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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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St. <strong>Basil</strong> <strong>and</strong> Eustathius.heretical expressions of Apollinarius, which were made to pass as <strong>Basil</strong>’s. In his virulenthostility he was aided, if not instigated, by Demosthenes the prefect’s vicar, probably <strong>Basil</strong>’sold opponent at Cæsarea in 372. 216 His duplicity <strong>and</strong> sl<strong>and</strong>ers roused <strong>Basil</strong>’s indignantdenunciation. 217 Unhappily they were not everywhere recognized as calumnies. Amongthe bitterest of <strong>Basil</strong>’s trials was the failure to credit him with honour <strong>and</strong> orthodoxy on thepart of those from whom he might have expected sympathy <strong>and</strong> support. An earlier instanceof this is the feeling shewn at the banquet at Nazianzus already referred to. 218 In later dayshe was cruelly troubled by the unfriendliness of his old neighbours at Neocæsarea, 219 <strong>and</strong>this alienation would be the more distressing inasmuch as Atarbius, the bishop of that see,appears to have been <strong>Basil</strong>’s kinsman. 220 He was under the suspicion of Sabellian unsoundness.He slighted <strong>and</strong> sl<strong>and</strong>ered <strong>Basil</strong> on several apparently trivial pretexts, <strong>and</strong> on one occasionhastened from Nicopolis for fear of meeting him. 221 He expressed objection tosupposed novelties introduced into the Church of Cæsarea, to the mode of psalmody practicedthere, <strong>and</strong> to the encouragement of ascetic life. 222 <strong>Basil</strong> did his utmost to win backthe Neocæsareans from their heretical tendencies <strong>and</strong> to their old kindly sentiments towardshimself.The clergy of Pisidia <strong>and</strong> Pontus, where Eustathius had been specially successful in alienatingthe district of Dazimon, were personally visited <strong>and</strong> won back to communion. 223But Atarbius <strong>and</strong> the Neocæsareans were deaf to all appeal, <strong>and</strong> remained persistently irreconcilable.224 On his visiting the old home at Annesi, where his youngest brother Petruswas now residing, in 375, the Neocæsareans were thrown into a state of almost ludicrouspanic. They fled as from a pursuing enemy. 225 They accused <strong>Basil</strong> of seeking to win theirregard <strong>and</strong> support from motives of the pettiest ambition, <strong>and</strong> twitted him with travellinginto their neighbourhood uninvited. 226xxviii216 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. <strong>and</strong> ccxvi.224 Epp. lxv., xxvi., ccx.225 Ep. ccxvi.226 Ib.42

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