Chapter XXXII: Emperors Arcadius, Eutropius, Theodosius II.—Part II

The bold satirist, who has indulged his discontent by the partial
and passionate censure of the Christian emperors, violates the
dignity, rather than the truth, of history, by comparing the son
of Theodosius to one of those harmless and simple animals, who
scarcely feel that they are the property of their shepherd. Two
passions, however, fear and conjugal affection, awakened the
languid soul of Arcadius: he was terrified by the threats of a
victorious Barbarian; and he yielded to the tender eloquence of
his wife Eudoxia, who, with a flood of artificial tears,
presenting her infant children to their father, implored his
justice for some real or imaginary insult, which she imputed to
the audacious eunuch. 28 The emperor’s hand was directed to sign
the condemnation of Eutropius; the magic spell, which during four
years had bound the prince and the people, was instantly
dissolved; and the acclamations that so lately hailed the merit
and fortune of the favorite, were converted into the clamors of
the soldiers and people, who reproached his crimes, and pressed
his immediate execution. In this hour of distress and despair,
his only refuge was in the sanctuary of the church, whose
privileges he had wisely or profanely attempted to circumscribe;
and the most eloquent of the saints, John Chrysostom, enjoyed the
triumph of protecting a prostrate minister, whose choice had
raised him to the ecclesiastical throne of Constantinople. The
archbishop, ascending the pulpit of the cathedral, that he might
be distinctly seen and heard by an innumerable crowd of either
sex and of every age, pronounced a seasonable and pathetic
discourse on the forgiveness of injuries, and the instability of
human greatness. The agonies of the pale and affrighted wretch,
who lay grovelling under the table of the altar, exhibited a
solemn and instructive spectacle; and the orator, who was
afterwards accused of insulting the misfortunes of Eutropius,
labored to excite the contempt, that he might assuage the fury,
of the people. 29 The powers of humanity, of superstition, and of
eloquence, prevailed. The empress Eudoxia was restrained by her
own prejudices, or by those of her subjects, from violating the
sanctuary of the church; and Eutropius was tempted to capitulate,
by the milder arts of persuasion, and by an oath, that his life
should be spared. 30 Careless of the dignity of their sovereign,
the new ministers of the palace immediately published an edict to
declare, that his late favorite had disgraced the names of consul
and patrician, to abolish his statues, to confiscate his wealth,
and to inflict a perpetual exile in the Island of Cyprus. 31 A
despicable and decrepit eunuch could no longer alarm the fears of
his enemies; nor was he capable of enjoying what yet remained,
the comforts of peace, of solitude, and of a happy climate. But
their implacable revenge still envied him the last moments of a
miserable life, and Eutropius had no sooner touched the shores of
Cyprus, than he was hastily recalled. The vain hope of eluding,
by a change of place, the obligation of an oath, engaged the
empress to transfer the scene of his trial and execution from
Constantinople to the adjacent suburb of Chalcedon. The consul
Aurelian pronounced the sentence; and the motives of that
sentence expose the jurisprudence of a despotic government. The
crimes which Eutropius had committed against the people might
have justified his death; but he was found guilty of harnessing
to his chariot the sacred animals, who, from their breed or
color, were reserved for the use of the emperor alone. 32

28 (return) [ This anecdote, which Philostorgius alone has
preserved, (l xi. c. 6, and Gothofred. Dissertat. p. 451-456) is
curious and important; since it connects the revolt of the Goths
with the secret intrigues of the palace.]

29 (return) [ See the Homily of Chrysostom, tom. iii. p. 381-386,
which the exordium is particularly beautiful. Socrates, l. vi. c.
5. Sozomen, l. viii. c. 7. Montfaucon (in his Life of Chrysostom,
tom. xiii. p. 135) too hastily supposes that Tribigild was
actually in Constantinople; and that he commanded the soldiers
who were ordered to seize Eutropius Even Claudian, a Pagan poet,
(praefat. ad l. ii. in Eutrop. 27,) has mentioned the flight of
the eunuch to the sanctuary.

