A few chapters further on, John repeats this narrative as follows:
[II. 42.] The vanity of his heart often led the patriarch Eutychius astray; and whereas originally he belonged to the heresy of the Samosatenians, on being made bishop, he sought to conceal this fact; and to please those who had appointed him, and who held the Chalcedonian tenets, he stood up and played the man in the heresy of the two natures, and began to persecute severely. And when he was driven from his throne into exile, he composed a large work of instruction, divided into heads, concerning the two natures, which upon his restoration after John's death, as we have previously narrated, he began to distribute among the houses of the leading senators, both to men and women, especially to such as held back from the confession of the two natures. And with his book he sent this message, 'Read |149 and learn that the church confesses two natures in Christ after the union.' And laughing at his absurdity, they sent him his books back again. Next, after a short interval, he heard of the heresy of Athanasius, who after having been head and founder of the heresy of those who number the substances, that is, the essences and natures in the Holy Trinity, having been led astray by the error of John Grammaticus, of Alexandria, he further said that these bodies of ours do not rise again at the resurrection of the dead, but that others are made , which come to the resurrection in their stead. And from this madness, worthy of heathenism or the Manichees, there arose a schism among them, and they anathematized one another in their writings. When then Eutychius heard of these people, he immediately joined himself unto them, and was imbued with their sentiments, and became one of them, and began composing a work in their defence, and drew up and published books, until |150 his bishops and clergy were alarmed, and resisted him; and after much discussion, he was ashamed, and held his peace, and gathered in his writings, though he still continued of the same opinion.
[II. 37.] Eutychius, however, himself ascribed the ill success of his books to the machinations of the orthodox: and though the supposition was unfounded, it led him to entertain an implacable animosity against them, and to set his face to exterminate and destroy them. He let loose therefore upon them, on the occasion of the celebration of their love feasts, the more violent members of his party, such as the officials of the ecclesiastical courts, and soldiers and civilians and clergymen and guardsmen , who attacking them, not like Christians, but like murderers and barbarians, dragged them with open violence to prison, overturned their altars, threw down their oblations, and poured, out the consecrated wine, while the sacred vessels, and every thing else of any worth, which they could find, with the service books, they plundered and stole: they even robbed the worshippers of their clothing and their shoes, and any thing else they found of value they took, without despising even trifles. And when they had stolen all they could, they dragged them away, and all whom they found |151 in their company, to prison, and confined them, rich and poor together, and only let them out to make room for a fresh crowd, as similar scenes were repeated every day. But these proceedings brought general disgrace upon Eutychius and his party, because, like heathens, they had thrown down and trampled under foot the bread consecrated on Christian altars, and even cast it into the fire and burnt it. And all these evils were done without restraint, until no congregation openly ventured to celebrate public worship throughout the whole city.
[II.38.] The cause of all these wrong doings was a certain Fravian, or Flavian , originally a slave of Andrew, the queen's pursebearer, who at the commencement of the persecution left the palace and his office, and went forth for the truth's sake, and was plundered, and imprisoned in the monastery of Dalmatus, but retained his constancy unbroken. In his household was a slave of barbarian parentage, whom he had carefully brought up, and trained to be his scribe; and he was a believer and all his house. In process, however, of time he apostatized and conformed to the tenets of Eutychius, by whom he was employed as an informer, and troubler of the believing clergy and their congregations. Taking therefore with him a troop of officials and |152 guardsmen and civilians and clergy, he went about laying hands on every body, and dragging them to prison, after plundering them barbarously, and spoiling them and taking from them all they had. To escape from him, many gave him large bribes; for though a man crept and hid himself in a needle's eye, as the proverb is, he was sure to creep in after him by some stratagem or other, and seize him, and plunder and imprison him. And thus he became the tempter and Satan of all the priests and congregations, and of all the believers in the capital, and of us too with the rest; and, in short, it would be impossible to enumerate the evils wrought by this man against the whole orthodox church.
