Dialogus de vita Joannis Chrysostomi

 honor, but he who is called by God. Thus 5 also Aaron, he says, did not glorify himself to become high priest. For although there were six hundred

 the flight of concord, most of us who are active and eager for it have become fugitives from the country, being unable to live safely and without trou

 he met with us, he did not share in words, nor in prayer, nor in communion but disembarking from the ship and running past the doors of the church, h

 to share in the suffering and to do everything, so as to stop these evils. For he put a stop to none of their lawlessness here, but even after this he

 and lamentations and fountains of tears in the marketplaces and the houses and in the desolate places and the whole part of the city was filled with

 you are exhorted to contribute zeal from yourselves. For thus you will gratify not only us, 16 but also the community of the churches, and you will re

 had fled on account of the threat contained in the imperial decree, that If anyone is not in communion with Theophilus and Arsakius and Porphyry, let

 of Bishop John of the Constantinopolitans and, as it seems, it has not been accomplished. Therefore, I wrote again through the bishops and presbyters

 savagery. This also the Savior God did, illuminating them with various revelations, so that also to Paul, the deacon of Saint Emilius, a most gentle

 He who speaks a lie is not of God, and again from David, Because the mouth of those who speak unjust things was stopped. For he who lies truly wro

 by his own choice, he was trained in the discourses for the ministry of the divine oracles. From there, being in the eighteenth year of his physical a

 of those who have believed in him will be bound. {THE DEACON} But where did they recognize the presence of the Savior? {THE BISHOP} When they cried ou

 of the rich, cutting away the abscesses of the soul, teaching them humility, to be of a humble mind towards other people, obeying the apostolic word,

 she gives one thousand gold pieces, having made him swear by the table of the Savior that he would buy clothes and clothe the poorer women of the Alex

 with his own hands on his neck, and after inflicting blows on his jaws, with clenched fingers he bloodied his nostrils, shouting 38 with a loud voice:

 by an excess of conceit. But those men, driven by great necessity because they were changing places from place to place, arrive at the camp, where Bis

 of the church, Dioscorus the bishop, who had grown old in the church but to the bishop John he writes: I think you are not ignorant of the decree of

 of John for unlawful offenses, he took advantage of their fickleness and persuades them to submit bills of accusation against John, promising them to

 Elijah was taken up did not Elisha prophesy? Paul was beheaded did he not leave behind Timothy, Titus, Apollos and ten thousand others? After these

 these of the council but if as accusers, set them up for the trial, so that I may know how I should contend, whether as against adversaries or as jud

 (for he is impetuous by nature, and rash and bold and exceedingly contentious—for there is nothing that appears to him by sight, <towards> which he do

 brother Acacius and Antiochus whom they put forward as canons of the orthodox, because We are of the faith of those who set them forth, and our doub

 reading the oracles, and others baptizing the catechumens, as was fitting because of Easter. These very things the corruptors of minds and deceivers o

 a proof of the diligence of teachers, unceasingly setting right the unconquerable quality of their resolve. Theodore said: {THE DEACON} You have spoke

 near him to the west), but in the western part, where the gate of the church is, the mule-team, on which he was accustomed to sit, having ordered it t

 of a hierophant, a man more silent than a fish and more idle than a frog (for there are times when even action speaks, especially when the good is don

 terrifying, just as bogeymen do children? Alas! Those who are clothed in worldly powers and ecclesiastical wealth with authority, with command even of

 on the one hand, that he ate alone but I did not wish you, most harmonious Theodore, to ask about the things of gluttonous infants. For being a man,

 he says, urging us to imitation Do not forget hospitality, he says, for by this some have entertained angels unawares. But the host must have the

 fell from blessing? was it not when he served his belly, deceived by the food? When did Saul fall from the kingdom? was it not when he ate the best of

 to eat bread and to put on a garment, all that you give me, I will tithe a tenth of it to you -he did not say, I will consume it at tables. That sp

 to give glory to God <in> persecutions. in the refutations of error, is there any mention of a table? But again to Titus, the bishop of Crete, let us

 they were seeking luxury. It was absurd to squander the food of the sick or the poor on the intemperance of the healthy. And what sort of law is this,

 from seeing evil. For many of the so-called bishops, wishing to cut off the reasonable hatred directed at them on account of their own ways and their

