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On Basil, Moses, and the Model Bishop: The Cappadocian Legacy of Leadership

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Andrea Sterk
Andrea Sterk
Affiliation:
adjunct assistant professor of religion at the University of Notre Dame.
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Extract

Toward the end of the third century Bishop Narcissus of Jerusalem retired to the desert to escape the burdens and intrigues of the episcopate and devote himself to the “philosophic life.” By the sixth century we find much more often the reverse phenomenon—monks, with alleged unwillingness, abandoning the peace and solitude of the desert to engage in active episcopal careers. The intervening period saw the phenomenal spread of the monastic movement and its gradual assimilation by the hierarchy of the church. Monasteries contained rising numbers of ordainedpriests and deacons, and bishops were increasingly chosen from the ranks of monks. This process accelerated in the Christian East to such an extent that from the sixth century on monasteries are said to have served as virtual “seminaries for bishops.”

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Articles
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Church History , Volume 67 , Issue 2 , June 1998 , pp. 227 - 253
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1998

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References

1. Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 6.9.8. The terms “philosophy” and “philosophic life” were often used by Christians of this period to refer to the knowledge of God in general and the ascetic or monastic life in particular. For a thorough treatment of developments in the use of these termsGoogle Scholar see Malingrey, A.-M., “Philosophia”: Etude d'un groupe de mots dans la littérature grecque des Présocratiques au IVe s. après J.-C. (Paris, 1961).Google Scholar

2. Colombas, Garcia M., El monacato primitivo (Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1974), 1:333–34.Google Scholar See also Pargoire, R. P. J., L'église byzantine de 527 à 847 (Paris: Librairie Victor Lecoffre, 1905), 66.Google Scholar

3. On Basil's direct and indirect influence see Sterk, Andrea, “Basil of Caesarea and the Rise of the Monastic Episcopate: Ascetic Ideals and Episcopal Authority in Fourth-Century Asia Minor” (Ph.D. diss., Princeton Theological Seminary, 1994).Google Scholar

4. On imperial policy toward Christians during this period see Bardy, Gustave, “The Variations of Arianism,” chap. 3 in The Church in the Christian Roman Empire, Palanque, J. R. et al. , trans. Ernest C. Messenger (London: Burnes Oates and Washbourne, 1949), especially 165–82.Google Scholar

5. See in particular Basil's Letters 82, 92.3, 258.1, and 226.1 in the critical edition of Courtonne, Yves, Saint Basile: Lettres, 3 vols. (Paris: Belles Lettres, 1957, 1961, 1966).Google Scholar For an English translation see Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1968), 8:109–327.Google ScholarPerhaps the best example of internal discord is the Meletian schism of Antioch in which Nicene bishops were divided in their support of the rival orthodox bishops Meletius or Paulinus. Basil's correspondence with Athanasius is almost wholly devoted to his efforts to heal this schism. The dispute lasted almost twenty years and was only resolved by the death of Meletius in 381.Google Scholar

6. Eck, Werner, “Der Einfluss der konstantinischen Wende auf die Auswahl der Bischöfe im 4. und 5. Jahrhundert,” Chiron 8 (1978): 562. Eck refers to Cyprian, Ep. 80.1 regarding Valerian's decree.Google Scholar

7. This message is presented most clearly and succinctly in Oration 4.31, lines 9–12 in Bernardi, Jean, ed., Discours 4–5, SC 309 (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1983).Google Scholar See also Oration 4.14, 32, 49;Google ScholarOration 5.34;Google Scholarand the comments of Bernardi, “Introduction,” 63.Google Scholar

8. See Eck, , “Der Einfluss der konstantinischen Wende,” and Lizzi, Rita, Il potere episcopale nell'Oriente Romano (Rome: Edizioni dell'Ateneo, 1987), 13–32.Google Scholar

9. Gregory's ascetic and theological treatises De virginitate, Contra Eunomium, De hominis opificio and In Hexaemeron were all at least partly inspired by the thought of Basil of Caesarea. Even his late work De institute christiano presents in exhortatory form the basic monastic doctrine and ideals expressed in the question-answer scheme of Basil's Rules. It must be noted, however, that Gregory also modified Basil's legacy.Google Scholar See May, Gerhard, “Einige Bemerkungen über das Verhältnis Gregors von Nyssa zu Basilius dem Grossen,” in Epektasis: Mélanges Jean Daniélou (Paris: Beauchesne, 1972), 509–515.Google Scholar

10. Their “strained relationship” has been attributed to the Nyssan's chicanery in attempting to reconcile Basil with their uncle, or to Basil's disappointment over Gregory's initial choice of a rhetorical over a monastic vocation. The first explanation is offered by Rousseau, Philip, Basil of Caesarea (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), 6–8;Google Scholar the second is suggested by May, “Einige Bemerkungen,” although he also mentions other factors.