[II. 39.] Among those who endured this persecution with exemplary firmness was a young nun. She was one of two sisters whose mother died while they were infants, and their father placed them in a convent; and dying soon after, he left them, that is, their convent, whatever he possessed. And in process of time they grew up, and had just arrived at womanhood, when John's persecution broke out, and subsequently that of Eutychius: and as they obliged every religious house to receive the sacrament at their hands; they took the sisters, upon their refusal, and placed them in separate convents: but they both stood firm as adamant, and especially the elder; upon which they inflicted upon her every kind of torture and pain, and close confinement, |153 and hunger and thirst, as being the elder of the two, and glorying and fervent in the faith. But she rebuked and reproached those in whose convent she was confined, and said, 'Ye and your priests, and all your party, are aliens to the Holy Trinity, and hold instead of it a quaternity of persons, like the synod of Chalcedon, which makes a pretence of excommunicating Nestorius, but really and truly holds his view, and acknowledges two natures, just as he did, and as you also do, and all who agree with it.' And as they could not refute her arguments, they went and accused her to the bishop, and said to him plainly, 'Unless you give orders for the immediate removal of this tempter, know for certain that we must all quit our nunnery; for it is impossible to endure her scoffs and contumelies, or answer her arguments.' He therefore sent to the exarch, or officer who had the general oversight of the monastic institutions, commanding him to go and examine her, and severely chastise her; and then eject her, and send her to a convent where their discipline was more severe, with directions to torture her until they made her submit. The exarch accordingly deputed his visitor to try the case, and on his arrival they began to accuse and threaten her; but she of her own accord laughed at them, openly expressing her contempt, and saying, 'Why do ye heathens and murderers threaten a poor weak girl like me? If ye go no further than threats, and do not at once murder me, according to your |154 custom and that of him who sent yon, I do not count you as men, or even as living creatures.' Upon this, they beat her in anger with a staff until they were tired: but she only derided them the more, and anathematized them, saying, 'O you heathen persecutors and murderers of Christians!' and urging them to kill her, she said, 'You are heathens and not Christians; for Christians do not persecute Christians: but you shew yourselves to be heathens, and that you do the work of heathens.' And as they could not answer her, they dragged her away and imprisoned her in another nunnery, leaving orders that they should torture her severely. But when but a few days had passed, they also began to cry out, and try to get rid of her. And so she was removed to one convent after another; and when none could break her spirit, Eutychius gave orders that she should be brought to him in the church. But when the exarch's people heard of the patriarch's intention, they went to him, and said, 'Know, my lord, that if you let her enter your presence, and do not first cut out her tongue, or strike off her head, there is no reproach or ridicule that she will not freely utter to your face: for even when flogged and scourged, she only grows the more vehement, being ready and eager to suffer death.' Finally, however, she was brought to the church, and many attacked her one after another, and multiplied their threats and denunciations; but she regarded them no more than as if they had been |155 so many dead persons, and reproved them at great length. And so they were all everywhere vanquished by her, and finally let her return to her own nunnery. And thus she was the cause of the whole convent being unmolested: for they never ventured again to attack them, being unwilling to encounter her, and saying, 'If this one sister of that convent has endured without flinching all these trials, since they are all alike, who will ever be able to overpower them?'
[II.40.] Not satisfied with these attacks upon their persons and their property, Eutychius endeavoured also to weaken the argumentative position of the orthodox by making a change in those parts of the Liturgy which favoured their views.
Carrying himself then proudly, in this as in every thing else, and wishing to prove himself a theologian, he formed the purpose of doing away with and abolishing the immemorial custom of the ministrations in the churches, and establishing a corruption of his own composing: he therefore drew up an antiphon for the Thursday in Passion week, and had it copied on tablets, and sent it to all the churches, with orders that the ordinary antiphon should no longer be used, but his own substituted in its place, adding threats and menaces against such as should still venture to use the former one in preference to his own.
But not only the clergy of all the churches and convents and monasteries, and monks and nuns, were in alarm and commotion, but also the whole city and senate: and a general riot was on the |156 point of breaking out, not only on the part of the churches and monasteries, but also of the people of the city. And at length the matter reached the king's ears, to whom it was told by one of the senate: and when the bishop came in haste and hot anger, to complain to the king of these things, he rebuked him very sharply, and said, 'How long will it be before you can moderate yourself, and live in quiet? For see, you have agitated and disturbed the whole city. For how could you imagine that you had authority to change our ancient customs? Look to yourself, that they do not stone you.' To this he replied: 'I assure you, my lord, that what I have composed is far fitter for the occasion than the old one.' But the king said, 'Know that if you had brought your antiphon down from heaven, we would not admit it. Go, and keep to your church: and follow in it what has been established by the ancient fathers.' And so his vehemence was checked, and his menaces gave place to a discreet silence.
[II.52.] Of a similar change attempted in the Trishagion our author gives some more particulars in |157 the last chapter of this book, wherein he says, that as we have mentioned above the excellent Eutychius was a very eager opponent of the phrase, 'That wast crucified for us,' and wrote strict injunctions to the bishops everywhere to omit this confession from the churches of the cities over which they presided: and at the consecration of all new bishops he exacted a promise that they would cause its entire suppression in their dioceses. But upon their endeavouring to obey this command, the people everywhere, both in the cities and villages, were offended and scandalized, especially in Syria, Asia, and Cappadocia, inasmuch as they had used this phrase from the first. And in many places they resisted, and rose up, saying, 'Though we be hacked to pieces, and burnt, yet will we not deny the God Who was crucified and suffered for us.' And this strife and quarrel continued in every province of the empire even after the death of Eutychius.
