To the Citizens of Nazianzus

and purged by the calamity and fear. Seek your bodily sustenance; but seek first that angelic food descending from heaven. If you do this, you will reconcile God to us, you will appease heaven, and you will restore the early and the latter rain. The Lord will give his bounty, and our earth will yield her fruit: this, I say, the lower [earth], yields the daily [fruit], but our earth of flesh [yields] the eternal [fruit], which we shall store away in the divine granaries through you, who offer up both us and our gifts in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

ADMONITION TO ORATION XVII

I. This oration was delivered at Nazianzus, toward the end of the year 373. We attest to this fact by the same reasoning used in the preceding admonition. The elder Gregory was still living, and our Theologian had already been consecrated by episcopal anointing. The orator divides this oration into two parts, as it were. The first part is directed to the Nazianzenes, the second to the magistrates. However, what exactly the fault of the Nazianzenes was is not sufficiently declared in this oration. Billius conjectures that the Nazianzenes, offended by some edict or by the gravity of tributes and taxes, had shown certain signs of a disposition toward sedition. But it is probable that the crime of the Nazianzenes was not so grave; otherwise, Gregory would have held a much harsher oration against them had they not merely conceived it in their minds, but had also excited a sedition in reality. For in this oration, the orator does not chide the Nazianzenes at all, but rather gently consoles them and recalls them to patience. He also exhorts them to be mindful of God, if they wish to obtain consolation and delight in their misfortunes; and not to forget that men are often "instructed by God through contrary things," and therefore that they must be subjected to God with equal zeal and will, whether He confers benefits or chastises, and not to God alone, but also to those who wield authority on earth. Many other things of this kind, and worthy to be read, does the Theologian preach to the Nazianzene people.

II. In the second part, he addresses the magistrates, and especially the prefect; not indeed Julian, the mere assessor of taxes, as Nicetas assumes, but another, the procurator or prefect of the whole province, inasmuch as he "had received the sword from God." Gregory approaches him in every way, that he might calm and soothe his angry spirit. "You too," he says, "the law of Christ subjects to my authority and throne. For we too wield an authority, I would add, even one more excellent and perfect... nor do I doubt (addressing the prefect) but that you will take this freedom of speech in good part, as being a sacred sheep of my sacred flock.... You have received the sword from Christ, not so much that you might use it, as that you might threaten and terrify. You are an image of God, you rule also over the image of God.... Let the kinship of nature move you," etc. By these and many other such admonitions, Gregory tries to recall the prefect to clemency and gentleness. Then, adding to these the hoary head of his father, the reverence due to the clergy, and indeed the very dispensation of Christ in the flesh, and the sacred table, he urges the man with wonderful art, that he might mingle lenity with terror, that he might temper threats with hope, and that finally nothing, "neither time," nor "prince," nor "hope of greater dignities" might withhold or turn him away from mercy and kindness.

ORATION XVII

I. My belly, my belly, I am in pain, and the senses of

my heart are troubled, says Jeremiah ^A in some place of his discourses, he who is the most sympathetic of the prophets, while he deplores Israel for being disobedient and alienated from the philanthropy of God, naming his own soul "belly," according to the laws of allegory. For I find this word used in many places in Scripture, either because it is hidden and invisible (for the same thing is true of the soul as of the belly: that they are hidden), or as being capable of receiving and distributing, if I may so speak, the food of the word; for what food is in the body, this is the word in the soul. By "senses," perhaps he understands the movements and thoughts of the soul, and especially those which arise from the senses, by which the just man is torn, and grows heated, and is driven by impulse, and cannot be restrained because of the heat of the Spirit; for this is what it means to be "troubled," as it were a readiness mingled with wrath. If someone should also take these for the bodily senses ^B, he will not miss the mark; for both eyes and ears are not only distressed by sad sights and sounds, but also desire both to see and to hear better things because of their compassion. But however these may be understood, the just man grieves and is troubled, and bears the sufferings of Israel, in whatever way you wish to understand them, not moderately; whether one considers the bodily ones, and him who is seen bodily, or the spiritual ones, and him who is understood ^C spiritually. Since the same prophet also demands a fountain of tears, and desires an extremity of rest, and welcomes a desert place, so that he may empty out the abundance of his grief, and be lightened somewhat of the inner wound, having bewailed Israel in quiet.