11. For references to these and other titles ascribed to Basil in Gregory's writings see Aubineau, Michel, ed., Grégoire de Nysse: Traité de la virginité, SC 119 (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1966), 56 n. 2.Google Scholar

12. VSM 14, 4–6 in Maraval, Pierre, ed., Vie de Sainte Macrine, SC 178 (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1971).Google Scholar

13. The text of Gregory's encomium is in the edition of Jaeger, , Langerbeck, , and Dörrie, , Gregorii Nysseni Opera X.1.2 (Leiden: Brill, 1990), 109–134 (I will henceforth cite only GNO X and the relevant page and line numbers).Google Scholar For an English translation see the edition of Stein, James Aloysius, Encomium of St. Gregory Bishop of Nyssa on his Brother St. Basil, Archbishop of Cappadocian Caesarea (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1928). The text is also in PG 46, 788C–817D.Google Scholar

14. On the date and setting of the encomium see Bernardi, , La Prédication des pères cappadociens: Le Prédicateur et son auditoire (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1968), 313–14,Google Scholar who follows Danielou, Jean, “La Chronologie des sermons de Grégoire de Nysse,” Revue des sciences religieuses 29 (1955): 351–53 in assigning to the oration the date 1 January 381. The text suggests that there was already a cult of Basil at an early date and that Gregory wished to honor his brother with a new feast day in the liturgical calendar.Google ScholarSee GNO X.130.7–10, 109.4–6, and 110.19–20.Google Scholar

15. For Basil's comments on his brother's naïveté and political ineptitude see especially Basil's Letter 215; also Letters 58 and 60. Gregory's rather unsuccessful efforts to mediate in ecclesiastical affairs may well confirm his brother's opinion.Google Scholar

16. Bernardi, , La Prédication, 314–15.Google ScholarWhile an encomium would normally include a discussion of the subject's homeland, ancestry, and education immediately following the proemion, Gregory chose instead to idealize these aspects of Basil's life in a later part of the oration. See GNO X.132.5–14.Google Scholar

17. A schema of the encomium is provided by Stein, , Encomium on Basil, Xli, who depends heavily on the work of Méridier, L., L'lnfluence de la seconde sophistique sur I'oeuvre de Gregoire de Nysse (Paris, 1906).Google ScholarMeredith, Anthony, “Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa on Basil,” Studia Patristica 32 (1997): 163–69, has recently noted the chiastic structure of the speech. From X.112.1–118.19 Gregory compares Basil with six biblical figures; then from 118.20–130.6 he compares him with five of the same six men in reverse order.Google Scholar

18. GNO X.118.16–21. See 116.13–119.15 for the entire comparison with Paul.Google Scholar

19. GNO X.120.4–7. The title ὅ διδάσκαλος ήμών is ascribed to Basil throughout the oration.Google Scholar

20. GNOX.120.7–21.Google Scholar

21. This term was often used to describe a balance between the contemplative life of the philosopher or monk and the active vocation of civic or ecclesiastical service. We will encounter the same ideal in the thought of Gregory of Nazianzus. An appreciation for a kind of “mixed life” was not unique to Christians of this period. For many pagan philosophers of late antiquity involvement in public affairs at a certain level went hand in hand with the life of renunciation and contemplative withdrawal. Philosophers might serve as ambassadors, diplomats, mediators, and financial benefactors of their city and its traditions. However, while the philosopher rendered service almost exclusively on behalf of the governing class, an upper-class urban elite, the Christian ascetic identified with the humble and oppressed classes. On the contrast between pagan and Christian notions of the mixed life see Brown, Peter, “The Philosopher and Society in Late Antiquity,” Protocol Series of the Colloquies 34 (Berkeley: Center for Hermeneutical Studies, 1980), 1–17.Google Scholar On the services rendered by pagan philosophers see Fowden, Garth, “The Pagan Holy Man in Late Antique Society,” Journal of Hellenic Studies 102 (1982): 50–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

22. Philip Rousseau shows the same tendency to internalize characteristic monastic practices in the biographies of Ambrose, Augustine, and Martin. See Rousseau, , “The Spiritual Authority of the ‘Monk-Bishop’: Eastern Elements in Some Western Hagiography of the Fourth and Fifth Centuries,” JTS, n.s., 23 (1971): especially 406–419. All of these biographies are subsequent to Gregory's encomium on Basil.Google Scholar

23. GNO X.122.10–12.Google Scholar

24. GNO X.124.14–17.Google Scholar

25. GNO X.125.3–5: Stein, , Encomium on Basil, 39.Google Scholar

26. The Moses-synkrisis follows a brief comparison of Basil with Samuel (GNO X.125.7–22), which highlights two points. First, the births of both Samuel and Basil were gifts from God in response to the petition of their parents. Second, both men are said to have sacrificed for the destruction of their enemies, the Philistines on the one hand and heresies on the other.

