But nevertheless, even the narration of a part will guide us to the recollection of the whole discourse, and from the last things we shall contemplate with our mind the things of the beginning, just as we judge the lion from its claws and the cloth from the thread, or even, as is clear to all, the tree from its fruit. Now, as for the other things, it is possible to hear them from the many who speak and write, and from all those who are not entirely uninitiated in rhetorical education and its mysteries and have enjoyed the Muses' mixing bowl. For as many admire his works as nearly all who have a share in reason. But as for those things that pertain to the present day, and in narrating which I shall perhaps not seem superfluous and tiresome, these things I shall now relate. There was a time when things went well for the people of the Lord and freedom from strife prevailed in the churches of God, and love for one another was kept and guarded like a paternal inheritance, and the field of Christ multiplied, and all hastened to seek God and to walk in the paths of his divine commandments, when this great canon of orthodoxy, the most drinkable and ever-flowing sea of discourses, the acropolis of wisdom, the truly heavenly voice, the lodging-place of the divine Spirit, the trumpet of the saving proclamation, the sun of the inhabited world that never sets, the one adorning the church in the holy firmament, illuminated the entire earthly world, and the world was made bright by the lightning-bearing rays of his words, and all were plucking the manifold and various flowers 308 of the virtues from his well-watered and fragrant meadow and were filling the folds of their minds, and he had all being well educated and nourished unto life-giving pastures and to the water of spiritual rest. But since envy was not going to bear so great an abundance of good things meekly, from the royal chambers the plots and the unjust exile were being stitched together and prepared. For the emperor's little wife, being possessed by a madness for gold and coveting the money of others that did not belong to her, hated the one who reproved in the gates. Would that the desire for more might perish from among men, and its companion greed and profligacy, and the murderer of men from the beginning, the devil, who wickedly displayed this. For how many and what kind of soul-profiting exhortations from divine laws and teachings this just man and truly man of God unceasingly chanted daily to this insatiable and defiled empress, it is for you who encounter his biography to learn. But she, having thrust aside all understanding and shame, was ill-disposed and vexed by the divine and saving incantations, and