CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH LED TO THE INTERFERENCE OF THEOPHILUS
WITH THE AFFAIRS OF CHRYSOSTOM—CONTROVERSY ABOUT THE
WRITINGS OF ORIGEN—PERSECUTION BY THEOPHILUS OF THE MONKS
CALLED “THE TALL BRETHREN”—THEIR FLIGHT TO PALESTINE—TO
CONSTANTINOPLE—THEIR RECEPTION BY CHRYSOSTOM—THEOPHILUS
SUMMONED TO CONSTANTINOPLE. A.D. 395-403.
In tracing to its starting-point the interference of Theophilus with
the affairs of Chrysostom, we have to unravel a curious and tangled
skein of controversy. The doctrines of Origen were as much an occasion
of strife a hundred and fifty years after his death, as he himself
had been during his life. With one hand holding on to the philosophy
of the past, and with the other firmly grasping the Christianity
of the present, he was persecuted by Pagans, yet never universally
accepted and cordially trusted by the Church.[529] So with his system
of doctrine; it became a sort of debatable ground for the possession
of which contending parties strove. The prize was worth the struggle;
for the genius of Origen could not be questioned, but the quantity
of his writings being enormous,[530] and the range of his doctrine
wide and many-sided, narrow-minded partisans, grasping only a part
of it, condemned or extolled him unfairly on a single issue. The
mystical element in his teaching was carried by some of his admirers
to extremes of fanciful, allegorical, interpretation of Scripture,
such as he himself would never have devised or approved. To others of
a more prosaic, material cast of thought this same mystical vein was
repugnant, and was denounced by them with characteristic coarseness.
Men of larger minds, who had patience to peruse his voluminous works,
and ability to criticise them, admired his genius, recognised his great
services to Christianity, heartily embraced much of his teaching,
questioned some portions, and rejected others. Such were Gregory
Nazianzenus, Basil, Chrysostom, and Jerome, who would never have been
so great as writers, or commentators, had they not been students of
Origen. As a general statement, it may be true to say that he was less
acceptable to the colder, more practical, more realistic mind of the
Western Church, than to the lively imagination and speculative spirit
of Oriental churchmen. The most controverted points, indeed, in his
system were of a kind with which the Western mind did not naturally
concern itself. The pre-existence of souls; their entrance into human
bodies after the fall as the punishment of sin; their emancipation from
the flesh in the resurrection; the ultimate salvation of all spirits,
including Satan himself,—these are questions singularly congenial to
Oriental, singularly alien from Western, thought. The Origenistic
controversy fell into abeyance before the engrossing interest and
importance of the Arian contest; but when that wave had spent itself,
it revived, and just at this period all the greatest names of the day
became engaged on one side or the other. As usual, the real questions
at issue were too often forgotten amidst the personal jealousies,
intrigues, angry recriminations to which the discussion of them gave
birth.
In spite of his doubtful orthodoxy, the Egyptian Church could not fail
to be proud of so distinguished a son as Origen, and Theophilus was at
first his earnest defender. Some of the more illiterate Egyptian monks
had recoiled from Origen’s highly spiritual conception of the Deity
into an opposite extreme. Interpreting literally those passages of
Scripture where God is spoken of as if possessing human emotions and
corporeal parts, they altogether humanised His nature; they conceived
of Him as a Being _not_ “without body, parts, or passions;” they
obtained, in consequence, the designation of “Anthropomorphites.”
Against this humanising, material conception Theophilus, in a paschal
letter, directed argument and proof.[531] It was received by many of
the monks with dismay, sorrow, and resistance. Serapion, one of the
most aged, burst into tears when informed that the mind of the Eastern
Church concurred, on the whole, with the doctrine of Theophilus, and
exclaimed, “My God is taken away, and I know not what to worship.”[532]
Rufinus, a monk of Aquileia, and for a time the ardent friend of
Jerome, was, during a visit to Egypt, initiated by Theophilus into the
doctrines of Origen, conceived a warm admiration for them, extolled
him as the light of the Gospel next to the Apostles, and imparted
some of his own enthusiasm to John, bishop of Jerusalem, whom he soon
afterwards visited. Jerome fully appreciated the merits of Origen,
though his larger mind and more extensive knowledge were not blind to
his defects.
