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 and what other
titular glories the time afforded. Venantius, the younger, coming into
possession of an estate between Neapolis and Salernum, here took up his
abode after the siege of Rome, and lived as seemed good to him, lord
over the little town of Nuceria, and of a considerable tract of
country, with a villa converted into a stronghold up on the mountain
side. Having suffered wrongs at the hands of the Imperial
conquerors--property of his in Rome had been seized--he heard with
satisfaction of the rise of Totila, and, as soon as the king's progress
southward justified such a step, entered into friendly communication
with the Goth, whom he invited to come with all speed into Campania,
where Salernum, Neapolis, Cumae, would readily fall into his hands.
Marcian, on his double mission of spy in the Greek service and friend
of the Goths, had naturally sought out Venantius; and the description
he gave to Basil of the fortress above Nuceria filled the listener with
enthusiasm.
'I would I could live in the same way,' Basil exclaimed. 'And why not?
My own villa in Picenum might be strengthened with walls and towers. We
have stone enough, and no lack of men to build.'
Yet as he spoke a misgiving betrayed itself on his countenance.
Consciously or not, he had always had before him a life at Rome, the
life which became a Roman, as distinguished from a barbarian. But the
need to seek security for Veranilda again became vivid to his mind. At
Rome, clearly, he could not live with his wife until the Goths had
reconquered the city, which was not likely to happen soon. His means
were represented chiefly by the Arpinum estate, which he had inherited
from his father; in Rome he had nothing but his mansion on the Caelian.
The treasure at his command, a considerable sum, he had brought away in
a strong box, and it was now more than doubled in value by what fell to
him under the will of Maximus--money to be paid out of the great coffer
which the senator had conveyed hither. As they talked, Marcian urged
upon him a close friendship with Venantius, in whose castle he would be
welcomed. Here at Surrentum he could not long rest in safety, for
Chorsoman might at any time have his suspicions awakened by learning
the delay of Veranilda's journey to Rome, and the news of her marriage
could not be prevented from spreading.
So Basil lay through an anxious hour or two before sleep fell upon him
to-night. He resolved to change the habits of his life, to shake off
indolence and the love of ease, to fortify himself with vigorous
exercises, and become ready for warfare. It was all very well for an
invalid, like Decius, to nurse a tranquil existence, unheeding the
temper of the times. A strong and healthy man had no right to lurk away
from the streaming flood of things; it behoved him to take his part in
strife and tumult, to aid in re-establishing a civic state. This
determination firmly grasped, he turned to think of the hoped-for
meeting with Veranilda in the morning, and gentler emotions lulled him
into dreams.
At dawn he bestirred himself. The gallery outside his chamber was
lighted with a hanging lamp, and at a little distance sounded the
footstep of the watchman, who told him that the morning was fair, and,
at his bidding, opened a door which admitted to the open terrace
overlooking the sea. Having stepped forth, Basil stood for a moment
sniffing the cool air with its scent from the vineyards, and looking at
the yellow rift in the eastern sky; then he followed a path which
skirted the villa's outward wall and led towards the dwelling of
Aurelia. Presently he reached the ruined wall of the little garden, and
here a voice challenged him, that of a servant on watch until sunrise.
'It is well,' he replied. 'I will relieve you for this last half hour;
go to your rest.'
But the slave hesitated. He had strictest orders, and feared to disobey
them even at this bidding.
'You are an honest fellow,' said Basil, 'and the lady Aurelia shall
know of your steadfastness. But get you gone; there is no danger whilst
I am here.'
Impatiently he watched the man retire, then stood just within the gap
of the wall, and waited with as much fear as hope. It might be that
Veranilda would not venture forth without speaking to Aurelia, who
might forbid the meeting; or, if she tried to steal out, she might be
detected and hindered; perhaps she would fear to pass under the eyes of
a watchman or other servant who might be in her way. He stamped
nervously, and turned to look for a moment in the outward direction.
This little villa stood on the edge of a declivity falling towards the
sea; a thicket of myrtles grew below. At the distance of half a mile
along the coast, beyond a hollow wooded with ilex, rose a temple, which
time and the hand of man had yet spared; its whiteness glimmered
against a sky whose cloudless dusk was warming with a reflection of the
daybreak. An influence in the scene before him, something he neither
understood nor tried to understand, held him gazing longer than he
supposed, and with a start he heard his name spoken by the beloved
voice. Close to him stood Veranilda. She was cloaked and hooded, so
that he could hardly see her face; but her white hands were held out
for his.
