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
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 keep down their wretched food. And they did not refrain from assailing them with shameful and indecent words. 130 They also took Palladius's servant from him, forcing him to issue a written statement. And one of the escorting soldiers afflicted Demetrius so much that he even attacked him with a spear late in the evening; he was tortured in his body on the spot, painfully ending his life, so that those who called upon God recognized the punishment for their outrages; Palladius had also foretold to him (as the fellow soldier who came related), that "You will not travel another road, having died miserably." For they did not allow them to approach a church at all, lodging either in inns, where there were a multitude of courtesans, or in the synagogues of Samaritans or Jews, especially from Tarsus, and there as if they were constrained, and to think something else which was unforeseen; but one of the bishops says: "Why are we grieved about the lodgings? For is it up to us where to stay, so that acting disgracefully by our own choice we should incur penalties? Or do you not know, that all these things both have happened and will happen, with God being glorified through all things? How many of these courtesans, having forgotten God or not even knowing him from the beginning, having seen us in this state, came to the fear and thought of God, perhaps turning to the better or at least not collapsing to the worse? It is no small thing for a rational soul afflicted by passion even to breathe a little, which is a spark of self-control; so that having endured these things, the hierophant Paul said: 'We are the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, because we have become a spectacle to angels and to men.'" To such a degree of cruelty 131 did the local bishops of Theophilus's communion flourish throughout the entire East (as the ascetic who came said), that some of them not only failed to show the required moderation but even with gifts persuaded the provincial officials to drive them out of the cities more quickly. And those who especially did this are the bishop of Tarsus and the one of Antioch and Eulogius of Caesarea in Palestine, and the one of Ancyra before all, and Ammonius of Pelusium, inciting the escorting soldiers against them more, partly by gifts, partly by threats, so that they would not even permit them to be received by the laity who wished to do so; just as in the catholic epistles the blessed John writes to Gaius against a certain bishop, approving Gaius's hospitality, urging him not to imitate the wicked bishops. The text goes something like this: "To the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth. Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. For I rejoiced greatly when some came and related to me that you walk in truth and in what ways you gave rest to the saints. I have no greater joy than this." And after this he adds: "I wrote to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not receive us, talking nonsense with wicked words; and not being content with these things, he neither receives the brethren himself, and forbids those who wish to, and casts them out of the church." Then later he exhorts, saying: "Beloved, do not imitate what is evil; for he who does good is of God; he who does evil has not seen God." And we have mentioned the entire saying of the ancient 132 wickedness, so that we may present the opinion of the modern Diotrephes. And he praised and admired the bishops of Cappadocia Secunda, as having greatly suffered with the exiled bishops with tears, especially the most gentle Theodore of Tyana and Bosporius of Colonia, being in his forty-eighth year in the episcopate, and Sarapion of Ostracine, being in his forty-fifth year in the ministry of the episcopate. And Theodore, having been speechless for a long time, said: {<Ο ∆ΙΑΚ.>} What then shall we say to these things, father? Is it perhaps that "it is the last hour," and "the apostasy," according to Paul, is making its entrance through these things, so that finally "the son of perdition who opposes may be revealed"? For that the wicked prosper
πτοντες, τῶν δύο ἡμερῶν τὴν ὁδὸν μίαν ἐποίουν, βαθεῖαν ἑσπέραν εἰσάγοντες καὶ ὄρθρῳ σκοτεινῷ ἐξάγοντες, ὡς μηδὲ τὰς ἀθλίας
τροφὰς κατέχειν τὸν στόμαχον. ῥήμασί τε αἰσχροῖς καὶ ἀσέμνοις 130 βάλλοντες οὐκ ἐφείδοντο. Παλλαδίου δὲ καὶ τὸν παῖδα ἀφεί
λαντο βιασάμενοι αὐτὸν καὶ γραμματεῖον ἐκθέσθαι. ∆ημήτριον δὲ εἰς τοσοῦτον ἔθλιψεν εἷς τῶν διαγόντων, ὡς καὶ ζιβύνῃ βαθεῖαν
ἑσπέραν ἐπελθεῖν, ὃς παρὰ πόδας εἰς τὸ σῶμα ἐβασα νίσθη, ἐπωδύνως τὸ ζῆν ἀποῤῥήξας, ὡς τοὺς ἐπιθειάζοντας γνωρίζειν τὴν τῶν
ὕβρεων ποινήν· προειπόντος αὐτῷ καὶ Παλ λαδίου (ὡς ὁ ἐλθὼν διηγήσατο συστρατιώτης), ὅτι "Ἄλλην ὁδὸν οὐχ ὁδεύσεις, οἰκτρῶς
τελευτήσας." ἐκκλησίᾳ μὲν γὰρ τὸ σύνο λον πλησιάζειν οὐκ εἴων, καταλύοντες ἢ ἐν πανδοχείοις, ἔνθα ἑταιρίδων πλῆθος, ἢ ἐν ταῖς
συναγωγαῖς Σαμαρειτῶν ἢ Ἰουδαίων, μάλιστα ἀπὸ Ταρσοῦ, καὶ ἐκεῖ ὡς στενοχωρουμένους αὐτούς, καὶ ἕτερόν τι ἐννοεῖν ὃ ἦν ἀπρονόητον·
λέγει δὲ εἷς τῶν ἐπι σκόπων· "Τί λυπούμεθα περὶ τῶν καταγωγίων; μὴ γὰρ ἐφ' ἡμῖν ἐστι τὸ ποῦ μεῖναι, ἵνα οἰκείᾳ αἱρέσει ἀσχημονοῦντες
δίκας ὀφλήσωμεν; ἢ οὐκ οἴδατε, ὅτι ταῦτα πάντα καὶ γεγένηται καὶ γενήσεται, τοῦ Θεοῦ διὰ πάντων δοξαζομένου; πόσαι τούτων
