John Dies in Exile

John, taken into exile, died at Comana by the Black Sea on the fourteenth of September, in the following consulship, which was the seventh of Honorius and the second of Theodosius. He was a man, as we have observed before, who out of zeal for self-discipline was inclined to anger rather than forbearance; and the holiness of his own character led him to allow himself a freedom of speech that others found unbearable. Indeed, it is most puzzling to me how, with so burning a zeal for self-control and a blameless life, he should appear in his sermons to teach a lax view of self-discipline. For whereas the synod of bishops accepted repentance only once from those who had sinned after baptism, he did not hesitate to say: “Come forward, even if you have repented a thousand times.” Because of this teaching many even of his friends criticized him, but especially Sisinnius, bishop of the Novatians, who wrote a book condemning this saying of Chrysostom’s and sharply rebuked him for it. But this happened long before. [a]