Saint John Chrysostom, his life and times a sketch of the church and the empire in the fourth century

Front matter

QLinI

CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

3 1924 079 612 101

Preface To The Second Edition

The present edition of this Essay is substantially a reproduction of the first. It is possible, indeed, and I hope probable, that the fruits of nine years' more experience and study woula. have manifested themselves ia some marked improvements upon the former work had I rewritten or recast the whole of it. But after mature consideration it did not seem to me that the defects of my original attempt were sufficient to warrant such an expenditure of time and toil.

I have therefore contented myself with carefully revising the text and references, and making here and there a few slight alterations in the way either of addition or omission.

WOOLBEDING EeCTOEY,

PEEFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

The considerations which induced me to undertake this monograph are mentioned in the introductory chapter. How far the design there indicated has been satisfactorily fulfilled^ it is for others to decide. I am of course conscious of defects, for every workman's ideal aim should be higher than what he can actually accomplish. The work has incurred a certain risk from having been once or twice suspended for a considerable period; but I have always returned to it with increased interest and pleasure, nor can I charge myself with having wittingly bestowed less pains on one part than another. I have endeavoured to make it a trustworthy narrative by drawing from the most original sources to which I could gain access; and where, as in those portions which touch on secular history, the lead of general historians, such as Gibbon or De Broglie, has been followed, I have, as far as possible, consulted the authorities to which they refer. To modern authors from whom I have derived valuable assistance for special parts of the work, such as M. Amedee Thierry and Dr. Foerster, my obligations are acknowledged in their proper place.

Neander's Life of St. Chrysostom has, of course, throughout been frequently consulted. It is marked by the customarj'

viii PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

merits and defects of that historian. It is full of research, information, thought, and refined religious sentiment; but he fails to bring out strongly the personality of his subject. We have abundance of Chrysostom's sayings and opinions, but somehow too little of Chrysostom himself. The fact is that j^eander seems always to be thinking more of those views and theories about the growth of Christian doctrine and the Church, which he wishes to impress upon men's minds, than of the person about whom he is writing. Thus, the subject of his biography becomes too much a mere vehicle for conveying Neander's own opinions, and the personality of the character fades away in proportion. Some passages in the life of his subject are related at inordinate length ; others, because less illustrative of Neander's views, are imperfectly sketched, if not omitted.

In extracts from the works of Chiysostom, the somewhat difficult question of the comparative advantages of translation and paraphrase has been decided, on the whole, in favour of the latter. The condensation of matter gained by a paraphrase is an important, indeed necessary, object, if many specimens are to be given from such a very voluminous author as Chrysostom. A careful endeavour, at the same time, has been made to render faithfully the general sense of the original ; and wherever the peculiar beauty of the langiiage or the importance of the subject seemed to demand it, a translation has been given.

From an early date in the sixteenth centurj' down to the present time the works of Chrysostom have occupied the attention of learned editors. The first attempts, after the invention of printing, were mainly confined to Latin translations of different portions. Afterwards appeared —

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. ix

(1.) In 1529 the Greek text of the Homilies on St. Paul, published at Vienna, " typis Stephani et fratrum," with a preface by Maximus Donatus. This was followed by the Commentaries on the New Testament, published by Commelin, a printer at Heidelberg, four vols. foHo, A.D. 1591- 1602.

(2.) In 1612 appeared a magnificent edition of the whole works, in eight thick folio volumes, printed at Eton, and prepared by Sir Henry Savile. Savile, born in 1549, was equally distinguished for his knowledge of mathematics and Greek, in which he acted for a time as tutor to Queen Elizabeth. He became Warden of Merton in 1585, and Provost of Eton in 1596. Promotion in Church and State was offered to him by James i., but declined, though he accepted a knighthood in 1604. His only son died about that time, and he devoted his fortune henceforth entii-ely to the promotion of learning. The Savilian Professorships of Geometry and Astronomy in Oxford were founded by him, and a library furnished with mathematical books for the use of his Professors. He spared no labour or expense to make his edition of St. Chrysostom handsome and complete. He personally examined most of the great libraries in Europe for MSS., and, through the kindness of English ambassadors and eminent men of learning abroad, his copyists were admitted io the libraries of Paris, Basle, Augsburg, Munich, Vienna, and other cities. He used the Commelinian edition as his printer's copy, carefully compared with five MSS., the various readings of wliich are marked (by a not very distinct plan) in the margin. The chief value of the work consists in the prefaces and notes, contributed some of them by Casaubon and other learned men, though by far the best are

X PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

Savile's own. The whole cost of bringing out this grand edition is said to have been £8000. Savile's wife was so jealous of her husband's attachment to the work that she threatened to burn it.

