Bishop Hall had found out this place, *when he sought for instances of clergymen who had made use of the marriage-bed after they were in holy orders (of which this is the plainest that he can find). And the Antipædobaptists have taken it from him, and made use of it for their purpose. If this pass for current, then we must say that Baronius's account of his age is the truest; and further, that he was yet two or three years younger than he makes him; for if he had been full 30 years old at the year 354, he would still have been born a little before his father's baptism, and two years before his ordination. But the words are yeddu roiakoσrov, almost 'the 30th; which, in a poem, may indeed pass, though he was but 27 or 28. We must say, likewise, that all that he himself, and Rufinus, and Gregorius Presbyter, do speak of his old age, must be understood of a præmatura senectus, caused by his sickliness, which he often mentions. And that Suidas, when he makes him live to 90 years old, mistakes at least 27 years; which might possibly be, since he wrote 600 years after Gregory was dead [880]. And that what he himself says of his mother's experience of the Divine Liberality, before her husband's conversion, must refer to something else. And that Gregorius Presbyter (who also lived near 600 years after St. Gregory) [840], if his meaning be to speak of the time when he left Athens and went home, as the 30th year of his studies, must be mistaken by taking what Gregory himself had said of the 30th year, for the 30th of his studies (as others have since done); which, according to this supposition, must be but almost the 30th (viz. the 27th or 28th) of his life. And that Mr. du Pin (who has gone a middle-way, making him to be born anno 318 (which falls seven years before his father's baptism) does yet place his birth eight or nine years too soon; for if he was * Honour of the Married Clergy, lib. 2, § 8. + Nouvelle Bibliot. tom. 2. VOL. II. born after his father's priesthood, it must be anno 327, or 326 at soonest. Possibly, the numerical figure in the text of Mr. du Pin is mistaken by the printer;. for in the Index, at the end of the volume, it is printed 328. According to this account, he was but 61 or 62 when he died; and his father and mother (for they were much of one age) were about 50, when he (the son) was born, which is old for a woman to have children; and yet she had one, if not more children, after her son Gregory. We must also say, that this Gregory the Elder was as singular in this practice of keeping his children unbaptized, as Mr. Johnson* has shewed him to be in the point of passive obedience; and, as the Papists will say, he was in getting children after his being in holy orders. I hope the reader will pardon the length of this disquisition, and the uncertain issue of it at last; for he will perceive by it how difficult it is to find the birth. or age, even of such whose later years have been ever so well noted. I lighted on one thread more, which I thought might have directed in this labyrinth. I ob served that St. Gregory once speaks of St. Basil as having been about the same age with himself; for he says at the end of the funeral oration, † which he makes for him, "This eulogium is given thee, O Basil! by a tongue that was wont to be most acceptable to thee, καὶ ὁμοτίμε καὶ ἥλικος, and by one of the same function, and of the same age with thee." If, then, I could find St. Basil's age, it would, I thought, direct me in that of his friend Gregory; at least so near, that we should not mistake 30 years. But I cannot find readily the account of St. Basil's age any more than of the other; and am quite out of the humour of entering on a new search after any body's age. St. Basil died in 379 (the first day of that year) [279]; this was 10 or 11 years before Gregory died [289]. St. Basil, as well as St. Gregory, is often spoken of as an old man; and + Orat. 20. *Julian the Apostate. yet by this last account he must be but 51, or thereabouts, when he died. But then, on the other side, that same oration où St. Basil (in which Gregory mixes so many of his own concerns, that it is a sort of history of both their lives) does, by many circumstances, too little and too long to be repeated, shew that they were but young men when they left Athens [254]. He says, that, when they declared their purpose of returning home from thence, not only all their intimates, and equals of the same age with them, koç, but also many of the doctors there, expressed a great regret at their leaving the university so soon, being very unwilling to part with them which makes it probable, that they themselves were but young masters of arts; and so confirms Baronius's opinion, that they were but 30, or almost 30, and not 54, as they must have been by the other ac count. Besides, St. Gregory, in that oration, recounting the great