Dialogue on the Life of Chrysostom 1 part 2/9

and the bishops of Italy, having assembled, entreated the emperor to write to his own brother and co-emperor Arcadius, ordering that a council be held at Thessalonica, so that both parts, of East and West, might readily convene together, in order that the council, being made complete — not in quantity of number, but in quality of judgment — might render an undisputed verdict.

Moved by these things, his Piety wrote to the bishop of Rome, [asking him] to send five bishops, two presbyters of Rome, and one deacon, so as to convey his letter to his brother; and this letter contained the following substance:

Concerning bishop John of the Constantinopolitans:

and, as it seems, this had not been accomplished.

Wherefore I write again through these bishops and presbyters, being deeply concerned for the peace of the Church, through which our empire also is kept at peace, that you would deign to order the bishops of the East to assemble at Thessalonica;

for indeed the bishops of our West, having chosen men unswayed toward wickedness and falsehood, have sent five bishops, two presbyters, and one deacon of the greatest church of the Romans,

whom deign to attend to with every honor, so that either, being persuaded that bishop John has been justly deposed, they may teach me to withdraw from communion with him;

or else, having proven the bishops of the East to be acting maliciously of their own will, they may turn you away from communion with them.

As for what the Westerners think concerning bishop John, out of all the letters written to me I have appended two, of equal weight to all the rest, the letter of [the bishop] of Rome and that of Aquileia.

But this above all I entreat your Clemency: even against his will, see to it that Theophilus of Alexandria is made to appear, since it is chiefly on his account, it is said, that all these evils have come about;

and the memorandum stated that John need not enter into judgment unless his church and his communion were first restored to him, so that, having no ground left for delay, he might enter the council of his own free will.

So the envoys, having gone to Constantinople, returned after four months, relating a state of utter confusion:

'We were detained, as we sailed along the coast of Greece toward Athens, by a certain wretched military tribune, who immediately attached to us a centurion, not allowing us to put in at Thessalonica; for it was there that their purpose was first to deliver the letters to bishop Anysius.'

'Having then put us,' he said, 'into two ships, he sent us off.'

'And when a violent south wind arose, having sailed for three days without food across the Aegean sea and the straits, at the twelfth hour of the third day we anchored before the city, near the suburbs of Victor.'

'Being detained in that place by the officials in charge of the harbors, we were turned back — at whose order we did not know — and, shut up in a coastal fortress of Thrace called Athyra, we were harassed there; the Romans in one small lodging, and Cyriacus and his party in separate ones, so that we did not even have a servant boy to attend us.'

'And when the letters were demanded of us, we did not give them, saying: How is it possible that we, being ambassadors, should not deliver to the emperor himself the emperor's own letters and those of the bishops? So, as we persisted in not giving them, first Patricius the notary came to us, then certain others; and finally there came one commanding a company, Valerian by name, a Cappadocian, who, breaking the thumb of bishop Marianus, seized the sealed letter of the emperor together with the rest of the letters.'

'When a second day came, there were sent to us — whether by those of the emperor's court, or by the party of Atticus, we do not know (for he was said to have usurped the throne of the church) — three thousand gold coins, with the demand that we, being so persuaded, should communicate with Atticus, keeping silent about the case of John.'

Such savagery! But God the Savior also enlightened them concerning this through various revelations, as when there also appeared on the ship, to Paul, deacon of the holy [church of] Aemilius, a most gentle and prudent man, the blessed Apostle Paul, saying to him:

'See then that you walk carefully, not as unwise but as wise, knowing that the days are evil' — the dream hinting at their manifold deceit, practiced both through gifts and flattery, for the corruption of the truth.

'The same Valerian the tribune, then appearing,' he said, 'put us into a most decrepit ship — as was rumored, having paid the shipmaster the price of the bishops' destruction of those sailing in it — together with twenty soldiers from various units, and immediately drove us out from Athyra.'

