§ 170. JOHN CHJJYSOSTOM. 933
A C/oniinentary of Epiphanius on the Song of Songs waa published in a Latin translation by Foggini in 1750 at Rome, f )tber work? ascribed to iiiia are lost, or of doubtful origin.
§ 170. Jolin CJirysostom.
I S. JoANNis Ohrysqstomi. archiepiscopi Oonstantinopo.itani, Opera omnia quse exstant vel qu?e ejus nomine circumferuntur, ad MSS. codices Gallic, etc. castigala, etc. (Gr. et Lat.). Opera et studio D. Bernardi de Montfaucon^ monachi ordinis S. Benedicti e congregatione S. Mauri, opem ferentibus aliis ex eodem sodalitio monachis. Paris l7l8-'38, in 13 vols. fol. The same edition reprinted at Venice, 1734 '41, in 13 vols. fol. (after which T quote in this section); also at Paris by Sinner (Gaume), 1834^'39, in 13 vols, (an elegant edition, with some additions), and by /. P. Migne, Petit-Montrouge, 1859-'60, in 13 vols. Besides we have a number of separate editions of the Homilies, and of the work on the Priesthood, both in Greek, and in translations. A selection of his writings in Greek and Latin was edited by F. G. Lomler, Rudolphopoli, 1840, 1 volume. German translations of the Homilies (in part) by J. A. Cramer (Leipzig, 1748-51), Feder (Augsburg, 1786), Ph. Mayer (Nurnberg, 1830), W. Arnoldi (Trier, 1831), Jos. Lntz (Tubingen. 1853) ; English translations of the Homilies on the New Testament in the Oxford Library of the Fathers, 1842-'53.
U. 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 Theodore ecclesiaa Romanai diacono (in the Bened. ed. of the 0[)era, tom. xiii. pp. 1-89). Hieeontmus : De viris illustribus, c. 129 (a very brief notice, mentioning only the work De sacerdotio). SocEATEs: H. E. vi. 3-21. Sozomen: H. E. viii. 2-23. Theodoret: H. E. v. 27-36. B. de Montfauoon: Vita Joannis Chrys. in his edition of the Opera, tom. xiii. 91-178. Testimonia Veteeum de S. Joann. Chrys. scriptis, ibid. tom. xiii. 256-292. Tillemont: Memoires, vol. xi. pp. 1-405. F. Stilting: Acta Sanctorum, Sept. 14 (the day of his death), tom. iv. pp. 401-709. A. Butler : Lives of Saints, sub Jan. 27. "W. Cave: Lives of the Fathers, vol. iii. p. 237 ff. J. A. Fabrioius: Biblioth. Gr. tom. viii. 454 sqq. Sohrockh: Vol. x. p. 309 ff. A. Neander : Der heilige Chrysostomus (first 1821), 3d edition, Berlin, 1848, 2 vols. Abb6 Rochet: Histoire de S. Jean Chrysostome. Par. 1866, 2 vols. Comp. also A. F. Villemain's Tableau de Feloquence chretienne au IV'' siecle. Paris, 1854.
John, to whom an admiring posterity since the seventh century has given the name Chrysostomus, the Golden-mouthed is the '^'Teatest ^ •' "4tor and preacher of the Greek church,
93i THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
and still enjoys the highest honor in the whole Christian world No one of the Oriental lathers has left a more spotless reputation ; no one is so much read and so often quoted by modem commentators.
He was born at Antioeh, a. d. 347.' His fatlier was a distinguished military officer. His mother Akthusa, who from her twentieth year was a widow, shines with Nonna and Monica among the Christian women of antiquity. She was admired even by the heathen, and the famous rhetorician Libanius, on hearing of her consistency and devotion, felt constrained to exclaim : " Ah ! what wonderful women there are among the Christians." ' She gave her son an admirable education, and early planted in his soul the germs of piety, which afterwards bore the richest fruits for himself and for the church. By her admonitions and the teachings of the Bible he wag secured against the seductions of hcatlienism.
He received his literary training from Libanius, who accounted him his best scholar, and who, when asked shortly before his death (395) whom he wished for his successor, replied : "John, if only the Christians had not carried him away."
After the completion of his studies he became a rhetorician. He soon resolved, however, to devote himself to divine things, and after being instructed for three years by bishop Meletius in Antioeh, he received baptism.
His first inclination after his conversion was to adopt the monastic life, agreeably to the ascetic tendencies of the times; and it was only by the entreaties of his mother, who adjured him with tears not to forsake her, that he was for a while restrained. Meletius made him reader, and so introduced him to a clerical career. Ho avoided an election to the bishopric (370) by putting forward his friend Basil, whom he accounted
' Baur (Vorlesungen iibcr die Dogmengeschicbte, Bd. i. Abllilg. ii. p. 50) and others erroneously state the year 354 as that of his birth. Comp. Tillemont aud Montfaucon (toiii. xiii. 91).
' Ba0a\, ulai -irapa xp"fTiafors yuya'iKfs flat. Chrysostom hiiiisolf relates this of his heathen teacher (by wlioin undoubtedly we aic to understand Libanius), thougL it is true, with immediate reference only to the twenty years' widowhood of hi« mother; Ad viduam juniorem, Opera, torn. i. p. 340. Comp. the remarks of Mont faucon in the Vita, torn. xiii. 92.