Dialogue on the Life of St. John Chrysostom

And Theodorus said—

Deac. Where are the bishops who were sent with our delegates, Eulysius and Palladius, and Cyriacus and Demetrius? We have heard a vague rumour that they were banished.

Bish. If my account of the career of the blessed John appears to you clear, and to contain no hidden falsehood, and if you bear in mind what I have said, I will answer any question you wish to ask.

CHAPTER XX. THE SUFFERINGS OF THE SAINTS, AND THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD

Deac. I am as fully persuaded of the truth as if I had been on the spot myself. The best proof of my acceptance of your narrative is the attention I have paid to it. While I have the recollection of it still ringing in my ears, I shall possibly commit it to writing in ink, upon a prime piece of parchment, as a memorial to our own generation, and for the benefit of those who aspire to the episcopate; so that they may either be such as was the holy John, or such as you, who have emulated the way of the martyrs on behalf of the truth, or else may give up trying to bear a burden beyond their strength, and be content with the unadventurous life of the layman.

When experienced pilots are available, it is better to pay one's fare, and get safely to port as a passenger, than to take the pilot's place oneself, and lose vessel and cargo together by shipwreck. , You have given us an account of the career of the blessed John; of the strict ordering of his life, of his splendid work in the Churches of Antioch and Constantinople, of his advancement, of the plots formed against him, and of all his bitter trials, laboriously brought upon him by ill-disposed persons in carrying out these plots. You have told us, too, about Porphyrius, and the eunuch of Ephesus. Now tell us the rest. Who died in prison? Which of those in communion with John were banished? It is but common justice that we should hold such men in memory, to encourage the living. In things which belong to earthly life, servants who for their masters' sake suffer imprisonment, or blows, or torture, are rewarded by them with kindness and emancipation; how much more do those deserve honour and good-will from the Church who suffer for the sake of Christ? The apostle says of them, "As prisoners with the prisoners, evil entreated with those that are evil entreated, as being yourselves in the body." For "right dear in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints."

Bish. Excellently spoken. Listen then. At first, a rumour was circulated that the bishops had been thrown into the sea; but the true account shows that they were sent into banishment beyond the boundaries of their native provinces, into barbarian climes, where they are still kept under the guard of the police. A deacon who had been their fellow-traveller told us on his arrival that Cyriacus was at Palmyra, the frontier fort of Persia, eighty miles further inland from Emesa ; that Eulysius of Bostra in Arabia was about three days' march away at a fort called Misphas, near the land of the Saracens; Palladius was under guard in the neighbourhood of the Blemmyans, a tribe of Ethiopians, at a place called Syene; Demetrius was far inland at Oasis—the one in the neighbourhood of the Mazici (there are other Oases)—and that Serapion, accused of countless unproved charges, sustained personal injuries from his savage judges (who went so far, it is said, as to draw his teeth), and was then banished to his own native country.

Hilarius, a holy man, advanced in years, was transported to the innermost Pontus, after being beaten, not by the judge, but by the clergy; a man who for eighteen years had not tasted bread, but lived on nothing but herbs and boiled wheat. Antonius went into voluntary exile among the caves of Palestine; Timotheus of Maroneia, and John of Lydia, are said to be in Macedonia; Rhodon of Asia made his way to Mitylene; Gregory of Lydia is said to be in Phrygia; Brisson, brother of Palladius, of his own free will left his Church, and is living on his own little farm, working the land with his own hands. Lampetius, they say, is being maintained in some place in Lydia, by one Eleutherus, and devoting himself to reading; Eugenius is in his own native country; Elpidius, the great Bishop of Laodicea, and Pappus, have spent three whole years without coming down the house-stairs, in their devotion to prayer. Heracleides of Ephesus has been confined for these four years in the prison of Nicomedeia.

As to the rest of the bishops in communion with John, some lost heart altogether, and communicated with Atticus, and were transferred to other Churches, in Thrace; others are lost to sight. Anatolius is said to be in Gaul.

To turn now to the priests; some were banished to Arabia and Palestine; Tigrius to Mesopotamia. Philip escaped to Pontus, and died; Theophilus is living in Paphlagonia; John, son of Aethrius, founded a monastery in Csesarea; Stephanus was banished to Arabia, but was taken by the Isaurians out of the hands of the guard, and allowed to go up to the Taurus district. Salustius is said to be in Crete. I understand that Philip the anchorite, priest in charge of the school, is lying sick in Campania. Sophronius the deacon is in prison in the Thebaid; Paul the deacon, the assistant steward, is said to be in Africa; another Paul, deacon of the Church of the Resurrection, is in Jerusalem. Helladius, the presbyter of the palace, is living on his own little farm in Bithynia. A large number are in hiding in Constantinople, others have gone to their own native countries. Silvanus the holy bishop is in Troas, supporting himself by fishing; Stephanus the ascetic was flogged at Constantinople, and thrown into prison for ten months, simply for having brought the letters from the Church of Rome. He was offered his freedom, on condition of communicating [with Atticus], and on his refusal had the skin most cruelly torn from his ribs and breast; I myself have seen the marks. However, in the gracious care of Christ his life was preserved, possibly for struggles yet to come, and after ten months of medical treatment he was banished to Pelusium.

