d,
derived strength and vigor from oppression, they seized the first
moments of imperfect freedom, which they had acquired by the death
of Valens, to form themselves into a regular congregation, under the
conduct of an episcopal pastor. Two natives of Cappadocia, Basil,
and Gregory Nazianzen, [27] were distinguished above all their
contemporaries, [28] by the rare union of profane eloquence and of
orthodox piety.

These orators, who might sometimes be compared, by themselves, and by
the public, to the most celebrated of the ancient Greeks, were united
by the ties of the strictest friendship. They had cultivated, with
equal ardor, the same liberal studies in the schools of Athens; they
had retired, with equal devotion, to the same solitude in the deserts
of Pontus; and every spark of emulation, or envy, appeared to be totally
extinguished in the holy and ingenuous breasts of Gregory and Basil.
But the exaltation of Basil, from a private life to the archiepiscopal
throne of Caesarea, discovered to the world, and perhaps to himself,
the pride of his character; and the first favor which he condescended to
bestow on his friend, was received, and perhaps was intended, as a cruel
insult. [29] Instead of employing the superior talents of Gregory in
some useful and conspicuous station, the haughty prelate selected, among
the fifty bishoprics of his extensive province, the wretched village of
Sasima, [30] without water, without verdure, without society, situate
at the junction of three highways, and frequented only by the incessant
passage of rude and clamorous wagoners. Gregory submitted with
reluctance to this humiliating exile; he was ordained bishop of Sasima;
but he solemnly protests, that he never consummated his spiritual
marriage with this disgusting bride. He afterwards consented to
undertake the government of his native church of Nazianzus, [31] of
which his father had been bishop above five-and-forty years. But as
he was still conscious that he deserved another audience, and another
theatre, he accepted, with no unworthy ambition, the honorable
invitation, which was addressed to him from the orthodox party of
Constantinople. On his arrival in the capital, Gregory was entertained
in the house of a pious and charitable kinsman; the most spacious
room was consecrated to the uses of religious worship; and the name of
Anastasia was chosen to express the resurrection of the Nicene faith.
This private conventicle was afterwa