ffer him to proceed, and ran about as if distracted,
loudly demanding in a body the restoration of their holy pastor. The
next night the city was shook with an earthquake. This brought the
empress to reflect with remorse on what she had done against the holy
bishop. She applied immediately to the emperor, under the greatest
consternation, for his being recalled; crying out: "Unless John be
recalled, our empire is undone:" and with his consent she dispatched
letters the same night, inviting him home with tender expressions of
affection and esteem, and protesting her ignorance of his banishment.
Almost all the city went out to meet him, and great numbers of lighted
torches were carried before him. He stopped to the suburbs, refusing to
enter the city till he had been declared innocent by a more numerous
assembly of bishops. But the people would suffer no delay: the enemies
of the saint fled, and he resumed his functions, and preached to his
flock. He pressed the emperor to call Theophilus to a legal synod: but
that obstinate persecutor alleged that he could not return without
danger of his life. However, Sozomen relates that threescore bishops
ratified his return: but the fair weather did not last long. A silver
statue of the empress having been erected on a pillar before the great
church of St. Sophia, the dedication of it was celebrated with public
games, which, besides disturbing the divine service, engaged the
spectators in extravagances and superstition. St. Chrysostom had often
preached against licentious shows; and the very place rendered these the
more criminal. On this occasion, fearing lest his silence should be
construed as an approbation of the thing, he, with his usual freedom and
courage, spoke loudly against it. Though this could only affect the
Manichaean overseer of those games, the vanity of the empress made her
take the affront to herself, and her desires of revenge were
implacable.[32] His enemies were invited back: Theophilus {248} durst
not come, but sent three deputies. Though St. John had forty-two bishops
with him, this second cabal urged to the emperor certain canons of an
Arian council of Antioch, made only to exclude St. Athanasius, by which
it was ordained that no bishop who had been deposed by a synod, should
return to his see till he was restored by another synod. This false plea
overruled the justice of the saint's cause, and Arcadius sent him an
order to withdraw. He refused to forsake a chu