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10 Nicetas says that this refers to S. Gregory's Father, who had ordained him Priest, to assist him in the Cure of Souls, and whose one desire was that his Son might succeed him in the Bishopric.
11 S. Gregory's father had, according to the same authority, rebuilt the Church at Nazianus with great splendour. He thinks that the expression "heavenly" may refer to the great dome. The "living temple" is of course S. Gregory himself.
12 S. Gregory had an elder sister Gorgonia, and a younger brother Caesarius, so that this expression must not be taken too literally, but is rather to be read in connection with the "promise," his Mother having looked upon his birth as a special answer to prayer, and having dedicated him to God from his infancy.
2 Begin from God. Possibly an adaptation of the exordium of Theocr. Idyll, xvii. 1. e'k Dio\j a'rxw/mesqa, ka\i e'ij Di/a lh/gete, moi=sai. "Let Zeus inspire our opening strain, And Muses, end your song in Zeus again." Cf. Demosth. Epist. 1.
6 One member. The Ben. editors object to this translation (which is that of Rufinus, Billius and Bagriel) as inconsistent with the following allusion to the relation of the soul to the body. It seems, however, more in harmony with the figure of S. Paul, who compares the arrangement of the members of the body to the hierarchy of the Church.
7 Rom. xii. 4; 1 Cor. xii. 12.
9 1 Cor. xii. 20; Eph. iv. 16.
11 Anarchy, &c. Comp. Plato Legg. XII. 2.
12 A great thing. The Ben. editors note the obscurity of the original here.
13 Accept, de/xesqai. Many Mss have a!rxesqai, preserving the play upon the word a!rxein. The latter reading, the Ben. editors suggest, may have an active sense, as Hom. Il. II. 345.
16 Philosophy. filosofi/a is used by S. Greg. and other Fathers in various senses, not always clearly distinguishable. Sometimes it refers to the ancient philosophical teachers and schools: sometimes to the Christian philosophy, which inculcates Divine truth, and teaches the principles of a good hand holy life: sometimes to the practice of these principles, either in regard to some special virtue, e.g. patience, or, in general, in the lives of individual Christians, and further, as involving the most careful and extensive reduction of these principles to practice - the discipline of the monastic life. Cf. Suicer, in verb.
17 Eager longing.. Nearly all Mss. read "pity" - which would have to be understood in the sense of "regretful affection."
20 The sanctuary. i.e. That which gave the right to a place in the sanctuary, - the priesthood. Billius wrongly takes it of the episcopate.
21 Piety - for it is a mere external pretence, deceiving themselves as well as others. ei'se/baia here has the double sense of piety and orthodoxy = the former being the more prominent.
22 Is. liv. 13; S. Joh vi. 45.
23 Numb. xi. 29; 1 Cor. xiv. 24.
25 The finale of the question, or "the main conclusion of my subject." lit. "the colophon of my reason." lo/goj cannot here mean "of my speech" for it has only just begun.
28 Job xxi. 18; Ps. lxxxiii. 13; Isai. v. 24; Joel ii. 5.
29 Painters, i.e. in our discourses; models by our lives and examples.
33 A plant. Cf. Orat. vi. 8, xxiii. 1. A favourite figure of S. Gregory.
35 The art of arts. This is the original of the frequently quoted commonplace, which in S. Gregory the Great's Pastoral Care, i. 1, takes the form "ars artium est regimen animarum"
39 Our will. Clémencet compares S. Bernard, de Gratia et Libero Arbitrio, xiv. 47 (tom. i. 1397, Gaume). Petavius, de Incarn, tom. v., p. 416, lib. IX., iii, 11, comments on this passage in treating of free will.
40 Its subject matter, i.e. the affection of the sick body, which it is the object of medicine to change to its opposite. So Combefis.
41 This treatment: the treatment of the spiritual physician.
52 One consisting, &c. "These words" says Gabriel, "are indeed a two-edged sword against the heretics, for one clause mortally wounds Nestorius who separates the Divine from the Human Nature - the other Eutyches, who empties the human into the Divine."
53 Was united, a\nekra/qh, lit., "was blended" - cf. Orat. xxxviii. 13. This and similar terms used by Gregory and his contemporaries in an orthodox sense were laid aside by later Fathers, in consequence of their having been perverted in favor of the Eutychian heresy.
54 By means of the soul, Cf. Orat. xxix. 19; xxxviii. 13; Epist. 101 (tom. 2. p. 90 A.): Poem. Dogmat., x., 53-61 (tom. 2, p. 256); Petavius de Incarn. IV., xiii.. 2.
56 LIt. "of the formation" - the substantive here corresponds to the verb in Gen. ii. 7 (LXX.).