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The Council of Florence. By Joseph

Gill. Cambridge University Press, 1959.
Pp. xviii + 453. 47s. 6d.

S. L. Greenslade

Scottish Journal of Theology / Volume 12 / Issue 04 / December 1959, pp

441 - 443
DOI: 10.1017/S0036930600058361, Published online: 02 February 2009

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S. L. Greenslade (1959). Scottish Journal of Theology, 12, pp
441-443 doi:10.1017/S0036930600058361

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 BOOK REVIEWS 441
knowing that it was not included in that Canon which Christ sanc-
tions . . . we do not see our way clear to receive it as canonical'.
A further chapter gives a brief history of the Apocrypha in the
Christian Church, and a final chapter describes 'The Pervasive
Influence of the Apocrypha' in English Literature, in Music, in
Art, and includes such interesting notes as to the influence exerted
by the Second Book of Esdras on such different gentlemen as Chris-
topher Columbus, William Whiston and John Ruskin.
Two Appendices give summary information on 'Current English
Translations of the Apocrypha' and the 'New Testament Apocrypha'.
R. A. BARCLAY

The Council of Florence. By JOSEPH GILL. Cambridge University

Press, 1959. Pp. xviii+453. 47s. 6d.
A FULL and scholarly account of the Council of Florence was cer-
tainly needed, and no one is better qualified to produce it than
Professor Gill of the Pontifical Oriental Institute, who worked with
Hofmann on the edition of the sources and has also written several
substantial preparatory studies. In particular he has edited the
Greek Acts and analysed them into their three major components.
Now he tells the story of the Council in considerable, but welcome,
detail; this must be the standard narrative for a long time. I am not
competent to estimate its accuracy as a narrative, though Fr Gill's
careful scholarship instils confidence. Enough to echo, by way of
caution, what the author himself allows, that he sometimes had to
use uncheckable material from the 'not self-evidently truthful*
Memoirs of Syropoulos and that the relative value of these Memoirs
and John Plousiadenus' Description remains open to discussion.
Hence a different evaluation might alter the story in some places.
Fr Gill's standpoint is sympathetic to the Papacy, but not un-
critical. Perhaps he is rather hard on the Council of Basel; at least
he provides a salutary check upon Protestant tendencies to roman-
ticise the conciliar movement. Perhaps he is rather tender to
Eugenius IV; another, without denying the Pope's sincere desire
for unity, might stress his manifest intention to exercise in the East
all the powers which he possessed in the West. Perhaps the Greeks'
difficulties might be probed more tenderly. But beyond question
we have here a first-class account of the Council which will guide
future study.
And such study cannot be of academic interest only. No one con-
cerned for the modern ecumenical movement can read this book
without being moved—amused, puzzled, exasperated, saddened,
shocked. Parallels, perhaps only superficial, come to mind. The
Greek habit of raising endless points of procedure before allowing
442 SCOTTISH JOURNAL OF THEOLOGY
discussion of substance reminds one that Russia is the heir of
Byzantium; their first intention only to state, and not discuss, tra-
ditional doctrine is no surprise to anyone who was at Lund or
Evanston. The rivalry of Pope and Council for the prestige of
achieving unity with the Greeks suggests—I do not say this very
seriously—a problem which may confront the World Council of
Churches in the near future. Some things, we may hope, are by
now impossible, as when the Latins, with the best intentions, forged
letters from the Duke of Burgundy to placate the Greek emperor,
or when lots were drawn to decide between two candidates for the
patriarchal throne of Constantinople in 1440, the one for, the other
against, the union.
Among minor matters I note the trouble caused by defective
scholarship: arguments from Dionysius Areopagiticus as a pupil of
St. Paul, from the spurious Donation of Constantine and the Forged
Decretals (by one of which Bessarion was shaken), Rome's denial of
any knowledge of its former use of Sardican canons as Nicene, the
muddle about the authentic text of several Greek Fathers. To turn
to more serious matters, it seems impossible to determine how much
disinterested desire there was for unity, and how far the Latins were
moved by thirst for dominion, the Greeks by fear of the Turks. It is
quite clear that, however motivated, the movement had not pene-
trated to the grass roots, so that when western military help was
inadequate there was no strong drive from the East for unity per se;
clear also that the movement was too predominantly Constantino-
politan, too centralised, so that the other patriarchates, little pre-
pared for change, speedily rejected it. At the Council itself there was
little personal confidence between the negotiators. The Greeks felt
that they were held at the point of a pistol, the Latins drove home
every advantage and demanded very little less than complete sub-
mission.
I remain astonished that the Filioque could have caused so much
commotion. Surely that could not have kept apart churches which
genuinely wanted to be one body ? Surely it was the focus of many
hostilities, open and latent? Yet one must confess that the theo-
logians went at it as though it were the crucial point—and so
Professor Gill treats it. It is equally astonishing to me that the papal
supremacy played so small a part in the discussions. Did the Greeks
not realise what Rome would make of the Decree of Union ? We
know, for instance, that Eugenius intended to control episcopal
appointments in the East. Or did they intend to take refuge behind
the clause reserving all the rights of the patriarchal sees ? If so, the
union would soon have collapsed, humanly speaking. The Turkish
conquests quickly put a melancholy end to the tangled story. As
 BOOK REVIEWS 443
we read it in the present account, we may not be greatly encouraged,
but we ought to be considerably instructed.
S. L. GREENSLADE

Western Asceticism. Edited by OWEN CHADWICK. The Library of

Christian Classics, Vol. xn. S.C.M. Press, London, 1958. Pp.
368. 35s.
No serious student of Christian sources can fail to admire this notable
series of splendidly-presented books, and to express gratitude at the
appearance of each new volume. It is almost equally inevitable that
any reviewer shall have some private regret at the omission from
the series of this or that treasure of patristics or of medieval Christian
letters; and the present reviewer's private grievance concerns the
omission from the eight patristic volumes of St. Basil and St. John
Chrysostom.
But even though in a volume on sources for Christian ascetics one
might have expected some Basil, the title 'Western Asceticism' suffi-
ciently excludes him, and it would be graceless to withhold praise
from this latest volume, which includes three early medieval sources
of the very highest importance. These are The Sayings of the Fathers
(or Adhortationes Patrum), The Conferences of Cassian and The Rule of
St. Benedict. The first two of these, occupying three quarters of the
total bulk of the volume, are virtually Egyptian sources: the Sayings
come from a Latin translation, c. A.D. 550, of a lost Greek collection
of sayings attributed to the Egyptian hermits, while the Conferences
are taken from the sophisticated Latin of the Egyptian trained Gallic
abbot, Cassian, who was writing towards 430. But it is the Latin
development rather than the Greek to which attention is drawn in
this book, and the very clear dependence of the historic Benedictine
Rule on the two earlier documents makes this the natural pattern
to have adopted for this purpose.
Dr Chadwick provides an excellent General Introduction as well
as specific brief introductions to each work, and the three texts are
followed by an Appendix of variant readings relevant to the Sayings
and a Bibliography relevant to all three.
The book is described as 'Selected Translations': the limitation
applies only to the Sayings, in which Dr Chadwick has translated
Parts 1 to 17 of the 21 parts in Rosweyde's 1615 edition, comparing
it at all points with the earliest available manuscripts. A word of
special praise must be given to the translation itself, which is always
graceful and natural, and combines dignity with vitality to make*an
exceedingly readable text.
The reader will be left with a clear impression of the compre-
hensiveness and perspicacity of the Egyptian teaching, as well as of