EUSTORGIUS, BISHOP OF MILAN.

[Sidenote: Offences charged against Ecclesiastics.]

'You will be glad to hear that we are satisfied that the Bishop of
Augusta [Turin or Aosta] has been falsely accused of betrayal of his
country. He is therefore to be restored to his previous rank. His
accusers, as they are themselves of the clerical order, are not
punished by us, but sent to your Holiness to be dealt with according
to the ecclesiastical tradition.'

[The reflections in this letter about the impropriety of believing
readily accusations against a Bishop[222], and the course adopted of
handing over the clerical false accusers to be dealt with by their
Bishop, have an obvious bearing on the great Hildebrandic
controversy. But as Dahn ('Koenige der Germanen' iii. 191) points out,
there is no abandonment by the King of the ultimate right to punish an
ecclesiastic.]

[Footnote 222: 'Nihil enim in tali honore temeraria cogitatione
praesumendum est, ubi si proposito creditur, etiam tacitus ab
excessibus excusatur. Manifesta proinde crimina in talibus vix capiunt
fidem. Quidquid autem ex invidia dicitur, veritas non putatur.']

10. KING THEODORIC TO BOETIUS[223], VIR ILLUSTRIS AND PATRICIAN.

[Footnote 223: If the MSS. are correctly represented in the printed
editions, the name of the author of the Consolation of Philosophy was
spelt Boetius in the Variae. There can be little doubt however that
Boethius is the more correct form, and this is the form given us in
the Anecdoton Holderi.]

[Sidenote: Frauds of the moneyers.]

The Horse and Foot Guards[224] seem to have complained that after
their severe labours they were not paid in solidi of full weight by
the 'Arcarius Praefectorum.'

[Footnote 224: Why are these called 'Domestici patres equitum et
peditum?']

Cassiodorus gives--

(1) Some sublime reflections in the true Cassiodorian vein on the
nature of Arithmetic, by which earth and the heavens are ruled.

(2) Some excellent practical remarks on the wickedness of clipping and
depreciating the currency.

The most interesting but most puzzling sentence in this letter is that
in which he says that 'the ancients wished that the _solidus_ should
consist of 6,000 _denarii_, in order that the golden coin like a
golden sun might represent the 6,000 years which are the appointed age
of the world.' But how can we reconcile this with any known solidus or
any known denarius? The solidus of Constantine (72 to the lb.) was