金口若望生平對話錄 第 1 章 第 6/9 段

and having gathered together the bishops of Lydia, Asia, and Caria, numbering up to seventy men, they carried out the ordination, many having come together out of willing eagerness — especially the Phrygians — to enjoy the mouth of wisdom, according to what is said:

"Wisdom is sung in the outgoings" (that is, among those who speak), "and in the broad places she speaks openly" (that is, in hearts that have been broadened through manifold afflictions, according to the verse, "In affliction you have broadened me").

For wisdom is straitened among those who cultivate the tares and choke the word.

<CHAPTER 15> These things being so, Eusebius — the cause of our lengthy account, the accuser of the six remaining bishops — approached all the bishops, requesting to be received into communion.

Some of the bishops objected, saying that he ought not to be received, as being a false accuser.

At this he entreated, saying:

"Since the case has for the most part been under examination for two years, and the delay has come down to a matter of witnesses, I beg your piety that this very day you grant me the witnesses."

"For even though Antoninus, who took the gold and performed the ordinations, has died, nevertheless those who gave the money and were ordained still remain." The synod then present resolved that the matter should be investigated.

The case began with the reading of the record of what had previously been done.

The witnesses came in; there also came in six of those who had given the money and been ordained.

"And now we beg, if it is a holy thing to do, that we may remain in the ministry of the church;"

"otherwise, at least let us receive back the gold which we gave;"

"for some of us even gave our wives' household vessels." To this John promised the synod, saying, "With God's help I will free them from service on the city council" — and he petitioned the emperor accordingly.

They say that the destructive and falsely-named patriarch of the Jews replaces the rulers of the synagogues every year, or every other year, for the sake of collecting money — and likewise also his rival, the patriarch of the Egyptians — so that the prophetic word might be fulfilled:

"Her priests gave judgment for gifts, and her prophets prophesied for silver." Of all these things there exist both records and those who tried the case.

And the examination did not take place in a single day, as Theophilus falsely claimed, but over the course of two years.

And those who were deposed acquiesced, being relieved at being freed from the judgment yet to come — so much so that one of them even became an advocate for public affairs;

and in their places others were brought in — men of lifelong integrity, adorned in life and in speech.

And the high-and-mighty, contentious men, after John's exile, having gotten what they got (for wickedness has no proper name, just as it has no true substance), thrust back into the churches those who had been cast out four years before, while they drove out those who had been lawfully enthroned — to the scattering of the sheep of Christ.

But the most ridiculous thing of all — or rather, worthy of lament — if you hear it, most studious Theodore: both your ears will ring, according to the prophet, and you, being a lover of God, will weep for those raving bishops who with a darkened hand ravage the gifts of Christ.

For the ordinations which Peter and John and their companions used to perform with fasting, prayer, testing of the clergy, and fear, these men, on the contrary, performed with debauchery, drunkenness, and pitiable bribes — ordaining the very abortions of humanity, creatures not worthy even of unreasoning swine or dogs, according to what Job prophesied concerning them, speaking in the person of the Savior:

"Whom I did not consider worthy to be with the dogs of my flocks, who dwelt beneath the shrubs." These men, then, together with mimes and Jews, as though they were friends of the Savior, are entrusted by the "wise" with the secret mysteries of the priesthood;

on account of whom the orthodox people flee even the houses of prayer.

For assuredly the novel and most frivolous nature of this outrage has reached even as far as you, the church at Ephesus;

for how could it not? — since your city lies on the sea and easily ferries reports across.

For into that very place — or rather, into the see of John who wrote the Gospel, who faithfully reclined upon the breast of Wisdom, concerning whom it is written:

— whom Timothy succeeded, the disciple of Paul, to whom the two Epistles of the Apostle are addressed — the abomination of desolation has been set up in his place.

For having ordained the eunuch of Victor the tribune, they enthroned him, while the man who had been enthroned by seventy bishops languishes in prison to this day — a man who had lived as a monk in the desert, who had been trained in the general course of studies, who had become versed in the divine Scriptures, and who had served as deacon for three years.

