impossible for us to unreasonably depart from the communion of John. If, therefore, you trust in the tribunal, appear at the synod which is being formed according to Christ; and there, having examined the causes under the witness of the canons of Nicaea (for the Roman Church admits no other canon), you will have irrefutable security.»
A short time later, a presbyter of Constantinople named Theotecnus appeared, delivering letters from the synod of John’s twenty-five bishops, or thereabouts; in which they explained that John had been expelled from the city by military aid and had been sent into exile at Cucusus, and that the church had been burned. A And, having given him letters of communion for John the bishop and for those who were in communion with him, he exhorted them with tears to be patient, being unable to help them because some who held the power were opposing them. After a short time, a certain man appeared, deformed in appearance and malignant in mind, Paternus by name, claiming to be a presbyter of the Church of Constantinople; who himself, being altogether stirred up and demonstrating his enmity by his very countenance, and pouring out many insults against the bishop John, delivered letters from a few bishops—Acacius, Paul, Antiochus, Cyrinus, Severian, and certain others—in which they slandered John, saying he had burned the church. So false did the report seem to us, that John did not even deign to give an apology concerning this at the illustrious synod; regarding which the Pope Innocent, having spat upon it, did not even deign to write a reply.
THE BISHOP. Deign, therefore, to lend me your ear, that I may narrate to you detail by detail; for truly, as Elihu says to Job, “The spirit of the belly constrains me,” referring to the intellect as a belly filled with words (Job 32:18).
THE DEACON. It is necessary for me, excellent Father, to fulfill the precision of those things which have reached us, so that I may thus begin my questioning of you.
Again, therefore, after some days, the bishop Cyriacus appeared, having no letters, but being capable of a harmonious narrative; who said that he had fled because of the threat of the imperial edict, which contained that: “If anyone does not communicate with Theophilus, Arsacius, and Porphyrius, let such a one be excluded from the episcopacy; and let him furthermore be stripped of any property of money or lands that he seems to have.” After Cyriacus arrived Eulysius, the bishop of Apamea in Bithynia, delivering letters from fifteen bishops of John’s synod, and of the venerable Anysius, the bishop of Thessalonica, in which the former explain the plunder that had occurred and was occurring throughout entire Constantinople; and the latter explains how he remains in the judgment of the Romans. This Eulysius himself also narrated things identical to Cyriacus. B After a month of days had passed, Palladius, the bishop of Helenopolis, appeared without letters, having himself—as he said—fled the madness of the authorities; but he narrated it to us more pointedly, having shown a copy of an edict containing that: “Whoever hides a bishop or cleric, or generally receives a communicant of John in his house, let his house be confiscated.” After Palladius, Germanus the presbyter, together with Cassianus the deacon—men who were pious—arrived, delivering letters from all of John’s clergy; where they write that their Church had suffered violence and tyranny, their bishop having been cast out by military aid and sent into exile through the machinations of Acacius of Beroea, Theophilus of Alexandria, Antiochus of Ptolemais, and Severian of Gabala; in which the aforementioned also displayed a list, where they surrender the treasures under witness to the judges Stundius, the prefect of the city, and Eutychianus, of the praetorian guard, and John, the count of the treasuries, and Eustathius, the quaestor, and the tabularius, in gold, silver, and vestments, thus turning away the slander from the bishop John. C After him, Demetrius came a second time, the bishop of the Pessinuntians, having traversed the East and preached the communion of the Romans which was with the bishop John, along with letters from Pope Innocent; he also brought letters from the bishops of Caria, where they greet the communion of John, and from the presbyters of Antioch, where they draw to themselves the good order of the Romans and lament the ordination of Porphyrius, which had been done unlawfully and uncanonically. After them all arrived the presbyter Domitianus, the steward of the Constantinopolitan Church, and a certain Vallagas, a presbyter of Nisibis, narrating the lamentation of the monasteries in Mesopotamia, delivering also the memorials of a certain Optatus, the prefect, where modest women of senatorial birth are brought to public view before him—deacons of the Constantinopolitan Church—being compelled either to communicate with Arsacius or to give two hundred pounds of gold to the fiscal counts. But regarding the ascetics and virgins, what need is there even to speak? They were showing the scraping of their sides upon the wooden rack and the torture of their backs; so that Pope Innocent, no longer able to endure it, sent to the pious Emperor Honorius, attaching to the letters the power of the situation. D Being moved by this, his piety commands a synod of the Westerners to be assembled, and that sharing a single vote, they should report it to his piety. Who, the bishops of Italy having gathered, beseech the Emperor to write to his own brother and co-emperor Arcadius, to command a synod to be held at Thessalonica, so that it might be easy for both parts, of the East and of the West, to run together; so that the synod, having been made perfect, not in quantity of number but in quality of opinion, might bring forth an indisputable vote. From which, being inflamed, his piety writes to the bishop of Rome to send five bishops, and two presbyters of Rome, and one deacon, so as to convey his letter to his brother; which letter contained this power: “I write for the third time to your gentleness, requesting that the matters concerning the machinations against the bishop John of Constantinople might obtain correction, and as it seems, it has not been accomplished. Whence I have again written through the bishops and presbyters, altogether caring for the ecclesiastical peace, through which also our empire is kept in peace, that you might deign to command the bishops of the East to gather at Thessalonica. And indeed our bishops of the West, having chosen men unshakable against wickedness and falsehood, have sent five bishops, and two presbyters, and one deacon of the greatest Church of the Romans. Whom, deign to care for with all honors, so that if they are persuaded [of the truth]..."
if the bishop John was justly expelled, let them teach me to withdraw from his communion; or if they shall prove that the bishops of the East are of their own accord evil, A let them turn you away from their communion. For what the opinion of the Westerners is concerning bishop John, I have appended two of all the letters written to me, to show they are of the same sentiment as the others: one from the bishop of Rome, the other from the bishop of Aquileia. Furthermore, this I beg of your clemency before all else: that you bid Theophilus, the bishop of Alexandria, to appear, even if he be unwilling—he who is said to be the chief author of all these evils—so that the synod of bishops who are present may not be hindered, but may establish a peace suitable to our times.
