Theodore, Bishop of Trimithus

^A to converse with bishops of significant rank remained for her, nor the ability to approach the church, so that from the anguish of her soul she fell into the desire for marriage. But she, on account of this, rejoiced all the more, and giving thanks to God, announced these things to the Emperor: "In me, a humble woman, you have shown, O Master, the virtue becoming and appropriate to an Emperor, in that you ordered the preservation of my most heavy burden, about which I was anxious as to how it might be administered; and you will do something greater if you order it to be scattered among the needy and the churches. For I have long since prayed to avoid the vainglory resulting from its distribution, so that I might not neglect the wealth of my soul by entangling myself in material things." He, having returned from the war against Maximus, ordered her to have power over her own affairs, having heard of the intensity of her asceticism. Deac. Rightly, then, did John honor her, thus disciplining herself. Bish. For she abstains from animal products, and for the most part does not bathe; but if necessity arises because of illness (for she suffers constantly in her stomach), she descends into the waters with her tunic, being ashamed even of herself, as they say. Deac. It is said, too, that she greatly attended to the blessed John. Bish. And what ^B is worthy of his virtue that she showed toward him? Unless it be that she provided for the freedom from distraction of his daily bread; which is no small thing for the laborers of Christ, who night and day are anxious for the things of Christ; as Paul says, greeting Persis, this same thing perhaps to Olympias as she labored: "Greet," writing, "Persis the beloved, who labored much in the Lord. For all seek their own, and not the things of Christ." I know that she attended to the blessed Nectarius even more, so that he was persuaded by her even in ecclesiastical matters. And Amphilochius, and Optimus, and Gregory, and Peter the brother of Basil, and Epiphanius of Cyprus, the holy ones, what need is there even to mention, to whom she gifted both landed estates and money? And when Optimus was dying in Constantinople, she even closed his eyes with her own hands. Besides these, she refreshed the miserable not moderately in all things—Antiochus, and Acacius, and Severianus, and simply, in part, all the clergy who were residing there, and numberless ascetics and virgins. John, however, since he was, so to speak, a pattern sent to later bishops ^C as to how they ought to live—according to Paul, to preach repentance while in his own hire, touching nothing of the Church’s—he took only the food of the day, always fleeing such an administrative care. It is said, too, that he seemed to be ashamed when partaking of sensible food. For just as with apples, when they ripen to the extreme, they cannot bear to remain on the branch, seeking the Master's hand; so also with the saints, when they have fallen supernaturally in love with the beauty of heavenly things, they hasten to obtain the promise before their appointed departure—just as also with the master’s children, for they are often sharpened in their expectation of sweets [for their food], refraining from the set meals in caution of their appetite, so that they might be filled with the expected sweetness. May those who have stepped onto the same path of the spiritual journey recognize these words; for "if a wise man hears a wise word, he will praise it, and add to it."

Chapter XVIII

^A trust with tears, and he adds: "Who will give to my head water, and to my eyes a fountain of tears? And I will weep day and night for my people." And again, "Who will give me the ultimate lodging-place in the wilderness? And I will abandon my people and depart from them, because they all are adulterers" (Jer. 9.1-2), calling the assembly of transgressors a conventicle of false prophets and priests. Just as elsewhere he addresses God—not that He is ignorant, but so that we might imitate Him—"O Lord, if I have sat in the council of those who laugh, yet I was reverent before Thy face: I sat alone, for I was filled with bitterness" (Jer. 15.17). David also speaks in harmony with these things: "I have not sat with the council of vanity, and I will not enter with those who do iniquity." And explaining this, he adds, "I have hated the church of the malignant, and I will not sit with the impious. I will wash my hands among the innocent"—that is, my active faculties—"and I will go round Thine altar, O Lord" (Ps. 25.4-6). But those who have less care for the altar and turn their backs upon it—not by their intention, but by their life—not only with unwashed and blood-stained hands, through the giving and receiving of bribes and by false accusations, but trampling upon it with muddy feet, they shall yield this [account]. Concerning whom the prophet Ezechiel, prefiguring them, says: "He brought me to the entrance of the courtyard, and I saw, and behold, one hole in the wall. And He said to me, ‘Dig, son of man.’ And I dug, and I saw, and behold, one door. And He said to me, ‘Enter, and see the worst abominations which they do here.’ And I entered, and behold, every likeness of reptile and beast, and empty idols, abominations. And He said to me, ‘Hast thou seen, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel do in the darkness, in the chamber?’—alluding to their mind. ‘Therefore they have said, The Lord does not see us; the Lord has forsaken the land.’ And He said to me, ‘Thou shalt yet see greater abominations which they do.’ And He led me into another place, and showed me; and behold, ^B women were sitting there, weeping for Thambus. And again: ‘He brought me into the inner house of the Lord, and behold, there were twenty-four elders, and their faces and their backs were toward the altar.’ And He said to me, ‘Is it a light thing, this that the house of Israel does?’" We have been forced to call this chapter of the prophet to mind, on account of the more impudent ones who think themselves to be something, and who dement themselves and disturb the ecclesiastical peace, because they turn their backs upon the table of the Lord, "for whom judgment does not cease, and their perdition does not slumber" (2 Pet. 2.3), who savor earthly things, of whom Judas, the brother of James, says: "These are spots in your feasts, banqueting without fear, feeding themselves: clouds without water, which are carried about by winds; raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own confusions; wandering stars, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever" (Jude v. 12, 13). But when he called them clouds without water, he signified their evil hail, the adversary of the vineyard; when he called them wandering stars, he designated the traps for the ship—which ship and vineyard is the Church. But what are those things which must of necessity follow such men? Hear again the same prophet Ezechiel narrating: "And He showed me, and behold, men were coming from the way of the upper gate, which looks toward the North, and every man’s axe was in his hand. And one man in the midst of them was clothed in a long robe, and a sapphire belt was on his loins. And they entered and stood beside the bronze altar; and the glory of the God of Israel went up from the Cherubim that was upon them to the atrium of the house. And He called the man who was clothed in the long robe, who had the belt upon his loins. And the Lord said to him, ‘Pass through the midst of the city of Jerusalem, ^C and give a mark upon the foreheads of the men who are groaning and grieving over all the abominations that are done in the midst of them.’ And to those He said—to the six, that is, who had the axes—‘Hearkening to me, go into the city, following him—that is to say, him who placed the signs upon the foreheads—and strike, and do not spare with your eyes, nor have pity: kill the old man, the youth, the virgin, the little ones, and the women, until they are destroyed. But upon all on whom is the sign, do not approach, and begin from My holy places.’ They began therefore from the elder men who were in the house of the Lord" (Ezech. 9.1-6). But if any man thinks that these things are predicted only concerning the Jews, he seems to be ignorant of the Savior’s advent; for Ezechiel did not exercise the priesthood before the captivity. For he was led into captivity while still quite a child with the tribe of Levi; by God’s dispensation, he was held worthy of the vision of future things in his thirtieth year, a priest within the very captivity, as he himself narrates: "And it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, on the fifth of the month; and I was in the midst of the captivity by the river Chobar" (Ezech. 1.1). And again, a little after: "The word of the Lord came unto Ezechiel, the son of Buzi, the priest in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chobar" (Ibid. v. 3). But if anyone, brought to straits by this, should say to us: "Since the Savior has gone before, who also gave the sign of the cross upon the forehead, why is not the Savior considered to have arrived—He who, in the time of Vespasian the Roman Emperor, destroyed the synagogue forty years later, which had committed iniquitous deeds?" We have indeed received the one who thinks such things, but we pray that he, as a son of the New Testament, may have faith in Paul, the teacher of such men, who says concerning all books of this sort: "Now these things happened to them by way of figure; but they were written for our correction, upon whom the ends of the ages have come" (1 Cor. 10.11). Now I say these things, in no way praying that an iron sword may come upon the enemies of God—far from it. For the prophet does not speak of an iron sword, but of another certain punishing power, concerning which Ezechiel says: "The land upon which I shall bring the sword"—that is, "I shall permit"—"and if the people of the land take one man, and set him a watchman, and the watchman sees the sword coming, and the trumpet sounds, and he gives a sign to the people, and he who hears does not take heed; and the coming sword takes someone: I will require his blood from him, because he did not hear the voice of the trumpet." And again: "If, however, the watchman sees the sword coming, and the trumpet does not sound, nor does he signify it to the people; and the coming sword takes someone: I will require his blood from the hand of the watchman, because ^D when he saw the sword, he did not sound the trumpet" (Ezech. 33.2-6). Having this sort of danger before his eyes—not sleeping with the sleep of infidelity, nor sluggish with the sloth of pleasure—the blessed John cried out more loudly with the trumpet, not emitting an obscure sound, but a clearly open knowledge

