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
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 words Eulysius of Apamea of Bithynia says: "It is necessary for us who hold the churches to be compelled both to commune and to subscribe." The holy John said: "Commune, indeed, that you may not divide the church, but do not subscribe; for I am conscious of having conceived nothing worthy of deposition." While things were thus, those sent by Theophilus were announced. He orders them to enter; upon their entry he asked of what rank they were. They say: "Bishops." He requests them, having sat down, to say for what reason they are present. And they say: "We only have a written summons; therefore, have it read aloud." John orders it to be read. They command the servant of Theophilus to read the indictment, and he read it. And the style was this: "The holy synod gathered at the Oak" (it is a place so called across the sea, a suburb of Rufinus, in which they had gathered) "to John" (omitting what was there, "the bishop"; for a darkened soul somehow is accustomed not to see what follows, but to imagine what passion dictates): "we have received accusations against you containing 48 ten thousand evils. Answer therefore, bringing with you Sarapion and Tigrius the presbyters; for there is need of them." And those who came to him were Dioscorus and Paul, who had recently been appointed in Libya. After the document was read, the bishops with the bishop John speak against it, making known to Theophilus through three bishops and two presbyters, Lupicinus and Demetrius and Eulysius, and the presbyters Germanus and Severus, all holy and worthy men: "Do not destroy the affairs of the church and do not divide the church, for which God came down into the flesh. But if you, acting disorderly, destroy the canons of the 318 bishops at Nicaea and "judge a case beyond the border," you cross over to us into the well-ordered city, not provoking Abel like Cain into the field, so that we may hear you first. For we have accusations against you of seventy chapters, containing manifest wicked deeds. And we are more numerous than the synod, gathered by the grace of God not for the destruction of the church, but in peace. For you are thirty-six from one province; but we are forty from different provinces, among whom we are also seven metropolitans; and it is fitting for the lesser to be judged by the more numerous and more distinguished according to the canons. For we also have your letter, through which you exhort our fellow minister John "that it is not right to accept 49 cases from beyond the borders." Wherefore, being obedient to the ecclesiastical laws, entreat your accusers, either to cease from the accusation against you, or from approaching him." Moved by these things, John said to his bishops: "You declare what seems good to you, but it is fitting for me to reply to what has been declared to me." And to those with Theophilus he sent back this reply: "I, if anyone has anything to say against me, until now have never known it; but if anyone has spoken