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| Book I
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treatise on the
priesthood.
————————————
Book I.
1. I had many genuine
and true friends, men who understood the laws of friendship, and
faithfully observed them; but out of this large number there was
one who excelled all the rest in his attachment to me, striving to
outstrip them as much as they themselves outstripped ordinary
acquaintance. He was one of those who were constantly at my side;
for we were engaged in the same studies, and employed the same
teachers.42
| 42
Androgathius in philosophy, Libanius in rhetoric. | We had the
same eagerness and zeal about the studies at which we worked, and a
passionate desire produced by the same circumstances was equally
strong in both of us. For not only when we were attending school,
but after we had left it, when it became necessary to consider what
course of life it would be best for us to adopt, we found ourselves
to be of the same mind.
2. And in addition to these, there were other things
also which preserved and maintained this concord unbroken and
secure. For as regarded the greatness of our fatherland neither had
one cause to vaunt himself over the other, nor was I burdened with
riches, and he pinched by poverty, but our means corresponded as
closely as our tastes. Our families also were of equal rank, and
thus everything concurred with our disposition.
3. But when it became our duty to pursue the
blessed life of monks, and the true philosophy,43
| 43
An expression frequently employed by St. Chrysostom in the sense of
a life of religious contemplation and study. | our balance was no longer even, but
his scale mounted high, while I, still entangled in the lusts of
this world, dragged mine down and kept it low, weighting it with
those fancies in which youths are apt to indulge. For the future
our friendship indeed remained as firm as it was before, but our
intercourse was interrupted; for it was impossible for persons who
were not interested about the same things to spend much time
together. But as soon as I also began to emerge a little from the
flood of worldliness, he received me with open arms; yet not even
thus could we maintain our former equality: for having got the
start of me in time, and having displayed great earnestness, he
rose again above my level, and soared to a great height.
4. Being a good man, however, and placing a high
value on my friendship, he separated himself from all the rest (of
the brethren), and spent the whole of his time with me, which he
had desired to do before, but had been prevented as I was saying by
my frivolity. For it was impossible for a man who attended the
law-courts, and was in a flutter of excitement
about the pleasures of the stage, to be often in
the company of one who was nailed to his books, and never set foot
in the market place. Consequently when the hindrances were removed,
and he had brought me into the same condition of life as himself,
he gave free vent to the desire with which he had long been
laboring. He could not bear leaving me even for a moment, and he
persistently urged that we should each of us abandon our own home
and share a common dwelling:—in fact he persuaded me, and the
affair was taken in hand.
5. But the continual lamentations of my mother
hindered me from granting him the favor, or rather from receiving
this boon at his hands. For when she perceived that I was
meditating this step, she took me into her own private chamber,
and, sitting near me on the bed where she had given birth to me,
she shed torrents of tears, to which she added words yet more
pitiable than her weeping, in the following lamentable strain: My
child, it was not the will of Heaven that I should long enjoy the
benefit of thy father’s virtue. For his death soon followed the
pangs which I endured at thy birth, leaving thee an orphan and me a
widow before my time to face all the horrors of widowhood, which
only those who have experienced them can fairly understand. For no
words are adequate to describe the tempest-tossed condition of a
young woman who, having but lately left her paternal home, and
being inexperienced in business, is suddenly racked by an
overwhelming sorrow, and compelled to support a load of care too
great for her age and sex. For she has to correct the laziness of
servants, and to be on the watch for their rogueries, to repel the
designs of relations, to bear bravely the threats of those who
collect the public taxes,44
| 44
For an account of the oppressive way in which the public taxes were
collected, see Gibbon’s History (Milman’s edition), vol. iii.
78. |
and harshness in the imposition of rates. And if the departed one
should have left a child, even if it be a girl, great anxiety will
be caused to the mother, although free from much expense and fear:
but a boy fills her with ten thousand alarms and many anxieties
every day, to say nothing of the great expense which one is
compelled to incur if she wishes to bring him up in a liberal way.
