Orations (other than the Theological Orations) 43.30–43.52

While we were thus engaged, suddenly a cloud full of hail came upon us, roaring destructively, crushing every church on which it burst and which it caught: an emperor most fond of gold and most hostile to Christ, sick with the two greatest diseases, greed and blasphemy; a persecutor after the persecutor, and after the apostate not an apostate, but no better to Christians, or rather to the most pious and purest part of the Christians, the worshippers of the Trinity, which alone I call piety and saving doctrine. For we do not weigh the Godhead in the balance, nor estrange the one unapproachable nature from itself by foreign alienations, nor cure evil with evil, undoing the godless contraction of Sabellius by a more impious division and cutting up, the disease of Arius, who is named for madness, by which he shook and corrupted most of the church; nor do we accept unequal ranks in the Godhead. But we know one glory of the Father, the equal honour of the Only-begotten; and one glory of the Son, that of the Spirit. And whichever of the three we place lower, we consider that we destroy the whole; worshipping and knowing three in properties, one in Godhead. Understanding none of this, and unable to look up, but humbled by those who led him, he dared to humble with himself the nature of the Godhead too; and he becomes a wicked creature, bringing lordship down to servitude and ranking the uncreated and timeless nature with the creation. [31] … to contend for them with the power of the Word and the Spirit. What then did that noble and great-minded and truly Christ-loving soul do? He did not need many words to come and fight with us; but as soon as he saw us interceding (for the contest was common to both of us, set forth for the sake of the doctrine), he yielded to our intercession; and distinguishing very well within himself, and most wisely, by the reasonings of the Spirit, that there is one time for small-mindedness (if such a man had to feel anything of the kind), when there is security, and another for long-suffering, when there is necessity, he at once left Pontus with us, was zealous for the truth in danger, became a volunteer ally, and gave himself to his mother the church. [32] Was he, then, so eager, but did he fight less than his eagerness? Or did he fight well, but unwisely? Or wisely, but not without danger? Or did he do all these perfectly, but keep within himself some remnant of small-mindedness about his grievance? By no means. At once he reconciles all, counsels, arrays for battle; he removes the obstacles and stumbling blocks in between, and the things trusting in which they had campaigned against us; one he takes up, another he holds fast, another he repels. To some he becomes a strong wall and rampart; to others an axe cutting rock, or fire among thorns, as the divine Scripture says, consuming the brushwood-like blasphemers of the Godhead. And if Barnabas, who says and writes these things, also fought somewhat alongside Paul, thanks be to him who chose him and made him his fellow worker in the contest.

They, then, went away unsuccessful, shamed and badly defeated then for the first time, and having learned not to despise Cappadocians lightly, least of all men; for nothing is so characteristic of them as their unbroken faith and their faithfulness and genuineness towards the Trinity, from which comes their unity and strength; they help those by whom they are helped, or rather they give much more and stronger help. His second task and effort was to care for the bishop, to dissolve suspicion, and to persuade everyone that what had grieved him was a temptation of the evil one, and the wrestling of those who envy agreement in the good, while he himself knew the laws of obedience and spiritual order. Therefore he was at hand, he advised, he obeyed, he admonished; he was everything to him: a good counsellor, a skilful assistant, an interpreter of divine things, a guide in what was to be done, a staff for his old age, a prop of the faith, the most faithful of those within, the most practical of those outside; in a word, as much for goodwill as he had previously been thought to be for enmity. From this the power in the church came to him, though he held the second seat. For in return for the goodwill he brought, he received authority; and there was a wonderful harmony …

… and combination of power. The one led the people, the other the leader; and he was like a lion-tamer, taming the ruler by art. For the bishop needed it, having lately been placed on the throne, still breathing something of the world, and not yet trained in the things of the Spirit, while a great storm boiled around him and the enemies of the church pressed upon him: he needed someone to guide him by the hand and support him. Therefore he loved the alliance, and when Basil prevailed, he thought that he prevailed himself.

