The titles of ancient writings are frequently |xvii unreliable. I take it as probable that something of this sort occurred; the original heading was simply "An historical dialogue of Palladius"----that is, " by Palladius." Some copyist, noticing that the chief interlocutor was a bishop, and that "Palladius, Bishop of Helenopolis," was mentioned in the treatise, supposed that the indication of authorship was meant to identify the imaginary character in the Dialogue, and took upon himself to add the rest. Then a later scribe, who knew that Palladius, the author of the History, had been translated to Aspona, inserted the correction. The title "Golden-mouthed," at least, is unquestionably an addition; it took the place of "John" in common parlance at a later time----about the middle of the fifth century. This addition casts suspicion upon the rest of the heading. But why should Palladius of Helenopolis have been picked out as the interlocutor from all the Eastern bishops mentioned, unless there was a tradition, or more probably written evidence in the heading as it then stood, specially connecting a Palladius with the treatise, not as interlocutor, but as author? There certainly was such a tradition; in a list of eighteen persons who wrote on the life of Chrysostom, contained in a "very ancient codex" examined by Petavius, "Palladius, Bishop of Helenopolis," is included; Photius says that "Palladius was a bishop, and wrote of Chrysostom's doings in the form of a dialogue."
Palladius was by no means an uncommon name at the time; Dom Butler finds eleven persons who bore it. If the author was named Palladius, the question arises: Was this Palladius the Bishop of Helenopolis, the author also of the Lausiac History, or another man of the same name? Bigot goes so far as to suggest that another Palladius succeeded the Lausiac author at Helenopolis, and wrote the Dialogue.
The learned Benedictine, Dom Cuthbert Butler, Abbot of Downside Abbey, to whom we owe an |xviii edition of the Lausiac History (Cambridge, 1904) which for accurate scholarship and minute research ranks with the finest works of the kind ever issued, forms the conclusion that both writings have the same authorship (in his monograph Authorship of the Dialogus de Vita Chrysostomi, Rome, 1908). Bardenhewer says that " the author of the Lausiac History is easily identified with the biographer of Chrysostom," though, for reasons which he does not give, he adds that "he must not be confounded with the Bishop of Helenopolis." He had not the advantage of reading Dom Butler's work, which shows conclusively that the Lausiac History was written by this bishop.
Abbot Butler first weighs the evidence of style, and admits that there is a wide difference, not only in vocabulary, but also in use of phrases and manner of diction generally. We know that an author is usually rather proud of a telling word or phrase, and is apt to repeat it again and again; and every one has little tricks of expression, which are apt to occur all through his various works. About seventy words in Dom Butler's Index appear in the Dialogue; but many even of these are common in Patristic literature, and a great many curious words, as well as a great many characteristic expressions and phrases, are found in the one, not in the other. Mr. Clarke remarks that a distinguishing feature of Palladius style is his incessant use of the particle οὖν ; this is not the case in the Dialogue. The Dialogue abounds in grammatical mistakes; the author continually forgets the construction with which he began one of his long sentences, and changes the subject in its course. Few such errors occur in the simpler narratives of the History . The Dialogue has many more quotations from Scripture, even in proportion to its length (219, as against 50). This is partly because |xix in the non-historical portions the author is justifying Chrysostom's actions by scriptural precedent; but while the quotations in the History are brief, in the Dialogue they are sometimes very lengthy. Only eight are common to both treatises, though in two other cases words from the same context are quoted to the same effect.
On the other hand, Butler tells us that Dr. Zöckler speaks of "the essential similarity of style," and that Dr. Preuschen considers the dissimilarity not sufficient to disprove common authorship. The reader of one constantly meets with strange words, or uses of words, or phrases, which recall the other; he feels that the writer who devised, or appropriated, one set of words or expressions was capable of doing so with the other. If we do not find so many "tricks of expression" as we should expect, we certainly find a large number.
Butler prints side by side thirteen such noteworthy phrases, showing a remarkable amount of similarity. I have collected about seventy more, which may be found through the key-words given in my Index I.; many other verbal coincidences might be added. Further, Butler brings out a still more striking point: that both authors (if they be two) use the same expressions about the same persons and things. I think that any reader who takes the trouble to compare, not only the words and usages of words, but the phrases and passages in which they occur, in the respective treatises, will see how unlikely it is that two separate authors should have used so many identical expressions and descriptions. Even one who does not know Greek will agree that so many characteristic phrases occurring alike in Coriolanus and in Cymbeline would be a strong argument for identity of authorship.
