St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, Bishop of Neocaesarea in Pontus, being greatly occupied with certain theological difficulties, raised by heretics concerning the mysteries of religion, and having passed great part of the night in studying those matters, saw a venerable old man enter his room, having by his side a lady of august and divine form; he comprehended that these were the Holy Virgin and St. John the Evangelist. The Virgin exhorted St. John to instruct the bishop, and dissipate his embarrassment, by explaining clearly to him the mystery of the Trinity and the Divinity of the Verb or Word. He did so, and St. Gregory wrote it down instantly. It is the doctrine which he left to his church, and which they have to this very day. Footnotes: [344] Aug. de Cura gerend. pro Mortuis, c. x. [345] Concil. Eliber, auno circiter 300. [346] Amplilo. vita S. Basil. and Chronic. Alex. p. 692. [347] Acta sincera Mart. pp. 11, 22. Edit. 1713. [348] Paulin. vit. S. Ambros. n. 47, 48. [349] Ambros. Epist. 22, p. 874; vid. notes, ibid. [350] Evod. Upsal. apud Aug. Epist. clviii. Idem, Aug. Epist. clix. [351] "Animan igitur omni corpore carere omnino non posse, illud, ut puto, ostendit quia Deus solus omni corpore semper caret." [352] "Quid se praecipitat de rarissimis aut inexpertis quasi definitam ferre sententiam, cum quotidiana et continua non solvat?" [353] Palladius, Dialog, de Vita Chrysost. c. xi. [354] Lactant. de Mort. Persec. c. 46. [355] Acta sincera Martyr. passion. S. Theodos. M. pp. 343, 344. [356] Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. vi. c. 8. CHAPTER XLI. MORE INSTANCES OF APPARITIONS. Peter the Venerable, Abbot of Cluny, relates that a good priest named Stephen, having received the confession of a lord named Guy, who was mortally wounded in a combat, this lord appeared to him completely armed some time after his death, and begged of him to tell his brother Anselm to restore an ox which he Guy had taken from a peasant, whom he named, and repair the damage which he had done to a village which did not belong to him, and which he had taxed with undue charges; that he had forgotten to declare these two sins in his last confession, and that he was cruelly tormented for it. "And as assurance of the truth of what I tell you," added he, "when you return home, you will find that you have been robbed of the money you intended for your expenses in going to St. Jacques." The cure, on his return to his house, found his money gone, but could not acquit himself of his commission, because Anselm was absent. A few days after, Guy appeared to him again, and reproached him for having neglected to perform what he had asked of him. The cure excused himself on account of the absence of Anselm; and at length went to him and told him what he was charged to do. Anselm answered him harshly that he was not obliged to do penance for his brother's sins.