former returned in a short time to the bar, and
fell in love with a young lady called Hermione. John lamented his fall
with bitter tears before God, and brought him back to his holy institute
by two tender and pathetic exhortations to penance, "which breathe an
eloquence above the power of what seems merely human," says Sozomen. Not
long after, hearing that the bishops of the province were assembled at
Antioch, and deliberated to raise him and Basil to the episcopal
dignity, he privately withdrew, and lay hid till the vacant sees were
filled. Basil was made bishop of Raphanaea near Antioch; and had no other
resource in his grief for his promotion, but in tears and complaints
against his friend who had betrayed him into so perilous a charge. John,
being then twenty-six years old, wrote to him in his own justification
six incomparable books, Of the Priesthood.

Four years after, in 374, he retired into the mountains near Antioch,
among certain holy anchorets who peopled them, and whose manner of life
is thus described by our saint:[6] They devoted all the morning to
prayer, pious reading, and meditating on the holy scriptures. Their food
was bread with a little salt; some added oil, and those who were very
weak, a few herbs or pulse; no one ever ate before sunset. After the
refection it was allowed to converse with one another, but only on
heavenly things. They always closed their night-prayers with the
remembrance of the last judgment, to excite themselves to a constant
watchfulness and preparation; which practice St. Chrysostom earnestly
recommends to all Christians with the evening examination.[7] These
monks had no other bed than a mat spread on the bare ground. Their
garments were made of the rough hair of goats or camels, or of old
skins, and such as the poorest beggars would not wear, though some of
them were of the richest families, and had been tenderly brought up.
They wore no shoes; no one possessed any thing as his own; even their
poor necessaries were all in common. They inherited their estates only
to distribute them among the poor; and on them, and in hospitality to
strangers, they bestowed all the spare profits of their work. They all
used the same food, wore a uniform habit, and by charity were all one
heart. The cold words mine and thine, the baneful source of lawsuits and
animosities among men, were banished from their cells. They rose at the
first crowing of the cock, that is, at midnight, being called