The Dialogue of Palladius concerning the Life of St. John Chrysostom (1921). Footnotes
[All footnotes have been moved here and renumbered.]
1. 1 The exordium is framed on the lines of Plato's Republic, in which some apparently irrevelant remarks lead up to the real subject. Palladius makes clear from the beginning his object in writing (p. 173), not only to tell the story of Chrysostom's life, but to encourage and warn against clerical ambition and greed (pp. 40, 87, 121, etc.), which led his enemies to bring about Chrysostom's downfall.
2. 1 As our text stands, it is God Who is "without experience of things." The meaning is, no doubt, that of Chrysostom, de Bapt., xi., "There is no need to cross the sea, or traverse mountain ranges; sitting at home, with reverence and compunction, you may find Him." Cf. Wisd. vi. 14.
3. 2 "He made some things to be common, as the air, the sun, the sky . . . distributing all things equally, as to brothers. He made other tilings to be common, as baths, markets, cities . . . but strife comes in when men use that cold word, 'Thine, mine.' . . . Necessary things are common, but we do not observe their community even in the least things. How then can the possessor of wealth be a good man?" (Hom. in i Tim. xii.). In his sermon on the very day of his ordination as priest, Chrysostom spoke strongly against riches: " Every rich man is an unjust man, or the heir of an unjust man." Palladius follows his example at the beginning of his treatise.
4. 1 As a writer, making an ornamental flourish at the close of his work. The deacon is impatient of the sententious exordium, as he does not know the circumstances which make it appropriate.
5. 2 " Since I promised above to tell of . . ., I am constrained to pay the debt." Pall., L. H., lxi. 1.
6. 3 Matt. xix. 10, 11 (freely quoted).
7. 1 Lit. "anoint." Cf. "Almsgiving anoints the soul (Hom. in John lxxxi.).
8. 2 Heb. v. 4 (freely quoted).
9. 1 So Just. M. Fragm. Gethae was a Samaritan village.
10. 2 "Acted as a Sophist"; the word in 2 Pet. i. 16. Cf. Acts vii. 19. So p. 38.
11. 3 As Dr. Westcott shows (on John vii. 39), "Holy Spirit" without the article refers to His gifts, not His Person.
13. 5 As there is no tangible proof of the bestowal of a spiritual gift, he wished to ensure it by a tangible gift on his part.
14. 1 1 Cor. iii. 19, quoting Job v. 13.
15. 2 Others are present, besides Theodore (pp. 60, 165).
16. 3 Palladius of Helenopolis obviously had visited Rome before (p. 25). He is not represented as the "bishop" of the Dialogue, who is a purely imaginary person.
18. 1 The order of "readers" is first mentioned in the third century; the custom of allowing laymen to read the Scriptures was probably taken over from the Jewish Church. In the East they read only the Old Testament lections and the Epistles, announcing, "Thus saith the Lord," while the deacon responded, "Let us attend," which Chrysostom (Hom. in Act. xix. 5) complains that many did not do. They read from the pulpit in the nave, not from that in the chancel; Sozomen says that Chrysostom, in order to be the better heard, preached "sitting in the reader's pulpit."
19. 1 "Papa." Until a.d. 230 the Bishop of Alexandria was the only one in Egypt; he was called "Abba," "Father," the title common to all bishops. "But in the time of Heraclius," when other Egyptian bishops were appointed, "the Patriarch of Alexandria was called Baba" (i. e." Ab-abba," "grandfather"). Thus Eutychius (Ann., cxi.). Athanasius (Apol. c. Ar. 69, de Syn. 16) regards the title as belonging to the Bishop of Alexandria only; but Tertullian speaks of any bishop who pronounces absolution as "benedictus Papa," and Jerome gives the title to Athanasius, Epiphanius, Augustine, etc. Later, the linguistic origin of the title was forgotten, and it was supposed that "Papa" was a special title of dignity given to the Bishops of Alexandria because they ruled such an important see; hence it was also given to the Bishops of Rome, and in time claimed by them as their peculiar privilege. Cf. p. 52.
Theophilus, after spending his youth among the recluses of the desert of Nitria, became secretary to Athanasius, was priest at Alexandria, and bishop in 385. Jerome, among others, greatly admired him as a learned and vigorous man; the more so, probably, as sharing his views upon Origenism. He d ied in 412, and was succeeded by his nephew, the famous Cyril.
20. 2 "Not" seems to have dropped out of the text. "Not a little troubled."
21. 3 Without the support of his synod.
22. 4 "Libelli"; frequently in this treatise for "memorials of complaint," "accusatory documents"; here, "of petition," as in Conc. Eph., Can. VIII.
23. 5 These "three days" present a difficulty. Theophilus arrived at Constantinople in June; the last events recorded in the letter occurred at Easter. How, when nine months had elapsed, did the two communications arrive so nearly together? We must not suppose that either party would be in haste to communicate with the Bishop of Rome, There was no love lost between the three sees; the record of Rome was not without taint of heretical leanings, and neither the Bishop of "New Rome," nor the successor of St. Mark, on the throne of the largest province in the world, would welcome interference from "beyond the boundaries," even if the canons did not discountenance it. Moreover, Chrysostom would know that his ejection might be regarded by Innocent as a personal matter, which did not concern the Church as a whole, while Theophilus would have to acknowledge defeat. But when Theophilus saw some prospect of ultimate success, he would be anxious to secure as much support as possible, and would hope by a formal notification to prejudice Innocent's mind (always prepared to be jealous of the rising power of Constantinople) against Chrysostom; while in the sacrilegious occurrences at Constantinople, Chrysostom had a ground for appeal, for the benefit of the whole Church, in offences committed against her Lord, not against himself. Had he wished to bring the matter to Innocent's attention earlier, it would have been easy for him to instruct Eusebius to make the statement officially, which he made on his own account, on hearing of Theophilus' communication.
24. 1 The word means "cautious," "circumspect "; so "careful in religious matters," rendered "devout" in Luke ii. 25; Acts viii. 2, etc. It is approximating to its later use as a title of a clergyman, equivalent to our "Reverend."
25. 2 This letter is given among the "Epistles of Chrysostom," but can hardly be what he actually wrote. The author professes to give only the substance of it; the style is his own, though some of Chrysostom's phrases occur. Possibly Chrysostom wrote in Latin, which Palladius has freely translated, just as Sozomen translates Innocent's answer. The letter ends, in harmony with the chronology, with the Easter services held in the open air; a forgery would have probably betrayed some knowledge of later events. Photius, with some hesitation, thinks it is Chrysostom's own work, especially on account of its rhetorical style.
26. 1 Phrases such as "Your love," "Your gentleness," are constantly used by early Christian writers as complimentary terms of address, some of which we retain, as "Your reverence," "Your holiness," etc.
27. 2 " I am dead to my lords the bishops." Pall., L. H., xvi.
28. 3 Deacons were frequently deputed to represent bishops even at general councils. The diaconate was not regarded as a step to the priesthood, but as a distinct and generally life-long office, with its special duties and privileges.
29. 4 Sozomen (viii. 26) gives a Greek translation of Innocent's letter to Chrysostom, exhorting him to patience, which he is sending by "Cyriacus the deacon."
30. 1 Arcadius; "King" = "Emperor." The East had no such objection to the title basileus as the West had for rex. For the reason for the summons, see p. 62.
31. 2 Implied in Canons V. and VI. of Nicaea. Canon II. of the Council of Constantinople (381) explicitly forbids such interferences, using Theophilus' term "beyond the boundaries." "The bishops of the east shall administer the east only."
33. 2 " Eparchia," the Roman "Province," of which there were thirteen, each with its governor and council, under whom were the governors of the respective districts and cities, with their councils. The Church followed the civil division into provinces, with their metropolitans or patriarchs, and their synods, under whom were the local or suffragan bishops. Another word, "dioecesis," was used sometimes for the whole civil "province," but more often for a smaller "administrative division "; Cicero speaks of "my dioceses" (ad Att. v. 21; vi. 2). The same indeterminateness attaches to its Church use; sometimes it means a "province" (Conc. Const., Can. II.), sometimes a "diocese" (Conc. Nic., Can. XVI.), for which. "parœcia" (our "parish ") was also used (p. 57, n.).
34. 3 The archdeacon in the ancient Church was one of the seven deacons (in the Church of Rome there were forty-six priests, but the number of deacons was kept to the number of Apostolic appointment), chosen either by virtue of seniority, or by election by the other deacons, or appointed by the bishop. He attended upon the bishop at the altar, ordered the other deacons and inferior clergy, acted for the bishop in his absence, or during a vacancy in the bishop's chair, and assisted him in managing the Church revenues, etc.; his position being so important that he was frequently the bishop's successor. Hence if the deposition was actual, it was quite in order for the communication to be addressed to the archdeacon, as in charge of diocesan affairs.
Stephens speaks of "John, Archdeacon of Constantinople." With the most diligent search, I can find no mention of such a person. We read of a deacon John, deposed by Chrysostom either for murder or for fornication, who acted as his accuser at The Oak (p. 64); and Photius tells us that John, a deacon, brought forward twenty-nine charges against him, the first being that he had deposed him from his office for flogging his own servant----evidently alluding to the same person. But I cannot anywhere find him called archdeacon. The archdeacon appointed by Chrysostom was Serapion, or Sarapion (so p. 175), "an Egyptian, swift to wrath, prompt to insolence," whose indiscretion and arrogance added greatly to Chrysostom's unpopularity, and who no doubt acted as his agent in his reforms. In the presence of a number of clergy, he said to Chrysostom, "You will never subdue these mutinous priests until you drive them all before you as with a single rod" (cf. p. 32,11.). Owing to his isolated life, Chrysostom mistook his character, and attributed his intolerant severity to holy zeal and loyalty towards himself. Leo's life of Chrysostom says that Serapion, "through envy and the instigation of a woman, stirred every stone to arouse hatred and stumbling-blocks against the divine shepherd"; but as Chrysostom afterwards made him Bishop of Heracleia (p. 70, 11.), the words here cannot mean that Serapion turned against him, but that the communication gave the discontented clergy, full of hatred towards Serapion, an opportunity of rallying against both him and the bishop. One of the charges brought against Chrysostom at The Oak was, that he had ordained Serapion presbyter.
35. 1 Almost a technical term for a vacancy in a see; so in Can. Chalc. XXV. Eudoxia claimed to have "restored the bridegroom" to Constantinople (Chr., Serm. de red., iv.).
36. 2 The word in 1 Cor. xii. 2. But possibly "arrested" (even with violence as in Acts xii. 19, cf. Gen. xxxix. 22, LXX) is the meaning, as the Churches are said below to be "left shepherdless."
37. 1 Or, "Anointed (as wrestlers) for a campaign of calumniation." But the word is frequent in this treatise for "greasing the palm," especially by bribes, as below, and p. 55.
38. 2 The author is quite correct in speaking of the province of Thrace in conjunction with that of Egypt, not of the see of Constantinople. The province of Thrace contained six dioceses, stretching right up to the Danube; the mother see was that of Heracleia, the old civil capital. The Council of Constantinople (Can. III.) ordered that the Bishop of Constantinople should have honorary pre-eminence, next to the city of Rome, "because it is New Rome," but Constantinople is still a single diocese in the province of Thrace.
39. 1 "Curiosus." The "Curius" was the responsible guardian to whom was entrusted the care of minors and women (cf. our word "curate"): so "Curiosus" is any functionary employed by a superior official, in this case the "comes" (p. 41), for a public duty.
40. 2 Chrysostom anticipates the charge of "re-entry upon his own initiative" (p. 76).
41. 1 The Sabbath in the "Great Week," Easter Eve. So called first in the Epistle of the Smyrnaeans on the martyrdom of Polycarp. "Why do we call it the 'Great week'? Not because its hours are longer, but because in it unspeakable blessings came to us. Even emperors order cessation from business, and prisoners are freed at this time" (Hom. in Gen., xxx.). Eusebius (Vit. Const., iv. 22) speaks of the pomp of the vigil, and the multitude of candles lighted. It was a tradition that Christ would come at midnight, as He did upon the Egyptians; therefore the people were not dismissed before midnight, in expectation of the second Advent.
