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| The Dispute between the Empress and John. Arrival of Theophilus from Egypt. Cyrinus, Bishop of Chalcedon.
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Chapter XVI.—The
Dispute between the Empress and John. Arrival of Theophilus from Egypt.
Cyrinus, Bishop of Chalcedon.
After the departure of
Epiphanius, John, when preaching in the church as usual, chanced to
inveigh against the vices to which females are peculiarly prone.1606
| 1606Soc. vi. 15; Pallad. Dialog. 3, 8–10;
also Chrysostom’s letter to Innocent, ibid. 2. Cf.
Theodoret, H. E. v. 34.
|
The people imagined that his strictures were enigmatically directed
against the wife of the emperor. The enemies of the bishop did not fail
to report his discourse in this sense to the empress; and she,
conceiving herself to have been insulted, complained to the emperor,
and urged the necessity for the speedy presence of Theophilus and the
convocation of a council. Severian, bishop of Gabala, who had not yet
changed his former resentment against John, cooperated in the promotion
of these measures. I am not in possession of sufficient data to
determine whether there was any truth in the current report that John
delivered the discourse above mentioned with express allusion to the
empress, because he suspected her of having excited Epiphanius against
him. Theophilus arrived soon after at Chalcedon in Bithynia, and was
followed thither by many bishops. Some of the bishops joined him in
compliance with his own invitation, and others in obedience to the
commands of the emperor. The bishops whom John had deposed in Asia
repaired to Chalcedon with the utmost alacrity, as likewise all those
who cherished any feeling of hostility against him. The ships which
Theophilus expected from Egypt had already come to Chalcedon. When they
had convened again in the same place, and when they had deliberated how
the attempt against John might be judiciously forwarded by them,
Cyrinus, leader of the church of Chalcedon, who was an Egyptian and a
relative of Theophilus, and who had besides some other difficulties
with John, spoke very abusively of him. Justice, however, seemed to
follow him speedily; for Maruthas, a native of Mesopotamia, who had
accompanied the bishops, happened to tread on his foot; and Cyrinus
suffered so severely from this accident that he was unable to repair
with the other bishops to Constantinople, although his aid was
necessary to the execution of the designs that had been formed against
John. The wound assumed so alarming an appearance, that the surgeons
were obliged to perform several operations on the leg; and at length
mortification took place, and spread over the whole body, and even
extended to the other foot. He expired soon afterwards in great
agony.
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