Division II.--The Writings.
I. The Orations.--These--forty-five in number--raise him to equality with the best Orators of antiquity.
a. The Five Theological Orations.--These won him the title of The Theologian. They were delivered in Constantinople, in defence of the Church's faith in the Trinity, against Eunomians and Macedonians. In the First and Second he treats of the existence, nature, being, and attributes of God, so far as man's finite intellect can comprehend them. In the Third and Fourth the subject is the Godhead of the Son, which he establishes by exposition of Scripture, and by refutation of the specious arguments brought forward by the heretics. In the Fifth he similarly maintains the Deity, and Personality of the Holy Ghost.
b. The Two Invectives against Julian.--These were delivered at Nazianzus after the death of the Emperor, and present us with a very dark picture of his character. The orator dwells upon his attempt to rebuild the Temple at Jerusalem, and its failure, and his overthrow in the campaign against Persia. From these facts he demonstrates the power of God's Justice, and sets forth the Christian doctrine of the Divine Providence inculcating a lesson of trust in God.
c. Moral Orations.--(1) The Apology for his flight. As was said above, it is most probable that this discourse was never actually spoken; if it was, it certainly must have been considerably enlarged afterwards. In it Gregory dwells on the motive of his flight and his return after his forced ordination; he speaks of his love of retirement, but most of all lays stress upon the difficulty of the Priestly Office, its heavy responsibilities and grave dangers, and upon his own sense of unworthiness. His return, he says, was prompted by respect for his hearers and by care for his aged parents; by the fear of losing his father's blessing; and by the recollection of what befel the Prophet Jonas on account of his resistance to the will of God. The remainder of the Oration is practically a treatise on the Priesthood, and was made use of by S. Chrysostom and S. Gregory the Great in their books on the subject.
(2) The Farewell Oration at Constantinople, containing an account of his work there.
(3) On Love of the Poor.
(4) On the Indissolubility of Marriage, the only Sermon of S. Gregory on a definite text which has come down to us.
(5) Three Orations on Peace.
(6) One on Moderation in theological discussion.
d. The Festal Orations.--On Christmas, Epiphany (on the Baptism of Christ in the river Jordan, followed up next day by a long one on Holy Baptism), two on Easter (one of these his first sermon, the other almost if not quite his last). On Low Sunday, and on Pentecost.
e. Panegyrics on Saints.--The Maccabee Brothers and their Mother; S. Cyprian of Carthage (in which there is evidence of the cultus of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of the practice of invocation of the Saints); and on S. Athanasius.
f. Funeral Orations on Eminent People.--On his Father, preached before his Mother and S. Basil. On Cæsarius, in presence of his parents, consoling them by the picture of his brother's virtue, especially in having withstood Julian's efforts to pervert him, and in resigning his post at Court and leaving the Capital. On Gorgonia, whom he praises as a model Christian Matron, and whose wonderful cure before the Altar he relates. On S. Basil.
g. Occasional Orations, of which we mention three: (1) On a plague of hail. (2) On the consecration of Eulalius of Doara. (3) On his own consecration to Sasima.
II. The Letters, of which two hundred and forty-three are extant, are characterised by a clear, concise, and pleasant style and spirit. Some of them treat of the theological questions of the day, as for example the two to Cledonius, and one to Nectarius his Successor in the See of Constantinople; these deal with the Apollinarian errors. Most of them however are letters to private friends; sometimes of condolence or congratulation, sometimes of recommendation, sometimes on mere general subjects of interest. To this section must be ascribed his Will, which is probably genuine.
III. The Poems, five hundred and seven in number, are in various metres. While leaving much to be desired, these verses shew much real poetic feeling, and at times rise to genuine beauty. Thirty-eight are dogmatic, on the Trinity, on the works of God in Creation, on Providence, on Angels and Men, on the Fall, on the Decalogue, on the Prophets Elias and Elissæus, on the Incarnation, the Miracles and Parables of our Lord, and the canonical Books of the Bible. Forty are Moral; two hundred and six Historical and Autobiographical; one hundred and twenty-nine are Epitaphs, or rather funeral Epigrams; ninety-four are Epigrams.
There is also a long Tragedy, called Christus Patiens which is the first known attempt at a Christian drama; the parts are sustained by Christ, The Blessed Virgin, S. Joseph, S. Mary Magdalene, Nicodemus, Pontius Pilate, Theologus, Nuntius, and others. The Benedictine Editors however doubt the genuineness of this Tragedy and Caillau, who published the second volume of this Edition after the troubles of the French Revolution, thinks it is to be ascribed to another Gregory, Bishop of Antioch in the Sixth Century, and relegates it to an Appendix. None of The Theologian's Odes or Hymns have, however, found a place in the liturgical poetry of the Church.
Division III.--Literature.
There are perhaps more MSS. of the works of Gregory than of any other Father. The great Benedictine Edition of his works contains long lists of MSS., and of Versions, and previous Editions. The most famous of these is that of the Abbat Jacobus Billius in 1589, which was accompanied by the Scholia of Nicetas, etc. In 1571 Leuvenklavius published an edition at Basle containing the Scholia of Elias Cretensis and others. In 1778 appeared the first volume of the great Edition of the Benedictine Fathers of the Abbey of S. Maur near Paris, which had been in preparation ever since 1708. But the Monks were driven away by the French Revolution, and the second volume did not appear till 1842. It has been reprinted in Migne's "Patrologia Græca," vols. 35-38. Of modern works on the life and writings of our Saint, the best are those of Dr. Ullmann, and that of the Abbé Benoît. A valuable comparison of Gregory and Basil is to be found in Newman's "Church of the Fathers," and last, but not least in value, may be mentioned the long biographical article by Professor Watkins in Smith's "Dictionary of Christian Biography," and a useful short summary in Schaff's Church History (311-600, vol. ii.).
