Church History 8.1–8.8

Having thus greatly increased the church, Theodosius died, being about sixty years old, of which he reigned sixteen. He left as successors to the rule Arcadius, the elder of his sons, over the eastern nations, and Honorius over the western; both were of one mind with their father about religion. At that time Siricius led the church of the Romans after Damasus; Nectarius that in Constantinople; Theophilus that in Alexandria; Flavian that of the Antiochenes; and John that of Jerusalem. Meanwhile the barbarian Huns overran Armenia and some parts of the eastern empire. It was said that Rufinus, the prefect of the East, had secretly brought them in to disturb the empire, being suspected in other ways too of wishing to usurp. But he was killed not long after on this charge. For as soon as the army returned from the battle against Eugenius and the emperor met it, as was the custom, before Constantinople, the soldiers without delay killed Rufinus. These things too became an occasion for religion to advance still more. For the rulers, out of piety, thought that the victories over the usurpers had been won for their father, and that Rufinus, the plotter against their rule, had thus been removed without effort. For this reason they kept more zealously and firmly what the former emperors had decreed in favour of the churches, and added gifts of their own. And their subjects, looking to them, readily changed over to Christianity if they were pagans, while heretics went over to the catholic church. Those of the heresy of Arius and Eunomius, both because they were divided among themselves for the reasons stated above, grew fewer every time. For many, from their contrariness to one another, thought they did not believe rightly about God, and went over to those of the same belief as the rulers. Those in Constantinople who held the views of Macedonius were harmed at that time by having no bishop. For since, in the reign of Constantius, they had been deprived of the churches by Eudoxius and his party, they had continued under presbyters only until the next reign. The Novatians, even if the question about Pascha that Sabbatius introduced troubled some of them, nevertheless for the most part remained quiet in their own church. For they were not liable to the same penalties or laws as the other heresies, since they held the Trinity of the same essence; and at that time they were held together more firmly in concord by the virtue of their leaders. For after the leadership of Agelius, they had had that of Marcian, a good man; and when he had lately died at the present time, Sisinnius succeeded to his episcopate, a man as learned as any, versed in the doctrines of the philosophers and in the sacred words, and ready for debate; so that Eunomius, renowned for this and making it his business, often declined debates with him. He was chaste in life, so as to be beyond slander, but in his diet delicate and varied, so that those who did not know him doubted whether he could be chaste while living so luxuriously. His character was gracious and pleasant in company; and for this he was dear to the bishops of the catholic church and to those in office and in letters, being very well able to jest with grace and to bear jests, and to endure both without enmity, and to meet questions wittily and quickly. When asked, at any rate, why he bathed twice a day, being a bishop, he said, “Because I cannot manage three times.” When, since he always wore white clothing, one of those of the catholic church mocked him, he said to him: “Then tell me where it is said that one ought to wear black clothing.” When the other was at a loss, he answered: “You will not be able to show this; but for me Solomon the wisest advises, saying, ‘Let your garments always be white’; and Christ himself appears in the Gospels clothed in white, and shows Moses and Elijah so to the apostles.” This too of Sisinnius’s sayings seems to me graceful. Leontius, the bishop of Ancyra among the Galatians, was staying in Constantinople. Having taken away the churches of the Novatians there, he came to Sisinnius when he asked to receive them back. When he would not give them back, but reviled the Novatians as unworthy to hold assemblies, saying that they abolished repentance and the kindness that comes from God, “But indeed,” said Sisinnius, “no one repents as I do.” When Leontius asked in what way, he answered, “In that I have seen you.” They record many other aptly spoken sayings of his, and they say that many of his discourses, not without elegance, are in circulation. He was praised the more when speaking, since he delivered excellently, and with voice and look and a most graceful countenance was able to win his hearer. But let this be said of what kind of man he was, as proof of his nature, training and life.

