Catena Aurea

Commentary

on the

Four Gospels,

collected out of the

Works Of The Fathers

by

S. Thomas Aquinas

vol. ii

St. Mark

Oxford,

john henry parker

j. g. f. and j. rivington, london.

mdcccxlii

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The. following Compilation not being admissible into the Library of the Fathers from the date of some few of the authors introduced into it, the Editors of the latter work have been led to publish it in a separate form, being assured that those who have subscribed to their Translations of the entire Treatises of the ancient Catholic divines, will not feel less interest, or find less benefit, in the use of so very judicious and beautiful a selection from them. The Editors refer to the Preface for some account of the natural and characteristic excellences of the work, which will be found as useful in the private study of the Gospels, as it is well adapted for family reading, and full of thought for those who are engaged in religious instruction.

Oxford, May 6, 1841.

Preface

The. Remarks prefixed to the first volume of this Translation of the Aurea Catena, apply in their substance to the following portion of it, which contains the Commentary on S. Mark. Wherever the variations from the original writers were such as to destroy the sense of the passage, the true reading has been followed, and has been placed in the margin. In other cases the text has been translated, as it is found in S. Thomas.

Many of the passages ascribed to S. Chrysostom are not found in the works of that Father. Most of these occur also in a Greek Catena on S. Mark, published by Possinus, from a MS. in the Library of the Archbishop of Tolouse, and still more of them in the Edition which has been recently printed by the Oxford University Press, from a MS. in the Bodleian. A Latin Version of this Catena or Commentary had previously been published by Peltanus, and is found in the Bibliotheca Patrum; and contains far the greater number of the same passages marked as S. Chrysostom’s in the Catena Aurea. It is commonly ascribed to Victor of Antioch; though by some, with little probability, to S. Cyril of Alexandria. A Commentary on a portion of S. Mark published by Wastel, who gives the authorship of it and of the Opus Imperfectum in Matthæum to John of Jerusalem, also contains a number of the same passages which S. Thomas ascribes to S. Chrysostom.

Some of the extracts marked “Cyril” are found in a Commentary of S. Cyril of Alexandria on S. Luke, lately published by Mai.

The passages ascribed to S. Jerome, are taken from a Commentary found among his works, but universally pronounced to be spurious. It has been ascribed to Pelagius, but with more probability to Philippus Presbyter, a friend and disciple of S. Jerome. It is entirely mystical, and is in many places hopelessly obscure.

For the translation of the Volume now presented to the reader, the Editors have to make their acknowledgments to John Dobrée Dalgairns. M. A. of Exeter College.

J. H. N.