42. 2 "Bema," "the place to which you go up"; the east end of the churches being raised above the nave floor. Here stood the altar, and the seats or "thrones" of the bishop and clergy, and the lectern, from which the Gospel was read (as distinct from the "ambo" in the nave, from which the lector read less important scriptures, cf. p. 7, n.).
43. 3 The word is in the genitive, "women of the oratories," or, as we should say, "women members of the congregation."
44. 4 Gregory Nazianzen speaks of persons who postpone baptism, saying, "I wait till Epiphany, that I may be baptized with Christ; I choose Easter, that I may rise with Christ; I wait for Whitsuntide, that I may honour the Holy Ghost." Later Councils actually ordered that, except for urgent reasons, all catechumens were to be baptized at Easter; though this probably included the fifty days of Pentecost following Easter Day.
45. 5 The word in John v. 2. So in Socr. vii. 17, and frequently.
46. 1 "Uninitiated" into the "mysteries" of the faith, which included the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Sacraments. Chrysostom (in Matt. xxiii.) speaks of the Eucharist held with closed doors; all the ancient liturgies contain the proclamation of the deacon, "Let none remain who is a catechumen, a hearer, or an unbeliever."
47. 2 The elements were obviously "reserved"; in this case for the midnight mass. Cf. p. 57,11.
50. 1 "Colophon," "finishing stroke to a writing." So Chr., Hom. in Ps. cxxiv., "death is the Colophon of ills," and elsewhere.
51. 2 So Chr., de Comp., i. 5.
52. 1 Or, "Your letters" ("grammaton" for "pragmaton").
53. 1 Lit. "The equal things of the communion." It was usual for bishops to send to one another portions of the consecrated elements as a sign of unity and good-will. Irenaeus refers to this custom (Euseb. v. 24); Can. XIV. of Laodicea forbids such sendings, on the feast of Easter, to other dioceses. But "equal things" is commonly used in later Greek for "copies," "documents in prescribed form "----in Latin, "formatae epistolae." The eleventh canon of Chalcedon deals with such "letters of commendation" (cf. 2 Cor. iii. 1, Rom. xvi. 1) carried by travellers; described as "letters of peace," or "letters of communion," guaranteeing that the bearers were members of the Church. This will be the sense here. The letter would be akin to the "letters of peace" sent from the west to Flavian (Soz. viii. 25); see p. 50, and the first words of the letter below.
54. 2 Innocent's letter in Sozomen to the clergy of Constantinople urges the need of a synod, though not with these stipulations.
55. 1 A panegyric of Chrysostom by "Martyrius, Bishop of Antioch" (Migne, xlvii.), seems to be his work.
56. 2 Matt. xviii. 17; cf. 1 Cor. v. 9.
57. 3 " We write, that we must be led by the canons laid down at Nicaea, which alone the Catholic Church ought to follow" (Innocent's letter in Soz. viii. 26). The fifth canon prescribes that persons excommunicated by the bishops of a province ("eparchia," as above, p. 12) may not be admitted to communion by other bishops; but that to prevent undeserved excommunications, two synods shall be held in each province each year, at which inquiry shall be made into doubtful cases. Hence Chrysostom refused communion to the Tall Brothers (p. 60). Innocent's proposed synod would go further, being of the whole Church, not of a single province; here Theophilus, having excommunicated Chrysostom, would have to justify his action.
58. 1 Lit. "rode past" on horseback. So in Pall., L. H., vi. 7.
59. 2 Chrysostom's second expulsion (p. 89).
60. 3 Declaring himself to be still in communion with them (p. 21).
63. 1 This could only be by proxy or by letter, as he went straight into exile (p. 90). A synod was held after the first expulsion (p. 73, n.), which the deacon may have in mind, but the author is not concerned with his accuracy. The lack of logical sequence in the sentence may point to corruption in the text.
66. 4 Bishop of Antioch (p. 13 ff.). For Arsacius, cf. p. 30.
67. 5 i. e. Chrysostom is a heretic. Theodosius, father of Arcadius, had issued such edicts in regard to the Arians. George tells us that Chrysostom obtained the same from Arcadius. The leaning of the Church upon the civil power has always proved disastrous. Cf. p. 196.
68. 1 Innocent states in his letter (in Sozomen) that he writes in answer to letters brought by these two.
69. 2 Cassian had lived long among the monks of Egypt, and was ordained deacon by Chrysostom, for whom he had a great admiration. His writings are our best authority for the monastic life of the time, and were ordered to be studied in the Benedictine monasteries. He afterwards settled at Marseilles, where he founded a monastery for each sex, and took a leading part in the discussions upon grace and freewill, originated by the Pelagian heresy, evoking two treatises from St. Augustine.
70. 3 The third charge at The Oak: "that he had sold a great quantity of the treasures of the Church."
71. 1 The revenues of the Church were originally entrusted to the bishop, to be by him distributed among the clergy and poor; this he did through the deacons, and especially the archdeacon. But as the Church grew in wealth and extent, "stewards" were appointed, always from among the clergy. Conc. Chalc. Can. XXV., XXVI., prescribe that during a vacancy in a see the revenues of a Church shall be managed by the steward, "that the administration of the Church may not be without witnesses, and the property of the Church be wasted, and the clergy exposed to cavils." Theophilus advanced two monks to be stewards (p. 54); in his canonical epistle he orders that stewards are to be chosen by the clergy.
72. 2 A pagan, and bitter opponent of the Faith, who succeeded Studius as prefect of Constantinople. He tried by torture those accused of the burning of the church; Eutropius, a reader, died under it. Tigrius (p. 176) and Serapion (p. 175) were similarly treated; Olympias was brought before him, and after a lively passage of arms heavily fined, for refusing to communicate with Arsacius.
73. 1 Theodosius, dying in 395, bequeathed the empire of the west to Honorius, his younger, that of the east to Arcadius, his elder, but feebler son.
74. 1 So Chrysostom is brought from Antioch to Constantinople (p. 42); as it was by the order of the Emperor, conveyance was provided for them. The bishops were similarly brought to the Council of Nicaea (Synthema, Lat. "Tessara," a ticket given to soldiers for their rations, to delegates to a friendly city entitling them to hospitality, etc.).
75. 1 Innocent's letter in Sozomen states that he has learnt the facts from Bishops Demetrius, Cyriacus, Eulysius, and Palladius, "who are with us at Rome." Our author is thoroughly conversant with the facts.
76. 2 The Greek alternates between the first and third persons. This can be well understood, if Palladius is describing his own experiences, and occasionally forgets to preserve his anonymity by using the third person. The same feature occurs in Pall., L. H., v. 1. The accuracy of detail in the record (cf. pp. 66, 126, 178), where Palladius is stated to be present, has much bearing on the question of the authorship of the treatise.
77. 3 Lit. "the back parts "; cf. p. 83.
78. 4 The words can hardly bear their literal sense, "there put on the rack."
79. 1 If the report meant that he had succeeded in his aim, it was not true. Arsacius, brother of Nectarius, was appointed, and occupied the throne for a year (p. go), when Atticus succeeded him.
80. 2 "Nomisma," Lat. "nummus." A thousand nummi or sestertii made a sestertium, worth about £8.
82. 1 Lampsacus, on the east coast of the Dardanelles. The journey to Hydrun was much longer, but Palladius was not with the western bishops, and makes no remarks upon it. He would naturally be interested to learn whether they had reached Italy safely, and where. Dramatic propriety forbids the subsequent doings of Palladius and his companions being known as yet in Rome; the story continues on p. 178.
83. 2 Otranto, in South Italy.
84. 3 Or, "rational" (λογικαῖς); cf. Rom. xii. 1, 1 Pet. ii. 2, where it almost = "spiritual."
85. 1 Bishop of Beroea, who had been sent to Rome, on Chrysostom's initiative (Soz. viii. 3), to secure the recognition of Flavian as Bishop of Antioch by the Western Church. He seems to have been about eighty years old, a man of great ability and influence.
86. 2 Bishop of Ptolemais; he had visited Constantinople, and being a learned and eloquent speaker (Sozomen adds the interesting note that he was "called by some Chrysostom "), "departed to his own city, having gathered much money" (Soz. viii. 10).
87. 3 Bishop of Gabala, a friend of Antiochus, who, hearing of Antiochus' success at Constantinople, thought to do the same. He spoke with a rough Syrian accent, but prepared a stock of sermons, and on his arrival was welcomed by Chrysostom, and found favour with the court. When Chrysostom went to Ephesus (p. 125) he entrusted the see to his charge; but he only tried to please the people, and to win them from their affection for their own bishop. Archdeacon Serapion took every opportunity of showing his dislike for him, and reported his doings to Chrysostom, even distorting a remark made by him into a denial of the faith; whereupon Chrysostom expelled him from the city. At Eudoxia's earnest request he was recalled, and each made a public profession of reconciliation, but Serapion never forgave the insult.
88. 4 Two curious words, apparently of the author's own coinage.
89. 1 Friends of the Empress Eudoxia (see p. 65).
90. 2 The words show the supposed date of the Dialogue.
91. 3 In 407, the year of Chrysostom's death, Palladius would be only about forty-three years old. But as he does not represent himself as being the bishop of the Dialogue, the point does not affect the question of authorship.
93. 2 An inference from John viii. 44, 45, 1 John ii. 22, 23.
95. 4 One of the "agrapha," "non-scriptural sayings" attributed to our Lord, frequently quoted by the Fathers; e.g. Clem. Alex., Strom, vii. 90; Euseb., H. E. vii. 7; Cyr. Alex. in Joh. iv. 3; Clement. Homil. ii. 51; Const. Apost. ii. 36.
96. 5 The alteration of one letter in the text gives this meaning; "with boasting" gives no sense. It is not enough for a statement to be plausible, and couched in pleasant language; it must be tested by facts.
99. 2 Jer. vii. 15, "I have cast out the whole seed of Ephraim."
102. 5 The same words are used in Greek for what we term the "Consecration" of bishops as tor the "Ordination" of other clergy. Two words are generally used by ancient writers:
"laying on of hands," and "stretching forth of hands "----properly expressing "show of hands" in voting, so of appointments generally. Hence it is used on pp. 59,138 of the appointment of civil governors. The Apostolic Constitutions (II. 41) say that "a presbyter lays on hands, but does not stretch forth hands "----" gives a benediction, but does not ordain "----with the implication that the power of appointment, as in the State, has passed from the people to the higher authority. Generally the terms are vised with little distinction; our author uses "stretching forth" only. For another word, "catastasis," properly "appointment," see pp. 42, 153.
103. 1 A small point confirming Palladius' authorship; his residence in Egypt had made him acquainted with these.
106. 4 "If I see you seizing the property of others, and otherwise transgressing, how shall I believe you when you say that there is a resurrection?" (Hom. in 1 Cor. iii.).
107. 5 "The history of Susanna," in our Apocrypha, is in one MS. of the LXX. chap. xiii. of Daniel.
108. 1 The text is corrupt, "misuse," lit. "higgling" ("handling deceitfully," R.V. "corrupting," 2 Cor. ii. 17). I have followed Bigot's correction of the nom. "dishonour" to a genitive; but as we prove the present by the past, not vice versa, I should prefer to change the nom. "misuse" to a genitive, and render, "Dishonour in old age is a sure proof of the misuse of youth." Cf. p. 145.
109. 2 Secundus, "Magister militum et equitum," who died shortly after his son's birth, leaving his wife Anthusa a widow at the age of twenty.
110. 3 He was taught rhetoric by Libanius, a famous sophist, not only a pagan, but a resolute opponent of the Faith; philosophy by Andragathius. "If I desired the smoothness of Isocrates, the massiveness of Demosthenes, the sublimity of Plato, I must remember St. Paul's words (2 Cor. xi. 6). "All these things I put aside, with all outward adornments" (de Sacerd. IV. vi. 37). But these things were part of himself, and his literary remains show that he could not "put them aside." "What wives these Christians have," Libanius said, in reference to Anthusa. He would have wished Chrysostom to succeed him as head of his school, "had not the Christians stolen him." Symeon and the Vita Anonyma say, with some detail, that he went to Athens to study. This, and the miracles they attribute to him later, may be put aside by Savile's consideration, that it is strange that writers, centuries later, should know things which his contemporaries did not.