And would that the eunuch who was ordained had been led to this by a life of dignity — then the evil would have been but half an evil;

but as it is, he is a belly of the earth, a slave to his appetite, mad for women, insolent, a drunkard, a frequenter of brothels, a bought slave, servile, avaricious, one branded from his very origin for the iron of servitude, neither man nor woman, utterly raving;

and all these things he did, not before his initiation into Christ, but after his illumination;

by which he hints that he does not even believe in the resurrection.

For having undermined the very foundation of the resurrection, how does this man believe in it? And he who does not believe in the resurrection, how can he become a herald of the resurrection, according to him who said:

How then shall they preach, if they do not believe? This man is curbed to no purpose by the sword, yet rages fruitlessly because of his own shameful character.

These, then, are the events that took place in Asia, about which you inquired — namely, on account of Theophilus's having written that John had deposed sixteen bishops.

Know then, in accordance with the truth, that they are six.

— of those who deposed him and brought the trial to completion.

For madmen and drunkards and children — the former after coming to their senses, the latter after digesting [their wine], and the rest after reaching the age of legal responsibility — deny [what they did], being ashamed of the things done or said shamefully or disorderly.

But these men, having done these things at a mature age and in apparent soberness, not only do not repent of what was done, but even pray that their own wrongdoing may remain unshaken and firm.

For those who did not shudder to place the Gospel-book upon an accursed head, upon which savage women danced — with whom else shall they be numbered, except with those who placed the crown of thorns upon the Son of God? But you yourself, if you know the manner of the appointment of Porphyrius of the Antiochenes, or those who appointed him, or the man's former life — whether obscure or distinguished — and his doctrines, whether true or false, declare it to us.

since indeed he even wrote to the church of the Romans, and was not deemed worthy of a reply.

"For every idle word men shall give account on the day of judgment." And I, adding boldly, would say:

"And also for every idle hearing." So then, you too must guard yourself, if you perceive that I am not speaking the truth in something, not being overcome by [deference to] my grey hair, but by the very nature of the facts.

For what benefit would there be to me, from what has been said today or yesterday, if I lied, being put to shame forever before the exact tribunal? And how shall I bear the millstone of slander upon the neck of my mind, being dragged down into the depth of Gehenna, on account of those who have been scandalized by my lies? This Porphyrius spent a long time in the church, having served as deacon and having exercised the priestly office in the presbyterate, yet bearing a character out of keeping with his years [in office], he was never of any spiritual use to the church.

He was always working against the devout bishops of the surrounding region, since, being of the greatest city, and having the magistrates on his side in power, he made a trade of the matter.

Plotting against solemn ordinations, he would insinuate himself, by the cunning of his ways, among the bishops of the time (so to speak), and, dragging them down even against their will, he led them to ruinous, wind-blasted ordinations.

For flattery is a terrible thing, as the comic poet Menander says, when intertwined with perversity of character, as he says:

"It is hard, Pamphile, for a freeborn woman to contend against a harlot."

She knows more, she does more mischief, she is ashamed before no one, and she flatters all the more.

And according to wise Solomon, "The words of flatterers are soft, but they strike into the innermost chambers of the belly." As for temperance regarding the pleasures of the flesh, he was not only a stranger to it, but even its enemy — like a vulture to myrrh — so that a report even of the mad wickedness of Sodom came to prevail concerning him.

For, laws and measures and walls having been set by nature over the pleasures, as most say, he trampled the wall, broke the measure, and insulted the law, and thus gave birth to this reputation: that he presided over, and feasted together with, sorcerers and charioteers and those who display old routines through indecent movement with the twisting of the leg.

For he was not ashamed to compete alongside sorcerers and to associate with them in friendship, so much so that accusations against him appear in the records of various magistrates — not having read the maxim:

"What ought not to be done, do not even suspect yourself of doing." [On his account even the go-between was killed by blows, and the one who found him out was exiled, and the sorcerer was driven into flight.] They say, moreover, that in addition to his former misdeeds, after his ordination he melted down the church treasures and spent them upon the magistrates, so that he might seem to hold power not by right reason, but by tyranny, over those who had wretchedly fallen under him.