A soldier named Provincialus, of the Imperial guard, accused of being a lover of John, was first flogged repeatedly and tortured unmercifully, and then banished to Petrae. A servant of Elpidius the priest accepted a bribe, they say, of fifty pieces of money, to kill the holy John by treachery, but was caught in the attempt with three swords upon his person, and injured seven of his captors one after the other. Four of them were at once buried, and three were under treatment for a long time before they recovered; yet the murderer was acquitted. The blessed Eutropius, undefiled of women, a singer, was terribly flogged, and the skin torn from his ribs and forehead; his eyebrows were torn off, and finally his ribs were laid bare on both sides, and burning oil-lamps placed against the bones, until he expired upon the rack, and was buried at midnight by the priestly perpetrators of the crime. But God bore witness to his death, by a vision of singers, in token of its likeness to the passion of the Saviour.

The deacon who came back to us from the bishops reported that the prefect's officers in charge of them treated them so badly, in accordance with instructions received from some source or other, that they prayed for death and release from life.

They robbed the bishops of every penny they had for the expenses of the journey, and divided it among themselves; they set them on bare-boned asses, and made a two days' journey into one, going on till late at night, and starting off before it was light in the morning, until their stomachs could not keep down even the meagre food allowed them. They never lost an opportunity of insulting them with foul and disgraceful language. They carried off the servant of Palladius, and compelled him to surrender his ledger. One of those in charge, who had cruelly ill-treated Demetrius, so as to reach Zibyne late in the evening, was racked with pain from head to foot, and died in agony; inspired men recognized this as the punishment for his cruelty. Palladius had told him before, as a fellow-soldier who returned informed us, that "Thou shalt not make another journey, but shalt die in misery." They would not allow them to go near a church, but lodged either in inns, where there were numbers of prostitutes, or in the synagogues of Samaritans or Jews, mostly from Tarsus; where their distress suggested to them a new thought, which had not occurred to them before. Said one of the bishops: "Why should we trouble about our lodgings? Does it lie with us where to stay, so that we can be responsible, as if we misbehaved ourselves of our own choice? Do you not know, that by all this that has happened, and will happen, God is being glorified in all things? How many of these prostitutes, who have forgotten God, or never had the knowledge of Him, have been brought by the sight of us in this condition to the fear and thought of God, and so perhaps been turned to better things, or at least been kept from plunging into worse? It is no small thing, to a reasonable soul, in a time of suffering, to have even a little respite; we must regard it as a stimulus to self-control. Paul the seer, who himself suffered like us, says: 'We are a sweet savour of Christ among them that are being saved and among them that are perishing, because we have been made a spectacle to angels and to men.'"

The local bishops in communion with Theophilus all over the East went so far in their savage cruelty, that some of them, so far from showing ordinary humanity, actually bribed the officers to get them out of the cities more speedily. The chief offenders in this respect were the Bishops of Tarsus and Antioch, Eulogius, Bishop of Caesarea in Palestine, and especially the Bishop of Ancyra, and Ammonius, Bishop of Pelusium, who made the soldiers in charge of them still more savage against them by bribes or by threats, urging them not even to allow those of the laity who wished to do so to give them hospitality.

On similar grounds the blessed John, writing to Gaius, in his Catholic epistles, condemns a certain bishop, but commends the hospitality of Gaius, and exhorts him not to imitate wicked bishops. The words are these: "Unto Gaius the beloved, whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that in all things thou may est prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth. For I rejoiced greatly, when some came and declared to me, that thou walkest in truth, and wherein thou didst refresh the saints. I have no greater joy than this." And after this he adds, "I wrote unto the Church; but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the pre-eminence among them, receiveth us not, prating against us with wicked words; and not content therewith, neither doth he himself receive the brethren, and them that would he forbiddeth, and casteth them out of the Church." A little later he gives him the advice, "Beloved, imitate not that which is evil; for he that doeth good is of God; he that doeth evil hath not seen God."

I have quoted this whole passage, relating to the wickedness of by-gone days, to pourtray the mind of the Diotrephes' of to-day.

But (my friend) praised and admired the bishops of the second Cappadocia, for their deep sympathy, even to tears, with the banished bishops; especially the most gentle Theodorus of Tyana, and Bosphorus of Coloneia, a bishop of forty-eight years' standing,, and Serapion of Ostracine, who has held the episcopal office for forty-five years.

Long was Theodorus speechless with distress, and at last said—

Deac. What shall we say to all this, father? Can it be that it is the last hour, and the falling away of which Paul speaks is being ushered in by these events, "that the son of perdition, who opposeth, may be revealed"? The thought of the wicked prospering, and succeeding in their aims, and going on for so long, and having such power, while the good are being persecuted and pillaged, fills me with dread that this person is near at hand.

