CHAPTER LXXII

THE GREAT REPARATION

There was one event in the years to come which brought a great flood of joy and gratitude into the hearts of the three friends who had been secretaries in the Patriarcheion. It came in the year 437, when they were all three well advanced in years. It was the triumph of innocence, the ultimate reward of justice to the wronged memory of their friend and patron, the Patriarch John of Constantinople. By that time he had already begun to be spoken of by the admiring title of Chrysostom, the Golden-mouthed, which posterity substituted for his actual name.

He had had two successors—Arsacius, who died in 405, and Atticus, who died in 425. Atticus, in spite of the angry opposition of Cyril, Patriarch of Alexandria, had been compelled by the unanimous opinion of the West, as well as of all the best and holiest men of the Eastern Church, to restore the name of John to the diptychs of the Church of Constantinople. Succeeding Patriarchs were no longer fierce anti-Johannites; and in 434 Proclus, who had been a reader and secretary of Chrysostom himself, was elevated to the Patriarchal throne. One day in the year 437, on the festival of Chrysostom, he was pronouncing a panegyric upon him to the people in the great cathedral, when he was interrupted, not only by the loud applause of the assembled multitude, but also by cries, ‘Restore to us our exiled Patriarch! Restore to us the body of our father John!’ Proclus made known to the Emperor the wishes of his subjects, and Theodosius II., 585 who had read with delight the writings of the great orator, and used to speak of him as ‘the teacher of the universe, and the mouth of gold,’ granted the request with alacrity. For thirty years the embalmed body of the martyr had been lying in its humble tomb in the Chapel of St. Basiliscus. Theodosius ordered it to be now removed to the capital. In every city through which the coffin was carried it was received by the rejoicing homage of multitudes of ecclesiastics, as well as of the people. At Chalcedon Theodosius had sent an Imperial tribune to receive it; and he himself awaited its arrival in the midst of his senators and high officials and soldiers. It was now January 27, 438. So vast was the concourse of vessels of all sizes that, in the rhetorical figure of the contemporary historian, ‘the Propontis was transformed into a continent.’ It was night, and the surface of the sea reflected the blaze of innumerable torches, as the citizens poured out in their myriads to welcome back the mortal remains of the Saint who had been expelled from their midst with ignominy and torments. The bier was accompanied in magnificent procession to the Church of the Apostles, where lay buried the former Patriarchs of Constantinople and the Christian emperors, and Arcadius and Eudoxia. No sooner was the coffin laid down than Theodosius knelt before it with his beautiful sister Pulcheria. Then he stripped off his purple mantle and placed it over the saintly relics, and, casting his eyes to the ground and leaning his forehead against the edge of the coffin, prayed aloud for his father and his mother, and that the sins of deadly ignorance which they had committed against God’s holy servant might be forgiven them. Before finally enclosing the corpse in the golden shell which had been prepared for it, Proclus had it seated upon the episcopal chair, and a shout arose and reverberated along the gilded roofs, ’Receive thy throne once more, O Father!’ Then, not far from the graves of Arcadius and Eudoxia, the body was reinterred, and in that ‘great temple of silence and reconciliation’ the mortal remains of the martyr and of his murderer mingled in the common dust.

Philip and David and Kallias were all present in 586 honoured places at this superb ceremony of reparation; for the Patriarch Proclus knew them in old days, and remembered them, and they had been expressly invited to be witnesses of the splendid scenes because they were among Chrysostom’s oldest and dearest friends.

When the service was over, Proclus received orders to conduct them to the palace, that they might be presented to the Emperor. He received them separately, and addressed them in words of the most gracious kindness; for he said that he could not better evince his remorseful reverence for the dead Saint than by showing favour to those whom he had loved.

To Kallias, whose name had been favourably mentioned in a letter from Pope Innocent, and also by the Count of the East, he presented a golden inkstand which had once been used by Arcadius himself—the very one, as Philip remembered, into which he had seen the late Emperor dip his stylus at his first memorable interview with him. And he further conferred upon him the title and rank of Protonotary.

He bade David mention any guerdon he desired, and thanked him for his able administration of Northern Palestine. David asked for, and immediately obtained, some enrichment of the humble Church at Nazareth, and a small largess for a festal day among its citizens.

Then Philip entered, and Theodosius received him with yet warmer cordiality. He had heard from his oldest and most honoured officials of the services which Philip had rendered in the days of the Gothic peril; and Arcadius, among his private memoranda, had left a note requesting that Philip might always be regarded as one whom he loved and honoured. Further, the interview at which Arcadius had bidden him kiss Philip, when he was a little boy not seven years old, had been impressed on the memory of Theodosius II., because it had happened shortly before his father’s death. It is true that in the thirty years which had elapsed since then the dark locks of Philip had become plentifully sprinkled with silver; but the Emperor still remembered his fine presence, and recognised the Imperial ring, with its shining emeralds, which Arcadius had placed upon his finger.

‘Hail, my Clarissimus!’ said the Emperor, smiling.

‘Only a Spectabilis, by your Clemency’s distinguished favour,’ said Philip, bowing low.

‘No!’ said the Emperor; ‘henceforth, after this auspicious day, no less than a Clarissimus. Receive the patent of your promotion; there you will find something more than this recognition of your services by your elevation to the highest rank of nobility; but you must not open it till you leave my presence.’

Philip knelt and kissed the hand of his benefactor. ’But that is not all. We owe you a very deep debt of gratitude, both at Constantinople and Antioch, and I bid you to ask of me any boon that you desire.’

‘Your Imperial munificence has loaded me with so many favours,’ said Philip, ‘and has elevated me to a rank so far above my humble birth, that I have nothing to ask.’

‘Nevertheless, you must ask some favour for my sake, if not for your own.’

‘Sire,’ said Philip, after a moment’s pause, ‘there is a boon which would, I think, be most appropriate to this day of reconciliation. When the Patriarch John was banished, David, Kallias, and I had a very young fellow-secretary, named Eutyches, deeply loved by the Patriarch, as by all who ever knew or ever saw him.’

‘I have heard of him,’ said Theodosius. ‘All who talk to me of those days say that he was beautiful as an angel of God.’

‘And as innocent as he was beautiful, sire. He was most cruelly tortured to death by the Præfect Optatus, at the instigation of bad bishops and priests. The boon which at your Imperial command I ask is, that a little martyry should be built above his grave.’

‘It is but just, Philip. It shall be done at once.’

So over the humble grave of Eutyches rose in due time a little chapel radiant within with lustrous mosaics. Over its small apse was Christ as the Good Shepherd, folding a lamb in His bosom, while others of the feeding sheep looked up at Him. In the ornaments that ran round the walls were the Christian symbols of the Fish, and the Dove with the evergreen leaf, and the ship and palm-branch, and winged genii playing among green leaves and purple 588 vine-bunches. On one wall was Daniel standing naked but unharmed between two lions, like the soul between the lions of Sin and Death. On the other the Three Children trod the flames of the furnace with bright faces and unscarred feet. Underneath the apse was a mosaic of the head of Eutyches, and under it, in Greek, the inscription: