Kirchengesch. iii. p. 1440, &c.) attributes the peculiar form of his
doctrine, his strong feeling that the choice of belief or unbelief rests with ourselves, and
that God's grace is given in proportion to our own wish to receive it. Libanius taught him
eloquence, and said, that he should have desired to see him his successor in his school, if
the Christians had not stolen him. Before his ordination, he retired first to a monastery near
Antioch, and afterwards to a solitary cavern, where he committed the whole of the Bible to
memory. In this cavern he so injured his health that he was obliged to return to Antioch,
where he was ordained deacon by the bishop Meletius,
The sermons of the archbishop soon gave great offence at Constantinople. The tone of his
theology was always rather of a practical than a doctrinal kind, and his strong sense of the
power of the human will increased his indignation at the immorality of the capital. He was
undoubtedly rash and violent in his proceedings, and the declamatory character of his
preaching was exactly adapted to express the stern morality of his thoughts. He was also
disliked for the simplicity of his mode of living, and the manner in which he diverted the
revenues of his see from the luxuries in which his predecessors had consumed them, to humane
and charitable objects. Many of the worldly-minded monks and clergy, as well as the ministers
and ladies of the court, became his enemies, and at their head appeared the empress Eudoxia
herself, who held her husband's weak mind in absolute subjection. His unpopularity was spread
still more widely in consequence of a visitation which he held in Asia Minor. two years after
his consecration, in which he accused several bishops of simony and other gross crimes, and
deposed thirteen of them. (Comp. Hom. iii. in Act.
Postt.) Meanwhile, a contest had arisen in Egypt between Theophilus, patriarch of
Alexandria, and certain monks of Nitria, who followed the opinions of Origen. At their head
were four of one family, known as the Tall Brothers (Chrysost. ed. Montfauc. vol. xiii.) He
excommunicated them, and they fled to Constantinople, where they sought the protection of
Chrysostom and of the empress. A long dispute followed, in the course of which Theophilus, by
artfully working on the simplicity of Epiphanius, bishop of Cyprus, and other prelates hostile
to the opinions of Origen, prejudiced them against Chrysostom as implicated in the charge of
heresy with which those views had recently been branded by a synod. Eudoxia, who had summoned
Theophilus to Constantinople to answer the charge of persecuting the Nitrian monks, became his
warm friend when she saw in him her instrument for the destruction of Chrysostom; and he
arrived at the capital of the East not as an accused person, but as the judge of its
archbishop. But the same causes which had brought on Chrysostom the hatred of the higher
orders had made him the idol of the people; and as it was thought unsafe to hold a synod
against him within the city, it was summoned to meet on an estate at Chalcedon, called the
oak, whence it is known by the name of su/nodos pro\s th\n dru/n. The accusations against him
were various; his inhospitality was especially put forward (
Chrysostom's character shone even more brightly in adversity than it had done in power. In
spite of the inclement climate to which he was banished, and continual danger from the
neighbourhood of Isaurian robbers, he sent letters full of encouragement and Christian faith
to his friends at Constantinople, and began to construct a scheme for spreading the gospel
among the Persians and Goths. He met with much sympathy from other churches, especially the
Roman, whose bishop, Innocent, declared himself his warm friend and supporter. All this
excited jealousy at Constantinople, and in the summer of
The works of Chrysostom are most voluminous. They consist of:
Of the homilies, those on St. Paul are superior to anything in ancient theology, and
Thomas Aquinas e. g. the Priesthood (six
books), Providence (three books), &c.
The merits of Chrysostom as an expositor of Scripture are very great. Rejecting the allegorical interpretations which his predecessors had put upon it, he investigates the meaning of the text grammatically, and adds an ethical or doctrinal application to a perspicuous explanation of the sense. The first example of grammatical interpretation had indeed been set by Origen, many of whose critical remarks are of great merit; but Chrysostom is free from his mystical fancies, and quite as well acquainted with the language of the New Testament. The Greek expositors who followed him have done little more than copy his explanations. The commentary of Theodoret is a faithful compendium of Chrysostom's homilies, and so also are the works of Theophylact and Oecumenius, so much so that to those who wish to gain a knowledge of the results of his critical labours, the study of the two latter may be reconmmended as perfectly correct compilers from their more prolix predecessor.
