The Pasquali Collection

THE PASQUALI COLLECTION

Letter 1 To Bishop Flavian1 Scholarly opinion on the authorship of the present letter wavered backwards and forwards through the second half of the 20th century, but is now ﬁrmly established in favour of Gregory of Nyssa as the author of this letter.

The problem is one of external evidence: letter 1 is transmitted solely among the works of Gregory Nazianzen. It is found only among the more complete mss of Gallay's ﬁrst two families: u and v, towards the end among the dubia. But two mss of the u family, MSmar, preserve a marginal scholion in a contemporary hand which notes that it is not the work of the Theologian, but of Gregory of Nyssa. This information was suﬃcient for the ﬁrst print editors in the 16th century to publish it among the works of Gregory of Nyssa. This reassignment was not contested for four centuries.

Pasquali reviewed the question in his 1925 edition and ﬁrmly maintained Gregory of Nyssa's authorship.2 However in mid century the ancient attribution was revived and defended by several scholars, E. Honigmann, P.

Devos, and most importantly P. Gallay, who placed the letter at the end of his critical edition of Gregory Nazianzen's letters, as letter 249.3 A few voices of protest, such as Daniélou were raised, but in general this position accepted for some years. Then in 1984, three articles appeared independently in quick succession which put the attribution to Gregory of Nyssa beyond further doubt. Both Gallay and Devos were convinced.4 For anyone who 1 Mss: DABGME(+ 'S', Maraval 56); eds.: p, GNO 8.2, 1–12, Gallay, Ep. CCXLIX,

139–148, Maraval 106–123; tr.: NPNF ser. 2, vol. 5, 382–383.

2 'This Letter found its way, by an easy error, into the corpus of the letters of Gregory Nazianzen . . . I have not hesitated to publish the ﬁrst letter to Flavian of Antioch, though it is transmitted among the Nazianzen codices, since it sheds so much light on the life, talent and manner of the Nyssen in the ecclesiastical history of those times, although I was not unaware that some Nazianzen codices had eluded me, among which there was perhaps one or another of better quality than those I sighted.' Pasquali, VIII.

3 Saint Grégoire de Nazianze: Correspondence, vol. 2, pp. 139–165.

4 P. Maraval, 'L'authenticité de la lettre 1 de Grégoire de Nysse', Analecta Bollandiana

102 (1984), 61–70; B. Wyss, 'Gregor von Nazianz oder Gregor von Nyssa?', Mémorial

André-Jean Festugière, Antiquité païenne et chrétienne (Genève, 1984), 153–162; C. Klock,

'Überlegungen zur Authentizität des ersten Breifes Gregors von Nyssa', a paper at the 9th International Patristic Conference in Oxford, in 1983. This paragraph summarizes the material in Maraval, 53–59.

the pasquali collection appreciates Gregory Nazianzen's 'laconism', i.e. his brevity and succinctness in the epistolary genre, the present very lengthy letter contrasts strikingly with his manner on this score alone.

The occasion that gave rise to the present letter began with a visit by Gregory to Sebasteia once his brother Peter had been installed there as metropolitan. Peter had invited him to take part in the annual celebration of the Forty Martyrs of Sebasteia. But this was a very special celebration, since Peter decided to use it to institute the cult of St Peter 1 of Sebasteia.

On the way back home down the Halys valley, Gregory charitably broke oﬀhis journey to make a diﬃcult detour through the mountains to visit

Helladius, his brother Basil's successor in the metropolitan see of Caesarea.

Helladius was visiting a village there, but so Gregory was informed, was ailing. This letter, one of the jewels of patristic personal writing, is the remarkable record of that tragi-comic visit.

In discussing the tensions between Gregory and Helladius of Caesarea, Maraval suggests5 that the decision of the Council and of Emperor Theodosius in 381 to entrust the charge of restoring order in Church aﬀairs equally to a bishop (Gregory) and to his metropolitan (Helladius), already bore the seeds of future tensions. To add to that hierarchical issue were personal issues. Gregory was also the very gifted brother and doctrinal heir of Helladius' renowned predecessor in Caesarea. It would have taken a saint in Helladius' position to resist all temptation to jealousy—and it does seem he was somewhat short of a saint. On Helladius' prickly manner as metropolitan, cf. Gregory Nazianzen's letters 184 (to Amphilochius) and 183

(to Theodore). On more speciﬁc causes of tension between Helladius and Gregory, see the notes prefacing letter 17. The conﬂict between these two men was suﬃciently well known in the 6th century for Severus of Antioch to use it to justify his own stance against other bishops.6

The mention of the council (of Constantinople) towards the end of the letter means it was not written before late 381. Helladius died in 394, probably the same year in which Gregory died, which gives us a double terminus ante quem. The signs in the letter of Gregory's advancing age and of Helladius' ill health might suggest a later period of Gregory's life. However, if this visit to Sebasteia was also the occasion of Gregory' First Homily on the Forty Martyrs (in two parts, the ﬁrst preached on the day of the feast of the Martyrs, 9 March, the second part the following day), then the dating of that homily is also germane. Daniélou7 and Bernardi8 assign it to 383.

The addressee appears to be Flavian, elected Meletius' successor as bishop of Antioch during the Council in 381, despite Gregory Nazianzen's eirenic proposal that they hold oﬀuntil the death of Paulinus. Flavian's election was a vote for continuing the Antiochian schism, a sorry standoﬀbetween

5 Lettres, 38–39 at 38.

6 See Maraval 85, n. 2.

7 La chronologie des sermons, 362–363.

8 La predication des Peres Cappadociens, 303.

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parties of orthodox faith: old Nicenes and Neo-nicenes. Flavian's position in Antioch was not fully secure until 393 when his rivals, Paulinus and Evagrius, had both died and communion with Alexandria and Rome was reestablished. He died in 404.

Gregory of Nyssa of course knew Antioch very well. He had visited it often enough over the years and had important contacts there (see letters

2, 3, 13, 14, 15, 19, VSM 1.2, 17.1 (Maraval 136, 192), and for this reason he is on balance more likely to be writing to that city than Gregory

Nazianzen. Whether Gregory also had a certain 'political' motive in choosing to write to Flavian is diﬃcult to say. Certainly, as bishop of Antioch, a position soon reckoned as that of Patriarch, Flavian had higher ecclesiastical rank in the universal Church than the Metropolitan of Caesarea.

To Bishop Flavian9 1. Our aﬀairs, O man of God, are not in a good way. The worsening ill will of those moved by an unjust and implacable hatred of us is no longer deduced from certain hints. It is now pursued with a boldness worthy of a good work. 2. Meanwhile, you who have until now been removed from such spite are not concerned to put out the devouring conﬂagration on your neighbour's land. It is as if you did not know that they are well advised for their own interests who strive to extinguish the ﬁre on their neighbours' land. Through such help given to a neighbour they ensure that they will not be without help in similar circumstances.

3. What then, do I mean?10 Sanctity has quit this life; truth has ﬂed from us. As for peace, we once at least bandied the word about on our lips, but now, not only does it not exist, not even the word for it left to us. But that you may understand more clearly what has stirred our indignation, I will brieﬂy set out for you the tragedy.

4. Certain persons informed us that the most reverend Helladius was ill disposed towards us, and was holding forth to all that I was

9 flabian" §piskÒpƒ BGMD a marginal note in the same hand as in MS: aÏth ± §pistolØ grhgor¤ou est‹ toË nÊshw, oÈxi toË Yeologou ('this letter is by Gregory of Nyssa, not the Theologian'), t" aÈt" ('to the same') A (preceding it is Gregory

Nazianzen's Letter 64 'to Flavian the bishop'), flabian" E.

10 This type of question, marking the transition from a vivid opening image (in this case that of putting out ﬁres) to its interpretation, is a trademark of Gregory of Nyssa's style, what Maraval rightly calls 'un véritable tic de langage'. It occurs in letters 4.2, 9.2, 11.3, 12.2, 14.2, 19.3, 20.4, 21.2, 28.2, and frequently in other works. Letters 8, 10, 13 and 16 follow the general pattern without couching the transitional sentence as a question.

the pasquali collection the cause of his worst troubles. At ﬁrst I did not believe what they said, consulting only myself and the truth of the matter. But when reports in the same vein reached us from all sides and events concurred with the reports, I thought it ﬁtting not to overlook this ill will, as yet untreated and still without root and development. 5a. I therefore wrote by letter to your piety, and to many others who might in some way help me in my purpose, and urged your zeal in this matter.

5b. As things turned out, I had celebrated with the Sebasteians the ﬁrst commemoration of the most blessed Peter,11 and the usual commemorations they celebrated at the same time among them for the 4012 holy martyrs who had dwelt there. I was on my way back to my own church, 6. when someone informed me that Helladius himself was staying in the mountain district,13 celebrating the commemorations of the martyrs. At ﬁrst I continued my journey, deeming it more appropriate that a meeting should take place in the metropolis itself. But when one of his friends went to some trouble to meet me and assured me that he was sick, I left my carriage14 at the spot where this news overtook me. I covered the remaining distance on horseback, teetering on the brink of very rough ascents

11 Who is this Peter? Gregory's own brother, or Peter of Alexandria, have been proposed. But thanks to P. Devos, 'Saint Pierre 1er, évêque de Sébastée, dans une lettre de Grégoire de Nazianze', Analecta Bollandiana 79 (1961), 346–360, it is clear that Gregory refers to the Peter who was bishop of Sebasteia earlier in the 4th century at the time of the martyrs and who retrieved their relics from the river

(Passio XL Martyrum 13, O. von Gebhardt (ed.), Acta martyrum selecta: Ausgewählte

Märtyreracten und andere Urkunden aus der Verfolgungszeit der christlichen Kirche (Berlin: 1903),

171–181).

Maraval 86–87 n. 2, suggests that a reason for the slowness of establishing the cult of St Peter I of Sebasteia is that originally he was buried in another town.

And it is surely no accident that this celebration is inaugurated under another Bishop Peter, Gregory's own brother. If Peter is relatively new as the bishop of Sebasteia, then he seems to be consolidating his position by inviting his famous brother Gregory, once elected as bishop of Sebasteia in doctrinally unhappier times

(letter 19.14–18) and now promoted by the Emperor himself, to preach at the festival of the Forty Martyrs, with whom Peter and Gregory's family long had fervently felt connections. Emmelia their mother had acquired an urn of the martyr's ashes and installed them in a martyrion in the estate at Annisa. Basil Senior,

Emmelia, and Macrina the Younger were all buried there.

12 Added with Jaeger's shrewd conjecture: ‹mÉ› martur«n (mÉ = '40').

13 Cf. Basil, Letter 283, Def 4.171.

14 Gregory often travelled in a carriage, probably the four-wheeled raeda drawn by mules. See letters 2.13, 6.3, 8, 9,

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that were little short of impassable. 7. Fifteen milestones measured the intervening distance, as we heard from the local people. Barely making headway, now on foot, now on horseback, in the early morning—for I had even employed part of the night—I arrived in the ﬁrst hour of the day at Andaëmona,15 for that was the name of the place where he was holding church with two other bishops.

8. At a distance, from a height16 overlooking the village, we gazed down on this open-air assembly17 of the church. Step by step, leading the horses by hand, I and my company made our way on foot over the intervening ground. We arrived in time for two things to take place simultaneously: he retired from the church to the house18 even as we approached the martyrion. 9. Without delay we sent a messenger to inform him of our coming. After a little while, the deacon who attended him came to meet us. We asked him to be quick and inform Helladius so that we might spend as much time as possible with him and take the opportunity of leaving nothing between us without a cure.

10. Whereupon I sat down in the open air, waiting for the invitation to enter, becoming, during this untimely interlude, a spectacle to all who were visiting the synod. The time wore on. Drowsiness stole over us, and weariness (cf. Ps 118.28), a weariness intensiﬁed by the fatigue of the journey and the heat of the day and those who were gawking at us and gesticulating at us to others with their ﬁngers.

I found all these things so oppressive that the words of the prophet came true in me: My spirit within me grew faint (Ps 143.4).

11. And so I endured until the hour had already advanced to noon. I was greatly repenting of the visit, the more so since I had brought the occasion of this discourtesy upon myself—indeed my own reasoning bore down on me more than the insult done me by 15 ÉAndahmono›w DBG gr margin of M; ÉAndamoukhno›w M; ÉAndoumokhno›w E;

ÉAndamoukino›w A. The locality is unknown. Gregory was travelling on the SebasteiaCaesarea road south of the Halys. The fact that Helladius is 'holding church' there places it within his province. Andaëmona is probably nearer to Caesarea, since

Gregory speaks of waiting to see Helladius in the metropolis.

16 ÖApoyen d¢ katidÒntew §j aÈx°now tinÚw Íperkeim°nou t∞w k≈mhw. The term aÈxÆn appears also in Basil Letter 14, referring to some kind of a rise or height behind his hermitage. It is not recorded in either LSJ or Lampe.

17 As Maraval points out (89, n. 3), because the martyrion was a small building major celebrations would have had to have been conducted outside.

18 Helladius has possibly just concluded an all-night vigil.

the pasquali collection my enemies, warring as it did against itself, and changing into a regret that I had undertaken the venture.

12. But at last the temple was opened to us and we were admitted to the inner shrine, the rabble,19 meanwhile, remaining excluded at the entrance, though my deacon entered with me, supporting with his arm my body worn out from the fatigue. So I greeted him, and stood for a moment, waiting to be invited to a chair. Nothing of the sort was forthcoming, so I turned aside to one of the outer benches and rested myself, still waiting on something kindly to be said to us, or at least some welcoming gesture towards us to appear with a look. But everything turned out against this hope. A silence ensued as during the night, and a tragic gloom, and a daze, and a terror, and utter speechlessness.20 For no short while the time dragged as it does in the hush of the dead of night.

13. I was struck by the notion of it all: he did not even deign to extend to me a common greeting, one of those courtesies with which meetings are conducted, such as 'welcome', or 'where have you come from?' or 'on whose behalf have you come?'—so natural—or 'what is your purpose in coming here?' I was beginning to regard this quiet as an image of the life led in Hades. 14. Yet I condemn the similitude as falling short. For in Hades there is a great steadiness of condition: none of the things that work the tragedy of life on earth disturb that existence. Their glory, as the Prophet says,21 does not follow men below (Ps 48.18). Instead, each soul, having quit the things pursued by the many here, I mean the hubris, the inﬂation and the conceit, enters that realm below stripped and unencumbered, so that none of the vicissitudes here are found among them. 15. Even so my condition at the time appeared to me like that of Hades, or a lightless dungeon, or a dismal torture-chamber, when I reﬂected on the great examples of nobility we inherited from our fathers22 and what account of them we shall leave to those who come after us.

16. Why, indeed, do I mention that aﬀectionate disposition of our 19 The tone is strongly ironical.

20 The terms used here mimic Euripides' parody of Aeschylus' tragic manner as portrayed in Aristophanes' comedy, The Frogs.

21 This manner of indicating a scriptural citation is never found in Gregory Nazianzen.

22 In the context of relations between bishops, by 'fathers' Gregory may mean the Apostles, or earlier generations of bishops.

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fathers for each other? For it is no marvel that human beings, being all of equal honour by nature, wished for no advantage over one another, but sought only to surpass each other in humility.

But the thought that especially ﬁlled my mind was that the Master of all creation,23 the only-begotten Son, who was in the bosom of the Father

( Jn 1.18), who was in the beginning ( Jn 1.1–2), who was in the form of God (Phil 2.6), who upholds all things by the word of His power (Heb 1.3), not only humbled himself (cf. Phil 2.8) in this, that he dwelt among men in the ﬂesh (cf. Jn 1.14), but that he even welcomed Judas His own betrayer as he approached to kiss him with his own lips (cf. Lk

22.47–48), and that when He had entered into the house of Simon the leper he reproached him for not welcoming him with a kiss (cf.

Lk 7.44–45). But I was not reckoned an equal even of that leper!

17. And yet what was I, and what was he? I cannot discover the diﬀerence between us. For if one were to look to the things of this world, from what height did he descend, where was the dust in which I lay? If indeed, one were to examine the things of the ﬂesh, it will perhaps be no oﬀence to say this,24 that we were about on a par, whether concerning nobility or free-birth25—18. although, if one were to enquire into the true freedom and nobility, that is, of the soul, each of us is equally a slave of sin ( Jn 8.34, Rom 6.17) and each equally in need of the one who takes away his sins (cf. Jn 1.29,

1 Jn 3.5). It was another who ransomed us by his own blood from death and from sins (1 Pet 1.18–19), who redeemed us (cf. Gal 4.5) and yet showed no haughtiness against those whom He redeemed, who calls the dead to life (Rom 4.17) and heals every inﬁrmity (Ps 102.3) of their souls and bodies.

19. Since the pomposity of this conceit and self-importance against us was such that almost the height of heaven was too limiting for it—though I could not perceive any matter or motive for this disease that might make such a passion excusable in the case of some who in certain circumstances contract the disease, as when family or education or pre-eminent dignity inﬂate those of shallower

23 Maraval gives the reference for this phrase as III Macc. 2.2.

24 Gregory seems to be discreetly generous to Helladius' social and cultural status in comparison with his own. This overstatement will be understood by Flavian and lend persuasion to his comparison.

25 See Macrina's account of their family's high standing, VSM 23.2 (GNO 8.1.393–395, Maraval 208–212).

the pasquali collection dispositions26—I was at a loss how to advise myself to keep calm.

For my heart within me was swelling with anger at the absurdity of such conduct and was thrusting aside all reasons for patience. 20.

It was especially then that I loved the divine Apostle who so vividly depicts the civil war within us, where he says there is a certain law of sin in the members, warring against the law of the mind which often makes the mind both captive and subject to itself (cf. Rom 7.23). This is what I saw in myself, the battle-line of two reasonings, one ranged against the other: the one for crushing such hubris and inﬂation, the other for calming the swelling anger.

21. When by God's grace the better impulse prevailed,27 I then said to him, 'Perhaps there is some treatment you need for the body that is hindered by our presence, and it is time that we withdrew?'

22. He pronounced that he had no need of treatment for the body.

At that I spoke to him some words meant to cure, the situation being what it was. He then stated in few words that his grievance against us was due to the many injuries I had done him. I for my part answered him in this fashion: 'Among human beings, lies have great power to deceive, but the divine tribunal does not admit the false reasonings that arise from deceit. In my relations with yourself, my conscience is suﬃciently conﬁdent to pray that I may ﬁnd forgiveness for all my other sins, but if I have acted in any way against you, that this remain forever unforgiven.' 23. But at this speech he only hardened all the more, and would not allow me to continue with any proofs of what I had said.

24. It was now long past the sixth hour, and the bath was well primed, and the banquet was in preparation, and the day was the Sabbath, and a celebration of the martyrs.28 Again how the disciple of the Gospel imitates the Master in the Gospel! When eating and 26 The redundancy of the syntax here was a fault to which Gregory of Nyssa, but not Gregory Nazianzen was liable.

27 §pekrãthsen ± kre¤ttvn =opÆ (lit. 'the stronger impulse prevailed'), taking kre¤ttvn as somewhat altering its meaning to 'better'; Gregory seems to use it in this sense later in the letter; a verb with preﬁx is also more characteristic of his vocabulary. p has oÈk ekrãthsen ± xe¤rvn =opÆ ('the worse impulse did not prevail'), which Pasquali thinks is perhaps correct.

28 Maraval remarks (99, nn. 2, 3) that celebrations of the martyrs were often followed by a festive meal more or less in common, sometimes furnished by benefactors. The bath before dinner at noon was a practice known in the Greco-Roman world.

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drinking with tax-collectors and sinners, his defence against those who reproached him was that he did these things through love for man (cf. Mt 9.10–12 et al.). This disciple on the other hand considers our fellowship at table a kind of curse and deﬁlement. 25.

After all the hardship we had sustained on the path to the place, after the great heat in which we had baked as we sat by his gates in the open air, after all the sullen gloom we endured when we had come before his eyes, he sends us oﬀagain to toil painfully in a body already failing and utterly exhausted, over the same distance along the same road. Thus we scarcely reached our company by sunset, after suﬀering many mishaps on the way. For a storm-cloud which had gathered into a mass in the clear air by the gusting of the wind, drenched us to the skin with a shower from its ﬂoods, for with the excessive heat, we were not equipped with any protection against rain. 26. Saved, however, by God's grace as from a ﬂood or a shipwreck, we were well pleased to reach our company. After resting with the others that night, we at last arrived in our regions safe and alive, with this superadded to the meeting, that the memory of all that had happened beforehand was freshened by this latter insult done to us.29

27. Henceforth we must in some way take counsel on our own behalf, or rather on his behalf. It was because his conduct was not checked on earlier occasions that it has led him to such immoderate conceit. In order that he might improve on himself, it is perhaps ﬁtting that something be done by us, that he might learn that he is a human being and has no authority to disdain and dishonour those of the same mind and the same rank. 28. For consider: grant that it is true—I am speaking hypothetically—that I have done something to cause him grievance. What investigation was undertaken in our regard to judge between facts and suspicions? What proof was given of the alleged injury? What canons were cited against us? What legitimate episcopal decision conﬁrmed the judgment against us? 29. And even if any of these had taken place legitimately, my standing30 might certainly have been at risk, but what kind of canons sanction hubris against a free-born person and dishonour against one of equal rank?

29 1.26 is a whole sentence in Greek; its somewhat awkward, pleonastic clauses are a stylistic fault to which Gregory of Nyssa, but not Nazianzen, was liable.

30 I.e. in the Church.

the pasquali collection 30. You who look to God, judge a righteous judgment ( Jn 7.24, Zech

7.9). On what grounds do you deem excusable this dishonour against us? 31. If our dignity is to be judged according to priesthood,31 the privilege accorded either of us by the Council32 is one and the same— or rather, the responsibility for common correction, in this we possess the same.33 32. But were some to regard either of us in ourselves, apart from any priestly dignity, what does one have more than the other? Family? Education? Free-birth among the noblest and most renowned? Knowledge? These things will be found either equal, or at least not inferior, in us.34 33. 'But what about revenue?' he will say.35 May it not be necessary for me to enter upon discussion of these matters in his regard;36 this much only it will suﬃce to say, that our own was so much at the beginning, and is so much now.

I leave it to others to enquire into the reasons for this increase of our revenue up to the present, nursed and growing almost daily by means of worthy undertakings.

34. What, therefore, is the authority for this insolence against us, if he has neither superiority of birth, nor illustrious dignity, nor a commanding power of speech, nor any previous benefaction? 35.

Yet even if these things were so, the insolence against the free-born would still be inexcusable. Since not one of these things are so, I judge it right not to leave so great a disease of conceit in an untreated state. The cure is to diminish the inﬂation and reduce the hollow

31 tØn ﬂerÒsunhn. This word only began to become current for the Christian priesthood, especially the episcopate, at this period. See also 17.23. Gregory, with John Chrysostom is one of the ﬁrst witnesses of this usage.

32 The Council of Constantinople in 381.

33 On 30 July 381 Emperor Theodosius conﬁrmed a decision of the council, naming Gregory, Helladius of Caesarius and Otreius of Melitene as the guarantors of orthodoxy and joint overseers of church aﬀairs in the civil diocese of Pontica

(cf. Cod. Theod. 26.1.3, Sozomen 7.9). As both Pasquali and Maraval remark, such a decision could not but be prejudicial to hierarchical order. Gregory does not mention here that Helladius was his metropolitan. The metropolitanate had much more weight then, and still has in the Christian East, than it has had for some centuries in the Western Church.

34 By his discreet understatement Gregory is indicating the opposite: such advantages are his.

35 The reference seems to be to diocesan revenue. In the mid 370s, Gregory had been deposed by the Vicar of Pontus on an unproven charge of mismanagement of funds.

36 Gregory hints that there is something less than worthy in Helladius' ﬁnancial dealings; it seems he darkly hints at the sin of simony.

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pomposity, by deﬂating a little of the conceit with which he is swelling.

But how this may be of eﬀected is God's concern.

Letter 2 To Kensitor on pilgrimages37 The addressee of this letter is otherwise unknown. A censitor was properly a provincial oﬃcer in charge of taxation. Basil's Letter 284 is addressed to a censitor concerning the taxation of monks. But Pasquali shows (XXXII) that in the ancient world it was by no means unusual to ﬁnd titles of public oﬃce, such as Censor, also used as proper names. He considers that the Khns¤tor here is more likely a superior of a monastery than a civil magistrate, given the spiritual rather than ﬁscal preoccupations of the letter

(2.18: 'urge the brothers . . .'). The letter is much concerned with the advisability of travel for monks in general and for consecrated women in particular Hence it is virtually certain that Kensitor's monastery included women ascetics, in the arrangement assumed in Basil's Asketikon and exempliﬁed at Annisa under Macrina. The context seems to be that Kensitor, who has women ascetics under his overall supervision (though they would also have had their own female superior), has written to Gregory seeking his counsel as to what to do about the women in his community who seek leave to go on pilgrimage, on the grounds of a pious vow. Here Gregory argues that even if some advantage might be construed for going on pilgrimage to Jerusalem (and he doubts it), the practice is pointless for those who have espoused the 'perfect' life, i.e., monks generally, and in this case, consecrated women in particular. They have given themselves over to an interior progress in the life in Christ of which outward peregrinations to the holy places at best serve as a metaphor.

The data of 2.11–15 and the succeeding letter indicate that both were written after Gregory had returned from his journey to Jerusalem and Arabia, which followed on the commission given him at the council of Constantinople in 381.

The present letter became the subject of heated controversy between Protestants and Catholics in the 17th century.38 Pierre du Moulin, a Calvinist clergyman, launched the polemics in his notes to the edition of 1605 and in his accompanying tracts against altars and sacriﬁces. He wished to ﬂourish

Gregory as a Church Father who condemned the pilgrimages to holy places 37 Mss.: OT%HKMXPF; ed.: GNO 8.2, 13–19, Maraval 106–123; tr.: Letter 18,

NPNF ser. 2, vol. 5, 545–548. Maraval carried out a further collation of mss (60–68), including some late mss. dismissed by or unknown to Pasquali, and a newly discovered mss. Cod. Marc. 7.38, which conﬁrmed some of Pasquali's emendations and allowed Maraval to reﬁne some nuances.

38 See Maraval, 'Une controverse sur les pèlerinages autour d'un texte patristique', RHPR 66 (1986), 131–146.

the pasquali collection so favoured by Catholics. The book was reprinted at Hanover in 1607, whereupon Jacob Gretscher S.J. answered du Moulin in a small book published at Ingolstadt, Sweden, in 1608. Such was the controversy stirred up that the royal printer Morell, on Fronto Ducaeus' advice, omitted this letter altogether from his 1615 edition. Gretscher, however, prepared the letter with his own notes as an appendix to the edition in 1618. Like Bellarmine, he found it hard to credit Gregory's authorship. Anyway, he argued, the author was not so much militating against pilgrimages themselves, as expressing his concern over the moral safety of consecrated virgins on such ventures—which latter consideration, Pasquali says, was not far from Gregory's purpose. Catholic acceptance of Gregory's authorship settled down through the later 17th and the 18th centuries once Tillemont and Baronius came out in its favour. See Pasquali LXXXIII–LXXXIV.

It is important to note that the dim view of pilgrimages Gregory expresses here is not unique among the Church Fathers. What was supposed to be a means of fostering devotion was quite capable of becoming a hindrance to it instead. Thus a vein of spiritualizing caution against exaggerated esteem for the practice can be traced in the doctrine of the Fathers, Doctors and writers across the centuries. Even from the earliest times the Fathers warned that such devotions were liable to degenerate into an abuse. John Chrysostom, otherwise so keen in his praise of pilgrimages, found it necessary to explain that there was 'no need for anyone to cross the seas or venture upon a long journey. Let each of us at home invoke God earnestly and He will hear our prayer' (Ad pop. Antioch, hom. 3.2.49; cf. hom. 4.6.68). Jerome writes to Paulinus (Ep. 58.2–6) to explain, in an echo of Cicero's phrase, that it is not the fact of living in Jerusalem, but of living there well, that is worthy of praise. He speaks of the countless saints who never set foot in the Holy Land, and dares not tie down Him whom Heaven itself cannot contain to one small portion of the Earth. He ends with a justly famous sentence: 'It is just as easy to reach the portals of Heaven from Britain as from Jerusalem'. Another well-quoted passage is from St. Augustine in which he explains that 'It is not by journeying but by loving that we draw near to God. We approach Him who is everywhere present and present wholly, not by our feet but by our hearts' (Ep. 155.672). Four centuries later, St Boniface was caustic in his criticism of pilgrimages to Rome, noting that despite synodical and royal prohibitions many of the women making such journeys lost their virtue.39

But it is a question not just of the abuse of pilgrimages, but whether they have any value at all to a serious life in Christ that Gregory targets here. This has particular reference to those dedicated to God in the monas39 These examples are drawn from the article 'Pilgrimages' by Bede Jarret in The Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12 (1912), and from the article 'Pilgrimages, Roman' by F. X. Murphy New Catholic Encyclopedia volume 11 (2003), 351–354 at 354. See also H. Leclercq, 'Pèlerinages', Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie, ed. Cabrol,

H. Leclercq and H. I. Marrou (Paris, Letouzey et Ané, 1907–1953), 14.1:40–55.

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tic life. What might be tolerable or understandable in one sector of Christians is strongly contraindicated in another. This ambivalence can be seen in Basil's attitude to attendance at the 'synods' connected with the celebrations of the martyrs. Basil as father of monks strongly warns ascetics from attending such aﬀairs which all too often degenerated into unscrupulous commercial dealing, revelry and licentiousness.40 Yet Basil as bishop is constrained to use these synods as means of rallying the common populace.41

Gregory's argument here that pilgrimages are of no spiritual advantage whatever to monks and nuns segues into a topos of monastic literature: the importance of stability for spiritual progress and the necessity of resisting the temptation to wander abroad.42 'Stay in your cell and it will teach you all things'.43

To Kensitor, on those who make pilgrimages to Jerusalem44 1. Since you have sent me queries by means of a letter, my friend,

I have thought it is proper to answer all your points in due order (cf. Lk 1.3).

I maintain that those who have dedicated themselves once for all to the sublime way of life45 do well always to look to the sayings of the gospel, and, just as those who direct a proposed task by a rule, and by means of the straightness of that rule return what is crooked in their hands to the straight, so we deem it ﬁtting that they should apply some such correct and unbent rule—I mean, of course, the gospel way of life—and direct themselves toward God in accordance with it.

40 See Longer Response 40 and note, The Asketikon of St Basil the Great, pp. 250–251.

41 See his homilies at the martyria of local saints outside Caesarea: St Gordius:

Homily 18 (PG 31 489–508), St Mamas: Homily 23 (PG 31 589–618). In Letters 100 (Def 2.182–187), 142 (Def 2.344–345), 176 (Def 2.458–461) and 252 (Def

4.18–21) he invites other bishops to the annual Caesarean synod at the commemoration of Sts Eupsychius and Damas.

