But in whatever mode the pastoral relation is estab- lished or maintained, it carries with it responsibilities of the gravest import, demanding on the part of the pastor a character of the highest excellence, deportment the most exemplary, diligence untiring, quenchless zeal, whole-hearted consecration to his work, discretion equal to any emergency, and the highest skill in resolving doubts, and patient perseverance in settling differences and removing difficulties. In short, he needs to be a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, possessing tlie mind that w^as also in Christ, and rightly dividing the word of truth to all with whom he may have to do.
III. To set fortli these rcsponsil)ilitii's and duties in their varied aspects and applications is the task of pas- toral theology, and to this task many minds and pens have been devoted from the apostolic age down to the present. In fact, the pastoral epistles of Paul to Tim- othy and Titus form the inspired basis of all that can be wisely written upuu the subject, unless it be founded
upon other portions of the Scriptures. Nevertheless it is interesting to trace the deviations and correspond- ences of views that have prevailed in reference to so important a subject at different periods and in different circumstances.
Notwithstanding the verj' considerable number of books which may be enumerated as belonging to the literature of this subject, very few of them will l)e found to treat it systematically or from a strictly theological point of view. By far the greater number are simph' preceptive and explanatory, addressed in didactic form to young ministers. Some embrace preaching among the pastoral duties, and give homiletical advices to a greater or less extent. Others leave the subject of pulpit address to the more full discussion of treatises on homiletics. Aside from the books to be named below, much that is valuable relating to this subject may be gleaned from clerical biography, especiaUy from the lives of ministers who have had marked success as pas- tors. Summary views, often very forcibly expressed, are also to be found in many pamphlets, such as ordi- nation and installation sermons, and the official charges of bishops to candidates fr)r ordination. Occasionally sermons and charges of this nature are to be found in the published works of their authors. See, for exam- ple, the works of archbishop Seeker and of Rev. Robert Hall, also the Remains of Richard Cecil.
Incidental references to the subject of this article, and occasional fragments bearing upon it, may be found in patristic and mediteval literature, representing each suc- cessive century from the first to the sixteenth. Some of the fragmentary treatises referred to are embodied in letters, some in sermons, and some in manuals relat- ing to the moral or ceremonial obligations of the clergy of different orders. The only ancient books of any value at the present time are those by Chrysostom on the Priesthood, and by Gregory of Nazianzura entitled aiiu- Xoyi^TiKOQ, especiall}' ch. Ivii-lxv. These books, both in title and contents, prove how completely the scriptu- ral idea of the Christian ministry had been perverted as early as the 4th century. Nevertheless a few interest- ing and excellent things may be gleaned from them. Between the 5th and 15th centuries inclusive the greater portion of what was written on the subject related to the mysteries, the sacraments, the vestments, and the ceremonies of the Church. Another considerable portion of the writings in question was of a melancholy type, indicating the low and declining condition of minis- terial character. In the 5th century, Salvianus of Mar- seilles inveighed against the avarice of priests, and Gil- das the Wise wrote against the vices of the clergy. In the 8th century John Damascenns contrasted the good and the bad bishop. The Roman Catholic Church re- lies mainly on the Offices by Ambrose, the Be pastorali cura of pope Leo the Great, and especially on the Cura jmstoralis of Gregory the (ireat. With the opening of tlie second chiliad (i.e. the 11th century) better and more numerous productions in pastoral theology ap- peared— Bernard's Libn v de consider atione, his works De morihus ef officio episcoporuin and De vita et morihus clericorum. But pastoral theology then ran in a narrow groove — that of confession; all pastoral works were guides for the confessors (materials of this class of literature in the German are given by Gcffckcu, Bilder-Kalechis- mtts des 15. Jahrk. vol. i). The reformatory tendencies of the Middle Ages found expression in works which pointed out the pastoral neglect Thus in the 14th cen- tury Alvarus Pelagii produced a work on the Grief of the Cluirch, describing the depraved manners and vices of ecclesiastics. Others subse(p\enth' wrote on the Wounds of the Church and the Vices of the Clergy. A more cheerful book was that of Thomas Canlimprateusis of the 15th century, who wrote on the Proprieties of the Bees, describing under that figure the office and endow- ment of prelates. From and after the period of the Ref- ormation this class of writings appeared much more nu- merously, and now the literary, more or less systematic,
PASTORAL THEOLOGY
PASTORAL THEOLOGY
treatment became a distinguishing feature. At the be- ginning of the IGth century Erasmus published his En- chiridion Militis Chrisliani, in wliich he described and satirized the loose habits and vices of the monks and clergy. In 1535 he issued his Kcdesiastes sive Concio- nalur Evanr/elicus. Luther in 1523 wrote a tract en- titled De Inslituendis 3Hinstris Ecclesice. Bucer wrote Ue animaium curd. Melancthon, besides his Ratio brevissima Concionandi. published a small -ivork entitled De Officiis Condonatoris. Zwingli also published a tract entitled Pastor, quo docetur quibus notis veri pas- tores a fulsis discerni possinf. In fact, most of the Re- formers treated the subject of ministerial life and duties to a greater or less extent in some form, most frequent- ly, however, in sermons and comments on the Scrip- tures, as did Wicklitfe and Latimer.