THE LIFE OF ST. BASIL. ------------------------ A.D. 329 or 330. St. Basil born. 335. Council of Tyre. 336. Death of Arius. 337. Death of Constantine. 340. Death of Constantine II. 341. Dedication creed at Antioch. 343. Julian and Gallus relegated to Macellum. Basil probably sent from Annen to school at Caesarea. 344. Macrostich, and Council of Sardica. 346. Basil goes to constantinople. 350. Death of Constans. 351. Basil goes to constantinople. 1st Creed of Sirmium. 353. Death of Magnentius. 355. Julian goes to Athens (latter part of year). 356. Basil returns to Caesarea. 357. The 2d Creed of Sirmium, or Blasphemy, subscribed by Hosius and Liberius. Basil baptized, and shortly afterwards ordained reader. 358. Basil visits monastic establishments in Egypt, Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia, and retires to the monastery on the Iris. 359. The 3d Creed of Sirmium. Dated May 22. Councils of Seleucia and Ariminum. 360. Acacian synod of Constantinople. Basil, now ordained Deacon, disputes with Aetius. Dianius subscribes the Creed of Ariminum, and Basil in consequence leaves Caesarea. He visits Gregory at Nazianzus. 361. Death of Constantius and accession of Julian. Basil writes the "Moralia." 362. Basil returns to Caesarea. Dianius dies. Eusebius baptized, elected, and consecrated bishop. Lucifer consecrates Paulinus at Antioch. Julian at Caesarea. Martyrdom of Eupsychius. 363. Julian dies (June 27). Accession of Jovian. 364. Jovian dies. Accession of Valentinian and Valens. Basil ordained priest by Eusebius. Basil writes against Eunomius. Semiarian council of Lampsacus. 365. Revolt of Procopius. Valens at Caesarea. 366. Semiarian deputation to Rome satisfy Liberius of their orthodoxy. Death of Liberius. Damasus bp. of Rome. Procopius defeated. 367. Gratian Augustus. Valens favours the Arians. Council of Tyana. 368. Semiarian Council in Caria. Famine in Cappadocia 369. Death of Emmelia. Basil visits Samosata. 370. Death of Eusebius of Caesarea Election and consecration of Basil to the see of Caesarea. Basil makes visitation tour. 371. Basil threatened by arian bishops and by modestus. Valens, travelling slowly from Nicomedia to Caesarea, arrives at the end of the year. 372. Valens attends great service at Caesarea on the Epiphany, Jan. 6. Interviews between Basil and Valens. Death of Galates. Valens endows Ptochotrophium and quits Caesarea. Basil visits Eusebius at Samosata. Claim of Anthimus to metropolitan dignity at Tyana. Basil resists Anthimus. Basil Forces Gregory of Nazianzus to be consecrated bishop of Sasima, and consecrates his brother Gregory to Nyssa. Consequent estrangement of Basil and Gregory of Nazianzus. Basil in Armenia. Creed signed by Eustathius. 373. St. Epiphanius writes the "Ancoratus." Death of Athanasius. Basil visited by Jovinus of Perrha, and by Sanctissimus of Antioch. 374. Death of Auxentius and consecration of Ambrose at Milan. Basil writes the "De Spiritu Sancto." Eusebius of Samosata banished to Thrace. Death of Gregory, bp. of Nazianzus, the elder. 375. Death of Valentinian. Gratian and Valentinian II. emperors. Synod of Illyria, and Letter to the Orientals. Semiarian Council of Cyzicus. Demosthenes harasses the Catholics. Gregory of Nyssa deposed. 376. Synod of Iconium. Open denunciation of Eustathius by Basil. 378. Death of Valens, Aug. 9. Eusebius of Samosata and Meletius return from exile. 379. Death of Basil, Jan. 1. Theodosius Augustus. __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ Prolegomena. ------------------------ Sketch of the Life and Works of Saint Basil. ------------------------ I. Life. I.--Parentage and Birth. Under the persecution of the second Maximinus, [1] a Christian gentleman of good position and fair estate in Pontus [2] and Macrina his wife, suffered severe hardships. [3] They escaped with their lives, and appear to have retained, or recovered, some of their property. [4] Of their children the names of two only have survived: Gregory [5] and Basil. [6] The former became bishop of one of the sees of Cappadocia. The latter acquired a high reputation in Pontus and the neighboring districts as an advocate of eminence, [7] and as a teacher of rhetoric. His character in the Church for probity and piety stood very high. [8] He married an orphaned gentlewoman named Emmelia, whose father had suffered impoverishment and death for Christ's sake, and who was herself a conspicuous example of high-minded and gentle Christian womanhood. Of this happy union were born ten children, [9] five boys and five girls. One of the boys appears to have died in infancy, for on the death of the elder Basil four sons and five daughters were left to share the considerable wealth which he left behind him. [10] Of the nine survivors the eldest was a daughter, named, after her grandmother, Macrina. The eldest of the sons was Basil, the second Naucratius, and the third Gregory. Peter, the youngest of the whole family, was born shortly before his father's death. Of this remarkable group the eldest is commemorated as Saint Macrina in the biography written by her brother Gregory. Naucratius died in early manhood, [11] about the time of the ordination of Basil as reader. The three remaining brothers occupied respectively the sees of Caesarea, Nyssa, and Sebasteia. As to the date of St. Basil's birth opinions have varied between 316 and 330. The later, which is supported by Garnier, Tillemont, Maran, [12] Fessler, [13] and Boehringer, may probably be accepted as approximately correct. [14] It is true that Basil calls himself an old man in 374, [15] but he was prematurely worn out with work and bad health, and to his friends wrote freely and without concealment of his infirmities. There appears no reason to question the date 329 or 330. Two cities, Caesarea in Cappadocia and Neocaesarea in Pontus, have both been named as his birthplace. There must be some amount of uncertainty on this point, from the fact that no direct statement exists to clear it up, and that the word patris was loosely employed to mean not only place of birth, but place of residence and occupation. [16] Basil's parents had property and interests both in Pontus and Cappadocia and were as likely to be in the one as in the other. The early statement of Gregory of Nazianzus has been held to have weight, inasmuch as he speaks of Basil as a Cappadocian like himself before there was any other reason but that of birth for associating him with this province. [17] Assenting, then, to the considerations which have been held to afford reasonable ground for assigning Caesarea as the birthplace, we may adopt the popular estimation of Basil as one of "The Three Cappadocians," [18] and congratulate Cappadocia on the Christian associations which have rescued her fair fame from the slur of the epigram which described her as constituting with Crete and Cilicia a trinity of unsatisfactoriness. [19] Basil's birth nearly synchronizes with the transference of the chief seat of empire from Rome to Byzantium. He is born into a world where the victory already achieved by the Church has been now for sixteen years officially recognized. [20] He is born into a Church in which the first great Council has already given official expression to those cardinal doctrines of the faith, of which the final and formal vindication is not to be assured till after the struggles of the next six score of years. Rome, reduced, civilly, to the subordinate rank of a provincial city, is pausing before she realises all her loss, and waits for the crowning outrage of the barbarian invasions, ere she begins to make serious efforts to grasp ecclesiastically, something of her lost imperial prestige. For a time the centre of ecclesiastical and theological interest is to be rather in the East than in the West. __________________________________________________________________ [1] Of sufferers in this supreme struggle of heathenism to delay the official recognition of the victory of the Gospel over the empire, the Reformed Kalendar of the English Church preserves the memory of St. Blaise (Blasius), bishop of Sebasteia in Armenia, St. George, St. Agnes, St. Lucy, St. Margaret of Antioch, St. Katharine of Alexandria. [2] Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. (xx.). N.B. The reff. to the orations and letters of Greg. Naz. are to the Ordo novus in Migne. [3] Id. [4] Greg. Nyss., Vit. Mac. 178, 191. [5] Bishop of an unknown see. Of the foolish duplicity of Gregory of Nyssa in fabricating a letter from him, see the mention in Epp. lviii., lix., lx. [6] Basileios, Basilius=royal or kingly. The name was a common one. Fabricius catalogues "alii Basilii ultra xxx.," all of some fame. The derivation of Basileus is uncertain, and the connexion of the last syllable with leus=leos=laos, people, almost certainly wrong. The root may be ÖBA, with the idea that the leader makes the followers march. With the type of name, cf. Melchi and the compounds of Melech (e.g. Abimelech) in Scripture, and King, LeRoy, Koenig, among modern names. [7] Greg. Nyss., Vit. Mac. 392. [8] Greg. Nyss., Vit. Mac. 186. [9] Greg. Nyss., Vit. Mac. 182. [10] Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. (xx.). [11] Ib. 181, 191. [12] 329. Prudent Maran, the Ben. Ed. of Basil, was a Benedictine exiled for opposing the Bull Unigenitus. /-1762. [13] "Natus. c. 330." [14] Gregory of Nazianzus, so called, was born during the episcopate of his father, Gregory, bishop of Nazianzus. Gregory the elder died in 373, after holding the see forty-five years. The birth of Gregory the younger cannot therefore be put before 328, and Basil was a little younger than his friend. (Greg. Naz., Ep. xxxiii.) But the birth of Gregory in his father's episcopate has naturally been contested. Vide D.C.B. ii. p. 748, and L. Montaut, Revue Critique on Greg. of N. 1878. [15] Ep. clxii. [16] Gregory of Nazianzus calls Basil a Cappadocian in Ep. vi., and speaks of their both belonging to the same patris. In his Homily In Gordium martyrem, Basil mentions the adornment of Caesarea as being his own adornment. In Epp. lxxvi. and xcvi. he calls Cappadocia his patris. In Ep. lxxiv., Caesarea. In Ep. li. it is doubtful whether it is Pontus, whence he writes, which is his patris, or Caesarea, of which he is writing. In Ep. lxxxvii. it is apparently Pontus. Gregory of Nyssa (Orat. I. in xl. Mart.) calls Sebaste the patris of his forefathers, possibly because Sebaste had at one time been under the jurisdiction of Cappadocia. So in the N.T. patris is the place of the early life and education of our Lord. [17] Maran, Vit. Bas. i. [18] Boehringer. [19] Kappadoches, Koetes, Kilikes, tria kappa kakista. On Basil's own estimate of the Cappadocian character, cf. p. 153, n. cf. also Isidore of Pelusium, i. Epp. 351, 352, 281. [20] The edict of Milan was issued in 313. __________________________________________________________________ II.--Education. The place most closely connected with St. Basil's early years is neither Caesarea nor Neocaesarea, but an insignificant village not far from the latter place, where he was brought up by his admirable grandmother Macrina. [21] In this neighbourhood his family had considerable property, and here he afterwards resided. The estate was at Annesi on the river Iris (Jekil-Irmak), [22] and lay in the neighbourhood of scenery of romantic beauty. Basil's own description [23] of his retreat on the opposite side of the Iris matches the reference of Gregory of Nazianzus [24] to the narrow glen among lofty mountains, which keep it always in shadow and darkness, while far below the river foams and roars in its narrow precipitous bed. There is some little difficulty in understanding the statement of Basil in Letter CCXVI., that the house of his brother Peter, which he visited in 375, and which we may assume to have been on the family property (cf. Letter CX. S: 1) was "not far from Neocaesarea." As a matter of fact, the Iris nowhere winds nearer to Neocaesarea than at a distance of about twenty miles, and Turkhal is not at the nearest point. But it is all a question of degree. Relatively to Caesarea, Basil's usual place of residence, Annesi is near Neocaesarea. An analogy would be found in the statement of a writer usually residing in London, that if he came to Sheffield he would be not far from Doncaster. [25] At Annesi his mother Emmelia erected a chapel in honour of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste to which their relics were translated. It is possible that Basil was present at the dedication services, lasting all night long, which are related to have sent his brother Gregory to sleep. [26] Here, then, Basil was taught the rudiments of religion by his grandmother, [27] and by his father, [28] in accordance with the teaching of the great Gregory the Wonder-worker. [29] Here he learned the Catholic faith. At an early age he seems to have been sent to school at Caesarea, [30] and there to have formed the acquaintance of an Eusebius, otherwise unknown, [31] Hesychius, [32] and Gregory of Nazianzus, [33] and to have conceived a boyish admiration for Dianius the archbishop. [34] From Caesarea Basil went to Constantinople, and there studied rhetoric and philosophy with success. Socrates [35] and Sozomen [36] say that he worked at Antioch under Libanius. It may be that both these writers have confounded Basil of Caesarea with the Basil to whom Chrysostom dedicated his De Sacerdotio, and who was perhaps the bishop of Raphanea, who signed the creed of Constantinople. [37] There is no corroboration of a sojourn of Basil of Caesarea at Antioch. Libanius was at Constantinople in 347, [38] and there Basil may have attended his lectures. [39] From Constantinople the young Cappadocian student proceeded in 351 to Athens. Of an university town of the 4th century we have a lively picture in the writings of his friend, [40] and are reminded that the rough horse-play of the modern undergraduate is a survival of a very ancient barbarism. The lads were affiliated to certain fraternities, [41] and looked out for the arrival of every new student at the city, with the object of attaching him to the classes of this or that teacher. Kinsmen were on the watch for kinsmen and acquaintances for acquaintances; sometimes it was mere good-humoured violence which secured the person of the freshman. The first step in this grotesque matriculation was an entertainment; then the guest of the day was conducted with ceremonial procession through the agora to the entrance of the baths. There they leaped round him with wild cries, and refused him admission. At last an entry was forced with mock fury, and the neophyte was made free of the mysteries of the baths and of the lecture halls. Gregory of Nazianzus, a student a little senior to Basil, succeeded in sparing him the ordeal of this initiation, and his dignity and sweetness of character seem to have secured him immunity from rough usage without loss of popularity. [42] At Athens the two young Cappadocians were noted among their contemporaries for three things: their diligence and success in work; their stainless and devout life; and their close mutual affection. Everything was common to them. They were as one soul. What formed the closest bond of union was their faith. God and their love of what is best made them one. [43] Himerius, a pagan, and Prohaeresius, an Armenian Christian, are mentioned among the well-known professors whose classes Basil attended. [44] Among early friendships, formed possibly during his university career, Basil's own letters name those with Terentius [45] and Sophronius. [46] If the Libanian correspondence be accepted as genuine, we may add Celsus, a pupil of Libanius, to the group. [47] But if we except Basil's affection for Gregory of Nazianzus, of none of these intimacies is the interest so great as of that which is recorded to have been formed between Basil and the young prince Julian. [48] One incident of the Athenian sojourn, which led to bitter consequences in after days, was the brief communication with Apollinarius, and the letter written "from layman to layman," [49] which his opponents made a handle for much malevolence, and perhaps for forgery. Julian arrived at Athens after the middle of the year 355. [50] Basil's departure thence and return to Caesarea may therefore be approximately fixed early in 356. [51] Basil starts for his life's work with the equipment of the most liberal education which the age could supply. He has studied Greek literature, rhetoric, and philosophy under the most famous teachers. He has been brought into contact with every class of mind. His training has been no narrow hothouse forcing of theological opinion and ecclesiastical sentiment. The world which he is to renounce, to confront, to influence is not a world unknown to him. [52] He has seen heathenism in all the autumn grace of its decline, and comes away victorious from seductions which were fatal to some young men of early Christian associations. Athens no doubt contributed its share of influence to the apostasy of Julian. Basil, happily, was found to be rooted more firmly in the faith. [53] __________________________________________________________________ [21] Epp. cciv., ccx., ccxxiii. [22] Epp. iii., ccxxiii. The researches of Prof. W. M. Ramsay enable the exact spot to be identified with approximate certainty, and, with his guidance, a pilgrim to the scenes of Basil's boyhood and earlier monastic labours might feel himself on fairly sure ground. He refers to the description of St. Basil's hermitage given by Gregory of Nazianzus in his Ep. iv., a description which may be compared with that of Basil himself in Ep. xiv., as one which "can hardly refer to any other spot than the rocky glen below Turkhal. Ibora," in which the diocese Annesi was situated, "cannot be placed further down, because it is the frontier bishopric of Pontus towards Sebasteia, and further up there is no rocky glen until the territory of Comana is reached. Gregory Nyssenus, in his treatise on baptism" (Migne, iii. 324 c.) "speaks of Comana as a neighbouring city. Tillemont, thinking that the treatise was written at Nyssa, infers that Nyssa and Comana were near each other. The truth is that Gregory must have written his treatise at Annesi. We may therefore infer that the territory of Ibora adjoined that of Comana on the east and that of Sebasteia on the south, and touched the Iris from the boundary of Comana down to the point below Turkhal. The boundary was probably near Tokat, and Ibora itself may have been actually situated near Turkhal." Prof. W. M. Ramsay, Hist. Geog. of Asia Minor, p. 326. [23] Ep. xiv. [24] Greg. Naz., Ep. iv. [25] On the visits to Peter, Prof. W. M. Ramsay writes: "The first and more natural interpretation is that Peter lived at a place further up the Iris than Dazimon, in the direction of Neocaesarea. But on more careful consideration it is obvious that, after the troubles in Dazimon, Basil went to take a holiday with his brother Peter, and therefore he did not necessarily continue his journey onward from Dazimon. The expression of neighbourhood to the district of Neocaesarea is doubtless only comparative. Basil's usual residence was at Caesarea. Moreover, as Ibora has now been placed, its territory probably touched that of Neocaesarea." Hist. Geog. of A.M. p. 328. [26] Greg. Nyss., Orat. in xl. Mart. [27] Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. [28] Ep. ccxxiii. [29] See Ep. cciv. and note on p. 250. [30] i.e. the Cappadocian Caesarea. The theory of Tillemont that Caesarea of Palestine was the scene of Basil's early school life seems hardly to deserve the careful refutation of Maran (Vit. Bas. i. 5). cf. Ep. xlv. p. 148, and p. 145, n. cf. also note on p. 141 on a possible intercourse between the boy Basil and the young princes Gallus and Julian in their seclusion at Macellum. The park and palace of Macellum (Amm. Marc. "fundus") was near Mt. Argaeus (Soz. v. 2) and close to Caesarea. If Basil and Julian did ever study the Bible together, it seems more probably that they should do so at Macellum, while the prince was still being educated as a Christian, than afterwards at Athens, when the residence at Nicomedia has resulted in the apostasy. cf. Maran, Vit. Bas. ii. 4. [31] Ep. cclxxi. [32] Ep. lxiv. [33] Greg. Naz. Or. xliii. [34] Ep. li. [35] Ecc. Hist. iv. 26. [36] Ecc. Hist. vi. 17. [37] Maran, Vit. Bas. ii., Fabricius, Ed. Harles. vol. ix. [38] He does not seem to have been at Antioch until 353, D.C.B. iii. 710, when Basil was at Athens. [39] cf. the correspondence with Libanius, of which the genuineness has been questioned, in Letters cccxxxv.-ccclix. Letter cccxxxix. suggests a possibility of some study of Hebrew. But Basil always uses the LXX. [40] Greg. Naz., Or. xliii., and poem De Vita Sua. [41] phratriai. Greg., De Vita Sua, 215. [42] A somewhat similar exemption is recorded of Dean Stanley at Rugby. [43] Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. 20, 21; Carm. xi. 221-235: ";;O d' eis en hemas diapherontos egage Tout en theos te kai pothos ton kreissonon." Ullman (Life of Greg.) quotes Cic., De Amicitia, xxv.: "Amicitiae vis est in eo ut unus quasi animus fiat ex pluribus." [44] Soc. iv. 26 and Soz. vi. 17. [45] Ep. lxiv. [46] Ep. cclxxii. [47] Ep. cccvi. [48] Greg. Naz., Or. iv., Epp. xxxix., xl., xli., on the first of which see note. [49] Ep. ccxxiv. 2. [50] Amm. Mar. xv. 2, 8. "Permissus" is no doubt an euphemism for "coactus." [51] "Non enim citius contigit anno 355 exeunte aut ineunte 356, si quidem ibi vidit Basilius Julianum, qui in hanc urbem venit jam media parte anni 355elapsa: neque etiam serius, quia spatia inter studia litterarum et sacerdotium nimis contrahi non patitur rerum Basilii gestarum multitudo." Maran. [52] On the education of Basil, Eug. Fialon remarks (Etude Historique et Litteraire, p. 15): "Saint Gregoire, sur le trone patriarcal de Constantinople, declarait ne pas savoir la langue de Rome. Il en fut de meme de Saint Basile. Du moins, c'est vainement qu'on chercherait dans ses ouvrages quelque trace des poetes ou des prosateurs Latins. Si des passages de l'Hexameron semblent tires de Ciceron ou de Pline, il ne faut pas s'y meprendre. C'etaint de sortes de lieux cammuns qui se retrouvent dans Plutarque et dans Elien-ceux-ci les avaient empruntes `a quelque vieil auteur, Aristotle, par exemple, et c'est `a cette source premiere qu'avaient puise Grecs et Latins. Les Grecs poussaient meme si loin l'ignorance du ayant `a dire comment le mot ciel s'exprime en Latin, l'ecrit a peu pres comme il devait l'entendre prononcer aux Romains, Keloum, sans se preoccuper de la quantite ni de l'etymologie...La litterature Grecque etait donc le fonds unique des etudes en Orient, et certes elle pouvait, `a elle seule, satisfaire de nobles intelligences...C'est dans Homere que les jeunes Grecs apprenaient `a lire. Pendant tout le cours de leurs etudes, ils expliquaient ses poemes...Ses vers remplissent la correspondances des peres de l'Eglise, et plus d'une comparaison profane passe de ses poemes dans leurs homelies. Apres Homere, venaient Hesiode et les tragiques Herodote et Thucydide, Demosthene, Isocrate, et Lysias. Ainsi poetes, historiens, orateurs, formaient l'esprit, dirigeaient le coeur, elevaient l'ame des enfants. Mais ces auteurs etaient les coryphees du paganisme, et plus d'une passage de leur livres blessait la morale severe du christianisme. Nul doute qu'un maitre religieux, un saint, comme le pere de Basile, a propos des dieux d'Homere,...dut plus d'une fois deplorer l'aveuglement d'un si beau genie....Jusqu'ici, les etudes de Basile repondent `a peu pres a notre instruction secondaire. Alors, comme aujourd'hui ces premiere etudes n'etaient qu'un acheminement `a des travaux plus serieux. Muni de ce premier bagage litteraire, un jeune homme rich, et que voulait briller dans le monde, allait dans les grands centres, `a Antioche, `a Alexandrie, `a Constantinople, et surtout `a Athenes, etudier l'eloquence et la philosophie." [53] cf. C. Ullman, Life of Gregory of Naz. chap. ii., and Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. 21. blaberai men tois allois Athenai at eis psuchen. __________________________________________________________________ III.--Life at Caesarea; Baptism; and Adoption of Monastic Life. When Basil overcame the efforts of his companions to detain him at Athens, Gregory was prevailed on to remain for a while longer. Basil therefore made his rapid journey homeward alone. His Letter to Eustathius [54] alleges as the chief reason for his hurried departure the desire to profit by the instruction of that teacher. This may be the language of compliment. In the same letter he speaks of his fortitude in resisting all temptation to stop at the city on the Hellespont. This city I hesitate to recognise, with Maran, as Constantinople. There may have been inducements to Basil to stop at Lampsacus and it is more probably Lampsacus that he avoided. [55] At Caesarea he was welcomed as one of the most distinguished of her sons, [56] and there for a time taught rhetoric with conspicuous success. [57] A deputation came from Neocaesarea to request him to undertake educational work at that city, [58] and in vain endeavoured to detain [59] him by lavish promises. According to his friend Gregory, Basil had already determined to renounce the world, in the sense of devoting himself to an ascetic and philosophic life. [60] His brother Gregory, however, [61] represents him as at this period still under more mundane influences, and as shewing something of the self-confidence and conceit which are occasionally to be observed in young men who have just successfully completed an university career, and as being largely indebted to the persuasion and example of his sister Macrina for the resolution, with which he now carried out the determination to devote himself to a life of self-denial. To the same period may probably be referred Basil's baptism. The sacrament was administered by Dianius. [62] It would be quite consonant with the feelings of the times that pious parents like the elder Basil and Emmelia should shrink from admitting their boy to holy baptism before his encountering the temptations of school and university life. [63] The assigned date, 357, may be reasonably accepted, and shortly after his baptism he was ordained Reader. [64] It was about this that he visited monastic settlements in Palestine, Mesopotamia, Coele Syria, and Egypt, [65] though he was not so fortunate as to encounter the great pope Athanasius. [66] Probably during this tour he began the friendship with Eusebius of Samosata which lasted so long. To the same period we may also refer his renunciation of his share of the family property. [67] Maran would appear to date this before the Syrian and Egyptian tour, a journey which can hardly have been accomplished without considerable expense. But, in truth, with every desire to do justice to the self-denial and unworldliness of St. Basil and of other like-minded and like-lived champions of the Faith, it cannot but be observed that, at all events in Basil's case, the renunciation must be understood with some reasonable reservation. The great archbishop has been claimed as a "socialist," whatever may be meant in these days by the term. [68] But St. Basil did not renounce all property himself, and had a keen sense of its rights in the case of his friends. [69] From his letter on behalf of his foster-brother, placed by Maran during his presbyterate, [70] it would appear that this foster-brother, Dorotheus, was allowed a life tenancy of a house and farm on the family estate, with a certain number of slaves, on condition that Basil should be supported out of the profits. Here we have landlord, tenant, rent, and unearned increment. St. Basil can scarcely be fairly cited as a practical apostle of some of the chapters of the socialist evangel of the end of the nineteenth century. But ancient eulogists of the great archbishop, anxious to represent him as a good monk, have not failed to foresee that this might be urged in objection to the completeness of his renunciation of the world, in their sense, and to counterbalance it, have cited an anecdote related by Cassian. [71] One day a senator named Syncletius came to Basil to be admitted to his monastery, with the statement that he had renounced his property, excepting only a pittance to save him from manual labour. "You have spoilt a senator," said Basil, "without making a monk." Basil's own letter represents him as practically following the example of, or setting an example to, Syncletius. Stimulated to carry out his purpose of embracing the ascetic life by what he saw of the monks and solitaries during his travels, Basil first of all thought of establishing a monastery in the district of Tiberina. [72] Here he would have been in the near neighbourhood of Arianzus, the home of his friend Gregory. But the attractions of Tiberina were ultimately postponed to those of Ibora, and Basil's place of retreat was fixed in the glen not far from the old home, and only separated from Annesi by the Iris, of which we have Basil's own picturesque description. [73] Gregory declined to do more than pay a visit to Pontus, and so is said to have caused Basil much disappointment. [74] It is a little characteristic of the imperious nature of the man of stronger will, that while he would not give up the society of his own mother and sister in order to be near his friend, he complained of his friend's not making a similar sacrifice in order to be near him. [75] Gregory [76] good-humouredly replies to Basil's depreciation of Tiberina by a counter attack on Caesarea and Annesi. At the Pontic retreat Basil now began that system of hard ascetic discipline which eventually contributed to the enfeeblement of his health and the shortening of his life. He complains again and again in his letters of the deplorable physical condition to which he is reduced, and he died at the age of fifty. It is a question whether a constitution better capable of sustaining the fatigue of long journeys, and a life prolonged beyond the Council of Constantinople, would or would not have left a larger mark upon the history of the Church. There can be no doubt, that in Basil's personal conflict with the decadent empire represented by Valens, his own cause was strengthened by his obvious superiority to the hopes and fears of vulgar ambitions. He ate no more than was actually necessary for daily sustenance, and his fare was of the poorest. Even when he was archbishop, no flesh meat was dressed in his kitchens. [77] His wardrobe consisted of one under and one over garment. By night he wore haircloth; not by day, lest he should seem ostentatious. He treated his body, says his brother, with a possible reference to St. Paul, [78] as an angry owner treats a runaway slave. [79] A consistent celibate, he was yet almost morbidly conscious of his unchastity, mindful of the Lord's words as to the adultery of the impure thought. [80] St. Basil relates in strong terms his admiration for the ascetic character of Eustathius of Sebaste, [81] and at this time was closely associated with him. Indeed, Eustathius was probably the first to introduce the monastic system into Pontus, his part in the work being comparatively ignored in later days when his tergiversation had brought him into disrepute. Thus the credit of introducing monasticism into Asia Minor was given to Basil alone. [82] A novel feature of this monasticism was the Coenobium, [83] for hitherto ascetics had lived in absolute solitude, or in groups of only two or three. [84] Thus it was partly relieved from the discredit of selfish isolation and unprofitable idleness. [85] The example set by Basil and his companions spread. Companies of hard-working ascetics of both sexes were established in every part of Pontus, every one of them an active centre for the preaching of the Nicene doctrines, and their defence against Arian opposition and misconstruction. [86] Probably about this time, in conjunction with his friend Gregory, Basil compiled the collection of the beauties of Origen which was entitled Philocalia. Origen's authority stood high, and both of the main divisions of Christian thought, the Nicene and the Arian, endeavoured to support their respective views from his writings. Basil and Gregory were successful in vindicating his orthodoxy and using his aid in strengthening the Catholic position. [87] __________________________________________________________________ [54] Ep. i. [55] What these inducements can have been it seems vain to conjecture. cf. Ep. i. and note. [56] Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. [57] Rufinus xi. 9. [58] Ep. ccx. S: 2. The time assigned by Maran for the incident here narrated is no doubt the right one. But the deputation need have travelled no farther than to Annesi, if, as is tolerably certain, Basil on his return from Athens visited his relatives and the family estate. [59] The word kataschein would be natural if they sought to keep him in Pontus; hardly, if their object was to bring him from Caesarea. [60] Or. xliii. [61] Vit. Mac. [62] cf. De Sp. Scto. xxix., where the description of the bishop who both baptized and ordained Basil, and spent a long life in the ministry, can apply only to Dianius. cf. Maran, Vit. Bas. iii. [63] According to the legendary life of St. Basil, attributed to St. Amphilochius, he was baptized at Jerusalem. Nor is it right to omit to notice the argument of Wall (Infant Baptism, ch. x.) founded on a coincidence between two passages in the writings of Greg. Naz. In Or. xl. ad init. he speaks of baptism as a genesis hemerine kai eleuthera kai lutike pathon, pan to apo geneseos kalumma peritemnousa, kai pros ten ano zoen epanagousa. In Or. xliii., he says of Basil that ta prota tes helikias upo to patri...sparganoutai kai diaplattetai plasin ten aristen te kai katharotaten, hen hemerinen ho theios Dabid kalos onouazei kai tes nuchterines antitheton. As they stand alone, there is something to be said for the conclusion Wall deduces from these passages. Against it there is the tradition of the later baptism, with the indication of Dianius as having performed the rite in the De Sp. Scto. 29. On the other hand ta prota tes helikias might possibly refer not to infancy, but to boyhood. [64] De S. Scto. xxiv. On his growing seriousness of character, cf. Ep. ccxxiii. [65] Epp. i. and ccxxiii. S: 2. [66] Ep. lxxx. [67] cf. Ep. ccxxiii. S: 2. Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. [68] e.g. The New Party, 1894, pp. 82 and 83, quoting Bas., In Isa. i., Hom. in illud Lucae Destruam horrea, S: 7, and Hom. in Divites. [69] Epp. iii., xxxvi. cf. Dr. Travers Smith, Basil, p. 33. [70] Ep. xxxvii. [71] Inst. vii. 19. cf. note on Cassian, vol. xi. p. 254 of this series. [72] Ep. xiv. ad fin. [73] Ep. xiv. [74] Greg. Naz., Ep. i. or xliii. S: 25. [75] On the latter difference between the friends at the time of Basil's consecration, De Broglie remarks: "Ainsi se trahissait `a chaque pas cette profords diversite de caractere qui devait parfois troubler, mais plus sonnent ranimer et resserrer l'union de ces deux belles ames: Basile, ne pour le gouvernement des hommes et pour la lutte, prompt et precis dans ses resolutions, embrassant `a coup d'oeil le but `a poursuivre et y marchant droit sans s'inquieter des difficultes et du jugement des spectateurs; Gregoire, atteint de cette delicatesse un peu maladive, qui est, chez les esprits d'elite, la source de l'inspiration poetique, sensible `a la moindre renonce d'approbation ou de blame, surtout `a la moindre blessure de l'amitie, plus finement averti des obstacles, mais aussi plus aisement decourage, melant a la poursuite des plus grands interets un soin peut etre excessif de sa dignite et toutes les inquietudes d'un coeur souffrant." L'Eglise et l'Empire Romain au IVme Siecle, v. p. 89. [76] Greg. Naz., Ep. ii. [77] Ep. xli. [78] 1 Cor. ix. 27. [79] Greg. Nyss., In Bas. 314 c. [80] Cassian, Inst. vi. 19. [81] Ep. ccxxiii. S: 3. [82] cf. Tillemont ix. passim, Walch iii. 552, Schroeckh xiii. 25, quoted by Robertson, i. 366. [83] koinobion. [84] Maran, Vit. Bas. vi. [85] cf. Bas., Reg. Fus. Resp. vii., quoted by Robertson, i. 366. His rule has been compared to that of St. Benedict. D.C.B. i. 284. On the life in the Retreat, cf. Epp. ii. and ccvii. [86] Soz. vi. 17. [87] cf. Soc., Ecc. Hist. iv. 26. Of this work Gregory says, in sending it to a friend: hina de ti kai hupomnema par' hemon eches, to d' auto kai tou hagiou Basileiou puktion apestalkamen soi tes Origenous philokalias, eklogas echon ton chresimon tois philologois. Ep. lxxxvii. __________________________________________________________________ IV.--Basil and the Councils, to the Accession of Valens. Up to this time St. Basil is not seen to have publicly taken an active part in the personal theological discussions of the age; but the ecclesiastical world was eagerly disputing while he was working in Pontus. Aetius, the uncompromising Arian, was openly favoured by Eudoxius of Germanicia, who had appropriated the see of Antioch in 357. This provoked the Semiarians to hold their council at Ancyra in 358, when the Sirmian "Blasphemy" of 357 was condemned. The Acacians were alarmed, and manoeuvred for the division of the general council which Constantius was desirous of summoning. Then came Ariminum, Nike, and Seleucia, in 359, and "the world groaned to find itself Arian." Deputations from each of the great parties were sent to a council held under the personal presidency of Constantius at Constantinople, and to one of these the young deacon was attached. The date of the ordination to this grade is unknown. On the authority of Gregory of Nyssa [88] and Philostorgius, [89] it appears that Basil accompanied his namesake of Ancyra and Eustathius of Sebaste to the court, and supported Basil the bishop. Philostorgius would indeed represent the younger Basil as championing the Semiarian cause, though with some cowardice. [90] It may be concluded, with Maran, that he probably stood forward stoutly for the truth, not only at the capital itself, but also in the neighbouring cities of Chalcedon and Heraclea. [91] But his official position was a humble one, and his part in the discussions and amid the intrigues of the council was only too likely to be misrepresented by those with whom he did not agree, and even misunderstood by his own friends. In 360 Dianius signed the creed of Ariminum, brought to Caesarea by George of Laodicea; and thereby Basil was so much distressed as henceforward to shun communion with his bishop. [92] He left Caesarea and betook himself to Nazianzus to seek consolation in the society of his friend. But his feelings towards Dianius were always affectionate, and he indignantly repudiated a calumnious assertion that he had gone so far as to anathematize him. Two years later Dianius fell sick unto death and sent for Basil, protesting that at heart he had always been true to the Catholic creed. Basil acceded to the appeal, and in 362 once again communicated with his bishop and old friend. [93] In the interval between the visit to Constantinople and this death-bed reconciliation, that form of error arose which was long known by the name of Macedonianism, and which St. Basil was in later years to combat with such signal success in the treatise Of the Spirit. It combined disloyalty to the Spirit and to the Son. But countervailing events were the acceptance of the Homoousion by the Council of Paris, [94] and the publication of Athanasius' letters to Serapion on the divinity of the two Persons assailed. To this period is referred the compilation by Basil of the Moralia. [95] The brief reign of Julian would affect Basil, in common with the whole Church, in two ways: in the relief he would feel at the comparative toleration shewn to Catholics, and the consequent return of orthodox bishops to their sees; [96] in the distress with which he would witness his old friend's attempts to ridicule and undermine the Faith. Sorrow more personal and immediate must have been caused by the harsh treatment of Caesarea [97] and the cruel imposts laid on Cappadocia. What conduct on the part of the Caesareans may have led Gregory of Nazianzus [98] to speak of Julian as justly offended, we can only conjecture. It may have been the somewhat disorderly proceedings in connexion with the appointment of Eusebius to succeed Dianius. But there can be no doubt about the sufferings of Caesarea nor of the martyrdom of Eupsychius and Damas for their part in the destruction of the Temple of Fortune. [99] The precise part taken by Basil in the election of Eusebius can only be conjectured. Eusebius, like Ambrose of Milan, a layman of rank and influence, was elevated per saltum to the episcopate. Efforts were made by Julian and by some Christian objectors to get the appointment annulled by means of Gregory, Bishop of Nazianzus, on the ground of its having been brought about by violence. Bishop Gregory refused to take any retrogressive steps, and thought the scandal of accepting the tumultuary appointment would be less than that of cancelling the consecration. Gregory the younger presumably supported his father, and he associates Basil with him as probable sufferers from the imperial vengeance. [100] But he was at Nazianzus at the time of the election, and Basil is more likely to have been an active agent. [101] To this period may be referred Basil's receipt of the letter from Athanasius, mentioned in Letter CCIV., S: 6. [102] On the accession of Jovian, in June, 363, Athanasius wrote to him asserting the Nicene Faith, but he was greeted also by a Semiarian manifesto from Antioch, [103] of which the first signatory was Meletius. Valentinian and Valens, on their accession in the following year, thus found the Church still divided on its cardinal doctrines, and the lists were marked in which Basil was henceforward to be a more conspicuous combatant. __________________________________________________________________ [88] i. Eunom. [89] iv. 12. [90] ois Basileios heteros paren sunaspizon diakonon eti taxin echon, dunamei men tou legein pollon propheron, to de tes gnomes atharsei pros tous koinous hupostellomenous agonas. This is unlike Basil. "This may be the Arian way of saying that St. Basil withdrew from the Seleucian deputies when they yielded to the Acacians." Rev. C.F.H. Johnston, De. S. Scto. Int. xxxvi. [91] Ep. ccxxiii. S: 5. [92] Ep. li. [93] Epp. viii. and li. [94] 360. Mansi, iii. 357-9. [95] ethika. "Capita moralia christiana, ex meris Novi Testamenti dictis contexta et regulis lxxx. comprehensa." Fab. Closely connected with these are the Regulae fusius tractatae (horoi kata platos) lv., and the Regulae brevius tractatae (horoi kat' epitomen) cccxiii. (Migne, xxxi. pp. 890-1306) on which see later. [96] The most important instance being that of Athanasius, who, on his return to Alexandria after his third exile, held a synod which condemned Macedonians as well as Arians. cf. Newman's Arians, v. 1. [97] Soz. v. 4. [98] Or. iv. S: 92. [99] Epp. c., cclii. Soz. v. 11. cf. also Epp. xxxix., xl., and xli., with the notes on pp. 141, 142, for the argument for and against the genuineness of the correspondence. Two Eupsychii of Caesarea are named in the Acta Sanctorum and by the Petits Bollandistes,--one celebrated on April 9, said to have been martyred in the reign of Hadrian, the other the victim of Julian in 362, commemorated on Sept. 7. Tillemont identifies them. Baronius thinks them distinct. J. S. Stilting (Act. Sanct. ed. 1868) is inclined to distinguish them mainly on the ground that between 362 and the time of Basil's describing the festival as an established yearly commemoration there is not sufficient interval for the cultus to have arisen. This alone seems hardly convincing. The local interest in the victim of Julian's severity would naturally be great. Becket was murdered in 1170 and canonized in 1173, Dec. 29 being fixed for his feast; Lewis VII. of France was among the pilgrims in 1179. Bernadette Soubirous announced her vision at Lourdes in 1858; the church was begun there in 1862. [100] Or. v. 39. [101] cf. Greg. Naz. Ep. viii. [102] Maran, Vit. Bas. viii. 8. [103] Soc. iii. 25. __________________________________________________________________ V.--The Presbyterate. Not long after the accession of Valens, Basil was ordained presbyter by Eusebius. [104] An earlier date has been suggested, but the year 364 is accepted as fitting in better with the words of Gregory [105] on the free speech conceded to heretics. And from the same Letter it may be concluded that the ordination of Basil, like that of Gregory himself, was not wholly voluntary, and that he was forced against his inclinations to accept duties when he hesitated as to his liking and fitness for them. It was about this time that he wrote his Books against Eunomius; [106] and it may possibly have been this work which specially commended him to Eusebius. However this may be, there is no doubt that he was soon actively engaged in the practical work of the diocese, and made himself very useful to Eusebius. But Basil's very vigour and value seem to have been the cause of some alienation between him and his bishop. His friend Gregory gives us no details, but it may be inferred from what he says that he thought Basil ill-used. [107] And allusions of Basil have been supposed to imply his own sense of discourtesy and neglect. [108] The position became serious. Bishops who had objected to the tumultuary nomination of Eusebius, and had with difficulty been induced to maintain the lawfulness of his consecration, were ready to consecrate Basil in his place. But Basil shewed at once his wisdom and his magnanimity. A division of the orthodox clergy of Cappadocia would be full of danger to the cause. He would accept no personal advancement to the damage of the Church. He retired with his friend Gregory to his Pontic monasteries, [109] and won the battle by flying from the field. Eusebius was left unmolested, and the character of Basil was higher than ever. [110] The seclusion of Basil in Pontus seemed to afford an opportunity to his opponents in Cappadocia, and according to Sozomen, [111] Valens himself, in 365, was moved to threaten Caesarea with a visit by the thought that the Catholics of Cappadocia were now deprived of the aid of their strongest champion. Eusebius would have invoked Gregory, and left Basil alone. Gregory, however, refused to act without his friend, and, with much tact and good feeling, succeeded in atoning the two offended parties. [112] Eusebius at first resented Gregory's earnest advocacy of his absent friend, and was inclined to resent what seemed the somewhat impertinent interference of a junior. But Gregory happily appealed to the archbishop's sense of justice and superiority to the common unwillingness of high dignitaries to accept counsel, and assured him that in all that he had written on the subject he had meant to avoid all possible offence, and to keep within the bounds of spiritual and philosophic discipline. [113] Basil returned to the metropolitan city, ready to cooperate loyally with Eusebius, and to employ all his eloquence and learning against the proposed Arian aggression. To the grateful Catholics it seemed as though the mere knowledge that Basil was in Caesarea was enough to turn Valens with his bishops to flight, [114] and the tidings, brought by a furious rider, of the revolt of Procopius, [115] seemed a comparatively insignificant motive for the emperor's departure. There was now a lull in the storm. Basil, completely reconciled to Eusebius, began to consolidate the archiepiscopal power which he afterward wielded as his own, [116] over the various provinces in which the metropolitan of Caesarea exercised exarchic authority. [117] In the meantime the Semiarians were beginning to share with the Catholics the hardships inflicted by the imperial power. At Lampsacus in 364 they had condemned the results of Ariminum and Constantinople, and had reasserted the Antiochene Dedication Creed of 341. In 366 they sent deputies to Liberius at Rome, who proved their orthodoxy by subscribing the Nicene Creed. Basil had not been present at Lampsacus, [118] but he had met Eustathius and other bishops on their way thither, and had no doubt influenced the decisions of the synod. Now the deputation to the West consisted of three of those bishops with whom he was in communication, Eustathius of Sebasteia, Silvanus of Tarsus, and Theophilus of Castabala. To the first it was an opportunity for regaining a position among the orthodox prelates. It can hardly have been without the persuasion of Basil that the deputation went so far as they did in accepting the homoousion, but it is a little singular, and indicative of the comparatively slow awakening of the Church in general to the perils of the degradation of the Holy Ghost, that no profession of faith was demanded from the Lampsacene delegates on this subject. [119] In 367 the council of Tyana accepted the restitution of the Semiarian bishops, and so far peace had been promoted. [120] To this period may very probably be referred the compilation of the Liturgy which formed the basis of that which bears Basil's name. [121] The claims of theology and of ecclesiastical administration in Basil's time did not, however, prevent him from devoting much of his vast energy to works of charity. Probably the great hospital for the housing and relief of travellers and the poor, which he established in the suburbs of Caesarea, was planned, if not begun, in the latter years of his presbyterate, for its size and importance were made pretexts for denouncing him to Elias, the governor of Cappadocia, in 372, [122] and at the same period Valens contributed to its endowment. It was so extensive as to go by the name of Newtown, [123] and was in later years known as the "Basileiad." [124] It was the mother of other similar institutions in the country-districts of the province, each under a Chorepiscopus. [125] But whether the Ptochotrophium [126] was or was not actually begun before Basil's episcopate, great demands were made on his sympathy and energy by the great drought and consequent famine which befell Caesarea in 368. [127] He describes it with eloquence in his Homily On the Famine and Drought. [128] The distress was cruel and widespread. The distance of Caesarea from the coast increased the difficulty of supplying provisions. Speculators, scratching, as it were, in their country's wounds, hoarded grain in the hope of selling at famine prices. These Basil moved to open their stores. He distributed lavishly at his own expense, [129] and ministered in person to the wants of the sufferers. Gregory of Nazianzus [130] gives us a picture of his illustrious friend standing in the midst of a great crowd of men and women and children, some scarcely able to breathe; of servants bringing in piles of such food as is best suited to the weak state of the famishing sufferers; of Basil with his own hands distributing nourishment, and with his own voice cheering and encouraging the sufferers. About this time Basil suffered a great loss in the death of his mother, [131] and sought solace in a visit to his friend Eusebius at Samosata. [132] But the cheering effect of his journey was lessened by the news, which greeted him on his return, that the Arians had succeeded in placing one of their number in the see of Tarsus. [133] The loss of Silvanus was ere long followed by a death of yet graver moment to the Church. In the middle of 370 died Eusebius, breathing his last in the arms of Basil. [134] __________________________________________________________________ [104] It will have been noted that I have accepted the authority of Philostorgius that he was already deacon. The argument employed by Tillemont against this statement is the fact of no distinct diaconate being mentioned by Gregory of Nazianzus. But the silence of Gregory does not conclusively outweigh the distinct eti taxin diakonou echon of Philostorgius; and a diaconate is supported by the mistaken statement of Socrates (H.E. iv. 26) that the deacon's orders were conferred by Meletius. [105] Greg. Naz., Ep. viii. [106] cf. Ep. xx. [107] Greg. Naz., Orat. xliii. 28, Epp. xvi.-xvii. [108] e.g. Hom. in Is. i. 57, alazoneia gar deine to medenos oiesthai chrezein. [109] Gregory has no doubt that Eusebius was in the wrong, even ridiculously in the wrong, if such be the true interpretation of his curious phrase (Or. xliiii. 28), haptetai gar ou ton pollon monon, alla kai ton ariston, ho Momos. The monasteries to which Basil fled Gregory here (id. 29) calls phrontisteria, the word used by Aristophanes (Clouds, 94) of the house or school of Socrates, and apparently a comic parody on dikasterion. It might be rendered "reflectory." "Contemplatory" has been suggested. It is to be noted that Basil in the De Sp. Scto. (see p. 49, n.) appears to allude to the Acharnians. The friends probably read Aristophanes together at Athens. [110] Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. Soz. vi. 15. [111] vi. 15. [112] Greg. Naz., Epp. xvi., xvii., xix., and Or. xx. [113] ouk hubristikos, alla pneumatikos te kai philosophos. [114] Soz. vi. 15. [115] Amm. Marc. xxvi. 7, 2. [116] enteuthen auto perien kai to kratos tes ekklesias, ei kai tes kathedras eiche ta deutera. Greg. Naz. Or. xliii. [117] cf. Maran, Vit. Bas. xiv. and D.C.A. s.v. exarch. The archbishop of Caesarea was exarch of the provinces (eparchiai) comprised in the Pontic Diocese. Maran refers to Letters xxviii., xxx., and xxxiv., as all shewing the important functions discharged by Basil while yet a presbyter. [118] Ep. ccxxiii. [119] Hefele, S: 88. Schroeckh, Kirch, xii. 31. Swete, Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, 54. [120] Epp. ccxliv. and cclxiii. [121] Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. [122] Ep. xciv. [123] hekaine polis. Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. cf. Sir Thomas More's Utopia, Bk. II. Chap. V. [124] Soz. vi. 34. [125] Epp. cxlii., cxliii. [126] ptochotropheion, Ep. clxxvi. Professor Ramsay, in The Church and the Roman Empire, p. 464, remarks that "the `New City' of Basil seems to have caused the gradual concentration of the entire population of Caesarea round the ecclesiastical centre, and the abandonment of the old city. Modern Kaisari is situated between one and two miles from the site of the Graeco-Roman city." [127] For the date, cf. Maran, Vit. Bas. ix. S: 5. [128] S: 2, p. 63. cf. Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. 340-342, and Greg. Nyss., In Eun. i. 306. [129] Greg. Nyss., In Eunom. i. S: 10 (in this series, p. 45), remarks of Basil: ten patroan ousian kai pro tes hierosunes apheidos analosas tois penesi kai malista en to tes sitodeias kairo, kath' hon epestatei tes ekklesias, eti en to klero ton presbuteron hierateuon kai meta tauta, mede ton hupoleiphthenton pheisamenos. Maran (Vit. Bas. xi. S: 4), with the object of proving that Basil had completely abandoned all property whatsoever, says that this must refer to a legacy from his mother. The terms used are far more consistent with the view already expressed (S: III.). So in his Orat. in Bas. Gregory speaks of Basil at the time as "selling his own possessions, and buying provisions with the proceeds." [130] Or. xliii. [131] Greg. Nyss., Vit. Mac. 187, Ep. xxx. [132] Ep. xxxiv. [133] Id. [134] Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. __________________________________________________________________ VI.