{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/208/2080015.htm","path":"chr/ecf/208/2080015.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/208/2080015.htm","text":"Brighter and happier intimacies were those formed with the older bishop of Samosata, the Eusebius who, of all the many bearers of the name, most nearly realised its meaning, 227 and with Basil\u2019s junior, Amphilochius of Iconium. With the former, Basil\u2019s relations were those of an affectionate son and of an enthusiastic admirer. The many miles that stretched between C\u00e6sarea and Samosata did not prevent these personal as well as epistolary communications. 228 In 372 they were closely associated in the eager efforts of the orthodox bishops of the East to win the sympathy and active support of the West. 229 In 374 Eusebius was exiled, with all the picturesque incidents so vividly described by Theodoret. 230 He travelled slowly from Samosata into Thrace, but does not seem to have met either Gregory or Basil on his way. Basil contrived to continue a correspondence with him in his banishment. It was more like that of young lovers than of elderly bishops. 231 The friends deplore the hindrances to conveyance, and are eager to assure one another that neither is guilty of forgetfulness. 232\nThe friendship with Amphilochius seems to have begun at the time when the young advocate accepted the invitation conveyed in the name of Heracleidas, 233 his friend, and repaired from Ozizala to C\u00e6sarea. The consequences were prompt and remarkable. Amphilochius, at this time between thirty and forty years of age, was soon ordained and consecrated, perhaps, like Ambrose of Milan and Eusebius of C\u00e6sarea per saltum, to the important see of Iconium, recently vacated by the death of Faustinus. Henceforward the intercourse between the spiritual father and the spiritual son, both by letters and by visits, was constant. The first visit of Amphilochius to Basil, as bishop, probably at Easter 374, not only gratified the older prelate, but made a deep impression on the Church of C\u00e6sarea. 234 But his visits were usually paid in September, at the time of the services in commemoration of the martyr Eupsychius. On the occasion of the first of them, in 374, the friends conversed together on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, now impugned by the Macedonians, and the result was the composition of the treatise De Spiritu Sancto. This was closely followed by the three famous canonical epistles, 235 also addressed to Amphilochius. Indeed, so great was the affectionate confidence of the great administrator and theologian 236 in his younger brother, that, when infirmities were closing round him, he asked Amphilochius to aid him in the administration of the archdiocese. 237\nIf we accept the explanation given of Letter CLXIX. in a note on a previous page, 238 Gregory the elder, bishop of Nazianzus, must be numbered among those of Basil\u2019s correspondents letters to whom have been preserved. The whole episode referred to in that and in the two following letters is curiously illustrative of outbursts of fanaticism and folly which might p. xxix have been expected to occur in Cappadocia in the fourth century, as well as in soberer regions in several other centuries when they have occurred. It has been clothed with fresh interest by the very vivid narrative of Professor Ramsay, and by the skill with which he uses the scanty morsels of evidence available to construct the theory which he holds about it. 239 This theory is that the correspondence indicates a determined attempt on the part of the rigidly orthodox archbishop to crush proceedings which were really \u201conly keeping up the customary ceremonial of a great religious meeting,\u201d and, as such, were winked at, if not approved of, by the bishop to whom the letter of remonstrance is addressed, and the presbyter who was Glycerius\u2019 superior. Valuable information is furnished by Professor Ramsay concerning the great annual festival in honour of Zeus of Venasa (or Venese), whose shrine was richly endowed, and the inscription discovered on a Cappadocian hill-top, \u201cGreat Zeus in heaven, be propitious to me.\u201d But the \u201cevident sympathy\u201d of the bishop and the presbyter is rather a strained inference from the extant letters; and the fact that in the days when paganism prevailed in Cappadocia Venasa was a great religious centre, and the scene of rites in which women played an important part, is no conclusive proof that wild dances performed by an insubordinate deacon were tolerated, perhaps encouraged, because they represented a popular old pagan observance. Glycerius may have played the patriarch, without meaning to adopt, or travesty, the style of the former high priest of Zeus. Cappadocia was one of the most Christian districts of the empire long before Basil was appointed to the exarchate of C\u00e6sarea, and Basil is not likely to have been the first occupant of the see who would strongly disapprove of and endeavour to repress, any such manifestations as those which are described. 240 That the bishop whom Basil addresses and the presbyter served by Glycerius should have desired to deal leniently with the offender individually does not convict them of accepting the unseemly proceedings of Glycerius and his troupe as a pardonable, if not desirable, survival of a picturesque national custom. 241\nAmong other bishops of the period with whom Basil communicated by letter are Abramius, or Abraham, of Batn\u00e6 in Oshoene, 242 the illustrious Athanasius, 243 and Ambrose, 244 Athanasius of Ancyra; 245 Barses of Edessa, 246 who died in exile in Egypt; Elpidius, 247 of some unknown see on the Levantine seaboard, who supported Basil in the controversy with Eustathius; the learned Epiphanius of Salamis; 248 Meletius, 249 the exiled bishop of Antioch; Patrophilus of \u00c6g\u00e6; 250 Petrus of Alexandria; 251 Theodotus of Nicopolis, 252 and Ascholius of Thessalonica. 