[Illustration: “COPIED FROM A FRONTISPIECE TO THE EDITION BY FRONTO
DUCÆUS, A.D. 1636, OF ST. CHRYSOSTOM’S WORKS (IN THE CATHEDRAL LIBRARY,
CHICHESTER). THE ORIGINAL IS STATED TO HAVE BEEN ENGRAVED FROM AN EIKON
OF GREAT ANTIQUITY, AT CONSTANTINOPLE, AND AGREES WITH THE NOTICES
OF CHRYSOSTOM’S APPEARANCE BY GREEK WRITERS, WHO DESCRIBE HIM AS
SHORT, WITH A LARGE HEAD, AMPLE, WRINKLED FOREHEAD, EYES DEEP-SET BUT
PLEASING, HOLLOW CHEEKS, AND A SCANTY GREY BEARD.”]
SAINT JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
HIS LIFE AND TIMES
_A SKETCH OF THE CHURCH AND THE EMPIRE IN
THE FOURTH CENTURY._
BY W. R W. STEPHENS, M.A.
PREBENDARY OF CHICHESTER AND RECTOR OF WOOLBEDING; AUTHOR OF “LIFE AND
LETTERS OF WALTER FARQUHAR HOOK, D.D.,” “CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM,” ETC.
With Portrait.
_SECOND EDITION._
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1880.
_The right of translation is reserved._
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
The present edition of this Essay is substantially a reproduction
of the first. It is possible, indeed, and I hope probable, that the
fruits of nine years’ more experience and study would have manifested
themselves in some marked improvements upon the former work had I
rewritten or recast the whole of it. But after mature consideration
it did not seem to me that the defects of my original attempt were
sufficient to warrant such an expenditure of time and toil.
I have therefore contented myself with carefully revising the text and
references, and making here and there a few slight alterations in the
way either of addition or omission.
WOOLBEDING RECTORY,
_Feby. 20, 1880_.
PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
The considerations which induced me to undertake this monograph are
mentioned in the introductory chapter. How far the design there
indicated has been satisfactorily fulfilled, it is for others to
decide. I am of course conscious of defects, for every workman’s ideal
aim should be higher than what he can actually accomplish. The work has
incurred a certain risk from having been once or twice suspended for a
considerable period; but I have always returned to it with increased
interest and pleasure, nor can I charge myself with having wittingly
bestowed less pains on one part than another. I have endeavoured to
make it a trustworthy narrative by drawing from the most original
sources to which I could gain access; and where, as in those portions
which touch on secular history, the lead of general historians, such
as Gibbon or De Broglie has been followed, I have, as far as possible,
consulted the authorities to which they refer. To modern authors from
whom I have derived valuable assistance for special parts of the
work, such as M. Amédée Thierry and Dr. Foerster, my obligations are
acknowledged in their proper place.
Neander’s Life of St. Chrysostom has, of course, throughout been
frequently consulted. It is marked by the customary merits and defects
of that historian. It is full of research, information, thought, and
refined religious sentiment; but he fails to bring out strongly the
personality of his subject. We have abundance of Chrysostom’s sayings
and opinions, but somehow too little of Chrysostom himself. The fact
is that Neander seems always to be thinking more of those views and
theories about the growth of Christian doctrine and the Church, which
he wishes to impress upon men’s minds, than of the person about whom
he is writing. Thus, the subject of his biography becomes too much a
mere vehicle for conveying Neander’s own opinions, and the personality
of the character fades away in proportion. Some passages in the life
of his subject are related at inordinate length; others, because less
illustrative of Neander’s views, are imperfectly sketched, if not
omitted.
In extracts from the works of Chrysostom, the somewhat difficult
question of the comparative advantages of translation and paraphrase
has been decided, on the whole, in favour of the latter. The
condensation of matter gained by a paraphrase is an important, indeed
necessary, object, if many specimens are to be given from such a very
voluminous author as Chrysostom. A careful endeavour, at the same time,
has been made to render faithfully the general sense of the original;
and wherever the peculiar beauty of the language or the importance of
the subject seemed to demand it, a translation has been given.
From an early date in the sixteenth century down to the present
time the works of Chrysostom have occupied the attention of learned
editors. The first attempts, after the invention of printing, were
mainly confined to Latin translations of different portions. Afterwards
appeared—
(1.) In 1529 the Greek text of the Homilies on St. Paul, published at
Vienna, “typis Stephani et fratrum,” with a preface by Maximus Donatus.
This was followed by the Commentaries on the New Testament, published
by Commelin, a printer at Heidelberg, four vols. folio, A.D. 1591-1602.
(2.) In 1612 appeared a magnificent edition of the whole works, in
eight thick folio volumes, printed at Eton, and prepared by Sir
Henry Savile. Savile, born in 1549, was equally distinguished for
his knowledge of mathematics and Greek, in which he acted for a time
as tutor to Queen Elizabeth. He became Warden of Merton in 1585, and
Provost of Eton in 1596. Promotion in Church and State was offered
to him by James I., but declined, though he accepted a knighthood in
1604. His only son died about that time, and he devoted his fortune
henceforth entirely to the promotion of learning. The Savilian
Professorships of Geometry and Astronomy in Oxford were founded by
him, and a library furnished with mathematical books for the use of
his Professors. He spared no labour or expense to make his edition of
St. Chrysostom handsome and complete. He personally examined most of
the great libraries in Europe for mss., and, through the kindness of
English ambassadors and eminent men of learning abroad, his copyists
were admitted to the libraries of Paris, Basle, Augsburg, Munich,
Vienna, and other cities. He used the Commelinian edition as his
printer’s copy, carefully compared with five mss., the various readings
of which are marked (by a not very distinct plan) in the margin. The
chief value of the work consists in the prefaces and notes, contributed
some of them by Casaubon and other learned men, though by far the best
are Savile’s own. The whole cost of bringing out this grand edition is
said to have been £8000. Savile’s wife was so jealous of her husband’s
attachment to the work that she threatened to burn it.
(3.) Meanwhile, Fronton le Duc, a French Jesuit, had been labouring
independently, but in most amicable intercourse with Savile, not only
to edit the works of Chrysostom complete, but accompanied by a Latin
translation, which he supplied himself for those pieces of which he
failed to find any good one already existing. His death arrested the
work, which was taken up, after a time, by the two brothers, Frederick
and Claude Morel, and completed by the latter in 1633. It was published
in Paris in 1636, in twelve large folio volumes. The Commelinian was
again used as the printer’s copy, with fewer alterations than in the
edition of Savile.
(4.) We now come to the great Benedictine edition, prepared under the
care of Bernard de Montfaucon, who deserted the profession of arms at
the age of twenty to become, as a member of the brotherhood of St Maur,
one of the most marvellously industrious workers in literature that the
world has ever seen. In 1698, when the Benedictines had completed their
editions of SS. Augustine and Athanasius, they began to prepare for
an edition of Chrysostom, which they had intended to do for more than
thirty years. Montfaucon was sent to Italy, where he spent three years
in examining libraries; and, on his return, obtained leave from the
presidents of the congregation to employ four or five of the brethren
in collating mss. in the Royal Library at Paris, and in those of
Colbert and Coislin. Their labours extended over thirteen years; more
than 300 MSS., containing different portions of Chrysostom’s works,
having been discovered in those libraries. Montfaucon, meanwhile,
corresponded with learned men in all parts of Europe, in order to
procure materials and further collations. His correspondents in England
were Potter, Bishop of Oxford, Bentley, and Needham; and in Ireland,
Godwin, Bishop of Kilmore. The result was that, after more than twenty
years of incessant toil, Montfaucon produced an edition, in which
several pieces saw the light for the first time, and others, imperfect
in previous editions, were presented entire. The text after all is the
least satisfactory part of the work. Mr. Field has discovered that the
eight principal MSS. employed were not very carefully collated, and
that, though Savile’s text is extremely praised, that of Morel, by a
curious inconsistency, is most closely followed, which is little more
than a reproduction of the original Commelinian. The main value of the
edition consists in the prefaces, written by Montfaucon to every set
of homilies and every treatise, in which the chronology, contents, and
character of the composition are most fully and ably discussed. The
chronological arrangement also of the pieces is a great improvement
on the editions of Savile and Fronton le Duc, who had made no attempt
of that kind. The last volume, the thirteenth, contains a life of St
Chrysostom, a most copious index, and dissertations on the doctrine,
discipline, and heresies prevalent in his age, illustrated by notices
collected from his works. On the whole, the edition must be pronounced
a marvellous monument of ability and industry, especially when it is
considered that at the date of its completion, 1738, Montfaucon was
eighty-three years of age, and had been engaged for upwards of fifty
years in literary work of a most laborious description. He died in 1741.
