Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/575

 CHRYSOSTOM 563 ther, mother, brothers, and children ; you are all the world to me. I know no joy, no sor- row, which is not yours." This popularity constituted one great source of his power, and he used it in his vain attempt at reform both in court and church. Eutropius, who had been mainly instrumental in his elevation, did not find favor with the archbishop, who de- nounced his tyranny and the corruption which he encouraged in every branch of the adminis- tration. He retaliated by having a law passed which repealed or abridged ecclesiastical im- munities, and in particular limited the right of asylum granted to churches. John inveigh- ed against the extravagance and licentiousness of the court. Arcadius dreaded the remon- strances which tended to rouse him from his unmanly love of ease, and the empress Eu- doxia hated the man who dared to reprove openly her illicit amours. The courtiers and ministers of state shared their master's en- mity, and only waited for an opportunity to make the archbishop feel the weight of their resentment. Eutropius fell into disgrace and fled for his life to the church of St. Sophia, where Chrysostom gave him a shelter, and pro- tscted him against the united rage of the cour- tiers, the military, and the populace. But it was only for a time. Eutropius was induced to leave his asylum, and perished by the hands of Eudoxia's satellites. She now ruled with absolute sway both the emperor and the em- pire. Her avarice was equal to her ambition, and she went so far as to take open possession of a vineyard which the owner would neither sell nor give up to her. Chrysostom denounced her from the pulpit as a second Jezebel. This brought matters to a crisis. Theophilus, bish- op of Alexandria, who had himself aspired to the succession of Nectarius, found new matter of complaint as well as of hatred against Chry- sostom in the toleration which the latter ex- tended to some monks expelled from Egypt and excommunicated on account of their at- tachment to Origen and his doctrines. This caused the accusation of heresy to be made against the archbishop, although at that time no council had condemned the opinions attrib- uted to Origen. Chrysostom summoned before himself every member of his clergy in order to examine into the scandalous reports about their relations with deaconesses and other women. He reformed or rebuked wherever he found just cause; and thus there was wide-spread discontent among the clergy. It had been re- ported to him that the episcopal office was bought and sold in the provinces dependent on his patriarchate. In the midst of winter he set out, visiting every diocese, and before he returned to Constantinople deposed 13 bishops convicted of simony and immorality. He even extended his visitation into provinces which owed him no obedience, and there exercised the same rigor against the guilty. This raised a great outcry against him, and gave the advan- tage to his enemies. Eudoxia and Theophilus joined hands ; and in 403 a council of 36 bish- ops assembled at Chalcedon, a suburb of Con- stantinople. There Chrysostom was accused, among other crimes, of pride, oppression of the clergy, inhospitality, avarice, gluttony, undue familiarity with women, and high treason. He refused to appear before his self-constituted judges until their president, Theophilus, and three other bishops, his declared enemies, had been excluded. Meanwhile he continued to give his usual homilies in the cathedral, and the people watched unceasingly his coming and going lest any evil should befall him. He waa found guilty and deposed from his see, and a new bishop was appointed by the council and approved by the emperor. At length his house was surrounded in the night by soldiers, and himself borne off into exile at Nicsea. The people on hearing this rose and besieged the imperial palace, demanding his instant re- call. An earthquake happened at this very moment, and seemed even to Eudoxia a mani- fest sign of the divine displeasure. She rushed into the presence of Arcadius and besought him to lose not one moment in bringing back the exiled archbishop. But his return did not cause the court to mend its morals, nor the city to lay aside its love of the most costly pleasures. The connection of the empress with the count John was now a subject of comment in every household, while the courtiers tried to cloak over the scandal by showing new honor to Eudoxia, and she endeavored to divert the attention of the populace by inventing for them new games in the circus. The erection of a silver statue to her in the square adjoining the church of St. Sophia was made the occasion of the most extravagant festivities, at a time when the people were suffering from want. The archbishop publicly reproved the people , for their love of dissipation, and as openly blamed those whose vanity had caused this display. The empress took mortal offence, and threatened a second exile. The courtiers, too, replied to the archbishop's denunciation by inaugurating a new feast, in which the honors paid to the statue verged on idolatry. Chrysostom was not to be intimidated. On appearing in the pulpit, he alluded in his com- mentary on the gospel to Herodias dancing, and demanding as a reward the head of John. The allusion was too transparent. This time the court resolved to take no half-way mea- sures. A second assembly of bishops was summoned, more numerous than the first ; and, although 42 among the number were faithful to Chrysostom, he was condemned. In 404, six years after he had been forcibly borne off from his native Antioch to assume the spiritual government of the capital, when every appeal to the Eoman pontiff had only increased the rage of his enemies, and the efforts made to assemble a full council had proved abortive, he was compelled to set out for a second exile. Feeble in body, but unbroken in spirit, the high-souled old man traversed Asia Minor, and