Religious disputes were the fashion at that time in Constantinople, not merely among the priesthood, but among the laity, the lawyers, and above all the women, who were heard, in assemblies and at feasts, at home and abroad, declaiming and arguing on the most abstruse mysteries of the evangelical doctrine, till they lost temper and modesty:—so true it is, that there is nothing new under the sun. This was in 378, and St. Gregory found more difficulty in silencing their squabbles than in healing the schisms of the Church. He was ordained Bishop of Constantinople by the favour of Theodosius; but, unable to endure the odious cabals and uncharitable contests which at that time distracted and disgraced Christianity, he resigned his sacred office, and retired to a small paternal estate, where he lived, with his usual self-denial and austerity, till his death. He composed in his retreat a number of beautiful poems in his native Greek: he was, in fact, the earliest Christian poet on record. These poems are not hymns only, but lyrics, in which he poured forth his soul, his aspirations, his temptations, his joys, his sufferings, his plaintive supplications to Christ, to aid him in his perpetual combats against a too vivid imagination, and feelings and passions which not even age and penance had subdued. * * * * * St. Gregory Nazianzen ought to be represented as an old man wasted by fasting and vigils, with a bald head, a long beard of a reddish colour, and eyebrows the same. He is always the last in a series of the Four Greek Fathers, and, though often occurring in Greek Art, the popularity of St. Gregory the GREAT has completely banished St. Gregory the POET from Western Art. There remains, however, a very valuable and singular monument to the honour of St. Gregory Nazianzen, in the Greek MS. of his sermons preserved in the Imperial Library at Paris, and adorned with Byzantine miniatures, which must once have been beautiful and brilliant: ruined as they are, they present some of the most ancient examples which remain to us of the treatment of many sacred subjects from the Old and the New Testament, and give a high idea of the classic taste and the skill of the Byzantine limners of the ninth century. Besides the sacred subjects, we have numerous scenes interspersed from the life of Gregory himself, his friend St. Basil, and the Emperor Theodosius. As these are subjects which are exceptional, I need not describe them. Of the style of the miniatures I have already spoken, and given one example (_v._ p. 75). ST. CYRIL. _Lat._ S. Cyrillus. _Ital._ San Cirillo. _Fr._ St. Cyrille. (Jan. 28, A.D. 444.)