Oration XXXIII.

 I.  Where are they who reproach us with our poverty, and boast themselves of their own riches who define the Church by numbers, and scorn the little

 II.  Would you like me to utter to you the words of God to Israel, stiff-necked and hardened?  “O my people what have I done unto thee, or wherein hav

 III.  What tumultuous mob have I led against you?  What soldiers have I armed?  What general boiling with rage, and more savage than his employers, an

 IV.  What wild beasts have we let loose upon the bodies of Saints,—like some who have prostituted human nature,—on one single accusation, that of not

 V.  And to speak of older things, for they too belong to the same fraternity whose hands living or dead have I cut off—to bring a lying accusation ag

 VI.  Now since your antecedents are such, I should be glad if you too will tell me of my crimes, that I may either amend my life or be put to shame. 

 VII.  Why do you not also mention the convenience of the site, and what I may call the contest between land and sea as to which owns the City, and whi

 VIII.  Do you also find fault with the raggedness of my dress, and the want of elegance in the disposition of my face? for these are the points upon w

 IX.  But I am so old fashioned and such a philosopher as to believe that one heaven is common to all and that so is the revolution of the sun and the

 X.  I was deceived too by the Ramah of Samuel, that little fatherland of the great man which was no dishonour to the Prophet, for it drew its honour

 XI.  But perhaps some one who is very circumscribed and carnally minded will say, “But our herald is a stranger and a foreigner.”  What of the Apostle

 XII.  My friend, every one that is of high mind has one Country, the Heavenly Jerusalem, in which we store up our Citizenship.  All have one family—if

 XIII.  It is thus then and for these reasons that I, who am small and of a country without repute, have come upon you, and that not of my own accord,

 XIV.  And if I am doing wrong in this, that when tyrannized over I endure it, forgive me this wrong I have borne to be tyrannized over by others too

 XV.  Moreover this also I reckoned and still reckon with myself and do you see if it is not quite correct.  I have often discussed it with you before

 XVI.  These I call by name (for they are not nameless like the stars which are numbered and have names), and they follow me, for I rear them up beside

 XVII.  These words let everyone who threatens me to-day concede to me the rest let whoever will claim.  The Father will not endure to be deprived of

III.  What tumultuous mob have I led against you?  What soldiers have I armed?  What general boiling with rage, and more savage than his employers, and not even a Christian, but one who offers his impiety against us as his private worship to his own gods?7    Dr. Ullmann makes this passage refer to outrages perpetrated in Constantinople itself on Gregory, by his Arian opponents.  On one occasion, he says, in the night time the meetingplace of the Orthodox was assailed; a mob of Arians, and in particular women of the lowest stamp, set on by monks, armed themselves with sticks and stones, and forced an entrance into the peaceful place of holy worship.  The champion of orthodoxy well nigh became a martyr to his convictions; the Altar was profaned, the consecrated wine was mixed with blood; the house of prayer was made a scene of outrage and unbridled licentiousness.  The Benedictine Editors, however, whom Benoit follows, think the reference is to the disturbances in Alexandria when the Arian Lucius was forcibly intruded into the Chair of Athanasius by the Prefect Palladius.  A full account of the atrocities by which his installation was marked is to be found in a letter of Peter, the expelled or orthodox Patriarch, preserved in Theodoret (H. E. IV. 22).  This Lucius was living in Constantinople and abetting the Arian party there at the time when Gregory pronounced this Oration.  Whom have I besieged while engaged in prayer and lifting up their hands to God?  When have I put a stop to psalmody with trumpets? or mingled the Sacramental Blood with blood of massacre?  What spiritual sighs have I put an end to by cries of death, or tears of penitence by tears of tragedy?  What House of prayer have I made a burialplace?  What liturgical vessels which the multitude may not touch have I given over to the hands of the wicked, of a Nebuzaradan,8    2 Kings xxv. 11. chief of the cooks, or of a Belshazzar, who wickedly used the sacred vessels for his revels,9    Dan. v. 3. and then paid a worthy penalty for his madness?  “Altars beloved” as Holy Scripture saith, but “now defiled.”10    Hos. viii. 11 (LXX.).  And what licentious youth has insulted you for our sake with shameful writhings and contortions?  O precious Throne, seat and rest of precious men, which hast been occupied by a succession of pious Priests, who from ancient times have taught the divine Mysteries, what heathen popular speaker and evil tongue hath mounted thee to inveigh against the Christian’s faith?  O modesty and majesty of Virgins, that cannot endure the looks of even virtuous men, which of us hath shamed thee, and outraged thee by the exposure of what may not be seen, and showed to the eyes of the impious a pitiable sight, worthy of the fires of Sodom?  I say nothing of deaths, which were more endurable than this shame.

