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

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 strengthened by unchangeable judgment, having separated himself from symposia and gatherings of witty, 113 and jesting, and vain-talking men, having armed the eye of his soul with the panoply of the spirit, so that foolishness, finding an entrance through a symposium or an ill-timed word, might not destroy sober-mindedness, according to him who said: "Evil communications corrupt good manners." wherefore he was also plotted against; for he was grievous to them even when seen, like a lamp to bleary eyes. Such a one was the compassionate Jeremiah, who with tears lamented the faithlessness of the rulers and the priests, saying: "Who will give water to my head, and to my eyes fountains of tears, and I will weep for my people day and night?" again, "Who will give me a last lodging-place in the wilderness, and I will leave my people and depart from them? because all are adulterers"; calling the assembly of false prophets and priests "an assembly of treacherous men." as also elsewhere he addresses God, not as if He were ignorant, but as we who ought to imitate him: "Lord, I did not sit in their council as they jested, but I was cautious before your face; I sat alone, because I was filled with bitterness." And in harmony with these things, David also: "I have not sat with the council of vanity," he says, "and with transgressors I will not enter"; and he adds, making it clear: "I have hated the congregation of evil-doers, and with the ungodly I will not sit. I will wash my hands among the innocent" —that is, the practical faculties— "and I will go around your altar, O Lord." But those who cared less for the altar and turned their backs to it, not by intention, but by the way they live, not only with unwashed and blood-stained hands, with bribery, bribe-taking, and forgery, but also trample it with feet covered in mire; concerning whom the prophet Ezekiel says allegorically: "He brought me to the entrance of the court, and I looked, and behold, a hole in the wall. And he said to me, 'Dig through, son of man.' And I dug through, and I looked, and behold, a door. And he said to me, 'Enter, and see the wicked abominations that they do here.' And I entered, and I saw, and behold, every likeness of creeping thing and beast, and vain idols, abominations. And he said to me, 'Have you seen, son of man, 114 what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark in their hidden chamber?'" —alluding to their unclean mind— "for they said, 'The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.' And he said to me, 'You will yet see greater abominations