ployed 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 afterward to the field; 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.f Exile of tom. June 20. Cicero might claim some merit, if his volunChrysos- tary banishment preserved the peace of the reA.D. 404, public; 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 ! We might naturally expect such a charge from Zosimus; (lib. 5. p. 327.) but it is remarkable enough, that it should be confirmed by Socrates, lib. 6. c. 18. and the Paschal Chronicle, p. 307. He displays those specious motives (Post Reditum, c. 13-14.) in the language of an orator and a politician. 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 neighbouring 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 not long 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 instant removal of Chrysostom to the extreme desert of Pityus: and his guards so faithfully obeyed their cruel Two hundred and forty-two of the epistles of Chrysostom are still extant (Opera, tom. 3. p. 528-736.) They are addressed to a great variety of persons, and shew 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. 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 dæmonum; 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. Jerome, at the request of his friend Theophilus, translated this edifying performance from Greek into Latin. See Facundus Hermian. Defens. pro 3. Capitul. lib. 6. c. 5. published by Sirmond. Opera, tom. 2. p. 595-597. His death. Sept. 14. instructions, that, before he reached the sea-coast of the Euxine, he expired at Comana, in Pontus, A. D. 407. 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 honours of that venerable name. At the pious solicitation transported of the clergy and people of Constantinotinople. ple, his relics, thirty years after his death, were transported from their obscure sepulchre to the royal city.' 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." His relics to Constan A.D.488. Jan. 27. The death dius. Yet a reasonable doubt may be entertained, of Arca- whether any stain of hereditary guilt could be A. D. 408. derived from Arcadius to his successor. Eudoxia May 1. was a young and beautiful woman, who indulged her passions, and despised her husband: count John enjoyed, at least, the familiar confidence of the empress; and the public named him as the real father of Theodosius the younger." The birth of a son was accepted, however, by the pious husband, as an event the most k His name was inserted by his successor Atticus in the Dyptics of the church of Constantinople, A. D. 418. Ten years afterward he was revived as a saint. Cyril, who inherited the place and the passions of his uncle, Theophilus, yielded with much reluctance. See Facund. Hermian. lib. 4. c. 1. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. 14. p. 277-283. 1 Socrates, lib. 7. c. 45. Theodoret, lib. 5. 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. m 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. n Zosimus, lib. 5. p. 315. The chastity of an empress should not be impeached without producing a witness; but it is astonishing, that the witness should write and live under a prince, whose legitimacy he dared to attack. We must suppose that his history was a party libel, privately read and circulated by the Pagans. Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. 5. p. 782.) is not averse to brand the reputation of Eudoxia. fortunate and honourable to himself, to his family, and to the eastern world: and the royal infant, by an unprecedented favour, was invested with the titles of Cæsar and Augustus. In less than four years afterward, Eudoxia, in the bloom of youth, was destroyed by the consequences of a miscarriage; and this untimely death confounded the prophecy of a holy bishop, who, amidst the universal joy, had ventured to foretel, that she should behold the long and auspicious reign of her glorious son. The Catholics applauded the justice of Heaven, which avenged the persecution of St. Chrysostom; and perhaps the emperor was the only person who sincerely bewailed the loss of the haughty and rapacious Eudoxia. Such a domestie misfortune afflicted him more deeply than the public calamities of the east; the licentious excursions from Pontus to Palestine, of the Isaurian robbers, whose impunity accused the weakness of the government; and the earthquakes, the conflagrations, the famine, and the Alights of locusts," which the popular discontent was equally disposed to attribute to the incapacity of the monarch. At length, in the thirty-first year of his age, after a reign (if we may abuse that word) of thirteen years three months and fifteen days, Arcadius expired in the palace of Constantinople. It is impossible to delineate his character, since, in a period very copiously furnished with historical materials, it has not been possible to remark one action that properly belongs to the son of the great Theodosius. His sup The historian Procopius' has indeed illumiposed tes-nated the mind of the dying emperor with a tament. ray of human prudence, or celestial wisdom. Ar Porphyry of Gaza. His zeal was transported by the order which he had obtained for the destruction of eight Pagan temples of that city. See the curious details of his life, (Baroniùs, A. D. 401. no. 17-51.) originally written in Greek, or perhaps in Syriac by a monk, one of his favourite deacons. P Philostorg. lib. 11. c. 8. and Godefroy, Dissertat. p. 457. 4 Jerome (tom, 6. p. 73-76.) describes, in lively colours, the regular and destructive march of the locusts, which spread a dark cloud between heaven and earth, over the land of Palestine. Seasonable winds scattered them, partly into the Dead Sea, and partly into the Mediterranean. r Procopius. de Bell. Persic. lib. 1. c. 2. p. 8. edit. Louvre. cadius considered, with anxious foresight, the helpless condition of his son Theodosius, who was no more than seven years of age, the dangerous factions of a minority, and the aspiring spirit of Jezdegerd, the Persian monarch. Instead of tempting the allegiance of an ambitious subject, by the participation of supreme power, he boldly appealed to the magnanimity of a king; and placed, by a solemn testament, the sceptre of the east in the hands of Jezdegerd himself. The royal guardian accepted and discharged this honourable trust with unexampled fidelity; and the infancy of Theodosius was protected by the arms and councils of Persia. Such is the singular narrative of Procopius; and his veracity is not disputed by Agathias,' while he presumes to dissent from his judgment, and to arraign the wisdom of a Christian emperor, who so rashly, though so fortunately, committed his son and his dominions to the unknown faith of a stranger, a rival, and a heathen. At the distance of one hundred and fifty years, this political question might be debated in the court of Justinian; but a prudent historian will refuse to examine the propriety, till he has ascertained the truth, of the testament of Arcadius. As it stands without a parallel in the history of the world, we may justly require, that it should be attested by the positive and unanimous evidence of contemporaries. The strange novelty of the event, which excites our distrust, must have attracted their notice; and their universal silence annihilates the vain tradition of the succeeding age. Adminis Anthe The maxims of Roman jurisprudence, if they tration of could fairly be transferred from private property to public dominion, would have adjudged to the --415. emperor Honorius the guardianship of his nephew, till he had attained, at least, the four mius. A. D. 408 Agathias, lib. 4. p. 136, 137. Although he confesses the prevalence of the tradition, he asserts that Procopius was the first who had committed it to writing. Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. 6. p. 597.) argues very sensibly on the merits of this fable. His criticism was not warped by any ecclesiastical authority: both Procopius and Agathias are half Pagans. |
