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
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, the one addressed to Timothy: "Charge the rich in this present age not to be high-minded, nor to hope in the uncertainty of riches." So, with things being this way, and the church flourishing daily for the better, the whole city being transformed to piety, their souls brightened with self-control and psalmody, the evil-hating demon could not bear the flight of those held by him, whom the word of the Lord had drawn away through John's teaching; so that the horse-mad and the theater-goers, leaving the courts of the devil, ran swiftly to the fold of the Savior out of love for the pipe of the sheep-loving shepherd. <CHAPTER¯ʹ> Because of this, envy took hold of the minds of the hireling shepherds who were being reproved by the comparison. But being unable to get the better of him because they did not invoke the Savior, the destroyer of envy, they weave slanders against John, transforming some of his homilies into insults against the empress and others in the king's court. It happened at that time that Acacius, the bishop of Beroea, arrived and failed to find, as he said, good lodging; 34 and being grieved at this, he was smoldering with anger as if he had been slighted by John. And overcome by unrestrainable thoughts, he utters an unreasonable word, "out of the abundance of the heart," worthy of his mind, saying in the presence of some of John's clerics: "I am seasoning a pot for him." Therefore, immediately colluding with Severian and Antiochus and Isaac the Syrian, a scoundrel, a leader of false monks, always engaged in slandering bishops, they plan to arm themselves, ostensibly against John, but in truth against the glory of the Savior. And sending first to Antioch, they search for transgressions of his youth. But when "they failed in searching out searches," and found nothing, they send to Alexandria to the skill of Theophilus, called Amphallax, who was a clever architect of such things; who, immediately unfolding the books of his mind with much predatory silence, searched, seeking a way for even a chance pretext. {THE DEACON.} Hold back, O father, the flow of your words, before I forget, so that I may tell you the charge that came across to us from Alexandria and was rumored about. For they say that John received into communion clerics who had been deposed by Theophilus, grieving Theophilus, which he ought not to have done; and that because of this, having been at variance with him, he proceeded against John. {THE BISHOP.