A Synod at Chalcedon Deposes John

After Epiphanius had gone, someone told John that the empress Eudoxia had set Epiphanius against him. Being of a fiery temper and quick of speech, John soon afterward delivered a public speech attacking women in general. The people readily took it as aimed indirectly at the empress, and so the speech was seized on by ill-disposed persons and reported to those in authority. At length, when she was told of it, the empress at once complained to her husband, telling him that the insult to her was just as much an insult to him. So the emperor authorized Theophilus to call a synod against John without delay. Severian also helped to bring this about, for he still bore his grudge against Chrysostom. Accordingly, not much time passed before Theophilus arrived, having persuaded several bishops from different cities to come with him; these, however, had also been summoned by the emperor’s orders. Many of the bishops in Asia had been deposed by John when he went to Ephesus and ordained Heraclides. So they all assembled at Chalcedon in Bithynia by prior agreement. [a]

Cyrinus, an Egyptian by birth, was bishop of Chalcedon at that time. He said many things to the bishops to John’s discredit, denouncing him as “the impious,” “the haughty,” “the unbending.” They were very well pleased with these denunciations. But Maruthas, bishop of Mesopotamia, accidentally trod on Cyrinus’s foot, and Cyrinus was so badly hurt by it that he could not sail with the rest for Constantinople but stayed behind at Chalcedon. The rest crossed over. Now Theophilus had shown his hostility to John so openly that none of the clergy would go out to meet him or pay him the least honor. But some Alexandrian sailors who happened to be on the spot, for the grain ships were there at that time, greeted him with joyful cheers. He excused himself from entering the church and took up lodging at one of the imperial residences, called the Placidian. Then, because of this, a flood of accusations began to pour out against John. For now no mention was made of Origen; everyone was intent on pressing a variety of charges, many of them ridiculous.

When these preliminaries had been settled, the bishops met in one of the suburbs of Chalcedon, a place called The Oak, and at once summoned John to answer the charges brought against him. They also summoned Serapion the deacon; and Tigris, the eunuch presbyter, and Paul the reader were likewise summoned to appear there with him, for these men were named in the charges as sharing in his guilt. John objected to those who had summoned him, on the ground that they were his enemies, refused to attend, and demanded a general council. Without delay they repeated their summons four times in a row. And as he went on refusing to meet them as his judges, always giving the same answer, they condemned him and deposed him, giving no other reason for his deposition than that he refused to obey the summons.

When this decision was announced toward evening, it stirred the people to a most alarming uprising. They kept watch all night and would by no means let him be removed from the church, but cried out that his case ought to be decided by a larger assembly. A decree of the emperor, however, ordered that he be expelled at once and sent into exile. As soon as John learned of this, he gave himself up of his own accord about noon on the third day after his condemnation, without the people knowing; for he dreaded any uprising on his account. And so he was led away.