against me, and you wish me to appear, cast out those manifest enemies of mine, who through their own negligence have become ill-disposed toward me, cast these men out of your assembly; and I do not dispute the place where I must be judged, even though it most especially ought to be in the city. But there are those whom I recuse, Theophilus, whom I prove to have said both in Alexandria and in Lycia, that "I am going to the court to depose John." And it is true, from the fact that upon his arrival he neither met with me nor communed with me. He, therefore, who before the hearing has performed the acts of an enemy, what would he do after the trial? And likewise I also refute Acacius for what he said: "I am seasoning a pot for him." And concerning Severian and Antiochus, whom the divine judgment will soon pursue, what need is there even to speak, whose innovations and worldly matters the theaters sing about? Therefore you are requested, if in truth you wish me to come, these four men: if as judges, cast them out
ἀνελήφθη Ἠλίας· οὐ προεφήτευσεν Ἐλισσαῖος; ἐκαρατομήθη Παῦλος· οὐ κατέλιπεν Τιμόθεον, Τίτον, Ἀπολλὼ καὶ ἄλλους μυρίους;" μετὰ
τούτους τοὺς λόγους λέγει Εὐλύσιος ὁ Ἀπα μείας τῆς Βιθυνίας· "Ἐπάναγκες ἡμᾶς ἐστι κατέχοντας τὰς ἐκκλησίας ἀναγκασθῆναι καὶ
κοινωνῆσαι καὶ ὑπογράψαι." ἔφη ὁ ἅγιος Ἰωάννης· "Κοινωνήσατε μέν, ἵνα μὴ σχίσητε τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, μὴ ὑπογράψητε δέ· οὐδὲν γὰρ
ἐμαυτῷ σύνοιδα ἄξιον καθαιρέσεως ἐννοήσας." τούτων οὕτως ἐχόντων ἐδηλώθησαν οἱ ἀποσταλέντες ὑπὸ Θεοφίλου. κελεύει αὐτοὺς εἰσελθεῖν·
εἰσελ θόντας ἤρετο, ποίου εἶεν βαθμοῦ. λέγουσιν· "Ἐπίσκοποι." παρακαλεῖ καθίσαντας εἰπεῖν ἐφ' ᾧ πάρεισιν. οἱ δὲ λέγουσι· "Παραναγνωστικὸν
ἔχομεν μόνον· ποιήσατε οὖν αὐτὸ ἀνα γνωσθῆναι." κελεύει ὁ Ἰωάννης ἀναγνωσθῆναι. προστάσσουσι τῷ παιδαρίῳ τοῦ Θεοφίλου ἀναγνῶναι
τὴν ὑπηγορίαν, καὶ ἀνέγνω. ἦν δὲ τὸ ὕφος τοῦτο· "Ἡ σύνοδος ἡ ἁγία ἡ ἐπὶ ∆ρῦν συναχθεῖσα" (τόπος δέ ἐστιν οὕτω καλούμενος πέραν
θαλάσσης, Ῥουφίνου προάστειον, ἐν ᾧ ἦσαν συνηθροισμένοι) "Ἰωάννῃ" (παραλείψαντες ὃ ἦν, "τῷ ἐπισκόπῳ"· φιλεῖ γάρ πως ἡ ἐσκο
τισμένη ψυχὴ οὐκ ἀκολούθως βλέπειν, ἀλλὰ φαντάζεσθαι ἃ τὸ πάθος ὑπαγορεύει)· "λιβέλλους ἐδεξάμεθα κατὰ σοῦ περι 48 έχοντας
μυρία κακά. ἀπάντησον τοίνυν, ἐπαγόμενος Σαραπίωνα καὶ Τίγριον τοὺς πρεσβυτέρους· ἔστι γὰρ αὐτῶν χρεία." ἦσαν δὲ οἱ ἐλθόντες
πρὸς αὐτὸν ∆ιόσκορος καὶ Παῦλος ἐν Λιβύῃ ὑπόγυον καταστάντες νέοι. μετὰ τὸ ἀναγνωσθῆναι τὴν δέλτον ἀντιλέγουσιν οἱ σὺν τῷ
ἐπισκόπῳ Ἰωάννῃ ἐπίσκοποι, δηλώ σαντες τῷ Θεοφίλῳ διὰ τριῶν ἐπισκόπων καὶ πρεσβυτέρων δύο, Λουπικίνου καὶ ∆ημητρίου καὶ Εὐλυσίου,
καὶ πρεσβυτέρων Γερμανοῦ καὶ Σευήρου, τῶν πάντων ἁγίων ἀνδρῶν καὶ ἀξιο λόγων· "Μὴ κατάλυε τὰ πράγματα τῆς ἐκκλησίας καὶ μὴ
σχίζε τὴν ἐκκλησίαν, δι' ἣν ὁ Θεὸς εἰς σάρκα κατῆλθεν. εἰ δὲ ἀτακτῶν καταλύεις τοὺς ἐν Νικαίᾳ κανόνας τῶν τιηʹ ἐπισκόπων καὶ
"ὑπερόριον δικάζεις δίκην," σὺ πέρασον πρὸς ἡμᾶς εἰς τὴν εὐνομουμένην πόλιν, μὴ προκαλούμενος τὸν Ἅβελ κατὰ τὸν Κάϊν εἰς τὸ
πεδίον, ἵνα σου ἡμεῖς πρῶτοι ἀκούσωμεν. ἔχομεν γὰρ κατὰ σοῦ ἑβδομήκοντα κεφαλαίων λιβέλλους, προδήλους ἀθεμιτουργίας ἔχοντας.
