CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER VIII.

BASIL AND GREGORY.

"What maimer of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk and are sad 1"

It often happens that men of very dissimilar talents and tastes are attracted together by their very dissimilitude. They live in intimacy for a time, perhaps a long time, till their circumstances alter, or some sudden event comes to try them. Then the peculiarities of their respective minds are brought out into action; and quarrels ensue, which end in coolness or separation. It would not be right or true to say that this is exemplified in the instance of the two blessed Apostles, whose "sharp contention" is related in the book of Acts; for they had been united in spirit once for all by a divine leading; and yet their strife reminds us of what takes place in life continually. And it so far resembled the everyday quarrels of friends, in that it arose from difference of temper and character in those exalted servants of God. The zealous heart of the Apostle of the Gentiles endured not the presence of one who had swerved in his course; the compassionate spirit of Barnabas felt that a first fault ought not to be a last trial. Such are the two main characters which are found in the Church,—high energy and sweetness of temper; far from incompatible of course, united in Apostles, though in different relative proportions, yet only partially combined in ordinary Christians, and often altogether parted from each other.

This contrast of character, leading, first, to intimacy, then to difference, is interestingly displayed, though painfully, in one passage of the history of Basil and Gregory;—Gregory the affectionate, the tender-hearted, the man of quick feelings, the accomplished, the eloquent preacher,—and Basil, the man of firm resolve and hard deeds, the high-minded ruler of Christ's flock, the diligent labourer in the field of ecclesiastical politics. Thus they differed; yet not as if they had not much in common still; both had the blessing and discomfort of a sensitive mind; both were devoted to an ascetic life; both were men of classical tastes; but both were special champions of the orthodox creed; both were skilled in argument, and successful in their use of it; both were in highest place in the Church, the one Exarch of Csesarea, the other Patriarch of Constantinople. I will now attempt to sketch the history of their intimacy.

Basil and Gregory were both natives of Cappadocia, but here, again, under different circumstances; Basil was born of a good family, and with Christian ancestors; Gregory was the son of the bishop of Nazianzus, who had been brought up an idolater, or rather an Hypsistarian, a mongrel sort of religionist, part Jew, part Pagan. He was brought over to Christianity by the efforts of his wife Nonna, and at Nazianzus admitted by baptism into the Church. In process of time he was made bishop of that city; but not having very clear doctrinal views, he was betrayed in 360 into signing the Ariminian creed, which caused him much trouble, and from which at length his son rescued him. Csesarea being at no unsurmountable distance from Nazianzus, the two friends had known each other in their own country; but their intimacy began at Athens, whither they separately repaired for the purposes of education. This was about A. D. 351, when each of them was twenty-two years of age. Gregory came to the seat of learning shortly before Basil, and thus was able to be his host and guide on his arrival; but fame had reported Basil's merits before he came, and he seems to have made his way, in a place of all others most difficult to a stranger, with a facility peculiar to himself. He soon found himself admired and respected by his fellow-students; but Gregory was his only friend, and shared with him the reputation of talent and attainments. They remained at Athens four or five years; and, at the end of the time, made the acquaintance of Julian, since of evil name in history as theApostate. Gregory thus describes in after life his early intimacy with Basil:—

"Athens and letters followed on my stage;
Others may tell how I encountered them;—
How in the fear of God, and foremost found
Of those who knew a more than mortal lore ;—
And how, amid the venture and the rush
Of maddened youth with youth in rivalry,
My tranquil course ran like some fabled spring,
Which bubbles fresh beneath the turbid brine;
Not drawn away by those who lure to ill,
But drawing dear ones to the better part
There, too, I gained a further gift of God,
Who made me friends with one of wisdom high,

Without compeer in learning and in life.

Ask ye Ms name ?—in sooth, 'twas Basil, since

My life's great gain,—and then my fellow dear

In home, and studious search, and knowledge earned.

May I not boast how in our day we moved

A truest pair, not without name in Greece;

Had all things common, and one only soul

In lodgement of a double outward frame 1

Our special bond, the thought of God above,

And the high longing after holy things.

And each of us was bold to trust in each,

Unto the emptying our deepest hearts,

And then we loved the more, for sympathy

Pleaded in each, and knit the twain in one."