Style, however, is largely a matter of taste; Abbot Butler's scholarly instinct leads him to attach more |xx weight to the comparative use of Scripture texts. In both treatises the quotations are made freely, more particularly in the Dialogue, variations being introduced which are not found in any existing MS. It must not be supposed that ancient writers habitually "verified their references." There was no Authorized Version in those days, and the discovery of a number of passages in the cumbrous roll-volumes of manuscript Scriptures, undivided into chapters and verses, without the help of a concordance, would require great time and trouble. We have to compare the use of Scripture by ancient writers with that of a preacher, rather than with that of a writer, of to-day.
But we know that the monks, of whom Palladius was one, devoted much of their time to committing the sacred writings to memory (pp. 131, 149); many knew whole books by heart (Pall., L. H., xi., xxvi., xxxvii.). Quotations may thus be regarded as tolerably well representing MS. texts; at least, it is generally more or less clear when a variation is due to defective memory, when to difference in the original documents. Thus our author gets into trouble over his quotation from Ezek. xxxiv., in which he evidently trusted to his memory; the two long passages from Deut. xxxiii. and Ezek. ix. present but slight variations from the text, and one of these (Deut. xxxiii. 16, 17) is of such a nature as to suggest that it was found in the text the author used.
Dom Butler points out that in both treatises St. Matt. xi. 18 is combined with St. Matt. xxi. 32, and that in each case the quotation is prefaced with "in reproach." Also that St. Mark ii. 16 is combined with St. Matt. ix. 11; both in a manner which has no MS. support or literary parallel. Both quote 1 St. John ii. 18, with the remark that "it was the last hour 400 years ago." It is almost incredible that this should be mere coincidence.
Here again I have carried Dom Butler's argument further. An examination of the O.T. quotations in the two treatises shows that where such variations |xxi occur from the text of the LXX known as "B" (which Dr. Swete considers nearest the original version) as are obviously not due to lapse of memory, but are confirmed by MSS. which we possess, these variations are all found in one, or both, of the MSS. known as "Aleph" or "A." It would certainly be strange that, with the multiplication of copies of the Septuagint which must have taken place by A.D. 400, two different writers should have stumbled upon the same texts. It is specially remarkable that in one text (Ecclus. viii. 9) inaccurately quoted from memory in both treatises, exactly the same alteration of words, and exactly the same alteration of order, appears in both. Is not this just what we find in the habitual misquotations in which a preacher of to-day is found to persist?
Again, the author of the Dialogue, like Palladius of Helenopolis, has seen Egyptian temples (p. 36); he has conversed with Hierax (p. 145); he is one of the forty bishops who struggled on Chrysostom's side; he is full of admiration for monks; he knows the same people----Isidore, Ammon, Dioscorus, Chronius, Macarius, Olympias. Finally, the knowledge of Palladius' doings shown by the writer is extraordinary, if he was other than Palladius himself. In four passages he gives a vivid and minute account of incidents in which "Palladius of Helenopolis" is stated to have taken part: the deputation to Constantinople (p. 29), the incidents connected with the Synod of The Oak |xxii (p. 66 ff.), the mission to Ephesus (p. 125 ff.), and the journey of the Eastern bishops (p. 178), which continues the narrative of the deputation. Only the account of the death-bed scene approaches these; details of this he would easily obtain. And he not only uses the same literary devices as in the History (such as "a soldier told me," "they say,"----p. 178----"it is said") when recording incidents of which he was an eyewitness; but once (p. 29) he forgets that he is writing anonymously, and passes, like the author of the History, from indirect to direct narration, as St. Luke does in the Acts. We note that in both treatises proverbs and sententious observations are frequent, and that in both an inordinate amount of space is devoted to food and drink----or abstinence from them.
It is, of course, possible that some later writer "edited" the original work. It may be fanciful to suggest that pains seem to be taken to avoid the use of the particle "therefore," as though the author, or his editor, had deliberately substituted other connecting words; the particle appears at times in several sentences together, as if the self-imposed rule had been forgotten. But we may account for the difference of style which has led some to deny to the author of the History the authorship of the Dialogue, by considerations of the difference of subject, the lapse of time, and the likelihood of his employment of an amanuensis.