of the devil's sword, and exhorted all to flee. And those who had a pure conscience like a seal upon the forehead of their soul were, by the grace of God, saved along with you faithful Romans; but those who again had it defiled, incited the peoples and priests to mutual contention, so that by common evils they might shadow over their own. ^A DIAC. You have spoken wonderfully. But it is conceded that it is an impossible thing for a man to be found blameless and perfect in this worldly life, as Scripture says in many places: *Who shall boast that he has a clean heart? or who shall be bold to be pure from sin?* Yet nevertheless, the blessed John did not know how to make use of the time; for it is not right to undertake things against those who are in power. ^B BISHOP. You seem to me, good Theodore, to be crafty. For having from the beginning proposed sympathy to us, as befitted you, with a certain contrition, by degrees you are found to be a mocker; for not even those who were thought to be his enemies so dreadfully disparaged his actions. DIAC. Why were you annoyed, Father, at hearing a lover of truth? Because I said: The blessed John did not pay attention to the time? The Scripture saying: *In the places of rulers do not stand*; and again, *Redeeming the time*, especially with those who do not accept encouragement or benefit. ^C BISHOP. Blessed are you for thus interpreting the Scriptures; for that which is in Ecclesiastes, *In the places of rulers do not stand*, is spoken to those who are unworthy and incapable of the priesthood, that they may not snatch it. For by "rulers" he means the teachers according to virtue; first the apostles, who were rulers, clothed with the spirit of power, then their imitators. And "to redeem the time" is of this sort, not that we should play the hypocrite, running with thieves and placing our portion with adulterers, but that during the time of sin we may, through virtue, buy back the time, not selling it to sin. ^D Now he who by little and little redeems time in this way, has redeemed his whole life, having set aside the pleasant things of life in order to find those that are beyond this life. Just as the martyrs have done, having given their bloody life, they inherited incorruptibility, they themselves truly redeeming the time. But if these things are not understood thus, then those around Moses and Elias and Micaiah and Daniel and John the Baptist and Isaiah and Peter and Paul, not to mention more, will be found to have been ignorant of their own time; since the one procures his own salvation by flight, on account of a reproof against someone, pasturing sheep on a gentile mountain; and another, being pressed by grief under a stupor, fell into sleep, finding neither the shadow of a wall nor a stone, but under a juniper-tree, which even itself scarcely covers ^A him; and another was sawn asunder; and another was let down into a den of lions for the sake of piety; and another was kept bound in a prison, namely in some dungeon, condemned to receive the bread of affliction and limited water, so that by being wasted away for a long time, he might forcibly end his life on account of his boldness towards a certain king. But what will you tell me about John, the peerless among those born of women? Did he not know how to make use of the time, since on account of the unveiled reproof of Herod’s adultery he had his head cut off, caring for Herod as a physician cares for one suffering from an incurable disease, either by cauterizing or by cutting? By this reasoning, John, pitying or loving, reproved the sick. If then the Baptist did not know the time, how did he recognize the craftsman and maker of the ages, saying: *Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world*? And how did Paul and Peter not know the time, they who are the pillars of the Church, who even after death close and open the times of repentance to those who wish and who knock? Since ^B especially the one is crucified head downwards, signaling the journey to heaven, and the other is beheaded on account of his boldness in Christ, that he might not fall from the true Head. Do not therefore accept those who, under the pretext of concern, disparage the boldness of the saints. For this is the habit of gentiles and conceited men, who love life and mock the fearlessness of the martyrs. For neither should a sword be dull, nor boldness be without effect. And as fragrance is inseparable from myrrh, so is goodwill from boldness. And if the reproofs were made privately in the case of servants or friends or one's own people, in which even to blush is burdensome, the one using boldness might perhaps be accused, as having known neither time nor place; but if, ^C as in a marketplace, the praises of those who do well and the censures of those who are negligent are made in the Church, why are we irritated at the reproofs which are made to us anonymously and beneficially, obscuring the causes, not obeying him who said: *Eat everything sold in the marketplace, asking no questions*? But if this is not the case, the saints will again be found to have scandalized some cities or regions by their reproofs, and to have subverted others by their praises. First the holy Job, criticizing a certain region of Phoenicia, as drawing on itself the Satan who was warring against him, as he says: *But the Phoenician nations part him*. Then Moses and the prophets disparaging Egypt, and calling it an iron furnace and darkness, and praising Palestine and calling it the land of promise, ^D finding Egypt to be, for the diligent man, the land of promise, and for the sluggard, Palestine not only an iron furnace but also outer darkness due to unbelief; since it is not places that are blameworthy or praiseworthy, but practices. But what need is there for me to extend the speech at length, and not to begin from the brief points? Is it that Paul, calling the Cretans liars, and the Galatians foolish, and the Corinthians puffed up, and others other things, he was indulgent to the passions of these alone, as if having brought the reproof to them alone, or to all? Or conversely, calling the Romans faithful and the Ephesians saints, to whom he writes more loftily, and the Thessalonians brothers-in-love, did he describe the praises to them alone? Not at all; but as one filled with the Spirit, he set down both censures and praises, so that the one worthy of praises, having recognized it, might be braced in his zeal, and the other, having encountered it, might be pained by the admonition, shaking off the cause of the censure. Neither therefore are the Galatians alone foolish, nor the Cretans liars, nor the Corinthians arrogant; for everything is everywhere, because the nature that sins and the nature that does well is one, and both this and that is in it, by its own will. Thus, therefore

John in the Church spoke freely; nay rather, he distributed the food of virtue to the hungry, exterminating sin with manifest rebukes and obeying Paul who says: "Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may have fear" (1 Tim. 5:20). Furthermore, if any who are laboring under the disease of pride or insanity wish to bring forward their own pleasures along with praise, the servants of God do not have this custom. For those who are indignant because their avarice, fornication, or any other foul lust is vituperated, are in reality saying nothing else than that such a pernicious virus should be permitted.

CHAPTER XIX.

DIAC. I have the greatest gratitude, Father, for this most kind arrival of yours to us; for it has been useful and salutary to us, and a memorial of life. But when Theodore had ceased after his lengthy praises, one of those standing by broke into this voice: "How then," he said, "being adorned with such great gifts, was he proud?"

EPISC. Did you yourself, being present, catch him being proud, or did someone else tell you?

He answered: "I do not know the man," he said, "but I heard from a certain tanner who was relating that he rarely made himself available, except in church, and that he took it ill to converse for a long time with those who wished to. But this is a sign of pride and arrogance, to flee the congress of those who desire it."

EPISC. And whose business was it to vituperate the wisdom of John, other than a tanner, who embraces the stench of his own workshop as if it were familiar? But if to flee the crowds is a sign of pride, then John the Baptist will also be proud, according to your speech, who withdrew into the desert; the Savior will also be, for it is written: "And seeing the multitudes, Jesus went up into a mountain; and when he was seated, his disciples came unto him" (Matt. 5:1), but not the multitudes. And again: "Seeing the multitudes, he withdrew apart" (Ibid. 8:18). Imitating him according to his strength, the excellent John was also withdrawing himself from the crowds, and was most delighted with those who were truly willing to learn something.

DIAC. You persuade me well with the examples of the Scriptures. But what will you say to this, that he is said to have been insulting, and not only to have fled the multitude, but even one or two?

EPISC. Well indeed; even one who is useless and a mountebank is a crowd; such was he who said to Christ: "Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest" (Ibid. vv. 19-20). Did not the Savior, fleeing the crowd, say: "The foxes have holes," and the rest? But you cannot prove to me that John, from the time he was baptized, ever swore, or adjured anyone, or cursed, or lied, or invoked a curse, or endured pleasantries.

DIAC. I indeed do not say any of these things, but that he insulted.

EPISC. O best of men, how could he who committed none of these things be insulting, by no means sparing his own tongue? For sin is a sin in a small matter, just as in a great one.

DIAC. What is it then, I pray, that men say? And when will they cease to speak?

EPISC. Hear then concerning each, and do not follow such trifles any longer; for you will never obtain any pardon. Men who do not live rightly cannot think rightly; they always effuse things rashly, and spend their time on this, and most of all now, when no one dares to hiss against anything. For even concerning the Savior, who was God and lived and spoke and acted above a man and any prophet, they spoke absurdities, heaping these things upon him like pigs and flies; for those times demanded that. For some were saying: "He deceiveth the world" (John 7:12); others: "He casteth out demons" (Luke 11:15); others: "Behold a man gluttonous and a winebibber" (Matt. 11:19); others: "He is a Samaritan and hath a demon" (John 8:48). And what does it matter to me to collect and recite their inanities? So much so that the Savior himself, knowing these things, says to the apostles: "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" (Matt. 16:13-14). To whom the disciples answered, bringing back better opinions about him: Some indeed say Elias, others Jeremias, others John the Baptist; suppressing, of course, the sayings of the most wicked. Whom he again questions, separating them from the men (for they were no longer men in mind and thought, but sons of God: "For the Word gave us power to become sons of God" [John 1:12]): "But whom say ye that I am?" They answer, not all, but Peter alone, interpreting the minds of all: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Proving the rectitude of which response, the Savior pronounced, saying: "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock," that is, this confession, "I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18). In this character you will find even now, not only in John, but in all, both vituperations and praises. And just as at that time the Ephesians spoke evil of Christ and the apostles, crying: "These are they that have turned the world upside down" (Acts 17:6), but now they have ceased to speak evil, as they are glorified; so you will find after this generation that John will be honored as a martyr, with those dead who opposed his praises; and whoever are swinish or doggish will say, "He deceiveth the world," and the rest; but whoever are disciples truly and knowingly seek him, saying, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." But if under the Savior Christ, among so many thousands of men, twelve were found at the beginning who knowingly recognized Christ, while most all even now are delirious; why do we discuss John anxiously, a man who did not reach to the spittle of Christ? But what do I say, to his spittle? Not even to his hem. "For all nations," as Isaiah says, "as a drop of a bucket, and shall be counted as saliva" (Isa. 40:15). But in what way you said he committed an insult, is of this sort: first indeed, he was never accustomed to be facetious and urbane to anyone he met, much less to insult; but if he saw some of his genuine disciples, or clerics, or bishops, being proud on account of the abstinence of some thing, or on account of a right work of some bodily virtue; rebuking them, he called them by contrary names: such as an ebriose water-drinker, and a lover of having more for one who possesses nothing, and a merciful thief. For this is a gracious form of instruction toward true disciples, to approve the things that are present through those that are not present. Otherwise, this is certain: he valued a temperate young man more than an intemperate old man, and an old man eager to learn more than...

PALLADIUS’ DIALOGUE

^A...an uneducated man, and a poor ignorant one, over a learned lover of money, or a virtuous worldly man over an idle monk; those who seek after honors perhaps call these things insults. Yet Scripture takes even insults as having their place; John saying to those who came to be instructed: "Brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" (Luke 3:7). Paul again saying to the high priest in the Acts of the Apostles: "God is about to strike you, you whitewashed wall" (Acts 23:3). And the Savior saying in one place to the Jews: "An evil and adulterous generation seeks a sign" (Matt. 12:39); and in another to all the apostles: "O foolish ones and slow of heart" (Luke 24:25); and in another calling Peter, Satan: "Get behind me, Satan, for you are a stumbling block to me" (Matt. 16:23). There was no grave cause for which these insults were made. Thus we embrace the love of learning in silence, being unable to judge the spiritual ones. For they do not commit insults out of hatred, nor do they seclude themselves out of pride, but perform everything useful out of love.