CHAPTER IV
When, therefore, the holy bishops Æmilius of Beneventum, and Cythegius, and Gaudentius, together with the presbyters Valentinian and Boniface, had received the letters of the Emperor Honorius, of Innocent, and of the Italian bishops—Chromatius of Aquileia, and Venerius of Milan, and others—as well as the commonitorium of the synod of the entire West, they set out for Constantinople by public carriage, accompanied by the bishops Cyriacus, Demetrius, Palladius, and Eulysius. Now the commonitorium contained the instruction that John should not enter into judgment unless the Church and his communion had first been restored to him, so that, with the cause for refusing the trial removed, he might enter the assembly of his own accord. Setting out, therefore, for Constantinople, they returned after four months, relating Babylonish deeds. When we were sailing past Greece toward Athens, we were detained by an obnoxious military tribune, who immediately attached one centurion to us, not allowing us to reach Thessalonica. For there it was our intention first to deliver the letters to bishop Anysius. Therefore, they said, having cast us into two ships, he dismissed us. As a vehement south wind blew, we traversed the Egean Sea and the straits for three days without food; about the twelfth hour of the third day, we arrived before the royal city, near the suburbs of Victor. Where, having been detained by the tax-collectors of the ports, we departed; but by whose order, we know not. B And we were shut up in a maritime castle of Thrace, called Athyra; we Romans, indeed, in one small house, and there were many more who were with Cyriacus, and we were vexed there; so that not even a servant was at hand to minister to us. When they demanded the letters, we did not give them, saying: "How can it be that we, who are legates, should not deliver the Emperor’s and the bishops' letters to the Emperor himself?" But when we persisted in not giving them, first a notary named Patricius came to us, then some others; finally, a certain Valerian, a Cappadocian, the commander of one military unit, came, and having broken the seal of bishop Marianus, he took the Emperor’s letter along with the others. On the following day, therefore, they sent to us—whether they were the Emperor’s courtiers or Atticus, we know not (for he himself was said to have invaded the throne of the Church)—who offered us three thousand numismata, begging that we should be persuaded to communicate with Atticus and remain silent about the judgment of John. Not assenting to these, we persisted in praying—since nothing peaceful was being accomplished—that we might return to our own churches without danger, seeing such inhumanity.The Savior God declared the same thing to us by various revelations, so that the blessed apostle Paul appeared in a ship to the deacon Paul of the holy Emmelius, a man most mild and prudent, saying to him: "See how you walk, not as fools, but as wise, seeing that the days are evil" (Eph. V, 15, 16); the dream signifying their manifold fraud, and how they used gifts and flatteries to adulterate the truth. Therefore, the same tribune Valerian, pressing us, cast us into a most vile ship—the captain having been given a bribe, as rumor has it, to destroy the bishops sailing—together with twenty soldiers of various ranks; C and immediately he expelled us from Athyra. When we had sailed many stadia and were already about to perish, we arrived at Lampsacus; and thence, changing ships, on the twentieth day we reached Hydrus in Calabria. They could no longer tell us in what state the blessed bishop John was, nor where the bishops Demetrius, Cyriacus, Eulysius, and Palladius were, who had set out as legates with our bishops.
BISHOP. Come now, O most sacred one, give me your attention, listening to those things which shall be clearly spoken; and I will subsequently declare to you the public, satirical tumults of the entire tragedy, whence this drunkenness had its beginning, and how long they have seemed to cease, though they have not yet desisted. The source and principle of all evils, as one might say, is the God-hating demon, ever lying in wait like a wolf for the rational flocks of Christ, atrociously infesting every skilled shepherd with various evils, just as the king of the Egyptians did to the male children of the Jews, while fattening the feigned and false shepherds with the deceits of earthly pleasures. Now the channels of this worst fountain, as the whole world knows, are Acacius, Antiochus, Theophilus, and Severianus—who are called indeed what they are not, but are what they cannot bear to be called; and from the order of the clergy, two presbyters and five deacons, gathered partly from the impure, partly from the number of the wicked—though I know not if it be secure to call such men presbyters or deacons. But from the Emperor’s court there were only two or three, who strengthened Theophilus, bringing him aid with a military guard: of the women, besides those who are commonly known, there were three—widows indeed, but made rich by their husbands, possessing much money from rapine to the ruin of their own salvation; the exciters of tumults and seditions: Marsa, the wife of Promotus; Castricia, the wife of Saturninus; and a certain Eugraphia, who is mad in every way; but it causes shame to speak of the rest. D Now these men and these women, being of slow heart in the faith, like a phalanx drunk with fury, were gathered into one intent of hatred toward the doctrine, and stirred up a torrent of destruction against the peace of the Church.
DEACON. May you, therefore, Father, and may you willingly, speak to us before God: whence arose their hatred against John, and what was the stubbornness of bishop John that offended such great powers? At the same time, declare to us whence he began his life, and in what manner he was elevated to the bishopric of Constantinople, and how long a time he held it, and what his character was, and what was the end of his life, if indeed he is dead, as we hear. Even if the wonderful and holy fame of that man is spread most widely through all, yet I have been accustomed not to believe rumors so easily, before I have [heard] from...
