PREFACE OF RUFINUS TO APRONIANUS. As I was setting out from the city, you earnestly charged me, Apronianus my dearest son, that even in my absence I should devote some work to you, lest the necessity of my journey should hold us back from our accustomed studies. You asked, then, that I translate Gregory into Latin for you—a man incomparable in all respects, who, illustrious in word and works, furnished to the churches of Christ the most splendid light of the knowledge of Christ, since he taught the things he did and did not condemn himself by acting contrary to what he taught. He was sprung from Cappadocia as his homeland, with a bishop as his father and a mother likewise quite religious.
At Athens he was nourished and learned as few are, yet not yielding in his scholarly life to the enticements of his age or of his companions, he kept his chastity unbetrayed, but, as a treasure entrusted to him by God, he brought back to a chaste home the unbroken seal of his chastity. At length, when he flourished in the studies of philosophy at Athens, he saw in his sleep, as he sat reading, two quite comely women seated at his right and left. He, by the instinct of chastity, regarding them with a rather stern eye, kept asking who they might be and what they wanted of him. But they, embracing him more familiarly and eagerly, said:
'Do not take it amiss, young man; we are well known to you and quite familiar—for one of us is called Wisdom, the other Chastity—and we have been sent by the Lord to dwell with you, because you have prepared for us a delightful and quite pure dwelling-place in your heart.' Then afterward, when on account of his outstanding progress in letters he was being pressed at Athens to teach rhetoric, he secretly boarded a ship and departed. And when he had entrusted himself to an unexplored sea, he was tossed by a tempest, in which he vowed that he would serve God. And when he did so, he was suddenly appointed by his father the bishop into the priesthood. Bearing this ill, he withdrew for a time;
but afterward, having returned, he delivered this apologetic discourse in the church, alleging the reasons for his withdrawal and indeed for his return. After this, when his father had died, he succeeded him in the episcopate at Nazianzus, a small town. And from there, when after the times of Valens the Arian the catholics had recovered the churches, he was entreated to pass over to Constantinople to establish and teach the church. There, when he was carrying on a magnificent work in the word of God and daily converting almost infinite multitudes from the heretics to the true faith, as is wont to happen, rivalry followed upon his glory.
But he was so perfect in the fear of God that, when he perceived that on his account there was a dispute among the bishops, at once he willingly departed, applying to himself only that prophetic saying: 'If this tempest is on account of me, take me and cast me into the sea, and the commotion shall cease from you.'
Nothing more praiseworthy and holy than his life, nothing more illustrious and renowned than his eloquence, nothing purer and more upright than his faith, nothing fuller and more perfect than his knowledge can be found—who alone is such that, concerning his faith, not even the parties and factions at variance among themselves, as is wont to happen, were able to dispute, but he obtained this standing of merit with God and the churches of God, that whoever has dared to gainsay his teaching in anything, by this very fact, because he is the greater heretic, is convicted; for it is a manifest sign that no one is of the right faith who does not agree with Gregory in faith.
Read him, therefore, without any scruple at all, knowing nevertheless that the necessity of translation obscures not a little the resplendent light of his eloquence in the Greek. As to whether in this the poverty of our language or the very nature of translation brings this about, you, who have skill in both languages, are the better judge. FROM THE GREEK, HAPPILY. HERE ENDS THE PROLOGUE OF GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS THE BISHOP. HERE BEGINS THE SAME MAN'S APOLOGETIC, TRANSLATED INTO LATIN FROM THE GREEK. HERE ENDS THE PROLOGUE. HERE BEGINS THE APOLOGETIC OF SAINT GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS. I. THE APOLOGETIC. 1. I have been conquered, and I confess that I am overcome; I am made subject to the Lord, and I have besought Him.
For it is fitting that blessed David open to me the door of speech—or rather, He Himself who spoke in David and who even now speaks through him. For the best order is that of every word or work the origin be taken by us from God and the consummation be referred to God. The cause for which a while ago I, as though overcome by a kind of weariness and indignation, withdrew and went far off in flight and dwelt in the desert for no short time, may perhaps seem one thing to some and another to others—to those who are held, as is wont to happen, either by hatred toward me or by love. And as for the fact that we then seemed to some to be fierce and harsh, but now have grown gentle and have returned to what we were before, one indeed blames it as inconstancy, another embraces the deed.