The friends had been educated for rhetoricians, and their oratorical powers were such, that they seemed to have every prize in prospect which a secular amhition could desire. Their names were known far and wide, their attainments acknowledged by enemies, and they themselves personally popular in their circle of acquaintance. It was under these circumstances that they took the extraordinary resolution of quitting the world together,—extraordinary the world calls it, utterly perplexed to find that any conceivable objects can, by any sane person, be accounted better than its own gifts and favours. They resolved to seek baptism of the Church, and to consecrate their gifts to the service of the Giver. With characters of mind very different,—the one grave, the other lively; the one desponding, the other sanguine; the one with deep feelings, the other with acute and warm;—they agreed together in holding, that the things that are seen are not to be compared to the things that are not seen. They quitted the world, while it intreated them to stay. What passed when they were about to leave Athens, represents as in a figure the parting which they and the world took of each other. When the day of valediction arrived, their companions and equals, nay some of their tutors came about them, and resisted their departure by intreaties, arguments, and even by violence. This occasion showed, also, their respective dispositions; for the firm Basil persevered, and went; the tender-hearted Gregory was softened, and stayed a while longer. Basil, indeed, in spite of the reputation which attended him, had, from the first, felt disappointment with the celebrated abode of philosophy and literature; and seems to have given up the world from a conviction of its emptiness. "He," says Gregory, "according to the way of human nature, when, on suddenly falling in with what we hoped to be greater, we find it beneath its fame, experienced some such feeling, began to be sad, grew impatient, and could not congratulate himself on his place of residence. He sought an object which hope had drawn; and he called Athens 'hollow blessedness.'" Gregory himself, on the contrary, looked at things more cheerfully; as the succeeding sentences show. "Thus Basil; but I removed the greater part of his sorrow, meeting it with reason, and soothing it with reflections, and saying, what was the truth, that character is not at once understood, nor except by long time and perfect intimacy, nor are studies estimated by those who are submitted to them, on a brief trial and by slight evidence. Thus I re-assured him, and by continual trials of each other, I bound myself to him."—Orat. 20. Yet Gregory had inducements of his own to leave the world, not to insist on his love of Basil's company. His mother had devoted him to God, both before and after his birth; and when he was a child he had a remarkable dream, which made a great impression upon him. "While I was asleep," he says in one of his poems, which runs thus in prose, "a dream came to me, which drew me readily to the desire of incorruptness. Two virgin forms, in white garments, seemed to shine close to me. Both were fair and of one age, and their ornament lay in their want of ornament, which is a woman's beauty. No gold adorned their neck, nor hyacinth; nor had they the delicate spinning of the silkworm. Their fair robe was bound with a girdle, and it reached down to their ankles. Their head and face were concealed by a veil, and their eyes were fixed on the ground. The fair glow of modesty was on both of them, as far as could be seen under their thick covering. Their lips were closed in silence, as the rose in its dewy leaves. When I saw them, I rejoiced much; for I said that they were far more than mortals. And they in turn kept kissing me, who drew delight from their lips, fondling me as a dear son. And when I asked who and whence the women were, the one answered, ' Purity/ the other, 'Continence'; 'We stand by Christ, the King, and delight in the beauty of the celestial virgins. Come, then, child, unite thy mind to our mind, thy light to our light; so shall we carry thee aloft in all brightness through the air, and place thee by the radiance of the immortal Trinity.' "—Carm. 4. He goes on to say, that he never lost the impression thus made upon him, as "a spark of heavenly fire," or " a taste of divine milk and honey."

As far, then, as these descriptions go, one might say that Gregory's abandonment of the world arose from an early passion, as it may be called, for a purity higher than his own nature; and Basil's from a profound sense of the world's nothingness and the world's defilements. Both seem to have viewed it as a sort of penitential exercise, as well as a means towards perfection.

When they had once resolved to devote themselves to the service of religion, the question arose, how they might best improve and employ the talents committed to them. Somehow, the idea of marrying and taking orders, or taking orders and marrying, building or improving their parsonage, and showing forth the charities, the humanities, and the gentilities of a family man, did not suggest itself to their minds. They fancied that they must give up wife, children, property, if they would be perfect ;and this being taken for granted, that their choice did but lie between two modes of life, both of which they regarded as extreme. Here, then, for a time, they were in some perplexity. Gregory speaks of two ascetic disciplines, that of the solitary, and that of the secular¹; one of which, he says, profits a man's self, the other his neighbour. Midway, however, between these lay the Coenobite, or what we commonly call the monastic; removed from the world, yet acting in a certain select circle. And this was the rule which the friends at length determined to

, 1 a£vytQ and /juyaleg.

adopt, withdrawing from mixed society in order to be of the greater service to it.

