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.
Such was the political and social condition of the Empire in the year
A.D. 397. In September of that year died Nectarius, Archbishop of
Constantinople, a man of an easy, amiable disposition, who, not taking
a very elevated or severe view of the duties of his position, had
administered the see for sixteen years, without annoyance, but without
distinction.[395] A conscientious discharge, indeed, of episcopal
duties was at this epoch beset by no small difficulties in the great
cities of the Empire. Bishops of important sees now occupied a high
social rank.[396] This had to be assumed (in Constantinople at least)
in the midst of an intriguing, factious court, a corrupt, frivolous
people, and a demoralised, or at least secularised, clergy. “Nothing,”
said St. Augustine, “can in this life, and especially at this time,
be easier or more agreeable than the office of bishop, presbyter, or
deacon, if discharged in a perfunctory and adulatory manner; nothing
can in this life, and especially at this time, be more laborious and
perilous than such an office, if discharged as our heavenly Commander
bids us.”[397] And the testimony of Chrysostom’s friend, Isidore, Abbot
of Pelusium, is to the same effect: “True freedom and independence are
not to be found in these distinguished positions: it is so difficult to
rule some, and to submit to others; to direct some, and to be directed
by others; to be complaisant to some and severe to others.” Into this
difficult and delicate position the pious, single-minded, unworldly,
but courageous preacher of Antioch was to be suddenly transplanted,
and that in a city where the difficulties incident to such a position
existed in peculiar force.
At the time of the decease of Nectarius, several bishops happened to
be sojourning in Constantinople on business, and as tidings of the
vacancy of the see got abroad, the number of episcopal visitors largely
increased; some coming as candidates, others by the invitation of the
Emperor, who wished to make the ceremony of consecration as dignified
and august as possible.[398] Constantinople became convulsed by all
those factious disputes and dissensions which usually attended the
election of a bishop to an important see, and which Chrysostom has so
vividly described in his treatise on the priesthood.[399] From dawn
of day the places of public resort were occupied by the candidates
and their partisans paying court, or paying bribes to the common
people; canvassing the nobles and the wealthy not without the potent
aid of rich and costly gifts, some statue from Greece or silk from
India, or perfumes from Arabia.[400] One of the most conspicuous
candidates was Isidore, a presbyter of Alexandria. His claims were
eagerly pushed by Theophilus, Archbishop of Alexandria, who had a
strong personal interest in securing his success. For Isidore was in
possession of a rather awkward secret in the past history of Theophilus
himself. When the war between Theodosius and the usurper Maximus was
impending, Isidore had been despatched by the Archbishop to Italy
with letters of congratulation to be presented to him who should
prove the conqueror. Isidore waited till victory had declared itself
in favour of Theodosius; presented the humble felicitations of the
patriarch, and returned to Alexandria. But he was unable on his return
to produce the other letter, designed for Maximus had he proved the
victor. According to his own account, it had been abstracted by the
reader who had accompanied him on the journey. Theophilus, however,
suspected the fidelity of Isidore himself, and that some ugly stories
which began to circulate respecting the affair had emanated from him.
The see of Constantinople, if secured through his interest, would be
an effectual means, he thought, of stopping the mouth of Isidore.[401]
But he was doomed to disappointment. While the several candidates and
their patrons were exhausting all their arts on the spot to obtain
the favour of the electors, the clergy and people, distracted by
conflicting bribes and arguments, unanimously decided to summon a man
from a distance who had not come forward at all. They submitted the
name of Chrysostom to the Emperor, who immediately approved their
choice.[402] In fact, the election of Chrysostom was in all probability
the suggestion of Eutropius. During a recent visit on public business
to Antioch, he had heard and recognised the eloquence of the great
preacher. Even if the heart of the man was not touched by the pungent
warnings, or warmed by the kindling exhortations of Chrysostom, he had
plenty of astuteness to perceive, if only such an eloquence could be
employed in the service of the Government, what a powerful engine it
would be.[403] The appointment, at any rate, was certain to be welcomed
by the people, and of popularity Eutropius stood greatly in need. By
the people of Antioch indeed Chrysostom was so deeply and ardently
beloved, that the question was how to remove him without causing
a disturbance of the public peace. The excitable feelings of the
populace at Antioch were at all times a train of powder which needed
but the application of a spark to cause a serious explosion of tumult.
The difficulty was solved by a mixture of force and fraud highly
characteristic of the chief designer and executor of the project.