For nothing is sweeter to men than to talk of others' affairs and to busy themselves with others' concerns, especially if it happens that some are anticipated either by hatred or by love—by whom above all the truth is ever hidden and stolen away. Let others, then, as I said, think other things; but I, without any shame, will bring forth into the open what is true, satisfying both parties—that is, both those who are moved by affection toward us and those also who are moved by hatred—in some matters indeed being my own accuser, but in others also making satisfaction. 2. And that my discourse may proceed for us in due order, I will first treat of my dread and former fear. For I will not allow suspicions of those to remain against me who scrutinize either our good points or our contrary ones with curious examination.
For this too is a duty of religion: to take care, by satisfaction in word, if perchance there are any who seem wounded by the darts of suspicions—since indeed it is best that one should neither, by sinning, nor, being placed under suspicion of sin (if it can be and the matter permits), set a stumbling-block or scandal before the brethren. For we know how grave a punishment has been appointed by the Lord against him who scandalizes one of the least. 3. I, therefore, O most excellent and religious men, did not incur these things either as one unskilled or foolish, nor—that I too may boast a little something—as one arrogant and despising the divine laws and statutes.
For I know that, just as in our body some members are those which govern the body and preside over all its motions, while others are those which are governed and render obedience to their rulers, so also in the Church God has appointed it, dispensing it by the law of equity and by His divine providence, by which He arranges all things, tempering the privileges of merits. Some He has appointed to be ruled and governed—for whom this is more useful—that by the word and work of their rulers they may be imbued with what is profitable;
others He gave as pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the Church—namely those who, endowed beyond the rest with virtue of soul, stand more familiarly near to God and perform that office in the Church which either the soul performs in the body or mind and reason work in the soul—so that the two, equally joined together and mutually mingled, in which something is lacking and in which something abounds (as in the diversity of members), with a concord wrought through the Spirit, may exist as a body perfect and whole and fit for all things, and worthy to have Christ as its Head. 4.
Although, then, I know that it is not safe even for any other living creatures to be without rulers and governance, yet much more is this so for men, for this reason: that a greater and graver peril hangs over them when they err; for if indeed that which is first cannot be preserved by them, namely that they not transgress, this at least holds the second place toward their salvation, if they are corrected and recalled from their offense. If, therefore, this has appeared true and seemed good and just, it is certain that the contrary is evil and useless—either for all to wish to become rulers, so that no one remains who ought to be ruled, or again for no one to be willing to undertake the office of ruling—through which the whole body of the Church can at once limp and be shaken, with no one, of course, governing.
And where then, or how, or by whom shall God be worshiped by us? In what way shall the sacrosanct mysteries be celebrated after the likeness of the heavenly image, through which we, still placed on earth, are associated with the heavenly orders? Without doubt that which was foretold will come to pass, that there be no king nor prince nor priesthood nor sacrifice. And all those things will befall us also, by which that former people was condemned for its immense crimes. 5.
But this is not even new or strange among those with whom the studies of divine philosophy flourish: that someone from the rank of disciples be taken up into the office of masters—just as not even a sailor of proven worth, if the matter requires, may be transferred to the inspection of the prow, or from that place (if he has commendably gathered the lore of the winds) be summoned to the very helm of the ship; or the bravest soldier be entrusted with the care of a squadron and cohort, or one managing a squadron well be transferred to the command of the whole army. Let none, therefore, of those who become the most severe censors in others' affairs and weigh the deeds of others by their own vices, suppose that I have blushed at the rank of this ministry while desiring greater things.
I am not so ignorant either of the greatness of divine things or of the lowliness of human ones, as not to deem it a great thing for the universal nature of mortals, in whatever manner and in whatever rank, to draw near to God, who alone dwells in light inaccessible to every creature. 6. What, then, is the reason for my disobedience? For I strove at that time to have nothing of my own nor anything resembling my own character, but to speak against it more boldly and to resist more shamelessly. Hear, therefore, the causes of this matter, which you have long desired. The chief cause of my disturbance was that I was suddenly taken by surprise.
And just as, when some sudden noise has crashed out, minds are thrown into confusion, smitten by unforeseen terror, so I too, terrified, dissolved all that modesty which had been an inseparable companion to me always in all my life. Then afterward the recollection of my silence and my quiet disturbed me more vehemently, since I saw that thing hindered for me which I from the beginning of my life had singularly loved and had vowed to God amid great and the greatest perils. By desire for it I was the more stirred up, the more I now seemed to myself to have reached at least its threshold, and from that point I was more keenly kindled, the more its goods became known to me.