The following is the passage in which Gregory describes the life which was the common choice of both of them :—

Fierce was the whirlwind of my storm-tossed mind,

Searching, mid holiest ways, a holier still.

Long had I nerved me, in the depths to sink

Thoughts of the flesh, and then more strenuously.

Yet, while I gazed upon diviner aims,

I had not wit to single out the best:

For, as is aye the wont in things of earth,

Each had its evil, each its nobleness.

I was the pilgrim of a toilsome course,

Who had o'erpast the waves, and now looked round,

With anxious eye, to track his road by land.

Then did the awful Tishbite's image rise,

His highest Carmel, and his food uncouth;

The Baptist wealthy in his solitude;

And the unencumbered sons of Jonadab.

But soon I felt the love of holy books,

The spirit beaming bright in learned lore,

Which deserts could not hear, nor silence tell.

Long was the inward strife,till ended thus:—

I saw, when men lived in the fretful world,

They vantaged other men, but wronged the while

Their own calm hearts, which straight by storms were tried.

They who retired held an uprighter port,

And raised their eyes with quiet strength towards God;

Yet served self only on moroser plan.

And so, 'twixt these and those, I struck my path,

To meditate with the free solitary,

Yet to live secular, and serve mankind.

Not many years passed after their leaving Athens, when Basil put his resolution into practice; and, having fixed upon Pontus for his retirement, wrote to Gregory to remind him of his promise. Gregoryhesitated. Then he wrote to expostulate 'with him. Gregory's answer was as follows :—

"I have not stood to my word, I own it; having protested, ever since Athens and our friendship and union of heart there, that I would be your companion, and follow a strict life with you. Yet I act against my wish, duty annulled by duty, the duty of

friendship by the duty of fdial reverence

However, I still shall be able to perform my promise in a measure, if you will accept thus much. I will come to you for a time, if, in turn, you will give me your company here; thus we shall be quits in friendly service, while we have all things common. And thus I shall avoid distressing my parents, without losing you."—Ep. 5.

When we bear in mind what has been already mentioned about Gregory's father, we may well believe that there really were very urgent reasons against the son leaving him, when it came to the point, over and above the ties which would keep him with a father and mother, both advanced in years. Basil, however, was disappointed; and instead of retiring to Pontus, devoted a year to visiting the monastic institutions of Syria and Egypt. On his return, his thoughts again settled on his friend Gregory; and he attempted to overcome the obstacle in the way of their old project, by placing himself in a district called Tiberina, near Gregory's own home. Finding, however, the spot cold and damp, he gave up the idea of it. On one occasion, while he was yet living in Csesarea, where for a time he had taught rhetoric, Gregory wrote to him the following familiar letter, as from a countryman to an inhabitant of town, not without a glance at Basil's peculiarities:—

"You shall not charge Tiberina upon me, with its ice and bad weather; O, mudless, tip-toeing, prancing man! O, feathered, nighty man, mounted on Abaris's arrow, who, Cappadocian though you be, shun Cappadocia! A vast injury it is, when you townspeople are sallow, and have not your breath full, and dole out the sun; and we are plump and in plenty, and have elbow-room! However, such is your condition; you are gentlemanlike, and wealthy, and a man of the world; I cannot praise it. Say not a word more, then, against our mud (you did not make the town, nor I the winter); if you do, I will match our wading with your trading1, and all the wretched things which are found in cities."—Ep. 6.

Meanwhile Basil had chosen for his retreat, a spot near Neocsesarea, in Pontus, close by the village where lay his father's property, where he had been brought up in childhood by his grandmother Macrina, and whither his mother and sister had retired for a monastic life after his father's death. The river Iris ran between the two places. Within a mile of their monastery was the Church of the Forty Martyrs, where father, mother, and sister were successively buried. These martyrs were a number of the victims of the persecution of Licinius at Sebaste; Emmelia, Basil's mother, had collected their remains, and he himself and his brother Gregory of

¹ 'Avri Tttixhv rois Kanijkovc.

Nyssa have left us homilies in celebration of them. Here, then, it was that St. Basil dwelt in holy retirement for five or six years. On settling there, he again wrote to Gregory :—

"My brother Gregory writes me word that he has long been wishing to be with me, and adds, that you are of the same mind; however, I could not wait, partly as being hard of belief, considering I have been so often disappointed, and partly because I find myself pulled all ways with business. I must at once make for Pontus, where, perhaps, God willing, I may make an end of wandering. After renouncing, with trouble, the idle hopes which I once had, or rather the dreams (for it is well said, that hopes are waking dreams), I departed into Pontus in quest of a place to live in. There God has opened on me a spot exactly answering to my taste, so that I actually see before my eyes what I have often pictured to my mind in idle fancy.

