Theophilus Quarrels with Peter and Turns on John

Not long after this the monks of the desert came to Constantinople, together with Dioscorus and his brothers. With them also was Isidore, once the closest friend of Bishop Theophilus, but now his bitterest enemy, for the following reason. A certain man named Peter was at that time archpresbyter of the church of Alexandria. Theophilus, angry with him, decided to throw him out of the church. As grounds for his expulsion, he charged him with having admitted to share in the sacred mysteries a woman of the Manichaean sect without first making her renounce her Manichaean heresy. Peter, in his defense, declared that the woman had renounced her errors beforehand, and that Theophilus himself had approved her admission to the eucharist. At this Theophilus grew indignant, as though he had been grossly slandered, and declared that he knew nothing at all of the matter. [a]

So Peter called on Isidore to testify that the bishop knew the facts about the woman. Now Isidore happened to be at Rome just then, sent by Theophilus to Damasus, the bishop of the imperial city, to bring about a reconciliation between Damasus and Flavian, bishop of Antioch. For the followers of Meletius had separated from Flavian in disgust at his perjury, as we have already said. When Isidore had returned from Rome and was called as a witness by Peter, he testified that the woman had been received with the bishop’s consent, and that he himself had given her the sacrament. At this Theophilus flew into a rage and threw them both out.

This was why Isidore went to Constantinople with Dioscorus and his brothers: to lay before the emperor and John the bishop the injustice and violence with which Theophilus had treated them. When John learned the facts, he received the men with honor and did not shut them out of communion in the prayers. But he put off their communion in the sacred mysteries until their case had been examined. While matters stood this way, a false report reached Theophilus’s ears that John had admitted them to share in the mysteries and was also ready to help them. So he resolved not only to take revenge on Isidore and Dioscorus, but also, if possible, to throw John out of his bishop’s chair. With this aim he wrote to all the bishops of the various cities. Hiding his real motive, on the face of it he condemned in them only the books of Origen. Athanasius, his predecessor, had used those same books to confirm his own faith, often appealing to the testimony and authority of Origen’s writings in his orations against the Arians.