II. The same thing is also [done] by the divine David, who, a little before, being troubled at his own difficulties, says: "Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly away, and be at rest?" He seeks the wings of a dove, either as being lighter and swifter—for such is everyone who pursues justice—or as those that shadow forth the Spirit, by whose aid alone we flee from dangers, so that he may remove himself as far as possible from present evils. Then follows the medicine in tight situations, which is hope: "I waited," he says, "for God, who saves me from faint-heartedness and from the tempest." Which is also what he is seen to do elsewhere, most quickly applying the remedy to the grieving person, and providing us with a good lesson both by word and deed of magnanimity in the face of grave and dangerous matters. "My soul," ^D he says, "refused to be comforted." You see the soul’s...

^A expressions of distress and despair? Did you not fear, as if David were suffering from an incurable disease? What are you saying? Do you not accept comfort? Do you despair of solace? Will no one heal you? Not a word, not a friend, not a relative, not an advisor, not one to share in your pain, not one to explain his own misfortunes, not one to recount what happened long ago, nor to compare current events with those of the past, and to show how many people have been saved even from worse evils? Is everything cast away? Is it gone? Is it cut off? Has all hope perished? Must one only lie prostrate, awaiting the end? These are the words of the great David, who normally expands in his tribulations; who, even when surrounded by the shadow of death, rises up against it, supported by the help of God. What, then, am I to do, I who am small, weak, earthly, and not possessed of such spiritual capacity? David is dizzy, and who then can be saved? What help could I find while suffering, or what comfort? To whom should I flee when constrained? The great healer ^B David answers you, he who even charms away evil spirits through the Spirit dwelling in him. Would you like to learn from me to whom you should flee, though you do not know it yourself? Who is it that strengthens the relaxed hands and confirms the weakened knees, leads through fire, and brings salvation through water? There is no need, he says, for a battle line, for arms, for archers, for cavalry, for consultants, for friends, or for outside aid. You have within yourself the alliance that I have, and everyone who wishes. One must only desire, only make the effort. The consolation is near; it is in your mouth and in your heart: "I remembered God," he says, "and I rejoiced." What is more readily available than memory? Remember, you too, and rejoice. O, the ease of the cure! O, the speed of the healing! O, the greatness of the gift! The remembrance ^C of God not only calms, once remembered, the faint-heartedness and grief, but it also produces joy.

III. Do you wish me to bring forward other testimonies of the divine benevolence toward the human race? "If," he says, "you turn and groan to the Lord, then you shall be saved." Do you see how salvation is joined to groaning? And while you are still speaking, He will say: "Behold, I am here." And He will speak to your soul: "I am your salvation." Nothing comes between the petition and the attainment; not gold, not silver, not transparent and precious stones, not the other things by which the minds of men are bent toward gentleness and mercy. After Sophonias said, as if it were God, angry and ^D embittered, "I will desolate their paths so that they..."

there is none who enters; their cities have failed, because no one remains, nor is there any to inhabit them"; after He threatened the most terrifying things, after He cast down hearts with despondency, and cast the darkness of threats, He immediately brings in the light of a better hope, and restores me with these words: "Nevertheless I said: Fear me, and receive instruction, and you shall not be destroyed from before His eyes." ^B And proceeding a little further with more cheerful and human words, He says: "In that time the Lord will say: Be of good courage, Sion, let not your hands grow slack. The Lord your God is in you, He is powerful to save you, and He will bring joy upon you, and He will renew you by His love, and He will gather the contrite, and save the oppressed, and will receive the outcasts." These things the holy men and these reasons intend, and my discourse requires. But you, receive the words of wisdom, as the divine Solomon says, so that having fallen into the deep of evils, you may not despise, nor be swallowed up by your own ignorance rather than by the trouble and difficulty in which you currently find yourselves.

IV.

nor the present time, nor the future, nor things our own, nor others', nor the small, nor the greater, nor in short, anything that one might say. And inequality has this one equal quality, namely, change in all things. For all things are easily carried around, and migrate, and are mutually opposed, so that one might sooner trust in winds or in letters written upon the water than in the prosperity of men. And envy checks prosperity, while mercy checks calamity; and this, in my judgment, is done wisely and admirably, so that neither should adversity be without consolation, nor prosperity without a bridle and discipline.

