The First Exile 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. 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 […]
Read moreMassacre in the Cathedral When the Emperor Constantius, who then held his court at Antioch, heard that Paul [bishop of Constantinople] had again obtained possession of the episcopal throne, he was excessively enraged at his presumption. He therefore despatched a written order to Philip, the Prætorian Prefect,… to drive Paul out of the church again, and introduce Macedonius into it in his place. … Philip, dreading an insurrectionary movement among […]
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This is indeed heavenly wisdom, to choose rather to endure than to inflict injury, and to be ready, should necessity so require, to suffer, but not to do, wrong. For since injurious conduct is in itself a most serious evil, it is not the injured party, but the injuring, on whom the heaviest punishment must fall. It is indeed possible for one who is subject to the will of God […]
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Chance, Fate or Providence The great majority, however, in their folly, ascribe the regulation of the universe to nature, while some imagine fate, or accident, to be the cause. With regard to those who attribute the control of all things to fate, they know not that in using this term they utter a mere word, but designate no active power, nor anything which has real and substantial existence. For what […]
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What is True Power It is asserted, then, by some profane and senseless persons, that Christ, whom we worship, was justly condemned to death, and that he who is the author of life to all, was himself deprived of life. … it is beyond the bounds of folly itself that they should… persuade themselves that the incorruptible God yielded to the violence of men, and not rather to that love […]
Read moreIn the year three hundred and thirty-nine of the kingdom of the Greeks, in the month Heziran, on the fourth day of the same, which is the first day of the week, and the end of Pentecost—on the selfsame day came the disciples from Nazareth of Galilee, where the conception of our Lord was announced, to the mount which is called that of the Place of Olives, our Lord being […]
Read moreThe Bishop as Architect of the Church The living temple which we all constitute, composed of living stones, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, the chief cornerstone being Jesus Christ himself —-this is the greatest and truly divine sanctuary, whose inmost shrines are invisible to the multitude and are a holy of holies. Only the great High Priest of all is permitted to look within the sacred […]
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