Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II/Volume II/Socrates/Book VI/Chapter 19
Chapter XIX.—Ordination of Arsacius as John’s Successor. Indisposition of Cyrinus Bishop of Chalcedon.
After the lapse of a few days, Arsacius was ordained bishop of Constantinople; he was a brother of Nectarius who so ably administered the see before John, although he was then very aged, being upwards of eighty years old. While he very mildly and peacefully administered the episcopate, Cyrinus bishop of Chalcedon, upon whose foot Maruthas bishop of Mesopotamia had inadvertently trodden, became so seriously affected by the accident, that mortification ensued, and it became necessary to amputate his foot. Nor was this amputation performed once only, but was required to be often repeated: for after the injured limb was cut off, the evil so permeated his whole system, that the other foot also having become affected by the disease had to submit to the same operation.[1]
I have alluded to this circumstance, because many have affirmed that what he suffered was a judgment upon him for his calumnious aspersions of John, whom he so often designated as arrogant and inexorable,[2]
as I have already said.[3]
Furthermore as on the 30th of September, in the last-mentioned consulate,[4]
there was an extraordinary fall of hail of immense size at
Constantinople and its suburbs, it also was declared to be an
expression of Divine indignation on account of Chrysostom’s
unjust deposition: and the death of the empress tended to give
increased credibility to these reports, for it took place four days
after the hail-storm. Others, however, asserted that John had been
deservedly deposed, because of the violence he had exercised in Asia
and Lydia, in depriving the Novatians and Quartodecimans of many of
their churches, when he went to Ephesus and ordained Heraclides. But
whether John’s deposition was just, as his enemies declare, or
Cyrinus suffered in chastisement for his slanderous revilings; whether
the hail fell, or the empress died on John’s account, or whether
these things happened for other reasons, or for these in connection
with others, God only knows, who is the discerner of secrets, and the
just judge of truth itself. I have simply recorded the reports which
were current at that time.