42 See for example, Cassian's Conferences 6.15: 'Therefore one must abide constantly in one's cell. For as often as a person has wandered out of it and has returned to it like a novice who is only beginning to live there, he will waver and be disturbed. The person who stays in his cell has acquired an intensity of mind that, once allowed to slacken, he will not be able to recover again without eﬀort and pain', B. Ramsey (tr. and annot.), John Cassian; The Conferences (New York:

Newman Press, 1997), p. 233. The idea that mobility was a hindrance to the development of a contemplative spirit was a Stoic one, note, p. 240.

43 A famous monastic tag repeated in various ways from Abba Moses in the Sayings of the Fathers to St Symeon the New Theologian.

44 per‹ t«n épiÒntvn eﬁw ﬁerosÄluma khnsitori, F. This Letter has also been ascribed to GNaz: 'Letter of the Theologian to Gregory of Nyssa among the saints, concerning etc.' vt.

45 tª Íchlª polite¤&.

the pasquali collection 2. Now some of those who have undertaken the solitary and retired life46 have made it a law of their piety to see the places in Jerusalem where the tokens of the Lord's sojourn in the ﬂesh may be seen. It would be well, then, to look to the rule, and, if the guidance of the commandments intends such things, to fulﬁl the task as a charge from the Lord. But if it is outside the commandments of the Master,

I do not know what the fulﬁlment of such a prescription means to someone who has become a law to himself 47 of the good. 3. When the Lord invites the blessed to their inheritance in the kingdom of heaven (cf. Mt 25.34–36), journeying to Jerusalem is not listed among their good deeds. When he proclaims the blessed life (cf. Mt 5.3–12,

Lk 6.20–22) he does not include any such object of zeal. Let anyone who has understanding (Rev 13.18) ask himself why a practice that neither renders us blessed nor directs us to the Kingdom should be made an object of our zeal? 4. Even if there were proﬁt in the venture, nevertheless the perfect would do well not to pursue it. But when we learn from an accurate observation of the practice that it also imposes a harmful worldly preoccupation48 on those who have undertaken to lead the strict life, it is worthy not so much of a blessed zeal, as of the greatest vigilance if one who has chosen to live according to God is not to be inﬁltrated by any of its harmful eﬀects (cf. 1 Tim 6.18).

5. Where then, is the harm in these things? The sober way of life49 is open to all, both men and women. A mark of the philosophic life is propriety.50 But this is accomplished by an unmixed and separate life,51 in which nature is not mixed up and confused.

Neither are women bolting for the safeguards of propriety among 46 t«n tÚn monÆrh ka‹ ﬁdiãzonta b¤on §pan˙rhhm°nvn. Gregory uses ﬁdiãzonta generically to mean 'celibate', whereas Basil uses it pejoratively (= 'individualist'), being very concerned about the individualism of freelance ascetics. The remedy, according to Basil, was to come together in properly constituted cenobitic communities. He argues the case in Longer Responses 7.

47 •aut". Cod. Marc. 7.38 conﬁrms Pasquali's emendation.

48 cuxikØn (material-minded) prostr¤besyai blãbhn, the harm that consists in worldliness.

49 ≤semnØ (serious, digniﬁed, solemn, sacred, monastic) polite¤a.

50 eÈsxhmosÊnh, seemliness, gracefulness, elegance, dignity, decency, decorum.

51 …w énep¤mikton ka‹ ésÊgxuton e‰nai tØn fÊsin. Gregory recapitulates a principle of Basil's monastic reform: there is not to be the indiscriminate mixing of the sexes that was a feature of some ascetic enthusiasts and had been condemned at the Council of Gangra in 341.

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men, nor men among women. 6. But the necessities of a journey constantly break down52 exactitude in these matters and foster indiﬀerence to safeguards. For it is impracticable for a woman to pursue so long a journey unless she has a conductor, for on account of her natural weakness53 she has to be put on her horse and be lifted down again, and she has to be steadied in rough terrain.54

Whichever we suppose, that she has someone known to her to fulﬁl this service or a hired attendant—in either case such conduct cannot avoid blame. Whether she leans on a stranger or on her own servant, she fails to observe the law of modesty. 7. Moreover, as the inns and caravanserays and cities in the east55 are so free and indiﬀerent towards vice, how will it be possible for one passing through such fumes to escape without smarting eyes? Where the ear is contaminated and the eye is contaminated, how is the heart not also contaminated by the unsavoury impressions received through eye56 and ear? How will it be possible to pass through such places of contagion without contracting infection?

8. Moreover, what gain shall he have when he has reached those places? Is it that the Lord still lives in the body today in those places and has stayed away from our regions? Or is it that the Holy Spirit abounds among the inhabitants of Jerusalem, but is unable to come to us? 9. Really, if it is possible to infer God's presence from the things that appear, one might more justly consider that he dwelt in the nation of the Cappadocians than in places elsewhere! For how many altars are there in these places57 through which the name of the Lord is gloriﬁed? One could scarcely count so many altars in 52 parayraÊei, Cod. Marc. 7.38, absent in other mss.

53 Such conceptions of feminine 'weakness' are linked to the perceived mores of social class. John Chrysostom, preaching as a deacon in Antioch at this time (380s), takes a dim view of the sequestered and languorous lifestyle of upper class young women. He praises Rachel (Hom. on what kind of woman to choose as a wife (PG 51,

225–242 at 234D and 236B) for showing physical vigour and alacrity in service, together with modesty, unaccompanied in the marketplace.

54 dusxvr¤aiw, Cod. Marc. 7.38, a more precise word than the dusxer¤aiw of other mss.

55 I.e. the Roman diocese of Oriens, covering Syria, Palestine and the Arabian hinterland. The unsavoury reputation of inns and taverns was proverbial in the ancient world. Cf. Basil's remarks on those who loiter in taverns and commit indecencies in Longer Responses 22 and Gregory Nazianzen in letter 2 to Basil where he deplores the 'hucksters, and the rest of the crop of nuisances which infest cities'.

56 ÙfyalmoË, Cod. Marc. 7.38, Ùfyalm«n in other mss.

57 toÊtoiw, i.e. Gregory is writing in Cappadocia, perhaps to one also in Cappadocia.

the pasquali collection all the rest of the world! 10. Again, if grace were greater in the vicinity of Jerusalem than anywhere else, sin would not be so entrenched among those who dwell there. But as it is, there is no form of uncleanness that is not brazened among them: fornications,58 adulteries, thefts (cf. Mt 15.19), idolatries, drugs,59 envies (cf. Gal 5.20–21), murders. This last kind of evil especially is so entrenched that nowhere else are people so ready to murder each other as in those places, where even blood relatives attack each other like wild beasts for the sake of lifeless proﬁt (cf. Tit 1.11). Well then, where such things go on, what evidence is there that in those places grace abounds more?

11. But I know the retort that many make to what I have said.

They will say, 'Why did you not lay down this law for yourself as well? If there is no gain to the pilgrim according to God for having gone there, why did you undertake such a vain journey yourself?'

12. Let them therefore hear my defence in this matter. Through that necessity in which I was appointed to live by him who disposes our life, I received a charge from the holy council60 to go to those regions in order to undertake the correction of the church in Arabia.

Since Arabia borders on the region of Jerusalem, I promised that I would visit those who preside61 over the holy churches of Jerusalem, because their aﬀairs were in turmoil and in need of a mediator. 13.

Then the most pious emperor62 provided for the easing of my journey by means of public carriage,63 so that we did not have to endure

58 porne›ai with KP, corroborated by porne¤a in Cod. Marc. 7.38; ponhr¤ai (evil deeds) in all other codices.

59 farmake›ai. Drugs were used, often along with magical practices, for such purposes as procuring abortion and sterility. The list of vices here may be compared with Mt 15.19, Mk 7.22, Gal 5.19–21, Rev 9.21, 21.8.

60 The Council of Constantinople in 381 is meant.

61 Gregory is being purposefully vague in his terminology. The fact that he does not name the bishop, Cyril, indicates tension between the bishop and his clergy and between Cyril and himself. Maraval discusses the possible issues, p. 35.

62 Theodosius I. He did not even enter Constantinople for the ﬁrst time until November 380. His position as an emperor who sponsored orthodoxy scarcely had any role to play in the Council of Antioch (379). This detail concerning the Emperor more than anything else indicates that by 'holy council' Gregory means the council of 381.

63 During preparations for the Nicene council in 325 the Emperor Constantine extended the use of public conveyance to Christian bishops. See Eusebius, Life of Constantine 3.6, Theodoret, Church History 1.6. Constantine had already employed this expedient. In a letter to the Bishop of Syracuse he charges him to use a public vehicle (dhmÒsion ˆxhma) on the way to the Council of Arles in 314, Eusebius HE

10.6.23. Thereafter bishops frequently availed themselves of this imperial conces-

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any of those necessities which we have remarked in the case of others. In fact our carriage was as good as a church or monastery, and we sang psalms and fasted in the Lord throughout the whole journey. 14. Therefore do not let our own case be a stumbling block to anyone. On the contrary, let our counsel be all the more persuasive, because we counsel you on matters which we have ascertained with our own two eyes.

15. For we confessed that the Christ who was made manifest is true God both before we arrived in the place and afterwards. Our faith was neither diminished nor increased. We knew that he was made man through the Virgin—before we saw Bethlehem; we believed in his resurrection from the dead—before we saw his memorial-rock; we confessed the truth of his ascension into heaven—without having seen the Mount of Olives. We beneﬁted only this much from our travelling there, that we came to know by comparison that our own places are far holier than those abroad.

16. Accordingly, all you who fear the Lord, praise him (Ps 21.23) in the places where you have your existence. For the changing of one's place does not bring about any greater nearness to God. No, God will come to you (cf. Ex 20.24) wherever you are, if the abode of your soul is such that the Lord himself comes to dwell within you and walk with you (cf. Jn 14.23, 2 Cor 6.16). 17. But if you have your inner man (Rom 7.22, Eph 3.16) ﬁlled with base thoughts, then even if you were present at Golgotha or on the Mount of Olives or by the memorial-rock of the Resurrection, you would be as far from receiving

Christ in yourself as one who has not even begun to confess him.

18a. Therefore, beloved, counsel the brothers64 to quit the body to be with the Lord (2 Cor 5.8), rather than quit Cappadocia to be in Palestine, 18b. specially the nuns.65 Indeed the virgins ought to refrain sion, though Emperors might manipulate it as they sought to dominate the Church,

For its ongoing practice see Life of Constantine 4.43. Ammianus Marcellinus 21.16.18, describes the situation in the reign of Constantius: 'Since throngs of bishops hastened hither and thither on the public post-horses (iumentis publicis) to the various synods as they call them, while he sought to make the whole ritual conform to his own will, he (Constantius) cut the sinews of the courier-service (rei vehiculariae)',

Ammianus Marcellinus, three vols, tr. John Rolfe (London: Heinemann, 1950), vol. 2,

185.

64 édelfo›w, it means members of the monastic brotherhood, including the sisters.

65 §jair°tvw tåw monazoÊsaw, i.e. in presenting a principle applicable to all monks,

Gregory refers it in particular to the class of 'female monks'.

the pasquali collection from public squares66 and all-night vigils, for I know the resourceful craftiness of that serpent who disseminates67 his poison even through useful practices. Virgins should stay behind walls on every side and go forth from their house68 only a few times in a year, when their excursions are required and it is necessary.69

18c. But if anyone puts forward the utterance of the Lord to his disciples that they should not quit Jerusalem (cf. Acts 1.4), let him understand the saying. It was because the grace and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit had not yet come upon the Apostles that our

Lord charged them to remain in the one place (Acts 2.1) until they were clothed with power from on high (Lk 24.49)). 19. Now if what came to pass at the beginning when the Holy Spirit dispensed each of his gifts under the appearance of a ﬂame, were continuing until now, it would be right for all to remain in that place where that dispensing of the gift took place. But if the Spirit blows where He wills ( Jn

3.8), then those who have become believers here are also made partakers of that gift (cf. Heb 6.4) according to the analogy of their faith

(Rom 12.6),70 not according to their living abroad71 in Jerusalem.

66 for«n (forums), interesting as a Latin loan-word.

67 paraspe¤raw, a subtle hint here also of paraspeirãomai, to lie coiled beside.

Gregory also uses the image of the serpent at 3.6–7.

68 t∞w oﬁk¤aw, i.e., one of the several constituent 'houses' of the cenobitic community. There was one for professed men, one for professed women, one or two for children, and at least one for guests. See especially Basil's Asketikon, LR 15.

69 'specially with regard to the nuns . . . requested and it is necessary', K. The genuineness of this passage is supported by the known composite nature of the ascetic communities under Basil and Peter's inﬂuence, and by the evident context of this Letter in which a male superior of a community has expressed to Gregory his misgivings over the consecrated virgins who wish to depart on pilgrimage. Both the literary style (e.g. vivid metaphor) and the prudence toward women ascetics are characteristically Gregory's. In the light of the way that Basil continued to edit and augment his ascetic writings, which almost assumed autonomous transmissions according to the particular ascetic circles in which they were found (e.g. Pontus as against Cappadocia), it is possible that Gregory added the passage later in response to some particular circumstance.

70 There follows a variant ending in K, a little disturbed and probably involving dittography: . . . not according to the sojourn [of the gift] in Jerusalem, of which [i.e. the Spirit] may all of us who have become partakers reach the kingdom of Heaven in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom [plural genitive in Maraval] is the glory unto ages of ages.

71 épodÆmian, symmetrically balanced with énalog¤an in an antithesis. Pasquali prefers the lectio diﬃcilior, §pidhm¤an ('visit') P.

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Letter 3 To Eustathia and Ambrosia and Basilissa72 This letter has barely survived thanks entirely to one ancient manuscript,

W. The letter ﬁrst reached print under Calvinist auspices as part of the polemic against pilgrimages (see introduction to letter 2). R. Stephens published a version in 1606 together with Letter 2. Isaac Casaubon reedited it and reprinted it with extensive notes at Hanover in 1607 (Pasq. XLIX), having made use of codex W. Gretscher strove to refute Casaubon as well as Stepherns, not without some spite. Casaubon's text was printed together with Gretscher's commentary by Claude Morell in 1615. In the year 1638 the royal printer Aegidius Morell reprinted the 1615 edition with a second set of revisions (iteratis curis), though not without many typographical errors.

The Migne text (i.e. of the ﬁrst three Letters) was printed from this edition which is usually referred to as the Morelliana. They were all rendered obsolete by Pasquali's edition, now complemented by Maraval's.

Letter 3 was written immediately after Gregory's return to Cappadocia from his visit to Jerusalem, which took place, according to 3.9, after the proclamation of 'piety' (= Neo-nicene orthodoxy) through the whole world.

This can only refer to the Council of Constantinople in 381, conﬁrmed as it was by imperial authority, and not to a period after the Council of Antioch in 379. Gregory wrote it after his return to the metropolis (3.25), which means Caesarea of Cappadocia.

It is also testimony to the degree of closely reasoned doctrinal argument that that devout Christian women might be expected to command. Gregory's addressees are three women ascetics whom he had recently met in Jerusalem.

The ascetic circle in which these women move has been subject to the heavy pressure of Apollinarian doctrinaires. They seem to have found themselves strangers in their own community and are searching for a more spiritually viable setting in which to live. Gregory urges them to be loyal to the memory and ministry of Basil and to himself as his successor, and warns them strongly and at length against the subtle attractions of sophisticated

Apollinarian theologizings.

Gregory Nazianzen's letter 244 is addressed to Basilissa, who also seems to be a young woman ascetic ﬁnding herself under necessity of moving about in the world. Only that letter is full of moral sententiae, not of theological concerns like the present letter. If she is the same Basilissa as here, her two companions have disappeared from the scene for unknown reasons (death? staying behind in Palestine while Basilissa migrated north?) and Nazianzen's letter might reasonably be dated later than the present letter, perhaps in the mid or late 380s.

72 Mss.: W (the sole ancient codex on which the transmission of this Letter depends) Q (c); GNO 8.2, 19–27; Maraval 124–147; tr.: Letter 17, NPNF ser. 2, vol. 5, 542–545.

the pasquali collection The Antiochene Word/Man Christology that appears in 3.11–24 has its context in the controversy with Apollinarians. Gregory is at pains to demonstrate the integrity of Christ's human nature and his divine nature, and that the one nature in no way not compromise the other. However his brave attempts to account for the unity in Christ73 which are based on his anthropological ideas74 were not quite adequate in terms of looming

Christological tensions and invited the deﬁnitions of the following century.

Gregory to our most discreet and pious sisters Eustathia and Ambrosia, and to our most discreet and reverent daughter Basilissa, greetings in the Lord 75

1. My meeting with the good who are of like mind, and the proofs displayed in your regions of our Master's great loving kindness for us (cf. Tit 3.4), were for me an occasion of the greatest joy and happiness. The festival according to God is revealed to me76 from either side: both when I see the saving tokens77 of the God who gave us life (cf. Rom 4.17, 1 Tim 6.13) and when I meet with souls in whom such signs of the Lord's grace are so spiritually discernible that one understands that Bethlehem and Golgotha and Olivet and the Anastasis78 are truly in the heart that possesses God.79

2. For one in whom Christ has been formed through a good conscience (cf. Gal 4.19), who through godly fear has nailed the promptings of the ﬂesh (cf. Gal 5.24) and become co-cruciﬁed with Christ (Gal

73 Cf. letter 3.15, 19–20 and letter 32.

74 Cf. his account of human conception and the origin of the soul in On the Soul and Resurrection 9.13–19 (Krabinger 120–122).

75 The similarity to the address of GNaz Letter 238, to the community at Sannabodae, may be remarked. This Letter is transmitted also under the name of GNyssa in two mss.

76 Pasquali ﬁnds •ortÆ (festival) suspect. If the term is genuine, it is likely that Gregory means Pascha, the celebration of the saving events of the Lord's passion, death and resurrection that took place in Jerusalem.

77 tå svtÆria sÊmbola. Since Gregory is hardly a propagandist for the spiritual beneﬁts conferred by pilgrimages, perhaps the adjective is explicative (= 'of that which saves'); so Casaubon (NPNF ser. 2, vol. 5, 542, n. 1): 'that is, of the Saviour, not things causing salvation'.

78 I.e. the Church of the Resurrection, called to-day the Holy Sepulchre.

79 Gregory's attitude to visiting the holy places seems to this point more positive than in the previous letter, though he readily spiritualises the experience. He commences a series of metaphors, in which the diﬀerent places connected with the Paschal events are but pointers to the interior realization of the mysteries of which they are an external witness. What Gregory is saying, ever so gently, is that though his addressees live at the holy sites, the true tokens of Christ's presence are seen in deeply spiritual souls, those who have been interiorly 'Christed', and that, he is pleased to note, is what he sees in them.

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22.20), who has rolled away from himself the heavy stone (cf. Mt 28.2) of this life's delusion, and has come forth from the bodily tomb

(cf. Mk 16.8) to walk in newness of life (Rom 6.4), having abandoned the material and earthbound life of human beings and mounted through sublime desire to the heavenly citizenship (cf. Phil 3.20), who is mindful of the things that are above where Christ is (Col 3.1–2), and is no longer weighed down by the burden of the body, but has lightened it through a purer life, so that the ﬂesh like a cloud treads on high with him80 the things that are above81—such a one, in my judgment, is among those devoted ones82 in whom the reminders of the Master's loving-kindness are seen.

3. So when I saw the holy places with the senses and saw too the signs of these places manifested in you, I was ﬁlled with a joy so great that it cannot be described in words (cf. 1 Pet 1.8). 4. But since it seems to be diﬃcult, if not to say impossible, for a human being to enjoy any good unmixed with bad, so for me the taste of sweetness was mingled with some sense of bitter things too. For this reason, after the good cheer of these delights, I grew despondent on my journey back to my fatherland, pondering the truth of the Lord's word where he says the whole world lies in evil ( Jn 5.19), such that no part of the inhabited world is free of its share of the worse. For if the very spot that has received the holy footprint of the true Life is itself not cleared of evil thorns,83 what are we to think of other places where participation in the good has been sown merely by hearing and preaching (cf. Mt 13.7–8)?

5. What I have in mind by saying this does not have be set out more plainly in words. Aﬀairs themselves proclaim the melancholy truth more loudly than any speech. 6. The lawgiver who is our Life has laid down for us but one enmity, I mean, that which is against 80 summetevropore›n, a word of Gregory's coinage, building on Plato's metevropore›n, Phaedrus 246C.

81 See Plato, Phaedrus 246c for the doctrine of anamnesis, according to which we make progress through recollection of the higher 'forms' seen with the mind's eye before the body entrapped and confused us.

82 katvnomasm°nvn. katonamãzv in the passive = 'named, mentioned', and by extension 'famous', and so may refer to the holy places listed above. There is, however, a derived sense. In Philebus 5.43.1 it means 'betrothed', and in Dion. Halicarnassos

1.16 and Phalaris Ep. 84.1 it means 'devoted' (to the gods).

83 This is a hint that Gregory's mission of mediation in Jerusalem was a failure, and even more than a failure. He incurred ﬂagrant hostility.

the pasquali collection the serpent. For no other end has he commanded us to exercise this power of hatred, except that of repelling vice. For I will establish enmity, he says, between you and him (cf. Gen 3.15). Since vice is a complex and many-faceted thing, the Word hints at this through the serpent, indicating the versatility of vice by the intricate pattern of its scales. 7. But when we enacted the behests of our adversary we became the allies of the serpent, and so we turned the hatred against one another, and I think not only against ourselves, but against him who gave the commandment. For he says, You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy (Mt 5.43), charging us to deem the foe of our nature as our only enemy, and declaring that all who share that nature are the neighbours to each other. But this gross-hearted generation (cf. Ps 4.3) has sundered us from our neighbour and made us welcome the serpent and be dazzled by the bright markings of his scales.

8. I for my part maintain that to hate the enemies of God is lawful, and that such a hatred pleases the Master. By enemies I mean those who in every way deny the glory of the Master, whether the Jews or those who are manifestly idolaters or those who through Arius' teachings make an idol of the creature, and so take up again the Jewish error. But if Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Mt 28.19) are devoutly gloriﬁed and paid homage by those who have believed that in the unconfused and distinct Holy Trinity there is one nature, glory, kingship, power, pious worship and authority over all, then what good reason for warfare can there be? 9. While the teachings of the heresy84 prevailed, it was well to brave the authorities through whom the teaching of our adversaries was seemingly strengthened, in order that the saving Word might not be over-ruled by human rulers. But now when piety is openly proclaimed in the same way through the whole world from one end of heaven to the other thereof (Ps 18.6),85 whoever makes war against those who proclaim piety, ﬁghts not them but him whom they piously proclaim. What other goal should he have who has a zeal for God than to announce the glory of God in every way (cf. Phil 1.18)? 10. As long as the Only-begotten God ( Jn

84 I.e Arianism, in its varied shades, promoted for the most part by the eastern

Emperors, from late in the reign of Constantine to the accession of Theodosius I (379).

85 This must refer to the Council of 381, buttressed by imperial authority, not to the earlier more provincial council of Antioch (379).

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1.18) is paid homage with all the heart and soul and mind (cf. Mt 22.37) and is believed to be in all things what the Father is, and the Holy

Spirit likewise is gloriﬁed with a homage of equal honour, what plausible excuse for ﬁghting do these hyper-sophistic controversialists have, who tear the seamless robe (cf. Jn 19.23) and divide the Lord's name between Paul and Cephas (cf. 1 Cor 1.12) and keep aloof from contact with those who pay homage to Christ as from something loathsome? They all but shout openly in so many words: Away from me!

Do not come near me, for I am pure (Is 65.5).86

11. Let them even be allowed to have a little more as to knowledge, than they think they have grasped:87 yet can they have more than to believe that the true Son of God is true God?88 12. For in the confession of the true God all pious and saving conceptions are included: that he is good, just, powerful, both changeless and unalterable and always the same, incapable of changing to worse or to the better, because the ﬁrst is not his nature and the second he does not have in him. For what can be higher than the highest, what can be still have more good than the good? 13. He who is perceived in all the perfection of the good is unalterable in any form of change.

It was not that he showed himself as such on certain occasions. He was always so, both before the dispensation as man,89 and during it, and after it. In all his activities on our behalf nothing of that changeless and unalterable nature was adapted to what was incongruent with it. 14. What is incorruptible and unalterable by nature is always so. It does not join in the alterability of the lowly nature when through dispensation it comes to be there. Take the sun as an example. When it sends down its rays into the lower realm, it does not dim the brightness of its rays. Instead, through its rays it transforms the darkness into light. So also, when the true Light shone in our darkness (cf. Jn 1.4–5, 9), it was not overshadowed by the darkness, but illumined the gloom with itself.

15. Since our humanity was in darkness as it is written, they have neither known nor understood, they walk about in darkness (Ps 81.5), he who 86 Quite clearly Gregory was repudiated by a party of theological opinion in Jerusalem.

87 The text is corrupt, both copies Q and c insert alternative expressions here.

88 Thus the point at issue concerns Christology and, as we shall see, how the divine immutability was preserved in the Incarnation.

89 prÚ t∞w katå ênyrvpon oﬁkonom¤aw. 'Economy' or 'Dispensation' is a regular term, especially in Gregory, for divine plan of salvation implemented in the Incarnation.

the pasquali collection shone in our darkened nature dispersed the ray of his divinity through our whole compound,90 through soul I say and body too, and so accommodated our entire humanity to his own light, and brought it to completion in himself by that blend91 which he himself is. And inasmuch as the deity is incorruptible, though it had come to be in a corruptible body, so it was not altered by any change even as it healed what was changeable in our soul, just as in the art of medicine, he who is treating bodily ills, in touching the patient, does not himself become infected, but thoroughly heals that which is diseased.92

16. Let no one therefore take the Gospel saying in an undue sense, and suppose that our human nature that was in Christ was transformed into something more divine by a kind of progress and sequence. The saying that he increased in stature and in wisdom and in favour is recorded in Scripture (Lk 2.32) in order to prove that the Lord truly came to be in our composition,93 and to leave no room for those who teach that there was a kind of phantasm cloaking itself in bodily form, rather than a true Theophany. 17. It is for this reason that the Scripture also unashamedly reports of him all the marks of our nature: eating, drinking, sleeping, weariness, nurture, increase in bodily stature, growing up—all that characterizes our nature, except the tendency to sin. But sin anyway is a miscarriage of our nature and not one of its properties. Just as disease and disablement94 are not congenital to us from the beginning, but come about contrary to nature, so the disposition towards vice is to be considered a disabling of the good that is in us by nature and is not to be understood to have subsistence of itself, but is seen in the absence of the good.95 18. Therefore he who reconﬁgured the 90 toË sugkr¤matow ≤m«n.

91 énakrãsei. In the following century anakrasis was judged as an inadequate term for expressing the character of Christ's unity. Gregory is about to attempt his own account of the union of the divine and the human in the conception of Christ, an attempt not always successful in terms of later Christological precision. See JeanRené Bouchet, 'Le vocabulaire de l'union et du rapport des natures chez saint

Grégoire de Nysse', Revue Thomiste 68 (1968), 533–582.

92 Cf. Against Apollinaris GNO 3.1, 171.21.

93 t" ≤met°rƒ furamãti, or 'mixture'. By this term Gregory means that the integrity of human nature in its elements was assumed by the Lord. Apollinarism taught a truncated humanity in which the Word replaced the functions of the human higher soul.

94 É± pÆrvsiw, deformity, maiming, mutilation, disability.

95 Gregory shared with Origen, Plotinus, the Platonic tradition generally and

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elements96 of our nature by his divine power preserved it in himself free of disablement and disease, not admitting the disablement worked by sin in the will. For he committed no sin, it says, no guile was found in his mouth (1 Pet 2.22). 19. But this that we see in him did not exist after any interval of time: for immediately the human being within Mary, in whom Wisdom built her own house (Prov 9.1), was by its own nature of our passible composition, and at the same time, by the coming upon her of the Holy Spirit and the overshadowing of the power of the Most High (Lk 1.35), immediately became97 that which the overshadowing was by its own nature—for indisputably, the less is blessed by the greater. 20. Seeing that the power of the deity is something inﬁnite and immeasurable, while that which is human is slight and of no account, at the same time that the Spirit came upon the Virgin and the power of the Most High overshadowed her, the tabernacle formed98 by such an impulse did not draw along with it anything of human decay. Instead, whatever it was in its constitution, if indeed a human being, so it remained, yet Spirit nonetheless, and Grace and Power. That which is proper to our nature was illumined by the superabundance of the divine power (cf. 2 Cor 4.7).99

Augustine what Meredith calls a 'metaphysical optimism' (Gregory of Nyssa, 7), in which the 'good' and reality, 'being' and 'value' tended to be identiﬁed. Consequently evil has at best a relative, negational character; its domain is that of created human choices. See Catechetical Oration 5.11–12 and Homily 5 on Eccl. GNO 5.15.

96 tØn fÊsin ≤m«n prÚw tØn ye¤an dÊnamin metastoixei≈saw; i.e. our human nature as it was assumed at the moment of Christ's conception. Gregory uses metastoix°v and metapoi°v (here translated as 'transform') interchangeably.

97 §g°neto, the unfortunate term is, however, qualiﬁed by an iterated eÈyÁw ('immediately'). A better choice of verb might have been §g°nneto (begotten) but there is only one manuscript, and it cannot be tested as a possible (and very easy) scribal error. Using an Antiochene Word/Man Christology rather than the Word/Flesh

Christology of Alexandria, and wishing to safeguard the integrity of Christ's humanity against Apollinaris and against various types of docetism, Gregory strives, unsuccessfully in terms of later deﬁnitions, to account for the operations of Christ's divine and human natures at the moment of conception in Mary's womb. See also Against Apollinaris 8 (GNO 3.223–224). It is no wonder that some of his Christological formulations were later considered favourable to Nestorianism. The terms of the hypostatic union were not hammered out till the period between the Council of Ephesus

(431) and the Council of Chalcedon (451), according to which the human being conceived in the womb of Mary never 'became' divine even instantaneously as Gregory argues here. Its hypostasis preceded and accompanied the human conception, and it was a divine hypostasis. Compare Gregory's Christology in letter 32.8.

98 phgnÊmenon, lit. 'made to congeal', in our terms, the distinct new human zygote.

The meaning virtually equates to a use of §g°nneto above.

99 Christological statements such as here and in Against Apollinaris (to Theophilos

the pasquali collection 21. Inasmuch as there are two boundaries of human life: the one where we begin and the one where we ﬁnish, it was necessary that he who cures our whole life (cf. Mt 4.23) enfold us at both these extremities and grasp both our beginning and our end, that he might raise the prostrate suﬀerer in both. 22. Therefore what we understand concerning the end we reckon also for the beginning. For just as there he caused the body to be unyoked from the soul in accord with the dispensation, yet the indivisible deity which had been blended100 once for all with the subject101 was not sundered either from that body or from that soul, but while by means of the soul it was in Paradise preparing an entrance for all human beings in the person of the Thief (cf. Lk 23.43, 1 Pet 3.19), it remained by means of the body in the heart of the earth (cf. Mt 12.40), destroying him that had the power of Death—which is why even his body is called the Lord (Mt 28.6, Jn 20.2, 13) on account of the inherent deity—so also at the beginning, we reckon that the power of the Most High, coalescing102 with our entire nature through the coming upon of the Holy Spirit, came to be both in our soul,103 since it was ﬁtting that it should come to be in the soul, and came also to be mingled104 with the body, so that our salvation might be wholly perfect in all respects, while that heavenly and God-beﬁtting passionlessness was nonetheless preserved both at the beginning of his human life and at its end. For the beginning was not as our beginning or the end as our end, but he showed in the one and in the other his divine power: the beginning not being deﬁled by pleasure, or the end resulting in corruption.