About this time Nectarius died, and when there was deliberation as to whom they should ordain, some voted for one and some for another, and not all thought the same. There was at Antioch on the Orontes a presbyter named John, of a noble family, good in life, powerful in speech and persuasion, and surpassing the orators of his time, as Libanius the Syrian sophist bore witness. For when he was about to die, and his friends asked who would take his place, he is said to have answered, “John, had not the Christians stolen him.” He benefited very many of those who heard him in church toward virtue and made them of one mind with him about the divine. For living a godly life, he instilled in his hearers zeal for virtue; and readily so, not as though forcing them by some art or power of speech to believe as he did, but because he expounded the sacred books sincerely, as truth requires. For speech adorned by deeds naturally appears worthy of belief; but without these it shows the speaker to be a dissembler and an accuser of his own words, however earnestly he teaches. He had excellence in both: he followed a chaste way of life and a strict conduct, and a clear and splendid style of speech, for he was well endowed by nature. His teachers were Libanius for training in rhetoric and Andragathius for philosophical studies. When he was expected to plead at law and follow that career, he resolved to train himself in the sacred books and to practise philosophy according to the rule of the church. As teachers of this philosophy he had those who then presided over the famous ascetic houses there, Carterius and Diodore, who led the church of Tarsus; who, I have learned, left many books of his own writings and made his interpretations according to the letter of the sacred words, avoiding allegorical contemplations. He did not attend them alone; he persuaded two who had been his companions in Libanius’s school, Theodore and Maximus, to be of the same mind. Of these, Maximus later became bishop of Seleucia in Isauria, and Theodore of Mopsuestia in Cilicia, a man well versed in the sacred books and in the rest of the learning of orators and philosophers. When Theodore first encountered the divine laws and associated with holy men, he praised this way of life and condemned that of the city; but he did not persevere with the same zeal. Repenting, he was drawn back to his former life; and, as was likely, adorning what he desired with contrary arguments drawn from old examples — for he was very widely read — he returned to the city, judging this better, as he thought, which he desired to obtain. When John learned that he was involved in business and set on marriage, he composed a letter more divine in style and thought than is within human reach and sent it to him. Theodore, reading it, repented; and leaving his property again and renouncing marriage, he was saved by John’s counsels and returned to the philosophic life. So that from this too it seems to me easy to infer what powerful persuasion flowered in John’s words; for in this he surpassed even those equally able to speak and persuade. From this he won over the multitude too, especially because he was much given to rebuking sinners, both in church, and to showing indignation boldly against wrongdoers as if he himself had been wronged. This was naturally pleasing to the many, but grievous to the rich and powerful, among whom most sins are found. Having become famous throughout the whole Roman empire, by experience to those who knew him and by report to those who did not, from his words and deeds, he seemed to the people of Constantinople fit to oversee the church. When the people and the clergy had voted for this, the emperor agreed and sent men to bring him; and he called a synod, showing the ordination to be the more solemn by this too. Not long after, Asterius, governor of the East, receiving the emperor’s letters, told John to come to him, as if he wished to ask something of him. When he came, he at once put him in a carriage with himself, drove in haste, and came to Pagrae, a station so called; and there, handing him over to those sent by the emperor, he went back. He seemed to have managed this well, before the Antiochenes learned of it — who were prone to riots and clearly would never have parted with John willingly, before suffering or doing something. When he came to Constantinople and the priests who had been called had assembled, Theophilus opposed the ordination, being eager for Isidore. He was then a presbyter of those under him and in charge of the strangers and poor in Alexandria; and from his youth he had practised philosophy excellently in Scetis, as I have learned from men who associated with him. Others say that he had become Theophilus’s friend as a partner and accomplice in a dangerous affair. For they say that when the war against Maximus was being waged, Theophilus gave him gifts and letters to the emperor and to the usurper, and ordered him to go to Rome and await the outcome of the battle, and to give the gifts with the letters to the victor; and that, when he had done this, he was found out, and in fear returned to Alexandria as a fugitive. From that time Theophilus made the man one of his most trusted, and thought it timely to repay him for the dangers he had run on his behalf by making him bishop of Constantinople. But whether for this reason, or because he wished to ordain him as a good man, Theophilus finally agreed to what had been decided about John, being simply afraid of Eutropius, who then presided over the emperor’s household and was eager for this ordination. They say that he openly threatened him either to vote together with the other priests or to answer those who wished to accuse him; for many happened then to have brought charges against him before the synod.

