CHAP.

9

XXXIX. ample dominion both in heaven and earth; who had been declared in a numerous fynod to be pure from all fin, and exempt from all judgment ". When the chair of St. Peter was difputed by Symmachus and Laurence, they appeared at his fummons before the tribunal of an Arian monarch, and he confirmed the election of the most worthy or the most obfequious candidate. At the end of his life, in a moment of jealoufy and refentment, he prevented the choice of the Romans, by nominating a pope in the palace of Revenna. The danger and furious contefts of a schifm were mildly restrained, and the last decree of the fenate was enacted to extinguifh, if it were poffible, the scandalous venality of the papal elections 22.

Vices of

his go

I have descanted with pleasure on the fortunate vernment. condition of Italy; but our fancy must not hastily conceive that the golden age of the poets, a race of men without vice or mifery, was realifed under the Gothic conqueft. The fair profpect was fometimes overcaft with clouds; the wifdom of Theodoric might be deceived, his power might be refifted, and the declining age of the monarch was fullied with popular hatred and patrician blood. In the first infolence of victory, he had been tempted to deprive the whole party of Odoacer

81 Ennodius, p. 1621, 1622. 1636. 1638. His libell was approved and registered (fynodaliter) by a Roman council (Baronius, A. D. 303, No 6. Francifcus Pagi in Breviar. Pont. Rom. tom. i. P. 242.)

82 See Caffiodorius (Var. viii. 15. ix. 15, 16.), Anaftafius (in Symmacho, p. 31.), and the xviith Annotation of Mafcou. Baronius, Pagi, and most of the Catholic doctors, confefs, with an angry growl, this Gothic ufurpation.

of

84

XXXIX.

of the civil and even the natural rights of fo- CHAP. ciety; a tax unfeasonably impofed after the calamities of war, would have crufhed the rifing agriculture of Liguria; a rigid pre emption of corn, which was intended for the public relief, must have aggravated the distress of Campania. Thefe dangerous projects were defeated by the virtue and eloquence of Epiphanius and Boethius, who, in the prefence of Theodoric himself, fuccessfully pleaded the cause of the people **: but if the royal ear was open to the voice of truth, a faint and a philofopher are not always to be found at the ear of kings. The privileges of rank, or office, or favour, were too frequently abused by Italian fraud and Gothic violence, and the avarice of the king's nephew was publicly expofed, at first by the ufurpation, and afterwards by the reftitution of the eftates which he had unjustly extorted from his Tufcan neighbours. Two hundred thousand Barbarians, formidable even to their master, were seated in the heart of Italy; they indignantly fupported the restraints of peace and dif cipline; the disorders of their march were always felt and sometimes compenfated; and where it was dangerous to punish, it might be prudent to dis

83 He difabled them-a licentia teftandi; and all Italy mournedlamentabili juftitio. I wish to believe that these penalties were en ́acted against the rebels, who had violated their oath of allegiance; but the teftimony of Ennodius (p. 1675-1678.) is the more weighty, as he lived and died under the reign of Theodoric.

84 Ennodius, in Vit. Epiphan. p. 1689, 1690. Boethius de Confolatione Philofophiæ, 1. i. prof iv. p. 45, 46, 47. Refpect, but weigh the paffions of the faint and the fenator; and fortify or alleviate their complaints by the various hints of Caffiodorius (ii. 8. iv. 36. viii. 5.).

3

XXXIX.

CHAP. femble, the fallies of their native fiercenefs. When the indulgence of Theodoric had remitted twothirds of the Ligurian tribute, he condefcended to explain the difficulties of his fituation, and to lament the heavy though inevitable burdens which he impofed on his fubjects for their own defence "5. These ungrateful subjects could never be cordially reconciled to the origin, the religion, or even the virtues of the Gothic conqueror; paft calamities were forgotten, and the sense or fufpicion of injuries was rendered ftill more exquifite by the prefent felicity of the times.

He is provoked to perfecute the Catholics.