A to be slow to believe rumors, until I have learned with certainty from those who know how to censure and praise correctly. B THE BISHOP: We praise your precision, but I do not accept your standard of judgment, most truth-loving man and man of God, Theodore; for you ought to have been satisfied, in proof of the truth, by my white hair itself—if I may boast—and by my rank. But since you have not done this, and twice judge me, grant me hereafter a hearing without prejudice, that the channels of our words may not be in vain. For I know what is written in the divine law: "The Lord shall destroy all those who speak a lie" (Ps. 5.7); and by the apostle John: "He that speaks a lie is not of God" (John 8.44); and again by David: "For the mouth of those who speak unjust things has been stopped" (Ps. 62.12). For in truth, he who is deceived does an injustice to the one he persuades; and he who is persuaded does an injustice to the one who is lying, by believing too easily. Since therefore both are equally at fault, let neither of us do an injustice to his neighbor. For this is virtue: for the speaker, to speak the truth; and for the hearer, to test unjust things. C For "Be," says the Scripture, "approved money-changers, casting away the counterfeit from the genuine"; not so that, having boasted, we may receive the sound, but so that, having weighed all that is spoken or written with the fear of God and with an upright conscience, we may receive it with the witness of the facts. The danger of the ear and the tongue is great: wherefore the artisan God has made them such that they are guarded by two lips, placing an outer defense of teeth, that the fortress, existing in safety, may discipline its rashness, according to what is written: "Set, O Lord, a watch on my mouth, and a door of enclosure about my lips, that I may not sin with my tongue" (Ps. 140.3); and He has made the hole of the ear winding, hinting through the shape that the word should not enter too quickly, so that, winding for a longer time, it may leave behind all the dross of the lie with the filth of wickedness, being thoroughly strained out. And He not only took care of these organs, as if they alone were stumbling; but He has also placed curtains, like windows, over the pupils of the eyes, so that they might not admit the death of licentiousness, as the prophet bears witness, saying: "Death has climbed up through the windows" (Jer. 9.21). D THE DEACON: If the inquiry were about ordinary matters, Most Holy Father, the appearance of the person would suffice to prove the words; but since it brings not a small condemnation now, and hereafter a judgment, with rulers and peoples gathered before the fearful tribunal, and it is the truth that is being sought, grant me pardon, noble sir, for not putting forward a white beard as a witness; for even the wicked have aged, not whitening their souls with virtue, but wrinkling their bodies with the length of time; such as were the false elders in Babylon, and in Jeremiah, Ephraim, concerning whom the Word cries out in reproach: "Ephraim is a silly dove, having no heart; gray hairs have blossomed upon him, and he did not know it" (Hos. 7.11). And He says more sharply elsewhere: "Ephraim has become a cake of bread not turned, and strangers have devoured his strength" (Ibid. v. 8-9). And I will add this, even if I prolong the discourse: who is whiter-haired or who is more respectable in appearance than Acacius of Beroea, whom you now accuse as a ringleader of disorder and a chief of this riotous wrongdoing? Yet even his own nostrils trailed white hairs when he stood at Rome, having brought the decree for the ordination of Bishop John. THE BISHOP: Now I have known clearly that you are an approved money-changer, not being persuaded by the leather tent, but seeking out the wisdom of him who dwells within. For even the temples of the Egyptians, being very large and boasting in the beauty of their stones, have apes and ibises and dogs inside instead of gods; but our Lord and God, in signifying to Samuel regarding the appointment of a leader of Israel, warns him not to look at the appearance and formation of a clay body, saying: "God does not see as man sees; for man looks on the face, but God looks on the heart" (I Reg. 16.7). Wherefore the imitators of God investigate the deeper side in every matter. Whence I willingly yield myself, having tested your scales that do not lean to one side at all. Yet the Babylonians, old in body but complete infants in soul through their lack of sense, if they had believed in the resurrection of the dead, previously, having had sound wisdom, they would not have lusted after another man's wife; and then, if they had had the fear of God, they would not have joined slander to their licentiousness. The dishonor in old age is the proof of the peddling of youth.
CHAPTER V
This John was an Antiochene by nobility (he has now fallen asleep), the son of those who lived nobly in the rank of the commander of the forces of Syria, born to the sister of his father. Being of a more capable mind, he was exercised in studies for the service of the divine oracles. From there, having reached the eighteenth year of his body’s age, he discarded the sophists of petty rhetoric; and having become a man in his mind, he lusted for the sacred studies. At that time, the blessed Meletius the Confessor, Armenian by race, presided over the Church at Antioch; who, having observed that the young man was gifted, permitted him to approach constantly, having fallen in love with the beauty of this man’s heart, foreseeing with a prophetic eye the outcome of the youth. And as he served by his side, having been initiated into the rebirth of the bath for about three years, he is advanced to be a reader. Being pricked by his conscience that he was not satisfied with the labors in the city, the vigor of his youth being strong, even if his reasoning was sound, he seizes the nearby mountains; and having encountered an old man, a Syrian, who was intent on self-control, he imitates his austerity, having spent twice two years with him, fighting against the shoals of pleasure. And when he had more easily overcome these, not so much by toil as by reason, he withdraws into a cave alone, desiring obscurity; and having spent three times eight months there, he passed the majority of the time sleepless, learning by heart the testaments of Christ for the banishment of ignorance. And not having reclined for the time of the two years, neither by night nor by day, his parts under the stomach are deadened, having been struck by the cold in the powers around the kidneys. And not being able to be of use to himself, he again seizes the ecclesiastical harbor. And this was of the providence of the Savior, having driven him away from the labors of the ascetic life for the sake of the utility of the Church through infirmity, so that, having been hindered by weakness, he might abstain from the caves. From there, he was ordained…deacon by Meletius after he had served the altar for five years. But as his ability to teach already began to shine forth, and the people grew sweeter from the bitterness of the age through his conversation, he was ordained presbyter by Flavian the bishop. And when he had shone for twelve years in the Church of Antioch, the exact norm of his life illuminated the Antiochene clergy: seasoning some with the salt of wisdom, illuminating others with doctrine, and watering others with the streams of the Holy Spirit. A While these things were proceeding excellently toward the governing of Christ’s faithful, blessed Nectarius, bishop of the Constantinopolitan Church, dies. Then some gather who were not sought, soliciting the episcopate—men who were by no means men, presbyters in dignity, but unworthy of the priesthood: some wearying the praetorium, others corrupting with gifts, others indeed even falling on their knees before the plebs. Because of these things, the crowd of the orthodox