Letter I

I

James [Jacobus] the Englishman, by name and nation, wrote on the Song of Solomon. He lived in the year of the Lord 1270.

James [Jaime Pérez de Valencia], bishop of Christopolis, a Spaniard by nation, of Valencia by fatherland, of the Order of the Hermits of St. Augustine a most observant follower, copiously imbued with human and divine letters, published on all the Psalms of David a huge and prolix volume of the scholastic kind of explanation — full of allegorical and anagogical senses, and abounding in many digressions of the various sciences — which he dedicated to Rodrigo Borgia, Cardinal of Valencia, bishop of Portus. Its beginning is I will open in parables. He wrote also on the Song of Songs, one book; on the ferial Canticles; and on the Canticle of Zechariah, of Mary, and of Simeon, one book. He flourished under the Emperor Frederick III, in the year of the Lord 1490.

James [the Apostle], the brother of the Lord according to the flesh, first of all applied an interpretation and exposition to the Gospel of Matthew — which was written in Hebrew by Matthew himself, and published at Jerusalem. Athanasius, in the Synopsis, is witness.

James Furnius, a Genoese, a distinguished jurisconsult, translated Psalm 119 [the great acrostic psalm; Vulgate 118] into Greek and Latin verse, after the likeness of the Hebrew verses; of which, as the several octonaries [eight-line stanzas] contain eight verses, beginning from one letter according to the order of the alphabet, so the Greek and Latin octonaries have as many verses, beginning from the same letter, in this manner:

A. [Aleph]

Ἂν ἄδ’ ἄμωμοι μάκαρες βάντες ἐν νόμῳ θεοῦ. ἁπάσαις φρεσὶ Ὅσια μάρτυροι ἰχνεύοντες ὄλβιοι. ἄβατοι γὰρ εἰσὶ παρανομοῦσιν αἱ σῶν τρίβοι. ἂν ἐγαμψναι φυλακτὰς ἐντολὰς τὰς σὰς ἔθου δι βάσσας ἐμοῦ κομίσαιντ’ ὡς φυλακὴν τῶν σῶν δικῶν.

[A Greek metrical paraphrase of the aleph octonary of Psalm 118 (Vulgate) — “Blessed are the undefiled who walk in the law of God,” etc.; the 16th-century Greek type is difficult and partly corrupt in the scan. The stanza continues on the next page.]

> ἀναίσχυντος ἔσομ’ ἅπαντα σέβων ἐφορῶν προστάγματα.

ἂν μάθω δίκης σοῦ κρα… τὴν ἑορτὴν ἐξομολογήσομαι. ἃς φυλάξαντ’ ἐντολάς, μηδάμα λιμπάνῃς.

[These three Greek lines complete the aleph octonary begun on p269 (Psalm 118:6–8, Vulgate — “Then shall I not be confounded… I will confess you… I will keep your commandments; forsake me not”); the 16th-century Greek type is difficult and partly corrupt in the scan.]

Then the Latin octonary, also acrostic on A [Aleph]:

Blessed is whoever walks in the law of the Lord, and follows His commands with a steadfast heart, [who] with a right mind turns aside from crooked ways — the straight ones. O God, which you have given, so greatly to be kept: yet to your commandments let my will be ready. By me, O Father, in loving you may I never be confounded, and, joined to your law, I will confess you with my heart: but do you not forsake me, who hold fast to your words.

He flourished in the year of the Lord 1500.

James [Jacobus de Voragine], archbishop of Genoa, of the Order of Preachers, from the town of Varazze [Varagine], which is situated on the maritime coast of Liguria not far from Genoa — a man of much and varied reading, wonderfully eloquent in his own tongue, and celebrated in the opinion of all in sacred preaching, also no contemptible writer of histories, and so studious of the volumes of Augustine that he held almost all of them in memory — first of all men translated the divine volumes of both Instruments [Testaments] into the Italian tongue, with the utmost fidelity and diligence. He flourished under the Emperor Adolf, in the year of the Lord 1290.

James Goeuschelius of Winterthur [Vitodurensis] wrote On the tropes, figures, and idioms of the divine scripture, one book, in the year of the Lord 1536.

James of Lausanne [Jacobus Lausannensis], a Dominican, bishop of an uncertain city, distinguished for the knowledge of divine and human things, and most celebrated for the fame of his ecclesiastical preaching, wrote in scholastic speech very many commentaries on the sacred letters — of which, at Venice, in the library of St. John and Paul [Santi Giovanni e Paolo], I read the below-written:

• On the Pentateuch, five books. [beginning] In the beginning [God] created.
• On Job, one book. [beginning] You have heard of the endurance of Job.
• On Proverbs, one book. [beginning] I will open in parables.
• On the Song of Songs, one book. [beginning] About the beginning of this book.
• On Wisdom, one book. [beginning] Wisdom cries out.
• On Ecclesiasticus, one book. [beginning] This book is divided.
• On Isaiah, one book. [beginning] It is not good.

He flourished under the Emperor Wenceslas, in the year 1390.

James of Logenhagen [Jacobus a Logenhagen] wrote Annotations on the Canonical Epistle of St. James, printed at Louvain in the year 1572. [Later-edition addition — the Louvain 1572 printing postdates Sixtus’s 1569 death; not in the 1566 original.] Likewise a Commentary on the Gospel of St. Luke, collected from all the works of St. Augustine.

James López de Zúñiga [Lopis Stunica] composed two books in defense of the Vulgate edition of the New Testament — the former against Erasmus, the latter against James Faber Stapulensis [Lefèvre d’Étaples], bishop of Vienne. He flourished in the year 1530.

James of Lausanne [de Lusanna], of the Order of Preachers, wrote a Commentary on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. [This appears to overlap the “James of Lausanne” entry above (both a Dominican of Lausanne); so printed as two notices.]

James, surnamed Magnus [the Great], of Toledo by fatherland, a follower of the Eremite [Augustinian] order, vehemently exercised in the wrestling-school of scholastic discipline, much renowned, illustrious for the science of natural philosophy, and a distinguished interpreter of the sacred letters, adorned the whole Bible with annotations. He flourished under the Emperor Wenceslas, in the year of the Lord 1400.

James Martin, a Frenchman [Jacobus Martinus, Gallus], in the year of the Lord 1536 published a noble volume, dedicated by himself to Michael, bishop of Langres — in which are briefly contained all the Tropologies and Allegories of Origen Adamantius on the Heptateuch, selected by an uncertain but erudite author, and arranged into seven books. The beginning of the work is In the beginning, etc.; Because our inner man.

James Nacchianti [Jacobus Naclantus], bishop of Chioggia [Clodiensis], of the Order of Preachers, the most celebrated philosopher and theologian of his time, wrote to Pope Julius III pious and learned enarrations on Paul’s epistle to the Romans and to the Ephesians, in a brief, clear, and elegant style, in which he inserted and expounded — according to sacred scripture and the orthodox faith — almost all the difficulties of Christian piety. We have also read a work of his most useful for the understanding of the divine volumes, whose title is The Marrow of Sacred Scripture; likewise an explanation on the ninetieth psalm, expounded as a sermon; likewise Theological Theorems. He flourished under Pope Julius III, in the year of the Lord 1554.

James Paniscotius of Molfetta [Malfetanus], a Minorite of the regular observance, professor of Theology and of the sacred letters, wrote a prolix work on the exposition of the fourteenth psalm, published as an interrupted dialogue between Solomon questioning and David answering — in which many things are made manifest, most useful and necessary to all the faithful. Its beginning is When the compass of the heavens. He flourished in the year 1550.

James Sadoleto [Jacopo Sadoleto], bishop of Carpentras [Carpentoractensis] in Gaul, and Cardinal of the Roman Church, a man plainly learned and a most happy imitator of the Ciceronian style, wrote to Matthew Giberti, bishop of Verona, pious explanations on three psalms — namely 50, 93, and 95 — of which the first begins David [son] of Jesse of Bethlehem, the second Many and grave things press upon [me]. Likewise, on the epistle to the Romans (translated by himself into Latin), eloquent commentaries — of a continuous Collation, or of a continuing dialogue, to Francis, king of the French — arranged into three volumes, whose beginning is Often, as I ponder. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1530.

James Sannazaro [Jacopo Sannazaro], a Neapolitan patrician, who is also [called] Actius Sincerus Parthenopaeus, a man born under a most happy star to illustrate the sacrosanct poetry of Christians, wrote on the second chapter of Luke, On the Virgin Birth, three books in heroic verse — so displaying the Virgilian brightness and sublimity that you would think you were reading and hearing Virgil himself. The beginning of the work is Of the Virgin’s childbirth, and of the great [offspring born] to a virgin parent, I sing. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1530.

James Schoepper [Jacobus Schoepperus], a distinguished professor of divine Theology, and an eloquent preacher, delivered sermons to the people of the city of Dortmund [Tremonia] upon the Gospels which are read on the several feast-days — both of the Saints and of the Season — which he himself afterward wrote out in an elegant method and a most succinct style, and re[duced] into three volumes.

…[and re]duced [them] into three volumes. To which he also added sermons upon the Gospels which are recited on the sixth ferias [Fridays] of the whole of Lent, and Catechetical sermons. He flourished under Charles V, in the year of the Lord 1550.

James Tralensis [Jacobus Tralensis], a German, moderator of the school of Theologians at the renowned city of Cologne, the most noble Theologian and Philosopher of his time, worked out one book of scholastic exposition on the Apocalypse of John, whose beginning is Jacob saw in a dream. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1480.

Janus Vitalis [Giano Vitale], polished in the more elegant letters, wrote on the fiftieth psalm an elegant commentary, beginning When David’s army. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1550.

Of an uncertain, but ancient, author a Latin treatise, not yet printed, is kept by the Academicians of the Venetian Academy, entitled On the Theological Poetry of David: in which it is shown how the royal prophet David, in setting forth the divine praises and expressing the affections of his most ardent heart pertaining to the salvation of the soul, left the other poets as far behind him as the divine spirit surpasses all the force of human genius.

Innocent [Innocent III], Supreme Pontiff, the third of that name, a Campanian by nation, of Anagni by fatherland, from his childhood imbued with the best studies in the most celebrated Academy of Paris, celebrated for erudition and holiness of life; after Pope Celestine III — by the common consent of all the Cardinals, although he was the younger among them — raised, at God’s nod, to the supreme honor of the pontificate, wrote out many things on the divine Scriptures. Of these I have read learned and holy commentaries on the seven penitential psalms, worked out in the Scholastic manner but in a more conspicuous and ornate speech, in which he reduced the scholastic divisions and distinctions to a fixed number, without any tedium of superfluous multiplication and repetition; and he prudently accommodates the frequent testimonies of the holy scriptures to their places, without any harshness of forcing [the text], mingling among these many pious and sweet little meditations and prayers, by which he kindles the reader’s mind with sweet affections. The work has this beginning: Lest, amid manifold occupations, etc. He also published certain sermons to the clergy and people — now in the Latin, now in the Italian tongue — in the Lateran church; which, edited into one volume in Latin, he dedicated to Arnulph, abbot of the Cistercian order. The work begins The prophetic authority teaches. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1200.

Innocent V [Pope], formerly called Peter of Tarentaise — which is now a town of the Helvetii [Swiss]¹ — of the Order of Preachers, sat in the supreme pontificate, according to the number of his name, only five months; a man certainly most learned in the divine scriptures, and nobly instructed in Aristotelian philosophy, who taught Scholastic Theology for many years in the school of Paris with distinction. He reduced all the works of St. Thomas [Aquinas] into an epitome, and acquired great praise for his erudition. He wrote on the sacrosanct Bible various lectures in the scholastic manner — but especially one book of a lecture on the Song of Songs; on all the epistles of Paul, 14 books, [beginning] A vessel of election. In the Dominican Library at Bologna is seen a Postil of his on the whole of Paul, in manuscript, whose beginning is Your lightnings shone. He flourished under the Emperor Rudolf, in the year 1275.

Joachim [of Fiore], abbot of the monastery of Fiore [Florensis] of the Order of St. Benedict, sprung from Calabria, a man studious and practiced in the divine scriptures, and in his time believed to be a most true prophet, wrote to Brother Rainerius of Ponza, on the whole prophet Isaiah, in a rude and obscure style, one book of commentaries — in which he discoursed on many things concerning the seven times [ages] of the Church, and concerning the burdens of the sixth time, as if foreknowing the future; mingling in many prophecies and predictions concerning future times — whether these have been fulfilled, or are still to be fulfilled, let others see. The work begins If [we come] to this center of the mystical wheels. He wrote also, to the Emperor Henry, on Jeremiah and on Daniel, commentaries of the same kind; likewise on the gospel of John. He wrote also five books On the Concord of the Old and New Testament, in which he shows that the times of both Testaments so agree that nothing was done in the Old Testament which is not equally done in the New — or done, or to be done, in the last days. The work begins Because of the falling and perishing age, etc. He flourished under the Emperor Henry VI, in the year of the Lord 1200.

John [Ioannes], abbot of the monastery of Nivelles [Nivicellensis], a Theologian distinguished among the scholastics, most learned in pontifical [canon] law, and consummate in the sacred letters by long practice, wrote a work whose title is The Concordance of the Bible and of the Canons: in which, according to the order of the divine books, he gathered from both Testaments all the passages with which the canons and decrees of the holy pontiffs agree, and set beside them the corresponding places of the canons. The work begins In the beginning God created, etc. He flourished under Pope Pius II, in the year 1460.

John Adamarius Lorichius [Johann Lorich] illustrated the book of the Wisdom of Sirach with a metrical paraphrase, in the year of the Lord 1540.

John Alcock [Alcoch], an Englishman, bishop of Ely [Eliensis], wrote on the seven penitential psalms, in the year of the Lord 1490.

John of Alerio [de Alerio], a Toulousan by nation, a Carmelite, the thirteenth Prior General of his order, studious and erudite in the divine Scriptures, and no less venerable for fervor of religion than for erudition, published one book of a scholastic lecture on Ecclesiasticus. He flourished under the Emperor Charles IV, in the year of the Lord 1348.

John Annius [of Viterbo], an Italian by nation, of Viterbo by fatherland, a professor of the Order of Preachers, an eminent Theologian, most celebrated for a most exact knowledge of all histories — as many as there are and have been — a most excellent antiquary, and an admirable investigator and discoverer of all the most ancient things, whose accurate commentaries on Berosus the Babylonian, Methasthenes the Persian, Manetho the Egyptian, and many other historians of the most ancient antiquity are extant. He wrote commentaries on the Psalter, of which he himself makes mention [in] the Chronography of Philo

…expounding the Chronography of Philo. He also published one book of Questions on the Apocalypse, which he sent and dedicated to Sixtus IV, Pontiff, and to the Christian kings — showing in it that that Beast, described especially in the thirteenth chapter of the Apocalypse (which the commentators commonly interpret as Antichrist), is the pseudo-prophet Muhammad; who, although he died very many years ago, yet his sect lives even now, and rages excessively against the people of God, and it will last so long, until — according to the seventh chapter of Daniel — the kingdom is given to the people of the saints of the Most High, that is, to the Christians. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1460.

John Arundineus [Ioannes Arundineus], a German, of the Order of Carmelites, bishop of Usbita [Usbitensis], a man most practiced in the divine volumes, not ignorant of secular philosophy, and a preacher of most celebrated reputation, published scholastic Lectures on the book of Wisdom, on Psalm 118, and on the epistle to the Romans — lectures earlier expounded by himself in public readings — in the year of the Lord 1490.

John Arboreus [Jean Arboreus], of Laon, a doctor, Theologian of the Sorbonne Academy of Paris, a most learned and truly Catholic man, published a huge volume divided into nineteen books, inscribed with the title THEOSOPHIA, that is, Of Divine Wisdom: in which — after the custom of the school, in an open and not uncultivated style — he explained the most difficult passages both of the Old and of the New Testament, discussing and examining the various opinions and controversies of the sacred doctors upon those passages, and destroying many machinations of the heretics with strong blows of argumentation. He arranged the Assertions of his work in alphabetical order, so that they might be more easily found. Its beginning is thus: To the most noble and reverend Cardinal Louis of Bourbon. He wrote also, to Henry [II], king of the French, on Proverbs one book, beginning They profit very much; on Ecclesiastes, to the same, one book, beginning With all [my] effort; on the Song of Songs, one book. He also published commentaries on the four Gospels, in which he discussed the opinions of the sacred doctors and rejected the pernicious assertions of certain interpreters. The beginning of the work is A sacred work to you. He flourished under Charles V, in the year 1550.

