Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/398

378 THE DECLINE AND FALL •where Rufinus had erected a stately church and monaster^', and theirproceedings were continued during fourteen days, or sessions. A bishop and a deacon accused the archbishop of Constanti- nople ; but the frivolous or improbable nature of the forty-seven articles which they presented against him may justly be con- sidered as a fair and unexceptionable panegyric. Four successive summons were signified to Chiysostom, but he still refused to trust either his person or his reputation in the hands of his im- placable enemies, who, prudently declining the examination of any particular charges, condemned his contumacious disobedience, and hastily pronounced a sentence of deposition. The sjTiod of the Oak immediately addressed the emperor to ratify and execute their judgment, and charitably insinuated that the penalties of treason might be inflicted on the audacious preacher who had reviled, under the name of Jezebel, the empress Eudoxia herself. The archbishop was rudely arrested, and con- ducted through the city, by one of the Imperial messengers, who landed him, after a short navigation, near the entrance of the Euxine ; from whence, before the expiration of two days, he was gloriously recalled. Popular The first astonishment of his faithful people had been mute constanu- and passive ; they suddenly rose with unanimous and irresistible fury. Theophilus escaped ; but the promiscuous crowd of monks and Egyptian mariners were slaughtered without ]nty in the streets of Constantinople.^*^ A seasonable earthquake justified the interposition of heaven ; the toi-rent of sedition rolled for- wards to the gates of the palace ; and the empress, agitated by fear or remorse, threw herself at the feet of Arcadius, and con- fessed that the public safety could be purchased only by the restoration of Chrysostom. The Bosphorus was covered with innumerable vessels ; the shores of Europe and Asia were pro- fusely illuminated ; and the acclamations of a victorious people accompanied, from the port to the cathedral, the triumph of the archbishop ; who, too easily, consented to resume the exercise of his functions, before his sentence had been legally reversed by the authority of an ecclesiastical synod. Ignorant or careless of the impending danger, Chiysostom indulged his zeal, or per- 50 Palladius owns (p. 30) that, if the people of Constantinople had found Theo- philus, they would certainly have thrown him into the sea. Socrates mentions (1. vi. c. 17) a battle between the mob and the sailors of Alexandria in which many wounds were given and some lives were lost. The massacre of the monks is ob- served only by the Pagan Zosimus (L v. p. 324 [23]), who acknowledges that Chrysostom had a singular talent to lead the illiterate multitude ^iv yap 6 ivOpuiroK aiKoyov o>joi' virayayea0<u Setvo^t nople