# CHRYSOSTOM’S VIEWS RESPECTING SEVERAL OTHER ARTICLES OF FAITH, ACCORDING TO THE ACCOUNT OF P. J. TWISCK, IN HIS CHRONIJK VAN DEN ONDERGANK DER TYRANNEN, 5th BOOK, PP. 136 AND 137.

4th century (source section) · Historical source

Source: Martyrs’ Mirror. Original heading: CHRYSOSTOM’S VIEWS RESPECTING SEVERAL OTHER ARTICLES OF FAITH, ACCORDING TO THE ACCOUNT OF P. J. TWISCK, IN HIS CHRONIJK VAN DEN ONDERGANK DER TYRANNEN, 5th BOOK, PP. 136 AND 137.

Century of containing source section; exact event date not assigned

“John Chrysostom,” he writes, “a celebrated,
zealous, and eloquent teacher or bishop at Constantinople,
was expelled from his bishopric, and relegated
into misery; much ignominy and suffering
were inflicted on him, and he died in banishment.

“His adherents and people were greatly persecuted
by imperial edicts commanding them also to
attend church and hear their enemies (namely, those
of the Roman church), which they would not do,
but held their own meetings in the farthest outskirts
of the city. When this was reported to the Emperor
by the bishop, a squad of soldiers was immediately
sent to the place, who with sticks and stones dispersed
the meeting, robbed those who had assembled
of their goods, and apprehended such as could not
make their escape. Finding it impossible to meet
in public, they chose voluntary banishment, and
forthwith departed, each his own way. Besides this,
the adherents of Chrysostom were unjustly accused
of having caused a conflagration, which the common
people, out of spite towards Chrysostom, had
kindled in the temple in which he had taught; on
account of which they had to suffer much; the
cruelty practiced being as great as that of the first
persecutions.

“Again, the aforesaid John Chrysostom, also
called, John Goldenmouth,109 on account of his
golden or excellent teachings, and his eloquent
tongue taught from Matt. 5, that we ought not to
swear at all, neither rightly nor falsely, and concludes
very forcibly, with many words from the
passage, Matt. 5:34: ‘Swear not at all,’ that it is
not lawful for a Christian to swear. He conclusively
refutes all objections, and maintains that now we
161ought not to swear. Read yourselves his full exposition
of said passages.

Prior to him, likewise Haimus, on Rev. 10, writes,
saying, That all swearing is now prohibited unto
men, it being lawful only for God and the angels,
who neither deceive, nor can be deceived.

Seb. Franck notes the following concerning this
Haimus: “Haimus, the teacher also wrote a great
deal against the Pope and the Roman church;
among other things, that swearing is lawful only
for God and the angels, but to men all swearing is
forbidden. On Rev. 10, Chron., Roman. Kett.,
letter H.

NOTE.—This view (that we ought not to swear),
is also ascribed to Isiodorus. Tract, Loop der
Werelt, page 99.

We return to the account of P. J. Twisck, concerning
Chrysostom, page 136, col. 2. He writes:
“This Goldenmouth, John Chrysostom, taught also
mightily against cruelty, tyranny, war, and bloodshed,
maintaining that it is altogether improper for
Christians to wage war, and that peace and quiet
are to be taught in the kingdom of Christ. Christ,
he says, compels not, drives not away, oppresses
not, but accords to each his free will, saying: ‘If
any man will.’ ”

Read also, on Matt. 13, how he explains that the
tares (to which the heretics are compared) are not
to be rooted out, which, he says, Christ spoke for
the purpose of preventing and forbidding war and
bloodshed. No violence is to be employed in heavenly
things; the wicked teachings which have proceeded
from heretics, are to be reprehended and
anathematized; but the men we must spare.

Again, he is also greatly opposed to the worshiping
of the saints, saying that God is not like the
tyrants, with whom intercession is necessary; and
that we are not to confess our sins to any one except
to God alone. “Thou must confess thy sins,” he
says, “that thou mayest eradicate them. If thou
art ashamed to confess to any one, confess them
daily in thy soul. I say not, that thou shalt confess
them to thy fellow servant, that he may curse them
and upbraid thee; but tell them to God, who alone
can heal thee from them, and follow herein the
prophet, who says: ‘Commit thy way unto the
Lord . . . and he shall bring it to pass.’ ” Ps.
37:5.

And on Matt. 23, he says with many excellent
words: That with human doctrines, we serve God
in vain, and that there is no other testimony of the
truth, no other certain test of heresy, than the Holy
Scriptures, and no other way by which we may
know which is the Christian church.

