ting from the truth of his evidence, affords an
additional proof of the spirit which actuated the deliberations of the
synod. Their unanimous suffrage had confirmed the pretensions which the
bishop of Constantinople derived from the choice of the people, and the
approbation of the emperor. But Gregory soon became the victim of malice
and envy. The bishops of the East, his strenuous adherents, provoked
by his moderation in the affairs of Antioch, abandoned him, without
support, to the adverse faction of the Egyptians; who disputed the
validity of his election, and rigorously asserted the obsolete canon,
that prohibited the licentious practice of episcopal translations. The
pride, or the humility, of Gregory prompted him to decline a contest
which might have been imputed to ambition and avarice; and he publicly
offered, not without some mixture of indignation, to renounce the
government of a church which had been restored, and almost created,
by his labors. His resignation was accepted by the synod, and by the
emperor, with more readiness than he seems to have expected. At the
time when he might have hoped to enjoy the fruits of his victory,
his episcopal throne was filled by the senator Nectarius; and the new
archbishop, accidentally recommended by his easy temper and venerable
aspect, was obliged to delay the ceremony of his consecration, till
he had previously despatched the rites of his baptism. [46] After
this remarkable experience of the ingratitude of princes and prelates,
Gregory retired once more to his obscure solitude of Cappadocia;
where he employed the remainder of his life, about eight years, in the
exercises of poetry and devotion. The title of Saint has been added to
his name: but the tenderness of his heart, [47] and the elegance of
his genius, reflect a more pleasing lustre on the memory of Gregory
Nazianzen.

[Footnote 45: See Gregory, tom. ii. de Vita sua, p. 28-31. The
fourteenth, twenty-seventh, and thirty-second Orations were pronounced
in the several stages of this business. The peroration of the last,
(tom. i. p. 528,) in which he takes a solemn leave of men and angels,
the city and the emperor, the East and the West, &c., is pathetic, and
almost sublime.]

[Footnote 46: The whimsical ordination of Nectarius is attested by
Sozomen, (l. vii. c. 8;) but Tillemont observes, (Mem. Eccles. tom. ix.
p. 719,) Apres tout, ce narre de Sozomene est si honteux, pour tous ceux
qu'il y mele, et surtout pour