Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume II/Sozomen/Book VIII/Chapter 7
Chapter VII.—Concerning Eutropius, Chief of the Eunuchs, and the Law enacted by him. On being turned from the Church, he was put to Death. Murmurs against John.
Eutropius was originally the chief of the eunuchs, and was the first and only person of that rank of whom we have known or heard who attained the consular and patrician dignity.[1]
When he was raised to present power, he thought not of the future, nor
of the instability of human affairs, but caused those who sought an
asylum in churches to be thrust out. He treated Pentadia, the wife of
Timasius, in this manner. Timasius was a general in the army, capable
and much feared; but Eutropius procured an edict for his banishment to
Pasis in Egypt, under the pretext that he aspired to tyranny. I have
been informed that Timasius fell a victim to thirst, or dreading lest
anything worse might be in store, he was caught in the sands there, and
was found dead. Eutropius issued a law, enacting that no one should
seek refuge in churches, and that those who had already fled thither
should be driven out. He was, however, the first to transgress this
law; for not long after its enactment, he offended the empress, and
immediately left the palace, and fled to the Church as a suppliant.
While he was lying beneath the table, John pronounced a discourse, in
which he reprehended the pride of power, and directed the attention of
the people to the instability of human greatness. The enemies of John
hence took occasion to cast reproach on him, because he had rebuked
instead of compassionating, one who was suffering under the calamities
of adverse fortunes. Eutropius soon after paid the penalty of his
impious plan, and was beheaded; and the law which he had enacted was
effaced from the public inscriptions. The wrath of God having been thus
promptly visited on the injustice that had been perpetrated against the
Church, prosperity was restored to it, and there was an increase in the
Divine worship. The people of Constantinople were more sedulous then
than before, in attendance at the singing of the morning and evening
hymns.
Footnotes
[edit]- ↑ Independent chapter. Cf. Soc. vi. 5; Philost. xi. 4–6; Chrys. Homilia in Eutropium eunuchum patricium; homilia de capto Eutropio et de divitiarum vanitate; Claudianus in Eutropium, i. ii.; Eunap. Fragm. ii. 53–56; Fragm. iii. 16; Fragm. iv. 20–23; Fragm. v. 3; Zos. v. 3, 8–18.