Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 8 (Basil: Letters and Select Works)

...be approximately fixed at the beginning of 356."It did not happen sooner than the end of 355 or beginning of 356, if Basil indeed saw Julian there, who arrived in that city after the middle of 355; nor later, because the multitude of Basil’s subsequent deeds does not allow the time between his studies and his priesthood to be too greatly contracted." Maran. Basil started his life's work equipped with the most liberal education that the age could provide. He had studied Greek literature, rhetoric, and philosophy under the most famous teachers. He had been brought into contact with every type of mind. His training was not a narrow, hothouse forcing of theological opinion or ecclesiastical sentiment. The world he was to renounce, confront, and influence was not unknown to him.On Basil's education, Eug. Fialon remarks (Historical and Literary Study, p. 15): "Saint Gregory, on the patriarchal throne of Constantinople, declared he did not know the language of Rome. It was the same with Saint Basil. At least, one would look in vain in his works for any trace of Latin poets or prose writers... The Greek literature was the unique foundation of studies in the East, and it could, by itself, satisfy noble minds... It was in Homer that young Greeks learned to read... After Homer came Hesiod, the tragedians, Herodotus, and Thucydides, Demosthenes, Isocrates, and Lysias. Thus, poets, historians, and orators formed the mind, directed the heart, and elevated the soul of the children. But these authors were the leaders of paganism, and more than one passage in their books wounded the severe morality of Christianity... Muni of this literary baggage, a young rich man who wanted to shine in the world went to great centers—Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, and especially Athens—to study eloquence and philosophy." He had seen heathenism in all the autumn grace of its decline, and he came away victorious from temptations that were fatal to some young men with earlier Christian associations. Athens, no doubt, contributed its share of influence to the apostasy of Julian. Basil, happily, was found to be rooted more firmly in the faith.See C. Ullman, Life of Gregory of Nazianzus, chap. ii., and Greg. Naz., Oration 43.21: "Athens was harmful to others in matters of the soul."

III. — LIFE AT CÆSAREA; BAPTISM; AND ADOPTION OF MONASTIC LIFE.

When Basil overcame the efforts of his companions to detain him at Athens, Gregory was persuaded to remain for a while longer. Basil therefore made his rapid journey homeward alone. His letter to EustathiusEpistle 1. claims that the chief reason for his hurried departure was a desire to benefit from the instruction of that teacher. This may be the language of compliment. In the same letter, he speaks of his fortitude in resisting all temptation to stop at the city on the Hellespont. I hesitate to recognize this city as Constantinople, as Maran does. There may have been inducements for Basil to stop at Lampsacus, and it is more probably Lampsacus that he avoided.What these inducements could have been is vain to conjecture. See Epistle 1 and note. At Cæsarea, he was welcomed as one of her most distinguished sons,Greg. Naz., Oration 43. and for a time he taught rhetoric there with conspicuous success.Rufinus 11.9. A deputation came from Neocæsarea to request him to undertake educational work in that city,Epistle 210.2. The time assigned by Maran for the incident here narrated is no doubt the right one. But the deputation need have traveled no further than Annesi if, as is fairly certain, Basil visited his relatives and the family estate upon his return from Athens. and they tried in vain to detain him with lavish promises.The word kataschein (to detain) would be natural if they sought to keep him in Pontus; it would hardly be used if their object was to bring him from Cæsarea. According to his friend Gregory, Basil had already determined to renounce the world in the sense of devoting himself to an ascetic and philosophic life.Oration 43. His brother Gregory, however,Life of Macrina. portrays him at this period as still under more mundane influences, showing some of the self-confidence and conceit occasionally observed in young men who have just successfully completed a university career. He was largely indebted to the persuasion and example of his sister Macrina for the resolution with which he now committed himself to a life of self-denial. Basil’s baptism may probably be referred to this same period. The sacrament was administered by Dianius.See On the Holy Spirit, 29, where the description of the bishop who both baptized and ordained Basil and spent a long life in the ministry can apply only to Dianius. See Maran, Life of Basil 3. It would be consistent with the feelings of the times for pious parents like the elder Basil and Emmelia to shrink from admitting their boy to holy baptism before he had encountered the temptations of school and university life.According to the legendary life of St. Basil, attributed to St. Amphilochius, he was baptized at Jerusalem. Nor is it right to omit the argument of Wall (Infant Baptism, ch. 10) founded on a coincidence between two passages in the writings of Gregory of Nazianzus. In Oration 40, he speaks of baptism as "a birth that is light-bearing, free, and destructive of passions, cutting off the covering from birth and leading back to the life above." In Oration 43, he says of Basil that in his early years, "he was wrapped and shaped under his father... in the most excellent and purest formation, which the divine David rightly calls light-bearing and the opposite of the nocturnal." As they stand alone, there is something to be said for the conclusion Wall draws from these.