examples of Christian fortitude that had been in Basil's family; and, speaking of the great persecution that was in Pontus under Maximinus [210], relates how great a share the grandfathers of Basil had in it; whereas, if St. Basil himself had then been about 10 years old (as he must have been by the first account) his father, rather than his grandfathers, would have been likely to be mentioned. I said, in the former editions, that that one plain place aforesaid, which makes this Gregory born after his father's baptism and ordination, did seem to oversway all the reasons of chronologers to the contrary. But I have since minded another absurdity that attends it: St. Hierom de Script. Eccl. speaks of Gregory as having been his master. Præceptor meus, a quo Scripturas, illo explanante, didici. Now St. Hierom himself was born in the year 329, and it is not likely that he would speak so of one who was but four years older than himself. Perhaps it may be more likely that a word may be misprinted, than so many absurdities allowed. I shall determine nothing, but leave it to others. * The Antipædobaptists have taken notice of no other children of that Gregory the Elder, but this his son Gregory. But he had two other children: a daughter, Gorgonia; and a son, Cæsarius [687]. There is no account whether Gorgonia was older or younger than her brother Gregory, save that Elias Cretensis (if he knew any better than we) makes her to be younger. If she was older, she must have been born before her father was a Christian; since it is the hardest matter that may be to bring her brother Gregory's years within that compass. However that was, she was not baptized in infancy; and being afterwards left to her own discretion, she did not receive baptism till a little before she died †, when she was so old as to have grandchildren, whom she had instructed in the Christian faith. Her husband also, whom she had married (as it seems by her brother's words at her funeral) while he was a Heathen, was by her prevailed on to be baptized with her. She died before her father, who died before St. Basil. Since St. Basil died, as was said, on New-year's Day, 379, it seems to have been 375, at the soonest, when she died. Her brother Gregory was then, by the last account of his age, but 48; it is very unlikely, then, that she was younger, having then grand-children of such an age. Cæsarius was younger than either of them, and died the first of them, though Gregory's words at his funeral, concerning his baptism, are not very plain for the time of it; yet they seem to intimate, that he had then lately received it. Indeed (to observe this here, once for all) the far greater part of those who were not baptized in infancy, but were left to take their own time for it, we find to have put it off from time to time, until they were apprehensive of death, excepting such as went into orders, or the like. But we find no baptized person, except this Gregory, who did so leave his children unbaptized. * Com. in Greg. Naz. Orat. 19. * If all the children of this elder Gregory were born after their father's Christianity, and yet left unbaptized, it is the instance but of one man's practice and there is some more excuse for a bishop, or other minister, to do this, than for other men; because, if his children fall sick, or into any sudden danger of death, he is ready at hand in the house to give them baptism. It was probably from some compliance with this practice of his father that St. Gregory, in one of the places that I quoted, gives that opinion, which is singular in him; that "it is a good way, if a child appear not to be in any danger of death, to defer his baptism for some time." He mentions "three years," or thereabouts; and as he, at the same place, advises and counts it necessary, "if it be in danger of death, to baptize it immediately," so it is probable the same was his father's opinion; and that this his son had no sickness in his infancy: and so he thought he might defer the baptizing him. That many people in this time delayed and put off the baptizing of their children, something longer than ordinary, not out of principle that so they ought to do, but out of negligence, and a procrastination which they themselves owned to be blameable, appears plainly by that common and proverbial speech, which Isidore [312] (speaking of Zipporah's circumcising her child) mentions, † and says was used to be said in time of danger: :-"God's judgments come upon us; let us baptize our children out of hand." Of Nectarius [281]. There is no Appearance of his Parents being Christians, nor knowing who they were. Though St. Gregory Nazianzen, who, after his father's death, was Bishop of Constantinople, had done more for the restoring the Catholic faith there than had been done by any man in so short a time, yet he 1 * Part 1, ch. 11. + Isid. Pelus. lib. 1, ep. 125. |