For this reason, all those whom we have recorded in the sacred writings as virtuous were found to avoid and turn away from the crowd of the uneducated, lest by the passage of time, through habituation, they diminish something of their virtue or be infected by their wickedness. Sarah first advised her husband Abraham to banish the son of the bondwoman from their common hearth while he was still very young; for she disdained his playing with her son Isaac, fearing that through such familiarity he might be led astray into his practices and habits. Jacob himself sought his salvation in flight, undertaking a journey to Mesopotamia. Lot too was urged by the angels to remove himself from the impious Sodomites. But also Moses, as I said before, having become great and having refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, ensured his separation from the tyrant and his guards, and urged those who were like-minded to depart with him and take care of the exodus. Even the prophets, avoiding the throng of the wicked, lived for the most part in deserts; concerning whom the Apostle says: "Wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes of the earth" (Heb 11:38). ^B This was because of the mingling with the lawless, and also because they knew how sufficient habit is to deceive and drag those who live together into the same practices—not only that, but that such intercourse is in itself blameworthy, ruinous, and moreover disgraceful.

For it is not in the nature of that which is not pleased by something to endure it, even if one spends but a short time with it; for like is always dear to like, as it is said: "Every animal loves its like," while the unlike is hostile and alien (Eccl. 13:19). For who will ever persuade the seed-eating pigeon or turtle-dove to associate with kites or carnivorous ravens, or the grass-eating lamb and crane to herd with bone-gnawing vultures? For what partnership has light with darkness, or virtue with vice, or the evil with the good?

DEACON: How then does the Apostle say: "I have become all things to all men; to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak; to those without the law as without the law, that I might win those without the law"?

BISHOP: This testimony, my excellent friend, does not contribute to the things being said. For Paul did not say: "I became negligent to the negligent," or "a babbler to the babblers," or "a lover of money to the lovers of money," or any such thing; but, "I became *as* [the] Jew," not "[the] Jew." For "as" is not the same as "[the]." Such is the meaning of what was done by the Apostle: his condescension, even if it did not produce a great gain, at least did not provide harm. For "I became to the Jews as a Jew, that I might win the Jews." Although he was from the Jews, being circumcised, why then does he say "as a Jew," and not "a Jew"? Because he was often found keeping the Sabbath and fasting with them, not corrupting the dogmas of the Savior, in order that by habit and companionship he might draw them to a more perfect knowledge; just as physicians do not always stay with the sick, nor partake of the same disease, nor rage with the same desires.

For this conduct is becoming to a teacher: not to waste time with the crowds, but to abide quietly and inquisitively, seeking after the discernment of diverse characters, just as also in the case of skilled physicians. For those men, by spending much time with their books, both predict the causes of diseases and hand down the cures, approaching the sick only so much as to discover the malady and provide the medicine, not playing or dining with them. For the task of medical virtue is not to eat or play with them, but to lead the sufferer back to health. Cease, therefore, I beg you, and do not torment yourself with these same matters, since virtue is never conquered by the slanders of the loose-tongued. But rather accept my advice, and station a porter at the doors of your ears, so that they may not admit every word and allow the things that disturb your mind to enter the inner chamber. As for me, permit me to complete the remainder of the narrative, for I am eager to finish my journey.

And Theodore said: "What of the bishops who were sent with ours, Eulysius, and Palladius, and Cyriacus, and Demetrius? For we heard vaguely that they were sent into exile."

BISHOP: If the first things about the blessed John that you heard from us appeared clear to you, containing no falsehood, and if you remember these, I shall relate also the things regarding which you inquire.

CAP. XX.—DEACON: I am as fully confident as if I had been present at the places. Let the attention to what has been said be sufficient proof of my conviction, the memory of which I have engraved in my mind, and perhaps I shall commit it to writing on parchment, inscribed in ink, for the memory of our generation and the benefit of those who seek the episcopacy, so that they may become like saintly John, or like you who have emulated the life of the martyrs for the truth, or else desist from bearing a burden beyond their own strength, embracing the life of a layman, which is without danger. For it is better, having paid the fare to experienced pilots, to be saved as passengers, than to take the place of the pilot and, in sinking the vessel by the weight of the cargo, perish with it. Having then narrated the things concerning the blessed John, how he exercised himself, and how he shone forth in the Churches, both that of the Antiochenes and that of the Constant[inopolitans...]

and how he was promoted, and how many snares he suffered, and all the bitter things meanwhile, which have been painstakingly worked out by the wicked, saying both those things concerning Porphyry and the Eunuch who was bishop of Ephesus; relate, I pray, the remaining things to us. And who among those in the prison have died; who have been driven into exile among those who communicated with John: for it is just to make mention even of these for the purpose of inciting the fervour of the living. For if in these worldly matters servants, who are cast into prison on behalf of their masters, or are beaten, or tormented, enjoy benevolence and liberty from them: how much more are those who are afflicted with punishments for the sake of Christ worthy of ecclesiastical honor and benevolence? Of whom the Apostle says: "Having compassion on those in bonds, as being bound with them" (Heb. X, 34), and with those who were vexed, as being fellow-sufferers, as being themselves also constituted in a body. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints" (Ps. CXV, 15). ^B EPIS. You have spoken well: hear therefore. The bishops, indeed, as the report at first spread, were submerged in the sea: but as the truth stands, they were driven into long-distance exile in barbarian regions, and there even now they are guarded by public slaves. For when a certain deacon arrived, who had made the journey together with them, he reported that Cyriacus of Emesa is at Palmyra, in a castle of the Persians, eighty thousand paces beyond Emesa: Eulysius likewise, the bishop of Bostra, three days’ journey further in a castle of the Arabs, called Mis; this, as I said, being adjacent to the Saracens: Palladius the bishop is guarded in the vicinity of the Blemmyes or the Ethiopians, in the town called Syene: Demetrium is deeper in the Oasis, near the Mazices; for there are also other Oases: Serapion, however, after ten thousand calumnies without any proof, was beaten with the greatest cruelty of the judges, to the point of the knocking out of his teeth, as the report is, and they relegated him to his own country. Hilarius, a holy man and an old man, was driven into the furthest part of Pontus, cut with stripes, not by the judge, but by the clergy: who for eighteen years ^C from that time has not tasted bread, eating only greens or boiled grain. Antonius shut himself up in the caves of Palestine: Timotheus of Maronea, and John, bishops of Lydia, are said to be in Macedonia: Rhodon, bishop of Asia, went off to Mitylene: Gregorius, bishop of Lydia, is said to be in Phrygia: Brisson, however, the brother of Palladius, having of his own accord abandoned his Church, dwells in his own little field, digging the earth with his own hands. Lampetius indeed, as they say, in a town of Lydia being helped by a certain Eleutherus, is free for readings: Eugenius is in his fatherland: Elpidius, that great bishop of Laodicea in Syria, and Pappus, for three whole years did not descend from the stairs of their house, being free for prayers: Heraclidas the Ephesian has now for four years been included in prison at Nicomedia. The remaining bishops of the communion of John, with every hope cast away, some indeed communicated with Atticus, and were transferred into other Churches of Thrace; but others lie hidden. They say Anatolius is in the Gauls. Furthermore, of the presbyters some were banished into ^D Arabia and Palestine: Tigrius was relegated to Mesopotamia: Philippus died in exile in Pontus: Theophilus dwells in Paphlagonia: John, the son of Athrius, built a monastery at Caesarea: the Isauri snatched Stephanus, who had been relegated to Arabia, from the hands of the guards, and sent him off to the Taurus: they say Sallustius is in Crete. I heard that Philippus the monk, and a presbyter of the Schools, are sick in Campania. Sophronius the deacon is detained in the prison of the Thebaid. Paulus the deacon, the assistant of the steward, is said to be staying in Africa: another Paulus, a deacon of Anastasia, lives in Jerusalem: Helladius, a presbyter of the Palace, leads his life in his own farm in Bithynia. More, however, lie hidden in Constantinople: others have departed into their own fatherlands. Silvanus, a holy bishop, fishes in Troas, and lives by fishing: Stephanus the monk, who brought the letters of the Romans, for that very reason was beaten, and lived for ten months in prison in Constantinople. But when communion was proposed to him, and he had not agreed, with his sides and chest torn by the violence of the claws—of which matter I myself was an eyewitness—preserved by the providence of Christ perhaps for second contests, after the tenth month of his care, he was relegated to Pelusium. A certain provincial soldier, from the Palatine Schools, accused as a supporter of John, after various kinds of stripes and most atrocious lacerations, was sent into exile to the Petrae. But the servant of the presbyter Elpidius, bribed with fifty, as they say, gold pieces, to kill the holy John by guile, when he was caught having three swords, struck seven of those who had apprehended him, one by one: four of whom were buried immediately, but the other three, after long medical care, escaped safely, the murderer being acquitted. Blessed Eutropius, pure from women, a cantor, beaten with stripes, and so lacerated on his sides and forehead that even his eyebrows were plucked out, finally with torches placed on both sides against the bared bones, filled with oil, he expired on the very rack, and was buried in the middle of the night by the clerics who had brought this about; since God had offered testimony to his death by a vision of those chanting, on account of the conformity to the Savior's passion. But the deacon who returned from the bishops reported that by the soldiers of the Prefect, who led them, they were so vexed by the command of certain persons, that they wished to die and refused to live. For the monies, which they had taken for themselves for the expenses of the journey, they were completely snatched away and divided among themselves, and throwing them onto lean beasts of burden, they performed a two-days' journey in one day: bringing them into inns late in the night, and leading them back early in the morning before light, so that their stomachs could not even retain miserable scraps of food. Besides, they did not refrain from attacking them with base and dishonorable words. They also took away the servant from Palladius, using force against him, so that he might put down his tablets. But one of the escorts vexed Demetrius so much that he arrived at Bizya late in the night; who immediately, tortured by the heaviest pains throughout his whole body, made an end of living: so that all who venerated God recognized that it was the punishment for the injuries: since Palladius had foretold it to him, as a returning fellow-soldier recounted: You shall not walk another path, but you shall die miserably. For in the Churches