John of Abbeville [de Abbatis Villa], archbishop of Besançon, a Frenchman by nation, wrote commentaries on the Song of Solomon, printed at Paris by Ascensius [Josse Bade] in the year of the Lord 1521.

John Bacon [Baconthorpe], an Englishman, of the Order of Carmelites, the prince of the Theologians of his time, and having obtained no ignoble talent in expounding the divine scriptures, expounded the whole New Testament, publishing in the scholastic manner twenty-seven books of commentaries, which are:

• On the Gospel of Matthew, one book.
• On the Gospel of Mark, one book.
• On Luke, one book.
• On John, one book.
• On the Acts of the Apostles, one book.
• On the epistles of Paul, fourteen books.
• On the Canonical epistles, seven books.
• On the Apocalypse, one book.

He flourished under the Emperor Charles IV, in the year of the Lord 1350.

John Balbi [Giovanni Balbi], a Genoese, of the Order of Preachers, author of the Latin dictionary whose title is CATHOLICON, a man imbued with scholastic theology, skilled in the Latin and Greek tongue, wrote — after the scholastic custom — upon the four Evangelists a Postil on the four gospels, which begins Why did God wish there to be not more than four Evangelists? It is had at Genoa, in manuscript, in the library of the Preachers. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1280.

John Baptist Folengo [Giovanni Battista Folengo], of Mantua, a Cassinese monk of St. Benedict, composed and completed commentaries on all the psalms — with the utmost fidelity, wondrous clarity, and pleasing brevity, out of the Hebrew verity itself — in which are together a rare erudition, and an author burning with ardor of spirit, and candor and acuteness of the meanings, and the elegance of Latin speech. Their beginning is The argument of the whole volume. He wrote also clear explanations on all the Catholic epistles. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1550.

John Batmanson [Batmansonus], a Carthusian, wrote on the Proverbs and the Song of Solomon. He met death in the year 1531.

John Beetz [Beetzius], a German, attached to the institute of the Carmelites in the monastery of Tienen [Tenensi], a distinguished Theologian and philosopher, a most keen disputant in the schools of the theologians, and most pleasing to the people in his sermons, published in scholastic phrase one book of a scholastic explanation on the epistle of Paul to the Romans. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1470.

John Benedictus [Jean Benoît], a doctor theologian most celebrated in the Academy of Paris, gathered very brief but most useful scholia — from the holy and ancient fathers cited by name — upon the whole scripture. He flourished under Charles V, in the year 1550.

John Benius [Giovanni Beni], of Verona, a priest educated in the school of John Matthew Giberti, bishop of Verona, wrote in the Italian tongue seventy-seven Discourses, or digressions, on the passion of the Lord, [drawn] from the four Evangelists.

John Bertram [Bertramus], a German of Nuremberg, most excellent in the scholastic disciplines, once public professor of Theology in the Academy of Mainz, wrote a huge volume on the Prologue of the Bible, most copiously embracing all things necessary for an introduction to scripture, which begins As I ponder, etc. He flourished under the Emperor Maximilian, in the year of the Lord 1495.

John of Beverley [Beverlacius], archbishop of York, an Anglo-Saxon by nation, wrote commentaries on the Gospel of Luke, in the year of the Lord 721.

John Buteo [Jean Borrel], a Dauphinois, a Frenchman, a most excellent mathematician, wrote in the year of the Lord 1550, to Cardinal François de Tournon, one most erudite book on the Ark of Noah — of what form and capacity it was — beginning Upon that Ark, the seed-bed of the world.

John Catardus [Giovanni Catardi], of Acquasparta, published an enarration on the prophet Jonah, accommodated to sermons and to Christian consolation, which begins It looks to this; likewise a mystical Paraphrase on the same prophet, whose beginning is Brief indeed. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1550.

John Christopher [Ioannes Chrystophorus], of the Order of Preach[ers]

…[of the Order of] Preachers, [John Christopher] wrote commentaries on Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and all the epistles of St. Paul. He flourished in the year 1260.

John Cassian [Ioannes Cassianus], a Scythian by nation, a hearer of John Chrysostom, and ordained deacon by him; after some years, departing from him for an uncertain cause, he was consecrated presbyter at Marseilles, where he also founded two monasteries, of men and of women. He wrote, in a plain and balanced speech, on that which the Apostle says — For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, [that I do] — a learned and elegant book, which he afterward inserted among the Collations of the holy fathers published by himself, and marked it as the twenty-third book of the Collations. He dies at Marseilles, not without a reputation for sanctity, Theodosius and Valentinian reigning, in the year of the Lord 435.

John Colet [Coletus], an Englishman, wrote commentaries on the Proverbs of Solomon and on the Gospel of Matthew. He met death in the year of the Lord 1519.

John, archbishop of the city of Constantinople, called Chrysostom — that is, golden mouth — for the golden excellence of his speech, an Antiochene by fatherland, and once a presbyter of the church of Antioch, born of the noble parents Secundus and Anthusa; in the studies of eloquence a hearer and disciple of Libanius the Sophist, in philosophy of Andragathius the most illustrious philosopher, and in the divine scriptures of Diodore, bishop of Tarsus;² joined in the closest familiarity with Basil and Gregory the Great [Nazianzen]; he published on the holy letters very many volumes, both of commentaries and of homilies. Although of the commentaries, as I think, nothing is extant except a fragment of an exposition on the first eight chapters of Isaiah, and an entire explanation on the epistle to the Galatians.

In his Homilies he used a manner of teaching most suited to the office of an ecclesiastical teacher and to the benefit of his hearers, dividing all his sermons — sometimes into two parts, that is, the Exegetic and the Ethic; but sometimes into three, that is, the Parasceue [Preparation], the Exegetic, and the Ethic. In the Parasceue — that is, the Preparatory part — now commending the argument which he is about to treat, now praising the docility, the numerousness, the eagerness, and the desire of hearing of his hearers, now repeating the things he had said the day before, he prepares the minds of his hearers for the things that are to be said, with pleasant and often chance [extempore] exordia — but sometimes longer than the eager hearer would wish, who is impatient of all delay and hastens to the understanding of the proposed reading. Which Chrysostom himself, perceiving, excuses in the preface of a sermon, On bearing reproofs, saying: Certain of our friends reprove us, that we make the beginnings of our sermons rather long: to whom, whether they censure us unjustly or pass judgment justly, we are grateful for this reproof.

In the second part of the homily, which is called the Exegetic — that is, the Expository — Chrysostom is occupied in the explanation of the divine Scripture according to the historical, or literal, understanding, which he always lays down as a foundation; and he expounds it so purely, openly, genuinely, rightly, and aptly, as no other does — weighing each and every word of the Scripture cited, and illustrating them with clear paraphrases, and never, out of ignorance of the historical sense, does he either wrench the letter too harshly, or, leaving it, take refuge in certain far-fetched allegories (to which Jerome and Augustine are not ashamed to confess that they were sometimes driven by a lack of historical understanding); but, continually persisting in the true and proper sense of the letter, after the imitation of Eusebius of Emesa the bishop, and of Diodore of Tarsus the bishop (whom he chiefly follows in explaining the sacred volumes), he so abstains from allegorical wrappings that in all his explanations you would not find allegories, or anagogies (which are the same among them), except in a few and quite settled places, in which the most urgent necessity of the divine Scripture vehemently demands it.³

He expounds, moreover, in almost every homily, the common translation of his own times, pieced together from the versions of the Seventy interpreters, of Aquila, of Symmachus, and of Theodotion. Whence he often explains many passages of the Old Scripture otherwise than they are now read in our Vulgate codices.

Curious Questions, useless for the edification of the people, the battles of disputations, and conflicts about subtle and obscure matters, he avoids with the utmost care; and the things which some expositors in the divine letters are wont, for the ostentation of erudition — an occasion of disputing being sought — to obscure on purpose with many and great difficulties of doubts, he himself is wont to expedite in a few bare and simple words. Of which quality we can take some, even a slight, taste — for example, from his elucidation of that saying of Paul to the Romans: It is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy.⁴ Which, whereas the most acute Augustine involves in many subtle and abstruse disputations concerning Predestination and Reprobation, concerning Grace and Free Will, Chrysostom releases himself from all the windings of the questions in almost two words — saying, first, that this saying was brought forward by Paul not from the person of one affirming, but from the person of one objecting; then, that the Apostle’s saying is thus to be understood: that when he says It is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, we should understand only [the word] alone, together with but of God that shows mercy — and rather [chiefly of Him]. For that whose part is the more powerful and greater in any business, we say the whole business is his.

But if it sometimes happens that Chrysostom falls upon some difficulty not to be dissembled, but necessarily to be discussed, he does not approach it before he shows that he has neither found the occasion of that disputation, nor, having found it, taken it up of his own accord, but that — compelled by the perfidy of the heretics — he descends into it to refute their calumnies, accommodating himself by this dexterity to the weakness of the unlearned multitude. In which, although there were some who could understand even higher disputations, yet very many were present who could not grasp the subtlety of doctrine — as being unlearned men, and craftsmen, and [people] occupied with mean business, and women little practiced in such disciplines, and a crowd of boys, and old men advanced in age, who all were to be instructed and refreshed with easy speech. Sometimes, however, to shake off the torpor of his hearers, he proposes certain little questions of no very great moment; and these, on purpose,

…on purpose leaving [them] unresolved, he immediately adds this: But WHY, and how this is so, I leave to you to investigate. For it is not fitting that you learn everything from us, but that you yourselves also labor and search out, lest you become the more sluggish. And these things Chrysostom perpetually keeps in the second part of his homilies.

In the third part, which is always the Ethic, or moral, [part], he digresses not only to those ethical Topics common to all who speak in a sermon — namely, on the contempt of riches, on luxury, drunkenness, anger, arrogance, and the other vices to be shunned — but he expatiates very often on certain select paradoxes of moral instruction, peculiar to himself alone, of which these are the chief:⁵

• That virtue is neither a burdensome thing, nor difficult to acquire.
• That it is much easier to live well than badly.
• That small and light sins are to be avoided with greater care than great ones.
• That there is no punishment more dreadful than a bad conscience.
• That no one can be harmed except by himself.
• That it is better to suffer injury than to inflict it.
• That many harm unjustly, but no one is unjustly harmed.
• That the ignominy of this world is glory, but the glory of the world is ignominy.
• That this life is not life, but death.
• That death is better than life.
• That the greatest gain is made in tribulations and temptations.
• That all the punishments sent by God upon mortals are great benefits of divine mercy.
• That almsgiving is the most profitable of all arts.
• That the advantages of solitude and of the monastic life are preferable to all felicities.
• That to be deprived of the kingdom of God is worse than the punishment of Gehenna.
• That to be unwilling to know all things is the highest wisdom.
• That we can demonstrate the divinity of Christ most clearly and most strongly, against all the nations, even without any testimonies of the divine letters.

With these and such-like truly golden digressions, inflaming the minds of his hearers in a wondrous manner, seizing [them], raising [them] up into the love of divine things, and transforming [them], lifted up, into God — he finally concludes all his sermons in brief prayers, thanksgivings, and praises of the kindness and mercy of Christ, to whom, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, he prays there be honor, glory, and empire unto the ages, Amen. But although in almost all his homilies he inculcates the same moral topics, often repeated, yet he treats and re-treats the same thoughts with such variety of words and sentences that he always seems to say new and diverse things. Thus far the manner of teaching peculiar to Chrysostom.

But as for the manner of the words and the kind of diction, all attribute to him the native, plain, and graceful purity of Attic speech, joined with an admirable facility of teaching — such as never fell to the lot even of the most eloquent of the Greeks.⁶ His disciple Isidore, Abbot of the Pelusian mountain [Isidore of Pelusium], describing this in an epistle to Ophelius the Grammarian, thus speaks: John’s tongue, and the grace of his diction, I do not compare with others (for that perhaps would be a small thing with many), but with Libanius himself, who is held by all the most illustrious in eloquence. That [John’s diction] was a matter of great admiration to Libanius, the epistle of Libanius himself is a proof — written to him [John], while yet a young man, when he had delivered an oration in praise of the Emperors.⁷ It runs thus:

LIBANIUS TO JOHN.

I have received your oration, long and beautiful, and I read it to men who themselves also compose orations. There was none among them who did not leap up and cry out, and do all those things which men are wont to do when overwhelmed with amazement. This delights me, that you have preferred to bring to this kind of oration the art of speaking which you could have displayed in pleading causes in the forum; and I judge you blessed, who have been able to adorn princes with such great praises; nor do I think those princes less fortunate, that they have obtained such a eulogist. Thus Libanius.

Plutarch, moreover, judges that a clear and easy oration is truly and genuinely Attic. For thus, says he, the ancient orators spoke. But Gorgias of Leontini was the first to introduce the vice of ambition and ostentation into civil orations — which vice also often befalls the admirable Plato. But if Plutarch is to be believed in this matter, John surpasses all the other illustrious orators in many ways — who, in his orations, so recalls the Atticism and retains the perspicuity of speech that I do not know whether anyone else retains it more. Thus far Isidore.

Agreeing with whom, Anianus, a very ancient interpreter [translator] of Chrysostom, praises in him an even moderation of speaking, gently and spontaneously flowing of its own accord — thus writing to Bishop Orontius:

Chrysostom keeps this, as it were, peculiar and proper to himself: that although he is always solicitous, always watchful, and an enemy of harmful dullness, yet nowhere is his oration lifted up into the pomp of the speaker, but the whole is fitted to the benefit of the hearer. For his very style is accommodated to the ears of the Church, expressing that ancient but erudite kind of speaking — middling, even, mature, modest, foreign to all fault of carelessness and of pomp and of luxuriance; not squalid indeed, nor yet flowery; not unpolished, but neither filed down with excessive subtlety; not rough with harshness, nor yet wanton with charm — showing everywhere the greatest abundance and an admirable faculty, yet nowhere an ambition of speaking. Hence it comes that the simple reader understands him the more, and the eloquent reader praises him. In short, you would easily perceive that admirable care of speaking of St. Basil, and the applauded pomp of [John of] Antioch, and that sublime buskin of Gregory, surpassed by this middle-quality of John. Only the ears of the very young are perhaps less sweetly soothed by him — [ears] which, being set in the school of letters, are not so much pleased by solid things as by painted ones; who follow rather the beautiful than the useful, and love not so much the effective as the sonorous, and rejoice more to be besprinkled with the charm of flowers than to be nourished by the abundance of fruits. Thus Anianus.

Chrysostom is also wont (as appears in his writings) to abound, above all ecclesiastical writers, in similes, comparisons, and metaphors — fitted together, for the illustration and delight of the matters to be explained, with admirable artifice. Yet nowhere, for the sake of delighting, does he use either the subtleties of sentences, as Ambrose, or the allurements of the poets and the wit of the mimes, as Jerome, or jests and jokes, as Tertullian; but rather, by the affection of fatherly charity and by a certain pious zeal of helping, he wonderfully delights his hear[ers, whom]

…[he delights his hear]ers, whom — that he may hold them with greater attention — he interrupts the course of his oration with frequent dialogisms, little questionings, and little exercises,⁸ often repeating expressions of this kind:

What then is this? For what reason are these things said? Have you heard what he said here? Have you seen how he enjoins nothing burdensome? You have seen his self-controlled mind; have you heard his confidence? Hear also his immense charity. Have you perceived the loftiness of his philosophy? Behold his faith. Consider, I pray, the virtue of the man. Do you see how very easy this is? Ponder, I beseech you, these words. Observe that these things are not said simply and at random. Oh, what doctrine is this, and how necessary it is to all mortals! Oh, how full of good things is this sentence! We have need of great prudence and attention in these words. Consider for me, O beloved, those blessed men. Learn here how great virtue is. Where now are they who deride these things? Let those who do not believe hear these things. I would that all were here who blame our words. Gladly would I ask those who do not believe these things, whether… etc. Let not the things you hear disturb you, O beloved; wonder, beloved, that he said this. Do not tell me that you do not understand these things. Come, let us consider this also. What I am always wont to say, that I will not cease to inculcate now also.

