d to make an offering, as the custom was, but none of the clergy
went to receive his gift, and he almost fainted at the thought of being
thus rejected from the Church, as if he had no part or lot in it. He
afterwards sent for Basil, and had some conversation with him; and the
end of the affair was, that he not only left Basil in possession of his
see, but bestowed a valuable estate on a hospital which the archbishop
had lately founded.

While Basil had risen, by Gregory's help, to be an archbishop, Gregory
himself was still a presbyter. He would not have taken even this office
but that his father ordained him to it almost by force; and he had a
great dread of being raised to the high and difficult office of a
bishop. But Basil, for certain reasons, wished to establish a bishop in
a little town called Sasima, and he fixed on his old friend, without,
perhaps, thinking so much as he ought to have thought, whether the place
and the man were likely to suit each other. The old bishop of Nazianzum
did all that he could to overcome his son's unwillingness, and Gregory
was consecrated; but he thought himself unkindly used, and complained
much of Basil's behaviour in the matter.

After a time, Basil and other leaders of the orthodox (that is, of those
who _held the right faith_) urged Gregory to undertake a mission to
Constantinople, and he agreed to go, in the hope of being able to do
some good (A.D. 378). The bishopric of that great city had been in the
hands of Arians for nearly forty years, and although there were many
people of other sects there, the orthodox were but a handful. Gregory,
when he began his labours, found that there was a strong feeling against
him and his doctrine. He could not get the use of any church, and was
obliged to hold his service in a friend's house. He was often attacked
by the Arian mob; he was stoned; he was carried before the magistrates
on charges of disturbing the peace; the house which he had turned into a
chapel was broken into by night, and shocking outrages were committed in
it. But the good Gregory held on notwithstanding all this, and, after a
while, his mild and grave character, his eloquent and instructive
preaching, and the piety of his life, wrought a great change, so that
his little place of worship became far too small to hold the crowds
which flocked to it. While Gregory was thus employed, Basil died, in the
year 380.

PART II.

Both parts of the empire were now again under