Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| Chapter XXX. He adds also S. John Chrysostom.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter XXX.
He adds also S. John Chrysostom.
As for John the glory of the
Episcopate of Constantinople, whose holy life obtained
the reward of martyrdom without any show
of Gentile persecution, hear what he thought and taught on the
Incarnation of the Son of God: “And Him,” he says,
“whom if He had come in unveiled Deity neither the heaven nor the
earth nor the sea nor any other creature could have contained, the pure
womb of a Virgin bore.”2680
| 2680 The passage has
not been identified with any now extant in the writings of S.
Chrysostom. | This
man’s faith and doctrine then, even if you ignore that of others,
you ought to follow and hold, as out of love and affection for him the
pious people chose you as their Bishop. For when it took you for its
priest from the Church of Antioch, from which it had formerly chosen
him, it believed that it would receive in you all that it had lost in
him.2681
| 2681 S. Chrysostom had
been taken from Antioch for the Bishopric of Constantinople: and after
the death of Sisinnius in 426, as there was so much rivalry and party
spirit displayed at Constantinople, the Emperor determined that none of
that Church should fill the vacant see, but sent for Nestorius from
Antioch, where he had already gained a great reputation for eloquence
(cf. Socrates H. E. VII. xxix.). It is to the fact that both S.
Chrysostom and Nestorius came from the same city that Cassian alludes
in the text. | Did not, I ask you, all these almost
with prophetic spirit say all these things in order to confound your
blasphemies. For you declare that our Lord and Saviour Christ is not
God: they declare that Christ the Lord is Very God. You blasphemously
assert that Mary is Christotocos not Theotocos: they do not deny that
she is Christotocos, while they acknowledge her as Theotocos. Not
merely the substance but the words also are opposed to your
blasphemies: that we may clearly see that an impregnable bulwark was
formerly prepared by God against your blasphemies, to break on the wall
of truth ready prepared, the force of the heretical attack which was at
some time or other to come. And you, O you most wicked and shameless
contaminator of an illustrious city, you disastrous and deadly plague
of a Catholic and holy people, do you dare to stand and teach in the
Church of God, and with your wild and blasphemous words slander the
priests of an ever unbroken faith and Catholic confession, and say that
the people of the city of Constantinople are in error through the fault
of their earlier teachers? Are you then the corrector of former
Bishops, the accuser of ancient priests, are you better than Gregory,
more approved than Nectarius, greater than John,2682
| 2682 The reference is
to Gregory Nazianzen, Bishop of Constantinople from 379 to 381 when he
retired in the interests of peace; to Nectarius who was chosen to
succeed him, and occupied the post from 381 to 397; and to his
successor, S. John Chrysostom 397 to 404. | and all the other Bishops of Eastern
cities who, though not of the same renown as those whom I have
enumerated, were yet of the same faith? which, as far as the matter in
hand is concerned, is enough: for when it is a question of the faith,
all are as good as the best in so far as they agree with the
best.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
