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

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

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

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The Breach with Gregory of Nazianzus.VII.—The Breach with Gregory of Nazianzus.Cappadocia, it has been seen, had been divided into two provinces, <strong>and</strong> of one of theseTyana had been constituted the chief town. Anthimus, bishop of Tyana, now contendedthat an ecclesiastical partition should follow the civil, <strong>and</strong> that Tyana should enjoy parallelmetropolitan privileges to those of Cæsarea. To this claim <strong>Basil</strong> determined to offer anuncompromising resistance, <strong>and</strong> summoned Gregory of Nazianzus to his side. Gregoryreplied in friendly <strong>and</strong> complimentary terms, 187 <strong>and</strong> pointed out that <strong>Basil</strong>’s friendship forEustathius of Sebaste was a cause of suspicion in the Church. At the same time he placedhimself at the archbishop’s disposal. The friends started together with a train of slaves <strong>and</strong>mules to collect the produce of the monastery of St. Orestes, in Cappadocia Secunda, whichwas the property of the see of Cæsarea. Anthimus blocked the defiles with his retainers <strong>and</strong>in the vicinity of Sasima 188 there was an unseemly struggle between the domestics of thetwo prelates. 189 The friends proceeded to Nazianzus, <strong>and</strong> there, with imperious inconsiderateness,<strong>Basil</strong> insisted upon nominating Gregory to one of the bishoprics which he wasfounding in order to strengthen his position against Anthimus. 190 For Gregory, thebrother, Nyssa was selected, a town on the Halys, about a hundred miles distant fromCæsarea, so obscure that Eusebius of Samosata remonstrated with <strong>Basil</strong> on the unreasonablenessof forcing such a man to undertake the episcopate of such a place. 191 For Gregory,the friend, a similar fate was ordered. The spot chosen was Sasima, a townlet comm<strong>and</strong>ingthe scene of the recent fray. 192 It was an insignificant place at the bifurcation of the road187 Greg. Naz., Ep. xlvii.188 cf. Maran, Vit. Bas. xxiii. 4.189 Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. 58, <strong>and</strong> Ep. xlviii. Bas., Epp. lxxiv., lxxv., lxxvi.190 It has been debated whether the odium theologicum was here mixed up with the odium ecclesiasticum.Gregory (Orat. xliii. 58) represents Anthimus as defending his seizure of the metropolitan revenues on the groundthat it was wrong δασμοφορειν κακοδόξοις, to pay tribute to men of evil opinions, <strong>and</strong> LeClerc (Bibl. Univer.xviii. p. 60) has condemned Anthimus as an Arian. He was undoubtedly Αρή& 187·ος (Greg. Naz., Ep. xlviii.),a devotee of Ares, as he shewed in the skirmish by Sasima; but there is no reason to suppose him to have beenΑρειανός, or Arian. He probably looked askance at the orthodoxy of <strong>Basil</strong>. <strong>Basil</strong> would never have called himὁμόψυχος (Ep. ccx. 5) if he had been unsound on the incarnation. cf. Baronius, Act. Sanc. Maj. ii. p. 394.191 Ep. xcviii., but see note, p. 182, on the doubt as to this allusion.192 Greg. Naz., with grim humour, objects to be sent to Sasima to fight for <strong>Basil</strong>’s supply of sucking pigs <strong>and</strong>poultry from St. Orestes. Ep. xlviii.36

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