CIIRYSOST031, ST. JOHN (xpuokyoper, that is, the golden mouthed), the moat renowned of the Greek fathers, was born of noble and very opulent parente, a.e. 354 (some writers say 344 and 347), at Antioch, the capital of Syria. In early life he lost his father Secundus, who was commander of the imperial army in that province; aud his mother Anthnsa, from the age of twenty, remained a widow, in order to devote herself wholly to her son's improvement and welfare. He was educated for the bar, and studied oratory at Antioch under Libanius, who declared him worthy to be his successor, were it not that the Christians had made him a proselyte. He was taught philo sophy by Andragathius, and spent some time in the schools of Athens. After a very successful commencement of legal practice, be relinquished the profession of law for that of divinity. At this time the rage for monachism was extremely prevalent, and Chrysostom retired to a monastery in a mountain solitude near Antioch, where, in opposition to the pathetic entreaties of his mother, he adopted and adhered to the ascetic system with rigid austerity during four years. The man ners and discipline of the anchorites with whom be associated resembled, as described by himself, those of the Eeeenes, in fasting, praying, reading, subsisting on vegetable food, maintaining silence and celibacy, and discarding all consideration of mcum and tuum. (Homil. 72, on Math.; and 14, on Timoth.,' torn. ii.) At the age of twenty three he was baptised by Meletius, bishop of Antioch, after which he withdrew into a solitary cavern, where, without any companion, be spent about two years in committing to memory the whole of the Bible, and in severely mortifying his carnal affections. Having neither bed nor chair, he reposed suspended by a rope slung from the roof of his cave. The damp and unwholesome air of the place reduced him at last to so ill a state of health, that be was obliged to return to Antioch, where, being ordained a deacon by Meletius (381), he com menced his career RS a very eloquent popular preacher, and published several of his declamatory discourses and argumentative treatises. Five years afterwards he was ordained priest, and at the age of forty three was made vicar to Flavianus, successor to Meletins. His fame as a church orator was now so established, that, on the death of Nectarias, archbishop of Constantinople, he was enthusiastically chosen by the people and priesthood of the city to fill that important office. Chrysostom, on this and former occasions, appears to have reiterated with sincerity the soli me episcopari: however, by the mandate of the Emperor Arcadius, he was consecrated and enthroned in 398 by Theophilus, patriarch of Alexandria, who afterwards proved to be one of the most envious and malignant of his enemies.
Chrysostom bestowed upon the indigent the whole income of his large patrimonial inheritance ; and with the revenues of his episcopal see he founded and endowed an hospital for the sick, which procured for him the appellation of John the Almoner. Several times a week ho preached to crowded audiences, and his oratorical sermons were received by the people With such shouts and acclamations of applause that his church became a sort of theatre, which attracted great num bers who had hitherto attended only the circus and other places of amusement. The resolute and fearless zeal of Chrysostom in the reformation of clerical abuses, and in the denunciation of licentiousness among the great, soon began to draw upon him the enmity of a con federate party, whose bitter retaliation finally effected his banishment and death. Much is said by various writers both in commendation and reprehension of his character and conduct. The church historian Socrates describes him as being "sober, temperate, peevish, irascible, simple, sincere; rash, rude, and imprudent in rebuking the highest personages; a zealous reformer of abuses; extremely ready to reprove and excommunicate; shunning society, and apparently morose and haughty to strangers." Such qualities embroiled him in continual quarrels with the secular clergy, courtiers, and statesmen, and espe cially with the wealthy female devotees of luxury and fashion, whom he reproved without the slightest reserve. His zeal for the promotion of his own sect was equalled only by his intolerance towards all others. He caused many temples and statues in Phcenicia to be demolished, and especially persecuted the Arians, refusing them the use of a church in the city, and parading in the streets Trinitarian singers of hymns, with banners and crosses, until the opposition vocalists fell to fighting and bloodshed. The vigour and perseverance
of his efforts to reform the loose ecclesiastical discipline permitted by his indolent predecessor, occasioned the formation of a faction which sought to be revenged by his assassination. In his visitation in Asia, two years after his consecration, he deposed at one time no lees than thirteen bishops of Lydia and Pbrygia; and in one of his homilies (tom. ix., p. 29) he charges the whole episcopal order with avarice and licentiousness, saying that the number of bishops who could be saved bore a very small proportion to those who would be damned. It appears to have been a common custom at that time among the clergy to have each one or more young females residing with them, ostensibly for the purpose of receiving pious instruction as pupils. When there fore Chrysostom enjoined the discontinuance of this custom, as in all cases very questionable, and in many most evidently criminal, he at once excited in a great portion of his clergy the bitterest personal animosity. In his invectives against the vanity and vices of the female sex he used no reserve in reproving even royalty itself. The personal resentment and indignation of the beautiful and haughty Empress Eudoxia was probably therefore the real cause, as Gibbon suggests, of all the disasters by which he was henceforth overwhelmed, for she patronised the confederation which the deposed bishops formed with his adversary Theophilns, who assembled at Chalcedon a nume rous synod, by which there were preferred against Chrysostom above forty accusations, chiefly frivolous and vexatious, which, as he refused to acknowledge himself amenable to such a tribunal, and made no defence, were subscribed by forty-five of the bishops present, who in consequence resolved upon his immediate deposition. He was there fore suddenly arrested and conveyed to Him°. in Bithynia, A.D. 403. This Theophilus is described by Socrates, Palladius, and several others, as a bishop addicted to perjury, calumny, violence, persecution, lying, cheating, robbing, &c. After Chrysostom's banishment, Theophilus published a scandalous book concerning him—a sort of collection of abusive epithets—in which Chrysostom is called a filthy demon, and is charged with having delivered up his soul to Satan. It was translated into Latin by the friend of Theophilus, St. Jerome, who joined in tho abuse. Chrysostom was the idol of the great mass of the people. He was a pathetic advocate of the poor : his pulpit orations were calcu lated to excite their strongest emotions ; when it was known therefore that their popular preacher was banished an alarming insurrection ensued, which rolled on with such fury to the palace gates that even Eudoxia entreated the emperor to recall Chrysostom, for already the mob had begun to murder the Egyptian attendants of Theophilus in the streets. Only two days elapsed before Chrysostom was brought back to Constantinople. The Bosporus on the occasion was covered with innumerable vessels, and each of its shores was illuminated with thousands of torches. The archbishop however gained little wisdom from experience ; for Boon after, when a statue of the empress was set up near the great Christian church, and honoured with the cele bration of festive games, he preached in very uncourteous terms against the ceremony, and compared Eudoxia to the dancing Herodias longing for the head of John in a charger. The result of this offensive conduct was the calling of another synod, which ratified the decision of the former, and again Chrysostom was arrested, and transported to CUCU8118, a place in the mountains of Taurus. Another uproar was made by the mob, in which the great church and the adjoining senate house were burnt to the ground. The death of Eudoxia shortly after wards, and a tremendous storm of hailstones, were regarded by the people as the avenging visitation of heaven. A great number of the poorer classes, who were always Chrysostom's most faithful adherents, refused to acknowledge his successor, and formed for some time a schism, under the name of Johanuites.