Basil and Eusebius Reconciled at Caesarea

When Valens left Nicomedia, he went on to Antioch. As he passed through Cappadocia, he did everything he could, as usual, to harm the orthodox and to hand the churches over to the Arians. He expected to carry out his plans all the more easily because of a dispute then going on between Basil and Eusebius, who was governing the church of Caesarea at the time. This quarrel had caused Basil to leave for Pontus, where he lived together with some monks who practiced the philosophy. The people, and some of the most powerful and wisest men in the city, began to regard Eusebius with suspicion, especially because they held him responsible for driving away a man equally famous for his piety and his eloquence. So they began to plan a break, and to hold their own separate church. Meanwhile Basil, afraid of becoming the cause of still more trouble for the church, which the quarrels of heretics had already torn apart, stayed in retirement in the monasteries in Pontus. The emperor, and the bishops of the Arian heresy who always traveled in his train, were all the more encouraged in their plans by Basil’s absence and the people’s hatred of Eusebius. But things turned out contrary to what they expected. As soon as Basil heard that the emperor meant to pass through Cappadocia, he left Pontus and came back to Caesarea. There he made peace with Eusebius, and by his eloquence he came to the church’s aid at the right moment. So the plans of Valens were defeated, and he went back with his bishops without accomplishing any of his designs. [a]