'Having then sailed a considerable number of stades, and being about to perish, we put in at Lampsacus:'

And I shall next relate to you, amid the whole tragedy, the riotous, farce-like uproars in its midst — whence their drunken revelry began, and to what point it seemed to cease, though it has not yet ceased.

The fountain, or origin, of all evils, one might say, is the demon who hates the good, ever working against the rational flocks of Christ like a wolf, savaging without mercy, with manifold afflictions, those experienced among the shepherds — just as the king of the Egyptians did the male children of the Jews — while, through the deceits of earthly pleasures, fattening the impostors among those who practice falsehood.

And the channels of that wicked fountain thereafter, as the whole world under heaven knows, are Acacius, Antiochus, Theophilus, and Severian — who are called what they are not, yet are what they cannot bear to be called:

and of the order of the clergy, two presbyters and five deacons, some drawn from a corps called 'the Unclean,' others from a corps called 'the Malefactors' — I do not know whether it is safe to call such men presbyters or deacons:

and of the emperor's court, only two or three, who indeed gave sinew to the party of Theophilus, cooperating with them by means of military assistance;

and of women, besides the notorious three — widows indeed, but enriched through their husbands, who to the ruin of their own salvation had acquired money got by plunder, troublemakers and instigators: Marsa, wife of Promotus, and Castricia, [wife] of Saturninus, and Eugraphia, a woman frenzied in every respect — but the rest I am ashamed even to mention.

These women and these men, being sluggish of heart in the faith, like a phalanx maddened with wine, having been gathered into a single purpose of hatred for right teaching, wrought a torrent of destruction against the peace of the Church.

And together make known to us whence he began his life, and how he was brought to the episcopate of Constantinople, and how long a time he held it, and what his character was, and what was the end of his life — if indeed he has fallen asleep, as we hear.

Even though, above all, a wondrous and virtuous remembrance of the man runs through everyone's mouth, nevertheless it is my custom not readily to believe rumors, until I learn with certainty from those who know how to blame and to praise rightly.

{THE BISHOP.} I praise your exactness, but I do not approve of your hesitation, most truth-loving man and man of God, Theodore:

for you ought to have been satisfied, as a proof of the truth, by our very gray hairs (that I may speak of myself) and by our rank:

but since you have not done this, and condemn me twice over, at least hereafter grant me an unreserved hearing, lest the back-and-forth of our words become pointless.

But he too who believes does wrong, equally with the one who lies, by believing too readily.

Since, then, both parties sin equally, let neither of us wrong the other.

For this is virtue: for the speaker, to speak the truth;

and for the hearer, to test what is unjust;

'Be skillful moneychangers,' says Scripture, 'rejecting the counterfeit from the genuine;'

not that, being merely dazzled by the ring of it, we should accept it, but that, weighing with divine fear and a right conscience all that is spoken or written, we should accept it by the testimony of the facts.

Great is the danger of ears and of the tongue:

wherefore God, the master craftsman, made the tongue to be guarded beneath two lips, fixing further within it the rampart of the teeth, so that, this being a secure stronghold, it might discipline the tongue's readiness [to speak] (according to what is written: 'Set, O Lord, a guard upon my mouth, and a door of enclosure round about my lips, that I sin not with my tongue'); and as for the ears, He fashioned their passage in a spiral shape — by this form hinting that speech should not slip in too quickly, so that, winding through in a longer time, it might leave behind, at the passage's ridges, the matter of falsehood together with the refuse of wickedness, gently thrust aside and filtered out.

But He was not concerned only with these organs, as though they alone were prone to fault:

already for the pupils of the eyes too, as though for windows, He has set curtains, lest they receive the death that comes of licentiousness, which the prophet testifies, saying:

But since this brings no small condemnation now, and afterward judgment, when rulers and peoples are gathered before the fearful tribunal — since it is truth that is being sought — grant me pardon, most excellent one, for I would not put forward the gray hairs of my head as witnesses [alone].