 First, that having melted down treasures he fashioned a silver object in the name of his son second, that having taken marbles from the entrance of t

 love of money is a source of evils. For he who took bribes against the innocent and thought to sell the distribution of the Holy Spirit for silver,

 Antoninus dies, with whom Eusebius had the lawsuit. Again a decree comes from Asia, this one from the clergy of the church of the Ephesians, and this

 to buy the priesthood. They say that the ravager and falsely-named patriarch of the Jews changes the rulers of the synagogue every year, or even more

 of those who deposed him and concluded the trial. <CHAPTER 19> {THE DEACON.} Forgive me, father, such things surpass drunkenness and madness and sport

 ambidextrous (for even his so-called left hand was better than the right hand of others) who at first, having served in letters, was found blameles

 slandering their life, waiting to have help from God. To these things Theodore, being astonished, said: {Ο ∆ΙΑΚ.} I see the facts as contrary to the n

 Or is it proper at all to cast out any disciple, much less a monk? 100 {THE DEACON} Because they provoked him or spoke ill of him. {THE BISHOP} And ou

 having led them back from vice to virtue, it will be clear that their persecutor deserves not to be persecuted, but to be pitied, as one who always ab

 having provoked the physician and enchanter of souls and removed his interpreter from the workshop of salvation, 105 they were handed over to the phys

 imitating him who, having found the one crushed by robbers, half-dead, on the way down to Jericho, placed him on his own beast of burden, having broug

 did he give? And when Optimus died in Constantinople, he closed his eyes with his own hands. In addition to these things, he also refreshed in no smal

 desiring to chasten the herd of men for their various desires towards the more austere part of life, he became his own judge and lawgiver, being stren

 toward the north, and each man's axe in his hand and one man in the midst of them, clothed in a full-length robe, and a sapphire belt on his loins a

 in many ways Who will boast that he has a pure heart? Or who will boldly claim to be pure from sin? but yet the blessed John did not know how to us

 happen to us anonymously and beneficially? sifting the reasons, not obeying him who said: Eat whatever is sold in the meat-market, asking no question

 two? {THE BISHOP} Especially if it is an unprofitable and charlatan crowd such as the one who said to Jesus: Teacher, I will follow you wherever you

 an intemperate old man, and an old man who loves learning above an unlearned younger man, and a poor layman above an educated lover of money, and a vi

 enjoying his disease nor raging with the same desires. For this is a fitting way of life for a teacher, not to linger with the crowds, but in quiet an

 having subjected his body to shameful tortures by the cruelty of judges, to the point of knocking out his teeth, as the story goes, 127 they confined

 knocking, they made the two-day journey into one, arriving late in the evening and departing in the dark of dawn, so that the stomach could not even k

 and that these things are done and are prolonged and are strong, and that the good are afflicted and plundered, brings me to shudder at his approachin

 Why shall I not be angry? looking upon me, marvel, and lay your hand upon your jaw. For if I remember, I am troubled, and pains take hold of my flesh.

 when reviled, we bless when persecuted, we endure when slandered, we entreat we have become as the refuse of the world, the offscouring of all thi

 sleepless or troubled in sleep, he suspects plots even from his own family, not trusting even himself, distrusting everyone as liars. Being such a per

 each other, for which it was also fitting, having learned something, did you not decide to be quiet and remain still by yourselves even for the future

 to his father and to his mother, I have not seen you, and his brothers he did not acknowledge he guarded your oracles, and kept your covenant. He d

 foot-soldiers' machinations for the hindering of those who travel for the truth). How then do they dare to say: By God's economy John has been cast o