For with John's exile to the land of the Armenians there coincided the death of Flavian, bishop of the Antiochenes.

a man skillful with both hands (for even what was reckoned his left hand was better than others' right hand) —

who, having first served in the office of correspondence, was found blameless with regard to shameful gain and bribes.

Afterward, having advanced to the office of reader and then deacon, he mastered without toil the pleasure of women, which reigns as queen among men, as the writer of Proverbs says:

"The hand of the chosen shall rule with ease." For to rule oneself is perhaps possible even for the most base of men, who, out of fear or shame, restrain the body's activity only under great compulsion; but not to be overcome by things below through love of the things above belongs only to those who love God, whom Scripture also called "chosen," when it said, "The hand of the chosen shall rule with ease."

For he is gentle, if anyone ever was — an ascetic, discerning, quick to understand, slow to punish, thoughtful, always hinting discreetly at his own reflection, merciful, free from love of money, just in his judgments, longsuffering under insults, forceful in persuasion, often extending his fast until evening in order to set the oppressed free, dignified in appearance, keen of glance, quick of step, unmarried — as was fitting — preserving the blossom of a smile upon his face even in sickness itself.

Such a man as this, then, he procures to be driven into exile by means of money, in this manner:

having sent to the court, to those who held power over the bishops, he caused him, by an imperial letter, to be exiled to the Oasis as a disturber of the populace.

who, learning of this at once, was rescued by his friends and brought safely to Cyprus.

Having rushed into the church together with the aforesaid bishops and a few clerics, [Porphyrius] was ordained secretly, the doors being shut, with great haste, so that they did not even manage to complete the prayer, for fear of being caught — for such is adultery: it both begets and produces bastard offspring.

But those around Severian, having taken enough [provisions], fled through mountains and pathless places, escaping human fear, but falling upon the divine fear, which they had disregarded.

When the public theater had broken up and the crowds had entered the city, the disgraceful affair concerning Porphyrius and the drama concerning Acacius were reported to them.

Having endured through that evening until the next day, as though struck by news of an adultery, they all rose up together and streamed together with fire and kindling, wishing to destroy Porphyrius along with the buildings.

But Porphyrius, not unaware of the hatred with which he was hated, abandoning God, took refuge with the commander of the troops, and, having filled his hands [with bribes], he arrayed him against the hearers of the Savior, diverting the troops from the Isaurian wars.

And while the most brigand-like Isaurians were ravaging Rhosos and Seleucia, Porphyrius and Valentinus the count, together with the armed soldiers, were plundering the church of the orthodox, trampling underfoot with their own feet the most awesome sign of the cross, which, instead of a teacher, they used to bear upon their shoulders and with which they used to make supplication over the unsown fields.

When some days had passed, he sent urgently to the court and arranged, in addition to such magistrates, for a certain harsh old man of his own — ill-tempered and crooked — to be appointed as night-prefect, so that, having license to slander the earnest, he might subdue the city, imitating the ways of Nero, the fighter against God.

For it is not in his power to persuade by reason, but only to oppress by unreasoning force and hostility, having no aim of pleasing God by bringing back wandering souls, but only of filling his serpentine belly that walks upon its breast.

while their manner of life was being slandered, [the faithful yet] awaited receiving the help that comes from God.

In response to this, Theodore, astonished, said:

For, as for the most part, the vainglorious, being men-pleasers, are found also to be flatterers and to contrive lavish banquets, for the sake of being loved and being called good, often even enduring insults.

How then Porphyrius, or anyone else, practiced threats and punishments and exiles, I am at a loss to understand.

{THE BISHOP:} This indeed is the astonishing thing, Theodore, that they have arrived at such a measure of wickedness that not only do they not hasten to please men, but they do not care at all for the shame arising from what they do.

For wickedness leads on to further wickedness in wickedness.

For wickedness puts forward vainglory at that time when it hopes to prevail through the flattery of the foolish.