For even base men have grown old, not having made their soul gray with virtue, but having wrinkled their bodies through length of time;

such were the false elders of Babylon, and the Ephraim in Jeremiah, concerning whom Scripture cries out in reproach:

"Ephraim is a senseless dove, having no heart;"

"Gray hairs have sprung up on him, yet he did not know it." And repeating the theme, it speaks more sharply, saying:

"Ephraim became a cake not turned, and strangers devoured his strength." And I will add this as well, even though I lengthen the discourse:

who appeared grayer, or seemed more equitable, than Acacius of Beroea, whom you now blame as a ringleader and chief of the transgression of the innovators? Whose very detractors were drawn along, awed by his white hairs, when he came to Rome bearing the decree of the ordination of bishop John.

{THE BISHOP} "Now I know clearly that you are a tested money-changer, not persuaded by the leathern tent, but seeking the knowledge of the one dwelling within."

For indeed the temples of the Egyptians, though very great and boasting in the beauty of their stones, contain within apes and ibises and dogs instead of gods;

but our Lord and God, in speaking to Samuel concerning the appointment of a ruler for Israel, charges him not to look at the condition and form of the clay-formed body, saying:

"God will not look as man looks;"

"for man looks at the face, but God at the heart." Therefore the imitators of God search out the deeper matter in every affair,

wherefore I readily give myself over, having recognized as sacred your balance, which inclines to neither side at all.

But the Babylonians, old in body yet utterly infantile in soul through senselessness — if they had believed in the resurrection of the dead, then first, possessing sound wisdom, they would not have lusted after Susanna, another man's wife;

and then, if indeed they had had the fear of God, they would not have joined slander to their licentiousness.

And proof of the dishonor in old age is the huckstering of youthful beauty.

<CHAPTER 5> This John was by birth an Antiochene (he has now fallen asleep), the son of parents who had distinguished themselves nobly in the rank of the military commander of Syria, born to his father after a sister.

In mind he was trained through studies for the service of the divine oracles.

From there, in his eighteenth year of bodily age, he threw off the yoke of the sophists of empty rhetoric;

and having become manly in mind, he fell in love with the sacred studies.

At that time the blessed Meletius the confessor, an Armenian by race, was ruling the church of Antioch;

who, having noticed that the young man was gifted, permitted him to draw near continually, having become enamored of the beauty of his heart, foreseeing with prophetic eye the young man's future.

And when he had attended him for about three years, having been initiated into the regeneration of the [baptismal] bath, he was advanced to [the office of] reader.

But being pricked by his conscience not to be content with the labors in the city, since his youth was vigorous — even though his mind was sound — he took to the neighboring mountains;

and having met a Syrian elder who cultivated self-restraint, he imitated his rigorous discipline, remaining with him twice two years, fighting off the stains of sensual pleasure.

And when he had rather easily overcome these things — not so much by labor as by reason — he withdrew alone into a cave, longing for obscurity;

and having spent there thrice eight months, he remained for the most part sleepless, learning thoroughly the covenants of Christ for the banishment of ignorance.

And not lying down [to rest] throughout that two-year span, neither by night nor by day, the parts below his stomach became deadened, his kidney functions having been struck by the cold.

And not being able to be of use to himself, he returned again to the harbor of the church.

And this was of the Savior's providence, driving him away, for the benefit of the church, through the weakness that came from the labors of asceticism, so that, being hindered by his infirmity, he might abstain from the caves.

From there he was ordained deacon by Meletius, having served at the altar for five years.

And now, as his teaching excellence was shining forth, and the peoples were being sweetened from the brine of [worldly] life by their encounter with him, he was ordained presbyter by bishop Flavian.

And having distinguished himself for thrice four years in the church of the Antiochenes, he adorned the priesthood there through the exactness of his life, salting some with self-control, illuminating others with teaching, and giving others to drink from the streams of the Spirit.

