Note 025 Chrysostom (in the first tome of the Benedictine edition) has consecrated three books to the praise and defence of the monastic life. He is encouraged, by the example of the ark, to presume that none but the elect (the monks) can possibly be saved (1. i. p. 55, 56). Elsewhere, indeed, he becomes more merciful (1. iii. p. 83, 84), and allows different degrees of glory, like the sun, moon, and stars. In his lively comparison of a king and a monk (1. iii. p. 116-l2l), he supposes (what is hardly fair) that the king will be more sparingly regarded, and more rigorously punished.

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The History Of The Decline and Fall Of The Roman Empire—Volume 1— Chapter 37