[II.41.] In this persecution our author suffered chiefly in the unjust legal proceedings taken against him respecting some property. For this, John, generally known as Superintendent of the heathen, and who was bishop of Ephesus, after all the trials and imprisonments and persecutions and banishments which he had endured, was required to give up the writings of an endowment which had been granted him by Callinicus, chief officer of the king's household, and a patrician. But John, upon receiving it, had expended upon it considerable sums, having both restored the buildings, |158 and built a church, and erected three cisterns; and finally, had dedicated it as a monastery. But when the persecution broke out, in the time of John of Sirmin, he took from him the monastery, and put into it monks in communion with Chalcedon, and sent its founder into exile to an island in the sea. And when upon John's death he returned from exile, Eutychius demanded of him the deed of gift and all the other writings by which he held the property; and not only so, but also the furniture, and service books, and every thing else belonging to it. And when John resisted, after a lengthened persecution, he finally arrested him, and cast him into prison, and took from him by force all the papers upon which he could lay hands. And while he still lay in prison, he assembled a troop of officials and laymen to try him for refusing to deliver up the furniture. But John was strengthened by the grace of,God, and said to them, 'What furniture and what things demand ye? Is it aught that ye gave, or that some one else gave? He who gave me the furniture would be the fitting person to demand it back. For lo! all the deeds of the endowment that were in my possession ye have already taken away by fraud and violence, without fear of God. Read then, and see for yourselves: is there so much as the name of monastery there, or. any mention of furniture as received by me? If there be, then let it be required of me. For I it was who, to my misfortune, made it a monastery. But if the name do not occur, then was it no |159 monastery when first it came into my hands.' And so, by the grace of God, he made them ashamed of themselves, and they said nothing more to him upon this point; but they took away from him the right of having five loaves at each public distribution of corn , which had cost him three hundred darics, saying, 'These at all events you bought in the name of the monastery.' And even then they did not restore him to liberty, but kept him in prison, until he formally resigned the endowment, and so he was set free.
The two succeeding chapters contain the information respecting Paul, metropolitan of Aphrodi-sias, which we have given above in its proper place: and then follows an account of Deuterius, John's fellow labourer, and subsequently the successor of Paul as bishop of the orthodox communion in Asia. He is spoken of by his former coadjutor in terms of sincere affection, as follows:
[II.44.] 'This Deuterius was a man of industrious and upright habits, who from his youth to old age uninterruptedly, through a period of five-and-thirty years, was fellow-labourer with John in instructing the heathen in the provinces of Asia, Caria, Phrygia, and Lydia, where together they built ninety-nine new churches and twelve monasteries: and throughout this time John confided in him, and trusted in him more than in all besides. When therefore he grew old, and became the victim also of persecution, he appointed |160 Deuterius in his place as bishop of the orthodox in Caria, and intrusted to his charge the churches and monasteries there, among which he laboured, visiting and strengthening them all, until his death, which happened at Constantinople. For he was greatly assisted by Divine grace, which enabled him to discharge efficiently and zealously and manfully the painful duties of his office: and when the synodites pursued him in hopes of getting him into their power, that they might treat him as they had done Paul of Aphrodisias, and substitute him in the place of the other Paul of Antioch, the Lord did not deliver him into their power: and so he fought unto the end the good fight, and arrived at a prosperous old age.
The next chapter treated of the apostasy of the Cappadocian monks, whom Narses had received temporarily into his convent in Bithynia (l. i. c. 39), and we have therefore arranged it with the rest of their history: and possibly the next chapter should have accompanied it, as it is a lament over the confusion and uncertain creed which was occasioned in the monasteries by the persecution, and of which they were an example. As, however, it belongs chronologically to the present time, it has been allowed to retain its original position; and is as follows:
[II. 47.] Upon the visitation of the nunneries, great and small, the inmates were compelled to receive the communion at the hands of their persecutors,; and such of them as submitted, continued to |161 reside as inmates; but some of those who refused, subsequently returned, and again commenced residence. There were therefore now two parties in the nunneries; those who had submitted, and those who had not; and both joined in the whole service, except the actual partaking of the Eucharist. And even when the elements were consecrated by the clergy, and during the actual participation, all had to stand and join in the services, and perform the whole office in common, without venturing to separate one from the other. Such, however, as did not actually partake were allowed to have a special service for themselves, and receive the Lord's supper at the hands of orthodox presbyters. And because of the urgency of the times, they were compelled to submit to these regulations, or they would have been summarily expelled and dispersed; and the chiefs of the orthodox were obliged to keep quiet, and overlook these things, or orthodoxy would have come to a speedy and utter end.
