4U 



GREGORY 



Moses of Khorene, the Herodotus of Armenia, who 

 flourished in the 5th century. The best edition of his 

 work was printed at Venice in 1865 : a Latin translation 

 by the brothers Whiston appeared at London in 1736 ; a 

 French by Levaillant de Florival at Paris in 1841. See 

 S. C. Malan's Eng. translation (1868) of the life of 

 Gregory, from the Armenian work of the Vartabed 

 Matthew (published at Venice, 1749). 



Gregory Nazianzen was, by his own account, 

 born about 330, at Arianzus, a village near Nazi- 

 anzus, in Cappadocia, not far from Csesarea. His 

 father, whose name also was Gregory, and who had 

 originally belonged to the heathen sect of Hypsis- 

 tarians, worshippers of the Most High, but also 

 of the fire, like the Persians, and keepers of the 

 Jewish Sabbath and the law of the purity of meats, 

 had, chiefly through the influence of his pious wife 

 Nonna, become a convert to Christianity about the 

 time of the great Nicene Council (325), and four 

 years later was raised to the dignity of* Bishop of 

 Nazianzus. Formed to piety by domestic example, 

 Gregory was at an early age sent to Caesarea in 

 Palestine, where the study of eloquence then 

 flourished. He next attended the schools of Alex- 

 andria, and subsequently (about 348 to 358) of 

 Athens, where he met Basil the Great, then also 

 a young student, and became his most intimate 

 friend. At the same time there studied at Athens 

 Julian, later emperor and apostate, and there is 

 no doubt that the three often met and had friendly 

 discussions on the subjects of their common studies ; 

 although Gregory, even at that time, augured 

 no good for Julian, who exhibited signs of ' an 

 unsettled and arrogant mind.' Gregory, having 

 made brilliant progress in eloquence, philosophy, 

 and sacred literature, returned to Nazianzus, and 

 in 360 received baptism at the hands of his own 

 father, consecrating to God, at the same time, all 

 ' his goods, his glory, his health, his tongue, and 

 his talents ; ' and, in order to be still more able to 

 pursue a life of austere devotion, he took up his 

 abode with Basil in the desert near the river Iris, 

 in Pontus. Recalled by his father, Gregory was 

 ordained priest, but afterwards fled. Being recalled 

 a second time, he returned to Nazianzus, assisted 

 his father in the ministry, and preached to the 

 people. In 371 or 372 St Basil, who in the meantime 

 had become Bishop of Cresarea, prevailed upon him 

 to accept the see of Sasima, a small town in Cappa- 

 docia. But he had scarcely taken possession of his 

 newtlignity, when, overcome again oy his innate re- 

 pugnance to public life, he retired, a bishop without 

 a bishopric, to Nazianzus, where he stayed until the 

 death of his father in 374. He then went into a 

 monastery at Seleucia, which, however, after the 

 death of the Emperor Valens (378), he was induced 

 to leave, in order to undertake the charge of a small 

 Nicene congregation in Constantinople, where 

 until then Arianism had held undisputed sway. 

