Page 244 - Envoys and Political Communication in the Late Antique West 411 - 533

Envoys and Political Communication,411–533

tentative change of confessions. 158 So too would justifying the liturgical
practices of the Catholic church, as the barbarian Arian communities
appear to have been more conservative in liturgy than in theology. 159
The letter of Avitus of Vienne indicates that Senarius was interested in
the reconciliation of Rome and Constantinople over the Acacian schism,
as indeed was Theoderic; Senarius’ enquiries to John suggest that he was
active in promoting his faith in a second way, in discussions with members
of the Arian, largely Gothic congregation with whom his court service
brought him into frequent contact.
Catholic subjects of the Vandals and Burgundians engaged in theo-
logical debates with their Arian rulers in defence of Nicene Christol-
ogy. Evidence of similar debates in Ostrogothic Italy is minimal, though
the Arian church flourished under Theoderic. 160 For mostof his reign,
Theoderic successfully managed a pluralistic religious policy; only in the
final years did sectarian conflicts disturb public life. Hostile references
to his religion come only after his death, as part of damnatio memoriae;
the Arianism of Odoacer was similarly disparaged posthumously. 161 The
church of Rome was more concerned with the Christological strug-
gles of Chalcedonianism, Monophysitism, and Nestorianism current in
Constantinople than with the Arian church of the barbarians. Given the
legacy of religious conflict of the fourth and fifth centuries, however, it
is unlikely that coexistence of Catholic and Arian congregations in Italy
was ever anything but delicate.

Senarius’ epitaph and his letters of appointment in Cassiodorus’ Variae
indicate the political and social values attached by high civil servants to
their positions: consciousness of their dependence upon the favour of
their ruler; exploitation of the social status which high rank conveyed;
the deployment of their literary culture, the distinguishing mark of their
class, in the court milieu; and pride in their achievements in office, in
Senarius’ case the exceptional vigour of arduous travel and the successful
advocacy of his king’s interests before foreign rulers. His interest in the
settlement of the Acacian schism, and his apparent concern with the
conversion of Gothic Arians, give a glimpse of his life outside official

158
Cf. the Arian synod in Toledo under the Visigothic king Leuvigild, c. 580, which renounced the
old Arian requirement of rebaptism for proselytes from Catholicism, thus more readily attracting
converts; John of Biclar, Chron., s.a. 580.2; Jedin and Dolan, 712.
159
Jedin and Dolan, 713.
160 7
Jedin and Dolan, 707–22; Altaner, Patrologie §§ 111.2–4. On Catholic–Arian dialogue in Italy:
Moorhead, Theoderic, 89–97;Amory, People and Identity in Ostrogothic Italy, 195–235.
161
Theoderic: Moorhead, Theoderic, 91–4. Odoacer: Gelasius, Ep., 95 (PL 59, 63), but note that
Gelasius had supported Odoacer’s co-religionist Theoderic in the struggle between the two
kings.
218