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NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

NPNF2-08. Basil: Letters and Select Works - Holy Bible Institute

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Prolegomena.Prolegomena.————————————xiiiSketch of the Life <strong>and</strong> <strong>Works</strong> of Saint <strong>Basil</strong>.————————————I. Life.I.—Parentage <strong>and</strong> Birth.Under the persecution of the second Maximinus, 1 a Christian gentleman of good position<strong>and</strong> fair estate in Pontus 2 <strong>and</strong> Macrina his wife, suffered severe hardships. 3 They escapedwith their lives, <strong>and</strong> appear to have retained, or recovered, some of their property. 4 Of theirchildren the names of two only have survived: Gregory 5 <strong>and</strong> <strong>Basil</strong>. 6 The former becamebishop of one of the sees of Cappadocia. The latter acquired a high reputation in Pontus<strong>and</strong> the neighboring districts as an advocate of eminence, 7 <strong>and</strong> as a teacher of rhetoric. Hischaracter in the Church for probity <strong>and</strong> piety stood very high. 8 He married an orphanedgentlewoman named Emmelia, whose father had suffered impoverishment <strong>and</strong> death forChrist’s sake, <strong>and</strong> who was herself a conspicuous example of high-minded <strong>and</strong> gentle1 Of sufferers in this supreme struggle of heathenism to delay the official recognition of the victory of theGospel over the empire, the Reformed Kalendar of the English Church preserves the memory of St. Blaise(Blasius), bishop of Sebasteia in Armenia, St. George, St. Agnes, St. Lucy, St. Margaret of Antioch, St. Katharineof Alex<strong>and</strong>ria.2 Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. (xx.). N.B. The reff. to the orations <strong>and</strong> letters of Greg. Naz. are to the Ordo novus inMigne.3 Id.4 Greg. Nyss., Vit. Mac. 178, 191.5 Bishop of an unknown see. Of the foolish duplicity of Gregory of Nyssa in fabricating a letter from him,see the mention in Epp. lviii., lix., lx.6 Βασίλειος, <strong>Basil</strong>ius=royal or kingly. The name was a common one. Fabricius catalogues “alii <strong>Basil</strong>ii ultraxxx.,” all of some fame. The derivation of Βασιλεύς is uncertain, <strong>and</strong> the connexion of the last syllable withλεύς=λέως=λαός, people, almost certainly wrong. The root may be &#214;BA, with the idea that the leadermakes the followers march. With the type of name, cf. Melchi <strong>and</strong> the compounds of Melech (e.g. Abimelech)in Scripture, <strong>and</strong> King, LeRoy, Koenig, among modern names.7 Greg. Nyss., Vit. Mac. 392.8 Greg. Nyss., Vit. Mac. 186.8

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