252 TIIIKD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
spirit, of good and evil angels, of the all-niling Pro^ddence, of our creation and regeneration, of tlie divine covenants, of the first and second appearing of Christ, of his incarnation, passion, and resurrection, of the end of all things and the imiversa. judgment, and ahove all, of the mystery of the hlessed Trinity • and he must be able to teach and elucidate these doctrines of faith in popular discourse. Gregory sets forth Jesus as the perfect type of the priest, and next to him he presents in an eloquent picture the apostle Paul, who lived only for Christ, and under all circumstances and amid all trials by sea and land, among Jews and heathen, in hunger and thirst, in cold and nakedness, in freedom aud bonds, attested the divine power of the gospel for the salvation of the world. This ideal, however, Gregory found but seldom realized. He gives on the whole a very unftivorable ac(;ount of the bishops, and even of the most celebrated councils of his day, charging them with ignorance, unworthy means of promotion, ambition, flattery, pride, luxury, and worldly mindedness. He says even : " Our danger now is, that the holiest of all offices will become the aiost ridiculous ; for the highest clerical places are gained not so much by virtue, as by iniquity ; no longer the most worthy, but the most powerful, take the episcopal chair." ' Though his descriptions, especially in the satirical poem " to himself and on the bishops," composed probably after his resignation in Constantinople (a. d. 381), may be in many points exaggerated, yet they were in general drawn from life and from ex- ])erience.^
Jerome also, in his epistles, unsparingly attacks the clergy of his time, especially the Roman, accusing tlicm of avarice and legacy hunting, and drawing a sarcastic picture of a cleri-
' Orat. xliii. c. 46 (Opera, ed. Bened. torn. i. p. 791), in tlie Latin translation : "Nunc autcm periculura est, ne ordo omnium sanctissimus, sit quoquc omnium maxime ridiculus. Non enim virtutc inagis, quam malcficio ct scclero, sacordotium paratur ; nee digniorum, sed potentiorum, throni sunt." In the following chapter, however, he represents his friend Basil as a model of all virtues.
* Comp. Ullmann : Gregor von Nazianz, Erste Beilage, p. 609-527, where the views of this church father on the clerical office and the clergy of his time are pre- Bented at large in his own words. Also Gicseler, i., ii. § 103, gives copious extracts from the writings of Gregory on the vices of the cL-rgy.
§ 51. MOKAL CHARACTER OF THE CLEKGY IN GENERAL. 253
cal fop, who, with his fine scented clot, es, was more like a bridegroom than a clergyman.' Of the rnral clergy, however^ the heathen Ammianus MarcelHnus bears a testimony, which is certainly reliable, to their simplicity, contentment, and virtue.'
Chrysostom, in his celebrated treatise on the priesthood,' written probably before his ordination (somewhere between the years 375 and 381), or while he was deacon (between 381 and 386), portra^^ed the theoretical and practical qualifications, the exalted duties, responsibilities, and honors of this ofiice, with youthful enthusiasm, in the best spirit of his age. He requires of the priest, that he be in every respect better than the monk, though, standing in the world, he have greater dangers and difiiculties to contend with.'' He sets up as the highest object of the preacher, the great principle stated by Paul, that in all his discourses he should seek to please God alone, not men, " He must not indeed despise the approving demonstrations of men ; but as little must he court them, nor trouble himself when his hearers withhold them. True and imperturbable comfort in his labors he finds only in the consciousness of having his discourse framed and wrought out to the approval of God." ^ Nevertheless the book as a whole is unsatisfactory. A comparison of it with the " Reformed Pastor " of Baxter, which is far deeper and richer in all that pertains to subjective experimental Christianity and the proper
' Hieron. ad Eustochium, and especially ad Nepotianum, de vita clericoium et monachorum (Opera, ed. Vail. torn. i. p. 252 sqq.). Yet neither does he spare the monks, but says, ad Nepot. ; " NonnuUi sunt ditiores monachi quam fueratit seculares et clerici, qui possident opes sub Christo paupere, quas sub locuplete et fallaci Diabolo non habuerant."
^ Lib. xxvii. c. 3, sub ann. 867.
' 1€d! Upwavv-tTi, or De Sacerdotio libri sex. The work has been often published separately, and several times translated into modern languages (into German, for example, by Hasselbach, 1820, and Ritter, 1821 ; mto English by HoUier, 1740, Bu«ce, 1759; Hohler, 1837; Marsh, 1844; and best by B. Harris Cowper, London, 1866). Comp. the hst of twenty-three different separate editions and translations in Lomler: Joh. Chrysost. Opera praestantissima Gr. et Lat. Rudolph. 1840, p. vii, ix
■* De Sacerdotio, lib. vi. cap. 2-8.
* llphs apiOKiiav tuv 0foO, lib. V, C. J