--Basil as Archbishop. The archiepiscopal throne was now technically vacant. But the man who had practically filled it, "the keeper and tamer of the lion," [135] was still alive in the plenitude of his power. What course was he to follow ? Was he meekly to withdraw, and perhaps be compelled to support the candidature of another and an inferior? The indirect evidence [136] has seemed to some strong enough to compel the conclusion that he determined, if possible, to secure his election to the see. [137] Others, on the contrary, have thought him incapable of scheming for the nomination. [138] The truth probably lies between the two extreme views. No intelligent onlooker of the position at Caesarea on the death of Eusebius, least of all the highly capable administrator of the province, could be blind to the fact that of all possible competitors for the vacant throne Basil himself was the ablest and most distinguished, and the likeliest to be capable of directing the course of events in the interests of orthodoxy. But it does not follow that Basil's appeal to Gregory to come to him was a deliberate step to secure this end. He craved for the support and counsel of his friend; but no one could have known better that Gregory the younger was not the man to take prompt action or rule events. His invention of a fatal sickness, or exaggeration of a slight one, failed to secure even Gregory's presence at Caesarea. Gregory burst into tears on receipt of the news of his friend's grave illness, and hastened to obey the summons to his side. But on the road he fell in with bishops hurrying to Caesarea for the election of a successor to Eusebius, and detected the unreality of Basil's plea. He at once returned to Nazianzus and wrote the oft-quoted letter, [139] on the interpretation given to which depends the estimate formed of Basil's action at the important crisis. Basil may or may not have taken Gregory's advice not to put himself forward. But Gregory and his father, the bishop, from this time strained every nerve to secure the election of Basil. It was felt that the cause of true religion was at stake. "The Holy Ghost must win." [140] Opposition had to be encountered from bishops who were in open or secret sympathy with Basil's theological opponents, from men of wealth and position with whom Basil was unpopular on account of his practice and preaching of stern self-denial, and from all the lewd fellows of the baser sort in Caesarea. [141] Letters were written in the name of Gregory the bishop with an eloquence and literary skill which have led them to be generally regarded as the composition of Gregory the younger. To the people of Caesarea Basil was represented as a man of saintly life and of unique capacity to stem the surging tide of heresy. [142] To the bishops of the province who had asked him to come to Caesarea without saying why, in the hope perhaps that so strong a friend of Basil's might be kept away from the election without being afterwards able to contest it on the ground that he had had no summons to attend, he expresses an earnest hope that their choice is not a factious and foregone conclusion, and, anticipating possible objections on the score of Basil's weak health, reminds them that they have to elect not a gladiator, but a primate. [143] To Eusebius of Samosata he sends the letter included among those of Basil [144] in which he urges him to cooperate in securing the appointment of a worthy man. Despite his age and physical infirmity, he was laid in his litter, as his son says [145] like a corpse in a grave, and borne to Caesarea to rise there with fresh vigour and carry the election by his vote. [146] All resistance was overborne, and Basil was seated on the throne of the great exarchate. The success of the Catholics roused, as was inevitable, various feelings. Athanasius wrote from Alexandria [147] to congratulate Cappadocia on her privilege in being ruled by so illustrious a primate. Valens prepared to carry out the measures against the Catholic province, which had been interrupted by the revolt of Procopius. The bishops of the province who had been narrowly out-voted, and who had refused to take part in the consecration, abandoned communion with the new primate. [148] But even more distressing to the new archbishop than the disaffection of his suffragans was the refusal of his friend Gregory to come in person to support him on his throne. Gregory pleaded that it was better for Basil's own sake that there should be no suspicion of favour to personal friends, and begged to be excused for staying at Nazianzus. [149] Basil complained that his wishes and interests were disregarded, [150] and was hurt at Gregory's refusing to accept high responsibilities, possibly the coadjutor-bishopric, at Caesarea. [151] A yet further cause of sorrow and annoyance was the blundering attempt of Gregory of Nyssa to effect a reconciliation between his uncle Gregory, who was in sympathy with the disaffected bishops, and his brother. He even went so far as to send more than one forged letter in their uncle's name. The clumsy counterfeit was naturally found out, and the widened breach not bridged without difficulty. [152] The episcopate thus began with troubles, both public and personal. Basil confidently confronted them. His magnanimity and capacity secured the adhesion of his immediate neighbours and subordinates, [153] and soon his energies took a wider range. He directed the theological campaign all over the East, and was ready alike to meet opponents in hand to hand encounter, and to aim the arrows of his epistolary eloquence far and wide. [154] He invokes the illustrious pope of Alexandria to join him in winning the support of the West for the orthodox cause. [155] He is keenly interested in the unfortunate controversy which distracted the Church of Antioch. [156] He makes an earnest appeal to Damasus for the wonted sympathy of the Church at Rome. [157] At the same time his industry in his see was indefatigable. He is keen to secure the purity of ordination and the fitness of candidates. [158] Crowds of working people come to hear him preach before they go to their work for the day. [159] He travels distances which would be thought noticeable even in our modern days of idolatry of the great goddess Locomotion. He manages vast institutions eleemosynary and collegiate. His correspondence is constant and complicated. He seems the personification of the active, rather than of the literary and scholarly, bishop. Yet all the while he is writing tracts and treatises which are monuments of industrious composition, and indicative of a memory stored with various learning, and of the daily and effective study of Holy Scripture. Nevertheless, while thus actively engaged in fighting the battle of the faith, and in the conscientious discharge of his high duties, he was not to escape an unjust charge of pusillanimity, if not of questionable orthodoxy, from men who might have known him better. On September 7th, probably in 371, [160] was held the festival of St. Eupsychius. Basil preached the sermon. Among the hearers were many detractors. [161] A few days after the festival there was a dinner-party at Nazianzus, at which Gregory was present, with several persons of distinction, friends of Basil. Of the party was a certain unnamed guest, of religious dress and reputation, who claimed a character for philosophy, and said some very hard things against Basil. He had heard the archbishop at the festival preach admirably on the Father and the Son, but the Spirit, he alleged, Basil defamed. [162] While Gregory boldly called the Spirit God, Basil, from poor motives, refrained from any clear and distinct enunciation of the divinity of the Third Person. The unfavourable view of Basil was the popular one at the dinner-table, and Gregory was annoyed at not being able to convince the party that, while his own utterances were of comparatively little importance, Basil had to weigh every word, and to avoid, if possible, the banishment which was hanging over his head. It was better to use a wise "economy" [163] in preaching the truth than so to proclaim it as to ensure the extinction of the light of true religion. Basil [164] shewed some natural distress and astonishment on hearing that attacks against him were readily received. [165] It was at the close of this same year 371 [166] that Basil and his diocese suffered most severely from the hostility of the imperial government. Valens had never lost his antipathy to Cappadocia. In 370 he determined on dividing it into two provinces. Podandus, a poor little town at the foot of Mt. Taurus, was to be the chief seat of the new province, and thither half the executive was to be transferred. Basil depicts in lively terms the dismay and dejection of Caesarea. [167] He even thought of proceeding in person to the court to plead the cause of his people, and his conduct is in itself a censure of those who would confine the sympathies of ecclesiastics within rigidly clerical limits. The division was insisted on. But, eventually, Tyana was substituted for Podandus as the new capital; and it has been conjectured [168] that possibly the act of kindness of the prefect mentioned in Ep. LXXVIII. may have been this transfer, due to the intervention of Basil and his influential friends. But the imperial Arian was not content with this administrative mutilation. At the close of the year 371, flushed with successes against the barbarians, [169] fresh from the baptism of Endoxius, and eager to impose his creed on his subjects, Valens was travelling leisurely towards Syria. He is said to have shrunk from an encounter with the famous primate of Caesarea, for he feared lest one strong man's firmness might lead others to resist. [170] Before him went Modestus, Prefect of the Praetorium, the minister of his severities, [171] and before Modestus, like the skirmishers in front of an advancing army, had come a troop of Arian bishops with Euippius, in all probability, at their head. [172] Modestus found on his arrival that Basil was making a firm stand, and summoned the archbishop to his presence with the hope of overawing him. He met with a dignity, if not with a pride, which was more than a match for his own. Modestus claimed submission in the name of the emperor. Basil refused it in the name of God. Modestus threatened impoverishment, exile, torture, death. Basil retorted that none of these threats frightened him: he had nothing to be confiscated except a few rags and a few books; banishment could not send him beyond the lands of God; torture had no terrors for a body already dead; death could only come as a friend to hasten his last journey home. Modestus exclaimed in amazement that he had never been so spoken to before. "Perhaps," replied Basil, "you never met a bishop before." The prefect hastened to his master and reported that ordinary means of intimidation appeared unlikely to move this undaunted prelate. The archbishop must be owned victorious, or crushed by more brutal violence. But Valens, like all weak natures, oscillated between compulsion and compliance. He so far abated his pretensions to force heresy on Cappadocia, as to consent to attend the services at the Church on the Festival of the Epiphany. [173] The Church was crowded. A mighty chant thundered over the sea of heads. At the end of the basilica, facing the multitude, stood Basil, statue-like, erect as Samuel among the prophets at Naioth, [174] and quite indifferent to the interruption of the imperial approach. The whole scene seemed rather of heaven than of earth, and the orderly enthusiasm of the worship to be rather of angels than of men. Valens half fainted, and staggered as he advanced to make his offering at God's Table. On the following day Basil admitted him within the curtain of the sanctuary, and conversed with him at length on sacred subjects. [175] The surroundings and the personal appearance of the interlocutors were significant. The apse of the basilica was as a holy of holies secluded from the hum and turmoil of the vast city. [176] It was typical of what the Church was to the world. The health and strength of the Church were personified in Basil. He was now in the ripe prime of life but bore marks of premature age. Upright in carriage, of commanding stature, thin, with brown hair and eyes, and long beard, slightly bald, with bent brow, high cheek bones, and smooth skin, he would shew in every tone and gesture at once his high birth and breeding, the supreme culture that comes of intercourse with the noblest of books and of men, and the dignity of a mind made up and of a heart of single purpose. The sovereign presented a marked contrast to the prelate. [177] Valens was of swarthy complexion, and by those who approached him nearly it was seen that one eye was defective. He was strongly built, and of middle height, but his person was obese, and his legs were crooked. He was hesitating and unready in speech and action. [178] It is on the occasion of this interview that Theodoret places the incident of Basil's humorous retort to Demosthenes, [179] the chief of the imperial kitchen, the Nebuzaradan, as the Gregories style him, of the petty fourth century Nebuchadnezzar. This Demosthenes had already threatened the archbishop with the knife, and been bidden to go back to his fire. Now he ventured to join in the imperial conversation, and made some blunder in Greek. "An illiterate Demosthenes!" exclaimed Basil; "better leave theology alone, and go back to your soups." The emperor was amused at the discomfiture of his satellite, and for a while seemed inclined to be friendly. He gave Basil lands, possibly part of the neighbouring estate of Macellum, to endow his hospital. [180] But the reconciliation between the sovereign and the primate was only on the surface. Basil would not admit the Arians to communion, and Valens could not brook the refusal. The decree of exile was to be enforced, though the pens had refused to form the letters of the imperial signature. [181] Valens, however, was in distress at the dangerous illness of Galates, his infant son. and, on the very night of the threatened expatriation, summoned Basil to pray over him. A brief rally was followed by relapse and death, which were afterwards thought to have been caused by the young prince's Arian baptism. [182] Rudeness was from time to time shewn to the archbishop by discourteous and unsympathetic magistrates, as in the case of the Pontic Vicar, who tried to force an unwelcome marriage on a noble widow. The lady took refuge at the altar, and appealed to Basil for protection. The magistrate descended to contemptible insinuation, and subjected the archbishop to gross rudeness. His ragged upper garment was dragged from his shoulder, and his emaciated frame was threatened with torture. He remarked that to remove his liver would relieve him of a great inconvenience. [183] Nevertheless, so far as the civil power was concerned, Basil, after the famous visit of Valens, was left at peace. [184] He had triumphed. Was it a triumph for the nobler principles of the Gospel? Had he exhibited a pride and an irritation unworthy of the Christian name? Jerome, in a passage of doubtful genuineness and application, is reported to have regarded his good qualities as marred by the one bane of pride, [185] a "leaven" of which sin is admitted by Milman [186] to have been exhibited by Basil, as well as uncompromising firmness. The temper of Basil in the encounter with Valens would probably have been somewhat differently regarded had it not been for the reputation of a hard and overbearing spirit which he has won from his part in transactions to be shortly touched on. His attitude before Valens seems to have been dignified without personal haughtiness, and to have shewn sparks of that quiet humour which is rarely exhibited in great emergencies except by men who are conscious of right and careless of consequences to self. __________________________________________________________________ [135] Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. 33. [136] i.e. the extant reply to his urgent request that Gregory would come to him. Greg. Naz., Ep. xl. [137] "Persuade que, s'il echouait c'en etait fait de la foi de Nicee en Cappadoce, il deploie toutes les ressources de son denie, aussi souple que puissant." Fialone, Et. Hist. p. 85. "Personne dans la ville, pas meme Basile, malgre son humilite, ne donta que la succession ne lui fut acquise...il fit assez ouvertement ses preparatifs pour sa promotion." De Broglie, L'Eglise et l'Empire R. v. 88. "Basil persuaded himself, and not altogether unwarrantably, that the cause of orthodoxy in Asia Minor was involved in his becoming his successor." Canon Venables in D.C.B. "Erselbst, so schwer er sich anfangs zur Uebernahme des Presbyterates hatte entschliessen koennen, jetzt, wo er sich in seine Stellung hinein gearbeitet hatte wuenschte er nichts sehnlicher al seine Wahl zum Bischof. Boehringer the IVth c. p. 24. "Was it really from ambitious views? Certainly the suspicion, which even his friend entertained, attaches to him." Ullmann, Life of Gregory of Naz., Cox's Trans. p. 117. [138] "Ne suspicatus quidem in se oculos conjectum iri." Maran, Vit. Bas. "Former une brigue pour parvenir `a l'episcopat etait bien loin de sa pensee.' Ceillier, iv. 354. [139] Greg. N., Ep. xl. (xxi.). [140] Or. xliii. [141] Or. xliii. S: 37. [142] Ep. xli. [143] Ep. xliii. [144] Ep. xlvii. [145] Or. xliii. [146] Or. xviii., xliii. [147] Athan., Ad Pall. 953; Ad Johan, et Ant. 951. [148] This is inferred from the latter part of Ep. xlviii. cf. Maran, Vit. Bas. xiii. 3. [149] Greg. Naz., Ep. xlv. [150] Id. Ep. xlvi. [151] tende tes kathedras timen. Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. [152] Epp. lviii., lix., lx. [153] Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. S: 40. [154] Id. S: 43. [155] Basil, Epp. lxvi., lxvii. [156] Ep. lxix. [157] Ep. lxx. [158] Ep. liii. [159] Hex. Hom. iii. p. 65. [160] Maran, Vit. Bas. xviii. 4. [161] Greg. Naz., Ep. lviii. Ep. lxxi. [162] parasurein. Ib. [163] oikonomethenai. [164] Ep. lxxi. [165] Mr. C.F.H. Johnston (The Book of St. Basil the Great on the Holy Spirit), in noting that St. Basil in the De Sp. Scto. refrained from directly using the term Theos of the Holy Ghost, remarks that he also avoided the use of the term homoousios of the Son, "in accordance with his own opinion expressed in Ep. ix." In Ep. ix., however, he rather gives his reasons for preferring the homoousion. The epitome of the essay of C. G. Wuilcknis (Leipsig, 1724) on the economy or reserve of St. Basil, appended by Mr. Johnston, is a valuable and interesting summary of the best defence which can be made for such reticence. It is truly pointed out that the only possible motive in Basil's case was the desire of serving God, for no one could suspect or accuse him of ambition, fear, or covetousness. And if there was an avoidance of a particular phrase, there was no paltering with doctrine. As Dr. Swete (Doctrine of the H. S., p. 64) puts it: "He knew that the opponents of the Spirit's Deity were watching their opportunity. Had the actual name of God been used in reference to the Third Person of the Trinity, they would have risen, and, on the plea of resisting blasphemy, expelled St. Basil from his see, which would then have been immediately filled by a Macedonian prelate. In private conversation with Gregory, Basil not only asserted again and again the Godhead of the Spirit, but even confirmed his statement with a solemn imprecation, eparasamenos heauto to phrikodestaton, autou tou pneumatos ekpesein ei me seboi to pneuma meta patros kai ;;Uiou hos homoousion kai homotimon." (Greg. Naz., Or. xliii.) In Letter viii. S: 11 he distinctly calls the Spirit God, as in Adv. Eunomius, v., if the latter be genuine. In the De S. Scto. (p. 12) Basil uses the word oikonomia in the patristic sense nearly equivalent to incarnation. In the passage of Bp. Lightfoot, referred to in the note on p. 7, he points out how in Ign. ad Eph. xviii, the word has "already reached its first stage on the way to the sense of `dissimulation,' which was afterwards connected with it, and which led to disastrous consequences in the theology and practice of a later age." On "Reserve" as taught by later casuists, see Scavini, Theolog. Mor. ii. 23, the letters of Pascal, and Jer. Taylor, Ductor Dubit. iii. 2. [166] Maran, Vit. Bas. xx. 1. [167] Epp. lxxiv., lxxv, lxxvi. [168] Maran, Vit. Bas. xix. 3. [169] Greg. Nyss., C. Eunom. i. [170] Theod. iv. 16. [171] Soc. iv. 16. [172] cf. Epp. lxviii., cxxviii., ccxliv. and ccli., and Maran, Vit. Bas. xx. 1; possibly the bishops were in Cappadocia as early as the Eupsychian celebration. [173] Jan. 6, 372. At this time in the Eastern Church the celebrations of the Nativity and of the Epiphany were combined. cf. D.C.A. i. 617. [174] 1 Sam. xix. 20. [175] Greg. Naz., Or. xliii., Greg. Nyss., Adv. Eunom. i., Soz. vi. 16, Theod. iv. 16. De Broglie well combines the variations which are not quite easy to harmonize in detail. On the admission within the sanctuary, cf. the concession of Ambrose to Theodosius in Theod. v. 18. [176] Caesarea, when sacked by Sapor in 260, is said to have contained 400,000 inhabitants (Zonaras, xii. 630). It may be presumed to have recovered and retained much, if not all, of its importance. [177] The authority for the personal appearance of Basil is an anonymous Vatican document quoted by Baronius, Ann. 378: "Procero fuit habitu corporis et recto, siccus, gracilis; color ejus fuscus, vultus temperatus pallore, justus nasus, supercilia in orbem inflexa et adducta; cogitabundo similis fuit, paucae in vultu rugae, eoeque renidentes, genae oblongae, tempora aliquantum cava, promissa barba, et mediocris canities." [178] Amm. Marc. xxx. 14, 7: "Cessator et piger: nigri coloris, pupula oculi unius obstructa, sed ita ut non eminus appareret: figura bene compacta membrorum, staturae nec procerae nec humilis, incurvis cruribus, exstanteque mediocriter ventre." "Bon pere, bon epoux, arien fervent et zele, mais faible, timide, Valens etait ne pour la vie privee, ou il eut ete un honnete citoyen et un des saints de l'Arianisme." Fialon, Et. Hist. 159. [179] cf. Theod. v. 16 and note on p. 120 of Theod. in this series. [180] Theod. iv. 16. Bas., Ep. xciv. [181] Theod. iv. 16. [182] Theod. iv. 16. Soz. vi. 17. Soc. iv. 26. Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. Ruf. xi. 9. [183] Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. [184] "The archbishop, who asserted, with inflexible pride, the truth of his opinions and the dignity of his rank, was left in the free possession of his conscience and his throne." Gibbon, Chap. xxv. "Une sorte d'inviolabilite de fait demeurait acquise a Basile a Cesaree comme a Athanase `a Alexandrie." De Broglie. [185] Quoted by Gibbon l.c. from Jerome's Chron. A.D. 380, and acknowledged by him to be not in Scaliger's edition. The Benedictine editors of Jerome admit it, but refer it to Photinus. cf. D.C.B. i. 288. [186] Hist. Christ. iii. 45. __________________________________________________________________ VII.--The Breach with Gregory of Nazianzus. Cappadocia, it has been seen, had been divided into two provinces, and of one of these Tyana had been constituted the chief town. Anthimus, bishop of Tyana, now contended that an ecclesiastical partition should follow the civil, and that Tyana should enjoy parallel metropolitan privileges to those of Caesarea. To this claim Basil determined to offer an uncompromising resistance, and summoned Gregory of Nazianzus to his side. Gregory replied in friendly and complimentary terms, [187] and pointed out that Basil's friendship for Eustathius of Sebaste was a cause of suspicion in the Church. At the same time he placed himself at the archbishop's disposal. The friends started together with a train of slaves and mules to collect the produce of the monastery of St. Orestes, in Cappadocia Secunda, which was the property of the see of Caesarea. Anthimus blocked the defiles with his retainers and in the vicinity of Sasima [188] there was an unseemly struggle between the domestics of the two prelates. [189] The friends proceeded to Nazianzus, and there, with imperious inconsiderateness, Basil insisted upon nominating Gregory to one of the bishoprics which he was founding in order to strengthen his position against Anthimus. [190] For Gregory, the brother, Nyssa was selected, a town on the Halys, about a hundred miles distant from Caesarea, so obscure that Eusebius of Samosata remonstrated with Basil on the unreasonableness of forcing such a man to undertake the episcopate of such a place. [191] For Gregory, the friend, a similar fate was ordered. The spot chosen was Sasima, a townlet commanding the scene of the recent fray. [192] It was an insignificant place at the bifurcation of the road leading northwards from Tyana to Doara and diverging westward to Nazianzus. [193] Gregory speaks of it with contempt, and almost with disgust, [194] and never seems to have forgiven his old friend for forcing him to accept the responsibility of the episcopate, and in such a place. [195] Gregory resigned the distasteful post, [196] and with very bitter feelings. The utmost that can be said for Basil is that just possibly he was consulting for the interest of the Church, and meaning to honour his friend, by placing Gregory in an outpost of peril and difficulty. In the kingdom of heaven the place of trial is the place of trust. [197] But, unfortunately for the reputation of the archbishop, the war in this case was hardly the Holy War of truth against error and of right against wrong. It was a rivalry between official and official, and it seemed hard to sacrifice Gregory to a dispute between the claims of the metropolitans of Tyana and Caesarea. [198] Gregory the elder joined in persuading his son. Basil had his way. He won a convenient suffragan for the moment. But he lost his friend. The sore was never healed, and even in the great funeral oration in which Basil's virtues and abilities are extolled, Gregory traces the main trouble of his chequered career to Basil's unkindness, and owns to feeling the smart still, though the hand that inflicted the wound was cold. [199] With Anthimus peace was ultimately established. Basil vehemently desired it. [200] Eusebius of Samosata again intervened. [201] Nazianzus remained for a time subject to Caesarea, but was eventually recognized as subject to the Metropolitan of Tyana. [202] The relations, however, between the two metropolitans remained for some time strained. When in Armenia in 372, Basil arranged some differences between the bishops of that district, and dissipated a cloud of calumny hanging over Cyril, an Armenian bishop. [203] He also acceded to a request on the part of the Church of Satala that he would nominate a bishop for that see, and accordingly appointed Poemenius, a relation of his own. [204] Later on a certain Faustus, on the strength of a recommendation from a pope with whom he was residing, applied to Basil for consecration to the see, hitherto occupied by Cyril. With this request Basil declined to comply, and required as a necessary preliminary the authorisation of the Armenian bishops, specially of Theodotus of Nicopolis. Faustus then betook himself to Anthimus, and succeeded in obtaining uncanonical consecration from him. This was naturally a serious cause of disagreement. [205] However, by 375, a better feeling seems to have existed between the rivals. Basil is able at that date to speak of Anthimus as in complete agreement with him. [206] __________________________________________________________________ [187] Greg. Naz., Ep. xlvii. [188] cf. Maran, Vit. Bas. xxiii. 4. [189] Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. 58, and Ep. xlviii. Bas., Epp. lxxiv., lxxv., lxxvi. [190] It has been debated whether the odium theologicum was here mixed up with the odium ecclesiasticum. Gregory (Orat. xliii. 58) represents Anthimus as defending his seizure of the metropolitan revenues on the ground that it was wrong dasmophorein kakodoxois, to pay tribute to men of evil opinions, and LeClerc (Bibl. Univer. xviii. p. 60) has condemned Anthimus as an Arian. He was undoubtedly Are& 187;os (Greg. Naz., Ep. xlviii.), a devotee of Ares, as he shewed in the skirmish by Sasima; but there is no reason to suppose him to have been Areianos, or Arian. He probably looked askance at the orthodoxy of Basil. Basil would never have called him homopsuchos (Ep. ccx. 5) if he had been unsound on the incarnation. cf. Baronius, Act. Sanc. Maj. ii. p. 394. [191] Ep. xcviii., but see note, p. 182, on the doubt as to this allusion. [192] Greg. Naz., with grim humour, objects to be sent to Sasima to fight for Basil's supply of sucking pigs and poultry from St. Orestes. Ep. xlviii. [193] "Nyssa was more clearly than either Sasima or Doara a part of Cappadocia Secunda; it always retained its ecclesiastical dependence on Caesarea, but politically it must have been subject to Tyana from 372 to 536, and afterwards to Mokissos. All three were apparently places to which Basil consecrated bishops during his contest with Anthimus and the civil power. His bishop of Nyssa, his own brother Gregory, was ejected by the dominant Arians, but the eminence and vigour of Gregory secured his reinstatement and triumphant return. Basil's appointment was thus successful, and the connexion always continued. His appointment at Sasima was unsuccessful. Gregory of Nazianzus would not maintain the contest, and Sasima passed under the metropolitan of Tyana. At Doara, in like fashion, Basil's nominee was expelled, and apparently never reinstated. Ep. ccxxxix. Greg. Naz. Or. xiii." Ramsay, Hist. Geog. of A.M. 305. [194] As in Carm. De Vita Sua: Stathmos tis estin en mese leophoro Tes Kappadokon hos schizet' eis trissen hodon. ,'Anudros, achlous, oud' holos eleutheros, Deinos epeukton kai stenon komudrion, Konis ta panta, kai psophoi, sun harmasi, Threnoi, stenagmoi, praktores, streblai, pedai; Laos d' hosoi xenoi te kai planomenoi, Haute Sasimon ton emon ekklesia. [N.B.--The last line marks the quantity.] "A post town on the king's high road, Where three ways meet, is my abode; No brooklet, not a blade of grass, Enlivens the dull hole, alas! Dust, din, all day; the creak of wheels; Groans, yells, the exciseman at one's heels With screw and chain; the population A shifting horde from every nation. A viler spot you long may search, Than this Sasima, now my church!" [195] It is curious that a place which had so important a connexion with Gregory the divine should have passed so completely into oblivion. From it he derived his episcopal rank. His consecration to Sasima was the main ground of the objection of his opponents at Constantinople in 381 to his occupying the see of the imperial city. He was bishop of Sasima, and, by the fifteenth Canon of Nicaea, could not be transferred to Constantinople. He never was bishop of Nazianzus, though he did administer that diocese before the appointment of Eulalius in 383. But while the name "Gregory of Nazianzus" has obscured the very existence of his father, who was really Gregory of Nazianzus, and is known even to the typical schoolboy, Gregory has never been described as "Gregory of Sasima." "The great plain which extends from Sasima nearly to Soandos is full of underground houses and churches, which are said to be of immense extent. The inhabitants are described by Leo Diaconus (p. 35) as having been originally named Troglodytes....Every house in Hassa Keni has an underground story cut out of the rock; long narrow passages connect the underground rooms belonging to each house, and also run from house to house. A big solid disc of stone stands in a niche outside each underground house door, ready to be pulled in front of the door on any alarm....Sasima was on the road between Nazianzus and Tyana. The distances point certainly to Hassa Keni....An absolutely unhistorical legend about St. Makrina is related at Hassa Keni. Recently a good-sized church has been built in the village, evidently on the site of an ancient church; it is dedicated to St. Makrina, who, as the village priest relates, fled hither from Kaisari to escape marriage, and to dedicate herself to a saintly life. The underground cell in which she lived is below the church." Ramsay, Hist. Geog. of Asia Minor, pp. 293, 294. Paul Lucas identified Sasima with Inschesu. [196] cf. Greg. Naz. Ep. l. [197] cf. De Joinville's happy illustration of this in Histoire du roi Saint Louis, p. 18. Ed. 1617. The King of France would shew more confidence in the captain whom he might choose to defend La Rochelle, close to the English pale, than in the keeper of Monthlery, in the heart of the realm. [198] At the same time it is disappointing to find Gregory mixing up with expressions of reluctance to assume awful responsibilities, objections on the score of the disagreeable position of Sasima. Perhaps something of the sentiments of Basil on this occasion may be inferred from what he says in Letter cii. on the postponement of private to public considerations in the case of the appointment of Poemenius to Satala. [199] Or. xliii. cf. Newman, The Church of the Fathers, p. 142, where the breach is impartially commented on: "An ascetic, like Gregory, ought not to have complained of the country as deficient in beauty and interest, even though he might be allowed to feel the responsibility of a situation which made him a neighbor of Anthimus. Yet such was his infirmity; and he repelled the accusations of his mind against himself by charging Basil with unkindness in placing him at Sasima. On the other hand, it is possible that Basil, in his eagerness for the settlement of his exarchate, too little consulted the character and taste of Gregory; and, above all, the feelings of duty which bound him to Nazianzus....Henceforth no letters, which are preserved, passed between the two friends; nor are any acts of intercourse discoverable in their history. Anthimus appointed a rival bishop to Sasima; and Gregory, refusing to contest the see with him, returned to Nazianzus. Basil laboured by himself. Gregory retained his feelings of Basil's unkindness even after his death....This lamentable occurrence took place eight or nine years before Basil's death; he had, before and after it, many trials, many sorrows; but this probably was the greatest of all." The statement that no letters which are preserved passed between the two friends henceforth will have to be modified, if we suppose Letter clxix. to be addressed to Gregory the Divine. But Professor Ramsay's arguments (Hist. Geog. of Asia Minor, p. 293) in favour of Gregory of Nazianzus the elder seem irresistible. On Letter clxix. he writes: "For topographical purposes it is necessary to discover who was the Gregory into whose diocese Glycerius fled. Tillemont considers that either Gregory of Nyssa or Gregory of Nazianzus is meant. But the tone of the letter is not what we might expect if Basil were writing to either of them. It is not conceived in the spirit of authority in which Basil wrote to his brother or to his friend. It appears to me to show a certain deference which, considering the resolute, imperious, and uncompromising character of Basil (seen especially in his behaviour to Gregory Nazianzen in the matter of the bishopric of Sasima), I can explain only on the supposition that he is writing to the aged and venerable Gregory, bishop of Nazianzos. Then the whole situation is clear. Venasa was in the district of Malakopaia, or Suvermez, towards the limits of the diocese of Caesareia. The adjoining bishopric was that of Nazianzos. Venasa being so far from Caesareia was administered by one of the fifty chorepiscopi whom Basil had under him (Tillemont, Mem. p. servir, etc., ix. p. 120), and the authority of Basil was appealed to only in the final resort. Glycerius, when Basil decided against him, naturally fled over the border into the diocese of Nazianzos." (There is, however, not much reverence in Letter clxxi.) "Comment l'homme qui avait tant souffert de l'injustice des autres, put-il etre injuste envers son meilleur ami? L'amitie est de tous les pays. Partout, on voit des hommes qui semblent nes l'un pour l'autre, se rapprocher par une estime mutuelle, par la conformite de leurs gouts et de leurs caracteres partager les peines et les joies de la vie, et donner le spectacle du plus beau sentiment que nous avons rec,u de la divinite. Mais la Grece avait singulierement ennobli ce sentiment dej`a si pur et si saint, en lui donnant pour but l'amour de la patrie. Les amis, destines a se servir l'un `a l'autre de modele et de soutien, s'aiment moins pour eux-memes, que pour rivaliser de vertu, se devouer ensemble, s'immoler s'il le faut, au bien public....C'est cette amitie de devouement et de sacrifice, qu'au milieu de la mollesse du IVme siecle, Basil conc,oit pour Gregoire de Nazianze. Formee dans les ecoles, entretenne par l'amour des lettres, elle avait pour but unique, non plus la patrie, mais Dieu. L'amitie de Gregoire et plus tendre et plus humaine....Il a voue sa vie `a son ami, mais il en attend la meme condescendance, le meme denouement `a ses propres desirs. Basile au contraire, semble prendre `a la lettre ce qu'il a lu dans Plutarque et dans Xenophon de l'amitie antique." E. Fialon, Et. Hist. In other words, Gregory's idea of friendship was to sacrifice one's self: Basil's to sacrifice one's friend. This is an interesting vindication of Basil, but the cause of God was hardly identical with the humiliation of Anthimus. [200] Ep. xcvii. [201] Ep. xcviii. [202] Greg. Naz., Ep. clii. [203] Ep. xcix. [204] Epp. cii., ciii. [205] Epp. cxx., cxxi., cxxii. [206] Ep. ccx. __________________________________________________________________ VIII.--St. Basil and Eustathius. It was Basil's doom to suffer through his friendships. If the fault lay with himself in the case of Gregory, the same cannot be said of his rupture with Eustathius of Sebaste. If in this connexion fault can be laid to his charge at all, it was the fault of entering into intimacy with an unworthy man. In the earlier days of the retirement in Pontus the austerities of Eustathius outweighed in Basil's mind any suspicions of his unorthodoxy. [207] Basil delighted in his society, spent days and nights in sweet converse with him, and introduced him to his mother and the happy family circle at Annesi. [208] And no doubt under the ascendency of Basil, Eustathius, always ready to be all things to all men who might be for the time in power and authority, would appear as a very orthodox ascetic. Basil likens him to the Ethiopian of immutable blackness, and the leopard who cannot change his spots. [209] But in truth his skin at various periods shewed every shade which could serve his purpose, and his spots shifted and changed colour with every change in his surroundings. [210] He is the patristic Proteus. There must have been something singularly winning in his more than human attractiveness. [211] But he signed almost every creed that went about for signature in his lifetime. [212] He was consistent only in inconsistency. It was long ere Basil was driven to withdraw his confidence and regard, although his constancy to Eustathius raised in not a few, and notably in Theodotus of Nicopolis, the metropolitan of Armenia, doubts as to Basil's soundness in the faith. When Basil was in Armenia in 373, a creed was drawn up, in consultation with Theodotus, to be offered to Eustathius for signature. It consisted of the Nicene confession, with certain additions relating to the Macedonian controversy. [213] Eustathius signed, together with Fronto and Severus. But, when another meeting with other bishops was arranged, he violated his pledge to attend. He wrote on the subject as though it were one of only small importance. [214] Eusebius endeavoured, but endeavoured in vain, to make peace. [215] Eustathius renounced communion with Basil, and at last, when an open attack on the archbishop seemed the paying game, he published an old letter of Basil's to Apollinarius, written by "layman to layman," many years before, and either introduced, or appended, heretical expressions of Apollinarius, which were made to pass as Basil's. In his virulent hostility he was aided, if not instigated, by Demosthenes the prefect's vicar, probably Basil's old opponent at Caesarea in 372. [216] His duplicity and slanders roused Basil's indignant denunciation. [217] Unhappily they were not everywhere recognized as calumnies. Among the bitterest of Basil's trials was the failure to credit him with honour and orthodoxy on the part of those from whom he might have expected sympathy and support. An earlier instance of this is the feeling shewn at the banquet at Nazianzus already referred to. [218] In later days he was cruelly troubled by the unfriendliness of his old neighbours at Neocaesarea, [219] and this alienation would be the more distressing inasmuch as Atarbius, the bishop of that see, appears to have been Basil's kinsman. [220] He was under the suspicion of Sabellian unsoundness. He slighted and slandered Basil on several apparently trivial pretexts, and on one occasion hastened from Nicopolis for fear of meeting him. [221] He expressed objection to supposed novelties introduced into the Church of Caesarea, to the mode of psalmody practiced there, and to the encouragement of ascetic life. [222] Basil did his utmost to win back the Neocaesareans from their heretical tendencies and to their old kindly sentiments towards himself. The clergy of Pisidia and Pontus, where Eustathius had been specially successful in alienating the district of Dazimon, were personally visited and won back to communion. [223] But Atarbius and the Neocaesareans were deaf to all appeal, and remained persistently irreconcilable. [224] On his visiting the old home at Annesi, where his youngest brother Petrus was now residing, in 375, the Neocaesareans were thrown into a state of almost ludicrous panic. They fled as from a pursuing enemy. [225] They accused Basil of seeking to win their regard and support from motives of the pettiest ambition, and twitted him with travelling into their neighbourhood uninvited. [226] __________________________________________________________________ [207] Ep. ccxiii. S: 3. He had been in early days a disciple of Arius at Alexandria. [208] Id. S: 5. [209] Ep. cxxx. S: 1. [210] cf. Ep. ccxliv. S: 9. Fialon, Et. Hist. 128. [211] Ep. ccxii. S: 2. cf. Newman, Hist. Sketches, iii. 20. [212] Ep. ccxliv. S: 9. [213] Epp. cxxi., ccxliv. [214] Ep. ccxliv. [215] Ep. cxxviii. [216] Ep. ccxxxvii. [217] Epp. ccxxiii., ccxliv., cclxiii. [218] S: vi. [219] Epp. cciv., ccvii. [220] Ep. ccx. S: 4. [221] Ep. cxxvi. [222] Ep. ccvii. [223] Epp. cciii. and ccxvi. [224] Epp. lxv., xxvi., ccx. [225] Ep. ccxvi. [226] Ib. __________________________________________________________________ IX.--Unbroken Friendships. Brighter and happier intimacies were those formed with the older bishop of Samosata, the Eusebius who, of all the many bearers of the name, most nearly realised its meaning, [227] and with Basil's junior, Amphilochius of Iconium. With the former, Basil's relations were those of an affectionate son and of an enthusiastic admirer. The many miles that stretched between Caesarea and Samosata did not prevent these personal as well as epistolary communications. [228] In 372 they were closely associated in the eager efforts of the orthodox bishops of the East to win the sympathy and active support of the West. [229] In 374 Eusebius was exiled, with all the picturesque incidents so vividly described by Theodoret. [230] He travelled slowly from Samosata into Thrace, but does not seem to have met either Gregory or Basil on his way. Basil contrived to continue a correspondence with him in his banishment. It was more like that of young lovers than of elderly bishops. [231] The friends deplore the hindrances to conveyance, and are eager to assure one another that neither is guilty of forgetfulness. [232] The friendship with Amphilochius seems to have begun at the time when the young advocate accepted the invitation conveyed in the name of Heracleidas, [233] his friend, and repaired from Ozizala to Caesarea. The consequences were prompt and remarkable. Amphilochius, at this time between thirty and forty years of age, was soon ordained and consecrated, perhaps, like Ambrose of Milan and Eusebius of Caesarea per saltum, to the important see of Iconium, recently vacated by the death of Faustinus. Henceforward the intercourse between the spiritual father and the spiritual son, both by letters and by visits, was constant. The first visit of Amphilochius to Basil, as bishop, probably at Easter 374, not only gratified the older prelate, but made a deep impression on the Church of Caesarea. [234] But his visits were usually paid in September, at the time of the services in commemoration of the martyr Eupsychius. On the occasion of the first of them, in 374, the friends conversed together on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, now impugned by the Macedonians, and the result was the composition of the treatise De Spiritu Sancto. This was closely followed by the three famous canonical epistles, [235] also addressed to Amphilochius. Indeed, so great was the affectionate confidence of the great administrator and theologian [236] in his younger brother, that, when infirmities were closing round him, he asked Amphilochius to aid him in the administration of the archdiocese. [237] If we accept the explanation given of Letter CLXIX. in a note on a previous page, [238] Gregory the elder, bishop of Nazianzus, must be numbered among those of Basil's correspondents letters to whom have been preserved. The whole episode referred to in that and in the two following letters is curiously illustrative of outbursts of fanaticism and folly which might have been expected to occur in Cappadocia in the fourth century, as well as in soberer regions in several other centuries when they have occurred. It has been clothed with fresh interest by the very vivid narrative of Professor Ramsay, and by the skill with which he uses the scanty morsels of evidence available to construct the theory which he holds about it. [239] This theory is that the correspondence indicates a determined attempt on the part of the rigidly orthodox archbishop to crush proceedings which were really "only keeping up the customary ceremonial of a great religious meeting," and, as such, were winked at, if not approved of, by the bishop to whom the letter of remonstrance is addressed, and the presbyter who was Glycerius' superior. Valuable information is furnished by Professor Ramsay concerning the great annual festival in honour of Zeus of Venasa (or Venese), whose shrine was richly endowed, and the inscription discovered on a Cappadocian hill-top, "Great Zeus in heaven, be propitious to me." But the "evident sympathy" of the bishop and the presbyter is rather a strained inference from the extant letters; and the fact that in the days when paganism prevailed in Cappadocia Venasa was a great religious centre, and the scene of rites in which women played an important part, is no conclusive proof that wild dances performed by an insubordinate deacon were tolerated, perhaps encouraged, because they represented a popular old pagan observance. Glycerius may have played the patriarch, without meaning to adopt, or travesty, the style of the former high priest of Zeus. Cappadocia was one of the most Christian districts of the empire long before Basil was appointed to the exarchate of Caesarea, and Basil is not likely to have been the first occupant of the see who would strongly disapprove of and endeavour to repress, any such manifestations as those which are described. [240] That the bishop whom Basil addresses and the presbyter served by Glycerius should have desired to deal leniently with the offender individually does not convict them of accepting the unseemly proceedings of Glycerius and his troupe as a pardonable, if not desirable, survival of a picturesque national custom. [241] Among other bishops of the period with whom Basil communicated by letter are Abramius, or Abraham, of Batnae in Oshoene, [242] the illustrious Athanasius, [243] and Ambrose, [244] Athanasius of Ancyra; [245] Barses of Edessa, [246] who died in exile in Egypt; Elpidius, [247] of some unknown see on the Levantine seaboard, who supported Basil in the controversy with Eustathius; the learned Epiphanius of Salamis; [248] Meletius, [249] the exiled bishop of Antioch; Patrophilus of AEgae; [250] Petrus of Alexandria; [251] Theodotus of Nicopolis, [252] and Ascholius of Thessalonica. [253] Basil's correspondence was not, however, confined within the limits of clerical clanship. His extant letters to laymen, both distinguished and undistinguished, shew that he was in touch with the men of mark of his time and neighbourhood, and that he found time to express an affectionate interest in the fortunes of his intimate friends. Towards the later years of his life the archbishop's days were darkened not only by ill-health and anxiety, but by the death of some of his chief friends and allies. Athanasius died in 373, and so far as personal living influence went, there was an extinction of the Pharos not of Alexandria only, but of the world. [254] It was no longer "Athanasius contra mundum," [255] but "Mundus sine Athanasio." In 374 Gregory the elder died at Nazianzus, and the same year saw the banishment of Eusebius of Samosata to Thrace. In 375 died Theodotus of Nicopolis, and the succession of Fronto was a cause of deep sorrow. At this time [256] some short solace would come to the Catholics in the East in the synodical letter addressed to the Orientals of the important synod held in Illyria, under the authority of Valentinian. The letter which is extant [257] is directed against the Macedonian heresy. The charge of conveying it to the East was given to the presbyter Elpidius. [258] Valentinian sent with it a letter to the bishops of Asia in which persecution is forbidden, and the excuse of submission to the reigning sovereign anticipated and condemned. Although the letter runs in the names of Valentinian, Valens, and Gratian, the western brother appears to condemn the eastern. [259] __________________________________________________________________ [227] Bp. in 361. cf. Greg. Naz., Ep. xxviii. and xxix., and Theod., Ecc. Hist. xxvii. [228] In 369, it is to the prayers of Eusebius, under the divine grace, that Basil refers his partial recovery from sickness (Ep. xxvii.), and sends Hypatius to Samosata in hope of similar blessing. (Ep. xxxi.) [229] Ep. xcii. [230] Ecc. Hist. iv. 14. [231] cf. Principal Reynolds in D.C.B. i. 372. [232] Epp. clvii., clviii., clxii., clxvii., clxviii., cxcviii., ccxxxvii., ccxxxix., ccxli., cclxviii. [233] Ep. cl. [234] Epp. clxiii., clxxvi. [235] Epp. clxxxviii., cxcix., ccxvii. [236] "Pace Eunomii," whom Greg. of Nyssa quotes. C. Eunom. i. [237] Ep. cc., cci. [238] S: viii. [239] Ramsay's Church of the Roman Empire, chap. xviii. [240] The description of Caesarea, as being "Christian to a man" (pandemei christianizontas. Soz. v. 4), would apply pretty generally to all the province. [241] In the chapter in which Professor Ramsay discusses the story of Glycerius he asks how it was that, while Phrygia was heretical, Cappadocia, in the fourth century, was orthodox: "Can any reason be suggested why this great Cappadocian leader followed the Roman Church, whereas all the most striking figures in Phrygian ecclesiastical history opposed it?" In Phrygia was the great centre of Montanism, a form of religionism not unfavourable to excesses such as those of Glycerius. But in Letter cciv., placed in 375, Basil claims both the Phrygias, i.e. Pacatiana and Salutaris, as being in communion with him. By the "Roman Church," followed by Cappadocia and opposed by Phrygia, must be meant either the ecclesiastical system of the Roman Empire, or the Church at Rome regarded as holding a kind of hegemony of Churches. If the former, it will be remembered that Cappadocia boldly withstood the creed patronized and pressed by imperial authority, when the influence of Valens made Arianism the official religion of Rome. If the latter, the phrase seems a misleading anachronism. In the fourth century there was no following or opposing the Church of Rome as we understand the phrase. To the bishop of Rome was conceded a certain personal precedence, as bishop of the capital, and he was beginning to claim more. In the West there was the dignity of the only western apostolic see, and the Church of Rome, as a society, was eminently orthodox and respectable. But, as important ecclesiastical centres, Antioch and Alexandria were far ahead of Rome, and the pope of Alexandria occupied a greater place than the pope of Rome. What Basil was eager to follow was not any local church, but the Faith which he understood to be the true and Catholic Faith, i.e., the Faith of Nicaea. There was no church of Rome in the sense of one organized oecumenical society governed by a central Italian authority. Basil has no idea of any such thing as a Roman supremacy. cf. Letter ccxiv. and note. [242] Ep. cxxxii. [243] Epp. lxi., lxvi., lxvii., lxix., lxxx., lxxxii. [244] Ep. cxcvii. [245] Ep. xxiv. [246] Epp. cclxiv., cclxvii. [247] Epp. ccli., ccv., ccvi. [248] Ep. cclviii. [249] Epp. lvii., lxviii., lxxxix., cxx., cxxix., ccxvi. [250] Epp. ccxliv., ccl. [251] Epp. cxxxiii., cclxvi. [252] Epp. cxxi., cxxx. [253] Epp. cliv., clxiv., clxv. [254] cf. Epp. lxxxii. and note. [255] The proverbial expression is conjectured by Dean Stanley to be derived from the Latin version of the famous passage concerning Athanasius in Hooker, Ecc. Pol. v. 42. Vide Stanley, Grk. Church, lect. vii. [256] The date of the Council is, however, disputed. Pagi is for 373, Cave for 367. Hefele and Ceillier are satisfied of the correctness of 375. cf. D.C.A. i. 813. [257] Theod., Ecc. Hist. iv. 8. [258] Mansi, iii. 386. Hefele, S: 90. [259] Theod., H.E. iv. 7. __________________________________________________________________ X.--Troubles of the Closing Years. The relief to the Catholic East was brief. The paroxysm of passion which caused Valentinian to break a blood-vessel and ended his life, [260] ended also the force of the imperial rescript. The Arians lifted their heads again. A council was held at Ancyra, [261] in which the homoousion was condemned, and frivolous and vexatious charges were brought against Gregory of Nyssa. [262] At Cyzicus a Semiarian synod blasphemed the Holy Spirit. [263] Similar proceedings characterized a synod of Antioch at about the same time. [264] Gregory of Nyssa having been prevented by illness from appearing before the synod of Ancyra, Eustathius and Demosthenes persisted in their efforts to wound Basil through his brother, and summoned a synod at Nyssa itself, where Gregory was condemned in his absence and deposed. [265] He was not long afterwards banished. [266] On the other hand the Catholic bishops were not inactive. Synods were held on their part, and at Iconium Amphilochius presided over a gathering at which Basil was perhaps present himself, and where his treatise on the Holy Spirit was read and approved. [267] The Illyrian Council was a result incommensurate with Basil's passionate entreaties for the help of the westerns. From the midst of the troubles which beset the Eastern Church Basil appealed, [268] as he had appealed before, [269] for the sympathy and active aid of the other half of the empire. He was bitterly chagrined at the failure of his entreaties for support, and began to suspect that the neglect he complained of was due to coldness and to pride. [270] It has seemed to some that this coldness in the West was largely due to resentment at Basil's non-recognition of the supremacy of the Roman see. [271] In truth the supremacy of the Roman see, as it has been understood in later times, was hardly in the horizon. [272] No bishop of Rome had even been present at Nicaea, or at Sardica, where a certain right of appeal to his see was conceded. A bishop of Rome signed the Sirmian blasphemy. No bishop of Rome was present to save `the world' from the lapse of Ariminum. Julian "might seem to have forgotten that there was such a city as Rome." [273] The great intellectual Arian war was fought out without any claim of Rome to speak. Half a century after Basil's death great orientals were quite unconscious of this supremacy. [274] At Chalcedon the measure of the growing claim is aptly typified by the wish of Paschasinus of Lilybaeum, one of the representatives of Leo, to be regarded as presiding, though he did not preside. The supremacy is hardly in view even at the last of the four great Councils. In fact the appeal of Basil seems to have failed to elicit the response he desired, not so much from the independent tone of his letters, which was only in accordance with the recognised facts of the age, [275] as from occidental suspicions of Basil's orthodoxy, [276] and from the failure of men, who thought and wrote in Latin, to enter fully into the controversies conducted in a more subtle tongue. [277] Basil had taken every precaution to ensure the conveyance of his letters by messengers of tact and discretion. He had deprecated the advocacy of so simple-minded and undiplomatic an ambassador as his brother Gregory. [278] He had poured out his very soul in entreaty. [279] But all was unavailing. He suffered, and he had to suffer unsupported by a human sympathy on which he thought he had a just claim. [280] It is of a piece with Basil's habitual silence on the general affairs of the empire that he should seem to be insensible of the shock caused by the approach of the Goths in 378. A letter to Eusebius in exile in Thrace does shew at least a consciousness of a disturbed state of the country, and he is afraid of exposing his courier to needless danger by entrusting him with a present for his friend. But this is all. [281] He may have written letters shewing an interest in the fortunes of the empire which have not been preserved. But his whole soul was absorbed in the cause of Catholic truth, and in the fate of the Church. His youth had been steeped in culture, but the work of his ripe manhood left no time for the literary amusement of the dilettante. So it may be that the intense earnestness with which he said to himself, "This one thing I do," of his work as a shepherd of souls, and a fighter for the truth, and his knowledge that for the doing of this work his time was short, accounts for the absence from his correspondence of many a topic of more than contemporary interest. At all events, it is not difficult to descry that the turn in the stream of civil history was of vital moment to the cause which Basil held dear. The approach of the enemy was fraught with important consequences to the Church. The imperial attention was diverted from persecution of the Catholics to defence of the realm. Then came the disaster of Adrianople, [282] and the terrible end of the unfortunate Valens. [283] Gratian, a sensible lad, of Catholic sympathies, restored the exiled bishops, and Basil, in the few months of life yet left him, may have once more embraced his faithful friend Eusebius. The end drew rapidly near. Basil was only fifty, but he was an old man. Work, sickness, and trouble had worn him out. His health had never been good. A chronic liver complaint was a constant cause of distress and depression. In 373 he had been at death's door. Indeed, the news of his death was actually circulated, and bishops arrived at Caesarea with the probable object of arranging the succession. [284] He had submitted to the treatment of a course of natural hot baths, but with small beneficial result. [285] By 376, as he playfully reminds Amphilochius, he had lost all his teeth. [286] At last the powerful mind and the fiery enthusiasm of duty were no longer able to stimulate the energies of the feeble frame. The winter of 378-9 dealt the last blow, and with the first day of what, to us, is now the new year, the great spirit fled. Gregory, alas! was not at the bedside. But he has left us a narrative which bears the stamp of truth. For some time the bystanders thought that the dying bishop had ceased to breathe. Then the old strength blazed out at the last. He spoke with vigour, and even ordained some of the faithful who were with him. Then he lay once more feeble and evidently passing away. Crowds surrounded his residence, praying eagerly for his restoration to them, and willing to give their lives for his. With a few final words of advice and exhortation, he said: "Into thy hands I commend my spirit," and so ended. The funeral was a scene of intense excitement and rapturous reverence. Crowds filled every open space, and every gallery and window; Jews and Pagans joined with Christians in lamentation, and the cries and groans of the agitated oriental multitude drowned the music of the hymns which were sung. The press was so great that several fatal accidents added to the universal gloom. Basil was buried in the "sepulchre of his fathers"--a phrase which may possibly mean in the ancestral tomb of his family at Caesarea. So passed away a leader of men in whose case the epithet `great' is no conventional compliment. He shared with his illustrious brother primate of Alexandria the honour of rallying the Catholic forces in the darkest days of the Arian depression. He was great as foremost champion of a great cause, great in contemporary and posthumous influence, great in industry and self-denial, great as a literary controversialist. The estimate formed of him by his contemporaries is expressed in the generous, if somewhat turgid, eloquence of the laudatory oration of the slighted Gregory of Nazianzus. Yet nothing in Gregory's eulogy goes beyond the expressions of the prelate who has seemed to some to be "the wisest and holiest man in the East in the succeeding century." [287] Basil is described by the saintly and learned Theodoret [288] in terms that might seem exaggerated when applied to any but his master, as the light not of Cappadocia only, but of the world. [289] To Sophronius [290] he is the "glory of the Church." To Isidore of Pelusium, [291] he seems to speak as one inspired. To the Council of Chalcedon he is emphatically a minister of grace; [292] to the second council of Nicaea a layer of the foundations of orthodoxy. [293] His death lacks the splendid triumph of the martyrdoms of Polycarp and Cyprian. His life lacks the vivid incidents which make the adventures of Athanasius an enthralling romance. He does not attract the sympathy evoked by the unsophisticated simplicity of Gregory his friend or of Gregory his brother. There does not linger about his memory the close personal interest that binds humanity to Augustine, or the winning loyalty and tenderness that charm far off centuries into affection for Theodoret. Sometimes he seems a hard, almost a sour man. [294] Sometimes there is a jarring reminder of his jealousy for his own dignity. [295] Evidently he was not a man who could be thwarted without a rupture of pleasant relations, or slighted with impunity. In any subordinate position he was not easy to get on with. [296] But a man of strong will, convicted that he is championing a righteous cause, will not hesitate to sacrifice, among other things, the amenities that come of amiable absence of self-assertion. To Basil, to assert himself was to assert the truth of Christ and of His Church. And in the main the identification was a true one. Basil was human, and occasionally, as in the famous dispute with Anthimus, so disastrously fatal to the typical friendship of the earlier manhood, he may have failed to perceive that the Catholic cause would not suffer from the existence of two metropolitans in Cappadocia. But the great archbishop could be an affectionate friend, thirsty for sympathy. [297] And he was right in his estimate of his position. Broadly speaking, Basil, more powerfully than any contemporary official, worker, or writer in the Church, did represent and defend through all the populous provinces of the empire which stretched from the Balkans to the Mediterranean, from the AEgean to the Euphrates, the cause whose failure or success has been discerned, even by thinkers of no favourable predisposition, to have meant death or life to the Church. [298] St. Basil is duly canonized in the grateful memory, no less than in the official bead-roll, of Christendom, and we may be permitted to regret that the existing Kalendar of the Anglican liturgy has not found room for so illustrious a Doctor in its somewhat niggard list. [299] For the omission some amends have lately [300] been made in the erection of a statue of the great archbishop of Caesarea under the dome of the Cathedral St. Paul in London. [301] __________________________________________________________________ [260] Nov. 17, 375. Amm. Marc. xxx. 6. Soc. iv. 31. [261] Mansi, iii. 499. Hefele, S: 90. [262] Ep. ccxxv. [263] Ep. ccxliv. [264] Soc. v. 4. [265] Ep. ccxxxvii. [266] Greg., Vit. Mac. ii. 192. [267] Ep. ccii., cclxxii. Hefele, S: 90. Mansi, iii. 502-506. There is some doubt as to the exact date of this synod. cf. D.C.A. i. 807. [268] Ep. ccxliii. [269] Ep. lxx., addressed in 371 to Damasus. [270] Ep. ccxxxix. [271] cf. D.C.B. i. 294: "C'est esprit, conciliant aux les orientaux jusqu'`a soulever l'intolerance orientale, est aussi inflexible avec les occidentaux qu'avec le pouvoir imperial. On sent dans ses lettres la revolte de l'orient qui reclame ses prerogatives, ses droits d'anciennete; l'esprit d'independance de la Grece, qui, si elle supporte le joug materiel de Rome, refuse de reconnaitre sa suprematie spirituelle." Fialon, Et. Hist. 133. [272] cf. note. on S: ix. [273] Milman, Lat. Christ. i. 85. [274] cf. Proleg to Theodoret in this series, p. 9, note. [275] A ses yeux, l'Orient et l'Occident ne sont ils pas, deux freres, dont les droits sont egaux, sans suprematie, sans ainesse?" Fialon, Et. Hist. p. 134. This is exactly what East and West were to most eyes, and what they were asserted to be in the person of the two imperial capitals by the Twenty-Eighth Canon of Chalcedon. cf. Bright, Canons of the First Four General Councils, pp. 93, 192, and note on Theodoret in this series, p. 293. [276] Ep. cclxvi. S: 2. [277] cf. Ep. ccxiv. S: 4, p. 254. [278] Ep. ccxv. [279] See specially Ep. ccxlii. [280] "Foiled in all his repeated demands; a deaf ear turned to his most earnest entreaties; the council he had begged for not summoned; the deputation he had repeatedly solicited unsent; Basil's span of life drew to its end amid blasted hopes and apparently fruitless labours for the unity of the faith. It was not permitted him to live to see the Eastern Churches, for the purity of whose faith he had devoted all his powers, restored to peace and unanimity." Canon Venables, D.C.B. i. 295. "He had to fare on as best he might,--admiring, courting, but coldly treated by the Latin world, desiring the friendship of Rome, yet wounded by her superciliousness, suspected of heresy by Damasus, and accused by Jerome of pride." Newman, Church of the Fathers, p. 115. [281] Ep. cclxviii. So Fialon, Et. Hist. p. 149: "On n'y trouve pas un mot sur la desastreuse expedition de Julien, sur le honteux traite de Jovien, sur la revolte de Procope." At the same time the argument from silence is always dangerous. It may be unfair to charge Basil with indifference to great events, because we do not possess his letters about them. [282] Aug. 9, 378. [283] Theod. iv. 32. Amm. Marc. xxxi. 13. [284] Ep. cxli. [285] Ep. cxxxvii. [286] Ep. ccxxxii. [287] Kingsley, Hypatia, chap. xxx. [288] cf. Gibbon, chap. xxi. [289] Theod., H.E. iv. 16, and Ep. cxlvi. [290] Apud Photium Cod. 231. [291] Ep. lxi. [292] cf. Ceillier, vi. 8, 1. [293] Ib. [294] cf. Ep. xxv. [295] cf. xcviii. [296] e.g. his relations with his predecessor. [297] Ep. xci. [298] e.g. T. Carlyle. "He perceived Christianity itself to have been at stake. If the Arians had won, it would have dwindled away into a legend." J. A. Froude, Life of Carlyle in London, ii. 462. [299] In the Greek Kalendar January 1, the day of the death, is observed in honour of the saint. In the West St. Basil's day is June 14, the traditional date of the consecration. The martyrologies of Jerome and Bede do not contain the name. The first mention is ascribed by the Bollandists to Usuard. (Usuard's martyrology was composed for Charles the Bold at Paris.) In the tenth century a third day was consecrated in the East to the common commemoration of SS. Basil, Gregory of Nazianzus, and John Chrysostom. [300] 1894. [301] Basil lived at the period when the relics of martyrs and saints were beginning to be collected and honoured. (e.g. Ep. cxcvii.) To Damasus, the bishop of Rome, whose active sympathy he vainly strove to win, is mainly due the reverent rearrangement of the Roman catacombs. (Roma Sotteranea, Northcote and Brownlow, p. 97.) It was not to be expected that Basil's own remains should be allowed to rest in peace; but the gap between the burial at Caesarea and the earliest record of their supposed reappearance is wide. There was a Church of St. Basil at Bruges founded in 1187, which was believed to possess some of the archbishop's bones. These were solemnly translated in 1463 to the Church of St. Donatian, which disappeared at the time of the French revolution. Pancirola (d. 1599) mentions a head, an arm, and a rib, said to be Basil's, among the treasures of Rome. __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ II. Works. The extant works of St. Basil may be conveniently classified as follows: I. Dogmatic. (i) Adversus Eunomium. Pros Eunomion. (ii) De Spiritu Sancto. Peri tou Pneumatos. II. Exegetic. [302] (i) In Hexaemeron. Eis ten ;;Exaemeron. (ii) Homiliae on Pss. i., vii., xiv., xxviii., xxix., xxxii., xxxiii., xliv., xlv., xlviii., lix., lxi., cxiv. (iii) Commentary on Isaiah i.