111. 4 Rom. iii. 2; 1 Pet. iv. 11.
112. 1 Or, "Sacrament" (p. 57, n.). The postponement of his baptism was probably due, not, as often was the case, to the fear of sinning afterwards, but to the disturbed state of the Church of Antioch, where dissensions between the orthodox and the Arians were almost continuous. Anthusa would hesitate to present her son to one of whose orthodoxy there was any doubt.
113. 2 The word in 1 Cor. ix. 13. Such attendants were later organized into the order of Acolytes, "followers," next to that of sub-deacons in the Latin Church; their duties being to light the candles, and attend with the wine for the Eucharist. Some think that they accompanied the bishop wherever ho went. Theophilus apparently took one such with him to Constantinople (see p. 68), where he is called "young servant," like Elisha's "minister" in 2 Kings vi. 14.
114. 3 Chrysostom's teachers were Carterius and Diodorus, Bishop of Tarsus, who held a kind of "Scripture study school," called by Sozomen "asceterion," for young men. Chrysostom persuaded two other of Libanius' students, Theodorus and Maximus, afterwards Bishops of Mopsuestia and Seleucia respectively, to renounce the world, and in the case of Maximus, to break off his engagement to a lady he dearly loved, and devote themselves to Christian service. For "reader" cf. p. 7.
115. 4 George says, "Hesychius, a Syrian."
116. 1 "I was in the full vigour of my age, and needed, not discourse, but bodily hardships."----Pall., L. H., i. 4. Chr. tells us in his De Sacerdotio, that Anthusa desired, by consideration of her widowhood and her sufferings for his sake, to restrain his enthusiasm for the ascetic life; it was probably after her death that he entered upon it (a.D. 374-5), as George and Vit. Anon. say.
117. 2 The Old and New Testaments----more correctly "Covenants."
118. 3 He never recovered his health; see pp. 98, 125: "I have a cobweb body" (Ep. iv.).
119. 4 He never lost his admiration for the ascetic life. "Monks in monasteries live a life suitable to heaven, and no worse than that of angels, free from quarrels and anxieties." But his sound common sense showed him that there was not one standard for the monk, another for the citizen. "I do not prescribe that a man should take to the mountains or the desert, but that he be good, and sweetly reasonable, and sober, while dwelling in the midst of the city." "All the precepts of the law are common to us and the monks, except in regard to marriage" (in Matt. vii.).
120. 5 In 381, at the age of thirty-six; he wrote his treatises On the Priesthood and On Virginity during his diaconate.
121. 1 Meletius died in 381, during the Council of Constantinople, leaving a rival bishop, Paulinus. It was said that six of the leading clergy of Antioch had agreed, that on the death of either of these, they would recognize the survivor as sole bishop. Yet Flavian, one of the six, was consecrated, and the schism continued. Socr., vi. 3, says that "on the death of Meletius, Chrysostom left his party, nor did he communicate with Paulinus, but lived in retirement for three years; on Paulinus' death he was ordained priest by Evagrius, Paulinus' successor "-----whose episcopate was very brief, Flavian's title being hereafter recognized. Sozomen does not name the bishop who ordained him, but Socrates is in error.
123. 3 A man of senatorial rank, chosen as Bishop of Constantinople by the Emperor, being only a catechumen, and consecrated "while still wearing the white vestments of a neophyte" (Soz. vii. 8); though such a departure from Apostolic rule (1 Tim. v. 22) was forbidden by the second Canon of Nicaea. Cyprian, Ambrose, and Eusebius of Caesarea were other exceptions to the rule. Nectarius was more of a courtier than a bishop, and his social relations with the great ones of the city established a precedent which caused Chrysostom's strictness to be severely criticized (p. 99).
124. 1 When Theodosius died (395) he committed Honorius to the charge of the famous general Stilicho, who had married his sister, and Arcadius to Rufinus, a man of low birth who had raised himself by his wits, and urged the Emperor Arcadius in like manner to marry his daughter. Arcadius agreed; but Eutropius, the equally self-made rival of Rufinus, plotted with Stilicho to ruin him, and on the very day appointed for the marriage, the Imperial wedding gifts were taken to the house, not of Rufinus, but of Eudoxia, a lady who hated Eutropius, as he had brought about her guardian's death. Stilicho's soldiers killed Rufinus, and Eutropius seized his property. But he made himself equally unpopular by his pride and ambition, and his sale of State offices; Gainas (p. 122) demanded his death, and Eudoxia supported the request, which was granted. Eutropius had shortly before secured the passing of a law, abolishing the right of asylum in churches; now he fled to the altar of the church, imploring protection. Chrysostom refused to surrender him, even when summoned before the Emperor, and preached two sermons on the vanity of human things, the first while the ex-minister lay prostrate at the altar in abject terror. By these he aroused much ill-will from Eutropius' friends, and from the upper classes generally, through his harsh treatment, as was alleged, of a man in misfortune, his condemnation of riches, and his insistence upon the power of the Church. Eutropius was banished to Cyprus, where he was presently killed; the law forbidding asylum was annulled.
125. 2 "Comes," "companion," our "count "; a companion of or attendant upon a magistrate; later, a person in the suite of an emperor, so an official in charge of a department. "The Emperor had as many comites as he had duties." So there was a "comes" of the Imperial purse, stables, etc.; "comes" of Britain, Egypt, the East, etc.; until the title took the place of "dux" for the military governor of a province or district.
126. 1 "As if to inquire about something" (Sozomen). The governor was Asterius. Churches were very frequently built over a martyr's grave, as the souls of them that were slain were seen "beneath the altar" (Rev. vi. 9). The thought is not limited to any one religion, that the spirits of the dead hover about the resting-place of their bodies. There was such a shrine at Palladius' own city of Helenopolis (Euseb. Vit. Const. iv. 61). Cf. pp. 62, 80, 95.
127. 2 This was upon a resolution of both clergy and laity, who either knew him personally, or had heard of his fame. The people were anxious to have one whom they knew to be ready to denounce wrong doings; not so the rich, and those in power (Soz. viii. 2). Possibly Eutropius proposed him, hoping to secure for the Emperor the support of such a capable man. The day of the ordination was February 26, 398.
128. 3 προσχὼν αὐτοῦ τῇ καταστάσει. The meaning is doubtful. Our author uses the word for "observing" in this sense on p. 77; in the liturgies it is the "Let us attend" before the reading of scripture. Palladius twice uses it so in L. H. But it also means "was foremost" or simply "was present." Again, the word for "bearing," so used just below, is frequent in Church writings for "consecration" (originally "appointment" of civil officers); p. 133. Hence some interpret "was chief consecrator"; though this makes the grammar of the next sentence awkward. It is likely that Theophilus, as bishop of such an important see, should be chief consecrator, but it is doubtful if that is here stated. Socrates says simply, "he ordained him." Theophilus was anxious to secure the consecration of Isidore, whom he had employed on a certain discreditable mission some years before, upon which he wished to buy his silence. But the matter was known to many of the bishops assembled in Constantinople, and Eutropius showed him some documents, giving him his choice between ordaining Chrysostom, and taking his trial on the charges they contained (it must be said that Theophilus' subsequent treatment of Isidore does not support this account, given by Socrates).
129. 1 A variant reading for an unusual word meaning "lost his spirit," "fainted"; this will mean either "he was deeply mortified at his ordination," or "he consented with a bad grace to ordain him," or perhaps, as Socrates says, "he was frightened [by Eutropius] into ordaining him."
130. 2 The text is corrupt. I would suggest "he is very clever at reading the invisible will and mind of a man from his visible countenance."
131. 3 Mark i. 24; Matt. viii. 29.
132. 1 "Being naturally disposed, to correction" (Soz.).
133. 2 i. e. as housekeepers. As the clergy were not allowed to marry after ordination, they had to have women to keep house for them; some of these were young, some even women of the Church under vows of virginity, claiming to live with them as sisters in devotion. The Nicene Council (Can. III.) forbade the introduction of any woman but a mother, a sister, an aunt, or other person, above suspicion; a rule frequently enforced by later councils. Chrysostom issued two treatises against the practice; their date is uncertain, but this narrative suggests that they appeared now. He admits that there has been no great amount of actual wrongdoing, but points out that scandal must inevitably arise, and makes it clear that these women were in many cases leading the lives of smart society ladies.
134. 1 Jer. i. 10. Chrysostom's writings are full of denunciations of wealth, and exhortations to charity. "Of all the fathers of the fourth century, he is the panegyrist par excellence of almsgiving" (Puech).
135. 2 According to Suetonius, it was the custom at Rome to carry sick folks to the temple of Aesculapius, on an island in the Tiber, to die there, so as to save the trouble of attending to them. Jerome tells us that the first hospital was founded by a Christian matron, Fabiola. Chrysostom followed the lead of Basil, who had erected a very large hospital at Caesarea, in charge of a "local bishop."
136. 1 1 Tim. v. 3 shows that from the first there was a "catalogue" of Church widows; probably those needing relief (Acts vi. 1). Presently it became clear that their care needed the work of women, as well as that of the deacons, and some of the elder widows were put in charge of the rest. In some parts of the Church only widows who had borne children, who were of considerable age, and who had been but once married, were admitted as deaconesses. Olympias is a noted exception (p. 150). Thus it appears that the order of deaconesses (p. 86) sprang from the order of widows.
137. 2 The public baths in a. great city were enormous buildings, where much time was wasted in bodily pleasure, gossip nourished, and immorality lurked. It was better for those who had to set a high standard of life, to accept physical rather than moral uncleanness. Cf. p. 115.
138. 3 " Litanies." The Apostolical Constitutions (viii. 6) give us an early form, the deacon "bidding" the prayer, or naming the subjects of intercession, while the people answer, "Lord, have mercy." Cf. p. 137.
139. 4 Pliny mentions the night services of the Christians, when they "sang praises to Christ as God." Chrysostom recommends them in his Hom. in Ps. cxix. (" At midnight I will rise," etc.) and cxxxii. "At night our prayers are more pure, our minds lighter, our leisure more abundant "; hence "the poor abide in Church from midnight until dawn in prayer, and holy vigils are linked together, by day and by night" (Hom. in Is. iv.). The services consisted chiefly of psalms, of which twelve were in time fixed upon as the normal use. At this time the Arians in Constantinople had been organizing street processions, with singing of litanies, by night; Chrysostom arranged for rival processions, for which the Empress supplied silver candlesticks. The two parties naturally came to blows.
142. 3 "Some of those present yesterday have since then sat in the theatres, and gazed at the procession of the devil" (Or. xc.). The circus was a fruitful source of iniquity, frequently condemned by Chrysostom (c. Anom. vii. 1; de Laz. vii. 1). During his first year at Constantinople, he preached a sermon "Against the games and the theatres," after a tumultuous race-meeting held on Good Friday, in which many Christians had joined.
143. 1 His condemnations of luxury were said to be specially aimed at the Empress, into whose hands the chief power in the State had fallen since the death of Eutropius; cf. p. 72. From this time forward, as our other authorities show, the good-will she had hitherto borne to him turned to enmity, growing more and more bitter until, with the help of Theophilus and his party, she had accomplished his ruin.
145. 3 Or, "Of his drunken madness."
146. 4 "Chrysostom continually showed his high esteem for monks, and saw to their necessities; but those who left the monasteries, and appeared in the city, he abused" (Socrates). It is evident that a large number of indigent persons came to the capital to trade upon the Christian generosity of rich ladies (p. 152). For Isaac, see p. 70.
148. 2 "Amphallax," "alternating," used for a tragic actor's high-heeled buskins, which fitted either foot. Bunyan's "Mr. Facing-both-ways."
152. 1 Theophilus' candidate for the see of Constantinople. He had spent his youth as a monk at Nitria, and was famous for his piety. Sozomen says that he had embittered Theophilus against himself, by giving evidence in favour of Peter, the "arch-priest" of Alexandria, in regard to a charge brought by Theophilus against him. See p. 42, n.
