Arianism; but, all the conversions seem to have been from the religion of the King; even his mother became a Catholic and some other distinguished persons of the court embraced a different creed without forfeiting the royal favour. Theodoric was the protector of Church property, which he himself increased by large grants.a This property, with some exceptions, was still liable to the common imposts. His wise finance would admit no exemptions, but in gifts he was prodigal to magnificence. The clergy were amenable to the common law of the Empire, and were summoned before the royal courts (the stern law would not be eluded) for all ordinary crimes; but all ecclesiastical offences were left to the ecclesiastical authorities." Nor, although the Herulian Odoacer had claimed and exercised the right of confirming the Papal election, did Theodoric interfere in those elections until compelled by the sanguinary tumults which distracted the city. Even then he interfered only as the anxious guardian of the public peace, and declined the arbitration between the conflicting claims, which both parties, hoping for his support, endeavoured to force on the reluctant monarch.

The feuds of the Roman clergy, which broke out on the customary occasion of the election of a new Pope,

"Mater Theodorici, Erivileva dicta, catholica quidem erat quæ in baptismo Eusebia dicta."-Anonym. Vales.

• Note of Valesius to Anonym. at the end of Wagner's Ammianus Marcellinus, page 399.-Var. x. 34 a. 26. These cases belong to the successors of Theodoric. With Gibbon, I reject the story of his beheading a Catholic priest for turning Arian in order to gain his favour! It is most probable that the man had been guilty of some capital crime, and sought to save his life by apostacy. It was not improbably either Theodorus or Count Odoin, who had formed a conspiracy against him in Rome, and was beheaded for his treason: compare Hist. Miscel., p. 612.

P Var. iv. 17, orders to his general Ibas in Gaul to restore certain lands to the Church of Narbonne.

"If," he writes to Count Geberic,

"in our piety, we bestow lands on the church, we ought to maintain rigidly what she possesses already."-Var. iv. 20.

Januarius, Bishop of Salona, is sned for a debt, though for lights for the church; a Bishop Peter for the restitution of an inheritance; the Priest Laurence for sacrilegious violation of a tomb in search of treasure; Antony, Bishop of Pola, for the restitution of a house: compare Du Roure, Hist. de Théodoric, i. p. 358.

See the celebrated privilege accorded to the clergy of Rome by Athalaric.-Var. viii. 24. This, however, was no more than arbitration. "Exceptos a tramite justitiæ non patimur inveniri."-Cassiod. ii. 29. Yet Theodoric, from respect, was unwilling to punish a priest. "Scelus quod nos pro sacerdotali honore relinquimus impunitum."-iv. 18.

Contested

pon- election for

the Pope

and brought them to the foot of their Arian sovereign, may be traced back to a more remote source. A.D. 498. Anastasius, as has been seen, during his short tificate, had deviated into the paths of peace and dom. conciliation. He had endeavoured by mildness, and by no important concession (he insisted not on the condemnation of Acacius), to reunite the Churches of Rome and Constantinople. This unwonted policy had apparently formed two parties in the Roman clergy, one inclined to the gentler measures of Anastasius, the others to the sterner and more inexorable tone of his predecessors. Each party elected their Pope, the latter the Deacon Sym- Dec. 22. machus, the former the Archpresbyter Lauren- A.D. 499. tius. The rival Pontiffs were consecrated on the same day, one in the Lateran Church, the other in that of St. Mary. At the head of the party of Laurentius, stood Festus or Faustus Niger, the chief of the Senatorial order. He had been the ambassador of Theodoric at Constantinople, to demand the acknowledgment of the Goth as King of Italy. He had succeeded in his mission; perhaps had been prevailed upon to attempt the reconciliation of the two Churches, either by persuading the acceptance of the Henoticon by the Roman clergy, or more probably on the terms of compromise approved by Pope Anastasius. The two factions encountered with the fiercest hostility; the clergy, the senate, and the populace were divided; the streets of the Christian city ran with blood, as in the days of republican strife." The conflicting claims. of the prelates were brought before the throne of Theodoric. The simple justice of the Goth decided that the bishop who had the greater number of suffrages, and had been first consecrated, had the best right to the throne. Symmachus was acknowledged as Pope: he held a synod at Rome which passed two memorable decrees, one almost in the terms of the old Roman law, severely condemning all ecclesiastical

Anastasius died Nov. 17.-Muratori, sub ann.