Eutropius addressed a letter to Asterius, the Count of the East, who
resided in Antioch, and who promptly acted on his instructions. He
proposed to the unsuspecting Chrysostom that they should pay a visit
together to one of the martyries outside the city walls. Well pleased
to make this pious pilgrimage, the saintly preacher accompanied his
captor through the Roman gate, and turned his back on his beloved
native city, which he was destined never to revisit. At the martyry he
was seized by some Government officials, and carried on to Pagræ, the
first station on the high road for Constantinople. Here a chariot and
horses awaited them, together with one of the imperial chamberlains,
a “magister militum,” and an escort of soldiers. The bewildered
Chrysostom was hurried into the chariot, without any attention being
paid to his remonstrances or inquiries; the horses were put into a
smart gallop, and the pace well kept up to the next stage, where a
similar equipage was in waiting. Such was the rapid, but, considering
all the circumstances, undignified approach of the future archbishop to
take possession of his see.[404]
Great was the joy of the people on his arrival, great the mortification
and consternation of the rival candidates. Theophilus loudly declared
that he would take no part in the ordination. “You will ordain him,”
said Eutropius, “or take your trial on the charges contained in these
documents;” producing certain papers of accusations brought against
him from various quarters, at the sight of which Theophilus turned
pale. His opposition was effectually silenced, though he nourished his
revenge for a future day.[405] And we may presume that he took the
lead, by virtue of his rank, in the ceremony of consecration—that is,
that he pronounced the consecration prayer and blessing, while two
other bishops held the gospels over the head, and the other prelates
who were present laid their hands on the head of the recipient of
consecration.[406] The ceremony took place on February 26, A.D. 398,
in the presence of a vast concourse of people, who came, no doubt,
not only to witness the spectacle, but to hear from the lips of one
so famed for eloquence the “Sermo enthronisticus,” or homily on the
lesson for the day, which was delivered by the new Patriarch[407] after
he had been conducted to his throne, and which was regarded as a test
of his powers. This discourse has not been preserved, but Chrysostom
alludes to it in the homily numbered xi. against the Anomœans, which
was the second discourse he delivered as archbishop. He there reminds
his hearers how in his first discourse he had promised, in his warfare
with heretics, to trust, not in the carnal weapons of human dialectic,
but in the spiritual armour of Holy Scripture, even as David had
confronted and prevailed over the Philistine with weapons which the
warrior despised, but which were crowned with success because blessed
by God.[408] In the review already taken of his discourses against
Arians and other heretics, it has been seen how faithfully he adhered
to this principle.
The disadvantages of a monastic, secluded training, in one who was
called upon to occupy a large and important see, have been pointed
out by no one better than by Chrysostom himself,[409] and he now
experienced the truth of his own observations. His genius was not
of that practical order which displays itself in great discernment
of character and tact in the management of men; and his virtues were
of that austere kind, the virtues of the monk rather than of the
Christian citizen, joined to a certain irritability of temper and
inflexibility of will, which were ill calculated to first conciliate
and then delicately lead on to a purer way of life the undisciplined
flock committed to his care.[410] If Nectarius had been too much the
man of the world, his successor was, for the position in which he was
placed, too much the saint of the cloister. The new wine burst the old
bottles. He began immediately to reform with an unsparing hand—first
of all within the limits of his own palace. The costly store of silken
and gold-embroidered robes, the rich marbles, ornaments, and vessels of
various kinds which his courtly predecessor had accumulated, were sold
in exchange for homelier articles, and the surplus was applied to the
aid of hospitals and the relief of the destitute.[411] The bishop, and
many of the clergy of Constantinople, had been accustomed to entertain
and be entertained by the wealthy and the great. Ammianus Marcellinus
contrasts the luxurious style of living affected by the bishops of
great cities, who “rode about in their carriages, elaborately dressed,
and gave princely banquets,” with the frugal fare, the cheap clothing,
the modest deportment of the provincial bishops.[412] The admonition
of Jerome also to an episcopal friend demonstrates the tendency at
this period to an immoderate and worldly hospitality on the part of
the clergy. “Avoid,” he says, “giving great entertainments to the
laity, and especially to those who occupy high stations; for it is
not very reputable to see the lictors and guards of a consul waiting
outside the doors of a priest of Jesus Christ, nor that the judge of
a province should dine more sumptuously with you than in the palace.
If it be pretended that you do this only to be able to intercede with
him for poor criminals, there is no judge who will not pay greater
respect to a frugal priest than to a rich one, and show more deference
to your piety than to your wealth.”[413] Chrysostom, like Jerome, was
an uncompromising ascetic in his views on clerical life. He ate in
solitude the spare and simple diet of a monk, and declared that he
would never set foot at Court except on pressing affairs concerning
the welfare of the Church. When one considers what the character of
that Court was, it must be confessed that the resolution highly became
a Christian bishop.[414] His own seclusion might have been easily
tolerated if he had not exacted the same severe simplicity of life
in his clergy. He denounced their parasitical flatteries, and their
propensity to seek entertainments at the tables of the wealthy, and
insisted that their stipends must be quite sufficient to supply them
with the necessaries of life. He suspended many from their cures on
account of worldly or immoral conduct, and repelled others from the
Eucharist. Several of these became the most active organisers of
hostile cabals.
But there was another cause of the archbishop’s unpopularity with
his clergy, which arose from his vigorous assaults upon a deep and
apparently most prevalent evil.
Celibacy appears never to have been made obligatory on the clergy
of the Eastern Church. The Synod of Elvira, which enjoins celibacy,
was a purely Spanish synod;[415] and the decree of Pope Siricius to
the same effect, in A.D. 385, could not affect any countries beyond
Italy, Spain, and perhaps Southern Gaul. That decree is a remarkable
instance of the law-giving spirit of the Western Church, which hardened
tendencies into binding statutes. But sentiment and opinion were quite
as strong in favour of clerical celibacy in the East as in the West.