There is a lofty mountain, covered with thick woods, watered towards the north with cool and transparent streams. A plain lies beneath, enriched by the waters which are ever draining off upon it; and skirted by a spontaneous profusion of trees almost thick enough to be a fence; so as even to surpass Calypso's Island, which Homer seems to have considered the most beautiful spot on earth. Indeed it is like an island, inclosed as it is on all sides; for deep hollows cut off two sides of it; the river, which has lately fallen down a precipice, runs all along the front, and is impassable as a wall; while the mountain extending itself behind, and meeting the hollows in a crescent, stops up the path at its roots. There is but one pass, and I am master of it. Behind my abode there is another gorge, rising into a ledge up above, so as to command the extent of the plain and the stream which bounds it, which is not less beautiful to my taste, than the Strymon, as seen from Amphipolis. For while the latter flows leisurely, and swells into a lake almost, and is too still to be a river, the former is the most rapid stream I know, and somewhat turbid, too, from the rocks just above; from which, shooting down, and eddying in a deep pool, it forms a most pleasant scene for myself or any one else; and is an inexhaustible resource to the country people, in the countless fish which its depths contain. What need to tell of the exhalations from the earth, or the breezes from the river? Another might admire the multitude of flowers, and singingbirds; but leisure I have none for such thoughts. However, the chief praise of the place is, that being happily disposed for produce of every kind, it nurtures what to me is the sweetest produce of all, quietness; indeed, it is not only rid of the bustle of the city, but is even unfrequented by travellers, except a chance hunter. It abounds indeed in game, as well as other things, but not, I am glad to say, in bears or wolves, such as you have, but in deer, and wild goats, and hares, and the like. Does it not strike you what a mistake foolish I was near making when I was eager to change this spot for your Tiberina, the very pit of the whole earth? Pardon me, then, if I am now set upon it; for not Alcmseon himself, I suppose, would endure to wander further when he had found the Echinades."—Ep. 14.

Gregory answered this letter by one which is still extant, in which he satirizes, point by point, the picture of the Pontine solitude which Basil had drawn to allure him, perhaps from distaste for it, perhaps in the temper of one who studiously disparages what, if he had admitted the thought, might prove too great a temptation to him. He ends thus: "This is longer, perhaps, than a letter, but shorter than a comedy. For yourself, it will be good of you to take this castigation well; but if you do not, I will give you some more of it."—Ep. 7. Basil did take it well; but this did not save him from the infliction of the concluding threat; for Gregory, after paying him a visit, continues in the same bantering strain in a later epistle.

GREGORY TO BASIL.

"Since you take my castigation well, I will now give you more of it; and, to set -off with Homer, let us

'Pass on, and sing thy garniture within,'

to wit, the dwelling without roof and without door, —the hearth without fire and smoke,—walls, however, baked enough, lest the mud should trickle on us, while we suffer Tantalus's penalty, thirst amid wet;—that sad and hungry banquet, for which you called me from Cappadocia, not as for the frugal fare of the Lotophagi, but as if for Alcinous's board for one lately shipwrecked and wretched. I have remembrance of the bread and of the broth—so they were named—and shall remember them: how my teeth failed of effecting an entrance into your hunches, and next lifted and heaved themselves as out of paste. You, indeed, will set it out in tragic style yourself, taking a sublime tone from your own sufferings. But for me, unless that true lady Bountiful, your mother, had rescued me quickly, showing herself in need, like a haven to the tempesttossed, I had been dead long ago, getting myself little honour, but much pity, from Pontic hospitality. How shall I omit those ungardenlike gardens, void of pot-herbs? or the Augean store, which we cleared out and spread over them; what time we worked the hillside plough, vine-planter I, and awful you, with this neck and hands, which still bear the marks of the toil (O earth and sun, air and virtue! for I will tragicize a bit), not the Hellespont to yoke, but to level the steep. If you are not annoyed at this description, nor am I; but if you are, much more I at the reality. Yet I pass over the greater part, for tender remembrance of those other many things which I have shared with you." —Ep. 8.

This certainly is not a picture of comfort; and curiously contrasts with Basil's romantic view of the same things. But for the following letter, one could fancy that it was too much even for Gregory; but on Basil seeming to be hurt, he wrote thus :—

GREGORY TO BASIL.