they would not allow them to approach at all, turning aside either to inns, where there was a multitude of harlots, or to the synagogues of the Samaritans or Jews, and especially at Tarsus, and there they were so confined that they were compelled to consider another thing which was not at all intended. One of the bishops said: "Why are we troubled about the inns? For is it for us to decide where to stay, so that by acting indecently of our own will, we might pay the penalty? Or do you not know that all these things have already happened and will happen, with God being glorified in all things? How many of those harlots, having forgotten God, or never having known Him from the beginning, upon seeing us thus troubled, came to the fear and contemplation of God, perhaps having turned to the better, or even if to the worse, not having collapsed further? For it is not a small thing for a rational soul that is troubled by passion to have even a little respite, which is a spark of self-control: as the hierophant Paul said, having endured these things: *We are to God the fragrance of Christ in those who are being saved and in those who are perishing*, because we *have become a spectacle to angels and to men* (1 Cor. 4:9). To such a degree of cruelty did the bishops of those regions, the associates of Theophilus throughout the whole East, proceed, as the monk who returned reported, that most of them not only did not show the due kindness to our brethren, but even by giving bribes induced the Praetorian soldiers to drive them out of the cities. Those who especially did this were the bishops of Tarsus and Antioch, and Eulogius of Caesarea in Palestine; before all of them the bishop of Ancyra, and Ammonius of Pelusium, partly by gifts, partly by threats, more and more exasperating the soldiers against them, so that they did not even allow the laymen who wished to receive them to do so; just as the blessed John writes to Gaius in his Catholic [Epistles] ^A against a certain bishop, commending Gaius for his hospitality, and urging him not to imitate the wicked ones among the bishops. The text is as follows: *To Gaius the beloved, whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that you may prosper and be in health, just as your soul prospers. For I rejoiced greatly when some came and testified to me of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than this* (3 John 1-4). And he adds: *I wrote to the Church; but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us, prating against us with malicious words; and not content with this, he himself does not receive the brethren, and forbids those who wish to do so, and casts them out of the church* (Ibid. v. 9-10). Then later he urges, saying: *Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God* (Ibid. v. 11). We have mentioned the whole text of the ancient malice, in order that we might exhibit the mind of the Diotrephes of this time. He praised and admired the bishops of the Second Cappadocia, as having sympathized greatly with tears for the exiled bishops, especially the most gentle Theodore of Tyana, and Bosporius of Colonia, who was in the ^B forty-eighth year of his episcopate, and Serapion of Ostracine, who was in the forty-fifth year of his episcopal service. And Theodore, having been silent for a long time, said: "What then shall we say to these things, Father? Is the hour now the latest, and is the apostasy, according to Paul, receiving its entry through these things, so that the son of perdition, the adversary, may at last be revealed? (2 Thess. 2:3). For the fact that the wicked prosper, and perform these things, and endure and prevail, and the good are oppressed and plundered, brings me to horror that he is drawing near." ^C The Bishop said: "Most indeed, O wisest one, the end is near, according to Him who said: *Little children, it is the last hour* (1 John 2:18); and according to the passage: *The master of the house went out about the eleventh hour to hire laborers for his vineyard* (Matt. 20:1); but the twelfth hour is the last. And if it was said by the Apostle four hundred years ago to be the last, much more now because of all these things. And then these things have been happening from the beginning by the permission of the Lord for the training of the saints, the devil demanding them, as the saving word says: *Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail* (Luke 22:31-32). Nor did Christ pray only for Peter, but for all who have the faith of Peter: the sieve signifying nothing else than the terrestrial ^D circle, full of pleasures and pains, through which, as if through holes, those of an earthen nature fall from the life-giving wheat to Hades, as if separated through holes: some flowing out as if through the hole of gluttony, whose god is their belly (Philipp. 3:19); others through the enticements of pleasures, of whom the prophet says: *They have been led astray by a spirit of fornication: for neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, will inherit the kingdom of God* (1 Cor. 6:9-10); others because of avarice: specifically those who have betrothed to themselves the spouse of idolatry; others through wrath and anger, those who have loved the beastly darkness, of whom John says: *He who hates his brother is in darkness even until now* (1 John 2:9). For anger, says the author of Proverbs, destroys even the wise (Prov. 15:1); others through sloth and forgetfulness, not continuing in the wakefulness of memory, and needing the saying: *My soul has slumbered because of sloth* (Ps. 118:28). Whom the Word chides, saying: *Woe to you who have lost patience! And what will you do when the Lord shall visit?* (Eccli. 2:16-17); others because of mindless ostentation, of whom the Psalmist predicted: *For God has scattered the bones of those who please men* (Ps. 52:5); others through arrogance and pride, which is superciliousness, whom the prophet blames as deserters: *The proud have transgressed exceedingly; yet I have not declined from Your law* (Ps. 118:51). And to each of these vices follow more; to pride, envy, to avarice, hatred, illiberality, falsehood; to anger, wrath or outbursts, insults, envies; to fornication, forgetfulness, numbness, sloth, lack of zeal, profitless wakefulness; to vainglory, meddlesomeness, bribery, phantasies, hypocrisies, partiality, deceits; to arrogance, madness, cruelty, impiety, loss of mind; and to others others, so that I may not say more, burdening the discourse, the aforesaid being easily demonstrable. In each of these evils, God...

provided ^A a contrary virtue: for instance, to wantonness, chastity; to gluttony, temperance; to avarice, justice; to anger, lenity; to sadness, joy; to forgetfulness, memory; to cowardice, patience; to folly, prudence; to sloth, fortitude; to vanity, humility; and to others others. To all these, He gave the divine Scripture. But to pride alone, He gave no contrary virtue, on account of the excess of the vice, reserving it for Himself, as He said: *God resisteth the proud* (Jas. 4:6); as also the prophet himself prays, saying: *Lift up thy hands upon their pride in the end* (Ps. 73:3); and again, ^B *Render a retribution to the proud* (Ps. 94:2). And just as a tree is known by its fruit, as the Lord says: *By their fruits you shall know them* (Matt. 7:16), so is each of men, whether they be saints or are called such. Yet the prosperities of the wicked are everywhere unshaken, while God acts patiently toward them. For this very thing is fitting; so that the saints proclaimed this very thing from the person of those who are vexed, for the consolation of all us who now suffer. The first son of patience, Job, what does he say after many things? For what is it? *Is my reprehension from men?* signifying that he is blameless. ^C *And why shall I not be angry?* You who look upon me, marvel, placing your hand upon your cheek. *For if I remember, I have lived religiously, and pains seize my flesh. Why do the wicked live, and have grown old in riches? Their seed is according to their soul, and their children are in their eyes: their houses abound, but fear is nowhere: the scourge of God is not upon them. Their ox has not brought forth untimely: it has been kept from the heat, and having in the womb, it has not proved abortive. They remain like perpetual sheep. ^D Their infants play, holding the psaltery and the harp, and they rejoice at the sound of the psalm: they have finished their life in good things, and in the rest of hell they have slept.* He says moreover to the Lord: *Depart from me, I desire not to know thy ways* (Job 21:4–14). To this, the herald of evils endured and of divine judgments, David, consonant, says, according to that: *I will sing mercy and judgment to thee, O Lord. How good is God to Israel to them that are of a right heart* (Ps. 100:1; 72:1). *But my feet were almost moved, my steps have been slipping* (Ps. 72:2). Why? *Because I had a zeal on occasion of the wicked, seeing the peace of sinners.* And elsewhere again, condemning their wealth, he says: *Their oxen are fat, their sheep are fruitful, abounding in their goings out: their storehouses full, flowing out of this into that: their daughters decked out, adorned as the likeness of a temple* (Ps. 143:14, 13, 12). But admiring also their evil concord and peace, he adds: *There is no outcry in their streets, nor ruin of a wall in their houses* (Ibid. v. 14, 15). Then, vituperating the corrupt opinion of the people, he says: *They have called the people blessed that hath these things.* And he adds: *Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord, Jacob his helper.* And lest, stopping the testimonies there, I should do so that the imperfect discourse is endangered, hear again Habakkuk with a certain lamentation over such, indignant and saying: *How long, O Lord, shall I cry, suffering injury, and thou wilt not hear?* (Hab. 1:2–4); for he called the injuries of his neighbor his own. And the lover of his brethren adds: *I shall cry out to thee, and thou wilt not save. Why hast thou shown me labors and sorrows to see into toil and impiety? Judgment is made against me, and the judge takes it away. Therefore the law is rent, and judgment is not brought to the end, because the wicked prevails against the just* (Hab. 1:3–4). By the same spirit also the most merciful of the saints, Jeremiah, hesitating above others, cries out: *Thou art just, O Lord, because I shall institute a defense before thee: yet I will speak judgments to thee, O Lord. Why does the way of sinners prosper? They abound, all who transgress transgressions. Thou hast planted them, and they have taken root* (that is, they live freely), *and they have made fruit* (not the spirit’s clearly): *thou art near to their mouth, and far from their reins* (Jer. 12:1–2). To these, however, the wise prophet Sophonias [or Malachias] is entirely parallel, blaming men as calumniators, who accuse the providence of God and call the saints wretched, and from the person of the Lord he says: *You have burdened your words over me, says the Lord, and you have said: In what have we spoken against thee? You have said: Vain is he who serves God. And what more for us, because we have kept his commands, and because we have walked as suppliants before the face of the Lord almighty? And now we call ourselves blessed, and all are built up who do injustices, and they have resisted God, and they have been saved. These things spoke they who fear the Lord, each to his neighbor* (Mal. 3:13–16). To whom the herald of piety, Paul, brings things similar: *But evil men and seducers will grow worse, erring, and driving into error* (2 Tim. 3:13). Then, designating the vileness of the saints, he says: *For I think that God has shown us the apostles last, as destined for death: because we have been made a spectacle to the world and to angels and to men. For until this hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and are unstable and labor working with our own hands* (1 Cor. 4:9–12), enumerating bodily toils. *We are reviled, and we bless; we suffer persecution, and we sustain it; we are blasphemed, and we beseech; we have been made as the filth of the world, the offscouring of all even until now* (1 Cor. 4:12–13); since God, being good and just, according to certain arcane reasons, has unfolded the world as a stadium, and has made us self-determining, so that, undertaking the matter by our own will, we may pay just penalties, as the Law says: *I have set before thy face life and death: choose what thou wilt* (Eccl. 15:18). Why, however, He set them, it is not of this time to say, except that He set them. For it would not have been of wisdom for us to have been made unchangeable, with no prizes proposed and with the mind not rightly moving: for to be unchangeable belongs to the eternal God alone. DIAC. You have met this excellently and wisely, Father, illuminating the eyes of the mind to present things, which through ignorance of the Scriptures are always stumbling, and because, for a long time, the Church was a training-ground, showing its own victors, men and women, in past times, not having eaten the flesh of Christ for nothing. But your instability, or the persecution, and the subversion of the Churches, saddens us. EP. I marvel at you, most honorable of men, Theodore, who, having confessed a manifold utility, speak once more the opposite. For while proclaiming us blessed as victors, you call us miserable as

