Severian, Antiochus, and the Quarrel with John

The hostility against John Chrysostom was greatly increased by yet another event, which came about in this way. Two bishops were flourishing at that time, both Syrians by birth, named Severian and Antiochus. Severian presided over the church at Gabala, a city of Syria, and Antiochus over the church at Ptolemais in Phoenicia. Both were famous for their eloquence. But although Severian was a very learned man, he never managed to speak Greek perfectly, and so whenever he spoke Greek he gave away his Syrian origin. Antiochus came to Constantinople first. He preached in the churches there for some time with great zeal and ability, and having in this way gathered a large sum of money, he returned to his own church. When Severian heard that Antiochus had made a fortune from his visit to Constantinople, he decided to follow his example. So he trained himself for the occasion, composed a number of sermons, and set out for Constantinople. John received him most kindly, and up to a point Severian soothed and flattered the man, and was himself no less loved and honored by him. Meanwhile his sermons won him great fame, so that he drew the notice of many people of rank, and even of the emperor himself. [a]

It happened at that time that the bishop of Ephesus died, and John had to go to Ephesus to ordain a successor. When he arrived in that city, the people were divided over their choice, some proposing one man and some another. John saw that both parties were in a quarrelsome mood and did not want to take his advice, so he decided to end their dispute without further ado by raising to the bishopric a certain Heraclides, one of his own deacons, a Cypriot by descent. And so both parties gave up their strife with each other and were at peace. Now as his stay at Ephesus grew long, Severian went on preaching at Constantinople and grew daily in favor with his hearers. John was not left unaware of this, for he was promptly told of whatever happened. Serapion, of whom we have spoken before, sent him the news and declared that Severian was troubling the church, and so the bishop was stirred to jealousy. So, after taking their churches from many of the Novatians and Quartodecimans, among other things, he returned to Constantinople.

There he took up again, himself, the care of the churches under his own particular jurisdiction. But no one could bear Serapion’s arrogance. Having won John’s boundless confidence and regard, he was so puffed up by it that he treated everyone with contempt, and for this reason too the hostility against the bishop flared up all the more. On one occasion, when Severian passed by him, Serapion failed to pay him the respect due to a bishop and stayed seated instead of rising, showing plainly how little he cared for his presence. Severian could not patiently bear what he took for rudeness and contempt, and he said in a loud voice to those present: “If Serapion dies a Christian, then Christ did not become man.” Serapion seized on this remark and publicly stirred Chrysostom to hostility against Severian. He left out the condition at the start of the sentence, “If Serapion dies a Christian,” and claimed that Severian had asserted that “Christ did not become man”; and he brought several witnesses from his own party to support the charge.

But when the empress Eudoxia was told of this, she sharply rebuked John and ordered that Severian be recalled at once from Chalcedon in Bithynia. He returned immediately. But John would have no dealings with him at all, and would listen to no one who urged him to. At last the empress Eudoxia herself, in the church called The Apostles, set her son Theodosius, who now reigns so happily but was then a mere infant, before John’s knees. Pleading with him again and again by the young prince, her son, she persuaded him only with difficulty to be reconciled to Severian. In this way these men were reconciled outwardly, but they nevertheless went on nursing a bitter feeling toward each other. Such was the origin of John’s hostility toward Severian.