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

leading northwards from Tyana to Doara and diverging westward to Nazianzus. 193 Gregory
speaks of it with contempt, and almost with disgust, 194 and never seems to have forgiven
his old friend for forcing him to accept the responsibility of the episcopate, and in such a
193 “Nyssa was more clearly than either Sasima or Doara a part of Cappadocia Secunda; it always retained
its ecclesiastical dependence on Cæsarea, but politically it must have been subject to Tyana from 372 to 536,
and afterwards to Mokissos. All three were apparently places to which Basil consecrated bishops during his
contest with Anthimus and the civil power. His bishop of Nyssa, his own brother Gregory, was ejected by the
dominant Arians, but the eminence and vigour of Gregory secured his reinstatement and triumphant return.
Basil’s appointment was thus successful, and the connexion always continued. His appointment at Sasima was
unsuccessful. Gregory of Nazianzus would not maintain the contest, and Sasima passed under the metropolitan
of Tyana. At Doara, in like fashion, Basil’s nominee was expelled, and apparently never reinstated. Ep. ccxxxix.
Greg. Naz. Or. xiii.” Ramsay, Hist. Geog. of A.M. 305.
The Breach with Gregory of Nazianzus.
194 As in Carm. De Vita Sua: Σταθμός τις ἐστὶν ἐν μέσῃ λεωφόρῳ Τῆς Καππαδοκῶν ὃς σχίζετ᾽ εἰς τρισσὴν
ὁδόν. ῎Ανυδρος, ἄχλους, οὐδ᾽ ὅλως ἐλεύθερος, Δεινῶς ἐπευκτὸν καὶ στενὸν κωμύδριον, Κόνις τὰ πάντα, καὶ
ψόφοι, σὺν ἅρμασι, Θρῆνοι, στεναγμοὶ, πράκτορες, στρέβλαι, πέδαι· Λαὸς δ᾽ ὅσοι ξένοι τε καὶ πλανώμενοι,
Αὕτη Σασίμων τῶν ἐμῶν ἐκκλησία. [N.B.—The last line marks the quantity.] “A post town on the king’s high
road, Where three ways meet, is my abode; No brooklet, not a blade of grass, Enlivens the dull hole, alas! Dust,
din, all day; the creak of wheels; Groans, yells, the exciseman at one’s heels With screw and chain; the population
A shifting horde from every nation. A viler spot you long may search, Than this Sasima, now my church!”
37
xxvi