Bish. Very certainly, most intelligent sir, the end is near; as we read, "Little children, it is the last hour;" and "The master of the house went out about the eleventh hour to hire labourers into his vineyard." The last hour is the twelfth; and if the apostle spoke of the last hour four hundred years ago, much more, by all showing, is it the last hour now.

Again, we have to remember that from the first these things have occurred by the permission of the Lord, for the training of the saints; the devil desires to have them, as the word of the Saviour says, "Simon, Simon, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat; but I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not." Assuredly the Lord did not pray for Simon alone, but for all who have Peter's faith; the sieve can only mean, the circle of earth filled with pleasures and pains, which form, so to speak, holes through which earthly people fall down to hell, separated as dust from nourishing grain by the perforations.

Some pass through the hole of gluttony—those "whose god is their belly"; some through that of love of pleasure, those of whom the prophet speaks, who were "led astray by the spirit of fornication"; for "neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor abusers of themselves, shall inherit the kingdom of God." Others pass through the hole of covetousness—those who have espoused the bride of idolatry; others through that of anger and passion—those who loved bestial darkness, of whom John says, "He that hateth his brother is in darkness until now," for "Anger," says the author of Proverbs, "destroys even the prudent;" others through accidie and forgetfulness, because they do not persevere in sleepless remembrance; whose address to God is, "My heart slept through weariness." "Woe unto you," the word warns them, "who have lost patience, and what will ye do when the Lord shall visit you?" Others pass through the hole of senseless ostentation; of whom the Psalmist declares, "For God hath scattered the bones of the men-pleasers;" others, again, through that of false pretension or pride, which is arrogance. It is these whom the prophet rebukes as deserters—" The proud have transgressed exceedingly, yet have I not swerved from thy law." Each of these vices is followed by others, worse than itself; pride by envy, covetousness by hatred, and stinginess and lying, passion by anger or revengefulness, insolence, and envyings; fornication by forgetfulness, deadness of conscience, idleness, indifference, unprofitable loss of sleep; vainglory by meddlesomeness, acts of bribery, idle fancies, hypocrisy, respect of persons, deceits; pride by foolish ideas, pitilessness, impiety, folly; and so on. I need not over-weight my argument by giving further illustrations, as what I have said is perfectly clear.

To each of these vices God has appointed its contrary virtue; for instance, self-control is opposed to lust, temperance to greediness, justice to covetousness, gentleness to anger, joy to sorrow, mindfulness to forgetfulness, patience to accidie, good sense to folly, courage to cowardice, humility to vainglory, and so on; and to all, holy scripture. Only to pride has He not given its contrary virtue, because of its exceeding viciousness, but has reserved Himself as its contrary, as He said, "God resisteth the proud," So, too, the prophet prays, "Lift up thine hand against their pride, even to the end," and again, "Render to the proud their desert." And just as the tree is known by its fruit (as the Lord says, "By their fruits ye shall know them"), so is each man, whether he be a saint in fact, or only in name.

This is why the happiness of the wicked is always long-continued; because God bears long with them. This is always His property; He has told us to expect it, in the part played by the afflicted saints in times past, as an encouragement to us who suffer to-day. Look first at Job, the son of patience; what says he, after much suffering? Mark it well. "As for me, is my reproof of men?" he points to his blamelessness. "Why should I not be impatient? . Look unto me, and be astonished, and lay your hand upon your mouth. For if I remember, I am troubled, and pains take hold of my flesh. Wherefore do the wicked live, and become old in riches? Their seed is according to their desire, and their children are before their eyes; their houses prosper, nowhere is fear; the rod of the Lord is not upon them. Their cow casts not her calf; she is preserved from heat; she is with young, and faileth not. They abide as sheep for ever. Their children play, taking the psaltery and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the psalm, they fulfil their life in good things, and they sleep in the rest of Hades. Yet he saith unto God, Depart from me, I desire not to know thy ways."

David the forbearing, the singer of the divine judgments, uses similar language: "I will sing to thee of mercy and judgment, O Lord." "How good is God to Israel, even unto them that are pure in heart. But my feet were almost shaken; my steps had well-nigh slipped." Why? "For I was stirred at the lawless, when I saw the peace of sinners." And in another passage he inveighs against their wealth, as follows: "Their oxen are fat, their sheep bring forth abundantly, abounding in their streets; their garners are full, affording store from this unto that; their daughters are beautiful, adorned in the likeness of a temple." And he adds, in astonishment at the harmony and peace which they enjoy, "There is no outcry in their streets, nor falling of a fence in their houses." Then he attacks the corrupted opinions of the common herd of men, saying, "They counted as blessed the people who have these things." And he adds, "Blessed is the people whose helper is the Lord God of Jacob."