When John was in the episcopate, he was eager first to correct the lives of the clergy under him; inquiring into their goings out, their diet and the rest of their conduct, he rebuked and corrected them, and some he drove out of the church. For being by nature given to rebuke, and justly indignant at wrongdoers, he gave still more scope to these passions in his episcopate. For nature, having gained power, readily set his tongue to rebuke and more easily stirred his anger against sinners. Not only the church under him, but, as a good and high-minded man, he was eager to set right the churches everywhere. At any rate, as soon as he entered on the episcopate, since the priests of Egypt and the West were still at odds with those of the East because of Paulinus, and a general want of fellowship held the churches throughout the empire on this account, he asked Theophilus to work with him and reconcile the bishop of the Romans to Flavian. This being agreed, they chose for this Acacius, bishop of Beroea, and Isidore, on whose account Theophilus had opposed John’s ordination. Coming to Rome, when their embassy had turned out as they wished, they sailed to Egypt; and from there Acacius came to Syria, bringing letters of peace from the priests of Egypt and the West to Flavian’s party. So the churches, at long last freed from this dissension, recovered communion with one another. But the body at Antioch called Eustathians remained by itself for some time, without a bishop. For Evagrius, who succeeded Paulinus, died, as we have learned, having lived a short time; and on this account, I think, reconciliation was easy for the bishops, since there was no rival. The people, as a populace will, joining little by little those who assembled under Flavian, were in time mostly united.

Meanwhile Gainas, a barbarian who had deserted to the Romans and had risen unexpectedly from a common soldier to the rank of general, attempted to bring the empire of the Romans under himself. With this design he summoned to Roman territory his kinsmen the Goths from their own lands, and appointed his friends tribunes and commanders of a thousand. When Tribigild, who was related to him by race and commanded a numerous unit of soldiers in Phrygia, revolted, it was clear to sensible people that Gainas had contrived it; but pretending to be angry that the cities there were being ravaged, he was commissioned to help them. When he came to Phrygia with a multitude of barbarians, as if come for war, he brought into the open the purpose he had concealed before. He ravaged the cities he had been ordered to guard, and was about to attack others. Coming to Bithynia, he encamped in the territory of Chalcedon and threatened war. As affairs were in danger, especially in Asia and the cities between it and the Euxine Sea, the emperor and his advisers, reckoning that it was not safe for them, unprepared as they were, to enter into danger against men who had already given up on life, sent to Gainas and told him to ask for whatever he wished; for he was ready to oblige him in everything. He demanded Saturninus and Aurelian, men of consular rank, suspecting them of being opposed to him; but having received them, he spared them. And meeting the emperor at the house of prayer before Chalcedon, in which is the tomb of the martyr Euphemia, and having received and given oaths of goodwill, he laid down his arms and crossed to Constantinople, holding from the emperor the command of infantry and cavalry. Seeming to prosper beyond his deserts, he did not bear it soberly; but since his first unreasonable success had turned out as he wished, he tried also to trouble the catholic church. For he was a Christian of the heresy of the barbarians, who hold the views of Arius. Persuaded by the leaders of this heresy, or out of ambition of his own, he asked the emperor that those of his belief might have one of the churches in the city; for it was neither just, he complained, nor otherwise fitting, that he, a general of the Romans, should have to go outside the walls to pray. When John learned this, he did not keep quiet. Taking the bishops who happened to be staying in the city, he came to the palace; and in the hearing of the emperor and in the presence of Gainas himself he poured out a long speech, reproaching him with his homeland and his flight, and how, when saved then by the emperor’s father, he had sworn to be well disposed to the Romans, to him and his children, and to the laws which he was now trying to make void. Saying this, he showed the law which Theodosius had made, forbidding those of other belief to hold assemblies within the walls. Then, turning his speech to the emperor, he persuaded him to keep in force the law enacted against the other heresies, advising that it was better to give up the empire than to commit impiety by becoming a betrayer of the house of God. Having spoken so boldly, he allowed no innovation concerning the churches under him. Gainas was already planning to break his oaths and to sack the city. Then a comet foretold this plot, appearing very great over the city and reaching almost to the earth