CHAPTER IX.
Scarcely had the Goths turned their backs upon the walls of Rome, when Pope Silverius--the very day after taking the oath--summoned the heads of the priesthood and nobility, the officials and citizens, to a council in the Thermæ of Caracalla.
Cethegus was also invited, and appeared.
Without the least embarrassment, Silverius moved that, as at last the hour was come in which to cast off the yoke of the heretics, an embassy should be sent to Belisarius, the commander-in-chief of the orthodox Emperor--the only rightful master of Italy--to deliver up the keys of the Eternal City, and to recommend the Church and the faithful to his protection against the vengeance of the barbarians.
The scruples of a very young priest and of an honest smith, on account of their yesterday's oath, he dismissed with a smile, appealing to his Apostolic power to bind and to loose, and pointing to the evident force put upon them while taking the oath, by the presence of Gothic arms.
Upon this the motion was carried unanimously, and the Pope himself, Scævola, Albinus, and Cethegus, appointed as ambassadors.
But Cethegus put in a protest. He had silently listened to the motion and had not joined in the vote. Now he rose and said:
"I am against the motion; not on account of the oath. I need not appeal to the Apostolic power, for I did not swear. But on account of the city. That is, we must not unnecessarily arouse the just anger of the Goths, who may very easily return, and who would not then take the Apostolic dispensation as an excuse for such open perjury. Let Belisarius either beg us or compel us. Who throws himself away is ever trampled on."
Silverius and Scævola exchanged significant glances.
"Such sentiments," said the jurist, "will doubtless be very pleasing to the Emperor's general, but can alter nothing in our decision. So you will not go with us to Belisarius?"