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 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 done for its own sake). And having held on to his life for fourteen months, he dies, having sworn falsely on the Gospels; wherein he swore to his brother Nectarius that he would never accept ordination as a bishop, when he reproached him for not wishing to be in Tarsus, as though watching for his death. And the cause of his perjury was at first vainglory, on account of which he was courting—as one might say—the woman, but afterwards shame; since the reproofs were prophetically brought upon him by his brother. To this Arsacius, Atticus is introduced from among the presbyters, a craftsman of every device against John. Who, seeing that none of the eastern bishops were in communion with him, nor indeed the people of the city, on account of the things that had so lawlessly and unlawfully transpired, arranges, being unskilled in the divine Scriptures, for those not in communion to be compelled by rescripts. The rescript against the bishops contained this threat: "If anyone is not in communion with the bishops Theophilus and Porphyry and Atticus, let him be cast out of the church, 65 and let him be deprived of his own substance of property." From this, some, being weighed down by the burden of their property, even unwillingly enter into communion, while the poorer and weaker in sound faith were drawn into communion by promises of certain gifts, but others, scorning family and property and country and perishable glory and bodily affliction, preserved the nobility of their soul by flight, holding in memory the evangelical saying, "If they persecute you in this city, flee to another," and saying to themselves the one from the proverbs, "Possessions will not profit in the day of wrath." And some arrived in Rome, others in the mountains, and still others in the schools of the ascetics were saved from the Judaic wickedness. And the rescript against the laity contained: "That those in office should be deprived of the dignity of their positions, that soldiers should lose their belts, and that the rest of the common people and artisans, having been fined a great weight of gold, should be subjected to exile." Nevertheless, these things were also done, and the prayers of the zealous were performed in the open air with much hardship, out of love for the Savior who said: "I am the way and the truth," and again, "Take heart, I have overcome the world." And the blessed John, having lived in Cucusus for one year, nourished very many poor people of Armenia not so much with grain as with the