23. Now when we cry aloud these things and bear witness that Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor 1.24), always

3.265) and Catechetical Discourse 10 were later claimed by Eutychians, but at the Council of Ephesus, St Cyril of Alexandria 'showed that these expressions were capable of a Catholic interpretation, and pardonable in discussing the diﬃcult and mysterious question of the union of the two natures' (NPNF ser. 2, 544, n. 1).

100 énakraye›sa. On the terms used in this passage: énakerãnnumi, §grerãnnumi, katam¤gnumi, which express 'fusion', 'blending' and 'mixing', see Bouchet 1968, 547.

Cf. Gregory Nazianzen's use of sugkrãsei in Letter 101.21.

101 t" Ípokeim°nƒ. Perhaps 'receptacle' might yield a slightly less controversial sense.

102 §gkraye›sa.

103 I.e. the human soul of Christ in possessing which he shared fully in our nature; distinctly anti-Apollinarian.

104 katam¤gnutai.

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changeless, always incorruptible, who, though coming in the changeable and the corruptible, is himself undeﬁled, and cleansing what is deﬁled; what unrighteousness have we committed and why are we hated? And what is the meaning of this competing array of new altars? 24. Do we announce another Jesus (2 Cor 11.4)?105 Do we even hint at another? Do we bring forth other scriptures (cf. Gal 1.6–9)?

Have any of us dared to call 'man-bearer' the holy Virgin the Godbearer106—which is what we hear that some of them recklessly allege?

Do we make up myths about three Resurrections?107 Do we promise the gluttony of the Millennium? Do we assert that Jewish animalsacriﬁces shall be restored again? Do we lower men's hopes to the Jerusalem below, imagining it rebuilt with stones of a more brilliant material?108 Is any such charge brought against us that we should be reckoned as something to be shunned, and that in some places another altar should be erected in opposition to us, as if we profaned their holy things (Lev 19.8, 22.15, Num 18.32 etc.)?

25. My heart burns with indignation and grief (cf. Ps 72.21) at these things, and now that I have set foot in the metropolis109 again,

I am eager to unburden my soul of its bitterness by writing to your love. For your part, wherever the Holy Spirit shall direct you (cf.

Jn 16.13), go with him; walk behind God (Deut 13.4), do not confer with ﬂesh and blood (Gal 1.16). Provide no-one with an occasion for vaunting, lest they vaunt over you, inﬂating their vainglory through your life (cf. 2 Cor 11.12, 1 Cor 3.21, Gal 6.13–14). 26. Only remember the holy Fathers, into whose hands you were commended

105 For the Apollinarian ideas that follow here see H. Lietzmann, Apollinaris von

Laodicea und seine Schule, Tübingen, 1904, 266.17ﬀ., GNaz Letter 101, PG 37, 193A;

Basil, Letter 263, to the Westerners, Def. 4.88–101 at 96–99.

106 mØ tØn ég¤an pary°non tØn yeotÒkon, §tÒlmhs° tiw ≤m«n ka‹ ényrvpotÒkon eﬁpe›n. Gregory reports an Apollinarian accusation against him, that he espouses an Antiochene (construed by some as a proto-Nestorian) Christology. Yet it was not Nestorius, but Theodore of Mopsuestia who called Mary ényrvpotÒkon (PG

37.193A), anticipated it seems by Diodorus of Tarsus (PG 33, 1560C). By invoking this term Gregory allies himself with the Alexandrian tradition of Christology, which from the time of Dionysius' letter to Paul of Samosata (c. 250 AD) accorded the Virgin Mary the title Theotokos. Cf. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 51: 'If anyone does not call Mary Theotokos, he is outside 'deity'.'

107 Cf. Basil, Letter 263, Def. 4.88–101 at 98–99.

108 Such a project had been mooted under Emperor Julian (361–363), as part of his polemic against the Christians.

109 Presumably this is Caesarea in Cappadocia; cf. 11.3 where 'Cappadocia' seems to mean Caesarea, and 14.3 'the metropolis of the Cappadocians'.

the pasquali collection by your blessed Father, and to whom we by God's grace were deemed worthy to succeed. Do not remove the boundaries which your fathers established (Prov 22.28) or think less of the plainness of our simpler proclamation (cf. 1 Cor 1.21) or attribute more to their subtle teachings (cf. Heb 13.9).110 Walk by the ancient rule of the Faith (cf. Gal

6.16), and the God of peace (Heb 13.20) will be with you. May the Lord preserve you strong in mind and body uncorrupted (cf. Eph

6.24) is our prayer for you.

Letter 4 To Eusebius111 The identity of the addressee of this letter has been doubtful, the name

Eusebius being a very common one. According to Moore112 he is Eusebius, the Bishop of Chalcis in Coele-Syria, a ﬁrm Catholic who participated in the Council of Constantinople in 381.

Daniélou113 on the other hand maintained that we have here the same Eusebius mentioned in Against Fate, a leading pagan at Constantinople whom

Gregory met during his long stay there in 386, and in whose turn to Christianity Gregory had had a part to play. Maraval however114 regards the identity of the addressee as uncertain. In his assessment, the absence of honoriﬁcs seems against his being a bishop, and, moreover, it would be surprising if a man so characterized for dignity and age as Eusebius of Constantinople should be called 'dear head'. That objection may be countered. Sometimes it is precisely the advanced age even of dignitaries that invites freer expressions of endearment.

Daniélou dated the letter to Easter 387 given his identiﬁcation of Eusebius and a number of common themes between this letter and several works written about that time: On Fate (386), On the day of Christ's birth (25 December

386), and the Homily on Pascha restored to Gregory by P. Nautin (387).

The letter is very important evidence of the institution in the Christian East of a feast of the Nativity (Dec. 25) as distinct from Epiphany ( Jan 6), which it has been suggested introduced in Cappadocia in the late 370s–380s.115

110 After the exile of Cyril of Jerusalem Basil had been called upon to deal with the spread of Apollinarianism among the monks and nuns of Palestine (Letters 258,

259). Cyril returned in 382, but there had been an interlude of Arian rule, as described by Sozomen 4.25. The disunity was heightened by the fact that Palestine was the melting pot of pilgrims and settlers from all over the Christian world.

111 Mss.: PFV; ed.: GNO 8.2, 27–30; tr.: Letter 1, NPNF ser. 2, vol. 5, 527–528.

112 NPNF 2nd ser. vol. 5, p. 527).

113 Chronologie des Sermons, 366, 368.

114 Lettres, p. 146, n. 1.

115 See Daniélou, 'La Chronologie', 366, Maraval, Lettres 147 n. 2, and 'Retour sur quelque dates', 154, and especially J. Mossay, Les fêtes de Noël et d'Epiphanie d'apres

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Gregory elucidates doctrinal signiﬁcances from the celebration of Christmas at the winter solstice and the celebration of Pascha at the Spring equinox.

It is an early and outstanding example of meditation on the connections between the liturgy and the natural cycle of the year and the application of these reﬂections to the moral life. Such associations of time and eternity were facilitated by the gradual de-paganization and Christianization of civil time throughout the 4th century, culminating in the reform of the calendar under Theodosius I (AD 379–395), during whose reign this letter was written.

On the custom amongst Eastern Christians of exchanging presents at the great festivals, cf. the introduction to On the Making of Man, addressed to Gregory's brother Peter; and Gregory Nazianzen, letter 54 to Helladius and letter 87 to Theodore of Tyana.

To Eusebius116 1. When during the winter the day's span begins to lengthen as the sun turns again on his upward course, we keep the feast of the Theophany of the true Light117 who shone through the ﬂesh upon human life. But now when the luminary has in his cycle already reached mid-heaven, so that night and day measure an equal interval against each other, the return of human nature from death to life becomes for us the theme of this great and universal festival, which the whole life of those who have welcomed the mystery of the Resurrection joins in celebrating at the same time.

2. What then does the premise of my letter mean? Since it is our custom in these public holy festivals to manifest in every way the aﬀections in our hearts, and there are some who express their good cheer by oﬀering presents of their own, we thought it right not to leave you without the homage118 of our gifts, but to salute your lofty and high-minded soul with the scanty oﬀerings of our poverty. 3. And the oﬀering we bring to you through this letter is the letter itself.119 les sources littéraires cappadociennes du IV e siecle (Louvain, 1965), p. 6. Basil himself may have been the initiator; see his Homily on the generation of Christ PG 31 1457A–1475A.

116 toË aÈtoË eÈsebiv F, toË èg¤ou grhgor¤ou toË nÊsshw prow eÈs°bion V, toË aÈtoË P.

117 I.e. the Nativity (25 December) rather than Epiphany (6 Jan). The same theme of the turning of the light and it gradual increase till the victory of Easter, appears in On the Nativity, while his homily on Epiphany, On the Day of Lights is taken up with the imagery of Baptism.

118 ég°raston, suggesting the age and dignity of the addressee.

119 Other examples of exchanging literary gifts at the great festivals may be found in the opening verses of GNyssa, On the making of man, sent to his brother Peter, and in GNaz Letter 54 To Helladius, Letter 87 ToTheodore of Tyana.

the pasquali collection Here is no discourse wreathed with melliﬂuous and well-constructed phrases, that this letter might be thought a gift in literary circles.

Instead, may the mystical gold, which is wrapped up in the faith of Christians as in a kind of envelope, be my present to you—that it is, when it has been unwrapped in these lines as far as it may, and has shown its hidden lustre.120

4. We must then go back to our introduction. Why is it only when the night has advanced to its further limit and the nocturnal increase admits no further addition, that he appears to us in ﬂesh— he who holds all in his hands and holds all things in his sway by his own power, who is not contained even by all that exists, but himself circumscribes the whole and dwells in the smallest thing, and whose power at the same time so coextends with his beneﬁcent will121 and so shows itself wherever his will inclines, that neither in the creation of the world was the power found weaker than the intention, nor when he determined to stoop down to the lowliness of our nature for the beneﬁt of human beings, was he powerless to do so, but indeed came to be in that state, though without leaving the universe ungoverned?

5. Since there is some reason for the two seasons, why does he appear in the ﬂesh at that time, but when the day is equally proportioned he who had returned to the earth through sin (cf. Gen

3.19) restores man to life?122 By brieﬂy expounding this in a discourse as best I can, I shall make my letter a present to you.

6. Surely you in your wisdom have guessed the mystery hinted at in these coincidences: that the advance of night is cut oﬀby the access of the light, and the darkness begins to diminish as the length of the day increases through successive additions. This much may

120 oÂon tini épodesm". Maraval remarks (Lettres 149 n. 3) that in ancient Rome, guests used to bring presents wrapped in a mappa, a linen napkin. The practice continued in the late ancient and Byzantine world with the added idea of presenting gifts to God or to Emperors puriﬁed of mundane usage, signiﬁed by being protected in the napkin; it is well illustrated in the art of the period. By 'mystical gold', Gregory means the economy of salvation commemorated in the annual

Christmas–Easter liturgical cycle.

121 Gregory explains at length how the incarnation displays both God's power and his goodness in Catechetical Discourse 24 (Maraval, Lettres, 151 n. 1).

122 The present tense may be noted. The mysteries of Christ are contemporary events, inasmuch as they are communicated even now through the sacraments and the liturgy.

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perhaps be evident even to the many, that the darkness is closely related to sin—indeed this is how vice is named in the Scripture (cf.

Jn 3.19, Rom 13.12). 7. Therefore the season in which our mystery has its beginning is itself an interpretation of the dispensation123 on behalf of our souls. For when vice was already poured forth without bounds, we needed the day made bright for us with virtues by him who infused so great a light in our souls. This was in order that the illumined life might extended to the greatest degree by growing through increments of the good, while the life of vice is diminished to the smallest degree through gradual attenuations—for the growth of the good amounts to the same thing as the lessening of the bad.

8. But the occurrence of the feast of the Resurrection at the equinox oﬀers in itself this interpretation, that we shall no more contend in equally opposed ranks, vice grappling with the good in an equal match, but rather the illumined life shall prevail, the gloom of idolatry being consumed by the superabundance of the day. 9.

For this reason also, when the course of the moon has reached the fourteenth day, it shows her facing the sun's rays, ﬁlled with all the richness of his brilliance, not permitting any alternation of darkness to appear in any part. When she takes the place of the setting sun, she herself does not set before she mingles her own with the true rays of the sun, so that there remains one light continuously through the whole course of day and night, uninterrupted by any interval of darkness.124

10. We oﬀer these reﬂections to you, dear head, as a gift from our hand, poor as it is in discourse; and may your whole life be a festival and great day, puriﬁed as much as possible, from nightly gloom.

Letter 5 To those who discredit his orthodoxy125 The most satisfactory setting of this letter would appear to be the events reported in letter 19. Pasquali considered that this letter, with its brief

123 t∞w Èp¢r t«n cux«n oﬁkonom¤aw, i.e. the events of the Incarnation and Paschal redemption.

124 Macrina/Gregory discourse at great length on the movements of the moon in relation to the Sun, in On the Soul and the Resurrection 2.11–16.

125 Mss.: V N; ed.: GNO 8.2, 31–34, Maraval 154–162; tr.: Letter 2, NPNF ser.

the pasquali collection exposition of the faith, was composed for a synod of bishops convened either in Neocaesarea or in Sebasteia. It seemed to him to have been written in the interval between the death of Eustathius Bishop of Sebasteia and the election of Peter, Gregory's brother, before the doctrinal settlement of the Council of Constantinople in 381. He thought that the letter may have been called forth by the trouble fomented against Gregory by those coming from the region of Galatia (letter 19.11).

In this scenario, Gregory is writing in the year 380 at the request of his supporters in Sebasteia, i.e. the same circle who sent an embassy to Ibora to sue for his presence at the synod soon to be convened to elect the metropolitan bishop of Armenia Minor. These friends wish to disarm those who are hostile to Gregory's doctrinal position. Such opponents appear to be of the Pneumatomachian party, followers of the deceased bishop of Sebasteia, Eustathius. These doctrinaires were especially suspicious of assimilation to Sabellianism (4.2) on the part of supporters of the homoousios, and morbidly sensitive to any innovation in statements concerning the Holy

Spirit. Gregory contrives here to expound a full Neo-nicene faith without ever mentioning the homoousios, or indeed the term ousia at all. In this he is following Basil's oikonomia in reconciling 'Sabellians' or those of Marcellus' party, when in letter 265 he asks nothing more of them than that they should repudiate their former opinions before being admitted to communion. Yet here Gregory is at pains to emphasize the deﬁnition of hypostasis that was a cornerstone of the Neo-nicene position and that had been perversely ignored by Eustathius and his followers.

Maraval126 however, thinks the objectors are more likely to be classic Arians/Homoians, because, he says, Gregory is not particularly insisting on the divinity of the Holy Spirit. In answer to this it might be said that while

Gregory's exposition of faith here is even-handed with regard to all the persons of the Trinity, the divinity of the Holy Spirit is clearly aﬃrmed at 5.5b–7. We do at any rate seem to be in a period before the council of 381.

In 5.2 we have the most important evidence that Gregory received a commission from the orthodox bishops of the East (= the Neo-nicene Council of Antioch in 379) to reconcile to Catholic communion the old Nicenes associated with Marcellus of Ancyra.

Because precision is at a premium in these doctrinal deﬁnitions, the major terms in 5.5 and 5.9 are transliterated and italicised; most should be perfectly familiar to English-speakers versed in Church doctrine.

2, vol. 5, 528–529. Maraval collated N, set aside by Pasquali. It sometimes oﬀers superior grammar to V in many minor details, which will be noted here. Where

N does come into its own is in clarifying the argument of 5a.

126 Lettres, p. 163, n. 3.

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Letter to those who discredit his orthodoxy, requested by those in Sebasteia127 1a. Some brothers of one mind with us told us of the defamation aimed against us by those who hate peace (Ps 119.6) and slander their neighbour in secret (Ps 100.5), who have no fear of the great and terrible judgment-seat of him who has promised that in that examination of our life we must all expect that an account will be required even of idle words (cf. Mt 12.36). 1b. They say that the charges being spread about against us are such as these: that we maintain views opposed to those who set forth the right and sound faith at Nicaea, and that without discernment and examination we received into the communion of the Catholic Church those who formerly assembled at Ancyra under the name of Marcellus.

2. That the lie might not prevail against the truth, we put forward in another letter a suﬃcient defence against the charges made against us.128 In this we aﬃrmed before the Lord that we had neither departed from the faith of the holy fathers nor had we done anything without discernment and examination in the case of those who came over from the assembly of Marcellus129 to the ecclesiastical communion, but we did everything only after our orthodox <brothers>130 and fellow ministers in the East had entrusted to us the consideration of the case of these persons and had approved the actions to be taken.131

3. But though we had made that written defence, again some of the brothers of one mind with us begged that there come privately132

127 A translation of the inscription in V as qualiﬁed by Maraval. toË §n èg¤oiw patrÚw ±m«n grhgor¤ou §piskÒpou nÊshw §pistolØ tª Ùryodoj (unsure) katå sebãst(eian) aﬁthy(e›sa) V, §pistolØ toË §n ég¤oiw prw ±m«n grhgÒriou §piskÒpou nÊsshw prÚw flãianÚn §p¤skopon (Epistle of Bishop Gregory our father among the saints to Flavian) N, aÈtoË p¤stei parå t«n (his orthodox faith, by) added by Pasquali, t∞Ùryodoj¤& to›w, Maraval's simpliﬁcation of Pasquali's phrase.

128 Maraval (157, n. 3) asks whether this document may have been preserved as the To Eustathius (GNO 3.1/3–16), where he defends himself against just such charges as he has mentioned.

129 Marcellus of Ancyra was a signatory to the Nicene council of 325, and initially had the support of St Athanasius. But though Marcellus formally condemned

Sabellius, he did not accord any real subsistence to the Logos, which in his view, was merely an operational faculty of God. Athanasius withdrew his support from 345. At the time of Gregory's writing, the 'Marcellians' were fading from the theological scene.

130 lacuna as ﬁlled by Pasquali. Maraval suggest 'bishops'.

131 The council of Neo-nicenes at Antioch in 379 is meant. Cf. the Life of Macrina

(GNO 17.1, Maraval, Vie de Sainte Macrine, ch. 15a, 190–192).

132 ﬁd¤vw, i.e. that in addition to his previous apologia, Gregory make a separate statement of his doctrinal positions.

the pasquali collection in our own utterance an exposition of the faith in which is our full conviction, following as we do the God-inspired utterances and the tradition of the Fathers.133 We therefore deemed it necessary also to treat brieﬂy these topics.

4. We confess that the doctrine of the Lord which he gave to his disciples when he delivered to them the mystery of piety134 is the foundation and root of right and sound faith (Tit 1.13, 2.2), and we do not believe there is anything else surer or more sublime than that tradition. Now the Lord's doctrine is this: Go, he said, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit (Mt 28.19). 5a. Therefore, since the power that gives life to those who are reborn from death to eternal life comes from the Holy Trinity upon those who are deemed worthy of the grace through faith, and likewise the grace is imperfect if any of the names of the Holy Trinity are omitted in saving baptism (cf.

Acts 19.2–3)—5b. for the mystery135 of rebirth is neither perfected without the Father136 by the Son and the Spirit137 alone, nor does the perfection of life come through the Father and the Spirit in baptism if the Son is passed over in silence, nor is the grace of the Resurrection perfected by the Father138 and the Son if the Spirit139 is omitted.140 5c. For this reason we place all our hope and the assurance of the salvation of our souls in the three hypostases acknowledged by these names, and we believe in the Father of our Lord Jesus

Christ (1 Pet 1.3) who is the fountain of life (cf. Ps 35.10), and in the only-begotten Son of the Father ( Jn 3.14, 18) who is the Author of life, as 133 I.e. Scripture and Tradition.

134 tÚ t∞w eÈsebe¤aw mustÆr¤on. As frequently in Gregory, 'piety' = orthodox faith and worship.

135 mustÆrion, i.e. the liturgy of the sacrament. It is the classic derivation of orthodox doctrine from the apostolic tradition of prayer and liturgy.

136 Maraval derives a satisfactory text of 5a through N. Here N has xvr‹w *p*r*w,

V has xvr‹w pneÊmati (without the Spirit).

137 *p*n*i N, patr‹ V.

138 patr‹ N, pneÊmati V.

139 *p*n*w N, patrÚw V. Because Pasquali relied upon V which presents a defective sequence of the three persons in 5a, he accepted Vittelo's amendments to make a concluding sense of the whole: 'in the Spirit and the Son if the Father be omitted'.

140 Gregory aﬃrms the important principle that all the persons of the Trinity are engaged in the same work of salvation. All saving acts are accomplished by the whole Trinity, not by individual hypostases separately as the Arians argued. See letter 33.6g, 7f–h, 8d, To Ablabius that there are not three gods GNO 3.1, 47–48, 50

(NPNF ser. 2 vol. 5, 331–336 at 334).

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the Apostle says (Acts 3.15), and in the Holy Spirit of God, concerning whom the Lord said, it is the Spirit who gives life ( Jn 6.40).141

6. And since the grace of incorruptibility is bestowed on us who are redeemed from death through faith in Father and Son and Holy

Spirit in saving baptism, as we have said, it follows that, guided by these, we believe that nothing servile, nothing created, nothing unworthy of the majesty of the Father is to be numbered together with him in the Holy Trinity, because the life which comes to us through faith in the Holy Trinity is one, taking its source in the God of all, issuing through the Son, and eﬀected142 in the Holy Spirit. 7. Having this full assurance, therefore, we are baptized as we were commanded, and we believe as we are baptized, and we glorify as we believe;143 so that our baptism, our faith, and our doxology echo in one accord:

Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Mt. 28.19).

8. But if anyone speaks of two or three gods or of three deities, let him be anathema. And if anyone, following Arius' perversion, says that the Son or the Holy Spirit came into being from things that are not, let him be anathema. 9. But as many as walk by the rule of truth (cf. Gal 6.16, Phil 3.16) and piously acknowledge the three hypostases in their distinct properties, and believe that there is one Godhead, one goodness, one principle,144 one authority and power (cf. 1 Cor 15.24), and thus neither set aside the sovereignty of the monarchy,145 nor fall away into polytheism, nor confuse the hypostases, nor synthesize the Holy Trinity from heterogeneous and dissimilar elements, but receive in simplicity the dogma of the faith, placing all their hope of salvation (1 Thess 5.8) in Father, Son and Holy

Spirit (Mt 28.19)—these in our judgment are of the same mind with us, with whom we also pray to have part in the Lord (cf. Jn 13.8).146

141 Thus Scripture describes each of the persons as the source of the one same life from God.

142 §nergoÊmenh, passive participle: the communication of the 'life' coming from God through the Son is accomplished by the Holy Spirit, 'the Lord, the giver of life', in the Constantinopolitan additions to the Nicene Creed.

143 Gregory is echoing Basil's formulations, cf. Letter 159.2.

144 m¤an érxØn.

145 I.e. the Father as the érxh, principle, the fons et origo of the Trinity.

146 The allusion is to Jesus' response to Peter's refusal to be washed by him. The meaning is that only if we are baptized into, believe in and worship the Trinity as handed down by the Lord, shall we have 'part' in him, and so also with those of like mind/faith.

the pasquali collection Letter 6 To Bishop Ablabius147 That the inscription rightly accords the term bishop to the addressee is conﬁrmed at 6.11 by Gregory's use of the address 'your holiness'. Cf. letter 21, To Ablabius the Bishop and the introductory note, though it is uncertain whether the Ablabius here can be identiﬁed with the sophist Ablabius there. Gregory also wrote the small treatise-letter That there are not three gods to a certain Ablabius. Gregory Nazianzen's letter 233 and Libanius' letters

839, 935 appear to be written to another Ablabius than the one here.

In this Letter Gregory tells of the triumphant welcome given him on his return home to Nyssa after a long absence. He writes as if he has just enjoyed Ablabius' hospitality during his return journey (6.1). The letter might well be dated to mid 378, on Gregory's return to Nyssa after his exile. There were other more or less lengthy absences from his see over the years due to his attendances at councils and his missions on behalf of the greater church, such as his journey to Arabia in 381. It is also possible that this letter describes his return to Nyssa after his enforced sojourn at Sebasteia early in 380, when for a while the people of Nyssa may have thought they had lost their bishop again. But the exceptional exuberance both of joy and of tears demonstrated here seems to reﬂect the longest and most painful absence of his exile from 376 to 378.

Whatever Gregory's failures as a Church politician on the grand scene, this letter is a wonderful testimony to his lovability as a bishop and pastor among the ordinary people of his ﬂock (6.6, 9). The letter also contains the precious testimony that there was a monastic community in Nyssa, or at least a community of virgins (6.10), which gives a context to the likelihood canvassed in the Introduction that Gregory's sister Theosebia was sent by Macrina from Annisa to join him in Nyssa. See the sections from Was Gregory Married? to Early Years as Bishop, and Gregory Nazianzen's Letter

197.

To Bishop Ablabius148 1. The Lord brought us safely through, as might be expected, since we were sent forth by your prayers. Indeed I will recount to you clear evidence of God's favour. 2. For we had just left the locality of Kelosina149 behind us150 when there was a massive build-up of 147 Mss.: PFV; ed.: GNO 8.2, 34–36; tr.: Letter 3, NPNF ser. 2, vol. 5, 529–530.

148 ÉAblab¤ƒ §piskÒpƒ Pasquali; prÚw ÉAblãb¤on §p¤skopon P; toË autoË éblab¤v F; missing in V.

149 khlÒsina tÚ x≈rion P; ¥liow ∏n énå tÚ x≈rion V. The location has not yet been identiﬁed except that it was east of Nyssa.

150 •aut«n PF; §arsoË V. Tr.: 'For when the sun was just over the spot which we left behind Earsus', NPNF ser. 2, vol. 5, 529A.

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clouds and the atmosphere changed from clear sky to a deep gloom.

Then a cold draught blew from the clouds, falling on our bodies with a drizzle and a dampness and threatening a deluge as never before. To our left there were frequent thunderclaps, alternating with the ﬂashes of lightning that anticipated each thunderclap. All the mountains before, behind and on each side of us, were swathed in clouds. 3. And over our heads was a small cloud, caught by a strong wind, already swollen with rain. Yet we, as in the Israelite wonder, passed through the midst of the waters on every side of us (cf. Ex

14.22), and completed the journey to Vestena151 without being drenched. Once we had found shelter there and our mules were given rest, the signal was given by God to the sky for the downpour.

4. When we had spent some three or four hours there and had rested suﬃciently, again God ended the downpour, and our carriage152 moved along more briskly than before, as the wheels sped easily through the mud which was just moist and on the surface.

5. Now the road from that point to our little town153 passes all along the river,154 following the water downstream. There are settlements continuously along the banks of the river, by the roadside, with no great distance between them. 6. With such a succession of habitations, the entire road was full of people, some coming to meet us and others escorting us closely, all mingling their overﬂowing tears with their delight.

7. There was a light drizzle dampening the air, but a short distance from our little town the cloud overhanging us broke into a stronger downpour, so that our entry was quiet, since no-one perceived our arrival in advance. 8. But as soon as we entered the portico the carriage struck against the dry pavement. At that, as if by some signalling device, the people suddenly appeared I know not 151 tØn m°xriw OÈesthnÇw ıdon v, . . . OÈestinØn . . . F, OÈgkan«n P (but according to Pasquali the plural does not ﬁt the singular §n √, shortly following). Vestena is a local town unknown. It is too much to expect that we have here some form of Vanota (= Venasa) corrupted through transmission. Nyssa could not have been reached from Venasa in a portion of one day. Cf. Letter 20 and notes.

152 On Gregory's use of a carriage, see Letter 1.7 and 2.13.

153 §p‹ tØn pol¤xnhn ≤m«n.

154 Maraval maintains (167, n. 4) that Gregory's route lies along the Halys. He cites in evidence Friedrich Hild, Die Byzantinische Strassensystem in Kappadokien (Wien,

1975), 67. But at some stage he must have gone up the tributary river along which Nyssa lay. On the locality of Nyssa, see Introduction, 'Early Years as Bishop' and note.

the pasquali collection from where or how. They thronged around us so closely that it was not easy to disembark from the carriage, for we could not ﬁnd a spare space among them. 9. But after we had with diﬃculty persuaded them to allow us a chance to descend and to let our mules pass through, we were pressed on every side by the crowd all around us, so much so that their excessive aﬀection all but made us faint.

10. When we had come within the portico, we saw155 a stream of ﬁre coursing into the church, for the choir of virgins156 was processing in line into the entrance of the church carrying tapers of wax in their hands, kindling the whole to a splendour with their blaze. 11. And when I had entered and had both rejoiced and wept with the people—for I experienced both these from witnessing both passions in the crowd—as soon as I had ﬁnished the prayers, I wrote out this letter to your holiness as quickly as possible, under the pressure of thirst, that I might attend to the body only when the letter was done.

Letter 7 To Hierius the governor157 The addressee is a governor or magistrate who appear not to be a Christian

('we have a law' 7.1, stage imagery 7.2, 'malevolent daimon' 7.2 and 7.4, 'side . . . with us' 7.4). Pasquali, on p. 36, suggests he may be the Hierius who became prefect in Egypt in 364. But as Maraval points out,158 he had already been governor of a province in 360 and would be unlikely to revert to a lower station after the exalted role of prefect. This role was almost that of a 'vice-emperor' with jurisdiction over a civil diocese covering several provinces. Maraval goes on to mention another Hierius who became

Vicar of Africa in 395, whose career about 380 may well have seen him governor of a province such as Cappadocia.159 There is also the Hierius to whom Gregory of Nyssa dedicated his book de infantibus qui praemature abripiuntur, and the Hierius to whom he sent a copy of the VSM, according to the inscription in one of the manuscripts.

As part of their general role of social patronage, bishops were frequently called upon to act as advocates with the civil authorities for the aﬄicted

155 ır«men in the mss., but translating according to sense, i.e. …r«men.

156 Compare the description of Gregory's arrival at Annisa in VSM 18.3 (GNO 8.1.387–388 Maraval 192–194). The virgins came out in Gregory's honour but awaited him at the entrance to the church.

157 Mss.: PFV; ed.: GNO 8.2, 36–37; tr.: Letter 4, NPNF ser. 2, vol. 5, 530.

158 Lettres, 170 n. 1.

159 These are 'Hierius' 4 and 6 in Jones, Martindale and Morris, Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire I, (Cambridge, 1971).

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and the disadvantaged. Of this there are many examples in the letters of Basil and Gregory Nazianzen.160 This is the only surviving letter of Gregory of Nyssa that shows him in such a role, though he must have often had calls to do so. It is a very serious letter to a governor or magistrate pleading for the life of a young man, Synesius, who is being prosecuted on a capital charge. Whatever his deed, it was entirely unintentional and accidental, and this, Gregory pleads, should be enough to pull the governor back from imposing the death sentence.

