Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/326

Rh 312 GREGORIUS. of his brother Caesarius, a, d. 368 or 369. His panegyric on Caesarius is esteemed one of his best discourses. (Orat. x.) A few years later, A. d. 374, he lost his sister Gorgonia, for whom also he composed a panegyric. {Orat. xi.) The election of Basil to the bishopric of Cae- sareia, in 370, was promoted by Gregory and his father with a zeal which passed the bounds of seemliness and prudence. One of Basirs first acts was to invite his friend to become a presbyter at Caesareia ; but Gregory declined the invitation, on grounds the force of which Basil could not deny. {Orat. xx. p. 344.) An event soon after- wards occurred, which threatened the rupture of their friendship. Basil, as metropolitan of Cappa- docia, erected a new see at the small, poor, unplea- sant, and unhealthy town of Sasima, and conferred the bishopric on Gregory, a. d. 372. The true motive of Basil seems to have been to strengthen his authority as metropolitan, by placing the person on whom he could most rely as a sort of outpost against Anthimus, the bishop of Tyana; for Sasima was very near Tyana, and was actually claimed by Anthimus as belonging to his see. But for this very reason the appointment was the more unac- ceptable to Gregory, whose most cherished wish was to retire into a religious solitude, as soon as his father's death should set him free. He gave vent to his feelings in three discourses, in which, however, he shows that his friendship for Basil prevails over his offended feelirtgs ( Oraf . v. vi. vii.), and he never assumed the functions of his epis- copate. Finding him resolved not to go to Sasima, his father, with much difficulty, prevailed upon him to share with him the bishopric of Nazianzus ; and Gregory only consented upon the condition that he should be at liberty to lay down the office at his father's death. On this occasion he delivered the discourse {Orat. viii.) entitled. Ad Patrem, quum Nazianzenae ecclesiae curam filio commisisset^ a. d. 372. To the following year are generally assigned his discourse De plaga graiidinis^ on the occasion of a hailstorm which had ravaged the -country round Nazianzus {Oral, xv.), and that Ad Nazianzenos, timore irepidantes, et Praefedum iratum {Orat. xvii.), the occasion of which seems to have been some popular commotion in the city, which the praefect was disposed to punish severely. Gregory Nazianzen, the father, died in the year 374, at the age of almost a hundred years, and his son pronounced over him a funeral oration, at which his mother Nonna and his friend Basil were present. {Orat. xix.) He was now anxious to perform his purpose of laying down the bishopric, but his friends prevailed on him to retain it for a time, though he never regarded himself as actually bishop of Nazianzus, but merely as a temporary oc- cupant of the see {Epist. xlii. p. 804, Ixv. p. 824, Carm. de Vit. ntui, p. 9, Orat. viii. p. 148). It is therefore an error of his disciple Jerome {Vir. lUust. 117), and other writers, to speak of Gregory &s bishop of Nazianzus. From a discourse delivered about this time {Orat. ix.), we find that he was still as averse from public life, ^ijd as fond of solitary meditation, as ever. He also began to feel the infirmities of age, which his ascetic life had brought upon him, though he was not yet fifty. From these causes, and also, it would seem, in order to compel the bishops of Cappadocia to fill up the see of Nazianzus, he at last fled to Seleuceia, the capital of Isauria (a. d. 375), where he appears GKEGORIUS. to have remained till 379, but where he was still disappointed of the rest he sought ; for his own ardent spirit and the claims of others compelled him still to engage in the ecclesiastical controversies which distracted the Eastern Church. The defence of orthodoxy against the Arians seemed to rest upon him more than ever, after the death of Basil, on the 1 st of January, A. d. 379, and in that year he was called from his retirement, much against his will, by the urgent request of many orthodox bishops, to Constantinople, to aid the cause of Ca- tholicism, which, after a severe depression for forty years, there seemed hopes of reviving under the auspices of Gratian and Theodosius. At Constan- tinople Gregory had to maintain a conflict, not only with the Arians, but also with large bodies of No- vatians, Appollinarists, and other heretics. His success was great, and not unattended by miracles. So powerful were the heretics, and so few the or- thodox, that the latter had no church capable of containing the increasing numbers who came to listen to Gregory. He was therefore obliged to gather his congregation in the house of a relation ; and this originated the celebrated church of Anas- tasia, which was afterwards built with great splen- dour and sanctified by numerous miracles. Some of his discourses at Constantinople are among his extant works ; the most celebrated of them are the five on the divine nature, and especially on the Godhead of Christ, in answer to the Eunomians and Macedonians, entitled A070/ @ioKoyiKo(. {Oral. xxxiii. — xxxvii.) It cannot be said that these discourses deserve the reputation in which they were held by the ancients. They present a clear, dogmatic, uncritical statement of the Catholic faith, with ingenious replies to its opponents, in a form which has far more of the rhetoric of the schools than of real eloquence. Moreover, his perfect Nicene orthodoxy has been questioned: it is al- leged that in the fifth discourse he somewhat sacri- fices the unity to the trinity of the Godhead. The success of Gregory provoked the Arians to extreme hostility: they pelted him, they desecrated his little church, and they accused him in a court of justice as a disturber of the public peace ; but he boi-e their persecutions with patience, and, finally, many of his opponents became his hearers. The weaker side of his character was displayed in his relations to Maximus, an ambitious hypocrite, whose apparent sanctity and zeal for orthodoxy so far imposed upon Gregory, that he pronounced a panegyrical oration upon him in his presence. {Orat. xxiii.) Maximus soon after endeavoured, in 380, to seize the episcopal chair of Constantinople, but the people rose against him, and expelled him from the city. This and other troubles caused Gregory to think of leaving Constantinople, but, at the entreaties of his people, he promised to remain with them till other bishops should come to take charge of them. He retired home, however, for a short time to refresh his spirit with the solitude he loved. In November, 380, Theodosius arrived at Con- stantinople, and received Gregory with the highest favour, promising him his firm support. He com- pelled the Arians to give up all the churches of the city to the Catholics, and, in the midst of the im- perial guards, Gregory entered the great church of Constantinople, by the side of Theodosius. The excessive cloudiness of the day was interpreted by the Arians as a token of the Diviue displeasure, but