-xvi. III. Ascetic. (i) Tractatus praevii. (ii.) Prooemium de Judicio Dei and De Fide. (iii) Moralia. Ta 'Ethika. (iv) Regulae fusius tractatae. ;'Oroi kata platos. (v) Regulae brevius tractatae. ;'Oroi kat' epitomen. IV. Homiletic. XXIV. Homilies. (i) Dogmatic. (ii) Moral. (iii) Panegyric. V. Letters. (i) Historic. (ii) Dogmatic. (iii) Moral. (iv) Disciplinary. (v) Consolatory. (vi) Commendatory. (vii) Familiar. VI. Liturgic. __________________________________________________________________ [302] According to Cassiodorus (Instit. Divin. Litt. Praefat.) St. Basil wrote in interpretation of the whole of Scripture, but this statement lacks confirmation. cf. Maran, Vit. Bas. xli. __________________________________________________________________ I.--Dogmatic. I. (i) Against Eunomius. The work under this title comprises five books, the first three generally accepted as genuine, the last two sometimes regarded as doubtful. Gregory of Nazianzus, [303] Jerome, [304] and Theodoret [305] all testify to Basil's having written against Eunomius, but do not specify the number of books. Books IV. and V. are accepted by Bellarmine, Du Pin, Tillemont, and Ceillier, mainly on the authority of the edict of Justinian against the Three Chapters (Mansi ix., 552), the Council of Seville (Mansi x., 566) and the Council of Florence (Hardouin ix., 200). Maran (Vit. Bas. xliii.) speaks rather doubtfully. Boehringer describes them as of suspicious character, alike on grounds of style, and of their absence from some mss. They may possibly be notes on the controversy in general, and not immediately directed against Eunomius. Fessler's conclusion is "Major tamen eruditorum pars eos etiam genuinos esse censet." The year 364 is assigned for the date of the publication of the three books. [306] At that time Basil sent them with a few words of half ironical depreciation to Leontius the sophist. [307] He was now about thirty-four years of age, and describes himself as hitherto inexperienced in such a kind of composition. [308] Eunomius, like his illustrious opponent, was a Cappadocian. Emulous of the notoriety achieved by Aetius the Anomoean, and urged on by Secundus of Ptolemais, an intimate associate of Aetius, he went to Alexandria about 356 and resided there for two years as Aetius' admiring pupil and secretary. In 358 he accompanied Aetius to Antioch, and took a prominent part in the assertion of the extreme doctrines which revolted the more moderate Semiarians. He was selected as the champion of the advanced blasphemers, made himself consequently obnoxious to Constantius, and was apprehended and relegated to Migde in Phrygia. At the same time Eudoxius withdrew for a while into Armenia, his native province, but ere long was restored to the favour of the fickle Constantius, and was appointed to the see of Constantinople in 359. Eunomius now was for overthrowing Aetius, and removing whatever obstacles stood between him and promotion, and, by the influence of Eudoxius, was nominated to the see of Cyzicus, vacant by the deposition of Eleusius. Here for a while he temporized, but ere long displayed his true sentiments. To answer for this he was summoned to Constantinople by Constantius, and, in his absence, condemned and deposed. Now he became more marked than ever in his assertion of the most extreme Arianism, and the advanced party were henceforward known under his name. The accession of Julian brought him back with the rest of the banished bishops, and he made Constantinople the centre for the dissemination of his views. [309] Somewhere about this period he wrote the work entitled Apologeticus, in twenty-eight chapters, to which Basil replies. The title was at once a parody on the Apologies of defenders of the Faith, and, at the same time, a suggestion that his utterances were not spontaneous, but forced from him by attack. The work is printed in Fabricius, Bibl. Graec. viii. 262, and in the appendix to Migne's Basil. Pat. Gr. xxx. 837. [310] It is a brief treatise, and occupies only about fifteen columns of Migne's edition. It professes to be a defence of the "simpler creed which is common to all Christians." [311] This creed is as follows: "We believe in one God, Father Almighty, of Whom are all things: and in one only-begotten Son of God, God the Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom are all things: and in one Holy Spirit, the Comforter." [312] But it is in reality like the extant Exposition of the Creed, [313] a reading into this "simpler" creed, in itself orthodox and unobjectionable, of explanations which ran distinctly counter to the traditional and instinctive faith of the Church, and inevitably demanded corrective explanations and definitions. In the creed of Eunomius the Son is God, and it is not in terms denied that He is of one substance with the Father. But in his doctrinal system there is a practical denial of the Creed; the Son may be styled God, but He is a creature, and therefore, in the strict sense of the term, not God at all, and, at best, a hero or demigod. The Father, unbegotten, stood alone and supreme; the very idea of "begotten" implied posteriority, inferiority, and unlikeness. Against this position Basil [314] protests. The arguments of Eunomius, he urges, are tantamount to an adoption of what was probably an Arian formula, "We believe that ingenerateness is the essence of God," [315] i.e., we believe that the Only-begotten is essentially unlike the Father. [316] This word "unbegotten," of which Eunomius and his supporters make so much, what is its real value? Basil admits that it is apparently a convenient term for human intelligence to use; but, he urges, "It is nowhere to be found in Scripture; it is one of the main elements in the Arian blasphemy; it had better be left alone. The word `Father' implies all that is meant by `Unbegotten,' and has moreover the advantage of suggesting at the same time the idea of the Son. He Who is essentially Father is alone of no other. In this being of no other is involved the sense of `Unbegotten.' The title `unbegotten' will not be preferred by us to that of Father, unless we wish to make ourselves wiser than the Saviour, Who said, `Go and baptize in the name' not of the Unbegotten, but `of the Father.'" [317] To the Eunomian contention that the word "Unbegotten" is no mere complimentary title, but required by the strictest necessity, in that it involves the confession of what He is, [318] Basil rejoins that it is only one of many negative terms applied to the Deity, none of which completely expresses the Divine Essence. "There exists no name which embraces the whole nature of God, and is sufficient to declare it; more names than one, and these of very various kinds, each in accordance with its own proper connotation, give a collective idea which may be dim indeed and poor when compared with the whole, but is enough for us." [319] The word "unbegotten," like "immortal," "invisible," and the like, expresses only negation. "Yet essence [320] is not one of the qualities which are absent, but signifies the very being of God; to reckon this in the same category as the non-existent is to the last degree unreasonable." [321] Basil "would be quite ready to admit that the essence of God is unbegotten," but he objects to the statement that the essence and the unbegotten are identical. [322] It is sometimes supposed that the Catholic theologians have been hair-splitters in the sphere of the inconceivable, and that heresy is the exponent of an amiable and reverent vagueness. In the Arian controversy it was Arius himself who dogmatically defined with his negative "There was when He was not," and Eunomius with his "The essence is the unbegotten." "What pride! What conceit!" exclaims Basil. "The idea of imagining that one has discovered the very essence of God most high! Assuredly in their magniloquence they quite throw into the shade even Him who said, `I will exalt my throne above the stars.' [323] It is not stars, it is not heaven, that they dare to assail. It is in the very essence of the God of all the world that they boast that they make their haunt. Let us question him as to where he acquired comprehension of this essence. Was it from the common notion that all men share? [324] This does indeed suggest to us that there is a God, but not what God is. Was it from the teaching of the Spirit? What teaching? Where found? What says great David, to whom God revealed the hidden secrets of His wisdom? He distinctly asserts the unapproachableness of knowledge of Him in the words, `Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.' [325] And Isaiah, who saw the glory of God, what does he tell us concerning the Divine Essence? In his prophecy about the Christ he says, `Who shall declare His generation?' [326] And what of Paul, the chosen vessel, in whom Christ spake, who was caught up into the third heaven, who heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful to man to utter? What teaching has he given us of the essence of God? When Paul is investigating the special methods of the work of redemption [327] he seems to grow dizzy before the mysterious maze which he is contemplating, and utters the well-known words, `O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!' [328] These things are beyond the reach even of those who have attained the measure of Paul's knowledge. What then is the conceit of those who announce that they know the essence of God! I should very much like to ask them what they have to say about the earth whereon they stand, and whereof they are born. What can they tell us of its `essence'? If they can discourse without hesitation of the nature of lowly subjects which lie beneath our feet, we will believe them when they proffer opinions about things which transcend all human intelligence. What is the essence of the earth? How can it be comprehended? Let them tell us whether reason or sense has reached this point! If they say sense, by which of the senses is it comprehended? Sight? Sight perceives colour. Touch? Touch distinguishes hard and soft, hot and cold, and the like; but no idiot would call any of these essence. I need not mention taste or smell, which apprehend respectively savour and scent. Hearing perceives sounds and voices, which have no affinity with earth. They must then say that they have found out the earth's essence by reason. What? In what part of Scripture? A tradition from what saint? [329] "In a word, if any one wishes to realise the truth of what I am urging, let him ask himself this question; when he wishes to understand anything about God, does he approach the meaning of `the unbegotten'? I for my part see that, just us when we extend our thought over the ages that are yet to come, we say that the life bounded by no limit is without end, so is it when we contemplate in thought the ages of the past, and gaze on the infinity of the life of God as we might into some unfathomable ocean. We can conceive of no beginning from which He originated: we perceive that the life of God always transcends the bounds of our intelligence; and so we call that in His life which is without origin, unbegotten. [330] The meaning of the unbegotten is the having no origin from without." [331] As Eunomius made ingenerateness the essence of the Divine, so, with the object of establishing the contrast between Father and Son, he represented the being begotten to indicate the essence of the Son. [332] God, said Eunomius, being ingenerate, could never admit of generation. This statement, Basil points out, may be understood in either of two ways. It may mean that ingenerate nature cannot be subjected to generation. It may mean that ingenerate nature cannot generate. Eunomius, he says, really means the latter, while he makes converts of the multitude on the lines of the former. Eunomius makes his real meaning evident by what he adds to his dictum, for, after saying "could never admit of generation," he goes on, "so as to impart His own proper nature to the begotten." [333] As in relation to the Father, so now in relation to the Son, Basil objects to the term. Why "begotten"? [334] Where did he get this word? From what teaching? From what prophet? Basil nowhere finds the Son called "begotten" in Scripture. [335] We read that the Father begat, but nowhere that the Son was a begotten thing. "Unto us a child is born, [336] unto us a Son is given." [337] But His name is not begotten thing but "angel of great counsel." [338] If this word had indicated the essence of the Son, no other word would have been revealed by the Spirit. [339] Why, if God begat, may we not call that which was begotten a thing begotten? It is a terrible thing for us to coin names for Him to Whom God has given a "name which is above every name." [340] We must not add to or take from what is delivered to us by the Spirit. [341] Things are not made for names, but names for things. [342] Eunomius unhappily was led by distinction of name into distinction of being. [343] If the Son is begotten in the sense in which Eunomius uses the word, He is neither begotten of the essence of God nor begotten from eternity. Eunomius represents the Son as not of the essence of the Father, because begetting is only to be thought of as a sensual act and idea, and therefore is entirely unthinkable in connexion with the being of God. "The essence of God does not admit of begetting; no other essence exists for the Son's begetting; therefore I say that the Son was begotten when non-existent." [344] Basil rejoins that no analogy can hold between divine generation or begetting and human generation or begetting. "Living beings which are subject to death generate through the operation of the senses: but we must not on this account conceive of God in the same manner; nay, rather shall we be hence guided to the truth that, because corruptible beings operate in this manner, the Incorruptible will operate in an opposite manner." [345] "All who have even a limited loyalty to truth ought to dismiss all corporeal similitudes. They must be very careful not to sully their conceptions of God by material notions. They must follow the theologies [346] delivered to us by the Holy Ghost. They must shun questions which are little better than conundrums, and admit of a dangerous double meaning. Led by the ray that shines forth from light to the contemplation of the divine generation, they must think of a generation worthy of God, without passion, partition, division, or time. They must conceive of the image of the invisible God not after the analogy of images which are subsequently fashioned by craft to match their archetype, but as of one nature and subsistence with the originating prototype [347] .... [348] This image is not produced by imitation, for the whole nature of the Father is expressed in the Son as on a seal." [349] "Do not press me with the questions: What is the generation? Of what kind was it? In what manner could it be effected? The manner is ineffable, and wholly beyond the scope of our intelligence; but we shall not on this account throw away the foundation of our faith in Father and Son. If we try to measure everything by our comprehension, and to suppose that what we cannot comprehend by our reasoning is wholly non-existent, farewell to the reward of faith; farewell to the reward of hope! If we only follow what is clear to our reason, how can we be deemed worthy of the blessings in store for the reward of faith in things not seen"? [350] If not of the essence of God, the Son could not be held to be eternal. "How utterly absurd," exclaims Basil, "to deny the glory of God to have had brightness; [351] to deny the wisdom of God to have been ever with God!...The Father is of eternity. So also is the Son of eternity, united by generation to the unbegotten nature of the Father. This is not my own statement. I shall prove it by quoting the words of Scripture. Let me cite from the Gospel `In the beginning was the Word,' [352] and from the Psalm, other words spoken as in the person of the Father, `From the womb before the morning I have begotten them.' [353] Let us put both together, and say, He was, and He was begotten....How absurd to seek for something higher in the case of the unoriginate and the unbegotten! Just as absurd is it to start questions as to time, about priority in the case of Him Who was with the Father from eternity, and between Whom and Him that begat Him there is no interval." [354] A dilemma put by Eunomius was the following: When God begat the Son, the Son either was or was not. [355] If He was not, no argument could lie against Eunomius and the Arians. If He was, the position is blasphemous and absurd, for that which is needs no begetting. [356] To meet this dilemma, Basil drew a distinction between eternity and the being unoriginate. [357] The Eunomians, from the fact of the unoriginateness of the Father being called eternity, maintained that unoriginateness and eternity are identical. [358] Because the Son is not unbegotten they do not even allow Him to be eternal. But there is a wide distinction to be observed in the meaning of the terms. The word unbegotten is predicated of that which has origin of itself, and no cause of its being: the word eternal is predicated of that which is in being beyond all time and age. [359] Wherefore the Son is both not unbegotten and eternal. [360] Eunomius was ready to give great dignity to the Son as a supreme creature. He did not hold the essence of the Son to be common to that of the things created out of nothing. [361] He would give Him as great a preeminence as the Creator has over His own created works. [362] Basil attributes little importance to this concession, and thinks it only leads to confusion and contradiction. If the God of the universe, being unbegotten, necessarily differs from things begotten, and all things begotten have their common hypostasis of the non-existent, what alternative is there to a natural conjunction of all such things? Just as in the one case the unapproachable effects a distinction between the natures, so in the other equality of condition brings them into mutual contact. They say that the Son and all things that came into being under Him are of the non-existent, and so far they make those natures common, and yet they deny that they give Him a nature of the non-existent. For again, as though Eunomius were Lord himself, and able to give to the Only Begotten what rank and dignity he chooses, he goes on to argue,--We attribute to Him so much supereminence as the Creator must of necessity have over His own creature. He does not say, "We conceive," or "We are of opinion," as would be befitting when treating of God, but he says "We attribute," as though he himself could control the measure of the attribution. And how much supereminence does he give? As much as the Creator must necessarily have over His own creatures. This has not yet reached a statement of difference of substance. Human beings in art surpass their own works, and yet are consubstantial with them, as the potter with his clay, and the shipwright with his timber. For both are alike bodies, subject to sense, and earthy. [363] Eunomius explained the title "Only Begotten" to mean that the Son alone was begotten and created by the Father alone, and therefore was made the most perfect minister. "If," rejoins Basil, "He does not possess His glory in being perfect God, if it lies only in His being an exact and obedient subordinate, in what does He differ from the ministering spirits who perform the work of their service without blame? [364] Indeed Eunomius joins `created' to `begotten' with the express object of shewing that there is no distinction between the Son and a creature! [365] And how unworthy a conception of the Father that He should need a servant to do His work! `He commanded and they were created.' [366] What service was needed by Him Who creates by His will alone? But in what sense are all things said by us to be `through the Son'? In that the divine will, starting from the prime cause, as it were from a source, proceeds to operation through its own image, God the Word." [367] Basil sees that if the Son is a creature mankind is still without a revelation of the Divine. He sees that Eunomius, "by alienating the Only Begotten from the Father, and altogether cutting Him off from communion with Him, as far as he can, deprives us of the ascent of knowledge which is made through the Son. Our Lord says that all that is the Father's is His. [368] Eunomius states that there is no fellowship between the Father and Him Who is of Him." [369] If so there is no "brightness" of glory; no "express image of hypostasis." [370] So Dorner, [371] who freely uses the latter portion of the treatise, "The main point of Basil's opposition to Eunomius is that the word unbegotten is not a name indicative of the essence of God, but only of a condition of existence. [372] The divine essence has other predicates. If every peculiar mode of existence causes a distinction in essence also, then the Son cannot be of the same essence with the Father, because He has a peculiar mode of existence, and the Father another; and men cannot be of the same essence, because each of them represents a different mode of existence. By the names of Father, Son, and Spirit, we do not understand different essences, (ousias), but they are names which distinguish the huparxis of each. All are God, and the Father is no more God than the Son, as one man is no more man than another. Quantitative differences are not reckoned in respect of essence; the question is only of being or non-being. But this does not exclude the idea of a variety in condition in the Father and the Son (heteros hechein),--the generation of the Latter. The dignity of both is equal. The essence of Begetter and Begotten is identical. [373] The Fourth Book contains notes on the chief passages of Scripture which were relied on by Arian disputants. Among these are I Cor. xv. 28. On the Subjection of the Son. "If the Son is subjected to the Father in the Godhead, then He must have been subjected from the beginning, from whence He was God. But if He was not subjected, but shall be subjected, it is in the manhood, as for us, not in the Godhead, as for Himself." Philipp. ii. 9. On the Name above every Name. "If the name above every name was given by the Father to the Son, Who was God, and every tongue owned Him Lord, after the incarnation, because of His obedience, then before the incarnation He neither had the name above every name nor was owned by all to be Lord. It follows then that after the incarnation He was greater than before the incarnation, which is absurd." So of Matt. xxviii. 18. "We must understand this of the incarnation, and not of the Godhead." John xiv. 28. "My Father is Greater than I." "`Greater' is predicated in bulk, in time, in dignity, in power, or as cause. The Father cannot be called greater than the Son in bulk, for He is incorporeal: nor yet in time, for the Son is Creator of times: nor yet in dignity, for He was not made what He had once not been: nor yet in power, for `what things the Father doeth, these also doeth the son likewise': [374] nor as cause, since (the Father) would be similarly greater than He and than we, if He is cause of Him and of us. The words express rather the honour given by the Son to the Father than any depreciation by the speaker; moreover what is greater is not necessarily of a different essence. Man is called greater than man, and horse than horse. If the Father is called greater, it does not immediately follow that He is of another substance. In a word, the comparison lies between beings of one substance, not between those of different substances. [375] "A man is not properly said to be greater than a brute, than an inanimate thing, but man than man and brute than brute. The Father is therefore of one substance with the Son, even though He be called greater." [376] On Matt. xxiv. 36. Of Knowledge of that Day and of that Hour. [377] "If the Son is the Creator of the world, and does not know the time of the judgment, then He does not know what He created. For He said that He was ignorant not of the judgment, but of the time. How can this be otherwise than absurd? "If the Son has not knowledge of all things whereof the Father has knowledge, then He spake untruly when He said `All things that the Father hath are mine' [378] and `As the Father knoweth me so know I the Father.' [379] If there is a distinction between knowing the Father and knowing the things that the Father hath, and if, in proportion as every one is greater than what is his, it is greater to know the Father than to know what is His, then the Son, though He knew the greater (for no man knoweth the Father save the Son), [380] did not know the less. "This is impossible. He was silent concerning the season of the judgment, because it was not expedient for men to hear. Constant expectation kindles a warmer zeal for true religion. The knowledge that a long interval of time was to elapse would have made men more careless about true religion, from the hope of being saved by a subsequent change of life. How could He who had known everything up to this time (for so He said) not know that hour also? If so, the Apostle vainly said `In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.' [381] "If the Holy Spirit, who `searcheth the deep things of God,' [382] cannot be ignorant of anything that is God's, then, as they who will not even allow Him to be equal must contend, the Holy Ghost is greater than the Son." [383] On Matt. xxvi. 39. Father, if it be Possible, let this Cup pass from Me. "If the Son really said, `Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me,' He not only shewed His own cowardice and weakness, but implied that there might be something impossible to the Father. The words `if it be possible' are those of one in doubt, and not thoroughly assured that the Father could save Him. How could not He who gave the boon of life to corpses much rather be able to preserve life in the living? Wherefore then did not He Who had raised Lazarus and many of the dead supply life to Himself? Why did He ask life from the Father, saying, in His fear, `Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from me'? If He was dying unwillingly, He had not yet humbled Himself; He had not yet been made obedient to the Father unto death; [384] He had not given Himself, as the Apostle says, `who gave Himself for our sins, [385] a ransom.' [386] If He was dying willingly, what need of the words `Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away'? No: this must not be understood of Himself; it must be understood of those who were on the point of sinning against Him, to prevent them from sinning; when crucified in their behalf He said, `Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.' [387] We must not understand words spoken in accordance with the oeconomy [388] to be spoken simply." On John vi. 57. I live by the Father. [389] "If the Son lives on account of [390] the Father, He lives on account of another, and not of Himself. But He who lives on account of another cannot be Self-life. [391] So He who is holy of grace is not holy of himself. [392] Then the Son did not speak truly when He said, `I am the life,' [393] and again `the Son quickeneth whom He will.' [394] We must therefore understand the words to be spoken in reference to the incarnation, and not to the Godhead." On John v. 19. The Son can do Nothing of Himself. "If freedom of action [395] is better than subjection to control, [396] and a man is free, while the Son of God is subject to control, then the man is better than the Son. This is absurd. And if he who is subject to control cannot create free beings (for he cannot of his own will confer on others what he does not possess himself), then the Saviour, since He made us free, cannot Himself be under the control of any." "If the Son could do nothing of Himself, and could only act at the bidding of the Father, He is neither good nor bad. He was not responsible for anything that was done. Consider the absurdity of the position that men should be free agents both of good and evil, while the Son, who is God, should be able to do nothing of His own authority!" On John xv. 1. "I am the Vine." "If, say they, the Saviour is a vine, and we are branches, but the Father is husbandman; and if the branches are of one nature with the vine, and the vine is not of one nature with the husbandman; then the Son is of one nature with us, and we are a part of Him, but the Son is not of one nature with, but in all respects of a nature foreign to, the Father, I shall reply to them that He called us branches not of His Godhead, but of His flesh, as the Apostle says, we are `the body of Christ, and members in particular,' [397] and again, `know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?' [398] and in other places, `as is the earthy, such are they that are earthy; and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, let us all bear the image of the heavenly.' [399] If the head of the `man is Christ, and the head of Christ is God,' [400] and man is not of one substance with Christ, Who is God (for man is not God), but Christ is of one substance with God (for He is God) therefore God is not the head of Christ in the same sense as Christ is the head of man. The natures of the creature and the creative Godhead do not exactly coincide. God is head of Christ, as Father; Christ is head of us, as Maker. If the will of the Father is that we should believe in His Son (for this is the will of Him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life), [401] the Son is not a Son of will. That we should believe in Him is (an injunction) found with Him, or before Him." [402] On Mark x. 18. There is none Good, etc. "If the Saviour is not good, He is necessarily bad. For He is simple, and His character does not admit of any intermediate quality. How can it be otherwise than absurd that the Creator of good should be bad? And if life is good, and the words of the Son are life, as He Himself said, `the words which I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life,' [403] in what sense, when He hears one of the Pharisees address Him as good Master does He rejoin, `There is none good but One, that is God'? It was not when He had heard no more than good that he said, `there is none good,' but when He had heard good Master. He answered as to one tempting Him, as the gospel expresses it, or to one ignorant, that God is good, and not simply a good master." On John xvii. 5. Father, glorify Me. "If when the Son asked to be glorified of the Father He was asking in respect of His Godhead, and not of His manhood, He asked for what He did not possess. Therefore the evangelist speaks falsely when he says `we beheld His glory'; [404] and the apostle, in the words `They would not have crucified the Lord of glory,' [405] and David in the words `And the King of glory shall come in.' [406] It is not therefore an increase of glory which he asks. He asks that there may be a manifestation of the oeconomy. [407] Again, if He really asked that the glory which He had before the world might be given Him of the Father, He asked it because He had lost it. He would never have sought to receive that of which He was in possession. But if this was the case, He had lost not only the glory, but also the Godhead. For the glory is inseparable from the Godhead. Therefore, according to Photinus, [408] He was mere man. It is then clear that He spoke these words in accordance with the oeconomy of the manhood, and not through failure in the Godhead." On Coloss. i. 15. Firstborn of every Creature. "If before the creation the Son was not a generated being but a created being, [409] He would have been called first created and not firstborn. [410] If, because He is called first begotten of creation He is first created, then because He is called first begotten of the dead [411] He would be the first of the dead who died. If on the other hand He is called first begotten of the dead because of His being the cause of the resurrection from the dead, He is in the same manner called first begotten of creation, because He is the cause of the bringing of the creature from the non existent into being. If His being called first begotten of creation indicates that He came first into being then the Apostle, when he said, `all things were created by Him and for Him' [412] ought to have added, `And He came into being first of all.' But in saying `He is before all things,' [413] he indicated that He exists eternally, while the creature came into being. `Is' in the passage in question is in harmony with the words `In the beginning was the Word.' [414] It is urged that if the Son is first begotten, He cannot be only begotten, and that there must needs be some other, in comparison with whom He is styled first begotten. Yet, O wise objector, though He is the only Son born of the Virgin Mary, He is called her first born. For it is said, `Till she brought forth her first born Son.' [415] There is therefore no need of any brother in comparison with whom He is styled first begotten. [416] "It might also be said that one who was before all generation was called first begotten, and moreover in respect of them who are begotten of God through the adoption of the Holy Ghost, as Paul says, `For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first born among many brethren.'" [417] On Prov. vii. 22. The Lord created Me (LXX.). [418] "If it is the incarnate Lord who says `I am the way,' [419] and `No man cometh unto the Father but by me,' [420] it is He Himself Who said, `The Lord created me beginning of ways.' The word is also used of the creation and making of a begotten being, [421] as `I have created a man through the Lord,' [422] and again `He begat sons and daughters,' [423] and so David, `Create in me a clean heart, O God,' [424] not asking for another, but for the cleansing of the heart he had. And a new creature is spoken of, not as though another creation came into being, but because the enlightened are established in better works. If the Father created the Son for works, He created Him not on account of Himself, but on account of the works. But that which comes into being on account of something else, and not on its own account, is either a part of that on account of which it came into being, or is inferior. The Saviour will then be either a part of the creature, or inferior to the creature. We must understand the passage of the manhood. And it might be said that Solomon uttered these words of the same wisdom whereof the Apostle makes mention in the passage `For after that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God.' [425] It must moreover be borne in mind that the speaker is not a prophet, but a writer of proverbs. Now proverbs are figures of other things, not the actual things which are uttered. If it was God the Son Who said, `The Lord created me,' He would rather have said, `The Father created me.' Nowhere did He call Him Lord, but always Father. The word `begot,' then, must be understood in reference to God the Son, and the word created, in reference to Him who took on Him the form of a servant. In all these cases we do not mention two, God apart and man apart (for He was One), but in thought we take into account the nature of each. Peter had not two in his mind when he said, `Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh.' [426] If, they argue, the Son is a thing begotten and not a thing made, how does Scripture say, `Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, Whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ'? [427] We must also say here that this was spoken according to the flesh about the Son of Man; just as the angel who announced the glad tidings to the shepherds says, `To you is born to-day a Saviour, Who is Christ the Lord.' [428] The word `to-day' could never be understood of Him Who was before the ages. This is more clearly shewn by what comes afterwards where it is said, `That same Jesus whom ye have crucified.' [429] If when the Son was born [430] He was then made wisdom, it is untrue that He was `the power of God and the wisdom of God.' [431] His wisdom did not come into being, but existed always. And so, as though of the Father, it is said by David, `Be thou, God, my defender,' [432] and again, `thou art become my salvation,' [433] and so Paul, `Let God be true, but every man a liar.' [434] Thus the Lord `of God is made unto us wisdom and sanctification and redemption.' [435] Now when the Father was made defender and true, He was not a thing made; and similarly when the Son was made wisdom and sanctification, He was not a thing made. If it is true that there is one God the Father, it is assuredly also true that there is one Lord Jesus Christ the Saviour. According to them the Saviour is not God nor the Father Lord, and it is written in vain, `the Lord said unto my Lord.' [436] False is the statement, `Therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee.' [437] False too, `The Lord rained from the Lord.' [438] False, `God created in the image of God,' [439] and `Who is God save the Lord?' [440] and `Who is a God save our God.' [441] False the statement of John that `the Word was God and the Word was with God;' [442] and the words of Thomas of the Son, `my Lord and my God.' [443] The distinctions, then, ought to be referred to creatures and to those who are falsely and not properly called gods, and not to the Father and to the Son." On John xvii. 3. That they may know Thee, the only true God. "The true (sing.) is spoken of in contradistinction to the false (pl.). But He is incomparable, because in comparison with all He is in all things superexcellent. When Jeremiah said of the Son, `This is our God, and there shall none other be accounted of in comparison with Him,' [444] did he describe Him as greater even than the Father? That the Son also is true God, John himself declares in the Epistle, `That we may know the only true God, and we are (in Him that is true, even) in his (true) Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.' [445] It would be wrong, on account of the words `There shall none other be accounted of in comparison of Him,' to understand the Son to be greater than the Father; nor must we suppose the Father to be the only true God. Both expressions must be used in connexion with those who are falsely styled, but are not really, gods. In the same way it is said in Deuteronomy, `So the Lord alone did lead him, and there was no strange God with him.' [446] If God is alone invisible and wise, it does not at once follow that He is greater than all in all things. But the God Who is over all is necessarily superior to all. Did the Apostle, when he styled the Saviour God over all, describe Him as greater than the Father? The idea is absurd. The passage in question must be viewed in the same manner. The great God cannot be less than a different God. When the Apostle said of the Son, we look for `that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ,' [447] did he think of Him as greater than the Father? [448] It is the Son, not the Father, Whose appearance and advent we are waiting for. These terms are thus used without distinction of both the Father and the Son, and no exact nicety is observed in their employment. `Being equally with God' [449] is identical with being equal with God. [450] Since the Son `thought it not robbery' to be equal with God, how can He be unlike and unequal to God? Jews are nearer true religion than Eunomius. Whenever the Saviour called Himself no more than Son of God, as though it were due to the Son, if He be really Son, to be Himself equal to the Father, they wished, it is said, to stone Him, not only because He was breaking the Sabbath, but because, by saying that God was His own Father, He made Himself equal with God. [451] Therefore, even though Eunomius is unwilling that it should be so, according both to the Apostle and to the Saviour's own words, the Son is equal with the Father." On Matt. xx. 23. Is not Mine to give, save for whom it is prepared. [452] "If the Son has not authority over the judgment, and power to benefit some and chastise others, how could He say, `The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son'? [453] And in another place, `The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins;' [454] and again, `All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth;' [455] and to Peter, `I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven;' [456] and to the disciples, `Verily, I say unto you that ye which have followed me, in the regeneration,...shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.' [457] The explanation is clear from the Scripture, since the Saviour said, `Then will I reward every man according to his work;' [458] and in another place, `They that have done good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.' [459] And the Apostle says, `We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to what he hath done, whether it be good or bad.' [460] It is therefore the part of the recipients to make themselves worthy of a seat on the left and on the right of the Lord: it is not the part of Him Who is able to give it, even though the request be unjust." [461] On Ps. xviii. 31, LXX. Who is God, save the Lord? Who is God save our God? "It has already been sufficiently demonstrated that the Scriptures employ these expressions and others of a similar character not of the Son, but of the so-called gods who were not really so. I have shewn this from the fact that in both the Old and the New Testament the son is frequently styled both God and Lord. David makes this still clearer when he says, `Who is like unto Thee?' [462] and adds, `among the gods, O Lord,' and Moses, in the words, `So the Lord alone did lead them, and there was no strange god with him.' [463] And yet although, as the Apostle says, the Saviour was with them, `They drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ,' [464] and Jeremiah, `The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth,...let them perish under the heavens.' [465] The Son is not meant among these, for He is himself Creator of all. It is then the idols and images of the heathen who are meant alike by the preceding passage and by the words, `I am the first God and I am the last, and beside me there is no God,' [466] and also, `Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me,' [467] and `Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.' [468] None of these passages must be understood as referring to the Son." The Fifth Book against Eunomius is on the Holy Spirit, and therefore, even if it were of indubitable genuineness, it would be of comparatively little importance, as the subject is fully discussed in the treatise of his mature life. A reason advanced against its genuineness has been the use concerning the Holy Ghost of the term God. (S: 3.) But it has been replied that the reserve which St. Basil practiced after his elevation to the episcopate was but for a special and temporary purpose. He calls the Spirit God in Ep. VIII. S:11. At the time of the publication of the Books against Eunomius there would be no such reason for any "economy" [469] as in 374. (ii) De Spiritu Sancto. To the illustration and elucidation of this work I have little to add to what is furnished, however inadequately, by the translation and notes in the following pages. The famous treatise of St. Basil was one of several put out about the same time by the champions of the Catholic cause. Amphilochius, to whom it was addressed, was the author of a work which Jerome describes (De Vir. Ill., cxxxiii.) as arguing that He is God Almighty, and to be worshipped. The Ancoratus of Epiphanius was issued in 373 in support of the same doctrine. At about the same time Didymus, the blind master of the catechetical school at Alexandria, wrote a treatise which is extant in St. Jerome's Latin; and of which the work of St. Ambrose, composed in 381, for the Emperor Gratian, is "to a considerable extent an echo." [470] So in East and West a vigorous defence was maintained against the Macedonian assault. The Catholic position is exactly defined in the Synodical Letter sent by Damasus to Paulinus of Tyre in 378. [471] Basil died at the crisis of the campaign, and with no bright Pisgah view of the ultimate passage into peace. The generalship was to pass into other hands. There is something of the irony of fate, or of the mystery of Providence, in the fact that the voice condemned by Basil to struggle against the mean din and rattle of Sasima should be the vehicle for impressing on the empire the truths which Basil held dear. Gregory of Sasima was no archiepiscopal success at Constantinople. He was not an administrator or a man of the world. But he was a great divine and orator, and the imperial basilica of the Athanasia rang with outspoken declarations of the same doctrines, which Basil had more cautiously suggested to inevitable inference. The triumph was assured, Gregory was enthroned in St. Sophia, and under Theodosius the Catholic Faith was safe from molestation. __________________________________________________________________ [303] Or. xliii. S: 67. [304] De Script. Eccl. 116. [305] Dial. ii. p. 207 in the ed. of this series. [306] Maran, Vit. Bas. viii. [307] cf. Ep. xx. [308] 1 Eunom. i. [309] Theod., H.E. ii. 25; and Haer. Fab. iv. 3. Philost., H.E. vi. 1. [310] cf. also Basnage in Canisii Lectiones antt. i. 172; Fessler, Inst. Pat. 1. 507. Dorner, Christologie, 1. 853, and Boehringer, Kirchengeschichte, vii. 62. [311] haploustera kai koine panton pistis. S: 5. [312] The Creed of Eunomius. (Adv. Eunom. i. 4.) Pisteuomen eis hena Theon, Patera pantokratora, ex hou ta panta; kai eis hena Monogene ;;Uion tou Theou, Theon logon, ton Kurion hemon Iesoun Christon, di' hou ta panta; kai eis hen Pneuma hagion, to parakleton. Eunom., Apol. S: 5. The Creed of Arius and Euzoius. (Soc. H.E. i. 26.) Pisteuomen eis hena Theon Patera pantokratora, kai eis Kurion Iesoun Christon, ton ;;Uion autou, ton ex autou pro panton ton ai& 240;non gegennemenon, Theon Logon, di' hou ta panta egeneto ta te en tois ouranois kai ta epi tes ges, ton katelthonta, kai sarkothenta, kai pathonta, kai anastanta, kai anelthonta eis tous ouranous kai palin erchomenon krinai zontas kai nekrous; kai eis to hagion Pneuma; kai eis sarkos anastasin; kai eis zoen tou mellontos ai& 242;nos; kai eis Basileian ouranon; kai eis mian katholiken ekklesian tou theou ten apo peraton he& 241;s peraton. [313] Ekthesis tes pisteos, published in the notes of Valesius to Soc., Ecc. Hist. v. 12. This was offered to Theodosius after the Council of Constantinople. The Son is prototokon pases ktiseos, and pro pases ktiseos genomenon, but ouk aktiston. The oute to Hui& 254; sunexisoumenon oute men allo tini suntassomenon... proton ergon kai kratiston tou Monogenous. cf. St. Aug., De Haer. liv., "Eunomius asserted that the Son was altogether dissimilar to the Father and the Spirit to the Son," and Philostrius, De Haer. lxviii., who represents the Eunomians as believing in three essences descending in value like gold, silver, and copper. Vide Swete, Doctrine of the Holy Ghost, p. 61. [314] Adv. Eunom. i. 5. [315] pisteuomen ten agennesian ousian einas tou Theou. For the word agennesia cf. Letter ccxxxiv. p. 274. [316] Adv. Eunom. i. 4. [317] Matt. xxviii. 19. Adv. Eun. i. 5. [318] en te tou einai ho estin homologi& 139;. Adv. Eunom. i. 8. [319] Id. i. 10. [320] ousia. [321] Id. [322] Id. ii. [323] i.e. Lucifer, cf. Is. xiv. 13. [324] On koine ennoia, cf. Origen, C. Cels. i. 4. [325] Ps. cxxxix. 6. [326] Is. liii. 8. [327] tous merikous tes oikonomias logous. [328] Rom. xi. 33. [329] Id. i. 13. [330] touto to anarchon tes zoes agenneton proseirekamen. [331] Id. i. 16. [332] to gennema. Id. ii. 6. [333] Id. i. 16. [334] gennema, i.e., "thing begotten;" the distinction between this substantive and the scriptural adjective monogenes must be borne in mind. [335] Id. ii. 6. [336] LXX., egennethe. [337] Is. ix. 6. [338] Id. LXX. [339] Id. ii. 7. [340] Phil. ii. 9. [341] Id. ii. 8. [342] Id. ii. 4. [343] Id. ii. 3. [344] Id. ii. 18. [345] Id. ii. 23. [346] On the distinction between theologia and oikonomia, cf. p. 7, n. [347] sunuparchousan kai paruphestekuian to prototupo hupostesanti. Expressions of this kind, used even by Basil, may help to explain the earlier Nicene sense of hupostasis. The Son has, as it were, a parallel hypostasis to that of the Father, Who eternally furnishes this hypostasis. cf. p. 195, n. [348] Here the MSS. vary, but the main sense is not affected by the omission of the variant phrase. [349] Id. ii. 16. cf. De Sp. Scto. S: 15, p. 9, and S: 84, p. 40, and notes. [350] Id. ii. 24. [351] apaugasma. cf. Heb. i. 13. [352] John i. 1. [353] Ps. cx. 3, LXX. [354] Id. ii. 17. [355] Etoi onta egennesen ho Theos ton Uion, e ouk onta. [356] Id. ii. 14. [357] cf. De. Sp. Scto. pp. 27, 30, and notes. [358] tauton to anarcho to a& 188;dion. [359] aidion de to chronou pantos kai ai& 242;nos kata to einai presbuteron. [360] Id. ii. 18. [361] Eunomius is therefore not to be ranked with the extreme "Exucontians." cf. Soc. H.E. ii. 45. [362] Id. ii. 19. [363] Id. ii. 19. [364] So. R.V. distinguishes between the words leitourgika and diakonian which are confused in A.V. [365] Id. i. 21. [366] Ps. cxlviii. 5. [367] Id. i. 21. [368] cf. John xvii. 10. [369] Id. i. 18. [370] On this brief summary of Basil's controversy with Eunomius, cf. Boehringer, Kirchengeschichte, vii. 62, seqq. [371] Christologie, i. 906. [372] to agennetos huparxeos tropos kai ouk ousias onoma. Adv. Eunom. iv. [373] cf. De Sp. Scto. pp. 13, 39, and notes; Thomasius, Dogmengeschichte, i. 245; Herzog, Real-Encycl. "Eunomius und Eunomianer." [374] John v. 19. [375] epi ton homoousion ouk epi ton heteroousion. [376] It will be noted that Basil explains this passage on different grounds from those suggested by the Clause in the Athanasian Creed, on which Waterland's remark is that it "needs no comment." St. Athanasius himself interpreted the "minority" not of the humanity, or of the special subordination of the time when the words were uttered. cf. Ath., Orat. c. Ar. i. S: 58: "The Son says not `my Father is better than I,' lest we should conceive Him to be foreign to His nature, but `greater,' not indeed in size, nor in time, but because of His generation from the Father Himself; nay, in saying `greater,' He again shews that He is proper to His essence" (Newman's transl.). The explanation given in Letter viii., p. 118, does include the inferiority as touching His manhood. [377] cf. Letter viii. p. 118. [378] John xv. 16. [379] John x. 15. [380] Matt. xi. 27. [381] Col. ii. 3. [382] 1 Cor. ii. 10. [383] cf. this passage more fully treated of in Letter ccxxxvi. p. 276. The above is rather a tentative memorandum than an explanation. [384] cf. Phil. ii. 8. [385] Gal. i. 4. [386] Matt. xxi. 28. [387] Luke xxiii. 34. [388] cf. pp. 7 and 12. Most commentators that I am acquainted with write on the lines of Bengel, "poculum a patre oblatum, tota passionis massa plenum." cf. Athanasius, "the terror was of the flesh." C. Arian. Orat. III., S: xxix., Amphilochius, Apud Theod. Dial. iii., and Chrysost., Hom. in Matt. lxxxiii. [389] cf. Ep. viii. and note on p. 117. [390] dia. Vide note referred to. [391] Or underived life. autozoe. [392] autoagios. [393] John xi. 25. [394] John v. 21. [395] to autexousion. [396] to hupexousion. [397] 1 Cor. xii. 27. [398] 1 Cor. vi. 15. [399] 1 Cor. xv. 48, 49: in the last clause Basil reads phoresomen, instead of the phoresomen of A.V., with #, A, C, D, E, F, G, K, L, P. [400] 1 Cor. xi. 3. [401] John vi. 40. [402] i.e.simultaneous with, or even anterior to, His advent. Maran hesitates as to the meaning of the phrase, and writes: "Suspicor tamen intelligi sic posse. Quanquam voluntas patris est ut in Filium credamus, non tamen propterea sequitur, Filium ex voluntate esse. Nam credere nos oportet in Filium, ut primum in hunc mundum venit, imo antequam etiam naturam humanam assumeret, cum patriarchae et Judaei prisci ad salutem consequendam in Christum venturum credere necesse habuerint. Itaque cum debeamus necessario credere in Filium omni aetate et tempore; hinc efficitur, Filium esse natura, non voluntate, neque adoptione. Si voluntas est Patris ut nos in ejus Filium credamus, non est ex voluntate Filius, quippe nostra in ipsum fides aut cum ipso aut ante ipsum invenitur. Subtilis haec ratiocinatio illustratur ex alia simili, quae reperitur (i.e. at the beginning of Book IV.). Si fides in Filium nostra opus est Dei, ipse Dei opus esse non potest. Nam fides in ipsum et ipse non idem." [403] John vi. 64. [404] John i. 14. [405] 1 Cor. ii. 8. [406] Ps. xxiv. 7. [407] i.e. of the incarnation, cf. pp. 7, 12. [408] On Photinus cf. Socrates, Ecc. Hist. ii. 29, and Theodoret, Haer. Fab. iii. 1, and Epiphanius, Haer. lxxi. S: 2. The question as to what Synod condemned and deposed him has been thought to have been settled in favour of that of Sirmium in 349. (D.C.B. iv. 394.) cf. Hefele's Councils, tr. Oxenham, ii. 188. [409] ou gennema alla ktisma. The use of the word gennema in this book is one of the arguments alleged against its genuineness, for in Book. II., Capp. 6, 7, and 8. Basil objects to it; but in the same Book II., Cap. 32, he uses it apparently without objection in the sentence ek tou gennematos noesai rh& 140;dion tou gegennekotos ten phusin. Maran, Vit. Bas. xliii. 7. [410] The English word firstborn is not an exact rendering of the Greek prototokos, and in its theological use it may lead to confusion. "Bear" and its correlatives in English are only used of the mother. tikto (P:TEK. cf. Ger. Zeug.) is used indifferently of both father and mother. prototokos is exactly rendered firstborn in Luke ii. 7; but first begotten, as in A.V. Heb. i. 6, and Rev. i. 5, more precisely renders the word in the text, and in such passages as Ex. xiii. 2, and Psalm lxxxix. 28, which are Messianically applied to the divine Word. So early as Clemens Alexandrinus the only begotten and first begotten had been contrasted with the first created, and highest order of created being. With him may be compared Tertullian, Adv. Prax. 7, Adv. Marc. v. 19, Hippolytus, Haer. x. 33, Origen, C. Cels. vi. 47, 63, 64, In Ioann. 1, S: 22 (iv. p. 21), xix. S: 5 (p. 305), xxviii. S: 14 (p. 392), Cyprian, Test. ii. 1, Novatian, De Trin. 16. On the history and uses of the word, see the exhaustive note of Bp. Lightfoot on Col. i. 15. [411] Rev. i. 5. [412] Col. i. 16. [413] Col. i. 17. [414] John i. 1. [415] Matt. i. 25. [416] Jerome's Tract on the Perpetual Virginity of the Blessed Virgin appeared about 383, and was written at Rome in the episcopate of Damasus (363-384). The work of Helvidius which Jerome controverted was not published till about 380, and there can be no reference to him in the passage in the text. Basil is contending against the general Arian inference, rather than against any individual statement as to who the "Brethren of the Lord" were. cf. also dub. Hom. in Sanct. Christ. Gen. p. 600. Ed. Garn. On the whole subject see Bp. Lightfoot, in his Ep. to the Galatians, E. S. Ffoulkes in D.C.B. s.v. Helvidius, and Archdeacon Farrar in his Life of Christ, chap. vii., who warmly supports the Helvidian theory in opposition to the almost universal belief of the early Church. Basil evidently has no more idea that the heos hou of Matt. i. 25, implies anything as to events subsequent to the tokos than the author of 2 Sam. had when he said that Michal had no child till (LXX. heos) the day of her death, or St. Paul had that Christ's reigning till (achris hou) He had put all enemies under His feet implied that He would not reign afterwards. Too much importance must not be given to niceties of usage in Hellenistic Greek, but it is a well-known distinction in Attic Greek that prin with the infinitive is employed where the action is not asserted to take place, while it is used with the indicative of a past fact. Had St. Matthew written prin sunelthon, the Helvidians might have laid still greater stress than they did on the argument from Matt. i. 18, which St. Jerome ridicules. His writing prin e sunelthein is what might have been expected if he wished simply to assert that the conception was not preceded by any cohabitation. [417] Rom. viii. 29. [418] The LXX. version is Kurios ektise me archen hodon autou. [419] John xiv. 6. [420] Id. [421] gennema. [422] The Heb. verb here is the same as in Prov. viii. 22, though rendered ektesamen in the LXX. [423] Gen. v. 4. Here Basil has epoiesen for the LXX. egennesen, representing another Hebrew verb. [424] Ps. li. 10 kardian katharan ktison. [425] 1 Cor. i. 21. [426] 1 Pet. iv. 1. [427] Acts ii. 36. [428] Luke ii. 11. [429] Acts ii. 36. [430] egennethe. But it seems to refer to the birth from Mary. [431] 1 Cor. i. 24. [432] Ps. xxxi. 2, LXX. [433] Ps. cxviii. 