The last of the Panegyrical Homilies (XXIII.) is on Saint Mamas, commemorated on September 2 by the Greeks, and on August 17 by the Latins. He is said to have been a shepherd martyred at Cæsarea in 274 in the persecution of Aurelian. Sozomen (v. 2) relates that when the young princes Julian and Gallus were at the castle of Macellum [693] they were engaged in building a church in the martyr's honour, and that Julian's share in the work never prospered. [694] The homily narrates no details concerning the saint, and none seem to be known. It does contain a more direct mention of a practice of invocation. There is a charge to all who have enjoyed the martyr in dreams to remember him; to all who have met with him in the church, and have found him a helper in their prayers; to all those whom he has aided in their doings, when called on by name. [695] The conclusion contains a summary of the Catholic doctrine concerning the Son. "You have been told before, and now you are being told again, In the beginning was the Word,' [696] to prevent your supposing that the Son was a being generated after the manner of men, [697] from His having come forth out of the non-existent. Word' is said to you, because of His impassibility. Was' is said because of His being beyond time. He says beginning' to conjoin the Begotten with His Father. You have seen how the obedient sheep hears a master's voice. In the beginning,' and was,' and Word.' Do not go on to say, How was He?' and If He was, He was not begotten;' and If He was begotten, He was not.' It is not a sheep who says these things. The skin is a sheep's; but the speaker within is a wolf. Let him be recognised as an enemy. My sheep hear my voice.' [698] You have heard the Son. Understand His likeness to His Father. I say likeness because of the weakness of the stronger bodies: In truth, and I am not afraid of approaching the truth, I am no ready deceiver: I say identity, always preserving the distinct existence of Son and Father. In the hypostasis of Son understand the Father's Form, that you may hold the exact doctrine of this Image,--that you may understand consistently with true religion the words, I am in the Father and the Father in me.' [699] Understand not confusion of essences, but identity of characters."
[574] LXX, proseche seauto.
[575] akoimeton. On the later existence of an order of sleepless monks, known as the Acoemetæ. cf. Theodoret, Ep. cxli. p. 309, in this series, and note.
[576] Ecclus. ix. 13.
[577] Prov. v. 5, LXX.
[578] dorkas, from derkomai,=seer. So Tabitha (Syr.)=keen-sighted.
[579] § 6.
[580] § 3.
[581] Hos. x. 12.
[582] Prov. ii. 1.
[583] Ps. cxii. 9.
[584] Prov. xi. 26.
[585] § 8.
[586] Matt. xxv. 34.
[587] Matt. xxv. 41. With the variation of "outer darkness" for "everlasting fire" and the omission of the clause about strangers. In this passage, it is not a robber who is accused; the condemnation falls upon him who has not shared what he has.
[588] § 4.
[589] Is. xiv. 7.
[590] Micah i. 12.
[591] Amos iii. 6.
[592] Deut. xxxii. 39.
[593] Ps. li. 10.
[594] demiourgeson.
[595] cf. Eph. ii. 14.
[596] 2 Cor. v. 17.
[597] Deut. xxxii. 6, LXX.
[598] 2 Cor. iv. 16.
[599] Prov. xxiii. 14.
[600] § 3.
[601] Prov. i.
[602] paroimia is defined by Hesychius the Alexandrian grammarian, who was nearly contemporary with Basil, as a biopheles logos, para ten hodon legomenos.
[603] John xvi. 25.
[604] epiteteugmenos theologei.
[605] § 6.
[606] heton mathematon analepsis taideia legetai.
[607] epaideuthe.
[608] Acts vii. 22.
[609] soteria.
[610] meteorologia. The word had already been used by Plato in a certain contemptuous sense. cf. Pal. 299 B.: meteorologon adoleschen tina sophisten. But not always, e.g. Crat. 401, B.: koduneuousi goun hoi protoi ta onomata tithemenoi ou phauloi einai, alla meteorologoi tines kai adoleschai.
[611] Gregory of Nazianzus was publishing verses which formed no unworthy early link in the Catena Poetarum Christianorum, in our sense of the word poet. Basil may have in his mind the general idea that the Poetics of the heathen schools were all concerned with mythical inventions.
