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 those who deposed him and concluded the trial. <CHAPTER 19> {THE DEACON.} Forgive me, father, such things surpass drunkenness and madness and sport. For the mad and the drunk and children—the first after becoming sober, the second after digestion, and the others after reaching the legal age—deny, being ashamed of the things shamefully or disorderly done or said; but these men, having acted at a mature age and in apparent sobriety, not only do not repent of what they have done, but even pray that their own evildoing remain unshaken and firm. For those who did not shrink from placing the Gospel on a cursed head, on which savage women had danced, with whom else will they be numbered, than with those who placed the crown of thorns on the Son of God? But if you yourself know the manner of the appointment of Porphyry of Antioch, or those who appointed him, or the man's past life, whether obscure or notable, and his doctrines, whether true or false, tell us; especially since he has also written to the church of the Romans, and was not thought worthy of a reply. {THE BISHOP.} The same account of the truth will be mine, for I will not forget the voice of the Lord that says: "For every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment." And I, adding to it, might boldly say: "And for every idle hearing." So then, secure yourself also, if you do not perceive me to be speaking the truth in any matter, not yielding to my gray hair, but to the nature of the facts. For what benefit to me is there from the things said today or yesterday, if I lie, to be shamed forever before the strict judgment? And how shall I bear the millstone of slander on the neck of my mind, being dragged down to the depth of Gehenna, on account of those scandalized 94 by my falsehoods? This Porphyry spent a long time in the church, having both served as a deacon and as a priest in the presbytery, yet bearing a character foreign to his years, he was never of any spiritual use to the church; and always acting against the devout neighboring bishops, as being of a very great city, and having the magistrates in his power, he made a trade of the matter; and plotting against venerable ordinations, he would creep in by the cleverness of his ways with the bishops of the time (as one might say), dragging them even against their will and leading them to worthless ordinations. For flattery is a terrible thing, according to the comic poet Menander, when spun together with perversity, as he says: "It is hard, Pamphile, for a free woman to fight against a harlot. She knows more, she does more mischief, she is ashamed of no one, she flatters more"; and according to the wise Solomon, "The words of tricksters are