John Sent into Exile, and the Church Burned

From then on the most zealous of the people took turns guarding John, posting themselves around the bishop’s residence night and day. The bishops who had condemned him complained of this as a violation of the laws of the church. They declared that they could answer for the justice of the sentence passed against him, and insisted that the people would never be quiet until he had been driven out of the city. When a messenger brought him an order from the emperor commanding him to leave at once, John obeyed, and slipped out of the city unnoticed by those who had been appointed to guard him. He made no other complaint than this: that in being sent into exile without a legal trial or any of the forms of law, he was treated more harshly than murderers, sorcerers and adulterers. He was taken in a small boat to Bithynia, and from there he went straight on with his journey. [a]

Some of his enemies were afraid that the people, on hearing of his departure, would go after him and bring him back by force, so they ordered the gates of the church to be closed. When the people in the public places of the city heard what had happened, great confusion followed. Some ran to the seashore as though they meant to follow him; others fled this way and that, in great terror, since they expected the emperor’s anger to fall on them for causing so much disturbance and uproar. Those who were inside the church blocked the exits still further by rushing at them together and pressing against one another. With difficulty, and only by great violence, they forced the doors open: one party smashed them with stones, while another was pulling them toward themselves, and so was driving the crowd back into the building.

Meanwhile the church suddenly caught fire on every side. The flames spread in all directions, and the great house of the senate, which adjoined the church on the south, was doomed. The two parties accused each other of setting the fire. John’s enemies claimed that his supporters had done it out of revenge for the vote the council had passed against him. John’s supporters, on the other hand, maintained that they were being slandered, and that the deed had been done by their enemies, who meant to burn them in the church. While the fire spread from late afternoon until morning, creeping on to whatever was still standing, the officers who held John in custody took him to Cucusus, a city of Armenia, which the emperor had appointed by letter as the place where the condemned man was to live. Other officers were ordered to arrest all the bishops and clergy who had favored John’s cause, and to imprison them at Chalcedon. Citizens suspected of loyalty to John were hunted out and thrown into prison, and forced to pronounce an anathema against him.