[2513] Apost. Const. VIII. c. xiii: "Let the Bishop speak thus to the people: Holy things for holy persons. And let the people answer: There is One that is holy; there is one Lord, one Jesus Christ, blessed for ever, to the glory of God the Father." The Liturgies of St. James and of Constantinople have nearly the same words: in the Liturgy of St. Mark the answer of the people is: One Father holy, one Son holy, one Spirit holy, in the unity of the Holy Spirit.
[2514] Ps. xxxiv. 9. In the Apostolic Constitutions the "Sancta Sanctis" and its response are immediately followed by the "Gloria in excelsis," and the "Hosanna." Then the Clergy partake, and there follows a direction that this Psalm xxxiv. is to be said while all the rest are partaking. In the Liturgy of Constantinople there is the direction: "The Choir sings the communion antiphon (to koinonikon) of the day or the saint."
[2515] For me epitrepete, probably an itacism, we should read me epitrepetai, as a question, the propriety of the change being indicated by the answer ouchi. "Is the judgment of this entrusted to the bodily palate? No, but, &c."
[2516] antitupou somatos, "the antitypical Body," not "the antitype of the Body," which would require tou somatos. Cf. Cat. xxi. § 1, note 6.
[2517] Cat. xviii. 32: "with what reverence and order you must go from Baptism to the Holy Altar of God."
[2518] Cyril appears to be the earliest authority for thus placing the hands in the form of a Cross. A similar direction is given in the 101st Canon of the Trullan Council (692), and by Joh. Damasc. (De Fid. Orthod. iv. 14). Dict. Chr. Ant. "Communion." That the communicant was to receive the Bread in his own hands is clear from the language of Cyril and other Fathers. Cf. Clem. Alex. Strom. I. c. i. § 5: "Some after dividing the Eucharist according to custom allow each of the laity himself to take his part." See the passage of Origen quoted in the next note, and Tertull. Cor. Mil. c. iii. "The Sacrament of the Eucharist, which the Lord commanded both (to be taken) at meal-times and by all, we take even in assemblies before dawn, and from the hand of none but the presidents."
[2519] Origen. Hom. xiii. in Exod. § 3: "I wish to admonish you by examples from your own religion: ye, who have been accustomed to attend the Sacred Mysteries, know how, when you receive the Body of the Lord, you guard it with all care and reverence, that no little part of it fall down, no portion of the consecrated gift slip away. For you believe yourselves guilty, and rightly so believe, if any part thereof fall through carelessness."
[2520] kupton, not kneeling, but standing in a bowing posture. Cf. Bingham, XV. c. 5, § 3.
[2521] Apost. Const. VIII. c. 13: "Let the Bishop give the Oblation (prosphoran) saying, The Body of Christ. And let him that receiveth say, Amen. And let the Deacon hold the Cup, and when he delivers it say, The Blood of Christ, the Cup of Life. And let him that drinketh say, Amen."
[2522] Cat. xxi. 3, note 8.
[2523] In the Liturgy of St. James, after all have communicated, "The Deacons and the People say: Fill our mouths with Thy praise, O Lord, and fill our lips with joy, that we may sing of Thy glory, of Thy greatness, all the day. And again: We render thanks to Thee, Christ our God, that Thou hast accounted us worthy to partake of Thy Body and Blood, &c."
[2524] 1 Thess. v. 23.
Select Orations
of
Saint Gregory Nazianzen,
Sometime Archbishop of Constantinople.
Translated by
Charles Gordon Browne, M.A.,
Rector of Lympstone, Devon;
and
James Edward Swallow, M.A.,
Chaplain of the House of Mercy, Horbury.
Prolegomena.
------------------------
Section I.--The Life.
S. Gregory Nazianzen, called by the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus "The Great," and universally known as "The Theologian" or "The Divine," a title which he shares with S. John the Evangelist alone among the Fathers of the Church, was, like the great Basil of Cæsarea and his brother Gregory, Bishop of Nyssa, by birth a Cappadocian. He was born at Arianzus, a country estate belonging to his father, in the neighbourhood of Nazianzus.
