As to the question of the papacy he considered the bishop of Rome as the successor of Peter, the prince of the Apostles, and appealed to him in his exile against the unjust condemnation of the Council at the Oak. Such appeals furnished the popes with a welcome opportunity to act as judges in the controversies of the Eastern church, and greatly strengthened their claims. But his Epistle to Innocent was addressed also to the bishops of Milan and Aquileia, and falls far short of the language of submission to an infallible authority. He conceded to the pope merely a primacy of honor (prostasia, ?rche), not a supremacy of jurisdiction. He calls the bishop of Antioch (Ignatius and Flavian) likewise a successor of Peter, who labored there according to the express testimony of Paul. In commenting on Gal. i. 18, he represents Paul as equal in dignity (¸sotimos) to Peter. [34] He was free from jealousy of Rome, but had he lived during the violent controversies between the patriarch of new Rome and the pope of old Rome, it is not doubtful on which side he would have stood.
In one important point Chrysostom approaches the evangelical theology of the Reformation, his devotion to the Holy Scriptures as the only rule of faith. "There is no topic on which he dwells more frequently and earnestly than on the duty of every Christian man and woman to study the Bible: and what he bade others do, that he did pre-eminently himself." [35] He deemed the reading of the Bible the best means for the promotion of Christian life. A Christian without the knowledge of the Scriptures is to him a workman without tools. Even the sight of the Bible deters from sin, how much more the reading. It purifies and consecrates the soul, it introduces it into the holy of holies and brings it into direct communion with God. [36]
[26] Allegorical interpretation makes the writer say something else than what he meant, ?llo m?n ?goreuei, ?llo d? noei.
[27] On the school of Antioch, see Schaff, Church Hist. II. 816-818; III. 612, 707, 937; Neander, Chrysost. I. 35 sqq.; Förster, Chrysostomus in seinem Verhältniss zur Antioch. Schule (1869); Reuss, Geschichte des N. T., 6th ed. (1887), secs. 320, 518, 521; Farrar, History of Interpretation (1886), pp. 210 sqq., 220 sqq. Ruess pays this tribute to Chrysostom (p. 593): "The Christian people of ancient times never enjoyed richer instruction out of the Bible than from the golden mouth of a genuine and thoroughly equipped biblical preacher." Farrar calls Chrysostom "The ablest of Christian homilists and one of the best Christian men," and "the bright consummate flower of the school of Antioch."
[28] Westcott & Hort, Gr. Test., II. 141 sqq.; Schaff, Companion to the Greek Test. (3rd ed.), p. 206.
[29] Ruess, l. c. sec. 320 (p. 359); Holtzmann, Einleitung ins N.T., ed. II. (1886), p. 171.
[30] So called because they taught that the Son is unlike or dissimilar (?nomoios) to the Father and of a different substance, in opposition to the Nicene doctrine of equal substance (homoousia), and the semi-Arian doctrine of like, or similar substance (homoiousia).
[31] I add the remarks of Stephens on the difference between Chrysostom and Augustin (p. 430): "Unquestionable as the intellectual genius of Chrysostom was, yet it is rather in the purity of his moral character, his single-minded boldness of purpose, and the glowing piety which burns through all his writings, that we find the secret of his influence. If it was rather the mission of Augustin to mould the minds of men so as to take a firm grasp of certain great doctrines, it was the mission of Chrysostom to inflame the whole heart with a fervent love of God. Rightly has he been called the great teacher of consummate holiness, as Augustin was the great teacher of efficient grace; rightly has it been remarked that, like Fénélon, he is to be ranked among those who may be termed disciples of St. John, men who seem to have been pious without intermission from their childhood upwards, and of whose piety the leading characteristics are ease, cheerfulness and elevation; while Augustin belongs to the disciples of St. Paul, those who have been converted from error to truth, or from sin to holiness, and whose characteristics are gravity , earnestness, depth. If Augustin has done more valuable service in building up the church at large, Chrysostom is the more lovable to the individual, and speaks out of a heart overflowing to God and man, unconstrained by the fetters of a severe and rigid system. Yet it is precisely on this account that he has not been so generally appreciated as he deserves. His tone is too catholic for the Romanist, or for the sectarian partisan of any denomination. It would be easy to produce abundant instances of his oratorial abilities; I wish it were in my power to record as many of his evangelical excellencies.' Such is the verdict of a narrow-minded historian [Milner], and the comparative estimation in which he held St. Augustin and St. Chrysostom may be inferred 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 remembrance of Me.' It is not another sacrifice that we make (poioumen), as the High Priest of old, but always the same, or rather we perform a remembrance of a sacrifice (m'llon d? ?n?mnesin ergazometha thusias)." The word remembrance would 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 (tethum?nos) 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.
[34] See his letter to Innocent I. and his comments on Gal. i. and ii. The passages of Chrysostom on Peter and his successors are collected in Berington & Kirk, The Faith of Catholics, ed. 3, vol. II. 32-35, 80, but the important passage from his Commentary on Galatians is omitted. See Treat, The Catholic Faith (1888), p. 396.
[35] Stephens, p. 422.
[36] Comp. the rich extracts from his writings bearing on the Bible, in Neander, I. 211-226.