Suppliciterque pias humilis prostratus ad aras, Mitigat iratas
voce tremente nurus,]

30 (return) [ Chrysostom, in another homily, (tom. iii. p. 386,)
affects to declare that Eutropius would not have been taken, had
he not deserted the church. Zosimus, (l. v. p. 313,) on the
contrary, pretends, that his enemies forced him from the
sanctuary. Yet the promise is an evidence of some treaty; and the
strong assurance of Claudian, (Praefat. ad l. ii. 46,) Sed tamen
exemplo non feriere tuo, may be considered as an evidence of some
promise.]

31 (return) [ Cod. Theod. l. ix. tit. xi. leg. 14. The date of
that law (Jan. 17, A.D. 399) is erroneous and corrupt; since the
fall of Eutropius could not happen till the autumn of the same
year. See Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 780.]

32 (return) [ Zosimus, l. v. p. 313. Philostorgius, l. xi. c. 6.]

While this domestic revolution was transacted, Gainas 33 openly
revolted from his allegiance; united his forces at Thyatira in
Lydia, with those of Tribigild; and still maintained his superior
ascendant over the rebellious leader of the Ostrogoths. The
confederate armies advanced, without resistance, to the straits
of the Hellespont and the Bosphorus; and Arcadius was instructed
to prevent the loss of his Asiatic dominions, by resigning his
authority and his person to the faith of the Barbarians. The
church of the holy martyr Euphemia, situate on a lofty eminence
near Chalcedon, 34 was chosen for the place of the interview.
Gainas bowed with reverence at the feet of the emperor, whilst he
required the sacrifice of Aurelian and Saturninus, two ministers
of consular rank; and their naked necks were exposed, by the
haughty rebel, to the edge of the sword, till he condescended to
grant them a precarious and disgraceful respite. The Goths,
according to the terms of the agreement, were immediately
transported from Asia into Europe; and their victorious chief,
who accepted the title of master-general of the Roman armies,
soon filled Constantinople with his troops, and distributed among
his dependants the honors and rewards of the empire. In his early
youth, Gainas had passed the Danube as a suppliant and a
fugitive: his elevation had been the work of valor and fortune;
and his indiscreet or perfidious conduct was the cause of his
rapid downfall. Notwithstanding the vigorous opposition of the
archbishop, he importunately claimed for his Arian sectaries the
possession of a peculiar church; and the pride of the Catholics
was offended by the public toleration of heresy. 35 Every quarter
of Constantinople was filled with tumult and disorder; and the
Barbarians gazed with such ardor on the rich shops of the
jewellers, and the tables of the bankers, which were covered with
gold and silver, that it was judged prudent to remove those
dangerous temptations from their sight. They resented the
injurious precaution; and some alarming attempts were made,
during the night, to attack and destroy with fire the Imperial
palace. 36 In this state of mutual and suspicious hostility, the
guards and the people of Constantinople shut the gates, and rose
in arms to prevent or to punish the conspiracy of the Goths.
During the absence of Gainas, his troops were surprised and
oppressed; seven thousand Barbarians perished in this bloody
massacre. In the fury of the pursuit, the Catholics uncovered the
roof, and continued to throw down flaming logs of wood, till they
overwhelmed their adversaries, who had retreated to the church or
conventicle of the Arians. Gainas was either innocent of the
design, or too confident of his success; he was astonished by the
intelligence that the flower of his army had been ingloriously
destroyed; that he himself was declared a public enemy; and that
his countryman, Fravitta, a brave and loyal confederate, had
assumed the management of the war by sea and land. The
enterprises of the rebel, against the cities of Thrace, were
encountered by a firm and well-ordered defence; his hungry
soldiers were soon reduced to the grass that grew on the margin
of the fortifications; and Gainas, who vainly regretted the
wealth and luxury of Asia, embraced a desperate resolution of
forcing the passage of the Hellespont. He was destitute of
vessels; but the woods of the Chersonesus afforded materials for
rafts, and his intrepid Barbarians did not refuse to trust
themselves to the waves. But Fravitta attentively watched the
progress of their undertaking. As soon as they had gained the
middle of the stream, the Roman galleys, 37 impelled by the full
force of oars, of the current, and of a favorable wind, rushed
forwards in compact order, and with irresistible weight; and the
Hellespont was covered with the fragments of the Gothic
shipwreck. After the destruction of his hopes, and the loss of
many thousands of his bravest soldiers, Gainas, who could no
longer aspire to govern or to subdue the Romans, determined to
resume the independence of a savage life. A light and active body
of Barbarian horse, disengaged from their infantry and baggage,
might perform in eight or ten days a march of three hundred miles
from the Hellespont to the Danube; 38 the garrisons of that
important frontier had been gradually annihilated; the river, in
the month of December, would be deeply frozen; and the unbounded
prospect of Scythia was opened to the ambition of Gainas. This
design was secretly communicated to the national troops, who
devoted themselves to the fortunes of their leader; and before
the signal of departure was given, a great number of provincial
auxiliaries, whom he suspected of an attachment to their native
country, were perfidiously massacred. The Goths advanced, by
rapid marches, through the plains of Thrace; and they were soon
delivered from the fear of a pursuit, by the vanity of Fravitta,
3811 who, instead of extinguishing the war, hastened to enjoy the
popular applause, and to assume the peaceful honors of the
consulship. But a formidable ally appeared in arms to vindicate
the majesty of the empire, and to guard the peace and liberty of
Scythia. 39 The superior forces of Uldin, king of the Huns,
opposed the progress of Gainas; a hostile and ruined country
prohibited his retreat; he disdained to capitulate; and after
repeatedly attempting to cut his way through the ranks of the
enemy, he was slain, with his desperate followers, in the field
of battle. Eleven days after the naval victory of the Hellespont,
the head of Gainas, the inestimable gift of the conqueror, was
received at Constantinople with the most liberal expressions of
gratitude; and the public deliverance was celebrated by festivals
and illuminations. The triumphs of Arcadius became the subject of
epic poems; 40 and the monarch, no longer oppressed by any
hostile terrors, resigned himself to the mild and absolute
dominion of his wife, the fair and artful Eudoxia, who was
sullied her fame by the persecution of St. John Chrysostom.

