Hostname: page-component-68945f75b7-76l5x Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-08-05T14:48:23.676Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Occasion of St Basil’s Address to Young Me

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 May 2015

Ann Moffatt*
Affiliation:
Australian National University

Extract

This short document from the fourth century gave guidance to students who were getting an education in the tradition of the ancient Greco-Roman schools. Basil came out more strongly than any other early Church theologian in favour of the view that pagan literature, while not being authoritative, could be studied by Christians at school to their advantage. This view held good for many Christians in the Greek-speaking Byzantine world for the next thousand years and was endorsed in the West at the Renaissance when the Address was published in many editions throughout Europe. Leonardo Bruni first translated it into Latin in 1405, and it paved the way for his translation of classical texts, of Demosthenes, Aeschines, Plutarch and Xenophon, Plato and Aristotle.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence 1969

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Basil, Address to γoung Men, 2. 37.Google Scholar Section and line references are given to the Budé edition, with text and translation by F. Boulenger (Paris, 1952). The translations given here are my own.

2 Sandys, J.E.A History of Classical Scholarship, Vol. 2 (Cambridge, 1908), p. 45;Google ScholarDeferrari, R.J.St Basil: Letters, Vol. 4 (London, 1934), p. 371.Google Scholar

3 Nazianzen, GregoryOration 5Google Scholar, translated in King, C.W.Julian the Emperor (London, 1888), p. 118.Google Scholar

4 Puech, A.His toire de la littérature grecque chrétienne depuis les origines jusqu’à la fin du IVe siécle, Vol. 3 (Paris, 1930), pp. 277 f.Google Scholar

5 Julian, Rescript on Christian Teachers (Ep. 61), ed. Bidez, J. (Paris, 1924).Google ScholarBardy, G.L’ église et l’enseignement au IVe siècle’, RSR 15 (1935), 12 f.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Basil, John Chrysostom, Augustine and Jerome all wrote about education for Christians.

6 1. 8 ff. τη τε παρά της φύσεως οίκειότητι εύθύς μετά τούς γονέας ύμΐν τυγχάνω, ώστε μήτ’ αύτός ϊλαττόν τι πατέρων εύνοιας νέμειν ύμΐν, ύμας δέ νομίζω, εί μή τι ύμών διαμαρτάνω της γνώμης, μή ποθεΐν τούς τεκόντας, πρός έμέ βλέποντας.

7 10. 32 ff. εγώ μέν ούν α κράτιστα είναι κρίνω, τά μέν νυν είρηκα, τά δέ παρά πάντα τον βίον ύμΐν συμβουλεύσω.

8 Quasten, J.Patrology, Vol. 1 (Westminster, Maryland, 1962), p. 9.Google Scholar

9 Thrax, DionysiusArs Grammatica, ed. Uhlig, G. (Leipzig, 1883), §1;Google ScholarMarrou, H.I.A History of Education in Antiquity, translated by Lamb, G. (London, 1956), pp. 165 ff.Google Scholar

10 Petit, P.Les Étudiants de Libanius. Un professeur de faculté et ses élèves au bas empire (Paris, 1957) 139.Google Scholar

11 Marrou, op. cit. p. 322: ‘St Basil was addressing young men, his own nephews, who were coming to the end of their studies.’

12 Pfister, J.E.A biographical note: The brothers and sisters of St Gregory of Nyssa’, VC 18 (1964), 108–13.Google Scholar

13 Gregory of Nyssa, Letter to Olympius, translated by Clarke, W.K.L.The Life of St Macrina (London, 1916).Google Scholar This gives the most information about the family. See too Nazianzen, GregoryOration XLIII (Nicene and Post-Micene Fathers, Series II, Vol. 8), and Epigrams 156–8 and 161–4 in Anthologia Graeca viii, translated by Paton, W.R.(London, 1917).Google Scholar

14 Strachey, M.Saints and Sinners of the Fourth Century (London, 1958), p. 56.Google Scholar

15 Gregory of Nyssa, op. cit. 966 B.

16 1. 3 ff.: τό τε γαρ ήλικίας ούτως έχειν, καΐτό διά πολλών ήδη γεγυμνάσθαι πραγμάτων, καΐ μήν καΐ τό της πάντα παιδευούσης έπ’ δμφω μεταβολής Εκανώς μετασχεΐν. μεταβολή was used of conversion from the time of Clement, and Origen, : A Patristic Greek Lexicon, ed. Lampe, G.W.H. (Oxford, 1961) s.v.Google Scholar This could refer to a change of faith, or perhaps his change of career. There is perhaps a hint of Basil’s wavering in his faith in Gregory of Nyssa’s account of the life of St Macrina, op. cit. 966 C, and in his encomium of Basil, translated by Stein, J.A.Encomium of St Gregory Bishop of Nyssa on his brother St Basil Archbishop of Cappadocian Caesarea, Diss. Catholic University of America (Patristic Studies, Vol. 17) (Washington, 1928), §20.Google Scholar

17 2.27 : έως γε μην ύπό της ήλικίας έπακούειν… ούχ οϊόν τε,… τέως προγυμναζόμεθα.

