A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

538 A Source Book for Ancient Church History[491]has befallen you at the very time when, unencumbered, havingcast away secular burdens, you were following the Lord, wereliving together in that land in which the Lord walked with humanfeet, when He said, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I giveunto you”; being, moreover, men of mature age, whose life wasdevoted to the study of the word of God. Truly, “man's life onearth is a period of trial” [Job 7:1]. Alas, that I cannot meetyou both together, perchance that in agitation, grief, and fear Imight cast myself at your feet, weep till I could weep no more,and appeal as I love you, first to each of you for his own sake,and then for the sake of those, especially the weak, “for whomChrist died” [I Cor. 8:11], who to their great peril look on youas on the stage of time, imploring you not to scatter abroad, inwriting, those things about each other which when reconciled,you, who are now unwilling to be reconciled, could not thendestroy, and which when reconciled you would not dare to readlest you should quarrel anew.(g) Socrates, Hist. Ec., VI, 15. (MSG, 67:708.)The fall of Chrysostom.Epiphanius had gone to Constantinople on the suggestion ofTheophilus, and there, in his zeal, had violated the canonsof ordination as generally received. In this case he hadordained priests in the diocese of Chrysostom and without hispermission. Other troubles had arisen. On being called toaccount for his conduct by Chrysostom, Epiphanius hastilyleft the city, and died on the voyage back to his diocese,Salamis, in Cyprus.When Epiphanius had gone John was informed by some personthat the Empress Eudoxia had set Epiphanius against him. Beingof a fiery temperament and of ready utterance, he soon afterpronounced to the public an invective against women in general.