Of his care and leadership of the church there are many other marks: boldness towards the authorities, both others and the most powerful in the city; settlements of disputes, not distrusted, but sealed by his word, his character serving as law; protection of the needy, mostly spiritual, but not a little bodily too (for this too often leads to the soul, winning it by goodwill); feeding of the poor, hospitality to strangers, care of virgins; written and unwritten rules for monks; ordering of prayers; good order of the sanctuary; and the other things by which a true man of God, ranked with God, would benefit a people. But one thing above all, the greatest and best known. There was a famine, the most severe ever remembered. The city was suffering, and there was no help from anywhere, nor any remedy for the distress. For coastal places bear such shortages without difficulty, giving what they have and receiving what comes by sea; but for us inland people even a surplus is useless and a need cannot be relieved, since we have no way either to dispose of what we have or to bring in what we lack. And the most grievous thing in such times is the insensibility and greed of those who have. For they watch for their opportunities, trade on the scarcity, and reap a harvest from misfortunes, not heeding that he who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, nor that he who holds back grain is cursed by the people, nor any other of the promises to the humane or the threats to the inhuman. But they are greedier than they ought to be, and they think badly, shutting their hearts to the poor, and God's heart to themselves, though they need his more than others need theirs. So the grain buyers and grain dealers, neither respecting kinship nor grateful to the Divine, from whom they have what they have, while others were oppressed.

He could not rain bread from heaven by prayer and feed a fugitive people in the desert, nor make food spring unfailing from the bottoms of jars, filled by being emptied (which is wonderful), to feed the woman who fed him, in return for her hospitality; nor feast thousands with five loaves, whose very remnants were another supply for many tables. For these belonged to Moses and Elijah and my God, from whom they too had the power for them; and perhaps also to those times and that state of affairs, since signs are for unbelievers, not for believers. But what follows from these and leads to the same end, these he both devised and accomplished with the same faith. For by his word and exhortations opening the storehouses of those who had, he did what Scripture says: “He breaks bread for the hungry,” “and satisfies the poor with bread,” “and nourishes them in famine,” “and fills hungry souls with good things.” And in what way? For this too is no small addition. Gathering into one place those wounded by the famine, some of them barely breathing, men and women, infants, old men, every pitiable age, and collecting every kind of food that helps against famine, he set out cauldrons full of pea soup and of our salted meat, the food of the poor. Then, imitating the ministry of Christ, who girded himself with a towel and did not disdain to wash his disciples' feet, and using his own servants, or rather fellow servants, as helpers in this, he cared for the bodies of the needy, and cared for their souls, combining honour with provision and so bringing them relief on both sides.

Such was our new giver of grain, a second Joseph; except that we can say something more. For Joseph made a business of the famine and bought up Egypt with his kindness, setting aside the time of plenty for the time of famine, and directed to this by the dreams of others; but this man was good freely, a helper in the scarcity without trading, looking to one thing only: to win love for love, and to obtain the good things there through his distribution of grain here. He did these things together with the nourishment of the word and that more perfect benefaction and distribution, truly heavenly and lofty; if indeed the word is the bread of angels, by which souls are fed and given drink when they hunger for God and seek a food that neither flows away nor departs but always remains. Of this he was the giver, and very rich, though the poorest and most destitute of men we know; relieving not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but a longing for the word, truly life-giving and nourishing, which leads to growth in spiritual stature the one who is well fed.

From these and similar deeds (for why spend time telling everything?), when the one named for piety had just been taken away and had gladly breathed his last in his arms, he was raised to the high throne of the episcopate; not without toil, nor without envy and struggle from the presiding bishops of the region and the most wicked men of the city who were ranged with them. But the Holy Spirit had to conquer; and indeed it conquers with great abundance. For it moves from abroad those who were to anoint him, men known and zealous for piety, and with them the new Abraham and our patriarch, I mean my father, concerning whom something wonderful happened. For, not only failing through the number of his years but also worn out by disease, and at his last breath, he ventured on the journey to help with his vote, trusting in the Spirit. And, to say it briefly, placed as a corpse in his litter as in a tomb, he came back young and strong, looking upward, strengthened by the laying on of hands and the anointing, and it is not too much to say, by the head of the anointed one. Let this be added to the ancient stories: that toil gives health, eagerness raises the dead, and old age leaps when anointed by the Spirit.

