GREGORY OF NA'ZIAN'ZUS, SAINT, called. the theologian' (c.329-90). Bishop of Constanti nople, and one of the 'three Cappadocians,' fa mous leaders of orthodoxy in the latter half of the fourth century, the other two being Basil the Great (of Casarea) and Gregory of Nyssa (q.v.). He was born probably in 329. His father, who bore the same name, was for many years Bishop of Nazianzus, a town in southwest Cappadocia, identified by Ramsay with the mod ern Nenizi. Gregory was born in the village of Arianzus. He enjoyed the best educational ad vantages, studying at Cnsarea of Cappadocia, at Casarea of Palestine, and at Athens, where Basil and Julian (afterwards Emperor) were among his fellow students. Some of the most celebrated rhetors of the fourth century were his teachers. Study and travel occupied all his time up to about his twenty-eighth year, when he returned home, and was baptized. He more than once visited his friend Basil, at his hermitage in Pontus, seeming inclined to remain there. But his unexpected ordination to the presbyterate, at the hands of his father, made it necessary for him to settle at Nazianzus, where he preached, and eventually exercised episcopal functions also, although never made bishop of that see.
After Basil had been persuaded to abandon his solitary life and assume the duties of Bishop of Cnsarea (370), he consecrated Gregory Bishop of Sasima, an obscure village, where he never actually served. This appointment temporarily threatened a rupture of the friendship between Basil and Gregory, as their letters show. Much more agreeable to Gregory was the invitation to come to Constantinople, as leader of the ortho dox Christians of that frankly Arian city. At the head of the only Catholic parish in the capi tal, and in the face of public opinion overwhelm ingly hostile to his views, Gregory's power as a preacher steadily gained for hint influence and enlarged his following. He called his church Anastasia (`resurrection'), to symbolize the re vival of the true faith, in opposition to Arian ism. When the religious policy of Theodosius had turned the State Church back to orthodoxy, and the Second Ecumenical Council (Constanti nople, 381; see CONSTANTINOPLE, COUNCILS 011 had registered its verdict correspondingly, Greg ory was made Bishop of the patriarchal city, and Primate of the East. But opposition, arising in
part from the defeated Arians, in part from criticism of his translation from Sasima, and in part from the disappointment of rival candidates, led Gregory speedily to resign his position. Weary of controversy, be withdrew from Con stantinople, and passed the remaining eight or nine years of his life in quiet near his old home. lie died in 389 or 390.
Gregory is famous chiefly as a theologian and leader of the new orthodoxy of his time. To the three Cappadocians together is due the final tri umph of the Nicene theology over Arianism, so far as that was independent of politics. And to Gregory belongs the credit of leading the way to this end, by formulating the orthodox doctrine in such a way as to command support. The result was the definition of the Trinity as consisting of one substance or essence and three hypostases or persons. (See HOMOOUSION ; HY POSTASIS.) If Athanasius emphasized the one ness of God, Gregory emphasized His threefold ness. And so far did- he push this conception that he was charged with teaching tritheism. His theological system is best studied in the famous Theological Orations, five in number, originally delivered in Constantinople. We have from him forty other addresses and sermons, among them two denunciations of Julian the Apostate; many letters; and a considerable num ber of poems, partly autobiographical. Together with Basil, he prepared the Philocalia, a collec tion of excerpts from Origen of great value.
The best edition of Gregory's complete works is still the Benedictine (2 vols., Paris, i. edited by Clemencet, 1778; ii. edited by Caillau, 1840, reprinted by Migne, Patrol. Grwc., vols. x.xxviii., Paris, ; a good modern edition of the Five Theological Orations is by Mason (Cambridge, 1899). The and Fathers, 2d ser., vol. vii. (New York, 1894), contains an unsatisfactory translation of selected orations and letters. In general, consult Smith and Wace, Dictionary of Christian Biography (London, 1877-87), article "Gregorius Nazian zenius." For literary criticism, consult Krum bacher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Litteratur (2d ed., Munich, 1897).