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

VI.—Basil as Archbishop.
The archiepiscopal throne was now technically vacant. But the man who had practically
filled it, “the keeper and tamer of the lion,” 135 was still alive in the plenitude of his power.
What course was he to follow ? Was he meekly to withdraw, and perhaps be compelled to
support the candidature of another and an inferior? The indirect evidence 136 has seemed
to some strong enough to compel the conclusion that he determined, if possible, to secure
his election to the see. 137 Others, on the contrary, have thought him incapable of scheming
for the nomination. 138 The truth probably lies between the two extreme views. No intelligent
onlooker of the position at Cæsarea on the death of Eusebius, least of all the highly capable
administrator of the province, could be blind to the fact that of all possible competitors for
the vacant throne Basil himself was the ablest and most distinguished, and the likeliest to
be capable of directing the course of events in the interests of orthodoxy. But it does not
follow that Basil’s appeal to Gregory to come to him was a deliberate step to secure this end.
He craved for the support and counsel of his friend; but no one could have known better
that Gregory the younger was not the man to take prompt action or rule events. His invention
of a fatal sickness, or exaggeration of a slight one, failed to secure even Gregory’s presence
at Cæsarea. Gregory burst into tears on receipt of the news of his friend’s grave illness, and
hastened to obey the summons to his side. But on the road he fell in with bishops hurrying
to Cæsarea for the election of a successor to Eusebius, and detected the unreality of Basil’s
plea. He at once returned to Nazianzus and wrote the oft-quoted letter, 139 on the interpretation
given to which depends the estimate formed of Basil’s action at the important crisis.
Basil may or may not have taken Gregory’s advice not to put himself forward. But
Gregory and his father, the bishop, from this time strained every nerve to secure the election
135 Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. 33.
136 i.e. the extant reply to his urgent request that Gregory would come to him. Greg. Naz., Ep. xl.
137 “Persuadé que, s’il échouait c’en était fait de la foi de Nicée en Cappadoce, il deploie toutes les ressources
de son dénie, aussi souple que puissant.” Fialone, Et. Hist. p. 85. “Personne dans la ville, pas même Basile, malgré
son humilité, ne donta que la succession ne lui fût acquise…il fit assez ouvertement ses préparatifs pour sa promo-
tion.” De Broglie, L’Eglise et l’Empire R. v. 88. “Basil persuaded himself, and not altogether unwarrantably, that
the cause of orthodoxy in Asia Minor was involved in his becoming his successor.” Canon Venables in D.C.B.
“Erselbst, so schwer er sich anfangs zur Uebernahme des Presbyterates hatte entschliessen können, jetzt, wo er sich
in seine Stellung hinein gearbeitet hatte wünschte er nichts sehnlicher al seine Wahl zum Bischof. Böhringer the
IVth c. p. 24. “Was it really from ambitious views? Certainly the suspicion, which even his friend entertained,
attaches to him.” Ullmann, Life of Gregory of Naz., Cox’s Trans. p. 117.
138 “Ne suspicatus quidem in se oculos conjectum iri.” Maran, Vit. Bas. “Former une brigue pour parvenir à
l’épiscopat était bien loin de sa pensée.´ Ceillier, iv. 354.
139 Greg. N., Ep. xl. (xxi.).
Basil as Archbishop.
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