καὶ πλείους ἐσμὲν τῆς συνόδου, Θεοῦ χάριτι συναχθέντες οὐκ ἐπὶ καταλύσει τῆς ἐκκλησίας, ἀλλ' ἐν εἰρήνῃ. σὺ μὲν γὰρ εἶ τριακοστὸς
ἕκτος ἐξ ἐπαρχίας μιᾶς· ἡμεῖς δέ ἐσμεν τεσσαράκοντα ἐκ διαφόρων ἐπαρχιῶν, ἐν οἷς ἐσμεν καὶ ἑπτὰ μητροπολῖται· καὶ ἀκόλουθόν
ἐστι τὸν ἐλάσ σονα παρὰ τῶν πλειόνων καὶ διαφερόντων κατὰ τοὺς κανόνας κριθῆναι. ἔχομεν γάρ σου καὶ τὴν ἐπιστολήν, δι' ἧς
παρεγγυᾷς τῷ συλλειτουργῷ ἡμῶν Ἰωάννῃ "τὸ μὴ δεῖν ὑπερορίας εἰσδέ 49 χεσθαι δίκας." ὅθεν πειθόμενος τοῖς ἐκκλησιαστικοῖς νόμοις,
παρακάλει σου τοὺς κατηγόρους, ἢ παύεσθαι τῆς κατὰ σοῦ κατηγορίας, ἢ τῆς πρὸς αὐτὸν προσόδου." πρὸς ταῦτα κινηθεὶς ὁ Ἰωάννης
τοῖς μὲν ἐπισκόποις αὐτοῦ ἔλεγεν· "Ὑμεῖς ὃ δοκεῖ ὑμῖν δηλώσατε, ἐμὲ δὲ ἀκόλουθόν ἐστι πρὸς τὰ δηλωθέντα μοι ἀντισημᾶναι."
τοῖς δὲ περὶ Θεόφιλον ἀνταπέστειλεν ταῦτα· " ̓Εγώ, εἰ μὲν ἔχει τις κατ' ἐμοῦ λέγειν, μέχρι τῆς δεῦρο οὐδε πώποτε ἔγνων· εἰ
δέ τις κατεῖπέν μου, καὶ βούλεσθέ με παρα γενέσθαι, τοὺς προδήλους μου ἐχθρούς, οἵτινες ἐκ τῆς ἀμελείας αὐτῶν ἐκακώθησαν πρὸς
ἐμέ, βάλλετε ἔξω τούτους τοῦ ὑμετέρου συλλόγου· καὶ οὔτε τόπου ἀμφισβητῶ ὅπου με δέοι κριθῆναι, εἰ καὶ τὰ μάλιστα ἔδει ἐν
τῇ πόλει. εἰσὶ δὲ οὓς παραιτοῦμαι, Θεόφιλος, ὃν ἐλέγχω εἰρηκότα καὶ ἐν Ἀλεξανδρείᾳ καὶ ἐν Λυκίᾳ, ὅτι "Ἀπέρχομαι εἰς τὸ κομιτᾶτον
Ἰωάννην καθελεῖν." ἔστι δὲ ἀληθές, ἐξ ὧν παραγενόμενος οὔτε συνέτυχέν μοι οὔτε ἐκοι νώνησέν μοι. ὃς οὖν πρὸ τῆς ἀκροάσεως
τὰ ἐχθρῶν ἐπετέλεσεν, τί ἂν ποιήσῃ μετὰ τὴν δίκην; ὁμοίως δὲ καὶ Ἀκάκιον διελέγχω ἐφ' ᾧ εἶπεν· "Ἐγὼ αὐτῷ ἀρτύω χύτραν." περὶ
δὲ Σευηριανοῦ καὶ Ἀντιόχου, οὓς τάχιον μετελεύσεται ἡ θεία δίκη, τί δεῖ καὶ λέγειν, ὧν τὰς νεωτεροποιΐας καὶ τὰ κοσμικὰ ᾄδουσι
θέατρα; οὐκοῦν παρακέκλησθε, εἰ κατὰ ἀλήθειαν βούλεσθέ με ἐλθεῖν, τούτους τοὺς τέσσαρας· εἰ μὲν ὡς δικαστάς, ἐκβάλλετε