is disturbed, soliciting the Emperor, seeking one skilled in the priesthood. Now Eutropius the eunuch, the chamberlain of the sacred cubiculum, held the helm of affairs. Since he desired to place John over the city (for his virtue had been known to him when the Emperor's business had taken him to the inner East), he himself brings it about that the Emperor writes letters to the Count of the East, so that, without noise, disturbing nothing in Antioch, he might send John away. He, as soon as the letters were received, exhorts him to station himself outside the city as far as the Martyria, next to the road called the Roman, and entrusts him, put into a public carriage, to the eunuch sent for that purpose with the soldier of the Magister. B Thus brought, he is ordained bishop of the Constantinopolitan Church. From the beginning, therefore, Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria, when he had come for his ordination, seeing his unreproachable freedom of speech, was struck silent by his ordination. For he is crafty from his very appearance: for to discern the secret counsel and mind of every man. Diac. Wait, Father, for I will object a few things. Episc. But what is this, most of all? Diac. If Theophilus is such that he perceives all things by the keenness of his mind at a mere glance, how did he not know that, with John expelled, the whole world would be thrown into confusion by him? Episc. This is not to be wondered at, most excellent one. For indeed the demons, who declared the coming of the Savior, did not know that they were to be constrained by the single state of Christ's faithful. Diac. But where did they declare the coming of the Savior? Episc. When they cried out: "We know thee, who thou art, the Holy One of God; why did you come before the time to torment us?" (Matt. 8.29). You see how they knew before not only that he was holy, but also the judge. But why do I speak of demons? Unhappy harlots discern chaste men from the state of their eyes and avoid them; just as a sick eye [avoids] the ray of the sun, and a vulture ointment. But whence do sinners know religion is an abomination, if they did not know it? So also Theophilus, from the moment he found in John’s appearance nothing that responded to his own eyes or was pleasing, conjectured—not by certain knowledge—the opposite. Diac. You have said wonderful things, Father. Why, indeed, did he resist his ordination? Episc. His custom was such that he would not ordain the good and sober-minded, unless his conjecture had failed him, desiring to rule over all as if they were dull-witted, judging it better to rule over the foolish than to obey the wise. He was, however, C overcome by wholesome providence, whether he liked it or not. Thus ordained, John begins the care of affairs, setting out to prove the sheep through the rational pipe. But rarely applying also the rebukes of the rod, he directs his speech against the faked society of life—as they call them—but in truth against the shameless and wicked life with those women who are called
the subintroductae (those brought in)
, showing that, if a choice of evils were given, panderers are better than these. For those, living far from the doctor's office, have the sickness among themselves, but for those who desire; these, however, living in the office of salvation, even impel the healthy to sickness. Thus, a part of the clergy, by no means religious, and which was held by that disease, was moved. After a discussion of this kind, he attacks injustice, destroying the metropolis of all evils, avarice, so that he might construct a building of justice. For this is proper to wise architects, first to destroy the building of a lie, and then to lay the foundations of truth, as is said by the prophet: "I have set you over nations and kingdoms, that you may root up and plant, that you may destroy and rebuild" (Jer. 1.10); that, indeed, as a farmer; this, however, as an architect. From this, the part of those who gaze at money-bags is again disturbed. After these things, he takes care of their living, exhorting them to be content with their own provisions, and not to follow the odors of the rich, lest, while they have a leader, they be handed over to the fire of intemperance, having imitated the life of flatterers and parasites. Hence, many among the gluttons begin to emerge, and they are coupled to the fabricators of calumny. After these things, he scrutinizes the accounts of the stewards, and finds the expenses of the Church useless; and orders the relief of these to cease. From there he comes to examine the expenses of the bishop, and finds immoderate profusion; and he orders the profuse expenses of those to be transferred to the infirmary D. But when necessity grew, he builds more infirmaries, placing over them two pious presbyters; furthermore also doctors and cooks and good workmen from the order of the celibates for their ministry: so that coming guests and those gripped by disease might be cured, and that both for their own good and for the glory of the Savior. After this, he calls the order of widows, seeking from all sides which among them were not living correctly; and if he had found some given to the body, he admonished them either to fast, abstaining from baths and exquisite garments; or straightaway to concede to a second marriage, lest the law of the Lord suffer injury. Then he exhorted the people to be assiduous in nightly prayers, but that their wives should remain at home, exhorting them to pray during the day, because the men were not free during the day. But all these things vexed the more negligent among the clergy, who were accustomed to sleep the whole night. After these things, he wields the sword of rebuke against the rich, cutting off the abscesses of their minds, teaching them humility and to act modestly with the rest of men, obeying the apostolic sermon, which is to Timothy: "Charge the rich of this world not to be high-minded, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches" (1 Tim. 6.17). When, therefore, affairsand on all sides the Church flowering for the better, and the entire city transformed unto godliness, with souls radiant in temperance and psalmody, the hater of good, the devil, could not bear the flight of those held by him whom the word of the Lord had removed through the teaching of John: such that those who were mad for horses and spectators of the theater, abandoning the courts of the devil, would run with haste to the fold of the Savior, in love of the pipe of the shepherd who loves his sheep.
CAPUT VI. Envy forestalls the thoughts of mercenary shepherds who are refuted by comparison.
Unable to overcome him, because they did not call upon the Savior who is the destroyer of envy, they weave calumnies against John, twisting some of his homilies into struggles against the Empress and others in the emperor’s court. It happened at that time that Acacius, the bishop of Beroea, had arrived in Constantinople and, as he said, had not found a good inn; being grieved at this, he was puffed up with anger as though having been scorned by John. Overcome by unrestrained thoughts, he brings forth absurd speech from the abundance of his heart, worthy of his own mind, saying to certain of John’s clergy: "I am preparing a pot for him." Straightway joined with Severian and Antiochus, and Isaac the Syrian, a vagrant, a leader of false monks, who was always worn out in slanders against bishops, they consider arming themselves (ostensibly against John, but in truth against the glory of the Savior). They sent first to Antioch, seeking out the failings of his youth. And when they failed after searching out searches (Ps. LXIII, 7) and found nothing, they sent to Alexandria to the craftiness of Theophilus, who was called "The Buskin," who was skilled in engineering such matters; who, straightway opening the books of his own mind with much treacherous quiet, searched, looking for a way of pretense, even a trifling one.