Having thus been counted worthy of the presidency, as was fitting for one who had become such a man, received such grace and been so regarded, he did not put to shame in anything that followed either his own philosophy or the hopes of those who had trusted in him; but he always surpassed himself as much as before he had been seen to surpass others, thinking most nobly and philosophically about these matters. For he held that it is the virtue of a private person not to be bad, or to be good in some measure; but that it is the vice of a ruler and leader, especially in such a rule, not to be far above the many, not always to appear better, and not to make his virtue match his rank and his throne. For one at the top can hardly attain the mean, and draw the many to moderation by the surplus of his virtue. Or rather, to philosophize better about these things: what I observe in the Saviour (and I think every wiser person does), when he was with us, formed in what is above us and in what is ours, I reckon happened here too. For he advanced, it says, in wisdom and favour as in stature; not by receiving growth in these (for what could be more perfect than what was perfect from the beginning?), but by revealing and displaying them little by little. So too the man's virtue received then, I think, not an addition but a greater field of action, having more material in his authority.

First, he made it plain to all that what had been given him was not the work of human favour but the gift of God. Our own case will show it. How he showed his philosophy towards me when I was showing mine at that time! For when everyone else thought that I would run to the event and rejoice exceedingly (as another perhaps would have done), and that I would share the rule rather than act as a power behind it, inferring this from our friendship, I, fleeing vulgarity in everything, if anyone ever did, and at the same time the envy of the moment, especially as those around him were still in travail and in turmoil, stayed at home, curbing my longing by force. He blamed me, yet forgave. And afterwards, when I came but did not accept the honour of the seat, for the same reason, nor precedence among the presbyters, he did not blame me but praised me, and rightly, choosing to be accused of pride by a few who did not understand this arrangement rather than do anything contrary to reason and his own counsels. And yet how could a man show more clearly that he had a soul above all fawning and flattery, looking to one thing only, the law of the good, than by thinking thus about us, whom he counted among the first of his friends and intimates?

Next, he softened the party that had opposed him, and healed them with words of magnanimous healing. He did this not obsequiously or servilely, but very boldly and nobly, as one who looked not only to the present but also arranged for their future obedience. Seeing that the soft is slack and weak, while the austere is harsh and self-willed, he helped both by means of each other, tempering the obstinate with gentleness and the soft with firmness; needing few words, but achieving most by deeds for their healing; not enslaving them by craft but winning them by goodwill; not using his power, but drawing them by being able to act and yet sparing. The greatest thing was that all were overcome by his intelligence and knew his virtue to be unapproachable; and they thought there was one salvation for them, to be ranked with him and under him, and one danger, to offend him, and they considered separation from him to be estrangement from God. So they willingly gave way and were overcome, and bowed as at the echo of thunder, each anticipating the other in apology, and turning the measure of their enmity into a measure of goodwill and of progress in virtue, which they found the only and strongest apology; unless one, through incurable wickedness, was left alone and cast aside, that he might be crushed and consumed in himself, as rust is consumed together with the iron.

… he conceives in his mind something greater and loftier. For while all others saw only what lay at their feet, and reckoned how their own affairs might be secure, if that is security, and went no further, unable to conceive or accomplish anything great and bold, he, though moderate in other things, was not moderate in these; but raising his head on high and turning the eye of his soul around, he took in the whole world over which the saving word has run. Seeing God's great inheritance, acquired by his words and laws and sufferings, the holy nation, the royal priesthood, in a bad state and torn apart into countless opinions and errors; and the vine brought out of Egypt and transplanted, which from godless and dark ignorance had grown to a boundless beauty and size, so as to cover the whole earth and spread beyond mountains and cedars, ravaged by an evil wild boar, the devil; he did not think it enough to lament the calamity quietly and to lift his hands to God alone and ask him for release from the evils that held us, while he himself slept; but he thought he must also help and contribute something of his own. [42] For what, he thought, is more grievous than this misfortune? And he who looks above must be all the more zealous for the common good. For when one person fares well or badly, this indicates nothing for the common good; but when the common good is in this or that state, each individual must necessarily be in a like state.

Thinking and considering this, he, the guardian and champion of the common good (since “a feeling heart is a moth in the bones”, as Solomon and the truth hold; and insensibility is cheerful, but sympathy is painful, and constant thought is a wasting of the heart), was therefore in agony, grieved, wounded; he suffered what Jonah and David suffered; he despaired of his life, gave no sleep to his eyes nor slumber to his eyelids; he spent what remained of his flesh on his cares, until he should find a remedy for the evil; he sought divine help or human, which would stop the common conflagration and the darkness that held us.

