On this title Benedictine editors remark that no careful reader can fail to note that the letter is written not by Basil but about Basil.  “Hodie,” they write, “inter eruditos fere convenit eam a Gregorio patre, filii manu, ad Eusebium Samosatensem scriptam fuisse.  Nam senem se esse declarat auctor Epistolæ et in Cappadocia Episcopum, ut qui litteris cleri ad electionem Episcopi, et Ecclesiæ Cæsariensis defesionem invitatus fuerit.  Is autem ad quem scribit et eadem dignitate præditus erat, et laboribus pro Ecclesia susceptis clarus, et amicus Basilio, nec Cappadociæ vicinus.  Omnia in Eusebium Samosatensem mirifice conveniunt, quem Basilii ordinationi scimus interfuisse,” and they give, moreover, as their descriptive heading:  “Gregorius Theologi pater Eusebium Samosatensem, misso Eustathio diacono, invitat ad electionem Episcopi Cæsariensis ut eo adjuvante Basilius eligi possit.”  Fialon, however, apparently forgetting the reference to old age, writes (Étude Hist. p. 87, n.):  “Cette lettre est évidemment de Grégoire de Nazianze,” meaning the younger.  The election of St. Basil, who probably “voluit episcopari” to the archiepiscopal throne, was indeed mainly due to the intervention of the elder Gregory.  Basil’s unfortunate and indefensible disingenuousness in summoning the younger Gregory to Cæsarea on the plea of his own severe illness defeated its object.  But for the prompt and practical intervention of Gregory the elder, and this appeal to Eusebius of Samosata, the archbishopric might have fallen into unworthy, or at least inferior, hands.  Vide Biog. Notice in Proleg.,  .