Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

IX.—Additional Notes on Some Points in St. Basil’s Doctrinal and Ecclesiastical
Position.
It has been claimed with reason that the doctrinal standpoint of St. Basil is identical
with that of the English Church, with the one exception of the veneration of relics and the
invocation of saints. 702
In confirmation of this view, the following points may be noted:
1. The Holy Eucharist. The remarkable passage on the spiritual manducation of the
elements in Letter VIII. is commented on on p. 118. His custom as to frequent communion
and his opinion as to the reserved sacrament are remarked on on p. 179.
A significant passage is to be found in the Moralia, Rule XXI., that participation in the
Body and Blood of Christ is necessary to eternal life. John vi. 54, is then quoted. That no
benefit is derived by him who comes to communion without consideration of the method
whereby participation of the Body and Blood of Christ is given; and that he who receives
unworthily is condemned. On this John vi. 54 and 62, and 1 Cor. xiii. 27, are quoted. By
what method (ποί& 251· λόγῳ) we must eat the Body and drink the Blood of the Lord, in
remembrance of the Lord’s obedience unto death, that they who live may no longer live
unto themselves, but to Him who died and rose again for them. In answer, the quotations
are Luke xxii. 29, 1 Cor. xi. 23, 2 Cor. v. 14, and 1 Cor. x. 16.
2. Mariolatry. Even Letter CCCLX., which bears obvious marks of spuriousness, and
of proceeding from a later age, does not go beyond a recognition of the Blessed Virgin as
Θεοτόκος, in which the Catholic Church is agreed, and a general invocation of apostles,
prophets, and martyrs, the Virgin not being set above these. The argument of Letter CCLXI.
(p. 300) that “if the Godbearing flesh was not ordained to be assumed of the lump of Adam,
what need was there of the Blessed Virgin?” seems quite inconsistent with the modern
doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. Of any cultus of the Virgin, St. Basil’s writings
shew no trace.
3. Relations to the Roman Church.
In order to say something under this head, Ceillier, the Benedictine, is driven to such
straits as to quote the application of the term “Coryphæus” to Damasus in Letter CCXXXIX.
Certainly St. Basil saw no reason to congratulate the Westerns on their “Coryphæus,” so far
as intelligent interest in the East was involved. Fialon 703 sees the position more clearly, so
far as Basil is concerned, though he assumes the Councils to have given more authority to
the patriarch of the ancient capital than was in fact conceded. “Si Basile ne va pas, comme
la majorité du Concile de Constantinople, jusqu’à traiter l’Occident comne étranger; s’il ne
pretend pas que 1’empire appartienne à l’Orient, parce que l’Orient voit naitre le Soleil, et que
702 cf. Dr. Travers Smith, St. Basil, p. 125.
703 Etude Hist. p. 133.
Additional Notes on Some Points in St. Basil's Doctrinal and Ecclesiastical…
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