This latter, sometimes called Nazianzum, is a place quite unknown to early writers, and derives all its importance from its connection with our Saint. The Romans seem to have called it Diocæsarea. This would place it in the south-western portion of the district called Cappadocia Secunda, a sub-division of the Province, which had previously included the whole country of Cappadocia under the Prefect of Cæsarea. The Emperor Valens made the division for financial purposes about a.d. 371, and assigned Tyana as its civil Metropolis, and, as we shall see, thereby caused an ecclesiastical quarrel which had considerable effect on the life of S. Gregory. Tyana was situated at no great distance south and east of Nazianzus, which place is usually identified with some interesting ruins about eighteen miles south-east of Ak Serai, on a rocky platform at the foot of the mountains called Hassan Dagh. Amongst other ruined buildings here are the remains of three Byzantine churches of great age, but more recent than the rest of the town.
His father, who bore the same name with himself, had originally belonged to an obscure sect called Hypsistarians or Hypsistians, of whom we know little except what we learn from Gregory of Nazianzus and his namesake of Nyssa. They seem to have held a sort of syncretist doctrine, containing elements derived from heathen, Christian, and Jewish sources. They were very strict monotheists, rejecting both polytheism and the doctrine of the Trinity, and worshipping the One Supreme Being under the names of The Most High and The Almighty, and the emblems of Fire and Light, but with no external cultus; for they rejected sacrifice and every outward form of worship, holding adoration to be an exclusively interior and spiritual act. With singular inconsistency, however, they adopted the observance of the Jewish Sabbath, and the Levitical prohibition of certain kinds of food. They were but few in number, and their influence was insignificant even in Cappadocia, which was the headquarters of sect. [2525] From this form of error the elder Gregory was converted by the influence of his wife, Nonna; and soon after his conversion was consecrated to the bishopric of Nazianzus.
Nonna, the mother of our Saint, was the daughter of Christian parents, and had been very carefully brought up. Like S. John Chrysostom and S. Augustine, Gregory had the inestimable advantage of being reared at the knee of a mother of conspicuous holiness. There were three children of the marriage--a sister, Gorgonia, probably somewhat older than Gregory, who was devotedly fond of her, and a brother, Cæsarius, perhaps younger, who was a distinguished physician, and occupied a post of confidence at the Court of Constantinople. Gregory was certainly born at a late period of the life of his mother. He tells us that, like so many other holy men of whom we read both in the Bible and outside its pages, he was consecrated to God by his mother even before his birth. The precise date is uncertain. There are two lines in his poem on his own life which seem to indicate clearly that it took place after his father's elevation to the Episcopate, or at any rate after his ordination to the Priesthood. Speaking of the great desire of the elder Gregory to see his son ordained to the Priesthood, in order that he might have him as a coadjutor and aid to his own declining years and failing strength, he gives the arguments by which the old man sought to persuade him to take upon himself a burden which he dreaded; and among them we find the father saying to the son: [2526] "You have not been yet so long in life as I have spent in sacrifice." And though the Roman Catholic writers on the subject strain every nerve to get rid of the obvious meaning, by ingenious manipulation of the text or by far-fetched interpretations, yet the conclusion remains unshaken, and is supported also by another passage, to be cited presently, that he was at any rate born during the Priesthood of his father. He tells us that he left Athens in or about his thirtieth year, [2527] and also that the Emperor Julian was his contemporary there. Now Julian was at Athens in 355; so that we must place Gregory's birth not earlier than 325; and if we give its natural meaning to the first passage quoted, not earlier than 330, the latest date available for his father's consecration as Bishop. This is not inconsistent with the Athenian chronology of his life, as he certainly spent many years there, and probably did not leave the place till 357.
As soon as the children's age permitted, Gregory and his brother Cæsarius were sent to school at Cæsarea, under the care of a good man named Carterius, who as long as he lived retained a great influence over the mind of his elder pupil. This is perhaps the same Carterius who afterwards presided over the monasteries of Antioch in Syria, and was one of the instructors of S. John Chrysostom. The following is a free rendering of one of four funeral epigrams written in later years by our Saint in honour of his old friend and tutor:
"Whither, Carterius, best beloved of friends,
O whither hast thou gone, and left me here
Alone amid the many toils of earth?
Thou who didst hold the rudder of my youth,
When in another land I learned to weigh
The words and stories of a learned age;
Thou who didst bind me to the uncarnal life.