One thing, then, he devised, and very salutary. Collecting himself as far as possible and joining himself to the Spirit, and setting in motion all human reasonings, and unrolling the whole depth of the Scriptures, he wrote in defence of piety, and by opposing struggles and battles he repelled most of the boldness of the heretics: those who came to close quarters, with the hand-to-hand weapons of the tongue; those at a distance, by striking with arrows of ink, no less honoured than the writings on the tablets; legislating not for one nation, the Jews, and that a small one, about foods and drinks and temporary sacrifices and purifications of the flesh, but for every race and part of the world, about the word of truth, from which comes salvation. Second (for action without word and word without action are equally imperfect), he added to the word the help of action: visiting some, sending envoys to others, summoning others, admonishing, refuting, rebuking, threatening, reproaching, fighting in defence of peoples, cities and individuals, devising every form of salvation, healing on every side; another Bezalel, master builder of the divine tabernacle, using every material and art for the work, and weaving all together into the abundance and harmony of one beauty. [44] Why should I tell the rest? Behold, the emperor who fought against Christ came upon us, the tyrant of the faith, with more impiety and a hotter battle array, as against a stronger opponent, after the manner of that unclean and evil spirit which, having been released from the man and wandered about, returns to the same man with more spirits to dwell there, as we have heard in the Gospels. He became its imitator, both to repair his former defeat and to add something to his earlier struggles. For it was terrible and wretched, he thought, that one who ruled many nations and had been counted worthy of great glory, who had subdued all around him by the power of … and conquered everything he met, should be seen to be defeated by one man and one city, and incur laughter not only from those who led him, the champions of impiety, but, as he supposed, from all men. [45] They say that the king of the Persians, when once he marched against Greece, driving every race of men against them, was not only lifted up in every kind of anger and pride and boundless in his threats, but, to terrify them more, made himself fearsome by innovations against the elements. A strange land was heard of, and a sea of the new creator, an army sailing on land and walking on sea, islands seized, the sea whipped, and all the things that clearly belonged to a mad army and generalship: a terror to the more cowardly, a laughing-stock to the more manly and firm of mind. He, however, needed nothing of this kind in campaigning against us; but what was worse and more harmful than those things, this he was heard to do and say: “He set his mouth against heaven, speaking blasphemy on high, and his tongue went through the earth.” For the divine David rightly branded him before us, as one who bent heaven down to earth and numbered with the creation the nature above the world, which the creation cannot even contain, even if it became something with us by reason of its love for man, to draw us to itself who lay on the ground.

Splendid were his first bold deeds, more splendid his last struggles against us. What do I call the first? Exiles, banishments, confiscations, plots open and hidden; persuasion when there was time for it, force when persuasion was impossible. Those of the right doctrine, and of our side, were driven out of the churches; those were brought in who belonged to the emperor's ruinous party, who demanded signatures of impiety and wrote things still worse than these. Presbyters were burnt at sea; impious generals, not conquering Persians, nor subduing Scythians, nor clearing out any other barbarian nation, but campaigning against churches, dancing on altars, defiling the bloodless sacrifices with the blood of men and victims, and outraging the modesty of virgins. To what end? That Jacob the patriarch might be driven out, and Esau, hated even before his birth, brought in instead. These are the stories of his first bold deeds, which even now move many to tears as they are remembered and heard.