"Each party charged the other with these cruelties. The author of the Hist. Miscell. asserts that Festus and Probinus, of the party of Laurentius, slew in the midst of Rome the greater part of the

clergy and a great number of citizens: a fragment of a writer on the other side (published by the impartial Muratori) ascribes these acts of violence, slaughter, and pillage, with many other vices, to Symmachus Compare Annal. d'Ítal. sub ann, 498.

ambition, all canvassing, either for obtaining subscriptions, or administration of oaths, or promises for the papacy during the life time of the Pope;" the other declared the election to be in the majority of the clergy, thus virtually abrogating the law of Odoacer. Laurentius (the rival Pope was present at this synod) subscribed its decrees, and returned to the more peaceful, perhaps to a wise man, the more enviable bishopric of Nocera.

Rome. March

A.D. 499.

V

During this interval of peace, Theodoric for the first Theodoric in time visited the imperial city. He was met by Pope Symmachus at the head of his clergy, by the Senate, which still numbered some few old and famous names, Anicii, Albini, Marcelli, and by the whole people, who crowded with demonstrations of the utmost joy around their barbarian sovereign. Catholic and Arian, Goth and Roman, mingled their acclamations. Theodoric performed his devotions in St. Peter's with the fervour of a Catholic. In the Senate he swore to maintain all the imperial laws, the rights and privileges of the Roman people. He celebrated the Circensian games, in commemoration of all his triumphs, with the utmost magnificence; ordered a distribution of one hundred and twenty bushels of corn annually to the poor, and set apart two hundred pounds of gold for the restoration of the imperial palace. The Bishop Fulgentius, witness of the splendour of Theodoric's reception, breaks out into these rapturous words: "If such be the magnificence of earth, what must be that of the heavenly Jerusalem!" Theodoric remained in Rome six months, and then returned to Ravenna.

against

During all this period, and the three or four following Charges years, the faction of Laurentius were watching Symmachus. their opportunity to renew the strife. Fearful charges began to be rumoured against Symmachus, no

"It was the language of the law de Ambitu, applied to ecclesiastical distinctions. It is enacted "propter frequentes ambitus quorundam, et ecclesiæ puritatem, vel populi collisionem, quæ molesta et iniqua incompetenter episcopatum desiderantium generavit aviditas." -Labbe, Concil., p. 1313.

▾ Baronius sub ann. Muratori has some doubts.

X

Anonym. Vales. Vita B. Fulgentii. There are two accounts of these transactions,-one that of Anastasius Bibliothecarius, or the anonymous papal biographer, favourable to Symmachus; the other the anonymous Veronensis, published by Muratori. I have endeavoured to harmonize them. Both agree that some years elapsed between the accession of Symmachus and this new contest.

less than adultery," and the alienation of the property of the see. Faustus, his implacable adversary, with the Consul Probinus and great part of the Senate, supported these criminations. The accusation was brought before the judgment seat of Theodoric, supported by certain Roman females of rank, who had been suborned, it was said, by the enemies of Symmachus. Symmachus was summoned to Ravenna, and confined in Rimini. But finding Tumults in the prejudices in Ravenna darkening against him, Rome. he escaped and returned to Rome. Laurentius had also secretly entered the capital. The sanguinary tumults between the two factions broke out with greater fury; priests were sacrilegiously slain, monasteries fired, and even sacred virgins treated with the utmost indignity. The A.D. 503. Senate petitioned the King to send a visitor to judge the cause of the Pontiff. A royal commission was issued to Peter, Bishop of Altino. But instead of a calm mediator between the conflicting parties, or an equitable judge, the visitor threw himself into the party of Laurentius." The possessions of the Church were, in part at least, seized and withholden from Symmachus; he was commanded to give up the slaves of his household that they might be examined, it should seem, by torture according to the ancient usage.