"What I wrote before, concerning your Pontic abode, was in jest, not in earnest; but now I write very much in earnest. 'Who shall make me, as in months past, as in the days' when I had the luxury of suffering hardship with you? since voluntary pain is higher than involuntary comfort. Who shall restore me to those psalmodies, and vigils, and departures to God through prayer, and that (as it were) immaterial and incorporeal life? or to that union of brethren, in nature and soul, who are made gods by you, and carried on high? or to that rivalry in virtue and sharpening of heart which we consigned to written decrees and canons? or to that loving study of divine oracles, and the light we found in them, with the guidance of the Spirit? or, to speak of lesser and lower things, to the bodily labours of the day, the wood-drawing and the stonehewing, the planting and the draining? or that golden plane, more honourable than that of Xerxes, under which, not a jaded king, but a weary monk did sit,—planted by me, watered by Apollos, (that is, your honourable self,) increased by God, unto my honour; that there should be preserved with you a memorial of my loving toil, as Aaron's rod that budded, was, as Scripture says and we believe, kept in the ark. It is very easy to wish all this, not easy to gain. Do you, however, come to me, and revive my virtue, and work with me; and, whatever benefit we once gained together, preserve for me by your prayers, lest otherwise I fade away by little and little, as a shadow, while the day declines. For you are my breath! more than the air, and so far only do I live, as I am in your company, either present, or, if absent, by your image."— Ep. 9.

From this letter it appears that Basil had made up for Gregory's absence by collecting a brotherhood around him, in which he had such success that he is considered the founder of the monastic, that is, the ccenobitic discipline in Pontus, a discipline to which the Church gave her sanction as soon as the conversion of the temporal power, by bestowing upon her prosperity for persecution, had increased the reasons for asceticism, and, increasing its professors, had created the necessity of order and method among them. The following letter, written at the time of the foregoing letters of Gregory, gives us some insight into the nature of his rule, and the motives and feelings which influenced him: it is too long to do more than extract portions of it.

BASIL TO GREGORY.

"Your letter brought you before me, just as one recognizes a friend in his children. It is just like you, to tell me it was little to describe the place without mentioning my habits and method of life, if I wished to make you desirous to join me; it was worthy of a soul which counts all things of earth as nothing, compared with that blessedness which the promises reserve for us. Yet really I am ashamed to tell you how I pass night and day in this lonelv nook. Though I have left the city's haunts, as the source of innumerable ills, yet I have not yet learned to leave myself. I am like a man who, on account of sea-sickness, is angry with the size of his vessel as tossing overmuch, and leaves it for the pinnace or boat, and is sea-sick and miserable still, as carrying his delicacy of stomach along with him. So I have got no great good from this retirement. However, what follows is an account of what I proposed to do, with a view of tracking the footsteps of Him

who is our guide unto salvation, and who has said, 'If any one will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.'

"We must strive after a quiet mind. As well might the eye ascertain an ohject put before it, while it is wandering restless up and down, and sideways, without fixing a steady gaze upon it, as a mind, distracted by a thousand worldly cares, be able clearly to apprehend the truth. He who is not yet yoked in the bonds of matrimony, is harassed by frenzied cravings, and rebellious impulses, and hopeless attachments; he who has found his mate is encompassed with his own tumult of cares; if he is childless, there is desire of children ; has he children? anxiety about their education; attention to his wife, care of his house, oversight of his servants, misfortunes in trade, quarrels with his neighbours, lawsuits, the risks of the merchant, the toil of the farmer. Each day, as it comes, darkens the soul in its own way; and night after night takes up the day's anxieties, and cheats the mind with illusions in accordance. Now one way of escaping all this is separation from the whole world; that is, not bodily separation, but the severance of the soul's sympathy with the body, and to live so without city, home, goods, society, possessions, means of life, business, engagements, human learning, that the heart may readily receive every impress of divine doctrine. Preparation of heart is the unlearning the prejudices of evil converse. It is the smoothing the waxen tablet before attempting to write on it. Now solitude is of the greatest use for this purpose, inasmuch as it stills our passions, and gives room for principle to cut them out of the soul. Let there, then, be a place such as ours, separate from intercourse with men, that the tenour of our exercises be not interrupted from without. Pious exercises nourish the soul with divine thoughts. What state can be more blessed than to imitate on earth the choruses of Angels ?—to begin the day with prayer, and honour our Maker with hymns and songs ?— as the day brightens, to betake ourselves, with prayer attending on it throughout, to our labours, and to sweeten our work with hymns, as if with salt? Soothing hymns compose the mind to a cheerful and calm state. Quiet, then, as I have said, is the first step in our sanctification; the tongue purified from the gossip of the world; the eyes unexcited by fair colour or comely shape; the ear not relaxing the tone of mind by voluptuous songs, nor by that especial mischief, the talk of light men and jesters. Thus the mind, saved from dissipation from without, nor, through the senses thrown upon the world, falls back upon itself, and thereby ascends to the contemplation of God.

