NILUS MONACHUS AD ARCADIUM IMPERATOREM, EPIST. 279, LIB. III, P. 435; LIB. II, EPIST. 265; AD SEVERUM EXCONSULEM, LIB. II, EPIST. 199, P. 392, EDIT. ROME, FOL., ANNO 1668.
You have unjustly sent into exile John, the greatest luminary of the world, the prelate of Byzantium, persuaded by those bishops of the utmost levity and ill-disposed minds. Having, therefore, deprived the Catholic Church of his blameless and unadulterated teaching, do not pass your life without grief. A
To the Emperor Arcadius. How do you desire to see Constantinople delivered from most frequent earthquakes and the onset of ethereal fire, when myriads of absurdities are occurring there, and wickedness is considered with boldness, while the pillar of the Church, the light of truth, the trumpet of Christ, John the most blessed bishop, has been exiled? Smitten by envy, some of the bishops, because of the extreme virtue of John, the bishop of Constantinople, putting aside the fear of God, conspired against the man who was godlike and truly the lamp of the whole world, and induced the Emperor himself, being most pious and simple, to yield to their snares and exile the heavenly man. Since, therefore, the Emperor gave his consent to a plot against the envy-ridden shepherds, the prophet rightly cried out: "He extended his hand with the pestilence" (Osee VII, 5). Nevertheless, after the exile of the righteous man, most of those who had conspired were called to pay penalties by God, and with weeping and crying confessed that they had sinned greatly against the holy man. B
SYNESII, CYRENES EPISCOPI, EPIST. 66, AD THEOPHILUM ALEXANDRINUM EPISCOPUM, P. 206.
Wishing to ask you a question, I desire to provide some background for that concerning which I shall ask. Alexander, a counselor from Cyrene, while still a young man, completed a monastic life; as his age advanced along with his monastic stance in life, he was deemed worthy of ecclesiastical service, and was deemed worthy to be a presbyter. Having gone to the camp because of a certain matter of business, and having been associated—for the memory of the deceased is honored by us, since all hostility is laid aside in this life—with the late John; he was appointed by his hands, before the Churches were divided, Bishop of Basinopolis in Bithynia. When the dissension occurred, he remained a friend to the one who had ordained him, and became one of his faction. C
ISIDORI PELUSIOTÆ SYMMACHO, EPISTOLA 152 LIBRI I; EUSTATHIO EPIST. 156 EJUSDEM LIBRI; CYRILLO ALEX. EPIST. 310 LIBRI CITATI.
You ask about the tragedy concerning the most divine John. But I am at a loss to speak; the nature of the matter overcomes my mind; but learn a few things. Neighboring Egypt has acted lawlessly as usual, rejecting Moses, taking Pharaoh as its own, lashing the humble, oppressing the weary, building cities and withholding wages, and until now continues in these things. For it put forward the stone-mad and gold-loving Theophilus, who, being fortified by four conspirators, or rather fellow-apostates, waged war against the God-beloved and theologian man, having found the hatred and animosity toward the one who shares my name to be the starting point for his own perversity. But the house of David is strengthened, while that of Saul is weakened, as you see; even if the man has ascended above the storm of this life and has been translated to the peace above. D I have sent the book you requested, and I expected from it the fruit through you which is customarily collected from all. For there is not, there is not a heart which the reading of this has approached, that it did not wound with divine love; for it showed the priesthood as reverend and inaccessible, yet taught one to pursue it blamelessly. For John, the wise interpreter of the secrets of God, the eye of the Church in Byzantium and of the whole world, scrutinized this so minutely and densely that all those who serve God, and those who handle the priestly ranks, find in it their own achievements and faults. Partiality does not see sharply, and antipathy does not see at all. If, therefore, you wish to be purged of both blights, do not carry out violent decrees, but entrust the causes to just judgment; since God, who knows all things before their birth, graciously deigned to descend and see the cry of Sodom, teaching us the premise of accurate investigation. For many in Ephesus mock you, as if you were avenging your own enmity, and not seeking the things of Jesus Christ in an orthodox way. He is the nephew, they say, of Theophilus, imitating his mind. For just as he cast clear madness upon the God-bearing and God-beloved John, so this one desires to boast, even if the difference between those being judged is great.
CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA, LETTER 8, TO THE CONSTANTINOPOLITANS, AFTER HE HAD INTRODUCED NESTORIUS SPEAKING PERVERSELY, HAS THIS:
Is he perhaps more eloquent than John? Or is he equal to the blessed Atticus and wiser?
COUNCIL OF EPHESUS, PARIS EDITION, YEAR 1671, P. 117.
John, Bishop of Constantinople, concerning the divine generation. He says concerning the holy Virgin: Instead of the sun, he says, having contained the Sun of righteousness uncircumscribedly. And do not ask how; for where God wills, the order of nature is overcome. For He willed, He was able, He descended, He saved; all things are consistent for God. Today He who is is born, and He who is becomes that which He was not; for while being God, He becomes man, not ceasing to be God. For neither did He become man by an ecstasy of divinity, nor did He become God from man by advancement, but being the Word, because of His impassibility, He became flesh, the nature remaining unchanged. He willed, for He desired, He saved: all things are together for God.