Dialogue on the Life of Chrysostom 1 part 3/9

Thus, then, drenched in blood and without any reply granted them, they returned to their dwellings and held fast to their appointed asceticism, sharpening their nature through learning, by which salvation comes to be, taking less thought for his madness, since they were conscious in themselves of no evil.

<CHAPTER 7> Not content with this, Theophilus sent to the neighboring bishops, and convened a council against the monks;

and without either summoning them to a defense or granting them a hearing, he expelled the three most eminent men (fearing to bring the punishment against the whole multitude at once), fabricating against them a charge of corrupting doctrine.

And those whom he had often honored above bishops as teachers, for their life, their teaching, and their years, these he was not ashamed to call sorcerers, because of their connection with Isidore.

And after the expulsion, from that very mountain he raised up five insignificant men, who had never so much as stood in the assembly of the elders of the desert—I am ashamed to say, men unworthy even to be doorkeepers;

and one of them he ordained bishop, assigning him to a mere hamlet, since he had no proper city (for he fearlessly carried out even such innovations, calling himself another Moses); another he made presbyter, and the remaining three deacons, men not of Egyptian origin but from various places (one being a Libyan, another an Alexandrian, another a man of Pharan, and another a Paralian).

For this reason they also submitted to his vain undertaking, having no hope of any pledge in their own homeland [to lose].

And he arranged for them to submit petitions against those three men, he himself having composed the words of the slander, while they contributed only their signatures.

After this, having taken the petitions from them at the church, he—the high priest of the Egyptian diocese—went in to the Augustal prefect and, in his own name, lodged a complaint against them, weaving in also the petitions of slander, and requested that the men be cast out of all Egypt with military assistance.

And having obtained, under this pretext, a soldier along with the order, he gathered a crowd of men readily disposed to offend against their dignities, and he sprang upon the monasteries suddenly by night, having made drunk with wine the young men who accompanied him.

After this he plundered the mountain, giving the small possessions of the monks as wages to the young men.

Having despoiled the cells, he sought after those three men, whom the brethren had let down into a well, placing a mat over its mouth;

but not finding them, he set fire to their cells with brushwood, burning up together all their choice and valuable books, and one small child, as those who witnessed it reported, and the symbols/elements of the mysteries.

Thus, then, his irrational anger having abated, he returned once more to Alexandria, having given those holy men an opportunity to flee;

who, immediately taking up their sheepskin mantles, departed for Palestine, reaching Aelia [Jerusalem];

with whom went out, together with the presbyters and deacons of the mountain, three hundred zealous monks, while the rest were scattered to various places.

Unable to bear their acting independently, the serpent crooked in his course again stirred up Theophilus against them;

who, seething with anger, wrote letters to the bishops of Palestine, saying:

'You ought not to have received these men into your cities against my wishes;'

'but since you did not know, I grant you pardon.'

But they, being driven by great necessity to move from place to place, reached the imperial capital, where bishop John had been enthroned by the divine hand for the care of those in power;

and falling at his knees, they begged him to help souls that were being falsely accused and plundered by those more accustomed to do this than to do good.

John stood still and beheld fifty chosen men, clothed as it were in a grey robe dyed by their sacred labors, and being pierced with a feeling of brotherly love, like Joseph, he was overcome with tears, asking them what wild boar out of the forest, or savage solitary boar, had ravaged this fruitful vine.

"Sit down, father, and dress our wounds — we who have been wounded, no ordinary wound, by the madness of Pope Theophilus — if indeed you could bring the swellings of our wounds to scar over."

"For if you too should deceive us, either out of shame or out of fear of Theophilus, as the rest of the bishops have done, then nothing remains for us but to go to the emperor and inform him of his misdeeds, to the disgrace of the church."

"If therefore you care for the church's good repute, consent and persuade him to grant us our dwelling in Egypt, since we have offended in nothing, neither against the law of the Savior, nor against that man himself." At this, John, supposing that he could easily change Theophilus's rancor toward them, gladly seized upon the matter.

He urged the men, with godly silence, to keep quiet before everyone about the reason for their presence, "until I send word to brother Theophilus." And having given them lodgings for rest in the church called Anastasia, he himself did not supply what they needed.

But devout women supplied their sustenance, while they themselves also contributed in part through the labor of their hands.

Now it happened that at that time there were clerics of Theophilus in Constantinople, buying up in advance the promotions of officials being ordained in the Egyptian administration, procuring favor for him to the ruin of those who grieved him.

John therefore summoned them and inquired whether they knew the ascetics who were present.