(5.) The last edition, which leaves little or nothing to be desired,
is that which I have used in preparing this volume—the Abbé Migne’s,
in 13 vols., Paris, 1863. It is substantially a reproduction of the
Benedictine, in a rather less cumbrous size, and embodies some of
the best corrections, notes, and prefaces of modern commentators,
especially those of Mr. Field to the Homilies of St. Matthew, and some
by the learned editor himself.
A brief sketch of the principal forms in which Chrysostom’s works have
appeared seemed an appropriate introduction to the history of the man
himself. If the perusal of that history shall afford to readers half
as much interest, pleasure, and instruction as I have myself derived
from the composition of it, I shall feel amply rewarded for my labour;
and I gladly take this opportunity of expressing my gratitude to my
father-in-law for originally suggesting a work of this kind, and to
many friends, and especially my wife, for constant encouragement,
without which a mixture of indolence and diffidence might have
prevented the completion of my design.
DENSWORTH COTTAGE, CHICHESTER,
_All Saints Day 1871_.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
Introductory, 1
CHAPTER II.
From his Birth to his Appointment to the Office of
Reader, A.D. 345 or A.D. 347 to A.D. 370, 9
CHAPTER III.
Commencement of ascetic life-Study under
Diodorus—Formation of an ascetic Brotherhood—The Letters
to Theodore, A.D. 370, 24
CHAPTER IV.
Chrysostom evades forcible Ordination to a Bishopric—The
Treatise “On the Priesthood.” A.D. 370, 371, 40
CHAPTER V.
Narrow Escape from Persecution—His Entrance into a
Monastery—The Monasticism of the East. A.D. 372, 57
CHAPTER VI.
Works produced during his monastic life—The letters to
Demetrius and Stelechius—Treatises addressed to the
Opponents of Monasticism—Letter to Stagirius, 69
CHAPTER VII.
Ordination as Deacon—Description of Antioch—Works
composed during his Diaconate. A.D. 381-386, 86
CHAPTER VIII.
Ordination to the Priesthood by Flavian—Inaugural
Discourse in the Cathedral—Homilies against the
Arians—Animadversions on the Chariot Races, A.D. 386, 103
CHAPTER IX.
Homilies against Pagans and Jews—Condition of the Jews in
Antioch—Judaising Christians—Homilies on Christmas Day
and New Year’s Day—Censure of Pagan Superstitions. A.D.
386, 387, 120
CHAPTER X.
Survey of the first Decade of the Reign of Theodosius—His
Character—His Efforts for the Extirpation of Paganism
and Heresy—The Apologies of Symmachus and Libanius. A.D.
379-389, 139
CHAPTER XI.
The Sedition at Antioch—The Homilies on the Statues—The
Results of the Sedition, A.D. 387, 150
CHAPTER XII.
Illness of Chrysostom—Homilies on Festivals
of Saints and Martyrs—Character of these
Festivals—Pilgrimages—Reliques—Character of Peasant
Clergy in neighbourhood of Antioch. A.D. 387, 177
CHAPTER XIII.
