on account of the profundity of his learning. His suc- cess excited his enemies still more against him, and his life was several times in danger. Peter, patriarch of Alexandria, who had appointed him bishop of Con- stantinople, sided afterwards against him, and favored the pretensions of a cj'nic philosopher called Maximus, who caused himself to be elected bishop of Constanti- nople (A.D. 380). Vainly did Theodosius cause St. Gregory to take possession of the church of St. Sophia at the head of a large troop of soldiers, assuring him of his protection, and causing a council assembled at Constantinople to confirm Gregory's election as bishop, and annul that of Maximus. He could not put an end to the intrigues and calumnies which pursued Grego- rj'. Some bishops of Egypt and of Macedonia attack- ed the validity of his election on the jilea that he wa.s already bishop of Sasima, and that the canons forbade the transfer of a bishop from one see to another. Greg- ory' offered to resign, saj-ing, " If my election is the cause of trouble, throw me into the sea like Jonas, to alia}' the storm, though it was not I who raised it." This proposal was accepted with a haste which could not but wound the susceptibility of Gregory. Before leaving Constantinople he assembled the clergy and the people in the church of St. Sophia, and delivered his farewell address — the grandest of all his orations. " Farewell," saidhe at the close ; " farewell, church of Anastasia, so called in remembrance of our pious trust; farewell, monument of our late victory, thou new Si- loa, where, after forty years' wandering in the desert, we had for the first time settled the ark of the cove- nant ; farewell, too, thou grand and famous temple, our last trophy .... farewell to you all, holy abodes of faith .... farewell, holy apostles, celestial colony, my models in the combats I have sustained ; farewell, episcopal chair, post at once so envied and so full of perils ; farewell, ministers of God at his holy table. . . . farewell, choir of the Nazarenes, harmony of psalms, pious watches, holiness of virgins, modes- ty of women, assemblies of widows and of orphans, glances of the poor turned to God and to me ; fare- well, hospitable houses, friends of Christ who have succored me in mine infirmities. . . . Farewell, kings of the earth, palaces, retinue, and courtiers of kings, f:iithful, I trust, to your master, but for the most part, I fear, faithless towards God . . . applaud, exalt unto heaven your new orator; the troublesome voice which displeased you is hushed. . . . Farewell, sovereign city, the friend of Christ, yet open to correction and repentance ; farewell, Eastern and Western world, for whose sake I have striven, and for whose sake I am now slighted. Most of all, farewell, guardian angels of this church, wlio protected me in my presence, and who will protect me in my exile; and thou, holy Trin- ity, my thought and my glory, may they hold fast to thee, and mayest thou sav-e them, save my people! and may I hear daily that they are increasing in knowledge and in virtue." On his way to exile Gregory stopped at Ca;sarea, where he delivered a fu- neral oration on St. Basil. In the year 382 he retired to Arianzus for quiet and repose. In 383 Tlieodorus invited liim to take part in a council held at Constan- tinople. He declined, saying, " To tell the truth, I will always avoid these assemblies of bishops ; I have never seen them lead to any good result, but rather increase evils instead of diminishing them. They serve only as fields for tournaments of words and the play of ambition." He added that, at all events, his health would prevent him from attending. He remained in retirement until his death in 389. A garden which he cultivated, a fountain, and the shade of a few trees, composed all his enjoyments. He di- vided his time between pra\-cr and the writing of poems, in which he exjircssed the thouglits, hopes, and longings of a mind naturally inclined to dreaminess and melancholy. He is one of the most polished ampng the sacred writers of the 4th century, and
GREGORIUS NAZIANZENUS 995 GREGORIUS NEO-C^SARIENSIS
ranks first after Chrysostom and Basil. The ricliness of his imagination, developed in the solitude in which a great part of his life was spent, gives to his writings a charming freshness of tone which is seldom met with in the writers of that age. His lettei's are full of plaj'ful sprightliness, sometimes tinctured with a slight under -current of harmless iron3^ A severe critic might show some passages bordering on decla- mation and bombast. But these faults were general at the time in which he lived ; and a writer, however great, always bears more or less the imprint of his day. He is commemorated as a saint in the Koman Catholic Church on May t), in the Greek Church on the 25th and 30th of January.
St. Gregorj' left a large number of poetical pieces. During the rei^n of Julian, when profane literature was a forbidden pursuit for Christians, Gregory, con- sidering it as a powerful aid to piety, attempted to supply the wants of his brethren by means of religious poems on the plan of the classics. He accused of stu- pidity and ignorance (aKutoi Kal ('nraiStVTOt') those who attempted to prevent the study of literature. "Most of his poetical works are religious meditations, which, in spite of the differences of time and manners, have still many points of affinity with the poetical rev- eries of our days of sceptical satiety and social prog- ress" (Villemain, Tableau de V Eloquence chrelienne au jyme gQcle, p. 139). Gregory wrote also a large num- ber of discourses or orations, both while administering the diocese of Nazianzum for his father and while de- fending orthodoxy at Constantinople. Among these discourses are funeral addresses and panerji/rics, e. g. those of Athanasius and Basil ; invectives, the two dis- courses against Julian ; sermons on questions of mor- als, discipline, and dogmas. Most of those written in Constantinople, while he was opposing the Arians and Macedonians, are of the latter kind. These discourses are fifty-three in number. Some critics claim that the 45th, 47th, 49th, 50th, and 53d cannot be genuine. The Letters of Gregorj' amount to 24'2, on all subjects ; some of them are quite uninteresting except as they contribute to throw light on the character of Gregorj^ and of his age. Gregory of Nazianzus has often been named as the author of a Paraphrase on Ecclesiastes, which is now general!}^ attributed to Gregory Thau- maturgus. The Poems of Gregory number 15(i, differ- ing very much from eacli other in length, subject, and metre ; we find among them religious meditations, de- scriptions, acrostics, epigrams, etc. He also wrote 228 small pieces, which were collected and published by Muratori in 1709. In some collections of his works is included a tragedy entitled Christ siiffeiing (Xoiaroi; ■Ka(7\iov [ed. by EUissen, Leipz. 1855]), which is prob- ably not his.