They, truthfully, testified concerning the men, saying to John: "We do indeed know them, and they have suffered great violence."

"And if you wish, master, do not grant them spiritual communion, so as not to grieve the pope, but show them kindness in other respects — for that befits you, as a bishop." Thus John did not receive them into communion, but wrote earnestly entreating Theophilus:

"Grant me this favor, as to your own child and brother: embrace these men." In response, Theophilus did not grant the favor to John, but sent certain men who had been dragged into contentious disputations (concerning whom we spoke earlier above), and arranged for them to submit petitions — which he himself, as was his custom, dictated — petitions containing an acknowledged falsehood, clothed in manifold slander concerning invisible matters, since he had nothing with which to accuse their actual conduct.

And he arranged for them to be pointed out in the palace as sorcerers.

But when the ascetics saw that they not only were not correcting him, but were provoking him to even greater anger, having brought many worthy witnesses to him, together with anathematizing every false doctrine, they submitted petitions of appeal to John, informing him of the forms of his tyranny, together with certain particulars — which I am ashamed for the present to relate before the more simple-minded, lest I should thereby drive them even from the faith, being perhaps disbelieved even by the more mature.

Again, both in person and through other bishops, John urged them to cease their accusation against him [Theophilus], on account of the suffering caused by the lawsuit, writing to Theophilus: "The men have been driven to such a degree of grief that they even accuse you in writing."

"So then, write back whatever seems good to you."

And [Theophilus] writes to Bishop John:

"I suppose you are not ignorant of the decree of the canons made at Nicaea, where it is ordained that a bishop beyond his own territory may not judge a case."

"But if you are ignorant of it, learn it, and abstain from petitions against me."

"For even if I ought to be judged, it should be by the Egyptians, and not by you, who dwell seventy-five days' journey away." <CHAPTER 8> John, having received the letter and read it, kept it to himself, but discussed the matter of peace with the ascetics of both parties.

But when both parties heard this, they grew exasperated — the one because it treated them as though they had been tyrannized, the other because it had no authority to make peace without Theophilus, since it was by his command that they had submitted the slanderous petitions.

Thus John, having given them his answer, dismissed the matter from his own mind.

After this, the monks of the wronged party withdrew and composed lengthy petitions, writing against the [other] monks as slanderers, and against Theophilus the things pertaining to Theophilus — that I may put it no other way — as many things as each of them knows.

And having petitioned the Augusti, they approached the empress at the martyrium of St. John, entreating that the petition of the opposing monks be examined before the prefects, and that Theophilus, whether willing or unwilling, appear and be judged before John.

The petition was acted upon, bearing this decision:

"That Theophilus, brought forward through the magister, whether willing or unwilling, shall stand trial before John."

"And that the monks of Theophilus should either substantiate against themselves the charges by which they accused the holy elders, or else undergo the penalty due to slanderers." So then Elaphius — who now held the rank of former princeps — was sent to Alexandria to conduct Theophilus [to the capital], while the prefects carried out the rest of the decision.

As the trial was being conducted and coming to an impasse, the laws pressed in, flashing the sword; and those wretched men, fearing the outcome, shifted the blame onto Theophilus, claiming that he had put them up to it and had dictated the petitions.

Thus the [judicial] order cast them into prison until Theophilus's arrival, refusing in such a case to accept sureties.

And of these, some died in prison, having lingered there because of Theophilus's delay; others, after Theophilus's arrival — he having smoothed over the matter with money — were, at the final examination, condemned by the laws as slanderers to reside in Proconnesus.

Thus Theophilus, having arrived — like a dung-beetle laden with the dung of the finest things of Egypt and of India itself, pouring forth fragrance in place of foul-smelling envy — entered Constantinople at the sixth hour, on the fifth day of the week [Thursday], acclaimed by a throng of sailors.

carrying off that dishonorable glory of which the apostle spoke beforehand:

kept away from the church by his own conscience.

Having spent three weeks, he neither met with Bishop John according to the custom of bishops, nor approached the church at all, but remained striving night and day, joining new hatred to the old, in order to expel Bishop John, not only from the church, but from life itself.

On the one hand, with lavish outpouring of gold he bought up the superstitious among those in power against the truth; on the other, he enslaved the gluttonous by a sumptuous table; and again, by flattery and by promise of higher rank he won over the fellow-deceivers among the clergy.

Having bound all these men, without any rope, by pleasures — like some demon that leads the people astray — having bewitched the judgment of their souls, he sought a demonic figure for the service of his drama, which indeed he obtained.

