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St Basil the Great Resources Online and in Print
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130 Pages
Page 27
Gregory the elder joined in persuading his son. Basil had his way. He won a convenient suffragan for the moment. But he lost his friend. The sore was never healed, and even in the great funeral oration in which Basil's virtues and abilities are extolled, Gregory traces the main trouble of his chequered career to Basil's unkindness, and owns to feeling the smart still, though the hand that inflicted the wound was cold. [199]
With Anthimus peace was ultimately established. Basil vehemently desired it. [200] Eusebius of Samosata again intervened. [201] Nazianzus remained for a time subject to Caesarea, but was eventually recognized as subject to the Metropolitan of Tyana. [202]
The relations, however, between the two metropolitans remained for some time strained. When in Armenia in 372, Basil arranged some differences between the bishops of that district, and dissipated a cloud of calumny hanging over Cyril, an Armenian bishop. [203] He also acceded to a request on the part of the Church of Satala that he would nominate a bishop for that see, and accordingly appointed Poemenius, a relation of his own. [204] Later on a certain Faustus, on the strength of a recommendation from a pope with whom he was residing, applied to Basil for consecration to the see, hitherto occupied by Cyril. With this request Basil declined to comply, and required as a necessary preliminary the authorisation of the Armenian bishops, specially of Theodotus of Nicopolis. Faustus then betook himself to Anthimus, and succeeded in obtaining uncanonical consecration from him. This was naturally a serious cause of disagreement. [205] However, by 375, a better feeling seems to have existed between the rivals. Basil is able at that date to speak of Anthimus as in complete agreement with him. [206]
[199] Or. xliii. cf. Newman, The Church of the Fathers, p. 142, where the breach is impartially commented on: "An ascetic, like Gregory, ought not to have complained of the country as deficient in beauty and interest, even though he might be allowed to feel the responsibility of a situation which made him a neighbor of Anthimus. Yet such was his infirmity; and he repelled the accusations of his mind against himself by charging Basil with unkindness in placing him at Sasima. On the other hand, it is possible that Basil, in his eagerness for the settlement of his exarchate, too little consulted the character and taste of Gregory; and, above all, the feelings of duty which bound him to Nazianzus....Henceforth no letters, which are preserved, passed between the two friends; nor are any acts of intercourse discoverable in their history. Anthimus appointed a rival bishop to Sasima; and Gregory, refusing to contest the see with him, returned to Nazianzus. Basil laboured by himself. Gregory retained his feelings of Basil's unkindness even after his death....This lamentable occurrence took place eight or nine years before Basil's death; he had, before and after it, many trials, many sorrows; but this probably was the greatest of all." The statement that no letters which are preserved passed between the two friends henceforth will have to be modified, if we suppose Letter clxix. to be addressed to Gregory the Divine. But Professor Ramsay's arguments (Hist. Geog. of Asia Minor, p. 293) in favour of Gregory of Nazianzus the elder seem irresistible. On Letter clxix. he writes: "For topographical purposes it is necessary to discover who was the Gregory into whose diocese Glycerius fled. Tillemont considers that either Gregory of Nyssa or Gregory of Nazianzus is meant. But the tone of the letter is not what we might expect if Basil were writing to either of them. It is not conceived in the spirit of authority in which Basil wrote to his brother or to his friend. It appears to me to show a certain deference which, considering the resolute, imperious, and uncompromising character of Basil (seen especially in his behaviour to Gregory Nazianzen in the matter of the bishopric of Sasima), I can explain only on the supposition that he is writing to the aged and venerable Gregory, bishop of Nazianzos. Then the whole situation is clear. Venasa was in the district of Malakopaia, or Suvermez, towards the limits of the diocese of Caesareia. The adjoining bishopric was that of Nazianzos. Venasa being so far from Caesareia was administered by one of the fifty chorepiscopi whom Basil had under him (Tillemont, Mem. p. servir, etc., ix. p. 120), and the authority of Basil was appealed to only in the final resort. Glycerius, when Basil decided against him, naturally fled over the border into the diocese of Nazianzos." (There is, however, not much reverence in Letter clxxi.) "Comment l'homme qui avait tant souffert de l'injustice des autres, put-il etre injuste envers son meilleur ami? L'amitie est de tous les pays. Partout, on voit des hommes qui semblent nes l'un pour l'autre, se rapprocher par une estime mutuelle, par la conformite de leurs gouts et de leurs caracteres partager les peines et les joies de la vie, et donner le spectacle du plus beau sentiment que nous avons rec,u de la divinite. Mais la Grece avait singulierement ennobli ce sentiment deja si pur et si saint, en lui donnant pour but l'amour de la patrie. Les amis, destines a se servir l'un a l'autre de modele et de soutien, s'aiment moins pour eux-memes, que pour rivaliser de vertu, se devouer ensemble, s'immoler s'il le faut, au bien public....C'est cette amitie de devouement et de sacrifice, qu'au milieu de la mollesse du IVme siecle, Basil conc,oit pour Gregoire de Nazianze. Formee dans les ecoles, entretenne par l'amour des lettres, elle avait pour but unique, non plus la patrie, mais Dieu. L'amitie de Gregoire et plus tendre et plus humaine....Il a voue sa vie a son ami, mais il en attend la meme condescendance, le meme denouement a ses propres desirs. Basile au contraire, semble prendre a la lettre ce qu'il a lu dans Plutarque et dans Xenophon de l'amitie antique." E. Fialon, Et. Hist. In other words, Gregory's idea of friendship was to sacrifice one's self: Basil's to sacrifice one's friend. This is an interesting vindication of Basil, but the cause of God was hardly identical with the humiliation of Anthimus.
[200] Ep. xcvii.
[201] Ep. xcviii.
[202] Greg. Naz., Ep. clii.
[203] Ep. xcix.
[204] Epp. cii., ciii.
[205] Epp. cxx., cxxi., cxxii.
[206] Ep. ccx.
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