To Hierius the governor161 1. We have a law instructing us to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice (Rom 12.15). But of these two legislations, it seems we are only able to put one into practice. For there is a great scarcity in this world of those who prosper, so that it is not easy to ﬁnd those with whom to share our blessings, whereas there is a plentiful supply of those in the contrary case.

2. I write this as my introduction because of the sad tragedy which some malign power162 has been staging among those of longstanding worth. A young man of good lineage named Synesius, not unrelated to me, still in the ﬂush of his youth and scarcely having begun to live, is in grave peril. God alone has power to pluck him from this, and after God, you who are entrusted with the sentence of life and death.

3. An involuntary accident has taken place. And indeed, who voluntarily engages in accidents? But now there are those who are making of this accident an indictment by bringing a capital charge against him. 4. I for my part will endeavour by private letters to shame them into softening their anger, but I beg your benignity to side with justice and with us, that your benevolence may annul the youth's misfortune, as you seek out every means by which the youth may be freed from danger and so through your alliance defeat the malign power which assails him.

160 As Maraval points out (Lettres 171 n. 2) Basil describes one of the bishop's roles as 'the protector of the people', Letter 28, Def. 1.158–171 at 166–167. See

M. Forlin Patrucco, Social Patronage and Political Mediation in the Activity of Basil of Caesarea', Studia Patristica 17, 1102–1107.

161 ﬂer¤v ≤gemÒni F, (pr)Úw (≤ge)mÒna ﬂ°ri(on) in margin of P, missing in V. Maraval perhaps overtranslates 'préfet' (prefect).

162 daimon, an image readily intelligible to pagans.

the pasquali collection 5. I have in brief said all that I wanted; but to suggest in detail how the case may be handled correctly is neither mine to say, nor yours to learn from me.

Letter 8 To Antiochanus163 Gregory writes this letter to a person of social standing who is accustomed to exercising patronage. It seems he is not a Christian, as the fellowship between Gregory and Antiochianos is established solely in terms of a shared

Hellenism. Libanius also addressed his letter 788 to an Antiochanus, but it is uncertain whether he the same as the present addressee. The striving for virtue in 8.2 accords with the pagan philosophical tradition, as, for example, among neoplatonists of the age. Gregory commends his young friend,

Alexander, to Antiochanus. At 8.4 is an excellent example of the use of the term 'son' not for a natural son, but for a protégé. Gregory's emphasis on his grey hairs and his age suggests a relatively late dating, from the mid 380s onwards.

To Antiochanus164 1. The one thing for which the king of the Macedonians165 is especially admired by the wise—for he is admired not so much for his trophies over the Persians or the Indians or for his assertion concerning the Ocean, as for his saying that his treasure was in his friends—in this respect I too will dare to put myself on a level with his marvels. Indeed it will be even more ﬁtting for me to utter such a sentiment, since I am rich in friendships, and in that kind of possession perhaps I surpass even that great man who made this his special boast. 2. For who was such a friend to him as you are to me, who are ever striving against yourself for every form of excellence?

3. No-one surely would ever charge me with ﬂattery for saying this if he looks to my age and to your life: for grey hairs are already past the season for ﬂattery and old age is unsuited for fawning, and in your regard, even if I were of the right season for ﬂattery, such

163 Mss.: FV; ed.: GNO 8.2, 37–38; tr.: Letter 5, NPNF ser. 2, vol. 5, 530–31.

164 toË aÈtoË éntioxian« F, missing in V. Alternatively, the name might be read an adjective of generic reference: 'to an Antiochene'.

165 I.e. Alexander the Great. The saying about Alexander and friendship that Gregory is about to cite was a feature exemplum of the Second Sophistic. See Maraval,

176, n. 2 for examples and bibliography.

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praise would not fall under suspicion of ﬂattery, because your life demonstrates your praise more than do words.

4. But inasmuch as it is the mark of those who are nobly wealthy to know how to use what they have, and the best use of possessions is in oﬀering them in common to their friends, and my beloved son

Alexander is a friend especially joined to me in all sincerity, be persuaded to show to him my treasure. Indeed, do not only show it to him, but also put it at his disposal to enjoy abundantly, by sponsoring him in those concerns on account of which he has come to you in need of your patronage. 5. He will tell you all himself. For that is more suitable than my going into details by letter.

Letter 9 To Stagirius166 It is very likely that the addressee of this letter is the same Stagirius who wrote letter 26 to Gregory and to whom Gregory wrote letter 27 in reply. Gregory Nazianzen also addressed his letters 165, 166, 188 and 192 to Stagirius, and he speaks about him in letter 190. He was a Cappadocian sophist, i.e. rhetorician, apparently not a Christian, who lived or had an estate a day's journey from Nyssa in a town called Osiana (26.2c). It is diﬃcult to suggest a particular date. It was written in the anticipation of an important meeting in the town, but when? It would be attractive to consider it written to an old professional colleague after Gregory moved to Nyssa in 372 as its new bishop, but this is too early in terms of the emergence of a collection of Gregory's letters, and it probably has to be dated after one of his major returns to Nyssa, i.e. in 378 or 380. The occasion is unlikely to be that of a Christian festival, but something of a more public and civic nature in which the presence of as many of the elite as possible is desirable. Perhaps the governor is coming.

To Stagirius167 1. They say that those who stage marvels168 in the theatres devise some such spectacle as this. They take some myth from a history169 or one of the ancient narratives as the subject of their presentation and convey the story to the spectators in act. And this is the way they convey the changing events of the story: they don costumes and 166 Mss.: PFV; ed.: GNO 8.2, 38–39; tr.: Letter 6, NPNF ser. 2, vol. 5, 531.

167 stageir¤ƒ F, prÚw stage¤rion P, absent in V.

168 toÁw yaumatopoioËntaw, literally, 'makers of marvels'.

169 mËyon §j ﬂstor¤aw.

the pasquali collection masks170 and by means of hangings rig up something like a town over the orchestra171 and by the lively mimicry of their actions give the bare scene such an appearance that to those looking on they are a marvel, both those mimicking the incidents of the story, and the hangings—and behold, you have the city!

2. What then do I mean by this tale? Since we need to show what is not a city172 as though it were one to those who are assembling there, be persuaded to become for the moment the colonizer of our city. Only by putting in an appearance here shall you make173 the desert-place seem a city. 3. Now it is no great journey for you, and the favour which you shall confer is very great; for we wish to show ourselves with a more digniﬁed air to those who are assembling, which we shall more likely to do if we are adorned with your splendour than by any other ornament.

Letter 10 To Otreius Bishop of Melitene174 The addressee of this letter is a well-documented ﬁgure, Otreius, metropolitan of Melitene in Armenia. Otreius was present at the council of Tyana in 367 when the better part of the Homoiousians were persuaded to join the Neo-nicenes (Sozomen 6.12). Basil's Letter 181 to Otreius, written in c. 374, attests that he was one of these Neo-nicene bishops. He was also present at the Council of Constantinople in 381 (Mansi, Concilia III, 596D), and such was his standing that he was nominated together with Gregory himself and Helladius of Caesarea as one of the episcopal guarantors of orthodoxy for the Pontic Diocese (Cod. Theod. 16.1.3, Sozomen 7.9). Euthymius, the monk-saint of Palestine was entrusted as a child by his mother to Otreius

(Cyril of Scythopolis, Life of Euthymios 3).175

Earlier opinion dated this letter to the period of Gregory's exile (376–8), if not even earlier in Gregory's episcopate. Such was Pasquali's conclusion,176 after he had considered for a moment that it might be linked to letters 11 and 12 and the circumstances of early 380. Yet according to 10.4a, the place of his present domicile has reasonable access to Melitene

170 prÒsvpa.

171 The space below the stage where the chorus and dancers performed.

172 Gregory calls Nyssa a pol¤xnh in 6.5, though he is probably exaggerating its littleness, as he is here. The same letter 6 also shows it with signs of urbanisation.

173 paraskeuãsaw PF, paraskeuãsv V.

174 Mss.: PFV; ed.: GNO 8.2, 39–40; tr.: Letter 7, NPNF ser. 2, vol. 5, 531.

175 Much of this information is summed up in Maraval, 181, n. 3.

176 Pasquali, Le Lettere, 96.

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on the Euphrates. This can hardly be Nyssa, at about 13 days distance from Melitene, and Caesarea is also unlikely at 10 days' distance. Sebasteia on the other hand has better credentials, being some four to six days journey along a Roman military road to the eastern frontier. All things considered, the background of letters 10 and 18, both to Otreius, are best explained by the circumstances reported in letter 19.

On this reckoning then, Gregory wrote the present letter to Otreius in the Spring of 380 in a period of despondency due to his enforced detainment at Sebasteia. The present letter, however, in which he rejoices at the news of an impending visit from Otreius, seems to have been written after letter 18, in which Gregory is simply glad to receive a letter from him.

Gregory wrote his canonical letter on Penance, letter 31, to Otreius' successor at Melitene, Letoius. Unfortunately that letter has lost its introduction. It very probably referred to Letoius' estimable predecessor and Gregory's friend, Otreius.

To Otreius, Bishop of Melitene177 1a. What ﬂower of spring so bright, what voices of the song-birds so sweet, what breezes so light and mild that dapple the tranquil sea, what cornﬁeld so gratifying to the farmer—whether erect with green blades or nodding with fruit-laden ears, what gift of the grapevine so abundant as it sways in the air and overshadows the trellis with its leaves,178 1b. are like the spiritual Spring born of your peaceful beams that has illumined our life and cheered our despondency?

2. Amid such blessings, it will perhaps be ﬁtting for us to voice the prophetic word: When the sorrows of my heart were many, the consolations of God—through your goodness—cheered our soul like the rays of the sun (Ps 93.19), warming our life cowed beneath the frost.179

For both reached the highest peak together—I mean the harshness of my griefs and the sweetness of your blessings. 3. If merely the good news of your coming has cheered us so much that everything was transformed for us from sharpest pain to a cheerful state, what then will the mere sight of your precious and gracious coming accomplish? How great will be the consolation that the sweet sound of your voice in our ears will give to our soul! (cf. Lk 1.44) 4a. May this speedily come to pass, with God as our co-worker, who revives the fainthearted, and gives respite to the aﬄicted (Is 57.15).

177 ÉOtrh¤ƒ §piskÒpƒ Melithn∞w F, Éotre¤ƒ §piskÒpƒ P, absent in V.

178 'what gift . . . leaves' missing in FV and recovered from P.

179 Cf. Homer Odyssey 7.137.

the pasquali collection But know that when we consider our own case we are very distressed at the present state of aﬀairs and our aﬄiction has no end.

4b. But when we turn our eyes to your reverence, we confess the great grace in the Master's dispensation, because we are able to enjoy, thanks to the proximity,180 your sweet and good disposition, and feast at will on such nourishment to satiety, if there can be any satiety of such blessings.

Letter 11 To Eupatrius the scholasticus181 Pasquali suggests (41) that the addressee is a son of the same name of that 'Eupaterios' (sic) to whom Basil addressed his letter 159. Yet Basil's addressees there, Eupaterios and his daughter, are clearly committed Christians vitally interested in theological issues. The Eupatrius of this letter on the contrary, if he is a Christian, is very barely so, perhaps no more than a nominal catechumen. Gregory begins by pointedly drawing attention to his addressee's lack of familiarity or interest in the Scriptures because he is besotted with Hellenism instead. He gently prods Eupatrius as to this fact and that he really should be aspiring to something more, i.e. be rekindling his latent, neglected Christianity. Eupatrius' profession is that of a 'scholasticus', i.e. a kind of legal oﬃcer in the imperial service. He has written to Gregory

'from Cappadocia', which may be taken as a ﬁgure for the metropolis, Caesarea.182 From 11.3 it appears that Pontus is his homeland, or at least that is where his father is resident, so that Eupatrius' present circumstances are not unlike Gregory's in his early days as a rhetorician in Caesarea. Yet compare 12.5. Gregory's insists on his 'old age', which might mean from the mid 380s and after. There is of course a certain paradox in Gregory's wish to wean his correspondent from too great a love of Hellenic culture, which was the course he himself had taken in his early adulthood. It is all the more likely then that this letter comes from late in Gregory's life. He probably writes from Nyssa.

To Eupatrius the scholasticus183 1. Seeking, as is my custom, some ﬁtting and appropriate introduction to place at the head of my letter—I mean of course from 180 §k geitÒnvn.

181 Mss.: FV; ed.: GNO 8.2, 41–42; tr.: Letter 8, NPNF ser. 2, vol. 5, 531–2.

182 Pasquali, Le Lettere p. 95, n. 5, explains that the custom of substituting the name of the province for that of the capital is frequent in ecclesiastical literature of the period, giving examples, e.g. Anatole (the East) or Oriens, for Antioch.

183 EÈpatr¤v sxolastik« F, absent in V.

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passages of the Scriptures184—I was at a loss what to use, not because I could not ﬁnd anything suitable, but because I considered it superﬂuous to write such things to those who know nothing about them. In short, your zeal for extern literature185 was proof for us of your lack of interest in the divine lessons.

Hence I will pass over texts of this sort in silence and employ for my introduction the kind adapted to your eloquence. 2. One such is furnished by the preceptor of your culture186 in the merriment of an elder who after long aﬄiction beholds with his eyes his own son, and his son's son too.187 And the subject of his merriment is the rivalry between Odysseus and Telemachus for the ﬁrst prize in valour. 3. What then does this recollection of the Cephallenians188 have to contribute to the purpose of my discourse? It is because when both you and your wholly admirable father welcomed me, as they did Laertes,189 you contended in honourable rivalry for the ﬁrst prize in showing us respect and kindness, pelting190 me with your letters, he from Pontus and you from Cappadocia.191

4. What, then, of me the old man? I count it a most happy day when I see such rivalry between father and son! 5. May you therefore never cease from accomplishing the just wish of an excellent and admirable father and surpass your father's renown by still greater excellences. I shall be a judge favourable to both of you, awarding to you the ﬁrst prize against your father, and the same to your father against you. 6. And we shall bear with rough Ithaca,192 rough not so much because of stones as of the behaviour of its inhabitants, for there are many suitors in it who are the devourers of the possessions

184 An interesting comment, since Gregory's surviving letters by no means attest a custom of beginning with scriptural passages. Only Letters 7 and 17 can be cited.

It begs questions of the selection of letters that have survived. See Introduction,

'Letters'.

185 per‹ toÁw ¶jvyen lÒgouw, lit., 'the words from without', literature of the nonChristian, pagan canon.

186 parå t" didaskãlƒ t∞w Ímet°raw paideÊsevw. Homer is meant, since study of the Iliad and the Odyssey was the foundation of a traditional Hellenic education.

187 I.e., Laertes, and his son, Odysseus, and grandson, Telemachus; Homer, Odyssey

24.514–515.

188 Homer, Odyssey 24.377–378.

189 La°rtew F, tiw (one, someone) V. Thus the analogy is: Laertes is Gregory, Odysseus is Eutropius' father, and Telemachus is Eutropius.

190 Cf. Odysseus' and Telemachus' shooting of arrows, Odyssey 22.105–118.

191 See also Letter 12.5.

192 Homer, Odyssey 10.27, 11.417,463, 14.242.

the pasquali collection of the one whom they woo, insulting the bride by the very fact that they threaten the chaste woman with marriage,193 acting in a way worthy of a Melantho,194 I think, or some other such person, for there is no-one anywhere to bring them to their senses with his bow.

7. You see how we babble on about matters which are not at all ﬁtting for the elderly! But may I receive ready forbearance on account of my grey hairs; for prattling is as characteristic of old age as it is bleariness for the eyes, or the slowing down of all the limbs though the stiﬀness of old age. 8. But you, by entertaining us in youthful fashion with your brisk and sprightly language shall restore youth to our old age, supporting the feebleness of our length of days by this beautiful care for the aged which so well becomes you.

Letter 12 To the same195 This letter follows the previous one in the two manuscripts. The advice of the better manuscript is that it was sent to the same addressee. Yet the internal evidence is against it. A very obvious diﬀerence between the letters is the manifestly Christian status of the addressee here, compared to the addressee of letter 11. The tone is also markedly diﬀerent in the two letters. It is precisely because of this that Maraval, 190, n. 1, doubts that they were written to the same person at all. He reads the 'your friendliness' in 12.2 as a title of address, unsuitable for anyone much younger than Gregory, and remarks the contrasting tone of the two letters. The possibility that the present addressee might be the father of the Eupatrius of letter 11—raised by Pasquali in Le Lettere 94, n. 4, but dismissed— should perhaps be reconsidered.

Moreover, Gregory's personal situation detailed in 12.3 must mean something. Nyssa hardly seems to be indicated, specially if the description in 193 t" §papeile›n tÚn gãmon tª svfrÒsun˙. Maraval translates in a slightly diﬀerent sense: 'qu'ils menacent la chasteté du marriage'. Pasquali, 92–95, characteristically understands Gregory's imagery as a metaphor for a state of the church (= bride) and relates it to the church in Sebasteia in 380 awaiting a true bridegroom (= bishop). However, Maraval (188, n. 1) prefers to take the meaning literally, as if Gregory is referring here to a partially christianised populace in Nyssa, in which old practices of marriage by abduction (often connected with ﬁnancial manipulations), and marriage for ﬁnancial gain are still too painfully current. Bishops in such cases often acted as the advocate of the wronged woman. Gregory Nazianzen gives an example in Basil's life as bishop, Or. 43.56. Basil himself deals with abduction in his letters on canonical penance, Letter 199.22.

194 One of Penelope's handmaids, who heaped abuse on Odysseus on his return home (in disguise), for which she was later hanged: Odyssey 18.321–336, 19.65–69.

Gregory uses her as a ﬁgure for a vicious use of the tongue.

195 Mss.: FV; ed.: GNO 8.2, 42–44; tr.: Letter 9, NPNF ser. 2, vol. 5, 532–3.

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18.5 is compared. It seems more likely then that Gregory is writing from Sebasteia in the very early Spring of the year 380, in the same distressing circumstances as told in 19.14–18.

Gregory borrows the imagery of that season to give shape to the whole letter, which is couched in terms of a play between Winter and Spring.

The last paragraph means that the coming of Spring is even more desirable to him because his friend's journey to visit him will then be easier.

He proposes the 'great holy day' in springtime, i.e. the festival of Easter, as a suitable occasion.

To the same196 1. The loveliness of Spring does not shine forth all at once. First there is a prelude to the season, when the sunbeam gently warms both the earth's frozen surface and the half-visible bud hidden in the node, and the breezes blow over the earth so that that the generative and life-giving power of the air deeply penetrates it. Then the fresh shoots of grass can be seen, and the return of the birds which winter had exiled, and many such things. These however are the signs of Spring, rather than the Spring itself—not but that they are sweet, because they are the harbingers of what is sweetest of all.

2. What then does my discourse mean? Just as the friendliness197 in your letter came to us as a forerunner of the treasures within you, and, like a beautiful prelude announced to us what might be expected in you, we both welcome the grace in this letter like some ﬁrst-appearing ﬂower of spring and pray that we may soon experience the full season in yourself.

3a. For we would have you know that we have been cruelly, cruelly oppressed by the coldness and bitterness of the people here and their ways. Just as ice forms in the cottages if water seeps in—for I will use an example from our regions—and so the low-lying dampness, when it spreads over the frozen surface, hardens over the ice and adds to its mass, 3b. something like this I see in the character of many of those who dwell in these parts. They are always plotting and inventing something spiteful. A fresh mischief hardens on top of what has already been perpetrated, and then another on top of that, and another again, and so it goes on without cease. There

196 t" aÈt" in margin F, absent in V.

197 ≤diå t«n grammat«n sou filofrÒsunh proÇw ≤mçw §lyoËsa, kindness, goodwill, benevolence.

the pasquali collection is no limit to their hatred and to the proliferation of their vicious deeds. So we have need of many prayers that the grace of the Spirit may soon breathe over them and thaw the bitterness of their hatred and melt the ice that hardens upon them through their malice.

4. For this reason the Spring, sweet as it is by nature, becomes more desirable than itself for those who expect you after such storms.

5. Therefore do not let the favour be slow in coming, especially since our great holy day approaches and it would be more blessed that the land which bore you should be honoured by her own than that Pontus should by ours.198 Come then, dear head, bring us a multitude of blessings, your very self, for this is what will ﬁll up the measure of our blessings.

Letter 13 To Libanius199 This letter is written to an illustrious sophist who is not a Christian. F identiﬁes him as Libanius, the famous master of rhetorical studies at Antioch, though no letter of Libanius to Gregory of Nyssa appears in the Libanian corpus. The situation revealed in the letter is that Cynegius, Gregory's 'son', either his natural son or a young protégé, was sent for training to Libanius, who in turn sent back a letter to Gregory with the lad on one of his return trips home to Cappadocia. Gregory here seems to be in the position of his correspondent Ablabius in letter 21: someone receiving a son/student home.

The present letter is Gregory's reply to Libanius. Gregory modestly but candidly avows his allegiance to Christian masters. The list of griefs mentioned by Gregory (13.2) evidently followed a visit to Antioch where Gregory was able to meet Libanius. The distressing events reported in letter 19 are surely implied—in which case the present letter may be dated no earlier than late 380, after Gregory's return to Nyssa from captivity in Sebasteia.

On the question whether Cynegius was Gregory's natural son, it is worth mentioning that Gregory also calls Alexander 'my son' in letter 8.4, and Diogenes/Basil likewise in letter 21.2, and they were not his natural sons, but lads enjoying his patronage. Gregory Nazianzen for his part very freely named his protégés 'my son', often with added terms of endearment—and none were his sons in the ﬂesh.200 And yet Gregory of Nyssa did marry

198 This seems to mean that it is better that Eupatrius (senior?) comes to his homeland to visit Gregory, whether that is Armenia Minor (Sebasteia) or Cappadocia

(Nyssa), depending on the place in which Gregory is writing, than that Gregory should go to see Eupatrius in Pontus, his own homeland.

199 Mss.: FV; ed.: GNO 8.2, 44–46; tr.: Letter 10, NPNF ser. 2, vol. 5, 533.

200 A few examples: letters 13.3, 21.3, 22.3 ('my most precious son Amphilochius'),

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and the possibility remains that Cynegius was his natural son. See the Introduction, 'Was Gregory married?' and 'Gregory's marriage: a scenario'.

13.4 preserves the vital testimony that Gregory for a short time studied rhetoric under his brother Basil. However Gregory's self-deprecation here in respect of his own rhetorical skills are not be taken at face value. He was highly trained in rhetoric and practised successfully as a rhetorician in Caesarea for some eight years. For a while Gregory had even been a professional colleague of Libanius. Now in this letter (13.2, 5) we learn that the greatest master of the age has himself commended Gregory's abilities.

This praise coming from such a man brings Gregory the keenest delight which he struggles to temper with a decent modesty. For more on Gregory's rhetorical powers see the Introduction: 'Rhetoric and style in Gregory's letters'.

To Libanius201 1. I once heard a physician tell of a surprising reversal of nature.202

And this was his story. Someone was laid low, he said, with one of the more intractable illnesses. He began to blame the medical art for being able to do less than it professed, for nothing that was devised for his cure had any eﬀect. Then some good news was brought him exceeding all his hopes, and it was this happy chance

23.3, 41.8 (where Gregory senior calls Basil 'our most God-beloved son'), 43.3

(Gregory Senior again), 83.3, 126.3, 127.2, 144.4, 151.1 ('my very precious son George'), 157.2, 167.1 (Nicoboulus our very dear son), 188.2 ('our sweetest son

Nicoboulus'), 199.4, 209.1.

201 Liban¤v F, absent in V.

202 Gregory was well informed in the best of contemporary medicine and esteemed the profession highly. See his comments in letter 33.1a. In his youth at the council of Constantinople in 360, he listened attentively to Basil of Ancyra, a trained physician whose medical expertise informed his ascetic doctrine (See Introduction

'Young Adulthood' and note, Contra Eunomium 1.9, On Virginity 22). For Gregory the practice of medicine provided many comparisons with the healing of the soul (letter 31.1d). But this attitude was shared with all his siblings. Without a doubt study of medicine formed part of the higher curriculum pursued by the brothers. Gregory

Nazianzen informs us in Oration 43.23 attests that Basil attained to a mastery of the art in both theory and practise. The analogy of the bodily physician / spiritual physician is a mainstay of his ascetic writings. See his long matured statement on the Christian approach to medicine in Longer Responses 55. Medical literacy was part of the culture of the entire family. In the VSM 33.4 (GNO 8.1.404–406,

Maraval 242–246) Emmelia urges her daughter to see a physician 'for this art, too, was sent by God for the saving of human beings'. In On the Soul and the Resurrection we learn that a physician was by Macrina's bedside during her dying days, and she uses his attentiveness to her bodily condition as an occasion to comment on spiritual healing. Even in the one scrap of writing we have from Peter, letter 30, we have an analogy drawn from a medically informed mind (30.5).

the pasquali collection that did the work of the art, freeing the man from his disease.

Whether the soul, through the alleviation of its anxiety, disposed the body to be in the same state as itself, or whether it was some other reason, I cannot say, for I have no leisure to philosophise over such things, and he who told me did not enlarge on the subject.

2. But I think it timely that I have just recalled this story. For when I was in a condition other than I would wish—I do not need now to list precisely the causes of all the griefs which befell me from the time I was with you till the present—someone unexpectedly told me of the letter which had arrived from your unparalleled erudition. As soon as we received the missive and perused what you had written, my soul was aﬀected immediately as if I had been proclaimed before all the world for the noblest achievements, so highly did we value the testimony with which you favoured us in your letter. My bodily condition then began to change immediately for the better, and I can relate to you the same marvel as the story above, for as I read one part of the letter I was ailing, and in perfect health as I read the other.

3. So much for these matters. But now that my son203 Cynegius has become the occasion of this favour to me, and since you are able, through your outstanding ability to do good, to beneﬁt not only us but also our benefactors, he is our benefactor, because, as we said, he became the cause and occasion of our receiving a letter from you, and for this reason he deserves well.

4. But if you ask who are our teachers—if indeed we are thought to have learned anything from them—you will ﬁnd that they are

Paul and John and the other Apostles and Prophets—if we are not too bold to claim the teaching of such men. But if you speak of your wisdom, which those competent to judge say streams down from you and is imparted to all who have some share of eloquence— for this is what I heard him say to all who was your disciple and my father and teacher, the admirable Basil—know that I found no muniﬁcent supply in the instructions of my teachers,204 since I was

203 uﬂÚw F, absent in V. English requires a possessive here; a singular possessive is chosen because of the proximity of moi ('to me').

204 The plural seems to refer to Basil, and behind him, Libanius. This is the only independent testimony, apart from the much disputed correspondence between Basil and Libanius, that the former had at some stage been the latter's pupil. But just as Gregory spent only a short time under Basil's tutelage, so Basil could not have

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apprenticed to my brother205 only a short time and was only suﬃciently puriﬁed by his divine tongue to be able to discern the deﬁciency of those uninitiated into discourse. Nevertheless, with regard to what is yours, whenever I had leisure I devoted myself assiduously to the whole course of study, and became enamoured of the beauty that is yours, though I never attained the object of my desire.206

5. If, then, as I myself judge, what is ours who never had a teacher is nothing,207 and if it is not allowable that your opinion of us be other than true—that the discourse of some, even of ourself, is, at least in your judgment not contemptible—allow us to presume to attribute to you the cause of our attainments. 6. For if our proﬁciency in discourse was from Basil, and if his wealth came from your treasures, then we have acquired what is yours even if we received it through others. But if our attainments are few, so is the water in a jar—yet nevertheless it comes from the Nile.208

Letter 14 To Libanius the sophist209 This letter is addressed as is the previous letter, to the great Libanius.

Cynegius, the same son/protégé of Gregory and a student of the famous sophist, is mentioned in both letters. In 14.9 Gregory authorizes Libanius to use constraint if the lad shows himself lazy in his studies. It may be that at the time of this letter Cynegius was at an early stage of his studies, spent much time as Libanius' student. The only available period seems to be 349 when both Basil and Libanius may have been in Constantinople. Thereafter Basil moved to Athens for his studies, where the most prominent of his teachers in rhetoric was Prohaeresius.

205 §pÉ Ùl¤gon t" édelfƒ suggegonÒta, i.e. for formal instruction in rhetoric. The appropriate period seems to be mid/late 356, after Basil's return from Athens. He spent a few months teaching rhetoric in Caesarea (where Gregory was a student) before he returned to Annisa in Pontus where, under Macrina's inﬂuence, he resolved to pursue the ascetic life.

206 Again, Gregory uses the erotic language familiar in traditional Hellenism.

Maraval accepts an amendment to the text proposed by Müller: ‹épo›tuxe›n d¢ mhd°pv toË ®rvtow = 'and I have never forsaken that desire'; however the text as it stands seems more in keeping with the tone of self-deprecation Gregory expresses in the remainder of the letter.

207 Gregory is aﬀecting modesty. In fact, he always strove to produce a Greek style worthy of the best traditions of the Second Sophistic, and this he achieved in no mean degree.

208 As Maraval remarks (Lettres 201 n. 3) the water of the Nile was reputed to have medicinal properties. Gregory's phrase has a proverbial ring about it.

209 Mss.: FV; ed.: GNO 8.2, 46–48; tr.: Letter 11, NPNF ser. 2, vol. 5, 533–4.

the pasquali collection whereas letter 13 shows him a later stage, during one of his periodic visits home. As may be inferred from letter 13.2, Gregory had personally met Libanius during his attendance at the council in Antioch during 379, where perhaps Gregory had broached Cynegius' potential candidacy as a student of the master.

The letter is valuable for showing that Gregory was well aware of the beginning of the Roman year on 1 January. According to 14.1–2, Gregory received the second letter from Libanius on 1st January, while he was in Caesarea. It seems to have been the very day he delivered his Funeral Oration on Basil, in which case he wrote this letter some time in January 381.

To Libanius the sophist210 1. There is a custom among the Romans of celebrating a festival about the Winter solstice after the manner of their ancestors. It is when the sun begins again to climb to the upper region and the length of the days begins to increase. The beginning of the month is reckoned sacred, and during this day they inaugurate the entire year, devoting themselves to happy chances, festivities, and purchases.211

2. What do I mean by beginning my letter in this way? It is because I too have observed this festival, having received like them a golden gift.212 For on that occasion there came also into my hands gold—not like the vulgar gold which rulers love and those who have it give, that heavy, tainted, and soulless possession—but that which is loftier than all wealth to those who have intelligence, the noblest pledge, as Pindar says.213 I speak of your letter and the great riches it contains.

210 toË aÈtoË Liban¤v sofist∞F, absent in V.

211 Pasquali emends pÒrouw ('purchases') to pÒtouw ('drinking bouts'), citing Libanius' use of the word in Or. 9.6, in which he also discusses this civic festival, and in Or.

