RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Chronicles, Books of Chrysologus, Petrus
his chief musician. To appreciate our author rightly it is important to have a clear conception of this extensive Book of Kings. It is certain that it was finished only in the days of the Restoration, that it treated in the same manner as the canonical Books of Kings the history of both kingdoms. From this one may infer that Chronicles was intended to be a revised, enlarged edition of Kings, for the use and benefit of the new congregation, to pave the way to a theodicy. As the new Israel renewed its life around the new temple and wished to know of the past and of its organization, there were written books about the first years and the last years of David, one about Solomon, one about the Judaic kings, and one about the Israelitic kings. The last three still existed in 660 b.c. Besides these there was a collection of Judaic prophetic narratives. Then grew up the traditional interpretations of the schools, vitalizing dead names, and finally the traditions of priests and Levites and important families. I While it is true that imagination has here a wide field, and that not all epochs received equally careful attention, nevertheless both author and editor acted in good faith, for the latter only arranged the matter which he extracted from the former, where he employed new material, cited his sources, and his statements could be verified. The picture of the beginning of the cult which the chronicler and his forerunner carried in their soul may be totally different from that of modern critics, -but the material which underlies that picture they neither invented nor did they purposely change its meaning. /The historical books of the Bible, including Chronicles, were written for the practical need of the community, and the test by which they are to be judged is whether they satisfied it or not. \ Just here lie the limits of their value to the modern historian who would like to reproduce out of authentic documents a picture of persons and events as the immediate eye-witnesses had it. Like all historical books, even more so, because of its origin. Chronicles demands an able and cautious examination , if one would not sin against the Biblical book, nor against the science of impartial historical investigation, f (A. Klostermann.)
Bibliography: The best editions of the Hebrew text are by S. Baer and F. Delitzsch, Liber Chronicorum, Leipsic, 1888, and by R. Kittel, m SBOT, New York, 1895. Critical discussions are by. A. Kuenen, Historisch-kritisch Onderzock . des ovden Verhonds, i. 433-520, Leyden, 1887 (very thorough); K. H. Graf, Die geschichtlichen Biicher des Alten Testaments, pp. 114-247, Leipsic, 1866 (important); J. Wellhausen, De gentibus et familiis Judmis qum m 1 Chron. li.-iv. enumerantur, Gottingen, 1870; idem. Prolegomena, pp. 176-237, Berhn, 1883, Eng. transl., pp. 171-227, London, 1885; G. T. Ladd, Doctrine of Sacred Scripture, vol. i. passim, New York, 1883; W. E, Barnes, Religious Standpoint o1 the Chronicler, in American Journal ol Semitic Languages, Oct., 1896; G. B. Gray, Studies m Hebrew Proper Names, chap, iii., London, 1896; W, Sanday, Biblical Inspiration, ib. 1896; books on Introduction, notably Driver, Introduction, chap, xu., and C. H. Cornill, Einleitung, pp. 268-276, Freiburg^ 1891. Among the best of the commentaries are. C. F. Keil, Leipsic, 1870; S. Oettli, in Kurzgefasster Kommentar, Munich, 1889; and W. H. Bennett, in the t.xpositor-s Bible, London, 1894. Very thorough discussions are in EB, i. 763-772, and DB. i. 389-397. The term, transl. in Kautzsch's Die heihge Schriil des Alten lestaments, pp. 937-1012, Leip.sic, 1896, is very useful tor Its paragraphing and indication of sources of the text.
CHRONICON PASCHALE, cren'i-cen pas-ca'le (" Easter Chronicle," also called Chronicon Alexandrinum, or Constantinopolitanum): A chronological work, probably composed by a cleric who belonged to the entourage of Sergius, patriarch of Constantinople, 610-638. It extended from the creation of Adam to the year 629, but the beginning and end are lost, and, as preserved, it stops in 627. The name "Easter Chronicle" is derived from the computation of the Easter canon, which forms the basis of Christian chronology. The author, except for his own time, confined himself to copying the sources (Eusebius, John Malalas, and others). The so-called Byzantine or Roman era is used for the first time as basis of the chronology. The Chronicon paschale was edited by L. Dindorf in the Corpus Scriptorum historicorum Byzantinorum (2 vols., Bonn, 1832), reprinted in M PG, xcii. 69-1028.
G. Krugee.
Bibliography: H. Gelzer, Sextus Julius Africanus und die byzantinische Chronographie, ii. 1, Leipsic, 1885; K. Krumbaoher, Geschichte der byzantinischen Literatur, Munich, 1897 (where the literature is given).
CHRONOLOGY. See Time, Reckoning of. CHRYSANTHOS, cri-saii'thes, NOTARAS, no-
ta'ras: Patriarch of Jerusalem; b. in the second half of the seventeenth century; d. at Jerusalem 1731. He was the nephew of the celebrated Dositheos (q.v.), patriarch of Jerusalem; having completed his studies at Padua and Paris, in the year 1700 he was created bishop of CsBsarea in Palestine by his uncle, whom he succeeded in the patriarchate in the year 1707. He was a man of scientific culture and also a strong, energetic churchman. With force and success he applied himiself to church reform in Palestine/ by which he made bitter enemies of the Roman Catholics while doing much for his own monasteries. He encouraged theological science, to which he contributed by his own writings, such as the " History and Description of the Holy Land " (Venice, 1728) and " On the Mysteries of the Great Church " (last ed. Venice, 1778). For the Greek Church he did great service through his edition of the " History of the Patriarchs of Jerusalem" by Dositheos. Le Quien in his Oriens Christianus has borrowed liberally from Chrysanthos. (Philipp Meyer.)
Bibliography: J. A. Fabricius, Bibliotheca Grceca, xi. 792, xiii. 479 sqq., 14 vols., Hamburg, 1718-54.
CHRYSOLOGUS, cris"o-lo'gus, PETRUS, pg'trus (" Peter the Golden-worded ") : Archbishop of Ravenna; b. at Imola (22 m. e.s.e. from Bologna) 406 (?); d. at Ravenna 449 or 450. He was a contemporary of Leo the Great, and stood at the head of the Church at Ravenna at the time when that city was the capital of the Western Empire. As a patron of art he is still remembered (cf. V. Schultze, Archaeologie der aUchristlichen Kunst, p. 85, Mimich, 1895). He is still more famous as an orator: his sermons betray everywhere that they dealt with a select and pampered public, which listened leisurely and •' dehghted in being startled," and they show a continuous striving for the sensational and the imusual. They are better written than most sermons of those times, bear witness to religious experience and moral earnestness, and at times carry
Chrysoloeus, Petrus Chrysostom