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VYSENS'KYJ'S IDEA OF REFORM 63Spectacle had primarily been written, 115 could overcome the human weaknessof the priests in defense of the faith.When considering the underlying motives for the writing of the SpiritualSpectacle, it is important to examine the ideological thrust of the particularexcerpt from homily VI on First Corinthians found in eclogue XIV. Thetextual excerpt in question, which opens with a marked series of citationsfrom St. Matthew and the Acts of the Apostles, 116is precisely that sectionof the homily where Chrysostom offers as a model for the entire Church theage of the apostles, who "lived an angelic life," in contradistinction to hisown age of disbelief, in which "we are desirous of enjoying great luxury,and rest, and ease." 117What is interesting here is the fact that by eliminatingas false and blasphemous the textual passage located near the end of theeclogue—that is, the lines which seem to imply that it is not necessary to gointo the mountains in order to be a perfect Christian and work for one'sneighbor's salvation 118 —it was possible for Vysens'kyj to assert, on thebasis of Chrysostom's thought, that the apostolic mode of life could applyto the whole world without minimizing what he viewed as the unique andindissoluble bond between the apostles and the monks. 119In this way,monasticism could represent not merely a perfect model but an ideal115See fh. 33 above.116Cf. St. Basil's Regulae fusius tractatae, VU, 4 (PG XXXI, 933), where—in linking hiscoenobitic idea for the monks with the apostolic way of life—he combines Mt. 5.16 with Acts2.44 and Acts. 4.32. As to important differences between Chrysostom and St. Basil regardingthe ascetic sphere of influence, Ladner has noted the following: "While for St. Basil the thoughtthat man cannot be saved if he does not work for his neighbour's salvation had become thegreat justification of the coenobitical as against the hermitical idea of monasticism, St. JohnChrysostom explicitly re-applied this scriptural principle to the entire Church, transcending thesphere of the ascetic quest for perfection.... But with Basil the ascetic ideal remainedforemost and gradually assumed those more institutionalized monastic forms with which weare familiar from the printed text of his ascetical writings" (The Idea of Reform, pp. 126-27,343).117"I ućitelie bo sami prevzyjdoSa jaźe sut onîx, v hladî, ν zazdî, v nahotî, prebyvajuäCe. Myze xoäiem mnohia nasladitisja piSía, i pokoja, i svobody... " (KS, p. 228).118In fact, in In Epist. I ad Corinthios, homil. VI, 8 (PG LVI, 54), Chrysostom does say this.Cf. In Matthaeum, homil. Vu, 7 (PG LVII, 88ff.), where—as Ladner has noted—"the wholechapter is important for John Chrysostom's conviction and emphatic assertion that it is neithernecessary to go into the wilderness (τα όρη καταλαμβάνειν) in order to become a perfectChristian nor excusable not to be one under the pretext of not being a monk" (The Idea ofReform, p. 127, fh. 55). What is crucial here for Chrysostom is not the necessity of departingfrom an ascetic way of life but, rather, the obligation of all Christians living in the world to liveas the monks; see Meyer, Saint Jean Chrysostome, pp. 253ff.119I.e., Vyfens'kyj thus can both affirm the life of the monks as closest to the apostolic wayof life—cf. Chrysostom's early work Adversus oppugnatores vitae monasticae—and, likeChrysostom, opt for a monastic type of Christian society, that is, expand the ascetic quest forperfection to embrace the entire ecumene; see Meyer, Saint Jean Chrysostome, pp. 153ff.;Ladner, The Idea of Reform, p. 128, fh. 59.