723.) These are hard words: they speak the passions of the Italians and those (I fear) of Theodoric himself.] [Footnote 8711: Gibbon should not have omitted the golden words of Theodoric in a letter which he addressed to Justin: That to pretend to a dominion over the conscience is to usurp the prerogative of God; that by the nature of things the power of sovereigns is confined to external government; that they have no right of punishment but over those who disturb the public peace, of which they are the guardians; that the most dangerous heresy is that of a sovereign who separates from himself a part of his subjects because they believe not according to his belief.
Compare Le Beau, vol viii.p.

68 .-- M] [Footnote 88: I have labored to extract a rational narrative from the dark, concise, and various hints of the Valesian Fragment, (p.

722, 723, 724,) Theophanes, (p.

145,) Anastasius, (in Johanne, p.

35,) and the Hist Miscella, (p.