Such were the amicable relations between the leading churchmen of the
East in A.D. 395, when a visitor from the West threw among them the
apple of discord. This was Aterbius, a pilgrim, who had a reputation
as a subtle theologian, and appears, immediately on his arrival in
Jerusalem, to have applied himself to the business of detecting heresy.
He entered into friendly intercourse for a short time with the bishop
and Rufinus, and then suddenly included Jerome with them both in a
public denunciation as Origenists, and declared the whole diocese
of Jerusalem to be infected with that heresy. Jerome immediately
and indignantly repudiated the charge; he declared that he was not
an Origenist, for that he merely read the works of Origen with
reservations, as he might those of a heretic.[533] Rufinus would not
condescend to make any defence, oral or written, but shut himself up
in his cloister in sullen silence till Aterbius had quitted Jerusalem,
fearing, so Jerome affirms, to condemn what he really approved, or
to incur the reproach of heresy by an open resistance.[534] John of
Jerusalem was equally indignant at the accusation, but displeased with
Jerome for publicly exculpating himself independently of his bishop.
In fact, the episcopal pride of the Bishop of Jerusalem was severely
wounded at this time, both by the pre-eminence of the metropolitan
see of Cæsarea,[535] and by the reputation of Jerome’s monastic
establishment at Bethlehem, which attracted visitors from all parts of
Christendom.
When the minds of all were thus ruffled, a second and far more
mischievous visitor arrived in the person of Epiphanius, the
octogenarian Bishop of Constantia, Metropolitan of Cyprus. He was
one of those men who, joining some erudition and a high reputation
for rigid orthodoxy to a narrow mind and impulsive temper, figure
prominently in theological warfare as the very personifications of
discord. Shocked at the intelligence of the heretical tendency in
Palestine, and vexed that it should have been detected by a stranger
rather than by himself, who was a native of Palestine, and the visitor
of a monastery between Jerusalem and Hebron, he lost not a moment in
setting out for the Holy City. He accepted the hospitality of the
Bishop John, and spent the evening in all amity with him, nor was the
obnoxious subject of dispute mentioned between them.[536]
A strange scene took place on the following day.
In the church of the Holy Sepulchre, in the presence of a large
congregation, Epiphanius fulminated a discourse against Origen, his
doctrines, and all who favoured them. Bishop John and his clergy
expressed their contempt by grimaces, sneers, and impatient scratchings
of their heads. At last an archdeacon stepped forward, and required
Epiphanius, in the name of the bishop, to desist from his discourse.
The assembly was dissolved, but met again in the afternoon, largely
augmented, in the church of the Holy Cross. This time Bishop John
discoursed, and denounced the Anthropomorphites, or Humanisers, under
which opprobrious name the partisans of Origen endeavoured to include
all their opponents. Pale and trembling, and in a voice quivering
with passion, the bishop directed his discourse, and turned his body,
towards Epiphanius, who sat motionless in his chair. The invective
being concluded, the aged Bishop of Constantia rose and pronounced
these words with solemn deliberation: “All that John, my brother in
the priesthood, my son in age, has just said against the heresy of
the Anthropomorphites I thoroughly approve; and as we both condemn
that absurd belief, it is only just that we should both denounce the
errors of Origen.”[537] A general laugh and acclamation on the part
of the assembly proclaimed their sense of this speech as a successful
hit. John made one more effort to right himself. He preached again in
the church of the Holy Cross, this time on the chief verities of the
faith, the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Atonement, the condition of
souls before and after this life. It was intended to be a grand and
convincing display of his orthodoxy, and at the moment Epiphanius
expressed even approbation. On subsequent reflection, however, the aged
critic thought he discovered that it teemed with error. He abruptly
quitted Jerusalem, repaired to Bethlehem, resisted the solicitation
of Jerome and his friends to be reconciled, and addressed a circular
letter to all the monasteries of Palestine, requiring them to break off
communion with the Bishop of Jerusalem.
