Various efforts of the popes at Rome and the exarchs at Ravenna, both peaceful and otherwise, met with persistent refusal to renew the bonds of unity until the election of Candidianus (606 or 607) as Metropolitan of Aquileia (in Grado). Weary of fifty years' schism, those of his suffragans whose sees lay within the empire joined him in submission to Rome; his mainland suffragans among the Lombards persisted in the schism. They went further and elected in Aquileia itself, patriarch John the Abbot (606 or 607) so that henceforth there were two little patriarchates in northern Italy, Aquileia in Grado and Old-Aquileia, residing in the fortress of Cormons.