Dialogue on the Life of St. John Chrysostom

After Palladius arrived Germanus, a priest, and with him Cassianus, a deacon, of John's party, both discreet men, presenting letters from the whole of John's clergy. They wrote that their Church had been subjected to violence and tyranny; their bishop had been expelled with the help of the military, and sent into exile through a plot formed by Acacius of Berea, Theophilus of Alexandria, Antiochus of Ptolemais, and Severianus of Gabala. They also presented a receipt, showing that they had deposited with the magistrates, as witnesses to the deed, namely, Studius the city prefect, Eutychianus, chief of the guard, John the city treasurer, and Eustathius, chief of police, and keeper of the records, valuables in gold, silver, and clothing, by way of clearing Bishop John of the charges laid against him.

After these came Demetrius, Bishop of Pisinum, for the second time, from a long journey through the east. He announced that the Roman Church was in communion with Bishop John, as shown by letters from Pope Innocent, and brought letters from the bishops of Caria, in which they declared their adherence to the communion of John, and from the bishops of Antioch, appealing to the love of order of the Roman Church, and lamenting the ordination of Porphyrius, as illegally and impiously performed.

Last of all came the priest Domitian, steward of the Church of Constantinople, and one Vallagas, a Nisibian priest, who related the troubles of the monasteries of Mesopotamia, and presented memoranda from one Optatus, the prefect, showing that respectable women of the upper classes, deaconesses of the Church of Constantinople, were publicly brought before him, and compelled either to communicate with Arsacius, or to pay two hundred pounds in gold to the treasury. As for the treatment of anchorites and virgins, I dare not speak of that. They could point to ribs scraped upon the rack, and mutilated ears.

Pope Innocent could restrain himself no longer; he sent a letter to the pious King Honorius, submitting in detail the main points of the letters. His reverence was deeply moved by this statement, and ordered a synod of the western bishops to be summoned, which should pass an unanimous resolution, to be transmitted to him. The bishops of Italy accordingly met, and petitioned the king to write to his brother and fellow-king Arcadius, that he should command a synod to be held in Thessalonica. This would enable those from both hemispheres, east and west alike, to attend without difficulty, and so secure that a full synod, characterized by good judgment rather than by numbers, should issue an indisputable resolution. His reverence was so much inflamed by this letter, that he wrote to the Bishop of Rome, that he had sent five bishops, two priests, and one deacon, of Rome, to convey his letter to his brother. The import of this letter was as follows:—

"This is the third time that I write to your gentleness, begging you to take measures for redress in regard to the plot against John, Bishop of Constantinople, and so far as it appears, nothing has been done. Once more, then, I address you, by the hands of the bishops and priests, in my anxiety for the peace of the Church, upon which the peace of your kingdom depends, urging you to be so good as to command that the bishops of the cast shall meet at Thessalonica. I may add that our bishops of the west have made careful choice of messengers, beyond the influence of malice or deceit—five bishops, two priests, and a deacon, of the greatest Church, that of Rome. Be so good as to hold them worthy of all honour, so that either they may be convinced that Bishop John was justly expelled, and instruct me to separate from communion with him; or else, if they prove that the bishops of the east were deliberately influenced by malice, they may induce you to break off communion with them. To show you the mind of the westerns in regard to Bishop John, I append two of the various letters they have addressed to me, which are of the same import as the rest; those of the bishops of Rome and of Aquileia. But what I specially press upon your gentleness is, that you require the presence, however unwilling, of Theophilus of Alexandria, who is alleged to be the chief cause of all the trouble; that so the bishops assembled in synod may meet with no hindrance in deciding upon the peaceful settlement which our times require."

CHAPTER IV. THE BISHOP BEGINS HIS NARRATIVE

So the holy bishops Aemilius of Beneventum and Cythegius, and Gaudentius, with the priests Valentianus and Bonifacius and others, took charge of the letters of Innocent and the Italian bishops, Chromatius of Aquileia and Venerius of Milan and the rest, and of a memorandum from the synod of the whole of the west, and were despatched to Constantinople at public expense, accompanied by Bishops Cyriacus, Demetrius, Palladius, and Eulysius. The memorandum was to the effect that John ought not to come up for judgment until his Church and rights of communion were restored to him; so that he might take his place in the synod of his own free will, without any excuse for ignoring the summons.