It was proposed at the Council of Nice that a canon should be passed
enforcing it upon every order of the clergy; a proposal which was
defeated only by the influence of the aged Egyptian monk Paphnutius,
who, though he had never been married, and had always lived an ascetic
life, earnestly deprecated the imposition of a burden upon all men
which some men only were able to bear. The result was that the clergy
were permitted to retain their wives whom they had married before
ordination, but were forbidden to marry after ordination. And this is
called “the ancient tradition of the Church.”[416] There can be no
doubt, however, that a profound conviction possessed the minds of all
the most earnest Christians in Eastern Christendom that the unmarried
life was inherently better than the married; and, consequently,
clerical celibacy was honoured and encouraged, though marriage was
allowable. On the other hand, there grew up, side by side with the
practice of celibacy, a custom which broke it in the spirit while it
was preserved in the letter. The same Council of Nice which by one
canon freely granted to the clergy the society of their lawful wives,
by another prohibits unmarried clergy of every rank to have any woman
dwelling under the same roof who was not their mother, sister, or
aunt.[417] It was the transgression of this canon which was indignantly
complained of by several writers[418] and at councils[419] in or near
the time of Chrysostom, as well as by Chrysostom himself. Under the
name of spiritual sisters, young women, often consecrated virgins of
the Church, lived, as they maintained, in all innocent and sisterly
affection with unmarried priests. But the risk to the morals of both
was imminent, and the scandal which it brought upon the clergy in the
eyes of the world was certain. Chrysostom denounces the custom on both
these grounds. Whether two treatises, one addressed to the men, the
other to the women, were composed at Constantinople, or, as Socrates
says, during his diaconate, they embody his views on the whole subject,
and afford a curious insight into clerical life in the great cities at
this epoch.[420]
He places the offenders on the horns of a dilemma. “If you are weak,
the temptation to evil is so great, that for your own sake you ought
to avoid it; if you are strong, you ought to abandon the practice for
the sake of those who are weak.” They brought a great scandal on the
Church and opened the mouths of adversaries. An isolated sin would be
less severely visited than one which, though comparatively small in
itself, caused others also to offend. They should imitate the wisdom
of St. Paul, who would not do a thing in itself desirable or harmless,
if the evil resulting to some exceeded any possible advantage to
others.[421] A pretext for the reception of these unmarried women was
made on the ground that they were orphans who had no protectors. But
this became a great snare both to the women and the clergy: they were
occupied with the management of property instead of devoting themselves
to spiritual concerns. It would be far better that a maiden should
marry, than, by abstaining from marriage, involve herself and others in
worldly business who ought to be free from it. If poor, it was better
she should remain poor and friendless, than be received into a home
where the danger incurred by the soul would far exceed the advantages
procured for the body. There were many aged women who were poor,
friendless, maimed, or diseased; the city was full of them. These were
the most deserving objects of clerical charity, and on them it could
be exercised without fear of reproach.[422] These “spiritual sisters”
appear from Chrysostom’s account to have often lived very much like
fine ladies of fashion. “How incongruous and ludicrous,” he says,
“when you enter the house of one who calls himself a single man, to see
articles of female dress and instruments of female occupation lying
about—girdles, head-gear, wool-baskets, spindles, distaffs!” In the
elaboration of their dress these companions often surpassed actresses;
they were gossips and match-makers. The man who ought to have renounced
all worldly calls might be seen inquiring at the silversmith’s if his
lady’s mirror was ready, her casket finished, her flask returned;
from the silversmith’s he hurried to the perfumer’s to see about her
scents; from the perfumer to the linen-draper, and so on upon a round
of shopping. All this business and worldly worry made them harsh to
the servants, who retaliated by secretly abusing their master and
mistress.[423] This was bad enough, but the clergy were not ashamed to
display their servile attachment to these women even in the churches.
They received them at the doors, forced others to make way for them,
and walked in front of them with a proud air, when they ought not to
have been able to lift up their heads for shame.[424]
Chrysostom implores the clergy as a suppliant, to free themselves from
these disgraceful and degrading connections. “Christ would have them be
strenuous soldiers and combatants. He did not arm them with spiritual
weapons to help women sew and weave, but to engage with the invisible
powers, to put to flight the forces of Satan, and to lead captive the
rulers of spiritual darkness. If a soldier who was fully equipped were
to run in-doors and sit down with the women just at the moment of the
enemy’s attack, when the trumpet summoned every one to the combat,
would you not run your sword through the craven on the spot? How much
more would God be offended with the Christian soldier who evaded the
combat with the spiritual enemy?”[425]
The rigour with which Chrysostom pressed reformation upon the clergy
in these and many other points, not being tempered by a conciliatory
manner or genial way of life, excited a vehement spirit of opposition.
He was encouraged in his severity by his Archdeacon Serapion, who on
one occasion had said, in the hearing of a large body of clergy: “You
will never subdue these mutinous priests, my Lord Bishop, till you
drive them all before you as with a single rod.”[426] In fact, a large
body of the more worldly clergy seem to have regarded the archbishop
and his deacon with much the same mingled feelings of fear and aversion
which unruly schoolboys entertain towards an austere master.