itself, such as is said never to have appeared before. He tried first to attack the silversmiths’ shops, hoping to collect a great quantity of money from there. When a rumour arose that this had been planned, and the silversmiths hid their ready wealth and no longer displayed the silver on their tables in public as usual, he sent a multitude by night and ordered them to burn the palace. But they came back without success, cowering. For as they came near, they seemed to see a multitude of armed men of great stature. Supposing it to be a newly arrived army, they reported to Gainas. He, knowing that no more than the usual soldiers were staying in the city, would not believe what was said. But when those sent the next night reported the same as the first, he went himself and became an eyewitness of the marvellous sight. Thinking that soldiers from the other cities had gathered on his account, guarding the city and the palace by night and hiding by day, he pretended to be possessed by a demon; and as if to pray he went to the church which the emperor’s father had built at the Hebdomon in honour of John the Baptist. Of the barbarians, some remained within, others went out with Gainas. They secretly carried arms out with them in women’s carriages, and jars of missiles. When they were found out, they killed the guards of the gates who tried to prevent the carrying out of the arms. From this the city was full of confusion and uproar, as if about to be taken at once. But good counsel prevailed in the present dangers. For the emperor without delay proclaimed Gainas a public enemy and ordered the barbarians left in the city to be killed. The soldiers attacked them and killed most of them, and set fire to the church called that of the Goths; for they happened to have gathered there, as in their usual house of prayer, and could no longer flee, since the gates had been shut. When Gainas learned this, he marched through Thrace and came to the Chersonese, and was eager to cross the Hellespont; for he thought that if he gained Asia opposite, he would easily bring under himself all the nations of the eastern empire. But things turned out contrary to his hopes, the Romans having divine help here too. For an army sent by the emperor was there by land and sea, led by Fravitta, a barbarian by race but good in character and a capable general. The barbarians, having no ships, tried to sail across the Hellespont on rafts to the mainland opposite. But suddenly a strong west wind blew and violently broke up the rafts, and drove the Roman ships against them. Most of the barbarians went under with their horses; others were killed by the soldiers. Gainas, escaping then with a few, not long after, wandering and fleeing through Thrace, fell in with another army and perished with the barbarians about him. This was the end of Gainas’s daring and of his life. Fravitta, having distinguished himself in this battle, was appointed consul. At that time, when he and Vincent were consuls, a son was born to the emperor named after his grandfather; and at the beginning of the following consulship he was proclaimed Augustus.

John, governing the church of Constantinople excellently, brought over many of the pagans and many from the heresies. A crowd streamed to him every time, some to hear him for their benefit, others to test him. He won them all over and persuaded them to believe as he did about the divine. The multitude so hung upon him and could not have enough of his words, that, when they were in danger as they pushed and crushed one another, each forcing his way further forward so as to stand near and hear him more precisely as he spoke, he put himself in the middle of all and taught sitting on the readers’ platform. It seems to me timely to include in my writing the miracle that happened in his time. A man of the Macedonian heresy lived with a wife of the same belief. Happening to hear John teaching how one ought to believe about God, he approved the doctrine, and urged his wife to believe as he did. When she was overcome by her former habit and the conversations of the women she knew, and her husband admonished her often and accomplished nothing, he said, “Unless you share the divine things with me, you will not share my life any longer.” Then the wife, agreeing to do this, confided in one of her maidservants whom she thought faithful, and took her to deceive her husband. At the time of the mysteries — those who are initiated know what I mean — she, holding what she had received, bent down as if to pray. The maidservant, standing by her, secretly gave her what she had come with in her hands; but it hardened into stone between her teeth. The woman, terrified lest she suffer some harm, since so divine a thing had happened to her, ran to the bishop and confessed herself, and showed the stone, which bore the mark of the bite, of an unknown material and showing a strange colour. Asking pardon with tears, she lived with her husband sharing his belief. If this seems incredible to anyone, the stone itself is a witness, being kept to this day among the treasures of the church of Constantinople.

