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| Life at Cæsarea; Baptism; and Adoption of Monastic Life.
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III.—Life at Cæsarea;
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 Eustathius54
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
| 55 What these
inducements can have been it seems vain to conjecture. cf.
Ep. i. and note. | At
Cæsarea he was welcomed as one of the most distinguished of her
sons,56
| 56 Greg. Naz.,
Or. xliii. | and there for a
time taught rhetoric with conspicuous success.57
A deputation came from
Neocæsarea to request him to undertake educational work at
that city,58
| 58 Ep. ccx. §
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. | and in vain
endeavoured to detain59
| 59 The word
κατασχεῖν
would be natural if they sought to keep him in Pontus; hardly, if
their object was to bring him from Cæsarea. | 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
| 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. | 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
| 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
γένεσις
ἡμερινὴ καὶ
ἐλευθέρα καὶ
λυτικὴ παθῶν,
πᾶν τὸ ἀπὸ
γενέσεως
κάλυμμα
περιτέμνουσα,
καὶ πρὸς τὴν
ἄνω ζωὴν
ἐπανάγουσα. In Or. xliii., he says of Basil that
τὰ πρῶτα
τῆς ἡλικίας
ῦπὸ τῷ
πατρὶ…σπαργανοῦται
καὶ
διαπλάττεται
πλάσιν τὴν
ἀρίστην τε
καὶ
καθαρωτάτην,
ἣν ἡμερινὴν
ὁ θεῖος
Δαβιδ καλῶς
ὀνουάζει
καὶ τῆς
νυχτερινῆς
ἀντίθετον.
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 τὰ πρῶτα
τῆς
ἡλικιας might possibly
refer not to infancy, but to boyhood. | The assigned
date, 357, may be
reasonably accepted, and shortly after his baptism he was ordained
Reader.64
| 64 De S. Scto.
xxiv. On his growing seriousness of character, cf. Ep.
ccxxiii. | It was about
this that he visited monastic settlements in Palestine,
Mesopotamia, Cœle Syria, and Egypt,65
| 65 Epp. i. and
ccxxiii. § 2. |
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
| 67 cf. Ep.
ccxxiii. § 2. Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. | 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
| 68 e.g. The New
Party, 1894, pp. 82 and 83, quoting Bas., In Isa. i.,
Hom. in illud Lucæ Destruam horrea, § 7, and Hom.
in Divites. | But St.
Basil did not renounce all property himself, and had a keen sense
of its rights in the case of his friends.69
| 69 Epp. iii.,
xxxvi. cf. Dr. Travers Smith, Basil, p.
33. | 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
| 71 Inst. vii.
19. cf. note on Cassian, vol. xi. p. 254 of this
series. | 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
| 74 Greg. Naz.,
Ep. i. or xliii. § 25. | 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
| 75 On the latter
difference between the friends at the time of Basil’s
consecration, De Broglie remarks: “Ainsi se trahissait
à chaque pas cette profords diversité de caractère qui
devait parfois troubler, mais plus sonnent ranimer et resserrer
l’union de ces deux belles âmes: Basile, né pour
le gouvernement des hommes et pour la lutte, prompt et précis dans
ses resolutions, embrassant à coup d’œil le but à
poursuivre et y marchant droit sans s’inquiéter des
difficultés et du jugement des spectateurs; Grégoire, atteint
de cette délicatesse un peu maladive, qui est, chez les esprits
d’élite, la source de l’inspiration poétique,
sensible à la moindre renonce d’approbation ou de
blâme, surtout à la moindre blessure de l’amitié,
plus finement averti des obstacles, mais aussi plus aisément
découragé, mèlant a la poursuite des plus grands
intérets un soin peut être excessif de sa dignité et
toutes les inquiétudes d’un cœur
souffrant.” L’Eglise et l’Empire Romain
au IVme Siècle, v. p. 89. | Gregory76
good-humouredly
replies to Basil’s depreciation of Tiberina by a counter attack
on Cæsarea 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
| 79 Greg. Nyss., In
Bas. 314 c. | 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
| 80 Cassian,
Inst. vi. 19. | 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
| 82 cf. Tillemont
ix. passim, Walch iii. 552, Schröckh xiii. 25, quoted by
Robertson, i. 366. | A novel
feature of this monasticism was the Cœnobium,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
| 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. |
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
| 87 cf. Soc.,
Ecc. Hist. iv. 26. Of this work Gregory says, in sending
it to a friend: ἵνα δέ
τι καὶ
ὑπόμνημα
παρ᾽ ἡμῶν
ἔχης, τὸ δ᾽
αὐτὸ καὶ τοῦ
ἁγίου
Βασιλείου
πυκτίον
ἀπεστάλκαμέν
σοι τῆς
Ωριγενοῦς
φιλοκαλίας,
ἐκλογὰς ἔχων
τῶν χρησίμων
τοῖς
φιλολόγοις. Ep. lxxxvii. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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