[612] Ps. xxiii. 1.
[613] cf. Ps. cxxxii. 4.
[614] Ps. cxix. 105.
[615] There are instances of high admiration of the passage: I have not found one of appropriation. Augustine (De Civ. Dei x. 29), says: "Quod initium Sancti Evangelii, cui nomen est secundum Johannem, quidam Platonicus, sicut a sancto sene Simpliciano, qui postea ecclesiæ Mediolanensi præsedit episcopus, solebamus audire, aureis litteris conscribendum et per omnes ecclesias in locis eminentissimis proponendum esse dicebat." Eusebius (Præp. Evang. xi. 17 and 18) refers to the Statements of Plotinus and Numerius on the deuteros aitios, and (19) mentions Aurelius (on Aurelius vide Mosheim's note on Cudworth's Int. System, vol. i. cap. iv. 17), as quoting the passage in question. Vide also Theodoret, Græc. Aff. 33, and Bentley's Remarks on Freethinking, § xlvi.
[616] Prov. i. 7.
[617] pros ton Theon.
[618] cf. ccx. p. 249.
[619] John iv. 24.
[620] Rom. viii. 9 and 10.
[621] 1 Cor. vi. 19.
[622] August. in Julian. i. 18.
[623] § 3.
[624] Gen. iii. 17.
[625] § 10.
[626] Is. lviii. 6.
[627] Is. lviii. 4.
[628] Is. li. 21.
[629] cf. John xiv. 23.
[630] The sermon seems to have been preached at the beginning of Lent, when Cæsarea was still suffering from Carnival indulgences. Homily II. may be placed at a similar season in another year.
[631] § 4.
[632] A precious, red-streaked marble was quarried in Phrygia. The Spartan or Tænarian was the kind known as verde antico. cf. Bekker, Gallus. p. 16, n. The taste for the "Phrygian stone" was an old one. cf. Hor., Carm. III. i. 41.
[633] The Cappadocian winters were severe. cf. Ep. cxxi., cxcviii., cccxlix.
[634] huakinthous. See L. and S., s.v., and King's Antique Gems, 46.
[635] i.e. she must have ornaments of wrought gold and stuff embroidered with gold.
[636] cf. Hexaemeron, p. 94.
[637] p. xxi.
[638] § 3.
[639] Jurgia proludunt; sed mox et pocula torques Saucius, et rubra deterges vulnera mappa. Juv., Sat. v. 26.
[640] § 6.
[641] Ecc. iv. 4.
[642] § 5.
[643] In Julian. vi.
[644] Orat. ii.
[645] Conc. v. p. 668.
[646] § 5.
[647] § 6.
[648] Acts viii. 27.
[649] cf. Letterclxix. and observations in Prolegomena, p. xxix.
[650] Ps. cxv. 5.
[651] 1 Ep. lxi.
[652] De Eb. et Jejunio. c. 18.
[653] 1 Cor. i. 30, 31.
[654] § 7.
[655] Here several touches remind us of Theophrastus. cf. Char. xxiii. and xxiv.
[656] Ceillier, VI. viii. 2.
[657] § 9.
[658] It has often been separately published. In 1600 it was included by Martin Haynoccius in an Enchiridion Ethicum, containing also Plutarch's two tracts on the education of boys and the study of the poets, with which it is interesting to compare it. Grotius published it with Plutarch's De Legendis Poetis at Paris in 1623. They were also published together by Archbishop Potter at Oxford in 1691.
[659] § 2.
[660] tou ontos. The highest heathen philosophy strove to reach the neuter to on. The revelation of Jehovah is of the masculine ho on, who communicates with his creatures, and says ego eimi.
[661] Hom., Od. xii. 158. cf. Letter i. p. 109.
[662] This shews that the shameless and cruel exhibitions of earlier days had not died out even in the fourth century. cf. Suetonius, Nero xi., xii., Tertullian, Apol. 15. On the whole subject, see Bp. Lightfoot's note on St. Clem. Rom., Ep. ad Cor. vi., where Danaides kai Dirkai is probably a misreading for neanides paidiskai. He refers for illustrations to Friedländer, Sittengeschichte Roms, ii. 234.
[663] Od. vi. 135 k.t.l.