By which figures [tropes], renewing attention, he rouses the slow, helps the weary, and sustains [them] up to the end of the oration. And let these things said concerning Chrysostom’s doctrine and manner of oration be enough.

But concerning the number of his lucubrations [writings], Nicephorus Callistus testifies that he read a thousand books.⁹ Suidas affirms that he wrote out so many volumes that it is not even possible to review them by counting. But we, passing over the exoteric writings, will review only the exegetical works which pertain to the explanation of the Scriptures — in two separate catalogs: of which the former will contain the truly genuine and legitimate writings of Chrysostom, but the latter will indicate his pseudepigraphal works — that is, those which are attributed to Chrysostom under the title of a false inscription.

OF THE WORKS WHICH, WITHOUT ANY CONTROVERSY, ARE BELIEVED TO BE CHRYSOSTOM’S. THE FIRST CATALOG.

On Genesis he wrote 67 homilies of a continuous and complete enarration, delivered to the people of Constantinople in the time of the Lenten fast, of which the first begins χαίρω μὲν καὶ εὐφραίνομαι ὁρῶν σήμερον τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ ἐκκλησίαν — that is, I rejoice and am glad, seeing today this Church of God. Concerning these, Photius, patriarch of Constantinople, in the book whose title is Myriobiblos [the Bibliotheca], left it thus written:

Some accuse the divine John, that in his exegesis of Genesis — and especially in those homilies in which he narrated the work of the six days — he is too simple, and altogether destitute of all those speculations in which Origen, Hippolytus, Eusebius, Basil, and the others most learned of our holy fathers especially abound. Who indeed do not seem to me to grasp John’s mind. For he, looking to the simplicity of the Mosaic narration, and leaving aside untimely speculations, chose rather to follow Moses in facility and humility of speech — [Moses] who, writing on the creation of the world, resolved not (as some think, foolishly enough) to discourse of the most obscure matters and in the most obscure words, but wished to set before the eyes of a rude and dull people, most simply and most clearly, only those things which could be grasped by the coarse understanding of the multitude. As John himself indicated, in his explanation of the Hexaemeron, in these words: “Moses, in the exordia of his narrations, accommodating himself to our smallness, discoursed nothing concerning the invisible Virtues; for he did not say, ‘In the beginning God made the Angels and Archangels,’ but ‘Heaven and earth’ — because in the first beginnings and preludes he spoke, in a coarser way, to the Jews, who wholly gaped after present things, and could comprehend nothing spiritual. And so he leads them, from sensible things and creatures, to the knowledge of the Creator of the universe. For it was not fitting that those should be fed with solid food, who still had need of the nourishment of milk. For just as the teachers of letters imbue little boys — taken from their mother’s lap, and ignorant and incapable of all things — with the first elements only, and then hand them over to other teachers who instruct them in more perfect disciplines: so Moses imbued the nature of men, ignorant of all things and rude and (so to speak) but lately weaned from milk, with the first elements of divine knowledge, preparing it for more excellent teachers — namely Paul and John, who lead the boys, imbued with the first rudiments, to greater and loftier things, superimposing now, upon the foundation already laid, the lofty summits of the whole edifice.” Thus he.

Chrysostom also published, besides these homilies, again 19 homilies on various passages of the Octateuch, namely:

• On Genesis chapter 1, On the beginning of Genesis, 1 homily, which begins Pleasant indeed to sailors.
• On the same, On the beginning of Genesis, 1 homily, [beginning] Many things indeed.
• On the same, Why are men harmed by beasts, since God wished them to be subject to man? 1 homily — from which St. Augustine, in Book 1 against Julian, brings forth a testimony concerning original sin, against the Pelagians.
• On Genesis 3, On God, walking in paradise, 1 homily, [beginning] You heard before.
• On Genesis 11 [printed “1”], On the confusion of tongues, 1 homily — from which Theodoret recites a fragment in the dialogue entitled Inconfusus [the Unconfounded].
• On Genesis 14, On Melchizedek, 1 homily — which Chrysostom mentions in the preface of his enarration on Psalm 41.
• On Genesis 17, On the change of Abraham’s name, 1 homily, [beginning] It would not be difficult.
• On Genesis 37, On the continence of Joseph, 1 homily, [beginning] To me indeed always.
• On Leviticus chapter 7, On the priestly vesture, 1 homily, [beginning] The prophets preached the gospel of the kingdom of Christ — whose authority Epiphanius the deacon uses in the Second Synod of Nicaea, session 6.
• On 1 Kings [1 Samuel] chapter 1, On the faith of Hannah, 1 homily, [beginning] No thing indeed.
• On the same, again 1 homily — which Chrysostom mentions in the preface of the preceding homily.
• On the same, On the upbringing of Hannah and Samuel, 1 homily, [beginning] Unless I seem.
• On 1 Kings [1 Samuel] chapter 2, On the beginning of the Canticle of Hannah, 3 homilies, namely: On the first part of the Canticle, My heart is strengthened in the Lord, one homily.
• On the second part of the Canticle, My horn is exalted in the Lord, 1 homily.
• On the third part of the Canticle, My mouth is enlarged over my enemies, 1 homily, [beginning] Who a treasu[re]

…[On the third part of the Canticle of Hannah, 1 homily, beginning Who dig for a treasu]re — in which Chrysostom testifies that he [also] wrote a first and a second homily, which are now lacking [lost].

• On 1 Kings [1 Samuel] 13 and the following chapters, 4 homilies, of which the first begins As often as [things] lasting; the second, You indeed; the third, I indeed think; the fourth, Not a little the city.
• On 2 Paralipomenon [Chronicles] 26, upon The heart of Uzziah was lifted up, 2 homilies, of which the first begins Blessed be God, but the second Come, to the exposition concerning Uzziah.
• On Job chapters 1, 2, and 3, 5 homilies, with Lelio Tifernate as translator, of which the first begins A great contender comes to us this day; the second, A great weight of things; the third, Now we all; the fourth, Everywhere indeed; the fifth, Let us therefore propound.

On the whole Psalter he wrote very many homilies, in which — contrary to his custom — he frequently discussed not only the translations of the Seventy, of Aquila, of Symmachus, and of Theodotion, cited by name, but also the Hebrew verity, and the Syriac (or Chaldaic) translation, expressed in Hebrew and Chaldaic words. These homilies, as appears from Suidas, some of the Greeks prefer to all of John’s sermons, both for the sublimity of their meanings and for the smoothness and elegance of the oration. There now circulates, among the works of Chrysostom, a volume of homilies (or rather of expositions) on the psalms, woven together from various sermons of different authors, and given a Latin dress by Gentian Hervet; of which, those which are believed to be his own — both from the evidence of the style and from the testimony of the ancient fathers — are only these:

• On the usefulness of the psalms, one homily, [beginning] As by food, life.
• On Psalm 3, 1 homily, [beginning] To the leaders of the army. John Damascene cites its exordium in Book 3 against the Iconoclasts.
• On Psalm 4, 1 homily, [beginning] The prophet does not say these things.
• On Psalm 5, 1 homily, [beginning] Let us see first.
• On Psalm 6, 1 homily, [beginning] When you shall have heard [of] fury and anger.
• On Psalm 7, 1 homily, [beginning] It is fitting indeed.
• On Psalm 8, 1 homily, [beginning] In the previous psalm he had said.
• On Psalm 9, 1 homily, [beginning] This psalm is long.
• On Psalm 10, 1 homily, [beginning] Great are the powers of hope.
• On Psalm 11, 1 homily, [beginning] Virtue is indeed an arduous thing.
• On Psalm 12, 1 homily, [beginning] This is no small good.
• On Psalm 38, upon that text Yet in vain is every living man disquieted, 1 homily, which begins The deep gulf [surrounds] the fisherman.
• On Psalm 41, 1 homily, beginning You indeed will lately admire us. (Theodoret, in the Polymorphus, brings forth a testimony of Chrysostom from the exposition of Psalm 41 which is not found in this homily.)
• On Psalm 43, 1 homily, beginning This psalm the prophet indeed speaks.
• On Psalm 44, 1 homily, [beginning] I would that all the Jews and Gentiles were now present.
• On Psalm 44, upon The queen stood, 1 homily, [beginning] Pleasant indeed is a meadow and a garden.
• On Psalm 45, 1 homily, [beginning] He uses his accustomed philosophy. Euthymius cites this in his commentary on the psalms.
• On Psalm 46, 1 homily, [beginning] This psalm too touches the same argument.
• On Psalm 47, 1 homily, [beginning] This too signifies liberation. Euthymius cites this in his commentary on the psalms.
• On Psalm 48, 1 homily, [beginning] Certain great and secret [things]. Euthymius cites this in his commentary on the psalms.
• On Psalm 48, upon that text Fear not, when a man shall be made rich, one homily, [beginning] A farmer indeed.
• On Psalm 49, 1 homily, beginning He himself also said elsewhere.
• On Psalm 50, 2 homilies, of which the first [begins] Painters imitate; but the second begins The leavings of another’s table.
• On Psalm 100, 1 homily, [beginning] We again, most beloved.
• On Psalm 108, 1 homily, [beginning] Here we have need of great prudence. Euthymius cites this in his commentary on the psalms.
• On Psalm 109, 1 homily, [beginning] Let us rise up, I pray, and bend our mind.
• On Psalm 110, 1 homily, [beginning] What is [it] in the whole?
• On Psalm 111, 1 homily, [beginning] The proem of this psalm seems to me.
• On Psalm 112, 1 homily, [beginning] In the scriptures words are often made.
• On Psalm 113, 1 homily, [beginning] Here he testifies the great kindness of God.
• On Psalm 114, 1 homily, [beginning] And who is [it], he says.
• On Psalm 115, 1 homily, [beginning] Of this saying, blessed Paul. Euthymius cites this in his commentary on the psalms.
• On Psalm 116, 1 homily, [beginning] Whose [meaning] is clear.
• On Psalm 117, 1 homily, [beginning] The saying indeed of the psalm.
• On Psalm 119, 1 homily, [beginning] Of other psalms indeed.
• On Psalm 120, 1 homily, [beginning] See again the soul.
• On Psalm 121, 1 homily, [beginning] But now many take the word ill.
• On Psalm 122, 1 homily, [beginning] They are sometimes profitable.
• On Psalm 123, 1 homily, [beginning] What I have often said, this too I now say.
• On Psalm 124, 1 homily, [beginning] Why did he not say absolutely, “Like a mountain”?
• On Psalm 125, 1 homily, [beginning] The word “captivity” is indeed.
• On Psalm 125 [so printed; probably 126], 1 homily, [beginning] This psalm was spoken concerning the state of affairs.

- On Psalm 127, 1 homily, [beginning] See how he begins from it.

• On Psalm 128, 1 homily, [beginning] This psalm too.
• On Psalm 129, 1 homily, [beginning] What is [it], Out of the depths?
• On Psalm 130, 1 homily, [beginning] What is this? Paul says [it] to be foolish.
• On Psalm 131, 1 homily, [beginning] Others indeed wish only to be preserved.
• On Psalm 132, 1 homily, [beginning] Many things indeed are beautiful.
• On Psalm 133, 1 homily, [beginning] The psalms of the steps [Gradual Psalms].
• On Psalm 134, 1 homily, [beginning] To this he again exhorts.
• On Psalm 135, 1 homily, [beginning] After he said above.
• On Psalm 136, 1 homily, [beginning] It is a great thing to these men.
• On Psalm 137, 1 homily, [beginning] Of this often with you.
• On Psalm 138, 1 homily, [beginning] What do you say? God knows. Euthymius cites this in his commentary on the psalms.
• On Psalm 139, 1 homily, [beginning] Where now are they who say, “Why are there wild beasts?”
• On Psalm 140, 1 homily, [beginning] The words indeed of this psalm.
• On Psalm 141, 1 homily, [beginning] You see how everywhere.
• On Psalm 142, 1 homily, [beginning] It is indeed a prayer, which is made through words. Euthymius cites this in his commentary on the psalms.
• On Psalm 143, 1 homily, [beginning] What do you say? Does God teach [how] to make war?
• On Psalm 144, 1 homily, [beginning] This psalm is to be attended to most diligently.
• On Psalm 145, 1 homily, [beginning] Where he left off, there he begins again.
• On Psalm 146, 1 homily, [beginning] He said above, indeed, in the 144th psalm.
• On Psalm 147, 1 homily, [beginning] Not to the city, but to them.
• On Psalm 148, 1 homily, [beginning] This is the saints’ custom.
• On Psalm 149, 1 homily, [beginning] If indeed the anagoge be regarded.
• On Psalm 150, 1 homily, [beginning] Or this he says of the people.
• On Wisdom chapter 3, 1 homily, [beginning] But the souls of the just.

On Isaiah the prophet, it is reported that Chrysostom composed entire commentaries, of which we now hold a fragment of a continuous explanation — from the beginning of the book up to the middle of the eighth chapter — according to the historical and mystical sense, lately turned into Latin by the industry of Godefridus Tilmannus [Godfrey Tilmann]; whose beginning is By what virtue especially this prophet outshone the rest.

We have likewise, of Chrysostom, on Isaiah chapter 1, On penitence — that it abolishes the stains and traces of all sins, 1 homily, which begins Although I have been absent from you for some time; and it is the same as that which, among the ten homilies of Chrysostom On Penitence, is inscribed the third.

• Likewise, on Isaiah chapter 6, On the vision of [the Lord] sitting on a throne, 3 homilies, of which the first begins I behold you; the second, I rejoice, beholding; the third, A noble theater for us.
• On the last chapter of Jeremiah, On the devastation of Jerusalem, 1 homily — which Chrysostom recalls in the preface of the homily upon There must be heresies.
• On Jonah, 1 homily, beginning It came to pass — which is collected from the first homily of the author On Penitence.
• Likewise, on 2 Maccabees chapter 7, on the contest [martyrdom] of the seven Maccabees, 1 homily, [beginning] How beautiful and pleasing.

These are the works which, out of the monuments of Chrysostom on the Old Testament, have come to light up to our times. But those on the New Testament — which are either published here and there, or found cited among the ancient authors — follow below, namely:

On the Gospel of Matthew, from beginning to end, 91 Homilies of continuous explanation, with Anianus the deacon and George of Trebizond as translators; of which the first begins Εἰ δεῖ μὲν ἡμᾶς — that is, It behoved us indeed.

He is also said, besides these homilies, to have written various sermons on various scattered passages of Matthew, of which two are especially celebrated — namely, On the martyrdom of John the Baptist, on the 14th chapter of Matthew. Of these, the one now extant thus begins: Alas, what shall I do? whence shall I make the beginning of my discourse? But the beginning of the other, which we now lack, is Again Herodias rages. The occasion of this sermon Socrates, in his ecclesiastical history, relates in these words:

The Empress Eudoxia, on account of her statue being cast down [insulted] by Chrysostom, prepared a synod against him. Perceiving which, he brought forth a homily in the Church, in which — under the pretext of setting forth the savagery of Herodias against John the Baptist — he gravely complained of the unjust persecution of the Empress, thus beginning: “Again Herodias rages, again she is disturbed, again she dances, again she desires to receive the head of John on a platter,” etc. Which oration so exacerbated the fury of the Empress that she immediately drove him into exile. Thus Socrates.

• There is extant likewise, upon that text Matthew 25, What you did to one of the least of mine, 1 homily, which begins Meadows and woody places.
• Likewise, on Matthew 26, On the betrayal of Judas, 1 homily, which begins Few things are necessary today.

That upon Mark also, and Luke, celebrated commentaries were left by Chrysostom, Euthymius and Suidas are witnesses — commentaries which our age has not yet seen. Yet there survive, from various passages on Luke, 6 homilies of his, namely:

• On Luke 16, On the rich man and Lazarus, 4 homilies, of which the first begins Yesterday; the second, I marveled; the third, No mean profit; the fourth, What remains of the parable of Lazarus.
• Likewise, on Luke 18, On the publican and the Pharisee, 1 homily, which begins As the concourse of clouds.
• Likewise, on Luke 23, on the cross and the thief, 1 homily, which begins This day.