18 N.P.F., Series II, Vol. viii, p. lxv (B. Jackson).

19 Cf. Gribomont, J.Eustathe le Philosophe et les voyages du jeune Basile de Césarée’, RUE 54 (1959), 115–24, esp. 120 ff.Google Scholar Gribomont, arguing convincingly that Basil, Ep. 1, was addressed to Eustathius, bishop of Sebaste 356–c. 380, has placed Basil’s travels around the Eastern Mediterranean in the summer of 357. Using the evidence that Basil must have been in Athens in the second half of 355 if he met Julian there, he concluded that there was then no time left for Basil to do a short term of teaching in Caesarea in the interval between university and his travels. Yet he has not accounted for the academic year 356/7. Lazzati, G. replied with ‘Basilio di Cesarea insegno retorica?’, Studi e materiali di Storia delle Religioni 38 (1967), 284–92.Google Scholar He examined the evidence on which the tradition of some teaching has been based and judged it still credible. Moreover, he could not accept Gribomont’s belief that Basil would have addressed Eustathius as φιλόσοφος and ή λογιότης σου once he was elected bishop. Therefore, he moved Basil’s travels back to the summer of 356 and the letter to Eustathius to the autumn, assuming that Eustathius was consecreated towards the end of that year. The year of teaching would then have been 355/6. This might just allow for the paths of Basil and Julian to have crossed in Athens early in the summer of 355. Bidez, J.La Vie de l’Empereur Julien (Paris, 1930), p. 50,Google Scholar puts Julian’s visit there in the summer and beginning of autumn only. The timing on this basis is very fine. If Gribomont’s feeling is accepted that Basil could have addressed these titles to Eustathius with some humour after his election as bishop, the year 356/7 can still stand for Basil’s year of teaching.

20 l. 20 ff.

21 Deferrari, R.J.The classics and the Greek writers of the Early Church’, CJ 13 (1918), 579–91, at 585.Google Scholar

22 Deferrari, R.J.St. Augustine’s method of composing and delivering sermons’, AJP 43 (1922), 97123, at 106–10. Google Scholar

23 Eusebius, HE 6 23.Google ScholarNorman, A.F.The book trade in Antioch’, JHS 53 (1960), 123 f.Google Scholar

24 Basil, Address to Young Men, 9.Google Scholar

25 Pire, G.Stokisme et pédagogie (Paris, 1958).Google Scholar

1 Translated in Laistner, M.L.W.Christianity and Pagan Culture in the Later Roman Empire (New York, 1951).Google Scholar

27 Büttner, G.Basleios des Grossen Mahnworte an die Jugend iiber dem nutzlichen Gebrauch der heidnischen Literatur (Diss. München, 1908), p. 64:Google Scholar ‘Als eigene Zugabe des Basileios sind mit voiler Sicherheit nur die christlichen Bestandteile zu bezeichnen, die er eingelegt hat urn die Verwandtschaft zwischen heidnischer und christlicher Anschauung gelegentlich darzutun.’

28 F. Boulenger, op. cit., p. 25.

29 R.J. Deferrari, op. cit., Vol. i, p. xxxviii, described his letters as ‘the response of a St Paul to the sterner realities of a crisis rather than the researches of a Pliny the Younger stealing an excuse for display.’

30 Cf. Synesius, Julian and Gregory Nazianzen.

31 Boulenger, op. cit., pp. 24 f.

32 Marrou, op. cit., pp. 156 and 167 f.

33 Nazianzen, GregoryEp. 51 ff.Google Scholar

34 von Campenhausen, H.The Fathers of the Greek Church, translated by Godman, S. (New York, 1959), p. 105.Google Scholar

35 Plutarch, Moralia, Vol. i, translated by Babbit, F.C. (Harvard, 1927).Google Scholar

36 Zacharias the Scholastic, Life of Severas (surviving in Syriac), French translation by Kugener, M.A.Patrologia Orientalis, Vol. 2, fase. 1 (Paris, 1902), pp. 48 ff. Google Scholar

