protection, after what you have told me.'

'Why, then, Venantius must come hither.'

Whilst the friends were thus conversing a courier rode forth from
Surrentum towards Neapolis. He bore a letter whereof the contents were
these:--

'To the holy and reverend deacon Leander, Petronilla's humble
salutation.

'I am most punctually informed of all that passes at the villa. My
nephew goes not to Rome; his place will be taken by Decius. The reason
is that which I have already suggested to your Sanctity. Marcian has
arrived this afternoon, coming I know not whence, but I shall learn. I
suspect things of the darkest moment. Let your Sanctity pursue the
project with which heaven has inspired you. You shall receive, if
necessary, two missives every day. Humbly I entreat your prayers.'

CHAPTER VII

HERESY

The Roman Empire, by confining privileges and honours to the senatorial
order, created a noble caste, and this caste, as Imperial authority
declined, became a power independent of the state, and a menace to its
existence. In Italy, by the end of the fifth century, the great system
of citizenship, with its principle of infinite devotion to the good of
the commonwealth, was all but forgotten. In matters of justice and of
finance the nobles were beginning to live by their own law, which was
that of the right of the strongest. Having ceased to hold office and
perform public services in the municipia, they became, in fact, rulers
of the towns situated on or near their great estates. Theodoric,
striving to uphold the ancient civility, made strenuous efforts to
combat this aristocratic predominance; yet on some points he was
obliged to yield to the tendency of the times, as when he forbade the
freedmen, serfs, and slaves on any estate to plead against their lord,
and so delivered the mass of the rural inhabitants of Italy to private
jurisdiction. The Gothic war of course hastened the downfall of
political and social order. The manners of the nobles grew violent in
lawlessness; men calling themselves senators, but having in fact
renounced that rank by permanent absence from Rome, and others who
merely belonged to senatorial houses, turned to fortifying their
villas, and to building castles on heights, whilst they gathered about
them a body of retainers, armed for defence or for aggression.

Such a personage was Venantius, son of a senator of the same name, who,
under Theodoric, had attained the dignity of Patrician a