that these men do.' And he brought me into another place, and showed me; and behold, there women were sitting weeping for Tammuz;" and again: "He brought me into the inner house of the Lord; and behold, there were twenty-four elders, and their faces were turned away, and their backs were to the altar. And he said to me, 'Are these small things that the house of Israel does?'" But we have been constrained to mention the passage of the prophet on account of the more reckless "of those who think they are something, and deceive themselves," and who disturb the peace of the church, because they have turned their backs to the Lord's table, "for whom the judgment is not idle, and their destruction does not slumber"; "those who mind earthly things," concerning whom Jude the brother of James says: "These are the spots in your love feasts, feasting with you, fearlessly pasturing themselves; waterless clouds, carried by winds; and wild waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of darkness has been reserved forever." For in that he called them "waterless clouds," he alluded to their wicked hail, the adversary of the vine; and in that he called them "wandering stars," he hinted at the plot against the ship; which ship and vine is the church. But what things will of necessity follow for such men? Hear again the same prophet Ezekiel relating: "And he showed me, and behold, six men were coming from the way of the high gate which looks

τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀγέλην ταῖς διαφόροις ἐπιθυμίαις ῥαΐσαι γλιχόμενος ἐπὶ τὸ στεγνότερον μέρος τοῦ βίου, ἑαυτοῦ δικαστὴς καὶ νομοθέτης ἐγίνετο, ἀμετα θέτῳ κρίσει πυκνούμενος, συμποσίων καὶ συλλόγων εὐτραπέλων 113 καὶ γελωτοποιῶν καὶ ματαιολόγων ἀποσχονίσας ἀνθρώπων, θωρακίσας ἑαυτοῦ τὸν τῆς ψυχῆς ὀφθαλμὸν τῇ τοῦ πνεύματος πανοπλίᾳ, ἵνα μὴ διὰ συμποσίου ἢ ἀκαίρου λόγου παρείσδυσιν εὑροῦσα ἡ ἀφροσύνη ἐξαφανίσῃ τὴν σωφροσύνην, κατὰ τὸν εἰπόντα· "Φθείρουσιν ἤθη χρηστὰ ὁμιλίαι κακαί." διὸ καὶ συνεσκευάσθη· βαρὺς γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἦν καὶ φαινόμενος, καθάπερ λύχνος λημιῶσιν ὄμμασιν. τοιοῦτός τις ἦν ὁ συμπαθὴς Ἰερε μίας, ὁ δάκρυσιν ὀλοφυρόμενος τῶν ἀρχόντων καὶ τῶν ἱερέων τὴν ἀπιστίαν, ἐπιλέγων· "Τίς δώσει μου τῇ κεφαλῇ ὕδωρ καὶ ὀφθαλμοῖς μου πηγὰς δακρύων, καὶ κλαύσομαι τὸν λαόν μου ἡμέρας καὶ νυκτός;" πάλιν, "Τίς δώσει μοι σταθμὸν ἔσχατον ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ, καὶ καταλείψω τὸν λαόν μου καὶ ἀπελεύσομαι ἀπ' αὐτῶν; διότι πάντες μοιχῶνται"· "σύνοδον ἀθετούντων" τὸν σύλλογον ὀνομάζων τῶν ψευδοπροφητῶν καὶ ἱερέων· ὡς καὶ ἀλλαχοῦ προσφωνεῖ τῷ Θεῷ, οὐχ ὡς αὐτοῦ ἀγνοοῦντος, ἀλλ' ὡς ἡμῶν ὀφειλόντων μιμεῖσθαι· "Κύριε, εἰ ἐκάθισα ἐν