"He who speaks a lie is not of God," and again from David, "Because the mouth of those who speak unjust things was stopped." For he who lies truly wrongs the one he persuades; and he who is persuaded by the liar wrongs him, by believing easily. Since, therefore, both sin equally, let neither of us wrong his neighbor. For this is a virtue, for the one speaking, to speak the truth; for the one hearing, to test the unjust things; "Become," for Scripture says, "approved money-changers," rejecting the counterfeit from the genuine; not so that we might boastfully accept the sound, but so that, having weighed all that is spoken, or written, with divine fear and a right conscience, we might accept it by the testimony of the facts. Great is the danger of ears and tongue; wherefore God, the skillful artist, has made the one to be guarded by two lips, having fixed the rampart of the teeth further in, so that this safe fortress might chasten its readiness (according to what is written, "Set, O Lord, a watch on my mouth, and a door of enclosure about my lips, that I may not sin with my tongue"), and for the others he has turned their opening in a spiral- alluding through this shape that speech should not enter too quickly, so that, winding about for a longer time, being finely filtered, it might leave behind on the banks the substance of falsehood with the refuse of evil. And he was not concerned only for these organs, as if they alone stumble; but he has also placed coverings on the pupils, just like windows, so that they might not receive the death of licentiousness, to which the prophet bears witness, saying: "Death has come up through the windows." {THE DEACON} If the examination were about ordinary things, most holy father, the state of your appearance would suffice to confirm your words; 27 but since it brings no small condemnation now, and judgment hereafter, when both rulers and peoples are gathered at the fearful tribunal, and since truth is what is being sought, grant me pardon, O best of men, for not putting forward the gray hairs as witnesses. For wicked men have also grown old, not having made their soul gray with virtue, but having wrinkled their bodies by length of time; such as were the false elders in Babylon, and Ephraim in Jeremiah, concerning whom the word cries out in reproach: "Ephraim is a silly dove, without a heart; gray hairs have sprouted on him, but he himself did not know." And he says a second thing more strikingly: "Ephraim has become a cake not turned, and strangers have devoured his strength." And I will add this, even if I lengthen the speech: who was grayer or who more seemingly decent than Acacius of Beroea, whom you now criticize as a ringleader of disorder and a leader of the innovators' transgression? Over whose very nostrils his white hairs trailed, when he came to Rome bringing the decree of the ordination of bishop John. {THE BISHOP} Now I know clearly that you are an approved money-changer, not being persuaded by the leather tent, but seeking the knowledge of the one who dwells within. For indeed the temples of the Egyptians, being very great and boasting in the beauty of their stones, have inside them monkeys and ibises and dogs instead of gods; but our Lord and God, speaking an oracle to Samuel about the appointment of a leader for Israel, enjoins him not to look at the condition and form of a clay body, saying: "God will not see as a man sees; for a man looks at the face, but God looks at the heart." Therefore the "imitators of God" investigate what is deeper in every matter. Whence I readily submit myself, having consecrated your balance as in no way tilting to one side. But the Babylonians, old men in their bodies, but in their souls utter infants from insensibility, if they had believed in the resurrection of the dead, first, having their wisdom intact, would not have loved Susanna, another man's wife; then, if they had had the fear of God, they would not have woven slander together with their licentiousness. And the proof of a dishonorable old age is the huckstering of the youthful season. 28 <CHAPTER 5> This John was by birth an Antiochene (and he has fallen asleep), having been the son of those who were distinguished nobly in the rank of the commander of Syria, born to a sister of his father. But being of a more skillful

