of his character, that "the city put on a new aspect of piety;" the worship of Church-people became more real, their lives more earnest and pure.

Jerome had been reconciled to Ruffinus, but was again at strife with Bishop John. The latter had circulated a "Defence" in reply to Epiphanius, but, as Jerome contended, had not really met his accusations by a distinct disclaimer of Origenism. Before Easter-tide, an eclipse of the sun had scared many persons by the expectation of coming judgment; forty converts had given in their names for baptism to the monks of Bethlehem, but although there were five priests in the monastery, it had been thought best to refer them to the clergy who had charge of Bethlehem, and they, under orders from their bishop, refused to receive the "competents." John had also excluded the inmates of the monastery from the sacred cave of the Nativity; they "saw heretics freely entering, and stood sighing at a distances." Jerome wrote a treatise addressed to Pammachius, in which he reiterated the eight points of false doctrine which had been imputed by Epiphanius to John, and generally set forth his grounds of complaint against the bishop. Ruffinus, at Rome, employed himself, at the request of a certain Macarius, on a task which was certain to rekindle the stifled feud-the translation of Origen's book "on Principles." He ingeniously referred to Jerome as having made many people desirous of reading Origen, by his own translation of one of Origen's homilies, executed at Rome in the time of Damasus. Ruffinus himself took extraordinary liberties with his text, by suppressing every passage which he thought unsound, a procedure which he justified on the ground that heretics had been busy in

30. c. 4. He preached from the lectern, not from the sanctuary, in order to be better heard, Soz. viii. 5.

e The Liturgy of S. Chrysostom, which is derived from that of S. Basil, was probably arranged by S. Chrysostom as to its "main substance and order." See Palmer's Orig, Lit. i. 79; Neale's Introd. i. 317, 319.

f c. Joan. 5.

* Ibid. 42.

FOURTH COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE."

231

tampering with Origen's works 1. This translation produced a great excitement; a zealous Roman lady named Marcella (whom Ruffinus designated as Jezebel) put herself forward in opposition to "Origenism;" and Ruffinus thought it best to procure a commendatory letter from Siricius, and to withdraw to Aquileia.

This year, 398, was a time of suffering to the Church of Africa. The rebellion of Gildo gave occasion to his Donatist supporters to make attacks upon the Church, which apparently called forth a law of Honorius against those who did violence to the clergy or the Catholic places of worship; persons convicted of such offences were to be punished capitally k. S. Augustine held a discussion with a Donatist bishop named Fortunius1; preached against the custom of attending idolatrous feasts for the sake of pleasing great men m; and answered questions put to him on the degree in which any contact with Heathenism was allowable". The 8th of Nov., 398, is the date usually assigned for the Council called the fourth of Carthage. But there is considerable uncertainty as to this Council, the enactments of which have not been included in the oldest collections of synodal decrees. It may be, indeed, that they were considered as forming a distinct code, and were therefore not embodied in the collection of Dionysius Exiguus; or it may be that they were the work of various African Church authorities, and that the assembly called

h Yet he adjured all copyists of his "translation," in presence of the Holy Trinity, by the resurrection and by hell-fire, to add nothing, omit nothing, alter nothing. Jerome, Ep. 80 (Ruffinus' Preface).

The chief of these was a bishop named Optatus. Africa groaned under this satellite of Gildo, S. Aug. c. ep. Parm. ii. 8. He oppressed the Church ten years, c. litt. Pet. i. 24; was a robber, an oppressor of widows and orphans, a breaker-up of marriages, ib. ii. 82; died in prison, ib. ii. 209. 1 Ep. 44.

The bishop's complaint was not to be waited for.

m Serm. 62. Pagans, he says, are led to ask, "why should we forsake the gods whom the Christians join with us in serving?"

" Ep. 46, 47. The questions were such as these; "May one buy fruit from a pagan priest's garden, or bathe in a bath used by pagans at their festivals?" • See Tillemont. xiii. 983.

232

66

FOURTH COUNCIL OF CARTHAGE."

the fourth Council of Carthage must be considered unhistoric, although the decrees assigned to it belong, in fact, to this period P. Certainty on this point is probably unattainable; but there is no doubt that these " canons," or, as they are also called, "statutes of the Church," were "highly esteemed by the ancients 4," and represent to us a mass of ritual and other law which deserves to be carefully studied. They begin with the examination of a bishopelect, who is to profess his faith, among other points, in the baptismal remission of all sins both original and actual1. At his consecration, the book of the Gospels is to be held open on his shoulders; the principal consecrator is to pronounce the blessing, the other bishops are to touch the head with their hands. The ordination of a priest is to be performed in the manner still retained by the Church of England; while the bishop blesses the new priest with imposition of hands, the priests present are also to lay their hands on his head. But the bishop alone is to lay his hand on the deacon, who is "consecrated not for priesthood, but Rules are given for the bestowal of the inferior orders of subdeacon, acolyth, exorcist, reader, ostiary, and chanter, — the last being conferred by the priest alone. Rules for clerical conduct follow; the bishop

for ministering "."