21. [434] Rom. iii. 4. [435] 1 Cor. i. 30. [436] Ps. cx. 1. [437] Ps. xlv. 8. [438] Gen. xix. 24. [439] Gen. i. 27. [440] Ps. xviii. 31. [441] Id. LXX. [442] John i. 1. [443] John xx. 28. [444] Baruch iii. 35. The quoting of Baruch under the name of Jeremiah has been explained by the fact that in the LXX. Baruch was placed with the Lamentations, and was regarded in the early Church as of equal authority with Jeremiah. It was commonly so quoted, e.g. by Irenaeus, Clemens Alexandrinus, and Tertullian. So Theodoret, Dial. i. (in this edition, p. 165, where cf. note). [445] 1 John v. 20. There is some MS. authority for the insertion of "God" in the first clause, but none for the omission of the former en to. [446] Deut. xxxii. 12. [447] Tit. ii. 13. [448] St. Basil, with the mass of the Greek Orthodox Fathers, has no idea of any such interpretation of Tit. ii. 13, as Alford endeavours to support. cf. Theodoret, pp. 391 and 321, and notes. [449] to einai isa Theo, as in Phil. ii. 6, tr. in A.V. to be equal with God; R.V. has to be on an equality with God. [450] to einai ison Theo. [451] John v. 18. [452] I do not here render with the Arian gloss of A.V., infelicitously reproduced in the equally inexact translation of R.V. The insertion of the words "it shall be given" and "it is" is apparently due to a pedantic prejudice against translating alla by "save" or "except," a rendering which is supported in classical Greek by such a passage as Soph., O.T. 1331, and in Hellenistic Greek by Mark ix. 8. The Vulgate has, quite correctly, "non est meum dare vobis, sed quibus paratum est a patre meo," so far as the preservation of the Son as the giver is concerned. A similar error is to be found in both the French and German (Luther's) of Bagster's polyglot edition. Wiclif has correctly, "is not myn to geve to you but to whiche it is made redi of my fadir." So Tyndale, "is not myne to geve but to them for whom it is prepared of my father." The gloss begins with Cranmer (1539), "it shall chance unto them that it is prepared for," and first appears in the Geneva of 1557 as the A.V. has perpetuated it. The Rheims follows the vobis of the Vulgate, but is otherwise correct. cf. note on Theodoret in this edition, p. 169. [453] John v. 22. [454] Mark ii. 10. [455] Matt. xxviii. 18. [456] Matt. xvi. 19. [457] Matt. xix. 28. [458] cf. Matt. xvi. 27. [459] John v. 29. [460] 2 Cor. v. 10. [461] These last words are explained by a Scholium to the MS. Reg. II. to be a reference to the unreasonable petition of James and John. It will be seen how totally opposed Basil's interpretation is to that required by the gloss of A.V. [462] Ps. lxxxvi. 8. [463] Deut. xxxii. 12. [464] 1 Cor. x. 4. [465] Jer. x. 2, LXX. [466] Is. xliv. 6, "God" inserted. [467] Is. xliii. 10. [468] Deut. vi. 4. [469] cf. remarks in S: vi. p. xxiii. of Prolegomena. [470] Swete, Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, p. 71, who further notes: "St. Jerome is severe upon St. Ambrose for copying Didymus, and says that the Archbishop of Milan had produced "ex Graecis bonis Latina non bona.' The work of the Latin Father is, however, by no means a mere copy; and other writers besides Didymus are laid under contribution in the argument; e.g. St. Basil and perhaps St. Athanasius." [471] Theod. v. 11 in this edition, p. 139; Mansi iii. 486. __________________________________________________________________ II.--Exegetic. (i) As of the De Spiritu Sancto, so of the Hexaemeron, no further account need be given here. It may, however, be noted that the Ninth Homily ends abruptly, and the latter, and apparently more important, portion of the subject is treated of at less length than the former. Jerome [472] and Cassiodorus [473] speak of nine homilies only on the creation. Socrates [474] says the Hexaemeron was completed by Gregory of Nyssa. Three orations are published among Basil's works, two on the creation of men and one on Paradise, which are attributed to Basil by Combefis and Du Pin, but not considered genuine by Tillemont, Maran, Garnier, Ceillier, and Fessler. They appear to be compositions which some editor thought congruous to the popular work of Basil, and so appended them to it. The nine discourses in the Hexaemeron all shew signs of having been delivered extempore, and the sequence of argument and illustration is not such as to lead to the conclusion that they were ever redacted by the author into exact literary form. We probably owe their preservation to the skilled shorthand writers of the day. [475] (ii) The Homilies on the Psalms as published are seventeen in number; it has however been commonly held that the second Homily on Ps. xxviii. is not genuine, but the composition of some plagiarist. The Homily also on Ps. xxxvii. has been generally objected to. These are omitted from the group of the Ben. Ed., together with the first on Ps. cxiv., and that on cxv. Maran [476] thinks that none of these orations shew signs of having been delivered in the episcopate, or of having reference to the heresy of the Pneumatomachi; two apparently point directly to the presbyterate. In that on Ps. xiv. he speaks of an amerimnia which would better befit priest than the primate; on Ps. cxiv. he describes himself as serving a particular church. Both arguments seem a little far-fetched, and might be opposed on plausible grounds. Both literal and allegorical interpretations are given. If Basil is found expressing himself in terms similar to those of Eusebius, it is no doubt because both were inspired by Origen. [477] The Homily on Psalm i. begins with a partial quotation from 2 Tim. iii. 16, "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable," and goes on, "and was composed by the Spirit to the end that all of us men, as in a general hospital for souls, may choose each what is best for his own cure." For him, Scripture is supreme. [478] As is noticed on Hom. IX. [479] of the Hexaemeron, Basil is on the whole for the simpler sense. But he was a student of Origen, and he well knows how to use allegory when he thinks fit. [480] An example may be observed in Letter VIII., [481] where there is an elaborate allegorisation of the "times and the seasons" of Acts i. 7. An instance of the application of both systems is to be found in the Homily on Psalm xxviii. (i.e. in A.V. xxix.). The LXX. Title is Psalmos tho Dauid exodiou skenes, Psalmus David in exitu e tabernaculo." Primarily this is a charge delivered to the priests and Levites on leaving their sacred offices. They are to remember all that it is their duty to prepare for the holy service. As they go out of the Tabernacle the psalm tells them all that it behoves them to have in readiness for the morrow, young rams (Ps. xxix. 1, LXX.), glory and honour, glory for His name. "But to our minds, as they contemplate high and lofty things, and by the aid of an interpretation dignified and worthy of Holy Scripture make the Law our own, the meaning is different. There is no question of ram in flock, nor tabernacle fashioned of lifeless material, nor departure from the temple. The tabernacle for us is this body of ours, as the Apostle has told us in the words, `For we that are in this tabernacle do groan.' [482] The departure from the temple is our quitting this life. For this these words bid us be prepared, bringing such and such things to the Lord, if the deeds done here are to be a means to help us on our journey to the life to come." This is in the style of exegesis hitherto popular. To hearers familiar with exegesis of the school of Origen, it is an innovation for Basil to adopt such an exclusively literal system of exposition as he does,--e.g. in Hom. IX. on the Hexaemeron,--the system which is one of his distinguishing characteristics. [483] In his common-sense literalism he is thus a link with the historical school of Antioch, whose principles were in contrast with those of Origen and the Alexandrians, a school represented by Theodore of Mopsuestia, Diodorus of Tarsus, and later by Theodoret. [484] It is remarked by Gregory of Nazianzus in his memorial oration [485] that Basil used a threefold method of enforcing Scripture on his hearers and readers. This may be understood to be the literal, moral, and allegorical. Ceillier points out that this description, so far as we know, applies only to the Homilies on the Psalms. The praise of the Psalms, prefixed to Psalm i., is a passage of noticeable rhetorical power and of considerable beauty. Its popularity is shewn by the fact of its being found in some manuscripts of St. Augustine, and also in the commentary of Rufinus. The latter probably translated it; portions of it were transcribed by St. Ambrose. [486] "The prophets," says St. Basil, "the historians, the law, give each a special kind of teaching, and the exhortation of the proverbs furnishes yet another. But the use and profit of all are included in the book of Psalms. There is prediction of thing to come. There our memories are reminded of the past. There laws are laid down for the guidance of life. There are directions as to conduct. The book, in a word, is a treasury of sound teaching, and provides for every individual need. It heals the old hurts of souls, and brings about recovery where the wound is fresh. It wins the part that is sick and preserves that which is sound. As far as lies within its power, it destroys the passions which lord it in this life in the souls of men. And all this it effects with a musical persuasiveness and with a gratification that induces wise and wholesome reflexion. The Holy Spirit saw that mankind was hard to draw to goodness, that our life's scale inclined to pleasure, and that so we were neglectful of the right. What plan did He adopt? He combined the delight of melody with His teaching, to the end that by the sweetness and softness of what we heard we might, all unawares, imbibe the blessing of the words. He acted like wise leeches, who, when they would give sour draughts to sickly patients, put honey round about the cup. So the melodious music of the Psalms has been designed for us, that those who are boys in years, or at least but lads in ways of life, while they seem to be singing, may in reality be carrying on the education of the soul. It is not easy for the inattentive to retain in their memory, when they go home, an injunction of an apostle or prophet; but the sayings of the Psalms are sung in our houses and travel with us through the streets. Let a man begin even to grow savage as some wild beast, and no sooner is he soothed by psalm-singing than straightway he goes home with passions lulled to calm and quiet by the music of the song. [487] "A psalm is souls' calm, herald of peace, hushing the swell and agitation of thoughts. It soothes the passions of the soul; it brings her license under law. A psalm is welder of friendship, atonement of adversaries, reconciliation of haters. Who can regard a man as his enemy, when they have lifted up one voice to God together? So Psalmody gives us the best of all boons, love. Psalmody has bethought her of concerted singing as a mighty bond of union, and links the people together in a symphony of one song. A psalm puts fiends to flight, and brings the aid of angels to our side; it is armour in the terrors of the night; in the toils of the day it is refreshment; to infants it is a protection, to men in life's prime a pride, to elders a consolation, to women an adornment. It turns wastes into homes. It brings wisdom into marts and meetings. To beginners it is an alphabet, to all who are advancing an improvement, to the perfect a confirmation. It is the voice of the church. It gladdens feasts. It produces godly sorrow. It brings a tear even from a heart of stone. A psalm is angels' work, the heavenly conversation, the spiritual sacrifice. Oh, the thoughtful wisdom of the Instructor Who designed that we should at one and the same time sing and learn to our profit! It is thus that His precepts are imprinted on our souls. A lesson that is learned unwillingly is not likely to last, but all that is learned with pleasure and delight effects a permanent settlement in our souls. What can you not learn from this source? You may learn magnificent manliness, scrupulous righteousness, dignified self-control, perfect wisdom. You may learn how to repent, and how far to endure. What good thing can you not learn? There is a complete theology; [488] a foretelling of the advent of Christ in the flesh; threatening of judgment; hope of resurrection; fear of chastisement; promise of glory; revelation of mysteries. Everything is stored in the book of the Psalms as in some vast treasury open to all the world. There are many instruments of music, but the prophet has fitted it to the instrument called Psaltery. I think the reason is that he wished to indicate the grace sounding in him from on high by the gift of the Spirit, because of all instruments the Psaltery is the only one which has the source of its sounds above. [489] In the case of the cithara and the lyre the metal gives forth its sound at the stroke of the plectrum from below. The Psaltery has the source of its melodious strains above. So are we taught to be diligent in seeking the things which are above, and not to allow ourselves to be degraded by our pleasure in the music to the lusts of the flesh. And what I think the word of the Prophet profoundly and wisely teaches by means of the fashion of the instrument is this,--that those whose souls are musical and harmonious find their road to the things that are above most easy." On Psalm xiv. (in A.V. xv.) the commentary begins: "Scripture, with the desire to describe to us the perfect man, the man who is ordained to be the recipient of blessings, observes a certain order and method in the treatment of points in him which we may contemplate, and begins from the simplest and most obvious, `Lord, who shall sojourn [490] in thy tabernacle?' A sojourning is a transitory dwelling. It indicates a life not settled, but passing, in hope of our removal to the better things. It is the part of a saint to pass through this world, and to hasten to another life. In this sense David says of himself, `I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.' [491] Abraham was a sojourner, who did not possess even so much land as to set his foot on, and when he needed a tomb, bought one for money. [492] The word teaches us that so long as he lives in the flesh he is a sojourner, and, when he removes from this life, rests in his own home. In this life he sojourns with strangers, but the land which he bought in the tomb to receive his body is his own. And truly blessed is it, not to rot with things of earth as though they were one's own, nor cling to all that is about us here as through here were our natural fatherland, but to be conscious of the fall from nobler things, and of our passing our time in heaviness because of the punishment that is laid upon us, just like exiles who for some crimes' sake have been banished by the magistrates into regions far from the land that gave them birth. Hard it is to find a man who will not heed present things as though they were his own; who knows that he has the use of wealth but for a season; who reckons on the brief duration of his health; who remembers that the bloom of human glory fades away. "`Who shall sojourn in thy tabernacle?' The flesh that is given to man's soul for it to dwell in is called God's tabernacle. Who will be found to treat this flesh as though it were not his own? Sojourners, when they hire land that is not their own, till the estate at the will of the owner. So, too, to us the care of the flesh has been entrusted by bond, for us to toil with diligence therein, and make it fruitful for the use of Him Who gave it. And if the flesh is worthy of God, it becomes verily a tabernacle of God, accordingly as He makes His dwelling in the saints. Such is the flesh of the sojourner. `Lord, who shall sojourn in Thy tabernacle?' Then there come progress and advance to that which is more perfect. `And who shall dwell in thy holy hill?' A Jew, in earthly sense, when he hears of the `hill,' turns his thoughts to Sion. `Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?' The sojourner in the flesh shall dwell in the holy hill, he shall dwell in that hill, that heavenly country, bright and splendid, whereof the Apostle says, `Ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,' where is the general assembly of `angels, and church of the first-born, which are written in heaven.'" [493] The Second Homily on Psalm xiv. (xv.) has a special interest in view of the denunciation of usury alike in Scripture and in the early Church. The matter had been treated of at Nicaea. With it may be compared Homily VII., De Avaritia. [494] After a few words of introduction and reference to the former Homily on the same Psalm, St. Basil proceeds;--"In depicting the character of the perfect man, of him, that is, who is ordained to ascend to the life of everlasting peace, the prophet reckons among his noble deeds his never having given his money upon usury. This particular sin is condemned in many passages of Scripture. Ezekiel [495] reckons taking usury and increase among the greatest of crimes. The law distinctly utters the prohibition `Thou shalt not lend upon usury to thy brother' [496] and to thy neighbour. Again it is said, `Usury upon usury; guile upon guile.' [497] And of the city abounding in a multitude of wickednesses, what does the Psalm say? `Usury and guile depart not from her streets.' [498] Now the prophet instances precisely the same point as characteristic of the perfect man, saying, `He that putteth not out his money to usury.' [499] For in truth it is the last pitch of inhumanity that one man, in need of the bare necessities of life, should be compelled to borrow, and another, not satisfied with the principal, should seek to make gain and profit for himself out of the calamities of the poor. The Lord gave His own injunction quite plainly in the words, `from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.' [500] But what of the money lover? He sees before him a man under stress of necessity bent to the ground in supplication. He sees him hesitating at no act, no words, of humiliation. He sees him suffering undeserved misfortune, but he is merciless. He does not reckon that he is a fellow-creature. He does not give in to his entreaties. He stands stiff and sour. He is moved by no prayers; his resolution is broken by no tears. He persists in refusal, invoking curses on his own head if he has any money about him, and swearing that he is himself on the lookout for a friend to furnish him a loan. He backs lies with oaths, and makes a poor addition to his stock in trade by supplementing inhumanity with perjury. Then the suppliant mentions interest, and utters the word security. All is changed. The frown is relaxed; with a genial smile he recalls old family connexion. Now it is `my friend.' `I will see,' says he, `if I have any money by me. Yes; there is that sum which a man I know has left in my hands on deposit for profit. He named very heavy interest. However, I shall certainly take something off, and give it you on better terms.' With pretences of this kind and talk like this he fawns on the wretched victim, and induces him to swallow the bait. Then he binds him with written security, adds loss of liberty to the trouble of his pressing poverty, and is off. The man who has made himself responsible for interest which he cannot pay has accepted voluntary slavery for life. Tell me; do you expect to get money and profit out of the pauper? If he were in a position to add to your wealth, why should he come begging at your door? He came seeking an ally, and he found a foe. He was looking for medicine, and he lighted on poison. You ought to have comforted him in his distress, but in your attempt to grow fruit on the waste you are aggravating his necessity. Just as well might a physician go in to his patients, and instead of restoring them to health, rob them of the little strength they might have left. This is the way in which you try to profit by the misery of the wretched. Just as farmers pray for rain to make their fields fatter, so you are anxious for men's need and indigence, that your money may make more. You forget that the addition which you are making to your sins is larger than the increase to your wealth which you are reckoning on getting for your usury. The seeker of the loan is helpless either way: he bethinks him of his poverty, he gives up all idea of payment as hopeless when at the need of the moment he risks the loan. The borrower bends to necessity and is beaten. The lender goes off secured by bills and bonds. "After he has got his money, at first a man is bright and joyous; he shines with another's splendour, and is conspicuous by his altered mode of life. His table is lavish; his dress is most expensive. His servants appear in finer liveries; he has flatterers and boon companions; his rooms are full of drones innumerable. But the money slips away. Time as it runs on adds the interest to its tale. Now night brings him no rest; no day is joyous; no sun is bright; he is weary of his life; he hates the days that are hurrying on to the appointed period; he is afraid of the months, for they are parents of interest. Even if he sleeps, he sees the lender in his slumbers--a bad dream--standing by his pillow. If he wakes up, there is the anxiety and dread of the interest. `The poor and the usurer,' he exclaims, `meet together: the Lord lighteneth both their eyes.' [501] The lender runs like a hound after the game. The borrower like a ready prey crouches at the coming catastrophe, for his penury robs him of the power of speech. Both have their ready-reckoner in their hands, the one congratulating himself as the interest mounts up, the other groaning at the growth of his calamities. `Drink waters out of thine own cistern.' [502] Look, that is to say, at your own resources; do not approach other men's springs; provide your comforts from your own reservoirs. Have you household vessels, clothes, beast of burden, all kinds of furniture? Sell these. Rather surrender all than lose your liberty. Ah, but--he rejoins--I am ashamed to put them up for sale. What then do you think of another's bringing them out a little later on, and crying your goods, and getting rid of them for next to nothing before your very eyes? Do not go to another man's door. Verily `another man's well is narrow.' [503] Better is it to relieve your necessity gradually by one contrivance after another than after being all in a moment elated by another man's means, afterwards to be stripped at once of everything. If you have anything wherewith to pay, why do you not relieve your immediate difficulties out of these resources? If you are insolvent, you are only trying to cure ill with ill. Decline to be blockaded by an usurer. Do not suffer yourself to be sought out and tracked down like another man's game. [504] Usury is the origin of lying; the beginning of ingratitude, unfairness, perjury.... . . . . . . . . . . . "But, you ask, how am I to live? You have hands. You have a craft. Work for wages. Go into service. There are many ways of getting a living, many kinds of resources. You are helpless? Ask those who have means. It is discreditable to ask? It will be much more discreditable to rob your creditor. I do not speak thus to lay down the law. I only wish to point out that any course is more advantageous to you than borrowing. . . . . . . . . . . . "Listen, you rich men, to the kind of advice I am giving to the poor because of your inhumanity. Far better endure under their dire straits than undergo the troubles that are bred of usury! But if you were obedient to the Lord, what need of these words? What is the advice of the Master? Lend to those from whom ye do not hope to receive. [505] And what kind of loan is this, it is asked, from all which all idea of the expectation of repayment is withdrawn? Consider the force of the expression, and you will be amazed at the loving kindness of the legislator. When you mean to supply the need of a poor man for the Lord's sake, the transaction is at once a gift and a loan. Because there is no expectation of reimbursement, it is a gift. Yet because of the munificence of the Master, Who repays on the recipient's behalf, it is a loan. `He that hath pity on the poor lendeth unto the Lord.' [506] Do you not wish the Master of the universe to be responsible for your repayment? If any wealthy man in the town promises you repayment on behalf of others, do you admit his suretyship? But you do not accept God, Who more than repays on behalf of the poor. Give the money lying useless, without weighting it with increase, and both shall be benefited. To you will accrue the security of its safe keeping. The recipients will have the advantage of its use. And if it is increase which you seek, be satisfied with that which is given by the Lord. He will pay the interest for the poor. Await the loving-kindness of Him Who is in truth most kind. "What you are taking involves the last extremity of inhumanity. You are making your profit out of misfortune; you are levying a tax upon tears. You are strangling the naked. You are dealing blows on the starving. There is no pity anywhere, no sense of your kinship to the hungry, and you call the profit you get from these sources kindly and humane! Wo unto them that `put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter,' [507] and call inhumanity humanity! This surpasses even the riddle which Samson proposed to his boon companions:--`Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.' [508] Out of the inhuman came forth humanity! Men do not gather grapes of thorns, nor figs of thistles, [509] nor humanity of usury. A corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. [510] There are such people as twelve-per-cent-men and ten-per-cent-men: I shudder to mention their names. They are exactors by the month, like the demons who produce epilepsy, attacking the poor as the changes of the moon come round. [511] "Here there is an evil grant to either, to giver and to recipient. To the latter, it brings ruin on his property; to the former, on his soul. The husbandman, when he has the ear in store, does not search also for the seed beneath the root; you both possess the fruit and cannot keep your hands from the principal. You plant where there is no ground. You reap where there has been no sowing. For whom you are gathering you cannot tell. The man from whom usury wrings tears is manifest enough; but it is doubtful who is destined to enjoy the results of the superfluity. You have laid up in store for yourself the trouble that results from your iniquity, but it is uncertain whether you will not leave the use of your wealth to others. Therefore, `from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away;' [512] and do not give your money upon usury. Learn from both Old and New Testament what is profitable for you, and so depart hence with good hope to your Lord; in Him you will receive the interest of your good deeds,--in Jesus Christ our Lord to Whom be glory and might for ever and ever, Amen." (iii.) The Commentary on Isaiah. The Commentary on Isaiah is placed by the Benedictine Editors in the appendix of doubtful composition, mainly on the ground of inferiority of style. Ceillier is strongly in favour of the genuineness of this work, and calls attention to the fact that it is attested by strong manuscript authority, and by the recognition of St. Maximus, of John of Damascus, of Simeon Logothetes, of Antony Melissa of Tarasius, and of the Greek scholiast on the Epistles of St. Paul, who is supposed to be OEcumenius. Fessler [513] ranks the work among those of doubtful authority on the ground of the silence of earlier Fathers and of the inferiority of style, as well as of apparent citations from the Commentary of Eusebius, and of some eccentricity of opinion. He conjectures that we may possibly have here the rough material of a proposed work on Isaiah, based mainly on Origen, which was never completed. Garnier regards it as totally unworthy of St. Basil. Maran ( Vit. Bas. 42) would accept it, and refutes objections. Among the remarks which have seemed frivolous is the comment on Is. xi. 12, that the actual cross of the Passion was prefigured by the four parts of the universe joining in the midst. [514] Similar objections have been taken to the statement that the devils like rich fare, and crowd the idols' temples to enjoy the sacrificial feasts. [515] On the other hand it has been pointed out that this ingenuity in finding symbols of the cross is of a piece with that of Justin Martyr, [516] who cites the yard on the mast, the plough, and the Roman trophies, and that Gregory of Nazianzus [517] instances the same characteristic of the devils. While dwelling on the holiness of character required for the prophetic offices, the Commentary points out [518] that sometimes it has pleased God to grant it to Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar for the sake of their great empires; to Caiaphas as the high priest; to Balaam, because of the exigencies of the crisis at which he appeared. The unchaste lad [519] who has some great sin upon his conscience shrinks from taking his place among the faithful, and is ashamed to rank himself with the weepers. So he tries to avoid the examination of those whose duty it is to enquire into sins [520] and he invents excuses for leaving the church before the celebration of the mysteries. The Commentary urges [521] that without penitence the best conduct is unavailing for salvation; that God requires of the sinner not merely the abandonment of the sinful part, but also the amends of penance, and warns men [522] that they must not dream that the grace of baptism will free them from the obligation to live a godly life. The value of tradition is insisted on. [523] Every nation, as well as every church, is said to have its own guardian angel. [524] The excommunication reserved for certain gross sins is represented [525] as a necessary means enjoined by St. Paul to prevent the spread of wickedness. It is said [526] to be an old tradition that on leaving Paradise Adam went to live in Jewry, and there died; that after his death, his skull appearing bare, it was carried to a certain place hence named "place of a skull," and that for this reason Jesus Christ, Who came to destroy death's kingdom, willed to die on the spot where the first fruits of mortality were interred. [527] On Is. v. 14, "Hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure," [528] it is remarked that these are figurative expressions to denote the multitude of souls that perish. At the same time an alternative literal meaning is admitted, the mouth being the opening through which the souls of the damned are precipitated into a dark region beneath the earth. It is noted in some mss. that the Commentary was given to the world by an anonymous presbyter after St. Basil's death, who may have abstained from publishing it because it was in an unfinished state. Erasmus was the first to undertake to print it, and to translate it into Latin but he went no further than the preface. It was printed in Paris in 1556 by Tilmann, with a lengthy refutation of the objections of Erasmus. [529] __________________________________________________________________ [472] De Vir. Illust. cxvi. [473] Instit. Div. i. [474] Ecc. Hist. iv. 26. [475] cf. Letterccxxiii. S: 5, p. 264. It is believed that tachygraphy was known from very early times, and Xenophon is said to have "reported" Socrates by its aid. The first plain mention of a tachygraphist is in a letter of Flavius Philostratus (A.D. 195). It has been thought that the systems in use in the earlier centuries of our era were modifications of a cryptographic method employed by the Christians to circulate documents in the Church. No examples are extant of an earlier date than the tenth century, and of these an interesting specimen is the Paris MS. of Hermogenes described by Montfaucon, Pal. Gr. p. 351. The exact minutes of some of the Councils--e.g. Chalcedon--seem to be due to very successful tachygraphy. [476] Vit. Bas. xli. 4. [477] cf. Fessler, p. 512. [478] cf. Epp. cv., clx. S: 2, cxcviii. S: 3, and cclxiv. S: 4. [479] See p. 101. [480] "Origene sacrifiait tout au sens mystique Eusebe le faisait aller de pair avec le sens historique. Comme lui St. Basile respecte scrupuleusement la lettre; mais comme lui aussi, il voit sous la lettre tous les mysteres du Nouveau Testament et surtout des enseignements moraux. Les differents caracteres que presente son interpretation sont un moyen presque infaillible de connaitre la date des ses grands travaux exegetiques. Aussi ne doit-on pas hesiter `a assigner aux premieres annees de sa retraite la composition du commentaire d'Isaie, dans lequel domine `a peu pres exclusivement l'interpetation morale; `a sa pretrese celle des homilies sur les Psaumes, ou il donne une egale importance au sens moral et au sens mystique, mais en leur sacrifiant sans cesse le sens litteral; `a son episcopat, enfin. l'Hexameron, qui, sans negliger les sens figures, s'attache surtout `a donner une explication exacte de la lettre." Fialon, Et. Hist. p. 291. The theory is suggestive, but I am not sure that the prevalence of the literal or of the allegorical is not due less to the period of the composition than to the objects the writer has in view. [481] p. 118. [482] 2 Cor. v. 4. [483] Im Allgemeinen und im Grundsatze aber ist Basil gegen die allegorische Erkaerungsweise, so oft er sie dann auch im Einzelnen anwendet. Boehringer, Basil, p. 116. [484] cf. Gieseler i. p. 109. [485] Or. xliii. S: 67. [486] Ceillier. [487] The English reader is reminded of Congreve's "music" charming "the savage breast." [488] cf. p. 7, note. [489] Cassiodorus (Praef. in Ps. iv.) describes a psaltery shaped like the Greek D, with the sounding board above the strings which were struck downwards. cf. St. Aug. on Ps. xxxii. and Dict. Bib. s.v. [490] A.V. marg. and R.V. The LXX. is paroikesei. [491] Ps. xxxix. 12. [492] cf. Gen. xxiii. 16, and Acts vii. 16. [493] Heb. xii. 22, 23. [494] cf. note on Basil's xivth Can., p. 228. [495] xxii. 12. [496] Deut. xxiii. 19. [497] Jer. ix. 6, LXX. [498] Ps. lv. 11, LXX. [499] Ps. xv. 5. [500] Matt. v. 42. [501] Prov. xxix. 13, A.V. marg. R.V. has "oppressor." [502] Prov. v. 15. [503] Prov. xxiii. 27, LXX. [504] hosper allotrion therama. Ed. Par. Vulg. hosper allo ti therama. [505] cf. Luke vi. 34, 35. [506] Prov. xix. 17. [507] Is. v. 20. [508] Judges xiv. 14. [509] Matt. vii. 16. [510] cf. Matt. vii. 18. [511] On the connexion between seleniasmos and epilepsia, cf. Origen iii. 575-577, and Caesarius, Quaest. 50. On the special attribution of epilepsy to daemoniacal influence illustrated by the name hiera nosos, see Hippocrates, De Morbo Sacro. [512] Matt. v. 42. [513] Patr. i. 522. [514] S: 249. [515] S: 236. [516] Apol. i. S: 72. [517] Carm. 11, Epig. 28: Daimosin eilapinazon, hosois toparoithe memelei Daimosin era pherein, ou katharas Thusias. [518] S: 4. cf. S: 199. [519] S:19. [520] id. oknos eis prophaseis peplasmenas epinoon pros tous epizetountas. [521] S: 34, 278. [522] S: 39. [523] cf. De Sp. S. p. . [524] S: 240. [525] S: 55. [526] S: 141. [527] The tradition that Adam's skull was found at the foot of the cross gave rise to the frequent representation of a skull in Christian art. Instances are given by Mr. Jameson, Hist. of our Lord, i. 22. Jeremy Taylor, (Life of our Lord, Part iii. S: xv.) quotes Nonnus (In Joann. xix. 17): Eisoke choron hikane phatizomenoio kraniou Adam protogonoio pheronumon antugi korses. cf. Origen, In Matt. Tract. 35, and Athan, De Pass. et Cruc. Jerome speaks of the tradition in reference to its association with the words "As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive," as "smooth to the ear, but not true." One version of the tale was that Noah took Adam's bones with him in the ark; that on Ararat they were divided, and the head fell to Seth's share. This he buried at Golgotha. cf. Fabricius i. 61. [528] LXX. eplatunen ho ;;Ades ten phuchen autou kai dienoixe to stoma autou. [529] cf. Ceillier VI. viii. 2. __________________________________________________________________ III.--Ascetic. (i) Of the works comprised under this head, the first are the three compositions entitled Tractatus Praevii. The first, Praevia Institutio ascetica ('Asketike prodiatuposis ), is an exhortation to enlistment in the sacred warfare; the second, on renunciation of the world and spiritual perfection, is the Sermo asceticus (logos asketikos). The third, Sermo de ascetica disciplina (logos peri askeseos, pos dei kosmheisthai ton monachon), treats of the virtues to be exhibited in the life of the solitary. The first of the three is a commendation less of monasticism than of general Christian endurance. It has been supposed to have been written in times of special oppression and persecution. The second discourse is an exhortation to renunciation of the world. Riches are to be abandoned to the poor. The highest life is the monastic. But this is not to be hastily and inconsiderately embraced. To renounce monasticism and return to the world is derogatory to a noble profession. The idea of pleasing God in the world as well as out of it is, for those who have once quitted it, a delusion. God has given mankind the choice of two holy estates, marriage or virginity. The law which bids us love God more than father, mother, or self, more than wife and children, is as binding in wedlock as in celibacy. Marriage indeed demands the greater watchfulness, for it offers the greater temptations. Monks are to be firm against all attempts to shake their resolves. They will do well to put themselves under the guidance of some good man of experience and pious life, learned in the Scriptures, loving the poor more than money, superior to the seductions of flattery, and loving God above all things. Specific directions are given for the monastic life, and monks are urged to retirement, silence, and the study of the Scriptures. The third discourse, which is brief, is a summary of similar recommendations. The monk ought moreover to labour with his hands, to reflect upon the day of judgment, to succour the sick, to practice hospitality, to read books of recognized genuineness, not to dispute about the doctrine of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, but to believe in and confess an uncreate and consubstantial Trinity. (ii) Next in order come the Prooemium de Judicio Dei (prooimion peri krimatos Theou) and the De Fide (peri pisteos). These treatises were prefixed by Basil to the Moralia. He states that, when he enquired into the true causes of the troubles which weighed heavily on the Church, he could only refer them to breaches of the commandments of God. Hence the divine punishment, and the need of observing the Divine Law. The apostle says that what is needed is faith working by love. So St. Basil thought it necessary to append an exposition of the sound faith concerning the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and so pass in order to morals. [530] It has, however, been supposed by some [531] that the composition published in the plan as the De Fide is not the original tract so entitled, but a letter on the same subject written, if not during the episcopate, at least in the presbyterate. This view has been supported by the statement "Thus we believe and baptize." [532] This, however, might be said generally of the custom obtaining in the Church, without reference to the writer's own practice. Certainly the document appears to have no connexion with those among which it stands, and to be an answer to some particular request for a convenient summary couched in scriptural terms. [533] Hence it does not contain the Homoousion, and the author gives his reason for the omission--an omission which, he points out, is in contrast with his other writings against heretics. [534] Obviously, therefore, this composition is to be placed in his later life. Yet he describes the De Fideas being anterior to the Moralia. It will be remembered that this objection to the title and date of the extant De Fide implies nothing against its being the genuine work of the archbishop. While carefully confining himself to the language of Scripture, the author points out that even with this aid, Faith, which he defines as an impartial assent to what has been revealed to us by the gift of God, [535] must necessarily be dark and incomplete. God can only be clearly known in heaven, when we shall see Him face to face. [536] The statement that has been requested is as follows: "We believe and confess one true and good God, Father Almighty, of Whom are all things, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ: and His one Only-begotten Son, our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, only true, through Whom all things were made, both visible and invisible, and by Whom all things consist: Who was in the beginning with God and was God, and, after this, according to the Scriptures, was seen on earth and had His conversation with men: Who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, and by means of the birth from a virgin took a servant's form, and was formed in fashion as a man, and fulfilled all things written with reference to Him and about Him, according to His Father's commandment, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. And on the third day He rose from the dead, according to the Scriptures, and was seen by His holy disciples, and the rest, as it is written: And He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of His Father, whence He is coming at the end of this world, to raise all men, and to give to every man according to his conduct. Then the just shall be taken up into life eternal and the kingdom of heaven, but the sinner shall be condemned to eternal punishment, where their worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched: And in one Holy Ghost, the Comforter, in Whom we were sealed to the day of redemption: The Spirit of truth, the Spirit of adoption, in Whom we cry, Abba, Father; Who divideth and worketh the gifts that come of God, to each one for our good, as He will; Who teaches and calls to remembrance all things that He has heard from the Son; Who is good; Who guides us into all truth, and confirms all that believe, both in sure knowledge and accurate confession, and in pious service and spiritual and true worship of God the Father, and of His only begotten Son our Lord, and of Himself." [537] (iii) The Moralia (ta ethika) is placed in 361, in the earlier days of the Anomoean heresy. Shortly before this time the extreme Arians began to receive this name, [538] and it is on the rise of the Anomoeans that Basil is moved to write. The work comprises eighty Rules of Life, expressed in the words of the New Testament, with special reference to the needs of bishops, priests, and deacons, and of all persons occupied in education. Penitence consists not only in ceasing to sin, but in expiating sin by tears and mortification. [539] Sins of ignorance are not free from peril of judgment. [540] Sins into which we feel ourselves drawn against our will are the results of sins to which we have consented. [541] Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost consists in attributing to the devil the good works which the Spirit of God works in our brethren. [542] We ought carefully to examine whether the doctrine offered us is conformable to Scripture, and if not, to reject it. [543] Nothing must be added to the inspired words of God; all that is outside Scripture is not of faith, but is sin. [544] (iv) The Regulae fusius tractatae (horoi kata platos), 55 in number, and the Regulae brevius tractatae (horoi kat' epitomen), in number 313, are a series of precepts for the guidance of religious life put in the form of question and answer. The former are invariably supported by scriptural authority. Their genuineness is confirmed by strong external evidence. [545] Gregory of Nazianzus (Or. xliii. S: 34) speaks of Basil's composing rules for monastic life, and in Ep. vi. intimates that he helped his friend in their composition. [546] Rufinus (H.E. ii. 9) mentions Basil's Instituta Monachorum. St. Jerome (De Vir. illust. cxvi.) says that Basil wrote to hasketikon, and Photius (Cod. 191) describes the Aschetichum as including the Regulae. Sozomen (H.E. iii. 14) remarks that the Regulae were sometimes attributed to Eustathius of Sebaste, but speaks of them as generally recognised as St. Basil's. The monk who relinquishes his status after solemn profession and adoption is to be regarded as guilty of sacrilege, and the faithful are warned against all intercourse with him, with a reference to 2 Thess. iii. 14. [547] Children are not to be received from their parents except with full security for publicity in their reception. They are to be carefully instructed in the Scriptures. They are not to be allowed to make any profession till they come to years of discretion (XV.). Temperance is a virtue, but the servants of God are not to condemn any of God's creatures as unclean, and are to eat what is given them. (XVIII.) Hospitality is to be exercised with the utmost frugality and moderation, and the charge to Martha in Luke x. 41, is quoted with the reading oligon de esti chreia e henos [548] and the interpretation "few," namely for provision, and "one," namely the object in view,--enough for necessity. It would be as absurd for monks to change the simplicity of their fare on the arrival of a distinguished guest as it would be for them to change their dress (XX.). Rule XXI. is against unevangelical contention for places at table, and Rule XXII. regulates the monastic habit. The primary object of dress is said to be shewn by the words of Genesis, [549] where God is said to have made Adam and Eve "coats of skins," or, as in the LXX., chitonas dermatinous, i.e. tunics of hides. This use of tunics was enough for covering what was unseemly. But later another object was added--that of securing warmth by clothing. So we must keep both ends in view--decency, and protection against the weather. Among articles of dress some are very serviceable; some are less so. It is better to select what is most useful, so as to observe the rule of poverty, and to avoid a variety of vestments, some for show, others for use; some for day, some for night. A single garment must be devised to serve for all purposes, and for night as well as day. As the soldier is known by his uniform, and the senator by his robe, so the Christian ought to have his own dress. Shoes are to be provided on the same principle, they are to be simple and cheap. The girdle (XXIII.) is regarded as a necessary article of dress, not only because of its practical utility, but because of the example of the Lord Who girded Himself. In Rule XXVI. all secrets are ordered to be confided to the superintendent or bishop. [550] If the superintendent himself is in error (XXVII.) he is to be corrected by other brothers. Vicious brethren (XXVIII.) are to be cut off like rotten limbs. Self-exaltation and discontent are equally to be avoided (XXIX.). XXXVII. orders that devotional exercise is to be no excuse for idleness and shirking work. Work is to be done not only as a chastisement of the body, but for the sake of love to our neighbour and supplying weak and sick brethren with the necessaries of life. The apostle [551] says that if a man will not work he must not eat. Daily work is as necessary as daily bread. The services of the day are thus marked out. The first movements of heart and mind ought to be consecrated to God. Therefore early in the morning nothing ought to be planned or purposed before we have been gladdened by the thought of God; as it is written, "I remembered God, and was gladdened;" [552] the body is not to be set to work before we have obeyed the command, "O Lord, in the morning shalt thou hear my voice; in the morning will I order my prayer unto thee." [553] Again at the third hour there is to be a rising up to prayer, and the brotherhood is to be called together, even though they happen to have been dispersed to various works. The sixth hour is also to be marked by prayer, in obedience to the words of the Psalmist, [554] "evening, and morning, and at noon will I pray, and cry aloud: and He shall hear my voice." To ensure deliverance from the demon of noon-day, [555] the XCIst Psalm is to be recited. The ninth hour is consecrated to prayer by the example of the Apostles [556] Peter and John, who at that hour went up into the Temple to pray. Now the day is done. For all the boons of the day, and the good deeds of the day, we must give thanks. For omissions there must be confession. For sins voluntary or involuntary, or unknown, we must appease God in prayer. [557] At nightfall the XCIst Psalm is to be recited again, midnight is to be observed in obedience to the example of Paul and Silas, [558] and the injunction of the Psalmist. [559] Before dawn we should rise and pray again, as it is written, "Mine eyes prevent the night watches." [560] Here the canonical hours are marked, but no details are given as to the forms of prayer. XL. deals with the abuse of holy places and solemn assemblies. Christians ought not to appear in places sacred to martyrs or in their neighbourhood for any other reason than to pray and commemorate the sacred dead. Anything like a worldly festival or common-mart at such times is like the sacrilege of the money changers in the Temple precincts. [561] LI. gives directions for monastic discipline. "Let the superintendent exert discipline after the manner of a physician treating his patients. He is not angry with the sick, but fights with the disease, and sets himself to combat their bad symptoms. If need be, he must heal the sickness of the soul by severer treatment; for example, love of vain glory by the imposition of lowly tasks; foolish talking, by silence; immoderate sleep, by watching and prayer; idleness, by toil; gluttony, by fasting; murmuring, by seclusion, so that no brothers may work with the offender, nor admit him to participation in their works, till by his penitence that needeth not to be ashamed he appear to be rid of his complaint." LV. expounds at some length the doctrine of original sin, to which disease and death are traced. The 313 Regulae brevius tractatae are, like the Regulae fusius tractatae, in the form of questions and answers. Fessler singles out as a striking specimen XXXIV. Q. "How is any one to avoid the sin of man-pleasing, and looking to the praises of men?" A. "There must be a full conviction of the presence of God, an earnest intention to please Him, and a burning desire for the blessings promised by the Lord. No one before his Master's very eyes is excited into dishonouring his Master and bringing condemnation on himself, to please a fellow servant." XLVII. points out that it is a grave error to be silent when a brother sins. XLIX. tells us that vain gloriousness (to perpereuesthai. Cf. 1 Cor. xiii. 4) consists in taking things not for use, but for ostentation; and L. illustrates this principle in the case of dress. Q. "When a man has abandoned all more expensive clothing, does he sin, and, if so, how, if he wishes his cheap upper garment or shoes to be becoming to him?" A. "If he so wishes in order to gratify men, he is obviously guilty of the sin of man-pleasing. He is alienated from God, and is guilty of vain glory even in these cheap belongings." LXIV. is a somewhat lengthy comment on Matt. xvii. 6. To "make to offend," or "to scandalize," is to induce another to break the law, as the serpent Eve, and Eve Adam. LXXXIII. is pithy. Q. "If a man is generally in the right, and falls into one sin, how are we to treat him? A. "As the Lord treated Peter." CXXVIII. is on fasting. Q. "Ought any one to be allowed to exercise abstinence beyond his strength, so that he is hindered in the performance of his duty?" A. "This question does not seem to me to be properly worded. Temperance [562] does not consist in abstinence from earthly food, [563] wherein lies the `neglecting of the body' [564] condemned by the Apostles, but in complete departure from one's own wishes. And how great is the danger of our falling away from the Lord's commandment on account of our own wishes is clear from the words of the Apostle, `fulfilling the desires of the flesh, and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath.'" [565] The numbers in the Coenobium are not to fall below ten, the number of the eaters of the Paschal supper. [566] Nothing is to be considered individual and personal property. [567] Even a man's thoughts are not his own. [568] Private friendships are harmful to the general interests of the community. [569] At meals there is to be a reading, which is to be thought more of than mere material food. [570] The cultivation of the ground is the most suitable occupation for the ascetic life. [571] No fees are to be taken for the charge of children entrusted to the monks. [572] Such children are not to be pledged to join the community till they are old enough to understand what they are about. [573] __________________________________________________________________ [530] De Jud. Dei. S: 8. [531] cf. Ceillier VI. viii. 3. [532] houtos phronodmen kai houtos Baptizomen eis Toiada homoousion, kata ten entolen autou tou kuriou hemon 'Iesou Christou eipontos poreuthentes matheteusate k.t.l. S:; the co-essential Trinity being described as involved in the baptismal formula. [533] S: 1. [534] S: 1. [535] sunkatathesis adiakritos ton akousthenton en plerophoria tes aletheias ton keruchthenton Theou chariti. S: 1. [536] S: 2. [537] The rest of the clause seems to be rather in the way of explanation and assertion, and here he explains, as cited before, that the baptismal formula involves the homoousion. [538] Ath., De Syn. S: 31, in this series, p. 467. [539] Reg. i. [540] Reg. ix. [541] Reg. xi. [542] Reg. xxxv. [543] Reg. xxviii. [544] Reg. lxxx. S: 22. Fessler (De Pat. Saec. iv. p. 514) notes the similarity of a Homily, De perfectione vitae Monachorum, published under the name of St. Basil in a book published by C. F. Matthaei at Moscow in 1775, entitled Joannis Xiphilini et Basilii M. aliquot orationes. He describes it as quite unworthy in style of St. Basil. [545] Combefis, however, refused to accept them. [546] In this series, p. 448. [547] With this may be compared the uncompromising denunciation in Letter cclxxxviii., and what is said in the first of the three Tractatus Praevii. It has been represented that St. Basil introduced the practice of irrevocable vows. cf. Dr. Travers Smith, St. Basil, p. 223. De Broglie, L'Eglise et l'empire, v. 180: "Avant lui, c'etait, aux yeux de beaucoup de ceux meme qui s'y destinaient, une vocation libre, affaire de gout et de zele, pouvant etre dilaissee `a volonte, comme elle avait ete embrassee par chois. Le sceau de la perpetiute obligatoire, ce fut Basile qui l'imprima; c'est `a lui reellement que remonte, comme regle commune, et comme habitude generale, l'institution des voeux perpetuels. Helyot, Hist. des ordres monastiques, i. S: 3, Bultean, Hist. des moines d'orient, p. 402, Montalembert, Hist. des moines d'occident, i. 105, s'accordent `a reconnaitre que l'usage general des voeux perpetuels remonte `a St. Basil." To St. Basil's posthumous influence the system may be due. But it seems questionable whether St. Basil's Rule included formal vows of perpetual obligation in the more modern sense. I am not quite sure that the passages cited fully bear this out. Is the earnest exhortation not to quit the holier life consistent with a binding pledge? Would not a more distinctly authoritative tone be adopted? cf. Letters xlv. and xlvi. It is plain that a reminder was needed, and that the plea was possible that the profession had not the binding force of matrimony. The line taken is rather that a monk or nun ought to remain in his or her profession, and that it is a grievous sin to abandon it, than that there is an irrevocable contract. So in the Sermo asceticus (it is not universally accepted), printed by Garnier between the Moralia and the Regulae, it is said: "Before the profession of the religious life, any one is at liberty to get the good of this life, in accordance with law and custom, and to give himself to the yoke of wedlock. But when he has been enlisted, of his own consent, it is fitting (prosekei) that he keep himself for God, as one of the sacred offerings, so that he may not risk incurring the damnation of sacrilege, by defiling in the service of this world the body consecrated by promise to God." This prosekei is repeated in the Regulae. Basil's monk, says Fialon (Et. Hist., p. 49) was irrevocably bound by the laws of the Church, by public opinion, and, still more, by his conscience. It is to the last that the founder of the organisation seems to appeal. In Letter xlvi. the reproach is not addressed merely to a "religieuse echappe de son cloitre," as De Broglie has it, but to a nun guilty of unchastity. Vows of virginity were among the earliest of religious obligations. (cf. J. Martyr, Apol. i. 15, Athenvaras, Legat. 32, Origen, C. Celsum. vii. 48.) Basil (Can. xviii.) punishes a breach of the vow of virginity as he does adultery, but it was not till the Benedictine rule was established in Europe that it was generally regarded as absolutely irrevocable. (cf. D.C.A. s.v. "Nun," ii. p. 1411, and H. C. Lea's History of Celibacy, Philadelphia, 1867.) As a matter of fact, Basil's coenobitic monasticism, in comparison with the "wilder and more dreamy asceticism which prevailed in Egypt and Syria" (Milman, Hist. Christ. iii. 109), was "far more moderate and practical." It was a community of self-denying practical beneficence. Work and worship were to aid one another. This was the highest life, and to quit it was desertion of and disloyalty to neighbour and God. To Basil, is it not rather the violation of holiness than the technical breach of a formal vow which is sacrilege? Lea (p. 101) quotes Epiphanius (Panar. 61) as saying that it was better for a lapsed monk to take a lawful wife and be reconciled to the church through Penance. Basil in Can. lx. (p. 256) contemplates a similar reconciliation. [548] Supported by #, B, C, and L. [549] iii. 21. [550] to proestoti. cf. Just. Mart. Apol. i. S: 87. [551] 2 Thess. iii. 10. [552] Ps. lxxvii. 3, LXX. [553] Ps. v. 3. [554] Ps. lv. 17. [555] Ps. xci. 6, LXX. daimonion mesembrinon. cf. Jer. Taylor, Serm. ii. pt. 2: "Suidas" (Col. 1227) "tells of certain empusae that used to appear at noon, at such times as the Greeks did celebrate the funerals of the dead; and at this time some of the Russians do fear the noon-day devil, which appeareth like a mourning widow to reapers of hay and corn, and uses to break their arms and legs unless they worship her." [556] Acts iii. 1. [557] cf. Pythag. Aur. Carm. 40 (quoted by Jer. Taylor in Holy Living and Holy Dying): med' hupnon malakoisin ep' ommasi prosdexasthai, prin ton hemerinon ergon tris hekaston epelthein, pe pareben; ti d' erexa; ti moi deon ouk etelesthe. [558] Acts xvi. 25. [559] Ps. cxix. 62. [560] Ps. cxix. 148. [561] cf. Letterclxix. and notes on this case in the Prolegomena. It is curious to notice in the Oriental church a survival of something akin to the irreverence deprecated by St. Basil. A modern traveller in Russia has told me that on visiting a great cemetery on the day which the Greek church observes, like November 2 in the Latin, in memory of the dead, he found a vast and cheerful picnic going on. [562] enkrateia. Gal. v. 23. [563] aloga bromata. Combefis translates "terreni cibi." Garnier "nihil ad rem pertinentium." [564] Col. ii. 23. [565] Eph. ii. 3. [566] Sermo Asceticus, 3. [567] Reg. brev. tract. lxxxv., but see note on p. [568] Prooem. in Reg. fus. tract. [569] Sermo Asceticus. 5. The sacrifice of Gregory of Nazianzus may have been due to the idea that all private interests must be subordinated to those of the Church. [570] Reg. brev. tract. clxxx. [571] Reg. fus. tract. xxxviii. [572] Reg. brev. tract. ccciv. [573] Reg. fus. tract. xv. After the Regulae are printed, in Garnier's Ed. 34, Constitutiones Monasticae, with the note that their genuineness is more suspicious than that of any of the ascetic writings. They treat of the details of monastic life, of the virtues to be cultivated in it and the vices to be avoided. Sozomen (H.E. iii. 14) has been supposed to refer to them. All later criticism has been unfavourable to them. cf. Maran, Vit. Bas. xliii. 