συνεδρίῳ αὐτῶν παιζόντων, ἀλλ' εὐλαβούμην ἀπὸ προσώπου σου· κατὰ μόνας ἐκαθήμην, ὅτι πικρίας ἐνεπλήσθην." συνῳδὰ δὲ τούτοις καὶ ∆αυείδ· "Οὐκ ἐκάθισα μετὰ συνεδρίου ματαιό τητος," λέγων, "καὶ μετὰ παρανομούντων οὐ μὴ εἰσέλθω"· καὶ ἐπιφέρει σαφηνίζων· "ἐμίσησα ἐκκλησίαν πονηρευομένων, καὶ μετὰ ἀσεβῶν οὐ μὴ καθίσω. νίψομαι ἐν ἀθῴοις τὰς χεῖράς μου" -τὰς πρακτικὰς δυνάμεις-"καὶ κυκλώσω τὸ θυσιαστήριόν σου, Κύριε." οἱ δὲ ἔλαττον φροντίσαντες τοῦ θυσιαστηρίου καὶ δόντες αὐτῷ νῶτα, οὐ προθέσει, ἀλλ' ᾗ βιοῦσιν, οὐ μόνον ἀνίπτοις χερσὶ καὶ ᾑμαγμέναις, δωροδοκίᾳ, δωροληψίᾳ, καὶ ψευδογραφίᾳ, ἀλλὰ καὶ πεπηλωμένοις ποσὶ λὰξ πατοῦντες· περὶ ὧν αἰνιττόμενος ὁ προφήτης Ἰεζεκιήλ φησιν· "Εἰσήγαγέ με ἐπὶ τὰ πρόθυρα τῆς αὐλῆς, καὶ εἶδον, καὶ ἰδοὺ ὀπὴ μία ἐν τῷ τοίχῳ. καὶ εἶπεν πρός με· "∆ιόρυξον, υἱὲ ἀνθρώπου." καὶ διώ ρυξα, καὶ εἶδον, καὶ ἰδοὺ θύρα μία. καὶ εἶπεν πρός με· "Εἴσελθε, καὶ ἴδε τὰς ἀνομίας τὰς πονηράς, ἃς ποιοῦσιν ὧδε." καὶ εἰσῆλθον, καὶ ἰδοὺ πᾶσα ὁμοίωσις ἑρπετοῦ καὶ κτήνους, καὶ εἴδωλα μάταια βδελύγματα. καὶ εἶπέν μοι· "Ἑόρακας, υἱὲ ἀνθρώπου, 114 ἃ ποιοῦσιν οἱ πρεσβύτεροι οἴκου Ἰσραὴλ ἐν σκοτεινῷ ἐν τῷ κοιτῶνι αὐτῶν τῷ κρυπτῷ;"" -τὴν ἀκάθαρτον αὐτῶν διάνοιαν αἰνιττόμενος-"διότι εἶπον· "Οὐχ ὁρᾷ Κύριος ἡμᾶς, ἐγκαταλέ λοιπε Κύριος τὴν γῆν." καὶ εἶπεν πρός με· "Ἔτι ὄψει ἀνομίας μείζονας ἃς οὗτοι ποιοῦσι." καὶ εἰσήγαγέ με εἰς ἕτερον τόπον, καὶ ἔδειξέ μοι· καὶ ἰδοὺ ἐκεῖ γυναῖκες καθήμεναι κλαίουσαι τὸν Θαμμούζ·" καὶ πάλιν· "Εἰσήγαγέ με εἰς τὸν οἶκον Κυρίου τὸν ἐσώτερον· καὶ ἰδοὺ ἐκεῖ εἴκοσι καὶ τέσσαρες πρεσβύτεροι, καὶ τὰ πρόσωπα αὐτῶν διεστραμμένα, καὶ τὰ νῶτα αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον. καὶ εἶπεν πρός με· "Μὴ μικρὰ ταῦτα ἃ ὁ οἶκος Ἰσραὴλ ποιεῖ;"" ἠναγκάσθημεν δὲ τῆς τοῦ προφήτου περικοπῆς μνημονεῦσαι διὰ τοὺς ἀφειδεστέρους "τῶν οἰομένων εἶναί τι, καὶ ἑαυτοὺς φρεναπατούντων," καὶ τὴν ἐκκλησιαστικὴν εἰρήνην συγχεόντων, διὰ τὸ νῶτα δοῦναι τῇ τοῦ Κυρίου τραπέζῃ, "οἷς τὸ κρῖμα οὐκ ἀργεῖ, καὶ ἡ ἀπώλεια αὐτῶν οὐ νυστάζει"· "οἱ τὰ ἐπίγεια φρονοῦντες," περὶ ὧν Ἰούδας ὁ ἀδελφὸς Ἰακώβου φησίν· "Οὗτοί εἰσιν οἱ ἐν ταῖς ἀγάπαις ὑμῶν σπιλάδες, συνευω χούμενοι, ἀφόβως ἑαυτοὺς ποιμαίνοντες· νεφέλαι ἄνυδροι, ὑπὸ ἀνέμων φερόμεναι· καὶ κύματα ἄγρια θαλάσσης, ἐπαφρίζοντα τὰς ἑαυτῶν αἰσχύνας· ἀστέρες πλανῆται, οἷς ὁ ζόφος τοῦ σκότους εἰς αἰῶνα τετήρηται." ᾗ μὲν γὰρ "νεφέλας ἀνύδρους" ἐκάλεσεν, τὴν πονηρὰν αὐτῶν ᾐνίξατο χάλαζαν, τὴν τῆς ἀμπέλου ἀντίδικον· ᾗ δὲ "πλανήτας ἀστέρας," τὸ τῆς νηὸς ἐπίβουλον ὑπῃνίξατο· ἥτις ναῦς καὶ ἄμπελός ἐστιν ἡ ἐκκλησία. τίνα δέ ἐστιν, ἃ τοῖς τοιούτοις ἕψεται ἐξ ἀνάγκης; ἄκουσον πάλιν τοῦ αὐτοῦ διηγου μένου προφήτου Ἰεζεκιήλ· "Καὶ ἔδειξέ μοι, καὶ ἰδοὺ ἄνδρες ἓξ ἤρχοντο ἀπὸ τῆς ὁδοῦ τῆς πύλης τῆς ὑψηλῆς τῆς βλεπούσης