GREGORY
16
GREGORY
title of " Thaumaturgus " ; herein the imaginative ele-
ment is very active. It is clear, however, that Greg-
ory's influence must have been considerable, and his
miraculous power undoubted. It might have been
expecte<l that Gregory's name would appear among
those who took part in the First Council of Antioch
against Paul of Samosata (Eusebius, " Hist. Eccl.".
VII, xxviii) ; probably he took part also in the second
council held there against the same heresiarch, for the
letter of that council is signed by a bishop named Theo-
dore, which had been originally Gregory's name (Euse-
bius, op. cit., VII, xxx). To attract the people to the
festivals in honour of the martyrs, we learn that Greg-
ory organized profane amusements as an attraction
for the pagans who could not understand a solemnity
without some pleasures of a less serious nature than
the religious ceremony.
Writings of Cregori/. — The "Oratio Panegyrica" in honour of Origen describes in detail that master's pedagogical methods. Its literary value consists less in its style than in its novelty, it being the first at- tempt at autobiography in Christian literature. This youthful work is full of enthusiasm and genuine talent; moreover, it proves how fully Origen had won the ad- miration of his pupils, and how the training Gregory received influenced the remainder of a long and well- spent life. Gregory tells us in this work (xiii) that under Origen he read the works of many philosophers, without restriction as to school, except that of the atheists. From this reading of the old philosophers he learned to insist frequently on the unity of God; and his long experience of pagan or crudely Christian populations taught him how necessary this was. Traces of this insistence are to be met with in the "Tractatus ad Theopompum", concerning the passi- bility and impa.ssibility of God; this work seems to belong to Gregory, though in its general arrangement it reminds us of ^iethodius. A similar trait was proba- bly characteristic of the lost " Dialogus cum Aeliano" (Upbs Ai\iai'bv SidXffis), which we learn of through St. Basil, who frequently attests the orthodoxy of the Thaumaturgus (Ep. xxviii, 1, 2; cciv, 2; ccvii, 4) and even defends him against the Sabellians, who claimed him for their teaching and quoted as his formula: ■jraT^pa Kal vldv iirivoi</. ^v (Ivai duo, viroaTdaeL 5^ kp (that the Father and the Son were two in intelligence, but one in substance) from the aforesaid " Dialogus cum Aeliano". St. Basil replied that Gregory was argu- ing against a pagan, and used the words (i7Mi'i<rTiKiis not SoyiiaTLKiii, i. e. in the heat of combat, not in calm exposition; in this case he was insisting, and rightly, on the Divine unity. He added, moreover, that a like explanation must be given to the words urta-fia, iroirina, (created, made) when applied to the Son, reference being to Christ Incarnate. Basil added that the text of the work was corrupt.
The " Epistola Canoniea", iiruTToXri HavoviKJi (Routh, " Reliquiae Sacrse ", III, 251-83) is valuable to both his- torian and canonist as evidence of the organization of the Church of Caesarea and the other Churches of Pon- tus under Gregory's influence, at a time when the in- vading Goths had begun to aggravate a situation made difficult enough by the imperial persecutions. We learn from this work how absorbing the episcopal charge was for a man of conscience and a strict sense of duty. Moreover it helps us to understand how a man so well equipped mentally, and with the literary gifts of Gregory, has not left a greater number of works.
The 'E/iffeo-is t^s TriffTcus (Exposition of the Faith) is in its kind a theological document not less precious than the foregoing. It makes clear Gregory s ortho- doxy apropos of the Trinity. Its authenticity and date seem now definitely settled, the date lying be- tween 2G0-270. Caspari has shown that this confes- sion of faith is a development of the premises laid down by Origen. Its conclusion leaves no room for doubt: "There is therefore nothing created, nothing
greater or less (literally, nothing subject) in the Trin-
ity (offTe odv KTLtTTdv Ti, ij SoOXoy ^v Trj Tpiidi), nothing
superadded, as though it had not existed before, but
had been added afterwards. Therefore the Father has
never been without the Son, nor the Son without the
Spirit ; and this same Trinity is immutable and unal-
terable forever." Such a formula, stating clearly the
distinction between the Persons in the 'Trinity, and
emphasizing the eternity, equality, immortality, and
perfection, not only of the Father, but of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit, proclaims a marked advance
on the theories of Origen.
