Dialogue on the Life of John Chrysostom 6–8

[Bishop:] From this envy seized beforehand the minds of the hireling shepherds, who were shown up by the comparison. Unable to get the better of him, because they did not call on the Saviour, who destroys envy, they weave slanders against John, [representing his sermons as aimed] … against the empress and to others in the emperor's court. It happened at that time that Acacius, bishop of Beroea, having come to the city, failed, as he said, to get good lodging; and, aggrieved at this, … Overcome by unrestrained thoughts, he brings out a senseless word from the abundance of his heart, worthy of his own mind, saying before some of John's clergy: ‘I am cooking a pot for him.’ At once [he joined] … a man forever worn away with evil-speaking against bishops, and they plan to arm themselves, ostensibly against John, but in truth against the glory of the Saviour. First they send to the city of the Antiochenes, looking for faults from his youth. But when ‘the searchers failed in their searching’, and they found nothing, they send to Alexandria, to the ready Theophilus, who is called ‘the Turncoat’, a clever master builder of such things; and he at once unrolled the books of his mind with much …, [looking for] any pretext whatever.

Deacon: Stop the rush of your words, Father, before I forget, so that I may tell you the reason that came across to us from Alexandria and was noised about. For they say that John received into communion clergy deposed by Theophilus, so grieving Theophilus, which he ought not to have done; and that, having fallen out with him for this reason, Theophilus moved against John.

Bishop: Let us grant that the rumour you mention is true. Is it a bishop's part to heal evil with evil? Where is that word of the Gospel that says, ‘Do not let the sun go down on your anger’? Where is the apostolic word, ‘Overcome evil with good’? Where the prophetic word, ‘If I have repaid those who repaid me with evil’? Would it not have been more honourable to bring the charge before devout bishops and say: ‘Brother John, you have done this or that without realizing it’; and for John, having made his defence, [to say] that he had not known of the matter?

Deacon: What you say is true, if there was any good will in him, and he was not using the case of the clergy as a pretext while gratifying his own anger.

Bishop: By the fear of God, then, which masters all the countless fears, I will tell you nothing but the matter as it actually stands concerning those clergy you mentioned. There was a certain Isidore, a presbyter who had been ordained as long ago as the blessed Athanasius the Great, now in his eightieth year. Most of the Romans know him, since he came to Rome on church business, being the guestmaster of Alexandria; and you yourself know the man, from when he came with Acacius and brought Flavian's communion to Theophilus, which had been broken off for twenty years on account of the blessed Evagrius, who had fought many fights in the labours of the Church. To this Isidore a certain widow, one of the great ones, gives a thousand gold coins, making him swear by the Saviour's table to buy clothing and clothe the poorer women of Alexandria without letting Theophilus know, lest he take the money and spend it on stones; for a Pharaoh-like mania for stones possesses him, for buildings of which the Church has no need at all. But let such things stand in second place; hear what presses about Isidore. Isidore took the coins and spends them on the needy women and the widows. Theophilus learned of it somehow (for nothing escaped him that was done or said anywhere, since he had spies of deeds and spies of words, not to put it otherwise), and summons Isidore, asking him mildly whether this was so. Isidore did not deny it, but admitted that he had performed the service. When Theophilus heard this he changed his mask: he who before the turn had been gentle and kindly-seeming in his questioning swelled up all over after it, … Isidore's … For a little while he kept quiet; then, like a dog that bites by stealth, after two months he produces a paper, having assembled the body of presbyters, and says in Isidore's presence: ‘I received this against you eighteen years ago, Isidore, and since I was very busy I let the matter slip from my mind; but now, while looking for other papers, I have found this paper about you. Answer it.’ The paper contained the charge of Sodom. In his defence Isidore says to Theophilus: ‘Let us grant that it is true that you received the paper and that it was mislaid. Was not the man who gave the petition here, so that it could be demanded of him a second time?’ To this Theophilus: ‘But the young man was not here; he was at sea.’ And Isidore: ‘He was not here at once, as you say, pope; was he not here after the voyage? Was he not here in the second year, or the third? And now, if he is here, order the man to stand forward.’ At this Theophilus, about to be made contemptible by the truth itself, puts it off to another day. Then he won over a certain young man with many promises … and anointed him for an accusation against Isidore, giving him, as they say, fifteen gold coins; and the young man at once confides it to his mother. She, partly not accepting it because her eye was unswerving, partly overcome by fear of the laws, lest Isidore, if slandered, should appeal to the governor of the people, came and confessed the [bribe, showing the gold coins], which she said she had received from Theophilus's sister, as the fee for an accusation against an innocent man. And she, having paid a fitting penalty for many things, but especially for this, dies under surgery on her breasts. Upon this Isidore stayed at home, beseeching God. But the young man, partly fearing the laws, and partly thinking Theophilus more dangerous now that he had missed his aim, flees to the wall that profits, the church, taking refuge at the altar. So Theophilus [declared Isidore cast out] … [hiding] his injustice with a dumb [show]. Upon this Isidore, fearing that he might plot an ambush against his very life (for he goes even that far, they say), hurries to the mountain of Nitria, to the order of monks, where he had spent his youth; and sitting in his cell he prayed, appealing to the long-suffering God.

Upon this Theophilus, conscious that his victory was unseemly and uncertain, sends letters to the nearby bishops and orders certain of the leading men to be expelled from the mountain and from the inner desert, the monks who were at their head, without stating the charge. These monks came down to Alexandria with the presbyters and asked Theophilus to state the reason for which they had been condemned to be expelled. He, with bloodshot eyes, now livid, now pale, now sneering, [seized] a man of his own age by the omophorion around his neck with his own hands and struck him blows on the cheeks …, though nothing was at issue except their petition on Isidore's behalf. For tempers, like dogs, bring forth blind things, both deeds and words. [Returning] to their monasteries, they kept to the asceticism they had set themselves, sharpening their nature by learning, the means by which salvation comes, and caring little for his madness, since they were conscious of no evil in themselves.

[Bishop:] Theophilus did not keep quiet after this. He sends to the neighbouring bishops and convenes a council against the monks; and, without calling them to make a defence or giving them a hearing, he excommunicates three men, the most eminent, being afraid to pronounce [sentence] against the whole multitude at once, … And those whom he had often honoured above bishops as teachers, for their life, their learning and their age, he was not ashamed to call sorcerers because of their attachment to Isidore. After excommunicating them, he anoints five little fellows from the mountain itself, men who had never stood in an assembly of the elders of the desert, unworthy (I hesitate to say it) even of the porter's lodge. One he ordains bishop, placing him in a hamlet that was no city (for he made innovations without fear, calling himself another Moses); another presbyter; and the three deacons, who were not Egyptians but from various places: one was a Libyan, one an Alexandrian, one from Pharan, one from Paralus. That is why they lent themselves to his idle labour, having no hope of the pledges of their homeland. And he gets them to give petitions against those three, weaving the words of the slander himself, while they contributed only this, their signatures. After this he takes the petitions from them in the church, goes in to the Augustal prefect, and lodges a complaint against them in his own name as high priest of the Egyptian diocese, attaching also the slanderous petitions, and asks that the men be expelled from the whole of Egypt with military help. Taking the soldier as a cover, together with [a crowd who cared nothing] about rank, he swoops on the monasteries suddenly by night, having made the servants with him drunk; and first he orders their holy [Dioscorus], who was bishop of the mountain, to be thrown from his throne, dragged by Ethiopian slaves, and these perhaps still unbaptized; taking his [see], which the city of Dioscorus had held since the coming of Christ. After this he plunders the mountain, giving the monks' few belongings to the young men as pay. Having despoiled the cells, he looks for those three, whom [the monks] had let down into a well, putting a mat over its mouth; not finding them, he burns their [cells, with the books] … of the Scriptures and the serious works, and a child, as eyewitnesses said, and the symbols of the mysteries. Having thus slaked his irrational wrath, he goes back to Alexandria, giving those holy men room to flee. They at once took their sheepskins and went out to Palestine, [and came to] Aelia [with … and] deacons, three hundred of the zealous monks of the mountain, while the rest were scattered in various places.

Not bearing their independence, the serpent who is crooked in his course stirs up Theophilus against them again; and he, boiling over with anger, writes letters to the bishops of Palestine, saying: ‘You ought not to have received these men in your cities against my judgement; but since you did not know, I grant you pardon. In future, then, take care not to receive them in any place, whether church or private house’; not only saying this, but imagining himself to be a god in the excess of his conceit. They, driven by great necessity from changing from place to place, reach the 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 slandered and plundered by men more used to doing this than to doing good. John stood and saw fifty chosen men, grey-haired from holy labours, [and moved] with feeling, like Joseph, he was overcome by tears, and asked them what boar out of the wood or what solitary wild beast had ravaged this fruitful vine. They say: ‘Sit down, Father, [and dress] our wound, for we have been wounded not lightly by the madness of Pope Theophilus, if perhaps you can heal the swellings of our wounds. For if you too pass us over, out of respect or fear for Theophilus like the other bishops, nothing is left for us but to go to the emperor and inform him of his [deeds] … to allow us to live in Egypt, since we have done no wrong either against the law of the Saviour or against him himself.’