33 (return) [ Zosimus, l. v. p. 313-323,) Socrates, (l. vi. c.
4,) Sozomen, (l. viii. c. 4,) and Theodoret, (l. v. c. 32, 33,)
represent, though with some various circumstances, the
conspiracy, defeat, and death of Gainas.]

34 (return) [ It is the expression of Zosimus himself, (l. v. p.
314,) who inadvertently uses the fashionable language of the
Christians. Evagrius describes (l. ii. c. 3) the situation,
architecture, relics, and miracles, of that celebrated church, in
which the general council of Chalcedon was afterwards held.]

35 (return) [ The pious remonstrances of Chrysostom, which do not
appear in his own writings, are strongly urged by Theodoret; but
his insinuation, that they were successful, is disproved by
facts. Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 383) has
discovered that the emperor, to satisfy the rapacious demands of
Gainas, was obliged to melt the plate of the church of the
apostles.]

36 (return) [ The ecclesiastical historians, who sometimes guide,
and sometimes follow, the public opinion, most confidently
assert, that the palace of Constantinople was guarded by legions
of angels.]

37 (return) [ Zosmius (l. v. p. 319) mentions these galleys by
the name of Liburnians, and observes that they were as swift
(without explaining the difference between them) as the vessels
with fifty oars; but that they were far inferior in speed to the
triremes, which had been long disused. Yet he reasonably
concludes, from the testimony of Polybius, that galleys of a
still larger size had been constructed in the Punic wars. Since
the establishment of the Roman empire over the Mediterranean, the
useless art of building large ships of war had probably been
neglected, and at length forgotten.]

38 (return) [ Chishull (Travels, p. 61-63, 72-76) proceeded from
Gallipoli, through Hadrianople to the Danube, in about fifteen
days. He was in the train of an English ambassador, whose baggage
consisted of seventy-one wagons. That learned traveller has the
merit of tracing a curious and unfrequented route.]

3811 (return) [ Fravitta, according to Zosimus, though a Pagan,
received the honors of the consulate. Zosim, v. c. 20. On
Fravitta, see a very imperfect fragment of Eunapius. Mai. ii.
290, in Niebuhr. 92.—M.]