Rufinus ranged himself immediately on the side of Bishop John; but
Jerome, though with somewhat balanced feelings, sided on the whole with
Epiphanius. Then the pent-up jealousy of John towards the monasteries
of Bethlehem burst forth; they were placed under interdict, and the
church of the Holy Manger closed against them. They were in despair
for want of a priest to celebrate the Eucharist; but Epiphanius
provided one through a forcible ordination. The young Paulinian had
always steadfastly declined holy orders, though considered eminently
qualified by his learning and virtue. He was now on a visit to the
monastery of Epiphanius, near Eleutheropolis. When Epiphanius was
celebrating the Eucharist, the young man was seized by the deacons,
dragged to the steps of the altar, and there made to kneel. Epiphanius
approached, cut off some of his hair, ordained him deacon, and
obliged him to assist in the celebration on the spot. At a fresh sign
from the bishop he was a second time seized, gagged to prevent his
adjuring the bishop in the name of Jesus Christ, and when he rose
from his knees he was declared to be a priest.[538] The joy which
filled the monasteries of Bethlehem was only to be equalled by the
indignation of their opponents at Jerusalem. John actually applied
(not without money, it is said) to Rufinus at Constantinople, then
Prætorian Prefect, and even procured a decree of banishment against
Jerome;[539] but, the murder of Rufinus taking place soon afterwards,
the governor of Cæsarea evaded the execution of the decree. Jerome
retaliated by one of those fierce, nervous philippics which exhibit
more command of language than of temper. The governor of Palestine made
a praiseworthy but ineffectual effort to bring about a reconciliation.
John had determined to invite an arbitrator, from whom he expected
a strong partiality for his own cause. He appealed to Theophilus,
from whom Rufinus, the monk, had derived his first acquaintance with
Origen. Jerome indignantly complained of this invocation of a foreign
jurisdiction. Was not Cæsarea the metropolitan see of Palestine? why
this contempt of ecclesiastical law?[540] Theophilus, however, had no
scruples in accepting the appeal. It was just one of those recognitions
of pre-eminence which the Patriarch of Alexandria, like the Bishops of
Rome, joyfully welcomed. The gratification of ambition was pleasantly
disguised from others, and perhaps from themselves, under the semblance
of peacemaking. Theophilus despatched Isidore as his legate to
Palestine. His arrival was preceded by two letters, one intended for
the Bishop of Jerusalem, the other for Vincentius, the presbyter and
friend of Jerome at Bethlehem.
Unfortunately the letter intended for the bishop was delivered to
Vincentius, and he and Jerome read with indignation assurances of
sympathy and friendship towards John, and expressions of contempt
for Jerome and his party, the language, in short, of an accomplice
rather than of an arbitrator. It set forth in flowery oriental terms
the confidence of the legate in the success of his mission; “as smoke
disperses in the air, as wax melts before the fire, so will these
enemies, who always resist the faith, and seek to disturb it now,
by means of simple ignorant men be dispersed on my arrival.”[541]
The legate took up his abode at Jerusalem, and spent his time in
familiar intercourse with the bishop and Rufinus. To Bethlehem he
paid occasional visits, where he conducted himself with dictatorial
haughtiness. Jerome and the monks plainly perceived that the so-called
arbitrator was committed to one side—which was not theirs.
