Dialogue on the Life of John Chrysostom 9–10

[Bishop:] So John was thrust out of the Church, a count being sent with military help, as if against a barbarian battle line. After his expulsion he reached the [estate] near Praenetus [in Bithynia]; [and after a single day] some disaster took place in the [imperial] bedchamber. Frightened by this, they [recall] John a few days later through a notary of their own, restoring him to his own throne. So Theophilus, with the Egyptians, found safety in flight; for the city was seeking to throw him into the sea. Two months later they [stirred up war] against John again; and, finding no plausible starting point, they send to the sophist of [such things] at Alexandria, informing him: ‘Either come again to lead the campaign against John, or, if you are afraid of this because of the people, suggest some way to us by which we may make a beginning.’ To this Theophilus did not come himself, knowing how he had escaped, but sent three wretched bishops, Paul, Poemen and another newly ordained, sending along with them also certain canons which [the Arians] had made against the blessed Athanasius, so that, using these canons, they might weave a case against John as having re-entered [his see] on his own authority after his deposition. For he is impetuous by nature, rash, bold and quarrelsome beyond measure: there is nothing that strikes his sight toward which he does not rush uncontrollably faster than he should, waiting neither for judgement nor for reflection about it. Driven by an irrational impulse, he moves in disorder to assent to it, always eager to show his own judgement and vote victorious and prevailing. And they do this knowing his character. For they summoned whole [bodies of] metropolitans and bishops from Syria, Cappadocia, the Pontic diocese and Phrygia and gathered them in Constantinople. When these arrived, they communicated with John according to the order of the canons, so as not to do the same as the first group. On learning this, the powerful were indignant at their communion. Theodore, the bishop of Tyana, a man of dignity, understanding the plot from what came to his ears, and not wishing, by deserting everyone, to abandon his own Church, bade a long farewell to the court and made his province secure with the wall of piety, remaining to the end in the communion of the faithful Romans, to whom Paul bears witness when he says, ‘Your faith [is proclaimed] in the whole world.’ Pharetrius of Caesarea near Argaeus, frightened out of his wits, as small children are of bogeys, did not even leave his own city, but sides with the opponents by letter, though he had not even been called into the dispute, behaving boorishly about his primacy through ignorance of better things. Leontius of Ancyra in Galatia, in league with Ammonius …, … the Church. Not only overcome by the threats of the powerful, but deceived, on the contrary, by the hope of imperial gifts, they bring forward at the second synod a wicked opinion to Acacius and [Antiochus] and their party: that Theophilus's verdict, given without trial, should stand, and that John should be given no opportunity at all to defend himself, on the plea of the canons sent by Theophilus, which the forty bishops of the [Arian] communion had decreed, writing: ‘If any bishop or presbyter, deposed justly or unjustly, enters the Church on his own authority without a synod, such a one shall no longer have any opportunity of defence, but shall be wholly thrust out.’ This canon, as lawless and laid down by lawless men, was ostracized at Sardica by Romans, Italians, Illyrians, Macedonians and Greeks, as you know better than I, Theodore of great name, when Liberius or Julius, under the emperor Constans, received Athanasius into communion, and Marcellus the Galatian, on whose account that canon had been laid down.