7; Ceillier VI. viii. 3; Fessler, p. 524. It may be remarked generally that the asceticism of St. Basil is eminently practical. He has no notion of mortification for mortification's sake,--no praise for the self-advertising and vain-glorious rigour of the Stylites. Neglecting the body, or "not sparing the body" by exaggerated mortification, in is cclviii. condemned as Manichaeism. It is of course always an objection to exclusive exaltation of the ascetic life that it is a kind of moral docetism, and ignores the fact that Christianity has not repudiated all concern with the body, but is designed to elevate and to purify it. (cf. Boehringer vii. p. 150.) Basil may be not unjustly criticised from this point of view, and accused of the very Manichaeism which he distinctly condemns. But it will be remembered that he recognises the holiness of marriage and family life, and if he thinks virginity and coenobitism a higher life, has no mercy for the dilettante asceticism of a morbid or indolent "incivisme." Valens, from the point of view of a master of legions, might deplore monastic celibacy, and press Egyptian monks by thousands into the ranks of his army. (cf. Milman, Hist. Christ. iii. 47.) Basil from his point of view was equally positive that he was making useful citizens, and that his industrious associates, of clean and frugal lives, were doing good service. "En effet, le moine basilien, n'est pas, comme le cenobite d'Egypte, separe du monde par un mur infranchissable `Les poissons meurent,' disait Saint Antoine, `quand on les tire de l'eau, et les moines s'enervent dans les villes; rentrons vite dans les montagnes, comme les poissons dans l`eau.' (Montalembert, Moines d'Occident, i. 61.) Les moines basiliens vivent aussi dans la solitude pour gagner le ciel, mais ils ne veulent pas le gagner seuls....Les principaux, au moins, doivent se meler `a la societe pour l'instruire. Cet homme `a la chevelure negligee, `a la demarche posie, dont l'oeil nes s'egare jamais, ouvre son monastere `a ses sembables, ou va les trouver, du moment qu'il s'agit de leur edification. Son contact fortifie le clerge; il entre lui-meme dans les ordres, et devient collaborateur de l'eveque. Il va aux fetes des martyrs et preche dans les eglises. Il entre dans les maisons, prend part aux conversations, aux repas, et, tout en evitant les longs entretiens et les liaisons aux les femmes, et le directeur et le compagnon de piete des ames....Le moine ne doit pas seulement soulager les moeux de l'ame. Les maisons des pauvres, dont se couvrait une parlie de l'Asie Mineure, etatent des asiles ouverts toutes les souffrances physiques....Pour Basile, ces deux institutions, le monastere et la maisons des pauvres, quoique separees et distinctes, n'en formaient qu'une. A ses yeux, les secours corporels n'etaient qu'un moyen d'arriver `a l'ame. Pendant que la main du moine servait les voyageurs, nourissait les pauvres, pausait les malades, ses levres leur distribuatent une aumone plus precieuse, celle de la parole de Dieu." Fialon, Et Historique, pp. 51-53. A high ideal! Perhaps never more nearly realized than in the Cappadocian coenobia of the fourth century. __________________________________________________________________ IV.--Homiletical. Twenty-four homilies on miscellaneous subjects, published under St. Basil's name, are generally accepted as genuine. They are conveniently classified as (i) Dogmatic and Exegetic, (ii) Moral, and (iii) Panegyric. To Class (i) will be referred III. In Illud, Attende tibi ipsi. VI. In Illud, Destruam horrea, etc. IX. In Illud, Quod Deus non est auctor malorum. XII. In principium Proverbiorum. XV. De Fide. XVI. In Illud, In principio erat Verbum. XXIV. Contra Sabellianos et Arium et Anomoeos. Class (ii) will include I. and II. De Jejunio. IV. De gratiarum actione. VII. In Divites. VIII. In famem et siccitatem. X. Adversus beatos. XI. De invidia. XIII. In Sanctum Baptismum. XIV. In Ebriosos. XX. De humilitate. XXI. Quod rebus mundanis adhaerendum non sit, et de incendio extra ecclesiam facto. XXII. Ad adolescentes, de legendis libris Gentilium. The Panegyric (iii) are V. In martyrem Julittam. XVII. In Barlaam martyrem. XVIII. In Gordium martyrem. XIX. In sanctos quadraginta martyres. XXIII. In Mamantem martyrem. Homily III. on Deut. xv. 9, [574] is one of the eight translated by Rufinus. Section 2 begins: "`Take heed,' it is written, `to thyself.' Every living creature possesses within himself, by the gift of God, the Ordainer of all things, certain resources for self protection. Investigate nature with attention, and you will find that the majority of brutes have an instinctive aversion from what is injurious; while, on the other hand, by a kind of natural attraction, they are impelled to the enjoyment of what is beneficial to them. Wherefore also God our Teacher has given us this grand injunction, in order that what brutes possess by nature may accrue to us by the aid of reason, and that what is performed by brutes unwittingly may be done by us through careful attention and constant exercise of our reasoning faculty. We are to be diligent guardians of the resources given to us by God, ever shunning sin as brutes shun poisons, and ever hunting after righteousness, as they seek for the herbage that is good for food. Take heed to thyself, that thou mayest be able to discern between the noxious and the wholesome. This taking heed is to be understood in a twofold sense. Gaze with the eyes of the body at visible objects. Contemplate incorporeal objects with the intellectual faculty of the soul. If we say that obedience to the charge of the text lies in the action of our eyes, we shall see at once that this is impossible. How can there be apprehension of the whole self through the eye? The eye cannot turn its sight upon itself; the head is beyond it; it is ignorant of the back, the countenance, the disposition of the intestines. Yet it were impious to argue that the charge of the Spirit cannot be obeyed. It follows then that it must be understood of intellectual action. `Take heed to thyself.' Look at thyself round about from every point of view. Keep thy soul's eye sleepless [575] in ceaseless watch over thyself. `Thou goest in the midst of snares.' [576] Hidden nets are set for thee in all directions by the enemy. Look well around thee, that thou mayest be delivered `as a gazelle from the net and a bird from the snare.' [577] It is because of her keen sight that the gazelle cannot be caught in the net. It is her keen sight that gives her her name. [578] And the bird, if only she take heed, mounts on her light wing far above the wiles of the hunter. "Beware lest in self protection thou prove inferior to brutes, lest haply thou be caught in the gins and be made the devil's prey, and be taken alive by him to do with thee as he will." A striking passage from the same Homily is thus rendered by Rufinus: "Considera ergo primo omnium quod homo es, id est solum in terres animal ipsis divinis manibus formatum. Nonne sufficeret hoc solum recte atque integre sapienti ad magnum summumque solutium, quod ipsius Dei manibus qui omnia reliqua praecepti solius fecit auctoritate subsistere, homo fictus es et formatus? Tum deinde quod cum ad imaginem Creatoris et similitudinem sis, potes sponte etiam ad angelorum dignitatem culmenque remeare. Animam namque accepisti intellectualem, et rationalem, per quam Deum possis agnoscere, et naturam rerum conspicabili rationis intelligentia contemplari: sapientiae dulcissimis fructibus perfrui praesto est. Tibi omnium cedit animantium genus, quae per connexa montium vel praerupta rupium aut opaca silvarum feruntur; omne quod vel aquis tegitur, vel praepetibus pennis in aere suspenditur. Omne, inquam, quod hujus mundi est, servitis et subjectioni tuae liberalis munificentia conditoris indulsit. Nonne tu, sensu tibi rationabili suggerente, diversitates artium reperisti? Nonne tu urbes condere, omnemque earum reliquum usum pernecessarium viventibus invenisti? Nonne tibi per rationem quae in te est mare pervium fit? Terra, flumina, fontesque tuis vel usibus vel voluptatibus famulantur. Nonne aer hic et coelum ipsum atque omnes stellarum chori vitae mortalium ministerio cursus suos atque ordines servant? Quid ergo deficis animo, et deesse tibi aliquid putas, si non tibi equus producitur phaleris exornatus et spumanti ore frena mandens argentea? Sed sol tibi producitur, veloci rapidoque cursu ardentes tibi faces caloris simul ac luminis portans. Non habes aureos et argenteos discos: sed habes lunae discum purissimo et blandissimo splendore radiantem. Non ascendis currum, nec rotarum lupsibus veheris, sed habes pedum tuorum vehiculum tecum natum. Quid ergo beatos censes eos qui aurum quidem possisent, alienis autem pedibus indigent, ad necessarios commeatus? Non recubas eburneis thoris, sed adjacent fecundi cespites viridantes et herbidi thori, florum varietate melius quam fucatis coloribus Tyrii muricis picti, in quibus dulces et salubres somni nullis curarum morsibus effugantur. Non te contegunt aurata laquearia; sed coelum te contegit ineffabili fulgore stellarum depictum. Haec quidem quantum ad communem humanitatis attinet vitam. Accipe vero majora. Propter te Deus in hominibus, Spiritus sancti distributio, mortis ablatio, resurrectionis spes. Propter te divina praecepta hominibus delata, quae te perfectam doceant vitam, et iter tuum ad Deum per mandatorum tramitem dirigant. Tibi panduntur regna coelorum, tibi coronae justitiae praeparantur; si tamen labores et aerumnas pro justitia ferre non refugis." [579] Homily VI., on Luke xii. 18, is on selfish wealth and greed. Beware, says the preacher, [580] lest the fate of the fool of the text be thine. "These things are written that we may shun their imitation. Imitate the earth, O man. Bear fruit, as she does, lest thou prove inferior to that which is without life. She produces her fruits, not that she may enjoy them, but for thy service. Thou dost gather for thyself whatever fruit of good works thou hast strewn, because the grace of good works returns to the giver. Thou hast given to the poor, and the gift becomes thine own, and comes back with increase. Just as grain that has fallen on the earth becomes a gain to the sower, so the loaf thrown to the hungry man renders abundant fruit thereafter. Be the end of thy husbandry the beginning of the heavenly sowing. `Sow,' it is written, `to yourselves in righteousness.' [581] Why then art thou distressed? Why dost thou harass thyself in thy efforts to shut up thy riches in clay and bricks? `A good name is rather to be chosen than great riches.' [582] If thou admire riches because of the honour that comes from them, bethink thee how very much more it tends to thine honour that thou shouldst be called the father of innumerable children than that thou shouldst possess innumerable staters in a purse. Thy wealth thou wilt leave behind thee here, even though thou like it not. The honour won by thy good deeds thou shalt convey with thee to the Master. Then all people standing round about thee in the presence of the universal Judge shall hail thee as feeder and benefactor, and give thee all the names that tell of loving kindness. Dost thou not see theatre-goers flinging away their wealth on boxers and buffoons and beast-fighters, fellows whom it is disgusting even to see, for the sake of the honour of a moment, and the cheers and clapping of the crowd? And art thou a niggard in thy expenses, when thou art destined to attain glory so great? God will welcome thee, angels will laud thee, mankind from the very beginning will call thee blessed. For thy stewardship of these corruptible things thy reward shall be glory everlasting, a crown of righteousness, the heavenly kingdom. Thou thinkest nothing of all this. Thy heart is so fixed on the present that thou despisest what is waited for in hope. Come then; dispose of thy wealth in various directions. `Be generous and liberal in thy expenditure on the poor. Let it be said of thee, `He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor; his righteousness endureth for ever.' [583] Do not press heavily on necessity and sell for great prices. Do not wait for a famine before thou openest thy barns. `He that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him.' [584] Watch not for a time of want for gold's sake--for public scarcity to promote thy private profit. Drive not a huckster's bargains out of the troubles of mankind. Make not God's wrathful visitation an opportunity for abundance. Wound not the sores of men smitten by the scourge. Thou keepest thine eye on thy gold, and wilt not look at thy brother. Thou knowest the marks on the money, and canst distinguish good from bad. Thou canst not tell who is thy brother in the day of distress." The conclusion is [585] "`Ah!'--it is said--`words are all very fine: gold is finer.' I make the same impression as I do when I am preaching to libertines against their unchastity. Their mistress is blamed, and the mere mention of her serves but to enkindle their passions. How can I bring before your eyes the poor man's sufferings that thou mayest know out of what creep groanings thou art accumulating thy treasures, and of what high value will seem to thee in the day of judgment the famous words, `Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was an hungred and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty and ye gave me drink:...I was naked and ye clothed me.' [586] What shuddering, what sweat, what darkness will be shed round thee, as thou hearest the words of condemnation!--`Depart from me, ye cursed, into outer darkness prepared for the devil and his angels: for I was an hungred and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty and ye gave me no drink:...I was naked and ye clothed me not.' [587] I have told thee what I have thought profitable. To thee now it is clear and plain what are the good things promised for thee if thou obey. If thou disobey, for thee the threat is written. I pray that thou mayest change to a better mind and thus escape its peril. In this way thy own wealth will be thy redemption. Thus thou mayest advance to the heavenly blessings prepared for thee by the grave of Him who hath called us all into His own kingdom, to Whom be glory and might for ever and ever. Amen." Homily IX. is a demonstration that God is not the Author of Evil. It has been conjectured that it was delivered shortly after some such public calamity as the destruction of Nicaea in 368. St. Basil naturally touches on passages which have from time to time caused some perplexity on this subject. He asks [588] if God is not the Author of evil, how is it said "I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create evil," [589] and again, "The evil came down from the Lord unto the gate of Jerusalem," [590] and again, "Shall there be evil in a city and the Lord hath not done it," [591] and in the great song of Moses, "See now that I, even I, am he and there is no god with me: I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal"? [592] But to any one who understands the meaning of Scripture no one of these passages accuses God of being the Cause and Creator of evil. He who uses the words, "I form the light and create darkness," describes Himself not as Creator of any evil, but as Demiurge of creation. "It is lest thou shouldst suppose that there is one cause of light and another of darkness that He described Himself as being Creator and Artificer of parts of creation which seem to be mutually opposed. It is to prevent thy seeking one Demiurge of fire, another of water, one of air and another of earth, these seeming to have a kind of mutual opposition and contrariety of qualities. By adopting these views many have ere now fallen into polytheism, but He makes peace and creates evil. Unquestionably He makes peace in thee when He brings peace into thy mind by His good teaching, and calms the rebel passions of thy soul. And He creates evil, that is to say, He reduces those evil passions to order, and brings them to a better state so that they may cease to be evil and may adopt the nature of good. `Create in me a clean heart, O God.' [593] This does not mean Make now for the first time; [594] it means Renew the heart that had become old from wickedness. The object is that He may make both one. [595] The word create is used not to imply the bringing out of nothing, but the bringing into order those which already existed. So it is said, `If any man be in Christ he is a new creature.' [596] Again, Moses says, `Is not He thy Father that hath bought thee? Hath He not made thee and created thee?' [597] Now, the creation put in order after the making evidently teaches us that the word creation, as is commonly the case, is used with the idea of improvement. And so it is thus that He makes peace, out of creating evil; that is, by transforming and bringing to improvement. Furthermore, even if you understand peace to be freedom from war, and evil to mean the troubles which are the lot of those who make war; marches into far regions, labours, vigils, terrors, sweatings, wounds, slaughters, taking of towns, slavery, exile, piteous spectacles of captives; and, in a word, all the evils that follow upon war, all these things, I say, happen by the just judgment of God, Who brings vengeance through war on those who deserve punishment. Should you have wished that Sodom had not been burnt after her notorious wickedness? Or that Jerusalem had not been overturned, nor her temple made desolate after the horrible wickedness of the Jews against the Lord? How otherwise was it right for these things to come to pass than by the hands of the Romans to whom our Lord had been delivered by the enemies of His life, the Jews? Wherefore it does sometimes come to pass that the calamities of war are righteously inflicted on those who deserve them--if you like to understand the words `I kill and I make alive' in their obvious sense. Fear edifies the simple. `I wound and I heal' is at once perceived to be salutary. The blow strikes terror; the cure attracts to love. But it is permissible to thee to find a higher meaning in the words, `I kill'--by sin; `I make alive'--by righteousness. `Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.' [598] He does not kill one and make another alive, but He makes the same man alive by the very means by which He kills him; He heals him by the blows which He inflicts upon him. As the proverb has it, `Thou shalt beat him with the rod and shalt deliver his soul from hell.' [599] The flesh is smitten that the soul may be healed; sin is put to death that righteousness may live. In another passage [600] it is argued that death is not an evil. Deaths come from God. Yet death is not absolutely an evil, except in the case of the death of the sinner, in which case departure from this world is a beginning of the punishments of hell. On the other hand, of the evils of hell the cause is not God, but ourselves. The origin and root of sin is what is in our own control and our free will." Homily XII. is "on the beginning of the proverbs." "The proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel." [601] "The name proverbs (paroimiai) has been by heathen writers used of common expressions, and of those which are generally used in the streets. Among them a way is called oimos, whence they define a paroimia to be a common expression, which has become trite through vulgar usage, and which it is possible to transfer from a limited number of subjects to many analogous subjects. [602] With Christians the paroimia is a serviceable utterance, conveyed with a certain amount of obscurity, containing an obvious meaning of much utility, and at the same time involving a depth of meaning in its inner sense. Whence the Lord says: `These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs, but the time cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father.'" [603] On the "wisdom and instruction" of verse 2, it is said: Wisdom is the science of things both human and divine, and of their causes. He, therefore, who is an effective theologian [604] knows wisdom. The quotation of 1 Cor. ii. 6, follows. On general education it is said, [605] "The acquisition of sciences is termed education, [606] as it is written of Moses, that he was learned [607] in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. [608] But it is of no small importance, with a view to man's sound condition, [609] that he should not devote himself to any sciences whatsoever, but should become acquainted with the education which is most profitable. It has ere now happened that men who have spent their time in the study of geometry, the discovery of the Egyptians, or of astrology, the favourite pursuit of the Chaldaeans, or have been addicted to the loftier natural philosophy [610] which is concerned with figures and shadows, have looked with contempt on the education which is based upon the divine oracles. Numbers of students have been occupied with paltry rhetoric, and the solution of sophisms, the subject matter of all of which is the false and unreal. Even poetry is dependent for its existence on its myths. [611] Rhetoric would not be but for craft in speech. Sophistics must have their fallacies. Many men for the sake of these pursuits have disregarded the knowledge of God, and have grown old in the search for the unreal. It is therefore necessary that we should have a full knowledge of education, in order to choose the profitable, and to reject the unintelligent and the injurious. Words of wisdom will be discerned by the attentive reader of the Proverbs, who thence patiently extracts what is for his good." The Homily concludes with an exhortation to rule life by the highest standard. "Hold fast, then, to the rudder of life. Guide thine eye, lest haply at any time through thine eyes there beat upon thee the vehement wave of lust. Guide ear and tongue, lest the one receive aught harmful, or the other speak forbidden words. Let not the tempest of passion overwhelm thee. Let no blows of despondency beat thee down; no weight of sorrow drown thee in its depths. Our feelings are waves. Rise above them, and thou wilt be a safe steersman of life. Fail to avoid each and all of them skilfully and steadily, and, like some untrimmed boat, with life's dangers all round about thee, thou wilt be sunk in the deep sea of sin. Hear then how thou mayest acquire the steersman's skill. Men at sea are wont to lift up their eyes to heaven. It is from heaven that they get guidance for their cruise; by day from the sun, and by night from the Bear, or from some of the ever-shining stars. By these they reckon their right course. Do thou too keep thine eye fixed on heaven, as the Psalmist did who said, `Unto thee lift I up mine eye, O thou that dwellest in the heavens.' [612] Keep thine eyes on the Sun of righteousness. Directed by the commandments of the Lord, as by some bright constellations, keep thine eye ever sleepless. Give not sleep to thine eyes or slumber to thine eyelids, [613] that the guidance of the commandments may be unceasing. `Thy word,' it is said, `is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my paths.' [614] Never slumber at the tiller, so long as thou livest here, amid the unstable circumstances of this world, and thou shalt receive the help of the Spirit. He shall conduct thee ever onward. He shall waft thee securely by gentle winds of peace, till thou come one day safe and sound to yon calm and waveless haven of the will of God, to Whom be glory and majesty for ever and ever, Amen." Homilies XV. and XVI. are more distinctly dogmatic. They do not present the doctrines of which they treat in any special way. XV., De Fide, is concerned rather with the frame of mind of the holder and expounder of the Faith than with any dogmatic formula. XVI., on John i. 1, begins by asserting that every utterance of the gospels is grander than the rest of the lessons of the Spirit, inasmuch as, while in the latter He has spoken to us through His servants the prophets, in the gospels the Master has conversed with us face to face. "The most mighty voiced herald of the actual gospel proclamation, who uttered words loud beyond all hearing and lofty beyond all understanding, is John, the son of thunder, the prelude of whose gospel is the text." After repeating the words the preacher goes on to say that he has known many who are not within the limits of the word of truth, many of the heathen, that is, "who have prided themselves upon the wisdom of this world, who in their admiration for these words have ventured to insert them among their own writings. For the devil is a thief, and carries off our property for the use of his own prophets." [615] "If the wisdom of the flesh has been so smitten with admiration for the force of the words, what are we to do, who are disciples of the Spirit?...Hold fast to the text, and you will suffer no harm from men of evil arts. Suppose your opponent to argue, `If He was begotten, He was not,' do you retort, `In the beginning He was.' But, he will go on, `Before He was begotten, in what way was He?' Do not give up the words `He was.' Do not abandon the words `In the beginning.' The highest point of beginning is beyond comprehension; what is outside beginning is beyond discovery. Do not let any one deceive you by the fact that the phrase has more than one meaning. There are in this world many beginnings of many things, yet there is one beginning which is beyond them all. `Beginning of good way,' says the Proverb. But the beginning of a way is the first movement whereby we begin the journey of which the earlier part can be discovered. And, `The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.' [616] To this beginning is prefixed something else, for elementary instruction is the beginning of the comprehension of arts. The fear of the Lord is then a primary element of wisdom, but there is something anterior to this beginning--the condition of the soul, before it has been taught wisdom and apprehended the fear of the Lord....The point is the beginning of the line, and the line is the beginning of the surface, and the surface is the beginning of the body, and the parts of speech are the beginnings of grammatical utterance. But the beginning in the text is like none of these....In the beginning was the Word! Marvellous utterance! How all the words are found to be combined in mutual equality of force! `Was' has the same force as `In the beginning.' Where is the blasphemer? Where is the tongue that fights against Christ? Where is the tongue that said, `There was when He was not'? Hear the gospel: `In the beginning was. ' If He was in the beginning, when was He not? Shall I bewail their impiety or execrate their want of instruction? But, it is argued, before He was begotten, He was not. Do you know when He was begotten, that you may introduce the idea of priority to the time? For the word `before' is a word of time, placing one thing before another in antiquity. In what way is it reasonable that the Creator of time should have a generation subjected to terms of time? `In the beginning was--' Never give up the was, and you never give any room for the vile blasphemy to slip in. Mariners laugh at the storm, when they are riding upon two anchors. So will you laugh to scorn this vile agitation which is being driven on the world by the blasts of wickedness, and tosses the faith of many to and fro, if only you will keep your soul moored safely in the security of these words." In S: 4 on the force of with God. [617] "Note with admiration the exact appropriateness of every single word. It is not said `The Word was in God.' It runs `was with God.' This is to set forth the proper character of the hypostasis. The Evangelist did not say `in God,' to avoid giving any pretext for the confusion of the hypostasis. That is the vile blasphemy of men who are endeavouring to confound all things together, asserting that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, form one subject matter, and that different appellations are applied to one thing. The impiety is vile, and no less to be shunned than that of those who blasphemously maintain that the Son is in essence unlike God the Father. The Word was with God. Immediately after using the term Word to demonstrate the impassibility of the generation, he forthwith gives an explanation to do away with the mischief arising in us from the term Word. As though suddenly rescuing Him from the blasphemers' calumny, he asks, what is the Word? The Word was God. Do not put before me any ingenious distinctions of phrase; do not with your wily cleverness blaspheme the teachings of the Spirit. You have the definitive statement. Submit to the Lord. The Word was God." Homily XXIV., against the Sabellians, Arians, and Anomoeans, repeats points which are brought out again and again in the De Spiritu Sancto, in the work Against Eunomius, and in some of the Letters. Arianism is practical paganism, for to make the Son a creature, and at the same time to offer Him worship, is to reintroduce polytheism. Sabellianism is practical Judaism,--a denial of the Son. [618] John i. 1, xiv. 9, 7, xvi. 28, and viii. 16 are quoted against both extremes. There may be a note of time in the admitted impatience of the auditory at hearing of every other subject than the Holy Spirit. The preacher is constrained to speak upon this topic, and he speaks with the combined caution and completeness which characterize the De Spiritu Sancto. "Your ears," he says, "are all eager to hear something concerning the Holy Ghost. My wish would be, as I have received in all simplicity, as I have assented with guileless agreement, so to deliver the doctrine to you my hearers. I would if I could avoid being constantly questioned on the same point. I would have my disciples convinced of one consent. But you stand round me rather as judges than as learners. Your desire is rather to test and try me than to acquire anything for yourselves. I must therefore, as it were, make my defence before the court, again and again giving answer, and again and again saying what I have received. And you I exhort not to be specially anxious to hear from me what is pleasing to yourselves, but rather what is pleasing to the Lord, what is in harmony with the Scriptures, what is not in opposition to the Fathers. What, then, I asserted concerning the Son, that we ought to acknowledge His proper Person, this I have also to say concerning the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is not identical with the Father, because of its being written `God is a Spirit.' [619] Nor on the other hand is there one Person of Son and of Spirit, because it is said, `If any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his....Christ is in you.' [620] From this passage some persons have been deceived into the opinion that the Spirit and Christ are identical. But what do we assert? That in this passage is declared the intimate relation of nature and not a confusion of persons. For there exists the Father having His existence perfect and independent, root and fountain of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. There exists also the Son living in full Godhead, Word and begotten offspring of the Father, independent. Full too is the Spirit, not part of another, but contemplated whole and perfect in Himself. The Son is inseparably conjoined with the Father and the Spirit with the Son. For there is nothing to divide nor to cut asunder the eternal conjunction. No age intervenes, nor yet can our soul entertain a thought of separation as though the Only-begotten were not ever with the Father, or the Holy Ghost not co-existent with the Son. Whenever then we conjoin the Trinity, be careful not to imagine the Three as parts of one undivided thing, but receive the idea of the undivided and common essence of three perfect incorporeal [existences]. Wherever is the presence of the Holy Spirit, there is the indwelling of Christ: wherever Christ is, there the Father is present. `Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you ?'" [621] First of the Homilies on moral topics come I. and II. on Fasting. The former is of uncontested genuineness. Erasmus rejected the latter, but it is accepted without hesitation by Garnier, Maran, and Ceillier, and is said by the last named to be quoted as Basil's by John of Damascus and Symeon Logothetes. From Homily I. two passages are cited by St. Augustine against the Pelagians. [622] The text is Ps. lxxx. 3. "Reverence," says one passage, [623] "the hoary head of fasting. It is coaeval with mankind. Fasting was ordained in Paradise. The first injunction was delivered to Adam, `Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat.' [624] `Thou shalt not eat' is a law of fasting and abstinence." The general argument is rather against excess than in support of ceremonial abstinence. In Paradise there was no wine, no butchery of beasts, no eating of flesh. Wine came in after the flood. Noah became drunk because wine was new to him. So fasting is older than drunkenness. Esau was defiled, and made his brother's slave, for the sake of a single meal. It was fasting and prayer which gave Samuel to Hannah. Fasting brought forth Samson. Fasting begets prophets, strengthens strong men. Fasting makes lawgivers wise, is the soul's safeguard, the body's trusty comrade, the armour of the champion, the training of the athlete. The conclusion is a warning against mere carnal abstinence. [625] "Beware of limiting the good of fasting to mere abstinence from meats. Real fasting is alienation from evil. `Loose the bands of wickedness.' [626] Forgive your neighbour the mischief he has done you. Forgive him his trespasses against you. Do not `fast for strife and debate.' [627] You do not devour flesh, but you devour your brother. You abstain from wine, but you indulge in outrages. You wait for evening before you take food, but you spend the day in the law courts. Wo to those who are `drunken, but not with wine.' [628] Anger is the intoxication of the soul, and makes it out of its wits like wine. Drunkenness, too, is sorrow, and drowns our intelligence. Another drunkenness is needless fear. In a word, whatever passion makes the soul beside herself may be called drunkenness....Dost thou know Whom thou art ordained to receive as thy guest? He Who has promised that He and His Father will come and make their abode with thee. [629] Why do you allow drunkenness to enter in, and shut the door on the Lord? Why allow the foe to come in and occupy your strongholds? Drunkenness dare not receive the Lord; it drives away the Spirit. Smoke drives away bees, and debauch drives away the gifts of the Spirit. Wilt thou see the nobility of fasting? Compare this evening with to-morrow evening: thou wilt see the town turned from riot and disturbance to profound calm. Would that to-day might be like to-morrow in solemnity, and the morrow no less cheerful than to-day. May the Lord Who has brought us to this period of time grant to us, as to gladiators and wrestlers, that we may shew firmness and constancy in the beginning of contests, and may reach that day which is the Queen of Crowns; that we may remember now the passion of salvation, and in the age to come enjoy the requital of our deeds in this life, in the just judgment of Christ." [630] Homily IV. on the giving of thanks (peri eucharistias), is on text 1 Thess. v. 16. Our Lord, it is remarked, wept over Lazarus, and He called them that mourn blessed. How [631] is this to be reconciled with the charge "Rejoice alway"? "Tears and joy have not a common origin. On the one hand, while the breath is held in round the heart, tears spontaneously gush forth, as at some blow, when an unforeseen calamity smites upon the soul. Joy on the other hand is like a leaping up of the soul rejoicing when things go well. Hence come different appearances of the body. The sorrowful are pale, livid, chilly. The habit of the joyous and cheerful is blooming and ruddy; their soul all but leaps out of their body for gladness. On all this I shall say that the lamentations and tears of the saints were caused by their love to God. So, with their eyes ever fixed on the object of their love, and from hence gathering greater joy for themselves, they devoted themselves to the interests of their fellow-servants. Weeping over sinners, they brought them to better ways by their tears. But just as men standing safe on the seashore, while they feel for those who are drowning in the deep, do not lose their own safety in their anxiety for those in peril, so those who groan over the sins of their neighbours do not destroy their own proper cheerfulness. Nay, they rather increase it, in that, through their tears over their brother, they are made worthy of the joy of the Lord. Wherefore, blessed are they that weep; blessed are they that mourn; for they shall themselves be comforted; they themselves shall laugh. But by laughter is meant not the noise that comes out through the cheeks from the boiling of the blood, but cheerfulness pure and untainted with despondency. The Apostle allows us to weep with weepers, for this tear is made, as it were, a seed and loan to be repaid with everlasting joy. Mount in mind with me, and contemplate the condition of the angels; see if any other condition becomes them but one of joy and gladness. It is for that they are counted worthy to stand beside God, and to enjoy the ineffable beauty and glory of our Creator. It is in urging us on to that life that the Apostle bids us always rejoice." The Homily contains an eloquent exhortation to Christian fortitude in calamity, and concludes with the charge to look beyond present grief to future felicity. "Hast thou dishonour? Look to the glory which through patience is laid up for thee in heaven. Hast thou suffered loss? Fix thine eyes on the heavenly riches, and on the treasure which thou hast put by for thyself through thy good works. Hast thou suffered exile? Thy fatherland is the heavenly Jerusalem. Hast thou lost a child? Thou hast angels, with whom thou shalt dance about the throne of God, and shalt be glad with everlasting joy. Set expected joys over against present griefs, and thus thou wilt preserve for thyself that calm and quiet of the soul whither the injunction of the Apostle calls us. Let not the brightness of human success fill thy soul with immoderate joy; let not grief bring low thy soul's high and lofty exaltation through sadness and anguish. Thou must be trained in the lessons of this life before thou canst live the calm and quiet life to come. Thou wilt achieve this without difficulty, if thou keep ever with thee the charge to rejoice alway. Dismiss the worries of the flesh. Gather together the joys of the soul. Rise above the sensible perception of present things. Fix thy mind on the hope of things eternal. Of these the mere thought suffices to fill the soul with gladness, and to plant in our hearts the happiness of angels." Homily VII., against the rich, follows much the same line of argument as VI. Two main considerations are urged against the love of worldly wealth; firstly, the thought of the day of judgment; secondly, the fleeting and unstable nature of the riches themselves. The luxury of the fourth century, as represented by Basil, is much the same as the luxury of the nineteenth. "I am filled with amazement," says the preacher, "at the invention of superfluities. The vehicles are countless, some for conveying goods, others for carrying their owners; all covered with brass and with silver. There are a vast number of horses, whose pedigrees are kept like men's, and their descent from noble sires recorded. Some are for carrying their haughty owners about the town, some are hunters, some are hacks. Bits, girths, collars, are all of silver, all decked with gold. Scarlet cloths make the horses as gay as bridegrooms. There is a host of mules, distinguished by their colours, and their muleteers with them, one after another, some before and some behind. Of other household servants the number is endless, who satisfy all the requirements of men's extravagance; agents, stewards, gardeners, and craftsmen, skilled in every art that can minister to necessity or to enjoyment and luxury; cooks, confectioners, butlers, huntsmen, sculptors, painters, devisers and creators of pleasure of every kind. Look at the herds of camels, some for carriage, some for pasture; troops of horses, droves of oxen, flocks of sheep, herds of swine with their keepers, land to feed all these, and to increase men's riches by its produce; baths in town, baths in the country; houses shining all over with every variety of marble,--some with stone of Phrygia, others with slabs of Spartan or Thessalian. [632] There must be some houses warm in winter, [633] and others cool in summer. The pavement is of mosaic, the ceiling gilded. If any part of the wall escapes the slabs, it is embellished with painted flowers....You who dress your walls, and let your fellow-creatures go bare, what will you answer to the Judge? You who harness your horses with splendour, and despise your brother if he is ill-dressed; who let your wheat rot, and will not feed the hungry; who hide your gold, and despise the distressed? And, if you have a wealth-loving wife, the plague is twice as bad. She keeps your luxury ablaze; she increases your love of pleasure; she gives the goad to your superfluous appetites; her heart is set on stones,--pearls, emeralds, and sapphires. [634] Gold she works and gold she weaves, [635] and increases the mischief with never-ending frivolities. And her interest in all these things is no mere by-play: it is the care of night and day. Then what innumerable flatterers wait upon their idle wants! They must have their dyers of bright colours, their goldsmiths, their perfumes their weavers, their embroiderers. With all their behests they do not leave their husbands breathing time. No fortune is vast enough to satisfy a woman's wants,--no, not if it were to flow like a river! They are as eager for foreign perfumes as for oil from the market. They must have the treasures of the sea, shells and pinnas, [636] and more of them than wool from the sheep's back. Gold encircling precious stones serves now for an ornament for their foreheads, now for their necks. There is more gold in their girdles; more gold fastens hands and feet. These gold-loving ladies are delighted to be bound by golden fetters,--only let the chain be gold! When will the man have time to care for his soul, who has to serve a woman's fancies?" Homily VIII., on the Famine and Drought, belongs to the disastrous year 368. The circumstances of its delivery have already been referred to. [637] The text is Amos iii. 8, "The lion hath roared: who will not fear?" National calamity is traced to national sin, specially to neglect of the poor. Children, it appears, [638] were allowed a holiday from school to attend the public services held to deprecate the divine wrath. Crowds of men, to whose sins the distress was more due than to the innocent children, wandered cheerfully about the town instead of coming to church. Homily X. is against the angry. Section 2 contains a description of the outward appearance of the angry men. "About the heart of those who are eager to requite evil for evil, the blood boils as though it were stirred and sputtering by the force of fire. On the surface it breaks out and shews the angry man in other form, familiar and well known to all, as though it were changing a mask upon the stage. The proper and usual eyes of the angry man are recognized no more; his gaze is unsteady, and fires up in a moment. He whets his teeth like boars joining battle. His countenance is livid and suffused with blood. His body seems to swell. His veins are ruptured, as his breath struggles under the storm within. His voice is rough and strained. His speech--broken and falling from him at random--proceeds without distinction, without arrangement, and without meaning. When he is roused by those who are irritating him, like a flame with plenty of fuel, to an inextinguishable pitch, then, ah! then indeed the spectacle is indescribable and unendurable. See the hands lifted against his fellows, and attacking every part of their bodies; see the feet jumping without restraint on dangerous parts. See whatever comes to hand turned into a weapon for his mad frenzy. The record of the progress from words to wounds recalls familiar lines which probably Basil never read. [639] Rage rouses strife; strife begets abuse; abuse, blows; blows, wounds; and from wounds often comes death." St. Basil, however, does not omit to notice [640] that there is such a thing as righteous indignation, and that we may "be angry and sin not." "God forbid that we should turn into occasions for sin gifts given to us by the Creator for our salvation! Anger, stirred at the proper time and in the proper manner, is an efficient cause of manliness, patience, and endurance....Anger is to be used as a weapon. So Moses, meekest of men, armed the hands of the Levites for the slaughter of their brethren, to punish idolatry. The wrath of Phinehas was justifiable. So was the wrath of Samuel against Agag. Thus, anger very often is made the minister of good deeds." Homily XI., against Envy, adduces the instances of Saul's envy of David, and that of the patriarchs against Joseph. It is pointed out that envy grows out of familiarity and proximity. "A man is envied of his neighbour." [641] The Scythian does not envy the Egyptian. Envy arises among fellow-countrymen. The remedy for this vice is to recognise the pettiness of the common objects of human ambition, and to aspire to eternal joys. If riches are a mere means to unrighteousness, [642] wo be to the rich man! If they are a ministering to virtue, there is no room for envy, since the common advantages proceeding from them are open to all,--unless any one out of superfluity of wickedness envies himself his own good things! In Homily XIII., on Holy Baptism, St. Basil combats an error which had naturally arisen out of the practice of postponing baptism. The delay was made an occasion of license and indulgence. St. Augustine [643] cites the homily as St. Chrysostom's, but the quotation has not weakened the general acceptance of the composition as Basil's, and as one of those referred to by Amphilochius. [644] Ceillier mentions its citation by the emperor Justinian. [645] It was apparently delivered at Easter. Baptism is good at all times. [646] "Art thou a young man? Secure thy youth by the bridle of baptism. Has thy prime passed by? Do not be deprived of thy viaticum. Do not lose thy safeguard. Do not think of the eleventh hour as of the first. It is fitting that even at the beginning of life we should have the end in view." "Imitate [647] the eunuch. [648] He found one to teach him. He did not despise instruction. The rich man made the poor man mount into his chariot. The illustrious and the great welcomed the undistinguished and the small. When he had been taught the gospel of the kingdom, he received the faith in his heart, and did not put off the seal of the Spirit." Homily XIV., against Drunkards, has the special interest of being originated by a painful incident which it narrates. The circumstances may well be compared with those of the scandal caused by the deacon Glycerius. [649] Easter day, remarks St. Basil, is a day when decent women ought to have been sitting in their homes, piously reflecting on future judgment. Instead of this, certain wanton women, forgetful of the fear of God, flung their coverings from their heads, despising God, and in contempt of His angels, lost to all shame before the gaze of men, shaking their hair, trailing their tunics, sporting with their feet, with immodest glances and unrestrained laughter, went off into a wild dance. They invited all the riotous youth to follow them, and kept up their dances in the Basilica of the Martyrs' before the walls of Caesarea, turning hallowed places into the workshop of their unseemliness. They sang indecent songs, and befouled the ground with their unhallowed tread. They got a crowd of lads to stare at them, and left no madness undone. On this St. Basil builds a stirring temperance sermon. Section 6 contains a vivid picture of a drinking bout, and Section 7 describes the sequel. The details are evidently not imaginary. "Sorrowful sight for Christian eyes! A man in the prime of life, of powerful frame of high rank in the army, is carried furtively home, because he cannot stand upright, and travel on his own feet. A man who ought to be a terror to our enemies is a laughing stock to the lads in the streets. He is smitten down by no sword--slain by no foe. A military man, in the bloom of manhood, the prey of wine, and ready to suffer any fate his foes may choose! Drunkenness is the ruin of reason, the destruction of strength; it is untimely old age; it is, for a short time, death. "What are drunkards but the idols of the heathen? They have eyes and see not, ears and hear not. [650] Their hands are helpless; their feet dead." The whole Homily is forcible. It is quoted by Isidore of Pelusium, [651] and St. Ambrose seems to have been acquainted with it. [652] Homily XX., on Humility, urges the folly of Adam, in sacrificing eternal blessings to his ambition, and the example of St. Paul in glorying only in the Lord. [653] Pharaoh, Goliath, and Abimelech are instanced. St. Peter is cited for lack of humility in being sure that he of all men will be true to the death. "No detail can be neglected [654] as too insignificant to help us in ridding ourselves of pride. The soul grows like its practices, and is formed and fashioned in accordance with its conduct. Your appearance, your dress, your gait, your chair, your style of meals, your bed and bedding, your house and its contents, should be all arranged with a view to cheapness. Your talk, your songs, your mode of greeting your neighbour, should look rather to moderation than to ostentation. Give me, I beg, no elaborate arguments in your talk, no surpassing sweetness in your singing, no vaunting and wearisome discussions. In all things try to avoid bigness. Be kind to your friend, gentle to your servant, patient with the impudent, amiable to the lowly. Console the afflicted, visit the distressed, despise none. Be agreeable in address, cheerful in reply, ready, accessible to all. Never sing your own praises, nor get other people to sing them. Never allowing any uncivil communication, conceal as far as possible your own superiority." [655] Homily XXI., on disregard of the things of this world, was preached out of St. Basil's diocese, very probably at Satala in 372. [656] The second part [657] is in reference to a fire which occurred in the near neighbourhood of the church on the previous evening. "Once more the fiend has shewn his fury against us, has armed himself with flame of fire, and has attacked the precincts of the church. Once more our common mother has won the day, and turned back his devices on himself. He has done nothing but advertise his hatred....How do you not suppose the devil must be groaning to-day at the failure of his projected attempt? Our enemy lighted his fire close to the church that he might wreck our prosperity. The flames raised on every side by his furious blasts were streaming over all they could reach; they fed on the air round about; they were being driven to touch the shrine, and to involve us in the common ruin; but our Saviour turned them back on him who had kindled them, and ordered his madness to fall on himself. The congregation who have happily escaped are urged to live worthily of their preservation, shining like pure gold out of the furnace." Homily XXII., which is of considerable interest, on the study of pagan literature, is really not a homily at all. [658] It is a short treatise addressed to the young on their education. It would seem to have been written in the Archbishop's later years, unless the experience of which he speaks may refer rather to his earlier experience, alike as a student and a teacher. No source of instruction can be overlooked in the preparation for the great battle of life, [659] and there is a certain advantage to be derived from the right use of heathen writers. The illustrious Moses is described as training his intellect in the science of the Egyptians, and so arriving at the contemplation of Him Who is. [660] So in later days Daniel at Babylon was wise in the Chaldean philosophy, and ultimately apprehended the divine instruction. But granted that such heathen learning is not useless, the question remains how you are to participate in it. To begin with the poets. Their utterances are of very various kinds, and it will not be well to give attention to all without exception. When they narrate to you the deeds and the words of good men, admire and copy them, and strive diligently to be like them. When they come to bad men, shut your ears, and avoid imitating them, like Ulysses fleeing from the sirens' songs. [661] Familiarity with evil words is a sure road to evil deeds, wherefore every possible precaution must be taken to prevent our souls from unconsciously imbibing evil influences through literary gratification, like men who take poison in honey. We shall not therefore praise the poets when they revile and mock, or when they describe licentious, intoxicated characters, when they define happiness as consisting in a laden table and dissolute ditties. Least of all shall we attend to the poets when they are talking about the gods, specially when their talk is of many gods, and those in mutual disagreement. For among them brother is at variance with brother, parent against children, and children wage a truceless war against parents. The gods' adulteries and amours and unabashed embraces, and specially those of Zeus, whom they describe as the chief and highest of them all,--things which could not be told without a blush of brutes,--all this let us leave to actors on the stage. [662] I must make the same remark about historians, specially when they write merely to please. And we certainly shall not follow rhetoricians in the art of lying....I have been taught by one well able to understand a poet's mind that with Homer all his poetry is praise of virtue, and that in him all that is not mere accessory tends to this end. A marked instance of this is his description of the prince of the Kephallenians saved naked from shipwreck. No sooner did he appear than the princess viewed him with reverence; so far was she from feeling anything like shame at seeing him naked and alone, since his virtue stood him in the stead of clothes. [663] Afterwards he was of so much estimation among the rest of the Phaeacians that they abandoned the pleasures amid which they lived, all looked up to him and imitated him, and not a man of the Phaeacians prayed for anything more eagerly than that he might be Ulysses,--a mere waif saved from shipwreck. Herein my friend said that he was the interpreter of the poet's mind; that Homer all but said aloud, Virtue, O men, is what you have to care for. Virtue swims out with the shipwrecked sailor, and when he is cast naked on the coast, virtue makes him more noble than the happy Phaeacians. And truly this is so. Other belongings are not more the property of their possessors than of any one else. They are like dice flung hither and thither in a game. Virtue is the one possession which cannot be taken away, and remains with us alike alive and dead. It is in this sense that I think Solon said to the rich, 'All' hemeis autois ou diameipsometha Tes aretes ton plouton; epei to men empedon aiei, Chremata d' anthropon allote allos echei [664] Similar to these are the lines of Theognis, [665] in which he says that God (whatever he means by "God") inclines the scale to men now one way and now another, and so at one moment they are rich, and at another penniless. Somewhere too in his writings Prodicus, the Sophist of Chios, has made similar reflexions on vice and virtue, to whom attention may well be paid, for he is a man by no means to be despised. So far as I recollect his sentiments, they are something to this effect. I do not remember the exact words, but the sense, in plain prose, was as follows: [666] Once upon a time, when Hercules was quite young, and of just about the same age as yourselves, he was debating within himself which of the two ways he should choose, the one leading through toil to virtue, the other which is the easiest of all. There approached him two women. They were Virtue and Vice, and though they said not a word they straightway shewed by their appearance what was the difference between them. One was tricked out to present a fair appearance with every beautifying art. Pleasure and delights were shed around her and she led close after her innumerable enjoyments like a swarm of bees. She showed them to Hercules, and, promising him yet more and more, endeavoured to attract him to her side. The other, all emaciated and squalid, looked earnestly at the lad, and spoke in quite another tone. She promised him no ease, no pleasure, but toils, labours, and perils without number, in every land and sea. She told him that the reward of all this would be that he should become a god (so the narrator tells it). This latter Hercules followed even to the death. Perhaps all those who have written anything about wisdom, less or more, each according to his ability, have praised Virtue in their writings. These must be obeyed, and the effort made to show forth their teaching in the conduct of life. For he alone is wise who confirms in act the philosophy which in the rest goes no farther than words. They do but flit like shadows. [667] It is as though some painter had represented a sitter as a marvel of manly beauty, and then he were to be in reality what the artist had painted on the panel. But to utter glorious eulogies on virtue in public, and make long speeches about it, while in private putting pleasure before continence and giving gain higher honour than righteousness, is conduct which seems to me illustrated by actors on the stage: they enter as monarchs and magnates, when they are neither monarchs nor magnates, and perhaps even are only slaves. A singer could never tolerate a lyre that did not match his voice, nor a coryphaeus a chorus that did not chant in tune. Yet every one will be inconsistent with himself, and will fail to make his conduct agree with his words. The tongue has sworn, but the heart has never sworn, as Euripedes [668] has it; and a man will aim at seeming, rather than at being, good. Nevertheless, if we may believe Plato, the last extreme of iniquity is for one to seem just without being just. [669] This then is the way in which we are to receive writings which contain suggestions of good deeds. And since the noble deeds of men of old are preserved for our benefit either by tradition, or in the works of poets and historians, do not let us miss the good we may get from them. For instance: a man in the street once pursued Pericles with abuse, and persisted in it all day. Pericles took not the slightest notice. Evening fell, and darkness came on, and even then he could hardly be persuaded to give over. Pericles lighted him home, for fear this exercise in philosophy might be lost. [670] Again: once upon a time a fellow who was angry with Euclid of Megara threatened him with death, and swore at him. Euclid swore back that he would appease him, and calm him in spite of his rage. [671] A man once attacked Socrates the son of Sophoniscus and struck him again and again in the face. Socrates made no resistance, but allowed the drunken fellow to take his fill of frenzy, so that his face was all swollen and bloody from the blows. When the assault was done, Socrates, according to the story, did nothing besides writing on his forehead, as a sculptor might on a statue, "This is so and so's doing." [672] This was his revenge. Where conduct, as in this case, is so much on a par with Christian conduct, [673] I maintain that it is well worth our while to copy these great men. The behaviour of Socrates on this occasion is akin to the precept that we are by no means to take revenge, but to turn the other cheek to the smiter. So the conduct of Pericles and Euclid matches the commands to put up with persecutors, and to bear their wrath with meekness, and to invoke not cursing but blessing on our enemies. He who has been previously instructed in these examples will no longer regard the precepts as impracticable. I should like, too, to instance the conduct of Alexander, when he had captured the daughters of Darius. [674] Their beauty is described as extraordinary, and Alexander would not so much as look at them, for he thought it shameful that a conqueror of men should be vanquished by women. This is of a piece with the statement that he who looks at a woman impurely, even though he do not actually commit the act of adultery with her, is not free from guilt, because he has allowed lust to enter his heart. Then there is the case of Clinias, the follower of Pythagoras: it is difficult to believe this is a case of accidental, and not intentional, imitation of our principles. [675] What of him? He might have escaped a fine of three talents by taking an oath, but he preferred to pay rather than swear, and this when he would have sworn truly. He appears to me to have heard of the precept which orders us to swear not at all. [676] To return to the point with which I began. We must not take everything indiscriminately, but only what is profitable. It would be shameful for us in the case of food to reject the injurious, and at the same time, in the case of lessons, to take no account of what keeps the soul alive, but, like mountain streams, to sweep in everything that happens to be in our way. The sailor does not trust himself to the mercy of the winds, but steers his boat to the port; the archer aims at his mark; the smith and the carpenter keep the end of the crafts in view. What sense is there in our shewing ourselves inferior to these craftsmen, though we are quite able to understand our own affairs? In mere handicrafts is there some object and end in labour, and is there no aim in the life of man, to which any one ought to look who means to live a life better than the brutes? Were no intelligence to be sitting at the tiller of our souls, we should be dashed up and down in the voyage of life like boats that have no ballast. It is just as with competitions in athletics, or, if you like, in music. In competitions mere crowns are offered for prizes, there is always training, and no one in training for wrestling or the pancration [677] practices the harp or flute. Certainly not Polydamas, who before his contests at the Olympic games used to make chariots at full speed stand still, and so kept up his strength. [678] Milo, too, could not be pushed off his greased shield, but, pushed as he was, held on as tightly as statues fastened by lead. [679] In one word, training was the preparation for these feats. Suppose they had neglected the dust and the gymnasia, and had given their minds to the strains of Marsyas or Olympus, the Phrygians, [680] they would never have won crowns or glory, nor escaped ridicule for their bodily incapacity. On the other hand Timotheus did not neglect harmony and spend his time in the wrestling schools. Had he done so it would never have been his lot to surpass all the world in music, and to have attained such extraordinary skill in his art as to be able to rouse the soul by his sustained and serious melody, and then again relieve and sooth it by his softer strains at his good pleasure. By this skill, when once he sang in Phrygian strains to Alexander, he is said to have roused the king to arms in the middle of a banquet, and then by gentler music to have restored him to his boon companions. [681] So great is the importance, alike in music and in athletics, in view of the object to be attained, of training.... . . . . . . . . . . . To us are held out prizes whereof the marvelous number and splendour are beyond the power of words to tell. Will it be possible for those who are fast asleep, and live a life of indulgence, to seize them without an effort? [682] If so, sloth would have been of great price, and Sardanapalus would have been esteemed especially happy, or even Margites, if you like, who is said by Homer to have neither ploughed nor dug, nor done any useful work,--if indeed Homer wrote this. Is there not rather truth in the saying of Pittacus, [683] who said that "It is hard to be good ?"