27. GNO X.127.4–6: Stein, , Encomium on Basil, 43.Google Scholar

28. At this point Gregory begins to speak of Moses' acts as the prefiguration of Basil's functions as bishop. See GNO X.127.13f. Gregory also says that Basil's assumption of the priesthood adorned and served the church and that he “equipped others by his own example” (129.1).Google Scholar

29. Harl, Marguerite, “Moïse figure de l'évêque dans l'éloge de Basile de Grégoire de Nysse (381),” in The Biographical Works of Gregory of Nyssa, ed. Spira, Andreas, Proceedings of the Fifth International Colloquium on Gregory of Nyssa (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Patristic 1984, 1984), 100.Google Scholar

30. GNO X.129.5–9.Google Scholar

31. See GNO X.129.9–19.Google Scholar

32. See Gregory's Letter 1, especially sections 17–20, 27, and 30–35 in Maraval, Pierre, ed., Grégoire de Nysse: Lettres, SC 363 (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1990). The probability that the Nyssan delivered the encomium in Caesarea itself, where Helladius was at the time presiding as bishop, adds a subtly provocative dimension to the speech. Although Letter 1 may have been written after the encomium, it reflects a long-standing dispute.Google Scholar

33. While the exact date is uncertain, this panegyric is generally thought to have been composed between 379 and 388, and probably closer to 380. See Bernardi, , La Prédication, 308–309;Google Scholar and Maraval, , VSM, 57–67. For the text of De Vita Gregorii Thaumaturgi see GNO X.1.3–57 (=PG 46, 893–958). No translation of the Vita has yet been published in any modern language, though an English translation by Michael Slusser is pending in the Fathers of the Church series.Google Scholar

34. See Dam, Raymond Van, “Hagiography and History: The Life of Gregory Thaumaturgus,” Classical Antiquity 1 (10 1982): 272–308.Google Scholar For a discussion of some of the dominant themes in the Vita see Seco, Lucas F. Mateo, “El Cristiano ante la vida y ante la muerte,” in Spira, , ed., The Biographical Works, 206–209.Google Scholar

35. GNO X.10.8–11 (=PG 46, 901C).Google Scholar

36. GNO X.14–13.3 (=PG 46, 901D–905C).Google Scholar

37. Dam, Van, “Hagiography and History,” 280. Crquzel, Henri, ed. and trans., Grégoire le Thaumaturge: Remerciement à Origène, SC 148, (Paris: Les Éditions du, 1969), 21, notes that the episode with the prostitute is almost a commonplace in hagiographical literature. Athanasius, for example, is said to have experienced and overcome the same temptation.Google Scholar

38. GNO X.13.9–12 (=PG 46, 905C–D). On the historical circumstances surrounding Gregory's studies in Caesarea and the content of his studies with Origen, see Fox, Robin Lane, Pagans and Christians (New York: Knopf, 1987), 519–28;Google Scholar and Crouzel, , Remerciement, 14–22.Google Scholar

39. GNO X.14.18–15.1 (=PG 46, 908C–D). Notice in this passage that the married state that characterized Moses' career did not for Gregory detract from the ability to lead God's people.Google Scholar

40. Literally “the mystery of piety.” GNO X.17.24–19.5 (=PG 46, 912C–913A). On this Trinitarian creed attributed to Gregory Thaumaturgus see Abramowski, L., “Das Bekenntnis des Gregors Thaumaturgus bei Gregor von Nyssa und das Problem seiner Echtheit,” ZKG 87 (1976): 145–66. The creed likely originated with the Nyssan himself.Google Scholar

41. GNO X.19.14–19 (=PG 46, 913B).Google Scholar

42. GNO X.20.7–8 (=PG 46, 913C) Cf. 14.10f. (=PG 46, 908C) for the parallel language used to describe his abandonment of urban life for solitude.Google Scholar

43. Basil, De spiritu sancto 29.73.Google Scholar

44. GNO X.36.3–41.15 (=PG 46,933B–940B).Google Scholar

45. GNO X.36.17 (=PG 46, 933C).Google Scholar

46. Πλρήρης διανοίας: GNO X.40.6–7 (=PG 46, 937C).Google Scholar

47. ούκ άν⋯γΚη πενίας: GNO X.38.10 (=PG 46, 936C).Google Scholar

48. While the people of Comana could see in Alexander only the physical poverty and ugliness of the charcoal burner, the Bishop of Neocaesarea alone was able to perceive the spiritual riches and beauty of the inner man. “He considered as nothing all those things that the world deemed worthy of esteem or contempt,” Gregory explains (GNO X.40.25–41.1 [=PG 46, 940A]). His wise judgment is matched by boldness in challenging the leaders of the city. See also 36.22–37.5 (=PG 46, 933D), where the Nyssan compares Gregory Thaumaturgus to Samuel in his indifference to external qualities in the choice of a king.Google Scholar

49. On tensions between bishops and the local gentry see Treucker, Barnim, Politische und sozialgeschictliche Studien zu den Basilius-Briefen (diss., Munich, 1961), 26–28.Google Scholar

50. See Kopeček, Thomas A., “The Social Class of the Cappadocian Fathers,” Church History 42 (1973): 458.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For a thorough discussion of the ecclesiastical legislation regarding the election of bishops see Gryson, R., “Les Élections épiscopates en Orient au IVe siècle,” RHE (1979): 301–345.Google Scholar

