Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T02:07:05.949Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Social Class of the Cappadocian Fathers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Thomas A. Kopecek
Thomas A. Kopecek
Affiliation:
Mr. Kopecek is assistant professor of religion and classics in Central College, Pella, Iowa.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Although the past two decades have shown signs of scholarly interest in the social history of fourth- and fifth-century Christianity, especially among British scholars, much remains to be done before a synthetic reconstruction will be justified. Among the tasks to be completed is the determination of the social class backgrounds of the later empire's Christian clergy. For if these backgrounds can be established, it will be possible to investigate how extensively they influenced the clerics' thought and action. Unfortunately, the determination of social origins in antiquity is not always a straightforward enterprise. This is particularly true in the case of the Cappadocian Fathers, whose social class membership is the topic of the present essay.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , December 1973 , pp. 453 - 466
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1973

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Ramsay, W. M., “Life in the Days of St. Basil the Great,” Pauline and Other Studies (London, 1906), pp. 376–377.Google Scholar

2. Ivanka, Endre, Hellenisches und Christliches im frühbyzantinischen Geistesleben (Vienna, 1948).Google Scholar

3. Kirsten, Ernst, “Cappadocia,” in Klauser, Theodor, ed., Reallexicon für Antike und Christentum (Stuttgart, 1954), 2: 861–891.Google Scholar

4. Treucker, Barnim, Politische und sozialgeschichtliche Studien zu den Basilius-Briefen (Bonn, 1961).Google Scholar

5. Daniélou, Jean, “Bulletins Critiques: Histoire des Origines Chrétiennes,” Recherches de Science Religieuse 51 (1963): 147–152.Google Scholar

6. Giet, Stanislas, Les Idées et l'Action Sociales de Saint Basile (Paris, 1941).Google Scholar

7. Giet, Stanislas, “Basile, était-il Sénateur,” Revue d' Histoire Ecclésiastique 60 (1965): 429–444.Google Scholar

8. By the expression “greater Cappadocia” the following area is meant: from the Halys river in the west to the Euphrates in the east and from the Taurus mountains in the south to the Black Sea in the north. The reader should not confuse the use of the expression in this essay with Strabo 's use (Strabo, , Geogr. 12: 1:4).Google Scholar

9. Whatever may have been the situation in previous centuries, the social structure of fourth-century greater Cappadocia was comparable to the social structure of the rest of the Roman Empire. Not only did the same social classes exist in greater Cappadocia as in the rest of the empire, but also were they arranged in the same hierarchical order of social precedence. See Gregory, of Nazianzus, Epp. 41, 141, 142Google Scholar and Or. 18: 35, and Basil, of Caesarea, Epp. 28, 219, 230Google Scholar; Codex Theodosianus (hereafter abbreviated as CT) 7:13:7 of A.D. 375, CT 9:27:6 of A.D. 386, Marceilinus, Ammianus, Res Gestae 14: 7: 1Google Scholar, Eunapius, , V. S. 477Google Scholar, and Julian, , Mis. 342C and 365A.Google Scholar

10. Gregory of Nazianzus, Or. 7:8.

11. Ibid., 18: 20.

12. Gregory, of Nazianzus, Carm. 2: 1: 1, 143–164Google Scholar, Carm. 2: 1: 11, 265ff and 312ff, and Carm. 2: 1: 3, 9–10.

13. Gregory, of Nazianzus, Ep. 7.Google Scholar

14. Gallay, Paul, La Vie de Saint Grégoire de Nasianze (Paris and Lyon, 1943), pp. 212–244, especially 228ff.Google Scholar

15. See CT 7:13:7 of A.D. 375. The fact that the ordo of honorati and the ordo of Curiales were closely related is indicated by Gregory, of Nazianzus, Ep. 41Google Scholar, where Gregory speaks about those ek tou axiömatikou kaì bouleutikou tàgmatos kaì tou dēmou pantòs. Presumably the reason Gregory could so closely connect the two groups is that a great many, if not the overwhelming majority, of the fourth-century honorati (a non-hereditary rank) came from curial families. Paul Petit has gathered from writings of Libanius the names of no fewer than twelve provincial governors who were from curial families, Libanius et la Vie Municipale à Antioche au IVe Siècle Après J.-C. (Paris, 1955), p. 345Google Scholar; see also Jones, A. H. M., The Later Roman Empire 284–602: A Social Economic and Administrative Survey (Norman, Oklahoma, 1964), pp. 546–562Google Scholar. Provincial governors, of course, were honorati.