And while these things were thus running before a favorable wind under the pilotage of Christ, the blessed Nectarius, bishop of the church of the Constantinopolitans, fell asleep.

From then, certain men not sought after came running together, eagerly seeking the presidency — men who were no men at all, presbyters in rank but unworthy of the priesthood; some pounding at the praetorium, others bribing, and others even kneeling before the crowds.

At this the people of the orthodox were thrown into turmoil, wearying the emperor, seeking one skilled in the priesthood.

And Eutropius the eunuch, chief of the imperial bedchambers, held sway over affairs.

Wishing therefore to set him beside the city (for he had experience of John's virtue, an imperial matter having brought him into the interior of the East), he caused the emperor to draft letters to the count of Antioch, to send John away without disturbance, without troubling the Antiochenes.

who, immediately upon receiving the letter, urged him to go outside the city as far as the martyria near the gate called Romanesia, and having placed him upon a public carriage, handed him over to the eunuch who had been sent, together with the soldier of the magister.

Thus led away, he was ordained bishop of the church of the Constantinopolitans.

From the outset, therefore, Theophilus, bishop of the Alexandrians, having taken note of his bearing and his irreproachable boldness of speech, set himself in opposition to the ordination.

For it is a hard thing to perceive from the visible countenance (since it is invisible) the will and mind of a man;

"...those who have believed in him will be bound..."

"We know who you are, the Holy One of God;"

"Why have you come before the time to torment us?" You see that they knew beforehand not only that he is holy, but also that he is a judge? But why do I speak of the demons? The wretched among the courtesans recognize temperate men from the very disposition of their eyes and turn away, just as a diseased eye turns from the sun's radiance, and the vulture from myrrh.

And whence comes the saying, "piety is an abomination to sinners," if they did not recognize it? So too Theophilus: since he found in John's countenance nothing suitable or agreeable to his own eye, he conjecturally suspected the opposite, not through certain comprehension.

But why did he oppose the ordination? {THE BISHOP} It was his custom not to ordain men who were upright and sensible, unless he should chance to err, since he wished to rule over all as though they were fools;

considering it better to rule over fools than to listen to the wise.

Nevertheless, he was overcome by saving providence, both willingly and unwillingly.

Thus ordained, John began the oversight of affairs, starting from the rational pipe of testing the sheep.

And occasionally also making use of the rod of reproof, he directed a discourse against the counterfeit sisterly cohabitation — or rather, in truth, against the shameful ill-living concerning those called syneisaktoi — showing that, in a choice among evils, brothel-keepers were better;

for the latter [brothel-keepers], dwelling far from the place of healing, keep their disease to themselves for those who desire it;

but these [others], dwelling within the very workshop of salvation, entice even the healthy into disease.

From this the God-unloving portion of the clergy was distressed, feverish with this passion.

After that discourse he began [to speak] against injustice, overturning avarice, the mother-city of evils, for the building up of righteousness.

For this is characteristic of wise master-builders: first to tear down the edifice of falsehood, and only afterward to lay the foundation of truth, as it is said by the prophet:

"I have set you over nations and kingdoms, to root up and to plant, and to pull down and to build up" — the one as to a farmer, the other as to a builder.

From this, again the party of the purse-watchers was thrown into confusion;

after this he attended to their manner of living, exhorting them to be content with their own wages and not to chase after the savory smells of the rich, lest, having smoke as their torch-bearer, they be handed over to the flame of licentiousness, pursuing the life of flatterers and parasites.

From this, the greater number of the gluttonous were flushed out, entangled with the sophists of slander.

After this he investigated the registers of the steward's office and found expenditure that did not benefit the church;

he ordered the support for these to cease.

He came to the section of expenditure of the episcopal residence and found no ordinary lavishness, and ordered that the extravagance of these funds be transferred to the hospital.