37 John Chrysostom, On Vainglory, etc., in Laistner, op. cit.

38 Catechumens’ in Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed. Cross, F.L. (Oxford, 1957).Google Scholar

39 Stephenson, A.A.Cyril of Jerusalem and the Christian gnosis’, Patristic Studies 1 (1957), 149.Google Scholar

40 Marrou, op. cit., pp. 325 f.

41 Julian, Ep. 78,Google Scholar op. cit., written in June 362 when he was on his way to Antioch. Harnack, A.The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries, Vol. 2, translated and edited by Moffatt, James 2nd ed. (New York, 1908), pp. 192–6.Google Scholar

42 Sozomen, HE v 4.Google Scholar 1 (N.P.F. II 2).

43 Basil, Oration 8 72Google Scholar(N.P.F. II 8).

44 Giet, S.Les idées et l’action sociales de Saint Basile (Paris, 1941), p. 162.Google Scholar

45 Jerome, Dialogus contra Luciferianos (P.L. 25), col. 172.Google Scholar

46 Deferrari, op. cit., p. xxiv; Basil may have attended as a deacon.

47 Basil, Ep. 51.

48 Giet, op. cit., p. 20.

49 Nazianzen, GregoryOration 38 (N.P.F. II 7).Google Scholar

50 Basil, Ep. 51.Google Scholar

51 Nazianzen, GregoryEp. 8 (N.P.F. II 7).Google Scholar

52 Theodosian Code 13 3.5, translated by Pharr, C. (Princeton, 1952).Google Scholar This edict was promulgated in turn in the West from Spoleto on 29 July 362.

53 For the debate on the nature of this rescript or letter: Ferrarlo, E.Lo studio di Classici nel dibattito tra Giuliano l’Apostata e due suoi condiscepoli dell’ Università d’Atena’, La Scuola Cattolica (July 1930), 3952, esp. 42 f.,Google Scholar and ibid. (August 1930), 119–43. The role of a rescript is explained by Kunkel, W.An Introduction to Roman Legal and Constitutional History, translated by Kelly, J.M. (Oxford, 1966), pp. 75 ff. and 120 f.Google Scholar

54 Ammianus Marcellinus, xxii 13. 1 ff., Julian, Misopogon 361 b–c.Google Scholar

55 Theodosian Code xiii 3. 6.

56 Petit, op. cit., p. 45. The exact dates of the summer vacation are not known.

57 For the reaction especially in later centuries: Nulle, S.H.Julian and the men of letters’, CJ 54 (1958), 257–66;Google ScholarCarmen Hardy, B.The Emperor Julian and his school law’, CZ 37 (1968), 132 f.Google Scholar

58 Nazianzen, GregoryOration 4, translated in King, , op. cit. p. 67.Google Scholar

59 Ammianus Marcellinus xxv 4. 20; see too xxii 10. 7.

60 Quoted by Nulle, op. cit. p. 259.

61 Marrou, op. cit. p. 397. Golega, J.Das Homerische Psalter, Studien iiber die dem Apollinarios von Laodikeia zugeschriebene Psalmenparaphrase (Freising, 1960),Google Scholar attributes the surviving paraphrase of the Psalms not to Apollinaris, but to an unknown Egyptian poet of c. 460 A.D. There is a translation of this paraphrase by Slater, T.A Metaphrasis: A Metrical Version of the Book of Psalms, made by Apollinaris (London, 1870).Google Scholar

62 Jerome, Chronicon, P.L. 27, col. 691;Google ScholarAugustine, Confessions 8 5. 10 translated by Sheed, F.J. (London, 1943);Google Scholar Eunapius’ Life of Prohaeresius in Vitae Sophistarum, ed. Giangrande, G. (Rome, 1956), § 493.Google Scholar

63 Orosius vii 30, translated by I. W. Raymond (New York, 1936).

64 Bardy, G.L’église et l’enseignement au IVe siécle’, RSR 14 (1934), 548.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

65 Sozomen, op. cit. v i8; Theodore, HE 3 4 (N.P.F. II, 3);Google ScholarRufinus, HE 1 32 (P.L. XXI, col. 501 f.).Google Scholar The dilemma of Christian students in 362/3 probably gave rise to the tradition of such legislation.

66 Julian, Ep. 61, ed. Bidez, , op. cit.Google Scholar

67 Sallustius, Concerning the Gods and the Universe, ed. Nock, A.D. (Cambridge, 1926), prolegomena, pp. 101102.Google Scholar

68 Pfeiffer, R.History of Classical Scholarship (Oxford, 1968), pp. 237 ff.;Google ScholarPépin, J.Mythe et Allégorie: Les origines grecques et les contestations judéo-chrétiennes (Paris, 1958).Google Scholar