153. 2 Most large cities and monasteries had a "Xenodochium," or hospice, for the reception of stranger Christians bearing letters of commendation. Can. X. of Chalcedon forbids a stranger to be concerned with the affairs of the shrines, the poor-houses, or the hospices of a Church.
154. 3 Lit. "the communion," cf. p. 21.
155. 4 See p. 40, n. The Churches of Rome and Alexandria at first refused to recognize Flavian as Bishop of Antioch; shortly after Paulinus' death Chrysostom negotiated successfully with Theophilus, and Flavian "left no stone unturned to restore harmony." Acacius and Isidore were sent to Damasus of Rome, and secured his recognition of Flavian.
156. 5 Paulinus' successor, for a brief space, at Antioch. Theophilus evidently wished the arrangement made by the six clergy to be carried out (p. 40).
157. 1 Lat. "aureus," of the value of twenty-five denarii, about 18s. 6d.
158. 2 "Lithomania." "Isidore said it was better to restore the bodies of the sick, which are more properly the temples of God, than to build walls" (Soz. viii. 12; he does not mention this case of the widow). Isidore of Pelusium calls Theophilus "the gold-maniac and litholater." Cf. p. 115.
159. 1 The "tribune of the people."
162. 1 About sixty miles south of Alexandria, "so called from the neighbouring village, in which they collect nitre" (Sozomen). There were fifty monasteries there, containing 5000 monks (so Pall., L. H.), some living a community, some an isolated life.
163. 2 Theodore Trim. says that seven Egyptian bishops, whom he names, and twenty-two clergy, wrote about this matter to Innocent; who remonstrated in vain with Theophilus.
164. 3 " Omophorion," a long band of white woollen stuff, draped over the shoulders with the ends depending before and behind; originally a piece of civil dress, retained by the Church as in the case of other vestments, and in time acquiring an ecclesiastical and then a symbolical significance. Apparently all bishops wore it in the east; afterwards, as the Roman "pallium," it was conferred first by the Emperors, then by the bishops of Rome, upon great prelates, as by Gregory upon St. Augustine of Canterbury.
165. 1 Ammonius and Dioscorus (p. 147) were two of four "Tall Brothers," famous for their piety in the monastery of Mt. Nitria; so much honoured by Theophilus, that he made Dioscorus Bishop of Hermopolis, and brought two others into Alexandria, making them stewards of the Church revenues. Observing Theophilus' character and architectural extravagances, they pleaded the attraction of the desert, and returned to their seclusion; when Theophilus discovered the true reason for this, he determined to ruin them, by stirring up their fellow-monks against them. Many of the monks were illiterate men, who took literally scripture expressions, such as "The eyes of the Lord," and said that God had a body. Theophilus issued a pastoral, explaining that these were symbolical expressions, which was the principle followed by Origen in his "Mystical" interpretation of Holy Scripture, 200 years before. The monks protested, lamenting that Theophilus had "taken away their God"; Theophilus assured their deputation that he, like them, condemned Origen's views. But Dioscorus and Ammonius set their faces against such "anthropomorphism," and so gave Theophilus the opportunity he wanted of inflaming the illiterate monks against them. He informed them that Dioscorus' party, following Origen, were introducing a "blasphemous dogma," and issued a pastoral condemning the views which he had just before upheld. Chrysostom knew nothing of all this at the time.
166. 1 Lit. "anointed" (p. 14).
167. 1 "The Augustalian"; as in Pall., L. H., xlvi. 3, "the prefect"; app. used only of the governor of Egypt.
168. 2 Lit. "Arch-priest of the diocese of Egypt." "Diocese" and "eparchy" or "province," as we saw, have the same meaning (p. 12); the expression = "Metropolitan of the province." The sixth Canon of Nicaea says, "Let the ancient customs prevail, in Egypt, Libya, and Pentapolis, that the Bishop of Alexandria shall have authority over all of these, since a similar custom holds in regard to the Bishop of Rome; and also in Antioch and the other provinces (eparchiae). No one may be made bishop without the approval of the Metropolitan." The thirtieth of Chalcedon speaks of "the archbishop in the diocese of Egypt, of the capital of the Alexandrians." This province or diocese was the largest in the world, containing six civil provinces, with nearly one hundred bishops, thirty more than those under the Bishop of Rome. The Metropolitan had the unique privilege of ordaining not only these suffragan bishops, but every priest and deacon in the province.
169. 3 "Unenlightened." In Heb. vi. 4 the reference is to baptism. "This washing is called enlightenment, because those who learn these things have their minds enlightened" (Justin Mart. Apol. II. So often from his time forward). "I know many who have sinned in expectation of enlightenment; but God gave us baptism to set free from sins, not to increase them" (Hom. in Heb. xiii.).
170. 1 "Paroecia," our "parish "; St. Peter's word for "sojourning" (1 Pet. i. 17, ii. 11), taken from the LXX (ef. Eph. ii. 19, contrasted with Heb. xi. 13, xiii. 14). So the word came to be used for the Christians "sojourning amid the heathen" in any one place----the "paroecia "----organized under a bishop. In Nic. Can. XVI. wandering clergy are ordered to return to their paroeciae, and no other bishop is to ordain them, without the consent of the bishop whom they have deserted.
171. 2 ἐνδιαθέτους. Cf. Euseb. H. E., vi. 25.
172. 3 " The symbols of the mysteries." Not all monks were in Holy Orders; so Socrates speaks of it as an unusual thing that Theophilus had honoured two of the "Tall Brothers" with the clerical dignity. Palladius similarly speaks of one Macarius (L. H., xvii. 25); but as abstinence from the mysteries for five weeks was a grave offence (ibid. xvii. 9), the elements were reserved. "All they who dwell alone in the deserts, where there is no priest, keep the Communion at home, and receive it at their own hands" (Basil, Ep. xciii.). For the use of the word, cf. Theodoret Ep. cxxx., "The symbols do not lose their natural characteristics. . . . Christ taking the symbols at the giving of the mysteries said . . ."; Dionysius the Areopagite, "The sacred symbols are placed upon the altar."
173. 4 i. e. Jerusalem. Sozomen (viii. 13) says they went to Scythopolis, as "there were there many palm trees, the leaves of which they used for the usual work of monks "----basket-making.
174. 1 "Stratopedon," lit. "the camp"; "the place where the Emperor resides" (Balsamon); the theory of the "Imperator" was, that he was commander-in-chief of the forces.
175. 1 The church in which Gregory Nazianzen began his ministry in Constantinople; here Chrysostom preached several courses of homilies. Another church in Constantinople was that of "Holy Peace."
176. 2 The word (" stretching out hands ") commonly used for "ordaining "; cf. p. 36, n. Socrates so uses it.
178. 1 It was reported to Theophilus that he had done so (Socrates); this was one of the charges at The Oak. Chrysostom made no claim whatever to act as judge.
179. 2 Charging them with Origenism.
181. 1 "Princeps" is properly captain of the second line of soldiers in a legion.
182. 2 In the interval Theophilus held a synod, which condemned Origenism; and wrote to Epiphanius, the aged and highly respected Bishop of Salamis in Cyprus, who with Jerome had taken the lead in the antagonism to Origen's views. Theophilus had called him an "anthropomorphist," because he insisted on the literal interpretation of scripture, including the passages which speak of God in terms borrowed from human nature. Now he declared that he saw the error of his ways, and invited Epiphanius to join him in a crusade against Origenism. Epiphanius called a synod which anathematized it as heretical, and sent the resolution to Chrysostom, who in all innocence ignored it. The question did not interest him, and he saw no reason why it should be raised; as his own commentaries show, he had no leanings towards Origen's "mystical" interpretations. Epiphanius proceeded to Constantinople, where Chrysostom treated him with great courtesy, though he broke Church order by ordaining a deacon, but refused his demand to expel the monks, and condemn Origenism, as these matters were awaiting synodical decision. However, he laid the matter before a gathering of bishops in Constantinople, which declined to confirm the resolution. The Empress severely snubbed Epiphanius, and Ammonius compelled him to admit that he had not read any of his (Ammonius') writings; at last he saw that he was simply being used as a catspaw, and departed for Cyprus, saying, "I leave to you the city, the court, and the hypocrisy." Theophilus meanwhile journeyed slowly through Asia Minor, collecting his partisans among the bishops.
183. 1 Gifts brought to win favours.
184. 2 From the Egyptian corn-ships, for whose arrival Theophilus delayed his entry.
188. 2 Warning them of divine punishment due to Origenism.
190. 4 "The symbol" (p. 57). See p. 120, n.
192. 2 Palladius passes without explanation from the private and informal discussion at Eugraphia's house, to the so-called "Synod of The Oak," in which, of course, only bishops took part. He declines to call it a synod. Theophilus summoned the Nitrian monks to it, and required them to express their penitence, and "as is customary with monks, even if they are wronged, they said, 'Pardon.'" Socrates thinks this would not have happened, had not Ammonius and Dioscorus now been dead (p. 147; Theophilus shed tears over the news). Henceforth the question of Origenism, having served its purpose, was dropped.
193. 3 Photius gives an account of this assemblage. Paul, Bishop of Heracleia (p. 14, n.) presided as Metropolitan; John the deacon, evidently the man mentioned above, brought forward twenty-nine charges, the first of which was, that Chrysostom had deposed him from the diaconate for flogging his own slave (or son). Others were, that he had sold Church property, including marble from the Church of the Resurrection, that he had plotted against Severianus, entered and left the church without a prayer, ordained four bishops at once, ordained Serapion presbyter, hit a man in the face, eaten immoderately alone, living the life of a Cyclops, occupied the bath by himself, while Serapion kept the door, robed and unrobed in the episcopal throne, and eaten a pastille. Subsequently Isaac the monk (p. 48) brought forward eighteen other charges, such as that he had favoured Origenists, used strange expressions in his sermons, insulted the clergy, ordained slaves as bishops, and imposed fines upon Isaac himself.
194. 1 It is impossible to doubt that we have here the account of an eye-witness. Palladius was in Constantinople at the time, and was in some way involved in one of the charges,
199. 1 Cf. p. 38, n. Possibly this attendant was Theophilus' nephew, Cyril, afterwards Bishop of Alexandria.
200. 2 " A suburb of Chalcedon, called after the name of Rufinus the consul, where was a palace, and a church built by Rufinus in honour of Peter and Paul the Apostles" (Socrates).
201. 1 The LXX of Gen. iv. 8, reads, "Cain said to Abel his brother, Let us go forth into the field."
202. 2 This was not strictly the case, as some of them were from Asia.
203. 3 The text is uncertain. George omits "your" and "against you." "Bid the accusers cease from their accusation, and their attack upon John."
204. 1 "Comitatus"; "the place where the Comes is, or the Emperor" (Balsamon).
205. 2 In place of Serapion, who was ejected.
206. 1 In "a sermon before he went into exile" he calls those sent to arrest him "spiders sent by a spider."
207. 2 "When, after being four times summoned, he appealed to an oecumenical council, bringing no further charge against him, but that he had been summoned, and refused to obey, they degraded him" (Soz. viii. 17).
208. 3 Lèse Majesté. Just after Epiphanius' departure, Chrysostom "preached a sermon reproving women in general terms; which was generally interpreted as directed against the Empress" (Sozomen). Our other sources agree in stating that he had rebuked her for following Eutropius' example in seizing property, especially the vineyard of the widow of one Theognostus. George asserts that he gave orders for her to be excluded from the Church for so doing. Hence her sudden change of attitude towards him. Palladius, no doubt, had his reasons for not saying more on the subject of Eudoxia's actions; it would have been too dangerous; cf. p. 78, n.
209. 1 Another sermon "before he went into exile" contains an allusion to Jezebel; it is almost certainly spurious, probably the work of his enemies. But Theodore implies that he had used Naboth's vineyard "as a parable" in pleading for the widow. He tells us, with a certain amount of verisimilitude, that the Emperor, on Acacius' application, appointed Aquilinus the Quaestor to investigate the charges against the monks, and was satisfied with their answers; Chrysostom was also summoned to appear in reference to his alleged insults to the Empress, but refused to make any defence.