There is no need to argue the probability that the smaller work preceded the greater, since the design of both is stated to be the same----to edify readers by setting before them high examples of the Christian life. When the author found that the brief records of the History proved of interest and value, he would naturally try to do the same thing on a larger scale with the life of a single man, the most eminent Christian of the day. He could not write a lengthy treatise at Syene, if only for the want of "prime parchment" (p. 173), and is not likely to have done so during his stay in Galatia, with his mind |xxiii distracted by current events, and his uncertainty as to his future. The reference to Theophilus (who died in 412) on p. 190 does not necessarily imply that he was still alive; on the other hand, the mention of a collection of Chrysostom's writings, especially of his letters (p. 100), seems to demand a certain lapse of time.
Palladius wrote his History, as we saw, when he was about fifty-three years old. He had gone about, like Herodotus, with a notebook----mental, if not material----from which he afterwards drew his narratives and tales. Probably he had often rehearsed them in conversation, as men do, to fellow-travellers, and to little knots of friends interested in the monkish life, in the winter evenings, and wrote them down much as he had told them by word of mouth. Hence the "simple and natural air" of which Tillemont speaks. But in the Dialogue he is setting himself a more serious task. He is aiming at the standard set him by his models, Plato and Chrysostom himself; the author of a chatty volume of reminiscences naturally adopts a more grandiose style when making a solid contribution to literature. But he had not the gifts to do this successfully; he falls into the "more affected style of a man who has some taint of naughty rhetoric" (Tillemont). His mind had been widened, and his vocabulary enlarged, by his intercourse with men, since the days when, as a monk, he had conned over the materials of his History; but the expressions which he had used of his friends were still connected with them in his mind.
But more. He had lived a hard life; after thirteen years of ascetic toil as a monk, he had travelled through Palestine, to Constantinople, visited Rome, suffered on Chrysostom's behalf, endured a trying journey to Syene, and there spent six years in exile. What had been the effect of these years of hardship upon his health, and especially upon his eyes, in the sand and glare of Egypt? |xxiv
We have spoken of the kind of grammatical errors which are frequent in the Dialogue; are they not just such as might be expected to occur if a man who was more or less accustomed to writing for himself was dictating to an amanuensis? Not being able to see his sentences as they rolled from his pen, his thoughts wandering while the scribe committed them to paper, he would be very likely to fall into such mistakes. In several places where the text needs correction, the slips seem to be due to mishearing as much as to mis-copying; in one passage especially (p. 108) the words are thrown down almost at random, as if the reciter had gone too fast.
"My conclusion," Dom Butler is good enough to write to me, "has been accepted by the great majority of the critics, though a Dutch professor, Aengenvoort, has contested it." I venture to hope that the additional evidence which I have collected may have the same effect upon the Dutch professor as the arguments of the imaginary bishop in support of the scholarly divine whom he held in honour had upon the deacon. "But if any one can speak more truthfully," by tracing the vocabulary of the author elsewhere in Patristic literature, " I will welcome him as a corrector of error and a lover of the brethren."
In any case, the author is so clearly a contemporary, and in many cases a careful eye-witness, of the events which he narrates, that his work may be regarded as a reliable authority for the life of the saint.
I have followed Bigot's text, as given by Migne ( Patr. Gr., vol. xlvii.), though where Migne offers a |xxv good emendation or conjecture, I have not scrupled to avail myself of it, without necessarily calling attention to the matter in the notes.
The notes are somewhat more full than those generally given in this series of translations. It is my hope that the attraction of St. Chrysostom's name, and the simplicity of a biography as compared with a theological treatise, may secure a wider circle of readers from among those who do not make theology and Church antiquities their special study. I have therefore given some information upon points of history and Church life which such readers may not have leisure to investigate for themselves. I have referred to other writers of the time, where their records amplify, or explain, events in the Dialogue, and given a certain number of quotations from Chrysostom's writings, to show how far the author's thoughts were directly influenced by them. Also I have given references to the Lausiac History ----not by any means so fully as would be possible, but to keep in the reader's mind the question of authorship, by showing a few of the resemblances which justify the assignment of both treatises to the same author.
The numbers at the top of the page refer to the pages in Migne's text. I have provided headings for the chapters and for divisions within the chapters for the convenience of the English reader.
An excellent Life of Chrysostom was published by Dean Stephens (John Murray, 1880), which supersedes an earlier Life by Neander (1848). St. Jean Chrysostome, by Aimé Puech (Paris: Lecoffre, 1913), a slighter work, combines French insight with French grace of style and phrase, while Dom Chr. Baur has published (Louvain, 1907) a "very complete and conscientious" study of Saint Jean Chrysostome et ses œuvres dans l'histoire littéraire.
[Footnotes renumbered and moved to the end]
1. See especially pp. 154, 113.
2. Socrates, Hist. Eccl., vi. 3. Sozomen has a similar judgment.