And therefore I could not bear to be violently dragged into the midst of the throngs of peoples, and, as it were from a certain temple of quiet, to be thrust into the tumultuous crashings of this life. 7.
For nothing in truth seemed to me more excellent for the blessed life than for someone, as it were with the carnal senses closed and made beyond the flesh and the world, to turn into himself—that is, to contemplate his own senses and mind, and, made beyond the cares of mortals, to speak to himself alone and to God; so that, made loftier than all visible things, he may fill his mind with divine perceptions and heavenly forms without any earthly admixture, being made truly an unspotted mirror of the image of God, and ever receiving light from His light; bearing within himself certain first-fruits or beginnings of the age to come, and, while still placed on earth, enjoying in a certain manner the fellowship of the angels; and, the earthly frailty being despised and forsaken, to be transferred to things supernal and heavenly by the uplifting of the Holy Spirit.
If perhaps any of you has at some time felt the ardor of a love of this kind, he knows what I mean and recognizes what I am saying, and understands why I was so disturbed, and will readily grant me pardon. But toward the rest I shall not labor overmuch in self-justification — those to whom such discourse, while its purpose is unknown, may even be a matter for derision, and especially those in whom the languor of envy hinders the faculty of right judgment, and who fasten a faulty name upon the best of works, calling philosophy vainglory, and defaming the illustrious pursuits of wisdom with the names of boastfulness — to whom the assent of the base and ignorant multitude readily joins itself.
For the crowd of the unskilled is more ready to disparage good pursuits than to imitate them, so that they fall short in every way: either because they do not avoid manifest and public evils, or because they do not believe in hidden and concealed goods. 8. To these there has been added also this — for I will lay everything before you and now conceal nothing of secret matters — and whether it be a mark of my rusticity or of my frankness, do you judge.
I blushed at certain men whom I saw had gained nothing at all toward the amendment of their life, nothing of correction to their morals — nay rather, having become even worse, they rush, as the saying goes, with unclean feet into holy things, vying with one another, and before they are deemed worthy of the first entrance and of the doors, they straightway press on toward the tribunal and hasten to the priesthood; and thrusting away the rest, they themselves brood over the sacred altars — so that now that order seems not to be set forth as a pattern and example to the people, but a kind of opportunity for living in abundance and ease; nor is it reckoned an office accountable to the future judgment of God, but is thought to be a secure administration nowhere to be called into question.
And these rulers are almost more numerous than those whom they rule, so that nowhere holds true that word of the Apostle which says: 「Are all prophets? Are all teachers?」 For here all are teachers, all are prophets, so that according to the ancient proverb it may rightly be said, 「Is Saul also among the prophets?」 And in very truth no history of the ancients has handed down to us that the number of ministers in the Church was ever so great, or so cheaply assembled. Whence also a reproach is born to our religion and teaching, that priesthoods and ministries are conferred rather by ambition and to win favor than by a judgment of merits. Though to prevent the fault or stain of this matter is beyond us, yet at least to blush at it and turn away from it is some part of piety. 9.
But what deterred me beyond all things, and above everything we said above, is this — for I must come to the very summit of my discourse and bring forth what is true; for in such matters it is not lawful to deceive — I judged that it was not the same thing (as I judge even now) to herd flocks or cattle, and to preside over men and to govern souls. For there the aim is to make the flock, whether of cattle or of sheep, sturdy in limb and fat in flesh; with a view to which the herdsman or shepherd chooses fields leafy with grass and green with streams, which he has proved more fertile for pasture; and these very fields he renews with alternating grazings, and moves the flock from one pasture-land to another.
But he also seeks out shady lairs for their rest. He drives the flock at times with a rod, yet chiefly soothes it with the sweetness of reed or pipe. And no further task presses upon the herdsman or shepherd, except that some small care is required against the snares and wickedness of wolves, and, if perchance any beast be sick, either to inspect it with the eye or to tend it by stroking; to look out for shade in the heat; to provide for those lying down soft and grassy bedding, and to let breathing breezes blow upon the resting-place of those reclining, where also the cold wave of the running stream may graze it; and likewise to sing, as it were to soothe the flocks, some song of olden time or of love.