51. See Letter 17 in Maraval, , ed., Lettres, 214–32.Google Scholar On the dating and circumstances of this letter see Daniélou, Jean, “L'évêque d'après une lettre de Grégoire de Nysse,” Euntes Docete 20 (1967): 86–89;Google Scholar and Staats, Reinhart, “Gregor von Nyssa und das Bischofsamt,” Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschicte 84 (1973): 157–59. Tensions between ecclesiastical leaders and the local aristocracy are also apparent in the Nazianzen's writings. In Oration 18.35, for example, he argues that clergy and monks, as opposed to “the most wealthy and powerful,” should make decisions about episcopal appointments.Google Scholar

52. Codex Theodosianus 16.1.3.Google Scholar

53. Letter 2.12 mentions a mission to Arabia to reestablish order in the church there, as well as a trip to Jerusalem for the purpose of mediation. Letter 3 speaks of the same Jerusalem journey and alludes to the failure of his mediation. On Gregory's intervention in the ecclesiastical affairs mentioned in Letters 2 and 3 see Maraval, , ed., Lettres, 33–38.Google Scholar

54. For Gregory's description of their years in Athens see Oration 43.14–24.Google Scholar On the Cappadocians' use of “philosophy” to denote monastic life see Malingrey, A.-M., “Philosophia,” especially 237–60, and 220–21 nn. 19–22.Google Scholar For the scope of their usage of this term see also the brief but enlightening discussion of Pelikan, Jaroslav, Christianity and Culture: The Metamorphosis of Natural Theology in the Christian Encounter with Hellenism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), 177–33. It must be noted that at this early stage of their careers (mid-350s) Basil and Gregory did not have in mind anything like the organized monastic communities that would eventually spread throughout Asia Minor.Google Scholar

55. See especially De vita sua, lines 282–334,Google Scholar in Meehan, Denis Molaise, trans., Saint Gregory of Nazianzus: Three Poems (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1986);Google Scholar and Meehan, , De rebus suis, lines 261–306.Google Scholar These poems are also now available in the edition of White, Carolinne, Gregory of Nazaianzus: Autobiographical Poems, Cambridge Medieval Classics 6 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996).Google Scholar See also Oration 2.6–7 in Bernardi, Jean, ed. and trans., Grégoire de Nazianze: Discours 1–3, SC 247 (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1978).Google Scholar

56. See for example Oration 2.71, lines 9–12, and 2.69, lines 8–11.Google Scholar

57. Oration 2.91, lines 10–19. We see in this passage a rather traditional Platonic understanding of the need to purify the body and the mind in the philosophical ascent. Gregory presents an even clearer description of this ascent in Oration 2.7.Google Scholar See Moreschini, Claudio, “Il platonismo cristiano di Gregorio Nazianzeno,” Annali delta Scoula Normale Superiore di Pisa, 3d ser., 4/4 (1974): 1347–92, especially 1358–62.Google Scholar

58. Oration 2.92. Gregory uses the image of Moses on the mountain as an example of one who is prepared for leadership in at least three other discourses. Cf. Orations 20.2, 32.16–17, and 28.2–3. For other uses of Moses as a leader see Orations 7.2, 11.2, 18.14, 21.3, and 43.72.Google Scholar

59. See Oration 2.97–99 for Gregory's arguments in this regard.Google Scholar

60. Oration 2.114. Gregory also includes Jeremiah among those who hesitated to yield to God's call to service. Aaron and Isaiah, on the other hand, were quick to respond. He explains that neither those who responded eagerly nor those who delayed are deserving of blame.Google Scholar

61. Indeed praxis is sometimes described by Gregory as a prerequisite for theoria. See, for example, Orations 20.12, line 7 (Πρ⋯ξις γ⋯ρ έΠ⋯βασις θεωρ⋯ας) and 40.37 (Πρ⋯ξις γ⋯ρ θεωρ⋯ας προχ⋯νος) (PG 35, 1080 and PG 36, 412C respectively).Google Scholar These passages are cited and the theme discussed in Špidlik, T., “La Theoria et la praxis chez Grègoire de Nazianze,” Studia Patristica 14 (=TU 117) (1976): 358–64.Google ScholarOn the “mixed life” see above, note 21. For the Nazianzen's particular notion of the “mixed life” or a “middle way,” see Meehan, , De vita sua, lines 282–334.Google Scholar

62. See Letters 48–50 to Basil for an overview of this affair. Despite his claims here Gregory's objections to ordination to the see of Sasima probably involved more than a mere disinclination for ecclesiastical affairs. His comments in Meehan, , De vita sua, lines 440–49, suggest that he was particularly incensed at being condemned to such a remote, insignificant village. Perhaps he had greater ambitions in Constantinople that would be blocked by consecration to Sasima.Google Scholar

63. Though Gregory continued to present Basil as an example of piety and virtue and hail him as a model leader, a certain distance henceforth marked their relationship. See for example Oration 43.59, where even his praise of Basil cannot completely overshadow the disappointment at his friend's apparent callousness toward his own natural temperamentand desires.Google Scholar