[II.48.] There were at that time at Constantinople some elephants, whose conduct excited wonder and astonishment. Now it may easily happen that those who are given to ridicule will find only an occasion for derision in lighting upon a narrative of the acts of irrational animals in our histories: but we do not record it without reason, or, so to say, foolishly, but first of all for the glory of God, and secondly for the refutation and conviction of heathens and Jews, and of all other |162 mistaken persons, who deny the cross, and reject the dispensation of our Saviour, the sign of which is the cross upon which it was wrought.
These elephants then were part of the spoil captured after a victory, which God gave the Christians over the accursed people of the Magians; and being sent to Constantinople, continued there a long time; and whenever they passed a church, the foremost elephant, who was marching in their front, turned round towards the east, and bowed down his head and trunk, and made obeisance; and then, raising up his trunk, he waved it round, and made the sign of the cross, and signed himself, and so passed on. And next, the second would raise his trunk, and act in the same manner; and the rest in order unto the last. And this we have often seen with our own eyes, while we wondered and praised God, Who had given the knowledge of Christianity even to dumb animals, for the rebuke of those who have the gift of reason, and yet neglect Christianity, and despise the grace of Him Who has saved our sinful race.
And there was another similar practice of these animals equally wonderful and astonishing, and which they never failed to perform whenever the customary horseraces were held in the Hippodrome. For these elephants were always brought in, each with his conductor on his neck; and standing in the Hippodrome opposite the king, they bowed down, and made their obeisance to him to the best of their ability, and as far as |163 their nature would permit. And then each one of them made the sign of the cross with his trunk, and signed himself before the king: while the crowds assembled there were amazed and astonished to see them use the sign of the cross exactly like men. And finally, the king made them presents, and they retired.
[II.49.] Another extraneous subject is an account of a great fire, which, towards the close of Tiberius' reign, and the commencement of that of Maurice, broke out in the very centre of Constantinople, and devastated a great portion of it; so that many estates, some large and some moderate and some small, were simultaneously destroyed, and their owners, even if they escaped with their lives, were stripped and beggared of all they possessed, and with their own eyes saw it fall in one day a prey to the flaming fire.
[II.50.] Now when men of practised learning fall in with these narratives, they will possibly blame the writer, because it may so happen that the same fact is recorded in a confused and disorderly way in several different chapters; be it known, then, in our defence to such as are inclined to find fault, that most of these histories were written at the very time when the persecution was going on, and under the difficulties caused by its pressure: and it was even necessary that friends should remove the leaves on which these chapters were inscribed, and every other particle of writing, and conceal them in various places, where they sometimes remained for two |164 or three years. When therefore matters occurred which the writer wished to record, it was possible that he might have partly spoken of them before, but he had no papers or notes by which to read and know whether they had been described or not. If therefore he did not remember that he had recorded them, at some subsequent time he probably again proceeded to their detail; and therefore occasionally the same subject is recorded in more chapters than one: nor afterwards did he ever find a fitting time for plainly and clearly arranging them in an orderly narrative.
Of this we have an instance in the two next chapters, one giving an account of the lapse of Eutychius into the heresy of the Athanasians, and the other of his attack upon the Trishagion, both of which belong to previous portions of the history.
End of the Second Book of the Narratives of the Church, in which are contained fifty-two chapters.
[Footnotes moved to end and renumbered]
1. As no attempt is made by John of Ephesus to arrange his Narratives in chronological order, I imagine that it was subsequently to the banishment of the four bishops, that the patriarch had convinced Stephan of the soundness of the council of Chalcedon, by the extraordinary arguments recorded in c. 16, and as he still continued in communion with Chalcedon, though refusing to be reconsecrated, and was supported in this by Justin, he was now dwelling at Constantinople in full possession of the influence which, as our author mentions above, he obtained over the weak mind of the king.
2. So Dionysius, in his Chronicle, quoted by Ass. B. O. ii. 6. 'Paul who had been consecrated patriarch of Antioch, by Jacob Burdoho, was by birth of Alexandria, and having partaken of the communion with John the Chalcedonian, for the sake of peace, he was deposed and ejected; and further, because he had secretly consecrated a patriarch of Alexandria;' (of which we shall see more hereafter in the history of Longinus).
3. The hospital of Eubulus was a late foundation at Constantinople, having been built in the reign of Justin I, and must have been situated near the great church of St. Sophia, as the Alexandrine chronicle mentions that when that edifice perished by fire, the hospitals of Sampson and Eubulus were also destroyed, and the sick in them perished in the flames. Du Fresne Con. Chr. ii. 163.