[664] These lines are attributed to Solon by Plutarch, in the tract pos an tis hup' echthron opheloito, but they occur among the elegiac "gnomæ" of Theognis, lines 316-318. Fronton du Duc in his notes on the Homilies points out that they are also quoted in Plutarch's life of Solon. Basil was well acquainted with Plutarch. (cf. references in the notes to the Hexaemeron.)
[665] The lines are: Zeus gar toi to talanton epirrepei allote allos Allote men ploutein, allote d' ouden echeo. Theog. 157.
[666] The story of The Choice of Hercules used to be called, from Prodicus (of Ceos, not Chios) Hercules Prodicius. Suidas says that the title of the work quoted was Orai. The allegory is given at length in Xenophon's Memorabilia (II. i. 21) in Dion Chrysostom's Regnum, and in Cicero (De Officiis i. 32), who refers to Xenophon. It is imitated in the Somnium of Lucian.
[667] cf. Hom., Od. x. 494, where it is said of Teiresias: To kai tethneoti noon pore Persephoneia, Oi& 251; pepnusthai; toi de skiai a& 188;ssousi.
[668] Eur. Hippolytus, 612: he gloss' omomoch' he de phren anomotos, the famous line which Aristophanes made fun of in Thesmophoriazusæ, 275.
[669] Fronton du Duc notes that Basil has taken this allusion to Plato from Plutarch's tract, How to distinguish between Flatterer and Friend, p. 50: hosgar ho Platon phesin eschates adikias einai dokein dikaion me onta.
[670] Plut. Pericles.
[671] Plut., De Ira Cohibenda, where the story is told of a brother. The aggressor says apoloimen ei me se timoresaimen. The rejoinder is ego de apoloimen ei me se peisaimi.
[672] epoiei in Greek will of course stand for "made it," like our "hoc fecit," or "did it." Du Duc gives authority for the use of the Imp. from Politian.
[673] tois hemeterois.
[674] cf. Plutarch, Alex. and Arrian. II. xii.
[675] Clinias was a contemporary of Plato (Diog. Laert. ix. 40).
[676] St. Basil can hardly imagine that Clinias lived after Christ; yet Old Testament prohibitions are against false swearing only. Possibly the third commandment and such a passage as Lev. xix. 12, may have been in his mind. If Clinias had lived some half a millennium later there seems no reason why he should not have saved himself three talents by using the words of the Apostle in 2 Cor. xi. 31.
[677] i.e. wrestling and boxing together.
[678] Paus. VI. v. cf. Pers., Sat. i. 4.
[679] Paus. VI. xiv.
[680] Marsyas, the unhappy rival of Apollo, was said to be a native of Celænæ in Phrygia. Olympus was a pupil of Marsyas (Schol. in Aristoph. Eq. 9). By Plutarch (Mus. xi.) he is called archegos tes Ellenikes kai kales mousikes. cf. Arist., Pol. VIII. v. 16.
[681] cf. Cic., Legg. ii. 15, Plutarch, De Mus. There are two Timothei of musical fame, one anterior to Alexander. It will be remembered that in Dryden's Alexander's Feast "the king seized a flambeau with zeal to destroy," after the "Lydian measure" had "soothed his soul to pleasures."
[682] Lit., who sleep with both ears, to seize with one hand (idiom for sleeping soundly. cf. Aul. Gell. ii. 23, who quotes ep' amphoteran katheudein from Menander).
[683] Of Mitylene, cf. Arist., Pol. III. xiv. 9, and Diog. Laert. I. iv., who mentions Simonides' quotation of the maxim of the text Andra agathon alatheos genesthai chalepon, to Pittakeion.
[684] eis pur xainontes, i.e. labouring in vain. cf. Plat., Legg. 780 c. The ordinary rendering to "flog fire," adopted by Erasmus (Adag. Chil. i., Centur. iv.), seems wrong. cf. Bekker on the phrase in Plato.
[685] Herod. vii. 21.
[686] 1 Cor. x. 31.
[687] Supposed by some to be not Basil's, but Chrysostom's. cf. Ceillier, iv. p. 53.
[688] Ps. lxxiii. 23, 24.