Even the religious toleration which Theodoric had the glory of introducing into the Christian world, was painful and offenfive to the orthodox zeal of the Italians. They respected the armed herefy of the Goths; but their pious rage was fafely pointed against the rich and defenceless Jews, who had formed their establishments at Naples, Rome, Ravenna, Milan, and Genoa, for the benefit of trade, and under the fanction of the laws. Their perfons were infulted, their effects were pillaged, and their fynagogues were burnt by the mad populace of Ravenna and Rome, inflamed, as it fhould feem, by the moft frivolous or extravagant pretences. The government which could neglect, would have deferved, fuch an outrage. A legal inquiry was instantly directed; and as the authors of the tumult had escaped in the

85. Immanium expenfarum pondus. yet these are no more than words.

...

pro ipforum falute, &c.;

86 The Jews were settled at Naples (Procopius, Goth. 1.i. c. 8. ), at Genoa (Var. ii. 28. iv. 33.), Milan (v 37.), Rome (iv. 43.) See likewife Bafnage, Hift. des Juifs, tom. viii. c. 7. P. 254.

crowd,

XXXIX.

crowd, the whole community was condemned to CHAP. repair the damage; and the obftinate bigots who refused their contributions, were whipped through the streets by the hand of the executioner. This fimple act of juftice exafperated the difcontent of the Catholics, who applauded the merit and patience of these holy confeffors; three hundred pulpits deplored the perfecution of the church, and if the chapel of St. Stephen at Verona was demolished by the command of Theodoric, it is probable that some miracle hoftile to his name and dignity had been performed on that facred theatre. At the close of a glorious life, the king of Italy discovered that he had excited the hatred of a people whofe happiness he had so affiduously laboured to promote; and his mind was foured by indignation, jealoufy, and the bitterness of unrequited love. The Gothic conqueror condefcended to difarm the unwarlike natives of Italy, interdicting all weapons of offence, and excepting only a fmall knife for domeftic use. The deliverer of Rome was accused of confpiring with the vileft informers against the lives of fenators whom he sufpected of a fecret and treasonable correspondence with the Byzantine court". After the death of Anaftafius, the diadem had been placed on the head of a feeble old man ; but the powers of government were affumed by his nephew Juftinian, who already meditated the extirpation of heresy,

87 Rex avidus communis exitii, &c. (Boethius, 1. i. p. 59 ): rex dolum Romanis tendebat (Anonym. Valef. p. 723.). Thefe are hard words: they speak the passions of the Italians, and those (I fear) of Theodoric himself.

and

XXXIX.

1

CHAP. and the conquest of Italy and Africa. A rigorous law which was published at Conftantinople, to reduce the Arians by the dread of punishment within the pale of the church, awakened the just refentment of Theodoric, who claimed for his diftreffed brethren of the East, the fame indulgence which he had so long granted to the Catholics of his dominions. At his ftern command, the Roman pontiff, with four illuftrious fenators, embarked on an embaffy, of which he must have alike dreaded the failure or the fuccefs. The fingular veneration fhewn to the first pope who had vifited Conftantinople was punished as a crime by his jealous monarch; the artful or peremptory refufal of the Byzantine court might excufe an equal, and would provoke a larger, measure of retaliation; and a mandate was prepared in Italy to prohibit, after a stated day, the exercise of the Catholic worship, By the bigotry of his fubjects and enemies, the most tolerant of princes was driven to the brink of perfecution; and the life of Theodoric was too long, fince he lived to condemn the virtue of Boethius and Symmachus 58.

Character, studies, and honours of Boethius.

88

The fenator Boethius " is the laft of the Romans whom Cato or Tully could have acknowledged

88 I have laboured to extract a rational narrative from the dark, concife, and various hints of the Valesian Fragment (p. 722, 723, 724), Theophanes (p. 145.), Anaftafius (in Johanne, p. 35.), and the Hift. Mifcella (p. 103. edit. Muratori). A gentle preffure and paraphrase of their words, is no violence. Confult likewife Muratori (Annali d'Italia, tom. iv. p. 471–478.), with the Annals and Breviary (tom. i. 259-263.) of the two Pagi's, the uncle and the nephew.

89 Le Clerc has compofed a critical and philofophical life of Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (Bibliot. Choifie, tom. xvi. p. 168