None of these things, however, induced me to enter into a second
marriage, or introduce a second husband into thy father’s house:
but I held on as I was, in the midst of the storm and uproar, and
did not shun the iron furnace45
of widowhood. My foremost help indeed was the grace from above; but
it was no small consolation to me under those terrible trials to
look continually on thy face and to preserve in thee a living image
of him who had gone, an image indeed which was a fairly exact
likeness.
On this account, even when thou wast an
infant, and hadst not yet learned to speak, a time when children
are the greatest delight to their parents, thou didst afford me
much comfort. Nor indeed can you complain that, although I bore my
widowhood bravely, I diminished thy patrimony, which I know has
been the fate of many who have had the misfortune to be orphans.
For, besides keeping the whole of it intact, I spared no expense
which was needful to give you an honorable position, spending for
this purpose some of my own fortune, and of my marriage dowry. Yet
do not think that I say these things by way of reproaching you;
only in return for all these benefits I beg one favor: do not
plunge me into a second widowhood; nor revive the grief which is
now laid to rest: wait for my death: it may be in a little while I
shall depart. The young indeed look forward to a distant old age;
but we who have grown old46
| 46
This must be regarded as a kind of rhetorical expression, as we
learn from Chrysostom’s “Letter to a young widow” (see page
122) that his mother was not much past 40 at this time. |
have nothing but death to wait for. When, then, you shall have
committed my body to the ground, and mingled my bones with thy
father’s, embark for a long voyage, and set sail on any sea thou
wilt: then there will be no one to hinder thee: but as long as my
life lasts, be content to live with me. Do not, I pray you, oppose
God in vain, involving me without cause, who have done you no
wrong, in these great calamities. For if you have any reason to
complain that I drag you into worldly cares, and force you to
attend to business, do not be restrained by any reverence for the
laws of nature, for training or custom, but fly from me as an
enemy; but if, on the contrary, I do everything to provide leisure
for thy journey through this life, let this bond at least if
nothing else keep thee by me. For couldst thou say that ten
thousand loved thee, yet no one will afford thee the enjoyment of
so much liberty, seeing there is no one who is equally anxious for
thy welfare.
6. These words, and more, my mother spake to me, and
I related them to that noble youth. But he, so far from being
disheartened by these speeches, was the more urgent in making the
same request as before. Now while we were thus situated, he
continually entreating, and I refusing my assent, we were both of
us disturbed by a report suddenly reaching us that we were about to
be advanced to the dignity of
the episcopate.47
| 47
ἐπισκοπῆς is the reading of most mss but four have ίερωσύνης,
“the priesthood,” which Bengel adopts, thinking that neither
Basil nor Chrysostom could have been elected for the higher order
at so early an age, but see below, p. 4, note 1. | As soon as I heard this rumor I was
seized with alarm and perplexity: with alarm lest I should be made
captive against my will, and perplexity, inquiring as I often did
whence any such idea concerning us could have entered the minds of
these men; for looking to myself I found nothing worthy of such an
honor. But that noble youth having come to me privately, and having
conferred with me about these things as if with one who was
ignorant of the rumor, begged that we might in this instance also
as formerly shape our action and our counsels the same way: for he
would readily follow me whichever course I might pursue, whether I
attempted flight or submitted to be captured. Perceiving then his
eagerness, and considering that I should inflict a loss upon the
whole body of the Church if, owing to my own weakness, I were to
deprive the flock of Christ of a young man who was so good and so
well qualified for the supervision of large numbers, I abstained
from disclosing to him the purpose which I had formed, although I
had never before allowed any of my plans to be concealed from him.