They arrived safely at Constantinople, but returned after four months, reporting proceedings which recalled Babylonian oppression. "We coasted Greece," they said, "and reached Athens; where we were detained by some wretched officer, who at once put us under the guard of a centurion, and forbad us to proceed to Thessalonica," where they proposed to commence their mission by presenting the letters to Bishop Anysius. "So he embarked us," the narrator continued, "in two ships, and sent us off. A violent storm from the south came on, and we were three days without food, crossing the Aegean Sea and the straits, and at the twelfth hour of the third day anchored before the city, near the suburb of Victor. Here we were arrested by the harbour masters, by whose orders we did not know, and taken to the outskirts of the city. We were confined in a fortress in Thrace, called Athyra, near the sea, to our absolute torture; the Roman envoys together in one small building, Cyriacus and his companions in others, without even a slave to wait upon us. We were asked for our letters, but refused to surrender them, maintaining that it was impossible for us as delegates to present the letters of the king and the bishops to other than the king himself. As we persisted in our refusal, we were visited first by Patricius, a notary, then by various others, and last of all by a company captain named Valerianus, a Cappadocian, who broke the thumb of Bishop Marianus, and carried off the sealed letter of the king, with the other letters.

"On the following day, messengers were sent to us (whether by members of the royal court, or by Atticus, who was reported to have leaped upon the throne of the Church, we do not know), offering us three thousand cash, and urging us to accept their offer, and to communicate with Atticus, and say no more about the case of John. We refused the offer, and continued in prayer, that if we could do nothing to bring about peace, we might at least return in safety to our Churches—such was the ferocity we observed in them. That this should be so, God the Saviour made clear to them by various revelations. Paul, the deacon of the holy Emmelius, a very gentle and sensible man, while on the ship, saw a vision of Paul the apostle, saying to him, 'Take heed how ye walk, not as fools, but as wise, knowing that the days are evil.' The dream was a warning against their various unprincipled efforts to persuade us to pervert the truth, by bribes and flattery."

"Captain Valerianus came again," our informant said, "and placed us on board a very poor vessel, with a guard of twenty soldiers drawn from different ranks, after bribing the skipper, so it was rumoured, to get rid of his episcopal passengers, and packed us from Athyra at a moment's notice. So we sailed for a long distance, and were like to lose our lives, when we moored off Lampsacus; there we were transhipped, and on the twentieth day brought up at Hydrun in Calabria. As to the whereabouts of the blessed Bishop John, or where were the Bishops Demetrius, Cyriacus, Eulysius, and Palladius, who had accompanied our bishops upon their mission, they could tell us nothing."

Bish. Come now, you have had your say, most reverent sir. Now give me your attention, and listen carefully to what I have to tell you; and I will make known to you point by point the public disturbances, worthy of a company of satyrs, which have characterized the whole tragedy, and the sources from which the delirium arose, and the point at which our enemies expected to stop—but they have not stopped yet. Well, the fountain-head and beginning of all the troubles, I suppose one must say, was the devil, the hater of good, who always opposes the reasonable flocks of Christ, pitilessly harassing the experienced shepherds with various kinds of torments, just as the King of Egypt treated the male children of the Jews, and seducing the impostors, the false shepherds, with the deceits of earthly pleasures. The channels conveying the foul effluence, as all the round world knows, are Acacius, Antiochus, Theophilus, and Severianus, who are called what they are not, and really are what they cannot bear to be called; and some of the clerical order, two priests and five deacons, some of them gathered from the unclean, some from the malicious—I do not know if one can safely call such people priests or deacons. Then there are two, or at the most three, from the royal court, who strengthened Theophilus' party, lending them the support of the military; and three women, besides those who are well known, widows, left wealthy, possessed of money made by extortion, to the loss of their own salvation, husband-baiters and disturbers of the peace. The three are Marsa, wife of Promotus, Castricia, wife of Saturninus, and Eugraphia, an absolute maniac. For very shame, I will say no more. These are the men and the women, sluggard-hearted in the matter of the faith, who have formed themselves into a kind of drunken regiment, united in their hatred of Christian teaching, and have organized a flood of destruction against the peace of the Church.