210. 1 "On the third day after his deprivation"; the civil authorities, with the sanction of the Emperor, instigated by Eudoxia, carrying out the resolution of the so-called "Synod." "He went out unknown to the people, for fear of causing a disturbance; but immediately the king, the synod, and, above all, Theophilus, were bitterly censured. It was pointed out that Theophilus had immediately communicated with the Tall Brethren, whom he had called heretics, and Severian caused strong indignation by a sermon concerning Chrysostom's pride" (Soz. viii. 18). The Emperor was compelled to order his return by the strong feelings aroused.
211. 2 On the other side of the Bosphorus.
212. 3 Apparently an earthquake. Eudoxia herself wrote, begging him to return: "I am innocent, I knew nothing of what was being done. I cannot forget that you baptized my children."
213. 4 He refused to enter the church, on the ground that the synod which deposed him must also reinstate him; but the vast crowds who had welcomed him insisted on his pronouncing the "Peace be with you," and giving an address, which is still preserved; in it he speaks very favourably of the Empress. He maintained that all this was done under compulsion, and that he cannot therefore be accused of the breach of canon law alleged below (p. 76). But no man can be compelled to speak; his natural impetuosity overcame him at the sight of the sympathetic flock. A synod of sixty bishops met in Constantinople, and annulled the proceedings at The Oak, declaring that Chrysostom still held his bishopric (Soz. viii. 19).
214. 1 Feeling ran so high in regard to the condemnation by the "Synod" of Heracleides (p. 126, n), accused of Origenism in his absence, that sanguinary tumults took place in the streets.
215. 2 By Can. XII. of the Synod of Antioch (a.d. 341), any bishop who after deposition appealed to the civil power was to be ipso facto irrevocably deposed. The number of bishops present at Antioch was ninety-seven, of whom forty belonged to the party of Eusebius, a "semi-Arian" (i. e. one who denied the eternal Godhead of the Son). It seems probable that these had remained after the others had returned home, and passed this and other canons on their own account.
216. 1 Rom. i. 8. So Cyprian, Ep. iv., objecting to an appeal made to Cornelius, Bishop of Rome, against the decisions of an African synod, says that they "forgot that it was the Romans, whose faith is applauded in the preaching of the Apostle."
217. 2 Laodicea in Lycaonia, so called from the furnaces in connection with the mines (W. M. Ramsay).
218. 1 The famous heretic, who maintained that "there was a time when the Son was not"; against whom Athanasius maintained the Catholic Faith.
219. 2 A.n. 343; about a hundred and seventy bishops were present. The eastern bishops objected to the presence of Athanasius as having been deposed, but they were outvoted. Pall., L. H., lxiii. 1 has the same note of time in reference to Athanasius----"in the time of Constantius the king"----of the eastern, Constans being emperor of the western empire.
220. 3 Julius was Bishop of Rome at the time; Liberius succeeded him in 352. At this council it was determined that any bishop who considered himself aggrieved might appeal to Julius, Bishop of Rome, for a re-trial before such neighbouring bishops as he should appoint. The canon applied only to Julius personally, to cover the exigencies of the moment; Athanasius would ordinarily have appealed to the Emperor, but as Constantius, Emperor of the East, was an Arian, Julius was for this turn substituted for him.
222. 2 Six of Chrysostom's letters are addressed to him. He was deposed, but in 414 restored to his see.
223. 3 In that case, they admit themselves to be Arian heretics.
224. 1 Eudoxia once more turned against him at this time. Her statue had been set up in the square before the church, and its inauguration was attended by disorderly and pagan rejoicings, against which Chrysostom protested (January 403). On the feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist, he was alleged to have begun his sermon with the words, "Again doth Herodias rave, again does she ask for the head of John." The Emperor sent him word that he would not communicate at the Christmas festival; but Chrysostom declared himself ready to meet the charge of attacking the Empress, and the question of re-entry was made the issue.
225. 2 They wished to anticipate the signs of popular good-will likely to be shown by the crowds attending the festival.
226. 1 "Episcopus," "overseer" (Acts xx. 28, addressed to the "elders"). Cicero calls Pompey "Episcopus of Campania" (ad Att. vii. 11). So 1 Macc. i. 51, LXX. The verb is used by Pall., L. H., xxxv. 10, where he himself playfully says, "I bishop the kitchens, the tables, and the pots." "God is the true bishop of the heart" (Wisd. i. 6).
227. 1 The name of Lent is "Tessarakoste," "the fortieth (day) "; it is still called so in the Greek Church.
228. 2 " Initiated into the mysteries" of the Creed and the Lord's Prayer. "Those who are initiated will know what is likely to have happened amid such disorder; I must keep silence, lest any uninitiated should read my narrative" (Soz. viii. 21, in relating these proceedings).
229. 3 Lit. "priest"; cf. p. 35.
231. 5 Jerome (in Matt, xxv.) speaks of the apostolic tradition not to dismiss the congregation before midnight; Tertullian warns against marriage with a heathen, who will not allow his wife to be absent all night for the Paschal solemnities. Cf. p. 17, n.
232. 1 Possibly the first two letters of the word for "gifts" have been dropped out of the text, leaving that for "words."
234. 2 In the labyrinth of Crete, according to Greek folk-lore, lurked the minotaur, a monster to which were given seven Athenian youths and seven maidens every ninth year, until he was slain by Theseus.
235. 1 "The Fifth," because five miles from the Forum.
237. 3 Lit. "the back"; so p. 29.
238. 1 More than the expression of abstract thoughts.
239. 2 "Maphoria "; at first the ordinary veils worn by women, then, with some distinguishing features, by professed virgins and deaconesses; later still, confined to these. Cassian says they were worn by monks. See p. 53, n.
240. 3 The period between Easter and Whitsun. "For two months John did not go forth in public" (Socr. vi. 18).
241. 1 "If the whole air is full of angels, how much more the church? Hear the deacons ever saying in the churches. Call upon the angel of peace" (Serm. in Ascens. i.). "The angels stand round the priest" (de Sac. vi. 4). Chrysostom's sense of angelic presence abides in the "Liturgy of Constantinople ": "Cause that holy angels may enter with our entrance" ("Prayer of the entrance"). In the Book of Daniel (cf. Deut, xxxii. 8, 9, LXX) nations have their guardian angels; Basil calls angels "the rulers of the Church." Eusebius regards Ps. xlviii. 5 as addressed to "the guardian angels of the Church." Matt. xvii. 10, Acts xii. 15 seem to imply guardian angels to individuals; "each of us has a guardian angel by his side" (Hom. in Hab. xiv.). The thought of a guardian angel for each Church is, no doubt, founded on Rev. ii., iii., which Origen (Hom. in Num. xx. 4) explains as "his angel, or the angel of his Church"; Chrysostom (Or. clxix, in. Syn. Arch.) says, "To each man an angel is assigned, in each church Christ has set angel guardians."
242. 1 "Hierateion"; where the priests robed, prepared the sacred vessels, etc. Palladius, both in this treatise and in L. H., uses the word also for "the body of clergy."
243. 2 Sozomen says that Olympias was ordained deaconess by Nectarius, though but a young widow, for her extraordinary devotion. The order, as we saw, sprang from that of widows (p. 46); the Council of Chalcedon made forty the minimum a.ge for their ordination. Their duties were to assist in the instruction of female catechumens, and at their baptism; to visit sick women, guard the doors, and to look after the women members of the congregation in Church. Nicarete, "the best of all the good women Sozomen ever knew," refused to accept the dignity of a deaconess, and "to preside over the Church virgins." The order seems to have come to an end about the eleventh century. But see The Ministry of Women (S.P.C.K., 1919).
244. 3 Nephew of Theodosius the Emperor. Silvina and Olympias were naturally friends, as young widows of husbands bearing the same name (p. 86).
248. 1 The east is the symbol of light, the west of darkness and sin. Baptizands faced the west until they had renounced evil, after that the east.
249. 1 " On the same day, some of the Johnnites set the church on fire" (Socrates). The "Johnnites" attributed it to their enemies (Sozomen, who describes it as heaven-sent). Palladius regards it as the result of the angel of the Church going forth with Chrysostom.
250. 2 Acts i. 18; 2 Pet. ii. 13, 15. The expression is strange; possibly the preposition has been changed, and "laying upon them" should be read for "paying." The grammar of the sentence is very bad.
251. 3 The church was that of St. Sophia, built by Constantine, A.D. 360. After this conflagration it was restored, but again burnt down, and finally rebuilt at vast expense by Justinian in 532.
252. 1 One of the charges mentioned by Photius.
253. 2 Sozomen says the fire advanced from late evening until morning.
254. 3 Optatus, the prefect, tried various accused persons by torture, under which Eutropius, a reader, died. Olympias also was put on her trial.
255. 1 A village in the Taurus Mountains, on the edge of Cilicia. Chrysostom's friends did their utmost to get him sent to a less remote and dangerous place, but the Empress had chosen Cucusus herself, and this time was implacable. It took him seventy days to reach it: his letters tell of the hardships of the journey.
256. 2 He was eighty years old. Socrates says that through his extraordinary gentleness he quietly administered the see; Sozomen also speaks highly of him.
257. 1 An Armenian, a monk in his youth; "learned, industrious, an excellent teacher, sympathetic and courteous, in a word, like the apostle, all things to all men" (Socrates).
258. 2 A play upon words: graphe, "scripture," antigraphe, "rescript."
259. 3 Bishop of Antioch (p. 133).
262. 1 "In the outskirts of the city" (Sozomen). The meetings were suppressed with cruelty and robbery; Nicarete, among others, left the city.
263. 2 From John xv. 15, which is spoken in connection with the two following texts (xiv. 6, xvi. 33).
264. 3 Many friends, including Olympias, supplied him with money, with which he ransomed many prisoners from the Isaurians, and relieved the needy; many went out to him from Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia (Sozomen). He kept up close correspondence with his friends in the city; now telling of an Isaurian attack, now of quiet.
265. 4 A strong fortress not far from Cucusus. The "privations" were inevitable, as the place was crowded with fugitives; three hundred Isaurians once nearly took it in a night attack.
267. 6 By his correspondence he encouraged the missionary projects he had begun as bishop, in Persia, Phoenicia, and among the Goths. They were in charge of Constantius (p. 135), who joined him for a time at Cucusus.
268. 1 "Trials" perhaps better expresses this word, found in plural in the New Testament only in Acts x.x. 19, 1 Pet. i. 6; in singular of Our Lord's Temptation, in the Lord's Prayer, the Garden of Gethsemane, etc.
270. 3 A term frequent in the Fathers for "Christian belief and practice." It is "the knowledge (gnosis) of things divine and human" (Hom. in. Col. ix.); "tribulation is the mother of philosophy" (in Ps.ix.). "To be gentle of speech is the road to philosophy" (in. John xxvi.). One of Chrysostom's shorter treatises compares the life of a king with that of a monk living "according to Christian philosophy." On the other hand, "Are there no heathen who live in philosophy?" (in John xxviii.). "Gracious," as in Prov. xi. 16, LXX, of a wife; or "thankful," as Col. iii. 15. Pall., L. H., xivii. 15, has this identical expression.
271. 1 "Like David, a wanderer, an exile, disfranchised, homeless, I am exiled to a barbarian land" (Ad eos qui, ii.).
272. 2 At its far eastern end.
274. 2 A.D. 303. Diocletian, Maximian's fellow-emperor in the East, originated the persecution.
275. 3 " And the martyr of the place----Collythus was his name----stood over her, and said. To-day you are going to travel to the Master, and see all the saints. Come, then, and breakfast with us in the chapel. . . . And she died that very night . . . having decked herself for the funeral" (Pall., L. H., lx.). Theodore gives a different version of this vision, which he says was granted to him before reaching Cucusus.
276. 4 "We clothe the dead in new garments, to signify their putting on the new clothing of incorruption" (Hom. cxvi.). So Constantine arrayed himself in royal and shining garments for death (Eusebius). Pall., L. H., v., tells how Alexandra "in the tenth year fell asleep, having arrayed herself (for death)." Theodore says they were "the garments of the holy liturgy."