64. Concerning his departure Gregory writes, “But I got involved again in troubles and found none of the advantages I had expected. On the contrary, as though it were destined to be so, a great array of the very affairs I had thought to escape loomed up” (Meehan, , Devita sua, lines 554–57).Google Scholar

65. For Gregory's account of his call to Constantinople and his description of the struggling Nicene Christian community there see Meehan, , De ipso et de episcopis, lines 71–136;Google ScholarMeehan, , De vita sua, lines 563–608;Google Scholarand Oration 42.2–5. Writing in the mid-fifth century, the church historian Socrates, Ecclesiastical History 5.3–6, gives a similar survey of the chaos in Constantinople, particularly the factionalism among bishops, around the time of Theodosius I's ascension to the imperial throne.Google Scholar For background see also Gallay, Paul, La Vie de Grègoire de Nazianze (Paris: Emmanuel Vitte, 1943), 132–36.Google Scholar

66. In Meehan, , De vita sua, lines 609–664, Gregory recounts his opposition to Apollinarianism and Arianism in Constantinople. In lines 1146–86, he lists an assortment of other heresies he confronted there. Regarding Gregory's own position see lines 665–735. His legitimacy was contested because he had already been consecrated Bishop of Sasima and Canon 15 of the Council of Nicaea had prohibited episcopal transfers. In defense Gregory would argue that he was not bound to a church that he had never occupied.Google Scholar

67. For Gregory's lengthy and highly derogatory description of Maximus and his consecration see Meehan, , De vita sua, lines 737–1044.Google Scholar On Maximus see also Meehan, , “Introduction,” Three Poems, 12–13.Google Scholar

68. Almost two-thirds of the verses focus on this two-year period in Constantinople. See Gallay, , La Vie de Grégoire de Nazianze, 137.Google Scholar

69. See Oration 20.2 in the critical edition of Mossay, Justin, ed., Grégoire de Nazianze: Discours 20–23, SC 270 (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1980).Google Scholar Moses alone ascended the mount, encountered God in the cloud, and finally received the law. Cf. Oration 2.92. Much of this speech is taken from Oration 2. See also Carmina II, 1, 13, Ad episcopos, v.117–123, PG 37, 1236–37 for a similar use of Moses' example; and Oration 20.5 on the need for selfpurification and an encounter with God.

70. Oration 21.19, line 21–21.20, line 5.Google Scholar

71. Oration 21.37, line 2. Cf. Gregory of Nyssa, Encomium, GNO X.1.2., 120.7–21, cited above, for his similar treatment of Basil.Google Scholar

72. Oration 42 was probably composed in stages, and the bishops likely never heard the harshest invectives Gregory hurled at them in the final form of the speech. See Bemardi, Jean, “La Composition et la publication du discours 42 de Grégoire de Nazianze,” in Mémorial Dom jean Gribomont (1920–1986), Studia Ephemeridis “Augustinianum” 27 (Rome: Institum Patristicum “Augustinianum,” 1988), 131–43.Google Scholar For the text of the Oration see Bernardi, Jean, ed., Grégoire de Nazianze: Discours 42–43, SC 384 (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1992); also PG 36, 457–492.Google Scholar For an English translation of Oration 42 see Browne, Charles and Swallow, James, NPNF, 2d ser., 7 (1983): 385–95.Google Scholar

73. Oration 42.14.Google Scholar

74. Πóλεμος ⋯ερòς: Oration 42.21, line 2. This is the theme of all of sections 21 and 22. Bernardi, Discours 42–43, 94 n. 2 notes that Gregory uses a parallel phrase, “òΠóλεμος … τών ⋯πισκóπων,” “the war of the bishops,” to describe similar circumstances in Oration 43.58, line 3.Google Scholar

75. Oration 42.24, lines 15–16 and 24–25; Browne, and Swallow, , 393–94. In 42.19–20 Gregory has already denied that he ever sought the exalted episcopal throne and calls upon his hearers to elect another worthy man, for he himself is old, weary, and sickly.Google Scholar

76. It has even been suggested that Oration 43, Gregory's funeral oration on Basil, forms a “diptych” with his farewell address.Google ScholarBernardi, , La prédication, 238.Google ScholarHe also notes that evidence points to the actual delivery of the speech at the anniversary celebration of Basil's death, 1 January 382.Google ScholarThe text is in the critical edition of Bernardi, , Discours 42–43, and in PG 36, 493–605;Google Scholaran English translation is in Browne, and Swallow, , 395–422.Google Scholar

77. Orations 43.3–20. Basil is said to have both inherited and cultivated this virtue in his own life (Oration 43.4).Google Scholar

78. Oration 43.11, lines 2–7.Google Scholar

79. Oration 43.19, line 2.Google Scholar

80. Oration 43.20, lines 12–15; Browne, and Swallow, , 402.Google Scholar

81. Oration 43.26. Cf. Orations 2.8, 21.9, and 42.18.Google Scholar

82. Oration 43.37. Gregory is alluding here to the controversy concerning Basil's episcopal election. A significant party of bishops apparently opposed the choice of the Cappadocian—at least in part because of his efforts to integrate asceticism into the broader Christian community and his introduction of major social reforms.Google ScholarFor further discussion of these circumstances see Rousseau, , Basil of Caesarea, 145–51.Google Scholar

83. Oration 43.38, lines 2–6. For the same idea in Gregory of Nyssa's writings, namely that ordination to church office need not compromise the philosophical (that is, monastic) life, see VSM 14,4–6, and his account of the ordination of the Thaumaturge in De vita Gregorii Thaumaturgii, GNO X.1.2, 15.16 f. (=PG 46, 909AB).

