have assassinated John, and that the crime ought to be visited with punishment. The magistrate allayed the fury of the people by putting the delinqent into custody, and by assuring them that justice should have its course against him.

CHAP. XXII.- UNLAWFUL EXPULSION OF JOHN FROM HIS

BISHOPRIC. CONFLAGRATION OF THE CHURCH BY FIRE FROM HEAVEN. EXILE OF JOHN TO CUCUSUM.

FROM this period the most zealous of the people alternately guarded the house of John by night and by day.1 The bishops who had condemned him complained of this conduct as a manifest violation of the laws of the church, declared that they could answer for the justice of the sentence that had been enacted against him, and asserted that tranquillity would never be restored among the people until he had been expelled the city. A messenger having conveyed to him a mandate from the emperor enjoining his immediate departure, John obeyed, and escaped from the city, unnoticed by those who had been appointed to guard him. He made no other rémark than that, in being sent into banishment without a legal trial, or any of the forms of the law, he was treated more severely than murderers, sorcerers, and adulterers. He was conveyed in a bark to Bithynia, and thence continued his journey. Some of his enemies were apprehensive lest the people, on hearing of his departure, should pursue him, and bring him back by force; and therefore commanded the gates of the church to be closed. When the people who were in the public places of the city heard of what had occurred, great confusion ensued; for some ran to the sea-shore, and others fled hither and thither, and awaited in great terror the calamities consequent on sedition, and the vengeance of the emperor. Those who were within the city pressed towards the doors, and by thus obstructing the entrance, rendered it impossible to force open the doors. While they were endeavouring to effect an exit, and while efforts were being made by another party without the edifice to break open the doors by means of stones, the church was suddenly discovered to be on fire; the flames extended to the grand council-chamber, which Compare Socrates, Eccl. Hist. vi. 18.

1

A. D. 404.]

BANISHMENT OF JOHN.

395

is situated towards the south. The two parties mutually accused each other of incendiarism; the enemies of John asserted that his partisans had been guilty of the deed from revenge, on account of the sentence that had been passed against him by the council: these latter, on the other hand, maintained that they had been calumniated, and that the crime was perpetrated by their enemies, with the intention of burning them in the church. In the mean time, while the conflagration was spreading on all sides, the officers who held John in custody conveyed him to Cucusum, a city of Armenia, which the emperor had appointed as the place of his detention. Other officers were commissioned to arrest all bishops and priests who had favoured the cause of John, and to imprison them in Chalcedonia. Those citizens who were suspected of attachment to John were sought out and cast into prison, and compelled to pronounce anathema against him.

CHAP. XXIII.-ARSACIUS APPOINTED TO SUPPLANT JOHN IN

THE BISHOPRIC.

PERSECUTION OF THE FOLLOWERS OF JOHN.

ARSACIUS, brother of Nectarius the predecessor of John, was, not long afterwards, ordained over the church of Constantinople. He was of a very mild disposition, and possessed of great piety; but the reputation he had acquired as a presbyter was diminished by the conduct of some of the clergy to whom he delegated his power, and who did what they pleased in his name, for their evil deeds were imputed to him. Nothing, however, operated so much to his disadvantage as the persecution that was carried on against the followers of John. They refused to hold communion, or even to join in prayer with him, because the enemies of John were associated with him; and as they persisted, as we have before stated, in meeting together in the further parts of the city, he complained to the emperor of their conduct. The tribune was commanded to attack them with a body of soldiers, and by means of clubs and stones he soon dispersed them. The most distinguished among them in point of rank, and those who were most zealous in their adherence to John, were cast into prison. The soldiers, as is usual on such occasions, went beyond their orders, and 1 Compare Socrates, Eccl. Hist. vi. 19.

stripped the women of their ornaments, their golden girdles, their earrings, and their jewels. Although the whole city was thus filled with trouble and lamentation, the affection of the people for John still remained the same, and they refrained from appearing in public. Many of them absented themselves from the market-place and public baths, while others, not considering themselves safe in their own houses, fled the city.

Among the zealous men and excellent women who adopted this latter measure was Nicarete, a lady of Bithynia. She belonged to a very illustrious family, and was celebrated on account of her perpetual virginity, and her virtuous life. She excelled all women that we have ever seen in modesty and circumspection, and throughout her life she invariably preferred the service of God to all earthly considerations. She bore with invincible fortitude the calamities which befell her; she saw herself unjustly despoiled of the greater part of her ample patrimony without manifesting any indignation, and managed the little that remained to her with so much economy, that although she was advanced in age, she contrived to supply all the wants of her household, and to contribute largely to the relief of the poor. To great charity she added so much ingenuity, that she was able to compound medicines for the poor who were suffering from sickness, and she frequently succeeded in curing patients who had derived no benefit from the skill of the physicians. To sum all in a few words, we have never known a religious woman endowed with so much modesty, gravity, and virtue; but her great qualifications were concealed by her humility. She would not accept of the office of deaconess, nor of instructress of the virgins consecrated to the service of the church,' because she accounted herself unworthy, although the honour was pressed upon her by John.