Heart to heart, mouth to mouth, they whispered. To be more private,
Basil drew her without the garden. Veranilda's eyes fixed themselves
upon the spreading glory of the east; and it moved her to utterance.
'When I was a child,' she said, 'at Ravenna, I gazed once at the
sunrise, and behold, in the rays which shot upwards stood an angel, a
great, beautiful angel, with wings of blue, and a garment which shone
like gold, and on his head was a wreath of I know not what flowers. I
ran to tell my mother, but when she came, alas! the angel had vanished.
No one could tell me certainly what the vision meant. Often I have
looked and hoped to see the angel again, but he has never come.'
Basil listened without a doubt, and murmured soft words. Then he asked
whether Aurelia knew of this meeting; but Veranilda shook her head.
'I durst not speak. I so feared to disappoint you. This night I have
hardly slept, lest I should miss the moment. Should I not return very
soon, O Basil?'
'You shall; though your going will make the sky black as when Auster
blows. But it is not for long. A few days--'
He broke off with the little laugh of a triumphing lover.
'A few days?' responded Veranilda, timidly questioning.
'We wait only until that dark ship has sailed for Rome.' 'Does Aurelia
know that you purpose it so soon?' asked Veranilda.
'Why? Has she seemed to you to wish otherwise?'
'She has never spoken of it.--And afterwards? Shall we remain here,
Basil?'
'For no long time. Here I am but a guest. We must dwell where I am lord
and you lady of all about us.'
He told her of his possessions, of the great house in Rome with the
villa at Arpinum. Then he asked her, playfully, but with a serious
purpose in his mind, which of the two she would prefer for an abode.
'I have no choice but yours,' she replied. 'Where it seems good to my
dear lord to dwell, there shall I be at rest.'
'We must be safe against our enemies,' said Basil, with graver
countenance.
'Our enemies?'
'Has not Aurelia talked to you of the war? You know that the Gothic
king is conquering all before him, coming from the north?'
Veranilda looked into her lover's face with a tender anxiety.
'And you fear him, O Basil? It is he that is our enemy?'
'Not so, sweetest. No foe of mine is he who wears the crown of
Theodoric. They whom I fear and abhor are the slaves of Justinian, the
robber captains who rule at Ravenna and in Rome.'
As she heard him, Veranilda trembled with joy. She caught his hand, and
bent over it, and kissed it.
'Had I been the enemy of Totila,' said Basil, 'could you still have
loved me as a wife should love?'
'I had not asked myself,' she answered, 'for it was needless. When I
look on you, I think neither of Roman nor of Goth.'
Basil spoke of his hope that Rome might be restored to the same freedom
it had enjoyed under the great king. Then they would dwell together in
the sacred city. That, too, was Veranilda's desire; for on her ear the
name of Rome fell with a magic sound; all her life she had heard it
spoken reverentially, with awe, yet the city itself she had never seen.
Rome, she knew, was vast; there, it seemed to her, she would live
unobserved, unthought of save by him she loved. Seclusion from all
strangers, from all who, learning her origin, would regard her
slightingly, was what her soul desired.
Day had broken; behind the mountains there was light of the sun. Once
more they held each other heart to heart, and Veranilda hastened
through the garden to regain her chamber. Basil stood for some minutes
lost in a delicious dream; the rising day made his face beautiful, his
eyes gleamed with an unutterable rapture. At length he sighed and awoke
and looked about him. At no great distance, as though just issued from
the ilex wood, moved a man's figure. It approached very slowly, and
Basil watched until he saw that the man was bent as if with age, and
had black garments such as were worn by wandering mendicant monks.
Carelessly he turned, and went his way back to the villa.
An hour later, Aurelia learnt that a 'holy man,' a pilgrim much travel
worn, was begging to be admitted to her. She refused to see him. Still
he urged his entreaty, declaring that he had a precious gift for her
acceptance, and an important message for her ear. At length he was
allowed to enter the atrium, and Aurelia saw before her a man in black
monkish habit, his body bent and tremulous, but evidently not with age,
for his aspect otherwise was that of middle life. What, she asked
briefly and coldly, was his business with her? Thereupon the monk drew
from his bosom a small wrappage of tissues, which when unfolded
disclosed a scrap of something hairy.
'This, noble lady,' said the monk, in a voice reverently subdued, 'is
from the camel-hair garment of Holy John the Baptist. I had it of a
hermit in the Egyptian desert, who not many days after I quitted him
was for his sanctity borne up to heaven by angels, and knew not death.'
Aurelia viewed the relic with emotion.
'Why,' she asked, 'do you offer it to me?'
The monk drew a step nearer and whispered:
'Because I know that you, like him from whom I received it, are of the
true faith.'