16. Gregory, of Nazianzus, Ep. 249Google Scholar (=Gregory, of Nyssa, Ep. 1Google Scholar). The letter has been traditionally published in the correspondence of Gregory of Nyssa. It was restored to Gregory of Nazianzus by Honigmann, Ernest, Trois Mémoires Posthumes d'Histoire et de Géographie de l'Orient Chrétien (Brussels, 1961), pp. 32–35Google Scholar, and Devos, Paul, “S. Grégoire de Nazianze et Hellade de Césarée en Cappadoce,” Analecta Bollandiana 79 (1961): 91–101CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Gallay, Paul, ed. and trans., Saint Grégoire de Nazianze: Lettres (Paris, 1964 and 1967), 2: 139ff.Google Scholar

17. See below, p. 458.

18. Gregory of Nazianzus, Or. 18:6.

19. Compare Hauser-Meury, Marie-Madeleine, Prosopographie zu den Schriften Gregors von Nazianz (Bonn, 1960), p. 88.Google Scholar

20. Petit, p. 24.

21. Gregory of Nazianzus, Or. 18:5.

22. Gregory, of Nyssa, Eun. 2: 5Google Scholar (Jaeger, Werner, ed., Gregorii Nysseni Opera (Leiden, 1952-), 2: 327)Google Scholar.

23. Gregory of Nazianzus, Or. 18: 5.

24. Pantokrátōr occurs only occasionally in pagan sources, whereas it is very common in Jewish and Christian writings (Arndt, William F. and Gingrich, F. Wilbur, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature (Chicago, 1957), pp. 613–614Google Scholar; Schürer, Emil, “Die Juden im bosporanischen Reiche and die Genossenschaften der sebómenoi theòn hýpsiston ebendaselbst,” Sitsungsberichte der königlich preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Berlin (1897), p. 205Google Scholar. Schürer has accounted for this fact by pointing out that pantokrátör occurs innumerable times in the Septuagint, usually as a translation of Yahweh Sabaoth.

25. See Schürer, pp. 200–221 and Roberts, Colin, Skeat, Theodore and Nock, Arthur Darby, “The Gild of Zeus Hypsistos,” Harvard Theological Review 29 (1936): 63ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

26. Nilsson, Martin, Geschichte der Griechischen Religion (2nd ed.; Munich, 1961), 2: 664–665.Google Scholar

27. Epiphanius, , Haer. 80: 2.Google Scholar

28. Gregory, of Nazianzus, Anth. Pal. 8: 134, 135Google Scholar; Basil, , Epp. 138 and 161.Google Scholar

29. The basic sources upon which this tree is based are conveniently assembled in Gallay, , La Vie de Saint Grégoire de Nazianze, pp. 250–251.Google Scholar

30. For the date, see Hauser-Meury, p. 88.

31. Nicobulus was the scion of a rich, aristocratic family (PG 37: 1514, 121) who had enjoyed freedom from public service previous to A.D. 382 (Gregory, of Nazianzus, Ep. 127Google Scholar). When efforts were made in A.D. 383 to have Nicobulus' name put on the active rolls of Nazianzus' curia, his uncle Gregory of Nazianzus remarked that Nicobulus was “more free than he ought to be” (Gregory, of Nazianzus, Ep. 146Google Scholar), thereby admitting that Nicobulus belonged on the curia. We may therefore conclude that he was a member of the curial class.