I now told him that it would be best to postpone our decision
concerning this matter to another season, as it was not immediately
pressing, and by so doing persuaded him to dismiss it from his
thoughts, and at the same time encouraged him to hope that, if such
a thing should ever happen to us, I should be of the same mind with
him. But after a short time, when one who was to ordain us arrived,
I kept myself concealed, but Basil, ignorant of this, was taken
away on another pretext, and made to take the yoke, hoping from the
promises which I had made to him that I should certainly follow, or
rather supposing that he was following me. For some of those who
were present, seeing that he resented being seized, deceived him by
exclaiming how strange it was that one who was generally reputed to
be the more hot tempered (meaning me), had yielded very mildly to
the judgment of the Fathers, whereas he, who was reckoned a much
wiser and milder kind of man, had shown himself hotheaded and
conceited, being unruly, restive, and contradictory.48
| 48
Forcible ordinations were not uncommon in the Church at this time.
St. Augustin was dragged weeping by the people before the Bishop,
and his ordination demanded. St. Martin of Tours was torn from his
cell, and conveyed to ordination under a guard. Possid. Vita Aug.
4; Sulp. Severus, Vit. St. Martin, i. 224. The affectation of
reluctance to be consecrated became a fashion in the Coptic Church.
The patriarch elect of Alexandria is still brought to Cairo loaded
with chains, as if to prevent his escape. Stanley, Eastern Church,
vii. p.226. | Having yielded to these
remonstrances, and afterwards having learned that I had escaped
capture, he came to me in deep dejection, sat down near me and
tried to speak, but was hindered by distress of mind and inability
to express in words the violence to which he had been subjected. No
sooner had he opened his mouth than he was prevented from utterance
by grief cutting short his words before they could pass his lips.
Seeing, then, his tearful and agitated condition, and knowing as I
did the cause, I laughed for joy, and, seizing his right hand, I
forced a kiss on him, and praised God that my plan had ended so
successfully, as I had always prayed it might. But when he saw that
I was delighted and beaming with joy, and understood that he had
been deceived by me, he was yet more vexed and
distressed.
7. And when he had a little recovered from this
agitation of mind, he began: If you have rejected the part allotted
to you, and have no further regard for me (I know not indeed for
what cause), you ought at least to consider your own reputation;
but as it is you have opened the mouths of all, and the world is
saying that you have declined this ministry through love of
vainglory, and there is no one who will deliver you from this
accusation. As for me, I cannot bear to go into the market place;
there are so many who come up to me and reproach me every day. For,
when they see me anywhere in the city, all my intimate friends take
me aside, and cast the greater part of the blame upon me. Knowing
his intention, they say, for none of his affairs could be kept
secret from you, you should not have concealed it, but ought to
have communicated it to us, and we should have been at no loss to
devise some plan for capturing him. But I am too much ashamed and
abashed to tell them that I did not know you had long been plotting
this trick, lest they should say that our friendship was a mere
pretence. For even if it is so, as indeed it is—nor would you
yourself deny it after what you have done to me—yet it is well to
hide our misfortune from the outside world, and persons who
entertain but a moderate opinion of us. I shrink from telling them
the truth, and how things really stand with us, and I am compelled
in future to keep silence, and look down on the ground, and turn
away to avoid those whom I meet. For if I escape the condemnation
on the former charge, I am forced to undergo judgment for speaking
falsehood. For they will never believe me when I say that you
ranged Basil amongst those who are not permitted to know your
secret affairs. Of this, however, I will not take much account,
since it has seemed agreeable to you, but how shall we endure the
future disgrace? for some accuse you of arrogance, others of
vainglory: while those
who are our more merciful accusers, lay
both these offences to our charge, and add that we have insulted
those who did us honor, although had they experienced even greater
indignity it would only have served them right for passing over so
many and such distinguished men and advancing mere youths,49
| 49
Chrysostom was about 28 at this time. The Council of Neo Cæsarea
(about 320) fixed 30 as the age at which men were eligible for the
priesthood, and the same age at least must have been required for a
bishop, yet Remigius was consecrated to the See of Reims at the age
of 22, A.D. 457; and there are many other instances of bishops,
under the prescribed age. | who were but yesterday immersed in
the interests of this world, to such a dignity as they never have
dreamed of obtaining, in order that they may for a brief season
knit the eyebrows, wear dusky garments, and put on a grave face.
