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

X.—Troubles of the Closing Years.
The relief to the Catholic East was brief. The paroxysm of passion which caused
Valentinian to break a blood-vessel and ended his life, 260 ended also the force of the imperial
rescript. The Arians lifted their heads again. A council was held at Ancyra, 261 in which
the homoousion was condemned, and frivolous and vexatious charges were brought against
Gregory of Nyssa. 262 At Cyzicus a Semiarian synod blasphemed the Holy Spirit. 263 Similar
proceedings characterized a synod of Antioch at about the same time. 264 Gregory of Nyssa
having been prevented by illness from appearing before the synod of Ancyra, Eustathius
and Demosthenes persisted in their efforts to wound Basil through his brother, and
summoned a synod at Nyssa itself, where Gregory was condemned in his absence and deposed.
265 He was not long afterwards banished. 266 On the other hand the Catholic bishops
were not inactive. Synods were held on their part, and at Iconium Amphilochius presided
over a gathering at which Basil was perhaps present himself, and where his treatise on the
Holy Spirit was read and approved. 267 The Illyrian Council was a result incommensurate
with Basil’s passionate entreaties for the help of the westerns. From the midst of the troubles
which beset the Eastern Church Basil appealed, 268 as he had appealed before, 269 for the
sympathy and active aid of the other half of the empire. He was bitterly chagrined at the
failure of his entreaties for support, and began to suspect that the neglect he complained of
was due to coldness and to pride. 270 It has seemed to some that this coldness in the West
was largely due to resentment at Basil’s non-recognition of the supremacy of the Roman
see. 271 In truth the supremacy of the Roman see, as it has been understood in later times,
260 Nov. 17, 375. Amm. Marc. xxx. 6. Soc. iv. 31.
261 Mansi, iii. 499. Hefele, § 90.
262 Ep. ccxxv.
263 Ep. ccxliv.
264 Soc. v. 4.
265 Ep. ccxxxvii.
266 Greg., Vit. Mac. ii. 192.
267 Ep. ccii., cclxxii. Hefele, § 90. Mansi, iii. 502–506. There is some doubt as to the exact date of this synod.
cf. D.C.A. i. 807.
268 Ep. ccxliii.
269 Ep. lxx., addressed in 371 to Damasus.
270 Ep. ccxxxix.
271 cf. D.C.B. i. 294: “C’est esprit, conciliant aux les orientaux jusqu’à soulever l’intolérance orientale, est aussi
inflexible avec les occidentaux qu’avec le pouvoir impérial. On sent dans ses lettres la révolte de l’orient qui réclame
ses prérogatives, ses droits d’ancienneté; l’esprit d’indépendance de la Grèce, qui, si elle supporte le joug matériel
de Rome, refuse de reconnaitre sa suprématie spirituelle.” Fialon, Et. Hist. 133.
Troubles of the Closing Years.
47