But on a sudden, in A.D. 398, the Patriarch wheeled round; he
discovered that he had been in error. “The writings of Origen were
fraught with danger to the unlearned, however profitable to philosophic
minds.” Such was the reason alleged for this sudden revulsion of
opinion. The real reasons appear to have been of a less calm and
philosophic character. One of the most distinguished presbyters in
Alexandria at this time was Isidore, an octogenarian. His youth
had been spent in pious seclusion, among the monks of Scetis and
Nitria, and his piety had attracted the notice of Athanasius, whom he
accompanied to Rome in A.D. 341, and by whom he was afterwards ordained
priest. He became the Hospitaller of the Church in Alexandria, whose
duty it was to attend to the reception of Christian visitors. In spite
of great personal austerity, he was, as became his position, gentle
and amiable to all men, even Pagans, when brought into contact with
them. In A.D. 398, at the age of eighty, he had been employed to carry
to Rome the recognition by Theophilus of Flavian as bishop of Antioch;
and now, in the extremity of age, he was destined to become the first
victim of a persecution by Theophilus, which, beginning with him,
culminated in the deposition and exile of Chrysostom.[542]
An opulent widow committed to Isidore a large sum of money to be
expended on clothing for the poor of Alexandria, and adjured him by a
solemn oath to conceal the trust from Theophilus, lest the Patriarch’s
well-known cupidity should be tempted to appropriate the money to
aid his grand operations in building. The precaution, however, was
vain: nothing said or done in his diocese could escape the vigilance
of informers in the employ of Theophilus. Isidore was questioned
by the Patriarch concerning the charitable gift, and required to
place the money at his disposal; but the hospitaller refused, and
boldly maintained that it would be better bestowed on the bodies
of the sick and poor, which were the temples of God, than on the
erection of buildings. The Patriarch was astounded at the temerity
of his disobedience, but dissembled for the moment the depth of his
resentment. Two months later, in a convocation of the clergy, he
produced a paper containing the charge of a horrible and unmentionable
crime against Isidore, which the Patriarch said he had received
eighteen years ago, but had been unable to prove from the absence of
the principal witness. The whole charge turned out to be a baseless
fabrication; but Isidore was ejected from the priesthood by the
contrivance of Theophilus.[543]
The aged hospitaller fled to the peaceful retreat of his earlier
days, the desert of Nitria. The most distinguished of the monks in
this seclusion were four brothers—Ammon, Dioscorus, Eusebius, and
Euthymius—eminent alike for their piety and the height of their
stature, whence they were known by the name of the “tall brethren.”
They were venerated as the fathers of the Nitrian monks. Theophilus
had in former times professed the highest admiration and respect for
their virtues. He had made the eldest, Dioscorus, bishop of Hermopolis,
and had persuaded, if not compelled, Eusebius and Euthymius, much
against their will, to be presbyters in Alexandria.[544] Their simple
piety was so much shocked by the avarice and other failings of the
Patriarch, that they implored him to release them from clerical
duties and restore them to the freedom of the desert. When Theophilus
discovered their real reason for requesting this permission he was
furious, and tried to intimidate them into submission by fierce
menaces, but in vain. They withdrew, and for a time the Patriarch was
at a loss how to execute vengeance on men who had few possessions of
any kind to be deprived of. But now the opportunity arrived. Isidore,
the excommunicated hospitaller, had been sheltered in their friendly
retreat. Theophilus devised a malignant plan for disturbing their
peace. The “tall brethren” belonged to that more mystical order of
monks which embraced Origen’s doctrine of a purely spiritual Deity, and
were determined adversaries of the more sensuous and anthropomorphite
school. Theophilus now scrupled not to declare himself in favour of
the Anthropomorphites, whom he had formerly denounced. He encouraged
the more coarse and ignorant to make violent and tumultuous assaults
on the monastic retreat of Nitria, and, directed the bishops of the
neighbourhood to eject several of the most distinguished monks,
including Ammon. They repaired to Alexandria, sought an interview
with Theophilus, requested to hear the cause of their ejection, and
remonstrated on the treatment of Isidore. Theophilus burst into a
violent rage, changed colour at every moment, glared on them with
bloodshot eyes, dealt blows to Ammon on his face, and, while the blood
trickled down, shouted, “Heretic, anathematise Origen.” One of the
number was put in prison to intimidate the rest; but they all entered
it voluntarily together, and refused to come out unless their companion
also was released. This was at length permitted, but the design of
persecution was followed up. The Patriarch’s paschal letter of A.D. 401
is chiefly occupied with a condemnation of Origen and his disciples.
