e

and commanding the sum of three hundred pounds of gold, (that is, in our account, ten thousand and eight hundred pounds,) to be immediately paid into the exchequer. The clergy he made to be entered upon the muster-roll, to serve as soldiers under the governor of the province, the most troublesome and dishonourable part of the Roman militia; the common people, with their wives and children, he put under tribute, and left them in the same capacity with those in the country villages; swearing, after all, that unless the temples were forthwith rebuilt, he would utterly destroy the place, and not suffer a Galilean to wear an head upon his shoulders: and perhaps had been as good as his word, had not death happily taken him off. To be sure, St. Basil had gone to stake, Nazianzen expressly telling us, that they two had the honour of the Cyclops, to be reserved last to punishment, that, at his return from Persia, they might have fallen as a triumphant and magnificent victim to his deities. But the Divine Providence mercifully prevented that, Julian himself being shortly after taken off by a violent death. I know not whether it be worth relating, what the author of the Alexandrine Chronicon reports, that the same night that Julian was slain, Basil had a vision, wherein he saw the heavens opened, and our blessed Saviour sitting upon a throne, and calling aloud to St. Mercurius, to go and kill Julian, the emperor, the great enemy of Christians. The saint having received his commission, and being armed with a coat of mail, immediately departed. Soon after returning, he gave our Lord an account, that according to his command Julian was slain. Basil, frightened with the noise, awakened in some consternation, and going down to church to morning prayers, called his clergy together, whom he acquainted with his vision, and that Julian was killed that night. They all besought him to conceal it, the reporting it being a matter of dangerous consequence. But my author spoils the whole story, by laying the scene of it while Basil was bishop of Cæsarea, which he was not at this time, nor for seven years after Julian's death.

• Orat. iv. p. 132.

f

f Ad Ann. Julian. ii.

SECTION II.

HIS ACTS FROM HIS ENTRANCE INTO ORDERS TILL HIS RETURN

FROM HIS PONTIC SOLITUDES.

Basil's first entrance into ecclesiastic orders. Eusebius ordained bishop of Cæsarea; great trouble and dissension about that matter. Basil quarrelled with by Eusebius, but defended by the monks of Cæsarea. His retirement to Neocæsarea; and thence into the wilderness. The delightful situation of the place of his abode. Nazianzen and others repair to him. The manner of their monastic life, and strict devotion. Rules of monastic discipline composed by Basil. His apologetic to the people of Cæsarea for his retirement, and to vindicate himself from the malicious reflections cast upon him, and to establish them in the catholic faith. His erecting devout societies both of men and women. His advice taken about things to be transacted in the synod at Lampsacus. The notorious juggling of Eustathius, and others of the Semiarian and Macedonian parties. A reconciliation endeavoured between Eusebius and Basil. His return importunately desired, and why. An agreement effected by Nazianzen's mediation.

g

ST. BASIL, in the mean time, followed close his studies, and entered into the service of the church by due and regular approaches. For having for some time been reader in the church of Cæsarea, he was next made deacon by Meletius bishop of Antioch," and afterwards advanced to the order of priesthood by his own diocesan. It must not be forgotten, that while he was yet deacon,' he was present at the synod of Constantinople, holden in the end of the year 359, where he assisted Basil bishop of Ancyra, the head of the Homoiousian party, against the Anomæans or Heterousian sect; and though superior to most in the arts of speaking, yet, by reason of a natural bashfulness and diffidence, he declined public disputations. After this he returned home, and lived at Cæsarea, chiefly conversing with those devout mortified men who had formed themselves to a strict and monastic course of life. It happened that the see of Cæsarea fell void, and great expectations were on foot about the choice of a new archbishop, the splendour and greatness of that see meeting with the warm temper and ungovernable zeal of that people, had put the city into an extraordinary commotion about this matter. Wearied, at length, with mutual dissensions, they 8 Greg. Naz. Orat. xx. p. 336.

k

i Philost. 1. iv. c. 12.

h Socrat. 1. iv. c. 26.

Greg. Naz. Orat. xix. in fun. patr. p. 308, etc.

unanimously pitched upon one Eusebius, a gentleman of chief note and authority in the city, a man of a most pious life, but a layman, and as yet unbaptized. Him they lay hold of, and, though protesting against it, by the help of the guards, bring him to the church, where some neighbour-bishops were met in order to the election, desiring (yea, and threatening too, if they were refused) that he may be forthwith baptized, and ordained their bishop. The good fathers saw there was no other way to allay the storm, but to comply with the importunity of the people; who thereupon, having first baptized him, consecrated, and placed him upon the episcopal throne. But no sooner were they at liberty, but they began to disown what they had done, and resolved to rescind the election, pretending it to be uncanonical, and extorted by force and violence; only Gregory, Nazianzen's father, bishop of Nazianzum, a little town in that province, stood to it, and by all means laboured to ratify and confirm it. It made the case a great deal worse, that Julian lay at this time at Cæsarea, whither he was come to see execution done upon that city, for the riot made upon the pagan temple; and it vexed him not a little, to see a Christian archbishop thus zealously and tumultuously chosen under his very nose, and a man, too, whom he did not like. The governor of the province, who likewise owed Eusebius an old grudge, for having taken a different course, while employed in the administration of civil affairs, took advantage of the emperor's resentment, and wrote letters in his name to the several bishops, commanding them with menaces to repair thither, and manage the charge against Eusebius. Amongst the rest, a letter came to Gregory, the aged bishop of Nazianzum, who returned this short and bold answer: That in these matters they were subject to an higher prince, whose cause was now opposed, who would examine the election, which they had duly and regularly made; that in other things force and violence might be offered them, but that no man could hinder them from maintaining what they had legally and justly done; unless, after all the rest, they could make a law, that men should not take care of their own affairs. The governor, though offended with the freedom of the answer, yet admired the wisdom and spirit of the man; and it so far prevailed, that the emperor's displeasure cooled, and no farther attempts were made in that matter.