"Ὁ λαλῶν τὸ ψεῦδος οὐκ ἔστιν ἐκ τοῦ Θεοῦ," καὶ πάλιν παρὰ τῷ ∆αυείδ, "Ὅτι ἐνεφράγη στόμα λαλούντων ἄδικα." ἀδικεῖ γὰρ ἀληθῶς ὁ ψευδόμενος ὃν πείθει· ἀδικεῖ δὲ καὶ ὁ πειθόμενος τὸν ψευδόμενον, ῥᾳδίως πισ τεύων. ἐπίσης οὖν ἐξαμαρτανόντων ἑκατέρων, μηδ' ὁπότερος ἡμῶν ἀδικήσοι τὸν πέλας. ἀρετὴ γὰρ αὑτή, τοῦ μὲν λέγοντος, λέγειν τἀληθῆ· τοῦ δὲ ἀκούοντος, δοκιμάζειν τὰ ἄδικα· "Γίνεσθε," γάρ φησιν ἡ Γραφή, "δόκιμοι τραπεζῖται," τὸ κίβδηλον ἀπὸ τοῦ δοκίμου ῥίπτοντες· οὐχ ἵνα κομπήσαντες τὸν ἦχον δεξώμεθα, ἀλλ' ἵνα σταθμίσαντες τῷ θείῳ φόβῳ μετὰ ὀρθοῦ συνειδότος τὰ λαλούμενα πάντα, ἢ τὰ γραφόμενα, τῇ τῶν πραγμάτων μαρτυρίᾳ δεξώμεθα. ὤτων καὶ γλώττης μέγας ὁ κίνδυνος· διὸ καὶ ὁ καλλι τέχνης Θεὸς τὴν μὲν ὑπὸ δύο χειλέων τηρεῖσθαι πεποίηκεν, ἐνδο τέρω τὸ τῶν ὀδόντων ἔρυμα πήξας, ἵν' ἀσφαλὲς τὸ φρούριον ὑπάρχον σωφρονίζῃ ταύτης τὴν εὐκολίαν (κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον, "Θοῦ, Κύριε, φυλακὴν τῷ στόματί μου, καὶ θύραν περιοχῆς περὶ τὰ χείλη μου, τοῦ μὴ ἁμαρτάνειν με ἐν γλώσσῃ μου"), τῶν δὲ τὴν ὀπὴν ἑλικοειδῶς ἐξετόρνευσεν-διὰ τοῦ σχήματος αἰνιττό μενος μὴ θᾶττον εἰσδύνειν τὸν λόγον, ἵνα ἐν πλείονι χρόνῳ ἑλιττόμενος, τὴν ὕλην τοῦ ψεύδους μετὰ τῶν τῆς κακίας σκυβάλων προσκαταλείψῃ ταῖς ὄχθαις λεπτῶς διωθούμενος. οὐ μόνον δὲ τούτων ἐφρόντισε τῶν ὀργάνων, ὡς μόνων πταιόντων· ἤδη δὲ καὶ ταῖς κόραις, καθάπερ θυρίσι, καταπετάσματα τέθεικεν, ἵνα μὴ τὸν τῆς ἀκολασίας εἰσδέχωνται θάνατον, ὃν ὁ προφήτης μαρτύ ρεται λέγων· "Θάνατος ἀνέβη διὰ τῶν θυρίδων." {Ο ∆ΙΑΚ.} Εἰ μὲν ἐν τοῖς τυχοῦσιν ἦν ἡ ἐξέτασις, ἱερώτατε πάτερ, ἤρκει σου ἡ τοῦ εἴδους κατάστασις πιστῶσαι τοὺς λόγους· 27 ἐπειδὴ δὲ οὐ μικρὰν φέρει νῦν μὲν κατάγνωσιν, μετέπειτα δὲ κατάκρισιν, συναχθέντων ἀρχόντων τε καὶ λαῶν παρὰ τῷ βήματι τῷ φοβερῷ, ἀληθείας οὔσης τῆς ζητουμένης, δός μοι συγγνώμην, ἄριστε, μὴ τὰς τῶν τριχῶν προβαλλόμενος πολιὰς μάρτυρας. γεγηράκασι γὰρ καὶ φαῦλοι, οὐκ ἀρετῇ τὴν ψυχὴν πολιώσαντες, ἀλλὰ τὰ σώματα χρόνου μήκει ῥυτιδώσαντες· οἷοι