useful and conspicuous station, the haughty prelate selected, among
the fifty bishoprics of his extensive province, the wretched village
of Sasima, 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, 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 afterwards converted into a magnificent
church; and the credulity of the succeeding age was prepared to
believe the miracles and visions, which attested the presence, or at
least the protection, of the Mother of God. The pulpit of the
Anastasia was the scene of the labors and triumphs of Gregory
Nazianzen; and, in the space of two years, he experienced all the
spiritual adventures which constitute the prosperous or adverse
fortunes of a missionary. The Arians, who were provoked by the
boldness of his enterprise, represented his doctrine, as if he had
preached three distinct and equal Deities; and the devout populace was
excited to suppress, by violence and tumult, the irregular assemblies
of the Athanasian heretics. From the cathedral of St. Sophia there