8. Gregory would appear to have read both or at least one of these texts, and endeavours to honour Libanius by the allusion. Maraval however maintains the text of the mss., but glosses his translation as 'acquisitions de bon augure' = 'acquisitions of good omen', understanding that Gregory's himself may have made the subtle change in reference to own fortunate acquisition of Libanius' letter.

212 'The custom of New Year's gifts (strenarum commercium) had been discontinued by Tiberius, because of the trouble it involved to himself, and abolished by Claudius: but in these times it had been revived. We ﬁnd mention of it in the reigns of Theodosius, and of Arcadius; Ausonius Ep. xviii. 4; Symmachus Ep. x. 28', NPNF ser. 2, vol. 5, 533, n. 1.

213 Pindar, Olympian Ode 1.1 ı de xrusÚw, aﬁyÒmenon pËr ëte diapr°pei nuktÚw megalãnoforow ¶joxa ploÊtou. However Pasquali and Maraval say that Gregory has made a mistake in his attribution, for the reference is in fact to Euripides, fragment 326.

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3. For it so happened that on that day, as I was visiting the metropolis of the Cappadocians, I met one of my acquaintances who handed me this gift, your letter, as a feast-day present. 4. I was overjoyed at this good fortune and threw open my gain to all who were present. All shared in it, each eagerly acquiring the whole of it, while I was none the worse oﬀ. For the letter, as it passed through the hands of all became the private wealth of each, some by memorizing the words through repeated reading, others by taking a copy of them upon tablets. So it returned to my hands, aﬀording me more joy than does the metal to the eyes of those rich in gold. 5. Since even with farmers—to use a homely comparison—approval of the labours they have already performed is a great incentive to further labours, bear with us if we treat what you yourself have given as a deposit, and on this account write so that we may stir you to write back.

6. But I beg this beneﬁt from you for the common life: that you will not contemplate any longer what you threatened to us in dark hints at the end of your letter. For I do not consider it a fair judgment, that if some err by deserting the Greek language for the barbarian,214 becoming mercenary soldiers and choosing a soldier's rations instead of the renown of eloquence—you should therefore condemn eloquence and sentence us to an inarticulate life. For who will utter anything if you carry out this severe threat against eloquence?

7. But perhaps it will be well to remind you of a passage in our Scriptures. For our Word bids those who are capable of doing good not to look to the dispositions of those whom they are beneﬁting, as if to be generous only to those sensible of the favour and withhold our good deeds from the ungrateful, but to imitate the dispenser of all things who gives a share of the good things of his

214 The reference is to Latin. Libanius often complained in his letters of the young who quit the schools of rhetoric for the law schools at Beirut or Rome, which necessitated the study of Latin, seeking ultimately a career in law or higher imperial administration. Gregory indulges Libanius' polemic by likening this course to that of mercenary soldiers. Contrast one of Gregory's heroes and spiritual ancestors, Gregory Thaumaturgus, who in the 3rd century travelled to Beirut for legal studies. In his Panegyric to Origen (PG 10.1053A) his describes Latin as 'the Roman tongue, which is a wonderful and magniﬁcent sort of language, and one most aptly conformable to royal authority, but still diﬃcult to me'. Maraval gives contemporary examples of abandoning rhetoric for more practical career training (204 n. 2).

Aubineau, Traite de Virginitate, p. 76 also mentions that the tachygraphy was often chosen over rhetorical studies, with a view to employment in government chanceries.

the pasquali collection creation to all alike, to the good and those who are not such (cf.

Mt 5.43–45). 8. In heeding this counsel, admirable sir,215 show yourself always to be in your life as the time past has shown you to be.

For those who do not see the sun do not thereby hinder the sun's existence. Even so it is not right that the rays of your eloquence should be dimmed because of those whose who are shut to the senses of the soul.

9. But as for Cynegius, I pray that he may be as far as possible from the common disease which has seized upon young men these days, and that he will devote himself of his own accord to the study of rhetoric.216 But if he is otherwise disposed, it is only right that he should be put under constraint, even if he is unwilling, that he might avoid217 the pitiful and discreditable plight in which they are sunk today who once withdrew from rhetorical study.

Letter 15 To John and Maximian218 The following is a covering letter sent with a copy of Contra Eunomium I to two young Christian students of 'the sophist', who appears to be Libanius.

In that case they are bringing a copy of Gregory's book with them as they return to Antioch for their studies. The John addressed here may also be the addressee of Libanius' Letter 1576. In sending them a copy of the ﬁrst book (or strictly ﬁrst two books) of his refutation of Eunomius, Gregory hopes to inspire in these young Christian students of rhetoric a zeal for defending authentic doctrine. But he wants them to read certain deﬁnite parts to their esteemed teacher. Perhaps he feels need of reassurance for his use of invective (see his anxieties on this score in letter 29.4–5), perhaps he hopes the dogmatic arguments might even exercise some Christian persuasion over the great sophist. The letter may be dated to c. 382 or perhaps the Spring of 383, some time after Gregory had completed Contra

Eunomium I.

215 ÙÇ yaumãseie, Gregory uses the courtesies of the Platonic dialogues.

216 How greatly this contrasts with the enthusiasm for Hellenism in mid 360s stirred up by Julian, in which Gregory himself fully shared.

217 There is some disturbance of the text here. Pasquali marks a lacuna; he reports

Wilamowitz' opinion that some house of correction for delinquents is to be understood.

218 Mss.: FV; ed.: GNO 8.2, 48–49; tr.: Letter 12, NPNF ser. 2, vol. 5, 534–5 which uses the title of F, 'On his work against Eunomius', properly referring to the following letter.

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To John and Maximian219 1. We Cappadocians are poor in almost all the things that make those who possess them happy—and poor especially in those able to write.220 2. This indeed is the reason for the long delay of my treatise, for though my refutation of the heresy221 has been ﬁnished for some considerable time, there was no one to transcribe it. It was this lack of copyists that in all likelihood brought on us the suspicion of slackness or of inadequacy for the task.

3. But now that by God's grace the copyist and proof-reader of the texts222 have been found, I have sent the treatise on to you— not, as Isocrates says,223 as a gift, for I do not reckon that there is anything in it that it might be a prize to one who receives it, but as an invitation from us meant to hearten those who are in the full vigour of youth to do battle with our adversaries, through stirring up the boldness of youth by the eagerness of old age.

4. But if any part of the treatise appears worthy of the ear of the sophist, choose certain passages, especially those before the debates, and take to him specimens of choice style. Perhaps also some of the dogmatic parts will not appear to you interpreted without grace. But whatever you do read, be sure that you read it as to a teacher and an expert.

Letter 16 To Strategius224 In c. 375 a presbyter, Strategius, acted as a trusted courier for many of Basil's letters (See Basil, letters 244, 245, 250). Gregory Nazianzen's letter

169 is also addressed to a Strategius who seems to be resident in Constantinople. It is diﬃcult to say which of these two men, if either, may be the 219 toË aÈtoË *ﬁ*v ka‹ majimian" F, absent in V.

220 Basil also remarks his lack of available scribes in Letters 134, Def, 2.304–307

(according to which he has even resorted to training them—see Letter 334), and 135 Def. 2.307–311 ('. . . as yet I am not provided with any fast copyist. For to such a state of poverty has the once envied condition of the Cappadocians come!').

221 Gregory refers to his lengthy Contra Eunomium, rather than his much briefer Antirrhetic against Apollinaris, which would not have taken long to transcribe.

222 ıte grãfvn ka‹ Ù dokimãzvn tå gegramm°na. Alternatively with Maraval, Lettres

209, n. 4, these terms might be taken to mean a tachygrapher who takes down the text from dictation, and a calligrapher.

223 Isocrates, Oratio ad Demonicum 2.

224 Mss.: FV; ed.: GNO 8.2, 49–50; tr.: the concluding part of Letter 12, NPNF ser. 2, vol. 5, 535.

the pasquali collection addressee of this letter. Gregory at any rate sent this letter in reply to a letter in which his correspondent has told him of his own diﬃculties, noted

Gregory's own diﬃculties ('spectacle of our aﬀairs' 16.4) and expressed his general despondency. The letter may belong to the period of Gregory's incarceration in Sebasteia in early 380 (letter 19), but another and perhaps more likely setting is that of the tension between himself and Helladius of Caesarea (letters 1, 17). A date later in the 380s when dealings had all but irretrievably broken down would ﬁt the kind of despondency revealed in 16.2a, and 3. Strategius may have been taken aback by the animosity

Helladius shows to Gregory personally and perhaps to anyone connected with his predecessor's circle. One gains the impression that Gregory in writing to encourage Strategius is being quietly and courteously brave amidst severe trials of his own.

To Strategius 1a. Those who play ball go about it in some such way such as this.225 Standing apart in three places, two of them take accurate aim and toss the ball one to the other, each catching it in turn from the other, while they bluﬀthe player in the middle who is jumping up at it. By turning the face in a certain direction, and with a certain movement of the hand to the right or the left they make a show of throwing. But whatever direction they see him scurrying, they throw it to the other side instead, thwarting his expectation with a trick.

1b. This holds true even now for many of us when we refuse to be genuine and casually play ball with human beings. So instead of their hope of the right hand226 that we dangle before them, we brush aside the souls of those who hope in us through the left-handedness of what we actually do.227 2a. Letters of reconciliation, kindly greetings, tokens, gifts, aﬀectionate embraces by letter—these are making a show of throwing the ball to the right. But instead of the good cheer one hoped for from all this, one ﬁnds accusations, plots, slanders, reproaches, charges and bits of phrases torn out of context.228

2b. You are blessed in your hopes, you who maintain your conﬁdence towards God through all such trials. 3. But do not to 225 'i.e. the game of fain¤da, called also §fet¤nda by Hesychius', ibid. 535, n. 5.

226 t∞w deziçw §lp¤dow, literally 'right-hand hope'. 'Right' and 'left' are now being used metaphorically for 'favourable' and 'sinister'.

227 tª skaiÒthti t«n ginom°nvn . . . parakrouÒmenoi.

228 monomer«n épofãsevn Ífarparga¤, lit. 'ﬁlchings of isolated bits out of context.'

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look to our words, we beg you, but to the Lord's teaching in the Gospel—for what consolation can he be to another in pain who is overcome by his own pains?—so that diﬃculties will ﬁnd their own issue229 (cf. 1 Cor 10:13), as he says, Retribution is mine, I will repay, says the Lord (Rom 12.19, Dt 32.35).

4. But do you, O best of men, act in a way worthy of yourself.

Put your hope in God and do not let the spectacle of our aﬀairs retard you in your progress toward the beautiful and the good.

Entrust the ﬁtting and just outcome230 of your aﬀairs (cf. 1 Cor 10:13) to God the just judge and act as the Divine wisdom directs you. 5.

For surely Joseph did not despond at the envy of his brothers, since the malice of his siblings (cf. Gen 50:20) became for him the road to kingship.

Letter 17 To the presbyters of Nicomedia231 This letter is a stirring invocation of the qualities to be looked for in a true

Christian bishop. Gregory fervently exhorts the presbyterate of Nicomedia to keep certain important desiderata in mind when considering a successor to their bishop Patricius. He speaks from long experience of the strife in the churches, and of unsavoury episcopal politics that sometimes have aﬀected him deeply (See letters 1, 3, 16 and 19 especially). Compare the story of Gregory Thaumaturgus who corrected unworthy motives for choosing a new bishop of Comana in The Life of Gregory Thaumaturgus.232 It is notable that in this letter hellenism and philosophy retire before a thorough immersion in Scripture and an intensely Christian discourse. Gregory writes in the style of an apostolic pastoral letter, although not without a trademark hint of Platonist thought (17.7).

For the broader political background to the letter, see the prefatory notes to Letter 1. The more immediate background to this letter is persuasively outlined by Maraval.233 Sozomen, 8.6, and Photius, Bibl. cod. 59, mention a certain Gerontius, a man of eloquence and a gifted physician in high demand, who was also a deacon in the church of Milan under St Ambrose.

229 …w ín tØn ﬁd¤an di°jodon lãb˙ tå prãgmata–reading neuter plural prãgmata as subject of lãb˙. There may be an allusion here to 1 Cor 10:13, as there certainly is shortly. In that case the text from Rom 12:19 may be a later insertion, not entirely ﬁtting with the drift of Gregory's thought. In any case, Gregory is using scripture allusively since neither is a dominical saying from the Gospel.

230 dika¤an t«n pragmãtvn épÒbasin—the actual word used in 1 Cor 10:13.

231 Mss: FV; ed. GNO 8.2, 51–58; tr. NPNF ser. 2, vol. 5, 535–538.

232 GNO 10.1, 36–40.

233 Lettres, pp. 39–41.

the pasquali collection Disciplined by Ambrose for an episode of very peculiar behaviour, he decamped to Constantinople, where he built up a network of inﬂuential friends. Sozomen relates that he was ordained bishop of Nicomedia by none other than Helladius of Caesarea, partly as a favour for having obtained a high military post for his son. Helladius, in short, was practising simony.

On Ambrose's advice, Nectarius of Constantinople attempted to depose Gerontius, but he was thwarted by strong Nicomedian opposition. Nectarius' successor, St John Chrysostom, was more resolute in dealing with Gerontius, and succeeded in deposing him against all opposition.

Once such a background is appreciated, it is not hard to discern that some passages in this letter seem heatedly, if obliquely aimed at some person in particular. Gerontius, it seems, was the man. He was Helladius' candidate for Nicomedia and Gregory seems to have campaigned against this already canvassed appointment. He implores the Nicomedians not to elect someone unworthy of them. His appeal, however, did not succeed—another example of his failures at church politics. If this construction of events is correct, it gives us a hint of the kind of personal grievances Helladius may have had against Gregory as seen in letter 1. It is possible Gregory was not even aware of the private 'deals' between Gerontius and Helladius.

Having intruded unwittingly in their schemes, he could only be utterly bewildered by the storm of Helladius' animosity against him.

Since Euphrasius was present at the Council of Constantinople in 381 (Mansi, Concilia III, 572A), and Patricius succeeded him as bishop of Nicomedia for some time, these events must have taken place some years after 381. Maraval suggests we are probably still in the 380s, since Gerontius needed some time to build up his strong following in Nicomedia. Given that Gregory also mentions his advanced age, the letter may be safely placed in Gregory's last years, late 380s–394.234

To the presbyters of Nicomedia235 1. May the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort (2 Cor 1:3) who disposes all things in wisdom as it is ﬁtting (cf. Ps 103:24), visit you with his own grace and comfort you in himself, working in you that which is well-pleasing to Him (Heb 13:21), and may the grace of our Lord Jesus

Christ come upon you, and the communion of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor 13:13),236 to cure you of all your tribulation and aﬄiction and guide you towards all good, for the perfecting of the Church, for the building

234 For studies of letter 17 see J. Daniélou, 'L'éveque d'après une lettre de Grégoire', Euntes Docete 20 (1967), 85–98; and R. Staats, 'Gregor von Nyssa und das Bischofsamt', Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte 84 (1973), 149–173. Daniélou (p. 46) dates the letter to 390.

235 The inscription is found only in V.

236 Note the solemn invocation of the Holy Trinity.

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up of your souls (cf. Eph 4.12), and for the greater praise of his glorious name.

2a. But we make this defence of ourselves before your charity, that we were not careless in discharging the visitation237 entrusted by you, either in time past, or indeed now after the passing of the blessed Patricius. Many indeed were our anxieties for the churches, and we were also greatly weakened in body, aggravated, as is to be expected, by advancing age.

2b. Yet your goodness was also greatly remiss towards us, for no word ever came by letter to invite us, or any note of explanation to our church, although blessed Euphrasius your Bishop238 had in all sincerity bound our slight worth to himself and to you as with the cords of love (cf. Hos 11.4).

3. But even though the outstanding debt of charity has not been discharged, either by us, through visitation, or by your piety through invitation, now at any rate we pray to God, taking your prayer to God as an ally of our desire, that we may visit you as soon as possible, and be comforted with you, and together with you exercise all diligence, as the Lord may lead us (cf. Rom 1.11–13). Thus may we discover a means of remedying the distresses which have already transpired, and of securing your future, so that you may no longer be torn asunder by this discord, where one withdraws himself from the Church in one direction, someone else in another, and you are thereby exposed as a laughing-stock to the Devil, whose one intent and endeavour it is to oppose the divine will in order that none should be saved or come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim 2.4, cf. 2 Tim 2.25).

4. For how aﬄicted do you think we were, brothers, when we heard from those who reported to us your aﬀairs that there was no change in the strained situation;239 but that the resolve of those who 237 §pisk°cevw. According to Maraval (Lettres 216 n. 2) this refers to the mandate of the Council of Constantinople in 381, when Gregory was proposed with Otreius and Helladius as a custodian of orthodox communion for the civil diocese of Pontus, of which Bithynia and its metropolis, Nicomedia, were part.

238 This Euphrasius subscribed to the Council of Constantinople in 381 [or the ﬁrst council of C. in 360?] as bishop of Nicomedia (Mansi III, 572A). On his death, the presbyterate set about preparing for an election of his successor. According to canonical procedure, this would have been carried out by a number of neighbouring bishops presided over by the nearest Metropolitan. This is the background of the present letter, to be dated probably sometime in the late 380s.

239 oÈdem¤a g°gone t«n §fest≈tvn §pistrofØ, lit. 'no turn around/return of besetments'; alternatively t«n §fest≈tvn might be 'of those set over you'.

the pasquali collection had once turned aside was continuing in the same course? For as water from a conduit often overﬂows the adjacent bank, diverts to one side and ﬂows away, with the result that, unless the leak is mended, it is diﬃcult to recall it to its channel, because the submerged bed has been hollowed out to ﬁt the course of the outﬂow, just so is the impulse of secessionists.240 Once they have slipped aside through their contentiousness from the pious and upright faith, they soon sink deep into their accustomed groove and do not easily return to the grace that they once had.

5. Your aﬀairs accordingly need a wise and strong administrator, skilled to channel such a situation aright, and capable of recalling the haphazard detour of this stream to its pristine beauty, so that the cornﬁelds of your piety may once again ﬂourish abundantly (cf. Jn

4.35, 15.8), watered by the irrigating stream of peace. 6. For this reason you must all exercise great diligence and fervent desire in this matter, that someone may be designated by the Holy Spirit to preside over you who will keep his eye ﬁxed wholly on the things of God and will not allow his gaze to be distracted hither and thither by any of the things prized in this life. 7. It was because of this danger, I think, that the levitical law gave to the Levite no share in the inheritance of the land, in order that, as it is written, he might have

God alone as the portion of his possession (cf. Num 18.20), and that he might always be solicitous for this possession in himself, not allowing his soul to be dragged down by anything material.

8. But if indeed there are some—and even we ourselves—who are indiﬀerent, let no-one on seeing this be harmed on his own account. For what is done unﬁttingly by some does not make it lawful for others also to practise what is unﬁtting. You must rather look to what concerns yourselves, so that your church's prospects might turn for the better, when those who are scattered return again (cf.

Jn 11.52) to the harmony of the one body and spiritual peace ﬂourishes among the many who glorify God piously.241

9. To this end, I think it is well to look for one who wants the good of the church so that he who is appointed may be ﬁtted for the leadership.242 10. But the apostolic word does not direct us to 240 épostãntvn, or 'apostates'.

241 eÈseb«w, i.e. with orthodox faith.

242 Translating with Pasquali's addition: . . . skope›n <tÚn> tå kalå tª §kklhsi& boulÒmenon; otherwise a diﬃcult clause might be construed as 'it is well to look for noble qualities in the one chosen for the church'.

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look for high birth, wealth, or worldly lustre among the virtues of a bishop (cf. 1 Tim 3.1–7, Tit 1.7–9)—although if some of these should, as a matter of course, attend your leaders, we do not reject them, as a shadow that happens to follow along. But if not, we shall welcome the more honourable endowments not one wit less if they are without these gifts. 11. Why the prophet Amos was a goat-herd.

Peter was a ﬁsherman, and his brother Andrew was of the same trade. So also was the sublime John. Paul was a tent-maker, Matthew a tax-collector, and it was the same way with all the others. They were not of consular rank or generals or prefects or noted for rhetoric and philosophy,243 but poor and common folk who began in the humbler occupations. And yet for all that, their voice went out through all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world (Ps 18.5, Rom 10.18).

12. Consider, he says, your calling, brothers, that not many wise after the ﬂesh, not many mighty, not many noble were called, but God chose the foolish things of the world (1 Cor 1.26–27). 13. Perhaps even now it is thought rather foolish, as things appear to human eyes, if one is not able to do much because of poverty, or is slighted because of humble parentage.244 But who knows whether the horn of anointing is not poured out by grace upon such a one, even if he is less than the lofty and more illustrious (cf. 1 Sam 10.1, 16.11).

14. What was of greater gain to the city of the Romans, that in its beginnings245 it should take for its leadership some high-born and pompous senator of consular rank, or Peter the ﬁsherman who had none of this world's trappings to attract esteem? What house did he have, what slaves, what property ministering to luxury through the accumulation of wealth? No, he was a stranger without a roof over his head, without a table—yet he was richer than those who have all these things, because having nothing he wholly had God (cf. 2 Cor

6.10).

15. So also with the people of Mesopotamia.246 Though they had immensely wealthy satraps among them, they approved Thomas as 243 It is noteworthy that Gregory discounts the social and cultural advantages he himself enjoys. Contrast his sensitivity to his social status in Letter 1.

244 s≈matikhn dusg°neian, 'meanness of lineage', or possibly 'bodily deformity'.

245 I.e. of the Church there.

246 I.e. the Edessenes; see Ruﬁnus, Church History 11.5; Cf. Origen's statement in Eusebius, Church History 3.1.1, that Thomas was the apostle of the Parthians—who at that time ruled eastern Syria. In the fourth century AD there was a ﬂourishing cult of St Thomas in Edessa.

the pasquali collection their leader in preference to any of their own. With the Cretans, it was Titus (cf. Tit 1.5), and with the people of Jerusalem, James, and with us Cappadocians, the Centurion who at the Passion confessed the divinity of the Lord (cf. Mt 27.54),247 though there were many at that time who came from illustrious families, who maintained horse studs248 and solemnized themselves with the ﬁrst seats in the Senate. And one may ﬁnd throughout the whole Church that those who are great according to God are preferred to those who are illustrious according to this world.

16. In the present situation, I think you also need to be looking for these qualities if you really mean to revive the ancient dignity of your church. 17. You know better than anyone else your own history, how in ancient times, before the city near you ﬂourished,249 you had the kingship and no city was more eminent than yours. At present, it is true, the fair form of its public buildings has disappeared,250 but the city which consists in human beings—whether we consider the number or to the character of its inhabitants—is rising to a level with its ancient beauty. 18. It would therefore not be ﬁtting for you to maintain a purpose meaner than the blessings that are now yours, but to raise your zeal for the task that is before you to the height of the magniﬁcence of your city, that with God's help

247 This is the earliest record associating the centurion at the foot of the Cross with the evangelization of Cappadocia. Later traditions identiﬁed him as Longinus, a native of Cappadocia, and described his martyrdom and subsequent cult in Caesarea. There was a martyrion dedicated to him at Sandralis or Andrales near

Tyana. See M. Aubineau (ed. & tr.) Les homélies festales d'Hésychius de Jérusalem, 2 vols, Subsidia Hagiographica 59 (Brussels, 1978, 1980), 2.779–804, and D. Berges and J. Nollé, Tyana: Archäologisch-historische Untersuchungen zum südwestlichen Kappadokien,

2 vols (Bonn, 2000).

248 As Maraval remarks (Lettres 226 n. 1) the Cappadocian highlands were renowned in late antiquity for horse-breeding. It was a lucrative industry, supplying the horses needed for the imperial cavalry and postal service.

249 i.e. Nicaea, or perhaps across the Propontus, Byzantion, now renamed Constantinople. Nicomedia had once been the seat of the kings of Bithynia. The Emperor Diocletian chose to reside there, endowed it with many buildings and considered establishing it as the capital of the eastern Roman empire (cf. Lactantius,

De Mort. Persec. 7.8–10).

250 On 28 August 358 Nicomedia suﬀered a major earthquake, in which its bishop, Cecropius, perished, and its magniﬁcent cathedral was ruined; see Socrates 2.39,

Sozomen 4.16, Ammianus Marcellinus, Hist. 17.7.1–8 and Libanius, Or. 61. Gregory also mentions this tragedy in Against Fate GNO 3.2/52.1–2, 54,1–2, and uses the aftermath of earthquakes as a vivid analogy of chaos in On the Soul and Resurrection

7.1 (Krabinger 90–92).

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you may discover such a one to lead the people as will prove himself not unworthy of you.

19. For it is disgraceful, brothers, and altogether bizarre, that although no sailor ever becomes a helmsman unless he is skilled in steering, yet one who sits at the helm of the church does not know how to safely bring into the harbour of God the souls of those who sail with him! 20. How many shipwrecks of churches, with all their members, have occurred before now through the ineptitude of their leaders! Who can reckon how many of the disasters before our eyes might not have happened, had there been at least some modicum of the helmsman's skill in these leaders? 21. Look, we do not entrust the iron for being made into vessels to those who know nothing about the matter, but to those who know the art of the smith. Ought we not also trust souls to one who is well skilled in softening them through the fervour of the Holy Spirit (Acts 18.25, Rom 12.11) and who by the impress of rational implements251 may perfect each of you as a chosen and useful vessel (cf. Acts 9.15, 2 Tim 3.2)?

22. The divine Apostle commands that we exercise such forethought when in the Epistle to Timothy he lays down a law for all his hearers when he says that a Bishop must be irreproachable (1 Tim

3.2). 23. Is this all that the Apostle cares about, that anyone proposed for the episcopacy252 should be irreproachable? And what is the advantage so great in this that it could sum up the good? 24. But he knows that the subordinate is conformed to his superior and that the virtues of the leader become those of his followers. For as the teacher is, so is the disciple fashioned to be. For it is impossible that one who has been apprenticed to the art of the smith should fulﬁl his training by weaving, or that one who has been taught to work at the loom should turn out an orator or a surveyor. No, the disciple transfers to himself the pattern he sees in his master. It is for this reason it says, every disciple shall be fashioned like his teacher (Lk 6.40).253

251 d‹a t∞w t«n logik«n Ùrgãnvn, tup≈sevw. Gregory applies the analogy of the metal-worker to the ministry of bishops: the bishop fashions the faithful with the 'impress' or 'seal' of the sacraments which are instilled with the Logos/Word

(logik«n), together with the 'heat' (z°sei) of the Holy Spirit. Gregory, however, expects that not only the sacraments but their minister, the bishop himself, be ﬁlled with the 'zest', 'heat', 'fervour' of the Spirit.

252 eﬁw ﬂervsÊnhw. At this period ﬂervsÊnh, like sacerdotium in Latin, often refers to the 'high-priesthood', i.e of a bishop, and is less commonly applied to presbyters.

253 On this topic, see also Gregory's treatises On Perfection, On the Christian Profession,

Sketch of the Aim of True Asceticism (de instituto Christiano).

the pasquali collection 25. What then brothers? Is it possible to become humble-minded, calm in manner, moderate, superior to the love of money-making, wise in things divine and trained to virtue and fairness in one's ways, if these qualities have not been seen in the teacher? 26. On the contrary, I do not know how anyone can become spiritual who has done his learning in a school of worldliness, for how shall they who are striving to become like such a one fail to be as he is?

27. Of what beneﬁt to the thirsty is a magniﬁcent aqueduct if there is no water in it? However symmetrical the placement of columns, with all their variegated form bearing the pediment aloft, which would the thirsty prefer to supply his need: to see bare stones beautifully laid out, or to ﬁnd a spring, even if it ﬂowed from a wooden pipe, provided only that the stream it pours forth is clear and drinkable?

28. Accordingly, brothers, those who look to piety should pay no attention to outward appearance. Indeed, if a man boasts of his friends or preens himself on the list of his honours or tallies his multiple annual proﬁts or is puﬀed up at the thought of his ancestry or brags on all sides in his conceit, they should have no more to do with him than with a dry aqueduct, if he does not possess in his own life the qualities required.

28a. Instead, you should employ the lamp of the Spirit in your search (cf. Mt 6.22, Lk 11.33–34, 15.8) seeking out as best you can a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed (Sg 4.12),254 as the Scripture says, so that when through the laying on of hands the garden of delight is opened and the water of the fountain is unstopped (cf. Ez 36.35), the grace that is in him will become the common possession of the whole church.

254 This is exactly what was accomplished when Gregory's brother, Peter, then superior of the monastery at Annisa, was chosen as bishop and metropolitan of Sebasteia; Cf. Origen, Contra Celsum, 8.75: 'We summon to the magistracies of these churches men of ability and good life. But instead of selecting the ambitious among them, we put those whose deep humility makes them backward in accepting this general charge of the Church except under constraint. Our best rulers then, are like consuls compelled to rule by a mighty Emperor—no other, we are persuaded, than the Son of God, who is the Word of God. If then, these magistracies in the assembly of God's nation rule well, or at all events strictly in accordance with the Divine enactment, they are not because of that to meddle with secular law-making. It is not that Christians wish to escape all public responsibility that they keep themselves away from such things. They wish instead to reserve themselves for the higher and more urgent responsibilities (énagkaiot°r& leitourg¤&) of God's Church.'

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29. May the Lord grant that such a one may soon be found among you: one who will be a chosen vessel (Acts 9.15), a pillar and foundation of the Truth (1 Tim 3.15). But we trust in the Lord that this is how it will turn out, if you are indeed resolved to seek together the common good through the cooperation of minds having but a single desire,255 preferring to your own wishes the will of our Lord

Jesus Christ concerning what is good and well-pleasing and perfect (Rom 12.2). May there be such a happy outcome among you that we can boast and you ﬁnd delight and the God of all be gloriﬁed, to whom belongs the glory for ever and ever.

Letter 18 To Otreius Bishop of Melitene256 Earlier opinion favoured the writing of this letter in the mid 370s. Zaccagni thought that the 'war' and the carping criticism here lamented, referred to Eustathius of Sebasteia and his circle, who found plenty of fault in the liturgical gestures and even the dress of the Catholics.257 Thus the view was taken that this letter shows Gregory's circumstances during his exile, 376–378.

Pasquali258 however, argued that the letter was written at Sebasteia in 380, in the same tumultuous circumstances reported in letters 19 and 22.

Maraval concurs. Thus the letter is best situated or the culminating events of mid 379-mid 380.

On the addressee Otreius, see the notes prefacing letter 10. If letters 10 and 18 were written in the same circumstances, then letter 18 was evidently written before letter 10, because in that letter he is exultant at the news of an impending visit of Otreius, whereas here he is delighted simply to have written communication.

The letter aﬀords us a precious glimpse of Gregory's ordinary daily life at Nyssa (18.5), and during his conﬁnement at Sebasteia (18.9).

To Otreius, Bishop of Melitene259 1. How beautiful are the likenesses of beautiful things when they preserve distinctly in themselves the character and form of the arche255 Maraval notes (Lettres 233 n. 1) that sumpno¤a. 'shared aspiration', is a term with rich associations in Gregory's thought, studied by J. Daniélou, 'Conspiratio chez Grégoire de Nysse', L'homme devant Dieu . . . Mélanges Henri de Lubac (Paris, 1961),

295–308. The passage is a good example of Gregory's use of redundancy: the same idea is expressed in three diﬀerent ways.