But when, having gone through all, he rushed against this unshaken and unassailed mother of the churches to enslave her, and against the only living spark of the truth that remained, then for the first time he perceived that he had planned badly. For like a dart striking something stronger he was repelled, and like a rope that snaps he gave way. Such was the champion of the church whom he met; against so great a bulwark he dashed himself and was broken. The rest one can hear from those who experienced it at the time as they tell and recount it; and there is no one who does not recount it. All who know the struggles of that time marvel: the attacks, the promises, the threats, those sent from the judicial ranks to persuade him, those from the military, those from the women's quarters, men among women and women among men, manly only in their impiety, who, unable to be licentious by nature, do the only thing they can and commit fornication with their tongues; the chief cook Nebuzaradan, threatening with the knives of his trade, and sent back to his own fire. But what seems to me most wonderful of his deeds, and which I could not pass over even if I wished, I will give to my discourse as briefly as possible. [48] Who does not know the prefect of that time, who used his own great boldness against us especially (since he had been initiated, or rather finished off, by them in baptism), serving his master beyond what was required, and keeping his power secure and longer lasting by gratifying him in everything? When he was raging against the church, putting on the look of a lion and roaring like a lion, unapproachable to most, that noble man was brought in; or rather he entered, as though called to a feast, not to a trial. How could I worthily recount either the prefect's insolence or the man's wise resistance to him? “What do you mean, you,” he said, calling him by name, for he did not yet deign to call him bishop, “by daring to defy such power, and alone of all to be insolent?” “In what respect,” said the noble man, “and what is the madness? For I do not yet know.” “That you do not worship the emperor's religion,” he said, “when all others have bowed down and been defeated.” “Because,” he said, “my Emperor does not wish this; nor do I endure to worship any creature, being myself a creature of God and bidden to be god.” “And what do we seem to you?” “Nothing,” he said, “when you command such things.” “What then? Is it not a great thing for you to be ranked with us and to have us as partners?” “You are prefects,” he said, “and among the distinguished, I will not deny it; but not more honourable than God. And to have you as partners is great (how could it not be? you too are God's handiwork), but as much as any others of those under us; for Christianity is distinguished not by persons but by faith.”

Then the prefect, moved by this, boiled up still more in anger, rose from his seat, and spoke to him more harshly. “What?” he said. “Do you not fear my authority?” “Fear what? Suffer what?” “What? One of the many things in my power.” “Which? Let us know.” “Confiscation, exile, torture, death.” “If you have anything else,” he said, “threaten it; for none of these touches us.” And when the prefect asked, “How, and in what way?”, he said: “Because confiscation does not apply to one who has nothing, unless you want these worn-out rags of mine and a few books, in which my whole life consists. Exile I do not know, being confined by no place, and holding as my own neither this land where I now live nor any into which I may be thrown; or rather, all of it is God's, whose sojourner and stranger I am. Tortures: what would they take hold of, when there is no body to speak of? Unless you mean the first blow; for of this alone you are master. And death is a benefactor; for it will send me sooner to God, for whom I live and conduct my life, and for whom I am for the most part dead already, and to whom I have long been hastening.”

Astonished at this, the prefect said: “No one until now has spoken like this to Modestus, and with such boldness,” adding his own name. “Perhaps,” he said, “you have never met a bishop; or he would surely have spoken to you in the same way, contending for such things. For in other things we are gentle, prefect, and humbler than anyone else, as the commandment bids, and we do not raise our brows, I do not say against such great power, but not even against ordinary people; but where God is at stake and set before us, we despise everything else and look to him alone. Fire and sword and wild beasts and the hooks that tear the flesh are a delight to us rather than a terror. In view of this, insult us, threaten us, do whatever you like, enjoy your authority. Let the emperor too hear this: you will not conquer us nor persuade us to join in the impiety, even if you threaten worse.”

When the prefect had said and heard these things, and had seen the man's resistance so undaunted and unconquerable, he sent him out and dismissed him, no longer with the same threats but with a certain respect and yielding. And going to the emperor as quickly as he could, he said: “We have been defeated, emperor, by the champion of this church. The man is stronger than threats, firmer than arguments, more powerful than persuasion. We must try someone of meaner spirit; this man we must either force openly or not expect to yield to threats.” At this the emperor, condemning himself and overcome by the praises of the man (for even an enemy admires a man's virtue), did not order force to be used; he had the same experience as iron, which is softened by fire but still remains iron; and turning his threats into admiration, he did not accept communion with him, being ashamed to change, but sought an excuse, the most seemly one; and my discourse will show this too.

For he entered the church with all his bodyguard (it was the feast of the Epiphany, and the assembly was crowded), and, taking his place among the people, so made a formal show of unity. And it is worth not passing this over. When he was inside and was struck by the psalmody that fell upon his ears, and saw the sea of people and all the good order, both about the sanctuary and near it, more angelic than human; and him who presided over the people standing upright, as Scripture describes Samuel, unbending in body and eyes and mind, as though nothing new had happened,