And since the need was more than sufficiently met, he built more hospitals, appointing in addition two devout presbyters, and moreover physicians and cooks and honest unmarried workers for service to these;

so that resident foreigners, and those seized by illness [especially the so-called "sacred" disease], might obtain care, both for the sake of the good itself and for the glory of the Savior.

After this he summoned the order of widows, going about among them to find those not conducting themselves rightly, and having found some fond of the flesh, he exhorted them either to take up fasting, abstaining from baths and elaborate garments, or rather to proceed more quickly to a second marriage, lest the law of the Lord be insulted.

After this he exhorted the people to persevere in the nocturnal processions, while urging their wives to remain at home during the day, praying, since the men had no leisure by day.

But all these things grieved the more negligent among the clergy, who were accustomed to sleep the whole night through.

[He also cared for] the rich, cutting away the abscesses of the soul, teaching them freedom from vanity, that they be modest toward the rest of mankind, obeying the apostolic word addressed to Timothy:

"Charge those who are rich in the present age not to be haughty, nor to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches." These things, then, being so, and the church flourishing daily for the better, and the whole city being dyed with piety, souls being made radiant with self-control and psalmody, the demon that hates the good could not bear the flight of those held by him, whom the word of the Lord, through John's teaching, had drawn away;

such as those mad for horse-races and theater-goers, who abandoned the courts of the devil, running swiftly to the sheepfold of the Savior, out of love for the pipe of the sheep-loving shepherd.

<CHAPTER 6> From this, envy took possession beforehand of the minds of the hireling shepherds, who were being exposed by the comparison [with him].

But since they were unable to prevail over him, because they did not call upon the Savior who dissolves envy, they wove slanders against John, twisting some of his homilies into nonsense against the empress and others in the emperor's court.

It happened at that time that Acacius, bishop of Beroea, having arrived, failed, as he said, to obtain good lodging;

and being grieved at this, he smoldered with anger, as though he had been despised by John.

Overcome by ungovernable reasonings, he uttered an irrational word out of the abundance of his heart, worthy of his own mind, saying in the presence of certain clerics of John:

'I am cooking up a pot for him.' Immediately, then, joining forces with Severian, Antiochus, and Isaac the little Syrian—a worn-out scoundrel, ringleader of the pseudo-monks, forever consumed in evil-speaking against bishops—they took counsel to arm themselves, ostensibly against John, but in truth against the glory of the Savior.

And having sent first to the city of Antioch, they sought out the faults of his youth.

But when they had exhausted their searching and found nothing, they sent to Alexandria, to the readiness of Theophilus, called 'Amphallax' (that is, 'the Changeable' or 'Double-dealer'), who skillfully engineered such things;

who, immediately unfolding the books of his mind with much brigand-like stealth, searched, seeking a pretext, even the merest chance one.

For they said that John had received into communion clerics deposed by Theophilus, thereby grieving Theophilus—which he ought not to have done;

so that, being provoked because of this, he proceeded against John.

Is it then the part of a bishop to cure evil with evil? And where is that Gospel saying which declares:

'Let not the sun go down upon your wrath'? And where is the apostolic saying:

'Overcome evil with good'? And where is the prophetic saying:

'Have I repaid with evil those who repaid me evil'? Then would it not have been quite contentious of him to speak thus, bringing an accusation before devout bishops?

{THE BISHOP} By the fear of God, then, who governs all boundless fears, I will tell you nothing other than how the matter truly stands concerning these clerics of whom you have spoken.

A certain Isidore, a presbyter ordained already in the days of the blessed Athanasius the Great, now in his eightieth year (whom most of the Romans know, since he had come to Rome on ecclesiastical business, being the guest-master of Alexandria;

and you yourself also know the man, when he came together with Acacius and brought about the reconciliation of Flavian's communion with Theophilus, which had been severed for twenty years because of the blessed Evagrius, who had waged many struggles in ecclesiastical labors)—

She gave him a thousand gold pieces, making him swear by the table of the Savior that, having purchased garments with them, he would clothe the poorer women of Alexandria, without informing Theophilus of it, lest he, taking the money, should squander it upon stones (for a kind of Pharaonic mania for stone possesses him, for buildings of which the church has no need whatsoever—but let such matters rest for now;

but hear the urgent matter concerning Isidore.)