word (for at that time a great famine had come upon that country). And envying him even for this, the fratricides transfer him to Arabissus, subjecting him to various hardships, so that he might give up his life. and there again having shone not a little with virtues ("for a city set on a mountain cannot be hidden," nor 66 a lamp burning brightly to be covered by a wooden bushel), for he aroused as if from a sleep of ignorance to the ray of the word those from all the surrounding region who were deeply stupefied by unbelief. But being consumed more fiercely by the flame of envy, those around Severian and Porphyry and certain other bishops of Syria arrange for him to be transferred from there also; for he was burdensome to them not only in their supposed good times, but much more in their bad times, being unsuited to the nature of temptations, not remembering the divine oracle made to the apostle in his tribulations, namely: "My grace is sufficient for you; for my power is made perfect in weakness." For seeing John's thankful philosophy having migrated from the Antiochenes to the Armenians and from there being sung again among the Antiochenes, they prayed even to give up their life, as if tortured by the lashes of the narratives (for such is the envy that hates the good), so that those of their attendant clergy who saw said in amazement: "Behold a dead man terrifying the living and the powerful
ἀνδρὸς ἱεροφάντου, ἄνθρωπος ἰχθύος ἀφωνότερος καὶ βατράχου ἀπραγότερος (ἔστι γὰρ ὅτε καὶ πρᾶξις λαλεῖ, μάλιστα ὅταν δι' αὐτὸ
γένηται τὸ καλόν). διακρατήσας δὲ τὸ ζῆν ἑαυτοῦ δέκα τέσσαρας μῆνας ἀποθνήσκει, εἰς τὰ Εὐαγγέλια παρορκήσας· ὅπου ὤμοσε τῷ
ἀδελφῷ Νεκταρίῳ μηδέποτε καταδέξασθαι ἐπισκοπῆς χειροτονίαν, ἡνίκα ὠνείδισεν αὐτῷ μὴ βουληθέντι γενέσθαι ἐν Ταρσῷ, ὡς τὸν
αὐτοῦ καιροσκοποῦντι θάνατον. γεγένηται δ' αὐτῷ τῆς ἐπιορκίας αἰτία τὸ μὲν πρὶν ἡ κενοδοξία, δι' ἣν ἐμνηστεύετο-ὡς ἂν εἴποι
τις-τὴν γυναῖκα, μετέπειτα δὲ ἡ αἰσχύνη· προφητικῶς τῶν ἐλέγχων αὐτῷ παρὰ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ ἐπαχθέντων. τούτῳ τῷ Ἀρσακίῳ Ἀττικὸς
ἀντεισάγεται ἐκ τῶν πρεσβυτέρων, πάσης μηχανῆς τεχνίτης κατὰ τοῦ Ἰωάννου. ὃς θεασάμενος μηδένα τῶν ἀνατολικῶν αὐτῷ ἐπισκόπων
κοινω νοῦντα, μήτε μὴν τοῦ τῆς πόλεως λαοῦ, διὰ τὰ οὕτως ἀνόμως παρακολουθήσαντα καὶ ἀθέσμως, παρασκευάζει, ἄπειρος ὢν τῶν
θείων Γραφῶν, ταῖς ἀντιγραφαῖς καταναγκάζεσθαι τοὺς μὴ κοινωνοῦντας. εἶχεν δὲ ἡ μὲν κατὰ τῶν ἐπισκόπων ἀντιγραφὴ τὴν ἀπειλὴν
ταύτην· "Εἴ τις οὐ κοινωνεῖ τῶν ἐπισκόπων Θεο φίλῳ καὶ Πορφυρίῳ καὶ Ἀττικῷ, τῆς μὲν ἐκκλησίας ἐκβαλέσθω, 65 τῆς δὲ ἰδίας τῶν
