Phocas of Mar Eusebius, John of Mar Romanus, and Barhabshabba of the Great Monastery of Tel‛eda. Theodosius and Paul exchanged letters to confirm their two churches were in communion, and declare their recognition of one another as legitimate patriarchs. Patriarch of Antioch In 565, at Theodosius' request, Paul travelled to Egypt, with John of Kellia, Leonidas, and Joseph of Metellis, to perform ordinations and manage other ecclesiastical matters in his stead. However, he did not consecrate any bishops in Egypt, and Theodosius died in June 566. Paul aimed to succeed Theodosius as the non-Chalcedonian pope of Alexandria, and slandered Athanasius, the grandson of the Empress Theodora, who was a candidate to become pope as he was popular with the Egyptian non-Chalcedonians. The Egyptian non-Chalcedonians assembled a dossier of complaints against Paul for Athanasius, which was then provided to Emperor Justin II, and Paul consequently abandoned his plans to become pope and left Egypt. Paul took refuge at the encampment of the non-Chalcedonian Ghassanid King Al-Harith ibn Jabalah in Arabia before returning to Constantinople. The tritheist controversy surfaced amongst the non-Chalcedonians in 567, and the situation deteriorated until the tritheist advocates Conon of Tarsus and Eugenius of Seleucia were deposed and excommunicated in 569. Paul came under criticism for his opposition to tritheism, and its proponents claimed he was opposed by Jacob Baradaeus and Theodore of Arabia, to which they responded by formally reaffirming their support for him. In 570, the tritheists appealed to Emperor Justin, and he arranged for a disputation to be held under the auspices of the Chalcedonian Patriarch John Scholasticus of Constantinople. For four days, Conon and Eugenius debated with Paul and Stephen of Cyprus; both Michael the Syrian and Bar Hebraeus erroneously name John of Ephesus as Paul's companion in the disputation. The disputation came to nothing, and the two factions remained in schism. Emperor Justin issued an henoticon (edict of union) in 571 in an effort to end the schism between the Chalcedonian Imperial Church and the non-Chalcedonian Syriac Orthodox Church, but was rejected by most non-Chalcedonians, and he ordered their persecution on 21 March. John Scholasticus invited Paul, who was residing at the monastery of the Acoemetae in Constantinople, and the bishops John of Ephesus, Stephen of Cyprus, and Elijah, to the patriarchal palace to discuss ending the schism, but upon their arrival there they were detained until they had agreed to subscribe to