(3.) Meanwhile, Fronton le Due, a French Jesuit, had been labouring independently, but in most amicable intercourse with Savile, not only to edit the works of Chrysostom complete, but accompanied by a Latin translation, which he supplied himself for those pieces of which he failed to find any good one already existing. His death arrested the work, which was taken up, after a time, by the two brothers, Frederick and Claude Morel, and completed by the latter in 1633, It was published in Paris in 1636, in twelve large folio volumes. The Commelinian was again used as the printer's copy, with fewer alterations than in the edition of Savile.

(4.) We now come to the great Benedictine edition, prepared under the care of Bernard de Montfaucon, who deserted the profession of arms at the age of twenty to become, as a member of the brotherhood of St. Maur, one of the most marvellously industrious workers in literature that the world has ever seen. In 1698, when the Benedictines had completed their editions of SS. Augustiae and Athanasius, they began to prepare for an edition of Chrysostom, which they had intended to do for more than thirty years. Montfaucon was sent to Italy, where he spent three years in examining libraries ; and, on his return, obtained leave from the presidents of the congregation to employ four or five of the' brethren in collating Mss. in the Koyal Library at Paris, and in those of Colbert and Coislin. Their labours extended over thirteen years ; more than 300

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. xi

MSS., containing different portions of Chrysostom's works, having been discovered in those libraries. Montfaucon, meanwhUe, corresponded with learned men in all parts of Europe, in order to procure materials and further collations. His correspondents in England were Potter, Bishop of Oxford, Bentley, and Needham; and in Ireland, Godwin, Bishop of Kilmore. The result was that, after more than twenty years of incessant toU, Montfaucon produced an edition, in which several pieces saw the light for the first time, and others, imperfect in previous editions, were presented entire. The text after all is the least satisfactory part of the work. Mr. Eield has discovered that the eight principal Mss. employed were not very carefully collated, and that, though SavUe's text is extremely praised, that of Morel, by a curious inconsistency, is most closely followed, which is little more than a reproduction of the original Commelinian. The main value of the edition consists in the prefaces, written by Montfaucon to every set of homilies and every treatise, in which the chronology, contents, and character of the composition are most fully and ably discussed. The chronological arrangement also of the pieces is a great improvement on the editions of Savile and Fronton le Due, who had made no attempt of that kind. The last volume, the thirteenth, contains a life of St. Chrysostom, a most copious index, and dissertations on the doctrine, discipline, and heresies prevalent in his age, illustrated by notices collected from his works. On the whole, the edition must be pronounced a marvellous monument of ability and industry, especially when it is considered that at the date of its completion, 1738, Montfaucon was eighty-three years of age, and had been engaged for upwards xii PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

of fifty years in literary work of a most laborious description. He died in 1741.

(5.) The last edition, which leaves little or nothing to be desired, is that which I have used in preparing this volume —the Abbe Migne's, in 13 vols., Paris, 1863. It is substantially a reproduction of the Benedictiae, in a rather less cumbrous size, and embodies some of the best corrections, notes, and prefaces of modern commentators, especially those of Mr. Field to the Homilies of St. Matthew, and some by the learned editor himself.

A brief sketch of the principal forms in which Chrysostom's works have appeared seemed an appropriate introduction to the history of the man himself. If the perusal of that history shall afford to readers half as much interest, pleasure, and instruction as I have myself derived from the composition of it, I shall feel amply rewarded for my labour ; and I gladly take this opportunity of expressing my gratitude to my father-in-law for originally suggesting a work of this kind, and to many friends, and especially my wife, for constant encouragement, without which a mixture of indolence and diffidence might have prevented the completion of my design.

Densworth Cottage, Chichester, All Saints Day 1S71.

Chapter I. Page

Introductory, , . .... 1

CHAPTER IL

From his Birth, to his AppoLntment to the Office of Reader, A-B. 345

CHAPTER ni.

