Baring-Gould’s sources: Roman Martyrology. Ado, Notker, Hrabanus, &c. Authorities: — The anonymous historian of the Csesars from Constantius Chlorus to Theodoric, published by Valesius, Anastatius Bibliothecarius, &c.] Theodoric the Goth, in all the earlier part of his reign, showed a spirit of remarkable toleration. Though inheriting the Arian tenets of his Ostrogoth forefathers, he behaved to the Catholics with rigid impartiality. Towards the close of the Gothic monarchy the royal ambassadors to Belisarius defied their enemies to prove a case in which the Goths had persecuted the Catholics.1 Theodoric treated the pope, the bishops, and clergy, with grave respect, in the more distinguished he ever placed the highest confidence. He showed as much reverence, and even bounty, to the church of S. Peter, as though he had been a Catholic. Theodoric himself adhered firmly but calmly to his native Arianism; but, all the conversions seem to have been from the religion of the king 3 even his mother became a Catholic, and some other distinguished persons of the Court embraced a different creed from their sovereign without forfeiting his favour. Theodoric was the protector of Church property, which he himself increased by large grants.
But towards the close of his reign a change of policy was forced on by the imprudence of the Eastern Emperor Justin. In 523 Justin in a terrible edict commanded all Manichseans to leave the empire on pain of death 3 other heretics were incapacitated for holding all civil and military office. The Arians [followers of Arius, who taught that the Son is a created being, not fully God], deprived of their churches and their rights as citizens, appealed to the Gothic king of Italy. It was precisely at this juncture that rumours of conspiracy 1 Procop. de Bell, Gothic ii., c. 6.
reached his ear. Vague intelligence of a correspondence carried on by the heads of the Roman senate with the emperor of the East, arrived at Ravenna. Indignation, not without apprehension, at this sudden, and as it seemed simultaneous, movement of hostility, seized the soul of Theodoric. The whole circumstances of his position demanded careful consideration. Nothing could be more unprovoked than the religious measures of Constantinople, as far as they menaced the West, and assailed those in the East who held the same faith as Theodoric. His equity to his Catholic and Arian subjects was unimpeachable; to the pope he had always shown respectful deference, he had taken no advantage of the contention for the pontificate by Symmachus and Laurentius to promote his own tenets. Even as late as this very year, he had bestowed on the church of S. Peter two magnificent chandeliers of solid silver. He at once arrested Albinus, the chief of the Roman senate, on the charge of holding treasonable correspondence with Constantinople. Severianus Boethius, the senator, was involved in the charge. This consummate master of all the arts and sciences known at that period had been raised to the consulate, and had received high marks of his sovereign’s esteem. His signature, forged as he declared, was shown at the foot of an address, inviting the emperor of the East to re-conquer Italy. He was condemned to imprisonment, and was incarcerated at Calvenzano, a castle between Milan and Pavia.
In the meantime the religious affairs of the East became more threatening to those who held the same religious creed with Theodoric. The correspondence between the monarchs had produced no effect, and Theodoric adopted the strange expedient of sending the pope to Constantinople to remonstrate with the Eastern emperor, and obtain toleration for the Arians. To the pope’s remonS- John /.
strances and attempts to limit his mediatorial office to points less unsuited to his character, Theodoric angrily replied, by commanding the envoys instantly to embark in the vessels which were ready for the voyage.
John I., a Tuscan by birth, was then pope, he had succeeded Hormisdas in 523. Of his acts little is known before he was sent on this expedition, except that he repaired the catacombs of SS. Nereus and Achilles, of SS. Felix and Adauctus. and of S. Priscilla.
S. Gregory the Great, in his dialogues, relates of his journey, how on the way he healed a blind man, and how he rode a horse which after it had borne the pope would never suffer a woman to mount his back. John was received in Constantinople with the most flattering honours. The whole city, with the emperor at its head, came forth to meet him with tapers, as far as the tenth milestone from the gates. The emperor knelt at his feet to receive his apostolic benediction. On Easter Day he said mass in the 'great church, Epiphanius the bishop ceding the first place to the more holy stranger. But of the course and success of his negotiations all is utterly confused and contradictory. By one account, now abandoned as a later forgery, he boldly confirmed the emperor in the rejection of all concessions. By another, he was so far faithful to his mission, as to obtain liberty of worship, and the restitution of their churches to the Arians. All that is certainly known is, that John the pope, on his return, was received as a traitor by Theodoric, thrown into prison, and there the highest ecclesiastic of the West languished for nearly a year and died. Even before his return, Boethius had been sacrificed to the suspicions and fears of Theodoric.
In prison Boethius wrote his great book, “ The Consolation of Philosophy,” which appears as the last work of Roman letters, rather than as eminent among Christian