having been deprived of ecclesiastical places. ^A You behave towards me like the rustics who watch the Olympic games: for they gape with pleasure at the prizes, but cry pitifully at the wounds of the contestants. But for me, it is better to traverse glens and forests and seas with the truth, than to possess great glory from the currently perceived prosperity while remaining subject to falsehood. ^B For possessing the truth, I possess all things; for all things are handmaids to it. But possessing falsehood, I possess not even myself, not existing in the truth. Yet having the truth, I do not simply wish to have it as a mistress, a servant, or a neighbor, but as a sister; and if it be possible, even as a spouse, enjoying her pleasure and afterward inheriting her as my own wife. For she is the daughter of the Truth which truly is, of whom the diligent man is the son-in-law. For he who holds this seal blossoms, is ageless and unfading, having a zeal hotter than fire, ^C a word sharper than a sword, a life lighter than any eagle. He runs swiftly, as if toward his home-keeping mother, the meditation of the Scriptures; he thrives perpetually in freedom from grief, is not mastered by fear, exults in fearlessness, is ecstatic with enthusiasm, loves no one, pities those who use their life poorly, calls blessed those who work their own path with self-sufficiency, and is grieved by the grief of the Spirit because of the negligence of the priests; concerning whom the Apostle said: "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption" (Eph. 4:30); but he grieves the Spirit who gives it his back in negligence. And (what is the sum of it?) he ends with boldness, ^D having grieved no one, except the demons and those who are their neighbors. Time abounds for him; he has not trafficked away his days in misdeeds; he doubled the given money and sent forward the interest of good works, in a short time fulfilling long years. He does not write a will of material goods; living and in his right mind, he has overcome it. Death knocked at the door of his flesh; before seeing him standing outside, he cries out, "Let us depart from here," chanting: "Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged!" (Ps. 119:5). And were it not for the Master who sent him, he would have exacted penalty from death, that it came too slowly. He is glad at last to be released from the much-suffering flesh—as from a dilapidated lodging that threatens collapse—having bent his ear toward the One saying, "Well done, good and faithful servant" (Matt. 25:21), to hear the rest as well. Let the density of these words be proof to you of what I speak; for "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks" (Ibid. 12:34).

But he who lives with falsehood has a life that is troubled, at one time rejoicing immoderately in an increase of silver, or a tiny bit of glory, or a little gain of wealth, or the misfortune of his enemies; at another he is grieved even unto death, dreaming of fluctuations and uncertainties; he has sleepless or ill-sleeping nights; he suspects treacheries even from his own kindred, trusting not even himself, disbelieving everyone as liars. Such a man, being what he is, is cowardly as a hare, bold as a swine, a liar as a chameleon, a deceiver as a partridge, unmerciful as a wolf, savage as an animal. He is an enemy to himself, unceasingly envious, punishing himself by necessity without being aware of it; for in thinking evil against another, he is the first to suffer ill at his own hands. Death pricked him, he gives all, that he may remain a little longer, loving life; he wasted the time given him in vain; the denarius, over and above his talents, he did not double, nor did he keep it safe. He trembles perpetually like a leaf, not wishing to grow old; he endures the delirium of old age, he fears death like a god; for the visible world is a god to him. And why say more? He grows pale, shudders, is anxious, forestalling the judgment of God; he punishes himself, with his conscience tormenting him mercilessly, and reminding him of each one of his transgressions, suffering things more terrible than those who have their own bodies scourged with lashes; he submits to the powers of the time in a servile manner, he flatters the world shamefully; he has ten thousand masters instead of one Lord, so that he might not be a slave to the Truth; he is afraid to be, because he fears everyone. Let these things be said to you from us to the best of our ability. And if anyone, speaking more truthfully and gracefully, should correct our nothingness, we will gladly accept him as a corrector and brother-lover, and we will offer thanks to the Savior for all things. But you, in return, provide me with the knowledge of the purpose of the Western Synod, and seal my words, if they please you, as having been spoken to good effect.

The Synod of the West

After the narrator had finished, Theodore said these things: "May the Lord grant you, who have narrated these things, to find mercy on that day, both because you have turned aside from the communion of such men, and because you have clearly narrated them to us; and may the Lord be mindful of every sacrifice of John, since even unto death he did not betray his freedom of speech. The purpose of the Roman Church, however, is this: not to hold communion with the Oriental bishops until the end, especially with Theophilus, until the Lord shall provide a place for an ecumenical synod, which will heal the rotting limbs of those who have perpetrated these things. For even if the blessed John has fallen asleep, the truth is awake, through which the inquiry will take place. I would gladly have met those who have perpetrated these things in the Church, face to face, saying: Where is the priesthood? Where is the holiness? Where is the gentleness and the commonality of our nature? Where are the commandments of the Savior? Where is that, 'If you offer your gift, and remember that your brother has something against you, go, first be reconciled to your brother, and then offer your gift' (Matt. 5:23-24)? Where is that, 'If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also' (Ibid. v. 39)? Where is the meditation of the Scriptures? And that, 'Behold, what is good or what is pleasant, than for brothers to dwell together in unity?' (Ps. 132:1). Where is that, 'Let brothers be useful in necessities'? Why have you turned it around and made it, 'A brother helped by a brother, as a fortified city'? You have done the reverse! 'A brother slandered or plundered by a brother'—as a piteous and unwalled city. Why, therefore, have you undertaken to treat the matter as something unmixable, you wretched men—three times, not just once? And by what reasoning, as if against an enemy, did you not restrain yourselves from causing his ruin? How did it come about that you were so enraged against one another? Whence did you demonstrate such a change, so as to transform from the tame to the untamed and savage?

^A I am astounded and struck with terror, beholding the whole situation so violently disturbed. Why, carried away by such audacity, have you treated with insults and lacerated the Church of God, which gives suck and nourishes you, like a fruitful womb? So that for you the prophetic word might be fulfilled: "For which they pursued their brother with the sword, and corrupted her womb upon the earth" (Amos 1:11). The divine and saving Word dwelt with this womb and sowed you and him together, and planted you in countless good and useful deeds. For when you ought to have been helping one another toward what was appropriate, what is the cause of your deciding not to be at peace and live quietly, even for the future? Created, therefore, for utility and mutual assistance, why have you neglected that grace, not only not relieving the labor of your brother, but even repelling him and cutting him off from his own kindred? When the prophet cries to you: "Is there not one Father of us all? Did not one God create us?" (Mal. 2:10). But you will say to me: "He sinned against the law." Which one? The one which you yourselves trampled underfoot, dissipating it through wickedness. Where, then, is the law of nature to correct ^B with gentleness? Why, I ask, acting against the law of enemies, do you pursue, while you deliberate and do things that are contrary and worthy of enmity? How much better it would have been to live together and dwell as one, sharing common and good counsels with one another, for the glory and grace of your Father! For the virtue and harmony of children is very pleasant to parents, who seek nothing else from their children than that. And you know this well, that the bond of friendship and benevolence is nothing other than to strive and do everything that pleases the Father, the author of birth, education, and preservation. Treating him as a madman in your contempt, you kindled wars in the Church, according to the prophet who says: "They have fixed insanity in the house of the Lord" (Osea 9:8); whereas you ought to have been exciting and exhorting one another—then, against the mind and will of the Father, carrying on implacable wars among yourselves. I add that it also greatly astounds and moves both God and all who approach Him—His children, indeed, but your brothers—and does not permit one to be silent; for He is not neglectful of the utility of His children, nor devoid of concern. Therefore, bearing your madness with difficulty, and the oppression ^C of those who suffer injury, He does not think it just that you should escape unpunished, as it began. For it is neither decorous for Him, nor safe for you: and your disease is not tolerable, nor susceptible to any care. For He sees that even when punished with blows and countless weals, you have become worse. For a great deal of insensitivity and inflexibility abounds in you, having transformed brothers, kin, and companions—moreover, even confederates and participants of the same table and bed, and of one and the same lineage—into such shameful hatred, that you have even driven them from their own borders and common hearth and cast them far away, without city or home; in short, as exiles, as far as lay in your power, and having done these things, not limiting the exile to some time, but as far as you could, even to infinity, through cruelty and the excessive agitation of your mind. ^D Which you did in these matters and to the blessed John, re-igniting internal hatred, and like an acute sword even to this day launching the tongue against him, you embrace wrath instead of useful doctrine, pouring forth insult in the Church to the defilement of the hearers. And let these things be said to those whom the Lord in mercy and lenity repaid according to their works.

But as for you, blessed John, with what words shall I weave and place upon you an unfading crown, not fearing to praise you after the exit from the stadium of this life? For you have escaped the storm. Or shall I weave a crown of those Mosaic flowers which He gave, who blessed the active Joseph and the contemplative Levi the priest? For in you I see both. "In the blessing of the Lord is your land, and from the mountains of heaven and dew and the abyss of the fountains beneath, and at the time of the produce, the sun's turnings and the meeting of the months, from the summit of the mountains of the beginning, and from the summit of the eternal hills, shall they be upon the head of Joseph (and if there is anyone like Joseph), and upon the summit of his brothers over whom he presided, glorified, the firstborn among brothers. His beauty is that of a bull, his horns, the horns of a unicorn: with them he shall push the nations together even to the ends of the earth" (Deut. 33:13-17). And Levi said (and if anyone has imitated him): "Give to Levi his manifestations, and his truth to the holy man, whom they tested in temptation, they cursed him at the waters of contradiction. Who said to his father and mother: I have not seen you; and did not acknowledge his brothers, he kept your oracles, and your covenant he observed: he manifested your justifications to Jacob, and your law to Israel. He shall set incense always at your feast upon your altar. Bless, O Lord, his strength, and accept the works of his hands: strike the brow of the enemies rising up against him, and let those who hate him not rise again" (Ibid. 8-11). I, however, would add this: Those who love him, Jesus Christ, let them not be confounded: for Your empire is unto the ages. Amen.

