he adduces the just cited passage of Plato in defence of a doubtful accommodation at the expense of truth. See the relevant passages iu Gieseler, i § 63, note 7. * Epist. 48 (ed. Vail., or Ep. 30 ed. Bened., Ep. 50 in older editions), ad Pamma- chium, pro libris contra Jovinianum, and Comm. ad Gal. ii. 11 sqq. Also Johannes Cassiauus, a pupil of Chrysostom, defends the lawfulness of falsehood and deception in certain cases. Coll. xvii. 8 and 17. ' Comp. the somewhat sharp correspondence of the two fathers in Hierou. Epist. 101-105, 110, 112, 115, 134, 141, m Vallarsi's ed. (torn. i. 625 sqq.), or m August. Epist. 67, G8, 72-75, 81, 82 (in the Bened. ed. of Aug. torn. ii. 161 sqq.); August.: De mcndacio, and Contra mendacium ; also the treatise of Mohler mentioned above, § 41, on tliis controversy, so instructive in regard to the patristic ethics and exegesis. 256 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590. enough making prudence subservient to truth, but never truth subservient to prudence. Meantime, in the Greek church also, as early as the fourth century, the Augustinian view here and there made its way ; and Basil tlie Great, in his shorter monastic Rule,' rejected even accommodation (oLKovofxia) for a good end, because Christ asciibes the lie, without distinction of kinds, exclusively to Satan." In this respect, therefore, Chrysostom did not stand at the head of his age, but represented without doubt the pre- vailing view of the Eastern church. Tlie legislation of the councils with retbrence to the clergy, shows in general the^eamestness and rigor with which the church guarded the moral purity and dignity of her servants. The canonical age was, on the average, after the analogy of the Old Testament, the five-and-twentieth year for the diaconate, the thirtieth for the priesthood and episcopate. Catechumens, neophytes, persons baptized at the point of death, penitents, energumens (such as were possessed of a devil), actors, dancers, soldiers, curials (court, state, and municipal officials),^ slaves, eunuchs, bigamists, and all who led a scandalous life after baptism, were debarred from ordination. The frequenting of taverns and theatres, dancing and gambling, usury and the pursuit of secular business were forbidden to clergymen. But on the other hand, the frequent repetition of warnings against even the lowest and most common sins, such as licentiousness, drunkenness, fighting, and buffoonery, and the threatening of corporal punishment for certain misdemeanors, yield an un- favorable conclusion in resrard to the moral standino; of the ' Regul. brev. interrogat. 76, cited by Neander in his monograpli on Chrysostom (3d ed.) i. p. 97. Neander there adduces still another similar testimony against the lawfulness of the lie, by the contemporaneous Egyptian monk, John of Lycopolis, i'rom Pallad. Hist. Lausiaca. ^ John, viii. 44. ' The ground on which even civil officers were excluded, is stated by the Roman council of 402, which ordained in the tenth canon : " One who is clothed with a civil office cannot, on account of