V. They act prudently who are educated by calamities, and as they are purified by them like gold in the fire, ^B they have that saying of David in their mouths: *It is good for me that you have humbled me, that I may learn your statutes* (Ps. CXVIII, 71). This is because this circumstance brings forth the knowledge of the statutes of God; and they imitate Peter, imploring the Savior’s help when he was already nearly sinking (Matt. XIV, 30); and, finally, they attach themselves all the more to God on account of their pain, and gain for themselves the author of all benefits through affliction. Since a soul that suffers is near to God, and the need itself causes us to turn to Him who has the power of bestowing, who might otherwise perhaps be despised on account of the abundance of his generosity. Therefore, brethren, let us keep our eyes lifted to heaven, and in every time and in every adverse turn of events ^C let us prefer good hope, and let us not cast away fear in prosperous times, nor hope in painful ones. Let us be mindful of the storm while we are in the calm, and of the helmsman while we are in the storm; and let us not be broken in spirit and weakened by afflictions, nor imitate the wicked servants who indeed confess the Lord when he benefits them, but by no means attach themselves to the same Lord with equal zeal and willingness when he chastens them—even though it sometimes happens that pain is better and more preferable than health, patience than relaxation, visitation than neglect, and chastisement than indulgence. And to state the matter briefly, let us so discipline ourselves that we neither collapse because of calamities, nor be carried away by insolence because of satiety.

VI. Let us submit ourselves to God, ^D and to one another, and to those who hold power on earth: to God for all causes; to one another for the sake of brotherly love; and to those in power for the sake of good order; and

that all the more, the more gentle and kind they are ^A. It is a terrible thing to exhaust the clemency of continuous forgiveness, lest we ourselves be required to pay the penalty for their harshness, having dissolved the serenity of the Spirit, having brought darkness into the light, and having mixed wormwood with honey. This too is one of our laws, and this also is among those praised and most beautifully ordained by the Spirit, who, having tested the possible along with the good, has legislated: just as slaves are to obey their masters, and wives their husbands, and the Church the Lord, and disciples their shepherds and teachers, so also are they to be subject to all superior authorities, not only because of wrath, but also for the sake of conscience, as those who are liable to pay tribute; and not to hate the law because they are evildoers, nor to await the sword, but to be praised by the authority by being purified through fear ^B.

VII. One and the same is the rule; yet it spares the straight, but cuts away the superfluous. There is one sun; yet it illuminates the healthy eye, but darkens the weak one. Do you wish me to state something from our own doctrine with boldness? There is one Christ; yet he is set for the fall and the resurrection of many; for the fall of the unbelieving, but for the resurrection of those who believe. And to some he is a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, as many as have not known nor understood, but walk in darkness, whether they worship idols or only look as far as the letter, and neither wish ^C nor are able to be enlightened beyond this. But to others he is a cornerstone and a praised rock, as many as are bound together by the Word and have stood upon him; or if you prefer, that pearl which the good merchant buys with all that he has. We, brothers, suffer something of this kind, not setting our own lives to rights, but being indignant toward authority. It is just as if one were to accuse the judge of the contest as being wicked, while he himself breaks the laws of the wrestling-ground; or as if one were to accuse the doctor of being unlearned and bold, because he uses incisions ^D and cautery, while he himself is in an evil condition and has need of more severe remedies. Let these things be said by me to those who are under my care, at once for the sake of admonition and consolation; by me, I say, a poor shepherd, who poorly order and instruct this little flock, with whom I am commanded by the prescription of my pastoral law to rejoice when it rejoices and to groan when it mourns.

^A III. But what of you, princes and prefects? For our discourse now turns to you, so that we may not seem to be acting altogether unjustly, by urging those others to fulfill their duty while yielding to your dignity and power—as if, out of shame or fear, we dared not speak freely, as becomes a Christian; or as if we were to take thought for their interests while neglecting yours, whose care it is fitting to hold in even greater regard, in that the matter has greater weight in either direction, and a greater utility arises from it if the business should succeed prosperously. For let the contrary be far from us and from our discourse. What, therefore, do you say? Or what agreement is there between us? Will you bear with me speaking freely with an equal mind? For the law of Christ subjects you also to my authority and to my throne. For we too exercise rule; and I will add, a more excellent and perfect rule: unless indeed it is fair that the spirit should yield to the flesh, and heavenly things to earthly. You will take this freedom of speech in good part, I know, as being a sacred sheep of my sacred flock, and a darling of the great Shepherd, and one rightly guided and instructed from above by the Spirit, and illuminated by the light of the holy and blessed Trinity, just as we ourselves are. Therefore, my discourse to you will be short and concise.