277. 5 Bigot translates "jejunus," "without breaking his fast." I understand the word to be used as in 1 Thess. v. 8, 2 Tim. iv. 5, etc.
278. 1 "Symbola Despotica." In the Coptic Liturgy the fraction is called "Isbodicon." The Eucharistic elements were often carried on a journey (Ambrose, de Ob. Sat. iii. 19).
279. 2 "He closes the book with thanksgiving, to show us that this must be the beginning and end of all our words and deeds; even as in our prayer. Our Father is the language of men who give thanks for the gifts they have received" (in Ps. cl.). "Let us render thanks when in poverty, sickness, disgrace; not in word or in tongue, but in thought and act. Say nothing prior to this word, i give thee thanks, O Lord" (in Eph. xix. 2). "What shall I say? Blessed be God. This I said when I departed, and I have not ceased to say it. You remember that 1 quoted Job's words, Let the name of the Lord be blessed for ever" (from "the sermon after returning from exile"). The last rubric of the "Liturgy of St. Chrysostom," still used in the Greek Church, is "The priest having adored, and given thanks to God for all things, so departs."
280. 3 "At every journey ... at the putting on of our clothes and shoes ... at going to bed, at sitting down . . . we wear our foreheads with the sign (of the Cross)" (Tert., de Cor., iii.).
281. 4 " A man who in his zeal for temperance yielded to anger more than to respect, and for the sake of temperance all through his life allowed his tongue too much out-spokenness. I marvel how a man who practised such zeal for temperance, taught men in his addresses to despise temperance" (Socrates).
282. 5 Socrates says this was on November 24; George says September 24, which the description of the weather makes more likely.
284. 2 " The clergy honoured Constantine with the mystical liturgy" at his funeral (Eusebius). The third Council of Carthage shows this to be the usual custom, as a token of the communion between the living and the dead. Ambrose speaks of a body removed from the church where the Eucharist was offered to that in which it was to be buried. This concourse cannot have taken place till long after the actual interment, owing to the distance, though the Vit. Anon. says it took place immediately through Divine inspiration. The word I have translated "gathering" is used for a Church Festival, such as Easter. The relatives of a Christian were to meet for psalms, hymns, and prayers on the third, ninth, and fortieth days after death (Apostolical Constitutions, viii. 42). "It happened that the services for the fortieth day of the one and the third day of the other were being celebrated by the brethren" (Pall., L. H., xxi. 15).
288. 3 "Why he chose to eat alone, no one has been able to state clearly; those who wish to defend him say that it was on account of infirmity" (Socrates).
289. 4 The text reads "no friend"; and "sweat" (as at the baths) for "swill."
290. 1 Acts xix. 37; Rom. ii. 22.
291. 2 Or, perhaps, "moral tone," "character."
292. 3 Acts vi. 2, very freely quoted, with no MS. support.
295. 2 Matt. xi. 18, joined with xxi. 32. Pall., L. H. (Prol., p. 13), similarly combines the two verses, with no MS. authority. Cf. p. xx.
296. 3 Nearly all the 246 letters we possess date from his second exile, and are short answers to inquiries, requests for prayer, or devotional considerations of Providence and the use of sufferings; seventeen are addressed to Olympias. The sentence suggests the passage of a certain space of time for their collection. They could not have reached Rome at the supposed date of the Dialogue.
297. 1 As "lord bishops" on p. 10.
298. 2 Gen. xviii. 8, 22. "The angel of great counsel" (Isa. ix. 6), God, and yet an angel, hence identified by Christian writers with the Second Person of the Holy Trinity (cf. Novatian de Trin., xviii., xix.).
303. 7 "Sarabara," "Persian trousers "; Dan. iii. 21.
304. 1 This sentence seems to be a gloss. But our author, like many of the fathers, is fond of "the doctrine of the mean" (Aristotle, Eth. Nic., ii. 6, etc.); cf. p. 111.
305. 2 The word used for the "guest-master" of the Church (p. 50)
309. 1 Like "Jacob the wrestler," p. 106.
315. 1 Bel and the Dragon, v. 14, etc. Their footsteps were seen in the ashes sprinkled by Daniel.
316. 2 A slight alteration of the text gives this meaning.
322. 3 The phrase recalls Ex. iii. 14.
325. 2 Matt. v. 17; Gal. ii. 18.
329. 6 The grammar of the sentence is so strange that it is almost untranslatable. "Flatter" could not be joined with "reprove, rebuke," because flattery never is bitter, while exhortation can be more bitter, as he goes on to show, than either; hence the apostle does not hesitate to couple the apparently pleasant "exhortation" with the bitter "reprove, rebuke."
330. 1 "'Things which appear shameful (the Cross) are the revered stories of our good things" (Hom. in John lxxv. 3). Cf. Pall., L. H., lvi. 2.
332. 3 Tit. i. 5, with 1 Tim. i. 3, 4.
334. 5 This word is only found here, and in Pall., L. H., lxv. 2.
338. 3 In Gen. x. 10, Calneh is one of the cities of Nimrod, in the plain of Shinar (Gen. xi. 2).
339. 4 Contained in the words, "How shall this man give us his flesh to eat? "
344. 4 If the text is correct, it means that a man gives dinner-parties not for the pleasure of eating, but because he wishes to belong to the "smart set," and push himself forward by ostentation of his wealth. Aristotle (Eth. Nic. iv. 3) remarks upon the difficulty of explaining "ambition "----" a desire for honour carried to excess."
345. 1 The contrast with "as quickly as possible" requires this rendering of the preposition, which implies an irregular or unusual action (as in par-akoe, "mis-hearing "). It is so used, again in connection with time of meals, in Pall., L. H., xxxi. i, lxi. 6----" once a day" or "once every other day "; this meaning occurs on p. 129.
346. 2 Both favourite metaphors of Chrysostom. "God's providence is unrecognized, as when the pilot is saving the ship in a storm, but the passengers do not recognize his skill in the general confusion" (adv. Opp., vol. iii., 113e).
347. 3 The word is frequent in N.T. for "spiritual blessing" (1 Cor. x. 16; Gal. iii. 14; Jas. iii. 10). In LXX it is used for any benefit bestowed; as in Judges 1. 15, a piece of land; 1 Sam. xxv. 27, Abigail's gift; 2 Kings v. 15, Naaman's. Hence especially of the bread not consecrated at the Eucharist. Socrates tells of one who "took nothing from the Church, save two loaves of eulogiae each Sunday." Cf. Pall., L. H., xxv. 3, "I am not worse than you, that you should send me a blessing "----of sweetmeats given to a monk. Hence the sense here will be the "getting good" of a worldly, not a spiritual kind; a gift to take home, or the honour of an invitation.
351. 1 He will have a bad name, if he play the host too much.
358. 4 "Logos" in Greek means "reason," as well as "reason expressing itself in words." Cf. p. 31, 11.
359. 5 Cf. Theophilus' "lithomania" (p. 51).
361. 1 Lit., "things stamped"; the word in late Greek often for "ordain," "decree," of persons in authority. Cf. pp. 78, 125,11.
362. 2 Socrates says, "Thirteen, in Lycia, Phrygia, and Asia; and also Gerontius, Bishop of Nicomedeia "----on his way home from Ephesus; who being a skilful doctor had much endeared himself to his flock. Chrysostom ordained Pansophius, the late instructor of the Empress, in his place; the action causing great indignation. Apparently the number was six in Asia, seven in Lycia and Phrygia. Isaac's eleventh charge at The Oak was, that he invaded other provinces, and there ordained bishops.
364. 2 The text reads, "the thirteenth indiction," clearly in error. An "indiction" (properly the notice of taxation, revised every fifteen years) was a period of fifteen years, instituted by Constantine in 312, when he became undisputed emperor through his victory over Maxentius; possibly wishing to show his zeal for the Faith by abolishing the pagan mode of reckoning (by the Greek "Olympiads" of four years; May 400 is the time of this event.
365. 3 A Goth, Bishop of Tomis, missionary to the Huns; he refused to sign the resolution of agreement with Epiphanius' condemnation of Origenism.
366. 4 It was natural that at all times many bishops should visit the capital of the Eastern Empire "on ecclesiastical business"; these gradually formed a "synodus endemusa" ----a "home" or "floating synod "----meeting under the presidency of the archbishop. At the Council of Chalcedon the question was raised as to the authority of such a synod, and it was declared to be good. Similar home synods existed at Rome and at Treves, during the residence of the emperors there.
367. 1 In the province of Asia.
368. 2 He apparently was not himself a member.
369. 3 The word is frequent for "saying good-bye to" (Luke ix. 61, etc.), so for "renouncing the world," "retiring to the desert as a monk," etc. According to the "Apostolic Canons," only the lower orders of clergy were allowed to marry after their appointment to office; the Council in Trullo ordered that a bishop's wife should retire to a convent, or become a deaconess; that of Caesarea, that if a priest marries after ordination he must be degraded. For Antoninus to resume relations with his wife was equivalent to marriage after ordination. It was proposed at the Council of Nicaea that married clergy should be compelled to separate from their wives, but the proposal was rejected; though it was generally held that the relations of bishops with their wives should be those of brother and sister. Cf. pp. 129, 136.
370. 1 The Dialogue is supposed to be carried on amid a circle of listeners.
372. 1 He presided as metropolitan (p. 65) at The Oak.
373. 2 "The bishop at his entry into the church says always, Peace be with you, as a proper salutation when he enters his Father's house" (Hom. in 1 Cor. xxxvi.; so in Col. iii., etc.).
374. 3 Matt. v. 23. "Good food upsets the nauseated stomach; so does the spiritual food upset the man not of a pure conscience" (Hom. in Heb. xvii.). "Approach the mystic rite without disturbance, without molesting your neighbour" (Hom. in Nat. Chr. xi.). Conc. Nic. Can. V. orders, "Let one synod be held before Lent, that all ill-feeling may be laid aside, and the gift offered to God in purity." The "gift" is the pure offering of Mal. i. 11.
375. 4 "Photisterion"; "place of illumination," cf. p. 56, n.
376. 1 A strange word, probably "abolitio," not "absolutio "---- "pardon for offences hastily admitted" (Savile).
377. 2 " The elders of the bishops," probably with reference to the name of the Roman Senate, "the council of elders."
379. 4 Soz. v. 8 tells of one Theodoret, who held the office of "guardian of the sacred vessels," and was tortured for refusing to surrender them.
380. 1 The 3rd Canon of Chalcedon (451) gave the confirmation of a General Council to numerous local canons forbidding bishops to be entangled in secular business.
381. 2 Gainas was a Goth, who had been made commander of the army in Constantinople (in which he had enrolled "his whole tribe"), and sent to check the advance of an insurgent brother Goth, Tribigild. Instead of doing so, he joined forces with him, and advanced upon the city, demanding the surrender of three Court favourites. Chrysostom was known to be kindly disposed towards the Goths, as he had organized mission work among them (his befriending of heathen against Christians was one of the charges brought against him at The Oak); he therefore was asked to negotiate (hence "the champion of our souls" or "lives"), and was granted the lives of the three, but could not stop Gainas' entry. For some months nothing was done, the barbarians only waiting for orders to sack the city; meanwhile, Gainas asked for a church within the walls, for himself and his fellow-Arians. Chrysostom discussed the matter with him before the Emperor, and the request was refused. In the winter the Goths attacked the palace, but were repulsed through "a vision of angels" (or through the efforts of the citizens), and half the army, with Gainas, retired through the gates, which were at once shut. The rebel forces were thus divided; Gainas fled to Thrace, where he was killed, in January 401. Theodoret, H. E., v. 32, places his application for a church before, not after, his rebellion.
384. 1 Eusebius is guilty of the very offence he had so violently condemned.
385. 2 Lit. "deserter"; not daring to face the inquiry.
386. 1 The noun of the verb used above (p. 116), our "type," meaning (1) "a blow," (2) "the impress on a coin," (3) in late Greek, "a decree" (e.g. Conc. Nic. Can. xix.). The second may be the meaning here (so Stephens); but the adjective (lit. "sent from God ") does not seem to suit this sense so well. The point to be settled was, the appointment of a successor to Antoninus.