Besides this, he is permitted either to slaughter whatever is fatter, or to turn it into profit; but no care of this kind concerning virtue of soul and diligence presses upon such shepherds, by which they would be obliged to serve the pleasure of the flock rather than their own. 10. But since for a man it is exceedingly difficult to know how to be ruled, that is, to submit himself to the one who governs, it is far more difficult to know how to rule others — and to rule according to this discipline of ours, which has descended from the divine law and leads to God. And the greater the hope and glory of this is, by so much the heavier also is the danger, especially for those who have understanding.
Such a ruler, it seems to me, ought first of all to be tested like silver or gold, and examined on every side, and scrutinized in all times and in his actions, lest perhaps he have within himself some admixture of foreign or baser matter, and give back a harsh sound through the admixture of bronze or lead, and lest there lurk within something counterfeit which the fire may test and dissolve. And this evil indeed becomes the more pernicious the more numerous the people of which one stands as ruler; just as it is surely a graver thing for a plague to be spread among many than for one man to be consumed by pestilence. 11. Nor is the stench of a corpse so pernicious if it pollutes one place, as if, scattered abroad with savage reek, it breeds the disease of corrupted air for many.
So, if there is in a ruler any disease of vices, it is easily handed on and poured over into those who are ready at his bidding to obey; and what is evil passes from him much more easily than if there were in him anything of virtue and diligence. In this matter I too am wont often, pondering within myself about such things, to marvel greatly that wickedness advances so easily and without any toil and with no props at all, and that nothing is so easy as to become evil — even if no one teach it, no one compel it — whereas it is rare and exceedingly difficult to become good; and so, as it were, the ascent of some steep and sheer crag must be climbed, though many call to it, though many invite, even if all favor and exhort.
And this is what, it seems to me, the blessed Haggai too perceived, when he introduced that wondrous image of inquiry, when it is said to him: 「Ask the priests concerning the law, and say to them: If holy flesh or a holy vessel touch anyone's garment, does it sanctify it by that which it touched?」 And when the priests had said that it does not sanctify, he says to them again: 「If uncleanness touch the garment of a clean man, does it pollute it?」 And they said that it pollutes. 12. This therefore is what our present discourse too has now reviewed: that the taking on of good is exceedingly difficult for the nature of mortals, as if fire were applied to some damp material.
But to receiving evil we are very many and very apt, as if one should throw a spark of fire upon dry stubble, which is moreover quickened by the blowing winds. So we are consumed more swiftly by a little spark of wickedness than we can either be kindled by the fires of virtue or even grow warm. For a little wormwood thrown into much honey imparts a swift bitterness, whereas even if a double measure of honey be thrown into wormwood, its sweetness will not be able to prevail. So a small clod drawn out from the bank of a river diverts headlong the weight of the whole stream, whereas you could scarcely resist and turn back the river's onrush with great masses and immense machines. 13.
Wherefore first of all we must take heed lest we be found very bad painters of fair and comely virtue, or at least, presenting to others — that is, to the people, who ought to paint it within themselves — very bad models of its image; or lest there befall us the matter of the common proverb, that we who undertake to cure others should ourselves be found teeming with ulcers. 14. Then secondly, even if a man keep himself from the contamination of all sin, I judge that not even this is enough for him who presides over peoples to be trained and instructed unto virtue.
For it is not enough that he be not evil to whom the chief office of teaching is committed — which is surely blameworthy and disgraceful even in those who are taught — but he ought also to be endowed with all good deeds, according to that commandment which says: 「Turn away from evil and do good.」 Nor does it suffice to cast away from the soul unworthy thoughts and to abolish the forms of evil things, but also to engraft and inscribe more excellent and more divine ones, so that virtue of soul may seem to us acquired much more than human dignity.
Nor must we ever think that some end of good deeds or limit of progress has been set for us; nor are the things rightly done by us to be reckoned as gain so much as the things we have not yet been able to accomplish are to be counted as loss. And this life is to be thought of as a kind of ascent, in which it counts for nothing to have unfolded what you have climbed, unless you have made your way past what remains.
Nor let us measure ourselves by comparison with others, and think ourselves great if perchance we be found more excellent than some; but let us rather reckon it a loss if we do not conduct ourselves in a manner worthy of our place and rank; and if any things are done by us, let them be weighed not by comparison with the negligent, but by the authority of the precept — whether those men live more negligently or even somewhat more zealously — because we have received the patterns of the virtues not from the deeds of those nearest us, but from the authority of the word of God, from whom are all things, and in whom are all things, and to whom all things are referred. 15.