Commencement of ascetic life — Study under Died cms — Formation

of an ascetic Brotherhood — The Letters to Theodore. a.d. 370, 24

CHAPTER rv.

Chrysostom evades forcible Ordination to a Bishopric— The Treatise

" On the Priesthood." A.D. 370, 371, . . 40

CHAPTER V.

Narrow Escape from Persecution — His Entrance into a Monastery

— ^The Monasticism of the East. a.d. 372, ... 57

CHAPTER VL

Works produced during his monastic life — The letters to Demetrius and Stelechins — Treatises addressed to the Opponents of Monasticism — Letter to Stagirius, ... . . 69

CHAPTER VIL Ordination as Deacon — Description of Antioch — Works composed

during his Diaconate. a;d. 381-386, 86

CONTENTS.

CHAPTEE VIII.

PAGE

Ordination to the Priesthood by Flavian — Inaugural Discourse in the Cathedral — Homilies against the Arians — Animadversions on the Chariot Races, a.d. 386, 103

CHAPTER IX.

Homilies against Pagans and Jews — Condition of the Jews in Antioch — Judaising Christians — Homilies on Christmas Day and New Year's Day — Censure of Pagan Superstitions. A.D. 386,387, .... . . 120

CHAPTER X.

Survey of the first Decade of the Keign of Theodosius — His Character — His Efforts for the Extirpation of Paganism and Heresy — The Apologies of Symmachus and Libanius. A.D. 379-389, ... . . 139

CHAPTER XI.

The Sedition at Antioch — The HomUies on the Statues — The

Results of the Sedition. A.D. 387, . . ■ .150

CHAPTER XII.

Illness of Chrysostom — Homilies on Festivals of Saints and Martyrs — Character of these Festivals — Pilgrimages — Reliques — Character of Peasant Clergy in neighbourhood of Antioch. A.D. 387, 177

CHAPTER XIII.

Survey of Events between a.d. 387 and a.d. 397 — Ambrose and Theodosius — Revolt of Arbogastes — Death of Theodosius — The Ministers of Arcadius — Rufiuus and Eutropius, . 186

CHAPTER XIV.

Death of Neotarius, Archbishop of Constantinople — Eager Competition for the See — Election of Chrysostom — His compulsory- Removal from Antioch — Consecration — Reforms — Homilies on various subjects — Missionary Projects, ... 212

CHAPTER XV.

The Fall of Eutropius — His Retreat to the Sanctuary of the Church — Right of Sanctuary maintained by Chrysostom — Death of Eutropius — Revolt of Gothic Commanders Tribigild and Gai'nas — Demand of Gainas for an Arian Church refused by Chrysostom — Defeat and Death of Gainas. a.d. 399-401, . 240

CONTENTS. xy

CHAPTER XVI.

PAGE

Chrysostom's Visit to Asia — Deposition of six simoniacal Bishops — Legitimate Extent of his Jurisdiction — Return to Constantinople — Rupture and reconciliation with Severian, bishop of Gabala — Chrysostom's increasing unpopularity with the Clergy and wealthy Laity — His Friends — Olympias the Deaconess — Formation of hostile Factions, which invite the aid of Theophilus, Patriarch of Alexandria. A.D. 400, 401, . . . 265

CHAPTER XVn.

Circumstances which led to the interference of Theophilus with the affairs of Chrysostom — Controversy about the Writings of Origen — Persecution by TheophUus of the Monks called "The Tall Brethren" — Their Flight to Palestine— To Constantinople — Their Reception by Chrysostom — Theophilus summoned to Constantinople. A.D. 395-403, .... 286

CHAPTER XVIIL

Theophilus arrives in Constantinople — Organises a Cabal against Chrysostom — The Sjoiod of the Oak — Chrysostom pronounced contumacious for Non-appearance and expelled from the city — Earthquake — Recall of Chrysostom — Ovations on his Return — FUght of Theophilus. A.D. 403, ... . . 306

CHAPTER XIX.

An Image of Eudoxia placed in front of the Cathedral — Chrysostom denounces it — Anger of the Empress — The enemy returns to the charge — Another Council formed — Chrysostom confined to his Palace — Violent scene in the Cathedral and other places — Chrysostom again expelled, a.d. 403, 404, . 326

CHAPTER XX.