He confesses, indeed, that he had himself at one time been cast into
that fiery furnace of error, but, like the three children, he had come
out unscathed; “not even his hair or garments had been singed.” He
describes himself as having now returned from the land of captivity to
the true Jerusalem; Origen and his doctrines are condemned with much
heat; and a prominent place is assigned to him and all his disciples in
the infernal regions.[545]
But Theophilus was far from being contented to stop at this point. He
convoked a synod of neighbouring bishops. The monks were not informed
of it, nor invited to appear and make their defence. Three of the most
eminent were excommunicated as heretics and magicians. It was in vain
that the monks protested against the injustice of condemning Origen
or his readers on the strength of a few passages only, and those, as
they maintained, in many instances garbled or interpolated. A synodical
letter was published, addressed to the Catholic world, reprobating the
writings of Origen. It produced a profound sensation in Rome, where the
Pope Anastasius anathematised Origen.[546] But the humiliation of the
Nitrian brethren was not yet complete. Five most insignificant monks,
scarce worthy, according to Palladius, to discharge menial offices as
lay brethren, were ordained by Theophilus, one to a bishopric, one to
be priest, and the three others to be deacons. A small town was created
a see, there being none vacant to receive the new bishop. With these
tools the Patriarch could rapidly execute his designs. His creatures
prepared, under his direction, a list of complaints and charges against
the Nitrian monks, which they publicly presented to him in church.
Armed with this, he had an interview with the governor of Egypt, and
obtained from him an order for the forcible expulsion of insubordinate
monks from the settlement at Nitria. With a troop of soldiers and
a rabble of rascals, such as in all large towns are ready for the
perpetration of any mischief, whom he had previously primed with drink,
the Patriarch fell by night upon the monastic dwellings. Dioscorus was
the first victim of his rage. He was one of the “tall brethren,” who
had been compelled by Theophilus to become bishop of Hermopolis. He was
now dragged before the Patriarch by some rude Ethiopian slaves, and
told that he was deprived of his see. Diligent search was made for the
three other brethren, but they were undiscoverably hidden in a well.
The fury of the Patriarch expended itself principally upon inanimate
objects; the dwellings of the monks were pillaged and burned, together
with their valuable libraries, and, to the horror of the pious, even
some of the Eucharistic elements[547] were consumed in the general
destruction.
The havoc being completed, Theophilus returned to Alexandria. The
terrified monks came out of their hiding-places, and, wrapping
themselves in their sheepskins, their only remaining property, set
out from their beloved solitudes to seek shelter and a new home
elsewhere. Three hundred, following the “tall brethren,” took their
journey towards Palestine; the rest dispersed in different directions.
Not more than eighty arrived with the four brethren at Jerusalem,
whence they shortly afterwards withdrew northwards to Scythopolis,
a place eminently adapted to their wants by its situation in a
well-watered valley rich in palm-trees, of which the leaves furnished
materials for mats, baskets, and the other articles usually wrought
by monkish labour.[548] But distance did not diminish the malice
of their persecutor. They were pursued by letters from Theophilus
addressed to all the bishops of Palestine, who were admonished
not to grant ecclesiastical communion or shelter to the heretical
fugitives. Jerome mentions two commissioners who scoured Palestine,
and left no hole or cave unexplored in the diligence of their search
for the offenders.[549] Thus hunted and harassed, the poor monks at
length resolved to embark for Constantinople, throw themselves on
the generosity of the Emperor and Archbishop, and submit their cause
to their decision. They reached the capital, fifty in number; their
foreign aspect, bare arms and knees, and primitive garb of white
sheepskins, excited much curiosity and interest among the people of
Constantinople. They repaired first of all to Chrysostom, in the hope
that his authority would be sufficient to procure them justice,
without an application to the civil powers. The Archbishop received
them with great kindness and respect, and shed tears of compassion when
he heard the tale of their sufferings and wanderings. But he acted with
caution; he consulted some Alexandrian clergy who were at this time
in Constantinople engaged in distributing presents to conciliate, or,
more properly speaking, to bribe, the favour of persons just appointed
to civil offices in Egypt. They admitted the virtues and hard usage
of the monks, but recommended him not to incur the displeasure of
Theophilus by admitting them to communion. The monks were lodged in the
precincts of the church of Anastasia; Olympias and other pious women
attended to their wants, which were to some extent supplied by the
produce of their own manual labour. They were admitted to prayer in the
church, but excluded from the Eucharist until the merits of their cause
should have been carefully sifted, and their excommunication revoked.