John, learning that the churches in Asia and round about were governed by unworthy men, and that some, led on by gain and bribes, others by favour, were selling the priesthoods, came to Ephesus. He deposed thirteen bishops, some in Lycia and Phrygia, others in Asia itself, and appointed others in their place; and for the church of the Ephesians — for its bishop at that time happened to have died — he appointed Heraclides, a Cypriot by birth, a deacon of the monks of Scetis under him, a disciple of Evagrius the monk. He also expelled Gerontius from the church of the Nicomedians. For this man, serving as deacon under Ambrose, bishop of Milan, whether — I know not what happened to him — telling marvels, or led on by the zeal of a demon and by fantasies, said to some that he had caught an onoskelis by night, shaved its head and thrown it into a mill. Since he had uttered things unworthy of a deacon of God, Ambrose ordered him to keep to himself for a time and be purified by repentance. But he, being an excellent physician, most ready in speaking and persuading, and able to win friends, came to Constantinople as if laughing at Ambrose. In a short time he made friends of some of the powerful at the palace, and not long after was entrusted with the episcopate of the Nicomedians. He was ordained by Helladius, bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, in return for having obtained a distinguished post in the palace service for his son. When Ambrose learned this, he wrote to Nectarius, head of the church of Constantinople, to take the priesthood from Gerontius and not overlook the insult to himself and to church order. But though Nectarius was very zealous about it, it proved impossible, since the Nicomedians to a man resisted manfully. John deposed him and ordained Pansophius, who had been tutor to the emperor’s wife, a pious man, moderate and gentle in character, but not to the liking of the Nicomedians. They rioted often, recounting publicly and to one another Gerontius’s benefactions, the abundant help of his medical skill, and his generosity and readiness toward all, rich and poor alike. To these they added his other virtues, as those who love naturally do. And as in earthquakes or droughts or other visitations of God, they went about the streets of their own city and of Constantinople singing psalms and beseeching God to have him as bishop. At last, compelled, they parted from him with mourning and lamentation, and received the other with fear and hatred. From this those who had been deposed and their friends accused John of having been the author of innovation in the churches and of having altered the rights of ordination contrary to ancestral laws; and out of vexation they even maligned, in the opinion of the many, what he had done that was worthy of mention. Indeed, what happened at that time in the case of Eutropius was also brought into the midst.

For this man, chief of the emperor’s eunuchs, was the first and only one we know or have heard of to be honoured with the rank of consul and of patrician. Since, in his present power, he did not consider the future or the reversals that happen in human affairs, he tried to drag out of the church those who had fled to God as suppliants and were staying there on his account, and especially Pentadia, the wife of Timasius. This man, who had been a powerful and most formidable general, Eutropius had punished with perpetual exile to the Oasis in Egypt, bringing against him a charge of aiming at tyranny. But he, either distressed by thirst, as I learned from someone, or fearing to suffer something worse, wandered in the sands there and was found dead. Through Eutropius’s efforts a law was made ordering that no one should anywhere take refuge in a church, and that those who had already fled there should be driven out. But not long after, being plotted against as having insulted the emperor’s wife, he himself was the first to transgress the law; escaping from the palace, he took refuge as a suppliant in the church. Then, as he lay under the holy table, John delivered a splendid speech against him, pulling down the pride of those in power and showing the people that nothing human tends to remain the same. Those who hated John maligned this too, as though he rebuked, trampling on his misfortunes, a man in danger of his life whom he ought to have pitied. But Eutropius paid the full penalty for this impious attempt, having his head cut off, and the law that had been made was wholly erased from the public records. The church was greatly distinguished, as God had quickly avenged the wrongs done against it, and it advanced in the service of the divine. The people of Constantinople then used the morning and night hymns more zealously, for the following reason.

Since those of the Arian heresy, deprived of the churches in Constantinople in the reign of Theodosius, held their assemblies before the walls, they used first to gather by night in the public porticoes, and, divided into groups, sang in the manner of antiphons, composing refrains made according to their own belief. Toward dawn, singing these in public, they went away to the places where they held their assemblies. They did this on the notable feasts and on the first and last days of the week. At last they even added to their songs things meant for strife, such as “Where are those who say that the three are one power?” and other such things mixed into their hymns. John, fearing lest some of those who assembled under him be led away by these, urged his own people to the same manner of psalmody. In a short time, having become more conspicuous, they surpassed those of the opposite heresy in numbers and in display. For silver crosses with lighted candles went before them; and a eunuch of the emperor’s wife had been appointed for this, providing the expense of these things and the hymns. From this those of the Arian heresy, either from jealousy or in retaliation, came to blows with those of the catholic church; and some were killed on each side. Brison — for that was the name of the imperial eunuch — was struck on the forehead with a stone. The emperor, moved to anger, stopped such gatherings of the heretics. Those of the catholic church, who began to sing hymns in the manner described for this reason, have continued so to this day. From these things and from his sermons in church, the people’s affection for John increased; but the hatred of the powerful and of the clergy toward his boldness of speech grew. For seeing wrongdoers he rebuked them, and he tried to lead those corrupted by wealth, impiety and unlawful pleasures back to virtue.