On the Gospel of John we have [homilies] of continuous [explanation]

…[On the Gospel of John we have Homilies] of continuous and complete enarration, 88 in number, from the version of Francis of Arezzo [Griffolini]; of which the first begins Who by the contest of the games. There are also reported, on various chapters of this Gospel, some Homilies beyond the aforesaid number, of which only one — on John chapter 2, On the marriage celebrated at the feast [of Cana] — is thought to be the author’s; whose beginning is The young of swallows.

On the Acts of the Apostles we have 55 homilies of continuous and complete exposition, by an uncertain translator; which, although Erasmus has called into doubt, yet no one can doubt that they are Chrysostom’s. For besides that the frequent little questionings, dialogisms, and digressions of commonplaces toward the end of the homilies show the work to be Chrysostom’s, the author himself, in the ninth homily, professes himself to be a Bishop; and in the eleventh homily indicates that he is Bishop of a most ample City, in which live more than a hundred thousand of the poor, needy of daily alms — such as Constantinople certainly, it is credible, was in Chrysostom’s times. And the same [author], in the 9th and 12th homily, continually inculcates that law concerning oaths not to be sworn (peculiar to Chrysostom alone), adding also that he would cast out of the Church those who did not obey this law promulgated by him, and whoever should swear in any way. And in the 41st homily he indicates that he lived in the times of the Emperor Julian.¹⁰ Finally, in the 52nd homily he incidentally makes mention of his own name in these words: To have the name of a prince is not to be a prince. For many are called by great names, as Peter, James, and John: but they are not, on account of the names, that which they are called — just as I also, although I am called John, am not, however, [the Apostle] John. But also John Damascene, in the 3rd book On the Faith, and Oecumenius, in his catena of explanations on Acts, bring forth testimonies of these sermons, as from a true and genuine work of Chrysostom, whose beginning is There are very many who are so ignorant of this book.

There remains likewise, after these sermons, on the 9th chapter of Acts, On the conversion of Paul, 1 homily, which begins They reprove us.

On all the epistles of Paul Chrysostom composed a great and distinguished volume of homilies, of which George, patriarch of Alexandria, making mention in the life of Chrysostom published by him, thus writes:

The divine John, when he had begun to explain Paul’s epistles — which he embraced with a vehement love beyond the other divine books — and had written many narrations upon them on each night, by the light of a wax taper, and had now for the most part interpreted them, one night, sitting in his chamber and bending over the exposition, began to be vexed with a certain human weariness, saying: “And who knows whether these things are accepted by God, and whether they will bring me favor from Him? And would that these things had been narrated without mark of reproof — have I attained the meaning of that wise and great man?” On this matter, that he might be made more certain by some proof, he suppliantly implored God. And behold, that same night, when — the papers snatched into his hands — he was bending more closely over the commentaries to be written on the Apostle, Paul the Apostle came to him, murmuring the exposition into his ears;¹¹ whom Proclus the chamberlain, keeping watch at the doors of the chamber and looking through a certain hole of the door, plainly saw — putting his mouth downward toward John’s right ear, and familiarly dictating the things which John wrote. Now the form and appearance of the Apostle was in every part like the image of St. Paul which Chrysostom kept in his chamber, painted to the life, with the utmost veneration.¹² Thus George.

And the catalog of the homilies of this volume [on Paul] is this:

• On the Epistle to the Romans, 32 homilies, with Germain de Brie [Brixius] as translator, of which the first begins Συνεχῶς ἀκούων — that is, Continually hearing.
• On the First Epistle to the Corinthians, 44 homilies, with Francis of Arezzo as translator, of which the first begins Ὅρα πῶς εὐθέως — Behold how immediately.
• On the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, 30 homilies, of which the first begins Ἄξιον ζητῆσαι πρότερον — It is worthwhile to inquire first.
• On the Epistle to the Galatians, a commentary of continuous exposition, divided into no homilies, whose beginning is Πολλοῦ τὸ προοίμιον — The proem [is worth] much.
• On the Epistle to the Ephesians, 24 homilies, of which the first begins Ἰδοὺ πῶς τὸ “διὰ” τῷ πατρὶ δέδωκε — See how he attributes the [word] “through” to God the Father.
• On the Epistle to the Philippians, 16 homilies, of which the first begins Οἱ φιλιππήσιοι — The Philippians.
• On the Epistle to the Colossians, 12 homilies, of which the first begins πᾶσαι μὲν ἅγιαι — All [things] indeed holy.
• On the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, 11 homilies, of which the first begins Τί δήποτε φιλιππησίοις — For what reason to the Philippians.
• On the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians, 5 homilies, of which the first begins ἐν τῇ προτέρᾳ ἐπιστολῇ — In the former epistle.
• On the First Epistle to Timothy, 18 homilies, of which the general argument begins τῶν τοῦ ἀποστόλου — One of the Apostles.
• On the Second Epistle to Timothy, 10 homilies, of which the first begins Τί δήποτε καὶ δευτέραν — For what reason also a second.
• On the Epistle to Titus, 6 homilies, with Ambrose the Camaldolese [Traversari] as translator, of which the first begins τῶν Παύλου συνόντων — One of Paul’s companions.
• On the Epistle to Philemon, 3 homilies, with Ambrose the Camaldolese as translator, of which the first begins πρῶτον ἀναγκαῖον — First it is necessary.
• On the Epistle to the Hebrews, 33 homilies, of which the first begins Ῥωμαίοις γράφων — Writing to the Romans. These Constantine the Presbyter, after the death of Chrysostom his teacher, collected out of his scattered enarrations into one body of complete enarration; and Mutius the Scholastic made them Latin.

There are extant, besides this already-described order of homilies, also twenty other Homilies on various passages of the epistles of Paul, namely:

• On the passage Romans chapter 16, Salute Prisca and Aquila, 1 homily, [beginning] Are you not learned?
• On the passage 1 Corinthians 7, The woman is bound to the law. On the bill of divorce, 1 homily, [beginning] Some time ago, to you, blessed Paul.
• On the passage 1 Corinthians 10, I would not have you ignorant, that the fathers were under the cloud, 1 homily, [beginning] Sailors [shun] that part of the sea.
• On the passage 1 Corinthians 7, Concerning virgins [I have] no commandment, etc.: On virginity, one book — whose author himself mentions [it] in the 19th homily on the First [Epistle] to the Corinthians.
• On the passage 1 Corinthians 11, There must be heresies, 1 homily, [beginning] A sermon

- …[On the passage 1 Corinthians 11, There must be heresies, 1 homily, beginning] Your assembly.

• On 1 Corinthians 16, On the collection for the saints, and almsgiving, 1 homily, [beginning] I rose up today.
• On that text 2 Corinthians 11, Would that you would bear a little of my folly, 1 homily, [beginning] All indeed I love.
• On that text Philippians 1, Whether by occasion, or by truth, Christ is announced, 1 homily, [beginning] When formerly the Pharisees.
• On that text 1 Timothy 5, Use a little wine, 1 homily, [beginning] You have heard the Apostolic voice.
• On that text 1 Timothy 6, Charge the rich not to be highminded, 1 homily, [beginning] What shall I say, or what shall I speak?
• On that text Philemon 1, Paul, a prisoner of Christ, 1 homily, [beginning] The prudence indeed of the ruler.
• On that text Hebrews 10, If we sin willfully, 1 homily, [beginning] All the trees.

Likewise, on the praises of Paul, nine homilies, with Anianus as translator, explaining many things both of Paul’s epistles and of those things which Luke writes of Paul in the Acts; of which the first begins He would err in nothing at all.

There is extant likewise, besides the lucubrations already enumerated, a Translation of both Testaments into the Armenian tongue — which the Armenians now use — published (as they themselves believe) by the industry and solicitude of Chrysostom.¹³ George, patriarch of Alexandria, mentions this Translation in the life of Chrysostom, relating that when he was in exile at Cucusus, a town of Armenia, he led the inhabitants of that region to Christ, and thereafter took care that the Psalms of David, together with the holy Gospels and other histories of the Old Instrument, should be turned into Armenian — that the peoples of that province might the more easily obtain the knowledge of the divine scripture.

These, then, are the true and legitimate writings of Chrysostom which survive out of the so many published by him on the sacred letters. But the other exegetical writings, which — under the false title of Chrysostom — are mixed in among his true works, the following catalog will comprise.

CATALOG OF THOSE [WORKS] WHICH ARE WRONGLY THOUGHT TO BE INSCRIBED TO ST. CHRYSOSTOM.

• On Genesis chapter 2, 1 homily, which begins The dignity of human origin.
• On Genesis chapter 2, 1 homily, beginning God the founder of the World — which is collected from centos of Augustine; and there are in it two entire chapters transcribed from the book On Ecclesiastical Dogmas, namely the thirty-first and the thirty-second.
• On Genesis chapter 2, 1 homily, [beginning] Adam is commanded.
• On Genesis chapter 3, 1 homily, [beginning] God without beginning.
• On Genesis chapter 3, 1 homily, [beginning] As often as with me of time.
• On Genesis chapter 3, 1 homily, [beginning] For the Christian with the enemy.
• On Genesis chapter 15, 1 homily, [beginning] Faith is [the ground] of religion.
• On Genesis chapter 25, 1 homily, [beginning] Rebecca was carrying.
• On Genesis chapter 37, 1 homily, [beginning] But the sons of Jacob.
• On Exodus chapter 17, 1 homily, [beginning] Moses stood.
• On Judges chapter 11, 1 homily, [beginning] God who willed.
• On 1 Kings [1 Samuel] 13, 1 homily, [beginning] The Lord God with David.
• On 2 Kings [2 Samuel] 7, 1 homily, [beginning] Imitators of Christ.
• On 2 Kings [2 Samuel] 17, 1 homily, [beginning] Absalom destroyed.
• On 3 Kings [1 Kings] 17, On Elijah, 1 homily, [beginning] Glorious once.
• On the same, 1 homily, [beginning] When the sins committed.
• On 4 Kings [2 Kings] 2, On the ascension of Elijah, 1 homily, beginning Among certain ancients. This, Bede, in his Questions on the book of Kings, thinks to be Chrysostom’s; but the style points to the author of that homily whose beginning is Rejoice, O heaven, and be in gladness, O earth — which is placed among the pseudepigrapha of Jerome, for the day of the Lord’s resurrection, and among the sermons of Eusebius of Emesa.
• On 4 Kings [2 Kings] 5, On Naaman, 1 homily, [beginning] When Naaman.
• On 4 Kings [2 Kings] 6, On Elisha, 1 homily, [beginning] Although frequently.
• On Job chapter 1, 1 homily, [beginning] Yet, most beloved brethren.
• On Job chapter 1, 1 homily, [beginning] An athlete into the contest.
• A Preface to the book of psalms, beginning After Moses.
• On the book of psalms, another Preface, beginning All scripture.
• On Psalm 1, 1 homily, [beginning] Blessedness is [the goal] of all.
• On Psalm 2, 1 homily, [beginning] As those who [look] into the Sun.
• On Psalm 9, 1 homily, [beginning] Of the Creator of all things.
• On Psalm 9, 1 homily, [beginning] God of our race.
• On Psalm 13, 1 homily, [beginning] As when the Lord.
• On Psalm 14, 1 homily, [beginning] It is a beautiful psalm.
• On Psalm 22, 1 homily, [beginning] By the consecrated cycle.
• On Psalm 24, 1 homily, [beginning] Travellers by the strait and narrow way.
• On Psalm 25, 1 homily, [beginning] Sons of light.
• On Psalm 26, 1 homily, [beginning] From the fullness of the word.
• On Psalm 29, 1 homily, [beginning] The solemnity of confession.
• On Psalm 33, 1 homily, [beginning] The divine word.
• On Psalm 37, 1 homily, [beginning] Often by us.
• On Psalm 38, 1 homily, [beginning] And how can the psalm.
• On Psalm 39, 1 homily, [beginning] Nor indeed this psalm.

- On Psalm 40, 1 homily, [beginning] Some indeed.

• On Psalm 40, 1 homily, [beginning] Even if the prophet.
• On Psalm 42, 1 homily, [beginning] This is the psalm.
• On Psalm 42, 1 homily, [beginning] It coheres with the previous.
• On Psalm 68, homily 1, [beginning] Who by prayers.
• On Psalm 71, homily 1, [beginning] The Lord of hosts.
• On Psalm 84, homily 1, [beginning] Everyone who knows himself.
• On Psalm 90, homily 1, [beginning] The ninetieth psalm.
• On Psalm 93, homily 1, [beginning] Against the waves.
• On Psalm 95, homily 1, [beginning] Excellent and truly wonderful.
• On Psalm 96, homily 1, [beginning] Paul, struck by a viper.
• On Psalm 106, homily 1, [beginning] The Holy Spirit.
• On Psalm 115, homily 1, [beginning] It is related that the little bee.
• On Psalm 118, homily 1, [beginning] The kindness of God.
• On Psalm 118, homily 1, [beginning] The truth to be preached.
• On Psalm 121, homily 1, [beginning] Our Lord.
• On Psalm 142, homily 1, [beginning] The judgments of the Lord are like a great deep.
• On Isaiah chapter 1, homily 1, [beginning] If you be willing and will hearken.
• On Isaiah 9, homily 1, [beginning] Christ, together with the Father.
• On Isaiah 42, homily 1, [beginning] Life renewed.
• On Isaiah 62, homily 1, [beginning] Since the time has come.
• On Jeremiah 1, homily 1, [beginning] Great is the merit of Jeremiah.
• On Daniel 3, On the three young men, homily 1, [beginning] A sermon of the three young men.
• On Daniel 13, On Susanna, homily 1, [beginning] Divine readings.
• On Zechariah 6, homily 1, [beginning] Noble by birth.

Although these sermons thus far enumerated are themselves learned and worthy to be eagerly read by the studious, nevertheless by many not-to-be-despised conjectures it appears that they are not Chrysostom’s, but of other authors — in whom there is neither that candor nor that unbroken ease of discourse which we admire in Chrysostom, but a discourse choppy, clipped, and somewhat harshly overwrought, having nothing of those similitudes and comparisons which are Chrysostom’s chief ornaments; but abounding on the contrary in words that answer one another alike and in sentences that end alike, as is that which is read in the exposition of Psalm 33: Come now, my brethren, in this manner I wish to reply: as many as now say “I will not,” who were but now saying “I will.” And likewise this: Let the holy oracles of the reading, which sound in your ears, make a nest in your hearts — from which forms of speaking Chrysostom most greatly recoils.

Some also of these sermons contain certain marks from which you might easily suspect that their author did not write in Greek: such as some figures of speech which cannot be adapted to the Greek tongue, and likewise certain interpretations of words — as the etymology of Meridies (Midday), which you have in the homily on Psalm 90, namely: It is called Meridies because it divides the day; for meros [a part] is a divided portion of the day. And in the homily on Psalm 118: Veritas (Truth) is three syllables and seven letters: because on the seventh day God rested from his works. Besides, these homilies, contrary to Chrysostom’s custom, are stripped of any exordium at the entrance of the discourse, without moral exhortations before the end, and without any doxologies or prayers in the conclusion of the sermon; and moreover the commonplaces on original sin, on predestination, on foreknowledge, on the hardening [of the heart], on grace and merit, which are handled at length in certain of the sermons, seem more peculiar to Augustine than to Chrysostom — who, as he always abstains from these, so he is nowhere accustomed to cite the names of the ecclesiastical doctors.¹⁴ Some of them, however, are in these sermons brought in by name, as Hippolytus and Cyprian; and John the Evangelist too is cited under the title of “the Theologian” — which surname I do not know whether Chrysostom anywhere bestowed on John, though he was often accustomed to call him “the son of thunder.”