But when those being hunted are found superior to both flattery and banquet, it brings forth threats and punishments, so that those whom it could not entice by banquet or flattery, it may terrify into submission by inhumanity and fear — as in the case of the martyrs.

For there both devices were fashioned: both the snare contrived through gifts and honors, hunting those gaping after petty glories, and the threat through punishments, preparing frying-pans and joint-wrenching instruments and wild beasts and whatever is fit for intense pain, thereby revealing the brave and God-loving.

The distinguished clergy of the Antiochenes, however, gather secretly, not even going near the walls of the church — as does the whole distinguished company of women, on whose account especially the money-grubbing rulers have become frenzied.

As for those of Constantinople, what need is there even to speak — how great a multitude has withdrawn from the church, gathering in the open air, as we have said before, so that not even those in control of ecclesiastical affairs have so many hearers of their silence? — for there is no true word anywhere among them.

For the agreement of the accounts and the unfeigned narration have fully convinced me that the things that happened are true.

For it is impossible for a false account to agree with itself.

Relate to us, then, without burdening us, also the affairs concerning Olympias, if indeed you have any knowledge of them.

{THE BISHOP:} Which Olympias do you mean? Since there are others also by that name.

{THE BISHOP:} Indeed, I know her quite well.

for, apart from her bodily form, she is a man [in virtue].

{THE BISHOP:} You seem to me, Theodore, to have covered so many rounds of our discourse with forgetfulness.

"A heretical man, after a first and second admonition, reject, knowing that such a one is perverted."

[It does not say] to cast him out, and to plunder him, and to drive him out from the city that nourished him, together with the threat of the magistrates.

{THE BISHOP:} And indeed it is no great praise to bear with the weaker one.

Yet, if he himself is not perfect, so far as it concerns him, how can such a one even be a bishop? For one who is imperfect will never take providential care of the imperfect.

And how is he even called "Theophilus" [lover of God], not loving God, on whose account he ought to bear the insults of men with ease? But if he does not love God, clearly neither does he love himself.

But one who is his own enemy, how then shall he love others? It is, then, nothing strange, if for this reason he found fault with Olympias for having received the monks.

The deaconess, however, ought not to have received them.

{THE BISHOP:} You have spoken admirably.

In this manner, then, the monks were both good and bad.

And the most faithful woman entertained them as good;

but the admirable Theophilus cast them out as evil — which he ought not to have done.

{THE BISHOP:} When, having gathered together a second time, they came to Jesus, having heard:

"You seek me, not because you saw signs and wonders, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled." Theodore said:

{THE BISHOP:} But the one who is blameworthy is, in this respect, also evil.

"For those who are healthy have no need of a physician, but those who are sick." {THE BISHOP:} What then? Has Olympias done evil, imitating her own Lord, who makes his rain fall and his sun rise upon the just and the unjust? Even if the Pharisees reproach the disciples, saying:

...having turned back from vice to virtue, it will be plain that their persecutor deserves not to be persecuted but to be pitied, in that he always does harm to the good, while welcoming the wicked.

For even if those men should not be shown to be wise and holy (as most people say), Olympias will be free of blame, from the foregoing arguments, having shown forth the imitation of the Savior.

For it is acknowledged by all that he cast out those men too, moved by a certain wrath and love of power, and that he has slandered her out of superstition and enmity, making the monks his pretext.

For having failed, despite his slavish flatteries, to receive anything from her except food or gifts of hospitality, he turned to slander;

for this is his custom in all cases.

<CHAPTER 17> {THE BISHOP} Listen, then, best of deacons, for I see that you are useful to the community;

for your earnestness in youth is a pledge that you will be honored in old age.

These men, from their tenderest childhood and of Christian parents, having submitted themselves to God, could not bear, even while still quite young, to be enslaved to vanity, nor to associate with the crowds; but having taken possession of the uninhabited region lying far off to the south of the inhabited world, they built themselves huts, just sufficient to escape the oppressive heat of the sun's torch and the dew from the air.

