THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Burgundio's translation nor another by Panetius, a Carmelite, has been printed.
A counterpart to the " Fount of Knowledge " is furnished in the " Sacred Parallels " (MPG, xcv. 1040-xcvi. 544), ascribed to John of Damascus, but not universally accepted as his work. As printed in Le Quien and Migne it has two prefaces, of which
the second outlines a collection of The ethical and hortatory maxims from the " Sacred Bible and the Fathers arranged alpha- Parallels." betically under titles. There are to
be three books treating respectively of God, human things, and virtue and vice. The title is given simply as " the Holy Things " (to hiera), and, indeed, it is hard to see how the matter of books i. and ii. could be arranged in parallels. The first preface, however, which is much shorter, gives a description for the entire work applicable only to the third book of the second preface, and promises to set " the virtues and the corresponding vices " as " parallels." Quotations from Philo and Josephus are to be added to those from the Fathers. The work which follows in Le Quien and Migne is not in three parts, but is a single book, although it contains material which fits the plan of the second preface and is alphabetically arranged. It is very evidently a revision of another and more extensive writing, made, presumably, by combining and compressing the three books into one and arranging the matter alphabetically. The manuscripts differ widely. Loofs showed that the two manuscripts known to Le Quien are both based upon an original work in three parts, two of which are preserved independently and separately and the third in a revision by the so-called Antonius Melissa (more correctly in the Melissa of the monk Antonius) of the eleventh century. The conclusions of Holl are to be accepted in the main as correct. He says: " The Hiera comprised originally three books. In each the matter was arranged
in a long list of chapters (titled), some more comprehensive, some more concise. The chapters of the first and second books were arranged alphabetically according to the catch- words; in the third book the author abandoned this arrangement and, following a favorite method, chose to set a virtue and a vice one against the other, whence he named this book ' the Parallels.' In richness and copiousness the work surpassed all similar collections; the citations reached to the thousands and included parts of sermons of Basil and Chrysostom. To this great extent of the work is it due that it has not been preserved entire. Neither of the two extant codices of books i. and ii. is a faithful copy, but each is an abridgment of the corresponding book of the original work." Concerning the author, Holl pronounces decidedly for John of Damascus, arguing from the very good tradition which ascribes the work to him and a comparison of the " Sacred Parallels " with the " Fount of Knowledge." Loofs, relying on a scholium to the manuscript of the second part, suggested Leontius of Byzantium (d. 543). Holl finds that John was largely dependent on Maximus Confessor, from whom he borrowed the idea of an edifying book made up of sentences from the Bible and the Fa-
thers, even incorporating a work of Maximus in his own. However, in the number of themes treated and authorities cited, as well as in the length of the passages quoted, he greatly surpassed Maximus; and he attempted to give an orderly arrangement to his work as Maximus did not. " It is surprising," Holl continues (p. 392), " what antitheses are set side by side — motives of the most paltry worldly wisdom by the side of ideas of the highest moral import; and there is as great lack of connection between the individual ethical problems as of effort to solve them by any principle." The explanation is not far to seek. " There is no close connection between dogma and moral duty. Only two dogmas enter at all — the doctrines of the Trinity and of the last judgment form the framework in which the whole is enclosed." The " Parallels " are a true picture of the type of moral thought which remains peculiarly that of the Greek Church. John is not only the most renowned theologian of the Eastern Church, but, with his brother Cosmas, he is also its most esteemed hymn-writer. He was formerly thought to be the originator of the oktoichos (the hymn-book for the daily Hymns service), but more probably he only and Minor revised and improved it. Like East- Writings, em hymn-writers in general he composed both words and music. His " canons " (compositions of highly complicated structure consisting of eight or nine hymns, each of three or four strophes and each having its own form and melody) reached the highest point of art and skill. Those in iambic meter for Christmas, Epiphany, and Pentecost are peculiar in that they are both quantitative and rhythmical; they are also very difficult acrostics and two have each 130 lines and the same number of letters in the distichs. Of minor writings ascribed to John, the early " Tract on Right Thinking " (MPG, xciv. 1421 sqq.) is genuine. It is a reverent and submissive apology for everybody under the metropolitan of Damascus, treating first of the creed, then naming all heresies which were to be rejected. A dislike, even contempt, for Origen, is evident (vi.). Theologically the tract has little significance. But it shows the regard felt for John in Damascus. Perhaps the same may be said of the " book " which immediately follows in Migne (xciv. 1436 sqq.), said to have been written at the request of Peter, metropolitan of Damascus, for an exposition of the faith. Other tracts are interesting because of their form (some of them dialogues) or because they are designated as '' dictated " by John and so present him answering questions propounded by disciples (e.g., the " Dialogue against Manicheans," MPG, xciv. 1505 sqq.; the " Conversation between a Saracen and a Christian," MPG, xciv. 1585 sqq.; the " Introduction to Elementary Dogmatics," MPG, xcv. 99). For other dogmatic tracts, consult Langen, 161 sqq., 173 sqq. The contents of John's ascetic writings are important for the Greek Church. Langen gives summaries of them, as of all of John's writings (for " On the Fasts," MPG, xcv. 64 sqq., cf. Langen, 166 sqq.; for " On the Eight Spirits of Vice," MPG, xcv., 80 sqq., cf. Langen, 169 sqq., and O. Zockler, Das Lehrstiick von den