DIAC. Stay, Father, the swiftness of your words, before I forget, so that I may tell you the cause that crossed over from Alexandria to us and was bruited about. For they say that John received into communion clerics deposed by Theophilus, having grieved Theophilus, which he ought not to have done; and that from this, having been alienated, he proceeded against John.
EPISC. Let us grant that the aforementioned rumor is true; and is it for a bishop to cure an evil with an evil? And where is that evangelical saying: *Let not the sun go down upon your wrath* (Eph. IV, 26)? And where is the apostolic: *Overcome evil with good* (Rom. XII, 21)? And where is the prophetic: *If I have repaid those who repay me with evils* (Ps. VII, 5)? Was it not, then, more disputatious to say, accusing him before reverent bishops: "Brother John, it has escaped you that you have done such-and-such," and for John to have answered that he was ignorant of the matter?
DIAC. Truly you have spoken, if indeed there was any good will in him, and he was not masking the cause of the clerics to satisfy his own anger.
EPISC. By the fear of God, therefore, who rules over the infinite worlds, I will not tell you otherwise, but as the nature of the matter stands regarding these clerics you spoke of. A certain Isidore, a priest already from the time of the ordination of the blessed Athanasius the Great, eighty years of age (whom most Romans know since he had invaded it on account of ecclesiastical matters, as a host of Alexandria—and you yourself know the man, when he came with Acacius and brought the communion of Flavian to Theophilus, which had been broken off for twenty years on account of the blessed Evagrius, who had undergone many struggles in ecclesiastical labors)—to this Isidore a certain widow of the magnates gives a thousand gold pieces, having urged him against the table of the Savior, to purchase linens to clothe the poorer women of Alexandria, not sharing the knowledge with Theophilus, so that he, having taken them, might not expend them on stones—for a certain Pharaonic stone-madness possesses him for buildings, which the Church has no need of. And let such things as these lie in second place; but hear the thing that is urgent regarding Isidore. Having taken the coins, then, Isidore expends them upon the needy and the widows. Theophilus learned of it from somewhere (for nothing of what was done or spoken anywhere escaped him, having "work-spies" and "word-spies," if I may not put it otherwise), and he calls Isidore, inquiring with moderation if these things are so. Not denying, he confessed the administration of the matter. Having heard this, he changes the scene, and he who was but a moment before moderate and seemed-gentle in his questioning, swelled up entirely after the discourse, changing his expression upon the entry of Isidore's answer. And having been quiet for a small time, like a skulking dog, after two months he brings forth a document, having convened the priesthood, and with Isidore present, saying: "This I received eighteen years ago, Isidore, against you, and since I was very busy, I gave the matter to oblivion; but now, searching for other papers, I have found this document about you; make your defense against it." Now the document contained a crime of sodomy. Against these things Isidore, answering, says to Theophilus: "Let us grant it to be true, that you also received the document and it escaped your notice; was there not he who gave the petition, so that he might be demanded a second time?" Against this Theophilus said: "But the boy was not there, being a sailor." And Isidore: "He was not there at once, as you say, Papa; was he not there after the voyage? Was he not there in the second year, nor the third? And if he is present now, order the man to stand." Against this Theophilus, being about to become contemptible by the truth itself, delays it to another day. And having importuned a certain youth with many promises, he anointed him for accusation against Isidore, having given him, as they say, fifteen gold pieces, which he straightway brings to his mother. And she, in part did not accept it because of the unswerving eye [of God], and in part was overturned by the fear of the laws, pondering lest Isidore, having been slandered, appeal to the governor of the districts; so, coming, she confesses the drama-making to Isidore, showing him the coins which she said she had received from the sister of Theophilus as a wage against the innocent. And she, indeed, for many reasons, but especially for this, having paid the penalty worthy of her deed, dies, being operated on for her breasts. Against these things Isidore remained at home, supplicating God. But the youth, fearing the laws, partly . . .
if he should fail in his target, fled to the church, a useful A bulwark, clinging to the altar. Thus Theophilus, with justice silent, eliminates Isidore from the Church, having spread abroad abominable things, masking his injustice with gravity. Thereafter Isidore, fearing lest Theophilus, urged on by a heavier wrath, might meditate snares for his own safety (for he is accustomed to progressing even to these lengths, they say), with speed seeks the mountain of Nitria to the order of monks, where he had tarried as a youth: and sitting in his cell, he prayed, calling upon the most patient God. Conscious of a victory lacking in decency and certainty, Theophilus sends letters to the neighboring bishops, and orders that certain of the primariis be expelled from the mountain and from the inner desert, and these the principal monks, without any cause alleged. When these monks with the elders had descended to Alexandria, they besought Theophilus to state B the cause for which they had been condemned and cast out. He, however, looking with bloodshot eyes like a dragon, glared with a fierce, bull-like manner; now indeed livid, now pale, now again smiling bitterly, carried away by immoderate wrath, with his own hands he casts the omophorion around the neck of Ammonius, a man of advanced age, after he had inflicted lashes upon his cheeks and bloodied his nostrils with punches, crying out with these words: "Heretic, anathematize Origen," when nothing regarding Origen had been proposed except the petition for the sake of Isidore. For such is wrath, like dogs, it brings forth blind words and deeds. Therefore, thus blood-stained, and having returned without an answer to their own monasteries, they pursued the intended institution of their lives, sharpening their genius with the knowledge of Scriptures, through which salvation is acquired, caring the less for his insanity because they were conscious to themselves of no evil.
