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Truth Triumphant - Benjamin G. Wilkinson

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same letter he also said: “We cannot suffer that<br />

anything which relates to the state of the church,<br />

however manifest and unquestionable, should be<br />

moved, without the knowledge of Your Holiness,<br />

who are THE HEAD OF ALL THE HOLY<br />

CHURCHES.”[26]<br />

When the news came of the success of his<br />

general in crushing the Vandals in Africa in 534,<br />

Justinian was elated. Then, able historian Gibbon<br />

says: “Impatient to abolish the temporal and<br />

spiritual tyranny of the Vandals, he proceeded<br />

without delay to the full establishment of the<br />

Catholic Church.”[27]<br />

An opening having presented itself to declare<br />

war on the Ostrogoths, Justinian dispatched his<br />

general, Belisarius, against them. After a series of<br />

victories, the general entered Rome with his army.<br />

The Ostrogoths came 150,000 strong to lay siege<br />

against Justinian’s army, but they were<br />

outgeneraled. They could make no headway<br />

against the city; while behind them, the hostility of<br />

the people depressed them. “The whole nation of<br />

338

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