Fury of the people at the removal of Chrysostom — Destruction of the Cathedral Church and Senate-house by Fire — Persecution of Chrysostom's followers — Fugitives to Rome — Letters of Innocent to Theophilus — To the Clergy of Constantinople — To Chrysostom — Deputation of Western Bishops to Constantinople repulsed — Sufferings of the Eastern Church — Triumph of the Cabal. a.d. 404, 405, 341

CHAPTER XXL Chrysostom ordered to be removed to Cucusus — Perils encountered at Caesarea — Hardships of the Journey — Reaches Cucusus — Letters written there to Olympias and other Friends. A.D. 404, 361 xvi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXII.

PAGE

Chrysostom's Sufferings from the winter cold — Depredations of the Isaurians — The Mission in Phoenicia — Letters to Innocent and the Italian Bishops — Chrysostom's enemies obtain an order for his Bemoval to Pity us — He dies at Comana, a.d. 407 — Reception of his Reliques at Constantinople, a-d. 438, . . 379

CHAPTER XXIII.

Survey of Chrysostom's Theological Teaching — Practical tone of his Works — ^Reason of this — Doctrine of Man's Nature — Original Sin — Grace — Free-wiU — How far Chrysostom Pelagian — ^Language on the Trinity — Atonement — Justification — The two Sacraments — No trace of Confession, Purgatory, or Mariolatry — Relations towards the Pope — Liturgy of Chrysostom — His character as a Commentator — Views on Inspiration — His Preaching — Personal Appearance — References to Greek Classical Authors — Comparison with St Augustine, . 390

APPENDIX, . . 433

INDEX, 435

LIFE AND TIMES

ST. JOHJST CHEYSOSTOM.

CHAPTER I.

INTEOD0CTORT.

I. There are many great names in history which have been familiar to us from almost our earliest years, but of the personal character, the actual life of those who bore them, we are comparatively ignorant. We know that they were men of genius ; industrious, energetic workers, who, as statesmen, reformers, warriors, writers, speakers, exercised a vital influence for good or ill upon their feUow-men. They have achieved a reputation which will never die; but from various causes their personality does not stand out before us in clear and bold relief. We know something about some of the most important passages in their life, a few of their sayings, a little of their writings ; but the men themselves we do not know.

Frequently the reason of this is, that though they occupy a place, perhaps an important place, in the great drama of history, yet they have not played one of the foremost parts; and general history cannot spare much time or

A

2 LIFE OF ST. JOHN CHKYSOSTOM. [ch. i.

space beyond what is necessary to describe the main progress of events, and the actions and characters of those who were most prominently concerned in them. Other men may have been greater in themselves ; they may have been first-rate in their own sphere, but that sphere was too much secluded or circumscribed to admit of the extensive and conspicuous public influence of which alone history takes much cognisance. They are to history what those side or background figures in the pictures of great medieval painters are to the grand central subject of the piece: they do but help to fill up the canvas, yet the picture would not be complete without them. They are notable personages, well worthy of being separately depicted, though in the large historical representation they play a subordinate part.

To take out one of these side figures of history, and to make it the centre of a separate picture, grouping round it all the great events and characters among which it moved, is the work of a biogi-apher. And by many it will be felt that nothiug invests the general history of any period with such a liviag interest as viewing it through the light of some one human life. How was this individual soul afiected by the movement of the great forces with which it was surrounded ? How did it affect them, in its turn, wherever ia its progress it came into contact with them ? This one consideration wUl confer on many details of history an importance and freshness of which they seemed too trivial or too duU to be susceptible.

II. Among these side characters in history, characters of men ia themselves belonging to the first rank, men whose names will be renowned and honoured to the end of time, but precluded, by disposition or circumstances, from taking the foremost place in the larger canvas of general history, must be reckoned many of the great ecclesiastics of the first four or five centuries of Christianity. Every

