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EUTROPIUS, a reader, was required to name the persons who had
set fire to the church; but although he was scourged severely,
although his sides and cheeks were torn with iron nails, and although
lighted torches were applied to the most sensitive parts of his body,
no confession could be extorted from him, notwithstanding his youth and
delicacy of constitution. After having been subjected to these
tortures, he was cast into a dungeon, where he soon afterwards
expired.
A dream of Sisinius concerning Eutropius seems worthy of insertion in
this history. Sisinius, the bishop of the Novatians, saw in his
sleep a man, conspicuous for beauty and stature, standing near the
altar of the church which the Novatians erected to the honor of
Stephen, the proto-martyr; the man complained of the rarity of good
men, and said that he had been searching throughout the entire city,
and had found but one who was good, and that one was Eutropius.
Astonished at what he had seen, Sisinius made known the dream to the
most faithful of the presbyters of his church, and commanded him to
seek Eutropius wherever he might be. The presbyter rightly
conjectured that this Eutropius could be no other than he who had been
so barbarously tortured by the prefect, and went from prison to prison
in quest of him. At length he found him, and in conversation with him
made known the dream of the bishop, and besought him with tears to pray
for him. SUch are the details we possess concerning Eutropius.
Great fortitude was evinced in the midst of these calamities by
Olympias, the deaconess. Being dragged for this reason before the
tribunal, and interrogated by the prefect as to her motives in setting
fire to the church, she replied, "My past life ought to avert all
suspicion from me, for I have devoted my large property to the
restoration of the temples of God." The prefect alleged that he was
well acquainted with her past course of life. "Then," continued
she, "you ought to appear in the place of the accuser and let another
judge us." As the accusation against her was wholly unsubstantiated
by proofs, and as the prefect found that he had no ground on which he
could justly blame her, he changed to a milder charge as if desirous of
advising her, finding fault with her and the otherwomen, because they
refused communion with his bishop, although it was possible for them to
repent and to change their own circumstances. They all through fear
deferred to the advice of the prefect, but Olympias said to him,
"It is not just that, after having been publicly calumniated,
without having had anything proved against me in the courts, I should
be obliged to clear myself of charges totally unconnected with the
accusation in question. Let me rather take counsel concerning the
original accusation that has been preferred against me. For even if
you resort to unlawful compulsion, I will not hold communion with
those from whom I ought to secede, nor consent to anything that is not
lawful to the pious." The prefect, finding that he could not prevail
upon her to hold communion with Arsacius, dismissed her that she might
consult the advocates. On another occasion, however, he again sent
for her and condemned her to pay a heavy fine, for he imagined by this
means she would be compelled to change her mind. But she totally
disregarded the loss of her property, and quitter Constantinople for
Cyzicus. Tigrius, a presbyter, was about the same period stripped
of his clothes, scourged on the back, bound hand and foot, and
stretched on the rack. He was a barbarian by race, and a eunuch, but
not by birth. He was originally a slave in the house of a man in
power, and on account of his faithful services had obtained his
freedom. He was afterwards ordained as presbyter, and was
distinguished by his moderation and meekness of disposition, and by his
charity towards strangers and the poor. Such were the events which
took place in Constantinople.
Meanwhile Siricius had died, after having administered the bishopric
of Rome fifteen years. Anastasius held the same bishopric three
years, and then died, and was succeeded by Innocent. Flavian, who
refused his consent to the deposition of John, was also dead; and
Porphyry, being appointed to succeed him in the church of Antioch,
where he agreed with those who had condemned John, many of those in
Syria seceded from the church in Antioch, and because they made
congregations among themselves, they were subjected to many cruelties.
For the purpose of enforcing fellowship with Arsacius, and with this
Porphyry and Theophilus, the bishop of Alexandria, a law was
established, by the zeal of the powerful at court, that those who were
orthodox should not assemble outside of the churches, and those who
were not in communion with them should be expelled.
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