Again, Chrysostom says: “When the Roman
Empire shall be put down, then shall antichrist
come.” On Matt. 24, he says: “He speaks not unreasonably,
who by the abomination of desolation
understands antichrist, who, it is thought, will
shortly afterwards rise, and will occupy the holy
place of the church, under the name of Christ.”
Also, on 2 Thess. 2: “When the Empire shall be
waste and vacant, then antichrist shall occupy it,
and endeavor to draw to him the kingdom of God
and men.”

Further, on Matt. 24: “Beloved, be not moved,
when antichrist does the works of Christ, and in the
sight of Christians, performs all the offices of Christ;
for Satan himself can transform himself into an
angel of light. What wonder then, that his servants
assume the garb of servants of righteousness, and
a semblance of Christianity.

“The Jewish abomination is to be understood as
having reference not only to the Jewish war, but,
in a spiritual sense, also to antichrist, who in the
last time, shall sit in the holy place, occupying the
chief places of the church, and leading the souls of
men away from God. This is very likely the one
of whom Paul says that he shall oppose and exalt
himself above all that is called God, or that is worshiped;
so that he as God sitteth in the temple of
God, shewing himself that he is God. He, standing
in the holy place, has laid waste the church of God
with multitudes of heresies.”

Then he says: “Since the Lord Jesus knew what
great destruction would come in the last days, he
commanded that the Christians who are in Christendom,
if they would always continue in the true faith,
should resort only to the Holy Scriptures; for, if
they would look to other things, they would be
offended and corrupted, and not understand what
the true church is, and, in that way, fall into this
horrible abomination, which sitteth in the holy place
of the church.”

“Thus,” writes Twisck, “Chrysostom, Augustine,
Gregory, Ambrose, Jerome, and most of the
ancient teachers, though the Papists esteem them
greatly with their mouths, would be nothing better
than Roman heretics, and if they were still alive,
and would teach these doctrines, they would have
to expect nothing but fire and sword.”

“Finally, in the year 408 Chrysostom was released
from his life of vexation and exile, in which
he suffered much, and fell asleep in peace.”
P. J. Twisck, Chron., 5th book, pages 137 and 138,
col. 1, from Chron. Sebastian Franck, fol. 56, 92.
Tob. Færi, fol. 73. Merula, fol. 338. Joan. Wales,
fol. 166. Cornelius Hillenius, fol. 41.

A. D. 390.—Jerome, born of Christian parents
at Syridon, in Illyria, or Dalmatia, and instructed
in the Christian doctrine from his youth, was baptized
at Rome, yet not before he was in the thirtieth
year of his age. Bapt. Hist., pages 841, 365, 366,
373, 593. P. J. Twisck, Chron., 4th book, page 29,
col. 1. Tract, van den loop der Werelt, page 47,
from Erasmus and Wicelius, in the life of Jerome.

In Bapt. Hist., page 374, we read the following:
“Jerome writes in the 78th epistle, that he received
his baptism and white garment at Rome, though
we know that he was born of Christian parents, at
Syridon, in Dalmatia. Hence, says the author, the
Christians of that age must not have hastened so
much with infant baptism, as is the case in the
present time.” This Jerome, though some pedobaptists,
yea, the Papists themselves, declare him
a good and upright teacher, nevertheless wrote
several things of such a nature, that at the present
day they would be pronounced heresy by many of
these same pedobaptists, especially by the Roman
church; hence he is classed among the Roman
162
heretics, that is, among those whose views are at
this day pronounced heresy by the Roman church.
Chron. Seb. Franck, letter H; P. J. Twisck, Chron.,
5th book, page 138, col. 1.

Touching as to how it stood with baptism at the
time of Jerome, I find, in substance, this annotation,
Bapt. Hist., page 335: “It is certain, that in the
time of Jerome adults were still baptized in the
occidental churches, as may be seen in his epistle
against the errors of John of Jerusalem.”

He, in Epist. ad Pammach, and Ambrose, in
Epistle 83, testify that those who desired baptism
were called fellow-desirers.

H. Montanus writes thus: “Jerome, who also
lived about that time, and, as some say, was an
elder at Rome, or, much earlier, as others suppose,
at Jerusalem, also testifies that in his time it was a
prevailing custom, to baptize adults who had been
brought up in the Christian faith, when they desired
baptism, for which reason they were called Competentes,
as Jerome states in his letter to Pammachius.”
H. Montan. Nietigh., pages 74, 75.

Having now shown how it stood with baptism at
the time of Jerome, and that the same was administered
in the occidental churches to adults, we shall
proceed to Jerome’s individual views and what he
has written on this subject, according to ancient
writers.

In Bapt. Hist., page 373, Jerome writes to Pammachius:
“It is customary with us, publicly to instruct
for forty days, those who are to be baptized,
and enjoin them to pray to the Holy Trinity.”