Survey of Events between A.D. 387 and A.D. 397—Ambrose
and Theodosius—Revolt of Arbogastes—Death of
Theodosius—The Ministers of Arcadius—Rufinus and
Eutropius, 186
CHAPTER XIV.
Death of Nectarius, Archbishop of
Constantinople—Eager Competition for the See—Election
of Chrysostom—His compulsory Removal from
Antioch—Consecration—Reforms—Homilies on various
subjects—Missionary Projects, 212
CHAPTER XV.
The Fall of Eutropius—His Retreat to the Sanctuary of the
Church—Right of Sanctuary maintained by Chrysostom—Death
of Eutropius—Revolt of Gothic Commanders Tribigild and
Gaïnas—Demand of Gaïnas for an Arian Church refused by
Chrysostom—Defeat and Death of Gaïnas. A.D. 399-401, 240
CHAPTER XVI.
Chrysostom’s Visit to Asia—Deposition of six simoniacal
Bishops—Legitimate Extent of his Jurisdiction—Return to
Constantinople—Rupture and reconciliation with Severian,
bishop of Gabala—Chrysostom’s increasing unpopularity
with the Clergy and wealthy Laity—His Friends—Olympias
the Deaconess—Formation of hostile Factions, which invite
the aid of Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria. A.D. 400,
401, 265
CHAPTER XVII.
Circumstances which led to the interference of Theophilus
with the affairs of Chrysostom—Controversy about the
Writings of Origen—Persecution by Theophilus of the Monks
called “The Tall Brethren”—Their Flight to Palestine—To
Constantinople—Their Reception by Chrysostom—Theophilus
summoned to Constantinople. A.D. 395-403, 286
CHAPTER XVIII.
Theophilus arrives in Constantinople—Organises a Cabal
against Chrysostom—The Synod of the Oak—Chrysostom
pronounced contumacious for Non-appearance and expelled
from the city—Earthquake—Recall of Chrysostom—Ovations on
his Return—Flight of Theophilus. A.D. 403, 306
CHAPTER XIX.
An Image of Eudoxia placed in front of the
Cathedral—Chrysostom denounces it—Anger of the
Empress—The enemy returns to the charge—Another Council
formed—Chrysostom confined to his Palace—Violent scene in
the Cathedral and other places—Chrysostom again expelled,
A.D. 403, 404, 326
CHAPTER XX.
Fury of the people at the removal of
Chrysostom—Destruction of the Cathedral Church and
Senate-house by Fire—Persecution of Chrysostom’s
followers—Fugitives to Rome—Letters of Innocent
to Theophilus—To the Clergy of Constantinople—To
Chrysostom—Deputation of Western Bishops to
Constantinople repulsed—Sufferings of the Eastern
Church—Triumph of the Cabal. A.D. 404, 405, 341
CHAPTER XXI.
Chrysostom ordered to be removed to Cucusus—Perils
encountered at Cæsarea—Hardships of the Journey—Reaches
Cucusus—Letters written there to Olympias and other
Friends. A.D. 404, 361
CHAPTER XXII.
Chrysostom’s Sufferings from the winter cold—Depredations
of the Isaurians—The Mission in Phœnicia—Letters to
Innocent and the Italian Bishops—Chrysostom’s enemies
obtain an order for his Removal to Pityus—He dies
at Comana, A.D. 407—Reception of his Reliques at
Constantinople, A.D. 438, 379
CHAPTER XXIII.
Survey of Chrysostom’s Theological Teaching—Practical
tone of his Works—Reason of this—Doctrine of
Man’s Nature—Original Sin—Grace—Free-will—How
far Chrysostom Pelagian—Language on the
Trinity—Atonement—Justification—The two Sacraments—No
trace of Confession, Purgatory, or Mariolatry—Relations
towards the Pope—Liturgy of Chrysostom—His character as a
Commentator—Views on Inspiration—His Preaching—Personal
Appearance—References to Greek Classical
Authors—Comparison with St. Augustine, 390
APPENDIX, 433
INDEX, 435
LIFE AND TIMES
OF
ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM.