Nor do I think it ought to be passed over, that this author divides and expounds the readings of the Scriptures, whatever they be, verse by verse, sometimes indeed marked off by number, frequently repeating this: The verse which we have just now heard; likewise, There follows another verse; likewise, Let us return to the proposed verses of the narrative; and again, Now that the first verse has been examined, and likewise the second, let us look at the third also — which formula of dividing you will nowhere find in Chrysostom’s writings. To this is added, that the author often, forsaking the historical sense, without any occasion slides off into allegorical and anagogical senses — a thing Chrysostom does most rarely, and only when driven by necessity. But whoever the writer of these sermons may have been, it appears that he is ancient: both from the ancient translation of the Scriptures expounded by him (which is no light indication of antiquity), and from the paschal baptism and the other ancient rites of the Church, which he records as having been in observance in his own times.

Thus far concerning the pseudepigrapha belonging to the Old Testament; now we shall enumerate those which look to the New.

ON MATTHEW there is extant an unfinished work [Opus imperfectum] of an uncertain author, divided into 54 homilies — although it has no [true] homilies, but is one continuous commentary, containing an uninterrupted exposition of the Evangelist, namely from the beginning down to the middle of chapter 13, and again from the beginning of chapter 19 to the end of chapter 25; whose opening is, As they relate, that Matthew, &c. Concerning this work indeed diverse judgments are reported. There are those who deny it to be Chrysostom’s, both on account of the Vulgate translation of the Latin Church which is discussed in it, and on account of the frequent allegories and citations of apocryphal writers,

…[apocryphal writers] whom the author uses, citing the Scripture of Seth, the Apocryphon of Ezekiel, the Itinerary of Clement, and other things like these, most remote from Chrysostom’s practice. To these they add that the phrasing, the expositions, and the dogmas of the commentaries are more contrary to Chrysostom’s tongue and mind than fire is to water. For both the character of the diction and certain figures, in no way answering to Greek discourse, indicate that the writer was a Latin; while the heretical dogmas scattered everywhere throughout the work openly prove that the same [author] was a heretic — not attached to one sect only, but entangled in the various heresies of Montanus, the Manichaeans, Arius, Donatus, and Pelagius, and on account of those heresies deservedly condemned by the Church, and by Pope Paul IV enrolled in the catalog of writers of suspect faith.

There are, on the opposite side, those who contend that this very work is Chrysostom’s — led not only by the authority of the Apostolic Church, which publicly, among the divine praises, reads homilies out of these commentaries under the name of John Chrysostom, but also moved by the weight and gravity of the sentences and propositions of this work; which, for the confirmation of Christian dogmas, are brought in under the title, testimony, and authority of Chrysostom in the authentic Glosses which they call the Ordinary [Gloss], in the Catenae of the Gospel explanations, in the Decrees of the supreme pontiffs, and in the Summae of Theologians of great name — in which places many of these sentences, most diligently weighed, are vindicated from all suspicion of error.

Nor does the recent edict of Pope Paul IV stand against these [defenders] in anything: since he did not simply and altogether reject this whole work — approved now for so many ages by the common assent of the Church — but forbids only those copies of the work which are found corrupted by heretics beyond the author’s intention, and defiled with those dregs with which they now teem. But that these dregs and filth crept into these commentaries not by the author’s fault, but by the fraud of heretics, they establish by a threefold indication. First, because certain very ancient copies contain nothing of errors of this kind, but others have them all added in the margins by another hand. Secondly, because whatever is heretical is so stitched onto the genuine reading by [an added] inference, that if it be cut away, not even a hair’s breadth of the sense is changed — which surely could not be so, if it had been genuinely woven in by the author himself; just as no member can be taken from the human body without a deforming mutilation of the whole frame. Thirdly, because it is not credible that an author who was neither mad nor forgetful — writing on the same matters and in almost the same passages — should have thought and said things contrary to himself, and especially in those matters wherein he is accused of being an Arian. For how would it be likely that he agreed with the Arians about the inequality and the diverse substance of the Father and the Son, who in many places defends against the Arians the unity and equality of both? — and especially in homily 44, upon those words, Woe to you, Scribes and Pharisees, who shut up the kingdom of heaven, where he writes thus: “So also now the priests of the heretic shut up the gate of truth. Therefore, when they read among their people something such as He who sent me is greater than I, by a perverse interpretation they shut the gate of truth, saying the Son is less than the Father — whereas he is called ‘less’ only according to the dispensation of the flesh.” And in homily 28, in the exposition of that saying, All things have been delivered to me by my Father, propounding and dissolving the argument of those who from these words built up [the claim] that the Son is less than the Father, he says thus: “By whom were all things delivered to him, if the Father and the Son are one? Or why could he not have [them] unless they had been delivered to him, if in all things he was equal to his Father? For the signification of ‘delivering’ excludes the notion of unity as much as of equality. I answer: they were delivered to him according to that whereby he was made a little less than the angels; for according to that whereby he thought it not robbery to be equal to God, God is one, and equal to him who delivered all things.” And in the forty-fifth homily, expounding that [text] of Matthew 23, And do you also fill up the measure of your fathers, he says: “When you see three heretics equal in all things, saying [they are] not of the same substance, not of the same authority, without beginning, all these differing from one another in some part — do not wonder: for they fill up the measure of their Gentile fathers, since those likewise worshipped many gods.” By which words, indeed, what could be said more openly against the Arian opinion that is ascribed to this author?

This, then, is the controversy over these commentaries; concerning which let those more learned than I judge. I, for what I would add, have nothing except this: that the work itself is eloquent and learned, and worthy to be read continually — provided, however, that it first be most diligently purged of those errors which, in the sixth book, in the censures upon the expositors of Matthew, I have noted. This author flourished (as is gathered from his 33rd and 49th homilies) after the times of Theodosius Augustus; and he wrote also, upon the other Evangelists, commentaries of like industry.

Thus far concerning the unfinished work on Matthew. After which there is held, among the works of Chrysostom, a medley [farrago] of diverse sermons upon various passages of the four Evangelists — of which some are taken from the homilies of Chrysostom, others from the already-mentioned unfinished work, and others are thought to be by the same author of whom we have fourteen sermons on Mark; who (so far as is discerned from his writings) was a monk placed under the authority of a bishop, and published his explanations for monks, with frequent allegories interspersed — and sometimes forced ones, a thing of which he himself was not unaware. For in homily 9 on Mark he excuses himself in these words: “You think we do violence to the scripture; and perhaps someone may say in silent thought, ‘This man always follows allegories and does violence to the holy scripture,’ &c.” Of this [author], then, and of others, these following are the homilies:

• On the second chapter of Matthew, On the coming of the Magi, a homily of an Uncertain Monk, which begins This Isaiah [foretold as] to come.
• On Matthew 2, On the flight of the child into Egypt, a homily of an Uncertain Monk. — This child I.
• On Matthew 2, On the slaughter of the infants, a homily of an Uncertain Monk. — A new [one] is dedicated.
• On Matthew 2, On the return of the child into Judea, a homily of an Uncertain Monk. — In that which he said.
• On Matthew 4, On the temptation of Christ, a homily of an Uncertain Monk. — O incomparable one.

[Letter I — St. John Chrysostom, Second Catalog: the medley of diverse sermons, continued (each incipit shown after the em-dash):]

• On Matthew 5, On the Beatitudes, a homily beginning Not only the bodies — which is part of the 15th homily of Chrysostom on Matthew.
• On Matthew 5, On the greatest and the least in the kingdom of heaven, a homily of an Uncertain Monk. — Since for us, by [our] office.
• On Matthew 5, On the love of enemies, a homily of an Uncertain Monk. — In all things he wills us.
• On Matthew 6, On the Lord’s Prayer, a homily. — The Lord’s prayer.
• On Matthew 6, On fasting, a homily of an Uncertain Monk. — As in the preceding.
• On Matthew 6, On avoiding the fasting of the hypocrites, a homily of an Uncertain Monk. — The series of the reading.
• On Matthew 7, On being wary of false prophets, a homily of an Uncertain Monk. — It is known to all.
• On Matthew 9, On the little boat, a homily. — Christ in human acts. It is by Peter Chrysologus.
• On Matthew 9, On the conversion of Matthew, a homily. — Many storms.
• On Matthew 14, On the beheading of John, a homily. — Today for us the virtue of John. It is by Peter Chrysologus.
• On Matthew 15, On the Canaanite woman, a homily. — The Evangelist marvels. It is held among the works of Origen.
• On Matthew 18, On the necessity of scandals, a homily of an Uncertain Monk. — It seems indeed.
• On Matthew 18, On fraternal correction, a homily of an Uncertain Monk. — The exercises of the law.
• On Matthew 18, On fraternal correction, a homily. — Something great, &c. — which is taken from Chrysostom’s explanation on Matthew, homily 62.
• On Matthew 19, On divorce, a homily. — The Lord is just. — which is in the unfinished work, homily 32.
• On Matthew 19, On Peter questioning Christ, a homily. — Since [it is] possible. It is part of homily 33 of the unfinished work.
• On Matthew 20, On the ascent of Christ to Jerusalem, a homily of an Uncertain Monk. — After that, to the virgin.
• On Matthew 20, On Christ ascending to Jerusalem, a homily of an Uncertain Monk. — Recently, when.
• On Matthew 21, On Christ borne on the ass, a homily. — I think the matter itself. — which is in the unfinished work, homily 37.
• On Matthew 21, On the withered fig tree, a homily of an Uncertain Monk. — If to the tree.
• On Matthew 22, On the tribute, a homily. — All malice. — which is part of homily 42 of the unfinished work.
• On Matthew 22, On the love of God and neighbor, a homily. — Frequently the Jews. — which is the other part of the same homily.
• On Matthew 26, On the Lord’s Supper, a homily of an Uncertain Monk. — To the present day.
• On Matthew 26, On the Lord’s Supper, a homily of an Uncertain Monk. — According to the Savior’s.
• On Matthew 27, a homily of an Uncertain Monk. — The Gospel series.
• On Matthew 27, a homily of an Uncertain Monk. — Let them indeed suffice.
• On the 1st chapter of Mark, On the beginning of Mark, a homily of an Uncertain Monk. — That animal.
• On Mark 1, On John the Baptist, a homily of the same. — Now let us come.
• On Mark 1, On Jesus coming from Nazareth of Galilee, a homily of the same. — See the unions.
• On Mark 1, On Christ dwelling among the beasts, a homily of the same. — Since [on] the past Sunday.
• On Mark 1, On Christ entering Capernaum, a homily of the same. — A happy and fair change.
• On Mark 1, On the mother-in-law of Simon, a homily of the same. — The Lord had instructed.
• On Mark 5, On the woman with the flow of blood, a homily of the same. — He asks, looking about him.
• On Mark 8, On the loaves, a homily of the same. — In the earlier part.
• On Mark 9, On the Transfiguration, a homily of the same. — Christ swears.
• On Mark 10, On the blind man, a homily of the same. — Since the holy presbyter.
• On Mark 11, On Christ borne on the ass, a homily of the same. — This one who [was] sent.
• On Mark 11, On the withered fig tree, a homily of the same. — The Lord enters.
• On Mark 11, On the casting out of the sellers, a homily of the same. — In the Gospel according to John.
• On Mark 13, On the day of judgment, a homily of the same. — The Gospel reading.
• On the 1st chapter of Luke, On the nativity of John the Baptist, a homily of the same. — Concerning the sun.
• On Luke 2, On the birth of Christ, a homily of the same. — But Joseph did not dare.
• On Luke 10, On him who fell among robbers, a homily of the same. — Then the Lord said.
• On Luke 15, On the two sons, a homily. — Of all things indeed, from the scriptures. It is reckoned among the works of Jerome, although it is not Jerome’s either.
• On Luke 16, On the rich man, a homily of an Uncertain Monk. — Since he had said.
• On Luke 19, On Zacchaeus, a homily of an Uncertain Monk. — If through Christ.
• On the 1st chapter of John, On the Word, the Son of God, [of an] Uncertain Monk, a homily. — If you believe that God.
• On John 1, On John the Baptist, a homily of the same. — It is said of John.
• On John 4, On the [true] worshippers, a homily of the same. — Innumerable benefits.
• On John 11, On Lazarus, a homily. — With great [grief], brethren. It is believed to be Chrysologus’s.
• On John 15, upon You are my friends, a homily of an Uncertain Monk. — The Lord Christ in the Gospel.
• On John 20, On Mary standing at the tomb, 2 homilies, of which one begins Mary coming; the other, Although all.
• On John 20, On Thomas, 1 homily. — This therefore, today.
• On 1 Corinthians 13, On faith, hope, and charity, 1 homily. — The Apostle Paul speaks.
• On 1 Corinthians 15, upon that [text], When all things shall have been made subject to him, 1 homily. — Yesterday, brethren.

And these are the writings of Chrysostom which are extant in general — the undoubted as well as the doubtful — pertaining to the exposition of the divine Scripture.

The life of Chrysostom was written by Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, and Nicephorus in the universal history of ecclesiastical affairs; and particularly, in separate volumes, by Palladius, first bishop of Hibernia [Ireland], and by George, patriarch of Alexandria.

This most blessed man dies — driven into exile by the faction of Theophilus of Alexandria and of Eudoxia Augusta — at the little town of Comana on the borders of Pontus, in the year (as Socrates relates) 405 from the birth of Christ, on the 14th day of September, in the seventh consulship of Honorius and the second of Theodosius. His exegetical writings were abridged by Theodoret bishop of Cyrrhus, Theophylact bishop of Bulgaria, Euthymius Zigabenus, and Oecumenius.

John, son of Christopher [Ioannes Christophori], a Dominican, long exercised in the Scriptures and nobly learned in secular philosophy, a scholastic in faculty and in speech, wrote a scholastic Postil on the four gospels and on all the epistles of Paul. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1240.

John Dietenberger [Ioannes Dietembergius], of the Order of Preachers, an excellent professor of theology and an inquisitor of heretical depravity, whose work of Confutations against the Lutheran scripturarians is extant; he bestowed both instruments of the sacred Law [both Testaments] upon the German tongue. He flourished under Charles V, Augustus, in the year 1520.

John Docaus [Ioannes Docaus], bishop of Laon, learned and eloquent, wrote upon the gospels which are read on the weekdays of Lent homilies elegant in style and notable for piety, of which the first begins In the first place let us say; likewise a narration on the Lord’s Passion according to Matthew, which begins Paul, a chosen vessel. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1555.

John Dominici [Ioannes Dominici], Cardinal of the title of St. Xystus, Archbishop of Ragusa, a Florentine by birth, a Dominican by order, the teacher of Antoninus Archbishop of Florence; a man resplendent in sanctity, learning, and Tuscan eloquence, and excelling in such quickness of wit and tenacity of memory that he himself, in the book which he entitled Lucula Noctis [the Firefly of the Night], affirms upon inserted oath that he had no teacher in any branch of knowledge, but, after the example of Augustine, learned and understood all the disciplines by himself.¹⁵ When this man had been sent to the Council of Constance by Gregory XII for the union of the Church, the Council being finished and the union entered upon, at the urging of the Emperor Sigismund he was sent by Pope Martin V as legate into Pannonia [Hungary] to extinguish the heresies of the Bohemians lately sprung up. Having set out thither, when he found minds so hardened in heresy that they could neither be bent by exhortations nor recalled from their undertaking by any prayers or threats, the case being desperate, he betook himself to Buda, the royal city of Pannonia, where, wasting away with grief of mind, he put off mortality in the year of the Lord 1418; and he was buried in the church of St. Paul the first hermit, resplendent with many miracles. He therefore, among his many scholastic expositions of the scriptures, left [these] scholastic commentaries:

• On Ecclesiastes,
• On the Song of Songs,
• On the Gospel of Matthew,
• On the Epistle to the Romans,
• Likewise, fifty sermons on the first nine Psalms, which he delivered to the people at Florence in the cathedral church, from Septuagesima Sunday to the third day of Easter, arranged in scholastic discourse;
• Likewise, on 1 Corinthians chapter 12, one [book] On Charity, beginning If I speak with the tongues of men.

