ST. BASIL THE GREAT. ~bt jfatbtrs fJlr ®nglisb J\talltrs. ST. BASIL THE GREAT. BY RICHARD TRAVERS SMITH, B.D. VICAR OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW'S AND CANON 01-' ~T. PATRJCK's, DTJBLIN. rt"BLISHED t:NDER THE DIRECTION OF THE TRACT COMMITTBH. LONDON. SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, NORTHUMBERLAND AVENUE, CHARING CROSS; 4, ROYAL EXCHANGE; AND 48, PICCADILLY, NEW YORK : POTT, YOUNG, & CO. 1879· WYMAN AND SONS, PRINTBR.S1 GREAT QUEEN STREET, LINCOLN'S INN FlltLDS1 LONDON1 W.C. CONTENTS, CHAPTER I. PAGE EARLY LIFE: ATHENS 9 CHAPTER II. CIESAREA AND ANNESI : ASCETIC LIFE , CHAPTER III. LIFE AS A PRESBYTER AT CIESAREA-ELECTION TO THE ARCHDISHOPRIC CHAPTER IV. ARCHBISHOP OF ClESAREA-DIFFICULTIES AND IMPEDIMENTS-HIS DEATH-HIS WORKS • 36 CHAPTER V. PERSONAL TRAITS 6 ST. BASIL THE GREAT. CHAPTER VI. A PICTURE OF THE TIMES CHAPTER VII. THEOLOGY-THE DOCTRINE OF THE SON 82 CHAPTER VIII. THEOLOGY-THE DOCTRINE OF THE SPIRIT • 95 CHAPTER IX. THEOLOGY-THE WORK OF SALVATION . I06 CHAPTER X. THEOLOGY-CONTROVERSIES OF THE CHURCH • I I 5 CHAPTER XI. THEOLOGY-QUESTIONS OF THE DAY . 131 CHAPTER XII. THE CHRISTIAN LIFE • CONTENTS. 7 CHAPTER XIII. PAGE THE LOVER OF NATURE • I 53 CHAPTER XIV. THE PREACHER • 164 CHAPTER XV. ELOQUENCE q6 CHAPTER XVI. THE CLASSICAL SCHOLAR 189 CHAPTER XVII. THE BIBLE SCHOLAR 200 CHAPTER XVIII. THE ASCETIC 212 CHAPTER XIX. MONASTERIES. 219 ST. BASIL THE GREAT. CHAPTER I. EARLY LIFE: ATHENS. ST. BASIL THE GREAT was born about the year 329, of a Christian family, whose high religious character and sacrifices for the cause of truth had been for generations widely known in Asia Minor. It seems probable that the place of his birth was Cresarea, in Cappadocia, the town of which he aftenvards became bishop; but his father's connexions were more with Pontus than with Cappadocia, and some authorities place Basil's birth in the former province. He him­ self calls each of these countries in turn his native land. Basil the elder-for father and son were named alike-was a teacher of rhetoric, and an advocate in large practice. He was a Christian of the best and most earnest type, and when Gregory of N azianzus addressed his panegyric of the younger Basil to a large audience he was able to assume that the repu­ tation of the father would be known to them all. But the future saint owed his earliest religious education to his grandmother Macrina, who brought him up with his brothers, and formed them upon the doctrine B IO ST. BASIL THE GREAT. of the great Origenist and saint of Pontus~ Gregory Thaumaturgus. Macrina had not only been taught by the best Christian instructors, but had herself with her husband suffered for the faith. In the persecutions of Maximin she and her family were driven from their home and forced with a few companions to take refuge in a forest among the mountains of Pontus, where they spent nearly seven years, and were wont to attribute to the special interposition of God the supplies of food by which they were maintained at a distance from all civilization. It must not be supposed that the charge of Basil's childhood thus committed to his grandmother indi­ cated any deficiency in love or piety on the part of his mother. Her name was Emmelia, and Gregory descrihes her as fitly matched with her husband. They had ten children. Of the five sons three became bishops-Basil, Gregory of N yssa, and Peter of Sebaste. The four youngest daughters were happily married, but Macrina, the eldest, devoted herself to the religious life, and exercised over Basil himself a most salutary influence at a very critical period in his career. In how great love and honour she was held by the whole family we know from the eulogium pronounced upon her by her younger brother, Gregory Nyssen. Thus Basil was brought up under the most favour­ able circumstances as regards religion ; nor was his education of a narrow type. He enjoyed from the instructions of his father, to which he passed while still a boy, very rich opportunities of classical culture, EARLY LIFE: ATHENS. 