} Let us grant that the aforementioned rumor is true; is it the part of a bishop to heal an evil with an evil? And where is that gospel saying: "Let not the sun go down on your anger"? And where the apostolic one: "Overcome evil with good"? And where the prophetic one: "If I have repaid those who repaid me evil"? Then was it not less contentious to say, accusing in the presence of reverent bishops: "Brother John, it escaped you that you did this or that"? And for John to make his defense, that he had been ignorant of the matter? 35 {THE DEACON.} You have spoken the truth, if indeed there was any goodwill in him, and he was not using the clerics' case as a pretext to satisfy his own anger. {THE BISHOP.} By the fear of God, then, which rules over infinite fears, I will not speak to you otherwise, but as the matter naturally stands concerning these clerics you have mentioned. A certain Isidore, a presbyter from the time of the ordination of the blessed Athanasius the Great, in his eightieth year of age (whom most of the Romans know for having entered the city on account of ecclesiastical matters, being the keeper of the hospice of Alexandria; and you yourself know the man, when with Acacius he came and brought about the communion of Flavian with Theophilus, which had been cut off for twenty years on account of the blessed Evagrius, who had fought many contests in ecclesiastical labors); to this Isidore, then, a certain widow of the magnates
πλουσίων, τέμνων τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς ἀποστήματα, ἀτυφίαν αὐτοὺς ἐκδιδάσκων, μετριοφρονοῦντας πρὸς τοὺς λοιποὺς ἀνθρώπους, ἀποστολικῷ
πειθόμενος λόγῳ, τῷ πρὸς Τιμόθεον φερομένῳ· "Τοῖς πλουσίοις ἐν τῷ νῦν αἰῶνι παράγγελλε μὴ ὑψηλοφρονεῖν, μηδὲ ἠλπικέναι ἐπὶ
πλούτου ἀδηλότητι." τούτων οὖν οὕτως ἐχόντων, καὶ τῆς ἐκκλησίας ὁσημέραι ἐπὶ τὸ κρεῖττον ἀνθούσης, πάσης τῆς πόλεως εἰς εὐσέβειαν
μεταχρωσθείσης, σωφροσύνῃ καὶ ψαλμῳ δίᾳ τῶν ψυχῶν γεγανωμένων, οὐκ ἤνεγκεν ὁ μισόκαλος δαίμων τὸν δρασμὸν τῶν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ κρατουμένων,
οὓς ἀπέστησεν ὁ λόγος τοῦ Κυρίου διὰ τῆς Ἰωάννου διδασκαλίας· ὡς τοὺς ἱππομανεῖς καὶ θεατροσκόπους, καταλιμπάνοντας τὰς αὐλὰς
τοῦ διαβόλου, δρομαίως χωρεῖν ἐπὶ τὴν μάνδραν τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἔρωτι τῆς σύριγ γος τοῦ φιλοπροβάτου ποιμένος. <ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟΝ¯ʹ> Ἐκ
τούτου προκαταλαμβάνει φθόνος τὰς διανοίας τῶν μισ θωτῶν ποιμένων ἐλεγχομένων ἐκ τοῦ παραλλήλου. μὴ δυνη θέντες δὲ αὐτοῦ περιγενέσθαι
διὰ τὸ μὴ ἐπικαλέσασθαι τὸν καταλυτὴν τοῦ φθόνου Σωτῆρα, πλέκουσι διαβολὰς κατὰ τοῦ Ἰωάννου, μεταποιήσαντες αὐτοῦ τινας ὁμιλίας