39 (return) [ The narrative of Zosimus, who actually leads Gainas
beyond the Danube, must be corrected by the testimony of
Socrates, aud Sozomen, that he was killed in Thrace; and by the
precise and authentic dates of the Alexandrian, or Paschal,
Chronicle, p. 307. The naval victory of the Hellespont is fixed
to the month Apellaeus, the tenth of the Calends of January,
(December 23;) the head of Gainas was brought to Constantinople
the third of the nones of January, (January 3,) in the month
Audynaeus.]

40 (return) [ Eusebius Scholasticus acquired much fame by his
poem on the Gothic war, in which he had served. Near forty years
afterwards Ammonius recited another poem on the same subject, in
the presence of the emperor Theodosius. See Socrates, l. vi. c.
6.]

After the death of the indolent Nectarius, the successor of
Gregory Nazianzen, the church of Constantinople was distracted by
the ambition of rival candidates, who were not ashamed to
solicit, with gold or flattery, the suffrage of the people, or of
the favorite. On this occasion Eutropius seems to have deviated
from his ordinary maxims; and his uncorrupted judgment was
determined only by the superior merit of a stranger. In a late
journey into the East, he had admired the sermons of John, a
native and presbyter of Antioch, whose name has been
distinguished by the epithet of Chrysostom, or the Golden Mouth.
41 A private order was despatched to the governor of Syria; and
as the people might be unwilling to resign their favorite
preacher, he was transported, with speed and secrecy in a
post-chariot, from Antioch to Constantinople. The unanimous and
unsolicited consent of the court, the clergy, and the people,
ratified the choice of the minister; and, both as a saint and as
an orator, the new archbishop surpassed the sanguine expectations
of the public. Born of a noble and opulent family, in the capital
of Syria, Chrysostom had been educated, by the care of a tender
mother, under the tuition of the most skilful masters. He studied
the art of rhetoric in the school of Libanius; and that
celebrated sophist, who soon discovered the talents of his
disciple, ingenuously confessed that John would have deserved to
succeed him, had he not been stolen away by the Christians. His
piety soon disposed him to receive the sacrament of baptism; to
renounce the lucrative and honorable profession of the law; and
to bury himself in the adjacent desert, where he subdued the
lusts of the flesh by an austere penance of six years. His
infirmities compelled him to return to the society of mankind;
and the authority of Meletius devoted his talents to the service
of the church: but in the midst of his family, and afterwards on
the archiepiscopal throne, Chrysostom still persevered in the
practice of the monastic virtues. The ample revenues, which his
predecessors had consumed in pomp and luxury, he diligently
applied to the establishment of hospitals; and the multitudes,
who were supported by his charity, preferred the eloquent and
edifying discourses of their archbishop to the amusements of the
theatre or the circus. The monuments of that eloquence, which was
admired near twenty years at Antioch and Constantinople, have
been carefully preserved; and the possession of near one thousand
sermons, or homilies has authorized the critics 42 of succeeding
times to appreciate the genuine merit of Chrysostom. They
unanimously attribute to the Christian orator the free command of
an elegant and copious language; the judgment to conceal the
advantages which he derived from the knowledge of rhetoric and
philosophy; an inexhaustible fund of metaphors and similitudes of
ideas and images, to vary and illustrate the most familiar
topics; the happy art of engaging the passions in the service of
virtue; and of exposing the folly, as well as the turpitude, of
vice, almost with the truth and spirit of a dramatic
representation.

