re of Ravenna, March 5th, 493, was followed by the
assassination of Odowakar. [Sidenote: Theodoric the Goth, 493.]
Theodoric, also an Arian, became sole ruler of Italy. He too was
served by Roman officials, and his administration was modelled on that
of the Caesars. A special interest attaches to his {30} dealings with
the Church. The king, indeed, Arian though he was, looked on the
Catholic Church with no unfriendly eye. His great minister,
Cassiodorus, was orthodox: and it is in his writings, which enshrine
the policy of his master, that we must search for the relations between
Church and State in the days before Belisarius had won back Ravenna and
Italy to the allegiance of the Roman Caesar.

The letters of Cassiodorus supply, if not a complete account, at least
very valuable illustrations, of the position assumed by the East Gothic
power under Theodoric and his successors in regard to the Church. The
favour shown by the Ostrogoth sovereign to Cassiodorus, a staunch
Catholic, yet senator, consul, patrician, quaestor, and praetorian
praefect, is in itself an illustration of the absence of bitter Arian
feeling. [Sidenote: His relation with the Catholic Church.] This
impression is deepened by a perusal of the letters which Cassiodorus
wrote in the name of his sovereign. The subjects in which the Church
is most frequently related to the State are jurisdiction and property.
In the latter there seems a clear desire on the part of the kings to
give security and to act even with generosity to all religious bodies,
Catholic as well as Arian. Church property was frequently, if not
always, freed from taxation.[1] The principle which dictated the whole
policy of Theodoric is to be seen in a letter to Adila, senator and
comes.[2] "Although we will not that any should suffer any wrong whom
it belongs to our religious obligation to protect, since the free
tranquillity of the subjects is the glory of the ruler; yet especially
do we desire that all churches {31} should be free from any injury,
since while they are in peace the mercy of God is bestowed on us."
Therefore he orders all protection to be given to the churches: yet
answer is to be made in the law courts to any suit against them. For,
as he says in another letter, "if false claims may not be tolerated
against men, how much less against God." Again, "If we are willing to
enrich the Church by our own liberality, _a fortiori_ will we not allow
it to be despoiled o