He began by telling her of Venantius, but this seemed to interest her less than he had expected.
'Cousin,' he resumed, 'I have a double thought in desiring that Venantius should come hither.

It is not only that I may talk with him of the war, and learn his hopes, but that I may secure a safe retreat for Veranilda when she is my wife, and for you, dear cousin, if you desire it.' He spoke as strongly as he could without revealing the secret danger, of the risks to which they would all be exposed when rumours of his marriage reached the governor of Cumae, or the Greeks in Neapolis.
Until the Goths reached Campania, a Roman here who fell under suspicion of favouring them must be prepared either to flee or to defend himself.
Defence of this villa was impossible even against the smallest body of soldiers, but within the walls, raised and fortified by Venantius, a long siege might be safely sustained.
'It is true,' said Aurelia at length, as if rousing herself from her abstraction, 'that we must think of safety.

But you are not yet wedded.' 'A few days hence I shall be.' 'Have you forgotten,' she resumed, meeting his resolute smile, 'what still divides you from Veranilda ?' 'You mean the difference of religion.

Tell me, did that stand in the way of your marriage with a Goth ?' She cast down her eyes and was silent.
'Was your marriage,' Basil went on, 'blessed by a Catholic or by an Arian presbyter ?' 'By neither,' replied Aurelia gently.
'Then why may it not be so with me and Veranilda?
And so it shall be, lady cousin,' he added cheerily.

'Our good Decius will be gone; we await the sailing of the ship; but you and Marcian, and perhaps Venantius, will be our witnesses.' For the validity of Christian wedlock no religious rite was necessary: the sufficient, the one indispensable, condition was mutual consent.
The Church favoured a union which had been sanctified by the oblation and the blessing, but no ecclesiastical law imposed this ceremony.