CH. I.] INTRODUCTORY. 3

one recognises as gi-eat such names as Origen, Tertullian, Cyprian, Basil, the two Gregories, and many more. Every one would admit that the Church owes them a debt, but it may be safely affirmed that here the accjuaintance of many with these eminent men begins and ends. A few scraps from their writings quoted in commentaries, one or two remarkable acts or sayings which have been thought worthy to be handed down, a few passages in which their lives flit across the stage of general history, complete the knowledge of many more. Such men, indeed, as Athanasius and Ambrose are to some extent exceptions. The magnitude of the principles for which they contended, the energy and abOity which they displayed in the contest, were too conspicuous to be passed over by the general historian, civil or ecclesiastical The proverbial expression "Athanasius conti-a mundum " attests of itself the pre-eminent greatness of the man. But with other luminaries of the Church, whose powers were perhaps equally great, but not exercised on so public a field or on behalf of such apparently vital questions, history has not dealt, perhaps cannot consistently with its scope deal, in any degree commensurate with their merits. Nor does this remark apply entirely to civil history. Ecclesiastical history also is so much occupied with the consideration of subjects on a large scale and covering a large space of time, — the course of controversies, the growth of doctrines, the relations between Church and State, changes in discipline, in liturgies, in ritual, — that the history of those who lived among these events, and who by their ability made or moulded them, is comparatively lost sight of. The outward operations are seen, but the springs which set them going are concealed. How can general history, for instance, adequately set forth the character and the work of such men as Savonarola or Erasmus, both in their widely different ways men of such incomparable genius and incessant activity? It does not; it only supplies a

4 LIFE OF ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM. [ch. i.

glimpse, a sketch, which make us long for a fuller vision, a more finished picture.^

III. It is designed to attempt, in the following pages, such a supplementary chapter in ecclesiastical history. An endeavour wiQ be made not merely to chronicle the life and estimate the character of the great preacher of Antioch and Constantinople, but to place him in the centre of all the great movements, civil as well as religious, of his time, and see what light he and they throw upon one another.

The age in which he lived was a troublous one. The spectacle of a tempestuous sea may in itself excite our iaterest and inspire us with awe, but place in the midst of it a vessel containing human life, and how deeply is our interest intensified !

What was the general character and position of the clergy in the fourth century? What was the attitude of the Church towards the sensuality, selfishness, luxury, of an effete and debased civilisation on the one hand, and the rude ferocity of young and strong barbarian races on the other? To what extent had Christianity leavened, or had it appreciably leavened at all, popular forms of thought and popular habits of life? What was the existing phase of monasticism? what the ordinary form of worship in the Catholic Church ? what the established belief respecting the sacraments and the great verities of the Christian faith? In answer to such inquiries, and to many more, much useful information may be extracted from the works of so prolific a writer and preacher as Chrysostom. Being concerned also, as a preacher, with moral practice more than with abstract theology, his homilies reflect, like the writings of satirists, the manners of the age. The habits of private life, the fashionable amusements, the absurdities of dress, all the petty foibles, as well as the more serious vices of the society by which

1 In the case of Savonarola such a " Erasmus, his Life and Character,"

want has now been fairly well sup- hy Robert Blackley Drummond, B.A.

plied by Villari and other writers. 2 vols., 1873. For a good portrait of Erasmus, see

CH. I.] INTEODUCTOEY. 5

he was surrounded, are dragged out without remorse, and made the subjects of solemn admonition, or fierce invective, or withering sarcasm, or ironical jest.

IV. Nor does secular history, from which not a single chapter in ecclesiastical history can without injury be dissociated, want for copious illustration. Not only from the memorable story of the sedition at Antioch, and from the public events at Constantinople, in which Chrysostom played a conspicuous part, but from many an allusion or incidental expression scattered up and down his works, we may collect rays of light on the social and political condition of the Empire. We get glimpses in his pages of a large mass of the population hovering midway between Paganism and Christianity ; we detect an oppressive system of taxation, a widely-spread venality in the administration of public business, a general insecurity of life arising from the almost total absence of what we understand by police regulations, a depressed agriculture, a great slave population, a vast turbulent army as dangerous to the peace of society as the enemies from whom it was supposed to defend it, the presence of barbarians in the country as servants, soldiers, or colonists, the constantly-impending danger from other hordes ever hovering on the frontier, and, like famished wolves, gazing with hungry eyes on the plentiful prey which lay beyond it. But in the midst of the national corruption we see great characters stand out; and it is remarkable that they belong, without exception, to the two elements which alone were strong and progressive in the midst of the general debility and decadence. All the men of commanding genius in this era were either Christian or barbarian. A young and growing faith, a vigorous and manly race : these were the two forces destined to work hand in hand for the destruction of an old and the establishment of a new order of things. The chief doctors of Christianity in the fourth century — Augustine, Chrysostom, Ambrose — are incompar-

6 LIFE OF ST. JOHN CHEYSOSTOM. [ch. i.

ably greater than their contemporary advocates of the old religion and philosophy, Symmachus or Libanius; even as the Gothic Alaric and Fravitta, and the Vandal Stilicho, were the only generals who did not disgrace the Eoman arms.

