THE SURVIVING WORKS OF BASIL, BISHOP OF SELEUCIA
THE SURVIVING WORKS OF BASIL, BISHOP OF SELEUCIA ISAURIA.
(From the edition entitled: *The works of the most holy fathers Gregory, Bishop of Neocaesarea, surnamed Thaumaturgus, Macarius of Egypt, and Basil, Bishop of Seleucia in Isauria, which have been able to be recovered; now for the first time published together in Greek and Latin. To which is added the Exposition of the Canonical Epistles by Joannes Zonaras. Paris, 1622. Folio.*)
TO THE LORD JACQUES BLAS, MOST REVEREND BISHOP OF SAINT-OMER, CLAUDIUS DAUSQUE OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS, SENDS GREETINGS.
They say A that Heraclitus, surnamed the Obscure, hid the poems he had written deep within the temple of Diana. A story worthy of its author! If he did not wish them to be read, why compose and write poems? If he did wish it, why hide them? Perhaps so that, when discovered by those of a later age, they might be received as oracles and possess more reverence. Now, it is an imposture unworthy of a student of wisdom to bury in shadows what one wishes to come into the light; it is the mark of a man too arrogant to seek a price for books he has labored over from the superstition of the profane vulgar. But—
*Crimes returned upon their master.* B
He paid the penalties of his ambition; he lies in the ignorance of men, and the hiding-place of obscurity which he once courted, he now possesses eternally. It is otherwise with the holy Fathers, those leaders of the Church; if they labored for the public good, they reveal their work without envy, nor do they bleed in vain,
*Struggling along the narrow path of ambition.* C
They earned an immortal memory through their writings, those whose purpose it was to alleviate the sloth of future generations, or to defeat their ignorance, or to turn their will toward the better; although they did not all attain this equally. For bitter times befell them, inimical to the studies of men: the fires of war, when brought to bear, caused the burning of libraries; old age and rot consumed the papers; if anything of a superior writing remained anywhere, those who possessed it were too lazy to circulate it; envy raged—that importunate plague; there were those who would not permit what they held to be seen by the eyes of men, neither by prayer nor for payment. In these ways, the commonwealth of letters has been grievously harmed, and the work of the holy Fathers cut down, and their intentions thwarted. Yet sometimes, as if after a storm has subsided, they are dug out and emerge from the dark depths. At last, the Lord Basil, Bishop of Seleucia in Isauria, has emerged, whom Brother Andreas Schottus, of our Society—a man not uncurious about such commodities—has recently had printed, having drawn him forth from his hiding-places, and he has transmitted him to me. As I held him, I looked around and looked within; good God! I observed a treasure of sound doctrine and of pure, unadulterated theology, not to be hidden from those who do not know Greek. For that reason, I approach the task of translation, so that the companionship of men itself may share in this treasure. When the work was finished, as I considered who by right and merit should be the first to share in this my labor, you came to my mind, most Reverend Blas, whose name...
PREFACE OF CLAUDE DAUSQUE
Indeed, how glorious it is to pre-face what is inscribed at the beginning of an interpretation! For when men's councils were hesitant, and it had been long debated and sought out in what stronghold human prudence might finally place itself, and to what height of a more sacred authority among the people of Saint-Omer: Lo, you, Blaise, most great man, have been given by the high will of things celestial and mortal as Bishop to the people of Saint-Omer, and to those places where their rights extend more widely. Gracious to all, the sun of that day shone forth, on which you entered the city with a sacred retinue! Neither did they rejoice as much in the sun reborn with such solemn light as in your appearance, from whose lips the rays of wisdom shone forth throughout. They looked upon you as another sun of the city, and just as that one in the highest place renews itself by a certain movement, so they kept saying that you rejoiced and grew more and more vigorous in the perpetual round of affairs presenting themselves to you. A Diverse then was the feeling of the people and the magnates regarding your arrival, diverse the rumor. Those who weighed all things more exactly by the importance of the reasons, and measured the future by the magnitude of the deeds already performed by you—nor, indeed, if I judge rightly, did they judge poorly—believed that Blaise, who had presided for so many years over the helm of the most pious Franciscan Order with the most joyous fruit and the highest approval of the whole Order, who had most holily established the city of Namur, and had left behind a certain ardent longing for himself departing from that province, who, to use one word, had played the bishop therein, would most abundantly fulfill the office wherever he might be placed. On this account, the Senate and People of Saint-Omer congratulated themselves. They also reported that Blaise, so that he might use the resources of nature and grace more conveniently, had acquired eloquence as an aid. Not that eloquence which grasps at clouds and vanities, but that from which one first learns to exist and to cultivate virtue: which character Dionysius of Halicarnassus first records in history as belonging to the most holy king Numa, and which we know is to be exercised according to the maxim of Phocylides: *To practice good speech, which will move all men indeed.* B Such also was Saint Paul in the judgment of the divine Chrysostom in his books *On the Priesthood*, or *On the Episcopacy*, whom for no other reason the Lycaonians guessed to be Mercury. To have seen him shining forth with miracles could have been taken as an argument of some divinity: to have heard his eloquence was all the reason they needed to suspect he was Mercury. You tread in the footsteps of this Herald of the nations, most Reverend Blaise, as often as you urge the peoples from the depravity of life to a holier discipline. Happy are our citizens in having such and so great a man filling the sacred presidency! And if they know their own good, they are happier still! Nor indeed can they fail to know it. Everywhere they perceive the method of living according to the Apostle's rule expressed in Blaise. Do they immerse themselves in the inner sanctum of the temple? They hear him constantly chanting with the other precentors of divine praises. Do they turn their eyes from the choir to the pulpit? They either hear the Shepherd of the Lord divinely feeding the flock, or they remember having heard it. Do they penetrate into the episcopal residence? They find a well-ordered household, and follow the traces of your frugality with their feet and eyes. Do they approach you? They experience you as kind and affable to the highest and lowest alike. Do they feast with you? They take an example from your sobriety. C They recognize also, more deeply, the most beautiful company of your hidden virtues stored within: prudence, chastity, religion, devotion, charity; which virtues, although domestic, the eyes of men do not allow to be hidden, nor does fame. And fame, having brought to me judgments concerning you that are so certain and corroborated by the long usage of time past, at once urged me that I should dedicate to your fatherhood these Orations of Basil, Bishop of Seleucia, which I have translated into Latin to the best of my ability. I have also added notes as witnesses of my mind regarding Basil and Blaise. In this plan which I have undertaken, I will say freely what I pursue. Everywhere in the Orations of the divine Basil are the lights of eloquence; I feared lest, either through the poverty of another language or through human error, those lights might wrap themselves in a cloud: it was decreed, therefore, that I should borrow light from you, most Reverend Blaise, and from your most exquisite arts: that in so much as I am less able, by so much more copiously might our version be illuminated by the splendor of your name. Finally, if the Annals speak true that Blaise favored Claudius Marcellus, and favored the Roman cause: do you, Blaise, favor Claudius Dausqueius, and favor the Roman interpretation by him. May Saint Basil also favor Blaise, thus I pray! And may Blaise be an ornament, a defense, and a patron to Basil: may both be to the translation, both to our Society. Nor shall I ask that you admit this gift benevolently or humanely: for you could not be otherwise, who, as great as you are, are humanity itself. I shall pray to the Supreme Deity that He may long preserve you for the country, for Belgium, for the Church. From the Jesuit College at Douai, on the Ides of May, 1615. D Your servant in Christ, Cl. Dausqueius Audomar.