Aurelia observed him closely. His robe was ragged and filthy; his bare
feet were thick with the dust of the road; his visage, much begrimed,
wore an expression of habitual suffering, and sighs as of pain
frequently broke from him. The hand by which he supported himself on a
staff trembled as with weakness.
'You are not a presbyter?' she said in an undertone, after a glance at
his untonsured head.
'I am unworthy of the meanest order in the Church. In pilgrimings and
fastings I do penance for a sin of youth. You see how wasted is my
flesh.'
'What, then,' asked Aurelia, 'was the message you said you bore for me?'
'This. Though I myself have no power to perform the sacraments of our
faith, I tend upon one who has. He lies not far from here, like myself
sick and weary, and, because of a vow, may not come within the
precincts of any dwelling. In Macedonia, oppressed by our persecutors,
he was long imprisoned, and so sorely tormented that, in a moment when
the Evil One prevailed over his flesh, he denied the truth. This sin
gave him liberty, but scarce had he come forth when a torment of the
soul, far worse than that of his body, fell upon him. He was delivered
over to the Demon, and, being yet alive, saw about him the fires of
Gehenna. Thus, for a season, did he suffer things unspeakable,
wandering in desert places, ahungered, athirst, faint unto death, yet
not permitted to die. One night of storm, he crept for shelter into the
ruins of a heathen temple. Of a sudden, a dreadful light shone about
him, and he beheld the Demon in the guise of that false god, who fell
upon him and seemed like to slay him. But Sisinnius--so is the holy man
named--strove in prayer and in conjuration, yea, strove hours until the
crowing of the cock, and thus sank into slumber. And while he slept, an
angel of the Most High appeared before him, and spoke words which I
know not. Since then, Sisinnius wanders from land to land, seeking out
the temples of the heathen which have not been purified, and passing
the night in strife with the Powers of Darkness, wherein he is ever
victorious.'
With intent look did Aurelia listen to this narrative. At its close,
she asked eagerly:
'This man of God has sent you to me?'
'Moved by a vision--for in the sleep which follows upon his struggle it
is often granted him to see beyond this world. He bids you resist
temptation, and be of good courage.'
'Know you what this bidding means?' inquired the awed woman, gazing
into the monk's eyes till they fell.
'I know nothing. I am but a follower of the holy Sisinnius--an unworthy
follower.'
'May I not speak with him?'
The monk had a troubled look.
'I have told you, lady, that he must not, by reason of his vow, enter a
human dwelling.'
'But may I not go to him?' she urged. 'May I not seek him in his
solitude, guided by you?'
To this, said the monk, he could give no reply until he had spoken with
Sisinnius. He promised to do so, and to return, though he knew not at
what hour, nor even whether it would be this day. And, after demanding
many assurances that he would come again as speedily as might be,
Aurelia allowed the messenger to depart.
Meanwhile Basil and Marcian have spent an hour in talk, the result of
which was a decision that Marcian should again repair to the stronghold
of Venantius, and persuade him to come over to Surrentum. When his
friend had ridden forth Basil sought conversation with Aurelia, whom he
found in a mood unlike any she had yet shown to him, a mood of dreamy
trouble, some suppressed emotion appearing in her look and in her
speech. He began by telling her of Venantius, but this seemed to
interest her less than he had expected.
'Cousin,' he resumed, 'I have a double thought in desiring that
Venantius should come hither. It is not only that I may talk with him
of the war, and learn his hopes, but that I may secure a safe retreat
for Veranilda when she is my wife, and for you, dear cousin, if you
desire it.'
He spoke as strongly as he could without revealing the secret danger,
of the risks to which they would all be exposed when rumours of his
marriage reached the governor of Cumae, or the Greeks in Neapolis.
Until the Goths reached Campania, a Roman here who fell under suspicion
of favouring them must be prepared either to flee or to defend himself.
Defence of this villa was impossible even against the smallest body of
soldiers, but within the walls, raised and fortified by Venantius, a
long siege might be safely sustained.
'It is true,' said Aurelia at length, as if rousing herself from her
abstraction, 'that we must think of safety. But you are not yet wedded.'
'A few days hence I shall be.'
'Have you forgotten,' she resumed, meeting his resolute smile, 'what
still divides you from Veranilda?'
'You mean the difference of religion. Tell me, did that stand in the
way of your marriage with a Goth?'
She cast down her eyes and was silent.
'Was your marriage,' Basil went on, 'blessed by a Catholic or by an
Arian presbyter?'
'By neither,' replied Aurelia gently.