CAP. VII
. Not acquiescing in these things, Theophilus sends to the neighboring bishops, and gathers a council against the monks, without those very men having been called for a defense, or the power of speaking having been given to them; he excommunicates three men of the principal ones, fearing at the same time to decree a punishment against the multitude, pretending perversion of dogmas; and those whom he had often honored more than bishops as masters, on account of their life, doctrine, and age, he was not ashamed to call tricksters, for the fact that they were well disposed toward Isidore. And after the excommunication, from that very mountain he instructs five little men, who had never stood in the assembly of the elders of the desert, and were unworthy, it is tiresome to say, even to be doorkeepers: and one of these he ordains bishop, placing him over a C little village, since he did not have a city (for indeed without any shame he dared those novelties, calling himself a second Moses), and another he ordains presbyter, and three others deacons, who were not Egyptians, but from diverse places. For one of them was a Libyan, another an Alexandrian, another a Pharanite, and another truly a Paraleote. For what cause they consented to his vain labor, since they had no reward to be hoped for from their own country, [is unknown]. Theophilus therefore suborns them, so that they might give libelli against those three elders, and he himself wove the false words of accusation, to which those men contributed this one thing, that they should subscribe. Then, having received the libelli from them before the Church, he enters to the Augustal, and deposits against them a suppliant libellus before him in his own name, he, the pontiff of the Egyptian diocese, with the libelli of false accusation attached, and requests that those men be expelled by military hand from all of Egypt. Having therefore received in appearance a soldier along with the mandate, he gathers a multitude of wicked men, who are accustomed to be about the authorities, prepared for all things; and suddenly he invades the monasteries by night, after he had first gorged the boys who were with him with wine. D And first indeed the brother of them, Dioscorus, a holy bishop, who was from that mountain, he orders to be cast from his throne, dragged by Ethiopian servants, and those perhaps not yet baptized; claiming for himself his parish, which the city of Dioscorus had possessed since the coming of Christ. From there he plunders the mountain, handing over the monks' small belongings as booty to the younger ones. Having pillaged the cells, he inquires for those three whom they had cast into the pit, with a mat placed over the mouth of the pit: and when he had not found them, he burns their cells with brushwood, having burned at once all the books of the Old and New Testament, and other excellent codices, and one boy, as eyewitnesses said, and the holy Eucharist. But when his impotent wrath had cooled a little, he repeats Alexandria, giving a place for flight to those holy men: who, having immediately taken their sheepskins, set out for Palestine, and arrive at Aelia. With them went forth, besides the presbyters and deacons of that mountain, three hundred of the best monks: but others were dispersed through diverse places. The serpent of crooked course, not bearing their departure, again rouses Theophilus against them: who, inflamed with wrath, writes letters to the bishops of Palestine: "It was not right," he says, "for you to receive these men into your cities against my will; but since you did it in ignorance, I forgive you. In the future, therefore, take care lest you admit them into any ecclesiastical or private place": not saying only that he is God, but also imagining so on account of immoderate arrogance. They, compelled by great necessity, when they migrated from one place to another, at length come to the Comitatus, where John, by the divine hand, had been placed as bishop for the care of watching over the powerful; and having prostrated themselves at his knees, they were beseeching him to assist souls suffering calumny, and devastated by those who had been accustomed to do this rather than to do good. John stood: and when he saw the gray hair of fifty elect men, tinctured and adorned by holy labors, like Joseph, stimulated by the sharp pain of fraternal love, he was poured forth into tears, inquiring from them who had been the boar from the woods or the wild beast of the field that had envied this most fruitful vine. They however [said]: "Sit, Father, and heal us who have been not meanly wounded by the fury of Pope Theophilus, if indeed you will be able to lead the swellings of our wounds to a scar. For if even you yourself neglect us, led either by reverence or fear of Theophilus, as other bishops [have been], naught now remains for us from you, except that we approach the Emperor, and expose his wicked deeds to the contumely of the Church. If therefore you have care for your ecclesiastical reputation, agree to us, and persuade him himself, that he may concede to us our domicile in Egypt, who have sinned in nothing, neither against the law of the Savior, nor against him himself." To these things John, hoping easily to...Theophilus changed his hatred toward them, he eagerly seized the matter, admonishing them to hide the cause of their arrival in religious silence until he should send word to his brother, Theophilus. And having given them lodging for their rest in the church called Anastasia, he himself did not provide what was necessary for their use, but religious women provided for their sustenance, as they themselves also contributed something from the work of their hands. It happened, then, at that time, that certain clerics of Theophilus were in Constantinople, purchasing in advance the promotions of magistrates who were designated to govern in the Egyptian administration, procuring favors for him to the destruction of those who were annoying him. John, therefore, having called them, inquired if they knew the monks who were present. They bore witness to the men with love of truth, saying to John, "We know them, and they have endured great violence; and if it pleases you, master, do not share spiritual communion with them, so as not to grieve the Pope, but show them kindness in other ways, for it befits you as a bishop." Thus, John did not receive them into communion, yet he wrote, entreating Theophilus: "Grant me this favor as to your son and brother," having embraced the men. In addition to this, Theophilus did not grant the favor to John, but he sent some who were practiced in logical contests, about whom we spoke above, and he prepared them to submit petitions which he himself had habitually dictated, containing confessed falsehood, but clothed in the multifaceted slander of matters invisible, having nothing of their life to accuse. And he prepared them to be pointed out in the palace like sorcerers. When the monks saw that they were not only not correcting him, but were stirring him to greater anger, bringing many supporters to him, along with anathematizing every false doctrine, they submitted suppliant petitions to John, having explained the types of tyranny, along with certain chapters which I am ashamed to mention for the time being before the simpler ones, so as not to drive them away from the faith, perhaps not even being believed by the more perfect. Again, both by himself and by other bishops, John exhorted them to cease from the accusation against him because of the hardship from the trial, having written to Theophilus that "They have been driven to such a degree of grief as to accuse you in writing; henceforth, write back what seems good to you, for they do not endure to withdraw from the camp at my request." At this, Theophilus, having been wholly inflamed, also barred the brother of the monks, Dioscorus the bishop, from his own Church, who had grown old in the Church; and he wrote to Bishop John: "I believe you are not unaware of the decree of the canons at Nicaea, where they stipulate that a bishop should not judge a case outside his own territory; but if you are unaware, having learned it, abstain from the petitions against me. For even if it were necessary for me to be judged, it should be by the Egyptians, and not by you, who are at a distance of a seventy-five-day journey from here."