Chrysostom, unsuspicious of others, in his own innocence, was sanguine
of his power to obtain their restitution. He despatched a letter to
Theophilus, in which he besought him in courteous and friendly terms
to be reconciled with the fugitives, and thereby to confer a favour on
himself, his spiritual son and brother. But no notice was taken of the
request; and meanwhile the agents of Theophilus were busily employed at
Constantinople in disseminating injurious tales about the monks—they
were heretics, magicians, rebels.
Throughout the rest of Christendom Theophilus pursued a different
method. He toiled with diligence worthy of a better cause to obtain a
wide condemnation of Origen and his works. Could he once secure such
a general condemnation, and then prove Chrysostom and the monks to be
at variance with it, he would possess a powerful engine in working the
ruin of both. It is difficult to believe that even Theophilus would
have pursued the monks with such insatiable animosity had they not
fled to the patriarch of that see which was regarded with peculiar
jealousy by the bishops of Alexandria, and had not the present occupant
of that see been elected in preference to the candidate put forward by
himself. Thus he clutched at the opportunity of depressing his rival,
and punishing his victims, the monks, at the same time.
He found a faction hostile to the Archbishop already existing in
Constantinople, and quite ready to submit the management of their
interests to his skilful direction. The persecution of the monks was
quickly dropped. Their supposed offence was only the handle by which to
compass the destruction of a more formidable foe. Jerome contributed
powerful aid to the designs of Theophilus by favourable notices of
him in his letters, depreciating the conduct of the monks.[550] But
a more active auxiliary appeared in the Bishop of Constantia, whose
advanced age seems never to have diminished the alacrity with which he
entered the lists of controversy. Theophilus, in his Origenistic days,
had attacked Epiphanius with some vehemence as an anthropomorphite;
but he now wrote a letter to the bishop expressing regret for his
former language, and his increasing conviction of the mischievous
tendency of Origen’s doctrines.[551] He implored his holy brother
to convene a council of the bishops of Cyprus without delay, for
the purpose of condemning the heretic, and of drawing up letters,
announcing their decision, to be sent round to the principal sees,
especially Constantinople, where the heretical and contumacious monks
were harboured. Epiphanius flattered himself that he had converted the
Patriarch, and was delighted to receive such a powerful accession to
his side. The council was summoned, the condemnation carried, and the
letters despatched.[552] Theophilus himself, at the commencement of
A.D. 402, issued a paschal letter, which contained a subtle exposition
and refutation of the Origenistic errors. The letter was translated,
and highly commended, both for matter and expression, by Jerome.[553]
To Chrysostom himself Theophilus wrote a sharp complaint of his
protecting heretics, and violating the canon of Nice, which prohibited
any bishop from exercising jurisdiction in matters relating to another
see. The cause of the Nitrian monks, he asserted, could not be decided
legally anywhere but in a council of Egyptian bishops. It will be
borne in mind, however, that Chrysostom had carefully abstained from
pronouncing any decision, through a council or otherwise, on the affair
of the monks. They, indeed, became provoked with him that he did not
espouse their cause more heartily. The agents of Theophilus were busily
engaged in damaging their character; a little money easily persuaded
the sailors and others employed in the Alexandrian corn trade to point
at the monks in the streets as magicians and heretics. The monks
declared to Chrysostom their resolution to appeal to the civil powers
to obtain a formal prosecution of their accusers as base calumniators.