^C IX. You exercise authority with Christ, and with Christ you administer this office. From Him you have received the sword, not so much that you might use it, but that you might threaten and strike fear; wherefore you must see to it that you preserve it, as a kind of pure and untarnished gift, for Him who gave it. You are an image of God; yet you also rule over the image of God; which here is governed by a certain dispensation, but migrates to another life, to which we all shall likewise depart, after we have played for a while in this prison, or stadium, or fore-design, or shadow of life. Let the kinship of nature move you; let your exemplar stir you; attach yourself to God, not to the prince of this world; to the kind Lord, not to the bitter tyrant. *He was a murderer from the beginning.* He both inflicted a wound upon the first man through the transgression of the commandment, and brought in a life of misery, and introduced through sin the law of both inflicting and undergoing punishment. But you, O man of God, let it come into your mind who formed you, to what you are called, how many and how great are the things you possess, by how many names you are bound, from whom you have received reason, the law, and the prophets, and this very thing—that you know God, and that you do not despair of the good things set before you in expectation. Therefore, ^D imitate the philanthropy of God on account of these things. This is what is most divine in a human being: to do good. It is possible for you to become God by doing nothing evil; do not let the time of deification slip away.

^A X. Some pour out their wealth, others surrender their exhausted flesh to the Spirit, and are dead unto Christ and depart from the world entirely. Others consecrate their most cherished possessions to God. Surely, you have heard of the sacrifice of Abraham, who more readily offered up his only-begotten son, the child of promise, and the one to whom the promise itself referred, to God than he had first received him from Him. We demand none of these things from you: for all of them, offer this one thing, namely, kindness, in which God delights more than in all other things combined; a gift uniquely your own, a gift free from all stain, a gift that invites the liberality and munificence of God. Temper your severity with lenity; soften your threats with hope. I know that many things are accomplished by kindness and goodness, so that it compels one to render proper gratitude through the very sense of shame it induces; for when we forgive the offenses of those over whom we have the power to take vengeance and punish, we strike a sense of shame into the one to whom we show mercy by our benevolence. Let nothing be of such value to you that you would, for its sake, admit into your mind anything that would render you unworthy of your office. Let nothing shut out mercy and gentleness: not the occasion, not a ruler, not fear, not the hope of higher dignities, not ^B arrogance possessing a greater influence. Acquire benevolence in necessary times, and leverage this mercy upward to God. No one has ever regretted having offered something to God. He is generous in His recompense, for the most part repaying with heavenly goods those who have first contributed something to Him and lent it as a loan; sometimes, however, He also refunds the comforts of this life, that He might provide assurance for the future.

^C XI. Yet a little while, and the world passes away, and this tabernacle is dissolved. Let us make good use of the time; let us exchange things transient and fragile for things eternal. Each of us is under correction, and this clay vessel carries with it a great debt. Let us forgive, that we may be forgiven; let us release, that we may ask for release. You see in the Gospel how a certain debtor of many talents is brought forward and is released from his debt; for he had approached a good and gentle master. And he is forgiven, yet he himself does not forgive; for he was a slave even in his disposition. The kindness which he had received regarding a greater sum, he does not share with his fellow servant regarding a lesser one, nor—if not to anyone else—does he follow the example of magnanimity regarding another's affair; and the master is indignant. And the rest I shall pass over in silence; but it is better for everyone,

that before we render an account of our lives in the next world, we employ the kindness of this life.

^B XII. What do you say? Do we hold you by these discourses, of which you have often confessed yourself to be a lover, most excellent of prefects, and—would that I might add—most clement? Or must this hoary head of mine also be offered to you in place of a formal petition, as well as the number of my years, and this long-standing and spotless priesthood, which perhaps even the angels themselves—those pure and most pure worshippers of God—revere, as not being unworthy of their own worship? Do these things persuade you? Or shall I dare something greater? Yet it is my pain that makes me bold. I offer you Christ; the emptying of Christ for our sake, and the passions of the Impassible, and the cross, and the nails by which I was loosed from sin; and the blood, and the burial, and the resurrection ^C and the ascension, and even this table to which we come in common; and the types of my salvation, which I celebrate with the same mouth with which I perform this intercession to you—this, I say, divinely holy mystery that raises us up to heaven.