256 Mss.: PFV; ed. GNO 8.1, 58–61; tr.: Letter 14, NPNF, 538–539.

257 Cf. Basil, On the Holy Spirit, towards the end.

258 Pasquali, Le Lettere, p. 76.

259 toË aÈtoË Ùtrh¤v §piskÒpv melithn∞w F, toË aÈtoË Ùtr°i////on §p¤skopon in the margin of P, missing in V.

the pasquali collection typal beauty! 2. For in the sweetness of your letter I beheld the most distinct image of your truly beautiful soul. You ﬁlled it with honey, as the Gospel says in one place, from the abundance of the heart (Mt

12.34).

For this reason, and from the friendliness of your letter, I fancied I was looking at you in person and enjoying the good cheer in your eyes. Again and again I took your letter into my hands for the pleasure of it and went though it from beginning to end, which only kindled the desire to enjoy it all the more. There was no satiety in the draught, since satiety can no more spoil the pleasure than it can of any other pleasure in things beautiful and precious by nature. 3.

For our constant participation in the sun does not blunt our longing to behold it, just as the unbroken enjoyment of health does not hinder our desire for this too. We are persuaded therefore that it is impossible that our enjoyment of your goodness, which we have often known face to face and now by letter, should ever reach the point of satiety. But just as they suﬀer who from some cause thirst unquenchably, so in a way it is with us. The more we take our ﬁll of your blessings, the more we thirst for them.

4. But that you may not suppose our language to be a kind of fawning and lying ﬂattery—and surely you will not suppose that, since you are in all else and especially to us, if anyone is, kindly and genuine—you will certainly believe me when I say that the grace of your letter, applied to my eyes like some healing remedy, staunched my ever-ﬂowing fountain of tears ( Jer 9.1), and that we look to the healing power of your holy prayers which already supports our soul slumped as it is beneath a barrage of misfortunes, and we place all our hopes in it that the suﬀering of our soul shall be quickly and completely healed.260 Yet we are, for the present at any rate, in such a situation that we spare the ears of your goodness and bury the truth in silence, that we might not drag those who truly love us into fellowship with our misfortunes.

5. For when we reﬂect that we are embroiled in wars, bereft of our dearest, and that we were forced to leave behind our children

260 The text is disturbed. Jaeger/Pasquali have restored it with help from In his own edition, P. Maraval (236, n. 1) laments the absence of four words from their construction which are present in the three codices. They are translated here as 'and place all our hopes in it'.

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whom we were deemed worthy to bear to God in spiritual labour-pains (cf.

1 Cor 4.14–15), a wife joined to us by law,261 who in the midst of danger and aﬄictions, during the times of trial showed us her aﬀection

(cf. 2 Cor 8.2), and besides these a dearly loved home,262 brothers,263 relatives, familiars, associates, friends, hearth, table, store-room, pallet,264 the bench, the sacking,265 the secluded corner, the prayer, the tears—how sweet they are, and how dearly prized through long habit, I need not write to you who know full well. But that I might not burden you in the telling, consider for yourself how far otherwise are all that I have instead of these. 6. Now that I approach the end of my life, I begin to live again, for I must learn the elaborate manners which are now the fashion. But coming late to the school of such mischief and knavery, we are constantly blushing at our ineptitude for the study.

7. The teachers of this wisdom who are ranged against us are capable, being retentive of what they have learned and inventive of what they have not learned. They band together to make war, skirmishing at a distance, and then at a signal, regrouping in a phalanx. First they lay ambush by stealth, then they take by surprise with exaggerations, surrounding themselves with allies on every side.

8. A vast mammon,266 invincible in power, accompanies them, advancing before them like some ambidextrous combatant ﬁghting with both hands as he leads the battle, on one side exacting tribute from those under his sway, on the other striking those who come forward to meet him.

9. But if you care to inquire into our private domestic arrangements you will ﬁnd other troubles besides: a hut numbingly cold, gloom, conﬁnement and all such advantages, a life examined censoriously

261 sÊmbiow nÒmƒ sunhrmosm°nh, . . . PF. V lacks the sÊmbiow and has sunhrmosm°na, meaning the children joined to Gregory by law, i.e the members of his ﬂock at Nyssa.

Pasquali, who restored the text, Le Lettere 78–79, considers that the phrase, as with children, refers metaphorically to Gregory's church of Nyssa, and Maraval concurs.

For a beautiful demonstration of the loyalty of Gregory's church, see letter 6.

262 o‰kow kexaritvm°now.

263 édelfo¤, i.e., monks and virgins (see letter 6.10), of whom his own sister, Theosebia, was one, an adelphe both in the ﬂesh and in the spirit.

264 stibãw, something strewn or stuﬀed with straw, perhaps a mattress, and hence

'bed'.

265 ı sãkkow, or sack, sackcloth: for storage of grain?

266 An Aramaic word from the Gospels (Mt 6.24 et al.) = 'wealth'.

the pasquali collection by everyone: the voice, the look, the way of draping one's cloak, the movement of the hands, the position of the feet and all such matter for busybodies. And if there is not an audible breathing, and if from time to time a protracted groan is not emitted with the breathing, and if the tunic does not come out from our belt267 and especially if the belt itself is not used, 10. and if our mantle268 does not hang freely by the sides, and if we have not pulled one of its borders to the shoulders269—the omission of any of these becomes a pretext for those who make war against us. On such grounds they gather for battle against us, man by man, town by town, even to the least of places.270

11. Of course, one cannot always be faring well or ill, since life for everyone is usually a mix of contrarieties. But if by God's grace you continue to stand by us, we will bear with the abundance of present annoyances in the hope of always sharing in your goodness.

Never cease then in showing us such favours, through which you will both comfort us and prepare for yourself an ampler reward for keeping the commandments.

Letter 19 To a certain John especially on Macrina271 This most important letter was edited for the ﬁrst time in 1731 by J. B.

Carraciolo, as one of the seven letters 19–25 he had discovered in F. These were absent from V which until that time had formed the basis of Gregory's published letters.272 Nevertheless it took many years for the historical implications of the present letter to percolate through to historians and patristic scholars. For that the credit is due to Franz Diekamp.273 Earlier commentators had vaguely supposed that Gregory had somehow been elected bishop of Ibora. Diekamp elucidated the proper sequence: that just as Gregory had responded to the embassy from Ibora (19.12) and travelled

267 eﬁmØ diekp¤ptoi t∞w z≈n∞w ≤m«n tÚ xit≈nion. Presumbly this means the belt is to be drawn in and not left loose. Basil discusses the proper use of the belt for monks in Longer Responses 23.

268 ± diplo¤w, a bishop's cloak; see GNaz Or. 43.73, where Basil is compared with Samuel.

269 'and if we have not . . . shoulders', is found only in P.

270 'katÉ êndrow ka‹ dÆmouw ka‹ §sxat¤aw.

271 Mss.: PF; ed.: GNO, 8.2, 62–68.

272 See Pasquali, LXXXV.

273 In his essay 'Die Wahl Gregors von Nyssa zum Metropoliten von Sebaste im Jahre 380', Theologische Quartalschrift 90 (1908), 384–401.

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there to supervise the election of a new bishop, so too he responded to an embassy from Sebasteia (19.13b) and travelled there to undertake the same sort of mission. It was at Sebasteia that all the lamentable events reported in the latter part of this letter took place. He clariﬁed that the 'return from Armenia' of which Gregory speaks in his letter 29 to Peter, refers to a return from his enforced stay in Sebasteia. Thus, according to Diekamp, the letter was written from Sebasteia in the ﬁrst half of 380, while Gregory was still constrained in the circumstances described at the latter part of the letter. 'Gregory was bishop and prisoner in Sebasteia, exactly between Winter and Spring'.274 For more on the chronology of this letter, see the Introduction, 'Gregory's return from exile and rise in Church aﬀairs'.

The addressee, John, is much engaged in Church aﬀairs in 'the city'.

He is either a bishop or someone in senior church administration, since Gregory speaks of 'your church' (19.20). It is not so evident whether he was resident of Antioch itself. At any rate Gregory seems to have met the present John there during the council of Neo-nicene bishops in 379, since in 10a he speaks of having 'left your region' to return to Cappadocia and thence to Macrina's death-bed, and in 10c of his ﬁrst visit to his fatherland after his 'return journey from Antioch'. It would be an exciting thought that it might be a youngish John Chrysostom, sometime student of Libanius and protégé of Bishop Meletius. But it seems too early in Chrysostom's career. In 379 he may have been barely returning from his ascetic years in the caves outside Antioch and was not yet even a deacon. But we may be sure that he would have been very interested to hear of Macrina's ascetic life-style.

The present John is concerned that he has had no communication from Gregory in the many months since their meeting. Having heard some strange rumours, he wrote to Gregory to ask what was happening. The letter eventually reached Gregory in Sebasteia, and letter 19 is his reply.

The style is somewhat formal—Gregory most often uses the plural of modesty of himself, occasionally (and characteristically) slipping into the singular. He clearly intended this letter as a kind of bulletin of his aﬀairs to someone well placed in church aﬀairs, meant to correct any misinformation. He expects John to share it with others for the 'common good'.

No other of Gregory's letters is so rich with biographical and chronological material. Even so we could wish he had been more speciﬁc about the motives and actions behind the uproar in Sebasteia that led to his conﬁnement, for the last part of the letter almost descends into incoherence as he laments the calamity that has overtaken him. It is clear enough that he found himself elected metropolitan bishop of Sebasteia and that this took him completely by surprise. He seems to have refused or resisted the appointment, and then somehow the military authorities were called in to restrain the uproar and keep him in Sebasteia. There seems to have been at least a fourfold strife between the Pneumatomachian partisans of 274 Pasquali, Le Lettere 94.

the pasquali collection Eusthathius, the orthodox minded Sebasteians, the Governor, and his own unwillingness.

The brief but intense cameo of Gregory's sister, 19.6–10, is a foreshadowing and a promise of the Life of Macrina. It is the earliest documentation we have of Macrina's existence, her way of life and her funeral led by Gregory, written less than a year after her death. The witness of her lifestyle, her conversations with him which were so formative and strengthening of his religious spirit, and above all his providential participation in her dying hours had a profound aﬀect on him. It only needed time to absorb and reﬂect on these events. Then, when the occasion oﬀered, he set out to make his remarkable sister better known to the world.

To a certain John on certain subjects, especially on the way of life and the character of his sister Macrina.275

Introduction: the analogy of the painter 1. I know of some276 painters, who, when they copy the form as an image, are keen to bestow a kind of proﬁtless honour even on the uglier of their friends, though they accomplish, in a way, the opposite of what they wish. For when in their imitation they correct nature—so they think—by disguising the unsightly form beneath a bright display of colours on the panel, they change the character, with the result that their intention to honour their friend becomes, through this 'improved' imitation, the very reason why the friend can no longer be seen in the image at all.

2a. For their friends, there is no proﬁt in the light brown hair arching high over the forehead and glinting with highlights, the bloom on the lips and the ﬂush of the cheeks, the curve of the eyelids, the corners of the eyes and the eyebrows picked out with black, and the shining forehead above the eyebrows, and whatever else of the kind that contributes to beauty of form. For unless the one presented to the painter for imitation has these qualities by nature, he

275 §pistolØ toË aÈtoË prÚw tina ÉIvãnnhn per¤ tinvn Ípoy°sevn ka‹ per‹ t∞w diagvg∞w ka‹ katastãsevw t∞w toiaÊthw édelf∞w aÈtoË Maxr¤nhw F, toË aÈtoË P.

The toiaÊthw does not make much sense. One conjectures that a later copyist read t∞w édelf∞w Makr¤nhw, which in classical Greek was perfectly suﬃcient to convey

'of his sister', but thinking the possessive needed to be made more explicit, added a note such as toË aÈtoË, which became corrupted.

276 Reading tinaw with F, rather than tina P (someone). Gregory continues shortly using the plural: dioryoËntai. Cf. Basil's analogy of the portrait painter in Letter

2, Def. 1.17.

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gains nothing from the benevolent gesture. Instead, through the painter's art the panel displays a pleasant face, brightly decked all round, but the friend's face discloses itself as otherwise, and so shows up the excess of the attempted honour.

2b. The same thing, it seems to me, happens when anyone bestows ﬂatteries on someone he loves in order to gain the praises of friendship. So he depicts him in words not as he is, but as someone might be like who is in every way perfect. He may sketch the upright life in words, but by these extravagant praises he does not so much dignify his friend as rebuke him for contradicting the word by his life and as revealing himself to be other than he is supposed to be.

3a. What then do I mean by speaking this way?

I saw in the letter of your charity, a kind of human sculpture, ﬁnely wrought in sharpest detail—and its name was myself, for so the inscription informed me. But when I looked into my own life in exact detail as in a mirror, I knew that I was far removed from the verbal description. I surmised that in this way you were displaying your love of goodness, for, having deemed that this is what

I was like, this is what you loved. You gave the most evident proof of the uprightness of your dispositions, that you have no other motive for your love but that of virtue alone, and, since you believed that some share of this was in us, you counted us among the most genuine of your friends.

3b. 277I therefore thought it better that you learn what concerns me from myself rather than be misled by other witnesses, even if those witnesses may be reliable in all else. For this is what the word of the proverb also recommends, that they come to recognize themselves (cf. Prov 13.10 Sept) who are willing to know themselves according to the word from without.278

4. But so much for this. That I may not appear to be secretly courting praise by declining it, and given that you bid us put some eﬀort into giving an answer to your enquiries about our aﬀairs, and in order by such a task to beneﬁt the common good,279 know then,

277 Pasquali considers there is a lacuna at this point. He proposed as the sense of what Gregory may have written: <But though you are a man of such authority, I know that you are thoroughly mistaken.>

278 katå tÚn ¶jvyen lÒgon. Gregory seems to be conﬂating the famous saying gn«yi sautÒn (know yourself!), carved on the Temple at Delphi, with Proverbs

13.10 oﬁde §aut«n §pignvmonew sofo¤ (those who discern themselves are wise).

279 »fel∞sai ti tÚ ko‹non, i.e. this letter to John is a newsletter to be shared with others.

the pasquali collection that lately I have not had much less leisure than the one of whom one of the prophets speaks (cf. Amos 5.19), who, having grappled with a lion and scarcely extracted himself from its jaws and the slashing of its claws, at the very moment he thought to be escaping, found himself in the mouth of a bear; and then, having with much struggle emerged from this danger too and rested himself against the wall, he comes upon a snake lying in wait to bite him.

4a. Something like this has been the relentless succession of troubles that have befallen us. The waves of distresses have so overlapped each another, they seem to be continually preparing to overtop by a little what had already overtaken us.280 5. But if it is not an imposition to be rewarding those who love me with gloomy tales, I will brieﬂy set out for you the sorry story.

Our sister Macrina 6. We had a sister who was for us a teacher of how to live,281 a mother in place of our mother. Such was her freedom282 towards

God that she was for us a strong tower (Ps 60.4) and a shield of favour 280 For the same idea of one wave of troubles succeeding another, see Basil's

Letter 123, Def. 2.254–257.

281 toË b¤ou didãskalow. Since b¤ow frequently means 'way of life', this means that Macrina was Gregory's teacher in the principles of the Christian ascetic life.

To judge from VSM 17.2 (GNO 8.1.386–387, Maraval, 190–192), his last visit to her may be dated to late 371, when the relationship between sister and brother seems to have been renewed and strengthened. This may be linked to four more or less contemporaneous events which may have been occasions of contact: 1. The death of Emmelia their mother (370) triggered a renewed aﬀection. Gregory very much regards Macrina as a taking her place towards him; indeed she took Emmelia's place as the head of the household at Annisa, which was by now a monastic community. 2. Basil, newly a bishop, commissioned Gregory to write On Virginity in 370–371. Since Gregory was coming from the married life and from a civil career, he may well have thought to consult Macrina as his 'Teacher' in Christian asceticism. 3. The ordination to the presbyterate of Peter, the youngest in the family and head of the house of men at Annisa took place soon after, 370. 4. Gregory's own reluctant ordination to the episcopacy by Basil (c. late 371). This surely was the moment when he visited Macrina in Annisa and received from her instruction and encouragement in his new course. The VSM conﬁrms that she 'honoured his priesthood (= episcopacy)'.

282 parrhs¤an, lit. 'freedom of speech', ease of access, daring conﬁdence, boldness. This is not the illusory 'freedom' towards God of mindless presumption, but the deep freedom of someone who had paid the interior cost through a life of selfdenial, prayer and great love.

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(Ps 5.13) as the Scripture says, and a fortiﬁed city (Ps 30.22, 59.11) and a name of utter assurance, through her freedom towards God that came of her way of life.

7. She dwelt in a remote part of Pontus,283 having exiled herself from the life of human beings. Gathered around her was a great choir of virgins whom she had brought forth by her spiritual labourpains (cf. 1 Cor 4.15, Gal 4.19) and guided towards perfection through her consummate care, while she herself imitated the life of angels in a human body. 8. With her there was no distinction between night and day. Rather, the night showed itself active with the deeds of light (cf. Rom 12.12–13, Eph 5.8) and day imitated the tranquillity of night through serenity of life. The psalmodies resounded in her house at all times night and day.

9. You would have seen a reality incredible even to the eyes: the ﬂesh not seeking its own, the stomach, just as we expect in the Resurrection, having ﬁnished with its own impulses, streams of tears poured out (cf. Jer. 9.1, Ps 79.6) to the measure of a cup,284 the mouth meditating the law at all times (Ps 1.2, 118.70), the ear attentive to divine things, the hand ever active285 with the commandments (cf.

Ps 118.48). How indeed could one bring before the eyes a reality that transcends description in words?286

10a. Well then, after I left your region, I had halted among the Cappadocians,287 when unexpectedly I received some disturbing news

283 toË PÒntou tå ¶sxata. Gregory tends to use the related term §sxat¤a, to mean 'retreat' or religious solitude. The family estate of Annisa, transformed by Macrina into a monastery, was not so 'remote' in the sense of physically diﬃcult of access. It lay on the great Pontic Road about a day's journey west of Neoceasarea, overlooking the fertile plain of the Phanaroea.

284 Cf. Euripides, Iphigeneia in Tauris 1106.

285 a§ik¤nhtow, though Gregory is thinking of Psalm 118, the actual word is from a Platonic dialogue (Phaedrus 245C) 286 Cf. VSM 13.3 (GNO 8.1, 382, Maraval 176–178) …w Íperba¤nein t∞n §k t«n lÒgvn ÍpografÆn, that it surpasses description in words; VSM 13.6 ibid., tØn toiaÊthn diagvg∞n t¤w ín ÍpÉ ˆcin égãgoi lÒgow ényr≈pinow, 'what human eloquence could bring this kind of life before your eyes?'

287 ÉEpeidØ to¤nun §p°sthn parÉ Ím«n to›w KappadÒkaiw. The parÉ Ím«n refers to his departure 'from' John. By 'the Cappadocians', Gregory may mean that he has just come through the Taurus mountains and reached Cappadocia, perhaps at Tyana. In which case the ten days journey was from south of Caesarea to Pontus.

Most readers have assumed he means Caesarea (cf. 14.3 'the metropolis of the Cappadocians'), but it may be doubted that it was a ten days journey from Caesarea to Annisa 'with haste'. He did not go to Nyssa, since as VSM 18.1 (GNO 8.1.387,

Maraval 192) says, Peter had set out to fetch him but missed him, because he had taken a diﬀerent route, no doubt south-west through Amasea.

the pasquali collection of her.288 There was a ten days' journey between us, so I covered the whole distance as quickly as possible and at last reached Pontus where I saw her and she saw me. 10b. But it was the same as a traveller at noon whose body is exhausted from the sun. He runs up to a spring, but alas, before he has touched the water, before he has cooled his tongue, all at once the stream dries up before his eyes and he ﬁnds the water turned to dust. 10c. So it was with me.

At the tenth year289 I saw her whom I so longed to see, who was for me290 in place of a mother and a teacher and every good, but before I could satisfy my longing, on the third day I buried her and returned on my way.291

Such was my ﬁrst visit to my fatherland292 after my return journey from Antioch.

Gregory's ministry in Pontus 11. Next, before I had digested this misfortune, the Galatians293 who were neighbours of my church, having stealthily sown the sickness of the heresies usual among them in various places of my church, provided me with no small struggle.294 We were barely able, with God's help, to put down the disease everywhere.

12. Then other events followed these. Ibora is a city situated in the mountains of Pontus. It has been disposed towards us and towards

288 This news is not mentioned at VSM 17 (GNO 8.1, 386–387, Maraval 190–192), where he simply says that as he returned from Antioch, the desire grew in him to visit his sister, and that he was disturbed by a foreboding dream a day before he reached Annisa.

289 On the face of it, this conﬂicts with the data in VSM 17.2 (GNO 8.1.386–387,

Maraval, 190–192), that it was just short of eight years since he had last seen his sister. Gregory no doubt is using a quick reckoning perhaps rounding it to the decade, whereas in the VSM he is much more deliberate in his calculation. Or could it mean a decade since his mother's death, when Macrina took her place for him?

290 The references here are singular, moi, i.e. personal to Gregory himself.

291 Íp°strefon. Gregory returned south to Nyssa. The VSM makes it clear that on the way back he passed through Sebastopolis.

292 taËta moi t∞w Patr¤dow metå tØn §pãnodÒn mou tØn §j ÉAntioxe¤aw eﬁsitÆria.

This is proof positive that neither Gregory nor his siblings were born in Cappadocia.

293 i.e. to the west of Nyssa. Rather than Marcellians, the 'Galatians' here are more likely Homoians and Arianizers who since the demise of Valens have lost their political ascendancy with. See Basil, Letter 237, especially 237.10, 239 and 232.

294 Gregory's underminers have made progress during his protracted absence.

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the sound faith from ancient times. Now its bishop having lately departed from this life295 the whole body sent an embassy petitioning us not to overlook it,296 delivered as it was into the hands of enemies and being torn apart. 13a. There were tears, fallings at the feet, lamentations, supplications and all such things through which there has come upon us the present train of evils.

13b. For since we had come to Pontus,297 and, with God as coworker (cf. 2 Cor 6.1),298 we were attending to the proper order for the church among them,299 there promptly came upon us in that place like-minded representatives from the main body of Sebasteians,300 expecting us to forestall a take-over there by the heretics.

Uproar in the electoral synod at Sebasteia 14. The events that followed are worthy of silence and wordless groans (cf. Rom 8.26) and unending grief and sorrow unabating with the passage of time. For human beings put up with other evils well enough once they become used to them, but as time has gone by, the evils here have only gown worse through the invention of new ones still more intolerable.

15. Well then, in accordance with the procedure, I was with the other bishops who were called together for this very purpose: that I might receive their votes for the laying on of hands.301 The vote,

295 If Araxius, the local bishop who had so recently presided with Gregory at Macrina's funeral and whom he had named, had been the bishop of Ibora, why does Gregory not advert to his identity here? Rather, the credentials of Magnopolis as the seat perhaps of a chorepiscopus might be preferred. It was much nearer

Annisa than was Ibora.

296 ka‹ toË §piskopoËntow aÈthn prosfãtvw ÈpejelyÒntow tÚn b¤on, pandhme‹ prÚw ≤mçw §presbeÊsanto.

297 §peidØ går §genÒmeya katå tÚn PÒnton, i.e. Gregory had journeyed up to Pontus again to help sort out the aﬀairs of Ibora's church.

298 sunerg¤& YeoË.

299 During this mission Gregory installed Pansophius as the bishop of Ibora, who attended the Council of Constantinople in 381 (Mansi, Concilia III, 572A). See

Maraval, 'Un correspondent de Grégoire de Nazianze identiﬁé: Pansophios d'Ibora',

Vigiliae Christianae 42 (1988), 24–26.

300 parå toË plÆyouw t«n Sebasten«n. From this circumstance and the sequel, Diekamp, 'Die Wahl', demonstrated that Gregory wrote the letter from Sebasteia in 380.

301 …w cÆfouw Íp¢r xeiroton¤aw dejÒmenow. Evidently Gregory presided over an electoral synod for the see of Sebasteia, left vacant by the death of Eustathius. Here

the pasquali collection alas, was for me.302 Yes, wretched I, in my naiveté, was taken by my own feathers!303 16. Thereupon dissensions broke out, pressures were brought to bear, tears, fallings at the feet, takings into custody, a military detachment, and the count himself appointed over them campaigning against us304 and moving the authority of the governor against us and assembling every pretext for this tyranny against us, until we were cast into the evils of Babylon (cf. 2 Kg 25).305

17. With them there was so great a contrast in what concerns the faith with those of olden times, that in their case, the disease only entrenched itself and became harder to dislodge. Their malady made war against those who were attempting to cure it. 18. They were ignorant moreover, and in their speech306 rougher in voice and in their manner wilder than barbarians, and so practised in inventiveness for evil in the stealthy manner of wild beasts, that with them he is acting as scrutineer of the votes. Much remedial work was needed in the Church in Sebasteia. It had been a centre of ecclesiastical trouble for most of the 370s due to Eustathius' arianizing politics, his collaboration with the emperor Valens, and his hardened attitude to everything that Basil and the Cappadocian Neo-nicenes represented.

302 This was potentially uncanonical. The transfer of a bishop from one see to another was forbidden by canon 15 of the Council of Nicaea. The principle would be made a pretext in the following year (381) for ousting Gregory Nazianzen from Constantinople. Yet some canons did provide for exceptions to be made in the interests of the church. See the long discussion of 4th cent. canonical provisions in Diekamp, 'Die Wahl', 394–400.

303 to›w §mautoË ptero›w èliskÒmenow, an allusion to Aeschylus' lost play, The Myrmidons, where an eagle, shot by an arrow, sees its feathering on the arrow and says: tãdÉ oÈx ÍpÉ êllvn, éllå to›w aÍt«n ptero›w èliskÒmeya—'so we are taken, not by others', but by our own feathers.' See Stefan Radt, Tragicorum Graecorum

Fragmenta, vol. 3, Aeschylus, (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck Ruprecht, 1985), Fr. 139, pp

252–256. The survival of the fragment attests it was a famous saying; Basil himself seems to allude to it in the Great Asketikon Longer Responses 28.1.

304 Does this mean, paradoxically, that he acted to enforce the election against Gregory's will?

305 This refers to the capture and deportation to Babylon of the people of Jerusalem

(2 Kg 25), with the Babylonians as the ﬁgure of the Sebasteians. Gregory is taken into (protective? coercive?) custody, from where he writes the present letter. The trouble is still unresolved at the time of writing. Pasquali marks a lacuna at this point, though Maraval thinks the existing text can be accounted for.

306 The reference is to Armenian. The population of Armenia Minor was a mix of both Greek speakers and Armenian speakers, which would have been especially evident at a congress of bishops and people from all parts of the province. See

Diekamp, 'Die Wahl', 391. Gregory is being polite here by not naming the Armenians as such. Gregory Nazianzen, in his Eulogy on Basil, Oration 43.17 is more straightforward: 'I do not ﬁnd the Armenians a candid race, but too secretive and crafty.'

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it was not so much a case of an Archimedes,307 as of a Sisyphus or a Cercyon or a Sceiron,308 or some other such characters we hear about in the histories, who were always readier with falsehood than with any truth.

Such is their shamelessness, so bold their lying that they obstruct those who insist on the truth in this matter. With them, to be rebuked for the worst vices becomes an occasion of popularity with the crowd.

Indeed, arrogance and roughness and callousness and uncouthness of speech are considered to be political savvy309 and some sort of love of the good.

Conclusion 19. We have avoided a letter of immoderate length and set out for you these few events out of many, that you might not judge our present delay in writing as indiﬀerence on our part. For how is it possible for one in these circumstances to bear it equably when his own name is bandied about? 20. But if, all the same, you would like us to devote more time to these matters at a later stage, lend me yourself above all and the time for us to come together—provided the 'lotus' of the city310 does not charm you more than our aﬀection. But if aﬀairs overwhelm you there—for I hear that your whole church detains you—you shall ﬁght with us well enough if you beg from God some release from the evils that assail us. Then perhaps, if God grants it and such leisure ever comes our way, we shall not be reckoned as contributing nothing to the common good.

Letter 20 To Adelphius the scholasticus311 The addressee is the same Adelphius to whom Gregory Nazianzen wrote his letter 204 and perhaps also Libanius his letter 1049 (or 969). In 307 His inventiveness was of the empirical and useful kind.

308 Sisyphus, king of Corinth, is called in Iliad 6.145–155 'most crafty of men'.

His name was a byword for cunning. Cercyon and Sceiron were brigands put to death by Theseus.

309 politismÚw, alternatively, 'urbanity', 'elegance', 'politesse'. There are undertows of Plato's censure of Athenian 'democracy' here, as being nothing better than ochlocracy, irrationality and an appeal to lower instincts.

310 With reference to the 'lotus-eaters', Homer, Odyssey 9.93 ﬀ.

311 Mss.: PF; ed.: GNO 8.2, 68–72, tr.: Letter 15, NPNF 2nd Ser. vol. 5, 539–540.

the pasquali collection Nazianzen's letter Adelphius appears as a cultivated man of high social rank, probably a pagan, but not indisposed to Christianity and its worthy representatives. That impression is corroborated here. A sxolastikÒw was a kind of legal oﬃcer in the imperial service. This is partly supported at the end of the letter where Gregory addresses him as logiÒthti, 'your eloquence'. Adelphius became a consular Galatiae in the year 392.

Gregory writes this letter ostensibly on the ﬁrst day of a visit to Adelphius' country estate at Vanota on the River Halys, a day's journey west of Caesarea. Gregory could have easily fulﬁlled this invitation at any time on one of his journeys between Nyssa and Caesarea. It is diﬃcult to date precisely, but 379 seems reasonable, since Gregory's literary career was underway in that year and he was often in Caesarea that year.

The letter is a study in literary art oﬀered as a courteous compliment to Gregory's absent host, the same type of gift of which he speaks in letter 4.3. In stylistic terms it comprises one long ecphrasis or graphic description, in this case of Adelphius' country estate. To establish a mood of shared light intimacy, Gregory defaults to the common cultural stock of the upper classes: the traditional topoi of a classical education. To judge from the absence of any scriptural citation or mark of Christian piety in this letter,

Adelphius was either not a Christian, or at best a nominal catechumen.

The oratory to the Martyrs Gregory mentions here may have been at the entrance of the town rather than on the estate, or if within the estate, sponsored by Adelphius for his Christian workers and the local populace.

Pasquali312 compares at length the villa described here with the Roman country villas described by Pliny the Younger in Letters 2.17 and 5.6.

Friedrich Müller313 however, considers that the description is of more of a speciﬁcally Greek type of villa with a peristyle rather than a Roman villa with a traditional atrium. He reconstructs the plan of the forecourt, showing an entry at one corner of a triangular portico which surrounds a triangular pool; the house is along one side of the triangle immediately facing the entrance.314

To Adelphius the Scholasticus315 1. I write you this letter from the sacred Vanota,316 if I do not do the place an injustice by naming it in the local dialect—do the place

312 Pasquali, Le Lettere, 125ﬀ.

313 'Der Zwanzigste Brief des Gregors von Nyssa', Hermes 74 (1939), 66–91.