Upon this John, thinking he could easily change Theophilus's grudge against them, gladly took up the matter. He asked the men, with God-loving silence, to tell no one the reason for their coming, ‘until I send to brother Theophilus’; and he gave them lodgings for their rest in the church called Anastasia. He did not himself provide for their needs, but God-loving women supplied their food, while they themselves contributed in part by the work of their hands. It happened at that time that there were clergy of Theophilus in Constantinople, buying in advance the promotions of the officials being appointed in the Egyptian diocese, [for Theophilus] was gaining their goodwill toward himself, to the ruin of those who vexed him. John summoned them and asked whether they knew the ascetics who were present. They, loving the truth, bore witness for the men, saying to John: ‘We know them, and they have suffered great violence. If you will, master, do not give them spiritual communion, so as not to grieve the pope; but show them kindness in other respects; for that befits you as bishop.’ So John did not receive them into communion, but writes to Theophilus, entreating him: ‘Grant me this favour, as your son and brother: take the men back into your embrace.’

Upon this Theophilus did not grant the favour to John, but sends certain men practised in contests of words, of whom we spoke above, and gets them to submit petitions which, as usual, he had dictated himself, containing an avowed falsehood dressed up in a many-sided slander about invisible things, since he had nothing in their life to slander; and he arranges for them to be pointed at in the palace as sorcerers. When the ascetics saw that not only were they failing to bring him to a better mind, but were even moving him to greater anger, though they brought many to plead with him, and anathematized every false doctrine, they submit [a petition setting out] the forms of his tyranny, with certain charges, which I am ashamed to tell for now before the less mature, lest I drive them away from faith too, and perhaps I would not be believed even by the more perfect. Again John, both himself and through other bishops, urges them to drop their accusation against him because of the hardship a lawsuit brings, and writes to Theophilus: ‘They have been driven to such grief that they are now even accusing you in writing. Send what reply seems good to you; for they will not consent to leave the capital.’ At this Theophilus, all on fire, excludes from his own Church also the brother of the monks, Dioscorus the bishop, who had grown old in the Church; and to Bishop John he writes: ‘I think you are not unaware of the ordinance of the canons of Nicaea, in which they decree that a bishop must not judge a case outside his own borders. If you are unaware of it, learn it, and keep away from the petitions against me. For if I must be judged, it should be by the Egyptians and not by you, who are seventy-five days' journey away.’

[Bishop:] John received the letter, read it and kept it by him; and he spoke with the ascetics of both parties about peace. On hearing it, both parties [were exasperated], the one as having suffered tyranny, the other as having no power to make peace without Theophilus, since they had submitted their slanderous petitions at his order. So John gave them an answer and dismissed the matter from his mind. Upon this the monks of the [other] party withdrew … [and drew up petitions], against the monks as slanderers, and against Theophilus, setting out the doings of Theophilus, not to put it otherwise, as much as each knew. And having appealed to the Augusti, they approach the empress at the shrine of Saint John, begging that the petition of the opposing monks be examined before the prefects, and that Theophilus be made to appear, even against his will, and be tried before John. The petition was granted, with this decision: that Theophilus should be brought by the magister, willing or unwilling, to stand trial before John; and that Theophilus's monks should prove the charges they had brought against the holy elders, or suffer the penalty of slanderers. So Elaphius, now one of the principes, was sent to Alexandria to bring Theophilus, and the prefects carried out the rest of the decision. When the case was being tried and was coming to a dead end, the laws pressed hard, sharpening the sword; and those wretches, fearing the outcome, had the case deferred until Theophilus came, saying that he had put them up to it and dictated the petitions. So the court put them in prison until Theophilus arrived, refusing to accept sureties in a case of this kind. Some of them died in prison after spending a long time there because of Theophilus's slowness; the others, after Theophilus had arrived and smoothed the matter with money, were condemned by the laws at the final examination to live on Proconnesus as slanderers.