εἰς ὕθλους κατὰ τῆς βασιλίσσης καὶ ἑτέρων τῶν ἐν τῇ αὐλῇ τοῦ βασιλέως. συνέβη δὲ κατ' ἐκεῖνο καιροῦ ἐπιστάντα Ἀκάκιον, τὸν
ἐπί σκοπον Βεροίας, ἀστοχῆσαι, ὡς ἔλεγεν, καταγωγίου καλοῦ· 34 καὶ λυπηθεὶς ἐπὶ τούτῳ, ὀργῇ ὑπετυφοῦτο ὡς καταφρονηθεὶς ὑπὸ
τοῦ Ἰωάννου. ἀκατασχέτοις δὲ λογισμοῖς ἡττηθεὶς ἐκφέρει λόγον ἄλογον, "ἐκ τοῦ περισσεύματος τῆς καρδίας," ἄξιον τῆς αὐτοῦ
διανοίας, ἐπί τινων κληρικῶν Ἰωάννου εἰπών· "Ἐγὼ αὐτῷ ἀρτύω χύτραν." ἐξαυτῆς οὖν συγκλωσθεὶς Σευηριανῷ καὶ Ἀντιόχῳ καὶ Ἰσαακίῳ
Συρίσκῳ, περιτρίμματι, ἀφηγητῇ ψευδομοναζόντων, ἐν κακολογίαις κατατριβέντι πάντοτε κατὰ ἐπι σκόπων, σκέπτονται θωρακίζεσθαι
δῆθεν μὲν κατὰ Ἰωάννου, τὸ δ' ἀληθὲς κατὰ τῆς δόξης τοῦ Σωτῆρος. ἀποστείλαντες δὲ πρῶτον εἰς τὴν Ἀντιοχέων ζητοῦσι νεότητος
αὐτοῦ πλημμε λείας. ὡς δὲ "ἐξέλιπον ἐξερευνῶντες ἐξερευνήσεις," καὶ οὐχ εὗρον οὐδέν, ἀποστέλλουσιν εἰς τὴν Ἀλεξάνδρειαν πρὸς
τὴν εὐχέρειαν Θεοφίλου, καλουμένου Ἀμφαλλάξ, τὰ τοιαῦτα σοφῶς ἀρχιτεκτονοῦντος· ὅς, ἐξαυτῆς ἀναπτύξας αὐτοῦ τὰ τῆς διανοίας
βιβλία μετὰ πολλῆς τῆς λῃστρικῆς ἡσυχίας, ἠρεύνα ζητῶν τρόπον προφάσεως κἂν τῆς τυχούσης. {Ο ∆ΙΑΚ.} Ἐπίσχες, ὦ πάτερ, τῶν
λόγων τὴν ῥύμην, πρὶν ἐπιλήσομαι, ἵνα σοι εἴπω τὴν ἀπὸ Ἀλεξανδρείας διαβᾶσαν πρὸς ἡμᾶς καὶ θρυληθεῖσαν αἰτίαν. φασὶ γὰρ ὅτι
καθαιρεθέντας κληρικοὺς ὑπὸ Θεοφίλου ἐδέξατο Ἰωάννης εἰς κοινωνίαν, λυπήσας τὸν Θεόφιλον, ὅπερ οὐκ ἔδει· ὡς ἐκ τούτου διενεχθέντα
αὐτὸν χωρῆσαι κατὰ τοῦ Ἰωάννου. {Ο ΕΠΙΣΚ.} ∆ῶμεν ἀληθῆ εἶναι τὸν εἰρημένον θρῦλον· καὶ ἐπισκόπου ἐστί, κακὸν ἰᾶσθαι κακῷ;
καὶ ποῦ τὸ εὐαγγελικὸν ἐκεῖνο τὸ λέγον· "Μὴ ἐπιδυέτω ὁ ἥλιος ἐπὶ τῷ παροργισμῷ ὑμῶν"; ποῦ δὲ τὸ ἀποστολικόν· "Νίκα τὸ κακὸν
ἐν τῷ ἀγαθῷ"; ποῦ δὲ τὸ προφητικόν· "Εἰ ἀνταπέδωκα τοῖς ἀνταποδιδοῦσί μοι κακά"; εἶτα οὐκ ἦν φιλονεικότερον εἰπεῖν ἐγκαλοῦντα
ἐπὶ εὐλαβῶν ἐπισκόπων· "Ἀδελφὲ Ἰωάννη, παρῆλθέν σε πεποιηκότα τὸ ἢ τό"; καὶ τὸν Ἰωάννην ἀπολογησάμενον, ἠγνοηκέναι τὸ πρᾶγμα;
35 {Ο ∆ΙΑΚ.} Ἀληθὲς εἴρηκας, εἴ γέ τις ἦν ἐν αὐτῷ καλοθέλεια, καὶ μὴ κατεσχηματίζετο τὴν τῶν κληρικῶν αἰτίαν, τὴν οἰκείαν
ὀργὴν ἐκπληρῶν. {Ο ΕΠΙΣΚ.} Νὴ τὸν φόβον τοίνυν τὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὃς δεσπόζει τῶν ἀπείρων φόβων, οὐκ ἐρῶ σοι ἄλλως, ἀλλ' ὡς ἔχει
φύσεως τὸ πρᾶγμα περὶ τούτων ὧν εἴρηκας κληρικῶν. Ἰσίδωρός τις, πρεσβύτερος ἔτι τῆς τοῦ μακαρίου Ἀθανασίου τοῦ μεγάλου χειροτονίας,
ὀγδοηκοστὸν ἔτος ἄγων τὴν ἡλικίαν (ὃν ἴσασι Ῥωμαίων οἱ πλεῖστοι ἐκκλησιαστικῶν ἕνεκεν εἰσβαλόντα εἰς αὐτήν, ξενοδόχον Ἀλεξανδρείας
ὄντα· οἶσθα δὲ καὶ αὐτὸς τὸν ἄνδρα, ἡνίκα σὺν Ἀκακίῳ ἐλθὼν τὴν Φλαβιανοῦ πρὸς Θεόφιλον κοινωνίαν ἐκόμισεν, εἴκοσι ἔτεσιν ἀπεσχοινισμένην
Εὐαγρίου ἕνεκεν τοῦ μακαρίου, τοῦ πολλοὺς ἀγῶνας ἀγωνισαμένου ἐν ἐκκλησιαστικοῖς πόνοις)· τούτῳ τοίνυν τῷ Ἰσιδώρῳ γυνή τις
χήρα τῶν μεγιστάνων
