Prolegomena.
__________
The Life and Work of
St. John Chrysostom.
By Philip Schaff.
Chapter I
.—
Literature
.
i. editions of chrysostom’s
works.
S. Joannis
Chrysostomi
,
archiepiscopi Constantinopolitani,
Opera omnia quæ exstant vel quæ ejus nomine circumferuntur, ad
mss.
codices Gallicos, Vaticanos,
Anglicos, Germanicosque castigata, etc. Opera et studio D.
Bernardi de Montfaucon
,
monachi ordinis S.
Benedicti e congregatione S. Mauri, opem ferentibus aliis ex codem
sodalitio, monachis
. Greek and Latin, Paris, 1718–’38, in
13 vols., fol. This is the best edition, and the result of about
twenty years of the patient labor of Montfaucon (d. Dec. 21, 1741,
86 years old), and several assistants of the brotherhood of St.
Maur. More than three hundred
mss.
were
made use of, but the eight principal
mss.
,
as Field has shown, were not very carefully collated. Montfaucon,
who at the date of the completion of his edition was 83 years old,
prepared valuable prefaces to every treatise and set of homilies,
arranged the works in chronological order, and added in vol. XIII.
learned dissertations on the life, doctrine, discipline and
heresies of the age of Chrysostom.
The Benedictine edition was reprinted at
Venice, 1734–’41, in 13 vols. fol.; at Paris, ed. by
F. de Sinner (Gaume)
, 1834–’39, in 13 vols.
(an elegant edition, with some additions); and, with various
improvements and corrections, by
J. P.
Migne
, Petit-Montrouge, 1859–’63, in 13 vols. The last
is the most complete edition, but inferior in paper and type to
that of Gaume. Migne uses the critical text of Field in Matthew and
the Pauline Epp. He had previously edited a Latin Version, 1842, in
9 vols.
The edition of Sir
Henry
Savile
(Provost of Eton), Etonæ, 1612, in 8 vols. fol., is
less complete than the Benedictine edition, but gives a more
correct Greek text (as was shown by F. Dübner from a collation of
manuscripts) and valuable notes. Savile personally examined the
libraries of Europe and spent £8,000 on his edition. His wife was
so jealous of his devotion to Chrysostom that she threatened to
burn his manuscripts.
The edition of
Fronton le
Duc
, a French Jesuit, and the two brothers,
Frederick
and
Claude
Morel
, was published at Paris, 1636, in 12 vols. fol., Greek
and Latin.
A selection of Chrysostom’s works (
Opera
præstantissima
) in Greek and Latin, was edited by
T. G. Lomler,
Rudolphopoli (Rudolstadt), 1840
(unfinished).
The best edition of the
Greek
text of
the
Homilies
on
Matthew
, and all the
Pauline
Epistles
is by Dr.
Frederick Field
, of
the Church of England (d. 1883), in the “
Bibliotheca Patrum
Ecclesiæ Orientalis qui ante Orientis et Occidentis schisma
floruerunt
.” The Homilies on Matthew appeared at Cambridge,
1839, 3 vols.; the Homilies on the Epistles of Paul and the
Hebrews, Oxford, 1839–’62, in 7 vols.
The treatise
De Sacerdotio
(
περί ἱερωσύνης
)
was separately edited by
Erasmus
in Greek
(Basel, 1525, from the press of Frobenius), by
J.
Hughes
, in Greek and Latin (Cambridge, 1710), and by
J. A. Bengel
, the com
mentator, in Greek (Stuttgart,
1725, and repeatedly reprinted since at Leipzig, 1825, 1834, 1872,
by C. Tauchnitz).
Lomler
(
Chrys.
Opera
, pp. viii. and ix.) enumerates twenty-three separate
editions and translations of the treatise on the
Priesthood.
ii.
translations
.—(
a
)
german
translations.
The treatise on the Priesthood has been
translated by
Hasselbach
, 1820;
Ritter
, 1821, and others. The
Bibliothek der Kirchenväter
(Rom.
Cath.), published at Kempten in Bavaria, devotes ten small volumes
to St. Chrysostom, including the
Priesthood
, ascetic
Treatises
, and
Homilies
, translated by
Joh. Chrysostomus Mitterrutzner
, 1869–’84.
German translations of selected
Homilies
by
J. A. Cramer
(Leipzig, 1748–’51, 10 vols.);
Feder
(Augsburg, 1786);
Ph. Mayer
(Nürnberg, 1830);
W.
Arnoldi
(Trier, 1835);
Augusti
(
Predigten der Kirchenväter
, vols. I. and II., Leipzig,
1839);
Jos. Lutz
(Tübingen, 2d ed. 1859);
Gust. Leonhardi
(Leipzig, 1888, selected
sermons and orations, in vol I. of
Klassikerbibliothek der
Christl. Predigtliteratur
).
(
b
)
english
translations.
The work on the
Priesthood
was
translated by
Hollier
(London, 1728);
Bunce
(London, 1759);
Hohler
(Cambridge, 1837);
Marsh
(London, 1844);
Harris Cowper
(London,
1866); and
Stephens
(N. York, 1888,
prepared for this “Library”).
The
Homilies on the Statues
and on the
New Testament
were translated by several scholars for the
“Oxford Library of the Fathers,” 1839–’77, 16 vols. The
earlier parts (on the First Epistle to the Corinthians, and on the
Statues) are based on the text of Montfaucon and Savile, the later
parts on the improved text of Field. The Oxford translation has
been revised and annotated by American scholars for this
“Library,” and new translations of other works of St.