с

Theodoric, still declining the jurisdiction over these ecclesiastical offences, summoned a synod of Synods of Italian prelates to meet at Rome. The synod Rome. held two successive sessions, and throughout their proceedings may be traced their consciousness of their embarrassing position, which is increased as the reports of these proceedings have passed through later writers.d

Anonym. Veron.-confirmed by Ennodius, p. 1366.

a Ennod. Apologet. pro Synod., p. 987. b This corresponded with the two heads of accusation. The former provided against the alleged alienation of the church property, the latter referred to that of adultery.

This is a remarkable fact, in the first place, showing that slaves formed the household of the Pope, and that, by law, they were yet liable to torture. This seems clear from the words of Ennodius, "Sed, credo, replicabitis: veri

tatem quam sponte prolata in illis vox habere non poterat, hanc diversis cruciatibus e latebris suis religiosus tortor exegerat, ut dum pœnis corpora solverentur, quæ gesta fuisse noverat anima non celaret." Ennodius is so obscure and figurative that he may seem to say, in the next sentence, that this proceeding was illegal, perhaps contrary to the canons. He appears to consider it most contumelious that ecclesiastics should be judged on servile evidence.

The whole question of the number and dates of the synods held at this time.

They were assembled under the authority of a layman, an heretical sovereign, too powerful to be disobeyed, and acting with such cautious dignity, justice, and impartiality as to command respect. They were assembled to judge the supreme Pontiff, the Metropolitan of the west, the asserted, and by most acknowledged, head of Christendom. Symmachus himself had the prudence to express his concurrence in the convocation of this synod. At the first session he set forth to attend the Council. He was at

tacked by the adverse party, showers of stones fell around him; many presbyters and others of his followers were severely wounded; the Pontiff himself only escaped under the protection of the Gothic guard. The final, named the Palmary, synod was held in some edifice or hall in the palace called by that name; of this assembly the accounts are somewhat more full and distinct. Throughout appears the manifest struggle in the ecclesiastical senate between the duty of submitting to the King, who earnestly urges them to restore peace to Rome and to Italy, and the reluctance to assume jurisdiction over the Bishop of Rome. Some expressions intimate that already the Bishop of Rome was held to be exempt from all human authority, and could be judged by God alone. If the Pope is called in question the whole episcopacy of the Church is shaken to its founda

Decree of the
Palmary
Synod.

tion.e

Symmachus, however, had the wisdom to suppress all jealousy of a Council' whose authority alone could com

is inextricably obscure. I chiefly follow Muratori. The synodus palmaris is usually considered the fourth. One, in all probability two, were held by Symmachus before this new strife. The fourth was apparently a continuation of the third, but held in a different placeunless the third was one held by Peter of Altino.

e "In sacerdotibus cæteris potest, si quid forte nutaverit, reformari: at si papa urbis vocatur in dubium, episcopatus videbitur, non jam episcopus, vacillare.' --Avit. ad Senat. apud Labbe, p. 1365. Avitus uses this argument to the senators of Rome, "Nec minus diligatis in ecclesiâ nostrâ sedem Petri, quam in civi

tate apicem mundi ;" but Avitus acknowledges all priests, even the Pope, to be amenable to secular tribunals, of course for secular offences, "quia sicut subditos nos esse terrenis potestatibus jubet arbiter cœli; staturos nos ante reges et principes in quacunque accusatione prædicens; ita non facile datur intelligi, qua vel ratione, vel lege ab inferioribus (inferior in ecclesiastical order) eminentior judicetur."

"Judicia et iste voluit,amavit, attraxit, ingressus est; et quod posset fideli corda doloris justi aculeis excitare, venerando concilio etiam contra se si mereretur, indulsit."-Ennod., p. 981.