CHAPTER I.
INTRODUCTORY.
I. There are many great names in history which have been familiar to
us from almost our earliest years, but of the personal character, the
actual life of those who bore them, we are comparatively ignorant. We
know that they were men of genius; industrious, energetic workers, who,
as statesmen, reformers, warriors, writers, speakers, exercised a vital
influence for good or ill upon their fellow-men. They have achieved
a reputation which will never die; but from various causes their
personality does not stand out before us in clear and bold relief.
We know something about some of the most important passages in their
life, a few of their sayings, a little of their writings; but the men
themselves we do not know.
Frequently the reason of this is, that though they occupy a place,
perhaps an important place, in the great drama of history, yet they
have not played one of the _foremost_ parts; and general history cannot
spare much time or space beyond what is necessary to describe the main
progress of events, and the actions and characters of those who were
most prominently concerned in them. Other men may have been greater
in themselves; they may have been first-rate in their own sphere, but
that sphere was too much secluded or circumscribed to admit of the
extensive and conspicuous public influence of which alone history takes
much cognisance. They are to history what those side or background
figures in the pictures of great medieval painters are to the grand
central subject of the piece: they do but help to fill up the canvas,
yet the picture would not be complete without them. They are notable
personages, well worthy of being separately depicted, though in the
large historical representation they play a subordinate part.
To take out one of these side figures of history, and to make it the
centre of a separate picture, grouping round it all the great events
and characters among which it moved, is the work of a biographer. And
by many it will be felt that nothing invests the general history of
any period with such a living interest as viewing it through the light
of some one human life. How was this individual soul affected by the
movement of the great forces with which it was surrounded? How did it
affect them, in its turn, wherever in its progress it came into contact
with them? This one consideration will confer on many details of
history an importance and freshness of which they seemed too trivial or
too dull to be susceptible.
II. Among these side characters in history, characters of men in
themselves belonging to the first rank, men whose names will be
renowned and honoured to the end of time, but precluded, by disposition
or circumstances, from taking the foremost place in the larger canvas
of general history, must be reckoned many of the great ecclesiastics of
the first four or five centuries of Christianity. Every one recognises
as great such names as Origen, Tertullian, Cyprian, Basil, the two
Gregories, and many more. Every one would admit that the Church owes
them a debt, but it may be safely affirmed that here the acquaintance
of many with these eminent men begins and ends. A few scraps from
their writings quoted in commentaries, one or two remarkable acts
or sayings which have been thought worthy to be handed down, a few
passages in which their lives flit across the stage of general history,
complete the knowledge of many more. Such men, indeed, as Athanasius
and Ambrose are to some extent exceptions. The magnitude of the
principles for which they contended, the energy and ability which
they displayed in the contest, were too conspicuous to be passed over
by the general historian, civil or ecclesiastical. The proverbial
expression “Athanasius contra mundum” attests of itself the pre-eminent
greatness of the man. But with other luminaries of the Church, whose
powers were perhaps equally great, but not exercised on so public a
field or on behalf of such apparently vital questions, history has not
dealt, perhaps cannot consistently with its scope deal, in any degree
commensurate with their merits. Nor does this remark apply entirely to
civil history. Ecclesiastical history also is so much occupied with
the consideration of subjects on a large scale and covering a large
space of time,—the course of controversies, the growth of doctrines,
the relations between Church and State, changes in discipline, in
liturgies, in ritual,—that the history of those who lived among these
events, and who by their ability made or moulded them, is comparatively
lost sight of. The outward operations are seen, but the springs
which set them going are concealed. How can general history, for
instance, adequately set forth the character and the work of such men
as Savonarola or Erasmus, both in their widely different ways men of
such incomparable genius and incessant activity? It does not; it only
supplies a glimpse, a sketch, which make us long for a fuller vision,
a more finished picture.[1]
III. It is designed to attempt, in the following pages, such a
supplementary chapter in ecclesiastical history. An endeavour will be
made not merely to chronicle the life and estimate the character of the
great preacher of Antioch and Constantinople, but to place him in the
centre of all the great movements, civil as well as religious, of his
time, and see what light he and they throw upon one another.
