Below are the charges brought against St. John at the Synod of the Oak as they are recorded in J. N. D. Kelly’s appendix in his biography, Golden Mouth. The Sory of John Chrysostom: Ascetic, Preacher, Bishop. These are taken from several sources (e.g., Palladios and the Acta of the Synod as produced by St. Phtotios the Great), but found in Malingrey, 342.100-114 (Sources Chrétiennes).
Some of these charges have no corroboration in any sources, some are simply outlandish, and the rest are clearly matters of “interpretion,” i.e., that the Tall Brothers were Origenists.
Charges Brought against St. John at The Synod of the Oak
I. The Following Charges were brought by the deacon John as follows:
1) He accused Chrysostom of having treated him unjustly by excluding him for having beaten his own servant Eulalios.
2) A monk, John, had, as be alleges, on Chrysostom’s instructions been beaten, taken into custody, and put in chains along with possessed persons.
3) He sold off a large number of valuable objects.
4) The slabs of marble belonging to St Anastasia which Nektarios had set aside for the decoration of the church had been sold off by him.
5) He disparages his clergy as men without honour, corrupt, dissolute, good-for-nothings.
6) He called the sainted Epiphanios a babbler and a little weirdo.
7) He contrived a plot against Severian, letting his flunkeys loose on him.
8) He composed a slanderous pamphlet against the clergy.
9) He convened a meeting of his entire clergy and cited three deacons, Akakios, Edaphios and John, accusing them of stealing his monk’s cloak, suggesting they might have taken it for a rather different purpose.
10) He consecrated Antonios in spite of his having been convicted as a grave-robber.
11) He informed against count John during the army mutiny.
12) He failed to offer prayer either when setting out for church or when entering it.
13) He had carried out ordinations of deacons and of priests without an altar.
14) He ordained four bishops at a single service of consecration.
15) He receives women entirely on his own, excluding all others.
16) He used the services of Theodoulos to sell the inheritance bequeathed by Thekla.
17) No one has any idea where the revenues of the church have gone.
18) He ordained Sarapion priest while still subject to a charge.
19) He had people who were in communion with the whole world shut up in prison by his own decision, and when they died there he paid no attention to them and did not even think fit to give due honour to their remains.
20) He insulted the venerable Akakios and did not even address a word to him.
21) He handed over the priest Porphyrios to Eutropios to be exiled.
22) He also handed over the priest Venerios in an insulting manner.
23) He has his bath heated for himself alone; after he has bathed, Sarapion shuts off access to it so that no one else may take a bath.
24) He had ordained many persons without witnesses.
25) He takes his meals alone, living gluttonously as Cyclopes do.
26) He acts as accuser, as witness, and as judge: this is evident from the affair of Martyrios, the archdeacon, and, it is said, from that of Proairesios, bishop of Lycia.
27) He gave a blow with his fist to Memnon in the church of the Apostles, and while the blood was still flowing from his mouth offered him holy communion.
28) He takes off and puts on his vestments at the throne, and eats a morsel of bread.
29) He also gives money to the bishops he consecrates so that through them he can oppress the clergy.
II. Charges brought against St. John by the Archimandrite, St. Isaac, as follows:
1) With regard to the monk John, already mentioned several times, he had been thrashed out of regard for the Origenists.
2) Blessed Epiphanios refused to hold communion with him because of the Origenists Ammonios, Euthymios, Eusebios and also Herakleides and Palladios.
3) He brings hospitality into discredit, making a habit of eating alone.
4) He says in church that the holy table is filled with Furies.
5) In church he brags loudly, saying ‘I am beside myself with love’; but he ought to explain who are the Furies, and what he means by ‘I am beside myself with love’. For the church is unfamiliar with this language.
6) He offers sinners immunity with his teaching, ‘If you sin again, again repent’, and, ‘As often as you sin, come to me and I shall heal you.’
7) He blasphemes when he asserts in church that, although Christ prayed, he was not listened to because he did not pray in the right way.
8) He is inciting the populace to demonstrate against the synod.
9) He has welcomed pagans who have done Christians much harm, and keeps them in the church and protects them.
10) He trespasses on provinces outside his jurisdiction and consecrates bishops.
11) He insults bishops, and orders them to be ejected from his house without letters of commendation.
12) He insults his clergy with unprecedented rudenesses.
13) He bas forcibly seized deposits belonging to other people.
14) He carries out ordinations without consulting his clergy in synod and against their wishes.
15) He gave hospitality to the Origenists; but when people in full communion with the church who had arrived with letters of communion were flung into prison, he not only did not get them released, but when they died there did not concern himself about them.
16) He has consecrated as bishops other men’s slaves who had not been freed and who were actually of ill repute.
17) It has come about that this Isaac has himself suffered much evil at their hands.
Lux Christi 