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 208 THE DECLINE AND FALL [Chap. xxxix pomp and order of religious worship; the magistrates were instructed to defend the just immunities of ecclesiastical per- sons and possessions; the bishops held their synods, the me- tropolitans exercised their jurisdiction, and the privileges of sanctuary were maintained or moderated according to the spirit of the Roman jurisprudence. With the protection, Theodoric assumed the legal supremacy, of the church; and his firm ad- ministration restored or extended some useful prerogatives which had been neglected by the feeble emperors of the West. He was not ignorant of the dignity and importance of the Roman pontiff, to whom the venerable name of Pope was now appro- priated. The peace or the revolt of Italy might depend on the character of a wealthy and popular bishop, who claimed such ample dominion both in heaven and earth; who had been de- clared in a numerous synod to be pure from all sin, and exempt [a.d.498, from all judgment. 92 When at his summons the chair of St. Peter was disputed by Symmachus and Laurence, they appeared before the tribunal of an Arian monarch, and he confirmed the election of the most worthy or the most obsequious candidate. 928 At the end of his life, in a moment of jealousy and resentment, he prevented the choice of the Romans, by nominating a pope in the palace of Ravenna. The danger and furious contests of a schism were mildly restrained, and the last decree of the sen- ate was enacted to extinguish, if it were possible, the scandalous venality of the papal elections. 93 vices of his I have descanted with pleasure on the fortunate condition ment n of Italy; but our fancy must not hastily conceive that the golden age of the poets, a race of men without vice or misery, was realised under the Gothic conquest. The fair prospect was sometimes overcast with clouds ; the wisdom of Theodoric might be deceived, his power might be resisted, and the declin- ing age of the monarch was sullied with popular hatred and 92 Ennodius, p. 1621, 1622, 1636, 1638. His libel [p. 48 sqq., ed. Vogel] was approved and registered (synodaliter) by a Roman council (Baronius, a.d. 503, No. 6. Franciscus Pagi in Breviar. Pont. Rom. torn. i. p. 242). [It is to be observed that Ennodius applies papa once or twice to Epiphanius.] 92a [There are two lives of Symmachus, one by a partisan of his own, the other by a partisan of his rival. In the main points they agree. See Duchesne, Lib. Pont, i. p. 33.] 93 See Cassiodorius (Var. viii. 15 ; ix. 15, 16), Anastasius (in Symmacho, p. 31), and the xviith Annotation of Mascou. Baronius, Pagi, and most of the Catholic doctors confess, with an angry growl, this Gothic usurpation.