grateful soil, that a gallon of wine was sometimes sold
in Italy for less than three farthings, and a quarter of wheat at about
five shillings and sixpence. A country possessed of so many valuable
objects of exchange soon attracted the merchants of the world, whose
beneficial traffic was encouraged and protected by the liberal spirit of
Theodoric. The free intercourse of the provinces by land and water was
restored and extended; the city gates were never shut either by day or
by night; and the common saying, that a purse of gold might be safely
left in the fields, was expressive of the conscious security of the
inhabitants.

A difference of religion is always pernicious, and often fatal, to the
harmony of the prince and people: the Gothic conqueror had been educated
in the profession of Arianism, and Italy was devoutly attached to the
Nicene faith. But the persuasion of Theodoric was not infected by
zeal; and he piously adhered to the heresy of his fathers, without
condescending to balance the subtile arguments of theological
metaphysics. Satisfied with the private toleration of his Arian
sectaries, he justly conceived himself to be the guardian of the
public worship, and his external reverence for a superstition which he
despised, may have nourished in his mind the salutary indifference of a
statesman or philosopher. The Catholics of his dominions acknowledged,
perhaps with reluctance, the peace of the church; their clergy,
according to the degrees of rank or merit, were honorably entertained in
the palace of Theodoric; he esteemed the living sanctity of Caesarius
and Epiphanius, the orthodox bishops of Arles and Pavia; and presented a
decent offering on the tomb of St. Peter, without any scrupulous inquiry
into the creed of the apostle. His favorite Goths, and even his mother,
were permitted to retain or embrace the Athanasian faith, and his long
reign could not afford the example of an Italian Catholic, who, either
from choice or compulsion, had deviated into the religion of the
conqueror. The people, and the Barbarians themselves, were edified by
the pomp and order of religious worship; the magistrates were instructed
to defend the just immunities of ecclesiastical persons and possessions;
the bishops held their synods, the metropolitans exercised their
jurisdiction, and the privileges of sanctuary were maintained or
moderated according to the spirit of the Roman jurisprudence. With the
protection, Theodoric assumed