Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 1.djvu/722

Rh 701- CHRYSOSTOMUS. Chrj-sostom ascended the pulpit, and by his elo- quence saved his life for the time, though it was aftervf ards sacrificed to the hatred of his enemies. The sermons of the archbishop soon gave great offence at Constantinople. The tone of his theology- was always rather of a practical than a doctrinal kind, and his strong sense of the power of the hu- man will increased his indignation at the immora- lity of the capital. He was undoubtedly rash and violent in his proceedings, and the declamatory character of his preaching was exactly adapted to express the stem morality of his thoughts. He was also disliked for the simplicity of his mode of living, and the manner in which he diverted the revenues of his see from the luxuries in which his predecessors had consumed them, to himiane and charitable objects. Many of the worldly-minded monks and clergy, as well as the ministers and ladies of the court, became his enemies, and at their head appeared the empress Eudoxia herself, who held her husband^'s weak mind in absolute subjection. His unpopularity was spread still more widely in consequence of a visitation which he held in Asia Minor, two years after his consecration, in which he accused several bishops of simony and other gross crimes, and deposed thirteen of them. (Comp. Horn. iii. in Act. Apost.) Meanwhile, a contest had arisen in Egypt between Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria, and certain monks of Ni- tria, who followed the opinions of Origen. At their head were four of one family, known as the Tall Brothers {aZiktpoi /MKpol), against whom Theophilus seems to have been prejudiced by a strictly private quarrel. (Palladius, ap. Chrysost. ed. Montfauc. vol. xiii.) He excommunicated them, ^nd they fled to Constantinople, where they sought the protection of Chrysostom and of the €mpress. A long dispute followed, in the course of which Theophilus, by artfully working on the simplicity of Epiphanius, bishop of Cyprus, and other prelates hostile to the opinions of Origen, prejudiced them against Chrysostom as implicated in the charge of heresy with which those views had recently been branded by a synod. Eudoxia, who had summoned Theophilus to Constantinople to answer the charge of persecuting the Nitrian monks, became his warm friend when she saw in him her instrument for the destruction of Chrysostom ; and he arrived at the capital of the East not as an ac- cused person, but as the judge of its archbishop. But the same causes which had brought on Chry- sostom the hatred of the higher orders had made him the idol of the people ; and as it was thought unsafe to hold a synod against him within the city, it was summoned to meet on an estate at Chalcedon, called the oak, whence it is known by the name of avvoZos npos ri]v Spvu. The accusations against him were various ; his inhospitality was especially put forward {on rrjv (piXo^evtav deeret, pLovomriav iiriT-qdeijuv^ on fiovos eaOiei, daurcus ^wv KvkXcSvqjv fiiSu, Phot. Cod. 59), and the charge of Origenism was used to blind the better part of the assembly. Before this council Chrysostom steadily refused to appear, until four bishops, noto- riously his enemies, were removed from it, who are called by Isidore of Pelusiura (i. 152) crvvepyoi v udWou auvaTToffraTcu with Theophilus. He was therefore deposed for contumacy, forty-five bishops subscribing his sentence, to which was added a hint to the emperor, that his sermons against lludoxia subjected him to the penalties of treason. CHRYSOSTOMUS. At first he refused to desert the flock which God had entrusted to him ; but, on hearing that there was a danger of an insurrection in his favour, ho retired from Constantinople, to which he was re- called in a few daj'^s by a hasty message from tlie empress, whose superstitious fears were alarmed by an earthquake, which the enraged people con- sidered as a proof of the divine anger at his banish- ment. But in two months after his return he was again an exile. The festivities attending the dedi- cation of a silver statue of Eudoxia near the cathe- dral had disturbed the worshippers, and provoked an angry sermon from the archbishop, who, on hearing that this had excited anew the enmitj'^ of the empress, began another sermon with this exor- dium : — "Herodias again rages, once more she dances, she again requires the head of John." This offence Eudoxia could not forgive. A new synod of Eastern bishops, guided by the advice of Theo- philus, condemned Chrysostom for resuming his functions before his previous sentence had been legally reversed, and he was hastily conveyed to the desolate town of Cucusus, on the borders of Isauria, Cilicia, and Armenia. Chrysostom 's character shone even more brightly in adversity than it had done in power. In spite of the inclement climate to which he was banished, and continual danger from the neighbourhood of Isaurian robbers, he sent letters full of encourage- ment and Christian faith to his friends at Constan- tinople, and began to construct a scheme for spread- ing the gospel among the Persians and Goths. He met with much sympathy from otlier churches, especially the Roman, whose bishop. Innocent, de- clared himself his warm friend and supporter. All this excited jealousy at Constantinople, and in the summer of a. d. 407 an order came for his removal to Pityus, in Pontus, at the very extremity of the East-Roman empire. But the fatigues of his jour- ney, which was performed on foot under a burning sun, were too much for him, and he died at Cornana in Pontus, in the 60th year of his age. His last words were those of Job, — 5o|a tu 06^ irduTuu evcKet/, and formed a worthy conclusion of a life spent in God's service. His exile nearly caused a schism at Constantinople, where a party, named after him Johannists, separated from the church, and refused to acknowledge his successors. They did not return to the general communion till a. d. 438, when the archbishop Proclus prevailed on the emperor Theodosius II. to bring back the bones of Chrysostom to Constantinople, where they were received with the highest honours, the emperor himself publicly imploring the forgiveness of heaven for the crime of his parents, Arcadius and Eudoxia. Chrysostom, as we learn from his biographers, was short, with a large bald head, high forehead, hollow cheeks, and sunken eyes. The Greek church cele- brates his festival Nov. 1 3, the Latin, Jan. 27- The works of Chrysostom are most voluminous. They consist of: 1. Homilies on different parts of Scripture and points of doctrine and practice. 2. Commentaries, by which, as we learn from Sui- das, he had illustrated the whole of the Bible, though some of them afterwards perished in a fire at Constantinople. 3. Epistles addressed to a great number of different persons. 4. Treatises on va- rious subjects, e. g. the Priesthood (six books), Providence (three books), &c. 5. Liturgies. Of the homilies, those on St. Paul are superior to any- thing in ancient theology-, and Thomas Aquinas