πραγμάτων οὐσίας ῥιπτέσθω." ἐντεῦθεν οἱ μὲν καταβαρυνόμενοι τῷ τῶν πραγμάτων φορτίῳ καὶ ἄκοντες κοινωνοῦσιν, οἱ δὲ πενέστεροι
καὶ εἰς πίστιν ὑγιῆ ἀσθενέστεροι ὑποσχέσεσι δώρων τινῶν συνεσύροντο εἰς κοινωνίαν, οἱ δὲ γένους καὶ πραγμάτων καὶ πατρίδος
καὶ δόξης φθαρτῆς καὶ θλίψεως σωματικῆς ὑπεριδόντες φυγῇ τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς εὐγένειαν διεφύ λαττον, τὸ εὐαγγελικὸν διὰ μνήμης ἔχοντες
λόγιον, "Ἐὰν διώ κωσιν ὑμᾶς ἐν τῇ πόλει ταύτῃ, φεύγετε εἰς τὴν ἄλλην," καὶ τὸ τῆς παροιμίας ἑαυτοῖς ἐπιλέγοντες, "Οὐκ ὠφελήσουσιν
ὑπάρ χοντα ἐν ἡμέρᾳ θυμοῦ." ἔφθανον δὲ οἱ μὲν ἐν τῇ Ῥώμῃ, οἱ δὲ ἐν τοῖς ὄρεσιν, ἕτεροι δὲ ἐν τοῖς τῶν ἀσκητῶν φροντιστηρίοις
διεσώζοντο ἐκ τῆς Ἰουδαϊκῆς πονηρίας. ἡ δὲ κατὰ τῶν λαϊκῶν ἀντιγραφὴ περιεῖχεν· "Τοὺς μὲν ἐν ἀξιώμασιν ἐκπίπτειν τῆς κατὰ
τὰς ἀρχὰς ἀξίας, τοὺς δὲ στρατιώτας τὰς ζώνας ἀπόλλειν, τοὺς δὲ λοιποὺς δήμους καὶ χειροτέχνας, χρυσίῳ πολυολκεῖ προστιμηθέντας,
ὑποβάλλεσθαι ἐξορίᾳ." πλὴν ὅμως καὶ ταῦτα ἐπράττετο, καὶ αἱ προσευχαὶ τῶν σπουδαίων ἐν τῷ ὑπαίθρῳ ἐπετελοῦντο μετὰ πολλῆς
τῆς κακοπαθείας, φιλίᾳ τῇ πρὸς τὸν Σωτῆρα τὸν εἰρηκότα· "Ἐγώ εἰμι ἡ ὁδὸς καὶ ἡ ἀλήθεια," καὶ πάλιν, "Θαρσεῖτε, ἐγὼ νενίκηκα
τὸν κόσμον." καὶ ὁ μὲν μακάριος Ἰωάννης οἰκήσας τὴν Κουκουσὸν ἔτος ἕν, πλείστους διαθρέψας πένητας τῆς Ἀρμενίας οὐ τοσοῦτον
σίτῳ, ὅσον λόγῳ (ἔφθασε γὰρ κατ' ἐκεῖνο καιροῦ μέγας λιμὸς τὴν χώραν ἐκείνην). βασκή ναντες δὲ αὐτῷ καὶ ἐπὶ τούτῳ οἱ ἀδελφοκτόνοι
μεταφέρουσιν εἰς Ἀραβισσόν, διαφόροις ὑποβάλλοντες κακουχίαις, ἵνα τὸ ζῆν ἀπολίπῃ. κἀκεῖ πάλιν οὐ μικρῶς διαλάμψας ταῖς ἀρεταῖς
("οὐ δύναται γὰρ πόλις κρυβῆναι ἐπάνω ὄρους κειμένη," οὐδὲ 66 λύχνος φαιδρῶς καιόμενος ξυλίνῳ σκεπασθῆναι μοδίῳ), ἐξή γειρεν
γὰρ καθάπερ ἐξ ὕπνου τῆς ἀγνοίας πρὸς τὴν τοῦ λόγου ἀκτῖνα ἐκ πάσης περιχώρου τοὺς ἄγαν κεκαρωμένους τῇ ἀπιστίᾳ. σφοδρότερον
δὲ τῇ φλογὶ τῆς βασκανίας κατακαιόμενοι οἱ περὶ Σευηριανὸν καὶ Πορφύριον καὶ ἕτεροί τινες τῆς Συρίας ἐπί σκοποι παρασκευάζουσιν
αὐτὸν κἀκεῖθεν μετενεχθῆναι· βαρὺς γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἦν οὐ μόνον ἐν ταῖς νομιζομέναις εὐημερίαις, ἀλλὰ πολλῷ πλέον ἐν ταῖς δυσημερίαις,
ἀφυῶς διακειμένοις περὶ τὴν φύσιν τῶν πειρασμῶν, οὐ μεμνημένοις τοῦ πρὸς τὸν ἀπόστολον θείου χρησμοῦ ἐν ταῖς θλίψεσι γενομένου,
τό· "Ἀρκεῖ σοι ἡ χάρις μου· ἡ γὰρ δύναμίς μου ἐν ἀσθενείᾳ τελειοῦται." θεασά μενοι γὰρ μεταναστᾶσαν τὴν Ἀντιοχέων ἐπὶ τὴν
Ἀρμενίων κἀκεῖθεν πάλιν ἐπὶ τὴν Ἀντιοχέων τὴν Ἰωάννου εὐχάριστον φιλοσοφίαν ᾀδομένην, ηὔχοντο καὶ τὸ ζῆν ἀποῤῥῆξαι, καθάπερ
ὑπὸ μαστίγων τῶν διηγημάτων βασανιζόμενοι (τοιοῦτον γὰρ ὁ μισόκαλος φθόνος), ὡς τοὺς ὁρῶντας τῶν ἑπομένων αὐτοῖς κληρικῶν
θαυμάζοντας λέγειν· "Ἴδετε νεκρὸν φοβερὸν τοὺς ζῶντας καὶ κρατοῦντας
