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

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 approaching. {THE BISHOP.} Most certainly then, most wise one, the end is near, according to the one who said: "Children, it is the last hour," and according to this: "And the householder went out about the eleventh hour to hire laborers for the vineyard"; and the last of the twelve is the final one, -and if four hundred years ago it was said by the apostle to be the last, how much more so now for all reasons. Furthermore, from the beginning these things exist by the Lord's permission for the training of the saints, the devil having asked for them, as the saving word says: "Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail." And Jesus did not pray entirely for Peter alone, but for all who have the faith of Peter, the sieve signifying nothing other than the earthly circle filled with pleasures and pains, through which, as through holes, the earthly fall from the nourishing wheat to Hades, being separated as from perforations; some flowing through as 133 through the hole of gluttony, "whose god is their belly"; and others through love of pleasure, concerning whom the prophet says: "By a spirit of fornication, they have gone astray" (for "neither fornicators, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, will inherit the kingdom of God"); and others through love of money, as many as have betrothed themselves to its yokefellow, idolatry; and others through anger and wrath, as many as have loved bestial darkness, concerning whom John says: "He who hates his brother is in darkness until now" (for "wrath," says the writer of Proverbs, "destroys even the wise"); and others through despondency and forgetfulness, not persevering in the vigilance of memory and needing the words, "My soul has slumbered from despondency" (whom the Word laments, saying: "Woe to you who have lost your patience; and what will you do when the Lord visits?"); others through irrational vainglory, concerning whom the psalmist proclaimed beforehand: "For God has scattered the bones of men-pleasers"; others through arrogance or pride, which is disdain, whom the prophet blames as deserters: "The proud have transgressed exceedingly; but from your law I have not turned aside." And to each of these vices more are attached: to pride, envy; to greed, hatred and illiberality and falsehood; to wrath, anger or rage, insults, murders; to fornication, forgetfulness, fearlessness, sloth, lack of zeal, profitless wakefulness; to vainglory, meddling, bribery, fantasies, hypocrisies, respect of