soft, but they strike into the chambers of the belly." For of the continence concerning carnal pleasures he has become not only a stranger, but also an enemy, like a vulture to perfume, so that a reputation holds him also of the evil madness of Sodom. For with laws and measures and walls placed by nature upon pleasures, as many say, having trampled the wall, and shattered the measure, and outraged the law, he has brought forth this opinion of himself, of being the patron of and feasting with sorcerers and charioteers and those who perform ancient things with unseemly motion with a twisting of the leg. For he was not ashamed to contend alongside sorcerers and to contribute in a friendly way, so that accusations are even brought in the records of various magistrates, not having <read> the maxim: "What one must not do, do not even suspect of being done." [on whose account the mediator was also killed by blows, and the one who found him was exiled, and the sorcerer was banished.] And they say that, in addition to his previous evil deeds, after his ordination 95 having melted down the treasures, he spends them on the magistrates, so that he might seem to rule not by reason, but by tyranny, over those who have wretchedly fallen to him. For the death of Flavian, the bishop of Antioch, coincided with the exile of John to the land of the Armenians. Porphyry, seeing both the men's part and the women's part hanging with longing on the neck of Constantius the presbyter, a man who had served the church from his tender years, as the Judges say,
καθελόντων καὶ τὴν δίκην περαιωσάντων. <ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟΝ Ῑʹ> {Ο ∆ΙΑΚ.} Σύγγνωθί μοι, πάτερ, ὑπερβαίνει μέθην καὶ μανίαν καὶ παίγνιον
τὰ τοιαῦτα. οἱ μὲν γὰρ μαινόμενοι καὶ μέθυσοι καὶ οἱ παῖδες, οἱ μὲν μετὰ τὴν νῆψιν, οἱ δὲ μετὰ τὴν πέψιν, οἱ δ' ἄλλοι μετὰ
τὴν ἔννομον ἡλικίαν ἀρνοῦνται, ἐπαισχυνόμενοι τοῖς αἰσχρῶς ἢ ἀτάκτως γεγενημένοις ἢ λελεγμένοις· οὗτοι δὲ ἐν ἡλικίᾳ τελείᾳ
καὶ δοκούσῃ νήψει δεδρακότες, οὐ μόνον οὐ μεταμελοῦνται ἐπὶ τοῖς πραχθεῖσιν, ἀλλ' ἔτι εὔχονται ἀσά λευτον καὶ βεβαίαν διαμεῖναι
τὴν ἑαυτῶν κακοπραγίαν. οἱ γὰρ μὴ φρίξαντες Εὐαγγέλιον ἐπιθεῖναι ἐναγεῖ κεφαλῇ, εἰς ἣν γυναι κῶν αἱ ἀνήμεροι ἐπωρχήσαντο,
τίσιν ἄλλοις συναριθμήσονται, ἢ τοῖς τὸν ἀκάνθινον στέφανον τῷ Υἱῷ τοῦ Θεοῦ περιθεῖσιν; αὐτὸς δὲ εἰ οἶσθα τὸν τρόπον τῆς καταστάσεως
Πορφυρίου τοῦ Ἀντιοχέων, ἢ τοὺς καταστήσαντας, ἢ τὸν πάλαι τοῦ ἀνθρώπου βίον, εἰ ἄσημος ἢ ἐπίσημος, τά τε δόγματα, εἰ ἀληθῆ
ἢ ψευδῆ, ἀπάγγειλον ἡμῖν· ἐπειδὴ μάλιστα καὶ γεγράφηκεν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ Ῥωμαίων, καὶ ἀντιγράφων οὐκ ἠξιώθη. {Ο ΕΠΙΣΚ.} Ὁ αὐτὸς
ἔσται μοι λόγος τῆς ἀληθείας, οὐ γὰρ ἐπιλήσομαι τῆς τοῦ ∆εσπότου φωνῆς τῆς λεγούσης· "Περὶ παντὸς λόγου ἀργοῦ δώσουσι λόγον
