MONITUM ON THE FOLLOWING HOMILY
This homily is judged by Savile and Fronto Ducaeus to be spurious, and indeed with justice and merit. For the style is entirely alien to the manner of speech of Chrysostom; although it is not entirely unworthy of being read; for it offers, in a few words, a timely lesson concerning the vanity of this life and the exercise of all virtues.
We place the Latin translation of Joachim Perionius, castigated in some places, alongside the Greek text.
ON THE PROPHETIC SAYING, "VERILY EVERY MAN LIVING IS VAINLY TROUBLED" (Ps. 39:6): AND CONCERNING ALMSGIVING
A The deep sea calls to the fisherman, when casting his net he captures a great haul of marine life, and pulls his heavy-laden dragnet with effort. The forest, mother of beasts, calls the hunter when, having searched the mountains and opened up the dense thickets, he returns with a glorious and rich prey. But if the labor undertaken in these things brings pleasure to them who are occupied in such tasks of gain and hunting, how much greater rewards should the catchers of the ecclesiastical gulfs propose to themselves, for whom the prize is not daily nor earthly, but the kingdom of the heavens itself? Come then, beloved, let us sound the Davidic lyre of the psalms, and with David let us mark the baseness and abjection of the human race with these words: "Verily every man living is vainly troubled." He is troubled, and in the end he shall perish; he is troubled, and before he is confirmed, he is swallowed up; as fire is ignited, and is reduced to ashes like stubble; as a storm rises, and as the dust is leveled to the earth; as a flame is excited, and is dissipated like smoke; as a flower is of excellent form, and as grass is dried up; as a cloud is gathered, and is diminished like a drop; as finally a bubble is inflated, and like a spark is extinguished. He is troubled, and with an insatiable greed he produces a foul odor for himself; he is troubled, and when his perturbation was of no use to him, he is extinguished. His are the stirrings and perturbations, the delights of others; his labors, the treasures of others; his cares, the pleasures of others; his adverse affairs, the successes of others; his curses, the connections of others; his rapines, the pleasures of others; his groans, the abundance of all things for others; his tears, money for others; he finally is punished in the underworld, while others, conversely, enjoy his goods with song. Verily every man living is vainly troubled. Man, the usury of life which lasts for a time, the debt of death which cannot be deferred, the animal untamed in its resolve, the wickedness by which he is taught by himself, the stratagems which are taught of their own accord, he who is instructed in the art of wrongdoing, who is gifted with industry for injury, prepared for avarice, insatiable for satisfaction, born for treachery, an inflated spirit, a boastful audacity, a ferocity which is easily quelled, an elation which is destroyed by a small matter, an audacity which is easily captured: the filth full of arrogance, the seditious ash, the dust with an elated soul, the inflated ash, the spark which is easily extinguished; the flame which easily withers, the unstable lamp, the wood whose destruction is swift, the grass which has dried up, the herb which dies easily, the nature which is quickly consumed; who today threatens, and tomorrow departs from life; who today abounds in riches, tomorrow is covered by the grave; who today is adorned with a diadem, and tomorrow is buried; who today shines in purple, and tomorrow is carried out; who today is occupied with treasures, and tomorrow in tombs; who today is with flatterers, tomorrow with worms; who today is, and tomorrow is nothing; who now carries himself magnificently, and shortly after is mourned; who in favorable circumstances cannot be endured, and in adverse circumstances cannot be relieved by any consolation; who knows not himself, and curiously inquires into things that surpass him; who knows not what is present and at hand, and thinks on future things; who is mortal by his own nature, and by the elation of his mind, as it seems to him, is eternal; the proposed outlet for all diseases, the easiest home of every perturbation, the daily and common gymnasium of fevers: finally, the prepared lodging for every pain. How great is the tragedy of our abjection! How great is the triumph of our vileness! How many and how great things I have put forth, while meanwhile I have found nothing more apt than this prophetic voice: "Verily every man living is vainly troubled." But that I may make an end of speaking, see, I pray, how human affairs imitate the sea, how this life of ours is entangled in that perturbation, how much more often we are tossed by tempests than water on the earth, and how much more vehemently we collide with one another than winds, how money, like storms, sets us against each other, and we are driven here and there as in a tempest of the sea. Here one usurps the field of another; another has abducted the slaves of someone else; and this one brings his neighbor to