Place; and that the great Church had been consumed by Fire, the very Day he was carried out of _Constantinople_. _Innocent_ was greatly affected with this Account, and shed many Tears in reading it. But as these Troubles and Disorders were fomented by some great Men at the Court either of _Arcadius_ or _Honorius_, and a Misunderstanding was then subsisting between the Two Brothers, or their Ministers, he concluded, that his Endeavours towards the restoring of Peace and Unity would prove unsuccessful, and might even blow the Fire, which already burnt with so much Violence, into a greater Flame. [Sidenote: _Who sends Letters of Communion to them._] On these Considerations he wisely forbore making any Application for the present to _Honorius_, and only sent Letters of Communion to _Chrysostom_, and the Bishops, who had espoused his Cause[1418]. [Sidenote: _Letters from_ Acacius _to_ Innocent.] These Letters were delivered to _Theoctecnus_, who was scarce gone, when one _Paternus_, who styled himself a Presbyter of the Church of _Constantinople_, arrived at _Rome_, with Letters from _Acacius_, who had been intruded into the See of _Constantinople_, and from some other Bishops of his Party, charging _Chrysostom_ with setting Fire to the _Basilic_ or Great Church. So barefaced a Calumny provoked _Innocent_ to such a Degree, that he would neither hear _Paternus_, nor return an Answer to the Letters he had brought. [Sidenote: Chrysostom_’s Friends cruelly persecuted_.] In the mean time a most cruel Persecution was railed at _Constantinople_, against _Chrysostom_’s Friends, refusing to communicate with _Acacius_, _Theophilus_, and _Porphyrius_, who had intruded himself into the vacant See of _Antioch_, and, in Defiance of the Canons, maintained, by Force of Arms, the Dignity he had usurped. This Persecution was carried on under a Christian Emperor, with as much Cruelty as any had ever been under the most inveterate Enemies of the Christian Name. The Pretence they made use of was to discover the Authors of the late Fire; and as the Imperial Officers chiefly suspected, or pretended to suspect, _Chrysostom_’s Friends, _Optatus_, who was then Prefect or Governor of _Constantinople_, and a Pagan, laid hold of that Opportunity to vent upon them the implacable Hatred he bore to the Religion they professed. Many therefore, without Distinction of Sex or Condition, were, by his Orders, dragged to the public Gaols, and confined there to Dungeons; others tormented with such Barbarity as to expire on the Rack; and great Numbers, after having undergone repeated Tortures, stript of all their Effects, and banished to the most remote and desolate Places of the Empire. [Sidenote: _Two Edicts enacted against them._]