The rigorous discipline exacted from the clergy was probably by no
means distasteful to the people or the Court, and by the eloquence of
their new bishop they were entranced so long as his declamations were
poured forth against the vices and follies of society in general. The
Empress and archbishop stood for a time high in each other’s favour.
She conducted with him a vast torchlight procession in which the
reliques of some martyrs were conveyed to the martyry of St. Thomas in
Drypia, a considerable distance outside the city. A rapturous homily
was delivered by Chrysostom when they reached the chapel at dawn of
day. “What shall I say? I am verily mad with joy; yet such a madness
is better than even wisdom itself. Of what shall I most discourse?—the
virtue of the martyrs, the alacrity of the city, the zeal of the
Empress, the concourse of the nobles, the worsting of the demons?”...
“Women, more delicate than wax, leaving their comfortable homes,
emulated the stoutest men in the eagerness with which they made this
long pilgrimage on foot. Nobles, leaving their chariots, their lictors,
their attendants, mingled in the common crowd. And why speak of them
when she who wears the diadem, and is arrayed in purple, has not
consented along the whole route to be separated from the rest even by
a little space, but has followed the saints like their handmaid, with
her finger on the shrine and upon the veil covering it—she, visible to
the whole multitude, whom not even all the chamberlains of the palace
are usually permitted to see?” The mixture of races in Constantinople
is indicated in one passage, where, comparing the Empress to Miriam
leading the chorus of triumphant Israelites, he says: “_She_, indeed,
led forth a people of one language only, but _thou_ innumerable bands,
chanting the Psalms of David, some in the Roman, some in the Syrian,
some in a barbarian, some in the Greek tongue.” The procession moved
along like a stream of fire, or continuous golden chain; the moon shone
down upon the crowd of the faithful, and in the midst the Empress, more
brilliant than the moon itself; for what was the moon compared to a
soul adorned with such faith? He called her blessed, for the ends of
the earth would hear of and extol this glorious act of piety. If the
deed of the poor sinful woman in the Gospel, who anointed our Lord’s
feet, was to be proclaimed throughout the world, how much more that
of a modest, dignified, chaste woman, who displayed such piety in the
midst of imperial state. And there is much more of the same Oriental,
rhapsodical, rhetoric.[427]
The Emperor made a pilgrimage on the following day to the shrine,
accompanied by all the great officials of the Court; and another
discourse, similar in tone though not quite so extravagantly rapturous,
was delivered by the archbishop.
As in Antioch, so also and with still greater vehemence in
Constantinople, the voice of Chrysostom was incessantly lifted up
against those vices which specially beset a large mixed population
living under a corrupt despotism. Here, as there, the avarice and
luxury of the wealthy are the themes of his indignant invective; the
wrongs and pitiable poverty of the poor the occasions of his pathetic
appeal. One day lamenting the paucity of worshippers, he exclaims: “O
tyranny of money which drives the greater part of our brethren from the
fold! for it is nothing but that grievous disease, that never-quenched
furnace, which drives them hence; this mistress, more ferocious than
any barbarian or wild beast, fiercer than the very demons, taking her
slaves with her, is now conducting them round the Forum, inflicting
upon them her oppressive commands, nor suffers them to take a little
breath from their destructive labours.”... “May you derive great good
from the zeal with which you listen to these words, for your groanings
and the smitings of your foreheads prove that the seed which I have
sown is already bearing fruit.”[428]
A signal instance of the passionate attachment of the people to the
Circensian and theatrical exhibitions occurred about the close of the
first year of his episcopate.[429] A violent rain had half inundated
the fields and almost destroyed the growing crops; solemn processional
litanies were made to the churches of the Apostles on both sides of
the Bosporus; yet two days later the majority of that multitude, which
had just been invoking the intercession of saints and supplicating
the mercy of God, poured into the circus, and might be seen wildly
applauding and cheering on the chariots; and from that they hastened
to witness with eager eyes the indecent performances of the theatre:
“while I,” said the archbishop, “sitting at home and hearing your
shouts, suffered worse agonies than those who are tossed by storms at
sea.”[430]... “What defence will you be able to make when you have
to render an account of that day’s work? For thee the sun rose, the
moon lit up the night, choirs of stars spangled the sky; for thee the
winds blew, and rivers ran, seeds germinated, plants grew, and the
whole course of nature kept its proper order: but thou, when Creation
is ministering to thy needs, thou fulfillest the pleasure of the
devil.”[431]... “Say not that few have wandered from the fold; though
it were but five or two or one, the loss would be great. The shepherd
in the Gospel left the ninety-and-nine, and hastened after the one, nor
did he return till he had made up the complete number of the flock by
its restoration. Though it be only one, yet it is a soul for which this
visible world was created, for which laws and statutes and the diverse
operations of God have been put in motion, yea, for whose sake God
spared not His only Son.”... “Therefore I loudly declare that if any
one after this admonition shall desert the fold for the pestilent vice
of the theatre, I will not admit him inside these rails.[432] I will
not administer to him the holy mysteries or allow him to touch the holy
table, but expel him as shepherds drive out the diseased sheep from the
fold lest they should contaminate the rest.”
The iniquity of the people’s defection had been aggravated on this
occasion by the fact that the days on which they had rushed in such
crowds to the circus and theatre were Good Friday and Holy Saturday.