Chrysostom remonstrated, and declined, if that step were taken, to
mediate any more in their affair. Some of his enemies in Constantinople
did not fail to represent this as a cruel desertion of those whom he
had at first befriended.[554]
Thus hostile forces were on all sides closing round the Archbishop,
but he continued apparently unconscious of the snares which were being
woven for him. The Origenistic controversy, into the vortex of which
his enemies sought to drag him, possessed little interest for him. The
more mystical, abstract speculations of Origen’s theology were alien
from his practical sphere of work and practical habit of mind; and, in
common with the other chief representatives of the Antiochene school,
Diodorus and Theodore, he neither wholly embraced nor wholly rejected
his system of doctrine. At any rate, he paid no attention to the letter
from Cyprus, which requested him to join in the condemnation of Origen
and his writings. This was precisely what his enemies wanted.
The Nitrian monks, cast off by the Archbishop when they had announced
their intention of appealing to secular authority, drew up documents
filled with charges of the most flagrant crimes against their accusers
and against Theophilus. They demanded that their calumniators in
Constantinople should be immediately tried by the prefect, and that
Theophilus should be summoned to defend his conduct before a council
under the presidency of Chrysostom. One day, as the Empress was riding
in her litter to worship in the church of St. John the Baptist at
Hebdomon, she was accosted by some of those strange skin-clad beings
of whom, and of whose wanderings and wrongs, she had heard much. She
caused her litter to stop, bowed graciously to the monks, and implored
the favour of their prayers for the Empire, the Emperor, herself, and
her children. The monks presented their petition; Eudoxia courteously
accepted it, and promised them that the council which they desired
should be convened; that Theophilus should be summoned to attend it,
and that the accusers now in Constantinople should either substantiate
their charges, or suffer the penalties of calumnious defamation. This
inquiry was immediately instituted; the poor culprits confessed that
they had been paid agents of Theophilus, and that their accusations
had been dictated by him. They therefore entreated that their trial
might be deferred till his arrival. Meanwhile, however, they were put
in prison, where one of them died; and as the arrival of Theophilus
continued to be delayed, they were banished to Proconnesus for libel.
An officer was despatched to Alexandria to serve Theophilus with a
peremptory summons to appear at Constantinople, and empowered to
enforce his obedience, if he was reluctant.[555]
Thus the preparations for a judicial investigation of the affair of the
monks emanated not from Chrysostom, but from the throne, although he
was represented by his enemies as the originator, and by Jerome he is
styled a parricide for labouring to condemn Theophilus.[556] Chrysostom
seems, in fact, to have dismissed alike the business of the monks and
the theological question of Origenism from his mind. Intent on edifying
the Church, instead of agitating it by personal or polemical strife, he
quietly pursued his daily routine of duties as chief pastor, feeding
his flock with the wholesome food of the Word and of the bread of life.
Theophilus was unable to evade obedience to the summons which commanded
him to repair to Constantinople. His only hope now was to change
his position from that of the accused into that of the accuser. The
council which was called together for the purpose of investigating
his conduct should, by his contrivance, be transferred into a council
for arraigning Chrysostom of heresy and misdemeanour. The letters of
Epiphanius and Theophilus having failed to obtain from Chrysostom that
condemnation which they demanded of the writings of Origen, the Bishop
of Constantia, at the urgent request of Theophilus, set forth at the
beginning of A.D. 403 for Constantinople, bringing the decree of the
Council of Cyprus for the signature of the Archbishop. Theophilus
slowly proceeded overland from Egypt through Syria, Cilicia, and Asia
Minor, in order to bring up as many bishops as possible to the council,
who would be prepared to act under his direction. Epiphanius, having
landed, halted at the church of St. John, outside Constantinople, held
an assembly of clergy, and even, it is said, committed the irregularity
of ordaining a deacon.[557] Chrysostom, however, acted with all due
courtesy and discretion. He sent out a large body of clergy to welcome
the visitor by inviting and conducting him to the hospitable lodging
prepared for him in the archiepiscopal palace. Epiphanius, acting on
preconceived judgment of the two chief subjects in dispute, declined
the offer unless the Archbishop would consent to expel the monks, and
to sign the decree against Origen. Chrysostom justly replied that
he could not anticipate the decision of a council which was being
summoned for the very purpose of considering both these questions.
