spent his boyhood.]

This speech of Theodoric's at the Golden Palm was listened to by an
obscure African monk, whose emotions on the occasion are described to us
by his biographer. Fulgentius, the grandson of a senator of Carthage,
had forsaken what seemed a promising official career, and had accepted
the solitude and the hardships of a monastic life, at a time when, owing
to the severe persecution of the Catholics by the Vandal kings, there
was no prospect of anything but ignominy, exile, and perhaps death for
every eminent confessor of the Catholic faith. Fulgentius and his
friends had suffered many outrages at the hands of Numidian freebooters
and Vandal officers, and they meditated a flight into Egypt, where they
might practise a yet more rigid monastic rule undisturbed by the civil
power. In his search after a suitable resting-place for his community,
Fulgentius, who was in the thirty-third year of his age, had visited
Sicily, and now had reached Rome in this same summer of 500, which was
made memorable by Theodoric's visit. "He found", we are told, "the
greatest joy in this City, truly called 'the head of the world,' both
the Senate and People of Rome testifying their gladness at the presence
of Theodoric the King. Wherefore the blessed Fulgentius, to whom the
world had long been crucified, after he had visited with reverence the
shrines of the martyrs and saluted with humble deference as many of the
servants of God as he could in so short a time be introduced to, stood
in that place which is called Palma Aurea while Theodoric was making his
harangue. There, as he gazed upon the nobles of the Roman Senate
marshalled in their various ranks and adorned with comely dignity, and
as he heard with chaste ears the favouring shouts of the people, he had
a chance of knowing what the boastful pomp of this world resembles. Yet
he looked not willingly upon aught in this gorgeous spectacle, nor was
his heart seduced to take any pleasure in these worldly vanities, but
rather kindled thereby to a more vehement desire for Jerusalem above.
And thus with edifying discourse did he ever admonish the brethren who
were present: 'How fair must be that heavenly Jerusalem, if the earthly
Rome be thus magnificent! And if in this world such honour is paid to
the lovers of vanity, what honour and glory shall be bestowed on the
Saints who behold the Eternal Reality.' With many such words as these
did the blessed Fulgentius debate with them in