On the Sunday following Easter Day the church was fully thronged. An
aged Galatian bishop, being present, was requested, according to a
polite custom of that time, to preach. But the congregation expressed
their disapproval by shouts of dissent, and by withdrawing in large
numbers. They wanted to hear what more their eloquent castigator had to
say on the subject on which he had so vehemently declaimed on Easter
Day. Chrysostom was so much gratified and encouraged by the alacrity
which the people had thus manifested to listen to his objurgations
that his censures of the chariot races, the next time he preached,
were milder than usual. He contents himself with observing that the
shocking accident of the day before, when a young man about to be
married had been run over in the course and cut to pieces by the
chariot wheels, was a damning proof of the wild folly and wickedness
of these spectacles. Nor does he rebuke them very sharply for their
discourtesy to the Galatian prelate.[433] They always resented the
preaching of a stranger; on several occasions Chrysostom had to appeal
to their feelings of respect for the custom of the Church, or enlarge
on the reverence due to the preacher, either on account of his age or
his great virtues, before they would listen patiently.
It is impossible to determine in the case of every homily or set of
homilies whether they were delivered at Antioch or Constantinople,
but the character of society seems to have been in its main features
so similar in the two cities that it may be allowable to collect into
one place notices on various social subjects scattered up and down
Chrysostom’s works.
The extremes of wealth and poverty, barbaric splendour, and abject
beggary, existed side by side in hideous and glaring contrast. The
passion for the use of the precious metals was amazing. Vessels for
the meanest purposes were made of silver; superfluous display without
regard to utility prevailed everywhere. “If it were in their power, I
verily believe that some men would have the ground they walk on,[434]
the walls of their houses, and perhaps even the sky and air, made of
gold.” Clothes were in the opinion of Chrysostom a memorial of man’s
fall from that state of innocence in which they had been unnecessary,
and were therefore to be made of as little consequence as possible.
“Say, ye who indulge in such grandeur as to discard all woollen
garments and array yourselves in silk only, and have even advanced to
such a height of madness as to weave gold into your robes (for most
women do this), to what purpose do you deck out your persons in these
things, not perceiving that the covering of dress was devised for us
after the transgression in the place of a severe punishment?”[435]
The particular make of shoes worn by the fashionable young ladies and
gentlemen of the day seems to have excited his special indignation. “To
put silk threads into your boots, how disgraceful, how ridiculous![436]
Ships are built, sailors hired, pilots appointed, the sails are
spread, the sea crossed, wife, children, and home left behind, the
country of the barbarian entered, and the life of the merchant exposed
to a thousand perils, in order that after it all you may trick out
the leather of your boots with these silken threads: what form of
madness can be worse?”... “He who ought to bend his thoughts and eyes
heavenwards casts them down upon his shoes instead. His chief care, as
he walks delicately through the Forum, is to avoid soiling his boots
with mire or dust. Will you let your soul grovel in the mire while you
are taking care of your boots? Boots were made to be soiled; if you
cannot bear this, take them off and wear them on your head instead of
on your feet. You laugh when I say these words, but I rather weep for
your folly.”[437] Again, “You may see one sitting in his chariot with
haughty brow, touching as it were the clouds in the senseless pride of
his heart; but think him not really lofty, for it is not the sitting up
in a chariot drawn by mules, but only virtue mounting to the vault of
heaven which really elevates a man. Or if you see another on horseback,
attended by a troop of lictors driving the multitude out of his way in
the Forum, call him not happy on that account. How ridiculous! why,
prithee, do you drive your fellow-creatures before you? Were you made
a wolf or a lion? Your Lord Jesus Christ raised man to heaven; you do
not condescend to share even the market-place with him. When you put
a gold bit on your horse, a gold bracelet on your slave’s arm, when
your clothes even to your shoes are gilded, you are feeding that most
ferocious of monsters, avarice; you are robbing the orphan, denuding
the widow, and acting as the common enemy of all. When your body is
committed to the ground the memory of your ambition will not be buried
with you, for each passer-by, as he contemplates the height and size
of your grand mansions, will say to himself or his neighbour, ‘How
many tears did it cost to build that house! how many orphans were left
naked! how many widows wronged! how many persons deprived of wages!’
Thus the exact contrary of what you expected comes to pass: you desired
to obtain glory during your life, and lo! even after death you are not
delivered from accusers.”[438]
Such are the natural expressions of indignation on the part of one
trained in a monkish school of piety and austere simplicity of life,
when brought into practical contact with a corrupt civilisation. Every
denunciation of inordinate luxury is coupled with an exhortation to the
relief of distress. Almsgiving is represented as the one certain method
of laying up treasure in heaven, and the true riches are increased
in proportion as this world’s goods are given away. He lived in the
days when social science and political economy did not exist; he only
perceived the moral wrong of profuse luxury and extreme destitution
side by side, and the only method which he could suggest for rectifying
the evil was to impress on the wealthy the duty of almsgiving on a
large scale. Beggars swarmed in the streets, and thronged the entrances
of the churches and public baths;[439] and he is for ever exhorting
his congregations to relieve these unfortunate people. All honour to
his simple Christian charity! though of course he could not have given
worse advice with a view to curing the evil which he deplored. The
man who wore shoes inwoven with silk or gold threads may have been a
ridiculous fop, and yet have done more good by buying his finery, the
produce of honest labour, than did the pious member of Chrysostom’s
congregation who flung his money to the beggars congregated at the
church doors.
