Letter 827

To Severus, of the former prefects [a retired praetorian prefect]. Smitten with envy on account of the surpassing virtue of John, the bishop of Constantinople [John Chrysostom], certain of the bishops, having set aside the fear of God, contrived a plot against a man inspired by God and truly a lamp for the whole world; and they so worked upon the emperor himself, most pious and most guileless as he was, that they prevailed on him to yield to their intrigues and to banish that heavenly man. Since, therefore, these malicious shepherds are in their conduct like plagues, and the emperor, carried away by their machinations, gave his assent, fittingly did the prophet cry out: "He stretched out his hand together with a plague." Yet after the exile of the righteous man, most of those who joined in the plot, together with its contrivers, were called to account by God and made to pay the penalty; and with weeping and outcry they confessed that they had greatly sinned against the holy man.

Φθόνῳ πληγέντες τινὲς τῶν ἐπισκόπων διὰ τὴν ἄκραν ἀρετὴν Ἰωάννου τοῦ ἐπισκόπου Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, τὸν θεῖον παρυσάμενοι φόβον, συνεσκευάσαντο ἄνδρα ἔνθεον, καὶ ἀληθῶς παντὸς τοῦ κόσμου λαμπτῆρα, καὶ παρεσκεύασαν καὶ αὐτὸν τὸν βασιλέα εὐλαβέστατον καὶ ἁπλούστατον ὄντα, εἶξαι ταῖς ἐπιβουλαῖς αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐξορίσαι τὸν οὐράνιον ἄνθρωπον. Ἐπειδὴ οὖν λοιμοῖς τὸν τρόπον τοῖς βασκάνοις ποιμέσιν ὑπάρχουσιν, ὁ βασιλεὺς ἐκ συναρπαγῆς συγκατέθετο, εἰκότως ὁ προφήτης ἐβόα· Ἐξέτεινε τὴν χεῖρα αὐτοῦ μετὰ λοιμοῦ. Πλὴν ὅτι μετὰ τὴν ἐξορίαν τοῦ δικαίου οἱ πλεῖστοι μετὰ τῶν συσκευασαμένων, πρὸς τοῦ Θεοῦ ἀπητήθησαν δίκας, καὶ μετὰ κλαυθμοῦ καὶ κραυγῆς ἐξωμολογήσαντο, μεγάλα ἡμαρτηκέναι εἰς τὸν ἅγιον ἄνθρωπον.