Nor is it to be thought that the same things suit all, just as neither is there one age for all, nor are the lineaments of countenance the same for everyone, nor is the quality of the whole earth one, nor is the splendor of the stars one. It is therefore to be thought fitting for the unlearned and the simpler man not to do evil, and to beware of doing all those things which are dragged to punishment or are stricken by the gravest censure of the law. But for him who presides over others, with every work of sin left behind, it is fitting to advance in the best things, so that he may be able by the example of his progress to invite and entice the rest to virtue, especially through the pattern of humility handed down to us by the Lord.
For one ought not to constrain by force or necessity, but to persuade by reason and by the examples of one's life; because everything that is wrung out unwillingly, together with what seems tyrannical, cannot even endure. For whatever is violently drawn is wont — just as if someone bend by force the top of a young tree — when released, to return again to what it had been. But what is done from purpose and from the will is as lawful as it is sure, being bound, that is, by the strongest bonds of one's own will. Whence also the Apostle, writing to the Hebrews, enjoins us to shepherd the flock willingly and not of necessity. 16.
But there is one who is neither evil nor one who has attained to the summit of virtue, and I do not see with what confidence he comes to teaching, who has not himself approached with this faith that he might learn. For in very truth it seems to me to be the art of arts and the discipline of disciplines to govern or to instruct man, who is surely the most varied in character and the most diverse in will among all living beings. No less keenly indeed will one contemplate, from the medicine of bodies, the cures also of souls; and the more difficult to grasp he has found bodily medicine, the more difficult he will find that of souls, since indeed the quality of the substance is much more excellent, and the end of the matter much more precious.
For the former indeed furnishes healing to bodies, and applies care and diligence toward temporal matter, which without doubt will at some time be dissolved by the frailty of its own nature, even if for now it be repaired by the aid of art. For it is certain that every body is dissolved either by sickness or by time, and is not permitted, by the condition of its frailty, to endure beyond the bounds of its nature. 17.
But the soul, which is divine and comes from God, is partaker of a supernal nobility, to which it also hastens to return, although it is bound and fettered to an inferior companion — perhaps also for other causes, which He alone knows who bound and fettered it, namely God, and whoever it is who has been enlightened and instructed by Him concerning mysteries of this kind. But, as far as I can understand, for two causes, I think:
one, that through the contests of struggle which are appointed for it against earthly things, it may seek the inheritance of heavenly glory, and, like gold by fire, be proved by the trial of the afflictions of the present life — whereby it may hope for the rewards of virtue not from God's gift alone, but, that virtue may truly be the highest good for it, may acquire it by its own work and labor; so that the good may seem to have been naturally implanted in us by the Creator, but to have been cultivated by us through our own will and purpose, and propagated by the exercise of each motion of free choice;
but the other, that it might also draw this inferior substance of the body along with itself and place it above in the supernal seats, gradually dissolving its grossness by which it is held back, so that this — which God is to the soul — the soul may also become to the body, governing matter as its servant and offering it together with itself to God as a faithful fellow-servant. 18. The differences of places and times and age and other like things the physicians will inquire into — when and with what medicines or foods there is need, or how one must abstain from harmful things, lest the discipline of the art be overcome by the desires of the sick. Sometimes too they employ the cutting of the knife and more potent medicines.
Yet all these things, although they be carried out with great toil, nothing of such a kind is wrought in them as is to correct morals, to purge vices, to amend lives, and to convert the purpose toward better things, and to moderate with assiduous circumspection all things that are done within us or even without us; so that, separating from our nature all that is brutish and wild in us, whatever there is of gentleness and meekness, whatever is worthy of man and dear to God, we may engraft in place of all those things, and may hold a just judgment between soul and body, never subjecting the better nature to the worse — which is surely most unjust — but always making use of the soul's command and the body's service.
This is the first law of God, and one most excellently established to be observed throughout all His creation, whether visible or even that which exceeds the sense of sight. 19. I consider also this, that all those things which we mentioned above as observed by physicians, each one of them remains according to the order of its own nature, nor can it in any way come to pass that the physician should attempt anything either against art or against nature, since indeed the very quality of bodily matter yields and obeys the medicinal disciplines — unless perchance some impatience or restlessness of the sick man should intervene, which itself surely it is not difficult either to watch for or to prevent.