The age in which he lived was a troublous one. The spectacle of a
tempestuous sea may in itself excite our interest and inspire us with
awe, but place in the midst of it a vessel containing human life, and
how deeply is our interest intensified!
What was the general character and position of the clergy in the fourth
century? What was the attitude of the Church towards the sensuality,
selfishness, luxury, of an effete and debased civilisation on the one
hand, and the rude ferocity of young and strong barbarian races on the
other? To what extent had Christianity leavened, or had it appreciably
leavened at all, popular forms of thought and popular habits of life?
What was the existing phase of monasticism? what the ordinary form of
worship in the Catholic Church? what the established belief respecting
the sacraments and the great verities of the Christian faith? In answer
to such inquiries, and to many more, much useful information may be
extracted from the works of so prolific a writer and preacher as
Chrysostom. Being concerned also, as a preacher, with moral practice
more than with abstract theology, his homilies reflect, like the
writings of satirists, the manners of the age. The habits of private
life, the fashionable amusements, the absurdities of dress, all the
petty foibles, as well as the more serious vices of the society by
which he was surrounded, are dragged out without remorse, and made
the subjects of solemn admonition, or fierce invective, or withering
sarcasm, or ironical jest.
IV. Nor does secular history, from which not a single chapter in
ecclesiastical history can without injury be dissociated, want for
copious illustration. Not only from the memorable story of the sedition
at Antioch, and from the public events at Constantinople, in which
Chrysostom played a conspicuous part, but from many an allusion or
incidental expression scattered up and down his works, we may collect
rays of light on the social and political condition of the Empire. We
get glimpses in his pages of a large mass of the population hovering
midway between Paganism and Christianity; we detect an oppressive
system of taxation, a widely-spread venality in the administration
of public business, a general insecurity of life arising from the
almost total absence of what we understand by police regulations, a
depressed agriculture, a great slave population, a vast turbulent army
as dangerous to the peace of society as the enemies from whom it was
supposed to defend it, the presence of barbarians in the country as
servants, soldiers, or colonists, the constantly-impending danger from
other hordes ever hovering on the frontier, and, like famished wolves,
gazing with hungry eyes on the plentiful prey which lay beyond it. But
in the midst of the national corruption we see great characters stand
out; and it is remarkable that they belong, without exception, to the
two elements which alone were strong and progressive in the midst of
the general debility and decadence. All the men of commanding genius
in this era were either Christian or barbarian. A young and growing
faith, a vigorous and manly race: these were the two forces destined to
work hand in hand for the destruction of an old and the establishment
of a new order of things. The chief doctors of Christianity in the
fourth century—Augustine, Chrysostom, Ambrose—are incomparably greater
than their contemporary advocates of the old religion and philosophy,
Symmachus or Libanius; even as the Gothic Alaric and Fravitta, and the
Vandal Stilicho, were the only generals who did not disgrace the Roman
arms.
V. Some remarks on the theology of Chrysostom will be found in the
concluding chapter. The appellation of preacher,[2] by which he is
most generally known, is a true indicator of the sphere in which his
powers were greatest. It was in upholding a pure and lofty standard of
Christian morality, and in denouncing unchristian wickedness, that his
life was mainly spent, rather than, like Augustine’s, in constructing
and teaching a logical system of doctrine. The rage of his enemies,
to which he ultimately fell a victim, was not bred of the bitterness
of theological controversy, but of the natural antagonism between the
evil and the good. And it is partly on this account that neither the
remoteness of time, nor difference of circumstances, which separate
us from him, can dim the interest with which we read his story. He
fought not so much for any abstract question of theology or point
of ecclesiastical discipline, which may have lost its meaning and
importance for us, but for those grand principles of truth and justice,
Christian charity, and Christian holiness, which ought to be dear to
men equally in all ages.
