|
THE people of Constantinople were made acquainted with the decree of
the council towards the evening; and they immediately rose up in
sedition. At the break of day they ran to the church, and shouted,
among many other plans, that a larger council ought to be convened to
take cognizance of the matter; and they prevented the officers, who
had been sent by the emperor to convey John into banishment, from
carrying the edict into execution. John, apprehensive lest another
accusation should be preferred against him, under the pretext that he
had disobeyed the mandate of the emperor, or excited an insurrection
among the people, when the multitude was dispersed, secretly made his
escape from the church at noon, three days after his deposition. When
the people became aware that he had gone into exile, the sedition
became serious, and many insulting speeches were uttered against the
emperor and the council; and particularly against Theophilus and
Severian, who were regarded as the originators of the plot. Severian
happened to be teaching in the church at the very time that these
occurrences were taking place; and he took occasion to commend the
deposition of John, and stated that, even supposing him guiltless of
other crimes, John deserved to be deposed on account of his pride;
because, while God willingly forgives men all other sins, he resists
the proud. At this discourse the people became restive under the
wrong, and renewed their wrath, and fell into unrestrainable revolt.
They ran to the churches, to the market places, and even to the
palace of the emperor, and with howls and groans demanded the recall of
John. The empress was at length overcome by their importunity; and
she persuaded her husband to yield to the wishes of the people. She
quickly sent a eunuch, named Briso, in whom she placed confidence,
to bring back John from Prenetus, a city of Bithynia; and protested
that she had taken no part in the machinations that had been carded on
against him, but had, on the contrary, always respected him as a
priest and the initiator of her children.
When John, on his journey homeward, reached the suburbs belonging to
the empress, he stopped near Anaplus; and refused to reenter the city
until the injustice of his deposition had been recognized by a larger
synod of bishops; but as this refusal tended to augment the popular
excitement, and led to many public declamations against the emperor and
the empress, he allowed himself to be persuaded to enter the city.
The people went to meet him, singing psalms composed with reference to
the circumstances; many carried light wax tapers. They conducted him
to the church; and although he refused, and frequently affirmed that
those who had condemned him ought first to reconsider their vote, yet
they compelled him to take the episcopal throne, and to speak peace to
the people according to the custom of the priests. He then delivered
an extemporaneous discourse, in which, by a pleasing figure of
speech, he declared that Theophilus had meditated an injury against
his church, even as the king of Egypt had contemplated the violation
of Sarah, the wife of the patriarch Abraham, which is recorded in
the books of the Hebrews: he then proceeded to commend the zeal of the
people, and to extol the emperor and the empress for their good will to
him; he stirred the people to much applause and good acclaim for the
emperor and his spouse, so that he had to leave his speech half ended.
|
|