John Driedo of Turnhout [Ioannes Driedo, Turnoutensis], most learned on every side, and public professor of sacred Theology in the most flourishing University of Louvain, wrote — in an easy and not at all uncultivated style, [dedicated] to John, king of Lusitania [Portugal] — four Isagogic [introductory] books on the Ecclesiastical Scriptures, learned and much to be praised, whose division is this:

The first book, divided into four chapters, shows in the first chapter the dignity, utility, number, order, and division of the Books of sacred Scripture; the second propounds certain difficulties arising, from the opinions of the fathers, over the things already said; the third brings forward certain canons necessary for resolving the difficulties; the fourth resolves the difficulties.

The second book is completed in three chapters: of which the first is on the translations of the holy Scriptures; the second on the multitude of the senses of sacred Scripture; the third on the way by which the ancient understanding of the Scriptures is to be investigated.

The third book contains treatises divided into several chapters. In the first it delivers certain general precepts, drawn from Augustine’s book On Christian Doctrine, necessary for opening up the twofold difficulty of Scripture — namely, of things and of words. In the second it deals specially with certain obscurities which occur in the Scriptures according to the speech or diction. In the third, [it treats] of the difficulties which are in the Scriptures on account of the things themselves being difficult in themselves.

The fourth book, divided into six chapters, discusses the Apocryphal books and the writings of the ecclesiastical Fathers established outside the canon. The beginning of the whole work is, [He who is] about to treat of the things of the faith.

After these, he composed a treatise on the times, for illustrating the obscurities arising in sacred Scripture from the varying number of the periods and the diverse reckoning of the years, divided into five parts, whose distribution is this. In the first part he shows the diversity, and the cause of the diversity, of reckoning which exists among the ancient writers, and lays down that the reckoning to be followed is that of Berosus the Chaldaean, Metasthenes the Persian, Manetho the Egyptian, Philo the Jew, Xenophon the Greek, and Fabius Pictor and Cato of the Romans — whose Chronography he demonstrates to agree with the Hebrew truth of holy Scripture. In the second he reviews the enumeration of the aforesaid Chronographers, conformable to holy Scripture. In the third he compares the times of the Gentile kings whom Scripture records with the deeds of those same kings recorded in the Scriptures. In the fourth he works out the reckoning of the weeks of Daniel. In the fifth he treats of the times to come at the last coming of Christ. This treatise, previously published by him, he most fittingly joined to the third book On the Divine Scriptures which he afterward wrote. He flourished under Charles V, Augustus, [in] 1540.

John Duns [Ioannes Dunsius], a Scot by nation, of the family of the Minorites [Franciscans], formerly a hearer of Alexander of Hales the Briton in the school of Paris,¹⁶ a man endowed with a subtlety of admirable erudition, on account of [his] profound

John Duns [continued] — on account of [his] most profound obscurity of speech he was surnamed Σκότιος [Skotios], that is, the Shadowy (which was once the surname of the most obscure Anaxagoras); and, because of the new Academy of Scholastic Theology called after his name, he is most famous in all the schools. He is reported to have written commentaries on the Gospel and on the Apostle [Paul], of which I myself have read a fragment on the Epistle to the Romans — very learned and profound in sense, but (true to the author’s name) shadowy, obscure, and scarcely passable in his school even to the well-practiced — whose beginning is, Concerning the Epistle of Paul to the Romans. When in recent years a printer of Lyons was undertaking to print this, and demanded of me an epigram to be prefixed (as is the custom) to the beginning of the work, it came at once into my mind that no verse fits the obscurity of the work more aptly than that which Jerome, from his treatise on Ezekiel, sets before the vision, in these lines:

This [is] the toil, that the house, and the error past unravelling — as once in lofty Crete the Labyrinth is said to have held its path woven amid blind walls, and a treacherous guile of a thousand ways, whereby the tokens of the followers were baffled, undetected, and the error past all return.

He flourished in the year of the Lord 1308.

John Eck [Ioannes Eckius], a Swabian, a German by nation, a doctor of the purer Theology and a most keen champion of the Catholic faith against the impiety of the Lutheran heresy, wrote a brief and learned commentary on Haggai, and published two volumes of homilies on the gospels of the whole year. The same [author] translated both Testaments into the German tongue, in the year of the Lord 1540.

John Ferus [Wild] [Ioannes Ferus], a Teuton by nation, of the Order of Minorites, preacher of the cathedral church at Mainz, a man nobly learned in divine letters and endowed with singular eloquence — whose equal in the office of Catholic evangelical preaching the Church of the Germans does not possess in this our age — wrote in Latin, and in cultivated speech, pious and learned lucubrations according to Catholic doctrine, in which he reduced, as into a compendium, the labors of expositors both ancient and recent. Of those which are now extant, and are studiously read by almost all preachers, [these] are:

• Commentaries on Genesis, whose beginning is The face of Moses, when everywhere.
• Lenten sermons on Ezra.
• On Psalm 31, On penitence, 10 sermons.
• On Psalm 66, 10 sermons.
• On Ecclesiastes, according to the letter, 1 book of annotations.
• On Matthew, expounded for preaching, 4 books of commentaries.
• On the Gospel of John, narrated in sermons to the people, 1 book of commentary.
• On Luke chapter 15, On the prodigal son, several sermons.
• An Exegesis on the Epistle to the Romans.
• On the first epistle of John, 1 book of annotations.
• On the festal gospels of the whole year, two volumes of sermons.

He flourished under Charles V, in the year of the Lord 1536.

Dominic Soto [Dominicus Soto] of Segovia, of the Order of Preachers, published Annotations upon the commentaries of this author [Ferus] on John, pointing out that sixty-seven passages in them are to be read with caution; to whom Michael Medina, a Franciscan — praiseworthy for the highest probity and erudition — replied in an Apologetic volume published in defense of those same passages.

John Fisher [Ioannes Fischerus], bishop of the church of Rochester in England — deservedly to be compared, for his abundance of erudition, his sincerity of piety, and his constancy of soul, with any of the most holy and most keen champions of the Church — when he rebuked with the utmost constancy of mind and word the profane marriage of Henry VIII king of the English (who, having repudiated his former wife, had married another), provoked against himself, like another John [the Baptist], the wrath and savagery of a new Herod. By him he was thrust into prison and grievously afflicted with various and frequent torments; and at length, when he had received in chains the insignia of the dignity of Cardinal, sent to him by the Roman pontiff in testimony of his approved faith and constancy, on the following day — before he could put them on — together with very many other innocent monks he received, for faith and truth, the triumphal crown of martyrdom from that most cruel tyrant. He, therefore, among the many and illustrious offspring of his genius which he sent forth into the light against the heretics, left also, for the use of the pious, a most holy and most pious exposition on the seven [penitential] psalms, worthy of a most learned bishop and most constant martyr. He wrote also, on the seventh chapter of Luke, On the single Magdalene, against Jacobus Faber [Lefèvre d’Étaples], “bishop of Vienne” [so styled as printed, but erroneous — Lefèvre held no such see; the same misdescription was flagged at p105], who asserted that there had been several Magdalenes — three books, whose beginning is A certain little book, by the author Jacobus Faber. He flourished under Charles V, Augustus, in the year of the Lord 1536.

John Francis Pico [Ioannes Franciscus Picus], nephew of John Pico [della Mirandola], Count of Mirandola, wrote a brief and moral exposition of the fifteenth Psalm, whose beginning is If anyone perfect; likewise, on Matthew chapter 6, an exposition of the Lord’s Prayer. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1500.

John Francis Quintianus of Brescia [Ioannes Franciscus Quintianus, Brixiensis], a most graceful poet, wrote in Latin — from the four Gospels, after the manner of Sophocles and Euripides — a most weighty tragedy on the Passion of the Lord, in the year of the Lord 1520.

John of Frankfurt [Ioannes de Francforte], a German, of the Order of Preachers, put together a scholastic explanation on Job, which Vincentius Bardellus mentions in his book On the Conception of Christ. It is held at Lyons in the Library of the Preachers, with this beginning, O all you who pass by the way.

John Valois, otherwise Galensis [John of Wales], an Englishman by nation, of the Order of Minorites, most learned in the divine Scriptures, who for a long time gloriously taught Theology in the school of Paris; among many illustrious little works he wrote one book on the Apocalypse of John. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1270.

John Gagnée [Ioannes Gagnaeus] of Paris, a Theologian, preacher to Francis, most Christian King of the French, and his chief almoner; a man learned in secular letters and in the divine scriptures, and especially most accomplished in delivering homilies; he gathered, in a brief compendium, most clear and most easy scholia on the whole New Testament, selected from various manuscripts of both languages and from the chief opinions of both Greeks and Latins. Of which the catalog is this:

[Letter I — the John catalog, continued; first, John Gagnée’s New-Testament scholia catalog (each incipit shown after the em-dash):]

• On the four holy gospels, 1 book, which begins εὐαγγέλιον [euangelion], a Greek word.
• On the Acts of the Apostles, 1 book.
• On all the epistles of Paul, 1 book, whose beginning is Those who give a preface.
• On the seven Canonical [epistles], 1 book, beginning The author of this epistle.
• On the Apocalypse, 1 book, beginning It seemed [good], Christian reader.

The same [Gagnée] also recast all the Psalms of David into lyric [verses] of diverse kinds and into stanzas of various odes, emulating the grace of the song of Pindar and Horace, with a brief prose argument prefixed to each ode explaining the theme of the Psalm, and with the very words of the Psalms themselves written down at the side of the page according to the truth of the Ecclesiastical version — which he everywhere follows in the text of the odes, and expounds, together with the Hebrew truth, in flowery paraphrases. The work begins, [He] who [desires] a studious and exact [rendering]. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1550.

John Gauver [Ioannes Gauuer], a German, of the Order of Carmelites, lector of the monastery of Mainz, a Theologian and distinguished declaimer, in the year of the Lord 1440 wrote, according to the custom of the Scholastics, one book of explanation on Exodus, whose beginning is A law for the common utility; likewise, On the Concord of the Evangelists, 1 book, which begins Because God sent.

John Gerson [Ioannes Gerson], a Gaul by nation, chancellor of the most flourishing University of Paris, most skilled in Scholastic Theology, a poet and orator distinguished in his time, legate of Charles king of the French at the Council of Constance, wrote many noble volumes on the divine letters — in a style indeed scholastic, but not at all unpleasant — in which he so mixed and tempered scholastic subtleties with the sweet affections of mystical Theology that it may be doubted whether he surpassed piety by erudition, or erudition by piety. Of their number there are extant:

• On the literal sense of divine Scripture, 1 book.
• Commentaries on the 7 penitential Psalms, which are believed to be [the work] of Pierre d’Ailly [Petrus Aliacus], his teacher.
• A Monotessaron of the Gospels, that is, One out of four.
• On the Canticle of the Virgin Mary [the Magnificat], 12 books, issued in dialogue form.
• On the beginning of Mark, 1 book.
• On various passages of the Gospels, 1 book of sermons.
• Commentaries on the Song of Songs, published in his extreme old age near the end of his life: in which he discoursed with such diligence upon the fifty properties of divine love, scattered everywhere throughout the whole book of the Song, that all the affections of divine love seem to have been reckoned into this one [work].

This work being finished, three days after, as he lay upon his little bed repeating again and again, with great constancy of countenance and soul, those last words of this Song, Strong as death is thy love, he rendered his soul to God in the 69th year of his age, and in the year of our salvation 1419.¹⁷

John Glodeston [Ioannes Glodeston], an Englishman, a Carmelite, wrote commentaries on the Gospel of Matthew and of John, and on the Canonical epistle of John. He lived in the year of the Lord 1320.

John Goodwick [Ioannes Goodvvyck] wrote commentaries on Genesis and Daniel. He flourished in the year 1360.

John Haiton [Ioannes Haiton], an Englishman, wrote annotations on the four Gospels, when he was at Lincoln, in the year 1428.

John Hagen de Indagine [Ioannes Hagen de Indagine], a German, a Carthusian, excelling in the knowledge of things divine and human, composed, among very many Scholastic commentaries which he published on the books of the divine scripture:

• On the four books of Kings, according to the fourfold sense, 4 books.
• On the vision of Daniel chapter 7, 1 book.
• Likewise, on that saying [1 Thessalonians 5], We pray that the whole spirit, flesh, and soul be preserved, one book, On the spirit, the soul, and the flesh.

He flourished in the year of the Lord 1460. There are listed, in the Catalog of books lately condemned by Pope Paul IV [the Index], works “of John de Indagine” — not indeed of this one, but of another, who wrote on chiromancy [palmistry].

John Halgrin of Abbeville [Ioannes Halgrinus ab Abbatis villa], dean of Amiens and Cardinal of Sabina, a Scholastic in profession, style, and method, illustrated the Song of Songs with a new kind of explanation, which is called the Sixth. For before him only five modes of exposition of this book had appeared. The first of them [is] of those who interpret the whole Song, according to the literal (Western) letter, of the loves of Solomon and the daughter of Pharaoh, or Abishag the Shunammite. The second, of those who expound the same [Song] as a colloquy between Solomon and the commonwealth of the Jews. The third, of those who — alluding to the book of Martianus Capella entitled On the Nuptials of Philology and Mercury — say that this Song is an Epithalamion of the Wise Man [Sapiens] and Wisdom [Sapientia] conversing with one another. The fourth, of those who affirm this book to be an Epithalamium of Christ and the Church. The fifth, of those who expound the same [Song] concerning the love of the soul toward God, and the love of God toward the soul. To these five expositions, then, John added a sixth, narrating the mutual colloquies of Mary the mother of Christ and of Christ her son — the argument of which narration he himself, in the preface of his commentaries, briefly comprised in these words:

This Song contains the mutual and joyful applause of the mother and the son — namely, of the blessed Virgin and the Lord Jesus Christ. For here the mother applauds the son; here the son rejoices in the mother; here the son describes the privileges of the mother; here the mother describes the excellence of the son. Now there speak in this Song four persons, namely the Mother, and the Son, and the Angels who attend upon the Son as their Lord, and the young maiden virgins who attend upon the Virgin as their Lady, as the following series of the scripture will make clear.

The work begins, About to expound the Song of Songs to the honor of the mother and the son. Ascensius printed it at Paris in the year 1521. This author flourished in the year of the Lord 1450.

John Hayton [Ioannes Hayton], an Englishman, wrote Annotations on the Gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John; likewise on the Epistle to the Corinthians and to the Hebrews, and on the Canonical Epistle and Apocalypse of John. He lived in the year 1428. [This is a doublet of “John Haiton” above — the same Englishman (fl. 1428) entered twice, with differing work-lists.]

John Hentenius [Ioannes Hentennius], a German by nation, of Nechlin by fatherland, a monk of the Order of St. Jerome, wrote a very brief little commentary on the Apocalypse, to which he gave the title

…[John Hentenius, to whose Apocalypse commentary he gave] the title A Judgment concerning the Apocalypse and Antichrist: in which he maintains that that Beast, described in the thirteenth chapter of the Apocalypse, is Muhammad, the false Prophet of the Turks. Its beginning is, Before these [I write] commentaries on the Apocalypse. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1540.¹⁸

John Hessels of Louvain [Ioannes Hessels à Louanio], royal professor of sacred Theology, wrote commentaries on the Gospel of St. Matthew, on the first Epistle of St. Paul to Timothy; likewise on the first canonical [epistle] of St. Peter, and on the first Canonical [epistle] of John; he wrote also other things against the heretics of our own time. He was a man especially pious and learned, whom I heard teaching at Louvain in the year 1565; and, if I am not mistaken, in the year 1566 he migrated to the world above.

John Hoffmeister [Ioannes Hoffmeisterus], a Swabian by fatherland, of the institute of St. Augustine, and a well-deserving provincial of the same order in Swabia, wrote:

• On Tobit, brief and polished exegeses.
• On Matthew — 1 book.
• On Mark — 1 book.
• On Luke — 1 book.
• On the two epistles of Paul to the Corinthians — 2 books.
• On the epistle to the Philippians — 1 book.
• On the Sunday Gospels — 1 book of homilies.

He flourished in the year of the Lord 1546.

John, son of Ulrich [Ioannes Huldalrici], of Basel, of the Order of Preachers, a youth of a genius divine rather than human — whom you might call erudition itself and sincerity of faith itself — while still young acquired such knowledge of the Greek idiom as scarcely one or another of his age possessed; he wrote therefore, on the Epistle of Paul to the Hebrews, in Greek and in an elegant style, most praiseworthy commentaries. He died at Cologne in the year 1536, while still a youth.