Those who from the dawn of manhood to extreme old age have
diligently practised self-discipline, are now to be placed under
the government of youths who have not even heard the laws which
should regulate their administration of this office. I am
perpetually assailed by persons who say such things and worse, and
am at a loss how to reply to them; but I pray you tell me: for I do
not suppose that you took to flight and incurred such hatred from
such distinguished men without cause or consideration, but that
your decision was made with reasoning and circumspection: whence
also I conjecture that you have some argument ready for your
defence. Tell me, then, whether there is any fair excuse which I
can make to those who accuse us.
For I do not demand any account for the wrongs
which I have sustained at your hands, nor for the deceit or
treachery you have practised, nor for the advantage which you have
derived from me in the past. For I placed my very life, so to say,
in your hands, yet you have treated me with as much guile as if it
had been your business to guard yourself against an enemy. Yet if
you knew this decision of ours to be profitable, you ought not to
have avoided the gain: if on the contrary injurious, you should
have saved me also from the loss, as you always said that you
esteemed me before every one else. But you have done everything to
make me fall into the snare: and you had no need of guile and
hypocrisy in dealing with one who was wont to display the utmost
sincerity and candor in speech and action towards thee.
Nevertheless, as I said, I do not now accuse you of any of these
things, or reproach you for the lonely position in which you have
placed me by breaking off those conferences from which we often
derived no small pleasure and profit; but all these things I pass
by, and bear in silence and meekness, not that thou hast acted
meekly in transgressing against me, but because from the day that I
cherished thy friendship I laid it down as a rule for myself, that
whatever sorrow you might cause me I would never force you to the
necessity of an apology. For you know yourself that you have
inflicted no small loss on me if at least you remember what we were
always saying ourselves, and the outside world also said concerning
us, that it was a great gain for us to be of one mind and be
guarded by each other’s friendship. Every one said, indeed, that
our concord would bring no small advantage to many besides
ourselves; I never perceived, however, so far as I am concerned,
how it could be of advantage to others: but I did say that we
should at least derive this benefit from it: that those who wished
to contend with us would find us difficult to master. And I never
ceased reminding you of these things: saying the age is a cruel
one, and designing men are many, genuine love is no more, and the
deadly pest of envy has crept into its place: we walk in the midst
of snares, and on the edge of battlements;50
| 50
A metaphorical expression to denote a perilous position, as those
who walked on the edge of the walls would be exposed to the
missiles of the enemy. | those who are ready to rejoice in
our misfortunes, if any should befall us, are many and beset us
from many quarters: whereas there is no one to condole with us, or
at least the number of such may be easily counted. Beware that we
do not by separation incur much ridicule, and damage worse than
ridicule. Brother aided by brother is like a strong city, and well
fortified kingdom.51
Do not
dissolve this genuine intimacy, nor break down the fortress. Such
things and more I was continually saying, not indeed that I ever
suspected anything of this kind, but supposing you to be entirely
sound in your relation towards me, I did it as a superfluous
precaution, wishing to preserve in health one who was already
sound; but unwittingly, as it seems, I was administering medicines
to a sick man: and even so I have not been fortunate enough to do
any good, and have gained nothing by my excess of forethought. For
having totally cast away all these considerations, without giving
them a thought, you have turned me adrift like an unballasted
vessel on an untried ocean, taking no heed of those fierce billows
which I must encounter. For if it should ever be my lot to undergo
calumny, or mockery, or any other kind of insult or menace (and
such things must frequently occur), to whom shall I fly for refuge:
to whom shall I impart my distress, who will be willing to succour
me and drive back my assailants and put a stop to their assaults?
who will solace me and
prepare me to bear the coarse ribaldry which may yet be in store
for me. There is no one since you stand aloof from this terrible
strife, and cannot even hear my cry. Seest thou then what mischief
thou hast wrought? now that thou hast dealt the blow, dost thou
perceive what a deadly wound thou hast inflicted? But let all this
pass: for it is impossible to undo the past, or to find a path
through pathless difficulties. What shall I say to the outside
world? what defence shall I make to their accusations.