[Bishop:] And this is a proof of your intelligence, Theodore, searcher of thoughts, to bring forth from the treasure of your mind, as the Savior says, "new and old": the old, indeed, documents of human wisdom; the new, however, the oracles of the Holy Spirit. From which treasures you have bestowed upon both parties what was fitting. It is indeed of your prudence to speak what was appropriate for sinners, and to weave for John the crown due from the Mosaic blessing: who, having performed the priesthood without affection, truly ignored father and mother and consanguineous kin because of the excellence of justice, but knew only the lovers and workers of the divine word. Furthermore, those who in our time are seen as bishops have brought the earthen kind into pursuits, and militias, and dignities, having violated the law which says: "The priests shall not give their sons into princes and strollers for the king" (Lev. 18:23): but they consume spiritual men with snares, hardships, guards, and exiles, and drink pure ignorance, thinking from these that they de-honor the friends of virtue, concerning whom the Savior predicted: "The days shall come in which those who kill you will think they are rendering a service to God" (John 16:2). Nor, evidently, did He say it concerning the Gentiles, because He would have said "gods": which signify many and not one. But because He named one and alone, He shows those who now [index: entries preserved]

^A under the guise of the Church are plundering her. For, having veiled their own wickedness and envy, they pretend in word to care for her, whom they have ruined by their deeds. But even if they sophistically reason thus, the outcome of what has happened will refute them as having served the one who boasted: "I shall not be shaken from generation to generation without evil." For since the inventor of lawlessness and the cultivator of the most wicked desire, the serpent, could not yet find a species of newer heresy, he has driven the leaders of the Church into mutual slaughter, through a passion for position and preeminence, by which they have brought about the schism. For if there had been the harmony of the Spirit of God among the bishops, then, as the author of the crime, or as unworthy of the priesthood, or, as Theophilus says, as liable to pride, John should have been restrained. The omnipotent wisdom of God could have rightfully restrained him from the priesthood, or found a way by which he could have been cast out without disturbance and without tears—namely by death, or by paralysis, or by loss of voice, as we know some of his adversaries have suffered, and some are yet to suffer. But since so many deeds ^B unworthy of the Savior followed, and yet he was not deposed, but sent into exile, it is evident that the drama is the devil's—whose kingdom was being destroyed by John's preaching. I certainly know that John deposed six who were rightly judged as buyers of the priestly dignity, of whom I spoke above. Who wept? Whose nostrils dripped blood? What spider was torn apart? Who went out of his house? Who was fined a bit of small change? Or what charlatan of Asia, or craftsman, or farmer, or cobbler, or common man did not rejoice at what was done for the retribution of the sacred laws, applauding: "How great are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you have made them all"? For where God works, all things are done in wisdom; but where the evil-hating demon works, all things are in folly. And strange things follow folly: envies, murders, strife, zeal, angers, contentions, divisions, clamor, the noise of the unlearned, the boiling over of authorities, racks, scourging, lamps, streams of blood, intolerable losses, confiscations, the dissolution of divine laws, contempt for laws, the setting aside of temperance, the schism of the inhabited world, watchers of earth and sea, naval, cavalry, and infantry machinations for the obstruction of those who go into exile for the sake of the truth. How, therefore, do they dare to say: "John has been cast out by the dispensation of God"? Let those who interpret these things tell me: Could the omnipotent wisdom of God, as I said before, ^C by an invisible power, cause John to cease if he were unworthy? Or persuade those who disagree with him, without much necessity of rulers, to bear the matter dispassionately? For if it is the same God who cooperated with Moses for the liberty and obedience of Israel, while Pharaoh was openly shouting: "I do not know God, and I will not release Israel," how then, in the case of John, has He stood in need of the help of earthly rulers, as if He were aged, or as if He were weak, or as if He were at a loss? Furthermore, he who made the adulteries of some, and the pederasties of others, and the sorceries of still others public, was he at a loss to refute John? Or, conversely, he who caused the tongue of this one to swell with a confession in writing, and allowed that one to fall into a deadly paralytic seizure, or he who embalmed another with a generation of worms, keeping him speechless on his bed for nearly an entire year, or he who brought those terrible fears upon another along with the companion gout, or he who caused whom he wished to swell in the legs, or he who snatched that one away with a foul death quickly—things that all know—was he weak, as you say, in the case of John, who was a sacrilegious person, so as to be unable to effect one of these things, but required this one and that one so that, having disgraced him, he might thrust out John, having by this means glorified him much more? Therefore they are deceived, not knowing the command of the Word. For a sacrilegious person is not strictly one who distributes gold, or silver, or silken garments—the food of moths—to the poor; but one who, with money and flattery and feasting, sells the doctrines and the precepts of the Savior; then, he who maltreats a holy man, adorned in life and word, through whom the Savior, as through a chalice or a treasure, was dispensing to the lovers of the Word the things conducive to salvation. Let those, therefore, be called sacrilegious who have plundered the apostolic Church, having deprived her of such teachers, and who sell ordinations for money, whom divine justice will now pursue for the correction of their own ^D wickedness. For if those who had violated the law of Moses through excessive negligence were cast out of the temple by the Savior with a scourge, and that a rope-whip, because they were selling doves inside—what will they suffer, then, who traffic in the priesthood of the New Testament, unless it be that they are to be shattered by an iron rod by the Chief Shepherd? As the Apostle says: "Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you think, will he be judged worthy who has trampled underfoot the Son of God, and has considered the blood of the Covenant in which he was sanctified as common, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?" For we know the one who said: "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. But may God, who has glorified this pious and holy shepherd and luminary of justice, grant us to find a portion or inheritance with him on His fearful day of just judgment; to whom is due glory, honor, majesty, and magnificence, to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and always, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

DE VITA S. JOANNIS CHRYSOSTOMI A NOBIS ADORNATA.

Nothing is more conducive to an accurate account of the life of St. John Chrysostom than his own works, where countless details occur which are not mentioned by other writers. ^A Palladius also, in his historical Dialogue, provides not a few items that one would seek in vain elsewhere. To these must be added Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret, as well as Photius, especially regarding those matters which pertain to the Synod at the Oak. From other sources also we can glean certain facts regarding the same subject. Making use of these authorities, Hermantius wrote his Life in the common French tongue, and he far surpassed all writers of a later age who had fashioned a Life of Chrysostom in both accuracy and diligence. But after him, that illustrious man superior to all exception, Tillemont, as he described the life of other saints with the greatest zeal and labor, so in the life of so great a teacher he neglected nothing of those things which could bring any weight to a work of this kind. But if any difficulty arises in the recounting of his deeds, he explains everything minutely in his notes placed at the end of the book, so that he might not appear to have omitted anything. I have mainly used this writer when either the words or the deeds of Chrysostom carry with them some obscurity, which certainly happens for the most part; yet I confess that I have not always embraced the opinion of so great a man: ^B in some matters I have found that he had strayed from the right path. For since I have spent much more time in reading, translating into Latin, and investigating the works of Chrysostom than he did, I discovered certain matters in which he had strayed from the correct track, either in the calculation of time or in the sequence of events; and on this account I have sometimes warned the reader, while still preserving the respect owed to such a great man.

Because in this latest collection of the Works of Chrysostom there are many things which had never before seen the light; for this reason we have also gathered not a few hitherto unknown facts pertaining to the life of so great a doctor, especially from those eleven new Homilies printed in Volume XII, which contribute much to the history of that time, namely from the latter part of the year 398 up to the middle of the following year, 399: regarding which period of time some most worthy and hitherto unknown facts are related in these homilies, which you would seek in vain among other writers. All these things, in the Life of the Doctor which we provide, you will find accurately recorded in writing, as far as we have been able.

LIFE OF S. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM,

ARCHIEPISCOPI CONSTANTINOPOLITANI,

NOW FIRST PREPARED, AND AUGMENTED WITH MANY PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN [WORKS], WHICH ARE EXCERPTED FROM TWELVE CONSTANTINOPOLITAN HOMILIES RECENTLY DISCOVERED.

John of Antioch was born to noble parents. His father was Master of the Soldiers of Syria, named Secundus; his mother was Anthusa (Pallad. Dial. p. 40). That the name of his father and mother was not only reported by George of Alexandria (Georg. Alex. p. 159), but also by Socrates (Socr. l. 6. c. 3). For which reason Canisius is rightly rejected (Canisius l. 2, p. 887), ^C who thinks our John was the son of that holy and vigorous woman Publia, who flourished under Julian the Apostate. Palladius relates that he had an elder sister, whose name he does not mention. He is also said to have had an aunt named Sabiniana, regarding whom more will be said at the year 405 (Pallad. His. Laus).

But George of Alexandria, who narrates that he was born of pagan parents, worshippers of idols, and that after John himself was baptized, both his father and mother embraced the Christian religion (Georg. Alex. p. 59. b. c.), is to be rejected. For John was baptized at 28 years of age. His father, however, died while John was still in the cradle: from the narration of his mother, it is clear that they were Christians before the birth of John. He is thought to have been born in the year 347 (De Sacerd. t. 1. col. 624, l. 23. et sqq. Cfr. t. 1. col. 601. l. 10. et sqq.). This is the opinion of Blondel, Hermant, and Tillemont. Those who say he lived only 52 years and two months must say he was born in the year 355: which would certainly fight against the true series and narrative of history; and from the notes of time which we provide below, it will be found to be in no way tenable.

His mother was twenty years old when her husband left her a widow with the tender John. But Anthusa, strengthened by the admonitions of the Apostle, although she was still young, abstained from a second marriage: she spared no effort in establishing and educating John; she neglected nothing that seemed opportune for his progress, both in liberal studies and Christian disciplines. The thing itself declared what a happy outcome this had. Yet she did not lay aside the care of her household; ^D indeed, she moderated everything in such a way that from her dowry and her own resources she might abundantly provide for the expenses of herself and her son, and keep the paternal wealth and all his goods intact for her son.

The gifts and character of John.