Chrysostom have been added, namely, the treatise on the Priesthood,
the Exhortation to the fallen Theodore, Letters, Tracts, and
Special Homilies (in this first volume).
iii. biographies and
essays.
Palladius
(a friend
of Chrysostom and bishop of Helenopolis in Bithynia, author of the
Historia Lausiaca
; according to others a different person):
Dialogus historicus de vita et conversatione beati Joannis
Chrysostomi cum Theodoro ecclesiæ Romanæ diacono
(in the
Bened. edition of the
Opera
, tom. xiii. pp. 1–89; in
Migne’s
ed., tom. i., Pars prior, 5–84, in
Greek and Latin).
Hieronymus
:
De viris
illustribus
, c. 129 (a very brief notice, mentioning only the
work
De Sacerdotio
).
Socrates
:
Hist. Eccl
. VI., 3–21.
Sozomen
:
Hist. Eccl
. VIII. 2–23.
Theodoret
:
Hist. Eccl
. V. 27–36.
B. de
Montfaucon
:
Vita Joannis Chrysost
. (in his edition of
the
Opera
, tom. xiii. 91–178; in
Migne
, I.I. 84–264):
Testimonia Veterum de S. Joann.
Chrys. scriptis, ibid
. tom. xiii. 256–292.
Tillemont
:
Mémoires
, vol. XI. pp. 1–405, 547–626
(exceedingly minute and accurate from the works of Chrys.).
F. Stilting
:
Acta Sanctorum
, Sept. 14
(the day of Chrysostom’s death), tom. iv. pp. 401–709; comp.
Stilting’s
Compendium chronologicum
gestorum et scriptorum S. Joh. Chrys
., in
Migne
, tom. i. 264–272.
Alban
Butler
:
Lives of Saints
, sub. Jan. 27 (the day of the
translation of the remains of Chrys.).
W.
Cave
:
Lives of the Fathers
, vol. III. p. 237 sqq.
J. A. Fabricius
:
Biblioth Gr
., tom.
viii. 454 sqq.
Schröckh
:
Kirchengeschichte
, vol. X. p. 309 sqq.
Gibbon
:
Decline and Fall
, ch.
xxxii. (a brilliant and appreciative sketch).
Neander
:
Der heilige
Chrysostomus
, 1821–’22, in 3 vols., second ed.
1832, third ed. Berlin, 1848, in 2 vols. (English translation of
the same by
J. C. Stapleton
, vol. I.,
London, 1838, unfinished). The best monograph in the German
language. Neander represents Chrysostom as a type of the Johannean
tendency among the Fathers, as distinct from Augustin, the
strongest type of the Pauline tendency. He gives a full account of
the opinions and religious life of Chrysostom, but without a clear
picture of his personality. (
Hase
says:
“
Neander hat uns das Lebensbild des
Chrys. aufgestellt als ein Herzensverwandter, doch nicht ohne
einige Abschwächung seiner Kraft und seines Gegensatzes zur
Regierung
.”
K. Gesch
. I. 511.)
J. Pettersson
:
Chrys. homileta
, Lund,
1833.
C. Datt
:
S. Jean Chrys. comme prédicateur
, Strassb., 1837.
A. F. Villemain
:
Tableau de l’éloquence chrétienne au quatrième
siècle
, Paris, 1849, new ed. 1857.
Perthes
:
Life of Chrysostom
, Boston,
1854.
P. Albert
:
St. Jean Chrysostome considéré comme orateur
populaire
, Paris, 1858. Abbé
E.
Martin
:
Saint Jean Chrysostome,
ses œuvres et son siècle
, Montpellier and Paris,
1861, 3 vols. Abbé
Rochet
:
Histoire de S. Jean Chrysostome
,
Paris, 1866, 2 vols.
Amédée
Thierry
:
St. Chrysostome et
l’imperatrice Eudoxie
, 2d ed., Paris, 1874
(originally in the “
Revue des deux Mondes
”).
Böhringer
:
Johann
Chrysostomus und Olympias
, in “
Kirchengesch. in Biogr
.,” vol. IX. new
ed. 1876.
Th. Förster
:
Chrysostomus in seinem Verhältniss zur Antiochenischen
Schule
, Gotha, 1869.
W.
Maggilory
:
John of the Golden Mouth
, Lond. 1871.
W. R. W. Stephens
:
St. John Chrysostom,
his Life and Times
, London, 1872, 2d ed. 1880, 3rd ed. 1883
(the best biography of Chr.).
R. W. Bush
,
Life and Times of Chrysostom
, London, Rel. Tract Soc.,
1885.
Canon
E. Venables
: in
“
Smith and Wace
,” I. 518–535 (a very good sketch).
C. Burk
: in
Herzog
, 2d ed.,
III. 225–231. E.
Dandiran
: in
Lightenberger’s
“
Encyclopédie
,” etc., III.
165–176.
Schaff
:
Church Hist
.
III. 702 sqq., 933 sqq., 1036 sq.
Hase
:
Kirchengesch
. (
Vorlesungen
, 1885), I. 510 sqq. F. W.
Farrar
:
Lives of the Fathers
,
London, 1889. Vol. II. 460–527.