11 and his Writings prove how willingly he profited by these, and by the university education to which they led, and how deeply he always valued them. We can, in fact, imagine few periods or places until we come to quite modern times which could have given to Basil's genius fairer development or wider exercise than did those which fell to his lot. But when we come to describe the condition of public affairs we must acknowledge that few periods could have pre­ pared for him greater difficulties and disappointments. He was born four years after the orthodox faith had been formulated at the Council of Nicrea. His education and his own deepest tendencies of mind and soul responded to his early teaching in the Catholic belie£ The slightest study of his works will convince us that it was no mere habit of profession which placed him among the defenders of the Nicene Creed, but a conviction so thorough that the slightest infringement of it would have been to him falsehood of the deepest dye. For a mind so framed and furnished the times , promised very badly. While Constantine lived Basil was but a boy; his youth and early manhood were passed under the reign of the Arian Constantius, to whom, after the brief episode of the reigns of Julian and Jovian, the Arian Valens succeeded in the dominion of the East. Thus for more than thirty years Arianism wielded the whole civil authority in the regions with which Basil was connected, save for a short three years, which were chiefly occupied by a heathen reaction, too weak and brief to do the truth the service of severe persecution. We have, perhaps, B 2 12 ST. BASIL THE GREAT. no right to complain that Arianism availed itself of the aid of the temporal power, seeing that the Catholics did the same when opportunity offered. Such, how­ ever, was the fact. The whole of Basil's mature life is to be passed under governments which will only vary from unfriendly opposition to actual persecution. From the instructions of his father Basil passed to Cresarea, a place of much literary eminence, where there were at the time excellent schools. N azianzen, who here, if not before, began to know him, informs us that he gained the highest reputation even at that early period, as well for intellectual eminence as for religious character. He was a philosopher among philosophers, an orator among orators, even before he had passed the regular course in those branches of instruction ; above all, a priest among Christians so long before assuming the order of the priesthood. Thus early did his wonderful versatility impress observers. The education which he received was altogether Greek. There is the best reason to think that he did not even know the Latin language. Certainly the classic authors whom he quotes with so much appre­ ciation are uniformly Greek. The records which we have of the education of his contemporary Julian assure us that it was upon Homer and Hesiod, upon the great dramatists of Athens and her historians and orators, that the youthful genius of Basil was fed. Although Gregory commends his Christian character at this period, the custom of the age allows little doubt that he was still, and for many years afterwards, unbaptized. From Cresarea he proceeded to Byzantium for EARLY LIFE: ATHENS. further improvement in learning. We know little of his progress there, save that it was in Constantinople that he came in contact with the great sophist Libanius, if indeed the tradition of their intercourse and the letters which are said to have afterwards passed between them are genuine at all. In 351 Basil proceeded to Athens, the step which in those days corresponded to entering a university among ourselves. Of this part of his life we have a full and very interesting record in the oration of Gregory N azianzen, who was at Athens some time before his countryman's arrival, and had entered into the spirit of the place with more enthusiasm than the less imaginative Basil was at first able to feel. Gregory informs us that Basil's reputation had preceded him to Athens, and that he was eagerly expected by many youths ready to compete for his friendship. It was the custom that the freshman should be received upon his first appearance with a torrent of jokes and banter, rough or refined accord­ ing to his character, and designed, Gregory supposes~ to take down his pride ; he used then to be conducted in solemn procession to the bath, where the assembled youth were wont to burst into a horrible din of shout­ ing, and beat at the doors in a frantic manner, to the great confusion of the raw lad whom they were con­ ducting; from the bath he was escorted home with similar solemnity, and thenceforth considered to be free of the place. Basil alone, either because of his dignity of manner or the influence of his fellow­ countryman, was spared the ordeal. But he did not entirely escape : for certain Armenian youths of senior 14 ST. BASIL THE GREAT. standing got up a disputation with him, in which Gregory, not comprehending their insidious designs, was inclined at first to give aid to them rather than to Basil, who was already proving too strong for them. But presently perceiving the real state of the case, he threw his weight upon the side of his countryman, to the discomfiture of the assailants.