Then the king, on his return to Ravenna, acted no longer as a friend of God, but as an enemy to His law; forgetful of all His kindness and of the favour which He had shown him, trusting to his own arm, believing, too, that the emperor Justinus stood in great fear of him, he sent and summoned to Ravenna Johannes,The first Roman pope of that name, successor to Hormisdas. who at that time sat upon the apostolic throne, and said to him: Go to the emperor Justinus in Constantinople, and tell him among other things to restoreTo the Arians; see note 1, § 94, p. 569. those who have become reconciled and joined the Catholic Church.

To him the Pope Johannes replied: What you will do, O king, do quickly. Lo! here I stand before you. But this thing I will not promise you to do, nor will I give the emperor your command. But anything else which you may enjoin upon me with God’s help I shall be able to obtain from him.

Thereupon the king in anger gave orders that a ship should be built, and that Johannes should be embarked on it with the other bishops; that is, Ecclesius of Ravenna, Eusebius of Fanum Fortunae,On the Metaurus river, in Umbria; cf. Tac., iii. 50. Also called Fanum, Caes., i. 11, 4 (modern Fano) and Colonia Julia Fanestris; cf. Mela, ii. 4, 64; Dessau, 6651, 6652; xi, 6238, 6240. Sabinus of Campania, and two others; and with them the senators Theodorus, Importunus, and Agapitus, with another Agapitus. But God, who does not desert his faithful worshippers, conducted them in safety.

The emperor Justinus received the Roman bishop on his arrival as he would have received Saint Peter, gave him audience, and promised that he would do everything that was asked, except that those who had become reconciled and returned to the Catholic faith could by no means be restored to the Arians.See note 1.

But while all this was going on, Symmachus, the head of the senate, whose daughter Boethius had married, was brought from Rome to Ravenna. There the king, fearing that through resentment at the death of his son-in-law,Boethius; see 85–87, above. Symmachus might take some step in opposition to his rule, ordered him to be put to death under a false accusation.

Then Pope Johannes returned from Justinus; Theodoric received him in a hostile spirit, and ordered him to be deemed as one of his enemies; a few days later Johannes died. When the people were marching before his dead body, suddenly one of the crowd was possessed by a devil and fell down; but when they had come, with the coffin in which Johannes was carried, to the place where the stricken man lay, he suddenly got up sound and well and took his place in the front of the funeral procession. When the people and the senators beheld this, they began to take relicsCf. Amm. xxii. 11, 10. from the Pope’s garments. Then the body was escorted out of the city attended by the great rejoicing of the people.