John Justus Landsberg [Lanspergius], a Bavarian, a Carthusian, wrote on all the epistles and gospels of the whole year narrations and sermons, reproducing that ancient and genuine sense and piety of the orthodox fathers. The work begins, Knowing that, &c. [the following printed words, Quinquam nulli non tempori, are obscure as set]. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1540.

John de Isunio [Ioannes de Isunio; name uncertain as printed], of the Order of the Hospitaller Brothers of St. John of Jerusalem, a not-ignoble Theologian, well-deserving of the divine Scriptures, and public lector in the University of Paris, elaborated in scholastic phrasing one book of explanation on Job, whose beginning is He will sustain unto the time; likewise one book on Mark, whose beginning is He was made like to a lion; and, on all the epistles of Paul, [dedicated] to Philip the bishop of Rouen, 14 books. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1390.

John Kynyngham [Ioannes Kininghan], an Englishman, made a lecture [commentary] on the Lamentations, in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ 1399.

John Louis Vives of Valencia [Ioannes Ludouicus Viues, Valentinus], a Spaniard by nation, among many most noble lucubrations — learnedly indeed and accurately composed, in which he joined the highest eloquence with the most complete erudition and most Christian piety — wrote, [dedicated] to William de Croÿ [Guillielmum Crouium], Archbishop of Toledo, most eloquent meditations on the seven penitential Psalms: in which now he himself, now the psalmist, now the sinner, now some other person speak, with sweet affections, either to God, or to themselves, or to others, most piously. Of these the beginning is, I think there are very few. He flourished in the year 1518.

John Maistrosius [Ioannes Maistrosius], a Scot, wrote three books of commentaries on Matthew, in the year of the Lord 792.

John Major [Ioannes Maior], a Scot, wrote a scholastic Postil on the four Gospels, in the year of the Lord 1400 [so printed; the well-known John Major/Mair the Scot belongs to the sixteenth century].

John Montholon of Autun [Ioannes Montholonius, Eduensis], most skilled in both laws, patched together a huge volume, to which he gave the title A Storehouse [Promptuarium] of the Divine and of both branches of Human Law: in which, in alphabetical order, he collected all the maxims and passages which agree in the sacred Letters and in both Laws — the Imperial and the Pontifical — with the addition of many not-to-be-despised annotations opening up the obscurity of those same passages. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1520.

John Mary Verattus of Ferrara [Ioannes Maria Verattus, Ferrariensis], a Carmelite, a Theologian piously and holily learned, and a distinguished declaimer in the Italian tongue, published — [dedicated] to Ippolito d’Este, the most eminent Cardinal — most abundant narrations on five [so printed; six are listed] chapters of Matthew, that is, on the fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth, arranged into fifteen books, which most beautifully embrace the whole evangelical law and are filled with disputations against the false dogmas of Luther. The work begins, Jesus, seeing the crowds, &c. Here the discourse of the Lord is divided. He wrote also, on the festal gospels of the whole year, 2 volumes of homilies. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1540.

John of Mechelen [Ioannes Mechlinius], a German by nation, perfected by long exercise in the study of secular Philosophy and excellently instructed in the divine oracles — whom the University of Cologne had for many years as public teacher of Theology — among his other works wrote, according to the method of the school, one book of exposition on the Psalms. He flourished under Frederick III the Emperor, in the year 1460.

John Milbachius [Ioannes Milbachius], a German, renowned for scholastic erudition in both sacred and profane letters, and public professor of Theology in the University of Erfurt, sent forth thirteen books of commentaries on Paul, in the scholastic manner, in the year of the Lord 1494.

John, a monk, a Benedictine, a Theologian, Philosopher, and rhetorician, sprung from Germany, professor of the monastery of Kastl [Castellensis] in the diocese of Eichstätt, composed a most useful compendium of the whole scripture, to which he gave the title Breviarium Bibliae [Breviary of the Bible]; likewise, on the gospels and epistles of the whole year, three books of sermons. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1390.

John of Neuville [Ioannes Neouilleus], styled Genuillanus, wrote — [dedicated] to Charles of Lorraine the Cardinal — commentaries on the seven penitential psalms, beginning The Maker of men, &c., in the year of the Lord 1550.

John Nider [Ioannes Nider], of the Order of Preachers, a Teuton by nation, studious and learned in the divine Scriptures, sufficiently taught in scholastic Theology, and most pleasing to the people in delivering sermons, wrote — in a rough but plain style — on the twentieth chapter of Exodus, concerning the ten precepts of the Decalogue, a learned and large

…[John Nider wrote, on Exodus 20, a learned and large] volume, whose beginning is The most sacred law of the Decalogue; likewise, on the thirteenth chapter of Leviticus, On the moral leprosy, 1 book; likewise, on the gospels of the whole year, two volumes of sermons. He flourished under the Emperor Sigismund, in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ 1430.

John à Pastura [of Pasture], Prior of the monastery of Gembloux [Géblacensis], published a Paraphrase on the Psalter, collected from the doctors of the Church, in the year of the Lord 1510.

John Pfeffer of Wittenberg [Ioannes Phefir, Vitembergensis], the first illustrious teacher of the school of Freiburg, published a distinguished scholastic work, divided into fourteen books, upon the epistles of Paul, which — read publicly — he entitled A Sacerdotal Directory [Directorium Sacerdotale], whose beginning is Concerning the reading of the epistles. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1490.

John Pico [della Mirandola], prince of Mirandola and Concordia in Italy, surnamed the PHOENIX on account of the nobility of his lineage and the rare and singular grace of his most beautiful body and most fair soul — a man of an almost prodigious genius, polished even to a miracle in every variety of the arts, sciences, and tongues — wrote, while quite young, and scarcely reaching his twenty-third year, [dedicated] to Lorenzo de’ Medici, a Latin commentary on the first chapter of Genesis, brief but of admirable boldness and beyond the powers of adolescence, marked with the title Heptaplus, whose beginning is The emulation of your studies has moved me, &c.: in which, passing over all that the Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Chaldaean narrators of Genesis had previously brought forward, he dared not only to promise but also to bring into the open seven new expositions, never before attempted by anyone, but first devised, discovered, and perfected by himself:

• The first is on the elemental and corruptible world, in which he draws all the single words of the first chapter, in a continuous series of exposition, to the explaining of the creation of this sublunary world.
• The second is on the celestial world, in which, by a like artifice, he applies the whole Mosaic narrative to the creation of the celestial spheres.
• The third is on the invisible and angelic world, in which he turns all that Moses writes concerning the work of the six days to the first creation of the Angels.
• The fourth is on the human world, which interprets the whole chapter of the nature of man.
• The fifth is on the distinction of the fourfold world, showing by what operations, properties, and differences the four worlds already mentioned are distinguished from one another.
• The sixth is on the mutual kinship of the worlds, demonstrating how these four worlds agree with one another.
• The seventh is on the Sabbath of the world, and the rest of all creatures in [their] final and eternal felicity.

To these seven expositions there is added, as it were for a crown, a certain specimen of an eighth, Cabalistic explanation — that is, drawn from the Kabbalah of the Jews — which elicits many senses not only from the single sentences and words, but deduces almost infinite mysteries from the single Hebrew letters of each syllable.

But concerning this work the judgments of learned men are various: some admire it as learned and sublime; some despise it as a display of youthful boldness, outwardly swollen but within utterly empty. I remember that in recent years, when I was at Rome, I familiarly asked that most excellent man Luigi Lippomano [Aloysius Lippomanus], bishop of Verona, why, among so many noble authors inserted by him into his Catena, he had made no mention of John Pico, that distinguished man. Then he, turning to me, said with the utmost emphasis of countenance and words: “When I was weaving together a Catena of explanations on Genesis, I chose those Writers who seemed to me to explain the words and thoughts of Moses by their expositions. Accordingly, since I had observed that Pico bent his effort to this one thing only — to express Platonic thoughts, or rather his own fancies, in Mosaic words and sayings — I judged that I had no need of his work.” This most noble youth undertook, besides this Heptaplus (which lately Antonio Bonagratia, canon of Pescia, translated into the Tuscan tongue), also commentaries on the Davidic hymns according to the Septuagint edition, and along with these other labors on the sacred letters — about to publish many more still, had not an untimely death, as he was passing his thirtieth year, extinguished him, in the year of the world’s redemption 1494. His life was written, in a splendid oration, by John Francis Pico, his nephew, heir of his ancestral virtue. And Antonio Tebaldeo, no ignoble poet, inscribed this elogium on his friend’s tomb:

Here lies John Mirandola; the rest is known to Tagus and to Ganges — perhaps to the Antipodes too.

John Poccanus [Ioannes Poccanus], provost of the church of St. George at Cologne, published a Psalter in the Chaldaean tongue, but printed in Ethiopic characters — which the Ethiopian monks now use, who call themselves Indians, and they sing it publicly in the church which they have at Rome.

John du Pré [Ioannes de Pratis], a Gaul, [whose] Dictionary on the sacred Bible I saw in the Library of the Preachers at Lyons, written by hand: whose beginning is such:

The difficult parts which the Bible bears I strive to lay open, &c.

John Quinquarboreus of Arles [Cinqarbres] rendered into Latin the Targum Kinoth, that is, the Chaldaean [Aramaic] Paraphrase on the Lamentations, with the common Latin translation added, that it might more easily appear what advantage or usefulness that translation brings; with notes added also, on each chapter of the Paraphrase, [notes] not to be regretted. The work begins, They wrote most holily. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1549.

John de Regno, a Gaul, professed in the Order of Carmelites in the monastery of Toulouse, a Scholastic in the kind of his Theology and speech, wrote one book on the Gospel of Matthew, in the year of the Lord 1348.

John Royaerts of Antwerp [Ioannes Roiardus, Antuerpiensis], of the Order of Minorites, wrote literal homilies on all the Gospels — the weekday ones as well as the festal, the Lenten, the Advent, and [those] of the whole year — in a style midway between the ancients and the scholastics. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1540.

John Rubius of Hainaut [Ioannes Rubius Hannonius] gathered a Harmony of the four Evangelists into one body of History, with the [reasons] of the order and the agreement added in their places,

…[John Rubius of Hainaut gathered a Harmony of the four Evangelists into one body of History,] with the reasons of the order and the agreement added in their places. [Printed] at Cologne, 1572. [The 1572 Cologne imprint post-dates Sixtus’s death (1569) — a later-edition detail.]

John Ruusbroec [Ioannes Rusbrochius], a Carthusian, a most eminent and most holy man, whom they call a second Dionysius the Areopagite, wrote commentaries on the Tabernacle of Moses and on things pertaining to it, wherein many mysteries of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers are explained lucidly by the divine Spirit, and by no means in a commonplace way. Their beginning is, So run, that you may obtain.

John of Sancta Fides [Ioannes de Sancta fide], an Englishman, expounded the first epistle of John, in the year of the Lord 1359.

John Scotus, a monk of St. Benedict, a hearer of Bede, colleague of Albinus [Alcuin] the deacon and abbot, especially dear to Charlemagne, and learned by continual exercise in the divine Letters, published, in a clear and plain style, three books of commentaries on the Gospel of Matthew. He flourished in the year of the Lord 800.

John Soares [Ioannes Soarezius], Bishop of Coimbra and Count of Arganil in Spain [Iberia; Coimbra is in Portugal], published commentaries on Matthew, distinguished by many most useful treatises, whose beginning is The blessed Apostle and Evangelist. He flourished, celebrated at the Council of Trent, in the year of the Lord 1560.

John Tacesphalus, an Englishman, a Carmelite, famous for his erudition in the holy Scriptures and his practice of preaching, left two books of scholastic commentaries on the Apocalypse of John.

John Tauler [Ioannes Taulerus], a Dominican, a German, whose sermons — published with an admirable spirit — are extant; he wrote one most devout book On the Passion of the Lord, from the four Gospels; likewise one book of sermons, of scholastic meditations, on various passages of the Gospels.

John Tylney of Norwich [Nordouicensis] wrote a postil on the Apocalypse of John. He lived in the year 1430.

John de Torquemada [Ioannes ex Turre cremata], of the Order of Preachers, Cardinal of the title of St. Xystus, a man exercised in the divine scriptures and a most learned interpreter of pontifical law, among other splendid works of his genius published, on all the Davidic Psalms, [dedicated] to Pius II Supreme Pontiff, a most brief, most rich, and most lucid Paraphrase, dictated in a simple and plain style, whose beginning is To the most blessed father, and most merciful. He composed also, on the festal gospels of the whole year, a scholastic Postil; likewise, on the same Gospels, one book of scholastic questions. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1560 [so printed; read ~1460 — his dedication to Pius II, pope 1458–64, places him a century earlier].

John Wallensis [Ioannes Valeis], an Englishman, wrote 1 book on the Apocalypse. He lived in the year 1270. [This duplicates the “John of Wales” (Valois, alias Galensis) entry at p284 — the same Englishman (fl. 1270), one book on the Apocalypse.]

John Verdiacus, of the Order of Preachers, explained the book of the Canticles with scholastic commentaries. Vincentius Bandellus mentions this work in his book On the Conception of the Blessed Virgin.

John Viguier of Grenade [Ioannes Viguerius, Granatensis], a Gaul, of the Order of Preachers, a scholastic by profession, wrote commentaries on the epistle to the Romans, in the year of the Lord 1550.

John Voretan of London [Ioannes Voretan, Londinensis], a Carmelite, wrote a Postil on the Song of Solomon, in the year 1406.

John Trithemius [Ioannes Tritemius], Abbot of Sponheim, author of the Catalog of Illustrious Men, wrote, from the Greek [sources], questions on the Gospel of John, and homilies on various passages of the divine scripture. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1490.

John Zacharias [Ioannes Zacharias], born at Erfurt in Germany, a distinguished interpreter of secular Philosophy, exercised by assiduous reading in the divine volumes, and at the Council of Constance a notable champion of the Catholic faith against the Hussite and Wycliffite heretics, published many illustrious little works: of which there are reported five books on the Pentateuch, and 14 books on all the epistles of Paul, written in scholastic fashion. He flourished in the time of the Emperor Sigismund, in the year of the Lord 1430.

Jordan the Teuton [Iordanus Theutonicus], of the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, a distinguished expounder of the divine Scriptures, and of excellent genius in delivering sermons, wrote — in a humble and plain style, in the year of the Lord 1410 — not-to-be-despised commentaries on the Apocalypse.

Josephus, born of royal and priestly blood, son of Matthias the priest — whom Jerome calls “the Greek Livy,” but the more recent Jews call Joseph Bengorion [ben Gorion] — a Hebrew by nation, a Jerusalemite by fatherland, a priest by lineage; captured in the destruction of Jerusalem, he was led to Rome by the Emperor Titus. And there, on account of the excellence of his genius, he so earned [favor] from the Senate and people of Rome that, while he yet lived, his books were deposited in the public Library, and after his death a bronze statue was set up to him. He was a friend of the Christians, although he was a Jew; and he celebrated our Lord Jesus Christ with a notable elogium in the 18th book of the Antiquities¹⁹ — for which reason St. Jerome reckons him, with fitting praise, in the catalog of Ecclesiastical writers. He, therefore, when he had observed that only the five books of Moses were extant among the Greeks — translated by the Seventy interpreters, by the labor of Ptolemy king of Egypt — resolved, spurred on by the exhortations of Epaphroditus, a most learned man, to deliver the whole history of the Old Testament to Greek ears. Which he also accomplished: having written first in the Hebrew tongue, then also in Greek, περὶ τῆς ἀρχαιολογίας, that is, On Antiquities, in twenty books; in which, preserving at once both the truth of the holy Scriptures and the laws of history, he fitted [the material into] a certain kind of Paraphrase on almost all the books of the Old Instrument — promising also that, if God should prolong his life, he would explain in another volume the causes of the sacred history and all its reasons, both natural and allegorical. These books Rufinus, presbyter of Aquileia, rendered into Latin, beginning his edition in this manner: To write the history, &c.

