"Dross Among the Gold," or the Reality of the Divine Services in the "Golden Age of the Fathers"

But in fact, the "Golden Age of patristic liturgy" is itself a creation of... romanticism. When one reads what the fathers have to say about liturgy, one sees that even in those presumably halcyon days that gold was mixed with dross. A few anecdotes from my "Golden Age" file should suffice to dispel this myth.

John Chrysostom in Antioch (before 398), [24] Ambrose in Milan (339-397), [25] Augustine (d. 430) in North Africa, [26] and Caesarius of Arles (503-542) [27] all bemoan the alcoholic vigils of their clergy and flocks. Augustine even had to admonish the newly baptized youngsters not to show up drunk at vespers on Easter evening! [28]

Chrysostom in Constantinople (398-404) accuses his congregation of roaming around during church services; [29] of either ignoring the preacher [30] or pushing and shoving to get nearer to hear him, [31] when not bored or downright exasperated with him; [32] of talking, especially during the scripture lessons; [33] of leaving before the services are over; [34] and, in general, of causing an uproar and acting as if they were in the forum or barbershop - or worse still, in a tavern or whorehouse [35] - his words, not mine.

The women cause distractions by the way they deck themselves out in finery, makeup, and jewelry. [36] The youth, whom Chrysostom calls "filth rather than youth," spend their time in church laughing, joking, talking, he says. [37] The large crowd at the Easter Vigil is more a mob than a congregation, he tells us. They come to church like they go to the baths or the forum, without devotion or spiritual profit. "It would be better to stay at home," the exasperated Chrysostom concludes. [38]

The way the sexes behave in church just exacerbated the general scandal of church-going in Constantinople, according to Chrysostom. The presider greets those in church with "peace," but the reality he has to face is more, he says, like "all-out warfare" everywhere. "Great is the tumult, great the confusion here in church. Our assemblies differ in nothing from a tavern, so loud is the laughter, so great the disturbance, just as in the baths, in the markets, with everyone shouting and causing an uproar... [In church] we behave more impudently than dogs, and pay as much respect to God as to a whore... The church... is no different from the forum... nor probably even from the stage, from the way the women who assemble here adorn themselves more wantonly than the unchaste ones there. Hence we see that many profligates are enticed here by them, and if anyone is trying or intending to corrupt a woman, I suppose no place seems better than the church." [39]

"For indeed," he continues, "if one could see what is said by men and women at each synaxis, you would see that their talk is filthier than excrement." [40] Chrysostom says things were so bad they needed a wall in church to keep the men and women apart! [41] Similarly, Augustine in North Africa complains that in church the men move in and out, chattering and making dates with their lady friends, [42] as indeed Augustine himself did before his conversion, according to his own Confessions. [43]

 

Sources:

24. “Homily on the Martyrs,” PG 50:663-4 (= CPG 4359); Robert F. Taft, The Liturgy of the Hours in East and West: The Origins of the Divine Office and its Meaning for Today (Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 199'3; second, rev. ed.), 170.

25. De Helia et ieiunio 62, CSEL 32.2:448-49 = PL 14:719AB.

26. Confessions VI.2.2, CSEL 33:114-16.

27. Sermo 55, 1-5, CCSL 103:241-44 = SC 243:476-85.

28. Sermo 225, 4, PL 38:1018. See Sermo 252, 4, PL 38:1174; In ep. Joh. tract. 4, 4, PL 35:2007; see Sermo 252, 4, PL 38:1174.

29. In Mt hom. 19, 7-9, PG 57:283-5.

30. In Mt hom. 32133, 6, PG 5 7:3 84-5.

31. Sozomen, Historia ecclesiastica VIII, 5.2, GCS 50:357,1 I15 = PG 67:1528BC; a less circumstantial account of the same in Socrates, Hist. eccles. VI, 5.5, GCS neue Folge 1:317 = PG 67:673B. On the location and posture of the preacher in this period, see Alejandro Olivar, La predicacion cristiana antigua. Biblioteca Herder, Seccio de teologia y filosofia 189 (Barcelona: Herder, 1991), 72636; see Chrysostom, In Ioh hom. 3, 1. PG 59:37.

32. De sacerdotio V, 8, Jean Chrysostome, Sur le sacerdoce (Dialogue et Homilie), ed., Anne-Marie Malingrey. SC272 (Paris: Cerf, 1980), 302-5 = PG 48:677.

33. Origen had made the same complaint over a century earlier. See In Gen hom. 10, 1; In Er hom. IZ 2, GCS 29:93, 263-64. Caesarius of Aries complains of the same abuse repeatedly. See Sermones 55, 1, 4; 72, 1; 73, 1-5; 78, 1; 80 1; CCSL 103:241-44, 303, 306-9, 323, 328-89 = SC 243:476-85; 330:180-81,

190-99,237-44,256-57.

34. This problem was evident also in Antioch. See Chrysostom, De baptismo Christi 4, 1, PG 49:370-71 CPG 4335), and in Egypt, at least according to Ps. Eusebius of Alexandria (5-6th c.), Sermo 16 De die dominica, PG 86:416 (= CPG 5525); see Francois N. Nau, "Notes sur diverses homilies pseudo-epigraphiques, sur les oeuvres attributes A Eusuebe d'Alexandrie et sur un nouveau manuscrit de la chaine contra Severianos, " Revue de lorient chritien 13 (1908), 406-434. Caesarius in Arles ran out after them, according to his Vita 1, 27: Passiones vitaque sanctorum aevi Merovingici et antiquorum aliquot, ed. B. Krusch. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Scriptores rerum Merovingicarum III (Hanover: Hahn, 1896), 46667.

35. See the Chrysostom citations that follow.

36. In Mt hom. 73174, 3, PG 58:677.

37. In Acts hom. 24, 4, PG 60:190.

38. In Acts hom. 29, 3, PG 60:218; see also In Mt hom. 19, 79, PG 57:283-5.

39. In I Cor Hom. 36, 5-6, PG 61:313-14.

40. In Mt hom. 88189, 4, PG 58:780-8 1, see also 676-77.

41. In Mt hom. 73174, 3, PG 5 8:67 7.

42. Enarr. in ps. 39, 8, CCSL 3 8:430-3 1.

43. III, iii.5, CCSL 27:29.

Source: "'Eastern Presuppositions' and Western Liturgical Renewal," by Robert F. Taft, S.J, published in Antiphon: A Journal for Liturgical Renewal, CUA Press, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2000.