V. Some remarks on the theology of Chrysostom wUl be found in the concluding chapter. The appellation of preacher,^ by which he is most generally known, is a true indicator of the sphere in which his powers were greatest. It was in upholding a pure and lofty standard of Christian morality, and in denouncing unchristian wickedness, that his life was mainly spent, rather than, like Augustine's, in constructing and teaching a logical system of doctrine. The mge of his enemies, to which he ultimately fell a victim, was not bred of the bitterness of theological controversy, but of the natural antagonism between the evil and the good. And it is partly on this account that neither the remoteness of time, nor difference of circumstances, which separate us from him, can dim the interest with which we read his story. He fought not so much for any abstract question of theology or point of ecclesiastical discipline, which may have lost its meaning and importance for us, but for those grand principles of truth and justice, Christian charity, and Christian holiness, which ought to be dear to men equally in all ages.

VI. But there is also in the struggle of Chiysostom with the secular power an ecclesiastical and historical interest, as well as a moral one. We see prefigured in his deposition the fate of the Eastern Church in the Eastern capital of the Empire. As the papacy grew securely by the retreat from the old Eome of any secular rival, so the patriarchate of the new Eome was constantly, increasingly depressed by the presence of such a rival. Of all the great churchmen who flourished in the fourth century, Athanasius, Basil, the

1 "That godly clerk and great preacher " is the description of him in the English Homilies Horn. i.

CH. 1.] INTEODUCTOEY. 7

Gregories, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Chrysostom, the last three alone survived into the fifth century. But' the glory of the Western Church was then only in its infancy ; the glory of the Eastern culminated in Chrysostom. From his time the patriarchs of Constantinople fell more and more into the servile position of court functionaries. The working out t)f that grand idea, a visible organised Catholic Church, imiform in doctrine and discipline, an idea which grew more and more as the political disintegration of the Empire increased, was to be accomplished by the more commanding, law-giving spirit of the West. Intrepid in spirit, inflexible of purpose, though Chrysostom was, he could not subdue, he could only provoke to more violent opposition, the powers with which he was brought into collision. Ineffectual was his contest with ecclesiastical corruption and secular tyranny, as compared with a similar contest waged by his Western contemporary, Ambrose ; iueffectual also were the efforts, after his time, of the Church which he represented to assert the full dignity of its position.

VII. Chrysostom, and the contemporary fathers of the Eastern Church, naturally seem very remote from us ; but, in fact, they are nearer to us in their modes of thought than many who in point of time are less distant. They were brought up in the study of that Greek literature with which we are familiar. Philosophy had not stiffened into scholasticism. The ethics of Chrysostom are substantially the same with the ethics of Butler. So, again. Eastern fathers of the fourth century are far more nearly allied to us in theology than writers of a few centuries later. If we are to look to " the rock " whence our Anglican liturgy " was hewn," and " to the hole of the pit " whence Anglican reformed theology " was digged," we must turn our eyes, above all other directions, to the Eastern Church and the Eastern fathers. It was observed by Mr. Alexander Knox,^ that the earlier days

1 "Remains," toI. iii. Letters to Dr. Woodward and Mrs. Hannah More.

8 LIFE OF ST. JOHN CHKYSOSTOM. [en. i.

of the Greek Church seem resplendent with a glow of simple, fervent piety, such as in a Church, as a whole, has never since been seen; and that this character is strikingly in harmony with our own liturgy, so overflowing with sublime aspirations, so Catholic, not bearing the impress of any one system of theologj', but containing what' is best in alL We may detect in Chrysostom the germ of medieval corruptions, such as the invocation of saints, the adoration of relics, and a sensuous conception of the change effected in the holy elements in the Eucharist ; but these are the raw material of error, not yet wrought into definite shape. The Bishop of Eome is recognised, as wiU. be seen from Chrysostom's correspondence with Innocent, as a great potentate, whose intercessions are to be solicited in time of trouble and difficulty, and to whose judgment much deference is to be paid, but by no means as a supreme ruler in Christendom.