So Theophilus arrived, like a dung beetle loaded with the dung of the finest things of Egypt and of India itself, [spreading] perfume over his stinking envy, on the fifth day of the week, [cheered] by the crowd of sailors, carrying off that dishonourable glory of which the Apostle spoke beforehand, ‘whose glory is in their shame’, adding, ‘who set their minds on earthly things’. He is entertained in tents not of the righteous, having avoided the church, forgetting that saying of David, ‘I have chosen to be cast aside in the house of my God rather than to dwell in the tents of sinners’; he was kept away from the church by his own conscience. He spent three weeks there and neither met Bishop John, as is the custom of bishops, nor came near the church at all, but stayed working night and day, joining the new enmity to the old, to drive Bishop John out not only from the Church but from life itself: on the one hand buying the superstitious among the powerful against the truth by lavishing gold, on the other enslaving the gluttons with an expensive table, and again drawing to himself his fellow impostors among the clergy by flattery and the promise of higher rank. Having bound all these without a rope, by pleasures, like some deceiving demon, bewitching the judgement of souls, he looked for a demon-like face to serve the drama, and indeed he found one. Two [deacons], [deposed] by Bishop John for unlawful offences, he made use of for their levity, and persuades them to submit petitions against John, promising to restore them to their place in the ministry. Their offences were, for one murder, for the other adultery. And he did indeed do this: after John's exile he restored them to their places, [as having presented the memorials which] he himself [dictated]; they contained nothing true, except this, that he urged everyone after communion to take a little water or a lozenge, so that they might not involuntarily … ; he himself was first to do it, teaching devoutness to those who wished. After receiving [the petitions, he held a meeting at the house of Eugraphia with] Severian, Antiochus, Acacius and the rest who bore a grudge against John because of his exhortations to modesty. For the blessed man was accustomed, like Paul, to teach decorum both in public and from house to house, charging women of that kind above all and continually: ‘Though you are old women by your years, [why do you behave like girls] … and [lead astray] the other free women, to deceive those you meet, and that as widows?’

Gathered together, they looked for a way to begin the trial. One of those present suggested giving petitions to the emperor and dragging him to the council against his will. This then is done, as among the Jews, gold smoothing everything for them. We were forty bishops sitting with Bishop John in … [and wondering how he who, though] summoned as a defendant and ordered to appear alone in the capital on unholy charges, had come with so many bishops; and how he had suddenly changed the minds of the powerful, perverting most of the clergy to the worse. While we were at a loss, John, inspired by the Spirit, says to us all: ‘Pray, brothers; and if you love Christ, let no one leave his own church on my account. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come, as he said who [wrote it]; and after undergoing many afflictions I shall leave this life, as I see. For I know the scheming of Satan, that he can no longer bear the burden of the words spoken against him. So may you find mercy: remember me in your prayers.’ Seized with unbearable dejection, some of us wept, while others left the assembly, [having kissed] the eyes and the holy head and the well-aimed and blessed mouth. He urged them to come back into the assembly, as they flew about here and there like bees, [saying: ‘Sit down, brothers,] and do not weep and break me down further. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. … your memories, that I always told you: The present life is a road, and its good and painful things pass by; and the present is a fair: we have bought, we have sold, we break up. Are we better than the patriarchs, the prophets, the apostles, that this life should remain to us undying?’ One of those present, lamenting aloud, said: ‘But we mourn our orphanhood, the widowhood of the Church, the confusion of its ordinances, the ambition of those who do not fear the Lord and leap upon the offices of leadership, the poor left without a protector, the [famine] of teaching.’ [Then the Christ-loving John, tapping] with [the forefinger of his right hand] the palm of his left (for he used to do this when deep in thought), said to the one speaking with him: ‘Enough, brother; do not say much; but, as I said, do not leave your churches. For neither did the office of teaching begin with me, nor has it ended with me. Did Moses not die? Was not Joshua found? Did not Samuel die? Was not David anointed? Jeremiah left this life: was there not Baruch? Elijah was taken up: [did not Elisha prophesy? Paul was beheaded:] did he not leave Timothy, Titus, Apollos and countless others?’ After these words Eulysius of Apamea in Bithynia says: ‘We who hold our churches will inevitably be forced both to communicate and to sign.’ The holy John said: ‘Communicate, so that you do not split the Church; but do not sign; for I am not conscious of anything in myself that deserves deposition.’

