Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/400

 380 THE DECLINE AND FALL A secret hope was entertained that the archbishop might perish in a difficult and dangerous mai'ch 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 Chrj'sostom arrived in safety at the place of his confinement ; and the three years which he spent at Cucusus and the neighbouring town of Arabissus were the last and most glorious of his life. His char- acter 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 ^* 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.^^ An order was dispatched for the in- stant removal of Chrysostom to the extreme desert of Pityus : and his guards so faithfully obeyed their cruel instructions that. His death, before he reached the sea-coast of the Euxine, he expired at September 14 Comana, in Pontus, in the sixtieth year of his age. The succeed- ing generation acknowledged his innocence and merit. The arch- bishops of the East, who might blush that their predecessors 5^ Two hundred and forty-two of the epistles of Chrysostom are still extant (Opera, torn. 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. 65 After the e.xile of Chrysostom, Theophilus published an enormous z.x. hor- rible 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 farther punishment, adequate (if possible) to the magnitude of his crimes, may be inflicted on him. St. Jerom, at the report of his friend Theophilus, translated this edifying performance from Greek into Latin. See Facundus Hcrmian. Defens. pro iii. Capitul. L vi. c. 5, published by Sirmond, Opera, torn. ii. p. 595, 596, 597.