84. Oration 43.40, lines 10–11; Browne, and Swallow, , 409.Google Scholar

85. Specifically in his interaction with the emperor and the prefect Modestus. Oration 43.54 and 55. In the former case the force of Basil's personal presence is said to have eased the disease of the emperor's son, but the emperor's failure to trust Basil and his simultaneous consultation with the heterodox caused the boy to die. The prefect, however, was healed of his affliction through Basil's powerful mediation.Google Scholar

86. Oration 43.56, lines 21–22; 43.57, line 26; and 43.58, especially lines 11–12; Browne and Swallow, 413–14.Google Scholar

87. See especially Oration 43.66, 67. Here Gregory reveres his friend's eloquence, knowledge of divine truth and ability to communicate such truth to others. He speaks of the power and extensive influence of Basil's written works and describes their impact on him personally.Google Scholar

88. Oration 43.60, line 26; Browne, and Swallow, , 415.Google Scholar

89. Oration 43.61, lines 13–16; Browne, and Swallow, , 415.Google Scholar

90. Oration 43.63. The description of Basil is set against Gregory's portrayal of others who have “their cooks and splendid tables, and the devices and dainties of confectioners, and exquisite carriages, and soft, flowing robes” (43.63, lines 40–44), an allusion to unworthy secular and even religious leaders of the day. Cf. the Nyssan's criticism of many priests who revel in a life of luxury in De vita Moysis, GNO VII.1.129.6–10.Google Scholar

91. See Meehan, , De vita sua, lines 282–334.Google Scholar

92. ἴνα μήτε τò φιλóσοφον ⋯κοινώνητον ἦμτε τè Πρακτκιòν άφιλóσοφον, Oration 43.62, lines 28–39; Browne, and Swallow, , 416. Cf. Gregory's similar praise of Athanasius in Oration 21.19–20, cited above.Google Scholar

93. See, for example, Oration 43.23, lines 19–20: “φιλοσοφíαν … ὅση τε Πρακτική καì θεωρητική.”Google Scholar

94. Elm, Susanna, “Virgins of God”: The Making of Asceticism in Late Antiquity, Oxford Classical Monographs (Oxford: Clarendon, 1994), 209. Elm also notes that Gregory sometimes uses the term migades to describe such a mixture of contemplative and practical life as might characterize the lives of ascetic bishops. More often in this oration, however, Gregory reserves the terms tnigas or migados bios to refer to the communal as opposed to the eremitic form of monasticism.Google Scholar

95. See Bemardi, , La Prédication, 246, who compares the vocabulary of Oration 43.64 with that of Oration 42.Google Scholar

96. Oration 43.71, lines 22–23; Oration 43.75.Google Scholar

97. Oration 43.78, lines 9–10. Who were these “λνησιωτ⋯τοι θεραπεντóι” whom Basil ordained? Bernardi, , Discours 42–43, 298 n. 1, suspects they were monks who had been assisting Basil in his ecclesiastical duties. If so, this passage provides one of many examples of Basil's selection of monks for positions of ecclesiastical authority.Google Scholar

98. These are the goals of the speech suggested by Kennedy, George A., Greek Rhetoric under Christian (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983), 230.Google Scholar See also Cameron, Averil, Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire: The Development of Christian Discourse (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 143–44:Google Scholar and Norris, Frederick W., “Your Honor; My Reputation,” in Greek Biography and Panegyrics in Late Antiquity, ed. Hagg, Tomas and Rousseau, Philip (Berkeley: University of California Press, forthcoming). Norris describes the Nazianzen's speech as a high point in the “Christianizing of Hellenism.”Google Scholar

99. Meredith, , “Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa on Basil,“ 168–69, suggests that the Nazianzen's emphasis on “vision” over “virtue” in his portrayal of the Cappadocian is more in keeping with the Platonic and Origenistic pattern of the spiritual life than is the Nyssan's treatment of Basil. The Nazianzen often expresses the goal of the spiritual life in terms of illumination or the vision of God.Google ScholarSee Moreschini, , “II platonismo cristiano di Gregorio Nazianzeno,” 1347–92;Google Scholar and Moreschini, , “Luce e purificazione nella dottrina di Gregorio Nazianzeno,” Augustinianum (1973): 535–49.Google Scholar Both Moreschini, and Meredith, Anthony, The Cappadocians (Crestwood, N.Y.: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1995), 42–49, demonstrate the predominance of light imagery in Gregory's references to God or the Trinity and therefore in his notions of spiritual progress as well.Google ScholarSee, for example, Oration 2.5. In Oration 43.65 he speaks of Basil's purification by the Spirit and subsequent illumination so that “with God he examined the things of God” (μετ⋯ Θεοṽ τ⋯ Περ⋯ Θεοδιεσκ⋯Ψατο).Google Scholar