The pair of those wonderful men, Ammonius and Leontius, [joining Acacius, Antiochus and Cyrinus of Chalce]don and Severian, went in to the emperor and informed him that ten bishops of John's party should be summoned (they were more than forty) to settle the matter of the canons, the one side insisting that they were canons of the orthodox, the other proving that they were Arian. Elpidius of Laodicea in Syria, old in soul and in grey hairs, and Tranquillus, with their party, went in and urged the emperor that John must not be expelled without reason: ‘For neither was he deposed the first time, but thrust out by the count; nor did he return on his own authority, but by command of your piety, a notary having been sent. And now the canons they bring forward we show to be canons of heretics.’ When those opposed to John persisted in their disorderly wrangling, some with louder voices, others agitated, with heaving chests, rising boldly up before the emperor, the most law-abiding Elpidius, when a little calm had come, gently said to the emperor: ‘Emperor, let us not trouble your gentleness much longer; let this be done: let our brother Acacius and Antiochus and their party sign that the canons they put forward are canons of the orthodox, [and that they are] of the [same faith as those who issued them]; [then] our dispute [is over].’ The emperor, noting the simplicity of the proposal, said with a slight smile to Antiochus: ‘Nothing could be more useful than this.’ In all that happened the emperor was not to blame; it was others who did the opposite of what had been well laid down. Bewildered, then, and whirling against one another like disordered water, Severian's party, at what had been so wisely said and at the emperor's decision, were held … their colour turning livid; yet, constrained by the necessity of the place, they promised to sign, unwilling though they were. Having gone out thus, they do not fulfil the promise, but [consider] how John might be thrust out.

While matters were being carried on in various ways, nine or ten months went by, Bishop John holding services with the forty-two bishops, and the people enjoying his teaching with great cheerfulness. For somehow a mind free of vainglory [speaks] more gracefully and more powerfully in hard times. [Then the] fast [came], like spring, arriving after a year. Antiochus and his party went in privately again and informed the emperor that John had lost his case, so that he might order him to be expelled, since Easter was at hand; and the emperor, harassed by them and under necessity, believed them, as bishops. For one who is truly a presbyter or bishop knows no falsehood; for these names belong to the higher realm, since nothing is more ‘elder’ (presbyteros) than God, nor more ‘overseeing’ (episkopos); for God is the one who oversees, that is beholds, all things. The bishop or presbyter, then, as he shares the names, so ought he to share the realities. And [the emperor] informs John: ‘Go out of the Church.’ He replies: ‘I received this Church from God the Saviour, for the care of the people's salvation, and I cannot abandon it. But if you wish this (for the city belongs to you), thrust me out by force, so that I may have your authority as my defence against the charge of desertion.’ So, with a certain respect, they sent from the palace and thrust him out, ordering him to stay meanwhile in the bishop's house, since they were looking out for a possible sign of God's wrath: if anything grievous happened to them, they would quickly bring him back into the Church and propitiate the Divine; if not, they would attack him again, as Pharaoh did Moses.

Meanwhile the day of the Great Sabbath arrived, on which the Saviour, crucified, despoiled Hades. Again they tell him, ‘Go out of the Church.’ He makes the fitting reply. The emperor, then, fearing the sanctity of the day and the commotion of the city, sends for Acacius and Antiochus and says to them: ‘What ought to be done? Take care that you are not giving me wrong counsel.’ Then these noble and over-bold men said to the emperor: ‘Emperor, on our head be John's deposition.’ As a last resort, the bishops who were with John, equal in number to the days of the holy fast, went to the emperor and the empress at the martyrs' shrines, begging with tears that they would spare the Church of Christ, especially because of [Easter and those prepared for baptism] …; so that the holy Paul of Crateia said with fearless freedom: ‘Eudoxia, fear God, and have pity on your children; do not outrage the feast of Christ by the shedding of blood.’ The forty bishops returned and kept vigil in their lodgings, some with tears, some with grief, others overcome in mind by an irresistible stupor, as passion steered each one.