P Cave says, Hist. Lit. i. 369, "mihi ipsi in hac re satisfacere haud possum."

a Fleury, b. xx. c. 33. He ignores the question of the reality of this Council.

r This canon certainly looks like a product of the subsequent Pelagian controversy.

s So in the Apost. Constit. viii. 4. The Gelasian Sacramentary embodies these African rules for consecration, &c. Murat. i. 619.

This custom, apparently based on 1 Tim. iv. 14, has never been received by the Eastern Church, which interprets "the presbytery" as meaning "bishops."

u In a larger sense, the word sacerdotium was used to include the diaconate, Optat. i. p. 39.

The Roman Church has suppressed the office of chanter, which was recognized by the Laodicene Council. Innocent III. could not persuade the Greeks to recognize acolyths, exorcists, or ostiaries (door-keepers). The Greek Church reckons five orders; bishop, priest, deacon, subdeacon,

is to avoid secular business, to administer ecclesiastical law in the presence of his clergy, and to recognise the priests as his colleagues except in church, where only he is to sit higher than they. The deacon is to serve the priest, to wear an albe during the oblation, not to administer "the Eucharist of Christ's Body" in the priest's presence, except by his order. Laymen are not to preach before clergy, except at their bidding. Clergy who can work are to earn their bread by trade or tillage. Women are not to preach nor baptize. No one is to be hindered from entering the church until after the dismissal of catechumens. Penitents must kneel even on festal days. The offerings of the contentious must be refused; care must be taken of those who suffer for Catholicism.

The disorderly conduct of monks who abused their privilege of interceding for criminals was again condemned, by a law of Arcadius in July, 388. And there is undeniable evidence for the prevalence of gross abuses, in the form of lawless idleness and hypocrisy, among the monks of this time z.

One of S. Chrysostom's earliest successes appears to have been the reconciliation of Rome and Alexandria to Flavian of Antioch. Siricius died on the 26th of November, 398, and Anastasius succeeded him.

Among those of the higher classes in Constantinople who

reader. The Roman now merges the episcopate, as an order, in the priesthood; but the two were distinguished by Egbert, archbishop of York, A.D. 734.

▾ Sordid occupations were forbidden to clergy. But Epiphanius, Hær. 80, speaks of priests who pursued some honest handicraft; and Sozomen, vii. 28, tells us of an aged bishop, Zeno, who was constant at daily matins and vespers, yet wrought as a linen-weaver.

z Jerome, Ep. 22, on the Sarabaites, or vagabond monks, whom he calls "Remoboth." See also S. Augustine, de Opere Monachorum, wherein he speaks of impostors who sell "limbs of martyrs, if indeed they are of martyrs." Jerome also, in Ep. 125, speaks of monks who are worldly in all but dress and profession; who live luxuriously, who are as haughty as præfects. He also admits that damp cells, excessive fasting and study, the tedium of solitude, &c., have driven some monks into disease of mind.

were offended by the uncompromising character of their new archbishop, was Eutropius, who had raised him to the see. The Church, under Chrysostom's government, was becoming, in his view, unmanageable; and he procured a law to annul the right of asylum in churches, which had been growing up during this century. But he was soon driven by a revolution in the Emperor's counsels to clasp the altar as the safeguard of his life. Chrysostom violated the new law in defence of its author; and while Eutropius lay cowering in the sanctuary, bade the people take home this new lesson on the "vanity of vanities a." "The altar is more awful than ever, now that it holds the lion chained." He called on his hearers to beg the Emperor's mercy, or rather, to ask the God of mercy to "save Eutropius from threatened death, and enable him to put away his crimes." He withstood the indignation of the Court in the cause of Christian humanity; but Eutropius himself quitted the church, and was condemned to exile, Jan. 17, 399.

S. Chrysostom was not only active in building up the Church at home, but zealous in extending it abroad. He sent missionaries to preach to the wild nomads on the banks of the Danube b; consecrated Unilas bishop of the Goths; appointed clergy to reclaim the Scythians resident at Constantinople from Arianism; and procured an imperial order for the destruction of temples in Phoenicia. Honorius in the preceding year had ordered the destruction of all traces of idolatry; but in January, 399, he forbade the Christians to disturb those statues which were ornamental to public places. At Easter the Christians made a general attack on the temples of Carthage, by way of exhibiting the falsification of the prophecy with which the Pagans had consoled themselves, that Christianity would perish after lasting for 365 years. The great temple of "the Queen of heaven," which had long been closed and deserted, was re-opened, cleansed, and dedicated as a church by the

a Hom. in Eutrop., tom. iii. p. 381.

b Theod. v. 31.

c Ep. 14.