41 (return) [ The sixth book of Socrates, the eighth of Sozomen,
and the fifth of Theodoret, afford curious and authentic
materials for the life of John Chrysostom. Besides those general
historians, I have taken for my guides the four principal
biographers of the saint. 1. The author of a partial and
passionate Vindication of the archbishop of Constantinople,
composed in the form of a dialogue, and under the name of his
zealous partisan, Palladius, bishop of Helenopolis, (Tillemont,
Mem. Eccles. tom. xi. p. 500-533.) It is inserted among the works
of Chrysostom. tom. xiii. p. 1-90, edit. Montfaucon. 2. The
moderate Erasmus, (tom. iii. epist. Mcl. p. 1331-1347, edit.
Lugd. Bat.) His vivacity and good sense were his own; his errors,
in the uncultivated state of ecclesiastical antiquity, were
almost inevitable. 3. The learned Tillemont, (Mem.
Ecclesiastiques, tom. xi. p. 1-405, 547-626, &c. &c.,) who
compiles the lives of the saints with incredible patience and
religious accuracy. He has minutely searched the voluminous works
of Chrysostom himself. 4. Father Montfaucon, who has perused
those works with the curious diligence of an editor, discovered
several new homilies, and again reviewed and composed the Life of
Chrysostom, (Opera Chrysostom. tom. xiii. p. 91-177.)]

42 (return) [ As I am almost a stranger to the voluminous sermons
of Chrysostom, I have given my confidence to the two most
judicious and moderate of the ecclesiastical critics, Erasmus
(tom. iii. p. 1344) and Dupin, (Bibliothèque Ecclesiastique, tom.
iii. p. 38:) yet the good taste of the former is sometimes
vitiated by an excessive love of antiquity; and the good sense of
the latter is always restrained by prudential considerations.]

The pastoral labors of the archbishop of Constantinople provoked,
and gradually united against him, two sorts of enemies; the
aspiring clergy, who envied his success, and the obstinate
sinners, who were offended by his reproofs. When Chrysostom
thundered, from the pulpit of St. Sophia, against the degeneracy
of the Christians, his shafts were spent among the crowd, without
wounding, or even marking, the character of any individual. When
he declaimed against the peculiar vices of the rich, poverty
might obtain a transient consolation from his invectives; but the
guilty were still sheltered by their numbers; and the reproach
itself was dignified by some ideas of superiority and enjoyment.
But as the pyramid rose towards the summit, it insensibly
diminished to a point; and the magistrates, the ministers, the
favorite eunuchs, the ladies of the court, 43 the empress Eudoxia
herself, had a much larger share of guilt to divide among a
smaller proportion of criminals. The personal applications of the
audience were anticipated, or confirmed, by the testimony of
their own conscience; and the intrepid preacher assumed the
dangerous right of exposing both the offence and the offender to
the public abhorrence. The secret resentment of the court
encouraged the discontent of the clergy and monks of
Constantinople, who were too hastily reformed by the fervent zeal
of their archbishop. He had condemned, from the pulpit, the
domestic females of the clergy of Constantinople, who, under the
name of servants, or sisters, afforded a perpetual occasion
either of sin or of scandal. The silent and solitary ascetics,
who had secluded themselves from the world, were entitled to the
warmest approbation of Chrysostom; but he despised and
stigmatized, as the disgrace of their holy profession, the crowd
of degenerate monks, who, from some unworthy motives of pleasure
or profit, so frequently infested the streets of the capital. To
the voice of persuasion, the archbishop was obliged to add the
terrors of authority; and his ardor, in the exercise of
ecclesiastical jurisdiction, was not always exempt from passion;
nor was it always guided by prudence. Chrysostom was naturally of
a choleric disposition. 44 Although he struggled, according to
the precepts of the gospel, to love his private enemies, he
indulged himself in the privilege of hating the enemies of God
and of the church; and his sentiments were sometimes delivered
with too much energy of countenance and expression. He still
maintained, from some considerations of health or abstinence, his
former habits of taking his repasts alone; and this inhospitable
custom, 45 which his enemies imputed to pride, contributed, at
least, to nourish the infirmity of a morose and unsocial humor.
Separated from that familiar intercourse, which facilitates the
knowledge and the despatch of business, he reposed an
unsuspecting confidence in his deacon Serapion; and seldom
applied his speculative knowledge of human nature to the
particular character, either of his dependants, or of his equals.