100. Gregory's constant vacillation between ascetic withdrawal and active service to church and community has been analyzed recently by Dam, Raymond Van, “Self-Representation in the Will of Gregory of Nazianzus,” JTS, n.s., 46 (1995): 118–48;CrossRefGoogle Scholar see especially 137–42. This lifelong tension has also been discussed by Ruether, Rosemary Radford, Gregory of Nazianzus: Rhetor and Philosopher (Oxford: Clarendon, 1969), 32–33.Google Scholar

101. In Gregory's later writings his notion of the virtuous life departs from the Platonic tradition and its Christian expression in the thought of Origen. See Meredith, , The Cappadocians, 59–62. Those in the Platonic tradition tended to view the moral life as subordinate to knowledge and expressed the goal of virtue in terms of vision or union with the divine. For Gregory virtue is not a step on the pathway to perfection, a stage that must be surpassed and superceded by the mystical or unitive experience. Virtuous action must flow from contemplation and knowledge of God for it is part of a continuous process of perfection.Google Scholar

102. GNO X.1.2, 15.9–10 (=PG 46, 909 AB). Again here ordination is depicted as an enhancement of the contemplative life. Cf. VSM 14, 4–6.Google Scholar An emphasis on contemplation as proper preparation for the active life is characteristic of the Nyssan's treatment of ecclesiastical leaders. Even his Life of Moses, one of the most mystical of his treatises, concludes with a picture of the patriarch, the friend of God, successfully interceding on behalf of the people. This, Gregory explains, is “a clear testimony and demonstration of the fact that the life of Moses did ascend the highest mount of perfection.” Malherbe, Abraham J. and Ferguson, Everett, trans., Gregory of Nyssa: The Life of Moses, Classics of Western Spirituality (New York: Paulist, 1978), 11.319 (=GNO VII.1.2,144.8–14).Google Scholar

103. Oration 43.60–66. These four virtues, which occur in the first lines of sections 60–63 respectively, are singled out in Jean Bernardi's survey of the oration, “Introduction,” Discours 42–43,35.

104. On the history of the treatment of the life of Moses in Jewish, , Christian, , and Islamic, traditions see the collection of essays in Moïse I'homme de l'alliance, Cahiers Sioniens (Paris, 1955).Google ScholarDaniélou's, Jean essay in this volume, “Moise exemple et figure chez Gregoire de Nysse,” 267–82, focuses on Gregory's Life of Moses and demonstrates his dependence on Philo. Daniélou traces the way Gregory uses Moses as an example for all Christians and as a figure of Christ, but he does not consider the image of Moses as a model for the Christian leader.Google Scholar

105. For examples of Basil's use of Moses as a model for Christian leaders see especially Hex. 1, in Giet, Stanislas, ed. and trans., Basile de Césarée, Homélies sur I'Hexaéméron, SC 26bis (Paris: Les Editions du Cerf, 1968), 88–90 (=PG 29,5); and Ad adoloscentes 2, PG 31, 568C. Cf. The Commentary on Isaiah attributed to the Cappadocian in which Moses' life is explicitly divided into three forty-year periods. PG 30,129A. For a fuller discussion of these and other Basilian texts relating to Moses see Sterk, “Basil of Caesarea and the Monastic Episcopate,” 120–23.Google Scholar

106. Gregory of Nyssa, The Life of Moses, II.55 and II.160, in the translation of Malherbe and Ferguson. Both phrases are used with some regularity in the Nyssan's descriptions of the patriarch.Google Scholar

107. See in particular Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 28.2–3,Google Scholar in Gallay, Paul, ed. and trans., Grégoire de Nazianze: Discours 27–31 (Discours Théologiques), SC 250 (Paris: Les Éditions du Cerf, 1978), where the Nazianzen gives a detailed account of Moses' ascent and encounter with God on the mountain. Addressing those who presume to have knowledge of the incomprehensible God, Gregory declares toward the end of this narrative, “In this way, then, you will do theology” (Oration 28.3, line 18).Google Scholar

108. The same hesitancy has been expressed in a brief discussion of Gregory of Nazianzus on the priesthood. See Bernardi, Jean, “Saint Grégoire de Nazianze observateur du milieu ecclésiastique et theoricien de la fonction sacerdotale,” in Migne et le renouveau des études patristique, ed. Mandouze, A. and Fouilheron, J., Théologie historique 66 (Paris: Beauchesne, 1985), 349–57.Google Scholar

