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| Basil as Archbishop.
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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
| 135 Greg.
Naz., Or. xliii. 33. | 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
evidence136
| 136
i.e. the extant reply to his urgent request that
Gregory would come to him. Greg. Naz., Ep.
xl. | has seemed to
some strong enough to compel the conclusion that he determined, if
possible, to secure his election to the see.137
| 137
“Persuadé que, s’il échouait
c’en était fait de la foi de Nicée en Cappadoce, il
deploie toutes les ressources de son dénie, aussi souple que
puissant.” Fialone, Et. Hist. p.
85.
“Personne dans la ville,
pas même Basile, malgré son humilité, ne donta que la
succession ne lui fût acquise…il fit assez ouvertement ses
préparatifs 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
können, jetzt, wo er sich in seine Stellung hinein gearbeitet
hatte wünschte er nichts sehnlicher al seine Wahl zum
Bischof. Böhringer 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. | Others, on the contrary, have
thought him incapable of scheming for the nomination.138
| 138
“Ne suspicatus quidem in se oculos conjectum
iri.” Maran, Vit. Bas.
“Former une brigue pour
parvenir à l’épiscopat était bien loin de sa
pensée.´ Ceillier, iv. 354. | The truth probably lies between
the two extreme views. No intelligent onlooker of the
position at Cæsarea 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
Cæsarea. 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 Cæsarea 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
| 139 Greg. N.,
Ep. xl. (xxi.). | 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
Cæsarea.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 Cæsarea
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 Cæsarea
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
Basil144
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 says145
like a corpse in
a grave, and borne to Cæsarea 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
Alexandria147
| 147 Athan.,
Ad Pall. 953; Ad Johan, et Ant.
951. | 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
| 148 This is
inferred from the latter part of Ep. xlviii. cf.
Maran, Vit. Bas. xiii. 3. |
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
Cæsarea.151
| 151 τήνδε τῆς
καθέδρας
τίμην. Greg. Naz.,
Or. xliii. | 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
| 152 Epp.
lviii., lix., lx. | 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
| 153 Greg.
Naz., Or. xliii. § 40. | 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
| 155 Basil,
Epp. lxvi., lxvii. | 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
| 159 Hex. Hom.
iii. p. 65. | 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
| 160 Maran,
Vit. Bas. xviii. 4. | was held the
festival of St. Eupsychius. Basil preached the sermon.
Among the hearers were many detractors.161
| 161 Greg.
Naz., Ep. lviii. Ep. lxxi. | 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. Basil164
shewed some natural distress and astonishment on hearing that
attacks against him were readily received.165
| 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 Θεός of the Holy Ghost, remarks
that he also avoided the use of the term ὁμοούσιος
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,
ἐπαρασάμενος
ἑαυτῷ τὸ
φρικωδέστατον,
αὐτοῦ τοῦ
πνεύματος
ἐκπεσεῖν εἰ
μὴ σέβοι τὸ
πνεῦμα μετὰ
πατρὸς καὶ
῾Υιοῦ ὡς
ὁμοούσιον
καὶ
ὁμότιμον.”
(Greg. Naz., Or. xliii.) In Letter viii. §
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 οἰκονομία
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. |
It was at the close of this same year
371166
| 166 Maran,
Vit. Bas. xx. 1. | 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 Cæsarea.167
| 167 Epp.
lxxiv., lxxv, lxxvi. | 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
conjectured168
| 168 Maran,
Vit. Bas. xix. 3. | 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
| 169 Greg.
Nyss., C. Eunom. i. | 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
Cæsarea, for he feared lest one strong man’s firmness might
lead others to resist.170
Before him went
Modestus, Prefect of the Prætorium, 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
| 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. |
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
| 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. | 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
| 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. |
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
| 176 Cæsarea,
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. | 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
| 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,
paucæ in vultu rugæ, eœque renidentes, genæ
oblongæ, tempora aliquantum cava, promissa barba, et mediocris
canities.” | 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
| 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, staturæ nec proceræ nec
humilis, incurvis cruribus, exstanteque mediocriter
ventre.” “Bon père, bon époux, arien
fervent et zélé, mais faible, timide, Valens était
né pour la vie privée, où il eût été
un honnête citoyen et un des saints de
l’Arianisme.” Fialon, Et. Hist.
159. | It is on
the occasion of this interview that Theodoret places the incident
of Basil’s humorous retort to Demosthenes,179
| 179 cf.
Theod. v. 16 and note on p. 120 of Theod. in this series. | 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
| 180 Theod. iv.
16. Bas., Ep. xciv. |
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
| 182 Theod. iv.
16. Soz. vi. 17. Soc. iv. 26. Greg. Naz.,
Or. xliii. Ruf. xi. 9. |
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
| 183 Greg.
Naz., Or. xliii. |
Nevertheless, so far as the civil power was
concerned, Basil, after the famous visit of Valens, was left at
peace.184
| 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’inviolabilité de fait demeurait acquise a Basile a
Césarée comme a Athanase à Alexandrie.”
De Broglie. | 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
| 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. | a “leaven” of which sin is
admitted by Milman186
| 186 Hist.
Christ. iii. 45. | 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
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