The luxurious habits and extravagant dress of the ladies were especial
objects of Chrysostom’s attack; but he draws a charming picture, on
the other side, of the influence which good Christian wives might,
and which many did, exercise upon their husbands. The close of the
exhortation in our own “Marriage Service” seems almost as if suggested
by a passage in which he quotes Sarah the wife of Abraham as a pattern
of dutiful obedience to her husband, as adorned with virtue, instead
of the outward adorning of “plaiting the hair and putting on of
apparel.”[440] “The good wife, as she remains more at home than the
man, and has more leisure for ‘pious contemplation’ (φιλοσοφία), can
calm and soothe the husband when he returns harassed by business, cut
off his superfluous cares, and so send him back free of the troubles
contracted in the Forum, and carrying with him the good lessons which
he has learned at home.”... “No influence is more potent than that
of a careful and discreet wife to harmonise and mould the soul of a
man.”... “I could mention many hard, intractable men who have been
softened in this manner.” And this influence would be in proportion
to the Christian purity and simplicity of her own life. “When thy
husband shall see thee modest, not a lover of ornament, not demanding
an unnecessary allowance, then he will listen to thy counsel. When you
seek not gold or pearls, or costly array, but modesty, temperance,
and benevolence, in proportion as you manifest these virtues yourself,
you may demand them of him; these are the ornaments which never fail
to attract; this is the adornment which old age does not dissolve or
disease destroy.”... “When your husband sees you laying aside luxury,
he will lay aside the love of gain, and will be more inclined to deeds
of charity. With what face, O ye wives, can you exhort your husbands to
almsgiving, when you consume the largest portion of his means on the
decoration of your own persons?”[441]
He urgently represents to the wealthy proprietors of land in the
country the solemn duty incumbent on them of providing for the
spiritual welfare of the people on their estate, by building a church
and maintaining a pastor among them. “There are many who possess farms
and fields, but all their anxiety is to make a bath-house to their
mansion, to build entrance courts and servants’ offices; but how the
souls of their dependants are cultivated they care not.”... “If you
see thorns in a field, you cut them down and burn them; but when you
see the souls of your labourers beset with thorns and cut them not
down, tell me, do you not fear when you reflect on the account which
will be exacted from you for these things? Ought not every Christian
estate-holder to build a church and to make it his aim before all
things else that his people should be Christian?”... “Therefore I
exhort, I supplicate as a favour, or rather I affirm it as a principle,
that no one should be seen in possession of an estate which is not
provided with a church.” He concludes by drawing a pleasing picture
of the benefit derived from the residence of a pastor in the quiet
country village; the softening, humanising, civilising effect of his
presence; the relief given to the needy, the comfort to the sick and
dying; the pleasant repose which the proprietor may enjoy when he
withdraws for a time from the turmoil of city life, and worships among
his grateful people in the church which he has founded, and where his
name will be blessed for many future generations. “And think of the
reward in heaven; Christ said, ‘If thou lovest me feed my sheep.’ If
you were to see any of the royal sheep or horses destitute of shelter
and exposed to attack, and were to house them, provide stabling for
them, and appoint some one to tend them, with how great a gift would
the sovereign requite you. And think you that, if you fold Christ’s
flock and set a shepherd over them, He will not do some great thing for
you?”[442]
The responsibility indeed of _every_ Christian man to promote the
spiritual welfare of his brethren is one of the topics on which
Chrysostom most constantly and earnestly dilates. “Nothing can be more
chilling than the sight of a Christian who makes no efforts to save
others. Neither poverty, nor humble station, nor bodily infirmity
can exempt men and women from the obligation of this great duty. To
hide our Christian light, under pretence of weakness, is as great an
insult to God as if we were to say that He could not make His sun to
shine.”[443]
The practice of swearing deep oaths about trifles appears to have
been as prevalent at Constantinople as at Antioch, and equally to
have excited the indignation of the Archbishop. He would not cease
to denounce this devilish habit, and that vehemently, lest he should
incur the condemnation pronounced on Eli, who rebuked, but not with
sufficient severity. He would unsparingly repel from the threshold of
the Church any who persisted in this pernicious vice, were he emperor
or prince. Men might deride his vehemence, but they forgot that he was
only the servant of Jesus Christ; their mockery fell on the Master
rather than the minister. Let them laugh and jest as much as they
would; he was placed there to suffer it. “Obey my voice or depose me
from this my office. I cannot consent to mount this throne unless I
accomplish something great. If I cannot do this, it were better for me
to stand below. As long as I sit here I cannot refrain, not so much out
of fear of punishment to myself as on account of your salvation, which
I earnestly desire.”[444]
Immoderate addiction to the pleasures of the table is a frequently
recurring subject of censure. He depicts in lively terms the freshness,
activity, and good health of the temperate man; the lethargy, the
headaches, the cramps, the gout, the sickness of the glutton. Here is
his portrait of a fat gourmand:—“To whom is not the man disagreeable