Chapter VIII – Latin
A Having received the letter, John read it and kept it by himself, but he spoke to the monks of both parties about matters of peace. When both parties heard this, they were ashamed, the one as having been tyrannized, the other as not having the authority for peace without Theophilus, because they had submitted the petitions of slander by his command. Thus, John, having given them an answer, dismissed them from his own mind. In addition to this, the monks of the injured party departed and composed petitions of many lines, having written against the monks as slanderers, and against Theophilus things pertaining to Theophilus—to say no more—as many as each one knew; and having entreated the Augusti, they approached the shrine of Saint John, begging the Empress that the petition of the opposing monks be examined before the prefects, and that Theophilus, made to appear even against his will, be judged before John. The petition was enacted, having this decision: that Theophilus, having been made to appear by the Magister, even willing or unwilling, should stand trial before John; and that the monks of Theophilus should take a stand for themselves regarding the crimes of which they had accused the holy elders, or else suffer the penalties of slanderers. Thus, therefore, Elaphius, the one who is now among the princes, was sent to Alexandria to bring Theophilus, and the prefects carried out the rest of the imperial decision. While the trial was being conducted and was ending in a dead end, the laws indeed stood by, baring the sword; but those wretches, fearing the outcome, refer B the matter to Theophilus, as if he had suborned them and dictated the petitions. Thus the tactical order casts them into prison until the arrival of Theophilus, not enduring to accept bail in such a case. And of these, some died in custody, having wasted away because of the slowness of Theophilus, while others, after the arrival of Theophilus, who had smoothed over the matter with money, were condemned by the laws in the final examination to inhabit Proconnesus as slanderers. Thus Theophilus, having appeared, just like a dung beetle C laden with the dung of the finest things from Egypt and from India itself, pouring forth fragrance in place of stinking envy, entered Constantinople at the sixth hour, on the fifth day of the Sabbath, being held fast by the naval throng, bearing away the shameful glory, about which the Apostle foretold, whose glory is in their shame, adding: "Who mind earthly things" (Philipp. 3. 19); and he is lodged in the dwellings of the unrighteous, having fled the Church, forgetful of that saying of David: "I have chosen to be cast aside in the house of my God rather than to dwell in the tents of sinners" (Psal. 83. 11); being barred from the church by his own conscience. Having spent three weeks of days, he encountered neither Bishop John, according to the custom of bishops, nor did he approach the church at all, but he remained struggling night and day, having attached the new hatred to the old, so that he might drive Bishop John out not only of the Church, but even of life itself. This he did partly by profligately bribing with gold the superstitious among those in power against the truth, and partly by enslaving the gluttonous with a luxurious table, and partly also by flattery and by promises of greater status attracting the sycophants among the clergy. Having bound all these without a rope with pleasures as if D
A by a seductive demon, and having bewitched their capacity for judgment, he sought a demonic appearance for the service of his drama, which he also attained. For when two deacons had been ejected from the Church by Bishop John on account of enormous crimes, he abused the levity of these men and persuaded them to present formal complaints against John, promising that he would restore them to the place of their ministry (their crimes were, for the one, adultery, and for the other, homicide); and this he did. For after the exile of John, he replaced them in their posts, when they had indeed presented the petitions—which he himself had dictated, containing nothing of truth, save this one thing, that he warned everyone after communion to partake of water or a small cake, so that they might not, by a slip of saliva or phlegm, unintentionally eject something from the sacramental symbol; for he himself was the first to do this, and he instructed those who wished to observe such religion and reverence. Having received the petitions, he gathered in the house of Eugraphia with Severianus, Antiochus, Acacius, and the others who were hostile to John because of his modest admonitions. For that blessed man, following the example of Paul, was accustomed to preach what is honest and decent both publicly and in private, especially rebuking such women as these: "Why, being already aged, do you force your bodies to look young again, carrying locks of hair on your forehead like harlots, and offering insult even to the honest women who remain, and deceiving those who converse with you, and that to widows?" But they, being gathered together, were seeking how they might orchestrate a trial. One, however, of B those who were present suggested that they should give the petitions to the Emperor and compel John, even against his will, to come to the assembly. This, therefore, was done, just as formerly among the Jews, with gold making all things smooth and easy. We were forty bishops with Bishop John, sitting in the dining hall of the bishop's residence, wondering how it was that he who was the accused, and who had been ordered to come to the Palace alone because of impious charges, had arrived accompanied by so many bishops, and how he had so quickly changed the opinions of the princes and magistrates, while most of the clergy had been stirred to the worse. But while we were wondering, John, inspired by the Spirit of God, said to all: "Pray, brothers, and if you love Christ, let no one on my account desert His Church; for I am already being poured out, and the time of my departure is at hand" (2 Tim. 4:6), according to Paul, whose words these are; "and having suffered many afflictions, I am, as I see, about to leave life." For I know the snares of Satan, in that he can no longer endure the weight of my words against him. Thus may you obtain mercy. In your prayers, be mindful of me. Seized, therefore, with incredible grief, some indeed were weeping, others were departing from the assembly, kissing his eyes and his sacred head and his eloquent and blessed mouth, dissolved in tears and sobs. But when John had entreated them to return to the assembly, fluttering here and there like bees buzzing around their hives, he said: "Sit, brothers, and cease weeping, no longer softening me. For *to me to live is Christ and to die is gain*" (Phil. 1:21). For it had spread abroad that he was to be beheaded because of his excessive freedom of speech. "And if you remember, call to mind your own memories, for I have always said to you: 28 C The present life is a way, through which the happy and the vexatious things pass; and the present age is a market: we buy, we sell, and we depart. Are we better than the patriarchs, the prophets, the apostles, that this immortal life should remain for us?" Then one of those who were present, lamenting, said: "But we lament our abandonment, the widowhood of the Church, the subversion of the sacred laws, the ambition of those who do not fear the Lord and who invade the helms of the Church, the poor who are destitute of all aid, and the scarcity of sound doctrine." But when he had struck the palm of his left hand with his index finger (for