Are you then for sending me forth into so great a warfare? and did you think that my soul would be equal to a contest so various in character and shape? Whence did you learn this, and from whom? If God certified this to you, show me the oracle, and I obey; but if you cannot, and form your judgment from human opinion only, please to set yourself free from this delusion. For in what concerns my own affairs it is fairer to trust me than others; inasmuch as “no man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him.”113 That I should have made myself and my electors ridiculous, had I accepted this office, and should with great loss have returned to this condition of life in which I now am, I trust I have now convinced you by these remarks, if not before. For not malice only, but something much stronger—the lust after this dignity—is wont to arm many against one who possesses it. And just as avaricious children are oppressed by the old age of their parents, so some of these, when they see the priestly office held by any one for a protracted time—since it would be wickedness to destroy him—hasten to depose him from it, being all desirous to take his place, and each expecting that the dignity will be transferred to himself. 15. Would you like me to show you yet another phase of this strife, charged with innu- merable dangers? Come, then, and take a peep at the public festivals when it is generally the custom for elections to be made to ecclesiastical dignities, and you will then see the priest assailed with accusations as numerous as the people whom he rules. For all who have the privilege of conferring the honor are then split into many parties; and one can never find the council of elders114 of one mind with each other, or about the man who has won the prelacy; but each stands apart from the others, one preferring this man, another that. Now the reason is that they do not all look to one thing, which ought to be the only object kept in view, the excellence of the character; but other qualifications are alleged as recommending to this honor; for instance, of one it is said, “let him be elected because he belongs to an il- lustrious family,” of another “because he is possessed of great wealth, and would not need to be supported out of the revenues of the Church,” of a third “because he has come over from the camp of the adversary;” one is eager to give the preference to a man who is on 113 1 Cor. ii. 11. 114 It is not possible to say precisely who the electors to bishoprics were at this time, but probably a mixed body of the clergy and leading laymen of the diocese. Chrysostom calls the electors “fathers,” i. ch. 6, and “great men,” ch. 7, and here he speaks of a “council of elders,” which may mean the whole body of clergy of the second order, or a select body of laymen, or possibly the two combined. In one way or other, during the first five cen- turies, the people certainly had a considerable voice in the election of bishops. Socrates, the historian, vi. c. 2, says that Chrysostom himself was chosen for the See of Constantinople “by the common vote of all, clergy and people.” Pope Leo (A.D. 440–461) lays down the rule that “when the election of a bishop is handled he is to be preferred who is demanded by the unanimous consent of clergy and people.” Epist. 84. A law of the Emperor Justinian restricted the right of election to the clergy and the “optimates” or people of chief rank. 74 Book III