A MeTd0pa(7iS e^s t6v ^KKKXrjfftaiTTijv toO SoXojutDfTos, or Paraphrase of Ecclesiastes, is attributed to him by some manu-scripts; others ascribe it to Ciregory of Nazianzus; St. Jerome (De vir. illust., c. Ixv, and Com. in Eccles., iv) ascribes it to our Gregory. The "Epistola ad Philagrium" has reached us in a Syriac version. It treats of the Consubstantiality of the Son, and has also been attributed to Gregory of Nazi- anzus (Ep. ccxliii; formerly Orat. xlv); Tillemont and the Benedictines, however, deny this because it offers no expression suggestive of the Arian controversy. Draseke, ne\-ertheless, calls attention to numerous views and expressions in this treatise that recall the writings of Ciregory of Nazianzus. The brief "Trea- tise on the Soul " addressed to one Tatian, in favour of which may be cited the testimony of Nicholas of Me- thone (probably from Procopius of Gaza), is now claimed for Gregory.
The Ke0dXaia wepl Trl<rTeus diiSeKa or " Twelve Chap- ters on Faith" do not seem to be the work uf Gregory. According to Caspari, the Kara n^pos tt/o-tis, or brief exposition of doctrine concerning the Irhiity and the Incarnation, attributed to Ciregory, was composed by ApoUinaris of Laodicea about 3S0, and circulated by his followers as a work of Ciregory (Bardenhewer). Finally, the Greek, Syriac, and Armenian "Catenie" contain fragments attributed more or less correctly to Gregory. "The fragments of the " De Resurrectione" belong rather to Paraphilus' "Apologia" for Origen.
Gregory's writings were first edited by Voss (Mainz. 1604), and are in P. G.. X. For the Tractatus ad Theopompum see de L-\G.\RDE. Anatecla Syriaca (London, 1S5S), 46-64; and Pitra, Analecta Sacra (Paris, 1.SS3), IV. See atso Ryssel, Grcoorius Thaumaturgus, scin Lehen, und seine Schriflni (Leipzig, 1880); K6tsch.\u, Des Greaorios Thaumaturpos Dankrede an Origenes (Freiburg, 1894); B.\rdenhewer. Patrology, tr. Shahan (St. Louis, 1908). 170-75. For an English version of the literary remains of Gregory see Ante-Nicene Falhcrf; (New York, 1896). VI, 9-74.; cf. also Reynolds in Did. Ckr. Biog., s. v. Gregorius (3).
H. Lecleucq.
Gregory of Nyssa, S.vint, date of birth unknown ; d. after 385 or 386. He belongs to the group known as the "Cappadocian Fathers", a title which reveals at once his birthplace in Asia Minor and his intellectual characteristics. Gregory was born of a deeply re- ligious family, not very rich in worldly goods, to which circumstances he probably owed the pious training of his j'outh. His mother Emmelia was a martyr's daughter; two of his brothers, Basil of Ca'sarea and Peter of Sebaste, became bishops like himself; his eldest sister, Macrina, became a model of piety and is honoured as a saint. Another brother, Naucratius, a lawyer, inclined to a life of asceticism, but died too young to realize his desires. A letter of Gregory to his younger brother, Peter, exhibits the feelings of lively gratitude which both cherished for their elder brother Basil, whom Gregory calls " our father and our master". Probably, therefore, the difference in years between them was such as to have enabled Basil to supervise the education of his younger brothers. Basil's training was an antidote to the les.sons of the pagan schools, wherein, as we know from a letter of St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa spent some time, very probably in his early youth, for it is certain that while still a youth Gregory exercised the ecclesias- tical office of rector. His family, it would seem, had
