INTRODUCTION TO THE TREATISE ON THE PRIESTHOOD. The events
recorded in this celebrated treatise on the Priesthood must have
occurred when St. John Chrysostom was about twenty-eight years
of age. His father had died when he was a young child; his
mother was a devout Christian, but had not destined him for the
clerical vocation. The great ability which he showed in early
youth seemed to mark him out for distinction in one of the
learned professions, and at the age of eighteen he began to
attend the school of Libanius, the most celebrated sophist of
the day, who had won a great reputation as a professor of
philosophy and rhetoric, and as an eloquent opponent of
Christianity, not only in his native city, Antioch, but also in
Athens, Nicomedia, and Constantinople. The artificial character
however of his writings indicates the decadence of literary
power; he could skillfully imitate the style of ancient writers
but he could not inform himself with their spirit; “his
productions” says Gibbon [ch. xxiv], “are for the