Deac. I understand. Now then, father, I beg you to tell us, as in the presence of God, why they hated Bishop John, and what grounds he had for persistently vexing such highly placed people; and let us know where he began his career, and how he reached the episcopal throne of Constantinople, and how long he held office, and his character, and how he came to his death, if it is true that, as we hear, he has fallen asleep. True, the man is universally held in respect and honourable memory; still, I make it a rule not to believe hastily in rumours, until their truth is confirmed by those who have sufficient knowledge to bestow blame or praise.

Bish. I commend your love of accuracy, most truth-loving gentleman and man of God, Theodorus, but I do not accept your distinction. You ought to have been satisfied (excuse a personal remark) by the sight of my white hairs, and by the office I hold, that you had the truth laid before you; but as you have not done so, but a second time call God to be my judge, do promise me an unprejudiced hearing, at least from now, and let me not pipe my chants to no purpose. I know what is written in the divine law—" The Lord shall destroy all them that speak leasing," and in the apostle John, "He who speaketh a lie is not of God," and again in David, "For the mouth of them that speak lies is stopped." It is true that a liar does harm to the man who believes him; but it is also true that he who believes him does wrong to the liar, by being ready to trust him. As both are equally guilty, let neither of us do wrong to his neighbour. It is a virtue in a speaker, to speak the truth, and a virtue in a hearer, to test unrighteous statements; for the Scripture says, "Be ye reliable money-changers," rejecting the spurious from among the genuine coins. We are not to receive everything we hear merely because it rings true, but to weigh it by the testimony of the facts, whether it be spoken or written, with a good conscience, and in the fear of God. Grave is the danger from ears and tongue; this is why God, the good artificer, has caused the tongue to be guarded by two lips, and fixed the rampart of the teeth within, as a secure defence to moderate its activity (as it is written, "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, a door of confinement about my lips, that I offend not with my tongue "), while He has bored the channel of the ears in spiral form. The significance of this shape is, that words do not enter too quickly, as the time occupied by their winding course is sufficient to deposit the crass matter of falsehood, and the sludge of malice, which arc left upon the walls of the orifice. Not that these were the only organs upon which He bestowed His care, as though they were the only ones that trip; we find that He has set veils before the eyes, like window curtains, to keep them from admitting the death of licentiousness, to which the prophet bears witness in the words, "Death ascended. through the doors."

Deac. If our inquiry dealt with ordinary matters, most holy father, your appearance would have been enough to guarantee the truth of your account; but as we are in quest of the truth, in a matter which involves no small blame in this world, and condemnation in the next, when rulers and peoples arc gathered before the awful tribunal, pardon me, my dear sir, if I do not accept your white hairs as evidence. Many bad men have reached old age, men who have not whitened their souls with virtue, but wrinkled their bodies with the lapse of time; such as were the false priests at Babylon, and Ephraim, in Jeremiah, of whom the Word cries in reproof, "Ephraim is a silly dove, having no heart; grey hairs have blossomed forth upon him, but he himself knoweth it not." And again, more severely, "Ephraim is a cake not turned, and strangers have devoured his strength."

And I must add, at the risk of being prolix, who is whiter, or more amiable, than Acacius of Berea, whom you and your friends accuse of being the rebel chief, and the leader of the revolutionaries in misbehaviour? Yet his very nostrils bore a crop of long white hairs, when he visited Rome to bring the formal announcement of the ordination of John.