οἱ ἄνθρωποι ἐν ἡμέρᾳ κρίσεως." ἐγὼ δὲ προσπλέξας τολμηρῶς εἴποιμι· "Καὶ περὶ πάσης ἀργῆς ἀκοῆς." ὡς γοῦν καὶ σεαυτὸν ἀσφάλισαι,
εἴ τι οὐ συνορᾷς με ἀληθεύειν, μὴ τῇ πολιᾷ μου ἡττώμενος, ἀλλὰ τῇ τῶν πραγμάτων φύσει. τί γάρ μοι ἐκ τῶν σήμερον ἢ ἐκ τῶν
χθὲς εἰρημένων ὄφελος ψευσαμένῳ, εἰς αἰῶνα ἐνώπιον τῆς ἀκριβοῦς δίκης καταισχυνομένῳ; πῶς δὲ ὑποίσω τὸν μυλικὸν λίθον τῆς
καταλαλιᾶς ἐν τῷ τραχήλῳ τῆς διανοίας, εἰς τὸν βυθὸν τῆς γεέννης κατασπώμενος, ἐπὶ τοῖς διὰ τῶν ψευσμάτων 94 μου σκανδαλισθεῖσιν;
Πορφύριος οὗτος ἐν μὲν τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ ἐχρόνισεν καὶ διακονήσας καὶ ἱερατεύσας ἐν τῷ πρεσβυτερίῳ, τῶν μέντοι χρόνων ἀλλότριον
τὸ ἦθος φέρων, εἰς οὐδὲν πνευμα τικὸν ἐχρησίμευσέ ποτε τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ· τοῖς δὲ περιχωρίοις τῶν εὐλαβῶν ἐπισκόπων ἀεὶ ἀντιπράττων,
ὡς ἅτε μεγίστης ὢν πόλεως, καὶ ἔχων τοὺς ἄρχοντας ἐπ' ἐξουσίας, τὸ πρᾶγμα ἐκαπήλευεν· ἐπιβουλεύων δὲ ταῖς σεμναῖς χειροτονίαις,
ὑπεισ ήρχετο τῇ τῶν τρόπων δεινότητι τοὺς κατὰ καιρὸν ἐπισκόπους (ὡς ἂν εἴποι τις) καὶ ἄκοντας κατασπῶν ἐπὶ τὰς ἀνεμοφθόρους
ἄγων χειροτονίας. δεινὸν γὰρ ἡ κολακεία, κατὰ τὸν κωμικὸν Μένανδρον, μετὰ δυστροπίας συγκεκλωσμένη, καθὼς λέγει· "Χαλεπόν,
Παμφίλη, ἐλευθέρᾳ γυναικὶ πρὸς πόρνην μάχεσθαι. πλείονα οἶδεν, πλείονα κακουργεῖ, αἰσχύνεται οὐδένα, κολακεύει μᾶλλον"· κατὰ
δὲ τὸν σοφὸν Σολομῶντα, "Λόγοι κερκώπων μαλακοί, αὐτοὶ δὲ τύπτουσιν εἰς ταμεῖα κοιλίας." σωφροσύνης μὲν γὰρ τῆς κατὰ τὰς σαρκικὰς
ἡδονὰς οὐ μόνον ξένος, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐχθρός, καθάπερ γὺψ μύρου, καθέστηκεν, ὡς κρατεῖν αὐτοῦ φήμην καὶ τῆς κατὰ Σόδομα κακομανίας.
νόμων γὰρ καὶ μέτρων καὶ τειχῶν κειμένων παρὰ τῆς φύσεως ἐπὶ ταῖς ἡδοναῖς, ὥς φασιν οἱ πολλοί, πατήσας μὲν τὸ τεῖχος, συντρίψας
δὲ τὸ μέτρον, ἐνυβρίσας δὲ τὸν νόμον, ταύτην ἀπεκύησε τὴν ὑπό ληψιν, τῶν γοήτων καὶ ἡνιόχων καὶ τῶν τὰ παλαιὰ δι' ἀσχήμου
κινήσεως μετ' ἐκστροφῆς σκέλους δεικνυόντων προΐστασθαι καὶ συνεστιᾶσθαι. γόησι μὲν γὰρ συναγωνίζεσθαι καὶ φιλικῶς συμ βαλεῖν
οὐ διετράπη, ὡς καὶ ἐν ὑπομνήμασι διαφόρων ἀρχόντων ἐμφέρεσθαι ἐγκλήματα, οὐκ <ἀνεγνωκὼς> τὸ γνωμικόν· "Ἃ μὴ δεῖ ποιεῖν, μηδ'
ὑπονοοῦ ποιεῖν." [δι' ὃν καὶ ὁ μεσίτης πληγαῖς ἀνῃρέθη, καὶ ὁ εὑρὼν ἐξωρίσθη, καὶ ὁ γόης ἐφυγαδεύθη.] φασὶ δέ, πρὸς ταῖς προλαβούσαις
κακοπραγίαις, μετὰ τὴν χειροτονίαν 95 τὰ κειμήλια χωνεύσας τοῖς ἄρχουσι προσαναλίσκει, ἵνα δόξῃ κρατεῖν οὐ λόγῳ, ἀλλὰ τυραννίδι,
τῶν ἀθλίως αὐτῷ παραπεσόν των. τῇ γὰρ Ἰωάννου ἐξορίᾳ τῇ εἰς τὴν Ἀρμενίων συνήκμασεν ὁ θάνατος Φλαβιανοῦ τοῦ Ἀντιοχέων ἐπισκόπου.
θεασάμενος ὁ Πορφύριος τήν τε ἀνδρωνῖτιν καὶ τὴν γυναικωνῖτιν πόθῳ ἐκκρεμαμένην τῷ τραχήλῳ Κωνσταντίου τοῦ πρεσβυτέρου, τοῦ
ἐξ ἁπαλῶν ὀνύχων δουλεύσαντος τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ ἀνδρός, ὡς λέγουσιν οἱ Κριταί,