... . . . . . . . . . . . We must not be the slaves of our bodies, except where we are compelled. Our best provision must be for the soul. We ought by means of philosophy to release her from fellowship with all bodily appetites as we might from a dungeon, and at the same time make our bodies superior to our appetites. We should, for instance, supply our bellies with necessaries, not with dainties like men whose minds are set on cooks and table arrangers, and who search through every land and sea, like the tributaries of some stern despot, much to be pitied for their toil. Such men are really suffering pains as intolerable as the torments of hell, carding into a fire, [684] fetching water in a sieve, pouring into a tub with holes in it, and getting nothing for their pains. To pay more than necessary attention to our hair and dress is, as Diogenes phrases it, the part either of the unfortunate or of the wicked. To be finely dressed, and to have the reputation of being so, is to my mind quite as disgraceful as to play the harlot or to plot against a neighbour's wedlock. What does it matter to a man with any sense, whether he wears a grand state robe, or a common cloak, so long as it serves to keep off heat and cold? In other matters necessity is to be the rule, and the body is only to be so far regarded as is good for the soul." . . . . . . . . . . . Similar precepts are urged, with further references and allusions to Pythagoras, the Corybantes, Solon, Diogenes, Pythius, the rich man who feasted Xerxes on his way to Greece, Pheidias, Bias, Polycletus, Archilochus, and Tithonus. [685] It is suggestive to compare the wealth of literary illustration in this little tract with the severe restrictions which Basil imposes on himself in his homilies for delivery in church, where nothing but Scripture is allowed to appear. In studying the sermons, it might be supposed that Basil read nothing but the Bible. In reading the treatise on heathen authors, but for an incidental allusion to David and Methuselah, it might be supposed that he spent all his spare time over his old school and college authors. (iii) The Panegyrical Homilies are five in number. Homily V. is on Julitta, a lady of Caesarea martyred in 306, and commemorated on July 30. (In the Basilian menology, July 31.) Her property being seized by an iniquitous magistrate, she was refused permission to proceed with a suit for restitution unless she abjured Christianity. On her refusal to do this she was arraigned and burned. She is described as having said that women no less than men were made after the image of God; that women as well as men were made by their Creator capable of manly virtue; that it took bone as well as flesh to make the woman, and that constancy, fortitude, and endurance are as womanly as they are manly. The homily, which recommends patience and cheerfulness in adversity, contains a passage of great beauty upon prayer. "Ought we to pray without ceasing? Is it possible to obey such a command? These are questions which I see you are ready to ask. I will endeavour, to the best of my ability, to defend the charge. Prayer is a petition for good addressed by the pious to God. But we do not rigidly confine our petition to words. Nor yet do we imagine that God requires to be reminded by speech. He knows our needs even though we ask Him not. What do I say then? I say that we must not think to make our prayer complete by syllables. The strength of prayer lies rather in the purpose of our soul and in deeds of virtue reaching every part and moment of our life. `Whether ye eat,' it is said, `or drink, or whatever ye do, do all to the glory of God.' [686] As thou takest thy seat at table, pray. As thou liftest the loaf, offer thanks to the Giver. When thou sustainest thy bodily weakness with wine, remember Him Who supplies thee with this gift, to make thy heart glad and to comfort thy infirmity. Has thy need for taking food passed away? Let not the thought of thy Benefactor pass away too. As thou art putting on thy tunic, thank the Giver of it. As thou wrappest thy cloak about thee, feel yet greater love to God, Who alike in summer and in winter has given us coverings convenient for us, at once to preserve our life, and to cover what is unseemly. Is the day done? Give thanks to Him Who has given us the sun for our daily work, and has provided for us a fire to light up the night, and to serve the rest of the needs of life. Let night give the other occasions of prayer. When thou lookest up to heaven and gazest at the beauty of the stars, pray to the Lord of the visible world; pray to God the Arch-artificer of the universe, Who in wisdom hath made them all. When thou seest all nature sunk in sleep, then again worship Him Who gives us even against our wills release from the continuous strain of toil, and by a short refreshment restores us once again to the vigour of our strength. Let not night herself be all, as it were, the special and peculiar property of sleep. Let not half thy life be useless through the senselessness of slumber. Divide the time of night between sleep and prayer. Nay, let thy slumbers be themselves experiences in piety; for it is only natural that our sleeping dreams should be for the most part echoes of the anxieties of the day. As have been our conduct and pursuits, so will inevitably be our dreams. Thus wilt thought pray without ceasing; if thought prayest not only in words, but unitest thyself to God through all the course of life and so thy life be made one ceaseless and uninterrupted prayer." Barlaam, the subject of Homily XVII., [687] was martyred under Diocletian, either at Antioch or at Caesarea. The ingenuity of his tormentors conceived the idea of compelling him to fling the pinch of incense to the gods by putting it, while burning, into his hand, and forcing him to hold it over the altar. The fire fought with the right hand, and the fire proved the weaker. The fire burned through the hand, but the hand was firm. The martyr might say, "Thou hast holden me by my right hand. Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory." [688] The homily concludes with an apostrophe to the painters of such scenes. "Up, I charge you, ye famous painters of the martyrs' struggles! Adorn by your art the mutilated figure of this officer of our army! I have made but a sorry picture of the crowned hero. Use all your skill and all your colours in his honour." This was taken at the second Council of Nicaea as proof of an actual painting. [689] Homily XVIII. is on the martyr Gordius, who was a native of Caesarea, and was degraded from his rank of centurion when Licinius removed Christians from the army. Gordius retired into the wilderness, and led the life of an anchorite. One day there was a great festival at Caesarea in honour of Mars. There were to be races in the theatre, and thither the whole population trooped. Not a Jew, not a heathen, was wanting. No small company of Christians had joined the crowd, men of careless life, sitting in the assembly of folly, and not shunning the counsel of the evil-doers, to see the speed of the horses and the skill of the charioteers. Masters had given their slaves a holiday. Even boys ran from their schools to the show. There was a multitude of common women of the lower ranks. The stadium was packed, and every one was gazing intently on the races. Then that noble man, great of heart and great of courage, came down from the uplands into the theatre. He took no thought of the mob. He did not heed how many hostile hands he met....In a moment the whole theatre turned to stare at the extraordinary sight. The man looked wild and savage. From his long sojourn in the mountains his head was squalid, his beard long, his dress filthy. His body was like a skeleton. He carried a stick and a wallet. Yet there was a certain grace about him, shining from the unseen all around him. He was recognised. A great shout arose. Those who shared his faith clapped for joy, but the enemies of the truth urged the magistrate to put in force the penalty he had incurred, and condemned him beforehand to die. Then an universal shouting arose all round. Nobody looked at the horses--nobody at the charioteers. The exhibition of the chariots was mere idle noise. Not an eye but was wholly occupied with looking at Gordius, not an ear wanted to hear anything but his words. Then a confused murmur, running like a wind through all the theatre, sounded above the din of the course. Heralds were told to proclaim silence. The pipes were hushed, and all the band stopped in a moment. Gordius was being listened to; Gordius was the centre of all eyes, and in a moment he was dragged before the magistrate who presided over the games. With a mild and gentle voice the magistrate asked him his name, and whence he came. He told his country, his family, the rank he had held, the reason for his flight, and his return. "Here I am," he cried; "ready to testify by creed to the contempt in which I hold your orders, and my faith in the God in whom I have trusted. For I have heard that you are inferior to few in cruelty. This is why I have chosen this time in order to carry out my wishes." With these words he kindled the wrath of the governor like a fire, and roused all his fury against himself. The order was given, "Call the lictors; where are the plates of lead? Where are the scourges? Let him be stretched upon a wheel; let him be wrenched upon the rack; let the instruments of torture be brought in; make ready the beasts, the fire, the sword, the cross. What a good thing for the villain that he can die only once!" [690] "Nay," replied Gordius. "What a bad thing for me that I cannot die for Christ again and again!"... . . . . . . . . . . . All the town crowded to the spot where the martyrdom was to be consummated. Gordius uttered his last words. Death is the common lot of man. As we must all die, let us through death win life. Make the necessary voluntary. Exchange the earthly for the heavenly. He then crossed himself, he stepped forward for the fatal blow, without changing colour or losing his cheerful mien. It seemed as though he were not going to meet an executioner, but to yield himself into the hands of angels. [691] Homily XIX. is on the Forty Soldier Martyrs of Sebaste, who were ordered by the officers of Licinius, a.d. 320, to offer sacrifice to the heathen idols, and, at their refusal, were plunged for a whole night into a frozen pond in the city, in sight of a hot bath on the brink. One man's faith and fortitude failed him. He rushed to the relief of the shore, plunged into the hot water, and died on the spot. One of the executioners had stood warming himself and watching the strange scene. He had seemed to see angels coming down from heaven and distributing gifts to all the band but one. When the sacred number of forty was for the moment broken the officer flung off his clothes, and sprang into the freezing pond with the cry, "I am a Christian." Judas departed. Matthias took his place.... . . . . . . . . . . . What trouble wouldst thou not have taken to find one to pray for thee to the Lord! Here are forty, praying with one voice. Where two or three are gathered together in the name of the Lord, there is He in the midst. Who doubts His presence in the midst of forty? The afflicted flees to the Forty; the joyous hurries to them; the former, that he may find relief from his troubles; the latter, that his blessings may be preserved. Here a pious woman is found beseeching for her children; she begs for the return of her absent husband, or for his health if he be sick. Let your supplications be made with the martyrs. Let young men imitate their fellows. Let fathers pray to be fathers of like sons. Let mothers learn from a good mother. The mother of one of these saints saw the rest overcome by the cold, and her son, from his strength or his constancy, yet alive. The executioners had left him, on the chance of his having changed his mind. She herself lifted him in her arms, and placed him on the car in which the rest were being drawn to the pyre, a veritable martyr's mother. [692] The last of the Panegyrical Homilies (XXIII.) is on Saint Mamas, commemorated on September 2 by the Greeks, and on August 17 by the Latins. He is said to have been a shepherd martyred at Caesarea in 274 in the persecution of Aurelian. Sozomen (v. 2) relates that when the young princes Julian and Gallus were at the castle of Macellum [693] they were engaged in building a church in the martyr's honour, and that Julian's share in the work never prospered. [694] The homily narrates no details concerning the saint, and none seem to be known. It does contain a more direct mention of a practice of invocation. There is a charge to all who have enjoyed the martyr in dreams to remember him; to all who have met with him in the church, and have found him a helper in their prayers; to all those whom he has aided in their doings, when called on by name. [695] The conclusion contains a summary of the Catholic doctrine concerning the Son. "You have been told before, and now you are being told again, `In the beginning was the Word,' [696] to prevent your supposing that the Son was a being generated after the manner of men, [697] from His having come forth out of the non-existent. `Word' is said to you, because of His impassibility. `Was' is said because of His being beyond time. He says `beginning' to conjoin the Begotten with His Father. You have seen how the obedient sheep hears a master's voice. `In the beginning,' and `was,' and `Word.' Do not go on to say, `How was He?' and `If He was, He was not begotten;' and `If He was begotten, He was not.' It is not a sheep who says these things. The skin is a sheep's; but the speaker within is a wolf. Let him be recognised as an enemy. `My sheep hear my voice.' [698] You have heard the Son. Understand His likeness to His Father. I say likeness because of the weakness of the stronger bodies: In truth, and I am not afraid of approaching the truth, I am no ready deceiver: I say identity, always preserving the distinct existence of Son and Father. In the hypostasis of Son understand the Father's Form, that you may hold the exact doctrine of this Image,--that you may understand consistently with true religion the words, `I am in the Father and the Father in me.' [699] Understand not confusion of essences, but identity of characters." __________________________________________________________________ [574] LXX, proseche seauto. [575] akoimeton. On the later existence of an order of sleepless monks, known as the Acoemetae. cf. Theodoret, Ep. cxli. p. 309, in this series, and note. [576] Ecclus. ix. 13. [577] Prov. v. 5, LXX. [578] dorkas, from derkomai,=seer. So Tabitha (Syr.)=keen-sighted. [579] S: 6. [580] S: 3. [581] Hos. x. 12. [582] Prov. ii. 1. [583] Ps. cxii. 9. [584] Prov. xi. 26. [585] S: 8. [586] Matt. xxv. 34. [587] Matt. xxv. 41. With the variation of "outer darkness" for "everlasting fire" and the omission of the clause about strangers. In this passage, it is not a robber who is accused; the condemnation falls upon him who has not shared what he has. [588] S: 4. [589] Is. xiv. 7. [590] Micah i. 12. [591] Amos iii. 6. [592] Deut. xxxii. 39. [593] Ps. li. 10. [594] demiourgeson. [595] cf. Eph. ii. 14. [596] 2 Cor. v. 17. [597] Deut. xxxii. 6, LXX. [598] 2 Cor. iv. 16. [599] Prov. xxiii. 14. [600] S: 3. [601] Prov. i. [602] paroimia is defined by Hesychius the Alexandrian grammarian, who was nearly contemporary with Basil, as a biopheles logos, para ten hodon legomenos. [603] John xvi. 25. [604] epiteteugmenos theologei. [605] S: 6. [606] heton mathematon analepsis taideia legetai. [607] epaideuthe. [608] Acts vii. 22. [609] soteria. [610] meteorologia. The word had already been used by Plato in a certain contemptuous sense. cf. Pal. 299 B.: meteorologon adoleschen tina sophisten. But not always, e.g. Crat. 401, B.: koduneuousi goun hoi protoi ta onomata tithemenoi ou phauloi einai, alla meteorologoi tines kai adoleschai. [611] Gregory of Nazianzus was publishing verses which formed no unworthy early link in the Catena Poetarum Christianorum, in our sense of the word poet. Basil may have in his mind the general idea that the Poetics of the heathen schools were all concerned with mythical inventions. [612] Ps. xxiii. 1. [613] cf. Ps. cxxxii. 4. [614] Ps. cxix. 105. [615] There are instances of high admiration of the passage: I have not found one of appropriation. Augustine (De Civ. Dei x. 29), says: "Quod initium Sancti Evangelii, cui nomen est secundum Johannem, quidam Platonicus, sicut a sancto sene Simpliciano, qui postea ecclesiae Mediolanensi praesedit episcopus, solebamus audire, aureis litteris conscribendum et per omnes ecclesias in locis eminentissimis proponendum esse dicebat." Eusebius (Praep. Evang. xi. 17 and 18) refers to the Statements of Plotinus and Numerius on the deuteros aitios, and (19) mentions Aurelius (on Aurelius vide Mosheim's note on Cudworth's Int. System, vol. i. cap. iv. 17), as quoting the passage in question. Vide also Theodoret, Graec. Aff. 33, and Bentley's Remarks on Freethinking, S: xlvi. [616] Prov. i. 7. [617] pros ton Theon. [618] cf. ccx. p. 249. [619] John iv. 24. [620] Rom. viii. 9 and 10. [621] 1 Cor. vi. 19. [622] August. in Julian. i. 18. [623] S: 3. [624] Gen. iii. 17. [625] S: 10. [626] Is. lviii. 6. [627] Is. lviii. 4. [628] Is. li. 21. [629] cf. John xiv. 23. [630] The sermon seems to have been preached at the beginning of Lent, when Caesarea was still suffering from Carnival indulgences. Homily II. may be placed at a similar season in another year. [631] S: 4. [632] A precious, red-streaked marble was quarried in Phrygia. The Spartan or Taenarian was the kind known as verde antico. cf. Bekker, Gallus. p. 16, n. The taste for the "Phrygian stone" was an old one. cf. Hor., Carm. III. i. 41. [633] The Cappadocian winters were severe. cf. Ep. cxxi., cxcviii., cccxlix. [634] huakinthous. See L. and S., s.v., and King's Antique Gems, 46. [635] i.e. she must have ornaments of wrought gold and stuff embroidered with gold. [636] cf. Hexaemeron, p. 94. [637] p. xxi. [638] S: 3. [639] Jurgia proludunt; sed mox et pocula torques Saucius, et rubra deterges vulnera mappa. Juv., Sat. v. 26. [640] S: 6. [641] Ecc. iv. 4. [642] S: 5. [643] In Julian. vi. [644] Orat. ii. [645] Conc. v. p. 668. [646] S: 5. [647] S: 6. [648] Acts viii. 27. [649] cf. Letterclxix. and observations in Prolegomena, p. xxix. [650] Ps. cxv. 5. [651] 1 Ep. lxi. [652] De Eb. et Jejunio. c. 18. [653] 1 Cor. i. 30, 31. [654] S: 7. [655] Here several touches remind us of Theophrastus. cf. Char. xxiii. and xxiv. [656] Ceillier, VI. viii. 2. [657] S: 9. [658] It has often been separately published. In 1600 it was included by Martin Haynoccius in an Enchiridion Ethicum, containing also Plutarch's two tracts on the education of boys and the study of the poets, with which it is interesting to compare it. Grotius published it with Plutarch's De Legendis Poetis at Paris in 1623. They were also published together by Archbishop Potter at Oxford in 1691. [659] S: 2. [660] tou ontos. The highest heathen philosophy strove to reach the neuter to on. The revelation of Jehovah is of the masculine ho on, who communicates with his creatures, and says ego eimi. [661] Hom., Od. xii. 158. cf. Letter i. p. 109. [662] This shews that the shameless and cruel exhibitions of earlier days had not died out even in the fourth century. cf. Suetonius, Nero xi., xii., Tertullian, Apol. 15. On the whole subject, see Bp. Lightfoot's note on St. Clem. Rom., Ep. ad Cor. vi., where Danaides kai Dirkai is probably a misreading for neanides paidiskai. He refers for illustrations to Friedlaender, Sittengeschichte Roms, ii. 234. [663] Od. vi. 135 k.t.l. [664] These lines are attributed to Solon by Plutarch, in the tract pos an tis hup' echthron opheloito, but they occur among the elegiac "gnomae" of Theognis, lines 316-318. Fronton du Duc in his notes on the Homilies points out that they are also quoted in Plutarch's life of Solon. Basil was well acquainted with Plutarch. (cf. references in the notes to the Hexaemeron.) [665] The lines are: Zeus gar toi to talanton epirrepei allote allos ,'Allote men ploutein, allote d' ouden echeo. Theog. 157. [666] The story of The Choice of Hercules used to be called, from Prodicus (of Ceos, not Chios) Hercules Prodicius. Suidas says that the title of the work quoted was Orai. The allegory is given at length in Xenophon's Memorabilia (II. i. 21) in Dion Chrysostom's Regnum, and in Cicero (De Officiis i. 32), who refers to Xenophon. It is imitated in the Somnium of Lucian. [667] cf. Hom., Od. x. 494, where it is said of Teiresias: To kai tethneoti noon pore Persephoneia, Oi& 251; pepnusthai; toi de skiai a& 188;ssousi. [668] Eur. Hippolytus, 612: he gloss' omomoch' he de phren anomotos, the famous line which Aristophanes made fun of in Thesmophoriazusae, 275. [669] Fronton du Duc notes that Basil has taken this allusion to Plato from Plutarch's tract, How to distinguish between Flatterer and Friend, p. 50: hosgar ho Platon phesin eschates adikias einai dokein dikaion me onta. [670] Plut. Pericles. [671] Plut., De Ira Cohibenda, where the story is told of a brother. The aggressor says apoloimen ei me se timoresaimen. The rejoinder is ego de apoloimen ei me se peisaimi. [672] epoiei in Greek will of course stand for "made it," like our "hoc fecit," or "did it." Du Duc gives authority for the use of the Imp. from Politian. [673] tois hemeterois. [674] cf. Plutarch, Alex. and Arrian. II. xii. [675] Clinias was a contemporary of Plato (Diog. Laert. ix. 40). [676] St. Basil can hardly imagine that Clinias lived after Christ; yet Old Testament prohibitions are against false swearing only. Possibly the third commandment and such a passage as Lev. xix. 12, may have been in his mind. If Clinias had lived some half a millennium later there seems no reason why he should not have saved himself three talents by using the words of the Apostle in 2 Cor. xi. 31. [677] i.e. wrestling and boxing together. [678] Paus. VI. v. cf. Pers., Sat. i. 4. [679] Paus. VI. xiv. [680] Marsyas, the unhappy rival of Apollo, was said to be a native of Celaenae in Phrygia. Olympus was a pupil of Marsyas (Schol. in Aristoph. Eq. 9). By Plutarch (Mus. xi.) he is called archegos tes ;;Ellenikes kai kales mousikes. cf. Arist., Pol. VIII. v. 16. [681] cf. Cic., Legg. ii. 15, Plutarch, De Mus. There are two Timothei of musical fame, one anterior to Alexander. It will be remembered that in Dryden's Alexander's Feast "the king seized a flambeau with zeal to destroy," after the "Lydian measure" had "soothed his soul to pleasures." [682] Lit., who sleep with both ears, to seize with one hand (idiom for sleeping soundly. cf. Aul. Gell. ii. 23, who quotes ep' amphoteran katheudein from Menander). [683] Of Mitylene, cf. Arist., Pol. III. xiv. 9, and Diog. Laert. I. iv., who mentions Simonides' quotation of the maxim of the text ,'Andra agathon alatheos genesthai chalepon, to Pittakeion. [684] eis pur xainontes, i.e. labouring in vain. cf. Plat., Legg. 780 c. The ordinary rendering to "flog fire," adopted by Erasmus (Adag. Chil. i., Centur. iv.), seems wrong. cf. Bekker on the phrase in Plato. [685] Herod. vii. 21. [686] 1 Cor. x. 31. [687] Supposed by some to be not Basil's, but Chrysostom's. cf. Ceillier, iv. p. 53. [688] Ps. lxxiii. 23, 24. [689] Labbe vii. 272. cf. Chrys. Hom. lxxiii. [690] alla gar hoia kerdainei, phesin, hapax monon apothneskon. Garnier seems to have completely missed the force of this exclamation in the explanation in a note, "Judex hoc dicere volebat, quem fructum referet ex sua pertinacia, si semel mortuus fuerit; neque enim in hanc vitam rursus redibit, ejus ut gaudiis perfruatur, neque tamen ulla alia vita est." [691] For the tortures and modes of execution enumerated, Du Duc compares Aristoph., Pax. 452, Chrysost., De Luciano Martyre, and Nicephorus vi. 14. [692] The name of this youngest of the Forty is given as Melito (D.C.B. s.v.). They are commemorated on March 9 in the Roman Kalendar of Gregory XIII. and the Menology of Basil; on March 10 in the Roman Mart. of Bened. XIV.; on the 11th in the old Roman Kal., and on March 16 in the Armenian. The legend of the discovery of some of their relics is given in Sozomen ix. 2. Others were obtained for the church built in their honour at Annesi. (cf. p. xiv.) Two doctrinal points come out in this homily, (a) The officer who took the place of Melito is said to have been baptized, not in water but in his own blood (S: 7). Here is martyrdom represented as the equivalent of baptism. (b) The stage arrived at in the progress of Christian sentiment towards the invocation of departed saints is indicated. Garnier, the Jesuit, writes in the margin of the passage quoted above, Invocantur martyres; and Ceillier notes, Il reconnait que les prieres des martyrs peuvent beaucoup nous aider aupres de Dieu. But in this particular passage the idea of "fleeing to the Forty" seems to be not fleeing to them to ask for their prayers, but fleeing to the shrine to pray in company with them. It is rather the fellowship than the intercession of the saints which is sought. meta marturon gignestho ta aitemata humon. Let your requests be made not to but with the martyrs. In the Homily on St. Mamas, the next in order, the expressions are less equivocal. At the same time it must be remarked that with St. Basil the invocation and the intercession are local. In the De Sp. Scto. (chap. xxiii. p. 34) a significant contrast is drawn between the ubiquity of the Holy Ghost and the limited and local action of angels. And if of angels, so of saints. The saints who have departed this life are thought of as accessible at the shrines where their relics rest, but, if we apply the analogy of the De Sp. Scto., not everywhere. It has been said that this is the period when requests for the prayers of the holy dead begin to appear, and Archbishop Ussher (Address to a Jesuit, chap. ix.) cites Gregory of Nazianzus for the earliest instance within his knowledge of a plain invocation of the departed. But, as bishop Harold Browne points out, his invocation is rather rhetorical than supplicatory. Gregory "had even a pious persuasion that they still continued as much as ever to aid with their prayers those for whom they had been wont to pray on earth (Orat. xxiv. p. 425). And he ventures to think if it be not too bold to say so (ei me tolueron touto eipein), that the saints, being nearer to God and having put off the fetters of the flesh, have more avail with Him than when on earth (Orat. xix. p. 228). In all these he does not appear to have gone further than some who preceded him, nor is there anything in such speculations beyond what might be consistent with the most Protestant abhorrence of saint worship and Mariolatry" (Bp. Harold Browne in Art. xxii.). Romish authorities in support of a yet earlier development, point to Irenaeus (Adv. Haer. v. 19), wherein a highly rhetorical passage the Virgin Mary is said to have become the "advocate" of the Virgin Eve, and to Origen, who "invoked" his guardian angel (Hom. i. in Ezek. 7). The later mediaeval invocation Bp. Jeremy Taylor (vol. vi. Eden's ed. p. 489) ingeniously shews to be of a piece rather with early heresy than with early Catholicity: "It pretends to know their present state, which is hid from our eyes; and it proceeds upon the very reason upon which the Gnostics and Valentinians went; that is, that it is fit to have mediators between God and us; that we may present our prayers to them, and they to God. To which add that the Church of Rome presenting candles and other donaries to the Virgin Mary as to the Queen of heaven, do that which the Collyridians did (Epiphan. Haer. lxxix. vol. i. p. 1057). The gift is only differing, as candle and cake, gold and garments, this vow or that vow." [693] cf. p. xv., n. [694] cf. Greg. Naz., Or. iv. S: 25. [695] hosois, onomati, kletheis, epi ton ergon pareste. On the reverence for relics cf. Letters cxcvii., cclii., and cclvii. [696] John i. 1. [697] gennema anthropinon. [698] cf. John x. 16. [699] John xiv. 10. cf. De Sp. Scto. S: 45, p. 28. __________________________________________________________________ V.--Letters. Under this head I will add nothing to the notes, however inadequate, appended to the text. __________________________________________________________________ VI.--Liturgical. It is beyond the scope of the present work to discuss at length the history and relation of the extant Liturgies, which go by the name of St. Basil. St. Basil's precise share in their composition, as we possess them, must be conjectural. (i) The Liturgy, which St. Basil himself used and gave to his clergy and monks, preserved the traditional form in use in the archdiocese of Caesarea. [700] It is mentioned in the xxxii^nd canon of the council "in Trullo" of 692. This is no doubt the basis of the Greek Liturgy known as St. Basil's, and used in the East as well as the Liturgy of St. Chrysostom. The form in use is contained in Neale's Primitive Liturgies (1875). Dr. Swainson (Greek Liturgies chiefly from Oriental Sources, p. 75) printed an edition of it from the Barberini ms. in 1884. (ii) There is an Alexandrine Liturgy in Coptic, Arabic, and Greek form, called St. Basil's, and used on fast days by the Monophysites (Renaudot, Lit. Orient. Collectio, i. 154). This differs entirely from the first named. (iii) Yet again there is a Syriac Liturgy called St. Basil's, translated by Masius, and given by Renaudot in his second volume. [701] __________________________________________________________________ [700] cf. De Sp. Scto. chap. xxvii. p. 41. [701] cf. Dict. Christ. Ant. s.v. "Liturgy," and C. Hole, Manual of the Book of Common Prayer, chap. ii. Fessler notes: "Extat Liturgia S. Basilii tam fusior quam brevior gr. et lat. in Eucholog. Gr. ed. J. Goar Venetiis 1730 et alia gr. et lat. in E. Renaudot Coll. Lit. Or. Paris, 1716, item alia latine tantum conversa ex Coptico Jacobitarum in eadem collect, ac rursus alia latine tantum ex Syriaco conversa....De formae varietate haec optime monet Renaudot: `Liturgia illa, quod extra dubium est, usurpatur in Graeca ecclesia ab annis plus mille ducentis; atque inde originem habuerunt leves aliquot discrepantiae in precibus praeparatoriis aut in aliis orationibus. Quaedam exemplaria caeremoniales rubricas habent, quae in aliis non reperiuntur; at alicujus momenti discrimen in illis partibus quae canonem sacrae Actionis constituunt, non reperitur....Varietates in codicibus omnes prope ad ritus spectant, qui enucleatius in aliquibus, in aliis brevius explicantur, in nonnullis omittuntur, quia aliunde peti debebant.' Eo autem sensu Liturgiae hujus auctor dicitur Basilius, non quod proprio ingenio eam excogitaverit, sed quod preces publicas, eisque contiguos ritus, quoad rei essentiam ex communi traditionis Apostolicae fonte manantes, ordinaverit et in scriptis codicibus ad certam formam redegerit." __________________________________________________________________ VII.--Writings Spurious and Dubious. Under this head will be ranked besides writings objections against which have been already noticed: 1. Constitutiones monasticae ('Asketikai diataxeis), in number thirty-four. 2. Poenae in monachos delinquentes, and Poenae in Canonicas (epitimia). 3. Libri duo de Baptismo. 4. Sermones duo ascetici. 5. Various Homilies: a. Adversus Calumniatores SS. Trinitatis, b. Altera de Sp. Scto., c. In Sanctam Christi Generationem, d. De Libero Arbitrio, e. In aliquot Scripturae locis, dicta in Lacizis. f. III. De Jejunio. g. De Poenitentia. 6. A book On True Virginity. 7. A treatise On consolation in adversity. 8. A treatise De laude solitariae vitae. 9. Admonitio ad filum spiritualem (extant only in Latin). 10. Sermones de moribus XXIV. (ethikoi logoi), a cento of extracts made by Simeon Metaphrastes. __________________________________________________________________ VIII.--Writings Mentioned, But Lost. A book against the Manichaeans (Augustine, c. Julian. i. 16-17). Tillemont (Art. cxlv. p. 303) mentions authors in which lost fragments of St. Basil are to be found, and (Art. cxxxvii. p. 290) refers to the lost Commentary on the Book of Job. __________________________________________________________________ IX.--Additional Notes on Some Points in St. Basil's Doctrinal and Ecclesiastical Position. It has been claimed with reason that the doctrinal standpoint of St. Basil is identical with that of the English Church, with the one exception of the veneration of relics and the invocation of saints. [702] In confirmation of this view, the following points may be noted: 1. The Holy Eucharist. The remarkable passage on the spiritual manducation of the elements in Letter VIII. is commented on on p. 118. His custom as to frequent communion and his opinion as to the reserved sacrament are remarked on on p. 179. A significant passage is to be found in the Moralia, Rule XXI., that participation in the Body and Blood of Christ is necessary to eternal life. John vi. 54, is then quoted. That no benefit is derived by him who comes to communion without consideration of the method whereby participation of the Body and Blood of Christ is given; and that he who receives unworthily is condemned. On this John vi. 54 and 62, and 1 Cor. xiii. 27, are quoted. By what method (poi& 251; logo) we must eat the Body and drink the Blood of the Lord, in remembrance of the Lord's obedience unto death, that they who live may no longer live unto themselves, but to Him who died and rose again for them. In answer, the quotations are Luke xxii. 29, 1 Cor. xi. 23, 2 Cor. v. 14, and 1 Cor. x. 16. 2. Mariolatry. Even Letter CCCLX., which bears obvious marks of spuriousness, and of proceeding from a later age, does not go beyond a recognition of the Blessed Virgin as Theotokos, in which the Catholic Church is agreed, and a general invocation of apostles, prophets, and martyrs, the Virgin not being set above these. The argument of Letter CCLXI. (p. 300) that "if the Godbearing flesh was not ordained to be assumed of the lump of Adam, what need was there of the Blessed Virgin?" seems quite inconsistent with the modern doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. Of any cultus of the Virgin, St. Basil's writings shew no trace. 3. Relations to the Roman Church. In order to say something under this head, Ceillier, the Benedictine, is driven to such straits as to quote the application of the term "Coryphaeus" to Damasus in Letter CCXXXIX. Certainly St. Basil saw no reason to congratulate the Westerns on their "Coryphaeus," so far as intelligent interest in the East was involved. Fialon [703] sees the position more clearly, so far as Basil is concerned, though he assumes the Councils to have given more authority to the patriarch of the ancient capital than was in fact conceded. "Si Basile ne va pas, comme la majorite du Concile de Constantinople, jusqu'`a traiter l'Occident comne etranger; s'il ne pretend pas que 1'empire appartienne `a l'Orient, parce que l'Orient voit naitre le Soleil, et que c'est en Orient que Dieu brilla dans une enveloppe charnelle, [704] ne voudrait il pas, dans l'ordre religieux, l'union independante, qui, depuis Constantin, rattache, dans l'ordre politique, ces deux parties du monde Romain? A ses yeux l'Orient et l'Occident ne sont ils pas deux freres, dont les droit sont egaux, sans suprematie, sans ainesse?" In truth Basil appealed to Damasus as Theodoret to Leo, and as Chrysostom to Innocent, not as vassal to liege lord, but as brother to brother. In Basil's case, even the brotherhood was barely recognised, if recognised at all, by the western prelate. __________________________________________________________________ [702] cf. Dr. Travers Smith, St. Basil, p. 125. [703] Etude Hist. p. 133. [704] Xenon gar estin, hos horo, nun he dusis, Kai ton logismon, hos epainetos skopei, Dein gar sunallesthai heli& 251; ta pragmata, Enteuthen archen lambanont' hothen Theos ,'Elampsen hemin sarkiko problemati. Greg. Naz., Carm. __________________________________________________________________ X.--Editions and Manuscripts. Among the chief editions and mss. the following may be mentioned: The Editio Princeps of the complete extant works of Basil in the original Greek is that which Froben published for Janus Cornarius at Bale in 1551. But Froben had already published in 1532, under the editorship of Erasmus, an edition containing the De Spiritu Sancto, the Hexaemeron, the Homilies on the Psalms, twenty-nine different Homilies and some Letters. A Venetian edition, published by Fabius in 1535, comprised the Moralia, as well as the dubious book on Virginity, three books against Eunomius, and the tract against the Sabellians, Arians, and Anomoeans. The Greek editions had been preceded by a Latin version at Rome, by Raphael Volaterranus in 1515, of which the autograph manuscript is in the British Museum, and by another at Paris in 1525, and by a third Latin edition issued at Cologne in 1531. These were followed by other editions printed at Paris, Antwerp, and Cologne. In 1618 Fronton du Duc, commonly known as Ducaeus, published, in conjunction with Frederic Morel, an edition in two folio volumes containing a Latin version as well as the Greek. The edition of the French Dominican Father Francis Combefis, was published shortly after his death in 1679. The most important step in the direction of accuracy and completeness was taken by Julian Garnier, a Benedictine Father of the Congregation of St. Maur. He revised and corrected the Greek text of earlier editions on the authority of a number of manuscripts in Paris, Italy, and England, and issued the first of his three folio volumes at Paris, at the press of John Baptist Coignard, in 1721. The third volume did not appear till 1730, five years after Garnier's death. In the meanwhile the editorial work had been taken up by Prudent Maran, another Benedictine, to whom are due a careful and voluminous biographical notice, many notes, and a chronological arrangement of the Letters. This was reissued in three 4DEG volumes in Paris in 1889, and is the basis of the edition published, with additions, by the Abbe Jacques Paul Migne, in the Patrologia Graeca, in 1857. An important edition of a separate work is the revised text, with notes and introduction, of the De Spiritu Sancto, by the Rev. C. F. H. Johnston, published at the Clarendon Press in 1892. German translations were published by Count Schweikhard at Ingolstadt in 1591 (Ceillier VI. viii. 8), and by J. von Wendel at Vienna in 1776-78. There have also been issued Basilius des Grossen auserlesenes Homilien, uebersetzt und mit Ammerkungen versehen von J. G. Krabinger, Landshut, 1839, and Auserlesene Schriften, uebersetzt von Groene, Kempten, 1875. Homilies and Orations were published in Italian in 1711 by Gio. Maria Lucchini. Omelie Scelte, translated by A. M. Ricci, were published in Florence in 1732. Many important extracts are translated into French in the Historie Generale des Auteurs Sacres of the Benedictine Remy Ceillier (Paris, 1737). E. Fialon, in his Et. Hist. (1869) has translated the Eexj3meron; and in 1889 the Panegyrique due Martyr Gordius was published in French by J. Genouille. A complete account of the bibliography of St. Basil is given in the Notitia ex Bibliotheca Fabricii (Ed. Harles, tom. ix. 1804), in Migne's ed. vol. i., Prolegomena p. ccxli. In 1888 a translation of the De Spiritu Sancto, by G. Lewis, was included in the Christian Classic Series. Of all the smaller works a great popularity, as far as popularity can be gauged by the number of editions and translations, has belonged to the Advice to the Young and the Homily on the Forty Martyrs. The mss. collated by the Ben. Edd. for their edition of the De Spiritu Sancto are five entitled Regii, and a sixth known as Colbertinus, now in the national library at Paris. The Ben. Regius Secundus (2293) is described by Omont (Inventaire Sommaire des mss. Grecs) as of the Xth c., the Colbertinus (4529) and the Regius Tertius(2893) as of the XI^th c., and the Regius Primus (2286), Regius Quartus (2896), Regius Quintus(3430) as of the XIV^th c. For his edition, Mr. C. F. H. Johnston also collated or had collated 22,509 Add. mss., Xth c., in the British Museum; codd. Misc. xxxvii., XI^th c., in the Bodleian Library at Oxford; Cod. Theol. 142, XII^th c., in the Imperial Library at Vienna; Cod. Theol. 18, XIV^th c., also at Vienna; Cod. xxiii, XI^th c., in the Library of the Holy Synod at Moscow; 500 (Reg. 1824, 3) G, XI^th c., at Paris; Cod. lviii., Xth c., at St. Mark's, Venice; Cod. lxvi., XII^th c., also at St. Mark's, Venice; Codd. Regin. Suaecor. 35, XIV^th c., in the Vatican at Rome. For the Hexaemeron the Ben. Edd. used eight mss. styled Regii, and numbered respectively 1824, 2286 (originally in the collection of Henry II. at Fontainebleau, the Regius Primus of the enumeration for the De Spiritu Sancto, but the Secundus for that of the Hexaemeron), 2287 (1DEG), 2287 (2DEG), 2349, 2892, 2896 (the Regius Quartus of the De Spiritu Sancto), and 2989, two mss. entitled Colbertinus, 3069 and 4721, two Coistiniani, 229, IX^th c., and 235; and a ms. in the Bodleian, "a doctissimo viro Joanne Wolf collatus." The sources of the Ben. Ed. of the Letters were Coislinianus 237, XI^th c., a Codex Harlaeanus of the Xth or XI^th c., and a Codex Medicaeus, Codex Regius 2293, Codex Regius 2897, Codex Regius 2896, Codex Regius 2502, Codex Regius 1824, Codex Regius 1906, and Codex Regius 1908. ------------------------ The following mss. of St. Basil are in the library of the Bodleian at Oxford: Homiliae et Epistolae. Codex membranaceus, in 4to majori ff. 250, sec. xii. Epistola ad Optimum, episcopum, in septem ultiones. Cain. fol. iii. Epistola ad virginem lapsam, fol. 211b. Ejusdem Basilii epistola ad monachum lapsum, fol. 215b. Epistolae canonicae. Barocciani. xxvi. 285b (i.e. pt. 1, p. 36). Codex membranaceus, in 4to minori, ff. 370, sec. xi. fol. 285b. Epist canon. Baroc. xxxvi. 121 (i.e. pt. 1, p. 147). Codex membranaceus, in 40 minori, ff. 12 et 161, sec. xii. exeuntis. Ejusdem epistolae canonicae tertiae prologus, fol. 125b. CLVIII. 202 (i.e. pt. 1, p. 268). Codex chartaceus, in 4to majori, ff. 374, sec. xv. S. Basilii ad Amphilochium, Iconii episcopum, et alias epistolae quinque canonicae, fol. 202. CLXXXV. 129b (i.e. pt. 1, p. 307). Membranaceus, in folio, ff. 83 et 312, sec. xi. exeuntis, bene exaratus et servatus. S. Basilii magni epistolae canonicae, cum scholius nonnullis, fol. 129b. Ejusdem epistolae septem aliae, fol. 141. Epist. Canon. Baroc. cxcvi. 184b (i.e. pt. l, p. 336). Membranaceus, in 4to majori, ff. 313, sec. xi. anno scilicet 1043 exaratus. S. Basilii expositio de jejunio quadragesimali, f. 6b. CCV. 400b (i.e. pt. 1, p. 361). Codex chartaceus, in folio, ff. 520, sec. xiv. mutilus et madore corruptus. Dionysii Alexandrini, Petri Alexandrini, Gregorii Thaumaturgi, Athanasii, Basilii, Gregorii Nysseni, Timothei Alexandrini, Theophili Alexandrini, Cyrilli Alexandrini, et Gennadii epistolae encyclicae; interpretatione Balsamonis illustratae, fol. 378b. Epistolae canonicae. Laudiani. xxxix. 200 (i.e. pt. 1, p. 519). Codex membranaceus in 4to maj. ff. 347, sec. forsan. xi. ineuntis, etc. S. Basilii Caesareensis octo, subnexis capitulis duobus ex opere de S. Spiritu, fol. 200. Seld. xlviii. 151 (i.e. pt. 1, p. 611). Codex membranaceus, in 4to ff. 189, sec. xiii. nitide exaratus; quandam monasterii S. Trinitatis apud Chalcem insulam [ol. 3385]. S. Basilii ad Amphilochium, Diodorum et Gregorium canones, fol. 151. Misc. clxx. 181, 263, 284b (i.e. pt. 1, p. 717). Codex membranaceus, in 4to majori, ff. 363, secc. si tabulam sec. xi. excipiamus, xiv. et xv.; initio et fine mutilus. Rawl. Auct. G. 158. S. Basilii, archiep. Caesareensis, ad Amphilochium epistolae tres canonicae, fol. 181. S. Basilii epistolae duae, scilicet, ad chorepiscopos, ad episcopos sibi subjectos, cum excerptis duobus ex capp. xxvii. et xxix. ad Amphilochium de S. Spiritu, fol. 263. S. Basilii epistolae duae, ad Diodorum et ad Gregorium, fol. 284b. Epist. Canon. misc. ccvi. 171 (i.e. pt. 1, p. 763). Codex membranaceus, in folio minori, ff. 242. sec. forsan xi. exeuntis; bene exaratus et servatus. Meerm. Auct. T. 2. 6. S. Basilii, archiep. Caesareensis, ad Amphilochium ep. Icon. epistolae tres canonicae cum scholiis hic illic margini adpositis, fol. 171. Epistolae cccxxxiv. Misc. xxxviii. 1 (i.e. pt. 1, p. 642). Codex chartaceus, in folio, ff. 196, sec. xvi. anno 1547 scriptus [ol. 3091]. Auct. E. 2. 10. S. Basilii epistolae, ut e numeris marginalibus apparet, cccxxxiv. fol. 1. Ult. est ad eundem Eusebium, et exstat in ed. cit. tom. iii. p. 257. Epistola ccxlv. Baroc cxxi. [i.e. pt. 1, p. 199]. Membranaceus, in 4to ff. 226, sec xii. exeuntis, bene exaratus; in calce mutilus. S. Basilii, archiepiscopi Caesareensis, epistolae ad diversos, numero ducentae quadraginta quinque. Epist. clxxvii. Roc. xviii. 314 (i.e. pt. 1, p. 471). Codex chartaceus, in folio, ff. 475 , hodie in duo volumina distinctus, anno 1349 manu Constantini Sapientis binis columnis scriptus; olim ecclesiae S. Trinitatis apud insulam Chalcem [ol. 264]. S. Basilii Caesareensis epistolae circiter centum septuaginta septem, fol. 314. Epistolae variae. Baroc. lvi. 28b et passim (i.e. pt. 1, p. 83). Codex bombycinus, ff. 175, sec. xiv. exeuntis; initio mutilus, et madore corruptus. S. Basilii adversus Eunomium epistola, fol. 28b. Epist. xiii. ad diversos. Baroc. ccxxviii 118b (i.e. pt. 1, p. 393). Membranaceus, in folio, ff. 206, sec. forsan xii. ineuntis; foliis aliquot chartaceis a manu recentiori hic illic suppletis. S. Basilii et Libanii epistolae septem mutuae, f. 126. Ibid. epp. 341, 342, 337-340, 356. Epist. tres. Misc. clxxix. 423 (i.e. pt. 1, p. 724). Codex chartaceus, in folio marjori, ff. 262, sec. xvii.; olim peculium coll. soc. Jesu Clarom. Paris, postea Joh. Meerman. Auct. T. 1. 1. S. Basilii, archiep. Caesareensis, epistola ad Optimum episcopum in illud, pas o apokteinas kain, p. 423. Epistola ad Chilonem. Laud. xvii. 352 (i.e. pt. 1, p. 500). Codex chartaceus, et laevigatus, in 4DEG ff. 358, sec. xv. [ol. 692]. S. Basilii Magni epistola ad Chilonem, fol. 352. Epist. ad Coloneos. Baroc. cxlii. 264b (i.e. pt. 1, p. 242). Codex chartaceus, in 4^o ff. 292, sec. xiv. ineuntis. S. Basilii Magni epistola ad Coloneos, fol. 264b. Ejus et Libanii epistolae. Baroc. xix. 191 (i.e. pt. 1, p. 27). Codex chartaceus in 4^o minori, ff. 200, sec. xv. manibus tamen diversis scriptus. S. Basilii et Libanii sophistae epistolae decem amoeboeae, fol. 19l. Ejus et Libanii epistolae. Baroc. cxxxi. 296 (i.e, pt. 1, p. 211). Codex bombycinus, in 4DEG maj. ff. 4 et 536, sec. xiv. haud eadem manu scriptus; madore aliquantum corruptus. S. Basilii et Libanii epistolae tres mutuae, f. 299b. Epistolae ad Libanium et Modestum. Baroc. ccxvi. 301 (i.e. pt. 1, p. 376). Codex, fragmentis constans pluribus, in 4DEG ff. 379 quorum 43 priora membranacea, caetera chartacea sunt. S. Basilii epistola ad Libanium, fol. 30lb. Ejusdem ad Modestum epistola, imperf. fol. 30lb. Basilii et Libanii epistolae quinque mutuae, fol. 302. Ibid. epp. cccxxxv. seq., cccxlii., ccxli., ccclix. The following mss. of St. Basil are in the British Museum: Harleian Collection: 1801. Codex membranaceus (Newton's arms in spare leaf). Doctrina Beati Basilii. 2580. Liber chartaceus. S. Basilii sermo de parentum honore, Latine redditus per Guarinum. 2678. Codex membranaceus. S. Basilii de institutis juvenum liber ex versione et cum praefatione Leonardi Aretini. 5576. XIVth c. 40 Homilies. 5639. XVth c. Homilies. 5576. XIVth c. Hexaemeron. 5622. XIVth. c. Com. on Isaiah. 5541. XVth c. Ad juvenes. 5609. XVth c. " 5660. XVth c. " 5657. XIVth c. Extracts. 5689. XIIth c. De V. Virg. 5624. XIVth c. Ep. ad Greg. Frat. 6827. XVIIth c. Epp. 3651. XVth c. De Cons. in Adv. 4987. XVth c. Admon. Burney Collection: 70. XVth c. Ad juvenes. 75. XVth c. Epp. ad Liban. Additional: 22509. Vellum curs. Xth c. De Sp. Scto. 34060. XVth c. The doubtful work De Sp. Scto. 14066. XIIth c. Homilies. 34060. XVth c. Against Drunkards. 25881. XVIth c. The Forty Martyrs. 10014. XVIIth c. Ad juvenes. 10069. XIIth c. Reg. fus. tract. 9347. XIVth c. Ascetic. 18492. XVIth c. De Frugalitate. 17474. XVth c. Epp. can. 23771. c. 1500. Sermones Tractatus. Autograph of Raph. Volterrano (translation). Arundel: 535. XIVth c. Excerp. ex adv. Eunom. v. 532. Xth c. Hexaemeron. 528. XVth c. Against Drunkards. 520. XVth c. De tranqu. an. 583. XIVth c. Epp. can. ad. Amph. 181. XIIth c. Adm. ad. Fil. __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________ TOU AGIOU BAChILEIOU PERI TOU PNEUMATOCh BIBLION. THE BOOK OF SAINT BASIL ON THE SPIRIT. DE SPIRITU SANCTO. ------------------------ Preface. ------------------------ The heresy of Arius lowered the dignity of the Holy Ghost as well as that of the Son. He taught that the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity are wholly unlike one another both in essence and in glory. "There is a triad, not in equal glories;" "one more glorious than the other in their glories to an infinite degree." So says the Thalia, quoted in Ath. de Syn. S: 15. But the Nicene definition, while it was precise in regard to the Son, left the doctrine of the Holy Ghost comparatively open, (Pisteuomen eis to ;'Agion Pneuma,) not from hesitation or doubt, but because this side of Arian speculation was not prominent. (Cf. Basil, Letters cxxv. and ccxxvi. and Dr. Swete in D.C.B. iii. 121.) It was the expulsion of Macedonius from the see of Constantinople in 360 which brought "Macedonianism" to a head. He was put there by Arians as an Arian. Theodoret (Ecc. Hist. ii. 5) explains how disagreement arose. He was an upholder, if not the author, of the watchword homoiousion (Soc. ii. 45) (but many supporters of the homoiousion (e.g., Eustathius of Sebasteia) shrank from calling the Holy Ghost a creature. So the Pneumatomachi began to be clearly marked off. The various creeds of the Arians and semi-Arians did not directly attack the Godhead of the Holy Ghost, though they did not accept the doctrine of the essential unity of the Three Persons. (Cf. Hahn, Bibliothek der Symbole, pp. 148-174, quoted by Swete.) But their individual teaching went far beyond their confessions. The Catholic theologians were roused to the danger, and on the return of Athanasius from his third exile, a council was held at Alexandria which resulted in the first formal ecclesiastical condemnation of the depravers of the Holy Ghost, in the Tomus ad Antiochenos (q.v. with the preface on p. 481 of Ath. in the edition of this series. Cf. also Ath. ad Serap. i. 2, 10). In the next ten years the Pneumatomachi, Macedonians, or Marathonians, so called from Marathonius, bishop of Nicomedia, whose support to the party was perhaps rather pecuniary than intellectual (Nicephorus H.E. ix. 47), made head, and were largely identified with the Homoiousians. In 374 was published the Ancoratus of St. Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis in Cyprus, written in 373, and containing two creeds (vide Heurtley de F. et Symb. pp. 14-18), the former of which is nearly identical with the Confession of Constantinople. It expresses belief in to Pneuma to ;'Agion, Kurion, kai Zoopoion, to ek tou Patros ekporeuomenon, to sun Patri kai Hui& 254; sumproskunoi menon kai sundoxazomenon, to lalesan dia ton propheton. It is in this same year, 374, that Amphilochius, the first cousin of Gregory of Nazianzus and friend and spiritual son of Basil, paid the first of his annual autumn visits to Caesarea (Bishop Lightfoot, D.C.B. i. 105) and there urged St. Basil to clear up all doubt as to the true doctrine of the Holy Spirit by writing a treatise on the subject. St. Basil complied, and, on the completion of the work, had it engrossed on parchment (Letter ccxxxi.) and sent it to Amphilochius, to whom he dedicated it. __________________________________________________________________ Chapter I. Prefatory remarks on the need of exact investigation of the most minute portions of theology. 1. Your desire for information, my right well-beloved and most deeply respected brother Amphilochius, I highly commend, and not less your industrious energy. I have been exceedingly delighted at the care and watchfulness shewn in the expression of your opinion that of all the terms concerning God in every mode of speech, not one ought to be left without exact investigation. You have turned to good account your reading of the exhortation of the Lord, "Every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth," [705] and by your diligence in asking might, I ween, stir even the most reluctant to give you a share of what they possess. And this in you yet further moves my admiration, that you do not, according to the manners of the most part of the men of our time, propose your questions by way of mere test, but with the honest desire to arrive at the actual truth. There is no lack in these days of captious listeners and questioners; but to find a character desirous of information, and seeking the truth as a remedy for ignorance, is very difficult. Just as in the hunter's snare, or in the soldier's ambush, the trick is generally ingeniously concealed, so it is with the inquiries of the majority of the questioners who advance arguments, not so much with the view of getting any good out of them, as in order that, in the event of their failing to elicit answers which chime in with their own desires, they may seem to have fair ground for controversy. 2. If "To the fool on his asking for wisdom, wisdom shall be reckoned," [706] at how high a price shall we value "the wise hearer" who is quoted by the Prophet in the same verse with "the admirable counsellor"? [707] It is right, I ween, to hold him worthy of all approbation, and to urge him on to further progress, sharing his enthusiasm, and in all things toiling at his side as he presses onwards to perfection. To count the terms used in theology as of primary importance, and to endeavour to trace out the hidden meaning in every phrase and in every syllable, is a characteristic wanting in those who are idle in the pursuit of true religion, but distinguishing all who get knowledge of "the mark" "of our calling;" [708] for what is set before us is, so far as is possible with human nature, to be made like unto God. Now without knowledge there can be no making like; and knowledge is not got without lessons. The beginning of teaching is speech, and syllables and words are parts of speech. It follows then that to investigate syllables is not to shoot wide of the mark, nor, because the questions raised are what might seem to some insignificant, are they on that account to be held unworthy of heed. Truth is always a quarry hard to hunt, and therefore we must look everywhere for its tracks. The acquisition of true religion is just like that of crafts; both grow bit by bit; apprentices must despise nothing. If a man despise the first elements as small and insignificant, he will never reach the perfection of wisdom. Yea and Nay are but two syllables, yet there is often involved in these little words at once the best of all good things, Truth, and that beyond which wickedness cannot go, a Lie. But why mention Yea and Nay? Before now, a martyr bearing witness for Christ has been judged to have paid in full the claim of true religion by merely nodding his head. [709] If, then, this be so, what term in theology is so small but that the effect of its weight in the scales according as it be rightly or wrongly used is not great? Of the law we are told "not one jot nor one tittle shall pass away;" [710] how then could it be safe for us to leave even the least unnoticed? The very points which you yourself have sought to have thoroughly sifted by us are at the same time both small and great. Their use is the matter of a moment, and peradventure they are therefore made of small account; but, when we reckon the force of their meaning, they are great. They may be likened to the mustard plant which, though it be the least of shrub-seeds, yet when properly cultivated and the forces latent in its germs unfolded, rises to its own sufficient height. If any one laughs when he sees our subtilty, to use the Psalmist's [711] words, about syllables, let him know that he reaps laughter's fruitless fruit; and let us, neither giving in to men's reproaches, nor yet vanquished by their disparagement, continue our investigation. So far, indeed, am I from feeling ashamed of these things because they are small, that, even if I could attain to ever so minute a fraction of their dignity, I should both congratulate myself on having won high honour, and should tell my brother and fellow-investigator that no small gain had accrued to him therefrom. While, then, I am aware that the controversy contained in little words is a very great one, in hope of the prize I do not shrink from toil, with the conviction that the discussion will both prove profitable to myself, and that my hearers will be rewarded with no small benefit. Wherefore now with the help, if I may so say, of the Holy Spirit Himself, I will approach the exposition of the subject, and, if you will, that I may be put in the way of the discussion, I will for a moment revert to the origin of the question before us. 3. Lately when praying with the people, and using the full doxology to God the Father in both forms, at one time "with the Son together with the Holy Ghost," and at another "through the Son in the Holy Ghost," I was attacked by some of those present on the ground that I was introducing novel and at the same time mutually contradictory terms. [712] You, however, chiefly with the view of benefiting them, or, if they are wholly incurable, for the security of such as may fall in with them, have expressed the opinion that some clear instruction ought to be published concerning the force underlying the syllables employed. I will therefore write as concisely as possible, in the endeavour to lay down some admitted principle for the discussion. __________________________________________________________________ [705] Luke xi. 10. [706] Prov. xvii. 28, lxx. [707] Is. iii. 3, lxx. [708] Phil. iii. 14. [709] i.e., confessed or denied himself a Christian. The Benedictine Editors and their followers seem to have missed the force of the original, both grammatically and historically, in referring it to the time when St. Basil is writing; ede ekrithe does not mean "at the present day is judged," but "ere now has been judged." And in a.d. 374 there was no persecution of Christians such as seems to be referred to, although Valens tried to crush the Catholics. [710] Matt. v. 18. [711] Ps. cxix. 85, lxx. "The lawless have described subtilties for me, but not according to thy law, O Lord;" for A.V. & R.V., "The proud have digged pits for me which are not after thy law." The word adoleschia is used in a bad sense to mean garrulity; in a good sense, keenness, subtilty. [712] It is impossible to convey in English the precise force of the prepositions used. "With" represents meta, of which the original meaning is "amid;" "together with," sun, of which the original meaning is "at the same time as." The Latin of the Benedictine edition translates the first by "cum," and the second by "una cum." "Through" stands for dia, which, with the genitive, is used of the instrument; "in" for e'n, "in," but also commonly used of the instrument or means. In the well known passage in 1 Cor. viii. 6, A.V. renders di' hou ta panta by "through whom are all things;" R.V., by "by whom." __________________________________________________________________ Chapter II. The origin of the heretics' close observation of syllables. 