Γʹ. Τίνα δῆμον ἐπήγαγόν σοι θράσει φερόμενον; Τίνας ὁπλίτας παρέταξα; Τίνα στρατηγὸν θυμῷ ζέοντα, καὶ τῶν ἐπιτασσόντων θρασύτερον, καὶ τοῦτον οὐδὲ Χριστιανὸν, ἀλλ' οἰκείαν θρησκείαν προσάγοντα τοῖς ἑαυτοῦ δαίμοσι, τὴν καθ' ἡμῶν ἀσέβειαν; Τίνας εὐχομένους ἐπολιόρκησα, καὶ τὰς χεῖρας πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν αἴροντας; Τίνας ψαλμῳδίας σάλπιγξιν ἔστησα; Τίνων μυστικὸν αἷμα φονικοῖς αἵμασιν ἔμιξα; Τίνων οἰμωγὰς θρήνοις ἔπαυσα, πνευματικὰς ὀλεθρίοις, καὶ δάκρυσι τραγῳδίας, δάκρυα κατανύξεως; Ποῖον προσευχῆς οἶκον πεποίηκα πολυάνδριον; Ποῖα λειτουργικὰ σκεύη, καὶ τοῖς πολλοῖς ἄψαυστα, χερσὶν ἀνόμων ἐξέδωκα, ἢ Ναβουζαρδὰν τῷ ἀρχιμαγείρῳ, ἢ Βαλτάσαρ τῷ κακῶς ἐν τοῖς ἁγίοις τρυφήσαντι, καὶ μέντοι καὶ δίκας εἰσπραχθέντι τῆς ἀπονοίας ἀξίας; Θυσιαστήρια ἠγαπημένα, ὥς φησιν ἡ θεία Γραφὴ, νυνὶ δὲ καθυβρισμένα: ὑμῶν δὲ ποῖον δι' ἡμᾶς κατωρχήσατο μειράκιον ἀσελγὲς, αἰσχρὰ λυγιζόμενον, καὶ καμπτόμενον; μᾶλλον δὲ, διὰ τίνος ἐγὼ τοιούτου τὸ μέγα μυστήριον καὶ θεῖον ἐξωρχησάμην; Καθέδρα τιμία, καὶ τιμίων ἀνδρῶν ἵδρυμα καὶ ἀνάπαυμα, καὶ πολλοὺς εὐσεβεῖς ἀμείψασα ἱερέας, ἄνωθεν τὰ θεῖα μυσταγωγήσαντας: ἐπὶ δὲ σὲ τίς ἀνέβη δημηγόρος Ἕλλην, καὶ γλῶσσα πονηρὰ, τὰ Χριστιανῶν στηλιτεύουσα; Παρθένων αἰδὼς καὶ σεμνότης, ὄψεις ἀνδρῶν μηδὲ σωφρόνων φέρουσα, σὲ δὲ τίς ἡμῶν ᾔσχυνε καὶ καθύβρισε μέχρι τῶν ἀθεάτων, καὶ ἀσεβῶν ὄψεσι προὔθηκε θέαν ἐλεεινὴν, καὶ τοῦ Σοδομιτικοῦ πυρὸς ἀξίαν; Ἐῶ γὰρ θανάτους λέγειν τῆς αἰσχύνης ἀνεκτοτέρους.