CHAPTER XXVIII

EFFORTS OF INNOCENT, BISHOP OF ROME, TO CONVENE A COUNCIL AND PROCURE THE RECALL OF JOHN. DEATH OF JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

INNOCENT, bishop of Rome, was very anxious, as appears by his letters, to procure the recall of John. He sent five bishops and two presbyters with the bishops who had not returned from the East, to the emperors Honorius and Arcadius to request the convocation of a council, and solicit them to name the time and place. The enemies of John at Constantinople brought the embassy into disrepute by their calumnies, and caused the ambassadors to be ignominiously dismissed under the pretext that indignity had been offered to the emperor of the East. John was at the same time condemned by an imperial edict to a remoter place of banishment, and soldiers were sent to conduct him to Pityuntum, the spot appointed by the emperor. It is said that during this journey, Basilicus, the martyr, appeared to him at Comana in Armenia, and apprised him of the time of his death. Being attacked with pain in the head, and being unable to bear the heat of the sun, he could not prosecute his journey, but closed his life in this town.