314 See also J. J. Rossiter, 'Roman villas in the Greek East and the Villa in Gregory of Nyssa Ep. 20', Journal of Roman Archaeology 2 (1989), 101–110.

315 toË aÈtoË prÚw éd°(lfion) sxolastikÒn P; toË aÈtoË §p¤stola¤: œn ± paroËsa prÚw éd°lfion sxolastikÒn F.

316 §k t«n ﬁer«n OÈan≈tvn. According to Nicole Thierry, 'Avanos–Venasa, Cappadoce', Geographica Byzantina H. Ahrweiler (ed.) Byzantinia Sorbonensia-3 (Paris:

Publications de la Sorbonne, 1981), 119–29, Vanota is be identiﬁed with modern Avanos, two days' staging posts to the south-east of Nyssa, one day's staging post

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Forecourt of Adelphius' Villa, letter 20.

the pasquali collection an injustice, I mean, because the name lacks elegance. For indeed this Galatian317 title does not hint at the loveliness318 of such a place.

It has need of the eye to appreciate its loveliness. 2. For though I have till now seen many things—yes, in many places—and have also apprehended many things through the word-pictures in the accounts of the ancient writers, I consider that all I have seen and all I have heard a trumpery in comparison with the beauty here. 3. Your

Helicon319 is nothing, the Isles of the Blest320 are a fable, the Sicyonian plain321 is a triﬂe. The accounts of the Peneius are another poetic exaggeration—that river which they say overﬂows the banks on its sides and so with its rich current fertilizes for the Thessalians their far-famed plains.322 4. Why, what beauty is there in any of these places mentioned that Vanota does not also unfold before us in its own beauties? Whether one seek the natural loveliness of the place, it does not need any of the arts of beautiﬁcation, or looks to what has been added by artiﬁce, so much has been done and done so well that they are able even to improve the deﬁciencies of nature.

5. The gifts with which nature favours the place as it adorns the land with unstudied grace are these: down below, the river Halys west of Caesarea, on the river Halys. See also M. Coindoz and Chr. Jouvenot,

'Avanos vu par Grégoire de Nysse au IVv siècle', Dossiers Histoire et Archéologie 121

(1997), 28–29 with photographs of the site. Gregory uses the pagan term ﬂerÒw, not the more Christian term ëgiow, since Vanota had been the centre of a major

Cappadocian cult to Zeus, second in importance only to the cult at Comana. See W. M. Ramsay, The Church in the Roman Empire before AD 170, 2nd ed. London 1893,

443–464. Vanota is also the 'Venasa' of Gregory Nazianzen's Letters 246–248 concerning the strange doings of the deacon Glycerius at the Christian synod which seems to be supplanting the pagan festival there.

317 Gregory testiﬁes to the continuance of 'Galatian', presumably a Celtic language. Athough Vanota is in Cappadocia, the Galatian language seems to have spread east along the Halys valley. Jerome, In Epist. ad Gal. II, PL 26, 379B, reports the persistence of the language.

318 xãriw, (lit. 'grace'), a favourite word in Gregory's vocabulary.

319 A long mountain ridge in SW Boeotia, famed for the sanctuary to the Muses in a glen near its summit. See Pausanias, Descriptions of Greece 9.28–31. Pasquali

(GNO 8.2, 69) also gives a reference to Menander 7.30.

320 Situated at the ends of the earth, the resort of the 'fourth race' of demi-gods and heroes. See Hesiod, Works and Days 170 ﬀ., Pindar Olympian Odes 2.69–74.

321 Sicyon, a town originally situated at the foot of a triangular acropolis to the west of Corinth, and known for its fertile plains by the sea, long endured as a centre of artistic production. See Aristophanes Birds 968; Athenaius Learned Banquet

5.219a; Diodoros Sikylos World History 8.21.; Libanius mentions it in Letter 374; see further Pasquali's note in GNO 8.2, 69.

322 Gregory may be alluding to the account in Herodotus, Hist. 7.129, but cf. also Euripides Troades 214; 'Homer' Batrachomyomachia 841; Horace Odes 1.7.11.

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with its banks beautiﬁes the place, gleaming like a golden ribbon on a deep purple robe, by reddening its current with the soil.323 6. Up above, a thickly wooded mountain extends itself along a great ridge,324 covered on all sides with oaks, worthy of ﬁnding some Homer to sing its praises beyond that of Ithacan Neritus, which the poet calls

'far-seen with quivering leaves'.325 7. But the native forest, in descending the hill-side meets at its foot the work of husbandry. For immediately vines spread out over the slopes and ﬂanks and hollows at the mountain's base, cladding all the lower region with colour as with a green mantle. In this climate the season has also enhanced the scene, displaying the divinely sweet treasure of its grapes, which rather surprised me, because the neighbouring country was displaying its fruit still unripe, whereas here it was possible to enjoy the grapes and take one's ﬁll of their ripeness as much as one wished.

8. Then from afar, like some ﬂare on a great beacon-tower, the loveliness of the buildings shone out upon us. On the left as we entered was the oratory326 which is being built to the martyrs. Its structure was not yet complete, for it still lacks a roof, yet it was resplendent all the same. 9. Straight ahead of us on the road were the beauties of the house, one part marked oﬀfrom another by some elegant contrivance, the projections of the towers and a banquet in preparation among the wide and high-arched rows of plane-trees which crowned the entrance before the gates.

Then lying around the buildings are the Phaeacian gardens—10. but let not the beauties of Vanota be insulted by comparison with those. Homer never saw 'the apple with shining fruit'327 that we have seen here, which approaches the hue of its own blossom in the high colour of its skin. He never saw a pear whiter than newly-polished ivory. 11. And what is one to say of the fruit of the peach-tree,328 its variety and its many forms mingled and synthesized from diﬀerent strains? For just as those who paint 'goat-stags' and 'centaurs' and 323 In fact, its modern name, Kizil Irmak, means 'red river.'

324 Identiﬁed by Thierry ('Avanos–Venasa', 122) as Idis Dag, 1584 m., though now it is without forest cover.

325 Homer, Odyssey 9.22.

326 §uktÆriow o‚kon, or 'house for prayer'.

327 Homer, Odyssey 7.115.

328 t∞w Persik∞w Ùp≈raw. One gains the impression that Gregory is speaking of the entire prunus genus, the stone-fruits. I myself marvelled at the size and colour of the peaches during a visit to Turkey in 2003.

the pasquali collection the like commingle things of diﬀerent kinds, making themselves wiser than nature,329 so it is with this fruit. Nature tyrannized by art makes one into an almond, another into a walnut, yet another into a clingfruit,330 mingled alike in name and in ﬂavour. Yet with all these, each kind noted even more for their number than their beauty. 12.

But I do not think one can describe in words the arrangement of their planting and the artist's orderly proportions, for truly such a marvel belongs to a draughtsman rather than to a tiller of the ground, so readily has nature fallen in with the wishes of those who make these arrangements.

13. Who could describe adequately in words the path under the overhanging vines and the sweet shade of the grapes and the new kind of wall made of lattices where the roses with their shoots and the vines with their trailers intertwine themselves together, making a wall fortiﬁed against attack from the sides, and the cistern of water at the summit of this course, and the ﬁsh being bred there? 14.

Through all this time, these who have charge of your nobility's house were eagerly guiding us around with a kind of easy aﬀability, pointing out to us the details over which you had taken pains, as if they were showing courtesy to yourself through us. 15. There too, one of the lads, like some conjuror, showed us a sight that one does not often come across in nature: for he plunged into the depths and brought up at will whatever ﬁsh he had a mind to. They did not slip away at the ﬁsherman's touch, but were tame and submissive under the artist's hands, like well-trained young dogs.

16. Then they led me to a house where I was to take my rest.

At least, the entrance signalled a house, but when we came inside the doors it was not a house but a portico that received us. The portico was raised aloft to a great height above a deep pool. Lapped by the water, the pavement which supported the portico in a triangular shape331 was like a vestibule to the delights within. 17. Once inside, a house occupied the projection of the triangle straight opposite us.332 It had a lofty roof, lit up on all sides by the sun's rays and decorated with a variety of paintings, so that this spot almost

329 Plato Republic 6.488a (Burnett, Oxford Classical Texts), and Gregory of Nyssa, against Apollinaris GNO 3.1, 214.26, On Perfection GNO 8.1/178.20–22.

330 tÚ dvrãkinon; a term otherwise unattested in Greek, from the Latin duracinum.

331 ≤krÆpiw ≤tØn stoån én°xousa trig≈nƒ t" sxÆmati.

332 tØn toË trig≈nou probolØn died°xeto.

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made us forget what we had previously seen. 18. The house drew us to itself, and again, the portico above the pool was a unique sight.

For the superb ﬁsh would swim up from the depths to the surface, leaping up into the very air like winged things, as if meaning to mock us land creatures. They would display half their form as they tumbled through the air, and plunge again into the depth. 19. Still others, following one another in orderly shoals, were a sight for unaccustomed eyes, while elsewhere one might see another shoal packed in a cluster round a morsel of bread, one pushing aside another, here one leaping up, there another diving down.

21. But even this we were made to forget by the grapes that were brought us in baskets of vine-twigs, by the varied display of fruit, the preparations for lunch, the varied dainties and savoury sauces and sweet-cakes and the drinking of toasts and wine-cups. 22. But now, since we are satisﬁed and inclined to sleep, I have stationed a scribe beside me and have drafted this babbling letter to your eloquence as if in a dream.333 But I pray that I may be able to describe fully to you and those who love you with my own voice and tongue and not with paper and ink the beauties of your home.

Letter 21 To Ablabius the bishop334 ÉAblab¤ƒ is attested before Letter 21 only in F, which also adds §piskÒpƒ

(bishop). Pasquali335 however asserts that the present letter could not have been sent to a bishop, and so cannot be the bishop Ablabius of letter 6.

He was perhaps that sophist whom Gregory Nazianzen exhorted to virtue in Letter 233, and to whom Libanius addressed his letters 921 and 1015.

Compare a similar social situation in letter 9, to Stagirius the Sophist.

Maraval wonders336 whether the Ablabius here is the same to whom the treatise To Ablabius, that there are not three gods was addressed, one manuscript of which notes that he was a monk.

Socrates H.E. 7.12 tells of an orator Ablabius who was ordained a priest by the Novatian bishop Chrysanthus in the reign of Theodosius II, well after the death of Gregory. He later became bishop of the Novations in Nicaea while continuing to teach rhetoric (!). If this is the same Ablabius

333 tª logiÒthti.

334 Mss.: PFb; ed.: GNO 8.2, 73–74; tr.: (curtailed and forged as one of Basil's

Letters): Letter 10, Def. 1.100–103.

335 Pasquali, Le Lettere, p. 84.

336 Lettres, p. 271, n. 4.

the pasquali collection as here, then the identifying suﬃx 'the bishop' was later added anachronistically by scribes.

Maraval thinks that here Gregory is inviting his correspondent to adopt the monastic life, and indeed, Gregory characteristically uses the term ÈchlÒw

(lofty, sublime) elsewhere for the virgin/monastic life, and the evidence for a monastic community in Nyssa in letters 6.10 and 18.5 may be recalled.

In this case 'son' means simply 'protégé', not 'natural son'. Another interpretation is that the letter was sent with Ablabius' natural son, Diogenes, as he returned from Gregory to his father. The name change may signify baptism, i.e. the young man has become a full Christian. He has been

'anointed' in baptism/chrismation with the Spirit of Christ (the 'Anointed') under Gregory's inﬂuence, possibly while pursuing his studies (under Gregory, in Caesarea, up to c. 371?). On Virginity shows a Gregory still practicing as a rhetorician who endeavoured to persuade his students, who had yet to decide on their future, to embrace the life of virginity, i.e. the monastic life under Basil's leadership. In the circles around Basil, the embracing of baptism and commitment to the ascetic life often come to the same thing.

Through his exquisite style, Gregory establishes a fellowship of classical culture with Ablabius, only to courteously invite him to a higher order, that of sharing his son's new faith by becoming a Christian, if not even to becoming a monk. The letter is too brief to be able to propose any ﬁrm dating.

To Ablabius the bishop337 The art of hunting doves goes something like this: when those devoted to such an exercise have caught one dove, they tame her, and make a pet of her. Then they anoint her wings with myrrh and release her to join the others outside. Of its own accord the sweet smell of the myrrh renders the ﬂock tame to the one that was sent forth.

Attracted by the fragrance, the others all ﬂock together after her and so come homing back.338

What then do I mean by beginning in this way? That having anointed the wings of his soul with divine perfume, I send forth to your dignity your son Basil, who was once Diogenes,339 that you too might be joined to him and ﬁnd the nest which he has built with 337 toË aÈtoË éblab¤ƒ §piskÒpƒ F. 'Ablabius' is not found in any other ms.

338 According to Maraval, Lettres 271 n. 5, Gregory is reinterpreting an image found in Geoponicaunder the name of Julius Africanus. It describes a method of keeping the doves in the aviary rather than for hunting as such.

339 b reads: 'that having caught your son Dionysios, who was once Diogenes . . .'.

Christians often assumed a new name at Baptism, a custom later extended to monastic profession.

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us. Were I to see this happen in my lifetime, and your nobility pass to the higher way of life,340 I would complete the thanksgiving due to God.341

Letter 22 To the bishops342 Letters 22 and 23 very likely go back to a prototype copy-book kept by Gregory himself or his immediate assistants. 'For who in a later period would have understood Letter 22, whose meaning no-one realized until

Diekamp? Who would have edited Letter 23, or rather a mere note of introduction?' Pasquali (LXXXII). That this is another letter written in 380 from Sebasteia in the circumstances described in letter 19 was shown for the ﬁrst time by Diekamp, 'Die Wahl Gregors von Nyssa', 400–401. Gregory is still in custody, after the turmoil that broke out at the electoral synod for Sebasteia. It is not clear who are the bishops to whom he writes. Are they a new assembly of Armenian bishops gathered to re-examine Gregory's plight and the whole problem of the episcopal succession in Sebasteia, or perhaps fellow Neo-nicenes beyond Armenia Minor who might be expected to intervene in Gregory's cause, perhaps even with Theodosius?

To the bishops 1. For three days the prophet was conﬁned in the whale, so that even Jonah was worn down (cf. Jon 1.17). Now I have been just as long among the unrepentant Ninevites (cf. Jon 1.2), among whom I am captive as in the bowels of the beast. I have not yet been able to be vomited out of this maw ( Jon 2.10).

2. Pray the Lord, then, to complete his grace (cf. Phil 1.6), that an order for release from this trap might come (cf. Jon 4.11), and that I might regain my own tent and ﬁnd respite beneath it (cf. Jon 4.5).

Letter 23 Without title, on Phaedimus343 Letter 23 is found only in P and in F (i.e. G), Pasquali LXXXII. As in the previous letter, the very slight and incidental character of the note argues for its authenticity. It may have been included almost inadvertently in the copy-book Gregory kept of letters written during his conﬁnement in 340 tÚn ÈchlÒteron b¤on.

341 I.e. for the present circumstance of Diogenes' conversion.

342 Mss.: F; ed.: GNO 8.2, 74.

343 Mss.: PF; ed. GNO 8.2, 74.

the pasquali collection Sebasteia. Here Gregory has hastily written a note of commendation to accompany Phaedimus (otherwise unknown) as he returns to the unnamed addressee, bearing an urgent verbal request from Gregory. By his 'sparing' words here Gregory shows himself as capable of writing a 'laconic' letter as Gregory Nazianzen recommends.

Without title344 I spare you many words, since I spare your labours. Be mindful of your own, and all will go well with Phaedimus.345 There is need of speed in the favour asked: in this is all our plea.346

Letter 24 To Heracleianus the heretic347 Letter 24 survives in only one manuscript, F, Pasquali LXXXII. As we now have it, the letter lacks its original introduction and conclusion; only its theological content has been retained. The Syriac translation of letter

32 was treated in exactly the same way. Similarly letter 31 was shorn of its beginning and only its church disciplinary content and conclusion preserved.

Hence there is no way of verifying the inscription or ascertaining the identity of the addressee. Gregory Nazianzen addressed his letter 97 to a certain Heracleianus whom he had left behind in Constantinople. His friendly tone does not suggest that he is dealing with a known heretic. Yet even the present letter is not marked by a polemical tone. Gregory expects that his correspondent, if he is a heretic, will be open to a calm, succinct and candid exposition of the Neo-nicene faith in the Holy Trinity. From his overriding concern to include the Holy Spirit as one of the Trinity and his concern to rule out Sabellianism, it may be that Heracleianus is being invited to orthodox faith from Pneumatomachian circles.

Maraval348 notes that C. Klock349 dated this letter to the same period as the Against the Macedonians (= Pneumatomachians) because of the similarity

344 toË aÈtoË énep¤grafow F, absent in P.

345 t" Faid¤mƒ, Pasquali considers that the word (adj. 'illustrious') is a person's name, and in support of that cf. the Phaedimus, bishop of Amasea who ordained

Gregory Thaumaturgus to the episcopate (The Life of Gregory Thaumaturgus by Gregory of Nyssa, GNO 10.1, 15A). Jaeger however thinks it may be meant as an adjective and the real name dropped out after it. Gregory puns on the name with use of the verb fe¤domai, 'spare'.

346 The sentence is so elliptical and allusive its interpretation is open to some conjecture.

347 Mss.: F; ed.: GNO 8.2, 75–79.

348 Lettres 279 n. 2.

349 Untersuchungen zu Stil und Rhythmus bei Gregor von Nyssa (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1984),

61, n. 84.

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of themes. T. Ziegler, in an unpublished thesis at Strasbourg in 1987, goes further and places it between Against the Macedonians and Contra Eunomium

III, i.e. in the year 383. On this understanding, Gregory would have met Heracleianus during the council held in Constantinople in 383 which was specially concerned to deal with recalcitrant Eunomians and Pneumatomachians. The discussion of the technical term hypostasis here (cf. letter 5.5c,

8) reads almost as an epitome of its more extended treatment in letter 35.

The twofold distinction of the Christian life into the moral part and the accuracy of the dogmas (24.2) has its antecedents in Basil's teaching. He had been very impressed in his youth by the strict life of Eustathius and his followers. The discovery of his heterodoxy in the 370s led to a clearer realization that a lack of sound faith was of no advantage, however strict one's behaviour. 'neither a strict way of life by itself is of beneﬁt, except it be illumined by faith in God, nor can an orthodox confession, bereft of good works, commend you to the Lord, but both of these must go together, that the man of God may be perfect' Letter 294. Gregory maintains this twofold distinction, only he maintains that the soundness of faith is the governing part of the two (24.3). Hence his bold assertion at the beginning of letter 34.

To Heracleianus the heretic350 1. The word of sound faith (Tit 1.13, 2.2) conveys its strength in simplicity to those who welcome the God-inspired utterances (cf. 2 Tim

3.16) with a good disposition. It has no need of subtle interpretation to assist its truth, since it is able to be grasped and understood in itself from the primary tradition.351 We received it from the Lord's own voice when he imparted352 the mystery of salvation in the washing of regeneration (Tit 3.5). Go, he said, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you (Mt 28.18–20).

2. For by distinguishing two elements in the way of life of Christians, one the moral part353 and the other the accuracy of the dogmas,354 he ﬁrmly established the saving dogma in the tradition of 355 bap350 toË aÈtoË ÑHr. aﬂr. F.

351 §k t∞w pr≈thw parad≈sevw, i.e. the 'tradition' of the dogma of the Holy Trinity given in the 'tradition' of Baptism. The idea of the Trinity is not a development of latter-day theologians but belongs to the ﬁrst transmission of the Christian faith from the mouth of the Lord.

352 paradÒntow, the act of tradition/transmission/passing on/delivering.

353 tÚ ±yikÚn.

354 tØn t«n dogmãtvn ékr¤beian.

355 paradÒsei.

the pasquali collection tism on the one hand, and commanded that our life be remedied through the keeping of his commandments on the other.

3. Now the devil did not interfere with the part concerning the commandments, since it bore a lesser penalty to the soul. But all the zeal of our enemy arose against the governing and greater part356 in order to ensnare the souls of many, so that even if something were rightly done according to the commandments, it would still a gain to him, because those so deceived would be without the help of the great and ﬁrst hope through the error of dogma.

4. For this reason we urge those who are working out their own salvation (Phil 2.12) not to depart from the simplicity of the ﬁrst utterances of the faith, but as they welcome Father, Son and Holy Spirit into the soul, not to suppose that these are so many names of a single hypostasis.357 For it is not possible that the Father be called his own Father,358 for the title is not validly transferred from his own

Son to the Father, or to suppose that the Spirit is not one of those named359 so that by addressing the Spirit the hearer is led to the thought of both Father and Son.360

The hypostasis individually and exclusively signiﬁed by each of the names corresponds361 to the titles accorded them. Thus when we heard 'the Father' we have heard the cause of all;362 when we learnt of 'the Son' we were taught the power shining forth from the ﬁrst cause for the upholding of all things (cf. Heb 1.3); when we acknowledged 'the Spirit', we understood the power that perfects all things brought into being through creation by the Father through the Son.363

356 I.e. the moral life of Christians cannot be severed from dogma and liturgy.

357 'Modalism', the position of Marcellus of Ancyra, was fostered in part by a certain lack of clarity as to the relative meanings of ousia and hypostasis. At the irenic council presided over by Athanasius in 372, the confusion was admitted. It was not long before the Neo-nicene front formed, under Basil's leadership, which made a point of deﬁning the two terms, which position eventually triumphed in the Council of Constantinople, 381.

358 I.e. if the Father and Son were one hypostasis, the Father would be identical with the Son, and so be paradoxically named as his own Father. The distinction between the hypostases is precisely in their relations.

359 I.e. the position of the pneumatomachoi, a late variant of homoiousianism, led by Eustathius of Sebasteia, which baulked at according divine status to the Spirit.

360 Thus in a wonderful way, the human subject is led by beginning with the Spirit through the Trinitiarian relations to the Father and the Son.

361 sunupakoÊetai. There is a liturgical resonance in the image here.

362 toË pãntow aﬁt¤an.

363 §k toË pãtrow diå toË ÈioË, the classic formulation of the Greek Fathers for

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5. The hypostases therefore are distinguished from each other without confusion364 in the manner described, that is, of Father and of Son and of Holy Spirit.

But their substance,365 whatever this is—for it is inexpressible in words and cannot be grasped in thought366—is not divided up according to some diﬀerentiation367 of nature. Therefore that which is incomprehensible, inconceivable, ungraspable368 by reasonings369 is the same in each of the persons370 of the Trinity in whom we believe.

6. But if one is asked what the Father is according to substance, anyone rightly and truly disposed will confess that the object of enquiry transcends knowledge. So also concerning the Only-begotten

Son ( Jn 1.14): his substance shall not be categorized by any word that can possibly be comprehended, for who, it says, shall recount his generation? (Is 53.8, Acts 8.33). It is likewise with the Holy Spirit, who is equally unable to be comprehended, which the word of the Lord shows when he says: You hear his voice; but you do not know where he comes from or where he goes ( Jn 3.8).

7. Accordingly we understand that there is no diﬀerence whatever in the incomprehensibility of the three persons.371 One is not more incomprehensible and another less, but in the Trinity the principle of incomprehensibility is one. For this reason, guided by this very incomprehensibility and inconceivability, we say that there is no diﬀerence in substance to be found in the Holy Trinity apart from the order of persons and the confession of the hypostases. The order is handed down in the Gospel, according to which faith372 begins from the Father, passes by means of the Son and ends in the the relation of the Spirit to the Father and the Son within the divine Trinity. For something approximating the doctrine behind the western ﬁlioque, cf. letter 34.

364 ésugxÊtvw épÉ éllÆlvn diakexvrism°nai.

365 oÈs¤a. Thus Gregory is implicitly saying the Spirit is homoousios with Father and Son.

366 élÆptow.

367 •terÒthta, otherness, diﬀerence.

368 ékatãlhpton . . . éperinÒhton . . . éperidrakton. The three terms are fairly synonymous. The present discussion of the Trinity tests the apophatic limits of language.

369 log¤smoiw. Eunomian rationalism is the target.

370 §n tª triãdi pepisteum°nvn pros≈pvn. Gregory uses prosopon as a synonym of hypostasis.

371 I.e. in their divine essence.

372 ≤p¤stiw.

the pasquali collection Holy Spirit. But the distinction of persons that appears in the very order of the hypostases that has been handed down does not beget confusion in those capable of following the meaning of the word, since the title of the Father manifests its own sense,373 and again that of the Son, and that of the Holy Spirit its own too, the signiﬁcations in no way becoming confused with each other.

8. Hence we are baptized as it has been handed down to us, into Father and Son and Holy Spirit, and we believe as we are baptized374— for it is ﬁtting that our confession be of one voice with our faith— and we give glory375 as we believe, for it is not natural that worship376 make war against faith, but as we believe, so also we give glory.377

9. Now since our faith is in Father and Son and Holy Spirit, faith, worship378 and baptism (cf. Eph 4.5) accord with each other. For this reason the glory of Father, Son and Holy Spirit is not diﬀerentiated.

10. The very glory which we render to its own nature is none else than the confession of those goods379 (cf. Mt 19:17) which are proper to the majesty of the divine nature. For we do not have the capacity to add honour to the nature transcending all honour,380 but fulﬁl the honour by confessing its proper qualities. 11. Because incorruptibility, eternity, immortality, goodness, power, holiness, wisdom, every majestic and sublime conception belong to each of the persons

373 ﬁd¤an ¶nnoian.

374 In short, lex orandi lex credendi est. The liturgical tradition of Baptism seals for the baptized the form of Trinitarian faith. This sourcing of authentic dogma in the baptismal formula was very characteristic of Basil, from his Contra Eunomium to his

On the Holy Spirit 28: 'Faith and Baptism are two inseparably united means of salvation. Faith is perfected in Baptism and the foundation of Baptism is faith. Both are fulﬁlled in the same names. First we believe in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and then we are baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The profession of faith leads to salvation and Baptism follows, sealing our aﬃrmation.'

375 dojãzomen.

376 dÒja, The word can be understood as human opinion or a system of belief.

Here Gregory underscores the necessary interdependence of worship and faith, of doxology and dogma.

377 This paragraph uses Basil's phraseology. See Basil, Letter 125, Def. 2.258–271 at 269, Letter 175, Def 2.456–459 at 457 and On the Holy Spirit 26.

378 dÒja, clearly means doxology.

379 égay«n. Gregory combines the philosophical notion of God as the 'supreme good' with the Gospel testimony that God alone is good. Thus the title of 'the good' is acknowledged as proper to each of the hypostases in the Trinity. Cf. Basil,

Homily on Ps 33 (PG 29.368B) and GNyssa, The Life of Moses, 7: 'The Divine is itself the good, whose very nature is goodness.' See the discussion of the various senses of the 'good' as applied to God in Lampe, A Patristic Greek Lexicon, 4.

380 tª étimÆtƒ fÊsei, i.e., beyond price or value, unassessable, inestimable.

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in the Holy Trinity in whom we believe, it is by naming their proper goods in this way that we give the glory.

12. Moreover, since all that the Father has the Son has, and all the goods of the Son are contemplated in the Spirit (cf. Jn 16.15, 17.10), we do not ﬁnd in the Holy Trinity any inherent distinction in the sublimity of the glory.381 To take a bodily comparison, one thing is not loftier and another lowlier since that which is unseen and without form is not comprehended by measurement. So also with power or goodness, no critical diﬀerence is found in the Holy Trinity such that one could say there is among them a variation (cf. Jm 1.17) between 'more' and 'less'.

Anyone who says that the one is mightier382 than the other tacitly confesses that the one of lesser power is weaker than the one more powerful. This bears the stamp of grossest impiety—to conceive of some weakness or powerlessness, whether in smaller or greater degree, concerning the only-begotten God ( Jn 1.18) and concerning the Spirit of God. For the word of the truth hands it down that both the Son and the Spirit are perfect in power and goodness and incorruptibility and in all the sublime conceptions. 13. If we piously confess the perfection of all good in each of the persons in the Holy

Trinity in whom we believe, we cannot at the same time say that it is perfect and again call it imperfect by introducing scales of comparison. For to say that there is a lesser with regard to the measure of power or goodness is nothing else than to aﬃrm that in this respect it is imperfect. Therefore if the Son is perfect and the Spirit is also perfect, reason does not conceive a perfect 'less perfect' or 'more perfect' than the perfect.

14. But we also learn the indivisibility of the glory from the operations.383 The Father gives life, as the gospel says ( Jn 5.21) and the Son also gives life ( Jn 5.21). But the Spirit also gives life according to the testimony of the Lord who says that it is the Spirit who gives life ( Jn

6.63). 15. We therefore ought to understand that this power begins384 from the Father, issues385 through the Son, and is perfected386 in the 381 tÚ Ôcow t∞w dÒjhw. Cf. GNyssa Contra Eunomium GNO 1.1, 120.10ﬀ.

382 ﬁsxurÒteron.

383 §nerge¤ai, or 'activities', 'energies'. Cf. the deﬁnition of energeia in letter 34.

384 érxom°nhn.

385 proÛoËsan.

386 teleioum°nhn.

the pasquali collection Holy Spirit, for we have learned that all things are from God, and that all is established through (cf. Jn 1.2, 10) and in the only-begotten (cf. Heb 1.3), and that the power of the Spirit pervades all things

(cf. 1 Cor 12.11) working387 all things in everyone (1 Cor 12.6) as he wills (1 Cor 12.11), as the Apostle says.

Letter 25 To Amphilochius388 This letter is written to Gregory Nazianzen's ﬁrst cousin, St Amphilochius, who in 373 became bishop and metropolitan of Iconium. The letter oﬀers remarkable insight into the contemporary architecture of a martyrion and also into relations between management and skilled labour. The opening phrase indicates that there has already been previous communication on the subject. Now that Gregory has decided to go ahead with the project, he asks Amphilochius to act on his behalf and procure just the right number of suitable workers in Ancyra, some 160 km distant, because he is not satisﬁed with those available in his own district.

Scholars who have devoted attention to this famous letter include Markell Restle389 and Christoph Klock.390 Reconstructions of the plan appear in several of these articles. Restle's plan is simpliﬁed by Nicole Thierry in La

Cappadoce de l'antiquité au Moyen Âge (Turnhout: Brepols, 2002), on p. 85.

She compares it to the Church at Barata which also features an octagonal tower with arms of the cross coming out from four of the eight sides of the octagon, with blind arches visible outside in the diagonal sides of the octagon. The description here of the external structure of a martyrion is complemented by Gregory's description of the interior adornment of the martyrion at Euchaita, In Praise of Theodore the blessed martyr.391

Gregory Nazianzen also describes in Oration 18.39392 the octagonal church with a central vault built by his father at Nazianzus. Compare also the 387 §nergoËsan, harking back to the 'energies' with which this paragraph begins.

