CHAPTER V

JOHN DRAWS DOWN UPON HIMSELF THE DISPLEASURE OF MANY PERSONS OF RANK AND POWER. OF THE EUNUCH EUTROPIUS

AS long as John attacked the clergy only, the machinations of his enemies were utterly powerless; but when he proceeded to rebuke the nobles also with his characteristic vehemence, the tide of unpopularity began to set against him with far greater impetus, and the stories which were told to his disparagement found many attentive listeners. This growing prejudice was not a little increased by an oration which he pronounced at that time against Eutropius, the chief eunuch of the imperial bed-chamber, and the first of all eunuchs that was admitted to the dignity of consul. He desiring to inflict vengeance on certain persons who had taken refuge in the churches, induced the emperor to make a law excluding delinquents from the privilege of sanctuary, and authorizing the seizure of those who had sought the shelter of the sacred edifices. But its author was punished for this almost immediately; for scarcely had the law been promulgated, before Eutropius himself, having incurred the displeasure of the emperor, fled for protection to the church. The bishop therefore, while Eutropius trembling with fear lay under the table of the altar, mounting the pulpit from which he was accustomed to address the people in order to be the more distinctly heard, uttered the severest invective against him: an act that excited general disgust, as it seemed not only to deny compassion to the wretched, but to add insult to cruelty. By the emperor’s order however, Eutropius though bearing the consulate, was decapitated, and his name effaced from the list of consuls, that of Theodore his colleague being alone suffered to remain as in office for that year. John is said to have afterwards used the same licence towards Gaïnas, who was then commander-in-chief of the army; treating him with excessive rudeness, because he had presumed to request the emperor to assign the Arians, with whom he agreed in sentiment, one of the churches within the city. Many others also of the higher orders, for a variety of causes, were censured by him with the same unceremonious freedom, so that by these means he created many powerful adversaries. Theophilus bishop of Alexandria had been plotting his overthrow from the moment of his having been compelled to ordain him; and concerted measures for this purpose in secret, both with the friends who were around him, as well as by letter with such as were at a distance. It was not so much the boldness with which John lashed whatever was obnoxious to him, that affected Theophilus, as his own failure to place his favourite presbyter Isidore in the episcopal chair of Constantinople. Such was the state of John’s affairs at that time, mischief having thus threatened him at the very commencement of his episcopate. But we shall enter into these things more at large as we proceed.