Conscious of the purity of his intentions, and perhaps of the
superiority of his genius, the archbishop of Constantinople
extended the jurisdiction of the Imperial city, that he might
enlarge the sphere of his pastoral labors; and the conduct which
the profane imputed to an ambitious motive, appeared to
Chrysostom himself in the light of a sacred and indispensable
duty. In his visitation through the Asiatic provinces, he deposed
thirteen bishops of Lydia and Phrygia; and indiscreetly declared
that a deep corruption of simony and licentiousness had infected
the whole episcopal order. 46 If those bishops were innocent,
such a rash and unjust condemnation must excite a well-grounded
discontent. If they were guilty, the numerous associates of their
guilt would soon discover that their own safety depended on the
ruin of the archbishop; whom they studied to represent as the
tyrant of the Eastern church.

43 (return) [ The females of Constantinople distinguished
themselves by their enmity or their attachment to Chrysostom.
Three noble and opulent widows, Marsa, Castricia, and Eugraphia,
were the leaders of the persecution, (Pallad. Dialog. tom. xiii.
p. 14.) It was impossible that they should forgive a preacher who
reproached their affectation to conceal, by the ornaments of
dress, their age and ugliness, (Pallad p. 27.) Olympias, by equal
zeal, displayed in a more pious cause, has obtained the title of
saint. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xi p. 416-440.]

44 (return) [ Sozomen, and more especially Socrates, have defined
the real character of Chrysostom with a temperate and impartial
freedom, very offensive to his blind admirers. Those historians
lived in the next generation, when party violence was abated, and
had conversed with many persons intimately acquainted with the
virtues and imperfections of the saint.]

45 (return) [ Palladius (tom. xiii. p. 40, &c.) very seriously
defends the archbishop 1. He never tasted wine. 2. The weakness
of his stomach required a peculiar diet. 3. Business, or study,
or devotion, often kept him fasting till sunset. 4. He detested
the noise and levity of great dinners. 5. He saved the expense
for the use of the poor. 6. He was apprehensive, in a capital
like Constantinople, of the envy and reproach of partial
invitations.]

46 (return) [ Chrysostom declares his free opinion (tom. ix. hom.
iii in Act. Apostol. p. 29) that the number of bishops, who might
be saved, bore a very small proportion to those who would be
damned.]

This ecclesiastical conspiracy was managed by Theophilus, 47
archbishop of Alexandria, an active and ambitious prelate, who
displayed the fruits of rapine in monuments of ostentation. His
national dislike to the rising greatness of a city which degraded
him from the second to the third rank in the Christian world, was
exasperated by some personal dispute with Chrysostom himself. 48
By the private invitation of the empress, Theophilus landed at
Constantinople with a stou body of Egyptian mariners, to
encounter the populace; and a train of dependent bishops, to
secure, by their voices, the majority of a synod. The synod 49
was convened in the suburb of Chalcedon, surnamed the Oak, where
Rufinus had erected a stately church and monastery; and their
proceedings were continued during fourteen days, or sessions. A
bishop and a deacon accused the archbishop of Constantinople; but
the frivolous or improbable nature of the forty-seven articles
which they presented against him, may justly be considered as a
fair and unexceptional panegyric. Four successive summons were
signified to Chrysostom; but he still refused to trust either his
person or his reputation in the hands of his implacable enemies,
who, prudently declining the examination of any particular
charges, condemned his contumacious disobedience, and hastily
pronounced a sentence of deposition. The synod of the Oak
immediately addressed the emperor to ratify and execute their
judgment, and charitably insinuated, that the penalties of
treason might be inflicted on the audacious preacher, who had
reviled, under the name of Jezebel, the empress Eudoxia herself.
The archbishop was rudely arrested, and conducted through the
city, by one of the Imperial messengers, who landed him, after a
short navigation, near the entrance of the Euxine; from whence,
before the expiration of two days, he was gloriously recalled.

47 (return) [ See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xi. p. 441-500.]

48 (return) [ I have purposely omitted the controversy which
arose among the monks of Egypt, concerning Origenism and
Anthropomorphism; the dissimulation and violence of Theophilus;
his artful management of the simplicity of Epiphanius; the
persecution and flight of the long, or tall, brothers; the
ambiguous support which they received at Constantinople from
Chrysostom, &c. &c.]