"The study of inspired Scripture is the chief way of finding our duty; for in it we find both instruction about conduct and the lives of blessed men, delivered in writing, as some breathing images of godly living, for the imitation of their good works. Hence, in whatever respect each one feels himself deficient, devoting himself to this imitation, he finds, as from some dispensary, the due medicine for his ailment. He who is enamoured of chastity, dwells upon the history of Joseph, and from him learns chaste actions, finding him not only possessed of self-command over pleasure, but virtuously-minded in habit. He is taught endurance from Job. Or, should he be inquiring how to be at once meek and great-hearted, hearty against sin, meek towards men, he will find David noble in warlike exploits, meek and unruffled as regards revenge on enemies. Such, too, was Moses, rising up with great heart upon sinners against God, but with meek soul bearing' their evil speaking against himself.

"This, too, is a very principal point to attend to,— knowledge how to converse; to interrogate without over-earnestness; to answer without desire of display; not to interrupt a profitable speaker, or to desire ambitiously to put in a word of one's own; to be measured in speaking and hearing; not to be ashamed of receiving, or to be grudging in giving, information, nor to pass another's knowledge for one's own, as depraved women their suppositious children, but to refer it candidly to the true parent. The middle tone of voice is best, neither so low as to be inaudible, nor ill-bred from its high pitch. One should reflect first what one is going to say, and then give it utterance; be courteous when addressed, amiable in social intercourse: not aiming to be pleasant by facetiousness, but cultivating gentleness in kind admonitions. Harshness is ever to be put aside, even in censuring."—Ep. 2.

These last remarks are curious, considering the account which, as we have seen, Gregory has left us of Basil's own manner. In another epistle, of an apologetic character, he thus speaks of the devotional exercises of his monastery:—

"Our people rise while it is yet night, for the house of prayer; and after confessing to God, in distress and affliction and continued tears, they rise up and turn to psalm-singing. And now, being divided into two, they respond to each other, thereby deepening their study of the holy oracles, and securing withal attention of heart without wandering. Next, letting one lead the chant, the rest follow him; and thus, with variety of psalmody, spending the night, with prayers interspersed; when day begins to dawn, all in common, as from one mouth and one heart, lift up to the Lord the psalm of confession, each making the words of repentance his own."—Ep. 207.

Such was Basil's life till he was called to the priesthood, which led to his retirement for Csesarea; —by night, prayer; by day, manual labour, theological study, and mercy to the poor.

The next kindly intercourse between Basil and Gregory took place on occasion of the difference between Basil and his bishop, Eusebius; when, as has been already related, Gregory interfered successfully to reconcile them. And the next arose out of circumstances which followed the death of Gregory's brother, Csesarius. On his death-bed he had left all his goods to the poor; a bequest which was interfered with, first, by servants and others about him, who carried off at once all the valuables on which they could lay hands; and, after Gregory had come into possession of the residue, by the fraud of certain pretended creditors, who appealed to the law on his refusing to satisfy them. Basil, on this occasion, gained him the interest of the Prefect of Constantinople, and another, whose influence was great at court.

We now come to the election of Basil to the Exarchate of Cappadocia, which was owing in no small degree to the exertions of Gregory and his father in his favour. This event, which was attended with considerable hazard of defeat from the strength of the civil party, and an episcopal faction opposed to Basil, doubtless was at the moment a cause of increased affection between the friends, though it was soon the occasion of the difference and coolness which I spoke of in the beginning of this paper. Gregory, as I have said, was of an amiable temper, fond of retirement and literary pursuits, and cultivating Christianity in its domestic and friendly aspect, rather than amid the toils of ecclesiastical warfare. I have also said enough to show that I have no thoughts whatever of accusing him of any approach to self-indulgence; and his subsequent conduct at Constantinople made it clear how well he could undergo and fight up against persecution in the quarrel of the Gospel. But such scenes of commotion were real sufferings to him, even independently of the personal danger of them; he was unequal to the task of ruling, and Basil in vain endeavoured to engage him as his coadjutor and comrade in the government of his exarchate. Let the following letter of Gregory explain his feelings :—

GREGORY TO BASIL.

