n active and ambitious prelate, who displayed the fruits of
rapine in monuments of ostentation. His national dislike to the rising
greatness of a city which degraded him from the second to the third rank
in the Christian world, was exasperated by some personal dispute with
Chrysostom himself. By the private invitation of the empress, Theophilus
landed at Constantinople with a stout body of Egyptian mariners, to
encounter the populace; and a train of dependent bishops, to secure,
by their voices, the majority of a synod. The synod was convened in
the suburb of Chalcedon, surnamed the Oak, where Rufinus had erected
a stately church and monastery; and their proceedings were continued
during fourteen days, or sessions. A bishop and a deacon accused the
archbishop of Constantinople; but the frivolous or improbable nature of
the forty-seven articles which they presented against him, may justly
be considered as a fair and unexceptional panegyric. Four successive
summons were signified to Chrysostom; but he still refused to trust
either his person or his reputation in the hands of his implacable
enemies, who, prudently declining the examination of any particular
charges, condemned his contumacious disobedience, and hastily pronounced
a sentence of deposition. The synod of the _Oak_ immediately addressed
the emperor to ratify and execute their judgment, and charitably
insinuated, that the penalties of treason might be inflicted on the
audacious preacher, who had reviled, under the name of Jezebel, the
empress Eudoxia herself. The archbishop was rudely arrested, and
conducted through the city, by one of the Imperial messengers, who
landed him, after a short navigation, near the entrance of the Euxine;
from whence, before the expiration of two days, he was gloriously
recalled.

The first astonishment of his faithful people had been mute and passive:
they suddenly rose with unanimous and irresistible fury. Theophilus
escaped, but the promiscuous crowd of monks and Egyptian mariners was
slaughtered without pity in the streets of Constantinople. A seasonable
earthquake justified the interposition of Heaven; the torrent of
sedition rolled forwards to the gates of the palace; and the empress,
agitated by fear or remorse, threw herself at the feet of Arcadius,
and confessed that the public safety could be purchased only by the
restoration of Chrysostom. The Bosphorus was covered with innumerable
vessels; the shores of Europe and Asia we