D. Vicecomes finally shows, page 375, chap. 41
and 44, that Jerome wrote, that in his time they
gave those who were baptized, milk and honey to
eat, which, the annotator remarks, is no food for
new-born infants. Moreover, he shows what is required
for true baptism; namely, regeneration, consisting
in the mortifying of the old, and resurrection
of the new man. This he expresses in the following
two passages:

Jerome further writes, page 323, lib. 12, Comment.
in Ezechiel.: “We need not only the first
birth, but also the second, in order that we, who
are born in the flesh, may be born again after the
Spirit.”

Again, page 328, Apol. Contr. Ruffin.: “We
say that the old man entirely dies in baptism, and
that the new man is raised with Christ in baptism;
that the earthly perishes, and the heavenly is born.”

Then he admonishes the candidates for baptism,
how they should conduct themselves before and at
baptism; as well as how those who had already
been baptized before many witnesses, and had made
a good confession, ought to manifest themselves.

Again, page 374, Epist. 83, ad Ocean, he writes:
“The catechumens who are learning the Christian
faith must observe not to have carnal intercourse
with women before baptism.”

Again the words of Paul, 1 Tim. 6:12, he expounds
as follows: “Thou hast professed a good
profession before many witnesses; which was done
through thy baptism, when thou didst renounce the
world and its pomp, before the elders110 or teachers,
before the ministers, and before the heavenly hosts.”

In the tract called, Klare en Grondige Bewijsing
van den Doop, printed 1581, it is stated, letter A,
Jerome on Matthew: “The Lord commanded his
apostles, that they should first instruct and teach
all nations, and then baptize those instructed, in
the sacrament of faith; for it is not possible for the
body to receive the sacrament of baptism, unless the
soul have previously received the true faith.”

Who could ever believe that this man at any
time defended, or at least, not opposed but admitted
infant baptism, seeing he opposes it in the
places mentioned with such abundant clearness and
explicitness? We note only the last mentioned passage,
where he certainly says, without the least dissimulation
or exception, that it is not possible for
the body to receive the sacrament of baptism, unless
the soul have previously received the true faith.
How can, may, or shall this be explained otherwise
than that there cannot be or consist any other baptism
than that which is received with true faith?
for this is the very idea expressed by his words.

Nevertheless, there are men who ascribe to Jerome
a certain dialogue against Pelagius, in which one
Critobulus interrogates, and one Atticus answers,
in this wise: Critobulus asks: “Why are children
baptized?” Atticus replies: “That their sins may
be forgiven them in baptism.” “Why, what sins
have they committed?” asks Critobulus. Atticus
answers: “Dost thou ask me this? let the evangelic
trumpet answer thee.”

But, in order to prove that Jerome defended
infant baptism, it would first have to be shown incontrovertibly,
that this dialogue is Jerome’s own
production, which we have great reason to doubt,
since the style as well as the matter of the same do
not accord with his other writings, especially those
in which he treats of baptism; moreover, there have
of old been forgers, who, in order to gain greater
renown for their own productions, have ascribed
them to celebrated men, or have interpolated their
own opinions into their writings; thus, it has been
proven that the writings of Justin have been interpolated.
Bapt. Hist., page 170. H. Montan.,
pages 7, 8, 9. Also, the writings of Origen. Bapt.
Hist., pages 283 and 291. H. Mont., pages 29–34,
42, 43.

Yea, in this manner, a whole book, also touching
on infant baptism, has been falsely ascribed to
Dionysius, the Areopagite, who, it is testified, lived
in the time of the apostles; this the Magdeburg
pedobaptists themselves show. Centur. 1, cap. 2.
Also, Jac. Mehrning, Bapt. Hist., 177, 293, 341.

Again, even if it could be shown, which is by no
means certain, that this dialogue is Jerome’s own
production, it could nevertheless not be proven
thereby, that Jerome himself held the views maintained
by one party in the dialogue, namely, that
infants may be baptized. For, why should we not,
with equal justice, ascribe to him the views of the
other party, which demands reasons and proof why
163they may be baptized? For one would certainly be
his work as much as the other.

Moreover, every intelligent person knows that
books that are written in the form of dialogues, do
not always express the author’s individual views,
but that frequently the views and debates of others
are handled in them, either to censure them, expose
their errors, or correct them.

Finally, how could it be possible, that any one
endowed with reason and sound judgment should
do such contrary things at one and the same time?
We have shown how clearly and correctly he speaks
of the baptism of adults, yea, recommends it, and
not only this, but how he, though he was born of
Christian parents, remained unbaptized until he was
in his thirtieth year—how then could he admit
infant baptism, seeing he decisively opposed it by
doctrine and example? unless it be shown that
Jerome wrote this article on infant baptism before
his conversion, or that he subsequently apostatized
from his adopted views, to infant baptism; but as
I can find no account of either we will hold to our
previous declaration.





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