[689] Labbe vii. 272. cf. Chrys. Hom. lxxiii.
[690] alla gar hoia kerdainei, phesin, hapax monon apothneskon. Garnier seems to have completely missed the force of this exclamation in the explanation in a note, "Judex hoc dicere volebat, quem fructum referet ex sua pertinacia, si semel mortuus fuerit; neque enim in hanc vitam rursus redibit, ejus ut gaudiis perfruatur, neque tamen ulla alia vita est."
[691] For the tortures and modes of execution enumerated, Du Duc compares Aristoph., Pax. 452, Chrysost., De Luciano Martyre, and Nicephorus vi. 14.
[692] The name of this youngest of the Forty is given as Melito (D.C.B. s.v.). They are commemorated on March 9 in the Roman Kalendar of Gregory XIII. and the Menology of Basil; on March 10 in the Roman Mart. of Bened. XIV.; on the 11th in the old Roman Kal., and on March 16 in the Armenian. The legend of the discovery of some of their relics is given in Sozomen ix. 2. Others were obtained for the church built in their honour at Annesi. (cf. p. xiv.) Two doctrinal points come out in this homily, (a) The officer who took the place of Melito is said to have been baptized, not in water but in his own blood (§ 7). Here is martyrdom represented as the equivalent of baptism. (b) The stage arrived at in the progress of Christian sentiment towards the invocation of departed saints is indicated. Garnier, the Jesuit, writes in the margin of the passage quoted above, Invocantur martyres; and Ceillier notes, Il reconnait que les prieres des martyrs peuvent beaucoup nous aider auprés de Dieu. But in this particular passage the idea of "fleeing to the Forty" seems to be not fleeing to them to ask for their prayers, but fleeing to the shrine to pray in company with them. It is rather the fellowship than the intercession of the saints which is sought. meta marturon gignestho ta aitemata humon. Let your requests be made not to but with the martyrs. In the Homily on St. Mamas, the next in order, the expressions are less equivocal. At the same time it must be remarked that with St. Basil the invocation and the intercession are local. In the De Sp. Scto. (chap. xxiii. p. 34) a significant contrast is drawn between the ubiquity of the Holy Ghost and the limited and local action of angels. And if of angels, so of saints. The saints who have departed this life are thought of as accessible at the shrines where their relics rest, but, if we apply the analogy of the De Sp. Scto., not everywhere. It has been said that this is the period when requests for the prayers of the holy dead begin to appear, and Archbishop Ussher (Address to a Jesuit, chap. ix.) cites Gregory of Nazianzus for the earliest instance within his knowledge of a plain invocation of the departed. But, as bishop Harold Browne points out, his invocation is rather rhetorical than supplicatory. Gregory "had even a pious persuasion that they still continued as much as ever to aid with their prayers those for whom they had been wont to pray on earth (Orat. xxiv. p. 425). And he ventures to think if it be not too bold to say so (ei me tolueron touto eipein), that the saints, being nearer to God and having put off the fetters of the flesh, have more avail with Him than when on earth (Orat. xix. p. 228). In all these he does not appear to have gone further than some who preceded him, nor is there anything in such speculations beyond what might be consistent with the most Protestant abhorrence of saint worship and Mariolatry" (Bp. Harold Browne in Art. xxii.). Romish authorities in support of a yet earlier development, point to Irenæus (Adv. Hær. v. 19), wherein a highly rhetorical passage the Virgin Mary is said to have become the "advocate" of the Virgin Eve, and to Origen, who "invoked" his guardian angel (Hom. i. in Ezek. 7). The later mediæval invocation Bp. Jeremy Taylor (vol. vi. Eden's ed. p. 489) ingeniously shews to be of a piece rather with early heresy than with early Catholicity: "It pretends to know their present state, which is hid from our eyes; and it proceeds upon the very reason upon which the Gnostics and Valentinians went; that is, that it is fit to have mediators between God and us; that we may present our prayers to them, and they to God. To which add that the Church of Rome presenting candles and other donaries to the Virgin Mary as to the Queen of heaven, do that which the Collyridians did (Epiphan. Hær. lxxix. vol. i. p. 1057). The gift is only differing, as candle and cake, gold and garments, this vow or that vow."