But John's presbyters, who had the fear of God, [gathered the people] in the public bath called [after Constantius], some reading the divine oracles, others baptizing the catechumens, as was fitting [on that night]. … with destruction and deceit of mind, Antiochus, Severian and Acacius and their party [went] to their own patrons, asking that the people be prevented from assembling there. The magister of the time objected, saying: ‘It is night, and there are great crowds; something untoward may happen.’ Acacius and his party retort: ‘No one has stayed in the churches, and we are afraid that the emperor may go into the church, find no one, perceive the people's goodwill toward John, and condemn us as envious, especially since we told him that there is no one at all who gladly attends to him, as an implacable man.’ So the magister gives them a certain Lucius, said to be a pagan, commander of the regiment of shield-bearers, ordering him to go gently and call the people into the church. He went, was not heeded, and returned to Acacius and his party, describing the determination and the density of the people. After this they urgently entreat him, pressing him with golden words and the promise of greater promotion, to obstruct the glory of the Lord, instructing him either to persuade them by word and bring them to the church, or to throw them into confusion by force and stop the feast of the assembly. He at once took along clergy of Acacius's party and went out at the second watch of the night on the errand for which he had been sent. (For in our parts they keep the people [at the vigil] until first cockcrow.) He had with him sword-bearing Thracian recruits, four hundred, like Esau's, utterly shameless; and he leapt on them suddenly in the night with the clergy who showed the way and the soldiers, boldly, like a wolf, cleaving the crowds with flashing steel. He advanced into the blessed waters to stop those who were being initiated into the resurrection of the Saviour, and, violently shoving the deacon, he spills the symbols; and striking on the head with clubs the presbyters, who were already elderly, he mingles the font with blood. Then one could see that angelic night, in which even the demons fall down cowering, turned into a labyrinth. Naked women fled with the men, [afraid of being killed or dishonoured] …; one man, struck on the hand, went off lamenting; another dragged off a virgin, tearing her clothes … So those of the presbyters and deacons who were seized were thrown into prison; and the others … into the church. Decrees were posted one after another from place to place, containing various threats against those who refused [to renounce] John's communion. Nevertheless, though these things were happening, and the so-called bishops were [devising] more from outside, the assembly of those who loved his teaching, or rather who loved God, did not cease; but, as is said in Exodus, the more they killed them, the more they became.

Next day, then, the emperor went out to exercise in the plain nearby and saw the unsown ground around the Pempton clad in white; struck by the sight of the flower of the newly enlightened (there were about three thousand), he asked the guards: ‘What is this gathering of people assembled there?’ They lied and said, ‘Heretics’, to divert the emperor's anger. Learning of this at once, the agents of the business and patrons of envy send back the most ruthless of their followers to scatter the hearers and arrest the teachers. These came and again seized a few of the clergy but more of the laity.

And Theodore said: Most blessed Father, since there were so many of them that the newly baptized alone numbered three thousand, how did those [few] soldiers get the better of them and break up the gathering?

Bishop: That is no sign of fewness, nor proof of lack of zeal, but a gain in piety and a demonstration of the care of the teachers, who constantly corrected any inclination to fight.

Theodore said: Excellently said; for it was not fitting that those who learned prudence and gentleness from the holy John should take his part foolishly and in disorder.

Bishop: I am glad of this, then. I beg you, do not cut short the words born of evil events; for, as a rule, events seem to give birth to words. Along with the clergy and laity who were seized, wives of distinguished men were also arrested. Of some they snatched the veils, of others they tore off the earrings together with the lobe of the ear; so that, seeing this, the wife of a certain Eleutherius, a very wealthy woman, [threw off her veil and, dressed as a slave, ran] through the city for the safety of her chastity; for she was, as it happened, clothed in a blooming form and a comely figure. In this way the prisons of the various magistrates were filled and turned into churches: hymns and offerings of the mysteries [were made] in the prisons, while in the churches [scourgings and tortures and] dreadful oaths vied with one another in anathematizing John, who until death was the enemy of the devil's wickedness.

When Pentecost was over, five days later, Acacius, Severian, Antiochus and Cyrinus and their party went in to the emperor and said to him: ‘Emperor, you are placed by God not under authority but in authority over all, and you may do whatever you wish. Do not be milder than presbyters and holier than bishops. We said to you before everyone: On our head be John's deposition. Do not, then, spare one man and fail to spare all of us.’ With Jewish words, and perhaps Jewish deeds, they won the emperor over. So the emperor sent Patricius the notary and informs John as follows: ‘Acacius, Antiochus, Severian and Cyrinus have taken the judgement against you upon their own heads. Commit your affairs to God, then, and go out of the Church.’