32. Although it might be objected that there is no evidence that either of the Amphilochii actively served on any municipal curia, lack of evidence does not necessarily mean that the two men did not serve. But if they did not, it would not have been unusual. Both were lawyers (Gregory, of Nazianzus, Anth. Pal. 8: 135Google Scholar and Epp. 9 and 13), and lawyers of curial families were known for finding ways to evade curial service, as is clear from a series of laws which sought to correct the situation (CT 12:1:46, CT 12:1:98, CT 12:1:116, and so forth).

33. Gregory of Nazianzus, Or. 18: 33, terms Eusebius tōn prōtōn par autois [the Caesareans] héna. Libanus Gregory's contemporary, regularly refers to principales as hoi prōtoi or t` prōta (see Petit, p. 83) and terms their primacy of rank their prōteia (for example, Libanius, Or. 14: 46, with Or. 14: 5: 31).

34. See CT 12:1:50 of March 13, 362 and Gregory of Nazianzus, Or. 18: 34.

35. Basil, , Ep. 281.Google Scholar

36. The fourth; Bishop Asterius of Amaseia in Pontus, was clearly very well educated and therefore may also have stemmed from a curial family. See Bauer, Michael, Asterios: Bischof von Amaseia: Sein Leben und seine Werke (Wurzburg, 1911), pp. 31ff.Google Scholar

37. For hoi en télei as a designation for curials in the fourth century, see Julian, , Mis. 342C and 365A, and compare Petit, p. 30, with footnote 4.Google Scholar

38. Basil, , Ep. 28.Google Scholar

39. See Philostorgius, , H. E. 5: 5Google Scholar and Basil, , Ep. 99.Google Scholar

40. Basil, , Ep. 24.Google Scholar

41. Compare DuCange, C., Glossarium ad Scriptores Mediae et Infimae Graecitatis (Lyon, 1688)Google Scholar, s.v. árchontes, p. 131, and Libanius, Orr. 18: 174, 25: 54, 28: 3, and Ep. 1474: 5.

42. See supra, n. 15.

43. Such a likelihood presupposes that the class as a whole was heavily Christianized in the fourth century. This seems, in fact, to have been the case. See Basil, , Epp. 228, 227, 230, 229, 28, 182, 183, 97Google Scholar, Homilia in Gordium 2–3, Homilia in Martyrem Julittam 1–2 Sozomen, , H. E. 5: 4Google Scholar; Gregory of Nazianzus, Orr. 4: 92 and 18: 34, 35, Epp. 40 and 41; Julian, Ep. 35 (Wright).

44. Eusebius, , H. E. 6: 8Google Scholar and 6: 39.

45. Hierosolymitanus, Alexander, Epist. ad Origen., apud Eusebius, H. E. 6: 14: 9.Google Scholar

46. Toilinton, B. B., Clement of Alexandria: A Study in Christian Liberalism (London, 1914), 1: 22–23Google Scholar; Eusebius, , H. E. 6: 13, 14, 19, 20, 27.Google Scholar

47. Compare Tollinton, 1: 47.

48. Eusebius, , H. E. 6: 26–27.Google Scholar

49. Ibid., 6: 3.

50. Gregory, of Nyssa, V. Gr. Thaum. (PG 46: 905C).Google Scholar

51. Ibid. (PG 46: 900A).

52. Thaumaturge, Gregory, Pan. Or. 5.Google Scholar

53. Gregory, of Nyssa, V. Gr. Thaum. (PG 46: 933C).Google Scholar

54. Ibid. (PG 46: 936B.D).

55. Bernardi, Jean, La Prédication des Péres Cappadociens: Le prédicateur et son auditoire (Paris, 1968), pp. 312–313.Google Scholar

56. See Eusebius, , H. E. 7: 32: 27–28Google Scholar and V. C. 4: 43; Basil, , Epp. 81 and 244.Google Scholar

57. Gregory, of Nyssa, V. Macr. (Jaeger, 8, 1: 394 and 376).Google Scholar

58. Ivanka, p. 39.

59. Ibid., p. 40.

60. Ibid., p. 41.

61. Quoted, supra p. 60. See also Gregory of Nyssa, who writes, “When he [Gregory Thaumaturge] had completed the entire educational sequence (pasan p´ideusin of Greek learning (tés éxō sophiάs), he meet Firmilian, an aristocratic Cappadocian … (Gregory, of Nyssa, V. Gr. Thaum. [PG 46: 905CGoogle Scholar]).”