Of Chrysostom's powers as a preacher the best evidence is contained in the history of his
life; there is no doubt that his eloquence produced the deepest impression on his hearers,
and while we dissent from those who have ranked him with Demosthenes and Cicero, we cannot
fail to admire the power of his language in expressing moral indignation, and to sympathise
with the ardent love of all that is good and noble, the fervent piety, and absorbing faith in
the Christian revelation, which pervade his writings. His faults are too great diffuseness
and a love of metaphor and ornament. He often repelled with indignation the applause with
which his sermons were greeted, exclaiming, " The place where you are is no theatre, nor are
you now sitting to gaze upon actors." (Hom. xvii. Matt. vii.) There are
many respects in which he shews the superiority of his understanding to the general feelings
of the age. We may cite as one example the fact, that although he had been a monk, he was far
from exalting monachism above the active duties of the Christian life. (See Hom. vii. in Heb. iv.; Hom. vii. in Ephes. iv.) " How shall we
conquer our enemiies," he asks in one place, "if some do not busy themselves about goodness
at all, while those wvho do withdraw from the battle ?" (Hom. vi. in 1
Cor. iv.) Again, he was quite free from the view of inspiration which prevailed at
Alexandria, and which considered the Bible in such a sense the word of God, as to overlook
altogether the human element in its composition, and the difference of mind and character in
its authors. Variations in trifles he speaks of as proofs of truth (Hom.
i. in Matth.); so that he united the principal intellectual with the principal moral element
necessary for an interpretator of Scripture, a critical habit of mind with a real depth of
Christian feeing. At the -amie time he was not always free from the tendencies of the time,
speaking often of miracles wrought by the relics of martyrs, consecrated oil, and the sign of
the cross, and of the efficacy of exorcism, nor does he always express himself on some of the
points already noticed with the same distinctness as in the examples cited above. His works
are historically valuable as illustrating the manners of the 4th and 5th centuries of the
Christian aera, the social state of the people, and the luxurious licence which disgraced the
capital. (See Jortin, Eccles. Hist. iv. p. 169, &c.)
The most elaborate among the ancient authorities for Chrysostom's life are the following:--
1. Palladius, bishop of Helenopolis, whose work (a dialogue) was published in a Latin
translation at Venice
2. The Ecclesiastical Histories of Socrates (lib. vi.), Sozomenus (lib. viii.), Theodoret (5.27).
3. The works of Suidas (Epist. 42), besides several others, some published and
some in MS.,of which a list will be found in Fabricius (Bibl. Graec.
vol. viii. pp. 456-460).
Among the more modern writers it will suffice to mention Erasmus (vol. iii. Ep. 1150. p. 1331, &c., ed. Lugd. Bat.), J. Frederic Meyer (Chrysostomus Lutheranus, Jena, 1680), with Hack's reply (S. J. Chrysostomus a Lutheranismo vindicatus, 1683), Cave (Script.
Eccl. list. Litter. vol. i.), Lardner (Credibility of the Gospel
Hist. part ii. vol. 10.100.1118), Tillemont (Memoires
Eccle/siastiques, vol. xi. pp. 1-405, &c.), and Montfaucon, his principal editor.
Gibbon's account (Decline and Fall, xxxii.) is compiled from Palladius,
Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, Tillemont, Erasmus, and Montfaucon. But the best of all will
be found in Neander (Kirchengesch. 2.3, p. 1440, &c.), who has also
published a separate life of Chrysostom.
Comment. impensa et studio Bernardini Slaynini Tridinenisis et Gregorii de
Gregoriis.cura Frontonis Ducaei, 1613
In Greek were
Of separate works of Chrysostom the editions and translations are almost innumerable.
The number of MSS. of Chrysostom is also immense: the principal of these are in the royal library at Paris, the imperial library at Vienna (to which collection two of great value were added by Maria Theresa), and that of St. Mark at Venice.