al menace to the emperor and induced the latter to procure
his murder. Justin ruled for nine years. He was an experienced soldier,
but illiterate, and personally unequal to the task of imperial government.
The guiding spirit of his administration was his nephew Justinian, who was
largely responsible for Vitalian's removal. In fact the reign of Justin
served as a brief introduction to the long rule of Justinian himself, whom
his uncle crowned as his colleague in 527 A. D., and who became sole
emperor at the latter's death in the same year.

*Justinian's imperial policy.* Justinian was by birth a Latin peasant from
near Scupi (modern Uskub) in Upper Moesia, but through his uncle he had
been able to enjoy all the educational advantages offered by the schools
of Constantinople. In public life he showed himself a laborious and
careful administrator, of an extremely autocratic, and yet at the same
time somewhat vacillating, character. He was a devout Christian, zealous
for the propagation of the orthodox faith, with a strong liking for, and
considerable learning in, questions of dogmatic theology. He regarded
religious and secular affairs as equally subject to the imperial will, and
in each sphere he exercised absolute authority. In him the ideal of
autocracy found its most perfect embodiment.

The goal of Justinian's imperial policy was the recovery of the lands of
the western empire from their Germanic rulers and the reestablishment of
imperial unity in the person of the eastern emperor. The attainment of
unity of belief throughout the Christian world he regarded as no less
important than that of political unity: one empire, one church, was his
motto.

*Reconciliation with the western Church: 519 A. D.* The way was paved for
the reconquest of the Roman West by a reconciliation with the Roman bishop
Hormisdas, as a result of which orthodoxy was once more formally received
at Constantinople and a persecution of the monophysites and other heretics
inaugurated in the eastern empire (519 A. D.). Although this union with
Rome was brought about while the influence of Vitalian was predominant, it
had the cordial support of Justinian, who recognized that the good will of
the clergy and the Roman population of the western provinces would in this
way be won for the eastern emperor. Such proved to be the case, and the
subsequent wars for the recovery of the West assumed the aspect of
crusades for the deliverance of the followers of th