^A confirmed by Socrates, who continues and says: "And because of the holiness of his life, he was not very cautious regarding future matters; but because of his simplicity, he was easy of access. He also used excessive freedom of speech in his conversations. And in teaching, he was indeed very helpful for shaping the morals of his listeners; but in social gatherings, he seemed rather arrogant to those who had not known his character."

These things will perhaps seem harsher to those who admire Chrysostom’s eloquence and greatness of soul; yet we observe this variety of conduct in saints. For some, inflamed by the study of divine things, are carried more ardently toward shaping morals without respect to times and persons; others, to restrain dissolute behavior, use doctrine along with art.

He devotes himself to the art of oratory and philosophy

Nor will it seem strange to those who praise and celebrate even the extemporaneous orations of our Chrysostom if this oration, which he had polished with art and urbanity, pleased Libanius and the other orators so much. In those orations, however, which he crafts with great study, no suspicion of affectation and artificial diligence ever arises, which is the duty of the highest orator.

But those things which Chrysostom narrates in his book *to the Young Widow* (T. I, col. 601) concerning Libanius should perhaps be understood in this way. He says that his teacher, who was very superstitious and a pagan, had asked certain people whose son John was. They answered that he was the son of a certain widow. Then he asked how old the mother was, and how long she had been a widow. They replied that the mother was forty years old, and was now in the twentieth year of her widowhood. Then he exclaimed: "Alas! what kind of women there are among the Christians!" Such, continues Chrysostom, is the praise and admiration given to widowhood, not only among us, but even among the pagans.

George of Alexandria narrates that our John, flourishing in his youth, betook himself to Athens, in order ^B that he might leave nothing behind in his study of the sciences; and that he made such progress in that city that he surpassed everyone entirely, and stirred up the envy of the Athenians against himself. But this is told by that one fabricator George, whom Photius warns should be entirely disregarded, since he refers to things that are not mentioned by other writers closest to the age of Chrysostom.

He is recalled to his former piety by the youth Basil

He is baptized and ordained Lector around the year 369

Therefore, while he enjoyed the frequent company of Basil and both conversed about divine matters (De Sacerdotio lib. 1), and John was utterly withdrawn from the forum and secular ^C affairs, and frequented only Basil, and spoke with him always about divine things and the monastic life, Basil, who thought that life was not worth living without John, and who was frequently forced to be torn away from his company, proposed to John that both of them should leave their paternal homes, and take up residences in a certain private house, and live together a life similar to the monastic one. Finally, John approved of the plan; but when the matter was discovered, John’s mother, who loved her only son very much, earnestly begged him with profuse tears not to desert her, nor to postpone the company of a mother—a widow and so well-disposed—to someone else, using the words which Chrysostom himself reports, and which could have recalled the youth John, had he been less well-disposed, from his purpose. John, therefore, yielding to his mother's prayers, remained with her according to his custom.

In his mother’s house, therefore, free from secular business (for Anthusa took care of the entire family estate), John devoted himself only to divine philosophy, macerating his body with fasts, vigils, and sleeping on the ground, eliminating all base affections, and dispelling and dissipating the smoke of vain glory. And so that his tongue should not utter any evil against his neighbor, he imposed upon himself the law of perpetual silence.

^A He had placed bars, for he spoke to no one. Hence, among some, there was an opinion that he was harsh, a man who fled all human society; and when some people brought forward many such things and rumors, and he was not unaware that such a suspicion was held of him, he discovered it; yet he preferred to continue along the same path and to cultivate solitude as was his custom—perhaps having learned, while he was involved in the forum, that while enjoying the company and conversations of men, he could hardly progress without a fall on that path of virtue which he himself had embraced.

And yet he was not so sequestered from human society that he would close the entrance to all his companions and friends. For Basil, who was pursuing an equal regimen of life, he frequently admitted to conversations, as we have seen. Nor did he absolutely neglect those companions who, having once been imbued with the same disciplines as he, were embracing a secular life and applying themselves to forensic studies. ^B For he persuaded, says Socrates (Socr. l. 6, c. 3), Theodore and Maximus, his fellow-students, who, together with him, had heard the sophist Libanius, to abandon a profession which looked to nothing but gain, and instead embrace a simple and austere life. Of these, Theodore later became bishop of Mopsuestia in Cilicia, and Maximus of Seleucia in Isauria. Furthermore, Hermantius believes this Maximus was the one who was a friend and colleague of Chrysostom, and who preached in alternating turns with him, as is reported in the third volume, columns 225, 226. Chrysostom also mentions Maximus as his friend in a certain letter to Olympias (T. 3, col. 610, l. 1). He also wrote to his friend, the bishop Maximus (T. 3, col. 700). But whether the same person is mentioned three times in those places, or whether, if there are more, one of them is the person now being discussed, can only be said by guessing: for there were, in fact, many at that time by the name of Maximus.

Epistles to Theodore who had fallen.

Epistles to Theodore who had fallen.

What we have now said has been extracted from the very words of Chrysostom. Tillemont construes the matter quite differently; he thinks that the first discourse sent to Theodore was not sent to the one who later became Bishop of Mopsuestia, but to another of the same name who, likewise, after having abandoned the world, had again turned to secular affairs. We have refuted all his arguments, and that one in particular, which he himself thinks is the greatest of all, and it is of this sort: Theodore, mentioned in the second letter, had not yet completed his twentieth year; in the first, however, he said to Theodore that no more than fifty years of life remained for him, in order for him to reach extreme old age. From this, he argues that the first Theodore was forty years old at that time, thinking that "extreme old age" can only be said of a nonagenarian. But the other Theodore, who was then in his twentieth year, having added the fifty years later, would have been only a septuagenarian. I have, if I am not mistaken, excellently refuted this argument in the Monitum at the beginning of Volume 4. But according to these, I have fallen upon a place which I had not yet noticed, in which Chrysostom seems to be purposely refuting Tillemont's weapon. For in his Commentary on the Epistle to the Corinthians (T. 10, col. 35, l. 52), speaking of Socrates, he says: "And when he had reached extreme old age: for he used to say that he was seventy years old, when he departed this life." Now you see that the places brought forward by Tillemont must be explained in such a way that he speaks of the same Theodore in both epistles. In the first, he says fifty years remain for him to reach extreme old age, in the second, however, he had reached about his twentieth year: but in the cited passage, at seventy years of age, he is said to be of extreme old age. Using the same words, Chrysostom reconciles those two passages which Tillemont thought were in conflict, and proves that there is but one Theodore.

^D As for the year, however, in which these epistles were written, I do not disagree with Tillemont concerning the second, which he thinks was written in the year 369: but, contrary to what he thinks, I have proved in the same Monitum that the first was also given at about the same time. There is, however, one thing which might cause trouble. Chrysostom says…

^A in his first epistle (c. 302, 1. 42): "Now indeed sadness occupies the choir of the brethren, while pleasure and joy occupy the gathering of the unfaithful, and likewise of the young, who are more given to leisure." Tillemont thinks that by "the choir of the brethren" he means the company of monks, and from this he thinks it is proven that this Theodore is a different person from the Mopsuestian. But Chrysostom does not even say *monasterio* or *monachis* here—of whom he would undoubtedly have made mention if our man had left the monastery—but by "choir of the brethren" he seems to mean the entire choir of the faithful who live uprightly, whom he calls "brethren" more than once, and he contrasts them with the gathering of the unfaithful and of those youths who were given to leisure and sloth. Indeed, what I truly wonder at, given that he is the most accurate of all men, is that he did not notice that in the first period of the second epistle, Chrysostom says he is saddened because he had removed himself from the catalog of the brethren.

Eventually, Theodore, recalled by so many letters of Chrysostom together with Maximus (Soz. l. 8, c. 2), and undoubtedly frequenting John with Basil (Socr. l. 6, c. 3), and gathered together in one place, they pursued a true philosophy, or a life similar to the monastic. They learned the Holy Scriptures and ecclesiastical doctrine together with monastic exercises from their teachers Diodorus, who later was bishop of Tarsus, and Carterius, who together with Diodorus managed the Antiochene monasteries.

John flees the episcopal dignity and takes care that it be conferred upon Basil. This holy and select youth, therefore, applied themselves to these studies. John, indeed, was incessantly having conversations with Basil (Chrys. *de Sacerd.*) concerning the holiness of life, concerning ascetic virtues, and concerning any other matters pertaining to piety. ^B While they were occupied in these things, after Meletius had been sent into exile in the year 370, when certain episcopal sees were vacant, a rumor was spread that John and Basil were to be promoted to episcopal dignity to fill those sees. Once the matter was discovered, John was struck with fear: for he considered himself—so modest was he—far unequal to so great an office; but fearing lest he be dragged to that honor even against his will, he formed a plan to hide himself. In the midst of this, Basil, moved by the fame of this matter, approached John, his friend and companion, whom he supposed was ignorant of these things. He reveals the matter to him, and asks him what counsel should be taken, whether to obey or to flee, being prepared for either, and awaiting his friend's judgment. John, however, who, as he deemed himself unworthy of such an office, so he deemed Basil most worthy of it, both from his previous life and from such a great desire to attain virtue; thinking that he would bring the greatest harm to the Church of Christ if he were to turn one so upright, so fit for the salvation of many, away from assuming the duty, answered him that the consultation of the matter should be deferred to another time, that nothing was urgent, and that nothing should be done prematurely. Not noticing whither these things tended, Basil embraced his friend's counsel.

John used this pious fraud, and because he was not ignorant that the matter was urgent, he hid himself. Not much time having elapsed, when he who was to ordain arrived, Basil was seized and brought to be ordained bishop. And when he resisted, certain of those present gave him words, crying out that it was absurd for the one who seemed more ferocious to all (pointing to John) to have obeyed the pleasure of the Fathers with great modesty; yet for him, who was by far more prudent and modest, to act fiercely and seek vain glory. Deceived by this art, Basil was ordained bishop of Raphanea in Syria, as Baronius probably thinks. ^C

Concerning the year, however, in which these things were done, I agree with Hermantius and Tillemont, who refer the same to the year of Christ 372 or thereabouts, and think that it could not be deferred beyond the year 374. There is one thing which could shift one from such a method of calculation, which is the fact that John was then only 25, or at most 27 years of age, and Basil was of about the same age, which would seem unsuitable for assuming such a great office. But although the age at which bishops are ordained is for the most part required to be older, there are not lacking examples of those who were chosen and appointed bishops before their 25th year; and besides, Basil himself says in Chrysostom that some had called those who had ordained him into question, and those who had searched in vain to consecrate John as bishop; as they—having left so many and such great men—had snatched up youths who yesterday and the day before were wallowing in secular cares, that for a short time they might knit their brows, don dark robes, and feign a sadness of countenance, and suddenly brought them to such an honor, which they would not have hoped to attain even in their dreams: by which it is argued that John and Basil, his schoolfellow, were then quite young.

