§ 164. BASIL THE GKEAT. 901
He succeeded in drawing bis friend Gregoiy^ to himself. Together they prosecuted tlieir prayer, studies, and manual labor; made extracts from the works of Origen, which we possess, under the name of PhiloGoLia^ as the joint work of the two friends ; and wrote monastic rules which contributed largely to extend and regulate the coenobite life.
In the year 364 Basil was made presbyter against his will, and in 3Y0, with the co-operation of Gregory and his father, w as elected bishop^f Cassarea and metropolitan of all Cappadocia. In this capacity he had fifty country bishops under him, and devoted himself thenceforth to the direction of the church and the fighting of Arianism, which had again come into power through the emperor Yalens in the East. He endeavored to secure to the catholic faith the victory, first by close connection with the orthodox West, and then by a certain liberality in accepting as sufficient, in regard to the net yet symbolically settled doctrine of the Holy Ghost, that the Spirit should not be considered a creature. But the strict orthodox party, especially the monks, demanded the express acknowledgment of the divinity of the Holy Ghost, and violently opposed Basil. The Arians pressed him still more. The emperor wished to reduce Cappadocia to the heresy, and threatened the bishop by his prefects with confiscation, banishment, and death. Basil replied : " Nothing more? Not one of these things touches me. His property cannot be forfeited, who has none ; banishment I know not, for I am restricted to no place, and am the guest of God, to whom the whole earth belongs ; for martyrdom I am unfit, but death is a benefactor to me, for it sends me more quickly to God, to whom 1 live and move; I am also in great part already dead, and have been for a long time hastening to the grave."
The emperor waE about to banish him, when his son, six years of age, w-as suddenly taken sick, and the physicians gave up all hope. Then he sent for Basil, and his son recovered, though he died soon after. The imperial prefect also recov ered from a sickness, and ascribed his recovery to the prayer of the bishop, tow^ards whon*. he had previously behaved
902 TII.-RD PERIOD. A.D, 311-590.
haughtily. Thus this danger was averted by special divine assistance.
But other difficulties, perplexities, and divisions, continual!;^ met him, to obstruct the attainment of his desire, the restoration of the peace of the church. These storms, and all sorts of hostilities, early wasted his body. He died in 379, two yeara before the final victory of the Nicene orthodoxy, with the words : " Into Thy hands, O Lord I commit my spirit ; Thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, God of truth." ' He was borne to the grave by a deeply sorrowing multitude.
Basil was poor, and almost always sickly ; he had only a single worn-out garment, and ate ahnost nothing but bread, salt, and herbs. The care of the poor and sick he took largely upon himself. He founded in the vicinity of Caesarea that magnificent hospital, Basilias, which we have already mentioned, chiefly for lepers, who were often entirely abandoned in those regions, and left to the saddest fate ; he himself took in the sufterers, treated them as brethren, and, in spite of their revolting condition, was not alraid to kiss them,"
Basil is distinguished as a pulpit orator and as a theologian, and still more as a shepherd of souls and a church ruler; and in the history of monasticism he holds a conspicuous place.' In classical culture he yields to none of his contemporaries, and is justly placed with the two Gregories among the very first writers among the Greek fathers. His style is pure, elegant, and vio-orous. Photius tliouo-ht that one who wished to become a panegyrist, need take neither Demosthenes nor Cicero for his model, but Basil only.
Of his works, his Five Books against Eunoinius, written in 361, in defence of the deity of Christ, and his work on the Holy Ghost, written in 375, at the request of his Mend Amphilochius, are important to the history of doctrine." He at
' With this prayer of David, Pa. xxxi. 5, Lotiikr also toolt leave of the worlcL "^ Greg. Naz. Orat. xliii. 68, p. 817 sq.
* K. Hase (§ 102) thus briefly and concisely characterizes him : " Au idmirer of Ciibanius and St. Anthf uy, as zealous for science as for monkery, greatest la church government."
* The former in toni. i., the latter in torn, iii., ed. Gamier. Both are incorporated in Thilo's Bibliotheca Patr. Gi-ac. dogm. torn, ii.