4. The petty exactitude of these men about syllables and words is not, as might be supposed, simple and straightforward; nor is the mischief to which it tends a small one. There is involved a deep and covert design against true religion. Their pertinacious contention is to show that the mention of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is unlike, as though they will thence find it easy to demonstrate that there is a variation in nature. They have an old sophism, invented by Aetius, the champion of this heresy, in one of whose Letters there is a passage to the effect that things naturally unlike are expressed in unlike terms, and, conversely, that things expressed in unlike terms are naturally unlike. In proof of this statement he drags in the words of the Apostle, "One God and Father of whom are all things,...and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things." [713] "Whatever, then," he goes on, "is the relation of these terms to one another, such will be the relation of the natures indicated by them; and as the term `of whom' is unlike the term `by whom,' so is the Father unlike the Son." [714] On this heresy depends the idle subtilty of these men about the phrases in question. They accordingly assign to God the Father, as though it were His distinctive portion and lot, the phrase "of Whom;" to God the Son they confine the phrase "by Whom;" to the Holy Spirit that of "in Whom," and say that this use of the syllables is never interchanged, in order that, as I have already said, the variation of language may indicate the variation of nature. [715] Verily it is sufficiently obvious that in their quibbling about the words they are endeavouring to maintain the force of their impious argument. By the term "of whom" they wish to indicate the Creator; by the term "through whom," the subordinate agent [716] or instrument; [717] by the term "in whom," or "in which," they mean to shew the time or place. The object of all this is that the Creator of the universe [718] may be regarded as of no higher dignity than an instrument, and that the Holy Spirit may appear to be adding to existing things nothing more than the contribution derived from place or time. __________________________________________________________________ [713] 1 Cor. viii. 6. [714] The story as told by Theodoret (Ecc. Hist. ii. 23) is as follows: "Constantius, on his return from the west, passed some time at Constantinople" (i.e. in 360, when the synod at Constantinople was held, shortly after that of the Isaurian Seleucia, "substance" and "hypostasis" being declared inadmissible terms, and the Son pronounced like the Father according to the Scriptures). The Emperor was urged that "Eudoxius should be convicted of blasphemy and lawlessness. Constantius however...replied that a decision must first be come to on matters concerning the faith, and that afterwards the case of Eudoxius should be enquired into. Basilius (of Ancyra), relying on his former intimacy, ventured boldly to object to the Emperor that he was attacking the apostolic decrees; but Constantius took this ill, and told Basilius to hold his tongue, for to you, said he, the disturbance of the churches is due. When Basilius was silenced, Eustathius (of Sebasteia) intervened and said, Since, sir, you wish a decision to be come to on what concerns the faith, consider the blasphemies uttered against the Only Begotten by Eudoxius; and, as he spoke, he produced the exposition of faith, wherein, besides many other impieties, were found the following expressions: Things that are spoken of in unlike terms are unlike in substance; there is one God the Father of Whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ by Whom are all things. Now the term `of Whom' is unlike the term `by Whom;' so the Son is unlike God the Father. Constantius ordered this exposition of the faith to be read, and was displeased with the blasphemy which it involved. He therefore asked Eudoxius if he had drawn it up. Eudoxius instantly repudiated the authorship, and said that it was written by Aetius. Now Aetius...at the present time was associated with Eunomius and Eudoxius, and, as he found Eudoxius to be, like himself, a sybarite in luxury as well as a heretic in faith, he chose Antioch as the most congenial place of abode, and both he and Eunomius were fast fixtures at the couches of Eudoxius....The Emperor had been told all this, and now ordered Aetius to be brought before him. On his appearance, Constantius shewed him the document in question, and proceeded to enquire if he was the author of its language. Aetius, totally ignorant of what had taken place, and unaware of the drift of the enquiry, expected that he should win praise by confession, and owned that he was the author of the phrases in question. Then the Emperor perceived the greatness of his iniquity, and forthwith condemned him to exile and to be deported to a place in Phrygia." St. Basil accompanied Eustathius and his namesake to Constantinople on this occasion, being then only in deacon's orders. (Philost. iv. 12.) Basil of Ancyra and Eustathius in their turn suffered banishment. Basil, the deacon, returned to the Cappadocian Caesarea. [715] cf. the form of the Arian Creed as given by Eunomius in his 'Apologia (Migne, xxx. 840. "We believe in one God, Father Almighty, of whom are all things; and in one only begotten Son of God, God the word, our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things; and in one Holy Ghost, the Comforter, in whom distribution of all grace in proportion as may be most expedient is made to each of the Saints." [716] cf. Eunomius, Liber. Apol. S: 27, where of the Son he says hupourgos. [717] On the word organon, a tool, as used of the Word of God, cf. Nestorius in Marius Merc. Migne, p. 761 & Cyr. Alex. Ep. 1. Migne, x. 37. "The creature did not give birth to the uncreated, but gave birth to man, organ of Godhead." cf. Thomasius, Christ. Dog. i. 336. Mr. Johnston quotes Philo (de Cher. S: 35; i. 162. n.) as speaking of organon de logon Theou di' hou kateskeuasthe (sc. ho kosmos). [718] Here of course the Son is meant. __________________________________________________________________ Chapter III. The systematic discussion of syllables is derived from heathen philosophy. 5. They have, however, been led into this error by their close study of heathen writers, who have respectively applied the terms "of whom" and "through whom" to things which are by nature distinct. These writers suppose that by the term "of whom" or "of which" the matter is indicated, while the term "through whom" or "through which" [719] represents the instrument, or, generally speaking, subordinate agency. [720] Or rather--for there seems no reason why we should not take up their whole argument, and briefly expose at once its incompatibility with the truth and its inconsistency with their own teaching--the students of vain philosophy, while expounding the manifold nature of cause and distinguishing its peculiar significations, define some causes as principal, [721] some as cooperative or con-causal, while others are of the character of "sine qua non," or indispensable. [722] For every one of these they have a distinct and peculiar use of terms, so that the maker is indicated in a different way from the instrument. For the maker they think the proper expression is "by whom," maintaining that the bench is produced "by" the carpenter; and for the instrument "through which," in that it is produced "through" or by means of adze and gimlet and the rest. Similarly they appropriate "of which" to the material, in that the thing made is "of" wood, while "according to which" shews the design, or pattern put before the craftsman. For he either first makes a mental sketch, and so brings his fancy to bear upon what he is about, or else he looks at a pattern previously put before him, and arranges his work accordingly. The phrase "on account of which" they wish to be confined to the end or purpose, the bench, as they say, being produced for, or on account of, the use of man. "In which" is supposed to indicate time and place. When was it produced? In this time. And where? In this place. And though place and time contribute nothing to what is being produced, yet without these the production of anything is impossible, for efficient agents must have both place and time. It is these careful distinctions, derived from unpractical philosophy and vain delusion, [723] which our opponents have first studied and admired, and then transferred to the simple and unsophisticated doctrine of the Spirit, to the belittling of God the Word, and the setting at naught of the Divine Spirit. Even the phrase set apart by non-Christian writers for the case of lifeless instruments [724] or of manual service of the meanest kind, I mean the expression "through or by means of which," they do not shrink from transferring to the Lord of all, and Christians feel no shame in applying to the Creator of the universe language belonging to a hammer or a saw. __________________________________________________________________ [719] The ambiguity of gender in ex hou and di' hou can only be expressed by giving the alternatives in English. [720] There are four causes or varieties of cause: 1. The essence or quiddity (Form): to ti en einai. 2. The necessitating conditions (Matter): to tinon onton ananke tout' einai. 3. The proximate mover or stimulator of change (Efficient): he ti proton ekinese. 4. That for the sake of which (Final Cause or End): to tinos heneka. Grote's Aristotle, I. 354. The four Aristotelian causes are thus: 1. Formal. 2. Material. 3. Efficient. 4. Final. cf. Arist. Analyt. Post. II. xi., Metaph. I. iii., and Phys. II. iii. The six causes of Basil may be referred to the four of Aristotle as follows: Aristotle. 1. to ti en einai 2. to ex hou ginetai ti 3. he arche tes metaboles he prote 4. to hou heneka Basil. 1. kath' ho: i.e., the form or idea according to which a thing is made. 2. ex hou: i.e., the matter out of which it is made. 3. huph' hou: i.e., the agent, using means. di' hou: i.e. the means. 4. di' ho: i.e., the end. en ho, or sine qua non, applying to all. [721] prokatarktike. cf. Plut. 2, 1056. B.D. prokatarktike aitia he heimarmene. [722] cf. Clem. Alex. Strom. viii. 9. "Of causes some are principal, some preservative, some cooeperative, some indispensable; e.g. of education the principal cause is the father; the preservative, the schoolmaster; the cooeperative, the disposition of the pupil; the indispensable, time." [723] ek tes mataiotetos kai kenes apates. cf. mataiotes mataioteton, "vanity of vanities," Ecc. i. 2, lxx. In Arist. Eth. i. 2, a desire is said to be kene kai mataia, which goes into infinity,--everything being desired for the sake of something else,--i.e., kene, void, like a desire for the moon, and mataia, unpractical, like a desire for the empire of China. In the text mataiotes seems to mean heathen philosophy, a vain delusion as distinguished from Christian philosophy. [724] apsucha organa. A slave, according to Aristotle, Eth. Nich. viii. 7, 6, is empsuchon organon. __________________________________________________________________ Chapter IV. That there is no distinction in the scriptural use of these syllables. 6. We acknowledge that the word of truth has in many places made use of these expressions; yet we absolutely deny that the freedom of the Spirit is in bondage to the pettiness of Paganism. On the contrary, we maintain that Scripture varies its expressions as occasion requires, according to the circumstances of the case. For instance, the phrase "of which" does not always and absolutely, as they suppose, indicate the material, [725] but it is more in accordance with the usage of Scripture to apply this term in the case of the Supreme Cause, as in the words "One God, of whom are all things," [726] and again, "All things of God." [727] The word of truth has, however, frequently used this term in the case of the material, as when it says "Thou shalt make an ark of incorruptible wood;" [728] and "Thou shalt make the candlestick of pure gold;" [729] and "The first man is of the earth, earthy;" [730] and "Thou art formed out of clay as I am." [731] But these men, to the end, as we have already remarked, that they may establish the difference of nature, have laid down the law that this phrase befits the Father alone. This distinction they have originally derived from heathen authorities, but here they have shewn no faithful accuracy of limitation. To the Son they have in conformity with the teaching of their masters given the title of instrument, and to the Spirit that of place, for they say in the Spirit, and through the Son. But when they apply "of whom" to God they no longer follow heathen example, but "go over, as they say, to apostolic usage, as it is said, "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus," [732] and "All things of God." [733] What, then, is the result of this systematic discussion? There is one nature of Cause; another of Instrument; another of Place. So the Son is by nature distinct from the Father, as the tool from the craftsman; and the Spirit is distinct in so far as place or time is distinguished from the nature of tools or from that of them that handle them. __________________________________________________________________ [725] hule=Lat. materies, from the same root as mater, whence Eng. material and matter. (hule, hulFa, is the same word as sylva=wood. With materies cf. Madeira, from the Portuguese "madera"=timber.) "The word hule in Plato bears the same signification as in ordinary speech: it means wood, timber, and sometimes generally material. The later philosophic application of the word to signify the abstract conception of material substratum is expressed by Plato, so far as he has that concept at all, in other ways." Ed. Zeller. Plato and the older Academy, ii. 296. Similarly Basil uses hule. As a technical philosophic term for abstract matter, it is first used by Aristotle. [726] 1 Cor. viii. 6. [727] 1 Cor. xi. 12. [728] Ex. xxv. 10, LXX. A.V. "shittim." R.V. "acacia." St. Ambrose (de Spiritu Sancto, ii. 9) seems, say the Benedictine Editors, to have here misunderstood St. Basil's argument. St. Basil is accusing the Pneumatomachi not of tracing all things to God as the material "of which," but of unduly limiting the use of the term "of which" to the Father alone. [729] Ex. xxv. 31. [730] 1 Cor. xv. 47. [731] Job xxxiii, 6, LXX. [732] 1 Cor. i. 30. [733] 1 Cor. xi. 12. __________________________________________________________________ Chapter V. That "through whom" is said also in the case of the Father, and "of whom" in the case of the Son and of the Spirit. 7. After thus describing the outcome of our adversaries' arguments, we shall now proceed to shew, as we have proposed, that the Father does not first take "of whom" and then abandon "through whom" to the Son; and that there is no truth in these men's ruling that the Son refuses to admit the Holy Spirit to a share in "of whom" or in "through whom," according to the limitation of their new-fangled allotment of phrases. "There is one God and Father of whom are all things, and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things." [734] Yes; but these are the words of a writer not laying down a rule, but carefully distinguishing the hypostases. [735] The object of the apostle in thus writing was not to introduce the diversity of nature, but to exhibit the notion of Father and of Son as unconfounded. That the phrases are not opposed to one another and do not, like squadrons in war marshalled one against another, bring the natures to which they are applied into mutual conflict, is perfectly plain from the passage in question. The blessed Paul brings both phrases to bear upon one and the same subject, in the words "of him and through him and to him are all things." [736] That this plainly refers to the Lord will be admitted even by a reader paying but small attention to the meaning of the words. The apostle has just quoted from the prophecy of Isaiah, "Who hath known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counsellor," [737] and then goes on, "For of him and from him and to him are all things." That the prophet is speaking about God the Word, the Maker of all creation, may be learnt from what immediately precedes: "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath taught him?" [738] Now the word "who" in this passage does not mean absolute impossibility, but rarity, as in the passage "Who will rise up for me against the evil doers?" [739] and "What man is he that desireth life?" [740] and "Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?" [741] So is it in the passage in question, "Who hath directed [lxx., known] the Spirit of the Lord, or being his counsellor hath known him?" "For the Father loveth the Son and sheweth him all things." [742] This is He who holds the earth, and hath grasped it with His hand, who brought all things to order and adornment, who poised [743] the hills in their places, and measured the waters, and gave to all things in the universe their proper rank, who encompasseth the whole of heaven with but a small portion of His power, which, in a figure, the prophet calls a span. Well then did the apostle add "Of him and through him and to him are all things." [744] For of Him, to all things that are, comes the cause of their being, according to the will of God the Father. Through Him all things have their continuance [745] and constitution, [746] for He created all things, and metes out to each severally what is necessary for its health and preservation. Wherefore to Him all things are turned, looking with irresistible longing and unspeakable affection to "the author" [747] and maintainer "of" their "life," as it is written "The eyes of all wait upon thee," [748] and again, "These wait all upon thee," [749] and "Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing." [750] 8. But if our adversaries oppose this our interpretation, what argument will save them from being caught in their own trap? For if they will not grant that the three expressions "of him" and "through him" and "to him" are spoken of the Lord, they cannot but be applied to God the Father. Then without question their rule will fall through, for we find not only "of whom," but also "through whom" applied to the Father. And if this latter phrase indicates nothing derogatory, why in the world should it be confined, as though conveying the sense of inferiority, to the Son? If it always and everywhere implies ministry, let them tell us to what superior the God of glory [751] and Father of the Christ is subordinate. They are thus overthrown by their own selves, while our position will be on both sides made sure. Suppose it proved that the passage refers to the Son, "of whom" will be found applicable to the Son. Suppose on the other hand it be insisted that the prophet's words relate to God, then it will be granted that "through whom" is properly used of God, and both phrases have equal value, in that both are used with equal force of God. Under either alternative both terms, being employed of one and the same Person, will be shewn to be equivalent. But let us revert to our subject. 9. In his Epistle to the Ephesians the apostle says, "But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ; from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body." [752] And again in the Epistle to the Colossians, to them that have not the knowledge of the Only Begotten, there is mention of him that holdeth "the head," that is, Christ, "from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered increaseth with the increase of God." [753] And that Christ is the head of the Church we have learned in another passage, when the apostle says "gave him to be the head over all things to the Church," [754] and "of his fulness have all we received." [755] And the Lord Himself says "He shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you." [756] In a word, the diligent reader will perceive that "of whom" is used in diverse manners. [757] For instance, the Lord says, "I perceive that virtue is gone out of me." [758] Similarly we have frequently observed "of whom" used of the Spirit. "He that soweth to the spirit," it is said, "shall of the spirit reap life everlasting." [759] John too writes, "Hereby we know that he abideth in us by (ek) the spirit which he hath given us." [760] "That which is conceived in her," says the angel, "is of the Holy Ghost," [761] and the Lord says "that which is born of the spirit is spirit." [762] Such then is the case so far. 10. It must now be pointed out that the phrase "through whom" is admitted by Scripture in the case of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost alike. It would indeed be tedious to bring forward evidence of this in the case of the Son, not only because it is perfectly well known, but because this very point is made by our opponents. We now show that "through whom" is used also in the case of the Father. "God is faithful," it is said, "by whom (di' ou) ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son," [763] and "Paul an apostle of Jesus Christ by (dia) the will of God;" and again, "Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God." [764] And "like as Christ was raised up from the dead by (dia) the glory of God the Father." [765] ^ Isaiah, moreover, says, "Woe unto them that make deep counsel and not through the Lord;" [766] and many proofs of the use of this phrase in the case of the Spirit might be adduced. "God hath revealed him to us," it is said, "by (dia) the spirit;" [767] and in another place, "That good thing which was committed unto thee keep by (dia) the Holy Ghost;" [768] and again, "To one is given by (dia) the spirit the word of wisdom." [769] 11. In the same manner it may also be said of the word "in," that Scripture admits its use in the case of God the Father. In the Old Testament it is said through (en) God we shall do valiantly, [770] and, "My praise shall be continually of (en) thee;" [771] and again, "In thy name will I rejoice." [772] In Paul we read, "In God who created all things," [773] and, "Paul and Silvanus and Timotheus unto the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father;" [774] and "if now at length I might have a prosperous journey by (en) the will of God to come to you;" [775] and, "Thou makest thy boast of God." [776] Instances are indeed too numerous to reckon; but what we want is not so much to exhibit an abundance of evidence as to prove that the conclusions of our opponents are unsound. I shall, therefore, omit any proof of this usage in the case of our Lord and of the Holy Ghost, in that it is notorious. But I cannot forbear to remark that "the wise hearer" will find sufficient proof of the proposition before him by following the method of contraries. For if the difference of language indicates, as we are told, that the nature has been changed, then let identity of language compel our adversaries to confess with shame that the essence is unchanged. 12. And it is not only in the case of the theology that the use of the terms varies, [777] but whenever one of the terms takes the meaning of the other we find them frequently transferred from the one subject to the other. As, for instance, Adam says, "I have gotten a man through God," [778] meaning to say the same as from God; and in another passage "Moses commanded...Israel through the word of the Lord," [779] and, again, "Is not the interpretation through God?" [780] Joseph, discoursing about dreams to the prisoners, instead of saying "from God" says plainly "through God." Inversely Paul uses the term "from whom" instead of "through whom," when he says "made from a woman" (A.V., "of" instead of "through a woman"). [781] And this he has plainly distinguished in another passage, where he says that it is proper to a woman to be made of the man, and to a man to be made through the woman, in the words "For as the woman is from [A.V., of] the man, even so is the man also through [A.V., by] the woman." [782] Nevertheless in the passage in question the apostle, while illustrating the variety of usage, at the same time corrects obiter the error of those who supposed that the body of the Lord was a spiritual body, [783] and, to shew that the God-bearing [784] flesh was formed out of the common lump [785] of human nature, gave precedence to the more emphatic preposition. The phrase "through a woman" would be likely to give rise to the suspicion of mere transit in the generation, while the phrase "of the woman" would satisfactorily indicate that the nature was shared by the mother and the offspring. The apostle was in no wise contradicting himself, but he shewed that the words can without difficulty be interchanged. Since, therefore, the term "from whom" is transferred to the identical subjects in the case of which "through whom" is decided to be properly used, with what consistency can these phrases be invariably distinguished one from the other, in order that fault may be falsely found with true religion? __________________________________________________________________ [734] 1 Cor. viii. 6. [735] If Catholic Theology does not owe to St. Basil the distinction between the connotations of ousia and hupostasis which soon prevailed over the identification obtaining at the time of the Nicene Council, at all events his is the first and most famous assertion and defence of it. At Nicaea, in 325, to have spoken of St. Paul as "distinguishing the hypostases" would have been held impious. Some forty-five years later St. Basil writes to his brother, Gregory of Nyssa (Ep. xxxviii.), in fear lest Gregory should fall into the error of failing to distinguish between hypostasis and ousia, between person and essence. cf. Theodoret Dial. i. 7, and my note on his Ecc. Hist. i. 3. [736] Rom. xi. 36. [737] Rom. xi. 34, and Is. xl. 13. [738] Is. xl. 12, 13. [739] Ps. xciv. 16. [740] Ps. xxxiv. 12. [741] Ps. xxiv. 3. [742] John v. 20. [743] isor& 191;opia. cf. Plat. Phaed. 109, A. [744] Rom. xi. 38. [745] diamone. cf. Arist. de Sp. i. 1. [746] cf. Col. i. 16, 17. [747] Acts iii. 15. [748] Ps. cxlv. 15. [749] Ps. civ. 27. [750] Ps. cxlv. 16. [751] Ps. xxix. 3; Acts vii. 2. [752] Eph. iv. 15, 16. [753] Col. ii. 19. [754] Eph. i. 22. [755] John i. 16. [756] 1 John xvi. 15. [757] polutropoi. cf. the cognate adverb in Heb. i. 1. [758] "ex emou " The reading in St. Luke (viii. 46) is ap' emou. In the parallel passage, Mark v. 30, the words are, "Jesus knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him," ex autou which D. inserts in Luke viii. 45. [759] Gal. vi. 8. [760] 1 John iii. 24. [761] Matt. i. 20. [762] John iii. 6. [763] 1 Cor. i. 9. [764] Gal. iv. 7. A.V. reads "an heir of God through Christ;" so #CD. R.V. with the copy used by Basil agrees with A.B. [765] Rom. vi. 4. It is pointed out by the Rev. C.F.H. Johnston in his edition of the De Spiritu that among quotations from the New Testament on the point in question, St. Basil has omitted Heb. ii. 10, "It became him for whom (di' hon) are all things and through whom (di' hou) are all things," "where the Father is described as being the final Cause and efficient Cause of all things." [766] Is. xxix. 15, lxx. [767] 1 Cor. ii. 10. [768] 2 Tim. i. 14. [769] 1 Cor. xii. 8. [770] Ps. cvii. 13. [771] Ps. lxxi. 6. [772] For "shall they rejoice," Ps. lxxxix. 16. [773] Eph. iii. 9. [774] 2 Thess. i. 1. [775] Rom. i. 10. [776] Rom. ii. 17. [777] According to patristic usage the word "theology" is concerned with all that relates to the divine and eternal nature of Christ, as distinguished from the oikonomia, which relates to the incarnation, and consequent redemption of mankind. cf. Bishop Lightfoot's Apostolic Fathers, Part II. Vol. ii. p. 75, and Newman's Arians, Chapter I. Section iii. [778] Gen. iv. 1, lxx. A.V. renders "she conceived and bare Cain and said," and here St. Basil has been accused of quoting from memory. But in the Greek of the lxx. the subject to eipen is not expressed, and a possible construction of the sentence is to refer it to Adam. In his work adv. Eunom. ii. 20, St. Basil again refers the exclamation to Adam. [779] Num. xxxvi. 5, lxx. [780] Gen. xl. 8, lxx. [781] Gal. iv. 4. [782] 1 Cor. xi. 12. [783] The allusion is to the Docetae. cf. Luke xxiv. 39. [784] The note of the Benedictine Editors remarks that the French theologian Fronton du Duc (Ducaeus) accuses Theodoret (on Cyril's Anath. vii.) of misquoting St. Basil as writing here "God-bearing man" instead of "God bearing flesh," a term of different signification and less open as a Nestorian interpretation. "God-bearing," theophoros, was an epithet applied to mere men, as, for instance, St. Ignatius. So Clement of Alexandria, I. Strom. p. 318, and Gregory of Nazianzus, Or. xxxvii. p. 609. St. Basil does use the expression Jesus Christ anthropon Theon in Hom. on Ps. xlix. [785] phurama. cf. Rom. ix. 21. __________________________________________________________________ Chapter VI. Issue joined with those who assert that the Son is not with the Father, but after the Father. Also concerning the equal glory. 13. Our opponents, while they thus artfully and perversely encounter our argument, cannot even have recourse to the plea of ignorance. It is obvious that they are annoyed with us for completing the doxology to the Only Begotten together with the Father, and for not separating the Holy Spirit from the Son. On this account they style us innovators, revolutionizers, phrase-coiners, and every other possible name of insult. But so far am I from being irritated at their abuse, that, were it not for the fact that their loss causes me "heaviness and continual sorrow," [786] I could almost have said that I was grateful to them for the blasphemy, as though they were agents for providing me with blessing. For "blessed are ye," it is said, "when men shall revile you for my sake." [787] The grounds of their indignation are these: The Son, according to them, is not together with the Father, but after the Father. Hence it follows that glory should be ascribed to the Father "through him," but not "with him;" inasmuch as "with him" expresses equality of dignity, while "through him" denotes subordination. They further assert that the Spirit is not to be ranked along with the Father and the Son, but under the Son and the Father; not coordinated, but subordinated; not connumerated, but subnumerated. [788] With technical terminology of this kind they pervert the simplicity and artlessness of the faith, and thus by their ingenuity, suffering no one else to remain in ignorance, they cut off from themselves the plea that ignorance might demand. 14. Let us first ask them this question: In what sense do they say that the Son is "after the Father;" later in time, or in order, or in dignity? But in time no one is so devoid of sense as to assert that the Maker of the ages [789] holds a second place, when no interval intervenes in the natural conjunction of the Father with the Son. [790] And indeed so far as our conception of human relations goes, [791] it is impossible to think of the Son as being later than the Father, not only from the fact that Father and Son are mutually conceived of in accordance with the relationship subsisting between them, but because posteriority in time is predicated of subjects separated by a less interval from the present, and priority of subjects farther off. For instance, what happened in Noah's time is prior to what happened to the men of Sodom, inasmuch as Noah is more remote from our own day; and, again, the events of the history of the men of Sodom are posterior, because they seem in a sense to approach nearer to our own day. But, in addition to its being a breach of true religion, is it not really the extremest folly to measure the existence of the life which transcends all time and all the ages by its distance from the present? Is it not as though God the Father could be compared with, and be made superior to, God the Son, who exists before the ages, precisely in the same way in which things liable to beginning and corruption are described as prior to one another? The superior remoteness of the Father is really inconceivable, in that thought and intelligence are wholly impotent to go beyond the generation of the Lord; and St. John has admirably confined the conception within circumscribed boundaries by two words, "In the beginning was the Word." For thought cannot travel outside "was," nor imagination [792] beyond "beginning." Let your thought travel ever so far backward you cannot get beyond the "was," and however you may strain and strive to see what is beyond the Son, you will find it impossible to get further than the "beginning." True religion, therefore, thus teaches us to think of the Son together with the Father. 15. If they really conceive of a kind of degradation of the Son in relation to the Father, as though He were in a lower place, so that the Father sits above, and the Son is thrust off to the next seat below, let them confess what they mean. We shall have no more to say. A plain statement of the view will at once expose its absurdity. They who refuse to allow that the Father pervades all things do not so much as maintain the logical sequence of thought in their argument. The faith of the sound is that God fills all things; [793] but they who divide their up and down between the Father and the Son do not remember even the word of the Prophet: "If I climb up into heaven thou art there; if I go down to hell thou art there also." [794] Now, to omit all proof of the ignorance of those who predicate place of incorporeal things, what excuse can be found for their attack upon Scripture, shameless as their antagonism is, in the passages "Sit thou on my right hand" [795] and "Sat down on the right hand of the majesty of God"? [796] The expression "right hand" does not, as they contend, indicate the lower place, but equality of relation; it is not understood physically, in which case there might be something sinister about God, [797] but Scripture puts before us the magnificence of the dignity of the Son by the use of dignified language indicating the seat of honour. It is left then for our opponents to allege that this expression signifies inferiority of rank. Let them learn that "Christ is the power of God and wisdom of God," [798] and that "He is the image of the invisible God" [799] and "brightness of his glory," [800] and that "Him hath God the Father sealed," [801] by engraving Himself on Him. [802] Now are we to call these passages, and others like them, throughout the whole of Holy Scripture, proofs of humiliation, or rather public proclamations of the majesty of the Only Begotten, and of the equality of His glory with the Father? We ask them to listen to the Lord Himself, distinctly setting forth the equal dignity of His glory with the Father, in His words, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father;" [803] and again, "When the Son cometh in the glory of his Father;" [804] that they "should honour the Son even as they honour the Father;" [805] and, "We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father;" [806] and "the only begotten God which is in the bosom of the Father." [807] Of all these passages they take no account, and then assign to the Son the place set apart for His foes. A father's bosom is a fit and becoming seat for a son, but the place of the footstool is for them that have to be forced to fall. [808] We have only touched cursorily on these proofs, because our object is to pass on to other points. You at your leisure can put together the items of the evidence, and then contemplate the height of the glory and the preeminence of the power of the Only Begotten. However, to the well-disposed hearer, even these are not insignificant, unless the terms "right hand" and "bosom" be accepted in a physical and derogatory sense, so as at once to circumscribe God in local limits, and invent form, mould, and bodily position, all of which are totally distinct from the idea of the absolute, the infinite, and the incorporeal. There is moreover the fact that what is derogatory in the idea of it is the same in the case both of the Father and the Son; so that whoever repeats these arguments does not take away the dignity of the Son, but does incur the charge of blaspheming the Father; for whatever audacity a man be guilty of against the Son he cannot but transfer to the Father. If he assigns to the Father the upper place by way of precedence, and asserts that the only begotten Son sits below, he will find that to the creature of his imagination attach all the consequent conditions of body. And if these are the imaginations of drunken delusion and phrensied insanity, can it be consistent with true religion for men taught by the Lord himself that "He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father" [809] to refuse to worship and glorify with the Father him who in nature, in glory, and in dignity is conjoined with him? What shall we say? What just defence shall we have in the day of the awful universal judgment of all-creation, if, when the Lord clearly announces that He will come "in the glory of his Father;" [810] when Stephen beheld Jesus standing at the right hand of God; [811] when Paul testified in the spirit concerning Christ "that he is at the right hand of God;" [812] when the Father says, "Sit thou on my right hand;" [813] when the Holy Spirit bears witness that he has sat down on "the right hand of the majesty" [814] of God; we attempt to degrade him who shares the honour and the throne, from his condition of equality, to a lower state? [815] Standing and sitting, I apprehend, indicate the fixity and entire stability of the nature, as Baruch, when he wishes to exhibit the immutability and immobility of the Divine mode of existence, says, "For thou sittest for ever and we perish utterly." [816] Moreover, the place on the right hand indicates in my judgment equality of honour. Rash, then, is the attempt to deprive the Son of participation in the doxology, as though worthy only to be ranked in a lower place of honour. __________________________________________________________________ [786] cf. Rom. ix. 2. [787] Matt. v. 11. [788] hupotasso. cf. 1 Cor. xv. 27, and inf. cf. chapter xvii. hupotetagmenos is applied to the Son in the Macrostich or Lengthy Creed, brought by Eudoxius of Germanicia to Milan in 344. Vide Soc. ii. 19. [789] poietes ton ai& 240;non. [790] Yet the great watchword of the Arians was en pote hote ouk en. [791] te ennoi& 139; ton anthropinon is here the reading of five MSS. The Benedictines prefer ton anthropon, with the sense of "in human thought." [792] Phantasia is the philosophic term for imagination or presentation, the mental faculty by which the object made apparent, phantasma, becomes apparent, phainetai. Aristotle, de An. III. iii. 20 defines it as "a movement of the mind generated by sensation." Fancy, which is derived from phantasia (phaino, ÖBHA=shine) has acquired a slightly different meaning in some usages of modern speech. [793] Eph. iv. 10. [794] Ps. cxxxix. 7, P.B. [795] Ps. cx. 1. [796] Heb. i. 3, with the variation of "of God" for "on high." [797] I know of no better way of conveying the sense of the original skaios than by thus introducing the Latin sinister, which has the double meaning of left and ill-omened. It is to the credit of the unsuperstitious character of English speaking people that while the Greek skaios and aristeros, the Latin sinister and laevus, the French gauche, and the German link, all have the meaning of awkward and unlucky as well as simply on the left hand, the English left (though probably derived from lift=weak) has lost all connotation but the local one. [798] 1 Cor. i. 24. [799] Col. i. 15. [800] Heb. i. 3. [801] John vi. 27. [802] The more obvious interpretation of esphragisen in John vi. 27, would be sealed with a mark of approval, as in the miracle just performed. cf. Bengel, "sigillo id quod genuinum est commendatur, et omne quod non genuinum est excluditur." But St. Basil explains "sealed" by "stamped with the image of His Person," an interpretation which Alfred rejects. St. Basil at the end of Chapter xxvi. of this work, calls our Lord the charakter kai isotupos sphragis, i.e., "express image and seal graven to the like" of the Father. St. Athanasius (Ep. i. ad Serap. xxiii.) writes, "The seal has the form of Christ the sealer, and in this the sealed participate, being formed according to it." cf. Gal. iv. 19, and 2 Pet. i. 4. [803] John xiv. 9. [804] Mark viii. 38. [805] John v. 23. [806] John i. 14. [807] John i. 18. "Only begotten God" is here the reading of five mss. of Basil. The words are wanting in one codex. In Chapter viii. of this work St. Basil distinctly quotes Scripture as calling the Son "only begotten God." (Chapter viii. Section 17.) But in Chapter xi. Section 27, where he has been alleged to quote John i. 18, with the reading "Only begotten Son" (e.g., Alford), the ms. authority for his text is in favour of "Only begotten God." OC is the reading of #.B.C. TC of A. On the comparative weight of the textual and patristic evidence vide Bp. Westcott in loc. [808] cf. Ps. cx. 1. [809] John v. 23. [810] Matt. xvi. 27. [811] Acts vii. 55. [812] Rom. viii. 34. [813] Ps. cx. 1. [814] Heb. viii. 1. [815] Mr. Johnston well points out that these five testimonies are not cited fortuitously, but "in an order which carries the reader from the future second coming, through the present session at the right hand, back to the ascension in the past." [816] Baruch iii. 3, lxx. __________________________________________________________________ Chapter VII. Against those who assert that it is not proper for "with whom" to be said of the Son, and that the proper phrase is "through whom." 16. But their contention is that to use the phrase "with him" is altogether strange and unusual, while "through him" is at once most familiar in Holy Scripture, and very common in the language of the brotherhood. [817] What is our answer to this? We say, Blessed are the ears that have not heard you and the hearts that have been kept from the wounds of your words. To you, on the other hand, who are lovers of Christ, [818] I say that the Church recognizes both uses, and deprecates neither as subversive of the other. For whenever we are contemplating the majesty of the nature of the Only Begotten, and the excellence of His dignity, we bear witness that the glory is with the Father; while on the other hand, whenever we bethink us of His bestowal [819] on us of good gifts, and of our access [820] to, and admission into, the household of God, [821] we confess that this grace is effected for us through Him and by [822] Him. It follows that the one phrase "with whom" is the proper one to be used in the ascription of glory, while the other, "through whom," is specially appropriate in giving of thanks. It is also quite untrue to allege that the phrase "with whom" is unfamiliar in the usage of the devout. All those whose soundness of character leads them to hold the dignity of antiquity to be more honourable than mere new-fangled novelty, and who have preserved the tradition of their fathers [823] unadulterated, alike in town and in country, have employed this phrase. It is, on the contrary, they who are surfeited with the familiar and the customary, and arrogantly assail the old as stale, who welcome innovation, just as in dress your lovers of display always prefer some utter novelty to what is generally worn. So you may even still see that the language of country folk preserves the ancient fashion, while of these, our cunning experts [824] in logomachy, the language bears the brand of the new philosophy. What our fathers said, the same say we, that the glory of the Father and of the Son is common; wherefore we offer the doxology to the Father with the Son. But we do not rest only on the fact that such is the tradition of the Fathers; for they too followed the sense of Scripture, and started from the evidence which, a few sentences back, I deduced from Scripture and laid before you. For "the brightness" is always thought of with "the glory," [825] "the image" with the archetype, [826] and the Son always and everywhere together with the Father; nor does even the close connexion of the names, much less the nature of the things, admit of separation. __________________________________________________________________ [817] The word adelphotes is in the New Testament peculiar to S. Peter (1 Peter ii. 17, and v. 9); it occurs in the Epistle of St. Clement to the Corinthians, Chap. ii. [818] Philochristoi. The word is not common, but occurs in inscriptions. cf. Anth. Pal. I. x. 13. orthen pistin echousa philochristoio menoines. [819] choregia. cf. the use of the cognate verb in 1 Pet. iv. 11. ex ischuos hes choregei ho theos. [820] prosagoge. cf. Eph. ii. 18. [821] oikeiosin pros ton Theon. cf. oikeioi tou Theou in Eph. ii. 19. [822] en. [823] cf. Gal. i. 14. [824] The verb, entribomai, appears to be used by St. Basil, if he wrote entetrimmenon in the sense of to be entribes or versed in a thing (cf. Soph. Ant. 177)--a sense not illustrated by classical usage. But the reading of the Moscow ms. (m) entethrammenon, "trained in," "nurtured in," is per se much more probable. The idea of the country folk preserving the good old traditions shews the change of circumstances in St. Basil's day from those of the 2d c., when the "pagani" or villagers were mostly still heathen, and the last to adopt the novelty of Christianity. cf. Pliny's Letter to Trajan (Ep. 96), "neque civitates tantum sed vicos etiam atque agros superstitionis istius contagio pervagata est." [825] Heb. i. 1. cf. Aug. Ep. ii. ad Serap.: "The Father is Light, and the Son brightness and true light." [826] 2 Cor. iv. 4. __________________________________________________________________ Chapter VIII. In how many ways "Throughwhom" is used; and in what sense "with whom" is more suitable. Explanation of how the Son receives a commandment, and how He is sent. 17. When, then, the apostle "thanks God through Jesus Christ," [827] and again says that "through Him" we have "received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations," [828] or "through Him have access unto this grace wherein we stand and rejoice," [829] he sets forth the boons conferred on us by the Son, at one time making the grace of the good gifts pass through from the Father to us, and at another bringing us to the Father through Himself. For by saying "through whom we have received grace and apostleship," [830] he declares the supply of the good gifts to proceed from that source; and again in saying "through whom we have had access," [831] he sets forth our acceptance and being made "of the household of God" [832] through Christ. Is then the confession of the grace wrought by Him to usward a detraction from His glory? Is it not truer to say that the recital of His benefits is a proper argument for glorifying Him? It is on this account that we have not found Scripture describing the Lord to us by one name, nor even by such terms alone as are indicative of His godhead and majesty. At one time it uses terms descriptive of His nature, for it recognises the "name which is above every name," [833] the name of Son, [834] and speaks of true Son, [835] and only begotten God, [836] and Power of God, [837] and Wisdom, [838] and Word. [839] Then again, on account of the divers manners [840] wherein grace is given to us, which, because of the riches of His goodness, [841] according to his manifold [842] wisdom, he bestows on them that need, Scripture designates Him by innumerable other titles, calling Him Shepherd, [843] King, [844] Physician, [845] Bridegroom, [846] Way, [847] Door, [848] Fountain, [849] Bread, [850] Axe, [851] and Rock. [852] And these titles do not set forth His nature, but, as I have remarked, the variety of the effectual working which, out of His tender-heartedness to His own creation, according to the peculiar necessity of each, He bestows upon them that need. Them that have fled for refuge to His ruling care, and through patient endurance have mended their wayward ways, [853] He calls "sheep," and confesses Himself to be, to them that hear His voice and refuse to give heed to strange teaching, a "shepherd." For "my sheep," He says, "hear my voice." To them that have now reached a higher stage and stand in need of righteous royalty, [854] He is a King. And in that, through the straight way of His commandments, He leads men to good actions, and again because He safely shuts in all who through faith in Him betake themselves for shelter to the blessing of the higher wisdom, [855] He is a Door. So He says, "By me if any man enter in, he shall go in and out and shall find pastare." [856] Again, because to the faithful He is a defence strong, unshaken, and harder to break than any bulwark, He is a Rock. Among these titles, it is when He is styled Door, or Way, that the phrase "through Him" is very appropriate and plain. As, however, God and Son, He is glorified with and together with [857] the Father, in that "at, the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." [858] Wherefore we use both terms, expressing by the one His own proper dignity, and by the other His grace to usward. 18. For "through Him" comes every succour to our souls, and it is in accordance with each kind of care that an appropriate title has been devised. So when He presents to Himself the blameless soul, not having spot or wrinkle, [859] like a pure maiden, He is called Bridegroom, but whenever He receives one in sore plight from the devil's evil strokes, healing it in the heavy infirmity of its sins, He is named Physician. And shall this His care for us degrade to meanness our thoughts of Him? Or, on the contrary, shall it smite us with amazement at once at the mighty power and love to man [860] of the Saviour, in that He both endured to suffer with us [861] in our infirmities, and was able to come down to our weakness? For not heaven and earth and the great seas, not the creatures that live in the water and on dry land, not plants, and stars, and air, and seasons, not the vast variety in the order of the universe, [862] so well sets forth the excellency of His might as that God, being incomprehensible, should have been able, impassibly, through flesh, to have come into close conflict with death, to the end that by His own suffering He might give us the boon of freedom from suffering. [863] The apostle, it is true, says, "In all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us." [864] But in a phrase of this kind there is no suggestion of any lowly and subordinate ministry, [865] but rather of the succour rendered "in the power of his might." [866] For He Himself has bound the strong man and spoiled his goods, [867] that is, us men, whom our enemy had abused in every evil activity, and made "vessels meet for the Master's use" [868] us who have been perfected for every work through the making ready of that part of us which is in our own control. [869] Thus we have had our approach to the Father through Him, being translated from "the power of darkness to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." [870] We must not, however, regard the oeconomy [871] through the Son as a compulsory and subordinate ministration resulting from the low estate of a slave, but rather the voluntary solicitude working effectually for His own creation in goodness and in pity, according to the will of God the Father. For we shall be consistent with true religion if in all that was and is from time to time perfected by Him, we both bear witness to the perfection of His power, and in no case put it asunder from the Father's will. For instance, whenever the Lord is called the Way, we are carried on to a higher meaning, and not to that which is derived from the vulgar sense of the word. We understand by Way that advance [872] to perfection which is made stage by stage, and in regular order, through the works of righteousness and "the illumination of knowledge;" [873] ever longing after what is before, and reaching forth unto those things which remain, [874] until we shall have reached the blessed end, the knowledge of God, which the Lord through Himself bestows on them that have trusted in Him. For our Lord is an essentially good Way, where erring and straying are unknown, to that which is essentially good, to the Father. For "no one," He says, "cometh to the Father but ["by" A.V.] through me." [875] Such is our way up to God "through the Son." 19. It will follow that we should next in order point out the character of the provision of blessings bestowed on us by the Father "through him." Inasmuch as all created nature, both this visible world and all that is conceived of in the mind, cannot hold together without the care and providence of God, the Creator Word, the Only begotten God, apportioning His succour according to the measure of the needs of each, distributes mercies various and manifold on account of the many kinds and characters of the recipients of His bounty, but appropriate to the necessities of individual requirements. Those that are confined in the darkness of ignorance He enlightens: for this reason He is true Light. [876] Portioning requital in accordance with the desert of deeds, He judges: for this reason He is righteous Judge. [877] "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son." [878] Those that have lapsed from the lofty height of life into sin He raises from their fall: for this reason He is Resurrection. [879] Effectually working by the touch of His power and the will of His goodness He does all things. He shepherds; He enlightens; He nourishes; He heals; He guides; He raises up; He calls into being things that were not; He upholds what has been created. Thus the good things that come from God reach us "through the Son," who works in each case with greater speed than speech can utter. For not lightnings, not light's course in air, is so swift; not eyes' sharp turn, not the movements of our very thought. Nay, by the divine energy is each one of these in speed further surpassed than is the slowest of all living creatures outdone in motion by birds, or even winds, or the rush of the heavenly bodies: or, not to mention these, by our very thought itself. For what extent of time is needed by Him who "upholds all things by the word of His power," [880] and works not by bodily agency, nor requires the help of hands to form and fashion, but holds in obedient following and unforced consent the nature of all things that are? So as Judith says, "Thou hast thought, and what things thou didst determine were ready at hand." [881] On the other hand, and lest we should ever be drawn away by the greatness of the works wrought to imagine that the Lord is without beginning, [882] what saith the Self-Existent? [883] "I live through [by, A.V.] the Father," [884] and the power of God; "The Son hath power [can, A.V.] to do nothing of himself." [885] And the self-complete Wisdom? I received "a commandment what I should say and what I should speak." [886] Through all these words He is guiding us to the knowledge of the Father, and referring our wonder at all that is brought into existence to Him, to the end that "through Him" we may know the Father. For the Father is not regarded from the difference of the operations, by the exhibition of a separate and peculiar energy; for whatsoever things He sees the Father doing, "these also doeth the Son likewise;" [887] but He enjoys our wonder at all that comes to pass out of the glory which comes to Him from the Only Begotten, rejoicing in the Doer Himself as well as in the greatness of the deeds, and exalted by all who acknowledge Him as Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, "through whom [by whom, A.V.] are all things, and for whom are all things." [888] Wherefore, saith the Lord, "All mine are thine," [889] as though the sovereignty over created things were conferred on Him, and "Thine are mine," as though the creating Cause came thence to Him. We are not to suppose that He used assistance in His action, or yet was entrusted with the ministry of each individual work by detailed commission, a condition distinctly menial and quite inadequate to the divine dignity. Rather was the Word full of His Father's excellences; He shines forth from the Father, and does all things according to the likeness of Him that begat Him. For if in essence He is without variation, so also is He without variation in power. [890] And of those whose power is equal, the operation also is in all ways equal. And Christ is the power of God, and the wisdom of God. [891] And so "all things are made through [by, A.V.] him," [892] and "all things were created through [by, A.V.] him and for him," [893] not in the discharge of any slavish service, but in the fulfilment of the Father's will as Creator. 