As for those whom John had [deposed] for unlawful transgressions, he made use of their fickleness and persuaded them to submit petitions against John, promising to restore them to their place of ministry (their offenses being, in the one case murder, in the other adultery) — which indeed he did.

For after John's exile, he restored them to their places — namely, those who had submitted the petitions which he himself had dictated, petitions containing nothing true, except this: that he [John] used to advise everyone, after communion, to taste a little water or a wafer, so that they might not involuntarily spit out, along with saliva or phlegm, some part of the eucharistic symbol.

He himself was the first to do this, teaching reverence to those who were willing [to learn it].

After receiving the petitions, he gathered together at the house of Eugraphia, together with Severian, Antiochus, Acacius, and the rest who bore a grudge against John because of his decorous exhortations.

For the blessed man was accustomed, in the manner of Paul, to teach propriety both publicly and in private houses, most especially continually admonishing women such as these: "Being old women by reason of your years, why do you force your bodies to seem youthful again, wearing curls upon your forehead like courtesans, thereby insulting the rest of the freeborn women too, to the deception of those you meet — and this while being widows?" Having assembled, they sought a way by which to begin the lawsuit.

And one of those present suggested that they submit petitions to the emperor, and drag him [John], even unwilling, into the tribunal.

So this came to pass, just as in the case of the Jews, with gold smoothing over everything for them.

Now we were forty bishops, sitting together with Bishop John in the triclinium of the episcopal residence, marveling at how the man who had been ordered to be led away, alone, to appear before the tribunal on unholy charges, had arrived accompanied by so many bishops;

and how he had suddenly changed the opinions of those in power, having perverted the majority of the clergy toward the worse.

While we were in perplexity, John, inspired by the Spirit, said to us all:

"Pray, brothers, and, if you love Christ, let no one, for my sake, abandon his own church."

"For I am already being poured out as a libation, and the time of my departure is at hand, according to him who said this; and having endured many afflictions, I shall depart this life, as I now see."

"For I know the machination of Satan, that he can no longer bear the weight of the words spoken against him."

"Remember me in your prayers." Overcome with inexpressible despondency, some of us were weeping, while others went out from the assembly; others kissed his eyes and his sacred head, together with his well-aimed and blessed mouth, weeping and with a bruised spirit.

Having urged those flitting about here and there, like bees buzzing around a hive, to return to the assembly, he said:

"Sit down, brothers, and do not weep, breaking my heart all the more."

"For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain." For it was rumored that he was to be beheaded, on account of the excessiveness of his boldness of speech.

"And if you remember, recall to your memory that I always used to say to you:"

"The present life is a road, and both its good things and its griefs pass by in the journey;"

"and present things are but a festival."

"We have bought, we have sold, we now break camp. Are we better than the patriarchs, the prophets, the apostles, that this life should remain immortal for us?" And one of those present, crying aloud, said:

"But we lament our orphanhood, the widowhood of the church, the confusion of its institutions, the love of power among those who do not fear the Lord and who leap upon positions of authority, the lack of protection for the poor, the desolation of teaching." Striking the palm of his left hand with the forefinger of his right (for the Christ-loving man was accustomed to do this whenever engaged in thought within his mind), he said to the one speaking with him:

"But as I said, do not abandon your churches."

"For teaching neither began with me, nor did it end with me."

"Was not Jesus [Joshua] found [to succeed him]? Did not Samuel die?"

"Did not Elisha prophesy? Paul was beheaded."

"Did he not leave behind Timothy, Titus, Apollos, and countless others?" After these words, Eulysius of Apamea in Bithynia said:

"It is necessary that we, holding fast to our churches, be compelled both to commune and to sign." Saint John said:

"Do commune, so that you may not split the church; but do not sign."

"For I am conscious in myself of nothing worthy of deposition, having considered it well." Matters standing thus, those sent by Theophilus were announced.

He ordered them to be admitted.

When they had entered, he asked of what rank they were.

"Bishops." He invited them to sit down and state the purpose of their presence.

"We have only a letter to be read."

"Then have it read." John ordered it to be read.

They directed the young attendant of Theophilus to read out the dictated document, and he read it.

for the darkened soul is somehow accustomed not to see consistently, but to imagine whatever passion dictates)—

We have received petitions against you containing countless charges of wrongdoing.

Answer, then, bringing with you the presbyters Sarapion and Tigrius:

Do not overturn the affairs of the church, and do not rend the church, for whose sake God came down into flesh.

But if, by your disorderly conduct, you overturn the canons of the three hundred and eighteen bishops of Nicaea and adjudicate a case beyond your proper jurisdiction, then come over to us, into the well-ordered city, not summoning Abel like Cain into the field, so that we may be the first to hear you.