8. Chrysostom: Be of
good cheer, I replied, for I am not only ready to answer for myself
in these matters, but I will also endeavor as well as I am able to
render an account of those for which you have not held me
answerable. Indeed, if you wish it, I will make them the
starting-point of my defence. For it would be a strange piece of
stupidity on my part if, thinking only of praise from the outside
public, and doing my best to silence their accusations, I were
unable to convince my dearest of all friends that I am not wronging
him, and were to treat him with indifference greater than the zeal
which he has displayed on my behalf, treating me with such
forbearance as even to refrain from accusing me of the wrongs which
he says he has suffered from me, and putting his own interests out
of the question in consideration for mine.
What is the wrong that I have done thee, since
I have determined to embark from this point upon the sea of
apology? Is it that I misled you and concealed my purpose? Yet I
did it for the benefit of thyself who wast deceived, and of those
to whom I surrendered you by means of this deceit. For if the evil
of deception is absolute, and it is never right to make use of it,
I am prepared to pay any penalty you please: or rather, as you will
never endure to inflict punishment upon me, I shall subject myself
to the same condemnation which is pronounced by judges on
evil-doers when their accusers have convicted them. But if the
thing is not always harmful, but becomes good or bad according to
the intention of those who practise it, you must desist from
complaining of deceit, and prove that it has been devised against
you for a bad purpose; and as long as this proof is wanting it
would only be fair for those who wish to conduct themselves
prudently, not only to abstain from reproaches and accusation, but
even to give a friendly reception to the deceiver. For a well-timed
deception, undertaken with an upright intention, has such
advantages, that many persons have often had to undergo punishment
for abstaining from fraud. And if you investigate the history of
generals who have enjoyed the highest reputation from the earliest
ages, you will find that most of their triumphs were achieved by
stratagem, and that such are more highly commended than those who
conquer in open fight. For the latter conduct their campaigns with
greater expenditure of money and men, so that they gain nothing by
the victory, but suffer just as much distress as those who have
been defeated, both in the sacrifice of troops and the exhaustion
of funds. But, besides this, they are not even permitted to enjoy
all the glory which pertains to the victory; for no small part of
it is reaped by those who have fallen, because in spirit they were
victorious, their defeat was only a bodily one: so that had it been
possible for them not to fall when they were wounded, and death had
not come and put the finishing stroke to their labors, there would
have been no end of their prowess. But one who has been able to
gain the victory by stratagem involves the enemy in ridicule as
well as disaster. Again, in the other case both sides equally carry
off the honors bestowed upon valor, whereas in this case they do
not equally obtain those which are bestowed on wisdom, but the
prize falls entirely to the victors, and, another point no less
important is that they preserve the joy of the victory for the
state unalloyed; for abundance of resources and multitudes of men
are not like mental powers: the former indeed if continually used
in war necessarily become exhausted, and fail those who possess
them, whereas it is the nature of wisdom to increase the more it is
exercised. And not in war only, but also in peace the need of
deceit may be found, not merely in reference to the affairs of the
state, but also in private life, in the dealings of husband with
wife and wife with husband, son with father, friend with friend,
and also children with a parent. For the daughter of Saul would not
have been able to rescue her husband out of Saul’s hands52
except by deceiving her father. And
her brother, wishing to save him whom she had rescued when he was
again in danger, made use of the same weapon as the wife.53
Basil: But none of these
cases apply to me: for I am not an enemy, nor one of those who are
striving to injure thee, but quite the contrary. For I entrusted
all my interests to your judgment, and always followed it whenever
you bid me.
