sent an embassy to Justinian, beseeching him to restore
the possessions and rights of the Church in Africa which the Vandals had
taken away--a request which the emperor granted in an edict to his
Praetorian prefect Salomo. And Agapetus expressly restored to the primate
of Carthage any rights as metropolitan which the enemy had taken away.[128]

Thus the terrible persecution inaugurated by Genseric when the Vandal host
lay around the deathbed of St. Augustine at Hippo in 430 came to an end. In
the interval, the African church had suffered every extremity of barbarian
cruelty from the Arian invaders. At the end, the primate of Carthage, at
the head of all the bishops of the several provinces, is found referring to
the Pope, a subject of the Arian Theodatus, for guidance in the treatment
of Arian priests and bishops who submitted to the Church. The Pope, on his
side, acknowledges all the rights of the primate of Carthage which existed
before the invasion. As to civil rights of property, the Byzantine
conqueror restores the possessions of the Church which had been taken away
by the Vandals.

By the restoration of the African province to the Roman empire and the
Catholic faith Justinian won great renown. His accession had been welcomed
with joy by the Catholic people. Full of great designs, he aimed at the
extension of his realm, and endeavoured to advance the Christian cause by
missions to countries as yet without the faith. Greatness and majesty are
shown in all his creations.[129] In the year following the African
reconquest Pope Agapetus wrote to him, praising his solicitude in
maintaining the unity of the Church, and identifying the advance of his
empire with the increase of religion.[130] The Pope adds that the emperor
desired the profession of faith which he had sent to his predecessor Pope
John II., and which had been confirmed by him, to be confirmed also by
himself, for which "we praise you: we assent, not because we admit in
laymen an authority to preach, but because, since the zeal of your faith is
in accordance with the rules of our fathers, we confirm and give it force".

It is to be remembered that Pope Agapetus, elected in 535, was the subject
of the Gothic king Theodatus, and as such was sent by him, under threats of
death, in the winter of this year, on an embassy to Justinian. The purpose
of Theodatus was to support his tottering throne by the intercession of the
Pope. He had murdered at the lake of Bolse