judgment over water, that one contends with a citizen over air. These argue over the measurement of land, those clash among themselves over the method of building; this one makes an assault so that he may receive what he did not give, that one acts in court so that he may not return what he received. This one is not satisfied by usury, that one strives to deprive even of the capital; this one, when he is in need, is afflicted with trouble; that one, abounding in the copy of all things, is tumultuously disturbed; he who has nothing is afflicted with reproaches; he who has is attacked by stratagems; he who holds magistracies falls under suspicion; he who is endowed with power is held in hatred; B he who holds authority is armed. Wars are frequent, envy falls upon envy, insatiable greed dominates, avarice reigns, lying is extolled with the highest praises, good faith is exiled, truth has deserted the earth, friendship is bounded by the table. Others have lost their strength; the earth can no longer bear evils, the air has been contaminated up to the very ether. Because of money, life is not livable; for the greed of money we have sold the free elements; the roads pay tolls, the land is divided by lot, waters are held by authority, the air is sold; collectors of tithes, tributes, and taxes occupy cities; the rich are consumed by cares, the usurers waste away with anxiety, looters fill life with perturbations, those greedy for money busy themselves in judgment and the forum; merchant men seek gains from calamities and losses; calumniators sell lies. Since we are accustomed to lie among ourselves, we have abolished the religion of the oath; we know God only for the purpose of swearing. C When the prophet discerned this, and considered this life to be wretched,
he cried out: "But in vain does every man who lives tremble." Only man, O prophet, is troubled? Only the rational creature is accused? Among animals and elements, I found nothing that is troubled. The waters, he says, are troubled, and again they settle; the earth is shaken, and again it is made firm; the winds are moved, and again they are at rest; every beast is in turmoil, and when satisfied it ceases; fire is stirred up, and consuming the underlying fuel, it is extinguished. A But man, once inflamed with the desire for money, never ceases: he has received this, and looks toward that; he has mastered that, and gapes for another. He struggles to double the hundred, and having attained so much, he rushes to heap up as much again, and never ceases from heaping up until his own end is heaped upon him; and bound by the thirst of avarice, he goes about paler than gold, because of the much-desired wealth, the friend that is perhaps most unreliable, the treacherous desire, the deceiver with many masters, the much-lamented mocker, the winged prisoner, the dead man of many prices, the wind that flies away in the world; wealth, the progenitor of every absurdity, the discoverer of every wickedness, the accomplice of soul-destroying food, the opponent of temperance, the enemy of modesty, and the secret thief of every virtue.
But why do I accuse wealth, leaving behind those who possess it? It too acts as if in bondage to them, and is held fast by shackles. For it seems to me that it cries out to them: "Why do you, O lovers of money, fetter me, the wealth? Why, like a runaway slave, do you bind me with countless chains? Why do you embrace me as a friend, and B bind me as a wrongdoer, passing me from mines into your hands? If you wish to give me some respite even lighter than dreams, allow me to be sent away into the hands of the poor." But he says: "I gather wealth for my children, that they may not become heirs to poverty." Fine, the man of many phantasms, the rich man; he does not know the present, and he is concerned about the future; he is ignorant of his own affairs, and is concerned about his children; he does not understand if he is being buried, and he deliberates about his heirs. O foolish man, tell me your end, and then provide for your children; tell me about today, and then I will believe you about tomorrow. Why do you deceive yourself even after death? Why do you wish to be both a corpse and mocked? Why do you prescribe to God what is to be done? Why do you legislate that God’s providence should be managed by what you have given? Nothing is up to you regarding what comes after you. You cannot be both dead, and a governor of the living, and a judge of the dead, weighing the justice of each. Why then do you labor in vain, rich man, storing up the things of the poor among your own, and you do not know for whom you gather them? Why do you hold the property of orphans, why do you grow indignant when they ask of you, as if you were spending your own? They seek their own, not your things; things entrusted to you for their sake, not things born with you. What you received, give, and gain from the usage, because you were commanded to give, not to receive. It is enough for you that through the poor man God extends His right hand to you. He who makes it rain from heaven begs you for a copper