Chrysostom: But, my
admirable and excellent Sir, this is the very reason why I took the
precaution of saying that it was a good thing to employ this kind
of deceit, not only in war, and in dealing with enemies, but also
in peace, and in dealing
with our dearest friends. For as a proof that it is beneficial not
only to the deceivers, but also to those who are deceived; if you
go to any of the physicians and ask them how they relieve their
patients from disease, they will tell you that they do not depend
upon their professional skill alone, but sometimes conduct the sick
to health by availing themselves of deceit, and blending the
assistance which they derive from it with their art. For when the
waywardness of the patient and the obstinacy of the complaint
baffle the counsels of the physicians, it is then necessary to put
on the mask of deceit in order that, as on the stage, they may be
able to hide what really takes place. But, if you please, I will
relate to you one instance of stratagem out of many which I have
heard of being contrived by the sons of the healing art.54
| 54
Literally, “sons of physicians.” Compare the expression “sons
of the prophets” in the Old Testament. | A man was once suddenly attacked by
a fever of great severity; the burning heat increased, and the
patient rejected the remedies which could have reduced it and
craved for a draught of pure wine, passionately entreating all who
approached to give it him and enable him to satiate this deadly
craving—I say deadly, for if any one had gratified this request
he would not only have exasperated the fever, but also have driven
the unhappy man frantic. Thereupon, professional skill being
baffled, and at the end of its resources and utterly thrown away,
stratagem stepped in and displayed its power in the way which I
will now relate. For the physician took an earthen cup brought
straight out of the furnace, and having steeped it in wine, then
drew it out empty, filled it with water, and, having ordered the
chamber where the sick man lay to be darkened with curtains that
the light might not reveal the trick, he gave it him to drink,
pretending that it was filled with undiluted wine. And the man,
before he had taken it in his hands, being deceived by the smell,
did not wait to examine what was given him, but convinced by the
odor, and deceived by the darkness, eagerly gulped down the
draught, and being satiated with it immediately shook off the
feeling of suffocation and escaped the imminent peril.55
| 55
Clement of Alexandria (Stromata vii.) illustrates the same doctrine
of allowable deceit for a useful purpose by a similar reference to
the practice of physicians. | Do you see the advantage of deceit?
And if any one were to reckon up all the tricks of physicians the
list would run on to an indefinite length. And not only those who
heal the body but those also who attend to the diseases of the soul
may be found continually making use of this remedy. Thus the
blessed Paul attracted those multitudes of Jews:56
with this purpose he circumcised
Timothy,57
although he
warned the Galatians in his letter58
that Christ would not profit those who were circumcised. For this
cause he submitted to the law, although he reckoned the
righteousness which came from the law but loss after receiving the
faith in Christ.59
For great is
the value of deceit, provided it be not introduced with a
mischievous intention. In fact action of this kind ought not to be
called deceit, but rather a kind of good management, cleverness and
skill, capable of finding out ways where resources fail, and making
up for the defects of the mind. For I would not call Phinees a
murderer, although he slew two human beings with one stroke:60
nor yet Elias after the slaughter of
the 100 soldiers, and the captain,61
and the torrents of blood which he caused to be shed by the
destruction of those who sacrificed to devils.62
For if we were to concede this, and
to examine the bare deeds in themselves apart from the intention of
the doers, one might if he pleased judge Abraham guilty of
child-murder63
and accuse his
grandson64
and
descendant65
of wickedness
and guile. For the one got possession of the birthright, and the
other transferred the wealth of the Egyptians to the host of the
Israelites. But this is not the case: away with the audacious
thought! For we not only acquit them of blame, but also admire them
because of these things, since even God commended them for the
same. For that man would fairly deserve to be called a deceiver who
made an unrighteous use of the practice, not one who did so with a
salutary purpose. And often it is necessary to deceive, and to do
the greatest benefits by means of this device, whereas he who has
gone by a straight course has done great mischief to the person
whom he has not deceived.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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