Serapion the Deacon Turns the Clergy Against John

Such was John’s temperament and manner. When he was made bishop, he treated his clergy with more haughtiness than was proper, intending to correct the conduct of the clergy under him. Having rubbed them the wrong way in this fashion, he was disliked by them. Many of them kept away from him as a man of hot temper, and others became his bitter enemies. Serapion, a deacon of his household, led him to turn their minds still further against him. Once, in the presence of the whole assembled clergy, he called out in a loud voice to the bishop: “You will never be able to govern these men, my lord, unless you drive them all with a rod.” This remark stirred up general hostility against the bishop. Not long afterward the bishop also expelled many of them from the church, some for one reason and some for another. And, as usually happens when people in office take such harsh measures, those he had expelled banded together and spoke against him to the people. [a]

What did much to make these complaints believed was the fact that the bishop would not eat with anyone else, and never accepted an invitation to a dinner. Because of this the plot against him spread widely. No one knew for certain his reasons for not eating with others. Some, defending his conduct, say that he had a very delicate stomach and weak digestion, which forced him to be careful about what he ate, and so he ate alone. Others thought it came from his strict and habitual fasting. Whatever the real reason may have been, the fact itself added not a little to the grounds of accusation used by those who slandered him.

The people, however, went on regarding him with love and deep respect because of the valuable sermons he gave in the church, and so those who tried to blacken his name only brought contempt on themselves. How eloquent, convincing, and persuasive his sermons were, both those he published himself and those taken down in shorthand as he delivered them, why should we stop to tell? Those who wish to form a fair idea of them must read them for themselves, and they will gain both pleasure and profit from them.