Dwelling there, they spent their time in prayers and readings, laboring with the fruit of their hands in bodily toil only so much as sufficed for humble food, deeming it better to herd together with gazelles and sparrows and wild oxen than to feast together with men who know not God.

Of these, the eldest, having passed some ninety years, associated with the blessed Anthony; he is called Hierax, and to this very day he still bears out the meaning of his own name.

The other, Ammonius, sixty years old, together with two brother ascetics and one bishop — who, having worn the iron collar, were exiled under Valens, as all Alexandria knows;

being such in knowledge, that nothing escaped them of the things in the Scriptures which perplex most people.

Of these, two fell asleep, dying in Constantinople;

Ammonius indeed, as those around Aurelius and Sisinnius related, prophesied concerning his departure, that a great persecution would come upon and a schism upon the churches, that the guilty parties would come to a most shameful end, and that thus the churches would be united;

This indeed has come to pass in part, and will [further] come to pass — for from that time the disease, seizing the bodies of some, both bishops and laymen, was distributed into various afflictions: with a mild fever it burned the inward parts, with unbearable itching it tore up the entire surface of the skin with the nails, and there were continuous pains of the bowels,

in one man, there were livid, dropsical swellings about the feet;

in another, discharges about the four joints, now hot, now cold, made his fingers—badly contracted—shudder, and there was inflammation of the lower abdomen, and through some part of the body a putrefaction that spread a foul stench over a long time, breeding worms;

besides these, there was orthopnea and difficulty in breathing, and convulsions of all the limbs;

and nightly apparitions transformed themselves into raging dogs and sword-bearing barbarians, uttering a voice foreign in tongue and wave-like in sound, rendering their sleep sleepless.

Another, having fallen from a horse and broken his right leg like a stalk, immediately lost his life;

Another, deprived of speech, lay for eight months upon a bed as though embalmed, unable even to bring his own hands to his mouth.

Another, while yet alive, had his legs sawn off bit by bit up to the knees over a period of three years, erysipelas allegedly being the cause;

Another, his tongue having swollen—so it is said—with a raging fever, so that it lay like a partition across his mouth, pressing against his teeth, since it could no longer fit in the place appointed for it by nature, made his confession by writing on a wax tablet.

And it was possible to see divine wrath commanding [these events] through various punishments.

Having provoked the physician and healer of souls, and having removed the spokesman of the workshop of salvation, they were handed over to physicians of the body for torment—physicians who administered pain through their so-called remedies, but wrought no healing.

For who shall heal him who is being punished by God? — as the prophet says:

"Will physicians raise up [the dead], and will they give you thanks?" Thus perished all who worked against the peace of your church, O Lord.)

And it is said that the tomb of the monk Ammonius drives away diseases connected with chills and fever;

and he is buried in the martyrium of the Apostles across the sea.

But concerning the rest of the ascetics, much discourse would be spent by me in narrating them, since you, O man whose name well befits you, are perhaps in a hurry.

{THE BISHOP} There is, then, another Hierax, called by a Greek name, but adorned with spiritual manners;

who, at first, having withdrawn alone outside all of Egypt and the Thebaid, to Mount Porphyrites, without any human company, endured four years, being content with virtue alone for consolation;

then afterward, in the desert of Nitria, twenty-five years together with the aforementioned fathers.

Demons, standing before him (as he himself related to us), suggesting a long-lasting life, were eager to shake him from the hope set before him, having transformed themselves into angels of light;

"Fifty years," they said, "you have yet to live."

"How will you endure in the desert?" But he, with understanding through faith, answered back, saying:

"You have grieved me, by naming a time less than what I had purposed;"

"for I made preparation for two hundred years in the desert." And they, having heard this, departed wailing.

And this man—of such character that the demons, though scheming for a long time to induce despondency in him, could not shake him—Pope Theophilus, by his command, removed from his place and drove into such straits that he was even compelled to take refuge in a military camp;

who now, after the death of Ammonius, has again taken possession of the innermost desert, fearing the parable of the plough.

