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BASIL and Gregory were contemporaries, and they were recognized
to be equally intent, so to speak, upon the cultivation of the
virtues. They had both studied in their youth at Athens, under
Himerius and Proaeresius, the most approved sophists of the age; and
afterwards at Antioch, under Libanius, the Syrian. But as they
subsequently conceived a contempt for sophistry and the study of the
law, they determined to study philosophy according to the law of the
Church. After having spent some time in the pursuit of the sciences,
taught by pagan philosophers, they entered upon the study of the
commentaries which Origen and the best approved authors who lived
before and after his time, have written in explanation of the Sacred
Scriptures.
They rendered great assistance to those who, like themselves,
maintained the Nicene doctrines, for they manfully opposed the dogmas
of the Arians, proving that these heretics did not rightly understand
either the data upon which they proceeded, nor the opinions of
Origen, upon which they mainly depended. These two holy men divided
the perils of their undertaking, either by mutual agreement, or, as
I have been informed, by lot. The cities in the neighborhood of
Pontus fell to the lot of Basil; and here he founded numerous
monasteries, and, by teaching the people, he persuaded them to hold
like views with himself. After the death of his father, Gregory
acted as bishop of the small city of Nazianzus, but resided on that
account in a variety of places, and especially at Constantinople.
Not long after he was appointed by the vote of many priests to act as
president of the people there; for there was then neither bishop nor
church in Constantinople, and the doctrines of the council of Nicaea
were almost extinct.
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