persons, impostures; to arrogance, desperation, heartlessness, unholy deeds, ecstasies of the mind, and to another, others (that I may not say more, burdening the discourse, what has been said being easily proved). To each of these vices God has appointed a contrary virtue: as to lust, chastity; to gluttony, self-control; to greed, justice; to anger, gentleness; to sorrow, joy; to forgetfulness, memory; to despondency, patience; to foolishness, prudence; to cowardice, courage; to vainglory, humility; and to another, another; and to all, the divine Scripture. But to pride alone He has not given an opposing virtue because of its exceeding evil, reserving Himself for it, as it is said: "God opposes the proud." As the same prophet pleads, saying: "Lift up your hands against their pride to the end"; and again, "Render a recompense to the proud." And just as 134 "the tree is known by its fruit" (as the Lord said: "By their fruits you will know them"), so is each one of men, whether they are saints or are just called so. Thus are always the unshaken prosperities of the wicked, with God being long-suffering towards them. For this is fitting for Him, that the saints should proclaim this very thing in the person of the afflicted, for the consolation of us who now suffer. First, Job, the son of patience, what does he say after many things? -"For what? Is my reproof from a man" (implying his blamelessness)? or

καὶ δια πράττεσθαι ταῦτα καὶ χρονίζειν καὶ ἰσχύειν, καὶ τοὺς καλοὺς θλί βεσθαι καὶ λεηλατεῖσθαι, εἰς φρίκην με ἄγει τοῦ πλησιάζειν ἐκεῖνον. {Ο ΕΠΙΣΚ.} Μάλιστα μὲν οὖν, συνετώτατε, ἐγγύς ἐστιν τὸ τέλος, κατὰ τὸν εἰπόντα· "Παιδία, ἐσχάτη ὥρα ἐστίν," καὶ κατὰ τό· "Ἐξῆλθεν δὲ ὁ οἰκοδεσπότης περὶ ὥραν ἑνδεκάτην μισθώ σασθαι ἐργάτας εἰς τὸν ἀμπελῶνα"· ἡ δὲ ἐσχάτη τῶν δώδεκα ἔστιν ἡ τελευταία, -εἰ δὲ πρὸ τετρακοσίων ἐτῶν εἴρηται παρὰ τοῦ ἀποστόλου ἐσχάτη, πολλῷ μᾶλλον νῦν διὰ πάντα. ἔπειτα δὲ ἀπ' ἀρχῆς ἐστι ταῦτα κατὰ συγχώρησιν τοῦ Κυρίου εἰς γυμνάσιον τῶν ἁγίων, ἐξαιτοῦντος αὐτοὺς τοῦ διαβόλου, καθὼς λέγει ὁ σωτήριος λόγος· "Σίμων, Σίμων, ἐξῃτήσατο ὑμᾶς ὁ Σατανᾶς σινιάσαι ὡς τὸν σῖτον· ἐγὼ δὲ ἐδεήθην περὶ σοῦ, ἵνα μὴ ἐκλίπῃ ἡ πίστις σου." καὶ οὐ πάντως περὶ μόνου Πέτρου δεδέηται Ἰησοῦς, ἀλλὰ περὶ πάντων τῶν τὴν Πέτρου πίστιν ἐχόντων, οὐδὲν ἕτερον αἰνισσομένου τοῦ κοσκίνου ἢ τὸν περίγειον κύκλον ἡδονῶν καὶ ὀδυνῶν πεπληρωμένον, δι' ὧν ὡς δι' ὀπῶν ἐκπίπτουσιν οἱ γεώδεις ἀπὸ τοῦ τροφίμου σίτου ἐπὶ τὸν Ἅδην, ὡς ἀπὸ τρυπημάτων διαχωριζόμενοι· τῶν μὲν διαῤῥεόντων ὡς 133 δι' ὀπῆς τῆς γαστριμαργίας, "ὧν ὁ Θεὸς ἡ κοιλία"· τῶν δὲ διὰ φιληδονίας, περὶ ὧν ὁ προφήτης λέγει· "Πνεύματι πορνεία, ἐπλανήθησαν" ("οὔτε" γὰρ "πόρνοι, οὔτε μοιχοί, οὔτε μαλακοί, βασιλείαν Θεοῦ οὐ κληρονομήσουσι")· τῶν δὲ διὰ φιλαργυρίας, ὅσοι τὴν τῆς εἰδωλολατρείας ὁμόζυγον ἐμνηστεύσαντο· τῶν δὲ δι' ὀργῆς καὶ θυμοῦ, ὅσοι τὸ θηριῶδες σκότος ἠγάπησαν, περὶ ὧν Ἰωάννης φησίν· "Ὁ μισῶν τὸν ἀδελφὸν αὐτοῦ ἐν σκοτίᾳ ἐστὶν ἕως ἄρτι" ("Ὀργὴ" γάρ, φησιν ὁ παροιμιαστής, "ἀπόλλυσι καὶ φρονίμους")· τῶν δὲ δι' ἀκηδίας καὶ λήθης, μὴ προσκαρτερούντων τῇ ἀγρυπνίᾳ τῆς μνήμης καὶ δεομένων τό, "Ἐνύσταξεν ἡ ψυχή μου ἀπὸ ἀκηδίας" (οὓς ταλανίζων ὁ λόγος φησίν· "Οὐαὶ ὑμῖν τοῖς ἀπολελωκόσι τὴν ὑπομονήν· καὶ τί ποιήσετε ὅταν ἐπισκέ ψηται ὁ Κύριος;")· ἄλλων δι' εὐδοξίας ἀλόγου, περὶ ὧν ὁ ᾠδικὸς προανεφώνει· "Ὅτι διεσκόρπισεν ὁ Θεὸς ὀστᾶ ἀνθρωπαρέσκων"· ἑτέρων δι' ἀλαζονείας ἢ τύφου, ὅ ἐστιν ὑπεροψία, οὓς μέμφεται ὁ προφήτης ὡς λιποτάκτας· "Ὑπερήφανοι παρηνόμουν ἕως σφό δρα· ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ νόμου σου οὐκ ἐξέκλινα." ἑκάστῃ δὲ τούτων τῶν κακιῶν παρέπονται πλείους· τῷ τύφῳ ὁ φθόνος, τῇ πλεονεξίᾳ τὸ μῖσος καὶ ἀνελευθερία καὶ ψεῦδος, τῷ θυμῷ ὀργὴ ἢ μῆνις, αἱ ὕβρεις, οἱ φόνοι, τῇ πορνείᾳ ἡ λήθη, ἡ ἀφοβία, ὁ ὄκνος, ἡ ἀζηλία, ἡ ἀνόνητος ἀγρυπνία, τῇ κενοδοξίᾳ αἱ πολυπραγμονίαι, δωρο δοκίαι, φαντασίαι, ὑποκρίσεις, προσωποληψίαι, φενακισμοί, τῇ ὑπερηφανίᾳ αἱ ἀπόνοιαι, αἱ ἀσπλαγχνίαι, ἀνοσιουργίαι, ἐκστά σεις φρενῶν, καὶ ἄλλῃ ἄλλαι (ἵνα μὴ πλείους εἴπω, φορτίζων τὸν λόγον, εὐαποδείκτου ὄντος τοῦ εἰρημένου). τούτων ἑκάστῃ τῶν κακιῶν ὁ Θεὸς ἀντίδικον ἔταξεν ἀρετήν· ὡς τῇ λαγνείᾳ τὴν σωφροσύνην, τῇ λαιμαργίᾳ τὴν ἐγκράτειαν, τῇ πλεονεξίᾳ τὴν δικαιοσύνην, τῇ ὀργῇ τὴν πραΰτητα, τῇ λύπῃ τὴν χαράν, τῇ λήθῃ τὴν μνήμην, τῇ ἀκηδίᾳ τὴν ὑπομονήν, τῇ ἀφροσύνῃ τὴν φρόνησιν, τῇ δειλίᾳ τὴν ἀνδρείαν, τῇ κενοδοξίᾳ τὴν ταπεινοφροσύνην, καὶ ἄλλῃ ἄλλην· πάσαις δὲ τὴν θείαν Γραφήν. μόνῳ δὲ τῷ τύφῳ οὐκ ἔδωκεν ἀρετὴν ἀντικειμένην διὰ τὴν ὑπερβάλλουσαν κακίαν, ἑαυτὸν αὐτῇ φυλάξας, καθὼς εἴρηκεν· "Ὁ Θεὸς ὑπερηφάνοις ἀντιτάσσεται." ὡς ὁ αὐτὸς ἱκετεύει προφήτης, λέγων· "Ἔπαρον τὰς χεῖράς σου ἐπὶ τὰς ὑπερηφανίας αὐτῶν εἰς τέλος"· καὶ πάλιν, "Ἀπόδος ἀνταπόδοσιν τοῖς ὑπερηφάνοις." καὶ ὥσπερ 134 "ἀπὸ τοῦ καρποῦ τὸ δένδρον γνωρίζεται" (ὡς ὁ Κύριος εἶπεν· " ̓Εκ τῶν καρπῶν αὐτῶν ἐπιγνώσεσθε αὐτούς"), οὕτως ἕκαστος τῶν ἀνθρώπων, εἴτε ὄντων ἁγίων εἴτε καὶ λεγομένων. οὕτω δὲ πάντοτέ εἰσιν αἱ τῶν κακῶν ἄσειστοι εὐημερίαι, τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐπ' αὐτοῖς μακροθυμοῦντος. τοῦτο γὰρ αὐτῷ πρέπει, ὡς τοὺς ἁγίους αὐτὸ τοῦτο ἐκ προσώπου τῶν θλιβομένων προαναφωνεῖν, εἰς ἡμῶν τῶν νῦν πασχόντων παράκλησιν. πρῶτος ὁ τῆς ὑπομονῆς υἱὸς Ἰώβ, τί φησι μετὰ πολλά; -"Τί γάρ; μὴ ἐξ ἀνθρώπου ἡ ἔλεγξίς μου" (τὸ ἄμεμπτον αἰνιττόμενος); ἢ