knowledge of posterity, must silence the impotent murmurs of
superstition and bigotry. He was one of the most pious and eloquent
bishops of the age; a saint, and a doctor of the church; the scourge
of Arianism, and the pillar of the orthodox faith; a distinguished
member of the council of Constantinople, in which, after the death of
Meletius, he exercised the functions of president; in a word --
Gregory Nazianzen himself. The harsh and ungenerous treatment which he
experienced, instead of derogating 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. After this remarkable experience
of the ingratitude of princes and prelates, Gregory retired once more