49 (return) [ Photius (p. 53-60) has preserved the original acts
of the synod of the Oak; which destroys the false assertion, that
Chrysostom was condemned by no more than thirty-six bishops, of
whom twenty-nine were Egyptians. Forty-five bishops subscribed
his sentence. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xi. p. 595. *
Note: Tillemont argues strongly for the number of thirty-six—M]

The first astonishment of his faithful people had been mute and
passive: they suddenly rose with unanimous and irresistible fury.
Theophilus escaped, but the promiscuous crowd of monks and
Egyptian mariners was slaughtered without pity in the streets of
Constantinople. 50 A seasonable earthquake justified the
interposition of Heaven; the torrent of sedition rolled forwards
to the gates of the palace; and the empress, agitated by fear or
remorse, threw herself at the feet of Arcadius, and confessed
that the public safety could be purchased only by the restoration
of Chrysostom. The Bosphorus was covered with innumerable
vessels; the shores of Europe and Asia were profusely
illuminated; and the acclamations of a victorious people
accompanied, from the port to the cathedral, the triumph of the
archbishop; who, too easily, consented to resume the exercise of
his functions, before his sentence had been legally reversed by
the authority of an ecclesiastical synod. Ignorant, or careless,
of the impending danger, Chrysostom indulged his zeal, or perhaps
his resentment; declaimed with peculiar asperity against female
vices; and condemned the profane honors which were addressed,
almost in the precincts of St. Sophia, to the statue of the
empress. His imprudence tempted his enemies to inflame the
haughty spirit of Eudoxia, by reporting, or perhaps inventing,
the famous exordium of a sermon, “Herodias is again furious;
Herodias again dances; she once more requires the head of John;”
an insolent allusion, which, as a woman and a sovereign, it was
impossible for her to forgive. 51 The short interval of a
perfidious truce was employed to concert more effectual measures
for the disgrace and ruin of the archbishop. A numerous council
of the Eastern prelates, who were guided from a distance by the
advice of Theophilus, confirmed the validity, without examining
the justice, of the former sentence; and a detachment of
Barbarian troops was introduced into the city, to suppress the
emotions of the people. On the vigil of Easter, the solemn
administration of baptism was rudely interrupted by the soldiers,
who alarmed the modesty of the naked catechumens, and violated,
by their presence, the awful mysteries of the Christian worship.
Arsacius occupied the church of St. Sophia, and the
archiepiscopal throne. The Catholics retreated to the baths of
Constantine, and afterwards to the fields; where they were still
pursued and insulted by the guards, the bishops, and the
magistrates. The fatal day of the second and final exile of
Chrysostom was marked by the conflagration of the cathedral, of
the senate-house, and of the adjacent buildings; and this
calamity was imputed, without proof, but not without probability,
to the despair of a persecuted faction. 52

50 (return) [ Palladius owns (p. 30) that if the people of
Constantinople had found Theophilus, they would certainly have
thrown him into the sea. Socrates mentions (l. vi. c. 17) a
battle between the mob and the sailors of Alexandria, in which
many wounds were given, and some lives were lost. The massacre of
the monks is observed only by the Pagan Zosimus, (l. v. p. 324,)
who acknowledges that Chrysostom had a singular talent to lead
the illiterate multitude.]

51 (return) [ See Socrates, l. vi. c. 18. Sozomen, l. viii. c.
20. Zosimus (l. v. p 324, 327) mentions, in general terms, his
invectives against Eudoxia. The homily, which begins with those
famous words, is rejected as spurious. Montfaucon, tom. xiii. p.
151. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom xi. p. 603.]

52 (return) [ We might naturally expect such a charge from
Zosimus, (l. v. p. 327;) but it is remarkable enough, that it
should be confirmed by Socrates, (l. vi. c. 18,) and the Paschal
Chronicle, (p. 307.)]