John, being a lover of Christ, was accustomed to do this when he was thoughtful), he said to the one addressing him: "It is enough, brother, speak no more, but what I have said, do not abandon your Churches. For the ministry of preaching did not begin with me, nor did it cease with me. Was not Moses dead? And was not Joshua found? Did not Samuel decease? And was not David anointed? Jeremiah left this life, did not Baruch arise? Elijah was taken up, did not Elisha prophesy? Paul's head was cut off, did not he leave Timothy, Titus, Apollo, and other countless men?" After these words, Eulysius, bishop of Apamea in Bithynia, said: "It is necessary for us who hold our Churches to be compelled and to communicate and to subscribe." The holy John said: "Communicate indeed, so that you do not rend the Church, but do not subscribe. For I am conscious of no wickedness of mine for which I deserve to be deposed." When these things were so, it was announced that those who had been sent by Theophilus were present. He orders them to enter; having entered, he asks them of what rank they were: they say, "Bishops." He prays them to sit and to say for what cause they are present. They, however, say: "We have only these D documents to be read: order them, therefore, to be read." John orders them to be read. Then they command the boy of Theophilus to read those dictates; and he read. The text, however, was of this sort: "The holy Synod gathered at the Oak (the place is so called across the sea, a suburban estate of Rufinus, in which they were gathered) to John (they omitted that which was there, 'Bishop'. For a blinded mind is usually not accustomed to see rightly, but to imagine for itself those things which its own passion suggests to it). We have received petitions against you, containing infinite crimes. Be present, therefore, bringing with you Sarapion and Tigrius the presbyters; for there is need of them." Now those who had come to him were Dioscorus and Paul, who had lately been ordained in Libya, young men. When the papers were read, the bishops who were with the blessed John contradict, denouncing to Theophilus through three bishops, Lupicinus, Demetrius, and Eulysius, and two presbyters, Germanus and Severus, all indeed holy men and worthy of faith: "Do not subvert the affairs of the Church, nor rend the Church for which God descended into flesh. But if you are subverting the Nicene canons of the three hundred and eighteen bishops in an orderly manner, and are judging a case beyond your bounds: do you cross over to us into the city founded by the best laws, not provoking Abel to the field after the manner of Cain, so that we may hear you first. For we have against you petitions of seventy chapters, containing manifest sins, and we are more numerous than your Synod, gathered by the grace of God."
for your synod, gathered by the grace of God, not for the overthrow of the Church, but in peace. For you yourselves are thirty-six from one province; we, however, are forty from different provinces, among whom there are also seven Metropolitans, and it is consequential that the minority should be judged by the majority and the more distinguished according to the canons. For we have your letter, through which you advise our fellow-minister John that he ought not to admit extraterritorial cases. Therefore, obeying the ecclesiastical laws, exhort your accusers, either to desist from the accusation against you, or to come to him for audience.” B Moved by these words, John said to the bishops of his party: “As it seems right to you, declare it; it is fitting for me to respond to what has been declared to me.” And to those around Theophilus he sent back the following: “If anyone has anything to say against me, I have never known of it until now; but if anyone has spoken against me and you wish me to be present, cast these manifest enemies of mine, who have been turned to malice against me out of their own negligence, out of your gathering; and I do not dispute the place where I ought to be judged, even though it were most fitting for it to be in the city. There are those whom I refuse, Theophilus, whom I convict of having said, both in Alexandria and in Lycia, ‘I am setting off to the *comitatus* to depose John.’ And it is true, from the fact that when he arrived he neither met with me nor communicated with me. Whoever, therefore, before the hearing has finished the work of enemies, what might he do after the judgment? Similarly, I also convict Acacius for what he said: ‘I am preparing a pot for him.’ And regarding Severian and Antiochus, whom divine justice will soon overtake, what is there even to say, whose innovations and secular theaters are sung of? Therefore, you are entreated, if in truth you wish me to come, [to do so regarding] these four; if as judges, cast them out of the council; if as accusers, place them at the judgment, that I may know how to prepare myself, whether as against adversaries or as judges; and I will certainly come, not only to your charity, but to a synod of the whole inhabited world. So then, know that if you send to me ten thousand times, you will hear nothing more from me.”
When these had departed, a *notarius* stood at his feet holding a royal letter, in which they had petitioned that he be compelled to come to the judgment against his will, and he urged him toward the trial. After the reply to the *notarius*, two presbyters of John were announced, a certain Eugenius, who received the episcopal see of Heraclea as a wage for the plot against Bishop John, and the hesychast Isaac, that I may not speak otherwise, saying: “The synod has declared to you; cross over to us, to answer the charges.” To this John sent back word through other bishops: “By what consistency do you judge, you who have neither expelled my enemies nor summoned me through my own clergy?” But they, having seized the bishops, beat the one, and tore the garments of another, and placed irons upon the neck of the third, which they had prepared for the saint, so that he might be thrown into a ship in this way and sent to an unknown place; the demon having made them as savage as lions. And the holy man, knowing their shameless intent, restrained himself. But those noble fellows, having made records weaker than a spider’s web for the sake of appearance, pronounce judgment against the blessed one, those who neither saw his face nor heard his voice, in one day completing the malice that had been woven over much time; for the demonic impulse is unstoppable, not waiting for consideration. And having sent a report to the emperor, they prefixed: “Since John, having been accused of certain evils, and being conscious of it, did not wish to appear, the laws depose such a one as this”; which is indeed what he suffered. The libels also contain a charge of *lèse-majesté*. “Command, therefore, your piety, that he be driven out even against his will, and give account for the *lèse-majesté*, since it is not permitted for us to examine these things.” O thrice-wretched men, what you think and do! Be ashamed to do these things, fearing or reverencing not God, but men. And the *lèse-majesté* was the abuse against the queen, as they reported it, that he said she was Jezebel. And those wonderful men, having desired to see his death by the sword, reported it thus; but God also revealed the malice dwelling within them, and softened the heart of the rulers; just as it happened in the case of Daniel in Babylon. C For there the lions were tamed, sparing Daniel, but the men were turned to savagery, not sparing the prophet, and God shamed those who had been turned to unnatural savagery by those who were tamed against nature.