62. Meyer, Eduard, Geschichte des Königreichs Pontos (Leipzig, 1879)Google Scholar; Reinach, Theodore,Mithridate Eupator: Roi de Pont (Paris, 1890).Google Scholar

63. Strabo, , Geogr. 12: 2: 7–9.Google Scholar

64. Compare Jones, A. H. M., The Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces (2nd rev. ed.; Oxford, 1971), pp. 167ffGoogle Scholar; Jones, A. H. M., The Greek City: From Alexander to Justinian (Oxford, 1940), pp. 60–63Google Scholar; Broughton, T. R. S., “Roman Asia Minor,” in Frank, Tenny, ed., An Economic Survey of Ancient Rome (Baltimore, 1938), 4: 530–533.Google Scholar

65. Basil, , Ep. 258.Google Scholar

66. . Ibid.

67. Cumont, Franz, Les Mages Hellénisées (Paris, 1938), 1: 66Google Scholar, 2: 88, n. 2.

68. He may be depending on the work of André Grabar, who, in a volume published two years before Ivanka's study, argued that Christian martyria were modelled after pagan heroa. Grabar, André, Martyrium: Recherches sur le Culte des Reliques et l' Art Chrétien Antique (Paris, 1946), especially pp. 141–203Google Scholar. If this be the ease, Ivanka is unjustified in his claims, since “pagan” for Grabar means “hellenistique et romaine”, not Persian. In fact, Grabar compares the church described by Gregory, of Nyssa, Ep. 25Google Scholar, to an ancient mausoleum depicted on a fresco at Pompeii!

69. Strzygowski, Josef, Kleinasien: Ein Neuland der Kunstgeschichte (Leipzig, 1903), pp. 76–77.Google Scholar

70. Kirsten, p. 889.

71. Gregory of Nazianzus, Or. 43: 3.

72. Gregory, of Nyssa, V. Macr. (Jaeger, 8, 1: 376, 380 and 393)Google Scholar; Gregory, of Nyssa, Laud. in XL Mart. (PG 46: 784).Google Scholar

73. Treucker, pp. 9–10, and p. 10 n. 21.

74. Ibid., p. 10.

75. For a variety of other objections, some possessing considerable merit, see Stanislas Giet, “Basile, était-il Sénateur,” pp. 429–444.

76. Gregory's panegyric—that is, Or. 43—was written on the occasion of Basil's death.

77. Gregory, of Nyssa, V. Macr. (Jaeger, 8, 1: 410).Google Scholar

78. Gregory of Nazianzus, Or. 7: 8–10.

79. Gregory, of Nyssa, V. Macr. (Jaeger, 8, 1: 380).Google Scholar

80. It is natural that Basil's mother owned property in these three provinces, for her husband's mother came from Neocaesarea in Pontus Polemoniacus (Basil, , Epp. 204 and 210Google Scholar), a city in which her husband had taught grammar and rhetoric and had practiced law (Gregory of Nazianzus, Or. 43: 12, 17 and Gregory, of Nyssa, V. Macr. [Jaeger, 8, 1: 376Google Scholar]), her own family was from Cappadocia (Gregory of Nazianzus, Or. 43: 3), and her husband's ancestral estates at Annesi were in Helenopontus. See Ramsay, W. M., The Historical Geography of Asia Minor (3rd ed.; London, 1894), p. 326.Google Scholar

81. The fact that no evidence exists which indicates that either Basil or Gregory of Nyssa actively served as a curial does not constitute a valid objection to our conclusion. They were the sons of a professor of literature (Gregory of Nazianzus, Or. 43: 12, 17) and as such enjoyed legal immunity from curial service (see CT 13:3:3).

82. Jones, , Later Roman Empire, pp. 925ff.Google Scholar