While matters stood thus, those sent by Theophilus were announced. He orders them to come in; when they had come in he asked them what rank they held. They say: ‘Bishops.’ He invites them to sit and say why they have come. They say: ‘We have only a summons; have it read.’ John orders it to be read. They tell Theophilus's servant to read out the dictated text, and he read it. Its tenor was this: ‘The holy synod assembled at the Oak’ (the place is called so …) ‘[to John]’ [without adding] ‘bishop’; for somehow a darkened soul is apt to see things not as they follow, but to imagine what passion dictates) ‘: We have received petitions against you containing countless evils. Appear, then, [and bring with you] the presbyters …; for they are needed.’ Those who came to him were Dioscorus and Paul, lately made [bishops] in Libya, young men. After the document had been read, the bishops with Bishop John reply, informing Theophilus through three bishops, Lupicinus, Demetrius and Eulysius, and two presbyters, Germanus and Severus, all holy and notable men: ‘Do not overturn the order of the Church, and do not split the Church, for whose sake God came down in the flesh. But if, disregarding the canons of the three hundred and eighteen bishops at Nicaea, you overturn them and judge a case outside your borders, come over to us in the city that lives under law, and do not, like Cain, call Abel out into the field, so that we may hear you first. For we have petitions against you of seventy heads, containing manifest crimes; and we are more numerous than your synod, gathered by the grace of God not for the overthrow of the Church but in peace. You are thirty-six from one province; we are forty from various provinces, among whom are seven metropolitans; and it is consistent with the canons that the lesser be judged by the more numerous and more eminent. For we also have your letter, in which you instruct our fellow minister John that cases from beyond the borders must not be accepted. Obey the laws of the Church, then, and urge your accusers to give up either their accusation against you or their approach to him.’

Moved by this, John said to his bishops: ‘State what seems good to you; but it is fitting for me [to reply] to what has been [stated to me].’ And he sent back this answer: ‘Up to now I have never known that anyone had anything to say against me. But if someone has accused me and you want me to come, put out of your assembly my manifest enemies, who became hostile to me on account of [what they took as] neglect; and I do not dispute the place where I must be judged, though it ought above all to be in the city. Those whom I object to are these: Theophilus, whom I prove to have said both in Alexandria and in Lycia, “I am going to court to depose John”; and this is true, for after arriving he neither met me nor communicated with me. He who carried out the acts of an enemy before the hearing, what will he do after the trial? Likewise I prove that Acacius said, “I am cooking a pot for him.” As for Severian and Antiochus, whom divine justice will soon overtake, what need is there even to speak, since the worldly theatres sing of their seditious doings? I ask you, then, if you truly want me to come: as for these four, if they sit as judges, put them out of the council; if as accusers, set them up for the trial, so that I may know how to prepare for the contest, as against adversaries or as before judges. And I will certainly come, not only before your love but before a synod of the whole world. So know this: even if you send to me ten thousand times, you will hear nothing more from me.’

When these had gone out, a notary came hard on their heels with an imperial letter, in which [they] had asked beforehand that he be made to appear at the trial even against his will, and he pressed him to come to the trial. After the reply, [two of John's own clergy came: Eugenius, who was given a see as his wage] for the plot against Bishop John, and [Isaac, the monk] …, not to put it otherwise, saying: ‘The synod informs you: come over to us to answer the charges.’ To this John replied through other bishops: ‘By what due order will you judge, you who have not expelled my enemies, and who summon me through my own clergy?’ They seized the bishops: one they beat, another's clothes they tore off, on another they put round his neck the irons which they had prepared for the saint, so that he might be thrown into a ship like that and sent to some unknown place; for the demon had made them savage as lions. The holy man, knowing their shameless purpose, held himself back. They, [compiling dockets frailer than a spider's web] for form's sake, pronounce sentence against the blessed man, whose face they had not seen and whose voice they had not heard, in a single day [accomplishing what they had long been forging]; [such is] the demonic impulse, which does not wait for reflection. And sending a report to the emperor, they put at its head: ‘Since John, accused of certain evils and conscious of his guilt, would not appear, the laws depose such a man, and this he has now undergone. The petitions also contain a charge of treason. Let your piety, then, order that he be expelled, even against his will, and pay the penalty for treason, since it is not lawful for us to inquire into such matters.’ O thrice-wretched men, what you think and what you do! Be ashamed of doing such things, you who respect or fear not God but men. The treason was the insult to the empress, as they reported it, that he had called her Jezebel. These wonderful men reported thus, longing to see his death by the sword; but God revealed the malice lurking in them too, and softened the hearts of the rulers, as happened in Daniel's case in Babylon. For there the lions were tamed and spared Daniel, while the men … God showed up those who had become savage against nature by those who had been tamed against nature.