PROLEGOMENA.

His responsibilities did not, however, prevent him from devoting much of his vast energy to works of charity. Probably the great hospital for the housing and relief of travelers and the poor, which he established in the suburbs of Cæsarea, was planned, if not begun, in the latter years of his time as a presbyter, for its size and importance were made pretexts for denouncing him to Elias, the governor of Cappadocia, in 372,¹ and at the same period Valens contributed to its endowment. It was so extensive that it went by the name of "Newtown,"² and was in later years known as the “Basileiad.”³ It was the mother of other similar institutions in the country districts of the province, each under a Chorepiscopus A rural or suffragan bishop..⁴ But whether the Ptochotrophium An institution for the support of the poor.⁵ was or was not actually begun before Basil’s time as bishop, great demands were made on his sympathy and energy by the great drought and subsequent famine which befell Cæsarea in 368.⁶ He describes it with eloquence in his Homily *On the Famine and Drought.*⁷ The distress was cruel and widespread. The distance of Cæsarea from the coast increased the difficulty of supplying provisions. Speculators, scratching, as it were, at their country’s wounds, hoarded grain in the hope of selling it at famine prices. These men Basil moved to open their stores. He distributed food lavishly at his own expense,⁸ and ministered in person to the needs of the sufferers. Gregory of Nazianzus⁹ gives us a picture of his illustrious friend standing in the midst of a great crowd of men, women, and children, some scarcely able to breathe; of servants bringing in piles of food suitable for the weak state of the starving sufferers; and of Basil with his own hands distributing nourishment, while with his own voice he cheered and encouraged them.

About this time, Basil suffered a great loss in the death of his mother,¹⁰ and sought solace in a visit to his friend Eusebius at Samosata.¹¹ But the cheering effect of his journey was lessened by the news that greeted him on his return: the Arians Followers of Arius, who held that Christ was a created being, not equal to the Father. had succeeded in placing one of their number in the see of Tarsus.¹² The loss of Silvanus was before long followed by a death of even greater significance to the Church. In the middle of 370, Eusebius died, breathing his last in the arms of Basil.¹³

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VI. — BASIL AS ARCHBISHOP.

The archiepiscopal throne was now technically vacant. But the man who had practically filled it, “the keeper and tamer of the lion,”¹⁴ was still alive in the fullness of his power. What course was he to follow? Was he to meekly withdraw, and perhaps be compelled to support the candidacy of another and an inferior person? The indirect evidence¹⁵ has seemed to some strong enough to conclude that he determined, if possible, to secure his own election to the see.¹⁶ Others, on the contrary, have thought him incapable of scheming for the nomination.¹⁷ The truth probably lies between these two extreme views. No intelligent observer of the situation at Cæsarea upon the death of Eusebius—least of all the highly capable administrator of the province—could be blind to the fact that of all possible competitors for the vacant throne, Basil himself was the ablest, most distinguished, and most likely to direct the course of events in the interests of orthodoxy. But it does not follow that Basil’s appeal to Gregory to come to him was a deliberate step to secure this end. He craved the support and counsel of his friend; but no one could

¹ Ep. xciv.

² Original: ἡ καινὴ πόλις ("The New City"). Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. cf. Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, Bk. II. Chap. V.

³ Soz. vi. 34.

⁴ Ep. cxlii., cxliii.

⁵ Original: πτωχοτροφεῖον ("Poor-house"). Ep. clxxvi. Professor Ramsay, in The Church and the Roman Empire, p. 464, remarks that “the ‘New City’ of Basil seems to have caused the gradual concentration of the entire population of Cæsarea round the ecclesiastical centre, and the abandonment of the old city. Modern Kaisari is situated between one and two miles from the site of the Græco-Roman city.”

⁶ For the date, cf. Maran, Vit. Bas. ix. § 5.

⁷ § 2, p. 63. cf. Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. 340-342, and Greg. Nyss., In Eun. i. 306.

⁸ Greg. Nyss., In Eunom. i. § 10 (in this series, p. 45), remarks of Basil: “having spent his father’s estate, even before his priesthood, lavishly upon the poor, and especially in the time of the famine, when he was in charge of the church, both while still in the order of presbyters and after that, not even sparing what was left.” Maran (Vit. Bas. xi. § 4), with the object of proving that Basil had completely abandoned all property whatsoever, says that this must refer to a legacy from his mother. The terms used are far more consistent with the view already expressed (§ III.). So in his Orat. in Bas. Gregory speaks of Basil at the time as “selling his own possessions, and buying provisions with the proceeds.”

⁹ Or. xliii.

¹⁰ Greg. Nyss., Vit. Mac. 187, Ep. xxx.

¹¹ Ep. xxxiv.

¹² Id.

¹³ Greg. Naz., Or. xliii.

¹⁴ Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. 33.

¹⁵ i.e. the extant reply to his urgent request that Gregory would come to him. Greg. Naz., Ep. xl.

¹⁶ Original: “Persuaded that, if he failed, the Nicene faith in Cappadocia was finished, he deployed all the resources of his genius, as flexible as it was powerful.” Fialon, Et. Hist. p. 85.

¹⁷ Original: “No one in the city, not even Basil, despite his humility, doubted that the succession was his... he made his preparations for his promotion quite openly.” De Broglie, L’Église et l’Empire R. v. 88. Other views: “Basil persuaded himself, and not altogether unwarrantably, that the cause of orthodoxy in Asia Minor was involved in his becoming his successor.” (Canon Venables); “He himself, as hard as it was for him at first to consent to take the presbyterate, now, having worked himself into his position, wished for nothing more than his election as bishop.” (Böhringer); “Was it really from ambitious views? Certainly the suspicion, which even his friend entertained, attaches to him.” (Ullmann); “Not even suspecting that all eyes were cast upon him.” (Maran); “Forming a plot to reach the episcopate was very far from his thoughts.” (Ceillier).