Isidore, therefore, having received the coins, spent them upon the poor women and the widows.

Theophilus learned of it from some source (for nothing done or said anywhere escaped him, since he kept watchers of deeds and watchers of words—not to put it more bluntly), and he summoned Isidore, asking with apparent moderation whether these things were so.

Not denying it, he acknowledged his service in the matter.

But he, upon hearing this, changed his stage; and he who, before the turning point, had been mild and seemingly kind in his questioning, after the turning point swelled up entirely, shifting his countenances, once Isidore's answer had come in.

And having kept quiet for a little while, like a dog that bites in secret, after two months he produced a document, having convened the clergy, and said in Isidore's presence, 'This I received eighteen years ago, Isidore, against you;'

'and since I was much occupied, I let the matter slip into oblivion.'

'But now, while searching for other papers, I found this document concerning you.'

'Defend yourself against it.' Now the document contained the charge of Sodom.

In reply to this, Isidore, defending himself, said to Theophilus:

'Let us grant that it is true that you did receive the document, and that it slipped your mind—was there not the one who presented the petition, so that he might be asked for it a second time?' To this Theophilus replied:

'But the boy was not present, being away as a sailor.' And Isidore said:

'Was he not present at that very moment, as you say, Papa? After the voyage, was he not present? In the second year was he not present, nor in the third? And now, if he is present, command the man to stand forth.' To this Theophilus, being about to be shown contemptible by the very truth, deferred the matter to another day.

And having won over a certain young man with many promises, he incited him to bring an accusation against Isidore, giving him, as they say, fifteen gold pieces;

who immediately disclosed the matter to his mother.

She, for her part, would not accept this because of her unwavering conscience, and being also overturned by fear of the laws, considering that Isidore, once falsely accused, might appeal to the ruler of the people, went and confessed the whole scheme to Isidore, showing him the gold pieces, which she said she had received from Theophilus's sister as wages against an innocent man. And she herself, for many reasons, but especially for this one, paying the fitting penalty, died, undergoing an operation upon her breasts.

In face of this, Isidore remained at home, imploring God.

But the young man, partly fearing the laws, and partly considering Theophilus all the more formidable in his failure, fled to that profitable wall, the church, taking refuge at the altar.

Thus Theophilus, by a mute [sham] trial, expelled Isidore from the church, pronouncing irremediable charges against him, and giving to his injustice the semblance of solemn dignity.

In addition, Isidore, fearing lest Theophilus, oppressed by yet fiercer wrath, might contrive against him a plot upon his life (for he goes, as they say, to such lengths as this), fled swiftly to the mountain of Nitria, to the community of the monks, where he had practiced the exercises of his youth;

and having settled in his cell, he prayed, making supplication to the long-suffering God.

In view of this, being conscious in himself of the impropriety and uncertainty of his victory, Theophilus sent letters to the neighboring bishops, and ordered certain of the leading monks, those at the head of the mountain and of the inner desert, to be cast out, without stating any cause.

These monks, together with the presbyters, went down to Alexandria and entreated Theophilus to state the reason for which they had been condemned to be cast out.

But he, glaring with bloodshot eyes like a dragon, looked askance at them like a bull, now livid, now pale, and now sneering, being carried away by unrestrained wrath;

seizing him by the throat with his own hands, and raining blows upon his jaws, he bloodied his nostrils with clenched fingers, shouting out with his voice:

'Heretic, anathematize Origen!'

though nothing else was at issue except the demand concerning Isidore.

For such is anger: like dogs, it brings forth both deeds and words blind.