387. 2 A promontory on the south shore of the Sea of Marmora, which is so called from the marble quarries on Proconnesus.
388. 1 Of Crateia (p. 80), not of Heracleia (pp. 23, 65).
389. 2 Of Chalcedon (pp. 23, 77); at this time a friend of Chrysostom, afterwards a bitter enemy.
390. 3 Hence the author's knowledge of the details of the journey.
391. 4 As there was much rivalry for the vacant office, Chrysostom settled the dispute by appointing Heracleides, a Cypriote, one of his deacons, once a monk of Scetis. Hoping to strengthen his case against Chrysostom, Theophilus at The Oak had a charge brought against the new bishop of violence to certain persons, and of "Origenism." As he was not present to answer, a dispute, ending in blows, arose between the bishops of Constantinople and those of Egypt, and Theophilus, finding his plans a failure, "immediately departed for Egypt." Heracleides, however, was subsequently deposed (p. 130).
394. 1 All citizens possessing twenty-five acres of land were liable to serve on the city council; Constantine exempted the clergy from this duty. "Our pleasure is, that all the clergy be exempted from all public offices whatsoever" (Eus., Vit. Const., x. 7). But as it was found that laymen took inferior offices in the Church to avoid their civil duties, the privilege was afterwards confined to bishops, and to such priests and deacons as were ordained with the consent of the civil court, and otherwise restricted; but still "the Church knows nothing of extraordinary duty or sordid functions." (Theod. Cod. xi. 7). Basil (Ep., 279) asks that the clergy may be exempted from taxes, "according to the ancient law "; Gregory Nazianzen (Ep., 159) complains of a deacon compelled to pay taxes.
395. 2 "Thysiasterion," properly "the altar," the usual word in the Old Testament; here extended to mean "the place of the altar." So four times in the Epp. of Ignatius (about no) and frequently in later writers.
396. 3 "Patriarch" is in LXX (1 Chron. xxvii. 22, etc.) the title of a division of a tribe in Israel (Authorised Version, "Princes"). After the fall of Jerusalem, Jewish "patriarchs" were set up at Tiberias and Babylon. The office is referred to by Church writers as of great dignity, but ceased at the end of the fourth century. The reference here is uncertain. "The Patriarch of Egypt" is Theophilus.
398. 2 "Defensor rerum publicarum." Every large corporation would have such an official, and the Church naturally appointed hers. They were either clergy or laymen, their duties being to maintain the legal rights of the Church, or of individual clergy, against encroachment and oppression, and to expel unlicensed clergy from the capital (Conc. Chalc. Can. xxiii.).
399. 3 We call it simony, after Simon Magus (p. 5). In the fifth century it was called "Christemporismus," "trafficking in Christ."
400. 4 Evil being merely a negation of good.
401. 1 Jer. xix. 3, "both" is in one MS. of LXX, but has probably crept in from 1 Sam. iii. 11.
402. 2 Rom. i. 21; Eph. iv. 18.
405. 5 Chrysostom (Hom. in 2 Cor. xviii) speaks of "ordination, which the initiated know; for all may not be revealed to the uninitiated." So (Hom. in 1 Cor. xl.) he will not speak of baptism, because of the presence of uninitiated persons.
407. 7 He was going to say "of Heracleides." "I am like-named (homonymus) but not same-named (synonymus) with the Apostle" (Hom. in Acts lii.). The Apostle John was regarded as the first Bishop of Ephesus.
409. 2 The first canon of Nicaïa forbids ordination to an eunuch; it was earlier urged that Origen's ordination was void, owing to his self-mutilation in his youthful enthusiasm to be above reproach as a teacher of both sexes. Page 174 suggests that he bore the name Eunuchus, and that the language here used is an expensive play upon words. Victor perhaps nominated him, as Eutropius nominated Chrysostom.
410. 3 Cf. Pall., L. H., xxi. 3.
411. 4 A word of Palladius' own coinage, lit. "condemned to be put in irons."
412. 5 The Greek god of the vine.
418. 3 The earliest account of the ordination of a bishop (Const. Apost., viii. 4, 5) directs that the presiding bishop is to question the priests and laity as to the worthiness of the candidate thrice; then, "silence having been made, one of the first bishops, standing with two others near the altar, the rest silently praying, and the deacons holding the gospels open on the head of him who is being ordained, shall address God." A ninth-century MS. directs that "After the Kyrie Eleison, the archbishop lays the gospel upon his head and neck, while other bishops stand by and touch it, and laying his hand upon him, prays thus ..."
419. 1 Here the word is not "stretching forth of hands," as usual in this treatise, but "catastasis" (p. 42, 11.).
420. 2 Matt. xii. 36, freely quoted.
422. 4 Socrates and Sozomen say no more of this man than that Flavianus, his predecessor, had dissented from the deposition of Chrysostom, while he approved of it. A schism arose in the Church of Syria between the supporters and the opponents of Chrysostom, and a law was passed through Arsacius' instrumentality, that all who would not communicate with Porphyrius were to be expelled (p. 91). Hence his connection with our narrative, and the great space devoted to him in it.
423. 1 i. e. "Of short endurance" (the word in Gen. xli. 23, St. Jude 12); so used by Pall., L. H., xlvii. 11. Cf. p. 189.
424. 2 Fragment 36. Cf. p. 135. Palladius quotes three popular proverbs in his L. H.
426. 1 Men played the part of women upon the stage. The Hom. in Thess. v. mentions these same points; the moral tone of the stage was extremely low.
428. 3 "These words are found in the manuscript, but omitted by the editor as alien from the context" (Bigot).
429. 4 Theodoret says he left many memorials of his loving character.
431. 6 As secretary of the synod.
433. 2 A public park in the suburbs of Antioch.
434. 1 The word in Acts xxviii. 16, where it means "princeps peregrinorum," in charge of the receiving depot for soldiers passing from and to the armies abroad.
435. 2 Cape Amanus, on the gulf of Issus.
436. 3 So Augustine and his forty companions came to Canterbury "bearing a silver cross for their banner, and the image of Our Lord painted on a board; and, singing the litany, they offered up prayers to the Lord" (Bede, Eccl. Hist., i. 25).
438. 1 The word for "ordained" in the Church; cf. p. 59.
439. 2 Or, "the belly of the serpent (Satan) that crawls upon his chest." The Greek is irregular.
440. 1 A very ungrammatical sentence.
441. 2 Pall., L. H., lvi., tells us that she was daughter of Seleucus the ex-count, grand-daughter of Ablavius the ex-prefect, and that she gave her silk dresses to the altars (ch. lxi.). See pp. 86, 151.
442. 1 "Anthropos," "a human being "; below, p. 151, with the feminine article. Pall., L. H., ix., "Melania, the anthropos of God," uses the same most unusual expression; "aner" is generally used for a man, as opposed to a woman. "This book . . . contains memoirs of women, who with masculine and perfect mind have accomplished the struggles of virtuous asceticism" (Ibid. Intro.).
443. 2 Damasus, Bishop of Rome, 367-384; Sericius, 385-398. The particle "or" seems here, and elsewhere in the treatise, equivalent to "and." For Theophilus' relations with Epiphanius, see p. 63.
446. 1 The name "Theophilus" means "lover of God." Cf. p. 149.
447. 1 John vi. 26, "and wonders" occurs in one MS.
449. 3 Matt. v. 45, freely quoted.
450. 4 Matt. ix. 11; Mark ii. 16. The same combination and order of words, and the addition of "reproach," are found in Pall., L. H., Intro. 11; a strong indication of common authorship.
451. 1 "Weep with me, not for yourselves, but for those who rob you, who are more unfortunate than you" (Hom. in 1 Tim. xii.). Plato (Gorg. lxv.) says that to do wrong is a greater, to suffer wrong a smaller evil.
452. 2 Acts xviii. 27, xxi. 17. See pp. 159, 165.
453. 3 The word in Acts xvii. 22, cf. p. 64. Eusebius (V. C. liii.) mentions "superstitious persons" who built an altar at the Oak of Mamre. "A false view of religion" seems to be meant; "an unsuitable term" (Savile).
455. 2 Palladius (L. H., xxii.) heard one of his tales from "the holy Hierax;" so below (p. 148), "as he told us himself "----a frequent formula in the History.
456. 3 St. Antony, who about 305 retired to the Nile, later to the shore of the Red Sea, and was joined by many desiring the ascetic life. These he organized under rule, and is therefore regarded as "the father of monasticism." He died in 365, at the age of one hundred and five. The Lausiac History often refers to him with similar admiration.
457. 1 Novatianist (i.e. Puritan), Bishop of Constantinople, a man greatly commended by Sozomen for his learning, his life, his character, and his humour.
458. 2 To Chrysostom's sentence of condemnation.
459. 3 Lit. "was pickled." So Chrysostom of the Thessalonians (Hom. i. in 2 Thess.; Hom. in Rom. xxi.), and often in the Fathers, of martyrs; Pall., L. H., xxxviii.
460. 1 Socrates tells of Cyrinus, Bishop of Chalcedon, who died after repeated operations as the result of another bishop accidentally treading on his foot; of a terrible storm in Constantinople; and of the death of Eudoxia four days later. All these events were popularly attributed to the Divine wrath at Chrysostom's expulsion. "But whether this be so or not, God knoweth."
461. 2 "Hypophet," like "prophet "; used from Homer downwards of one who utters an oracle. Eusebius uses it so in Triak. x. 4.
463. 4 The same statement in regard to Ammonius is made by Palladius (L. H., xi.). The style of writing here, where the author is dealing with the same subject of monks, is noticeably like that of the History.
464. 1 "At The Oak, where the synod was held" (Socrates). The martyr was Mocius (Sozomen).
465. 2 On the shore of the Red Sea, "seven days' journey from human habitations" (Cassian).
466. 3 "How do you endure, struggling with accidie? "----to a recluse, after ten years spent in a tomb (Pall., L. H., v.; cf. xxi. 1, etc.). See Paget, The Spirit of Discipline. The patristic writings make continual reference to such "spiritual weariness," the natural temptation of men living a life of contemplation, with no human interests to occupy their thoughts, and under the physical strain of asceticism. "My soul melteth away for very heaviness" (Ps. cxix. 28)----in LXX, "for accidie."
467. 1 Luke ix. 62. Pall., L. H., xxxv. 9, quotes the passage in a similar context.
468. 2 Cf. Pall., L. H., xvii.
470. 4 Also spelt Chronius; cf. Pall., L. H., xxi., etc.
472. 6 The dialogue is represented as spread over several days.
473. 1 So Pall., L. H., liv. 1.
475. 3 1 Tim. v. 14. Chrysostom off ers a warning against second marriages, though he does not condemn them (de Virg. xxxvii.).
477. 1 "Anthropos," cf. p. 140.
478. 2 Cf. Pall., L. H., lxi., where Melania says to her husband, "If God had wished us to have children, He would not have taken away my children untimely."
479. 3 A.D. 388. Maximus was a rebel, who actually secured rule over Britain, Gaul, and Spain.
482. 3 "Seeing her bestowing her substance on all who asked for it, John said to her, "I commend your purpose; but he who aims at the height of godly virtue must be a careful steward, while you, adding wealth to those who are wealthy, simply cast your goods into the sea. Of your own free will you have dedicated your substance to the needy, and as you have been appointed to manage your money, you will have to render your accounts. Therefore regulate your giving by the need of those who ask it." Soz. viii. 9; cf. p. 140.
483. 1 1 Cor. ix. 18; but in different words.
484. 2 " I am ashamed when I partake of irrational food." Pall.,L. H.,i. 3.
486. 1 1 Tim. v. 18. "Food" for "reward."
495. 5 So Bigot, explaining by reference to Matt. v. 29. He suggests an emendation----" that those who rebel should be guided into temperance."
497. 7 Cf. Pall., L. H., xxxii. 7.
500. 3 Gal. iii. 15"; cf. Jer. v. 11, LXX.
511. 2 A Jewish boy at the age of thirteen became "a son of the law." "Spiritual persons are the sons of the font" (Basil of Seleucia, Or. xxvii.).