who makes obesity his study, and has to be dragged about like a
seal? I speak not of those who are such by nature, but of those who,
naturally graceful, have brought their bodies into this condition
through luxurious living. The sun has risen, he has darted everywhere
his brilliant rays, he has roused every one to his work: the tiller has
taken his hoe, the smith his hammer, each workman his proper tool; the
woman sets to work to spin or weave; while he like a hog goes forth
to the occupation of filling his stomach, seeking how to provide for
a costly table. When the sun has filled the market-place, and other
men have already tired themselves with work, he rises from his bed,
stretching himself like a fatting pig. Then he sits a long time on his
couch to shake off the drunkenness of the previous evening, after which
he adorns himself and walks out a spectacle of ugliness, not so much
like a man as a man-shaped beast.”... “Who might not justly say, ‘this
fellow is a burden to the earth; he has come into the world in vain;
nay, not in vain, alas! but to the injury both of himself and other
people?’”[445]
Such passages as these prove that the power of Chrysostom to captivate
his hearers consisted not always in eloquence or ornate rhetoric,
but in a kind of bold and rough plain-speaking, which dragged out
into broad daylight the most flagrant evils of the time, and painted
them in strong coarse colours, to excite derision or disgust. But the
fickleness and impulsiveness of the people were fatal obstacles to
the retention of fixed and durable impressions. The population upon
whom Chrysostom poured forth his torrents of exhortation or invective
was more debased than that to which Savonarola preached; not so
vigorous, not so homogeneous, not so much animated by a sentiment of
citizenship, not under the refining influence of a taste for literature
and art.[446] It was a vast, disorderly medley of incoherent elements,
destitute of those political privileges, and of that industrial
commercial spirit, which inspire the character with manly energy and
independence. A passionate, invincible love of pleasure, an abandoned
devotion to such public amusements as in no way appealed to the
intellect, and were calculated to debase and relax the finer moral
feelings,—these were insuperable bars to the substantial success of
the Christian reformer. A large proportion of his hearers seem to have
listened to his discourses as pleasant exhibitions of bold satire
and eloquent declamation; they applauded, they laughed, they wept,
they were smitten with something like compunction; and Chrysostom
confesses that at the moment he could not repress a natural feeling
of gratification at the effect produced; but that when he went home,
and reflected that the benefit which his hearers should have derived
generally evaporated in empty applause, instead of manifesting itself
in some solid improvement, he wept and groaned from vexation. What men
learned in the church was undone in the theatre: “his work was like
that of a man who attempted to clean a piece of ground into which a
muddy stream was constantly flowing.”[447]
His letters to individuals, and the eulogia which he passes at the
beginning of some of his homilies on the zeal, piety, and attention
of his flock, prove indeed that there were bright exceptions, but the
mass of the people remained irreclaimable. On grand festivals, such as
Easter Day, vast crowds attended the church; the very precincts were
thronged, and the multitude surged backwards and forwards like the
waves of the sea. A large portion was composed of the fashionable and
rich; but Chrysostom greatly preferred those smaller congregations,
consisting chiefly of poor, who attended regularly, and on whose
attachment to the Church he could depend. He enjoyed these quiet
services, free from the bustle and disturbance of large crowds.[448]
The wealthy and the gay spared little time for the services of the
Church, though they never pleaded business as an excuse for absence
from the theatre. If they came now and then, they did so as a kind
of condescension and favour shown to God and his priest. They lazily
slumbered, or idly gossiped during the service; yet they boasted of
their attendance afterwards.[449]
After the account in previous chapters of Chrysostom’s method of
dealing with the prevalent heresies of the day at Antioch, there
is no occasion to say much more. The same forms of error had to be
encountered at Constantinople by much the same arguments. Only one,
Novatianism, appears to have been more prominent in this city than at
Antioch. The exclusive pretensions to purity of doctrine and moral life
made by the Novatians excited his special indignation. “What arrogance!
what boastfulness is this! Can you, being a man, call yourself clean?
Nay, what madness is it? As well call the sea free from waves; for as
waves never cease to move on the sea, so do sins never cease to work in
us.”[450] The harshness of the Novatians, in refusing the readmission
of apostates on repentance, was peculiarly offensive to his merciful
and hopeful view of human nature. Sicinnius, the Novatian bishop in
Constantinople, wrote a book against him, in which he makes a handle
of particular expressions in Chrysostom’s homilies detached from their
context; such as, “Repent a thousand times, and enter the Church;” ...
“let the unclean person, the adulterer, the thief, enter;” but omitting
the words which follow—“that he may learn to do these things no more.
I draw all, I throw my net over all, desiring to catch not those only
who are sound, but those who are sick.”[451] A hopefulness and love,
which never despaired of the sinner, are eminently characteristic of
Chrysostom; and the strong words of encouragement and comfort which he
used were of course susceptible of a construction injurious to him, by
those who prided themselves on enforcing a very rigid standard of moral
and ecclesiastical discipline.