Gregory Nazianzen.
Oration I.
On Easter and His Reluctance.
I. It is the Day of the Resurrection, and my Beginning has good auspices. Let us then keep the Festival with splendour, [2529] and let us embrace one another. Let us say Brethren, even to those who hate us; much more to those who have done or suffered aught out of love for us. Let us forgive all offences for the Resurrection's sake: let us give one another pardon, I for the noble tyranny which I have suffered (for I can now call it noble); and you who exercised it, if you had cause to blame my tardiness; for perhaps this tardiness may be more precious in God's sight than the haste of others. For it is a good thing even to hold back from God for a little while, as did the great Moses of old, [2530] and Jeremiah [2531] later on; and then to run readily to Him when He calls, as did Aaron [2532] and Isaiah, [2533] so only both be done in a dutiful spirit;--the former because of his own want of strength; the latter because of the Might of Him That calleth.
II. A Mystery [2534] anointed me; I withdrew a little while at a Mystery, as much as was needful to examine myself; now I come in with a Mystery, bringing with me the Day as a good defender of my cowardice and weakness; that He Who to-day rose again from the dead may renew me also by His Spirit; and, clothing me with the new Man, may give me to His New Creation, to those who are begotten after God, as a good modeller and teacher for Christ, willingly both dying with Him and rising again with Him.
III. Yesterday the Lamb was slain and the door-posts were anointed, [2535] and Egypt bewailed her Firstborn, and the Destroyer passed us over, and the Seal was dreadful and reverend, and we were walled in with the Precious Blood. To-day we have clean escaped from Egypt and from Pharaoh; and there is none to hinder us from keeping a Feast to the Lord our God--the Feast of our Departure; or from celebrating that Feast, not in the old leaven of malice and wickedness, but in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth, [2536] carrying with us nothing of ungodly and Egyptian leaven.
IV. Yesterday I was crucified with Him; today I am glorified with Him; yesterday I died with Him; to-day I am quickened with Him; yesterday I was buried with Him; to-day I rise with Him. But let us offer to Him Who suffered and rose again for us--you will think perhaps that I am going to say gold, or silver, or woven work or transparent and costly stones, the mere passing material of earth, that remains here below, and is for the most part always possessed by bad men, slaves of the world and of the Prince of the world. Let us offer ourselves, the possession most precious to God, and most fitting; let us give back to the Image what is made after the Image. Let us recognize our Dignity; let us honour our Archetype; let us know the power of the Mystery, and for what Christ died.
V. Let us become like Christ, since Christ became like us. Let us become God's for His sake, since He for ours became Man. He assumed the worse that He might give us the better; He became poor that we through His poverty might be rich; [2537] He took upon Him the form of a servant that we might receive back our liberty; He came down that we might be exalted; He was tempted that we might conquer; He was dishonoured that He might glorify us; He died that He might save us; He ascended that He might draw to Himself us, who were lying low in the Fall of sin. Let us give all, offer all, to Him Who gave Himself a Ransom and a Reconciliation for us. But one can give nothing like oneself, understanding the Mystery, and becoming for His sake all that He became for ours.
VI. As you see, He offers you a Shepherd; for this is what your Good Shepherd, [2538] who lays down his life for his sheep, is hoping and praying for, and he asks from you his subjects; and he gives you himself double instead of single, and makes the staff of his old age a staff for your spirit. And he adds to the inanimate temple a living one; to that exceedingly beautiful and heavenly shrine, this poor and small one, [2539] yet to him of great value, and built too with much sweat and many labours. Would that I could say it is worthy of his labours. And he places at your disposal all that belongs to him (O great generosity!--or it would be truer to say, O fatherly love!) his hoar hairs, his youth, the temple, the high priest, the testator, the heir, the discourses which you were longing for; and of these not such as are vain and poured out into the air, and which reach no further than the outward ear; but those which the Spirit writes and engraves on tables of stone, or of flesh, not merely superficially graven, nor easily to be rubbed off, but marked very deep, not with ink, but with grace.
VII. These are the gifts given you by this august Abraham, this honourable and reverend Head, this Patriarch, this Restingplace of all good, this Standard of virtue, this Perfection of the Priesthood, who to-day is bringing to the Lord his willing Sacrifice, his only Son, [2540] him of the promise. Do you on your side offer to God and to us obedience to your Pastors, dwelling in a place of herbage, and being fed by water of refreshment; [2541] knowing your Shepherd well, and being known by him; [2542] and following when he calls you as a Shepherd frankly through the door; but not following a stranger climbing up into the fold like a robber and a traitor; nor listening to a strange voice when such would take you away by stealth and scatter you from the truth on mountains, [2543] and in deserts, and pitfalls, and places which the Lord does not visit; and would lead you away from the sound Faith in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the One Power and Godhead, Whose Voice my sheep always heard (and may they always hear it), but with deceitful and corrupt words would tear them from their true Shepherd. From which may we all be kept, Shepherd and flock, as from a poisoned and deadly pasture; guiding and being guided far away from it, that we may all be one in Christ Jesus our Lord, now and unto the heavenly rest. To Whom be the glory and the might for ever and ever. Amen.