"I own I was delighted to find you seated on the high throne, and to see the victory of the Spirit, in lifting up a light upon its candlestick, which even before did not shine dimly. Could I be otherwise, seeing the general interests of the Church so depressed, and needing a guiding hand like yours? However, I did not hasten to you at once, nor will I; you must not ask it of me. First, I did not, from delicacy towards your own character, that you might not seem to be collecting your partizans about you with indecency and heat, as objectors would say; next, for my own peace and reputation. Perhaps you will say, 'When, then, will you come, and till when will you delay?' till God bids, till the shadows of opposition and jealousy are passed. And I am confident it cannot be long before the blind and the lame give way, who shut out David from Jerusalem." —Ep. 24.

At length Gregory came to Csesarea, where Basil showed him all marks of affection and respect: and when Gregory declined any public attentions, from a fear of the jealousy it might occasion, his friend let him do as he would, regardless, as Gregory observes, of the charge which might fall on himself, of neglecting Gregory, from those who were ignorant of the circumstances. However, Basil could not detain him long in the metropolitan city, as the following letter shows, which was written on occasion of a charge of heterodoxy being advanced against the archbishop by a monk of Nazianzus, which Gregory had publicly and indignantly opposed, but had written "to him for a clearer explanation from himself. Basil was much hurt to find he had any thing to explain to Gregory. He answers:

"I have received the letter of your holiness, by the most reverend brother Hellenius; and what you have intimated, he has told me in plain terms. How I felt on hearing it, you cannot doubt at all. However, since I have determined that my affection for you shall outweigh my pain, whatever it is, I have accepted it as I ought to do, and I pray the Holy God, that my remaining days or hours may he as carefully conducted in their disposition towards you, as they have heen in past time, during which, my conscience tells me, I have heen wanting to you in nothing, small or great." After saying that his life was a practical refutation of the calumny, that a brief letter would not do what years had failed in doing, and hinting that the matter ought never to have been brought before him, and that they who listen to tales against others will have tales told of themselves, he continues :—

"I know what has led to all this, and have urged every topic to hinder it; but now I am sick of the subject, and will say no more about it,—I mean our little intercourse. For had we kept our old promise to each other, and had due regard to the claims which the churches have on us, we should have been the greater part of the year together; and then there would have been no opening for these calumniators. Pray have nothing to say to them; let me persuade you to come here and assist me in my labours, particularly in my contest with the individual who is now assailing me. Your very appearance would have the effect of stopping him; directly you show these disturbers of our home that you will, by God's blessing, place yourself at the head of our party, you will break up their cabal, and you will 'shut every unjust mouth that speaketh unrighteousness against God.' And thus facts will show who are your followers in good, and who are the halters and cowardly betrayers of the word of truth. If, however, the Church be betrayed, why then I shall care little to set men right about myself by means of words, who account of me as men would naturally account who have not yet learned to measure themselves. Perhaps, in a short time, by God's grace, I shall be able to refute their slanders by very deed, for it seems likely that I shall have soon to suffer somewhat for the truth's sake more than usual; the best I can expect is banishment. Or, if this hope fails, after all Christ's judgment-seat is not far distant."—Ep. 71.

About two years after Basil's elevation, a dispute arose between him and Anthimus, Bishop of Tyana. Cappadocia had been divided by the civil power into two parts; and Anthimus contended that an ecclesiastical division must necessarily follow the civil, and that, in consequence, he himself, as holding the chief see in the second Cappadocia, was the rightful metropolitan of that province. The justice. of the case was with Basil, but he was opposed by the party of bishops who were secretly Arianizers, and had already opposed themselves to his election. Accordingly, having might on his side, Anthimus began to alienate the monks from Basil, to appropriate the revenues of the Church of Csesarea, which lay in his province, and to expel or gain over the presbyters, giving, as an excuse, that respect and offerings ought not to be paid to heterodox persons.

Gregory at once offered his assistance to his

friend, hinting to him, at the same time, that some

of those about him had some share of blame in the

dispute. It happened unfortunately for their inti

1 macy that they were respectively connected with distinct parties in the Church. Basil knew and valued, and gained over many of the Semi-Arians, who dissented from the orthodox doctrine more from over-suhtlety, or want of clearness of mind, than from unbelief. Gregory was in habits of intimacy with the religious brethren of Nazianzus, his father's see, and these were eager for orthodoxy almost as a badge of party. In the letter last cited, Basil reflects upon these monks; and, on this occasion, Gregory warned him against Eustathius and his friends, whose orthodoxy was suspicious, and who, being ill-disposed towards Anthimus, were likely to increase the difference between the latter and Basil. It may be observed that it was this connexion between Basil and Eustathius, to which Anthimus alluded, when he objected to pay offerings to the heterodox.