After the popular insurrection had been quelled, the prefect of the city appeared in public, as if to inquire into the cause of the conflagration, and to bring the perpetrators of the deed to punishment; but being a Pagan, he exulted in the destruction of the church, and ridiculed the calamity.

1 These differed from the regular "monachæ," or nuns; they had a separate place in the churches, and communicated apart from the others. They were called "ecclesiasticæ," says Valesius, quod ascriptæ essent albo seu matriculo ecclesiæ."

66

A. D. 404.]

PERSECUTION OF A DEACONESS.

397

CHAP. XXIV. EUTROPIUS THE READER, AND THE BLESSED OLYMPIADE, AND THE PRESBYTER TIGRIS, ARE PERSECUTED ON ACCOUNT OF THEIR ATTACHMENT TO JOHN.

EUTROPIUS, a reader,' was required to name the persons who had set fire to the church; but although he was scourged severely, although his sides and cheeks were torn with iron nails, and although lighted torches were applied to the most sensitive parts of his body, no confession could be extorted from him, notwithstanding his youth and delicacy of constitution. After having been subjected to these tortures, he was cast into a dungeon, where he soon afterwards expired.

A dream of Sisinius concerning Eutropius seems worthy of insertion in this history. Sisinius, the bishop of the Novatians, saw in his sleep a man, tall of stature and handsome in person, standing near the altar of the church which the Novatians erected to the honour of Stephen, the proto-martyr; the man complained of the rarity of goodness among men, and said that he had been searching throughout the city, and had found but one who was good, and that one was Eutropius. Astonished at what he had seen, Sisinius made known the dream to the most faithful of the presbyters of his church, and commanded him to seek Eutropius, wherever he might be. The presbyter rightly conjectured that this Eutropius could be no other than he who had been so barbarously tortured by the prefect, and went from prison to prison in quest of him. At length he found him, and made known to him the dream of the bishop, and besought him with tears to pray for him. Such are the details we possess concerning Eutropius.

Great fortitude was evinced in the midst of these calamities by Olympiade, the deaconess. Being dragged before the tribunal, and interrogated by the prefect as to her motives in setting fire to the church, she replied, "My past life ought to avert all suspicion from me, for I have devoted my large property to the reconstruction and embellishment of the temples of God." The prefect alleged that he was well acquainted with her past course of life. "Then," continued she, "you ought to appear as our accuser instead of sitting as our judge." As the accusation against her was wholly unsubstantiated by proofs, and as the prefect found that he had no ground on which he could justly blame her, he adopted another tone, and 1 The ȧvayvuorat were sometimes called "Psalta" and "Lectores."

as if desirous of advising her, represented to her and the other ladies, that it was absurd in them to secede from communion with their bishop, and thereby to entail trouble upon themselves. They all deferred to the advice of the prefect with the exception of Olympiade, who said to him, "It is not just that, after having been publicly calumniated, without having had anything proved against me, I should be obliged to clear myself of charges totally unconnected with the accusation in question. Let me rather take counsel concerning the original accusation that has been preferred against me. For even if you resort to unlawful compulsion, I will not hold communion with those from whom I ought to secede, nor consent to anything that is contrary to the principles of piety." The prefect, finding that he could not prevail upon her to hold communion with Arsacius, dismissed her that she might consult the advocates. On another occasion, however, he again sent for her and condemned her to pay a heavy fine, for he imagined that by this means she would be compelled to change her mind. But she totally disregarded the loss of her property, and quitted Constantinople for Cyzicus. Tigris, a presbyter, was about the same period stripped of his clothes, scourged on the back, bound hand and foot, and stretched on the rack. He was a foreigner, and a eunuch, but not by birth. He was originally a slave in the house of a man of rank, and on account of his faithful services had obtained his freedom. He was afterwards ordained as presbyter, and was distinguished by his moderation and meekness of disposition, and by his charity towards strangers and the poor. Such were the events which took place in Constantinople.

Siricius died, after having governed the church of Rome fifteen years. Anastasius held the same bishopric three years, and then died, and was succeeded by Innocent. Flavian, who refused to consent to the deposition of John, was also dead, and Porphyry, being appointed to succeed him in the bishopric of Antioch, signed the condemnation of John. Many seceded on this account from communion with him, and hence a cruel persecution was commenced against them in Syria. Those who were in power at court procured a law in favour of Arsacius, Porphyry, and Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria, by which it was enacted that the orthodox were to assemble together in

This law is extant in the Codex Theodos. b. 16, tit. " de his qui de religione contendunt." See Baronius, Annal. a. D. 404, ch. 54, &c.