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VALENS, one might almost say, deprived every church of its
shepherd, and set out for the Cappadocian Caesarea, at that time the
see of the great Basil, a light of the world. Now he had sent the
prefect before him with orders either to persuade Basil to embrace the
communion of Eudoxius, or, in the event of his refusal, to punish
him by exile. Previously acquainted as he was with the bishop's high
reputation, he was at first unwilling to attack him, for he was
apprehensive lest the bishop, by boldly meeting and withstanding his
assault, should furnish an example of bravery to the rest. This
artful stratagem was as ineffective as a spider's web. For the
stories told of old were quite enough for the rest of the episcopate,
and they kept the wall of the faith unmoved like bastions in the circle
of its walls.
The prefect, however, on his arrival at Caesarea, sent for the
great Basil. He treated him with respect, and, addressing him with
moderate and courteous language, urged him to yield to the exigencies
of the time, and not to forsake so many churches on account of a petty
nicety of doctrine. He moreover promised him the friendship of the
emperor, and pointed out that through it he might be the means of
conferring great advantages upon many. "This sort of talk," said
the divine man, "is fitted for little boys, for they and their like
easily swallow such inducements. But they who are nurtured by divine
words will not suffer so much as a syllable of the divine creeds to be
let go, and for their sake are ready, should need require, to embrace
every kind of death. The emperor's friendship I hold to be of great
value if conjoined with true religion; otherwise I doom it for a
deadly thing."
Then the prefect was moved to wrath, and declared that Basil was out
of his senses. "But," said the divine man, "this madness I pray
be ever mine." The bishop was then ordered to retire, to deliberate
on the course to be pursued, and on the morrow to declare to what
conclusion he had come. Intimidation was moreover joined with
argument. The reply of the illustrious bishop is related to have been
"I for my part shall come to you tomorrow the same man that I am
today; do not yourself change, but carry out your threats." After
these discussions the prefect met the emperor and reported the
conversation, pointing out the bishop's virtue, and the undaunted
manliness of his character. The emperor said nothing and passed in.
In his palace he saw that plagues from heaven had fallen, for his son
lay sick at the very gates of death and his wife Was beset by many
ailments. Then he recognised the cause of these sorrows, and
entreated the divine man, whom he had threatened with chastisement, to
come to his house. His officers performed the imperial behests and
then the great Basil came to the palace.
After seeing the emperor's son on the point of death he promised him
restoration to life if he should receive holy baptism at the hands of
the pious, and with this pledge went his way. But the emperor, like
the foolish Herod, remembered his oath, and ordered some of the
Arian faction who were present to baptize the boy, who immediately
died. Then Valens repented; he saw how fraught with danger the
keeping of his oath had been, and came to the divine temple and
received the teaching of the great Basil, and offered the customary
gifts at the altar. The bishop moreover ordered him to come within the
divine curtains where he sat and talked much with him about the divine
decrees and in turn listened to him.
Now there was present a certain man of the name of Demosthenes,
superintendent of the imperial kitchen, who in rudely chiding the man
who instructed the world was guilty of a solecism of speech. Basil
smiled and said "we see here an illiterate Demosthenes;" and on
Demosthenes losing his temper and uttering threats, he continued
"your business is to attend to the seasoning of soups; you cannot
understand theology because your ears are stopped up." So he said,
and the emperor was so delighted that he gave him some fine lands which
he had there for the poor under his care, for they being in grievous
bodily affliction were specially in need of care and cure.
In this manner then the great Basil avoided the emperor's first
attack, but when he came a second time his better judgement was
obstructed by counsellors who deceived him; he forgot what had happened
on the former occasion and ordered Basil to go over to the hostile
faction, and, failing to persuade him, commanded the decree of exile
to be enforced. But when he tried to affix his signature to it he
could not even form one tittle of a word, for the pen broke, and when
the same thing happened to the second and to the third pen, and he
still strove to sign that wicked edict, his hand shook; he quaked,
his soul was filled with fright; he tore the paper with both his
hands, and so proof was given by the Ruler of the world that it was
He Himself who had permitted these sufferings to be undergone by the
rest, but had made Basil stronger than the snares laid against him,
and, by all the incidents of Basil's case, had declared His own
almighty power, while on the other band He had proclaimed abroad the
courage of good men. Thus Valens was disappointed in his attack.
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