drop; He who thunders and lightnings says to you, "Have mercy"; He who clothes the heaven in clouds asks a cloak from you. It is enough for you that the poor entreat you as God. Give, pity, have mercy, that you may be shown mercy. But you do not even wish to raise your eyebrows, C and, being entreated, you do not soften. Give them their own, before the accounting comes; give them their own, which you are not long about to receive back. They have a Father who is King; their own, and receive from their Father freedom from care. What is this? "Inasmuch as you did it to one of these my least brethren, you did it to me." For he who draws near to a poor and needy man, not only wipes away the handwriting of sin, but also receives a confession. The voice that says: "He who gives to the poor, lends to God." Let us lend our alms to God, that we may receive from Him a return of philanthropy. But oh, for the most wise saying! "He who has mercy on the poor, lends to God." Why then did He not say, "He who has mercy on the poor, gives to God," but "lends"? The Scripture knew our avarice, and perceived that our greed, looking toward gain, seeks an increase, and for this reason it did not say simply, "He who has mercy on the poor gives to God," so that you would not think the giving and the return of the reward were simple; but, "He who has mercy on the poor, lends to God," so that the covetous man, hearing the name of a loan, might give himself to mercy. "He who has mercy on the poor, lends to God." If God borrows from us, then He is our debtor. Which then do you wish Him to be, Judge or debtor? The debtor is shamed by the one who lent to him; but the judge is not embarrassed by the one who is being judged.
3. It is necessary, brothers, to see also in another way why God said that he who gives to the poor lends to Me. Because He saw our avarice leaning toward increase, as I have already said, and nowhere wanting to lend money without security (for the lender demands either a mortgage, or pledges, or a guarantor, and through these three securities trusts his own money, or receiving guarantees, as I have already said, or a mortgage on property); since therefore God knew that apart from these no one lends, nor does he look to philanthropy, but looks only at gain; and the poor man is destitute of all these, having no mortgage (for he possesses nothing at all), bringing no pledges (for he is stripped bare), not providing a guarantor (for he is distrusted due to poverty), when He saw him in danger through his destitution, and the one holding money through his inhumanity, He placed Himself between them, a guarantor to the poor man, and a pledge to the lender. "Do you distrust him," He says, "because of his destitution? Believe Me because of My abundance." He saw the poor man, and took pity; He saw the poor man, and He did not overlook him, but gave Himself as a pledge to the one who has nothing, and stood for the destitute due to much goodness. "He who has mercy on the poor, lends to God." Take courage, He says, you lend to Me. "And what do I gain so much, by lending to You?" "I give you a hundredfold, and eternal life." "When will You return this to me?" I demand the terms, wishing to confirm the contract. Set the time for the repayment, appoint the deadline for the release. Hear wisely when He who lent through the poor returns the debt. "When the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory, he will place the sheep on his right, and the goats on his left; and he will say to those on the right: Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." For what? "For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was naked, and you clothed me; I was in prison, and you came to me." D Then those who had served well in time, looking to their own weakness, and to the dignity of the One who had borrowed, say: "Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and gave you to drink," he in whom the eyes of all hope? "Or when did we see you in such need, and when did we do these things?" "Inasmuch," He says, "as you did it to one of these least, you did it to me." Is not the word true, that "He who has mercy on the poor, lends to God"? But just as He showed the kingdom gifted to those on the right because of their philanthropy, so also He threatened the punishment to those on the left because of their unproductiveness: "Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Why? For what reason? "Because I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat." He did not say, "You bore false witness, you swore falsely,"—though these indeed are also and these things [are] wicked—but [He judged] because of the inhumanity and the unmercifulness. "But why, O Lord, do you bring none of the other things to mind?" "I judge not," He says, "the sin, but the inhumanity; I do not judge those who sinned, but those who did not repent. I condemn you for inhumanity, because having such a great and powerful medicine of salvation, alms, you neglected such a great benefaction." I reproach therefore the inhumanity, as the root of every wickedness and every impiety.
