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130 Pages
Page 16
There was now a lull in the storm. Basil, completely reconciled to Eusebius, began to consolidate the archiepiscopal power which he afterward wielded as his own, [116] over the various provinces in which the metropolitan of Caesarea exercised exarchic authority. [117] In the meantime the Semiarians were beginning to share with the Catholics the hardships inflicted by the imperial power. At Lampsacus in 364 they had condemned the results of Ariminum and Constantinople, and had reasserted the Antiochene Dedication Creed of 341. In 366 they sent deputies to Liberius at Rome, who proved their orthodoxy by subscribing the Nicene Creed. Basil had not been present at Lampsacus, [118] but he had met Eustathius and other bishops on their way thither, and had no doubt influenced the decisions of the synod. Now the deputation to the West consisted of three of those bishops with whom he was in communication, Eustathius of Sebasteia, Silvanus of Tarsus, and Theophilus of Castabala. To the first it was an opportunity for regaining a position among the orthodox prelates. It can hardly have been without the persuasion of Basil that the deputation went so far as they did in accepting the homoousion, but it is a little singular, and indicative of the comparatively slow awakening of the Church in general to the perils of the degradation of the Holy Ghost, that no profession of faith was demanded from the Lampsacene delegates on this subject. [119] In 367 the council of Tyana accepted the restitution of the Semiarian bishops, and so far peace had been promoted. [120] To this period may very probably be referred the compilation of the Liturgy which formed the basis of that which bears Basil's name. [121] The claims of theology and of ecclesiastical administration in Basil's time did not, however, prevent him from devoting much of his vast energy to works of charity. Probably the great hospital for the housing and relief of travellers and the poor, which he established in the suburbs of Caesarea, was planned, if not begun, in the latter years of his presbyterate, for its size and importance were made pretexts for denouncing him to Elias, the governor of Cappadocia, in 372, [122] and at the same period Valens contributed to its endowment.
[116] enteuthen auto perien kai to kratos tes ekklesias, ei kai tes kathedras eiche ta deutera. Greg. Naz. Or. xliii.
[117] cf. Maran, Vit. Bas. xiv. and D.C.A. s.v. exarch. The archbishop of Caesarea was exarch of the provinces (eparchiai) comprised in the Pontic Diocese. Maran refers to Letters xxviii., xxx., and xxxiv., as all shewing the important functions discharged by Basil while yet a presbyter.
[118] Ep. ccxxiii.
[119] Hefele, S: 88. Schroeckh, Kirch, xii. 31. Swete, Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, 54.
[120] Epp. ccxliv. and cclxiii.
[121] Greg. Naz., Or. xliii.
[122] Ep. xciv.
Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/basil/life-works.asp?pg=16
