21 As to the doctrines which separate the Greek, Roman and Protestant churches, Chrysostom faithfully represents the Greek Catholic church prior to the separation from Rome. In addition to the œcumenical doctrines of the Nicene Creed, he expresses strong views on baptismal regeneration, the real presence, and the eucharistic sacrifice, yet without a clearly defined theory, which was the result of later controversies; hence it would be unjust to press his devotional and rhetorical language into the service of transubstantiation, or consubstantiation, or the Roman view of the mass.32 His extravagant laudations of saints and martyrs promoted that refined form of idolatry which in the Nicene age began to take the place of the heathen hero-worship. But it is all the more remarkable that he furnishes no support to Mariolatry, which soon after his death triumphed in the Greek as well as the Latin church. He was far from the idea of the sinless perfection and immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary. He attributes her conduct at the wedding of Cana (John ii. 3, 4) to undue haste, a sort of unholy ambition for the premature display of the miraculous power of her Son; and in commenting on Matthew xii. 46–49, he charges her and his brethren with vanity and a carnal mind.33 He does not use the term theotokos, which twenty years after his death gave rise to the Nestorian controversy, and which was endorsed by the third and fourth œcumenical councils. from the number of pages in his History given to each: St. Augustin is favored with 187, Chrysostom with 20. But he whose judgment is not cramped by the shackles of some harsh and stiff theory of gospel truth will surely allow that Chrysostom not only preached the gospel, but lived it. To the last moment of his life he exhibited that calm, cheerful faith, that patient resignation under affliction, and untiring perseverance for the good of others, which are preeminently the marks of a Christian saint. The cause for which he fought and died in a corrupt age was the cause of Christian holiness.” 32 In his comments on Heb. ix. 26 (Hom. XVII. on Hebrews, in the Bened. ed. XII. 241 sq.; in the Oxford translation, p. 213), he expresses himself on the sacrificial aspect of the eucharist in these words: “Christ is our High Priest, who offered the sacrifice that cleanses us. That sacrifice we offer now also, which was then offered, which cannot be exhausted. This is done in remembrance of what was then done. For, saith He, ‘Do this in re- membrance of Me.’ It is not another sacrifice that we make (ποιοῦμεν), as the High Priest of old, but always the same, or rather we perform a remembrance of a sacrifice (μ‚λλον δš ‡ν€μνησιν ἐργαζόμεθα θυσίας).” The word remembrancewould favor the Protestant rather than the Roman view, which demands an actual, though unbloody, repetition of the sacrifice of the cross in the mass. Other passages, however, are much stronger, though highly rhetorical, e.g., De Sacerd. III. 4: “When you behold the Lord slain, and lying there, and the priest standing over the sacrifice and praying, and all stained with that precious blood, do you then suppose you are among men, and standing upon earth? Are you not immediately transported to Heaven?” In another place he says, “Christ lies slain (τεθυμ™νος) upon the altar.” And yet the people were so indifferent that Chrysostom laments: “In vain is the daily sacrifice, in vain stand we at the altar; there is no one to take part” (Third Hom. on Ephesians). 33 See his 21st Homily on John, and his 44th Homily on Matthew. Comp. Stephens, p. 417 sqq. 32 His Theology and Exegesis.