But neither of these was Cappadocia less fruitful; nay rather, it brought forth for us something more joyful, Gregory together with Basil. It too therefore bore a harvest of many saints, abundant enough; it produced a copious vineyard of the godly; it brought forth also a young shoot of the Lord's olive-trees. But these especially, like two sons of fatness, standing on the right and left of the lampstand, shone like two luminaries of heaven. Whence I think it worthy to repeat above a few things concerning them. Both were noble, both educated at Athens, both colleagues, both, having departed from the lecture-hall, were asked to profess Rhetoric. This task Basil indeed magnificently fulfilled, but Gregory more magnificently despised.
And when he had wholly devoted himself to the service of God, he so presumed upon his love for his colleague that he took Basil down from the teacher's chair where he sat, laid hands on him, and led him away with himself to the monastery; and there, for thirteen years (as they say), having set aside all the books of the secular Greeks, they gave their labor solely to the volumes of divine Scripture, and they followed the understanding of them not from their own presumption but from the writings and authority of their elders, who, it was established, had themselves received the rule of interpretation through Apostolic succession. Examining especially their commentaries on the Prophets, they searched out the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden away in earthen vessels.
But when they themselves, now sufficiently instructed, were by divine dispensation called to nurture the peoples, and each was drawn by a different path yet both to the same work, Basil went about the cities and countryside of Pontus, rousing with his words the sluggish minds of that people, who were little concerned for the hope to come, and kindling them by his preaching; and he began to remove from them the callus of long negligence, and brought them, casting off the cares of vain and worldly things, to recover knowledge of themselves, to come together into one, to build monasteries; he taught them to give themselves to psalms and hymns and prayers, to take charge of the poor before all, to provide them with decent dwellings and what was necessary for their sustenance, to train virgins, and to make the modest and chaste life desirable to almost all.
Thus in a short time the face of the whole province was so changed that in a dry and parched field there seemed to have arisen a fruitful crop and a flourishing vineyard. Gregory, for his part, did not allow the good seed either to lie upon thorns or to be scattered among rocks, but cultivated the good ground of his own heart with continual tillage and unceasing exercises. And he made far more progress in himself than the other did in others. The one took care to receive what those renouncing the world brought to his feet, and to divide it as each had need. The other, content with the sacrament of having nothing and possessing all things, clung as a greedy and most eager man to the riches of wisdom alone.
The one taught many to come together into one and to have care for one another in things needful. The other, by his own example, since he was unencumbered and free, preached to all in the Apostolic word: 「But I would have you to be without care」 (1 Cor. 7:32); and, 「The Lord is at hand; be careful for nothing, but as servants of Christ be careful only for this one thing, when the Lord shall return from the wedding.」 The one would mercifully grieve with sinners and call them back from their fault; the other, by the grace of the divine word, would forestall the incitements to sin, and would not allow him to fall who, once cast down, could be raised only with difficulty. The one was pure in faith; the other freer in preaching. The one was humble before God; the other was humble even before men.
The one overcame the arrogant by his contempt of them, the other by reason. Thus in both, a diverse grace fulfilled one work of perfection. Now Basil, not long after made Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, when he was being driven into exile by Valens for the faith, was brought before the tribunal of the Prefect; and he began to be assailed (as is the manner of that power) with terrors and the greatest threats, that unless he obeyed the Emperor's commands, he should look for destruction to fall upon him then and there. Then he, undaunted and without any disturbance of mind, is said to have answered the Prefect who was threatening him thus: 「Would that I had something worthy to offer as a gift to this man, who would the sooner release Basil from the knot of this husk.」
And when a night, which was already half spent, was granted him for time to deliberate, he is reported to have answered again: 「Tomorrow I shall be the very same as I am now; would that you might not change yourself.」 And on that very night the wife of the emperor was tormented as though handed over to torturers; while the son who was their only child died, and was believed to have paid the penalties of his father's impiety. So before daybreak men were sent to beg Basil to intercede for them by his prayers, lest they too—and indeed far more justly—should likewise perish. Thus it came about that, although Valens expelled all the catholics, Basil endured in the Church until the end of his life with the sacrament of communion unstained.
Gregory, however, was substituted as Bishop in the town of Nazianzus in his father's place, and faithfully endured the whirlwind of the heretics. But when peace was restored, being entreated to come to Constantinople to teach the Church, he did not refuse. There in a short time he so prevailed in correcting a people infected with the ancient poisons of the heretics, that then for the first time they seemed to become Christians to themselves and to behold the new light of truth, since the teacher of religion taught much indeed by words, but more by examples; nor did they see anything commanded by him to his disciples which he had not first done himself. But when envy followed upon glory, certain men began to oppose him and to use unsound proscriptions, so that, when he returned to his own place, another should be ordained Bishop.
When he perceived this only whispered and, as it were, chewed over beneath the teeth, he himself uttered what no one dared to tell him: 「Far be it,」 he said, 「that on my account any strife should arise among the priests of God. If this storm is because of me, take me up and cast me into the sea, and the tossing shall cease from you.」 Then, having returned, he spent in his own Church the time of life that remained. And since he was now worn with age and weak in body, he himself appointed a successor for himself, that with him governing the Church, he might enjoy the repose of his infirmity and old age. There also remain magnificent monuments of the genius of both, namely the Treatises which they delivered extempore in the churches. Of these we have rendered into Latin about ten short Orations of each.
Moreover, we desire, if we are able and God's favor assists, to translate more of Basil's Institutes of the monks. There were besides two brothers of Basil, Gregory and Peter. Of these the one in the word of doctrine, the other in the works of faith, so equaled their brother that each could represent either Basil or Gregory. There also remain certain brilliant little works of the younger Gregory himself. But concerning these enough has been said. In the Western parts, indeed, Valentinian, unimpaired in the faith of religion, governed the commonwealth with the ancient censorial discipline of the Roman empire.