VOL. II.

2 D

II. But though the storm seemed allayed from abroad, yet did it not clear up into fair weather at home. Eusebius, the new-elected bishop, took some occasion to fall out with Basil,' and though otherwise a very good man, yet in this fell short of the ordinary rules both of prudence and religion. He was himself obnoxious upon the account of his late election, not strictly warrantable according to the standing laws and canons of the church; he had to deal with a person of a great name, and an unquestionable reputation, and who by his authority and influence was able to steer a party which way he pleased; besides, there were some Western bishops (probably Lucifer of Calaris, and Eusebius of Vercellæ) at this time at Cæsarea, who took in with those that were most zealous for the catholic interest. Nor did Basil stand alone in this matter; the monks of Cæsarea, over whom he presided as their director and governor, presently espoused their master's quarrel, and finding Eusebius unreasonable in his exceptions, and obstinate in his resolutions, withdrew from all communion with him, and drew a great part, not only of the common people, but of the magistrates, into the separation. Things ripening thus fast into an open breach, Basil, who was at a loss how to behave himself in this disjuncture of affairs, out of a great regard to the peace of the church, thought it best, at least for the present, to retire into the wilderness, wherein he was not a little swayed by his own inclination, to embrace the solitudes of a private life, where he doubted not to find those happy opportunities for virtue and divine converses,TM and those real advantages for conquering the world, and subduing the power of vicious and inordinate appetites, which a noise and a crowd were never likely to afford.

III. The first place he went to was Neocæsarea," the chief city of Pontus, which had been the place of his education, where he had much acquaintance, and enjoyed the converse of excellent men; and finding it a place fit for a contemplative life, (being situate in the more wild and desert parts of the country,) stayed here a long time. But wearied at length with the troublesome interruptions of society, he withdrew into the adjacent wilderness, where he fixed his station in the mountainous parts,° near

Greg. Naz. Orat. xx. p. 336.

n Vid. Ep. ccx. s. 2.

m Vid. Bas. Ep. ccxxiii. s. 2.

• Ibid. Ep. xiv. s. 2. Vid. Ep. ccxxiii. s. 5. et Nyss. de vit. Macrin. p. 182.

the bank of the river Iris, a famous river, which arising in the mountains of Armenia, runs through the middle of Pontus, and empties itself into the Euxine sea. The place he made choice of, was naturally fitted for all the advantages of solitude and contemplation; it was a high mountain, clothed with a thick shady wood, and watered on the north with cool and crystal springs that issued from it. At the foot of the hill was a fruitful valley, the verdure and fertility whereof, was not a little owing to those benign streams that flowed from the neighbouring hills; as for its quietness and security, it was beholden to the woods, variegated with all sorts of pleasant trees that encompassed it. Nature had formed it into a kind of peninsula, and fortified it with bulwarks on every side; two parts of it were secured by deep and unapproachable valleys; a third by the river, which, falling from a precipice, was a sure wall on that side; on the other was a ragged and naked rock, which, joining to the valley, cut off all avenues that way. There was but one passage to it, and that too secured by those who lived within. It was on the most prominent part of this mountain that St. Basil fixed his cell, whence there was an easy and delightful prospect both into the valley below, and upon the neighbour river, which, flowing with a quick rapid stream, and dashing itself against the rocks that opposed its passage, at once gratified both the eye and ear. Nor wanted there other divertisements

to those who were desirous to entertain themselves with innocent pleasures. For as the river afforded plenty of excellent fish, and the adjoining hills conveniency for sport and game; so the birds from the woods charmed the ear with untaught music, while the eye was ravished to look down and behold the plains overspread with a natural tapestry of herbs and flowers. But the greatest advantage of the place, was its solitude, being perfectly remote from all company, not a man seen that way, unless when hunting by chance brought them thither, and that not in quest of beasts of prey, wolves, lions, &c. (for with such the place was not infested,) but of deer, wild goats, and such-like peaceable and harmless creatures.

IV. The good man was infinitely satisfied with the place of his retirement, and wanted nothing to complete his happiness but the company of his dear friend Nazianzen, whom he oft invited to come thither to him; in one of his letters he elegantly