ἦσαν οἱ κατὰ Βαβυλῶνα ψευδοπρεσβύτεροι, καὶ ὁ ἐν τῷ Ἰερεμίᾳ Ἐφράϊμ, περὶοὗ μεμφόμενος ὁ λόγος βοᾷ· "Ἐφράϊμ περιστερὰ ἄνους, οὐκ ἔχουσα καρδίαν· πολιαὶ αὐτῷ ἐξήνθησαν, αὐτὸς δὲ οὐκ ἔγνω." δισσεύων δὲ λέγει πληκτικώτερον· "Ἐγένετο Ἐφράϊμ ἐγκρυφίας οὐ μεταστρεφόμενος, καὶ ἀλλότριοι ἔφαγον τὴν ἰσχὺν αὐτοῦ." κἀκεῖνο δὲ προσθήσω, εἰ καὶ μηκυνῶ τὸν λόγον· τίς πολιώτερος ἢ τίς ἐπιεικέστερος τὸ φαίνεσθαι Ἀκακίου τοῦ Βεροίας, ὃν νῦν διαμέμφεσθε ὡς ταραξάρχην καὶ ἡγεμόνα τῆς τῶν νεωτεροποιῶν πλημμελείας; οὗ καὶ αὐτοὶ οἱ μυκτῆρες τὰς λευκὰς ἐπεσύροντο τρίχας, ἡνίκα ἐπέστη τῇ Ῥώμῃ κομίσας τῆς χειροτονίας τὸ ψή φισμα τοῦ ἐπισκόπου Ἰωάννου. {Ο ΕΠΙΣΚ.} Νῦν ἔγνων σαφῶς, ὅτι δόκιμος εἶ τραπεζίτης, μὴ πειθόμενος τῇ δερματίνῃ σκηνῇ, ἀλλὰ τὴν τοῦ ἐνοικοῦντος ἐπιζη τῶν ἐπιστήμην. καὶ γὰρ καὶ οἱ Αἰγυπτίων ναοὶ μέγιστοι ὄντες, καὶ κάλλει λίθων κομπάζοντες, πιθήκους ἔχουσιν ἔνδον καὶ ἴβιες καὶ κύνας ἀντὶ θεῶν· ὁ δ' ἡμέτερος Κύριος καὶ Θεός, χρηματίζων τῷ Σαμουὴλ περὶ καταστάσεως ἡγεμόνος τοῦ Ἰσραήλ, παρεγγυᾷ μὴ βλέπειν εἰς ἕξιν καὶ πλάσιν πηλίνου σώματος, λέγων· "Οὐχ ὡς ἄνθρωπος βλέψει ὁ Θεός· ἄνθρωπος μὲν γὰρ εἰς πρόσωπον, Θεὸς δὲ εἰς καρδίαν." διὸ οἱ "μιμηταὶ τοῦ Θεοῦ" ἐπὶ παντὸς πράγ ματος τὸ βαθύτερον ἐρευνῶσιν. ὅθεν προθύμως ἐμαυτὸν ἐπιδίδωμι, ἐξαγιάσας σου τὸν ζυγὸν μηδαμῶς ἑτεροκλινοῦντα. οἱ δὲ Βαβυ λώνιοι, γέροντες μὲν τὰ σώματα, τὰς δὲ ψυχὰς ὑπ' ἀναισθησίας κομιδῇ νήπιοι, εἰ ἐπίστευον τῇ τῶν νεκρῶν ἀναστάσει, πρότερον μέν, ἐῤῥωμένην ἔχοντες τὴν σοφίαν, οὐκ ἂν ἤρων Σωσάννης γυναικὸς ἀλλοτρίας· ἔπειτα δ', εἴπερ εἶχον τὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ φόβον, οὐκ ἂν συνέπλεξαν τῇ ἀκολασίᾳ τὴν συκοφαντίαν. τοῦ δὲ ἀτίμου ἐν γήρᾳ ἀπόδειξις τῆς νεωτερικῆς ὥρας ἡ καπηλεία. 28 <ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟΝ Εʹ> Ἰωάννης οὗτος τὸ μὲν γένος ἦν Ἀντιοχεύς (κεκοίμηται δέ), υἱὸς γεγονὼς τῶν διαπρεψάντων εὐγενῶς παρὰ τῇ τάξει τοῦ στρατηλάτου τῆς Συρίας, τεχθεὶς πρὸς ἀδελφῇ τῷ πατρί. δεξιωτέρας δὲ ὑπάρχων