For we hold against you petitions of seventy counts, containing manifest unlawful deeds.

And we are more numerous than your synod, having been gathered together by the grace of God not for the destruction of the church, but in peace.

For you are but the thirty-sixth, from a single province;

but we are forty from various provinces, among whom are also seven metropolitans;

and it is fitting, according to the canons, that the lesser be judged by the greater and more distinguished.

For we also have your letter, in which you charge our fellow-minister John that he ought not to admit cases beyond his proper jurisdiction. Wherefore, in obedience to the ecclesiastical laws, urge your accusers either to cease from their accusation against you, or from their recourse to him. Moved by this, John said to his own bishops:

"Declare what seems right to you; but it is proper for me to reply in turn to what has been declared to me." And to Theophilus and his party he sent back the following reply:

"As for me, if anyone has anything to say against me, I have never yet known of it up to now:

but if someone has spoken against me and you wish me to appear, then cast out from your assembly my open enemies, who through their own negligence have become embittered against me;

and I do not dispute the place where I ought to be tried, even if it were most fitting that it be in the city;

but there are some whom I refuse: Theophilus, whom I can prove to have said, both in Alexandria and in Lycia, 'I am going to the court to depose John.' And this is true, as is shown by the fact that, upon his arrival, he neither met with me nor communed with me;

he, then, who before the hearing performed an enemy's deeds—what would he do after the trial? Likewise, I also charge Acacius with having said:

'I am brewing a pot of trouble for him.' As for Severian and Antiochus, whom divine justice will shortly overtake, what need is there even to speak—whose scandalous innovations even the secular theaters sing about? Therefore, if you truly wish me to come, I beg you to summon these four:

but if you wish to keep them as accusers, then set them forth for trial, that I may know how to prepare myself—whether as against opponents or as against judges;

and I will certainly come, not only before your charity, but also before a synod of the whole inhabited world.

Know, therefore, that even if you send to me ten thousand times, you will hear nothing more from me." When these men had departed, a notary, hard on their heels, bearing an imperial letter—by which they had previously petitioned that he be compelled to appear at the trial against his will—pressed him urgently to the judgment.

After his answer to the notary, two presbyters of John's own clergy were announced: a certain Eugenius, who received the see of Heraclea as the wages of his conspiracy against Bishop John, and the recluse Isaacius—not to put it otherwise—saying:

"Come over to us, to answer the charges." In response to this, John sent back word through other bishops:

"By what proper procedure do you judge, seeing that you have neither expelled my enemies, and yet summon me through my own clergy?" But those who seized these bishops beat one, tore the garments of another, and put irons around the neck of a third—irons which they had actually prepared for the saint himself, so that, thus cast onto a ship, he might be sent off to some unknown place—

the demon having made them savage as lions.

And the holy man, knowing their shameless intent, held himself back.

But these 'worthies,' having drawn up minutes flimsier than a spider's web, for mere show, pronounced sentence against the blessed man—whose face they had never seen nor whose voice they had ever heard—completing in a single day the wickedness that had been woven over a long time (for the demonic impulse is unrestrainable, and awaits no deliberation).

And having sent a report to the emperor, they set forth the following:

"Since John, having been accused of certain crimes and being conscious of his own guilt, was unwilling to appear, the laws depose such a man as this:

The petitions also contain a charge of treason.

Let your piety, therefore, order that he be expelled even against his will, and be brought to justice for the treason, since it is not lawful for us to investigate such matters." O thrice-wretched men, what are you thinking and doing? You ought to be ashamed to do such things—you who revere or fear not God, but men!

Now the 'treason' consisted of an insult against the empress, as they reported it—namely, that he had called her Jezebel.

And these 'admirable' men, desiring to see him die by the sword, made their report thus:

And God put to shame those who had become savage contrary to nature, by means of those who had become tame contrary to nature.

<CHAPTER 9> Thus John was driven out of the church, a count being sent with a military escort, as though against a barbarian battle array.

Having been cast out, he arrived at the hamlets near Praenetus in Bithynia.

After a single day had intervened, it happened that a certain calamity occurred in the bedchamber.

Frightened by this, they recalled John, after a few days, through their own notary, restoring him to his own throne.

Thus Theophilus, together with the Egyptians, secured his safety by flight (for the city sought to drown him in the sea).