VI. But there is also in the struggle of Chrysostom with the secular
power an ecclesiastical and historical interest, as well as a moral
one. We see prefigured in his deposition the fate of the Eastern Church
in the Eastern capital of the Empire. As the papacy grew securely by
the retreat from the old Rome of any secular rival, so the patriarchate
of the new Rome was constantly, increasingly depressed by the presence
of such a rival. Of all the great churchmen who flourished in the
fourth century, Athanasius, Basil, the Gregories, Ambrose, Jerome,
Augustine, and Chrysostom, the last three alone survived into the
fifth century. But the glory of the Western Church was then only in
its infancy; the glory of the Eastern culminated in Chrysostom. From
his time the patriarchs of Constantinople fell more and more into
the servile position of court functionaries. The working out of that
grand idea, a visible organised Catholic Church, uniform in doctrine
and discipline, an idea which grew more and more as the political
disintegration of the Empire increased, was to be accomplished by the
more commanding, law-giving spirit of the West. Intrepid in spirit,
inflexible of purpose, though Chrysostom was, he could not subdue,
he could only provoke to more violent opposition, the powers with
which he was brought into collision. Ineffectual was his contest
with ecclesiastical corruption and secular tyranny, as compared
with a similar contest waged by his Western contemporary, Ambrose;
ineffectual also were the efforts, after his time, of the Church which
he represented to assert the full dignity of its position.
VII. Chrysostom, and the contemporary fathers of the Eastern Church,
naturally seem very remote from us; but, in fact, they are nearer to
us in their modes of thought than many who in point of time are less
distant. They were brought up in the study of that Greek literature
with which we are familiar. Philosophy had not stiffened into
scholasticism. The ethics of Chrysostom are substantially the same
with the ethics of Butler. So, again, Eastern fathers of the fourth
century are far more nearly allied to us in theology than writers of
a few centuries later. If we are to look to “the rock” whence our
Anglican liturgy “was hewn,” and “to the hole of the pit” whence
Anglican reformed theology “was digged,” we must turn our eyes, above
all other directions, to the Eastern Church and the Eastern fathers.
It was observed by Mr. Alexander Knox,[3] that the earlier days of
the Greek Church seem resplendent with a glow of simple, fervent
piety, such as in a Church, as a whole, has never since been seen; and
that this character is strikingly in harmony with our own liturgy, so
overflowing with sublime aspirations, so Catholic, not bearing the
impress of any one system of theology, but containing what is best in
all. We may detect in Chrysostom the germ of medieval corruptions,
such as the invocation of saints, the adoration of relics, and a
sensuous conception of the change effected in the holy elements in the
Eucharist; but these are the raw material of error, not yet wrought
into definite shape. The Bishop of Rome is recognised, as will be seen
from Chrysostom’s correspondence with Innocent, as a great potentate,
whose intercessions are to be solicited in time of trouble and
difficulty, and to whose judgment much deference is to be paid, but by
no means as a supreme ruler in Christendom.
Thus, the tone of Chrysostom’s language is far more akin to that of
our own Church than of the medieval or present Church of Rome. In his
habit of referring to Holy Scripture as the ultimate source and basis
of all true doctrine, “so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor
may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man as an article
of faith;” in his careful endeavour to ascertain the real meaning of
Scripture, not seeking for fanciful or mystical interpretations, or
supporting preconceived theories, but patiently labouring, with a
mixture of candour, reverence, and common sense, to ascertain the exact
literal sense of each passage;—in these points, no less than in his
theology, he bears an affinity to the best minds of our own reformed
Church, and fairly represents that faith of the Catholic Church before
the disruption of East and West in which Bishop Ken desired to die;
while his fervent piety, and his apostolic zeal as a preacher of
righteousness, must command the admiration of all earnest Christians,
to whatever country, age, or Church, they may belong.