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

The Breach with Gregory of Nazianzus.the main trouble of his chequered career to Basil’s unkindness, and owns to feeling the smartstill, though the hand that inflicted the wound was cold. 199199 Or. xliii. cf. Newman, The Church of the Fathers, p. 142, where the breach is impartially commented on:“An ascetic, like Gregory, ought not to have complained of the country as deficient in beauty and interest, eventhough he might be allowed to feel the responsibility of a situation which made him a neighbor of Anthimus.Yet such was his infirmity; and he repelled the accusations of his mind against himself by charging Basil withunkindness in placing him at Sasima. On the other hand, it is possible that Basil, in his eagerness for the settlementof his exarchate, too little consulted the character and taste of Gregory; and, above all, the feelings of duty whichbound him to Nazianzus.…Henceforth no letters, which are preserved, passed between the two friends; nor areany acts of intercourse discoverable in their history. Anthimus appointed a rival bishop to Sasima; and Gregory,refusing to contest the see with him, returned to Nazianzus. Basil laboured by himself. Gregory retained hisfeelings of Basil’s unkindness even after his death.…This lamentable occurrence took place eight or nine yearsbefore Basil’s death; he had, before and after it, many trials, many sorrows; but this probably was the greatestof all.” The statement that no letters which are preserved passed between the two friends henceforth will haveto be modified, if we suppose Letter clxix. to be addressed to Gregory the Divine. But Professor Ramsay’s arguments(Hist. Geog. of Asia Minor, p. 293) in favour of Gregory of Nazianzus the elder seem irresistible. On Letterclxix. he writes: “For topographical purposes it is necessary to discover who was the Gregory into whose dioceseGlycerius fled. Tillemont considers that either Gregory of Nyssa or Gregory of Nazianzus is meant. But thetone of the letter is not what we might expect if Basil were writing to either of them. It is not conceived in thespirit of authority in which Basil wrote to his brother or to his friend. It appears to me to show a certain deferencewhich, considering the resolute, imperious, and uncompromising character of Basil (seen especially in his behaviourto Gregory Nazianzen in the matter of the bishopric of Sasima), I can explain only on the supposition thathe is writing to the aged and venerable Gregory, bishop of Nazianzos. Then the whole situation is clear. Venasawas in the district of Malakopaia, or Suvermez, towards the limits of the diocese of Cæsareia. The adjoiningbishopric was that of Nazianzos. Venasa being so far from Cæsareia was administered by one of the fiftychorepiscopi whom Basil had under him (Tillemont, Mem. p. servir, etc., ix. p. 120), and the authority of Basilwas appealed to only in the final resort. Glycerius, when Basil decided against him, naturally fled over the borderinto the diocese of Nazianzos.” (There is, however, not much reverence in Letter clxxi.) “Comment l’hommequi avait tant souffert de l’injustice des autres, put-il être injuste envers son meilleur ami? L’amitié est de tous lespays. Partout, on voit des hommes qui semblent nés l’un pour l’autre, se rapprocher par une estime mutuelle, parla conformité de leurs gouts et de leurs caractères partager les peines et les joies de la vie, et donner le spectacle duplus beau sentiment que nous avons reçu de la divinité. Mais la Grèce avait singulièrement ennobli ce sentimentdejà si pur et si saint, en lui donnant pour but l’amour de la patrie. Les amis, destines a se servir l’un à l’autre demodèle et de soutien, s’aiment moins pour eux-mêmes, que pour rivaliser de vertu, se dévouer ensemble, s’immolers’il le faut, au bien public.…C’est cette amitié de dévouement et de sacrifice, qu’au milieu de la mollesse du IVmesiècle, Basil conçoit pour Grégoire de Nazianze. Formée dans les écoles, entretenne par l’amour des lettres, elleavait pour but unique, non plus la patrie, mais Dieu. L’amitié de Grégoire et plus tendre et plus humaine.…Il avoué sa vie à son ami, mais il en attend la même condescendance, le même denouement à ses propres désirs. Basile39