After two months, having recovered their breath from this blow, they raged a second time against John:

and not finding a plausible pretext, they sent to Alexandria, to the master contriver of such things, declaring:

(for he is by nature impetuous, rash, bold, and remarkably quarrelsome—there is nothing that appears to him at first sight toward which he does not rush headlong, sooner than he ought, and uncontrollably, awaiting neither judgment nor reflection concerning it;

but carried by an irrational impulse, he proceeds in disorder to give his assent to it, and, firmly relying upon the decision once pronounced, he vigorously contends against anyone who wishes to declare otherwise;

always striving to make his own judgment and vote appear victorious and prevailing.)

This, indeed, they did, knowing his character.

For having summoned entire bodies of metropolitans and bishops from Syria, Cappadocia, the diocese of Pontus, and Phrygia, they gathered them together at Constantinople.

But those who arrived, following the proper course laid down by the canons, entered into communion with John, so as not to do the same as their predecessors.

When those in power learned of this, they were indignant at their communion.

Now Theodore, bishop of Tyana, a man of good standing, having perceived the intrigue from what had come to his ears, in order not to follow the rashness of Theophilus, abruptly left them all without ceremony, returned to his own church, bidding the court a long farewell, and secured his own province behind the wall of piety, remaining to the end in communion with the faithful Romans, to whom Paul bears witness, saying:

"Your faith is proclaimed throughout the whole world." But Pharetrius, bishop of Caesarea near Argaeus, having become excessively fearful—like small children afraid of bogeymen—without even leaving his own city, sided with the adversaries by letter, though he had not even been summoned to the assembly, displaying bad taste regarding precedence, out of ignorance of his betters.

And Leontius, bishop of Ancyra in Galatia, being closely allied with Ammonius of Laodicea-in-the-Burnt-Land, together they made the church a 'burnt' place indeed.

Not only overcome by the threats of those in power, but on the contrary, deceived by the hope of imperial gifts, they brought before Acacius, Antiochus, and their associates, at the second synod, a wicked proposal: to uphold Theophilus's unjudged sentence, and to allow John no opportunity whatsoever for defense—justifying this by the canons sent by Theophilus, which the forty communicants of Arius had decreed, writing:

"If any bishop or presbyter, whether justly or unjustly deposed, should re-enter the church on his own authority, without a synod, let such a one no longer have any opportunity for defense, but be utterly expelled." Now this canon, being an unlawful canon enacted by unlawful men, was rejected at Sardica by the Romans, Italians, Illyrians, Macedonians, and Greeks (as you yourself, most illustrious Theodore, know better than I), at the time when Liberius, or rather Julius, under the emperor Constans, received Athanasius into communion, along with Marcellus the Galatian, on whose account that canon had in fact been enacted.

The pair of 'admirable' men, Ammonius and Leontius, joining forces with Acacius, Antiochus, Cyrinus of Chalcedon, and Severian, went in to the emperor and instructed him to summon ten bishops of John's party (though there were more than forty of them) concerning the validity of the canons—some insisting that these were orthodox, while others proved that they belonged to the Arians.

But those with the elder—old both in soul and in gray hair—Elpidius, bishop of Laodicea in Syria, and Trangyllius, went in and tried to persuade the emperor that John ought not to be expelled without due cause:

"For he was not previously deposed, but was driven out by the count;

nor indeed did he return of his own volition, but at the command of your piety, a notary having been sent;

and as for the canons they now put forward, we show that they belong to heretics." But as those against John persisted in disorderly wrangling—some with louder voice, others agitated, heaving their chests as they shook themselves insolently before the emperor—

the most law-abiding Elpidius, gently, when a moment of calm arrived, said to the emperor:

"O Emperor, let us not trouble your clemency for long; but let this be done:

let brother Acacius and Antiochus, whom they put forward as authorities regarding the orthodoxy of the canons, declare, 'We are of the same faith as those who drew them up,' and our doubt will be resolved for us." The emperor, attending to the simplicity of the proposal, smiled and said to Antiochus:

"Nothing could be more advantageous than this." — for the emperor was blameless in all that had taken place, others having twisted what had been rightly formulated.

Growing dizzy, then, and reeling into one another like turbulent water, those of Severian's party, both at the prudent remark and at the emperor's judgment, were seized with speechlessness, their faces turning a more livid hue;

nevertheless, constrained by the necessity of the occasion, they promised, however unwillingly, to sign.

Having thus gone out, they did not fulfill their promise, since it had been made unwillingly, for they feared defeat; instead, they contrived by what means John might be driven out.

While these things were thus being carried out, one thing in one way and another in another, nine or ten months galloped by, Bishop John assembling together with the forty-two bishops, and the people enjoying his teaching with great good cheer (for the mind free of vainglory is somehow wont, in times of trial, to pour forth speech more gracefully and more powerfully).