 Gregory was after a short time, when his erudition 

 and eloquence became conspicuous, elected arch- 

 bishop, upon which the Arians became so exasper- 

 ated that his very life was in danger. Gregoiy, 

 although upheld by Pope Damasus and the 

 Emperor Theodosius, preferred resigning his see 

 voluntarily, ' in order to lay the storm, like another 

 Jonah, although he had not excited it.' He went 

 back to Nazianzus, and took up his solitary abode 

 near Arianzus, where, after some years of a most 

 ascetic life, he died in 389. His ashes were con- 

 veyed to Constantinople, and thence, during the 

 Crusades, to Rome. His day is, with the Latins, 

 the 9th of May. His character and temper, ardent 

 and enthusiastic, but at the same time dreamy and 

 melancholy, hard, but also tender, ambitious and 

 yet humble, and all his instability and vacillation 

 between a life of contemplation and of action, are 

 vividly depicted in his writings. These mostly 



serve the great aim of his life to uphold the 

 integrity of Nicene orthodoxy against the heresies 

 of the Arians and Apollinarists. The merits of 

 his writings are very unequal, sometimes rising to 

 sublime flights of poetical genius, and displaying 

 classical elegance and refinement, at other times 

 redundant, pedantic, and heavy with far-fetched 

 similes. Yet Gregory may fairly be pronounced 

 one of the first orators and most accomplished 

 and thoughtful writers of all times. His surviv- 

 ing works consist chiefly of about 45 sermons, 

 243 letters, and 407 poems (dogmatic and moral 

 poems, prayers and hymns, autobiographic and 

 historical poems, epitaphs, and epigrams). The 

 poems were separately printed in a beautiful Aldine 

 edition at Venice in 1504. The first edition of his 

 complete works appeared at Basel in 1550, folio. 

 All the earlier editions were set aside by the great 

 and long-delayed edition that appeared under the 

 auspices of the Benedictines, in 2 vols. (Paris, 1778- 

 1842). The first volume was finally edited by 

 Clemencet ; the second by Caillou. His separate 

 works have frequently been edited, and partly 

 translated into different tongues. 



See monographs by Ullmann ( 18'25 ; Eng. trans. 1851 ; 

 2d ed. Gotha, 1867) and by A. Benoit (Paris, 1876); 

 and Montaut's Revue critique (1878). 



Gregory of Nyssa, the younger brother of 

 Basil the Great. After being educated by Basil, he 

 showed an inclination to become a teacher of elo- 

 quence, but by the influence of Gregory Nazianzen 

 was prevailed upon to devote himself to the church. 

 Though married, he was in 371 or 372 consecrated 

 by Basil bishop of the little town of Nyssa, in Cap- 

 padocia. During the persecution of the adherents 

 of the Nicene Creed in the reign of Valens, Gregory 

 was, at the instigation of the governor of Pontus, 

 deposed by a synod held in Galatia, on the pretext 

 that he had wasted the church's goods. He made 

 his escape, and after the death of Valens was joy- 

 fully welcomed back bv his flock (378). He was 

 present at the Council of Constantinople in 381, and 

 (along with two other bishops) was appointed to 

 the general oversight of the diocese of Pontus both 

 by the council and by a decree of his friend Theo- 

 dosius, by whom he had been called ' the common 

 pillar of the church.' He travelled to Arabia and 

 Jerusalem to set in order the churches there, and 

 was again at a synod in Constantinople in 394. 

 He must have died soon afterwards. Of the three 

 Cappadocians Gregory was the greatest speculative 

 theologian, the most faithful to Origenistic views, 

 and not the least zealous defender of Nicene 

 doctrine. He was a less able ruler than Basil, who 

 sometimes lamented his untimely ' good nature ' 

 and 'simplicity.' His chief dogmatic work is his 

 Twelve Books against Eunomius (the so-called 13th 

 book is an independent work ). Among his other 

 works are treatises on the doctrine of the Trinity, 

 including Antirrhetictis (against Apollinaris) and 

 an appeal To the Greeks, from ' common notions ' 

 (axioms), an attempt to establish the doctrine on 

 grounds of abstract reason ; a treatise On Destiny 

 (against pagan fatalism); On the Soul and Resur- 

 rection (ed. Krabinger, Leip. 1837), in the form of 

 a dialogue with his sister Makrina on her death- 

 bed ; several ascetic treatises, many sermons, and 

 23 epistles. In his great Catechetical Discourse 

 (ed. Krabinger, Munich, 1838), which was written to 

 convince educated heathens and Jews, he argues 

 that the incarnation is the best possible form of 

 redemption, as manifesting the four chief attributes 

 of God his omnipotence, mercy, wisdom, and 

 justice. God alone is, and all turning away from 

 God to the things of sense (things without being) 

 is death. Christ did not assume a single human 

 nature, but human nature itself in its entirety. 

 ' His return from death is for the mortal race the 