Cicero might claim some merit, if his voluntary banishment
preserved the peace of the republic; 53 but the submission of
Chrysostom was the indispensable duty of a Christian and a
subject. Instead of listening to his humble prayer, that he might
be permitted to reside at Cyzicus, or Nicomedia, the inflexible
empress assigned for his exile the remote and desolate town of
Cucusus, among the ridges of Mount Taurus, in the Lesser Armenia.
A secret hope was entertained, that the archbishop might perish
in a difficult and dangerous march of seventy days, in the heat
of summer, through the provinces of Asia Minor, where he was
continually threatened by the hostile attacks of the Isaurians,
and the more implacable fury of the monks. Yet Chrysostom arrived
in safety at the place of his confinement; and the three years
which he spent at Cucusus, and the neighboring town of Arabissus,
were the last and most glorious of his life. His character was
consecrated by absence and persecution; the faults of his
administration were no longer remembered; but every tongue
repeated the praises of his genius and virtue: and the respectful
attention of the Christian world was fixed on a desert spot among
the mountains of Taurus. From that solitude the archbishop, whose
active mind was invigorated by misfortunes, maintained a strict
and frequent correspondence 54 with the most distant provinces;
exhorted the separate congregation of his faithful adherents to
persevere in their allegiance; urged the destruction of the
temples of Phoenicia, and the extirpation of heresy in the Isle
of Cyprus; extended his pastoral care to the missions of Persia
and Scythia; negotiated, by his ambassadors, with the Roman
pontiff and the emperor Honorius; and boldly appealed, from a
partial synod, to the supreme tribunal of a free and general
council. The mind of the illustrious exile was still independent;
but his captive body was exposed to the revenge of the
oppressors, who continued to abuse the name and authority of
Arcadius. 55 An order was despatched for the instant removal of
Chrysostom to the extreme desert of Pityus: and his guards so
faithfully obeyed their cruel instructions, that, before he
reached the sea-coast of the Euxine, he expired at Comana, in
Pontus, in the sixtieth year of his age. The succeeding
generation acknowledged his innocence and merit. The archbishops
of the East, who might blush that their predecessors had been the
enemies of Chrysostom, were gradually disposed, by the firmness
of the Roman pontiff, to restore the honors of that venerable
name. 56 At the pious solicitation of the clergy and people of
Constantinople, his relics, thirty years after his death, were
transported from their obscure sepulchre to the royal city. 57
The emperor Theodosius advanced to receive them as far as
Chalcedon; and, falling prostrate on the coffin, implored, in the
name of his guilty parents, Arcadius and Eudoxia, the forgiveness
of the injured saint. 58

53 (return) [ He displays those specious motives (Post Reditum,
c. 13, 14) in the language of an orator and a politician.]

54 (return) [ Two hundred and forty-two of the epistles of
Chrysostom are still extant, (Opera, tom. iii. p. 528-736.) They
are addressed to a great variety of persons, and show a firmness
of mind much superior to that of Cicero in his exile. The
fourteenth epistle contains a curious narrative of the dangers of
his journey.]

55 (return) [ After the exile of Chrysostom, Theophilus published
an enormous and horrible volume against him, in which he
perpetually repeats the polite expressions of hostem humanitatis,
sacrilegorum principem, immundum daemonem; he affirms, that John
Chrysostom had delivered his soul to be adulterated by the devil;
and wishes that some further punishment, adequate (if possible)
to the magnitude of his crimes, may be inflicted on him. St.
Jerom, at the request of his friend Theophilus, translated this
edifying performance from Greek into Latin. See Facundus Hermian.
Defens. pro iii. Capitul. l. vi. c. 5 published by Sirmond.
Opera, tom. ii. p. 595, 596, 597.]

56 (return) [ His name was inserted by his successor Atticus in
the Dyptics of the church of Constantinople, A.D. 418. Ten years
afterwards he was revered as a saint. Cyril, who inherited the
place, and the passions, of his uncle Theophilus, yielded with
much reluctance. See Facund. Hermian. l. 4, c. 1. Tillemont, Mem.
Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 277-283.]

57 (return) [ Socrates, l. vii. c. 45. Theodoret, l. v. c. 36.
This event reconciled the Joannites, who had hitherto refused to
acknowledge his successors. During his lifetime, the Joannites
were respected, by the Catholics, as the true and orthodox
communion of Constantinople. Their obstinacy gradually drove them
to the brink of schism.]

58 (return) [ According to some accounts, (Baronius, Annal.
Eccles. A.D. 438 No. 9, 10,) the emperor was forced to send a
letter of invitation and excuses, before the body of the
ceremonious saint could be moved from Comana.]