20. When then He says, "I have not spoken of myself," [894] and again, "As the Father said unto me, so I speak," [895] and "The word which ye hear is not mine, but [the Father's] which sent me," [896] and in another place, "As the Father gave me commandment, even so I do," [897] it is not because He lacks deliberate purpose or power of initiation, nor yet because He has to wait for the preconcerted key-note, that he employs language of this kind. His object is to make it plain that His own will is connected in indissoluble union with the Father. Do not then let us understand by what is called a "commandment" a peremptory mandate delivered by organs of speech, and giving orders to the Son, as to a subordinate, concerning what He ought to do. Let us rather, in a sense befitting the Godhead, perceive a transmission of will, like the reflexion of an object in a mirror, passing without note of time from Father to Son. "For the Father loveth the Son and sheweth him all things," [898] so that "all things that the Father hath" belong to the Son, not gradually accruing to Him little by little, but with Him all together and at once. Among men, the workman who has been thoroughly taught his craft, and, through long training, has sure and established experience in it, is able, in accordance with the scientific methods which now he has in store, to work for the future by himself. And are we to suppose that the wisdom of God, the Maker of all creation, He who is eternally perfect, who is wise, without a teacher, the Power of God, "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge," [899] needs piecemeal instruction to mark out the manner and measure of His operations? I presume that in the vanity of your calculations, you mean to open a school; you will make the one take His seat in the teacher's place, and the other stand by in a scholar's ignorance, gradually learning wisdom and advancing to perfection, by lessons given Him bit by bit. Hence, if you have sense to abide by what logically follows, you will find the Son being eternally taught, nor yet ever able to reach the end of perfection, inasmuch as the wisdom of the Father is infinite, and the end of the infinite is beyond apprehension. It results that whoever refuses to grant that the Son has all things from the beginning will never grant that He will reach perfection. But I am ashamed at the degraded conception to which, by the course of the argument, I have been brought down. Let us therefore revert to the loftier themes of our discussion. 21. "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; [900] not the express image, nor yet the form, for the divine nature does not admit of combination; but the goodness of the will, which, being concurrent with the essence, is beheld as like and equal, or rather the same, in the Father as in the Son. [901] What then is meant by "became subject"? [902] What by "delivered him up for us all"? [903] It is meant that the Son has it of the Father that He works in goodness on behalf of men. But you must hear too the words, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law;" [904] and "while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." [905] Give careful heed, too, to the words of the Lord, and note how, whenever He instructs us about His Father, He is in the habit of using terms of personal authority, saying, "I will; be thou clean;" [906] and "Peace, be still;" [907] and "But I say unto you;" [908] and "Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge thee;" [909] and all other expressions of the same kind, in order that by these we may recognise our Master and Maker, and by the former may be taught the Father of our Master and Creator. [910] Thus on all sides is demonstrated the true doctrine that the fact that the Father creates through the Son neither constitutes the creation of the Father imperfect nor exhibits the active energy of the Son as feeble, but indicates the unity of the will; so the expression "through whom" contains a confession of an antecedent Cause, and is not adopted in objection to the efficient Cause. __________________________________________________________________ [827] Rom. i. 8. [828] Rom. i. 5. [829] Rom. v. 2. [830] Rom. i. 5. [831] Rom. v. 2. [832] cf. Eph. ii. 19. [833] Phil. ii. 9. [834] Two mss., those in the B. Museum and at Vienna, read here Iesou. In Ep. 210. 4, St. Basil writes that the name above every name is auto to kaleisthai auton Uion tou Theou. [835] cf. Matt. xiv. 33, and xxvii. 54. [836] John i. 18. cf. note on p. . [837] 1 Cor. i. 24, and possibly Rom. i. 16, if with D. we read gospel of Christ. [838] 1 Cor. i. 24. [839] e.g., John i. 1. cf. Ps. cvii. 20; Wisdom ix. 1, xviii. 15; Ecclesiasticus xliii. 20. [840] To polutropon. cf. Heb. i. 1. [841] Ton plouton tes agathotetos. cf. Rom. ii. 4, tou ploutou tes chrestotetos. [842] Eph. iii. 10. [843] e.g., John x. 12. [844] e.g., Matt. xxi. 5. [845] e.g., Matt. ix. 12. [846] e.g., Matt. ix. 15. [847] e.g., John xiv. 6. [848] e.g., John x. 9. [849] cf. Rev. xxi. 6. [850] e.g., John vi. 21. [851] cf. Matt. iii. 10. [852] e.g., 1 Cor. x. 4. [853] I translate here the reading of the Parisian Codex called by the Benedictine Editors Regius Secundus, to eumetabolon katorthokotas. The harder reading, to eumetadoton, which may be rendered "have perfected their readiness to distribute," has the best manuscript authority, but it is barely intelligible; and the Benedictine Editors are quite right in calling attention to the fact that the point in question here is not the readiness of the flock to distribute (cf. 1 Tim. vi. 18), but their patient following of their Master. The Benedictine Editors boldly propose to introduce a word of no authority to ametabolon, rendering qui per patientiam animam immutabilem praebuerunt. The reading adopted above is supported by a passage in Ep. 244, where St. Basil is speaking of the waywardness of Eustathius, and seems to fit in best with the application of the passage to the words of our Lord, "have fled for refuge to his ruling care," corresponding with "the sheep follow him, for they know his voice" (St. John x. 4), and "have mended their wayward ways," with "a stranger will they not follow," v. 5. Mr. Johnston, in his valuable note, compares Origen's teaching on the Names of our Lord. [854] So three mss. Others repeat epistasia, translated "ruling care" above. ennomos is used by Plato for "lawful" and "law-abiding." (Legg. 921 C. and Rep. 424 E.) In 1 Cor. ix. 21, A.V. renders "under the law." [855] To tes gnoseos agathon: possibly "the good of knowledge of him." [856] John x. 9. [857] cf. note on page 3, on meta and son. [858] Phil. ii. 10, 11. [859] Eph. v. 29. [860] philanthropia occurs twice in the N.T. (Acts xxviii. 2, and Titus iii. 4) and is in the former passage rendered by A.V. "kindness," in the latter by "love to man." The philanthropia of the Maltese barbarians corresponds with the lower classical sense of kindliness and courtesy. The love of God in Christ to man introduces practically a new connotation to the word and its cognates. [861] Or to sympathize with our infirmities. [862] poikile diakosmesis. diakosmesis was the technical term of the Pythagorean philosophy for the orderly arrangement of the universe (cf. Arist. Metaph. I. v. 2. "he hole diakosmesis); Pythagoras being credited with the first application of the word kosmos to the universe. (Plut. 2, 886 c.) So mundus in Latin, whence Augustine's oxymoron, "O munde immunde!" On the scriptural use of kosmos and aion vide Archbp. Trench's New Testament Synonyms, p. 204. [863] In Hom. on Ps. lxv. Section 5, St. Basil describes the power of God the Word being most distinctly shewn in the oeconomy of the incarnation and His descent to the lowliness and the infirmity of the manhood. cf. Ath. on the Incarnation, sect. 54, "He was made man that we might be made God; and He manifested Himself by a body that we might receive the idea of the unseen Father; and He endured the insolence of men that we might inherit immortality. For while He Himself was in no way injured, being impassible and incorruptible and the very Word and God, men who were suffering, and for whose sakes He endured all this, He maintained and preserved in His own impassibility." [864] Rom. viii. 37. [865] huperesia. Lit. "under-rowing." The cognate huperetes is the word used in Acts xxvi. 16, in the words of the Saviour to St. Paul, "to make thee a minister," and in 1 Cor. iv. 1, "Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ." [866] Eph. vi. 10. [867] cf. Matt. xii. 29. [868] 2 Tim. ii. 21. [869] This passage is difficult to render alike from the variety of readings and the obscurity of each. I have endeavoured to represent the force of the Greek ek tes hetoimasias tou eph' hemin, understanding by "to eph' hemin," practically, "our free will." cf. the enumeration of what is eph' hemin, within our own control, in the Enchiridion of Epicetus, Chap. I. "Within our own control are impulse, desire, inclination." On Is. vi. 8, "Here am I; send me," St. Basil writes, "He did not add `I will go;' for the acceptance of the message is within our control (eph' hemin), but to be made capable of going is of Him that gives the grace, of the enabling God." The Benedictine translation of the text is "per liberi arbitrii nostri praeparationem." But other readings are (i) tes hetoimasias autou, "the preparation which is in our own control;" (ii) tes hetoimasias autou, "His preparation;" and (iii) the Syriac represented by "arbitrio suo." [870] Col. i. 12, 13. [871] cf. note on page 7. [872] prokope: cf. Luke ii. 52, where it is said that our Lord proekopte, i.e., "continued to cut His way forward." [873] 1 Cor. iv. 6, R.V. marg. [874] There seems to be here a recollection, though not a quotation, of Phil. iii. 13. [875] John xiv. 6. [876] John i. 9. [877] 2 Tim. iv. 8. [878] John v. 22. [879] John xi. 25. [880] Heb. i. 3. [881] Judith ix. 5 and 6. [882] anarchos. This word is used in two senses by the Fathers. (i) In the sense of aidios or eternal, it is applied (a) to the Trinity in unity. e.g., Quaest. Misc. v. 442 (Migne Ath. iv. 783), attributed to Athanasius, koinon he ousia; koinon to anarchon. (b) To the Son. e.g., Greg. Naz. Orat. xxix. 490, ean ten apo chronon noes archen kai anarchos ho hui& 232;s, ouk archetai gar apo chronou ho chronon despotes. (ii) In the sense of anaitios, "causeless," "originis principio carens," it is applied to the Father alone, and not to the Son. So Gregory of Nazianzus, in the oration quoted above, ho hui& 232;s, e& 129;n hos aition ton patera lambanes, ouk anarchos, "the Son, if you understand the Father as cause, is not without beginning." arche gar huiou pater hos aitios. "For the Father, as cause, is Beginning of the Son." But, though the Son in this sense was not anarchos, He was said to be begotten anarchos. So Greg. Naz. (Hom. xxxvii. 590) to idion onoma tou anarchos gennethentos, ui& 231;s. Cf. the Letter of Alexander of Alexandria to Alexander of Constantinople. Theod. Ecc. Hist. i. 3. ten anarchon auto para tou patros gennesin anati thentas. cf. Hooker, Ecc. Pol. v. 54. "By the gift of eternal generation Christ hath received of the Father one and in number the self-same substance which the Father hath of himself unreceived from any other. For every beginning is a father unto that which cometh of it; and every offspring is a son unto that out of which it groweth. Seeing, therefore, the Father alone is originally that Deity which Christ originally is not (for Christ is God by being of God, light by issuing out of light), it followeth hereupon that whatsoever Christ hath common unto him with his heavenly Father, the same of necessity must be given him, but naturally and eternally given." So Hillary De Trin. xii. 21. "Ubi auctor eternus est, ibi et nativatis aeternitas est: quia sicut nativitas ab auctore est, ita et ab aeterno auctore aeterna nativitas est." And Augustine De Trin. v. 15, "Naturam praestat filio sine initio generatio." [883] he autozoe. [884] John vi. 57. [885] John v. 19. [886] John xii. 49. [887] John v. 19. [888] Heb. ii. 10. cf. Rom. xi. 36, to which the reading of two manuscripts more distinctly assimilates the citation. The majority of commentators refer Heb. ii. 10, to the Father, but Theodoret understands it of the Son, and the argument of St. Basil necessitates the same application. [889] John xvii. 10. [890] aparallaktos echei. cf. Jas. i. 17. par' o ouk eni parallage. The word aparallaktos was at first used by the Catholic bishops at Nicaea, as implying homoousios. Vide Athan. De Decretis, S: 20, in Wace and Schaff's ed., p. 163. [891] 1 Cor. i. 24. [892] John i. 3. [893] Col. i. 16. [894] John xii. 49. [895] John xii. 50. [896] John xiv. 24. [897] John xiv. 31. [898] John v. 20. [899] Col. ii. 3, A.V. cf. the amendment of R.V., "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden," and Bp. Lightfoot on St. Paul's use of the gnostic term apokruphos [900] John xiv. 9. [901] The argument appears to be not that Christ is not the "express image," or impress of the Father, as He is described in Heb. i. 3, or form, as in Phil. ii. 6, but that this is not the sense in which our Lord's words in St. John xiv. 9, must be understood to describe "seeing the Father." Charakter and morphe are equivalent to he theia phusis, and morphe is used by St. Basil as it is used by St. Paul,--coinciding with, if not following, the usage of the older Greek philosophy,--to mean essential attributes which the Divine Word had before the incarnation (cf. Eustathius in Theod. Dial. II. [Wace and Schaff Ed., p. 203]; "the express image made man,"--ho to pneumati somatopoietheis anthropos charakter.) The divine nature does not admit of combination, in the sense of confusion (cf. the protests of Theodoret in his Dialogues against the confusion of the Godhead and manhood in the Christ), with the human nature in our Lord, and remains invisible. On the word charakter vide Suicer, and on morphe Archbp. Trench's New Testament Synonyms and Bp. Lightfoot on Philippians ii. 6. [902] Phil. ii. 8. [903] Rom. viii. 32. [904] Gal. iii. 13. [905] Rom. v. 8. [906] Matt. viii. 3. [907] Mark iv. 39. [908] Matt. v. 22, etc. [909] Mark ix. 25. [910] There is a difficulty in following the argument in the foregoing quotations. F. Combefis, the French Dominican editor of Basil, would boldly interpose a "not," and read `whenever he does not instruct us concerning the Father.' But there is no ms. authority for this violent remedy. The Benedictine Editors say all is plain if we render "postquam nos de patre erudivit." But the Greek will not admit of this. __________________________________________________________________ Chapter IX. Definitive conceptions about the Spirit which conform to the teaching of the Scriptures. 22. Let us now investigate what are our common conceptions concerning the Spirit, as well those which have been gathered by us from Holy Scripture concerning It as those which we have received from the unwritten tradition of the Fathers. First of all we ask, who on hearing the titles of the Spirit is not lifted up in soul, who does not raise his conception to the supreme nature? It is called "Spirit of God," [911] "Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father," [912] "right Spirit," [913] "a leading Spirit." [914] Its [915] proper and peculiar title is "Holy Spirit;" which is a name specially appropriate to everything that is incorporeal, purely immaterial, and indivisible. So our Lord, when teaching the woman who thought God to be an object of local worship that the incorporeal is incomprehensible, said "God is a spirit." [916] On our hearing, then, of a spirit, it is impossible to form the idea of a nature circumscribed, subject to change and variation, or at all like the creature. We are compelled to advance in our conceptions to the highest, and to think of an intelligent essence, in power infinite, in magnitude unlimited, unmeasured by times or ages, generous of Its good gifts, to whom turn all things needing sanctification, after whom reach all things that live in virtue, as being watered by Its inspiration and helped on toward their natural and proper end; perfecting all other things, but Itself in nothing lacking; living not as needing restoration, but as Supplier of life; not growing by additions; but straightway full, self-established, omnipresent, origin of sanctification, light perceptible to the mind, supplying, as it were, through Itself, illumination to every faculty in the search for truth; by nature unapproachable, apprehended by reason of goodness, filling all things with Its power, [917] but communicated only to the worthy; not shared in one measure, but distributing Its energy according to "the proportion of faith;" [918] in essence simple, in powers various, wholly present in each and being wholly everywhere; impassively divided, shared without loss of ceasing to be entire, after the likeness of the sunbeam, whose kindly light falls on him who enjoys it as though it shone for him alone, yet illumines land and sea and mingles with the air. So, too, is the Spirit to every one who receives it, as though given to him alone, and yet It sends forth grace sufficient and full for all mankind, and is enjoyed by all who share It, according to the capacity, not of Its power, but of their nature. 23. Now the Spirit is not brought into intimate association with the soul by local approximation. How indeed could there be a corporeal approach to the incorporeal? This association results from the withdrawal of the passions which, coming afterwards gradually on the soul from its friendship to the flesh, have alienated it from its close relationship with God. Only then after a man is purified from the shame whose stain he took through his wickedness, and has come back again to his natural beauty, and as it were cleaning the Royal Image and restoring its ancient form, only thus is it possible for him to draw near to the Paraclete. [919] And He, like the sun, will by the aid of thy purified eye show thee in Himself the image of the invisible, and in the blessed spectacle of the image thou shalt behold the unspeakable beauty of the archetype. [920] Through His aid hearts are lifted up, the weak are held by the hand, and they who are advancing are brought to perfection. [921] Shining upon those that are cleansed from every spot, He makes them spiritual by fellowship with Himself. Just as when a sunbeam falls on bright and transparent bodies, they themselves become brilliant too, and shed forth a fresh brightness from themselves, so souls wherein the Spirit dwells, illuminated by the Spirit, themselves become spiritual, and send forth their grace to others. Hence comes foreknowledge of the future, understanding of mysteries, apprehension of what is hidden, distribution of good gifts, the heavenly citizenship, a place in the chorus of angels, joy without end, abiding in God, the being made like to God, and, highest of all, the being made God. [922] Such, then, to instance a few out of many, are the conceptions concerning the Holy Spirit, which we have been taught to hold concerning His greatness, His dignity, and His operations, by the oracles [923] of the Spirit themselves. __________________________________________________________________ [911] Matt. xii. 28, etc. [912] John xv. 26. [913] Ps. li. 10. [914] Ps. li. 12, lxx. R.V. and A.V., "free spirit." [915] It will be remembered that in the Nicene Creed "the Lord and Giver of life" is to kurion to zoopoion In A.V. we have both he (John xv. 26, ekeinos) and it (Rom. viii. 16, auto to pneuma). [916] John iv. 24. [917] cf. Wisdom i. 7. [918] Rom. xii. 6. [919] cf. Theodoret, Dial. i. p. 164, Schaff and Wace's ed. "Sin is not of nature, but of corrupt will." So the ninth article of the English Church describes it as not the nature, but the "fault and corruption of the nature, of every man." On the figure of the restored picture cf. Ath. de Incar. S: 14, and Theod. Dial. ii. p. 183. [920] cf. Ep. 236. "Our mind enlightened by the Spirit, looks toward the Son, and in Him, as in an image, contemplates the Father." There seems at first sight some confusion in the text between the "Royal Image" in us and Christ as the image of God; but it is in proportion as we are like Christ that we see God in Christ. It is the "pure in heart" who "see God." [921] "Proficientes perficiuntur." Ben. Ed. [922] Theon genesthai. The thought has its most famous expression in Ath. de Incar. S: 54. He was made man that we might be made God--Theopoiethomen. cf. De Decretis, S: 14, and other passages of Ath. Irenaeus (Adv. Haer. iv. 38 [lxxv.]) writes "non ab initio dii facti sumus, sed primo quidem homines, tunc demum dii." "Secundum enim benignitatem suam bene dedit bonum, et similes sibi suae potestatis homines fecit;" and Origen (contra Celsum, iii. 28), "That the human nature by fellowship with the more divine might be made divine, not in Jesus only, but also in all those who with faith take up the life which Jesus taught;" and Greg. Naz. Or. xxx. S: 14, "Till by the power of the incarnation he make me God." In Basil adv. Eunom. ii. 4. we have, "They who are perfect in virtue are deemed worthy of the title of God." cf. 2 Pet. i. 4: "That ye might be partakers of the divine nature." [923] hup' auton ton logion tou pneumatos. St. Basil is as unconscious as other early Fathers of the limitation of the word logia to "discourses." Vide Salmon's Int. to the N.T. Ed. iv. p. 95. __________________________________________________________________ Chapter X. Against those who say that it is not right to rank the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son. 24. But we must proceed to attack our opponents, in the endeavour to confute those "oppositions" advanced against us which are derived from "knowledge falsely so-called." [924] It is not permissible, they assert, for the Holy Spirit to be ranked with the Father and Son, on account of the difference of His nature and the inferiority of His dignity. Against them it is right to reply in the words of the apostles, "We ought to obey God rather than men." [925] For if our Lord, when enjoining the baptism of salvation, charged His disciples to baptize all nations in the name "of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost," [926] not disdaining fellowship with Him, and these men allege that we must not rank Him with the Father and the Son, is it not clear that they openly withstand the commandment of God? If they deny that coordination of this kind is declaratory of any fellowship and conjunction, let them tell us why it behoves us to hold this opinion, and what more intimate mode of conjunction [927] they have. If the Lord did not indeed conjoin the Spirit with the Father and Himself in baptism, do not [928] let them lay the blame of conjunction upon us, for we neither hold nor say anything different. If on the contrary the Spirit is there conjoined with the Father and the Son, and no one is so shameless as to say anything else, then let them not lay blame on us for following the words of Scripture. 25. But all the apparatus of war has been got ready against us; every intellectual missile is aimed at us; and now blasphemers' tongues shoot and hit and hit again, yet harder than Stephen of old was smitten by the killers of the Christ. [929] And do not let them succeed in concealing the fact that, while an attack on us serves for a pretext for the war, the real aim of these proceedings is higher. It is against us, they say, that they are preparing their engines and their snares; against us that they are shouting to one another, according to each one's strength or cunning, to come on. But the object of attack is faith. The one aim of the whole band of opponents and enemies of "sound doctrine" [930] is to shake down the foundation of the faith of Christ by levelling apostolic tradition with the ground, and utterly destroying it. So like the debtors,--of course bona fide debtors--they clamour for written proof, and reject as worthless the unwritten tradition of the Fathers. [931] But we will not slacken in our defence of the truth. We will not cowardly abandon the cause. The Lord has delivered to us as a necessary and saving doctrine that the Holy Spirit is to be ranked with the Father. Our opponents think differently, and see fit to divide and rend [932] asunder, and relegate Him to the nature of a ministering spirit. Is it not then indisputable that they make their own blasphemy more authoritative than the law prescribed by the Lord? Come, then, set aside mere contention. Let us consider the points before us, as follows: 26. Whence is it that we are Christians? Through our faith, would be the universal answer. And in what way are we saved? Plainly because we were regenerate through the grace given in our baptism. How else could we be? And after recognising that this salvation is established through the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, shall we fling away "that form of doctrine" [933] which we received? Would it not rather be ground for great groaning if we are found now further off from our salvation "than when we first believed," [934] and deny now what we then received? Whether a man have departed this life without baptism, or have received a baptism lacking in some of the requirements of the tradition, his loss is equal. [935] And whoever does not always and everywhere keep to and hold fast as a sure protection the confession which we recorded at our first admission, when, being delivered "from the idols," we came "to the living God," [936] constitutes himself a "stranger" from the "promises" [937] of God, fighting against his own handwriting, [938] which he put on record when he professed the faith. For if to me my baptism was the beginning of life, and that day of regeneration the first of days, it is plain that the utterance uttered in the grace of adoption was the most honourable of all. Can I then, perverted by these men's seductive words, abandon the tradition which guided me to the light, which bestowed on me the boon of the knowledge of God, whereby I, so long a foe by reason of sin, was made a child of God? But, for myself, I pray that with this confession I may depart hence to the Lord, and them I charge to preserve the faith secure until the day of Christ, and to keep the Spirit undivided from the Father and the Son, preserving, both in the confession of faith and in the doxology, the doctrine taught them at their baptism. __________________________________________________________________ [924] 1 Tim. vi. 20. The intellectual championship of Basil was chiefly asserted in the vindication of the consubstantiality of the Spirit, against the Arians and Semi-Arians, of whom Euonomius and Macedonius were leaders, the latter giving his name to the party who were unsound on the third Person of the Trinity, and were Macedonians as well as Pneumatomachi. But even among the maintainers of the Nicene confession there was much less clear apprehension of the nature and work of the Spirit than of the Son. Even so late as 380, the year after St. Basil's death, Gregory of Nazianzus, Orat. xxxi. de Spiritu Sancto, Cap. 5, wrote "of the wise on our side some held it to be an energy, some a creature, some God. Others, from respect, they say, to Holy Scripture, which lays down no law on the subject, neither worship nor dishonour the Holy Spirit." cf. Schaff's Hist. of Christian Ch. III. Period, Sec. 128. In Letter cxxv. of St. Basil will be found a summary of the heresies with which he credited the Arians, submitted to Eusthathius of Sebaste in 373, shortly before the composition of the present treatise for Amphilochius. [925] Acts v. 29. [926] Matt. xxviii. 19. [927] The word used is sunapheia, a crucial word in the controversy concerning the union of the divine and human natures in our Lord, cf. the third Anathema of Cyril against Nestorius and the use of this word, and Theodoret's counter statement (Theod. pp. 25, 27). Theodore of Mopsuestia had preferred sunapheia to henosis; Andrew of Samosata saw no difference between them. Athanasius (de Sent. Dionys. S: 17) employs it for the mutual relationship of the Persons in the Holy Trinity: "prokatarktikon gar esti tes sunapheias to onoma." [928] mede. The note of the Ben. Eds. is, "this reading, followed by Erasmus, stirs the wrath of Combefis, who would read, as is found in four mss., tote hemin, `then let them lay the blame on us.' But he is quite unfair to Erasmus, who has more clearly apprehended the drift of the argument. Basil brings his opponents to the dilemma that the words `In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost' either do or do not assert a conjunction with the Father and the Son. If not, Basil ought not to be found fault with on the score of `conjunction,' for he abides by the words of Scripture, and conjunction no more follows from his words than from those of our Lord. If they do, he cannot be found fault with for following the words of Scripture. The attentive reader will see this to be the meaning of Basil, and the received reading ought to be retained." [929] Christophonoi. The compound occurs in Ps. Ignat. ad Philad. vi. [930] 1 Tim. i. 10. [931] Mr. Johnston sees here a reference to the parable of the unjust steward, and appositely quotes Greg. Naz. Orat. xxxi, S: 3, on the heretics' use of Scripture, "They find a cloak for their impiety in their affection for Scripture." The Arians at Nicaea objected to the homoousion as unscriptural. [932] cf. Ep. cxx. 5. [933] Rom. vi. 17. [934] Rom. xiii. 11, R.V. [935] The question is whether the baptism has been solemnized, according to the divine command, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. St. Cyprian in his controversy with Stephen, Bp. of Rome, represented the sterner view that heretical baptism was invalid. But, with some exceptions in the East, the position ultimately prevailed that baptism with water, and in the prescribed words, by whomsoever administered, was valid. So St. Augustine, "Si evangelicus verbis in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti Marcion baptismum consecrabat, integrum erat Sacramentum, quamvis ejus fides sub eisdem verbis aliud opinantis quam catholica veritas docet non esset integra." (Cont. Petil. de unico bapt. S: 3.) So the VIII. Canon of Arles (314), "De Afris, quod propria lege sua utuntur ut rebaptizent, placuit, ut, si ad ecclesiam aliquis de haeresi venerit, interrogent eum symbolum; et si perviderint eum in Patre, et Filio et Spiritu Sancto, esse baptizatum, manus ei tantum imponantur, ut accipiat spiritum sanctum. Quod si interrogatus non responderit hanc Trinitatem, baptizetur." So the VII. Canon of Constantinople (381) by which the Eunomians who only baptized with one immersion, and the Montanists, here called Phrygians, and the Sabellians, who taught the doctrine of the Fatherhood of the Son, were counted as heathen. Vide Bright's notes on the Canons of the Councils, p. 106. Socrates, v. 24, describes how the Eunomi-Eutychians baptized not in the name of the Trinity, but into the death of Christ. [936] 1 Thess. i. 9. [937] Eph. ii. 12. [938] The word cheirographon, more common in Latin than in Greek, is used generally for a bond. cf. Juv. Sat. xvi. 41, "Debitor aut sumptos pergit non reddere nummos, vana supervacui dicens chirographa ligni." On the use of the word, vide Bp. Lightfoot on Col. ii. 14. The names of the catechumens were registered, and the Renunciation and Profession of Faith (Interrogationes et Responsa; eperoteseis kai apokriseis) may have been signed. __________________________________________________________________ Chapter XI. That they who deny the Spirit are transgressors. 27. "Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow?" [939] For whom is distress and darkness? For whom eternal doom? Is it not for the transgressors? For them that deny the faith? And what is the proof of their denial? Is it not that they have set at naught their own confessions? And when and what did they confess? Belief in the Father and in the Son and in the Holy Ghost, when they renounced the devil and his angels, and uttered those saving words. What fit title then for them has been discovered, for the children of light to use? Are they not addressed as transgressors, as having violated the covenant of their salvation? What am I to call the denial of God? What the denial of Christ? What but transgressions? And to him who denies the Spirit, what title do you wish me to apply? Must it not be the same, inasmuch as he has broken his covenant with God? And when the confession of faith in Him secures the blessing of true religion. and its denial subjects men to the doom of godlessness, is it not a fearful thing for them to set the confession at naught, not through fear of fire, or sword, or cross, or scourge, or wheel, or rack, but merely led astray by the sophistry and seductions of the pneumatomachi? I testify to every man who is confessing Christ and denying God, that Christ will profit him nothing; [940] to every man that calls upon God but rejects the Son, that his faith is vain; [941] to every man that sets aside the Spirit, that his faith in the Father and the Son will be useless, for he cannot even hold it without the presence of the Spirit. For he who does not believe the Spirit does not believe in the Son, and he who has not believed in the Son does not believe in the Father. For none "can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost," [942] and "No man hath seen God at any time, but the only begotten God which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." [943] Such an one hath neither part nor lot in the true worship; for it is impossible to worship the Son, save by the Holy Ghost; impossible to call upon the Father, save by the Spirit of adoption. __________________________________________________________________ [939] Prov. xxiii. 29. [940] cf. Gal. v. 2. [941] cf. 1 Cor. xv. 17. [942] 1 Cor. xii. 3. [943] John i. 18. On the reading "only begotten God" cf. note on p. 9. In this passage in St. Basil "God" is the reading of three mss. at Paris, that at Moscow, that at the Bodleian, and that at Vienna. "Son" is read by Regius III., Regius I., Regius IV., and Regius V. in Paris, the three last being all of the 14th century, the one in the British Museum, and another in the Imperial Library at Vienna, which generally agrees with our own in the Museum. __________________________________________________________________ Chapter XII. Against those who assert that the baptism in the name of the Father alone is sufficient. 28. Let no one be misled by the fact of the apostle's frequently omitting the name of the Father and of the Holy Spirit when making mention of baptism, or on this account imagine that the invocation of the names is not observed. "As many of you," he says, "as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ;" [944] and again, "As many of you as were baptized into Christ were baptized into his death." [945] For the naming of Christ is the confession of the whole, [946] shewing forth as it does the God who gave, the Son who received, and the Spirit who is, the unction. [947] So we have learned from Peter, in the Acts, of "Jesus of Nazareth whom God anointed with the Holy Ghost;" [948] and in Isaiah, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me;" [949] and the Psalmist, "Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." [950] Scripture, however, in the case of baptism, sometimes plainly mentions the Spirit alone. [951] "For into one Spirit," [952] it says, "we were all baptized in [953] one body." [954] And in harmony with this are the passages: "You shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost," [955] and "He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost." [956] But no one on this account would be justified in calling that baptism a perfect baptism wherein only the name of the Spirit was invoked. For the tradition that has been given us by the quickening grace must remain for ever inviolate. He who redeemed our life from destruction [957] gave us power of renewal, whereof the cause is ineffable and hidden in mystery, but bringing great salvation to our souls, so that to add or to take away anything [958] involves manifestly a falling away from the life everlasting. If then in baptism the separation of the Spirit from the Father and the Son is perilous to the baptizer, and of no advantage to the baptized, how can the rending asunder of the Spirit from Father and from Son be safe for us? [959] Faith and baptism are two kindred and inseparable ways of salvation: faith is perfected through baptism, baptism is established through faith, and both are completed by the same names. For as we believe in the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, so are we also baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; first comes the confession, introducing us to salvation, and baptism follows, setting the seal upon our assent. __________________________________________________________________ [944] Gal. iii. 27, R.V. [945] Rom. vi. 3, with change to 2d person. [946] cf. note on p. 17. [947] "he tou Christou prosegoria ...deloi ton te Chrisanta Theon kai ton Christhenta Hui& 232;n kai to Chrisma to Pneuma." [948] Acts x. 38. [949] Is. lx. 1. [950] Ps. xlv. 7. [951] No subject occurs in the original, but "Scripture" seems better than "the Apostle" of the Bened. Tr. "Videtur fecisse mentionem," moreover, is not the Latin for phainetai mnemoneusas, but for phainetai mnemoneusai. [952] Sic. [953] Sic. [954] 1 Cor. xii. 13, loosely quoted. [955] Acts i. 5. [956] Luke iii. 16. [957] cf. Ps. ciii. 4. [958] cf. Deut. iv. 2, and Rev. xxi. 18, 19. [959] cf. note on p. 17. __________________________________________________________________ Chapter XIII. Statement of the reason why in the writings of Paul the angels are associated with the Father and the Son. 29. It is, however, objected that other beings which are enumerated with the Father and the Son are certainly not always glorified together with them. The apostle, for instance, in his charge to Timothy, associates the angels with them in the words, "I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels." [960] We are not for alienating the angels from the rest of creation, and yet, it is argued, we do not allow of their being reckoned with the Father and the Son. To this I reply, although the argument, so obviously absurd is it, does not really deserve a reply, that possibly before a mild and gentle judge, and especially before One who by His leniency to those arraigned before Him demonstrates the unimpeachable equity of His decisions, one might be willing to offer as witness even a fellow-slave; but for a slave to be made free and called a son of God and quickened from death can only be brought about by Him who has acquired natural kinship with us, and has been changed from the rank of a slave. For how can we be made kin with God by one who is an alien? How can we be freed by one who is himself under the yoke of slavery? It follows that the mention of the Spirit and that of angels are not made under like conditions. The Spirit is called on as Lord of life, and the angels as allies of their fellow-slaves and faithful witnesses of the truth. It is customary for the saints to deliver the commandments of God in the presence of witnesses, as also the apostle himself says to Timothy, "The things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men;" [961] and now he calls the angels to witness, for he knows that angels shall be present with the Lord when He shall come in the glory of His Father to judge the world in righteousness. For He says, "Whoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of Man also confess before the angels of God, but he that denieth Me before men shall be denied before the angels of God;" [962] and Paul in another place says, "When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his angels." [963] Thus he already testifies before the angels, preparing good proofs for himself at the great tribunal. 30. And not only Paul, but generally all those to whom is committed any ministry of the word, never cease from testifying, but call heaven and earth to witness on the ground that now every deed that is done is done within them, and that in the examination of all the actions of life they will be present with the judged. So it is said, "He shall call to the heavens above and to earth, that he may judge his people." [964] And so Moses when about to deliver his oracles to the people says, "I call heaven and earth to witness this day;" [965] and again in his song he says, "Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak, and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth;" [966] and Isaiah, "Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth;" [967] and Jeremiah describes astonishment in heaven at the tidings of the unholy deeds of the people: "The heaven was astonished at this, and was horribly afraid, because my people committed two evils." [968] And so the apostle, knowing the angels to be set over men as tutors and guardians, calls them to witness. Moreover, Joshua, the son of Nun, even set up a stone as witness of his words (already a heap somewhere had been called a witness by Jacob), [969] for he says, "Behold this stone shall be a witness unto you this day to the end of days, when ye lie to the Lord our God," [970] perhaps believing that by God's power even the stones would speak to the conviction of the transgressors; or, if not, that at least each man's conscience would be wounded by the force of the reminder. In this manner they who have been entrusted with the stewardship of souls provide witnesses, whatever they may be, so as to produce them at some future day. But the Spirit is ranked together with God, not on account of the emergency of the moment, but on account of the natural fellowship; is not dragged in by us, but invited by the Lord. __________________________________________________________________ [960] 1 Tim. v. 21. [961] 2 Tim. ii. 2. [962] Luke xii. 8, 9. [963] 2 Thess. i. 7. [964] Ps. l. 4. [965] Deut. iv. 26. [966] Deut. xxxii. 1. [967] Isa. i. 2. [968] Jer. ii. 12, 13, lxx. [969] Gen. xxxi. 47. [970] Josh. xxiv. 27, lxx. __________________________________________________________________ Chapter XIV. Objection that some were baptized unto Moses and believed in him, and an answer to it; with remarks upon types. 31. But even if some are baptized unto the Spirit, it is not, it is urged, on this account right for the Spirit to be ranked with God. Some "were baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea." [971] And it is admitted that faith even before now has been put in men; for "The people believed God and his servant Moses." [972] Why then, it is asked, do we, on account of faith and of baptism, exalt and magnify the Holy Spirit so far above creation, when there is evidence that the same things have before now been said of men? What, then, shall we reply? Our answer is that the faith in the Spirit is the same as the faith in the Father and the Son; and in like manner, too, the baptism. But the faith in Moses and in the cloud is, as it were, in a shadow and type. The nature of the divine is very frequently represented by the rough and shadowy outlines [973] of the types; but because divine things are prefigured by small and human things, it is obvious that we must not therefore conclude the divine nature to be small. The type is an exhibition of things expected, and gives an imitative anticipation of the future. So Adam was a type of "Him that was to come." [974] Typically, "That rock was Christ;" [975] and the water a type of the living power of the word; as He says, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink." [976] The manna is a type of the living bread that came down from heaven; [977] and the serpent on the standard, [978] of the passion of salvation accomplished by means of the cross, wherefore they who even looked thereon were preserved. So in like manner, the history of the exodus of Israel is recorded to shew forth those who are being saved through baptism. For the firstborn of the Israelites were preserved, like the bodies of the baptized, by the giving of grace to them that were marked with blood. For the blood of the sheep is a type of the blood of Christ; and the firstborn, a type of the first-formed. And inasmuch as the first-formed of necessity exists in us, and, in sequence of succession, is transmitted till the end, it follows that "in Adam" we "all die," [979] and that "death reigned" [980] until the fulfilling of the law and the coming of Christ. And the firstborn were preserved by God from being touched by the destroyer, to show that we who were made alive in Christ no longer die in Adam. The sea and the cloud for the time being led on through amazement to faith, but for the time to come they typically prefigured the grace to be. "Who is wise and he shall understand these things?" [981] --how the sea is typically a baptism bringing about the departure of Pharaoh, in like manner as this washing causes the departure of the tyranny of the devil. The sea slew the enemy in itself: and in baptism too dies our enmity towards God. From the sea the people came out unharmed: we too, as it were, alive from the dead, step up from the water "saved" by the "grace" of Him who called us. [982] And the cloud is a shadow of the gift of the Spirit, who cools the flame of our passions by the "mortification" of our "members." [983] 32. What then? Because they were typically baptized unto Moses, is the grace of baptism therefore small? Were it so, and if we were in each case to prejudice the dignity of our privileges by comparing them with their types, not even one of these privileges could be reckoned great; then not the love of God, who gave His only begotten Son for our sins, would be great and extraordinary, because Abraham did not spare his own son; [984] then even the passion of the Lord would not be glorious, because a sheep typified the offering instead of Isaac; then the descent into hell was not fearful, because Jonah had previously typified the death in three days and three nights. The same prejudicial comparison is made also in the case of baptism by all who judge of the reality by the shadow, and, comparing the typified with the type, attempt by means of Moses and the sea to disparage at once the whole dispensation of the Gospel. What remission of sins, what renewal of life, is there in the sea? What spiritual gift is there through Moses? What dying [985] of sins is there? Those men did not die with Christ; wherefore they were not raised with Him. [986] They did not "bear the image of the heavenly;" [987] they did "bear about in the body the dying of Jesus;" [988] they did not "put off the old man;" they did not "put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him which created him." [989] Why then do you compare baptisms which have only the name in common, while the distinction between the things themselves is as great as might be that of dream and reality, that of shadow and figures with substantial existence? 33. But belief in Moses not only does not show our belief in the Spirit to be worthless, but, if we adopt our opponents' line of argument, it rather weakens our confession in the God of the universe. "The people," it is written, "believed the Lord and his servant Moses." [990] Moses then is joined with God, not with the Spirit; and he was a type not of the Spirit, but of Christ. For at that time in the ministry of the law, he by means of himself typified "the Mediator between God and men." [991] Moses, when mediating for the people in things pertaining to God, was not a minister of the Spirit; for the law was given, "ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator," [992] namely Moses, in accordance with the summons of the people, "Speak thou with us,...but let not God speak with us." [993] Thus faith in Moses is referred to the Lord, the Mediator between God and men, who said, "Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me." [994] Is then our faith in the Lord a trifle, because it was signified beforehand through Moses? So then, even if men were baptized unto Moses, it does not follow that the grace given of the Spirit in baptism is small. I may point out, too, that it is usual in Scripture to say Moses and the law, [995] as in the passage, "They have Moses and the prophets." [996] When therefore it is meant to speak of the baptism of the law, the words are, "They were baptized unto Moses." [997] Why then do these calumniators of the truth, by means of the shadow and the types, endeavour to bring contempt and ridicule on the "rejoicing" of our "hope," [998] and the rich gift of our God and Saviour, who through regeneration renews our youth like the eagle's? [999] Surely it is altogether childish, and like a babe who must needs be fed on milk, [1000] to be ignorant of the great mystery of our salvation; inasmuch as, in accordance with the gradual progress of our education, while being brought to perfection in our training for godliness, [1001] we were first taught elementary and easier lessons, suited to our intelligence, while the Dispenser of our lots was ever leading us up, by gradually accustoming us, like eyes brought up in the dark, to the great light of truth. For He spares our weakness, and in the depth of the riches [1002] of His wisdom, and the inscrutable judgments of His intelligence, used this gentle treatment, fitted for our needs, gradually accustoming us to see first the shadows of objects, and to look at the sun in water, to save us from dashing against the spectacle of pure unadulterated light, and being blinded. Just so the Law, having a shadow of things to come, and the typical teaching of the prophets, which is a dark utterance of the truth, have been devised means to train the eyes of the heart, in that hence the transition to the wisdom hidden in mystery [1003] will be made easy. Enough so far concerning types; nor indeed would it be possible to linger longer on this topic, or the incidental discussion would become many times bulkier than the main argument. __________________________________________________________________ [971] 1 Cor. x. 2. [972] Ex. xiv. 31, lxx. [973] skiagraphia, or shade-painting, is illusory scene-painting. Plato (Crit. 107 c.) calls it "indistinct and deceptive." cf. Ar. Eth. Nic. i. 3, 4, "pachulos kai en tupo." The tupos gives the general design, not an exact anticipation. [974] Rom. v. 14. [975] 1 Cor. x. 4. [976] John vii. 37. [977] John vi. 49, 51. [978] semeion, as in the LXX. cf. Numb. xxi. 9 and John iii. 14. [979] 1 Cor. xv. 22. [980] Rom. v. 17. [981] Hos. xiv. 9. [982] Eph. ii. 5. [983] Col. iii. 5. [984] cf. Rom. viii. 32. [985] nekrosis. A.V. in 2 Cor. iv. 10, "dying," Rom. iv. 19, "deadness." [986] cf. Rom. vi. 8. [987] 1 Cor. xv. 49. [988] 2 Cor. iv. 10. [989] Col. iii. 9, 10. [990] Ex. xiv. 31. [991] 1 Tim. ii. 5. [992] Gal. iii. 19. [993] Ex. xx. 19. [994] John v. 46. [995] i.e., to mean by "Moses," the law. [996] Luke xvi. 29. [997] 1 Cor. x. 2. [998] Heb. iii. 6. [999] cf. Ps. ciii. 5. [1000] cf. Heb. v. 12. [1001] cf. 1 Tim. iv. 7. [1002] Rom. xi. 33. [1003] 1 Cor. ii. 7. __________________________________________________________________ Chapter XV. Reply to the suggested objection that we are baptized "into water." Also concerning baptism. 34. What more? Verily, our opponents are well equipped with arguments. We are baptized, they urge, into water, and of course we shall not honour the water above all creation, or give it a share of the honour of the Father and of the Son. The arguments of these men are such as might be expected from angry disputants, leaving no means untried in their attack on him who has offended them, because their reason is clouded over by their feelings. We will not, however, shrink from the discussion even of these points. If we do not teach the ignorant, at least we shall not turn away before evil doers. But let us for a moment retrace our steps. 35. The dispensation of our God and Saviour concerning man is a recall from the fall and a return from the alienation caused by disobedience to close communion with God. This is the reason for the sojourn of Christ in the flesh, the pattern life described in the Gospels, the sufferings, the cross, the tomb, the resurrection; so that the man who is being saved through imitation of Christ receives that old adoption. For perfection of life the imitation of Christ is necessary, not only in the example of gentleness, [1004] lowliness, and long suffering set us in His life, but also of His actual death. So Paul, the imitator of Christ, [1005] says, "being made conformable unto his death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead." [1006] How then are we made in the likeness of His death? [1007] In that we were buried [1008] with Him by baptism. What then is the manner of the burial? And what is the advantage resulting from the imitation? First of all, it is necessary that the continuity of the old life be cut. And this is impossible less a man be born again, according to the Lord's word; [1009] for the regeneration, as indeed the name shews, is a beginning of a second life. So before beginning the second, it is necessary to put an end to the first. For just as in the case of runners who turn and take the second course, [1010] a kind of halt and pause intervenes between the movements in the opposite direction, so also in making a change in lives it seemed necessary for death to come as mediator between the two, ending all that goes before, and beginning all that comes after. How then do we achieve the descent into hell? By imitating, through baptism, the burial of Christ. For the bodies of the baptized are, as it were, buried in the water. Baptism then symbolically signifies the putting off of the works of the flesh; as the apostle says, ye were "circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ; buried with him in baptism." [1011] And there is, as it were, a cleansing of the soul from the filth [1012] that has grown on it from the carnal mind, [1013] as it is written, "Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow." [1014] On this account we do not, as is the fashion of the Jews, wash ourselves at each defilement, but own the baptism of salvation [1015] to be one. [1016] For there the death on behalf of the world is one, and one the resurrection of the dead, whereof baptism is a type. For this cause the Lord, who is the Dispenser of our life, gave us the covenant of baptism, containing a type of life and death, for the water fulfils the image of death, and the Spirit gives us the earnest of life. Hence it follows that the answer to our question why the water was associated with the Spirit [1017] is clear: the reason is because in baptism two ends were proposed; on the one hand, the destroying of the body of sin, [1018] that it may never bear fruit unto death; [1019] on the other hand, our living unto the Spirit, [1020] and having our fruit in holiness; [1021] the water receiving the body as in a tomb figures death, while the Spirit pours in the quickening power, renewing our souls from the deadness of sin unto their original life. This then is what it is to be born again of water and of the Spirit, the being made dead being effected in the water, while our life is wrought in us through the Spirit. In three immersions, [1022] then, and with three invocations, the great mystery of baptism is performed, to the end that the type of death may be fully figured, and that by the tradition of the divine knowledge the baptized may have their souls enlightened. It follows that if there is any grace in the water, it is not of the nature of the water, but of the presence of the Spirit. For baptism is "not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards God." [1023] So in training us for the life that follows on the resurrection the Lord sets out all the manner of life required by the Gospel, laying down for us the law of gentleness, of endurance of wrong, of freedom from the defilement that comes of the love of pleasure, and from covetousness, to the end that we may of set purpose win beforehand and achieve all that the life to come of its inherent nature possesses. If therefore any one in attempting a definition were to describe the gospel as a forecast of the life that follows on the resurrection, he would not seem to me to go beyond what is meet and right. Let us now return to our main topic. 36. Through the Holy Spirit comes our restoration to paradise, our ascension into the kingdom of heaven, our return to the adoption of sons, our liberty to call God our Father, our being made partakers of the grace of Christ, our being called children of light, our sharing in eternal glory, and, in a word, our being brought into a state of all "fulness of blessing," [1024] both in this world and in the world to come, of all the good gifts that are in store for us, by promise hereof, through faith, beholding the reflection of their grace as though they were already present, we await the full enjoyment. If such is the earnest, what the perfection? If such the first fruits, what the complete fulfilment? Furthermore, from this too may be apprehended the difference between the grace that comes from the Spirit and the baptism by water: in that John indeed baptized with water, but our Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost. "I indeed," he says, "baptize you with water unto repentance; but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." [1025] Here He calls the trial at the judgment the baptism of fire, as the apostle says, "The fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is." [1026] And again, "The day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire." [1027] And ere now there have been some who in their championship of true religion have undergone the death for Christ's sake, not in mere similitude, but in actual fact, and so have needed none of the outward signs of water for their salvation, because they were baptized in their own blood. [1028] Thus I write not to disparage the baptism by water, but to overthrow the arguments [1029] of those who exalt themselves against the Spirit; who confound things that are distinct from one another, and compare those which admit of no comparison. __________________________________________________________________ [1004] aorgesia in Arist. Eth. iv. 5, 5, is the defect where meekness (praotes) is the mean. In Plutarch, who wrote a short treatise on it, it is a virtue. In Mark iii. 5, Jesus looked round on them "with anger," met' orges, but in Matt. xi. 29, He calls Himself praos. [1005] cf. 1 Cor. xi. 1. [1006] Phil. iii. 10, 11. [1007] Rom. vi. 4, 5. [1008] A.V., "are buried." Grk. and R.V., "were buried." [1009] John iii. 3. [1010] In the double course (diaulos) the runner turned (kampto) the post at the end of the stadium. So "kampsai diaulon thateron kolon palin" in AEsch. Ag. 335, for retracing one's steps another way. [1011] Col. ii. 11, 12. [1012] cf. 1 Pet. iii. 21. [1013] to sarkikon phronema. cf. the phronema tes sarkos of Rom. viii. 6. cf. Article ix. [1014] Ps. li. 9. [1015] cf. 1 Pet. iii. 21. [1016] cf. Eph. iv. 5. [1017] cf. John iii. 5. [1018] cf. Rom. vi. 6. [1019] cf. Rom. vii. 5. [1020] cf. Gal. v. 25. [1021] cf. Rom. vi. 22. [1022] Trine immersion was the universal rule of the Catholic Church. cf. Greg. Nyss. The Great Catechism, p. 502 of this edition. So Tertull. de Cor. Mil. c iii., Aquam adituri, ibidem, sed et aliquanto prius in ecclesia, sub antistitis manu contestamur, nos renuntiare diabolo et pompae et angelis ejus. Dehinc ter mergitamur. Sozomen (vi. 26) says that Eunomius was alleged to be the first to maintain that baptism ought to be performed in one immersion and to corrupt in this manner the tradition of the apostles, and Theodoret (Haeret. fab. iv. 3) describes Eunomius as abandoning the trine immersion, and also the invocation of the Trinity as baptizing into the death of Christ. Jeremy Taylor (Ductor dubitantium, iii. 4, Sect. 13) says, "In England we have a custom of sprinkling, and that but once....As to the number, though the Church of England hath made no law, and therefore the custom of doing it once is the more indifferent and at liberty, yet if the trine immersion be agreeable to the analogy of the mystery, and the other be not, the custom ought not to prevail, and is not to be complied with, if the case be evident or declared." [1023] 1 Pet. iii. 21. [1024] Rom. xv. 29. [1025] Matt. iii. 11. [1026] 1 Cor. iii. 13. [1027] id. [1028] On the martyrs' baptism of blood, cf. Eus. vi. 4, on the martyrdom of the Catechumen Herais. So St. Cyril, of Jerusalem (Cat. Lect. iii. 10), "If a man receive not baptism, he has not salvation; excepting only the martyrs, even who without the water receive the kingdom. For when the Saviour was ransoming the world through the cross, and was pierced in the side, He gave forth blood and water, that some in times of peace should be baptized in water; others in time of persecution, in their own blood." So Tertullian (In Valentin. ii.) of the Holy Innocents, "baptized in blood for Jesus' sake" (Keble), "testimonium Christi sanguine litavere." [1029] Tous logismous kathairon. cf. 2 Cor. x. 4. __________________________________________________________________ Chapter XVI. That the Holy Spirit is in every conception separable from the Father and the Son, alike in the creation of perceptible objects, in the dispensation of human affairs, and in the judgment to come. 37. Let us then revert to the point raised from the outset, that in all things the Holy Spirit is inseparable and wholly incapable of being parted from the