XIII. But if not for one of these things, then at least for the sake of all, grant this favor, both to us and to yourself, and to your domestic Church, and to this beautiful assembly of Christ—concerning which I would have you consider that, even though it yields to us in the office of performing the embassy, it acts as a suppliant with us, as being about to have greater authority in your eyes on account of the dignity of the priesthood with which we have been ^D adorned by God; not to speak of that which is forbidden by the law of the empire. In this one thing, may you be beautifully defeated; overcome us with kindness. Behold, before God, and the angels, and the kingdom of heaven, and the rewards of that life, I offer you my suppliants. Honor my faith, which was entrusted to me and which I have entrusted to others; so it shall come to pass, that your own faith will also be honored in greater and more perfect things.

And, to sum up the matter in one word, you too have a Lord in heaven. May it be your lot to experience Him as a judge who is toward you such as you yourself are to those who are under your authority. May we all, moreover, encounter both the kindnesses of this life and those which are more tolerable in the life to come, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be glory and power, to whom be honor and kingship, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, as it was, and was before, and shall be, and is now, and unto ages of ages. Amen.

ADMONITION REGARDING ORATION XVIII

I. "In this oration," states Billius, "he first addresses Basil the Great, and provides him with what is, as it were, the subject matter of the oration. Then, beginning the history of his father’s life, he shows how, having cast off a portentous and impious superstition, he embraced the Christian faith, and he adorns this narrative in wonderful ways, while at the same time, seizing the opportunity, he adds the praise of his mother. Then, returning to the design of the oration, he recounts certain miracles which had occurred at his baptism. From there he moves on to his episcopate, where he pursues his various praises, and amplifies his piety and the constancy of his faith by way of comparison, and clears him in passing because he had—perhaps imprudently—subscribed to a certain false and sacrilegious heretical dogma. Soon after, he praises his liberality and kindness in embracing the poor, and his contempt for human glory; and, having enumerated certain virtues to form a collection, he returns to the praise of humility, and handles it elegantly. To this he adds the facility for forgiving injuries, and the forgetting of wrongs, and an extraordinary humanity joined with a marvelous dexterity in the management of affairs. Finally, he explains how God honored him with a double miracle, namely, that divine vengeance immediately followed those by whom he had been offended, and that he himself, having been despaired of by the physicians, was, beyond all hope, restored by God to his former health; and because human holiness is clearly declared by these events, he adds how his mother, laboring under a most grave and atrocious illness, suddenly received health; and furthermore, in what manner he himself, tossed by a dangerous storm, escaped—by his parents' prayers—the most certain peril of death. Hence he betakes himself to the praise of fortitude and constancy. Having demonstrated this by many examples, he puts an end to the encomium of his father, and, turning the oration to his mother, now worn out by old age, he consoles her most elegantly and learnedly."

II. This oration was delivered in Nazianzus, approximately in the middle of the year 374. For, according to the learned, Gregory the Elder had died in the month of March or April of this year. This can also be proven by certain monuments. For first, it is certain that Gregory the father was already dead when Amphilochius was assumed to the see of Iconium. For at the time when he was ordained bishop of Iconium, our own Gregory was occupied in mourning for the death of his parent, as he himself writes to Amphilochius the father: "Does your son," he says, "cast you into grief, because for his virtue he is seized and honored? But does it not torture me, my father, that he has entered upon the final journey from us, from which he will no longer return to us, nor be seen by us?" Furthermore, Faustinus, whom Amphilochius succeeded, had died in the year 373. For Basil, writing to Eusebius, bishop of Samosata, says: "Iconium is a city of Pisidia... It invites us that we might visit it, so that we might give it a bishop. For Faustinus is dead." The learned agree that this letter was written in the year 373. Whether Amphilochius succeeded Faustinus immediately, or whether a certain heretic, who died or was expelled shortly thereafter, stood between Faustinus and Amphilochius, as some suppose, is not sufficiently clear. Whatever the case may be, it is certain that Amphilochius undertook the administration of the Church of Iconium in the year 374. For Basil consoles him, having been ordained bishop, in a letter given in that same year with these words: "Blessed is God, who in every age chooses those who are pleasing to Himself, and separates the vessels of election, and uses them for the ministry of the saints: who now, even when you were fleeing, as you yourself have said, has ensnared you—not us, but the vocation which you suspected would come through us—with the inevitable nets of grace, and has led you into the midst of Pisidia, so that you might catch men for God," etc. Since, therefore, the times of the ordination of Amphilochius and the death of Gregory the Elder coincide