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| The Presbyterate.
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V.—The
Presbyterate.
Not long after the accession of Valens, Basil was
ordained presbyter by Eusebius.104
| 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 ἔτι
τάξιν
διακόνου
ἔχων 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. | An
earlier date has been suggested, but the year 364 is accepted as
fitting in better with the words of Gregory105
| 105 Greg.
Naz., Ep. viii. | 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
| 107 Greg.
Naz., Orat. xliii. 28, Epp.
xvi.–xvii. | And
allusions of Basil have been supposed to imply his own sense of
discourtesy and neglect.108
| 108 e.g. Hom. in
Is. i. 57, ἀλαζονεία
γὰρ δεινὴ τὸ
μηδενὸς
οἴεσθαι
χρῄζειν. | 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
| 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), ἅπτεται γὰρ
οὐ τῶν
πολλῶν
μονὸν, ἀλλὰ
καὶ τῶν
ἀρίστων, ὁ
Μῶμος. The monasteries
to which Basil fled Gregory here (id. 29) calls
φροντιστήρια, the word used by Aristophanes (Clouds, 94) of the house or
school of Socrates, and apparently a comic parody on
δικαστήριον. 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. | and won the battle by flying from the
field. Eusebius was left unmolested, and the character of
Basil was higher than ever.110
| 110 Greg.
Naz., Or. xliii. Soz. vi. 15. |
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 Cæsarea 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
| 112 Greg.
Naz., Epp. xvi., xvii., xix., and Or.
xx. | 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
| 113 οὐκ
ὑβριστικῶς,
ἀλλὰ
πνευματικῶς
τε καὶ
φιλοσόφως. | 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 Cæsarea 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
| 115 Amm. Marc. xxvi.
7, 2. | 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
| 116 ἐντεῦθεν
ἀυτῶ περιῆν
καὶ τὸ
κράτος τῆς
ἐκκλησίας,
εἰ καὶ τῆς
καθέδρας
εἶχε τὰ
δεύτερα.
Greg. Naz. Or. xliii. | over the various provinces in which the
metropolitan of Cæsarea exercised exarchic authority.117
| 117 cf.
Maran, Vit. Bas. xiv. and D.C.A. s.v.
exarch. The archbishop of Cæsarea was exarch of the
provinces (ἐπαρχίαι)
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. | 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
| 120 Epp.
ccxliv. and cclxiii. | 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
| 121 Greg.
Naz., Or. xliii. | 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
Cæsarea, 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
| 123 ἡκαινὴ
πόλις. Greg. Naz.,
Or. xliii. cf. Sir Thomas More’s
Utopia, Bk. II. Chap. V. |
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
Ptochotrophium126
| 126 πτωχοτροφεῖον, 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 Cæsarea 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 Græco-Roman
city.” | 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 Cæsarea in 368.127
| 127 For the
date, cf. Maran, Vit. Bas. ix. §
5. | He describes it with eloquence in
his Homily On the Famine and Drought.128
| 128 § 2,
p. 63. cf. Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. 340–342,
and Greg. Nyss., In Eun. i. 306. | The distress was cruel and
widespread. The distance of Cæsarea 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
| 129 Greg.
Nyss., In Eunom. i. § 10 (in this series, p. 45),
remarks of Basil: τὴν
πατρῷαν
οὐσίαν καὶ
πρὸ τῆς
ἱερωσύνης
ἀφειδῶς
ἀναλώσας
τοῖς πένησι
καὶ μάλιστα
ἐν τῷ τῆς
σιτοδείας
καιρῷ, καθ᾽
ὃν
ἐπεστάτει
τῆς
ἐκκλησίας,
ἔτι ἐν τῷ
κλήρῳ τῶν
πρεσβυτέρων
ἱερατεύων
καὶ μετὰ
ταῦτα, μηδὲ
τῶν
ὑπολειφθέντων
φεισάμενος. Maran (Vit. Bas. xi. § 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 (§
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.” |
and ministered in person to the wants of the sufferers.
Gregory of Nazianzus130
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
| 131 Greg.
Nyss., Vit. Mac. 187, Ep. xxx. | 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
| 134 Greg.
Naz., Or. xliii. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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