τῶν ἑταιρίδων λήθην Θεοῦ λαβοῦσαι ἢ τὴν ἀρχὴν μηδὲ γνοῦσαι, ἡμᾶς οὕτω θεασάμεναι, εἰς φόβον Θεοῦ καὶ ἔννοιαν ἦλθον, ἴσως ἐπὶ
τὸ κρεῖττον τραπεῖσαι ἢ κἂν ἐπὶ τὸ χεῖρον μὴ καταῤῥεύσασαι; οὐ μικρὸν δὲ ψυχῇ λογικῇ ὑπὸ πάθους κακουμένῃ καὶ μικρὸν ἀναπνεῦσαι,
ὅπερ ἐστὶν ἔναυσμα σωφροσύνης· ὡς ταῦτα ὑπο στάντα εἰπεῖν τὸν ἱεροφάντην Παῦλον· "Χριστοῦ εὐωδία ἐσμὲν ἐν τοῖς σωζομένοις
καὶ ἐν τοῖς ἀπολλυμένοις, διὰ τὸ θέατρον γεγενῆσθαι ἀγγέλοις τε καὶ ἀνθρώποις."" εἰς τοσοῦτον δὲ ὠμότητος 131 οἱ κατὰ τόπον
ἤκμασαν ἐπίσκοποι τῶν κοινωνικῶν Θεοφίλου κατὰ τὴν ἀνατολὴν πᾶσαν (ὡς ἔλεγεν ὁ ἐλθὼν ἀσκητής), ὥς τινας αὐτῶν οὐχὶ μόνον μὴ
ἐνδείξασθαι τὴν ὀφειλομένην σωφροσύνην ἀλλὰ καὶ μετὰ δώρων πείθειν τοὺς ἐπαρχικοὺς τάχιον ἐξελαύ νειν τῶν πόλεων. εἰσὶ δὲ
οἱ μάλιστα τοῦτο πεποιηκότες, ὁ Ταρσοῦ καὶ ὁ Ἀντιοχείας καὶ Εὐλόγιος ὁ Καισαρείας τῆς Παλαιστίνης, ὅ τε Ἀγκύρας πρὸ πάντων
καὶ Ἀμμώνιος ὁ τοῦ Πηλουσίου, τοῦτο μὲν δόμασι, τοῦτο δὲ ἀπειλαῖς πλέον κατ' αὐτῶν τοὺς διάγοντας στρατιώτας ἐξαγριοῦντες,
ἵνα μήτε τοὺς τῶν βουλο μένων λαϊκῶν ἐπιδέχεσθαι αὐτοὺς συγχωρῶσιν· καθὼς ἐν ταῖς καθολικαῖς γράφει Γαΐῳ ὁ μακάριος Ἰωάννης
κατά τινος ἐπι σκόπου, ἀποδεχόμενος τοῦ Γαΐου τὸ ξενοδόχον, παρακαλῶν αὐτὸν μὴ μιμεῖσθαι τοὺς πονηροὺς τῶν ἐπισκόπων. ἔχει
δέ πως ἡ λέξις· "Γαΐῳ ἀγαπητῷ, ὃν ἐγὼ ἀγαπῶ ἐν ἀληθείᾳ. ἀγαπητέ, περὶ πάντων εὔχομαί σε εὐοδοῦσθαι καὶ ὑγιαίνειν, καθὼς εὐο
δοῦταί σου ἡ ψυχή. ἐχάρην γὰρ λίαν ἐρχομένων τινῶν καὶ διηγουμένων μοι, ὅτι ἐν ἀληθείᾳ περιπατεῖς καὶ ἐφ' οἷς ἀνέπαυ σας τοὺς
ἁγίους. μείζονα ταύτης χαρὰν οὐκ ἔχω." ἐπιφέρει δὲ μετὰ τοῦτο· "Ἔγραψα τῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ· ἀλλ' ὁ φιλοπρωτεύων αὐ τῶν ∆ιοτρεφὴς οὐκ
ἐπιδέχεται ἡμᾶς, λόγοις πονηροῖς φλυαρῶν· καὶ μὴ ἀρκούμενος ἐπὶ τούτοις οὔτε αὐτὸς ἐπιδέχεται τοὺς ἀδελ φούς, καὶ τοὺς βουλομένους
κωλύει, καὶ ἐκ τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἐκ βάλλει." εἶθ' ὕστερον παραινεῖ λέγων· "Ἀγαπητέ, μὴ μιμοῦ τὸ κακόν· ὁ γὰρ ἀγαθοποιῶν ἐκ τοῦ
Θεοῦ ἐστιν· ὁ κακοποιῶν οὐχ ἑόρακεν τὸν Θεόν." ἐμνημονεύσαμεν δὲ τοῦ ῥητοῦ ὅλου τῆς παλαιᾶς 132 πονηρίας, ἵνα τῶν νῦν ∆ιοτρεφῶν
παραστήσωμεν τὴν γνώμην. ἐπῄνει δὲ καὶ ἐθαύμαζεν τῆς δευτέρας Καππαδοκίας τοὺς ἐπι σκόπους, ὡς πολὺ συναλγήσαντας μετὰ δακρύων
τοῖς ἐξορισθεῖσιν ἐπισκόποις, μάλιστα τὸν ἐπιεικέστατον Θεόδωρον τῶν Τυάνων καὶ Βοσπόριον Κολωνείας, τεσσαρακοστοόγδοον ἔτος
ἔχοντα ἐν τῇ ἐπισκοπῇ, καὶ Σαραπίωνα τὸν Ὀστρακίνης, τεσσαρακοστο πέμπτον ἔτος ἔχοντα ἐν τῇ τῆς ἐπισκοπῆς λειτουργίᾳ. Ἐνεὸς
δὲ γενόμενος ἐπὶ πολὺ ὁ Θεόδωρος εἶπεν· {<Ο ∆ΙΑΚ.>} Τί οὖν ἐροῦμεν πρὸς ταῦτα, πάτερ; μὴ ἄρα "ἐσχάτη ὥρα ἐστίν," καὶ "ἡ ἀποστασία,"
κατὰ τὸν Παῦλον, διὰ τούτων λαμβάνει τὴν εἴσοδον, ἵνα λοιπὸν "ἀποκαλυφθῇ ὁ υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας ὁ ἀντικείμενος"; τὸ γὰρ τοὺς
κακοὺς εὐημερεῖν