514. 1 " More clearly than a trumpet do I lift my voice" (Or. lxiv. de Jej.).
518. 5 The quotations next given by the deacon make this rendering of the passive participle preferable to "the established order of things." Cf. p. 33.
523. 2 "The opportunity is not yours; ye are strangers and pilgrims. Seek not honours and powers, but endure all things, and so buy up the opportunity, as a man in a big house, attacked by robbers, surrenders all, in order to buy himself from them," is Chrysostom's comment on the passage.
525. 1 In answer to the charge brought against Chrysostom of speaking of Eudoxia as "Jezebel" and "Herodias' daughter." "Let no one be vexed with me; I shall not speak personally" (Hom. in Eph. iii.).
527. 3 Like Moses, Elias, and the others.
528. 4 Though he speaks of Phoenicians, etc., by name, he is not attacking their personal faults, but using them as examples of faults common to all men.
529. 5 Job xl. 25, LXX (xli. 6, R.V.). "Shall they part him" ----behemoth, the hippopotamus----" among the merchants? "----in Hebrew "among the Canaanites," whose name, as famous merchants, is used for "merchants" generally. Palladius is right in regarding "Phoenicians" as a general term for "merchants," but his exegesis of behemoth is unsound.
535. 5 Eph. i. 18, but the word here is "mystics," "initiated ones."
537. 7 "You will say, Do not lay such a burden upon your hearers; you make us blush. But 1 cannot tolerate such objections. If I was asking for myself, there would be some ground for shame; but I ask it for your good, and therefore I am bold of speech" (Hom. in 1 Cor. xl. 3).
539. 1 Rom. i. 30; 2 Tim. iii. 2, R.V.
544. 3 Rom. i. 30; 1 Tim. i. 13.
546. 5 "He never lied, nor swore, nor abused any one, nor spoke without necessity." Pall., L. H., ix.
553. 7 So the Fathers generally, and Chrysostom in loc, "That is, on the faith of his confession."
554. 1 Acts xvii. 6. It was the Jews of Thessalonica who said so.
555. 2 He was doubtless so honoured at the time the Dialogue was written. "Bishop Proclus won back to the Church those who were in separation because of the deposition of John, prudently comforting their distress. He brought back to Constantinople the body of John, which had been buried at Comana, and laid it with much public ceremony in the Church of the Apostles, on January 27, 438. And I marvel, that ill-will touched Origen after his death, and spared John. Origen, two hundred years after his decease, was excommunicated by Theophilus, John, thirty years after it, was received into communion by Proclus" (Socr. vii. 45). The Emperor Theodosius II laid his face on the reliquary, and implored forgiveness for the wrongs done to Chrysostom by his father and mother. His remains were placed in the Church of the Apostles at Constantinople, but later removed to Rome, and now lie in "St. Chrysostom's Chapel" in St. Peter's Cathedral. January 27 is still his feast-day in the Roman Church; in the Greek Church Basil the Great and Gregory the Divine are commemorated with him on January 30.
556. 3 i. e. use language corresponding to.
558. 2 At The Oak Chrysostom was accused of using insulting language to clergy.
562. 1 Luke xxiv. 25. "All the apostles" is an error.
564. 3 Rather than reputation.
566. 5 2 Tim. ii. 23. Ignorant of Christian instruction or discipline (Eph. vi. 4; 2 Tim. iii. 16).
568. 7 A word frequently used to express pomp of any sort.
570. 2 Or, by a slight correction, "though one may."
574. 1 Lit. "walking with "; but not a New Testament word.
575. 2 " Skilful physicians should have had all manner of diseases in their own persons." Plato, Republic, p. 408.
577. 1 Pall., L. H., Intro. "This book is written with a view to stirring to rivalry those who wish to realize the heavenly mode of life, and desire to tread the road which leads to the Kingdom of Heaven."
578. 2 " The bishop cannot sin unobserved. Let him be angry, let him laugh, let him dream of a moment's recreation, and many are offended, scoff, call to mind previous bishops, and abuse the present one. Yet if he enter the palace, who is first? If he go to visit ladies, or the houses of the great, none is preferred before him. I speak not wishing to put bishops to shame, but to repress your hankering after the office." Hom. in Acts iii.
579. 1 The Greek may equally well be rendered "Eunuchus of Ephesus." Migne prints the word with a capital, as a proper name. See p. 131, n.
580. 2 Heb. xiii. 3, freely quoted.
583. 5 On the east bank of the Orontes.
584. 6 In the oasis of the Syrian desert, south of Damascus.
585. 7 A turbulent tribe inhabiting the Upper Nile. They invaded the Thebaid about a.D. 450, and were driven into the district between the Nile and the Red Sea, where they are still represented by live tribes, speaking a language of their own.
586. 1 Assuan. Pall., L.H., Intro.,"I lived with them in Libya and the Thebaid and Syene."
587. 2 i.e. Egypt. He had fled from Heracleia, and taken refuge among the Goths.
588. 3 Chrysostom considered his presence in Constantinople of such importance that he wrote to tell him not even to visit his own diocese without his written permission.
590. 5 Pall., L. H., lxxi, speaks of "the brother who has been with me from my youth unto this day "; but he is clearly referring to himself. Nothing more is known of Brisson, except that Chrysostom writes two letters to him from Cucusus.
592. 1 He was stripped of his clothes, scourged, tied hand and foot upon the rack, and his limbs disjointed (Sozomen).
593. 2 Basil (Reg. Fus., xv) urges that education is to be part of the work of monks. The Church had to provide her own education, as an antidote to the material and anti-Christian instruction of the pagan schools and teachers of rhetoric, such as those by whom Chrysostom was taught "letters." The training was to be given free, especially to orphans, and to be such as would prepare the young for the monastic or the ministerial life. Hence no mention of ancient Greek literature is made in his curriculum. We do not know where Philip's "school" was, but there would naturally be one at Constantinople, if only for the training of clergy.
594. 3 So D.C.B. Lit "The presbyter, he of the palace." Migne prints the word with a capital----" the son of Palatius." He may have been a kind of Court chaplain, or the words may refer to his early life. Sozomen mentions a Helladius, Bishop of Caesarea, whose son had "obtained a splendid commission at the Court." If he bore his father's name, this may be the man. Chrysostom, Ep. xiv, asks Olympias to send some important letters by him.
595. 1 There is no previous mention of this messenger; but evidently many letters were sent. Sozomen tells of a famous monk Stephanus, a Libyan, who was living in Mareotis some thirty years before these events.
596. 2 Lit. "schools"; a late term given to the royal bodyguard.
597. 3 Sozomen (viii. 21) gives an account of this attempt.
598. 4 The order of singers seems to have arisen early in the fourth century, owing to the decay of congregational singing. The Council of Laodicea forbids others to sing in the church than the canonical singers, "who go up onto the ambo, and sing out of a book"; though this rule seems soon to have fallen into disuse. They were appointed by the priest, not by the bishop, with the words, "See that thou believest in thy heart what thou singest with thy mouth, and that what thou believest in thy heart, thou prove by thy works." Sozomen tells how Sisinnius (p. 146) was led by a dream to search for the one good man in the city, named Eutropius, and found a reader of that name, who was tortured on the charge of setting fire to the church; probably this man.
599. 1 Palladius now takes up again the story of the Eastern bishops who joined the deputation from Rome (p. 31), whom we last saw at Lampsacus. Hence the detailed account here. The introduction of this "deacon," and the "fellow-soldier" below; is quite in accordance with Palladius' methods in L. H.
600. 2 No doubt Palladius himself.
602. 2 1 Cor. iv. 9; 2 Cor. ii. 15.
603. 3 Chrysostom, unaware of this, writes to him (Ep. lxxxvii.) commending his devotion.
609. 3 So Pall., L.H., liv. 6, "Little children, it was written four hundred years ago, it is the last hour. Why do you love to linger in life's vanities? "
619. 6 Jas. iv. 16; 1 John ii. 16.
621. 8 In Aristotle (Eth. Nic. iv., 1) one extreme, profligacy being the other, of the series in which liberality is the mean term.
622. 9 Phthonos, probably in error for Phonos, murder.
631. 3 Ps. cxliv. 14 ff. The exegesis of the LXX rendering is correct; these are the words of the "strange children, whose sons are . . . their daughters are . . ."etc. R.V. represents the Hebrew by restoring "our" for "their," and translates "who" by "when," with a semicolon only before "Blessed." ----" When our sons shall be ... when ... no outcry in our streets; Blessed is the people. . . ." Delitzsch considers that some verses have been introduced into the text which do not properly belong to this Psalm.
634. 3 "Sophonias" is the LXX name of Zephaniah (2 Esdr. i. 40). The quotation is really from Mal. iii. 13-16. "Sophos" is the Greek for "wise."
635. 4 Chrysostom tells of those who denied that Providence extended to all things beneath the moon (Hom. in Acts xxviii.). "Does a charitable person meet with disaster? A labourer who receives his food gets less wages at the end; so does the charitable man who receives blessings in this world" (In 1 Cor. xliii.). "If you see an evil man prosper, know that he once did some good, and receives his reward here, and loses his claim on that which is to come" (Or. lxv.).
639. 3 It seems as if "or" had here dropped out of the text, or as if "not" had crept in before "established." If we had been created impeccable, we should have needed no trials, because already established in righteousness. This would have made us machines, with no moral virtue. The alternative to this was, for our minds not to be established; then we need trials.
640. 4 "To-day is the time of wrestling; thou art come to learn how to strive manfully, to take part in every contest. No man coming to the training school lives in luxury; nor in the time of conflict does he seek for tables" (Hom. in Mart., ii. 799). "Perhaps my flesh deserves chastisement, and it is fitting that it should pay the penalty now, rather than when I have quitted the arena" (Pall., L. H., xxiv.).
641. 1 Bigot's conj. for "places "; which, however, might refer to "position in the Church," as Acts i. 25, 1 Cor. xiv. 16.
642. 2 Or possibly, "have as my heir "; the text is uncertain. But the contrast is between the sweetness of the betrothed and the bliss of the married life. Cf. Wisd. viii. 2.
645. 3 "A man of great wealth, he wrote no will when he came to die, and left no money to his sisters, but commended them to Christ."----Pall., L. H., i.
649. 2 Lit. "denarius," Matt. xx. 2.
650. 3 In contrast with God's eternity. Cf. p. 134.
653. 3 Sozomen says only that Innocent in his letter to the clergy of Constantinople urged the need of an inquiry by an ecumenical synod, and that after Chrysostom's exile he sent five bishops and two priests of the Church of Rome, with the deputation of eastern bishops, to Honorius and Arcadius, to ask for a synod, and for place and time to be fixed. There seems to be no record of any decision of a western synod. But it is very possible that the "Home Synod" (p. 117, n.) might pass such a resolution without records having survived. The passage is considered by some to be against the authorship of Palladius, as Theophilus died in 412. But how could the deacon be represented as knowing of it, directly after Chrysostom's death (p. 33)?
654. 1 1 Tim. vi. 18, "ready to communicate."
660. 7 For this use of "unmixed," cf; Euseb., V. C, iii. 23, Soz. viii. 3.
664. 2 The text has "according to "; which is clearly wrong.
665. 1 We have no MS. support for this punctuation; which can hardly be due to a slip of the memory.
666. 1 Deut. xxxiii. 13-17, 8-11.
668. 3 A reminiscence of Lev. xviii. 21, LXX.
671. 2 "Philocathedria." Formed ("phil----" as in "Theophilus," p. 142) like "Protocathedria" ("protos," "first "), the word in St. Matt, xxiii. 6; "cathedra" being used in Church language for the "seat" or "cathedral chair" of a bishop.
672. 3 Cf. Wisd. xi. 17, xii. 9.
673. 4 i. e. by the civil authorities.
676. 1 Bigot supplies this word, which is not in the MSS.
677. 2 Matt. vi. 19. "Do you boast of your silken robes? They are the spinnings of worms, the inventions of barbarians."----Chr., Or., lxxi.
I am greatly indebted to Mr. P. R. Norton, Rhodes Scholar, of Christ Church, Oxford, for revising my proof-sheets.
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