There was now a lull in the storm.  Basil, completely reconciled to Eusebius, began to consolidate the archiepiscopal power which he afterward wielded as his own, ἐντεῦθεν ἀυτῶ περιῆν καὶ τὸ κράτος τῆς ἐκκλησίας, εἰ καὶ τῆς καθέδρας εἶχε τὰ δεύτερα.  Greg. Naz. Or. xliii. over the various provinces in which the metropolitan of Cæsarea exercised exarchic authority. cf. Maran, Vit. Bas. xiv. and D.C.A. s.v. exarch.  The archbishop of Cæsarea was exarch of the provinces (ἐπαρχίαι) comprised in the Pontic Diocese.  Maran refers to Letters xxviii., xxx., and xxxiv., as all shewing the important functions discharged by Basil while yet a presbyter.  In the meantime the Semiarians were beginning to share with the Catholics the hardships inflicted by the imperial power.  At Lampsacus in 364 they had condemned the results of Ariminum and Constantinople, and had reasserted the Antiochene Dedication Creed of 341.  In 366 they sent deputies to Liberius at Rome, who proved their orthodoxy by subscribing the Nicene Creed.  Basil had not been present at Lampsacus, Ep. ccxxiii. but he had met Eustathius and other bishops on their way thither, and had no doubt influenced the decisions of the synod.  Now the deputation to the West consisted of three of those bishops with whom he was in communication, Eustathius of Sebasteia, Silvanus of Tarsus, and Theophilus of Castabala.  To the first it was an opportunity for regaining a position among the orthodox prelates.  It can hardly have been without the persuasion of Basil that the deputation went so far as they did in accepting the homoousion, but it is a little singular, and indicative of the comparatively slow awakening of the Church in general to the perils of the degradation of the Holy Ghost, that no profession of faith was demanded from the Lampsacene delegates on this subject. Hefele, § 88.  Schröckh, Kirch, xii. 31.  Swete, Doctrine of the Holy Spirit, 54.  In 367 the council of Tyana accepted the restitution of the Semiarian bishops, and so far peace had been promoted. Epp. ccxliv. and cclxiii.  To this period may very probably be referred the compilation of the Liturgy which formed the basis of that which bears Basil’s name. Greg. Naz., Or. xliii.  The claims of theology and of ecclesiastical administration in Basil’s time did not, however, prevent him from devoting much of his vast energy to works of charity.  Probably the great hospital for the housing and relief of travellers and the poor, which he established in the suburbs of Cæsarea, was planned, if not begun, in the latter years of his presbyterate, for its size and importance were made pretexts for denouncing him to Elias, the governor of Cappadocia, in 372, Ep. xciv. and at the same period Valens contributed to its endowment.  It was so extensive as to go by the name of Newtown, ἡκαινὴ πόλις.  Greg. Naz., Or. xliii.  cf. Sir Thomas More’s Utopia, Bk. II. Chap. V. and was in later years known as the “Basileiad.” Soz. vi. 34.  It was the mother of other similar institutions in the country-districts of the province, each under a Chorepiscopus. Epp. cxlii., cxliii.  But whether the Ptochotrophium πτωχοτροφεῖον, Ep. clxxvi.  Professor Ramsay, in The Church and the Roman Empire, p. 464, remarks that “the ‘New City’ of Basil seems to have caused the gradual concentration of the entire population of Cæsarea round the ecclesiastical centre, and the abandonment of the old city.  Modern Kaisari is situated between one and two miles from the site of the Græco-Roman city.” was or was not actually begun before Basil’s episcopate, great demands were made on his sympathy and energy by the great drought and consequent famine which befell Cæsarea in 368. For the date, cf. Maran, Vit. Bas. ix. § 5.  He describes it with eloquence in his Homily On the Famine and Drought. § 2, p. 63.  cf. Greg. Naz., Or. xliii. 340–342, and Greg. Nyss., In Eun. i. 306.  The distress was cruel and widespread.  The distance of Cæsarea from the coast increased the difficulty of supplying provisions.  Speculators, scratching, as it were, in their country’s wounds, hoarded grain in the hope of selling at famine prices.  These Basil moved to open their stores.  He distributed lavishly at his own expense, Greg. Nyss., In Eunom. i. § 10 (in this series, p. 45), remarks of Basil:  τὴν πατρῷαν οὐσίαν καὶ πρὸ τῆς ἱερωσύνης ἀφειδῶς ἀναλώσας τοῖς πένησι καὶ μάλιστα ἐν τῷ τῆς σιτοδείας καιρῷ, καθ᾽ ὃν ἐπεστάτει τῆς ἐκκλησίας, ἔτι ἐν τῷ κλήρῳ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων ἱερατεύων καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα, μηδὲ τῶν ὑπολειφθέντων φεισάμενος.  Maran (Vit. Bas. xi. § 4), with the object of proving that Basil had completely abandoned all property whatsoever, says that this must refer to a legacy from his mother.  The terms used are far more consistent with the view already expressed (§ III.).  So in his Orat. in Bas. Gregory speaks of Basil at the time as “selling his own possessions, and buying provisions with the proceeds.” and ministered in person to the wants of the sufferers.  Gregory of Nazianzus Or. xliii. gives us a picture of his illustrious friend standing in the midst of a great crowd of men and women and children, some scarcely able to breathe; of servants bringing in piles of such food as is best suited to the weak state of the famishing sufferers; of Basil with his own hands distributing nourishment, and with his own voice cheering and encouraging the sufferers.