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

heretical expressions of Apollinarius, which were made to pass as Basil’s. In his virulent
hostility he was aided, if not instigated, by Demosthenes the prefect’s vicar, probably Basil’s
old opponent at Cæsarea in 372. 216 His duplicity and slanders roused Basil’s indignant
denunciation. 217 Unhappily they were not everywhere recognized as calumnies. Among
the bitterest of Basil’s trials was the failure to credit him with honour and orthodoxy on the
part of those from whom he might have expected sympathy and support. An earlier instance
of this is the feeling shewn at the banquet at Nazianzus already referred to. 218 In later days
he was cruelly troubled by the unfriendliness of his old neighbours at Neocæsarea, 219 and
this alienation would be the more distressing inasmuch as Atarbius, the bishop of that see,
appears to have been Basil’s kinsman. 220 He was under the suspicion of Sabellian unsoundness.
He slighted and slandered Basil on several apparently trivial pretexts, and on one occasion
hastened from Nicopolis for fear of meeting him. 221 He expressed objection to
supposed novelties introduced into the Church of Cæsarea, to the mode of psalmody practiced
there, and to the encouragement of ascetic life. 222 Basil did his utmost to win back
the Neocæsareans from their heretical tendencies and to their old kindly sentiments towards
himself.
The clergy of Pisidia and Pontus, where Eustathius had been specially successful in alienating
the district of Dazimon, were personally visited and won back to communion. 223
But Atarbius and the Neocæsareans were deaf to all appeal, and remained persistently irreconcilable.
224 On his visiting the old home at Annesi, where his youngest brother Petrus
was now residing, in 375, the Neocæsareans were thrown into a state of almost ludicrous
panic. They fled as from a pursuing enemy. 225 They accused Basil of seeking to win their
regard and support from motives of the pettiest ambition, and twitted him with travelling
into their neighbourhood uninvited. 226
216 Ep. ccxxxvii.
217 Epp. ccxxiii., ccxliv., cclxiii.
218 § vi.
219 Epp. cciv., ccvii.
220 Ep. ccx. § 4.
221 Ep. cxxvi.
222 Ep. ccvii.
223 Epp. cciii. and ccxvi.
224 Epp. lxv., xxvi., ccx.
225 Ep. ccxvi.
226 Ib.
St. Basil and Eustathius.
42
xxviii