Basil, having thus been incorporated into the episcopacy, immediately approaches John, and complains gravely with him that by his fraud he had been forced to assume such a burden (Chrys. *de Sacerd.* t. 1, l. 1). ^D Then John, to clear himself, admits that it is indeed a great work, which he strives to prove he was unequal to carrying for many reasons, which he brings forward in that same place; but however great the difficulty of rightly managing the episcopacy may be, it is nevertheless necessary to choose men who would undertake that duty, and since he considered Basil most suitable for exercising this dignity, it is no wonder if he took care, as far as was lawful for him, that he himself be chosen for that office. The whole sermon is woven in the manner of a dialogue, where Chrysostom discusses the dignity, office, and duties of priests so excellently that you would find hardly any conversation on this matter equal to it anywhere.

Concerning the time when Chrysostom published these sermons, there is no single opinion among writers, nor are they to be heeded who wish that John wrote these books as they are now held at the very time the dialogue was had with Basil. For the very manner of beginning indicates some elapsed time, and the whole series carries a mark of being thought out and adorned in leisure. Socrates says that John, when he was a deacon, namely from the year 381 to the year 386, in which he was ordained presbyter, published the books *de Sacerdotio* (Socr. l. 6, c. 3). But Palladius, according to the Latin interpretation of Ambrosius Camaldulensis, [says] that John began these books in solitude

^A he is said to have declared that it happened from about the year 375 to the year 381, when he returned from solitude to the city. We would follow Palladius without hesitation if the same were read in the Greek text edited by Emericus Bigotius; but since it does not appear there in the least regarding this matter, we refrain from forming a judgment.

In the year 374, while John still remained at Antioch, he fell into a danger such as he himself narrates in his Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles (T. 9, c. 274, n. 5). When, under the Emperor Valens, a great search for magical and bewitching books was made in Antioch, and soldiers were stationed around the city so that no one guilty of such a crime could escape, a certain man who had made and written such a book, fearing that he might be found out, threw the book into the river. But since it was known through certain indications that the book had been put together by him, he was captured by the soldiers who were demanding that he hand over the book. He could no longer do so, but, as it seems, he denied that he had made it; however, the evidence and proofs against him having increased, he paid the penalty. While the book, being unbound, floated on the surface of the river, it happened that our John, on his way with a companion to the martyry or church of the Martyrs, was traveling along the river. His companion, when he saw the book floating toward the bank, thought it was a linen cloth, and climbing down, picked it up. John, before it was known what it was, jokingly claimed that a part of the thing found belonged to him. Then, with the page unrolled, the companion found magical writings. It happened, however, that a soldier was passing by at that very moment. At this, fear seized both of them; they dared not throw the book away, lest they appear to be its authors. Finally, however, they threw it away, and with God’s help, they were snatched from danger.

The Life of the Monks in the Mountains Adjacent to Antioch

^BPerhaps struck by this event, John more ardently desired the retreat to the monasteries situated in the mountains near Antioch, which he had long ago conceived in his mind (Pall. Dial. p. 41). Nor did anything seem to him more stable than that life which was entirely devoted to divine things. And though he himself was already leading a life near his mother not unlike the monastic [way], being assiduously intent on prayer, fasts, vigils, and the reading of the Scriptures, always remaining indoors and segregated from the world and from worldly business, yet that angelic life of the monks, which he himself describes more than once, called him to the mountains. For they who had renounced all worldly things were accustomed to rise daily long before dawn and, gathered together, to pour out prayers, supplicating the Lord that they might pass through the midst of the dangers of this life unharmed, and finally come before that last tribunal without fear and damage. And then rising, they would chant the morning hours, and having spent no small amount of time in these offices, they hurried to the labor of their hands. Then some would dig the earth, others care for vegetables and legumes, others carry water, others weave baskets and haircloths and other things of this kind: nor were there wanting those who gave their effort to writing and transcribing books (T. 7, c. 643, n. 3; 651, n. 3; T. 1, c. 543, n. 3).

They spent a part of the morning hours reading the books of Holy Scripture, and from there they drew whatever pertained to the law of stricter discipline. Furthermore, all of them—both those who had given themselves to the exercise of cultivating the land and others who were performing the duty of weaving or sewing in their cells—were devoted to perpetual silence.

If, however, any seculars, moved by the fame of such a holy and austere life, came to their cells, they were no longer silent, but willingly spoke words that could entice those [visitors] to a contempt of the present life and a desire for the future blessed one. Whence it sometimes happened that those who had come only for the sake of visiting them, struck by that spectacle, embraced that same manner of life.

The day among them was divided into four parts; indeed, individual parts were terminated by the divine office; namely the Third, Sixth, Ninth, and Vespers, which were celebrated in alternate choirs by the chanting of psalms. But after the fasting [monks] had passed the whole day in prayers, labor of the hands, psalms, and sacred reading, they finally met together to take food. The entire preparation for the evening meal was bread with salt; some would add oil, but the old and the more infirm [would eat] vegetables or legumes: water was enough for drink. After the meal, having poured out prayers, they gave thanks to God, and thereafter, sitting together, they spoke words regarding matters pertaining to salvation and the heavenly life; finally, having poured out prayers, and sleeping on mats placed on the ground—with the very light food providing only the slightest sleep—they would rest for a few hours, and finally, ^C at the light warning of the superior and without noise, they would wake up, rising to repeat the previous [tasks]. The clothing was entirely of goat or camel hair, or of skins worn out by use.

By the labor of their hands, they not only provided sustenance for themselves; but since the evening meal was so slender and of the least possible expense, they bestowed whatever remained upon the poor. If any guest arrived, he was willingly received by the monks, who, having washed his feet, provided him with food they had on hand, and spoke words concerning the fleeting condition of earthly things and the happiness of celestial things, as we said above.

Our John was burning to adopt this manner of life, and in order to prepare himself for it, he even pursued certain monastic exercises at home; but the austerity of the life which we have just described deterred him from this intent. Regarding this matter, he is to be heard (Ad Demetrium de Comp. t. 1, c. 403, l. 25): "When I had lately resolved, having left the city, to withdraw to the tabernacles of the monks, I was solicitously asking and inquiring whence provisions for necessities would come, and whether it were possible that fresh and daily bread could be eaten: whether someone would compel me to use the same oil for a lamp and for food; whether someone would drive me to the miserable fare of legumes; whether someone would assign me hard work, such as digging, carrying wood, fetching water, and all other services of this kind; and to speak summarily, I was inquiring about much regarding the quiet of the body." But those obstacles which presented themselves to his mind, he, led by the love of virtue and a stricter discipline, finally overcame, and to those mountains

he ascended: neither the prayers nor the tears of his mother could avail to turn him from so salutary a purpose, but yielding to the counsel of Christ, he left his mother ^A that he might follow Him.

John spent four years in the monastery.—When he had come thither (at the beginning of the year 374 or 375), he met with a certain Syrian, an old man of most severe discipline; and for four years he imitated his more rigorous rule of life, struggling against the reefs of worldly pleasures—which he easily overcame, not so much by toil as by reason (Pallad. p. 41). Some time after he had betaken himself to the mountains for the sake of solitude, being requested by his friend Demetrius, he published his book *On Compunction*. He gave in this the first specimen of a genius born for the highest things: in it, whatever could be devised most powerfully for the purpose of persuasion is employed. After this book, he sent another *On Compunction* to Stelechius, written in a more ardent style. In the first, addressed to Demetrius, he says that he had lately resolved to approach the dwellings of the monks, and in the following pages he implies that he was already living there at that time: wherefore all were of the opinion that John had published this work shortly after he had betaken himself to the monasteries, and while he was staying there. ^B However, Tillemont, while not entirely rejecting this opinion, thinks he can wield a very strong argument against it, when he says that John speaks in such a way here that he appears to have been a presbyter at the time. But as we said in the *Admonition* to this book, and as we also warned before the book *On Virginity*, it is habitual for Chrysostom to assume the person of various individuals, namely of bishops, presbyters, and even of married men, which is proven by examples, so that it appears that nothing at all can be inferred therefrom. He openly indicates the time, therefore, when he narrates that he had lately withdrawn to the monasteries.

He writes against the opponents of the monastic life and others.

In the third book, however, he relates another history of a certain most noble youth, whose tutor was a monk, from which tutor John had learned everything. This boy's father cared little for Christian duties, but his mother was endowed with piety and was very religious. The father thought only of promoting his son to secular dignities; but the mother cared for one thing only, that he might merit the heavenly kingdom through the sanctity of life, and indeed through the exercises of the monastic life. Everything depended on the manner of his education: wherefore she persuaded her husband that he should send him to Antioch, so that there he might learn the Latin and Greek languages before he should be girt with the belt; for this girding of the belt at that time pertained to magistrates and the most noble men. Meanwhile, she summoned the solitary from the mountains, and asked him to take care of sending her son to Antioch for studies, and to be in the place of a tutor to him. He resisted and said that such a duty could not befit a monk. But she insisted so vehemently with earnest prayers that finally the monk complied. He came, therefore, with the boy to Antioch. John, however, who was then in the city and had seen him living in the monastery, inquired what the reason was for his taking up such a duty. He related the matter as above. And he so instructed the boy, and so inflamed him with the love of the monastic life, that a little later he withdrew into the desert, and there practiced the monastic life. But our John, fearing that his father, who was by nature irascible, might turn to fury and punish both the tutor and the monks severely, forced him to return home: where, having been instructed in this way by his tutor, he gave attention to the reading of the Holy Scripture, to fasts, vigils, and other monastic exercises: and since he was endowed with talent, he enticed other boys to this same sort of life. But his father did everything he could to turn him from this kind of life.