|
Being such in disposition and manners, and promoted to the
episcopacy, John was led to conduct himself toward his clergy with
more than proper superciliousness, designing to correct the morals of
the clergy under him. Having thus chafed the temper of the
ecclesiastics, he was disliked by them; and so many of them stood
aloof from him as a passionate man, and others became his bitter
enemies. Serapion, a deacon of his retinue, led him to alienate
their minds still more from him; and once in presence of the whole
assembled clergy he cried out with a loud voice to the bishop--'You
will never be able to govern these men, my lord, unless you drive them
all with a rod.' This speech of his excited a general feeling of
animosity against the bishop; the bishop also not long after expelled
many of them from the church, some for one cause, and some for
another. And, as it usually happens when persons in office adopt such
violent measures, those who were thus expelled by him formed
combinations and inveighed against him to the people. What contributed
greatly to gain credence for these complaints was the fact that the
bishop was not willing to eat with any one else, and never accepted an
invitation to a feast. On account of this the plot against him became
widespread. His reasons for not eating with others no one knew with
any certainty, but some persons in justification of his conduct state
that he had a very delicate stomach, and weak digestion, which obliged
him to be careful in his diet, and therefore he ate alone; while
others thought this was due to his rigid and habitual abstinence.
Whatever the real motive may have been, the circumstance itself
contributed not a little to the grounds of accusation by his
calumniators. The people nevertheless continued to regard him with
love and veneration, on account of his valuable discourses in the
church, and therefore those who sought to traduce him, only brought
themselves into contempt. How eloquent, convincing, and persuasive
his sermons were, both those which were published by himself, and such
as were noted down by short-hand writers as he delivered them, why
should we stay to declare? Those who desire to form an adequate idea
of them, must read for themselves, and will thereby derive both
pleasure and profit.
|
|