was rather hostilely disposed toward the holy man, having plotted wickedly by herself beforehand out of folly, and with a wicked mind she launched an attack against that blessed and holy soul. So then, making use of such most shameful collaborators and accomplices, that maenad, being possessed by a demon and having been brought forward by wicked parents and teachings, stirs up against that invincible and venerable soul the sorceries and monstrous deeds which she had already gathered. And indeed, the Solomonic and filthy leech, having as a collaborator the partner of her bed and her folly—you know the audacious deeds—the exile and the things applauded to this day. But the discourse must be brought back to the turning-post of the subject. And first, she wins over the emperor's simplicity or, to speak the truth, rather his frivolity—for the emperor was in reality gentle and womanish—then, having made partners in so great an audacity those who ignobly played a part on the priestly stage and who basely retailed the office, and not only them, but also those who had been stopped from serving as priests by the judgment of John on account of the depravity of their own ways, she ratifies the unjust exile against him and she strips away the comeliness of the church and subjects it to a mournful shearing, this new Jezebel and Delilah, having ruined and torn apart its adornment like a shameless sow wallowing in the mire and kicking about. What was the exile? Cucusus, a desolate little town and in need of divine faith and fear of God, and after this, Arabissus and

ἀλλ' οὖν καὶ ἡ τοῦ μέρους ἀφήγησις εἰς τὴν τοῦ λόγου χειραγωγήσει ἀνάμνησιν καὶ ἀπὸ τῶν τελευταίων τὰ τῆς ἀρχῆς τῷ νῷ θεωρήσομεν, ὥσπερ ἐκ τῶν ὀνύχων τὸν λέοντα τεκμαιρομένοι καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς κρόκης τὸ ὕφασμα ἢ καὶ τὸ πᾶσι δῆλον τὸ δένδρον ἐκ τοῦ καρποῦ. Τὰ μὲν οὖν ἄλλα λεγόντων τε καὶ γραφόντων ἐστὶν ἀκούειν πολλῶν καὶ ὅσοι τῆς λογικῆς παιδείας καὶ τῶν ταύτης ὀργίων οὐ πάντῃ ἀμύητοι καὶ τοῦ μουσικοῦ κρατῆρος ἀπώναντο. Τοσοῦτοι γὰρ τὰ ἐκείνου θαυμάζουσιν, ὅσοι σχεδὸν καὶ λόγου μετέχουσι. Τὰ δ' ὅσα πρὸς τὴν παροῦσαν ἡμέραν τείνει καὶ ἃ διεξιὼν οὐ περιττὸς ἴσως δόξω καὶ ὀχληρός, ταῦτα δὴ διεξέρχομαι. Ἦν ὅτε καλῶς εἶχε τῷ λαῷ Κυρίου τὰ πράγματα καὶ ταῖς ἐκκλησίαις Θεοῦ τὸ ἀστασίαστον ἐνεπολιτεύετο καὶ ἡ πρὸς ἀλλήλους ἀγάπη ὥσπερ τις κλῆρος πατρῷος ἐτηρεῖτο καὶ ἐφυλάττετο καὶ τὸ Χριστοῦ γεώργιον ἐπληθύνετο καὶ πάντες ἔσπευδον ἐκζητεῖν τὸν θεὸν καὶ ταῖς τρίβοις τῶν θείων αὐτοῦ πορεύεσθαι ἐντολῶν, ὅταν ὁ μέγας οὗτος τῆς ὀρθοδοξίας κανὼν, ἡ ποτιμωτάτη τῶν λόγων καὶ ἀέναος θάλασσα, ἡ τῆς σοφίας ἀκρόπολις, ἡ ὡς ἀληθῶς οὐρανία φωνή, τὸ τοῦ θείου Πνεύματος καταγώγιον, ἡ σάλπιγξ τοῦ σωτηρίου κηρύγματος, ὁ τῆς οἰκουμένης ἄδυτος ἥλιος, τὸ τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἐμπρέπον ἱερῷ στερεώματι τὴν περίγειον πᾶσαν οἰκουμένης διηύγαζε καὶ ταῖς ἀστραπηφόροις ἀκτίσιν αὐτοῦ τῶν λόγων ὁ κόσμος κατεφαιδρύνετο καὶ πάντες ἐκ τοῦ καταρρύτου καὶ εὐώδους αὐτοῦ λειμῶνος τὰ παντοδαπὰ καὶ ποικίλα ἄνθη 308 τῶν ἀρετῶν ἀπεδρέποντο καὶ τὰ τῆς διανοίας ἀπεπλήρουν προκόλπια καὶ πάντας εἶχε παιδευομένους καλῶς καὶ ἐκτρεφομένους ἐπὶ ζωηφόρους νομὰς καὶ ἐφ' ὕδωρ πνευματικῆς ἀναπαύσεως. Ἐπεὶ δὲ τὴν τοσαύτην τῶν ἀγαθῶν φορὰν οὐκ ἔμελλε πράως οἴσειν ὁ φθόνος, ἐκ τῶν ἀνακτορικῶν θαλάμων αἱ συσκευαὶ καὶ ἡ ἄδικος ἐξορία συνερράπτετό τε καὶ ἐξηρτύετο. Τὸ γὰρ βασιλέως γύναιον χρυσομανίας κάτοχον ὂν καὶ τοῖς ἑτέρων καὶ μὴ προσήκουσι χρήμασιν ἐποφθαλμιῶν ἐμίσησε τὸν ἐν πύλαις ἐλέγχοντα. Ὡς ἀπόλοιτο ἐξ ἀνθρώπων ἡ τοῦ πλείονος ἔφεσις καὶ ἡ σύντροφος αὐτῇ ἀπληστία καὶ ἀσωτία καὶ ὁ ταύτην κακῶς παραδείξας ἀπ' ἀρχῆς ἀνθρωποκτόνος διάβολος. Ὅσας γὰρ καὶ οἵας ὁ δίκαιος οὗτος καὶ τοῦ θεοῦ ὄντως ἄνθρωπος ψυχωφελεῖς παραινέσεις ἐκ θείων νόμων καὶ διδαχῶν καθ' ἑκάστην τῇ ἀπλήστῳ ταύτῃ καὶ μιαρᾷ ἐπῇδε βασιλίσσῃ ἀνελλιπῶς ὑμῖν ἐστι τῷ τούτου περιτυχοῦσι βίῳ μαθεῖν. Ἀλλ' αὕτη πᾶσαν ἀπωσαμένη καὶ σύνεσιν καὶ αἰδῶ πρὸς τὰς θείας καὶ σωτηριώδεις ἐπῳδὰς δυσχερῶς εἶχε καὶ βαρέως καὶ ἐπαχθῶς μᾶλλον διετίθετο τῷ ἁγίῳ κακῶς καθ' ἑαυτὴν πρὸ τοῦ ἀνοίᾳ βουλευσαμένη καὶ κακῶς φρενὸς ἐπαφῆκε κατὰ τῆς μακαρίας ἐκείνης καὶ ἁγίας ψυχῆς. Τοῖς οὖν τοιούτοις παναισχίστοις συνεργοῖς καὶ συμπράκτορσιν ἡ μαινὰς ἐκείνη χρωμένη καὶ δαιμονῶσα καὶ κακῶν προαχθεῖσα γεννητόρων καὶ διδαγμάτων κινεῖ κατὰ τῆς ἀλήπτου ψυχῆς ἐκείνης καὶ σεβασμίας, ἃς ἤδη συνήγαγε μαγγανείας καὶ τερατείας. Καὶ μέντοι ἡ σολομώντιος βδέλλα καὶ ῥυπαρὰ συνεργὸν πλουτοῦσα τὸν κοινωνὸν τοῦ λέχους καὶ τῆς ἀνοίας, ἴστε τὰ τολμηθέντα, τὴν ὑπερορίαν καὶ τὰ μέχρι τοῦ δεῦρο κροτούμενα. Ἀλλ' ἐπανακτέον τὸν λόγον πρὸς τὴν νύσσαν τῆς ὑποθέσεως. Καὶ πρῶτα μὲν τὴν βασιλέως ὑποποιεῖται ἁπλότητα ἢ τό γε ἀληθὲς εἰπεῖν μᾶλλον κουφότητα, καὶ γὰρ ἥμερος ἦν τῷ ὄντι καὶ γυναικώδης ὁ βασιλεύς, ἔπειτα τοὺς τὴν ἱερατικὴν ἀνελευθέρως ὑποκρινομένους σκηνὴν καὶ τὸ πρᾶγμα κακῶς καπηλεύοντας, οὐ μόνον δέ, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοὺς πεπαυμένους τοῦ ἱερᾶσθαι τῇ Ἰωάννου κρίσει διὰ τὴν οἰκείαν τῶν τρόπων φαυλότητα κοινωνοὺς ποιησαμένη τοσούτου τολμήματος τὴν ἄδικον ἐξορίαν κυροῖ κατ' αὐτοῦ καὶ τὴν τῆς ἐκκλησίας περιαιρεῖται εὐπρέπειαν καὶ πενθίμῳ ταύτην ὑποβάλλει κουρᾷ ἡ νέα Ἰεζάβελ καὶ ∆αλιδᾶ τὸν κόσμον αὐτῆς λυμηναμένη καὶ διαρρήξασα ὡς οἷα γρομφὶς ἀναιδὴς καὶ βορβόρῳ καλινδουμένη καὶ ἀποσπαίρουσα. Τὶς ἡ ὑπερορία; Κουκουσός, πολίχνη τις ἔρημος καὶ θείας πίστεως καὶ φόβου θείου ἐπιδεής, καὶ μετὰ ταύτην Ἀραβισσὸς καὶ