Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. IX:
Prolegomena.: Chapter I

p. 3

Prolegomena.

__________

The Life and Work of

St. John Chrysostom.

By Philip Schaff.

Chapter I.—Literature.

i. editions of chrysostom’s works.

S. Joannis Chrysostomi, archiepiscopi Constantinopolitani, Opera omnia quæ exstant vel quæ ejus nomine circumferuntur, ad mss. codices Gallicos, Vaticanos, Anglicos, Germanicosque castigata, etc. Opera et studio D.Bernardi de Montfaucon, monachi ordinis S. Benedicti e congregatione S. Mauri, opem ferentibus aliis ex codem sodalitio, monachis. Greek and Latin, Paris, 1718–’38, in 13 vols., fol. This is the best edition, and the result of about twenty years of the patient labor of Montfaucon (d. Dec. 21, 1741, 86 years old), and several assistants of the brotherhood of St. Maur. More than three hundred mss. were made use of, but the eight principal mss., as Field has shown, were not very carefully collated. Montfaucon, who at the date of the completion of his edition was 83 years old, prepared valuable prefaces to every treatise and set of homilies, arranged the works in chronological order, and added in vol. XIII. learned dissertations on the life, doctrine, discipline and heresies of the age of Chrysostom.

The Benedictine edition was reprinted at Venice, 1734–’41, in 13 vols. fol.; at Paris, ed. by F. de Sinner (Gaume), 1834–’39, in 13 vols. (an elegant edition, with some additions); and, with various improvements and corrections, by J. P. Migne, Petit-Montrouge, 1859–’63, in 13 vols. The last is the most complete edition, but inferior in paper and type to that of Gaume. Migne uses the critical text of Field in Matthew and the Pauline Epp. He had previously edited a Latin Version, 1842, in 9 vols.

The edition of Sir Henry Savile (Provost of Eton), Etonæ, 1612, in 8 vols. fol., is less complete than the Benedictine edition, but gives a more correct Greek text (as was shown by F. Dübner from a collation of manuscripts) and valuable notes. Savile personally examined the libraries of Europe and spent £8,000 on his edition. His wife was so jealous of his devotion to Chrysostom that she threatened to burn his manuscripts.

The edition of Fronton le Duc, a French Jesuit, and the two brothers, Frederick and Claude Morel, was published at Paris, 1636, in 12 vols. fol., Greek and Latin.

A selection of Chrysostom’s works (Opera præstantissima) in Greek and Latin, was edited by T. G. Lomler, Rudolphopoli (Rudolstadt), 1840 (unfinished).

The best edition of the Greek text of the Homilies on Matthew, and all the Pauline Epistles is by Dr. Frederick Field, of the Church of England (d. 1883), in the “Bibliotheca Patrum Ecclesiæ Orientalis qui ante Orientis et Occidentis schisma floruerunt.” The Homilies on Matthew appeared at Cambridge, 1839, 3 vols.; the Homilies on the Epistles of Paul and the Hebrews, Oxford, 1839–’62, in 7 vols.

The treatise De Sacerdotio (περί ἱερωσύνης) was separately edited by Erasmus in Greek (Basel, 1525, from the press of Frobenius), by J. Hughes, in Greek and Latin (Cambridge, 1710), and by J. A. Bengel, the comp. 4 mentator, in Greek (Stuttgart, 1725, and repeatedly reprinted since at Leipzig, 1825, 1834, 1872, by C. Tauchnitz). Lomler (Chrys. Opera, pp. viii. and ix.) enumerates twenty-three separate editions and translations of the treatise on the Priesthood.

ii. translations.—(a) german translations.

The treatise on the Priesthood has been translated by Hasselbach, 1820; Ritter, 1821, and others. The Bibliothek der Kirchenväter (Rom. Cath.), published at Kempten in Bavaria, devotes ten small volumes to St. Chrysostom, including the Priesthood, ascetic Treatises, and Homilies, translated by Joh. Chrysostomus Mitterrutzner, 1869–’84. German translations of selected Homilies by J. A. Cramer (Leipzig, 1748–’51, 10 vols.); Feder (Augsburg, 1786); Ph. Mayer (Nürnberg, 1830); W. Arnoldi (Trier, 1835); Augusti (Predigten der Kirchenväter, vols. I. and II., Leipzig, 1839); Jos. Lutz (Tübingen, 2d ed. 1859); Gust. Leonhardi (Leipzig, 1888, selected sermons and orations, in vol I. of Klassikerbibliothek der Christl. Predigtliteratur).

(b) english translations.

The work on the Priesthood was translated by Hollier (London, 1728); Bunce (London, 1759); Hohler (Cambridge, 1837); Marsh (London, 1844); Harris Cowper (London, 1866); and Stephens (N. York, 1888, prepared for this “Library”).