109. Brooks, E. W., ed. and trans., The Sixth Book of the Select Letters of Severus of Antioch (London: Williams and Norgate, 1904), 2:393. The same passage also refers to the continued reading of the panegyric on Basil, but it is not clear whether the Nyssan's or the Nazianzen's funeral oration is in view.Google Scholar

110. Cameron, Averil, Christianity and the Rhetoric of Empire, 205–206. Here Cameron mistakenly attributes the influential encomium to Gregory of Nyssa rather than Gregory of Nazianzus. She has it right, however, in her earlier article and fuller discussion, “Eustratius' Life of the Patriarch Eutychius and the Fifth Ecumenical Council,”Google Scholar in KAΘHΘHTPIA: Essays Presented to Joan Hussey for Her Eightieth Birthday (Athens, 1988), 225–47. Cameron also comments, 227, that “Eustratius was well read in the Cappadocians, of whom Basil was his hero, and presents Eutychius both in terms of their writings and in terms of Scriptural examples.” An edition of this important sixthcentury Life, so dependent on Cappadocian models, is now available.Google ScholarSee Laga, Carl, ed., Eustratii Presbyteri Vita Eutychii Patriarchae Constantinopolitani, Corpus Christianorum, Series Graeca 25 (Turnhout: Brepols, 1992).Google Scholar

111. Sajdak, Jan, “Die Scholiasten der Reden des Gregor von Nazianz,” Byzantinischer Zeitschrift 30 (1929): 269. Moreover, the Nazianzen was a public figure who intended his letters to be read by a larger audience.Google ScholarWittig, Michael, “Introduction,” in Gregor von Nazianz: Briefe (Stuttgart, 1981), 68.Google Scholar See also Dennis, George T., “Gregory of Nazianzus and the Byzantine Letter,” in Halton, Thomas and Williman, Joseph P., Diakonia: Studies in Honor of Robert T. Meyer (Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1986), 3–13. Dennis, 7, says that Basil and Gregory, alongside the pagan Libanius, served as the principal models for later Byzantine letter writers.Google Scholar

112. See Noret, Jacques, “Grégoire de Nazianze, l'auteur le plus cité, après la Bible, dans la littérature ecclésiastique byzantine,” in II. Symposium Nazianzenum, ed. Mossay, Justin (Paderborn, 1983), 2:259–66; and Sajdak, “Die Scholiasten der Reden.”Google ScholarSee also Trisoglio, Francesco, “Mentalita ed atteggiamento degli scoliasti di fronte agli scritti di S. Gregorio di Nazianzo,” in Mossay, 188 n. 5. On the fame and veneration of the Nazianzen in the fifth and sixth centuries see Friedhelm Lefherz, Studien zu Gregor von Nazianz: Mythologie, Überlieferung, Scholiasten (Bonn: Rheinische Friedrich Wilhelms- Universität, 1958), 111–47.Google Scholar

113. Kennedy, , Greek Rhetoric, 238, and Noret, “Grégoire de Nazianze, l'auteur le plus cité,” 265 n. 38. The possibility that sections of Gregory's orations were committed to memory, Noret suggests, would explain some of the many tacit borrowings from them.Google Scholar

114. Bernardi, , “Introduction,” in Grégoire de Nazianze: Discours 1–3, SC 247, 39.Google Scholar

115. For a comparison of the two treatises see Dörries, Hermann, “Erneuerung des kirchlichen Amts im vierten Jahrhundert: Die Schrift De sacerdotio des Johannes Chrysostomus und ihre Vorlage, die Oratio de fuga sua des Gregor von Nazianz,” in Bleibendes im Wandel der Kirchengeschichte, ed. Moeller, Bernd and Ruhbach, Gerhard (Tübingen: Mohr, 1973), 1–46.Google Scholar

116. Kennedy, , Greek Rhetoric, 237, describes this speech as “probably the greatest piece of Greek rhetoric since the death of Demosthenes.”Google Scholar

117. Oration 43.77.Google Scholar

118. On the use of Oration 43 in iconography see Stiernon, D., “Basilio il Grande, Vita, opere, culto, reliquie, iconografia,” Bibliotheca sanctorum II, 937 f.;Google Scholar and Fitzgerald, Wilma, “Notes on the Iconography of Saint Basil the Great,” in Basil of Caesarea: Christian, Humanist, Ascetic, ed. Fedwick, Paul Jonathan (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1981), 2:533–64.Google ScholarWeitzmann, K., Greek Mythology in Byzantine Art (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1951), 6–92, devotes a long section to representations of Gregory's texts noting that they were among the most illustrated of the middle Byzantine era. On hagiography see Noret, “Grégoire de Nazianze, l'auteur le plus cité,” 262–64. Among other examples Noret notes the use of the phrase “⋯ρετής έργαοτήριον,” “workshop of virtue,” one of Gregory's epithets for Basil, by a variety ofByzantine writers.Google Scholar

119. See Hilandarac, Teodosije, Žitije svetog Save, translated into Serbian by Mirković, Lazar (Belgrade: Srpska Književna Zadruga, 1984).Google Scholar