hich the empress was openly called
Jezebel--a statement which led to the spread of the unfounded scandal
that she had robbed a widow of a vineyard as Ahab robbed Naboth.

The rank and file of the people enjoyed with great zest these attacks on
the aristocrats, and that which stung the great ladies most severely was
their being made objects of censure before the mob, as their consciences
were sufficiently hardened not to be deeply penetrated by the preacher's
shafts. Accordingly, the humiliation of their pride led them to form a
conspiracy against Chrysostom, the centre of which was the house of
Eugraphia. These ladies readily found allies. The archbishop's austerity
of life and rigid discipline had made him many enemies among the
bishops, monks, and nuns, for he had attacked the corruption of the
clergy as well as the corruption of the court. The sensuality, avarice,
and selfishness of the clergy laid them open to attack. Women were
admitted to the monasteries, or lived in the houses of priests as
"spiritual sisters," a custom that gave rise to much scandal. Still more
scandalous was the conduct of the order of deaconesses who, while not
following the fashions of the court, yet adorned their austere garb
"with an immodest coquetry which made them more piquant than an ordinary
courtesan." Chrysostom was especially severe on the monks, who would
linger about Constantinople for the sake of its licentious pleasures
instead of betaking themselves to their natural fields of labor.

Though Chrysostom had his enemies among the fair sex, he had also his
circle of admirers, who were the more ardent in their attentions because
of the persecutions he had to undergo. The most distinguished and the
most devoted of these was the aristocratic Olympias, whose mother was at
one time betrothed to an emperor, but who was wedded to a king of
Armenia, and afterward became the wife of a Roman noble. Olympias was
renowned for her benevolence toward the poor and her constancy to
Chrysostom in his troubles, while her kindness of heart and sweetness of
spirit give her rank among the "good" women of the period. Another
constant friend was a Moorish princess, Salvina, who had been placed as
a hostage in Theodosius's charge by her father, and had been married to
the empress's nephew. In contrast to the restless activity of the ladies
about Eudoxia, she led a quiet and peaceful life devoted to good works,
and Chrysostom, in a "letter to a young widow