He wrote likewise, [addressed] to the same Epaphroditus, two books against Apion the Grammarian and Molon [Apollonius Molon], and many others who slandered the sacred histories of the Hebrews as a thing lately sprung up, fabulous, and lying — on the ground that among the noble Greek historians no mention of these things was found. Meeting these [objectors], Josephus brought forward so many testimonies out of the writings of the Phoenicians, Chaldaeans, Egyptians, and Greeks

…[Josephus brought forward so many] testimonies, conformable to the sacred histories, that St. Jerome greatly marveled how a Hebrew man, trained from infancy in the sacred letters, could have unrolled such great Libraries of foreign authors. The work begins, Sufficiently, I think.

He wrote also, On the Seventy Weeks of Daniel, one book, of which Jerome makes mention in the preface of the 11th book on Isaiah.

He composed also a very elegant book, περὶ αὐτοκράτορος λογισμοῦ [εἰς τοὺς] Μακκαβαίους, that is, On the Sovereign Reason: in which, describing the contest of the seven sons of one mother, who suffered together with their mother herself, he shows, by the example of the Maccabees, that it is the mind which holds the sovereignty within us. Concerning this work Eusebius, in the third book of the Ecclesiastical History, chapter 10, says thus: “There is also another elegant volume of Josephus, entitled Εἰ αὐτοδέσποτός ἐστι τῶν παθῶν ὁ εὐσεβὴς λογισμός, that is, That pious reason is mistress of the passions; which little book some have entitled [the book] of the Maccabees, because in it are contained the contests and struggles sweated out for piety by the Maccabees.” The work begins, φιλοσοφώτατον λόγον [a most philosophical discourse]. [The Greek titles here are set in the difficult 16th-century type and are given as best readable; the Eusebian title is restored to its standard form.]

He flourished under Vespasian and Titus Augustus, and reached down to Trajan Augustus — that is, to the year of the Lord 100.

Josephus, a Jew by nation, of Tiberias by fatherland, a Count in dignity, and drawn to the faith by a mighty miracle — while he was not yet a Christian, he so loved and cherished Christians that he received in hospitality the blessed Eusebius, bishop of “Fregellae” [so printed; read Vercellae — Eusebius of Vercelli] in Italy, exiled by the Arian Emperor Constantius on account of the Orthodox faith; and he honorably brought in Bishop Epiphanius, who had come thither with very many holy brethren, to visit this [Eusebius]. And after his own conversion he built many churches of the Christians in the cities of the Jews — at Tiberias, Diocaesarea, Nazareth, and Capernaum. This man, then, as Epiphanius testifies, first brought to light the Hebrew Gospel of Matthew²⁰ — written in Hebrew by the very hand of Matthew — which, in a hidden treasury of the Jews at Scythopolis, he discovered, together with the Gospel of John and the Acts of the Apostles, translated from the Greek tongue into Hebrew. He flourished under the Emperor Constantius, and died a nonagenarian in the year of the Lord 370.

Jovita Rapicio of Brescia [Iouita Rapicius, Brixianus] wrote, [dedicated] to Reginald Pole, a Paraphrase on twenty-two Psalms, composed in various kinds of verse, whose beginning is Not you who take up the Maeonian [strain]. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1550.

Irenaeus of Lyons [Irenaeus Lugdunensis], bishop in Gaul after the triumph [martyrdom] of the blessed martyr Pothinus, once a hearer of Polycarp the martyr, a man endowed with the highest erudition and piety, sent as legate to Rome under Pope Eleutherius, was proved most illustrious no less in sanctity than in doctrine. He wrote in the Greek tongue many excellent volumes, but especially — as the Chronicle of Eusebius testifies — commentaries on the Apocalypse; concerning which Jerome, in the preface of the 18th book of his commentaries on Isaiah, speaks thus: “The Apocalypse of John, if we take it according to the letter, we must Judaize; but if we take it spiritually, as it is written, we shall seem to go against the opinions of many — especially of Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons: against whom that most eloquent man Dionysius, pontiff of the Church of Alexandria, writes an elegant book, deriding the fable of the thousand years, and the golden and jeweled Jerusalem upon earth, the restoration of the temple, the blood of victims, the rest of the Sabbath, the injury of circumcision, marriages, childbirths, the rearing of children, the delights of banquets, and the servitude of all nations; and again wars, armies, and triumphs, and the slaughters of the conquered, and the death of the sinner at a hundred years — to whom Apollinaris replied in two volumes; whom [Irenaeus] not only the men of his own sect, but also a great multitude of our own in this matter, follow.” This blessed pontiff dies, in a raging persecution, crowned with martyrdom together with almost all the people of his city, for the Catholic faith, under Marcus Antoninus, in the year of the Lord 175.

Isaac, a monk by profession, most skilled in Greek literature, wrote in Greek, on that [text], This I command you, that you love [one another], &c., one homily.

Isidore the Elder, Bishop of Cordova, not unacquainted with secular letters but most skilled in the divine, and famous also for the sanctity of his life under Theodosius and Honorius, wrote — [dedicated] to St. Orosius, a Spanish presbyter — on all the books of Kings, four books. Augustine, in sermon 35, On the Saints, cites the exposition of this Isidore on Luke. He flourished under Honorius, in the year of the Lord 420.

Isidore Clario of Brescia [Isidorus Clarius, Brixianus], from a monk of Monte Cassino [made] Bishop of Foligno [Fulginatensis], gathered scholia on the whole body of the Bible, again translated by himself: which, when at first they had been forbidden to Christians, at length — the prologue and prolegomena being cut away — were restored [to use] by the authority of the most holy Council of Trent. He wrote also, on the discourse of the Lord delivered on the mount, from the fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters of Matthew, 69 orations to the people, whose beginning is It would indeed be a fair thing; likewise, on various passages of Luke the Evangelist, 54 orations to the people, filled with elegance of words and gravity of sentences, of which the first begins That which first, in time, to you. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1540.

Isidore, Bishop of Seville [Hispalensis], called Isidore the Younger to distinguish him from Isidore the Elder, Bishop of Cordova; and, as some think, a disciple of St. Gregory — a man of exceptional sanctity and erudition, most skilled in the divine Scriptures. And, in reading, collecting, and fitting together the sayings, sentences, and rhapsodies of the ancient fathers out of their innumerable and immense volumes, having an insatiable desire and strength altogether inexhaustible, he gathered from the labors of others innumerable illustrious volumes of almost all the arts and sciences: of which I have read a short and slender little compendium of Allegories on the Octateuch, collected from Origen, Victorinus, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Cassiodorus, Fulgentius, and especially Gregory of his own time; in whose preface he indicates that he had already, long before, [written] an ex-[position] on the same books of the divine Scripture

…[Isidore of Seville had already, long before, penned literal] explanations on the same books of the divine Scripture. This little book, which begins The history of the sacred law, Trithemius — to amplify the abundance of Isidore’s lucubrations — cut up into twelve books, adding that he had written on the rest of the volumes of both Testaments, 62 books; of which, however, he [Trithemius] noted neither the beginnings, nor showed [them as] seen by himself. He flourished under the Emperor Heraclonas, son of Heraclius, in the times of Sisebut, king of the Goths, in Spain, in the year of the Lord 630; to whom, on account of the sanctity of his life, annual honors were appointed on the 16th day of January.

Isidore of Pelusium [Isidorus Pelusiota], Abbot of the monks of the Pelusiac mountain in Egypt, a disciple of St. John Chrysostom, leading an angelic life in the flesh, wrote many things full of varied usefulness — but especially nearly ten chiliads, or ten thousand, epistles of every kind, filled at once with divine and human grace: in which he expounded all the divine Scriptures of both Testaments, and formed the morals of all men, using in them a kind of speech most suited to teaching. We have seen in the Marciana Library at Venice a manuscript volume containing 1148 epistles of this holy man, of which the first begins thus: Ἐπειδὴ κυκλικόν ἐστι τοῦ χρόνου [Since the course of time is cyclical]. He flourished under Theodosius the Younger, in the year of the Lord 440. Nicephorus, book 14, chapter 53.

Isidore, Bishop of Thessalonica, a pious and learned man, wrote Greek homilies on Luke, which are held in the Vatican Library.

Isotta Nogarola of Verona [Isota Nogarola, Veronensis], devoted to the studies of letters and to perpetual virginity, composed a dialogue in which — in the Latin tongue — she discoursed upon the third chapter of Genesis: Who sinned first and more, Adam or Eve. She flourished under Nicholas V and Pius II, to whom also she wrote very many orations.

The Italic [Old-Latin] Translation of both Testaments [Itala], having an uncertain author, was formerly, before St. Jerome’s version, famous in the Church. This translation Augustine, in the second book On Christian Doctrine, preferred to the others, as being more faithful to the words and clearer in the perspicuity of its sense. For which reasons the Latin Church kept it in use down to the times of St. Gregory. How much it differs from our Vulgate edition in individual [passages] is shown by that book of Augustine entitled The Mirror [Speculum]: in which innumerable testimonies of this Translation are collected from all the volumes of both Testaments.

Judas, a Syrian by nation, disputed most fully concerning the seventy weeks in Daniel, and carried down their chronography through the earlier times to the tenth year of Severus; in which he is accused of error, because he said that the coming of Antichrist would be about his own times — but this [he said] for the reason that the greatness of the persecutions threatened the imminent downfall of the world. He flourished in the year of the Lord 200.

Josse Clichtove of Nieuwpoort [Iudocus Chlictoueus, Neoportuensis], Canon of the Church of Chartres in Gaul, a Theologian, Philosopher, Orator, and distinguished in expounding the sacred oracles, collected from Chrysostom and Augustine four books of explanation on the Gospel of John, and inserted them into the commentaries of St. Cyril — so that, out of the twelve books which that blessed father [Cyril] had published on John, he might supply and complete the four middle ones, lost through the injury of the times, that is, the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth: in which he narrates from the Gospel of John, from that place of the seventh chapter, There said therefore certain of them of Jerusalem, Is not this he whom they seek to kill?, down to those words of the twelfth chapter, If any man hear my words, and keep them not. The work begins, There said therefore. He wrote likewise, on the festal gospels of the whole year, two volumes of homilies. He flourished in the year of the Lord 1513.

Julius Africanus, of whom five books On the Times are extant, under the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus — that is, in the year of the world’s redemption 220 — wrote in Greek various epistles on several passages of the divine Scripture; among which there is celebrated by the ancient writers his elegant epistle to Aristides the philosopher, in which he disputed most fully concerning the discrepancy which seems to be in the genealogy of the Savior according to Matthew and Luke. A great part of which disputation is recited by Eusebius at the beginning of the Ecclesiastical History, and is cited by Augustine in the third book against Faustus. He wrote also to Origen a brief epistle, containing much in few words, concerning the History of Susanna — which, on account of many conjectures, he judged to be spurious and fabricated by a recent author. To whom Origen wrote back, in defense of the same history, a long and learned epistle, whose beginning is Your letter, by which I understood [what you say] of Susanna, &c.; but the epistle of Africanus begins thus: When you were holding [i.e. present at] the sacred disputation. Both [epistles] Ambrose of Milan — a monk of Monte Cassino, Abbot of San Benigno, a man most skilled in the three languages, who lately gave to Roman ears very many works of Origen and Cyril not yet known to the Latins — translated into Latin.

Julian, Bishop of Eclanum [Celanensis] in Campania, reckoned among the Ecclesiastical writers by Gennadius, Honorius, and Trithemius: a most skilled rhetorician, and — as his own little book to the virgin Demetrias, rashly ascribed to St. Jerome, shows — not an unhappy imitator of Ciceronian eloquence. Before he had begun openly to profess the heresy of Pelagius, he wrote, in a plausible but insidious style, commentaries on the Song of Solomon; concerning which Bede, in the preface of his own explanations on the Canticle, speaks thus: “Being about to write, with the help of grace from above, upon the Song of Songs, I thought the reader must first be warned to read most cautiously the little works of Julian, bishop of Eclanum in Campania, which he composed on the same book — lest, through the abundance of flattering eloquence, he fall into the mire of harmful doctrine; but, as it is wont to be said, so let him pluck the grape-cluster that he also beware the thorns — that is, in his sayings let him search out and choose the sound senses, that he no less shun the unsound; or rather let him do that [word] of Maro [Virgil]:

You who gather flowers and the strawberries growing low on the ground, flee hence, O boys: cold in the grass there lurks a snake.

That is, let him restrain himself above all from the reading of him, since he has those who have expounded the same book both with sound senses and with simpler words. For the man is, as he is a most skilled rhetorician, so — the grace of God being assailed after Pelagius — a most bitter assailant of it; so that his writings are the more openly [dangerous], by which, against the most strenuous champion of that same grace,

…[his writings are the more openly dangerous, by which, against the most strenuous champion of that same grace,] Augustine, he raved” — they show. Gennadius writes that this man, in a time of public famine, distributed all his goods in alms to the poor, and in this way drew a great multitude of nobles, deceived by the appearance of piety, into his heresy. He dies under Valentinian Augustus, son of Constantius Caesar and of Placidia, sister of Honorius and of Arcadius, in the year of the Lord 440.

Junilius the African [Iunilius Afer], bishop of an uncertain city in Africa, learned in the good arts in the world, and most skilled in the holy Scriptures, brief in speech and acute in sense, at the urging of Primasius the African, bishop of Utica, collected for the benefit of the simple explanations on Genesis; in place of which the fraud of the printers has substituted for us a slender commentary, beginning Concerning the beginning of the book of Genesis. But fragments from the Morals of Gregory, mixed into this little work, prove that it is not Junilius’s — who preceded the times of Gregory by nearly two hundred years. I judge the author of the work to be Bede, in whose most ancient volumes it is found, and under whose title centos cut out from the same work are read in the Gloss which they call the Ordinary. He flourished under Theodosius the Younger, Augustus, in the year of the Lord 440.

Justus, Bishop of the Church of Urgell in Spain, brother of three bishops — namely Justinian, Nebridius, and Elpidius — exercised and learned in the holy Scriptures, at the urging of Justus the deacon wrote to him, on the Song of Songs, according to the edition of St. Jerome, a commentary brief indeed, but learned, elegant, and pious. Its beginning is Desiring, in the house of God. He flourished in the year of the Lord 540, under Pope Sergius, to whom also he dedicated the present work. [The “under Pope Sergius” dedication does not square with the year 540 — Justus of Urgell belongs to the sixth century, whereas Sergius I was pope 687–701; noted as printed.]

Justus, a Jew by race and religion, of Tiberias by fatherland, from the province of Galilee, whom Jerome numbers among the Ecclesiastical writers, himself also attempted to weave a history of Hebrew affairs out of the divine Scriptures, and to write certain commentaries on the sacred Books; but Josephus, at the end of the twentieth book of the Antiquities, makes him suspect of falsehood in certain matters. He flourished under Vespasian Augustus, in the year of the Lord 56.

Justin, a Samaritan by race, a Philosopher of the Stoic sect [so printed], as he himself testifies in the second Apology for the Christians to the Emperor Antoninus, was a citizen of Flavia Neapolis in Palestine, son of Priscus Bacchius; and at Rome he held τὰς διατριβάς [his discourses], and had Crescens the Cynic as an adversary in life and religion. This man, then, among the many immortal monuments of his genius, left commentaries on the Apocalypse of John. He is believed also to be the author of a certain book which is entitled Of a Hundred and Forty-Six Questions — which the Gentiles used to raise against the Christians out of various passages of both Testaments; whose beginning is thus, Whence is the beginning. This book Joachim Périon the Benedictine translated into Latin. But, since in questions 82, 86, and 115 of the same book Irenaeus and Origen are cited, the work must be of another author, far later than he. The style is not unlike the Questions of Theodoret on the Octateuch. He flourished under Antoninus Pius, and was crowned with martyrdom in the year of the Lord 150.

Juvencus, a Spaniard of most noble birth, a presbyter, the most celebrated poet of his age, translating the four Gospels into hexameter verses almost word for word, composed four books of the Evangelical History — the first of all who dared to put the majesty of the gospel under the laws of meter. [He flourished] while Constantine was prince, and his sons reigned, in the year of the Lord 330. The work begins:

Nothing immortal is held in the frame of the world.