Letter 239 TO EUSEBIUS BISHOP OF SAMOSATA, excerpt
prelude 1: the letters of basil 11. And even as I write these words this same band has set out for Sebasteia to join with Eustathius and overturn with him the affairs of the Nicopolitans—for the blessed Theodotus has fallen asleep. They have till now nobly and staunchly warded offthe first attacks of the Vicar. For he then attempted to persuade them to accept Eustathius, and to take a bishop through him . . .
Letter 239 TO EUSEBIUS BISHOP OF SAMOSATA, excerpt64 This letter was written in the Spring of 37665 or mid-year.66 Gregory of Nyssa's exile is mentioned here in a list of miserable appointments to bishoprics imposed by Demosthenes in league with Eustathius. By way of contrast to Basil's tone here, contrast Gregory Nazianzen, letter 79 to Simplicia, where he defends the election of a man who had been her slave as bishop, and asks her to allow this to the church.
. . . These have now driven my brother from Nyssa, and introduced instead a man, or rather half a man67 worth only a few obols, but on a fair par with those who have put him there for the ruin of the faith. And to the town of Doara they have sent a wretched fellow, an orphan domestic68 a runaway from his own masters. They did this thanks to the flattery practised by a godless woman who previously used to bend George to her own will and now has a hold on his successor: him they have sent to insult the pitiful name of the episcopal office . . .
64 Mss.: VPBM, LC, ed.: Courtonne III, 59–61 at 59–60, Def 3.414–421 at 416–417, tr.: NPNF 2nd ser. 8.280.
65 Loofs, op. cit, p. 8.
66 Fedwick, op. cit., p. 17.
67 êndra . . . éndrãpodon. The paranomasia is hard to replicate in English: the archaic 'mannikin' would be useful, someone taken captive in war and sold offas a slave, generally a 'low fellow', an urchin.
68 Following M; the other mss. have 'a domestic (= house-slave) of orphans'.
PRELUDE 2: ST GREGORY NAZIANZEN
The letters of Gregory Nazianzen to Gregory of Nyssa are a treasure trove of biographical information on the younger Gregory's life, specially in the earlier period, from which no letters (except perhaps letter 37) have survived. They do not duplicate any material found in St Basil, and throw much needed light on important aspects of Gregory's personal history. They show that the two were great friends and colleagues and longstanding correspondents. Alas, though Gregory
Nazianzen kept some file of letters from his younger namesake, nothing has survived of Gregory of Nyssa's letters to 'the Theologian'.
Letter 11 was very possibly sent from Pontus in the 360s, letters 72–76 in the late 370s during Gregory Nazianzen's long retreat at the monastery of St Thecla in Seleucia, and letters 81–197 in the 380s, when Nazianzen had settled down to a life of retirement and ill health at Arianzus.
The following selection of letters are translated from the Greek text in Saint Grégoire de Nazianze Correspondance ed. & tr. Paul Gallay,
2nd ed. (Paris: Les Belles Lettres, 2003): vol. 1 Lettres I–C, vol. 2
Lettres CIII–C(C)XLIX, hereafter referred to as Gallay I and Gallay II respectively. The translations of C. G. Browne and J. E. Swallow in NPNF ser. 2, vol. 7, S. Cyril of Jerusalem, S. Gregory Nazianzen have been consulted.
Manuscripts collated by Gallay, grouped in their text families, are as follows:
Family u:
Y Marcianus gr. 79, 11th cent. (The Library of St Mark, Venice) M Mutinensis Estensis 229, 11th cent. (The Estense Library at Modena) Family v:
L Laurentianus Mediceus IV–14, 10th/11th cent. (the Laurentian Library, Florence), = L in Courtonne's edition of St Basil's Letters.
A Londiniensis British Museum Additional 36749, 11th cent.
C Angelicus C 14, 11th cent. (The Angelicum Library in Rome)