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

Pontic monasteries, 109 and won the battle by flying from the field. Eusebius was left unmolested,
and the character of Basil was higher than ever. 110
The seclusion of Basil in Pontus seemed to afford an opportunity to his opponents in
Cappadocia, and according to Sozomen, 111 Valens himself, in 365, was moved to threaten
Cæsarea with a visit by the thought that the Catholics of Cappadocia were now deprived of
the aid of their strongest champion. Eusebius would have invoked Gregory, and left Basil
alone. Gregory, however, refused to act without his friend, and, with much tact and good
feeling, succeeded in atoning the two offended parties. 112 Eusebius at first resented Gregory’s
earnest advocacy of his absent friend, and was inclined to resent what seemed the somewhat
impertinent interference of a junior. But Gregory happily appealed to the archbishop’s
sense of justice and superiority to the common unwillingness of high dignitaries to accept
counsel, and assured him that in all that he had written on the subject he had meant to avoid
all possible offence, and to keep within the bounds of spiritual and philosophic discipline. 113
Basil returned to the metropolitan city, ready to cooperate loyally with Eusebius, and to
employ all his eloquence and learning against the proposed Arian aggression. To the
grateful Catholics it seemed as though the mere knowledge that Basil was in Cæsarea was
enough to turn Valens with his bishops to flight, 114 and the tidings, brought by a furious
rider, of the revolt of Procopius, 115 seemed a comparatively insignificant motive for the
emperor’s departure.
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
109 Gregory has no doubt that Eusebius was in the wrong, even ridiculously in the wrong, if such be the true
interpretation of his curious phrase (Or. xliiii. 28), ἅπτεται γὰρ οὐ τῶν πολλῶν μονὸν, ἀλλὰ καὶ τῶν ἀρίστων,
ὁ Μῶμος. The monasteries to which Basil fled Gregory here (id. 29) calls φροντιστήρια, the word used by Aris-
tophanes (Clouds, 94) of the house or school of Socrates, and apparently a comic parody on δικαστήριον. It
might be rendered “reflectory.” “Contemplatory” has been suggested. It is to be noted that Basil in the De Sp.
Scto. (see p. 49, n.) appears to allude to the Acharnians. The friends probably read Aristophanes together at
Athens.
110 Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. Soz. vi. 15.
111 vi. 15.
112 Greg. Naz., Epp. xvi., xvii., xix., and Or. xx.
113 οὐκ ὑβριστικῶς, ἀλλὰ πνευματικῶς τε καὶ φιλοσόφως.
114 Soz. vi. 15.
115 Amm. Marc. xxvi. 7, 2.
116 ἐντεῦθεν ἀυτῶ περιῆν καὶ τὸ κράτος τῆς ἐκκλησίας, εἰ καὶ τῆς καθέδρας εἶχε τὰ δεύτερα. Greg. Naz.
Or. xliii.
The Presbyterate.
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