Editing Pope Symmachus (section)

===Roman Synod III===
King Theodoric refused their request to move the synod, ordering them instead to reconvene on 1 September. On 27 August the King wrote to the bishops that he was sending two of the ''Majores Domus nostrae'', Gudila and Bedeulphus, to see to it that the synod assembled in safety and without fear.{{sfn|Mansi|Labbe|Martin|1762|pp=254–256}}  Upon reconvening, matters were no less acrimonious. First the accusers introduced a document which included a clause stating that the king already knew Symmachus was guilty, and thus the synod should assume guilt, hear the evidence, then pass sentence. More momentous was an attack by a mob on Pope Symmachus' party as he set out to make his appearance at the Synod: many of his supporters were injured and several—including the priests Gordianus and Dignissimus—killed. Symmachus retreated to St. Peter's and refused to come out, despite the urgings of deputations from the synod.{{sfn|Richards|1979|p=72}} The "Life of Symmachus", however, presents these killings as part of the street-fighting between the supporters of Senators Festus and Probinus on the one side, and Senator Faustus on the other.  The attacks were directed particularly against clerics, including Dignissimus, a priest of [[San Pietro in Vincoli]], and Gordianus, a priest of [[Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Rome|Santi Giovanni e Paolo]], though the rhetoric of the passage extends the violence to anyone who was a supporter of Symmachus, man or woman, cleric or layperson.  It was unsafe for a cleric to walk about in Rome at night.{{sfn|Mansi|Labbe|Martin|1762|p=202}}