Epiphanius, therefore, found a lodging elsewhere, and diligently strove
to induce such bishops as he could collect to sign the decree.[558]
His reputation for learning, orthodoxy, and piety secured the consent
of many, but on the part of many more there was determined opposition.
Eminent among these was Theotimus, a Goth by birth, but educated in
Greece, who had been made Bishop of Tomis and Metropolitan of Scythia.
He was a man of genuine sanctity, ascetic habits, and courageous
spirit. Tomis was a great central market of Gothic and Hunnish tribes,
and the bishop used boldly to enter the motley concourse and try to win
converts. He would invite savage Huns to partake of some hospitable
entertainment in his house, and by gifts and little attentions, and
courteous treatment, he sought to soften their ferocity, and effect an
opening in their hearts for the reception of Christian teaching. He
came to be regarded by them with a kind of superstitious reverence,
and was commonly called by them “the god of the Christians.” Over his
half-episcopal, half-barbarian costume flowed the long hair which
betokened his Gothic origin. He lifted up his voice with boldness
to denounce the present ill-considered condemnation of the works of
Origen. It was unseemly and unjust, he maintained, to pass a coarse
and sweeping sentence on the entire works of one whose genius had been
acknowledged by the whole Church. He produced a volume of Origen, and
from it read some beautiful, powerful passages of irreproachable
orthodoxy. Then, turning to Epiphanius, he asked him how he could
attack a man to whom the Church owed a thousand similar, and even more
beautiful, passages. “How call him a son of Satan? Place what is good
in him on one side, and what is bad on the other, and then choose.”[559]
This courageous protest, however, did not divert Epiphanius and his
partisans from their course of action. In fact, they proceeded a step
further. It was arranged that when a large congregation was collected
in the Church of the Apostles, Epiphanius should enter and harangue
the assembly, denouncing both the writings of Origen and his admirers,
especially the “tall brethren,” and even Chrysostom himself as their
protector. Chrysostom, however, received intimation of their design,
and by his direction Serapion confronted Epiphanius at the entrance of
the church, and told him that “he had already violated ecclesiastical
law by ordaining a deacon in the diocese and church of another bishop,
but to minister and preach without permission was a still grosser
outrage; a popular tumult would probably ensue, and Epiphanius would
be held responsible for any violence which might be committed.”
Epiphanius, though not without angry remonstrances, desisted.[560]
Eudoxia seems to have placed special faith in the intercessions of
ecclesiastical visitors of distinction. As she had formerly asked
the prayers of the “tall brethren,” so now, the young prince her son
(afterwards Theodosius II.), being attacked by an alarming illness, she
implored the prayers of Epiphanius on his behalf. The bishop replied
that her child’s recovery depended on her repudiation of the heretical
refugees. The Empress, however, declared that she should prefer simply
to resign her son’s life to the will of God who gave it without
complying with the requisition of Epiphanius.[561]
It may be that these incidents were beginning to tell upon the
reason of the aged zealot, and open his eyes to the irregularity
of his proceedings; at any rate, shortly after this, he granted an
interview to Ammon and his brothers. The record of the conversation is
instructive. “Allow me to ask, holy father,” said Ammon, “whether you
have ever read any of our works or those of our disciples?” Epiphanius
was obliged to confess that he had not even seen them, and that he had
formed his judgment simply from general report. “How then,” replied
Ammon, “can you venture to condemn us when you have no proof of our
opinions? We have pursued a widely different course. We conversed with
your disciples, we read your works, among others one entitled the
‘Anchor of Faith;’ and when we met with persons who ridiculed your
opinions, and asserted that your writings were replete with heresy, we
have defended you as our father. Is it just, on such slender ground as
common report, to condemn those who have so zealously befriended you?”
These bold and pungent remarks are said to have wrought compunction in
the heart of the aged bishop. He began to perceive that he had been
made the agent of a plot, and he lost no time in extricating himself
from it by departing from Constantinople. His farewell words to some of
the bishops who accompanied him to the ship were: “I leave to you the
city, the palace, and this piece of acting.”[562]