recognised as
lawful Pope even by Laurentius himself.

The disturbances broke out again later on; charges, probably false
charges, of gross immorality were brought against Symmachus, who fled
from Rome, returned, was tried by a Synod, and acquitted. It was not
till after nearly six years had elapsed and six Synods had been held,
that Laurentius and his party gave up the contest and finally acquiesced
in the legitimacy of the claim of Symmachus to the Popedom.

But most of these troubles were still to come: there was a lull in the
storm, and it seemed as if the king's wise and righteous judgment had
settled the succession to the Papal chair, when in the year 500
Theodoric visited Rome, seeing for the first time, in full middle life,
the City whose name he had doubtless often heard with a child's wonder
and awe in his father's palace by the Platten See. His first visit was
paid to the great basilica of St. Peter, outside the walls, where he
performed his devotions with all the outward signs of reverence which
would have been exhibited by the most pious Catholic.[114]

[Footnote 114: Et occurrit Beato Petro devotissimus ac si Catholicus
(Anon. Valesn, 65).]

Before he entered the gates of the City he was welcomed by the Senate
and People of Rome, who poured forth to meet him with every indication
of joy. Borne along by the jubilant throng, he reached the Senate-house,
which still stood in its majesty overlooking the Roman Forum. Here, in
some portico attached to the Senate-house, which bore the name of the
Golden Palm, he delivered an oration to the people. The accent of the
speech may not have been faultless,[115] the style was assuredly not
Ciceronian, but the matter was worthy of the enthusiastic acclamations
with which it was received. Recognising the continuity of his government
with that of the Emperors who had preceded him, he promised that with
God's help he would keep inviolate all that the Roman Princes in the
past had ordained for their people. So might a Norman or Angevin king,
anxious to re-assure his Saxon subjects, swear to observe all the laws
of the good King Edward the Confessor.

[Footnote 115: It is possible that historians somewhat underrate the
degree of Theodoric's acquaintance with Latin as a spoken language.
There was a great deal of Latin used in the Pannonian and Mesian
regions, in which his childhood and youth were passed; and some, though
certainly not so much, at Constantinople, where he