GREGORY, NAZUNZEN—from his erudition in sacred literature also called the THEOLOGIAN—was b. about 329 at Arianzum, a village near Nazianzns, in Cappadocia, not far from Caesarea. His father, whose name also was Gregory, and who had originally belonged to the heathen sect of Hypsistatics, i.e., worshipers of the Most High, but also of the fire, like the Persians, and the keepers of the Jewish Sabbath and the law of the purity of meats, had, chiefly at the instigation of his pious wife Nonnk become a convert to Christianity about the time of the great Nieman council (325), and four years later was raised to the dignity of Bishop of Nazianzus. Formed to piety by domestic example, Gregory was at an early age sent., for the purpose of finishing his education, to Ctesarea, in Palestine, where the study of eloquence then flourished. He then visited the schools of Alexandria, and subsequently of Athens, where he met Basil the great. then also a young student, and became his most intimate friend. At the same time. there studied at Athens, Julian, later emperor and apostate, and there is no doubt that the three often met and had •friendlv discussions mit4the subjects of their eommoq studies; although 'Gregory; even at that time, augured nogood for Julian, who exhibited signs of "an unsettled and arrogant mind." Gregory having made brilliant progress in eloquence, philosophy, and sacred literature, returned to' Nazianzus, and here first received baptism at the hands of his own father, consecrating to God, at the same time, all "his goods, his glory, his health, his tongue, and his talents;" and, in order to be still more able to pursue a life of austere devotion, he retired into solitude, and took up his abode with Basil in the desert near the river Iris, in Poutus. Recalled by his father, Gregory was ordained priest, and afterwards fled; and being recalled a second time, he returned to Nazianzus, assisted his father in the ministry, and preached to the people. In 371 or 372 St. Basil, who in the meantime had become Bishop of Caesarea, prevailed upon him to accept the see of Sasitue, a small town in Cappadocia. But he had scarcely taken possession of his new dignity, 'when, overcome again by his innate repugnance of public life, he retired, a bishop without a bishopric, to Nanianzus, where he stayed until the death of his father in 373. He then went into a monastery at Seleucia,which, however, after the death of the Emperor Valen (378), he was induced to leave, iu order to undertake the charge of a small Nieman congregation in Constant inople, where, until then, Arianism had held undisputed sway. Gregory was after a short time,
when his erudition and eloquence became conspicuous, elected archbishop, upon which the Arians became so exasperated that his very life was in danger. Gregory, although upheld by the Pope Damasus and the Emperor Theodosius, preferred resigning his see voluntarily, "in order to lay the storm, like another Jonah, although he had not excited it." He went back to Nazianzus, and took up his solitary abode near Arianzus, where, after some years of a most ascetic life, he died in 389. His ashes were conveyed to Constantinople, and thence, during the Crusades, to Rome_ Ills day is, with the Latins, May 9. His character and temper, ardent and enthusiastic, but at the same time dreamy and melancholy, hard, but also tender, ambitious and yet bumble, all his instability and vacillation between a life of contemplation and of action, are vividly depicted in his writings, which mostly serve the great aim of his life—to uphold the integrity of the Nicwan orthodoxy against the heresies of the Arians and Apollinarists. The merits of his writings—which vividly portray the instability and vacillation of his life—are very unequal; sometimes not inferior to the sublimest flights of poetical genius, and withal of a classical elegance and refinement, they at other times become redundant, pedantic, and heavy with far-fetched similes. Notwithstanding all this, Gregory may fairly be pronounced one of the first orators, and most accomplished and thoughtful writers of all times. His surviving works consist chiefly of about 53 orations, 242 letters, and 156 poems—meditations, descriptions,. acrostics, epigrams, etc.—to which Tollius (Utrecht, 1696) has added 20 more, which he called Carmipa Cygnea. Muratori pub lished (Padua, 1709) 228 other unedited epigrams. The first edition of his eomplfte works appeared at Basel in 1550, folio. Another edition appeared in Paris 1609-1611 (2 vols. fol.), by Morel, which was reprinted in Paris in 1630; Leipsie (or rather Cologne), 1690, and Venice, 1753; but none of these is sufficiently accurate. The last edition, but little improved, under the auspices of the Benedictines, appeared in 2 vols. (Paris, 1760-1840). His separate works have frequently been edited, and partly translated into different tongues.