The Homilies on the Statues and on the New Testament were translated by several scholars for the “Oxford Library of the Fathers,” 1839–’77, 16 vols. The earlier parts (on the First Epistle to the Corinthians, and on the Statues) are based on the text of Montfaucon and Savile, the later parts on the improved text of Field. The Oxford translation has been revised and annotated by American scholars for this “Library,” and new translations of other works of St. Chrysostom have been added, namely, the treatise on the Priesthood, the Exhortation to the fallen Theodore, Letters, Tracts, and Special Homilies (in this first volume).

iii. biographies and essays.

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 Theodoro ecclesiæ Romanæ diacono (in the Bened. edition of the Opera, tom. xiii. pp. 1–89; in Migne’s ed., tom. i., Pars prior, 5–84, in Greek and Latin). Hieronymus: De Viris Illustribus, c. 129 (a very brief notice, mentioning only the work De Sacerdotio). Socrates: Hist. Eccl. VI., 3–21. Sozomen: Hist. Eccl. VIII. 2–23. Theodoret: Hist. Eccl. V. 27–36. B. de Montfaucon: Vita Joannis Chrysost. (in his edition of the Opera, tom. xiii. 91–178; in Migne, I.I. 84–264): Testimonia Veterum de S. Joann. Chrys. scriptis, ibid. tom. xiii. 256–292. Tillemont: Mémoires, vol. XI. pp. 1–405, 547–626 (exceedingly minute and accurate from the works of Chrys.). F. Stilting: Acta Sanctorum, Sept. 14 (the day of Chrysostom’s death), tom. iv. pp. 401–709; comp. Stilting’s Compendium chronologicum gestorum et scriptorum S. Joh. Chrys., in Migne, tom. i. 264–272. Alban Butler: Lives of Saints, sub. Jan. 27 (the day of the translation of the remains of Chrys.). W. Cave: Lives of the Fathers, vol. III. p. 237 sqq. J. A. Fabricius: Biblioth Gr., tom. viii. 454 sqq. Schröckh: Kirchengeschichte, vol. X. p. 309 sqq. Gibbon: Decline and Fall, ch. xxxii. (a brilliant and appreciative sketch). Neander: Der heilige Chrysostomus, 1821–’22, in 3 vols., second ed. 1832, third ed. Berlin, 1848, in 2 vols. (English translation of the same by J. C. Stapleton, vol. I., London, 1838, unfinished). The best monograph in the German language. Neander represents Chrysostom as a type of the Johannean tendency among the Fathers, as distinct from Augustin, the strongest type of the Pauline tendency. He gives a full account of the opinions and religious life of Chrysostom, but without a clear picture of his personality. (Hase says: “Neander hat uns das Lebensbild des Chrys. aufgestellt als ein Herzensverwandter, doch nicht ohne einige Abschwächung seiner Kraft und seines Gegensatzes zur Regierung.” K. Gesch. I. 511.) J. Pettersson: Chrys. homileta, Lund, 1833. C. Datt: S. Jean Chrys. comme prédicateur, Strassb., 1837. A. F. Villemain: Tableau de l’éloquence chrétienne au quatrième siècle, Paris, 1849, new ed. 1857. Perthes: Life of Chrysostom, Boston, 1854. P. Albert: St. Jean Chrysostome considéré comme orateur populaire, Paris, 1858. Abbé E. Martin: Saint Jean Chrysostome, ses œuvres et son siècle, Montpellier and Paris, 1861, 3 vols. Abbé Rochet: Histoire de S. Jean Chrysostome, Paris, 1866, 2 vols. Amédée Thierry: St. Chrysostome et l’imperatrice Eudoxie, 2d ed., Paris, 1874 (originally in the “Revue des deux Mondes”). Böhringer: Johann Chrysostomus und Olympias, in “Kirchengesch. in Biogr.,” vol. IX. new ed. 1876. Th. Förster: Chrysostomus in seinem Verhältniss zur Antiochenischen Schule, Gotha, 1869. W. Maggilory: John of the Golden Mouth, Lond. 1871. W. R. W. Stephens: St. John Chrysostom, his Life and Times, London, 1872, 2d ed. 1880, 3rd ed. 1883 (the best biography of Chr.). R. W. Bush, Life and Times of Chrysostom, London, Rel. Tract Soc., 1885.

Canon E. Venables: in “Smith and Wace,” I. 518–535 (a very good sketch). C. Burk: in Herzog, 2d ed., p. 5 III. 225–231. E. Dandiran: in Lightenberger’s “Encyclopédie,” etc., III. 165–176. Schaff: Church Hist. III. 702 sqq., 933 sqq., 1036 sq. Hase: Kirchengesch. (Vorlesungen, 1885), I. 510 sqq. F. W. Farrar: Lives of the Fathers, London, 1889. Vol. II. 460–527.