So Bishop John came down from the bishop's house with the bishops, after this clear and unshadowed statement, and says to all: ‘Come, let us pray and take leave of the angel of the Church’; rejoicing at the matter, but grieving at the ill-treatment of the people. At once one of the God-loving men in power sends word to John: ‘Lucius, a reckless man with a shameless face, is waiting in the public bath with the soldiers under him, so that, if you resist or delay, he may drag you out and expel you against your will; and the people of the city are in commotion. Hurry and go out unnoticed, lest the people take your part and join battle with the soldiers.’ Then John kissed some of the bishops with tears (his feelings would not even allow him to kiss the others) and took his leave, saying to the rest, inside the vestry: ‘Stay here for a while, so that I may go and rest a little.’ He went into the baptistery and called Olympias, who never left the Church, with Pentadia and Procla the deaconesses, and Silvina, the wife of the blessed Nebridius, who adorned her widowhood with decorum, and says to them: ‘Come here, daughters, and listen to me. My affairs are at an end, as I see; I have finished my course, and perhaps you will not see my face any more. This is what I beg of you: let none of you be cut off from your accustomed goodwill toward the Church; and whoever is brought to ordination without seeking it, without having striven for the office, and with the consent of all, bow your heads to him as to John; for the Church cannot be without a bishop. And so may you find mercy; remember me in your prayers.’ Overwhelmed with tears they rolled at his feet. Then, beckoning to one of the reverend presbyters, he says: ‘Take them away from here, so that they do not disturb the crowds.’ So, after being held back a little, they seemed to give way to him.

And so he went out by the east side, for there was nothing of the west about him; while on the west side, where the gateway of the church is, he ordered the mount on which he usually rode to stand before the gate, to draw off the people who were expecting him from there. The angel of the Church too went out with him, not bearing the desolation of the Church, which the principalities and powers of wickedness had wrought, making it like a theatre … For as in a theatre, Jews and pagans jeered without measure; as in a prison, there were blows and tortures applied to the body by the soldiers …; [and] distraction of the whole power of the soul, both because the teacher had been taken away and because of the blasphemy against the Divine: for where there was forgiveness of sins, there bloodshed took place.

After that unspeakable and indescribable darkness, a flame appeared from the middle of the throne on which John used to sit, like the heart lying in the middle of the body, to expound the oracles of the Lord to the other members; and it sought the interpreter of the word. Not finding him, it [consumed the room of the vessels, and, spreading] like a tree, crept up through the chains to the roof; and, like a viper that has eaten through the belly, it was carried onto the backs of the church's buildings, God as it were paying the wages of injustice, the punishment appointed for it, for the correction and admonition of those who do not know how to be admonished except by the sight of such evils sent from God; and not only that, but leaving behind a memorial of the savage synod. And it is no wonder about the church, since the fire also wisely ravaged the building called by outsiders the Senate, which lay many paces away opposite the church to the south, passing over the market crowd between them like a bridge; and it did not first catch the part near the church, so that we might not ascribe the disaster to proximity, but the part toward the court of the emperors, so that the wonder of the thing might show that the [punishment] was sent from God. For one could see the people passing unharmed between two mountains of fire about their own business. So the fire flew about, surging like the sea fanned by a violent south wind, advancing as if under orders, seizing unsparingly the surrounding buildings, and spared only the small house in which the mass of the sacred vessels was stored, not out of respect for the gold or the rest of the silver, but so as not to give the slanderers room for a lie against the righteous man, as though he had appropriated some of the finest things. Thus moving, the fire blazed backward, tracking out the envy of those who did these things, to the conviction of the madness of Theophilus, who somewhere makes out that he had expelled him on account of the treasures. And no life was lost by the fire in such crowds, rational or irrational; but the filth of those who lived accursedly there was washed away by the power of the fire, from the sixth hour until the ninth, in three hours of daylight.