The Dialogue of Palladius concerning the Life of St. John Chrysostom (1921). Introduction by Herbert Moore. Pp. vii-xxv.
INTRODUCTION
[by Herbert M OORE ]
This treatise, obviously written by one who had full information, and was an eye-witness of many of the incidents which he narrates, is our best authority for the life of St. Chrysostom; we have other "lives," of no great value, by Theodore, Bishop of Trimithus (c. 680), George, Bishop of Alexandria (c. 620), " Leo the Emperor" (c. 900), and an anonymous writer; and accounts contained in the fifth-century Church Histories of Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret and Philostorgius, the theologian Photius (c. 850), and the pagan writer Zosimus, besides a few other references in ancient authors. From these various sources we are able to draw not only a record of Chrysostom's life, but also a picture of the man himself; and, incidentally, to gather light upon the life of the Church in his days, and information as to uses and observances, some of which have fallen into desuetude, while others are still practised among us.
The more carefully we study his life, the more lovable the man appears, and the more conscious we are of our debt to him, for the noble standard of devotional, ministerial and intellectual Christian life which he so fearlessly, faithfully and outspokenly maintained, and bequeathed to us; and the more admirable seems his life, by contrast with the lives of many of his contemporaries, pagan and, alas! even Christian. But he had the defects of his good qualities. "He was a man who in his enthusiasm for virtue was over-bitter, and given to wrath rather |viii than to modest dealings; from the uprightness of his life he took no thought for the future, and from his simplicity of character acted without deep consideration. He used unmeasured freedom of speech with those whom he encountered, and as a teacher greatly benefited his hearers; but was considered by those who did not know him to be arrogant in his behaviour."
The Dialogue shows us the grounds on which these criticisms were based, and the author offers various answers to them. "He had qualities admirable in a man of action; what could be more precious than his generous and sanguine enthusiasm? He lacked the command over himself, the coolness and tact, of a politician; we shall often notice this; but if he had possessed these, would he have been Chrysostom?" (Puech).
It is impossible here to deal with Chrysostom's literary work, which is more abundant than that of any other Greek Church writer. While at Antioch he preached, chiefly during Lent, series after series of homilies, or expositions of Scripture, in which he dealt with most of the books of the Bible. "I think," writes Isidore of Pelusium, "that if the divine Paul had wished to expound his own writings, he would not have spoken otherwise than this famous master; so remarkable is his exposition for its contents, beauty of form, and propriety of expression." Suidas, in the tenth century, says: "Since the world began, no one has possessed such gifts as an orator: he alone merited the name of Golden-mouthed and divine orator." Most of these homilies were taken down by shorthand writers, and apparently corrected by himself. There are also extant a large number of sermons on special subjects, the most famous of |ix which are the twenty-one "On the Statues," delivered at Antioch in 387, when the city was threatened with destruction by the Emperor, in punishment for a disloyal outbreak; and many treatises on moral and theological subjects, including his splendid work "On the Priesthood." Most of his remains are of the period of his life spent at Antioch; at Constantinople he lacked the time, if not the opportunity, for such highly intellectual work. A considerable number of spurious works are also attributed to him, including some which were probably forged, or at least misreported, by his enemies, in order to enrage the Empress against him.
Chrysostom's career is one more exemplification of the perennial conflict between the Church and the world. The Church is to act as the salt of the earth, the city set on an hill, the light of the world, the temple of the Living God; her ideals will always be too high even for the saints to attain, but it is the few who reach forth unto those things which are before that raise the average attainments of mankind. Yet she must not break the bruised reed, or quench the smoking flax, by pitching her requirements too high for the practical use of the ordinary man living in the world, and condemning things which God hath not condemned. She may neither make the heart of the righteous sad, nor strengthen the hands of the wicked, by promising them life.
Thus the problem before the Church at all times is to steer her way between the two extremes of undue severity and compliant subservience. Hence men of different temperaments will form different judgments upon Chrysostom's career. One temperament is all for severity, sometimes with the highest motives, sometimes, unconsciously it may be, |x otherwise; it demands asceticism in life, rigour in doctrine, strictness in the enjoyment of the pleasures of the world. Another, with high or (again perhaps unconsciously) with low motives, thinks that men may best be won by being content with a low standard, with an eye to the possibilities of the multitude, rather than of the few; it seeks to teach that all worldly things are gifts of God, richly given us to enjoy. The first condemns the second as truckling to the world; the second looks upon the first as a dreamer of vain dreams. The first rebukes out of season as well as in season; the second marvels at his want of tact.