tificated. I, however, commend your zeal for the highest things, most learned Hoescheli, for which the multitude of the wise is wont to converge upon you from all sides, as lines to their center. A sign of this is the truly God-pleasing desire of the most illustrious Henry Savile, which he continuously nourishes for the edition of those works most excellently labored upon by the golden-tongued orator. For he has trusted the care of these things to you, as to one of the champions of such worthy goals. Would that his efforts might succeed according to his intent. For this would bring no small utility to piety itself and to its students, in addition to the abundant reward that would be laid up for him from God in the future. I have read his letter to the man who has already departed this life, and I have learned what his desire was. Since, however, no hope is left from that quarter, a second voyage, as they say, the consideration of assistance from others, has been devised. Assuredly, having compared the catalogue of Chrysostomic discourses sent by him with the one in my possession, I found that this number exceeds the other by two hundred and more discourses. These have received various titles: the ones for Pascha, that is, the seven on the Trumpets, and the six against the Jews, as many on Priesthood, eight on the Incomprehensible, five inscribed on the Seraphim, those on the Statues, and the Pearls, and those which I collected at the same time, the panegyrics. For the ones on Matthew, and on John, and those on Genesis, which were sent two years ago to Mount Athos, which is called holy, to the most illustrious patrician George of Venice. And Margunius himself died a few days later, at a most inopportune time for my affairs. Savile.
ON THE TWO SUBSEQUENT HOMILIES ON THE FIFTIETH PSALM
It has long been a question among scholars whether the two following homilies are genuine and authentic works of Chrysostom, or not. Savile doubts them, as he indicates in the catalogue placed at the front of the first volume. In the notes, however, in Volume 8, page 115, he sufficiently implies that he was led by the authority of famous men not to cast his vote for them. Fronto Ducaeus, moreover, edited them outside the number of the genuine homilies, without bringing forth any cause for adjudging them away from Chrysostom. But I believe it is altogether certain that Ducaeus did this advisedly. For I judge these two homilies to be undoubtedly spurious: and this, if I am not mistaken, will be made clear by the arguments to be produced a little later. But before I set them forth, I shall bring into the middle the sentiment of Savile concerning them, with the annexed letter of Maximus Margunius which I have rendered into Latin.
* “These two,” Savile says, “prayers or homilies on the fiftieth Psalm are not acknowledged, or were not seen, by him who left us that long-since excellent collection of Chrysostom’s Commentaries on the Psalms from Oxford. And certainly that they are unlike the others, especially the former, is clearer than light. Therefore I do not adjudge them away, since they have great patrons, Sixtus of Siena and Jacobus Billius, and they are held here and there in libraries under the name of our Chrysostom: and (which is no light argument to me) their version has long since been received in the Latin Church. Moreover, we have as their champion the most learned of the recent Greeks, Maximus Margunius, Bishop of Cythera, in a letter sent to the most learned David Hoeschelius, which, because it touches upon this entire Chrysostomic business, I have seen fit to subjoin in this place.” *
* “To David Hoeschelius, most learned man, Maximus, humble Bishop of Cythera, greeting. I commend your zeal for things of the highest order, most wise Hoescheli; for whose sake a procession of learned men is wont to run to you from all directions, as lines to a center. A copy of which matter is supplied by the pious plan of the most illustrious Henry Savile, by which he is entirely and assiduously occupied with the edition of the golden works of Chrysostom. For he has confidently entrusted the care of these things to you, as to a certain helper of the good. Would that such endeavor might succeed for him according to his proposal. For it will bring no small utility to religion at the same time as to its cultivators: but to this it will surely win a copious reward from God in the future. I read, therefore, his letter to the man who has already departed this life, and I learned what he had in his hopes. But because no hope remained from there, a second, as is said, navigation was thought out from other suppliers. Truly, when I had compared the catalogue of the discourses of Chrysostom (a) which he himself sent with that which is in my possession, I discovered that this was more than two hundred discourses larger than the former. These discourses, furthermore, bear various titles: some indeed for Pascha, of which I have seven on the Trumpets, others against the Jews, six; on the Priesthood, as many; on the Incomprehensible, eight; those inscribed on the Seraphim, five; on the Statues, on the Pearls, and also other panegyrics which I collected at the same time. For the commentaries of that holy man on Matthew, and on John, and on Genesis…”
[SPURIA.]