253\nBasil\u2019s correspondence was not, however, confined within the limits of clerical clanship. His extant letters to laymen, both distinguished and undistinguished, shew that he was in touch with the men of mark of his time and neighbourhood, and that he found time to express an affectionate interest in the fortunes of his intimate friends.\nTowards the later years of his life the archbishop\u2019s days were darkened not only by ill-health and anxiety, but by the death of some of his chief friends and allies. Athanasius died in 373, and so far as personal living influence went, there was an extinction of the Pharos not of Alexandria only, but of the world. 254 It was no longer \u201cAthanasius contra mundum,\u201d 255 but \u201cMundus sine Athanasio.\u201d In 374 Gregory the elder died at Nazianzus, and the same year saw the banishment of Eusebius of Samosata to Thrace. In 375 died Theodotus of Nicopolis, and the succession of Fronto was a cause of deep sorrow.\np. xxx At this time 256 some short solace would come to the Catholics in the East in the synodical letter addressed to the Orientals of the important synod held in Illyria, under the authority of Valentinian. The letter which is extant 257 is directed against the Macedonian heresy. The charge of conveying it to the East was given to the presbyter Elpidius. 258 Valentinian sent with it a letter to the bishops of Asia in which persecution is forbidden, and the excuse of submission to the reigning sovereign anticipated and condemned. Although the letter runs in the names of Valentinian, Valens, and Gratian, the western brother appears to condemn the eastern. 259\nBp. in 361. cf. Greg. Naz., Ep. xxviii. and xxix., and Theod., Ecc. Hist. xxvii.\nxxviii:228\nIn 369, it is to the prayers of Eusebius, under the divine grace, that Basil refers his partial recovery from sickness (Ep. xxvii.), and sends Hypatius to Samosata in hope of similar blessing. (Ep. xxxi.)\nxxviii:229 xxviii:230 xxviii:231\ncf. Principal Reynolds in D.C.B. i. 372.\nxxviii:232\nEpp. clvii., clviii., clxii., clxvii., clxviii., cxcviii., ccxxxvii., ccxxxix., ccxli., cclxviii.\nxxviii:233 xxviii:234 xxviii:235\nEpp. clxxxviii., cxcix., ccxvii.\nxxviii:236\n\u201cPace Eunomii,\u201d whom Greg. of Nyssa quotes. C. Eunom. i.\nxxviii:237 xxviii:238 xxix:239\nRamsay\u2019s Church of the Roman Empire, chap. xviii.\nxxix:240\nThe description of C\u00e6sarea, as being \u201cChristian to a man\u201d (\u03c0\u03b1\u03bd\u03b4\u03b7\u03bc\u03b5\u1f76 \u03c7\u03c1\u03b9\u03c3\u03c4\u03b9\u03b1\u03bd\u03af\u03b6\u03bf\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1\u03c2. Soz. v. 4), would apply pretty generally to all the province.\nxxix:241\nIn the chapter in which Professor Ramsay discusses the story of Glycerius he asks how it was that, while Phrygia was heretical, Cappadocia, in the fourth century, was orthodox: \u201cCan any reason be suggested why this great Cappadocian leader followed the Roman Church, whereas all the most striking figures in Phrygian ecclesiastical history opposed it?\u201d In Phrygia was the great centre of Montanism, a form of religionism not unfavourable to excesses such as those of Glycerius. But in Letter cciv., placed in 375, Basil claims both the Phrygias, i.e. Pacatiana and Salutaris, as being in communion with him. By the \u201cRoman Church,\u201d followed by Cappadocia and opposed by Phrygia, must be meant either the ecclesiastical system of the Roman Empire, or the Church at Rome regarded as holding a kind of hegemony of Churches. If the former, it will be remembered that Cappadocia boldly withstood the creed patronized and pressed by imperial authority, when the influence of Valens made Arianism the official religion of Rome. If the latter, the phrase seems a misleading anachronism. In the fourth century there was no following or opposing the Church of Rome as we understand the phrase. To the bishop of Rome was conceded a certain personal precedence, as bishop of the capital, and he was beginning to claim more. In the West there was the dignity of the only western apostolic see, and the Church of Rome, as a society, was eminently orthodox and respectable. But, as important ecclesiastical centres, Antioch and Alexandria were far ahead of Rome, and the pope of Alexandria occupied a greater place than the pope of Rome. What Basil was eager to follow was not any local church, but the Faith which he understood to be the true and Catholic Faith, i.e., the Faith of Nic\u00e6a. There was no church of Rome in the sense of one organized \u0153cumenical society governed by a central Italian authority. Basil has no idea of any such thing as a Roman supremacy. cf. Letter ccxiv. and note.\nxxix:242 xxix:243\nEpp. lxi., lxvi., lxvii., lxix., lxxx., lxxxii.\nxxix:244 xxix:245 xxix:246 xxix:247 xxix:248 xxix:249\nEpp. lvii., lxviii., lxxxix., cxx., cxxix., ccxvi.\nxxix:250 xxix:251 xxix:252 xxix:253 xxix:254 xxix:255\nThe proverbial expression is conjectured by Dean Stanley to be derived from the Latin version of the famous passage concerning Athanasius in Hooker, Ecc. Pol. v. 42. Vide Stanley, Grk. Church, lect. vii.\nxxx:256\nThe date of the Council is, however, disputed. Pagi is for 373, Cave for 367. Hefele and Ceillier are satisfied of the correctness of 375. cf. D.C.A. i. 813.\nxxx:257 xxx:258\nMansi, iii. 386. Hefele, \u00a7 90.\nxxx:259","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. VIII: Prolegomena.: Unbroken Friendships.","type":"page"}