Bish. Now I know for certain, that you are a reliable money-changer; you are not content with the look of the tent-skins, but insist upon full knowledge of the man who lives inside. The temples of the Egyptians, we know, are very large, and glory in the magnificence of their stones, but have within them apes, and ibises, and dogs, which pass as gods; while our Lord and God, in making known to Samuel His will as to the appointment of a ruler for Israel, instructs him not to look upon the condition and moulding of the body of clay, with the words, "God seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh upon the countenance, but God upon the heart." Hence those who follow the example of God, in everything search out what lies beneath the surface. So I gladly trust myself to you, now that I have found that your scales are free from bias. Those two Babylonians, who were old in body, but perfect infants in their clownish minds, if they had believed in the resurrection of the dead, would have been fortified in wisdom against falling in love with Susanna, the wife of another man; and further, if they had possessed the fear of God, they would not have interwoven false accusations with their licentiousness. The misuse of youth is a sure proof of dishonour in old age.

CHAPTER V. THE EARLY CAREER OF CHRYSOSTOM

This John was (yes, he has fallen asleep) by birth a man of Antioch, the son of honourable parents, his father holding the office of military commander in Syria; an elder sister was the only other child. He was gifted with unusual ability, and was carefully trained in letters, for the ministry of the oracles of God. At the age of eighteen, a boy in years, he revolted against the professors of verbosities; and a man in intellect, he delighted in divine learning. At that time the blessed Meletius the Confessor, an Armenian by race, was ruling the Church of Antioch; he noticed the bright lad, and was so much attracted by the beauty of his character, that he allowed him to be continually in his company. His prophetic eye foresaw the boy's future. He was admitted to the mystery of the washing of regeneration, and after three years of attendance on the bishop, advanced to be reader.

But as his conscience would not allow him to be satisfied with work in the city, for youth was hot within him, though his mind was sound, he turned to the neighbouring mountains; here he fell in with an old man named Syrus, living in self-discipline, whose hard life he resolved to share. With him he spent four years, battling with the rocks of pleasure. When he found it more easy to master these, not so much by toil as by reason, he retired to a cave by himself, in his eagerness to hide himself from the world, and there spent twenty-four months, for the greater part of which he denied himself sleep, while he studied the covenants of Christ, the better to dispel ignorance. Two years spent without lying down by night or day deadened his gastric organs, and the functions of the kidneys were impaired by the cold. As he could not doctor himself, he returned to the haven of the Church.

And here we see the providence of the Saviour, in withdrawing him by his infirmity, for the good of the Church, from ascetic toils, and compelling him by this obstacle of ill-health to leave the caves.

Next, after serving the altar for five years, he was ordained deacon by Meletius. By this time his brilliant abilities as a teacher were famous, and the people found in intercourse with him sweet refreshment from the bitterness of life; Bishop Flavianus therefore ordained him presbyter. For twelve years he was a shining light in the Church of Antioch, lending dignity to the priesthood there by the strictness of his life; some he salted with sobriety, some he illuminated by his teaching, some he refreshed with draughts of the spirit. Thus all was fair sailing under the steersmanship of Christ, when the blessed Nectarius, bishop of the Church of Constantinople, fell asleep. Immediately a crowd of people who were not called for rushed forward to secure the supreme position—men who were not men, presbyters by office, yet unworthy of the priesthood; some battering at the doors of officials, others offering bribes, others again going on their knees to the populace. The orthodox laity were much disturbed by all this, and importuned the king with petitions for an experienced priest.

The most influential man of affairs was Eutropius the eunuch, chief of the royal chamberlains. It was his wish to have John in charge of the city, as he had gained some experience of his high character when some business of the king took him to the further East; so he advised the king to send instructions to the governor of Antioch, to send John quietly out of the city, without disturbing the Church. The governor, immediately on receipt of the letter, summoned him to present himself at the shrines of the martyrs, outside the city, near the gate known as Romanesia; where he put him in a public conveyance, and entrusted him to the care of the eunuch sent by Eutropius, and the magistrate's guard. Thus he reached Constantinople, and was ordained bishop of the Church of that city.

Now Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, as he observed his bearing, and the irreproachable outspokenness of his language, was from the beginning bitterly opposed to his ordination. For Theophilus is very clever at judging faces; the will and mind of a man are not easy to read.

Deac. One moment, father. I must raise a slight objection.

Bish. What is your difficulty?