Truly the Christ, whom thou possessest now,
Took thee unto Himself, the King thou lov'st.
O thou bright lightning of most glorious Christ,
Thou best protection of my early days,
Thou charioteer of all my younger life,
Remember now the Gregory whom erst
Thou trainedst in the ways of virtuous life,
Carterius, master of the life of grace."
It was probably at Cæsarea that the acquaintance between Gregory and S. Basil the Great began, which was afterwards to ripen into a lifelong friendship. But their association did not last long at this period, for Basil soon went to Constantinople to continue his education, while Gregory and his brother removed to the Palestinian Cæsarea; probably as much for the sake of making a pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre, as for the advantage of the schools of that learned resort. Cæsarius soon went on to Alexandria; but Gregory was tempted by the flourishing Palestinian school of rhetoric to remain a while and study that art. One of his fellow-students here was Euzoius, the future heresiarch. From Palestine he too went on to Alexandria, where he found his brother enjoying an excellent character, and highly distinguished among the students of the University. S. Athanasius was at this time the Bishop, and Didymus head of the famous Catechetical School; but as Gregory, though one of his orations is a panegyric on S. Athanasius, does not mention having ever met either of these two great men, we must suppose that the former was at this time suffering one of his many periods of exile--his second banishment lasted from 340 to 347. Gregory does not seem to have remained very long at Alexandria; the fascination exercised on his mind by a yet more famous seat of learning--Athens--soon drew him thither. He could not even wait for a favourable time of year, but must start at once. He took passage in the month of November in a ship bound for Ægina, with some of whose crew he was acquainted. They had a prosperous voyage until they were in sight of Cyprus, when they were assailed by a tremendous storm, and the ship, swept by the heavy seas, became waterlogged, and would not answer her helm. At the same time the violence of the sea burst the water-tanks, and the ship's company were left in dire distress. Gregory, who was not yet baptized, was thrown into terrible distress at thus finding himself in peril of death while yet outside the Covenant of God. In earnest prayer he renewed his self-dedication, and vowed to give himself wholly to the service of God, if his life might be spared to receive Holy Baptism. He tells the story at some length and with great graphic power in his long poem on his own life, from which we subjoin a cento, [2528] and also in his oration spoken at his father's funeral (Orat. XVIII, c. 31, p. 352 Ed. Ben.). It is, however, uncertain whether he was baptized immediately after this deliverance, or whether he waited till his return to Nazianzus. At any rate he reached Athens in safety, and shortly afterwards was joined there by Basil; when the early acquaintance which was now renewed soon deepened into an intimacy of brotherly affection, which, though often sorely tried, never grew cold in Gregory's heart. In the funeral oration which he pronounced over his friend, Gregory has left us a most interesting account of University life in the middle of the fourth century, of which we give a summary here, referring the reader for details to the oration itself, which will be found in the present volume. Basil's reputation, he says, preceded him to Athens, where he was received with much enthusiasm. Many of the silliest students there are mad upon Sophists, and are divided upon the respective merits of their teachers with as much excitement as is shown by the partisans of the various chariots in the Hippodromes. And so a new-comer is laid hold of by them in this fashion. First of all, he is entertained by the first who can get hold of him--either a relation or a friend or a fellow-countryman, or a leading Sophister, who is in favour with his master, and touts for him. There he is unmercifully chaffed, and with more or less of rough horseplay, by everybody, to take down his pride; and is then escorted processionally through the streets to the Baths; after which process he is regarded as free of the students' guild. Basil, however, through the good offices of his friend Gregory, was spared this trial of his nerves, out of respect for his great attainments; and this kind action was the beginning of their long and affectionate intimacy. Among the students, however, were a number of young Armenians, some of whom had been at school with Basil, and were very jealous of him. These young men, with the object of destroying his reputation if possible, were continually harassing him with disputations upon hard and sophistical questions. Basil was quite able to hold his own against them, but Gregory, jealous for the honour of his University, and not at first perceiving the malice of these young men, sided with them and made the conflict more equal. As soon, however, as he began to see their real purpose, he forsook them and took his stand by his friend, whose victory was thus made not only assured but easy. The young gentlemen naturally did not like this, and Gregory became, much to Basil's distress, very unpopular among them, as they chose to regard his conduct in the matter as treason against his University, and especially against the students of his own year.