388 Mss.: F; ed.: GNO 8.2, 79–83; tr.: Letter 16, NPNF 2nd Ser. vol. 5, 540–541.

389 Studien zur frühbizantinischen Architecture Kappadokiens, Kommission für die Tabula

Imperii Byzantini, Band 3 (Wien: Denkschriften der Österreischichen Akademie der

Wissenschaft, 1979), p. 75, ﬁg 142.

390 'Architektur im Dienste der Heiligenverehrung: Gregor von Nyssa als Kirchenbauer (Ep. 25)', The Biographical Works of Gregory of Nyssa, Proceedings of the Fifth International Colloquium on Gregory of Nyssa, ed. Andreas von Spira (Cambridge Mass.,

1984), 161–180. For earlier bibliography see Maraval, Lettres p. 290, n. 1 and 291, n. 2.

391 GNO Sermones Pars II, vol. 10, Tomus I (Leiden: Brill, 1990), 61–71 at 63.

392 For analysis and reconstructions see A. Birnbaum 'De Templo Nazianzeno a Gregorio Theologo descripto', Eos 13 (1907), 30–39, and 'die Oktagone von Antiochia,

Nazianz und Nyssa: Rekonstruktionseversuche, Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 36

(1913), 181–209, and C. Mango, The Art of the Byzantine Empire 312–1453 (Eaglewood

Cliﬀs N.J.: 1972), 26–27.

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Groundplan of Octagonal Martyrion, letter 25.

the pasquali collection description of an octagonal church built at Pedachthoe near Sebasteia in the early 4th century.393

The present author visited several sites connected with the Cappadocian Fathers in March 2006. The 'Red Church' about a kilometre from the village of Sivrihisar and marking the location of Arianzus, is clearly very ancient, perhaps as old as the 6th century. It masonry was of high quality and stable enough to have lasted for many centuries. It features a central octagon, internally a dome on squinches (the 'Armenian squinch' a widespread expedient for constructing a dome before the invention of the dome on pendentives). Octagonal towers with conical caps which internally are domes on squinches continued as an architectural trope in the Christian era throughout Armenia and Georgia, and in the Islamic era under the Seljuks. To cite just one example: the centre of Kayseri (Caesarea) is fairly studded with such structures. Most of them are kumbeti or tombs. One, today a museum, even had a cruciform plan on the scale of Gregory's martyrion, but this time the octagon/dome was on pendentives, so there was no space for diagonal sides in between the quadrilateral structures.

Restle394 connects Gregory's indictment for ﬁnancial irregularities in 375/376 with the expenses incurred in the project outlined here, and on this basis would date the letter to 373–375. But Maraval is not convinced, doubting that Gregory would publish a letter that would recall the old accusations made against him. Besides, this letter scarcely shows a Gregory of a mind to be reckless with ﬁnances! He is guided here by the necessity of keeping to what is aﬀordable and of keeping strict accounts.

As to dating, we will follow Maraval, who simply assigns the letter to the period of Gregory's ascendancy, i.e. after 381.

To Amphilochius395 1. I am now persuaded that by God's grace the project of the martyrion is well in hand. May it ﬁnd your favour! The task we have in hand will attain its end by God's power who is able whenever he speaks to translate word into deed. Since, as the Apostle says He who has begun a good work will also perfect it (Phil 1.6) I pray you: be an imitator of the great Paul396 in this too, and lead our hopes forward to the deed by sending us as many workers as are needed for the task.

393 In Passio Athenogenis 13 (La Passion inédite de S. Athénogène de Pédachtoé en Cappadoce ed. P. Maraval, Subsidia Hagiographica 75 (Brussels, 1990), 20–85.

394 Op. cit., p. 80.

395 toË aÈtoË émfilox¤ƒ F.

396 Amphilochius is bishop of a church founded by St Paul himself (Acts 14.1–3, Gal 1.8–11).

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2. May your perfection grasp the dimensions by which the whole task shall be calculated by means of an estimate. To this end I will try to explain to you the whole plan in a verbal description.

3. The form of the oratory is that of a cross, accomplished, as you would expect, by four structures all around. But the joints of the structures ‹do not›397 overlap each another as we see in the cruciform pattern elsewhere. Instead, there lies within the cross a circle, divided into eight angles—I call the octagonal ﬁgure a circle because of its perimeter—in such a way that the four sides of the octagon which diametrically face each another link the central circle by means of arches to the four adjacent structures. 4. The four other sides of the octagon which lie between the quadrilateral structures will not themselves be extended to form structures,398 but attached to each of them will be a semicircular structure in the form of a shell399 terminating in an arch above. Thus there will be eight arches in all by which the parallel quadrilateral and semicircular structures will be joined, side by side, in the middle.

5. Further in from the diagonal piers400 there shall stand an equal number of columns, both for ornament and for strength. These also shall bear arches over them fashioned to match in size those on the outside. 6. But above these eight arches, by means of a tier of windows placed over them, the octagonal structure will be raised to the height of four cubits.401 What rises from that level will be shaped conically like a spinning-top, as the form of the vault402 tapers the opening from a wide span to a sharp point.403

397 The negation is very plausibly restored by Klock, 'Architektur im Dienste der

Heiligenverehrung', 167; it makes sense of the strong adversative, élla, with which the sentence begins and with the subsequent data.

398 oÈde aÈta‹ katå tÚ sunej¢w eﬁw ˆikouw épotayÆsontai. Gregory means that the diagonal 'sides' between the arms of the cross will not be extended into small

'naves' as it were, but be completed simply by semicircular 'apses' or niches.

399 koxloeid«w, i.e. oyster-shell, i.e. the diagonal arches are not quite 'blind' arches, but are hollowed out as a 'semi-circular structure', as in a small apse or niche.

400 pess«n, the mass of the walls as they converge on the central space centre at the eight points of the octagon. They are to have eight columns placed in front of them facing the central space.

401 About 1.85 m. (Maraval 292, n. 2).

402 eﬁlÆsevw, or perhaps 'vortex'.

403 Thus the structure is capped by an octagonal pyramid, in the manner that became so characteristic of eastern Anatolian architecture for centuries. See Thierry, op. cit., Chapitre VIII 'Architecture Religieuse' 77–95. Photographs of churches with octagonal towers over squinches appear 85–87; see especially p. 85 'la plan

the pasquali collection 7. As to the dimensions below, the width of each of the quadrilateral structures will be eight cubits, their length half as much again,404 the height as much as the proportion of the width allows.

8. It will also be as much in the semicircular structures. The distance between the piers extends in the same way to eight cubits. As far as the sweep of the compass describes, with its point ﬁxed in the middle of the side and extended to its furthest limit, this will be its breadth.405 The height will be determined in this case also by the proportion of the width. 9. And the thickness of the wall, beyond the spaces measured internally, is three feet,406 running around the whole building.

10. I have overwhelmed your goodness with such detail for a purpose, that you may be able to estimate accurately the total number of square feet from the thickness of the walls and the internal spaces.

Because your intellect is versatile in all matters and succeeds by God's grace in whatever direction you choose, you will be able, by a ﬁne calculation, to estimate the sum compounded of all the parts, and so send us neither more nor fewer stonemasons than our need requires. 11. And, please, I draw your attention especially to this point, that some of them be skilled in making a vault without wooden framework, for I am informed that when it is built in this way it is more durable than when made to rest on beams. It is the scarcity of wood that leads us to this method of rooﬁng the whole fabric with stone, since there is no timber for rooﬁng in the vicinity.

12. Let your truthful soul be aware that some here were negotiating407 with me to furnish thirty workers for a gold piece408 for dressed stonework—with, of course, a stipulated ration along with reconstitué du Martyrium de Nysse (d'après Restle 1979)'. See also Christina Maranci,

Medieval Armenian Architecture (Leuven: Peeters, 2001), diagrams on pp. 38, 54, and especially 'The "Original" Armenian Church Form', 86–97 and the photographs of the Church at Mastara, 89.

404 About 3.9 m. x 5.75 m. (Maraval 293, n. 4).

405 I am not sure whether this means that the distance from mid-side to the end of one of the quadrilateral structures also forms the radius of the octagonal 'circle' in the centre.

406 About 90 cm, a foot being between 29 and 32 cm (Maraval 295, n. 1).

407 Adopting Keil's amendment sunet¤yento, for the sun°yento of F.

408 xrÊsinon = aureus, later called solidus, the standard Roman gold coin; the proposed rate was one gold piece for thirty workers, per day. Cyril Mango, Architecture

Byzantine (Paris, 1981), 27, calculates the annual revenue for a stonemason at 10 solidi, which was well above the annual average wage, at this period, of 5–7 solidi.

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the gold piece. But such preparation of the stones is not possible for us.409 Rather, the material for our building will be clay brick and chance stones, so that there is no need for them to spend time410 on ﬁtting together harmoniously the sides of the stones.

Now, as far as skill and fair dealing in the matter of wages are concerned, I know that the workers in your region are better for our need than those that can be hired here. 13. The stonecutters' task is not only for the eight pillars, which need to be adorned with a beautiful facing, but the task also requires moulded bases on square plinths,411 and capitals sculpted in the Corinthian style. 14. The porch too will be of marble ﬁnished with suitable ornament. The doorways that are placed upon them will be adorned with the kind of engravings that are customary for beautifying the moulding of the entablature. We shall of course provide the materials for all these.

The form that is to be impressed on the material skill will bestow.

In addition there will also be a surrounding portico of not less than forty pillars,412 these also of stonecutters' work throughout.

15. Now if my account has described the task accurately, may it be possible for your sanctity when you realize the need, to relieve us completely of anxiety concerning the workers. If the worker wants to contract with us, let a deﬁnite measure of work, as far as possible, be ﬁxed each day, lest he pass the time idly, and subsequently, though he has no work to show for it, demands payment for having worked for us for so many days.

16. I know that in being so particular about the contracts we shall seem to many to be nigglers. But please forbear, for that Mammon

(cf. Mt 6.24) which has often heard many hard things from me, has at last betaken himself as far from us as he can go, being disgusted,

409 I.e. ﬁnancially, following Maraval's amendment and Restle's interpretation:

≤m›n d¢ ≤toiaÊth t«n l¤yvn ‹kataskeuh› oÈ pãrestin. Otherwise ≤toiaÊth lacks a corresponding noun. The traditional understanding is 'We do not have such stones available', but as Maraval explains, 296, n. 2, this is clearly not the case, as the very readiness of workers for such a contract, and the work shortly envisaged on the columns and the porch bears witness.

410 And hence costing more money.

411 bvmoeide›w spe¤raw; the spe›ra is the moulding at the base of a column, in Latin the torus.

412 This detail suggests dedication to the Forty Martyrs of Sebasteia, with whom

Gregory and his family long had connections (see letter 1 and notes). See C. Klock

(cited above) 161, and Maraval, Lettres 298 n. 2.

the pasquali collection I suppose, at the nonsense that is constantly directed against him, and has fortiﬁed himself against us by an unbridgeable gulf—I mean, poverty—so that neither can he come to me, nor can I pass over to him (Lk 16.26). That is why I so stress the fair dealing of the workmen, so that we may be able to ﬁnish the task before us unhindered by poverty—that laudable and desirable evil.

17. There is in all this of course a certain element of jest. Yet when you negotiate with the men, O man of God, promise boldly as far as it is possible and lawful, that they will meet with fair dealing from us and be paid their full wages: for we shall give all and keep nothing back, in the same way that, through your prayers, God also opens to us his hand of blessing.

Letter 26 From the sophist Stagirius to Gregory413 Letters 26–28 are also transmitted in the corpus of Basil's letters. The present letter appears in a truncated form as Letter 347, 'Libanius to Basil'

(Def. 4.314–315). Paul Maas discovered letters 26–28 in their original form, attributed to Gregory and Stagirius, in codex P.414 Pasquali (LXX) does not hesitate to call the one who insinuated these letters among Basil's letters a 'forger'.

Stagirius is also the addressee of letter 10. He is a sophist, i.e. rhetorician who has found a position as a scholasticus, perhaps one of Gregory's colleagues in his old profession. He is possibly not a Christian, since he and Gregory resort to a shared Hellenism to establish their aﬃnity. Here

Stagirius appears to allude playfully to Gregory's controversial manner in the Contra Eunomium, which would date the exchange of letters to 382 or later.

From the sophist Stagirius to Gregory the bishop415 1. All bishops are creatures diﬃcult to catch in a net.416 But you, to the extent that you have surpassed the others in eloquence, also inspire a fear that you may somehow prove staunch against my

413 Mss.: PL; ed.: GNO 8.2, 83–84.

414 Berliner Sitzungsberichte (1912) 988–998, 1118; see Pasquali IX, LXXXVI.

415 As preserved in P; Libãniow Basile¤ƒ L.

416 Pçw m¢n §p¤skopow dusgrip¤ston prçgma. dusgr¤pison is a hapax, the meaning of which, according to Maraval (301, n. 3), is not 'grasping', but 'hard to take in a net'. In other words, all bishops are slippery ﬁsh, hard to pin down. The tone is one of light jesting.

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request. 2a. But now, dear sir, do lay aside your expertise in counterargument417 and apply yourself to the mode of generosity.

2b. Since we are in need of rafters with which to roof the house— though another sophist would have said 'joists' or 'stakes', preening himself with ﬁne little words rather than accommodating himself to the need—do give your nod to the gift of several hundred. 2c. Of course, if you wanted to cut them from Paradise, you have the power to do so.418 But I, unless you furnish them, shall spend the winter in the open air.

2d. So do be large-hearted dear sir, and send a letter to the presbyter of Osiana419 ordering the gift.420

Letter 27 Reply of holy Gregory to the sophist421 This letter is a response to the preceding one. Here Gregory amply returns

Stagirius' jesting in kind. The whole letter is a study in light irony. He ends by reporting that Dios, evidently the parish priest of Osiana, has undertaken to fulﬁl Strategius' request for building materials.

Reply of holy Gregory to the sophist 422 1. If 'making a gain' is called 'catching in a net', and the expression has this meaning which your sophistic power has selected for us from the secret sanctuary of Plato,423 consider, dear sir, who is

417 This possibly refers to Gregory's polemic against Eunomius. The sentence is absent in L.

418 A droll reference to Gregory's sacred powers as bishop?

419 prÚw tÚnÉOsihn«n presbÊteron. Osiana (or Osiena) was the ﬁrst staging post on the road from Nyssa to Caesarea—GNO 8.2, 84, note. Today it is Esksehir

(oﬃcially Ovaören), forty miles due west of Nevsehir. See F. Hild & M. Restle Tabula Imperii Byzantini, II. Kappadokien, 250–251, with a plan of the ruins. This detail disproves Libanius' authorship. He never took up residence in Osiana!

420 This last sentence is also missing in L. Like the omission previously noted, it was a topical reference edited out by the forger to facilitate the inclusion of the letter in the Basil/Libanius corpus.

421 Mss.: PL; ed.: GNO 8.2, 84–85, appearing among Basil's letters: Letter 348, 'Basil to Libanius', Def. 4.314–317. See the previous letter for notes on textual transmission.

422 As preserved in P; Basile¤ow Libãniƒ L.

423 grip¤stein is not found, as such, in Plato, and Gregory knows it. He returns

Stagirius' jesting, mocking his term and his rhetorical art, by aﬀecting to think he culled it from some unknown work of Plato's. The banter of these letters is in the style of the lighter part of Plato's dialogues, e.g. addressing each other as Œ yaumãsie.

the pasquali collection less likely to be taken in a net,424 we, who are staked in so nimbly by your epistolary power,425 or the race of sophists, whose art consists in levying a toll upon words? 2. For who among the bishops has imposed a tax on his words? Who has made his disciples pay fees? But this is what sophists plume themselves on, putting up their own wisdom as merchandise just as the harvesters of honey do with their honey-combs.

3. You see what you are doing with the mysterious, musical power of your words? You have roused even me, an old man, to skip about and yes, you stir those who do not know how to dance, to dance!

4. But I have ordered to be given to you, who make a parade of your Persian declamations,426 rafters of equal number with the soldiers who fought at Thermopylae,427 all of good length, and, according to your Homer, 'casting a long shadow',428 which the sacred Dios429 has solemnly promised me to deliver safe and sound,430 saying that he would send, not ten thousand or twenty thousand rafters, but just as many as the petitioner could use and would be serviceable to the recipient.

Letter 28 [on the rose and its thorns]431 The letter postdates Gregory's journey to Palestine and Arabia in late 381, rather than his trip to Antioch in 379. It therefore belongs to the same

424 mçllon égr¤pistow, P; mçllon dusgr¤pistow, L, 'more grasping'.

425 Gregory's counter-jibe to Stagirius' caricature of his episcopal 'power'.

426 soi t" katå tåw mel°taw to›w Mhdiko›w §mpompeÊonti ﬁsariymouw.

427 The reference is to the respective numbers of Persians and Greeks who fought at the battle of Thermopylae, Herodotus 7.60, 202 (where the number of Spartans is given as 300), 226, 8.24–25.

428 dolixosk¤ouw, cf. Iliad 3.346 and 355, et al.

429 ı ﬂerÚw d‹ow, PLR. ﬂerÚw de›na, Wilamowitz' emendation from ﬂerÚw dÉ LMonLBar, accepted by Pasquali, and understood adverbially with 'promise'. Other variants in L mss are élfa›ow (a proper name, cf. Mk 2:14 and Mat 10:3), ÉEustãyiow and Donãtow. Maraval, however, accepts the best mss, pointing out (305, n.4) that there was a Caesarean martyr who had this name. Gregory therefore is referring to the Christian priest at Osiana, whose name is Dios, but uses the more classical term for priest, hieros, rather than the usual Christian term of presbyter.

430 The remainder of the letter is missing in L.

431 Mss.: PL; ed.: GNO 8.2, 85–86. P records no addressee, L:has 'Basil to Libanius'. See Letter 26 for note on textual transmission, and Pasquali LXXXII.

The earlier part of this letter up to p. 86 line 10: §kka¤ousa, appears in the Basilian corpus as Letter 342, Def. 4.304–307. It appears as letter 1587 in the Libanian corpus.

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period as letter 3. Gregory uses the classical Hellenist manner to win his correspondent, who is clearly of a secular and cultured class. He appears to have written to complain that Gregory has not fulﬁlled some task he entrusted to him before the latter's long journey south. Gregory ﬁrst elegantly disarms his correspondent's anger, and adds at the end, almost incidentally as it were, that that was no basis for his ire anyway, and that there are even witnesses that the behest was fulﬁlled exactly.

1. Those who are inclined to the rose, as is ﬁtting for lovers of the beautiful, are not at all annoyed by the thorns from the midst of which the ﬂower emerges. Indeed I once heard someone say of them, playfully or perhaps even seriously, something like this, that nature has also made these slender thorns to sprout that they might serve lovers of the ﬂower the way that the lovers' jabs do,432 inciting those picking the ﬂowers to greater desire by the not unwelcome pricks.

2. Now why do I introduce the rose into my letter? Surely you do not have to learn from us, if you only recall that letter of yours which, though it contained the ﬂower of your discourse and unfolded to us the fountain of your eloquence, yet prickled with certain reproaches and charges against us. 3. But to me, even the thorns of your words are a pleasure, making me burn with greater longing for your friendship. So then do write and continue to write in whatever way it may appeal to you to do, whether with dignity, as you usually do, or provokingly with reproaches.

4. It will be wholly our concern never to provide you with occasions for your blessed reproach, as we have not even now provided you with any, because before our travels through the East433 we accomplished everything according to your desire and owed by us to justice. Of this our most reverent and mutual brother Evagrius434 is witness, who also opened this letter435 at the same time and learnt all from your own words, for he happened to be present. He is

432 kayãper §rvtikã tina knisÄmata to›w §rasta›w toË ényouw. The mild erotic imagery was conventional theme in the second sophistic.

433 prÚ t∞w §p‹ tØn ÑE–an épodhm¤aw. ≤•–a = Oriens, the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire, generally Syria, Phoenicia, Palestine and their hinterland.

Gregory refers to his journey to Palestine and to Arabia; see Letters 2, 3, and 19.

Again, because of its topical reference this whole paragraph is omitted to ﬁt it for the Basilian corpus.

434 It is by no means settled who this Evagrius might be, since several persons of this name appear in the letters of the Cappadocians.

435 I.e. the Letter to which Gregory is now replying.

the pasquali collection also witness of our zeal for what is just and of the good will of those managing your interests in these aﬀairs.

Letter 29 To his brother Peter on the CONTRA EUNOMIUM436 Letter 29 and the reply to it, letter 30, were not originally part of the corpus of the Contra Eunomium but were transmitted as private letters. They were attached to the Contra Eunomium as a preface (Pasquali IX) in about the 11th century. Presently they survive independently in only one codex,

F, in a collection of minor letters (cf. Pasquali LXXIX).

Letter 29 was written in 380/381, after Gregory had returned from 'Armenia', i.e. once the awkward detainment in Sebasteia reported by Gregory in letter 19 was behind him.437

The earlier part of the letter (29.1–6) has the character of a genuine private letter to his brother Peter, in which Gregory uses the ﬁrst person singular, but the later part (29.7–9) in which Gregory switches to the plural of modesty, seems to more intentionally preface the Contra Eunomium I.

The burden of the letter is that Gregory is worried that polemics and personal attachment to Basil may have led him to express himself intemperately in the ﬁrst instalment of his treatise against Eunomius—a not unjustiﬁed concern, one might think. He asks his brother to judge whether he should go ahead with publication or should restrict its circulation.

It is noteworthy that Gregory writes in a highly cultured, hypotactic style of Greek to Peter, whose education was wholly guided by Macrina. Despite the inscription in two manuscripts, no term of address is used within the letter that might be expected towards a bishop, as Peter himself uses such, for example, in the following letter. Probably Peter is not yet bishop of Sebasteia at the time of these letters, and is still the monastic superior at Annisa. Though Peter had been not present at their sister's death and funeral, and had missed Gregory's presence then,438 Gregory speaks here of Peter's advice to him. Undoubtedly he had the chance to visit and speak with his brother during the aﬀairs at Ibora (19.12) and later too, perhaps after the release from the distressing situation in Sebasteia, unless Peter himself had visited him there.

To his brother Peter, Bishop of Sebasteia439 1. On my return from Armenia I was scarcely able with diﬃculty to ﬁnd a little leisure to attend to the care of the body and to assem436 Mss.: FLZSV; ed. GNO 8.2, 87–91; tr.: Letter 1, Contra Eunomium I, NPNF

Ser. 2, vol. 5, 33.

437 Cf. Jaeger, prolegomenorum at libros contra Eunomium.

438 VSM 18.1 (GNO 8.1.387, Maraval 192).

439 Only one of Pasquali's mss. add refer to Peter as bishop of Sebasteia: V, to

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ble the notes of my reply to Eunomius, as your wisdom advised.

Thus my work is composed at last as a complete treatise and has now become a compact volume.

2. Yet I have not written against both his works. I did not ﬁnd suﬃcient leisure, because the one who lent me the book of the heresy very soon and with great discourtesy sent for it again, allowing me no time to copy it or study it at leisure. Having only seventeen days available, I was not able in so short a time to deal adequately with both his works.440

3. Owing to its having got about—I do not know how—that we have taken pains to answer this blasphemous riposte, I have been constantly besieged by the many people who maintain some zeal for the truth. But for counsel in these matters—whether I should entrust this work to the hearing of the many or take some other course, I thought it best to prefer you in your wisdom before all others.441

4. What makes me hesitate is this. When the holy Basil fell asleep and I inherited the controversy of Eunomius, while my heart was still hot with passion (Ps 38.4) and in anguish at this common misfortune of the churches, Eunomius not only wrote on the various topics which might pass as a defence of his own doctrine, but expended the greater part of his energy on laboriously written out abuses against our father.442 This is why, provoked as I was at his insolent ravings, I displayed a certain indignation and animosity against the writer.

5. The public have perhaps pardoned us in other respects, because we have maintained a ﬁtting patience in meeting unruly attacks and have practised as far as possible that moderate manner which the holy man taught us. But I fear that as a result of what we have which Marval later added B. LZ simply have 'to his brother Peter', and F has simply 'to Peter'.

440 Gregory's Contra Eunomium I–II, deal with the ﬁrst part of Eunomius's book Apologia for his Apologia, which was a reply to Basil's Contra Eunomium. Shortly after the present juncture, Gregory wrote his Contra Eunomium III dealing with the second part of Eunomius's book.

441 The lofty esteem in which Gregory held his sister Macrina casts its glow on his brother Peter, Macrina's protégé and zealous collaborator in the monastic community at Annisa. Peter remained always faithful to Macrina's and Basil's monastic ideal, and Gregory looks to him for reliable spiritual counsel.

442 Not Basil Senior, but St Basil the Great, spiritual father to all, and 'father' in this sense to his own brothers and sisters (except perhaps Macrina).

the pasquali collection now written against the adversary we may be regarded by chance readers as a raw recruit, easily provoked by the abuses of the insolent. 6. What may perhaps disarm the suspicion that this is what we are like, is that our display of anger was not on our own behalf, but on account of the things said against our father, and that in such cases moderation may be less pardonable than asperity.

7. If the ﬁrst part of the discourse seems somewhat outside the controversy, such an arrangement of the discourse will, I think, be approved by one who judges carefully. For neither should the reputation of the great one have been left undefended, smeared as it was with the antagonist's blasphemies, nor the battle on his behalf be allowed to intrude sporadically throughout the discourse.

8. Besides, if anyone reasons about it accurately, these pages are also part of the controversy. For our opponent's discourse has two distinct aims: to insult us and to controvert sound doctrine, and it was necessary that our discourse also range itself on both fronts. But for the sake of clarity, and in order that the thread of the enquiries on matters of doctrine should not be chopped up by parentheses of answers to his accusations, we have perforce divided our treatment into two parts. In the ﬁrst part we have devoted ourselves to refuting the charges levelled against us. After that we have grappled as best we could with what he has said against the doctrine.

9. Our discourse contains not only a rebuttal of their heretical views, but also an instruction and an exposition of our doctrines.

For it would be shameful and we would be entirely wanting in spirit if, while our enemies do not hide their absurdity, we for our part were not bold with the truth.

10. May the Lord preserve you sound, in soul and in body, for the Church.443

Letter 30 Reply of Peter to Gregory444 This letter is Peter's response to the previous letter, and hence written in late 380–early 381. It is a most precious document indeed, the only extant

443 This whole sentence is missing in LV; 'for/in the Church' missing in S.

444 Mss.: FLZSBV; ed.: GNO 8.2, 89–91; tr.: Letter 2, Contra Eunomium I, NPNF Ser. 2, vol. 5, 34. See notes to Letter 29 on the textual transmission.

the pasquali collection

writing we have from the hand of Peter,445 the last-born of Emmelia and Basil the elder's remarkable children. Here he urges his brother to publish

Contra Eunomium I, and to press on with refuting the rest of Eunomius' apologia. It is interesting to compare Peter's style with that of his two brothers, and of his sister Macrina, if her prayer before death in the VSM446 can be any reﬂection of her manner. The letter is a tissue of Scriptural passages and allusions, innocent of classical topoi, and is far closer to Basil's style in dealing with ascetics and with Macrina's style, than with Gregory's.

Yet Peter himself has acquired no small rhetorical skill.

It is by no means obvious from the internal evidence of letters 29 and 30 that Peter has as yet become the bishop of Sebasteia. That more likely followed the Neo-nicene triumph at Council of Constantiople in 381, with all its enactments for the churches of the Eastern empire. Therefore Peter was probably still monastic father and the superior of the community at Annisa when he penned this letter.

Peter, Bishop of Sebasteia, to Gregory of Nyssa his brother 1. Peter to his most pious brother Gregory, greetings in the Lord.

When I consulted your sanctity's letter and discerned in your discourse against the heresy your zeal for the truth and for our holy father, I deemed that the discourse was not simply a work of your own power, but of him who ordained that the truth should be spoken among his own servants447 (cf. Acts 4.29). 2. And if I say that it is well to attribute this plea for the truth to the Spirit of truth himself (cf. Jn

14.17), so it also seems to me that this zeal against sound faith (Tit 1.13, 2.2) should be referred not to Eunomius but to the father of the lie himself (cf. Jn 8.44). 3. Indeed, that murderer from the beginning ( Jn

8.44) who speaks in him, seems to have zealously whetted the sword against himself. For if he had not been so bold against the truth, no one would have stirred you to this plea on behalf of the doctrines of piety. But in order especially to expose the rottenness and the ﬂimsiness of their doctrine, he who catches the wise in their own cleverness ( Job 5.13, 1 Cor 3.19) allowed them both to bray against the truth and to practise themselves vainly on this vain speechwriting.

445 R. Pouchet has proposed that Peter may have been the author of the second, spurious part of Basil's Letter 197 (Def. 3.90–99 at 94–99): Basile le Grand et son univers d'amis d'après sa correspondance, Studia Ephemeridis 'Augustinianum' 36,

Rome 1992, 519–525.

446 VSM 26, GNO 8.1, 397–398, Maraval 218–224.

447 doÊloiw, FLZS, dÒgmasi (opinions views), BV.

the pasquali collection 4. But since he who has begun a good work will bring it to completion

(Phil 1.6), do not weary of serving the power of the Spirit (Lk 4.14, Rom 15.13) or leave the victory over those who campaign against Christ's glory half-won. Imitate your true father instead, who, like

Phineas the zealous, pierced through both teacher and disciple with the single stroke of his refutation (cf. Num 25.7). With the outstretched arm of your discourse thrust the sword of the Spirit (Eph 6.17) through both these heretical books, lest the serpent, though shattered on the head (Ps 73.13), frighten those of simpler mind by the quiver in his tail. For if the ﬂrst arguments have been dealt with and the last remain unexamined, the public will consider that they still retain some strength against the truth.448

5. The strong feeling you show in your discourse will be as acceptable as salt to the palate of the soul. As bread cannot be eaten, according to Job, without salt ( Job 6:6), so the discourse which is not seasoned with the astringents449 of God's word will never wake and never move desire.

6. Take heart then, because you are providing a noble example to succeeding generations, teaching well-disposed children how they should regard their good fathers. For if you had shown such zeal against those who insulted his reputation while the holy one went about in this human life, you would probably not have escaped the accusation of appearing to be some kind of ﬂatterer. Now however, you show such good will towards him who led you to the light through his spiritual travail450 (cf. Gal 4.19), that your zeal for the departed and your indignation against his enemies show clearly the genuineness and truth of your soul. Farewell!

448 In short, Peter exhorts Gregory to continue writing until he refutes Eunomius' second book.

449 émuktikvt°roiw FZS. mustikvt°roiw, LBV, 'inmost sentiments'. émuktikvt°roiw derives from émuktikÒw, Æ, on used by Soranus (2nd cent. AD ) for medicines of an 'irritant' character—see LSJ Lexicon. In the context Peter refers to the stimulant, pungent qualities—the 'salt'—of God's word. Peter shows the same familiarity with medical terminology that is characteristic of all the Cappadocians, but it seems it was an unfamiliar term to some later scribes. On Gregory's familiarity with medicine see letter 13.1 and note.

450 According to Peter's valuable testimony, Basil was instrumental in Gregory's

'conversion', when he left his secular career and entered upon service of the Church.

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