Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/163

 OF THE EOMAN EMPIRE 143 reply that the Son is inferior to the Father ; and, if you enquire whether the bath is ready, the answer is that the Son was made out of nothing." ^^ The heretics of various denomina- tions subsisted in peace under the protection of the Arians of Constantinople ; who endeavoured to secure the attachment of those obscure sectaries ; while they abused, with unrelenting severity, the victory which they had obtained over the followers of the council of Nice. During the partial reigns of Con- stantius and Valens, the feeble remnant of the Homoousians was deprived of the public and private exercise of their religion ; and it has been observed, in pathetic language, that the scattered flock was left without a shepherd, to wander on the mountains, or to be devoured by rapacious wolves. ^^ But, as their zeal, instead of being subdued, derived strength and vigour from oppression, they seized the first moments of im- perfect freedom, which they acquired by the death of Valens, to form themselves into a regular congregation under the conduct of an episcopal pastor. Two natives of Cappadocia, Gregory Naz- Basil and Gregory Nazianzen,^^ were distinguished above all their contemporaries ^^ by the rare union of profane eloquence and of orthodox piety. These orators, who might sometimes be compared, by themselves and by the public, to the most celebrated of the ancient Greeks, were united by the ties of the strictest friendship. They had cultivated, with equal ardour, the same liberal studies in the schools of Athens ; they had retired, with equal devotion, to the same solitude in the deserts of Pontus ; and every spark of emulation, or envy, appeared to be totally extinguished in the holy and ingenuous breasts of Gregory and Basil. But the exaltation of Basil, from a private life to the archiepiscopal throne of Caesarea, dis- ^•' See Jortin's Remarks on Ecclesiastical History, vol. iv. p. 71. The thirty- third [27th ap. Migne] Oration of Gregory Nazianzen affords indeed some similar ideas, even some still more ridiculous ; but I have not yet found the -words of this remarkable passage, which I allege on the faith of a correct and liberal scholar. [But see Appendix 9.] 2«See the thirty-second [42nd ap. Migne] Oration of Gregory Nazianzen, and the account of his own life, which he has composed in 1800 iambics. Yet every phy- sician is prone to exaggerate the inveterate nature of the disease which he has cured. composed, with very different views, by Tillemont (M^m, Eccl^s. torn. ix. p. 305- 560, 692-731) and Le Clerc (Bibliothfeque Universelle, torn, xviii. p. 1-128). [UUmann, Gregor von Nazianz, 1825 ; B^noit, S. Gr^goire de Nazianze, 1884.] 28 Unless Gregory Nazianzen mistook thirty years in his own age ; he was bom, as well as his friend Basil, about the year 329. The preposterous chronology of Suidas has been graciously received ; because it removes the scandal of Gregory's father, a saint likewise, begetting children, after he became a bishop (Tillem. M6m. Eccl6s, torn. ix. p. 693-697).
 * '■ I confess myself deeply indebted to the two lives of Gregory Nazianzen,