Gregory's offer of assistance to Basil was frankly made, and seems to have been as frankly accepted. "I will come, if you wish me," he had said, "if so be, to advise with you, if the sea wants water, or you a counsellor; at all events, to gain benefit, and to act the philosopher, by bearing ill-usage in your company."—Ep. 25. Accordingly, they set out together for Mount Taurus, in the second Cappadocia, where there was an estate or Church dedicated to St. Orestes, the property of the see of Csesarea. On their return with the produce of the farm, they were encountered by the retainers of Anthimus, who blocked up the pass, and attacked their company. This warfare between Christian bishops was obviously a great scandal to the Church, and Basil adopted a measure which he considered -would put an end to it. He increased the number of bishopricks in that district, considering that residents might be able to secure the produce of the estate without disturbance, and to quiet and gain over the minds of those who had encouraged Anthimus in his opposition. Sasima was a village in this neighbourhood, and here he determined to place his friend Gregory, doubtless considering that he could not show him a greater mark of confidence than to commit to him the management of the quarrel, or confer on him a post, to his own high spirit more desirable, than the place of risk and responsibility.

Gregory had been unwilling even to be made a priest; but he shrunk with fear from the office of a bishop. He had on his mind that overpowering sense of the awfulness of the ministerial commission which then prevailed in more serious minds. "I feel myself to be unequal to this warfare," he had said on his ordination, "and therefore have hid my face, and slunk away. And I sought to sit down in solitude, being filled with bitterness, and to keep silence, from a conviction that the days were evil, since God's beloved have kicked against the truth, and we have become revolting children. And besides this, there is the internal warfare with one's passions, which my body of humiliation wages with me night and day, part hidden, part open ;—and the tossing to and fro and whirling through the senses and the delights of life; and the deep mire in which I stick fast; and the law of sin warring against the law of the spirit, and striving to efface the royal image in us, and whatever of a divine effluence has been vested in us. Before one has subdued with all one's might the principle which drags one down, and has cleansed the mind duly, and has surpassed others much in approach to God, I consider it unsafe either to undertake cure of souls, or mediatorship between God and man, for some such thing is a priest."— Or. 1. With these admirable feelings the weakness of man mingled itself: at the urgent command of his father he submitted to be consecrated; but the reluctance which he had felt to undertake the office was now transferred to his occupying the see to which he had been appointed. 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 neighbour 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. This is the latter's aceount of the matter, in a letter which displays much heat, and even resentment, against Basil:— "Give me," he says, "peace and quiet above all things. Why should I be fighting for sucklings and birds, which are not mine, as if in a matter of souls and church rules? Well, play the man, be strong, turn every thing to your own glory, as rivers suck up the mountain rill, thinking little of friendship or intimacy, compared with high aims and piety, and disregarding what the world will think of you for all this, being the property of the Spirit alone; while, on my part, so much shall I gain from this your friendship, not to trust in friends, nor to put any thing above God."—Ep. 31.

In the beginning of the same letter, he throws the blame upon Basil's episcopal throne, which suddenly made him higher than himself. Elsewhere he accuses him of ambition, and desire of aggrandizing himself. Basil, on the other hand, seems to have accused him of indolence and want of spirit.

Such was the melancholy crisis of an estrangement which had been for some time in preparation. 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 feeling of Basil's unkindness even after his death; though he revered and admired him not less, or even more than before; and attributed his conduct to a sense of duty. In his commemorative oration, after praising his erection of new sees, he says, "Into this measure I myself was brought in by the way. I do not seem bound to use a soft phrase. For admiring as I do all he did, more than I can say, this one thing I cannot praise, for I will confess my feeling, which is otherwise not unknown to the world, his extraordinary and unfriendly conduct towards me, of which time has not removed the pain. For to this I trace all the irregularity and confusion of my life, and my not being able, or not seeming, to command my feelings, though the latter of the two is a small matter; unless, indeed, I may be suffered to make this excuse for him, that, having views beyond this earth, and having departed hence even before life was over, he viewed every thing as the Spirit's; and knowing how to reverence friendship, then only slighted it, when it was a duty to prefer God, and to make more account of the things hoped for, than things perishable."— Orat. 20.

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.