late town of Cucusus, among the ridges of Mount Taurus, in the
Lesser Armenia. A secret hope was entertained, that the archbishop might
perish in a difficult and dangerous march of seventy days, in the heat
of summer, through the provinces of Asia Minor, where he was continually
threatened by the hostile attacks of the Isaurians, and the more
implacable fury of the monks. Yet Chrysostom arrived in safety at the
place of his confinement; and the three years which he spent at Cucusus,
and the neighboring town of Arabissus, were the last and most glorious
of his life. His character was consecrated by absence and persecution;
the faults of his administration were no longer remembered; but every
tongue repeated the praises of his genius and virtue: and the respectful
attention of the Christian world was fixed on a desert spot among the
mountains of Taurus. From that solitude the archbishop, whose active
mind was invigorated by misfortunes, maintained a strict and frequent
correspondence with the most distant provinces; exhorted the separate
congregation of his faithful adherents to persevere in their allegiance;
urged the destruction of the temples of Phnicia, and the extirpation of
heresy in the Isle of Cyprus; extended his pastoral care to the missions
of Persia and Scythia; negotiated, by his ambassadors, with the Roman
pontiff and the emperor Honorius; and boldly appealed, from a partial
synod, to the supreme tribunal of a free and general council. The mind
of the illustrious exile was still independent; but his captive body
was exposed to the revenge of the oppressors, who continued to abuse the
name and authority of Arcadius. An order was despatched for the instant
removal of Chrysostom to the extreme desert of Pityus: and his guards so
faithfully obeyed their cruel instructions, that, before he reached
the sea-coast of the Euxine, he expired at Comana, in Pontus, in the
sixtieth year of his age. The succeeding generation acknowledged his
innocence and merit. The archbishops of the East, who might blush that
their predecessors had been the enemies of Chrysostom, were gradually
disposed, by the firmness of the Roman pontiff, to restore the honors of
that venerable name. At the pious solicitation of the clergy and people
of Constantinople, his relics, thirty years after his death, were
transported from their obscure sepulchre to the royal city. The emperor
Theodosius advanced to receive them as far as Chalcedon; and, fallin