Yet another presbyter, named Isaac, a disciple of Macarius the disciple of Anthony, an exceeding lover of the desert, in his fiftieth year, who kept the whole of Scripture in his mind, who handled horned vipers in his hands without harm, a virgin from the womb, who had taken possession of the desert at seven years of age—after forty years [there], together with those already mentioned, he was sifted [harassed] by Pope Theophilus.

Another presbyter, also named Isaac, himself a disciple and successor of Cronius the presbyter, who was likewise a disciple of Anthony — he too exceedingly learned in the Scriptures, hospitable as few others, so that out of excess of love for mankind he built a hostel in the innermost desert for the refreshment of sick monks and of visiting strangers who came to see the blessed fathers — a man, they say, wholly a stranger to anger, in his thirtieth year of withdrawal — was, together with these, ill-treated.

Of these, the former Isaac had a hundred fifty ascetics under himself;

of whose disciples Theophilus himself appointed as many as seven or eight to be bishops, back when Theophilus was still himself [i.e., before he turned against them];

the other had two hundred ten, of whose disciples also many were numbered among the bishops.

These are they, concerning whom we related on the third day, [that they] were driven out by Pope Theophilus for the sake of Isidore the presbyter of the desert.

...imitating him who, finding the man crushed by robbers and half-dead on the road down to Jericho, set him upon his own beast, carried him to the inn, and, mingling the oil of loving-kindness with the astringent wine, healed his wounds.

But how great a store of money or property she distributed to those in need is not for me to tell, but for those who benefited from it — for, being in exile, I was kept from being any burden [to her].

But hear of her greater virtue:

For she, an orphan, having been joined to a husband, was not permitted by God—who foreknows and foresees the outcome of all human affairs—to serve even twenty months the pleasure of the flesh that reigns over all, since the man joined to her was swiftly summoned to pay the debt of nature [i.e., he died].

And it is said that she remained a virgin, as report teaches.

For although she might have submitted to the apostolic law, "I desire younger widows to marry and manage a household," she would not consent to it, even though she was adorned with noble birth, wealth, an education in the most refined learning, natural grace, and the bloom of youth — leaping, gazelle-like, nimbly over the snare of a second marriage.

For the law is not laid down for the righteous, but for the unruly, the profane, and those insatiable for corruption.

Now it happened, through some satanic envy, that her premature widowhood was reported to the ears of the Emperor Theodosius, who was eager to join her in marriage to a certain Elpidius, a kinsman of his own, a Spaniard.

And having earnestly entreated the woman many times, he, failing [to persuade her], was grieved, since she declared:

"If my king had wished me to live together with a man, he would not have taken away my first [husband];"

"but because He knew me unsuited for the troubled life of marriage, unable to please a husband, He freed him from that bond and delivered me from the heaviest yoke and from servitude to a man, laying instead upon my mind His good yoke of self-control." After this reply, [the emperor] ordered the prefect of the city to keep her affairs under guardianship until she should complete thirty years of bodily age.

He, having straightway received the emperor's commission, oppressed her to such a degree, being egged on by Elpidius, that she had no liberty even to meet with eminent bishops, nor to attend church, so that, worn down by despondency, she might be brought to choose marriage.

But she, being all the more pleased and having given thanks to God, declared this in reply to the emperor:

"You have shown toward me, your humble servant, a virtue fitting for a king and befitting a bishop, my lord, by commanding that my heaviest burden be watched over — the very thing about which I was anxious, namely how it should be administered."

"But you will do something even greater, if you command it to be dispersed to the poor and to the churches."

"For long ago I renounced the vainglory that comes from [personally] distributing alms, lest, being entangled in material things, I should neglect the wealth proper to my nature [i.e., my soul]." Thus, upon returning from the war against Maximus, [the emperor], having heard of the intensity of her asceticism, ordered that she be given authority over her own affairs.

{THE BISHOP} For she abstains from [the flesh of] living creatures, and for the most part does not bathe;

but if the need arises because of illness (for she suffers constantly from her stomach), she goes down into the water with her tunic still on, being ashamed even before herself, so they say.