Twenty years had elapsed since Gregory Nazianzenus, with much
reluctance and trembling, had accepted the See of Constantinople. The
city was at that time a very stronghold of Arianism. Arians had held
the see for nearly forty years. The services of the orthodox were held
in a private house, and were at first exposed to violent disturbance
from the populace, which, hounded on by the Arian clergy, hooted and
threw stones at the worshippers. But the eloquence, combined with
the holiness, of Gregory had subdued this violent opposition. The
ranks of the orthodox were swelled, and the little house was enlarged
into a noble church, under the name of Anastasia, as significant of
the revival of the true faith.[452] Imperial authority completed the
work which Gregory had begun. The Arians and other sectaries were
prohibited by various enactments from assembling for worship within
the city walls;[453] but in the time of Chrysostom they began again to
molest the faithful. On Saturdays and Sundays they made a practice of
assembling in colonnades and public places, and there loudly singing
Arian songs—songs, that is, embodying Arian doctrine, like the Thalia
composed by Arius; abstract statements of theology, very unpoetical in
form, very incapable, as we should have supposed, of exciting popular
feeling.[454] This noisy singing went on during the greater part of the
night; at dawn they marched through the streets singing antiphonally,
and then held assemblies for worship outside the gates. Chrysostom,
with more of zeal perhaps than wisdom, organised rival processions
of antiphonal singers; the Empress supplied them with tapers mounted
on silver crosses. Street frays were the inevitable consequence of
these counter demonstrations; the Arians took to their old practice of
stone-throwing; Briso, one of the Emperor’s chamberlains, was wounded
by a stone in the forehead, and several persons killed on both sides,
after which the Arian assemblies were suppressed by royal order.
The practical energy of Chrysostom was not confined within the limits
of his own diocese. He did not forget his native city, but laboured,
and laboured successfully, to heal the schism by which the Church
of Antioch had been so long distracted. Theophilus, Patriarch of
Alexandria, consented at his earnest request to join with him in the
despatch of an embassy to Rome, to supplicate the recognition of
Flavian as sole bishop. Acacius, Bishop of Berœa, and Isidore, for
whom Theophilus had striven to obtain the See of Constantinople, were
selected to carry the petition, and they returned with a favourable
answer from the Bishops of the West. It is a satisfaction to find
Chrysostom united in this charitable work with those who afterwards
became his most malignant enemies.[455]
His missionary efforts extended northwards to the Danube, and
southwards to Phœnicia, Syria, and Palestine. He sought out men of
apostolic zeal to evangelise some Scythian tribes on the banks of the
Danube, and appointed a Gothic bishop, Unilas, who accomplished great
things, but died in A.D. 404, when Chrysostom was in exile, and unable
to appoint a successor.[456] A novel spectacle was witnessed one day
in the Church of St. Paul. A large number of Goths being present,
Chrysostom ordered some portions of the Bible to be read in Gothic, and
caused a Gothic presbyter to address his countrymen in their native
tongue. The Archbishop, who preached afterwards, rejoiced in the
occurrence as a visible illustration of the diffusion of the Gospel
among all nations and languages, a triumph before their very eyes over
Jews and Pagans, and a fulfilment of such prophecy as “Their sound is
gone out into all lands;” “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.” “Where is the philosophy
of Plato and Pythagoras? Extinguished. Where is the teaching of the
tent-maker and the fisherman? Not only in Judæa, but also among the
barbarians, as ye have this day perceived, it shines more brilliantly
than the sun itself. Scythians, and Thracians, Samaritans, Moors, and
Indians, and those who inhabit the extremities of the world, possess
this teaching translated into their own language; they possess such
philosophy as was never dreamed of by those who wear a beard and thrust
passengers aside with their staff in the Forum, and shake their wise
locks, looking more like lions than men.”... “Nay! our world has not
sufficed for these evangelists; they have betaken themselves even to
the ocean, and enclosed barbarian regions and the British Isles in
their net.”[457] Chrysostom assigned a church in Constantinople for
the use of the Scythian inhabitants (probably Gothic, for the Greek
historians used the word Scythian very vaguely), ordained native
readers, deacons, and presbyters, and frequently preached there himself
through the medium of an interpreter.[458] Some of his letters when
in exile are addressed to Gothic monks, who occupied the house where
Promotus had lived.[459] They were staunch friends to him during his
exile, and the monastic body established in this house existed in the
seventh century.
Porphyry, Bishop of Gaza, wrote a letter to Chrysostom in A.D. 398,
urging him to obtain an order from the Emperor for the destruction
of Pagan temples in that city. Chrysostom did not cease to solicit
Eutropius till he had procured an edict, not indeed for the
destruction, but for the closing of the temples, and the demolition of
the idols which they contained. In the following year, however, A.D.
399, an edict was issued addressed to Eutychianus, Prefect of the East,
directing that the temples should be demolished throughout the country.
This appears to have been obtained chiefly through the influence of
Chrysostom; and large bodies of monks were sent by him into Phœnicia,
where especially paganism prevailed, who were to use every effort to
extirpate it, both by assisting in the destruction of temples, and
by the propagation of Christian truth. The money required for this
missionary expedition was supplied by the liberality of some ladies
in Constantinople, rich not only in faith, but also in the wealth of
this world. The welfare of these missionary projects continued, as will
hereafter be seen, to engage his most anxious attention throughout his
exile to the very close of his life.[460]