'Then why may it not be so with me and Veranilda? And so it shall be,
lady cousin,' he added cheerily. 'Our good Decius will be gone; we
await the sailing of the ship; but you and Marcian, and perhaps
Venantius, will be our witnesses.'
For the validity of Christian wedlock no religious rite was necessary:
the sufficient, the one indispensable, condition was mutual consent.
The Church favoured a union which had been sanctified by the oblation
and the blessing, but no ecclesiastical law imposed this ceremony. As
in the days of the old religion, a man wedded his bride by putting the
ring upon her finger and delivering her dowry in a written document,
before chosen witnesses. Aurelia knew that even as this marriage had
satisfied her, so would it suffice to Veranilda, whom a rapturous love
made careless of doctrinal differences: She perceived, moreover, that
Basil was in no mood for religious discussion; there was little hope
that he would consent to postpone his marriage on such an account; yet
to convert Basil to 'heresy' was a fine revenge she would not willingly
forego, her own bias to Arianism being stronger than ever since the
wrong she believed herself to have suffered at the hands of the deacon,
and the insult cast at her by her long-hated aunt. After years of
bitterness, her triumph seemed assured. It was much to have inherited
from her father, to have expelled Petronilla; but the marriage of Basil
with a Goth, his renunciation of Catholicism, and with it the Imperial
cause, were greater things, and together with their attainment she
foredreamt the greatest of all, Totila's complete conquest of Italy.
She saw herself mistress in the Anician palace at Rome, commanding vast
wealth, her enemies mute, powerless, submissive before her. Then, if it
seemed good to her, she would again wed, and her excited imagination
deigned to think of no spouse save him whose alliance would make her
royal.
Providential was the coming of the holy Sisinnius. Beyond doubt he had
the gift of prophecy. From him she would not only receive the
consolations of religion, but might learn what awaited her. Very slowly
passed the hours until the reappearance of the black monk. He came when
day was declining, and joyfully she learnt that Sisinnius permitted her
to visit him; it must be on the morrow at the second hour, the place a
spot in the ilex wood, not far away, whither the monk would guide her.
But she must come alone; were she accompanied, even at a distance, by
any attendant, Sisinnius would refuse to see her. To all the conditions
Aurelia readily consented, and bade the monk meet her at the appointed
hour by the breach in her garden wall.
On the morrow there was no glory of sunrise; clouds hung heavy, and a
sobbing wind shook the dry leaves of the vine. But at the second hour,
after pretence of idling about the garden, Aurelia saw approach the
black, bowed figure, with a gesture bade him go before, and followed.
She was absent not long enough to excite the remark of her household.
In going forth she had been pale with agitation; at her return she had
a fire in her cheeks, a lustre in her eyes, which told of hopes
abundantly fulfilled. At once she sought Veranilda, to whom she had not
yet spoken of the monk's visit. At this juncture the coming even of an
ordinary priest of the Arian faith would have been more than welcome to
them, living as they perforce did without office or sacrament; but
Sisinnius, declared Aurelia, was a veritable man of God, one who had
visions and saw into the future, one whom merely to behold was a sacred
privilege. She had begged his permission to visit him again, with
Veranilda, and he had consented; but a few days must pass before that,
as the holy man was called away she knew not whither. When he summoned
them they must go forth in early morning, to a certain cave near at
hand, where Sisinnius would say mass and administer to them the
communion. Hearing such news, Veranilda gladdened.
'Will the holy man reveal our fate to us?' she asked, with a child's
simplicity.
'To me he has already uttered a prophetic word,' answered Aurelia, 'but
I may not repeat it, no, not even to you. Enough that it has filled my
soul with wonder and joy.'
'May that joy also be mine!' said Veranilda, pressing her hands
together.
This afternoon, when Basil sat with her and Aurelia, she took her
cithern, and in a low voice sang songs she had heard her mother sing,
in the days before shame and sorrow fell upon Theodenantha. There were
old ballads of the Goths, oftener stern than tender, but to the
listeners, ignorant of her tongue, Veranilda's singing made them sweet
as lover's praise. One little song was Greek; it was all she knew of
that language, and the sole inheritance that had come to her from her
Greek-loving grandparent, the King Theodahad.
Auster was blowing; great lurid clouds rolled above the dark green
waters, and at evening rain began to fall. Through the next day, and
the day after that, the sky still lowered; there was thunder of waves
upon the shore; at times a mist swept down from the mountains, which
enveloped all in gloom. To Basil and Veranilda it mattered nothing.
Where they sat together there was sunshine, and before them gleamed an
eternity of cloudless azure.