Description

The remaining books on the Priesthood treat of the pre-eminent dignity, and sanctity of the priestly office and the peculiar difficulties and perils which beset it. They abound with wise and weighty observations instructive for all times, but they are also interesting from the light which they throw upon the condition of the Church and of society in the age when Chrysostom lived. It is to be noted that he is speaking of the priesthood generally and that it is not always easy to say in any given passage which of the first two orders in the ministry he has in his mind. In many instances perhaps he was not thinking of one more than the other. Where, as was very commonly the case, the jurisdiction of a bishop did not extend very far beyond the limits of the city in which his See was placed, his functions would more nearly resemble those which in our day are discharged by the incumbent of a large town parish than those which are performed by the modern Bishop of a large diocese. He was the chief pastor of the people, as well as the overseer of the clergy. Chrysostom's friend Basil has been confused by some with the great Basil, Bishop of Cæsarea in Cappadocia, who was fifteen years older than Chrysostom, by others with Basil Bishop of Seleucia, who was many years younger. Nothing in fact is known about him beyond what is recorded in this treatise, but he has been conjecturally identified with Basil Bishop of Raphnea in Syria, not far from Antioch, who attended the Council of Constantinople in 381.