John XI of Constantinople
Michael VIII was a crafty man and knew how to make the Patriarch's life miserable by sundry small humiliations, until, in March 1279, John XI quit in disgust, and had to be coaxed back to undertake the job again (6 August 1279).On the day after Christmas 1282, John XI withdrew to a monastery; the former patriarch Joseph I of Constantinople, was brought into the city on a stretcher, and a series of councils and public meetings ensued, led by a group of anti-unionist monks.From there, he began a literary campaign to exonerate himself, and succeeded in having a council called to reexamine his case; it took place at the imperial palace of Blachernae in Constantinople, meeting in several sessions from February to August in the year 1285.He spent the remaining years of his life in prison in the fortress of Saint Gregory, revising his writings, maintaining friendly relations with the Emperor and prominent Byzantine churchmen, but unwilling to give up his unionist opinions; he died in 1297.[9] The basis of John XI's quarrel with his contemporaries was a disagreement with them over the implications of a traditional patristic formula, that states that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father through the Son (in Greek, διὰ τοῦ Υἱοῦ).