Pope Harmisdas dies in 523; John succeeds…
523 CE
Pope Harmisdas dies in 523; John succeeds him.
While a deacon in Rome, John is known to have been a partisan of the Antipope Laurentius, for in a libellus written to Pope Symmachus in 506, John confessed his error in opposing him, condemned Peter of Altinum and Laurentius, and begged pardon of Symmachus.
He would then be the "Deacon John" who signed the acta (ecclesiastic publication) of the Roman synod of 499 and 502; the fact the Roman church only had seven deacons at the time makes identifying him with this person very likely.
He may also be the "Deacon John" to whom Boethius dedicated three of his five religious tractates, or treatises, written between 512 and 520.
John is very frail when he is elected to the papacy as Pope John I.
Despite his protests, Pope John is sent by the Arian King Theodoric to Constantinople to secure a moderation of a decree against the Arians, issued in 523, of Emperor Justin, ruler of the East.
Theodoric threatens that if John should fail in his mission, there would be reprisals against the orthodox, or non-Arian, Catholics in the West.
John proceeds to Constantinople with a considerable entourage: his religious companions include Bishop Ecclesius of Ravenna, Bishop Eusebius of Fanum Fortunae, and Sabinus of Campania His secular companions are the senators Flavius Theodorus, Inportunus, Agapitus, and the patrician Agapitus.
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