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 inability and evasive replies, so that the heretics were as far off as ever from being countenanced by the Papal chair. Vigilius even thought it prudent to purge himself of any suspicion of heresy by writing to Justinian and the Patriarch Menna, who had succeeded Anthimus, in terms which left no doubt of his orthodoxy. As for Silverius, his first place of exile was Lycia, and from thence reports were sent up to the Court representing that he had been wrongfully accused. Justinian was thus influenced to issue a mandate for him to return to Italy, and clear himself, but, as he drew near to Rome, he was again arrested and deported to the isle of Palmaria, where he died within the year. It was generally believed that he perished gradually through inanition, the result of his being kept on a very meagre diet by Vigilius; but the definite statement of Procopius that he was made away with by one Eugenius, an assassin suborned by Antonina at the instance of Theodora, has the strongest claims on our credence.

After the death of Silverius, the theological peace of the West remained undisturbed for several years; but Justinian and Theodora at New Rome never flagged in their efforts to approach from opposite sides the goal of union between the two great Christian sects. After the deposition of Anthimus, however, the Emperor felt that he had been too yielding to the heretics; and he now allowed the Orthodox bishops of the East to give practical effect to their abhorrence of the Monophysites. It must be admitted, indeed, that the mem-*