There can be no doubt which is the point of view taken in this Dialogue. Records of events which so deeply stirred the hearts of men are naturally coloured by the prejudices of their writers; it is hard to believe that all the denunciations of Chrysostom's enemies contained in the treatise were truly deserved. The strong common sense shown in Chrysostom's writings, though sometimes obscured by extravagance of expression and ignorance of economic laws, in regard to the riches, the pomps and the vanities of the world, generally preserved him from the bitterness with which his disciple denounces them. But those who fall short of our author's ideal have "leaped upon the ministry," dealt deceitfully with the word of God, and perverted the Christian teaching. No language is too strong; the priest who has not the virtues of the monk is worthy only of a company of satyrs, or a priesthood of Dionysus. True, " the sword could not be blunt, or the bold word be left unspoken," and Chrysostom did indeed "lift up his voice more clearly than a trumpet." Yet in spite of Palladius' defence of Chrysostom's zeal, it is difficult to rise from the study of the various records without forming the conclusion that in regard to Eudoxia he spake unadvisedly with his lips; it seems impossible to doubt that the charges of comparing her publicly to Jezebel and Herodias |xi were founded on fact. Because his eloquence had stirred the populace to reform, and he had the support of many warm friends, he thought himself, like Savonarola in later days, strong enough to attack her; and the shining of his light in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation was extinguished for ever. Was he right or wrong? We answer the question according to our respective temperaments. Yet whatever be our judgment, we know that the world does, after all, respect high ideals, and unconsciously is raised by them, though it may seem to go on its own way, and prefer to join in the censure upon the outspoken tongue. Chrysostom's life and death were not in vain.
So far as we can judge, making all allowances for the prejudices of our author, Theophilus' motives were not good, but evil. Chrysostom, like Cranmer, appealed to an oecumenical council, which never was held, and never can be held. "This world is a wrestling-ground," and Palladius sees that there is no such rough-and-ready way to solve our problems. We are come to the general assembly of the firstborn, which are written in heaven; but we are also come to God, the Judge of all.
But the world is not only a spiritual force, seductive and attractive, continually tending to drag the ideal down to its own level. It has also its coercive power; its rulers bear the sword, and can help forward or restrain the work of the Church. Its good-will may be won by "tables" or by "flattery," but always with disastrous results. We find Chrysostom and the monks, no less than Theophilus and Atticus, appealing to the civil power, and using it, not as an impartial judge between conflicting parties, but as a means of forwarding their respective views of the doctrine and discipline of the Church. But Chrysostom found at last that the sword borne by the temporal power is two-edged. Theophilus' party gained the upper hand, by a dexterous use of the selfish passions which animate rulers and subjects |xii alike; and the Church never regained her position as a power for righteousness. No check was left upon the absolutism of the Emperor, henceforth supreme in Church and State. No Ambrose said to him, " Thou hast imitated the guilt of David; imitate him also in thy penance;" no Hildebrand could raise the swan-like cry, "I have loved righteousness and hated iniquity, therefore I die in exile." But as the world advances in its conceptions of the worth of the individual, and of his rights and liberties, absolutism becomes impossible, and the long-pent-up forces at last break out in revolution, the more savage in proportion to the repression of the past. "Though the wheels of God grind slowly, yet they grind exceeding small." Our author, like other early historians, may or may not have been right in attributing various disasters to the Divine wrath at the judicial murder of Chrysostom; we see God's Hand in greater things than these. A meeting of forty discontented bishops in a suburb, fourteen hundred years ago, may seem of small importance to us; but it was one of the first steps to the placing of the Church, like the State, under the heel of the Emperors----the conception which has prevailed through the centuries in the Eastern Church.
A certain nameless bishop is represented as paying a visit to Rome, where he has a conversation, lasting several days (p. 148), with a deacon, Theodorus, who has heard only one side of the story, emanating from Chrysostom's enemies, and wishes to know the truth, both as to the facts, and as to the cavils at Chrysostom's personal character, embodied in the charges brought against him at The Oak. Other persons are present during the discussion (pp. 6, 60, 119, 165), one of whom joins in for a moment; and the final result is that Theodorus rejects the disparaging accounts he has received, and utters an eulogy upon the martyred saint. The supposed date of the Dialogue is shortly after Chrysostom's death, as the news of it which has reached the deacon needs confirmation (p. 33). |xiii
The events referred to in the Dialogue may be arranged in historical order thus:----
A.D. PAGE
344-347. Chrysostom born at Antioch 37
His education 37
370. Baptized 38
373. Enters monastery near Antioch 38
381. Ordained deacon at Antioch 39
386.. Ordained priest at Antioch 40
398 (Feb. 26). Ordained bishop at Constantinople 42
Reforms in the Church and in the city 44 ff.
399. Healing of the schism at Antioch 50
400. Revolt of Gainas 122