Page:The age of Justinian and Theodora (Volume 2).djvu/335

 return to the Placidian palace without fear of being again subjected to physical coercion. Vigilius acted according to these representations and left the sanctuary; but a few months afterwards his apprehensions were renewed and he again determined to vacate his secular residence. One night, just before Christmas (551) he crept out at the back of the premises, scaled a half-built wall, and made his way to the water's edge. A boat was in waiting which carried him across to Chalcedon, and there he took refuge in the Church of St. Euphemia. Within the same walls a century previously had been held the famous Council, of which he had involuntarily become the champion. In this retreat a body of delegates, headed by Belisarius, soon arrived, bearing protests from the Emperor as to his pacific intentions, and offering every inducement for the Pope to return to the capital. Vigilius, however, would listen to no entreaties, but drew up a history of his sufferings in the cause of orthodoxy, which he embodied in an Encyclical and published to the whole Christian world. Justinian now decided that perseverance in violent hostilities would be futile, and that a personal reconciliation with the Pope on any terms would best serve his Church policy. He, therefore, sent Menna and Theodore to offer ample apologies for all that had passed, and to promise Vigilius that he should in future be free to follow his own course with respect to theological doctrine. The Pope accepted their professions, and, after a mutual withdrawal of anathemas, returned to his quarters in the palace of Placidia. *