Notwithstanding these specious arguments_The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes)

expectations, it was apparent to every discerning eye, that the

Goths would long remain the enemies, and might soon become the

conquerors of the Roman empire. Their rude and insolent behavior

expressed their contempt of the citizens and provincials, whom

they insulted with impunity. 133 To the zeal and valor of the

Barbarians Theodosius was indebted for the success of his arms:

but their assistance was precarious; and they were sometimes

seduced, by a treacherous and inconstant disposition, to abandon

his standard, at the moment when their service was the most

essential. During the civil war against Maximus, a great number

of Gothic deserters retired into the morasses of Macedonia,

wasted the adjacent provinces, and obliged the intrepid monarch

to expose his person, and exert his power, to suppress the rising

flame of rebellion. 134 The public apprehensions were fortified

by the strong suspicion, that these tumults were not the effect

of accidental passion, but the result of deep and premeditated

design. It was generally believed, that the Goths had signed the

treaty of peace with a hostile and insidious spirit; and that

their chiefs had previously bound themselves, by a solemn and

secret oath, never to keep faith with the Romans; to maintain the

fairest show of loyalty and friendship, and to watch the

favorable moment of rapine, of conquest, and of revenge. But as

the minds of the Barbarians were not insensible to the power of

gratitude, several of the Gothic leaders sincerely devoted

themselves to the service of the empire, or, at least, of the

emperor; the whole nation was insensibly divided into two

opposite factions, and much sophistry was employed in

conversation and dispute, to compare the obligations of their

first, and second, engagements. The Goths, who considered

themselves as the friends of peace, of justice, and of Rome, were

directed by the authority of Fravitta, a valiant and honorable

youth, distinguished above the rest of his countrymen by the

politeness of his manners, the liberality of his sentiments, and

the mild virtues of social life. But the more numerous faction

adhered to the fierce and faithless Priulf, 13411 who inflamed

the passions, and asserted the independence, of his warlike

followers. On one of the solemn festivals, when the chiefs of

both parties were invited to the Imperial table, they were

insensibly heated by wine, till they forgot the usual restraints

of discretion and respect, and betrayed, in the presence of

Theodosius, the fatal secret of their domestic disputes. The

emperor, who had been the reluctant witness of this extraordinary

controversy, dissembled his fears and resentment, and soon

dismissed the tumultuous assembly. Fravitta, alarmed and

exasperated by the insolence of his rival, whose departure from

the palace might have been the signal of a civil war, boldly

followed him; and, drawing his sword, laid Priulf dead at his

feet. Their companions flew to arms; and the faithful champion of

Rome would have been oppressed by superior numbers, if he had not

been protected by the seasonable interposition of the Imperial

guards. 135 Such were the scenes of Barbaric rage, which

disgraced the palace and table of the Roman emperor; and, as the

impatient Goths could only be restrained by the firm and

temperate character of Theodosius, the public safety seemed to

depend on the life and abilities of a single man. 136

133 (return) [ Constantinople was deprived half a day of the

public allowance of bread, to expiate the murder of a Gothic

soldier: was the guilt of the people. Libanius, Orat. xii. p.

394, edit. Morel.]

134 (return) [ Zosimus, l. iv. p. 267-271. He tells a long and

ridiculous story of the adventurous prince, who roved the country

with only five horsemen, of a spy whom they detected, whipped,

and killed in an old woman’s cottage, &c.]

13411 (return) [ Eunapius.—M.]

135 (return) [ Compare Eunapius (in Excerpt. Legat. p. 21, 22)

with Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 279.) The difference of circumstances

and names must undoubtedly be applied to the same story.

Fravitta, or Travitta, was afterwards consul, (A.D. 401.) and

still continued his faithful services to the eldest son of

Theodosius. (Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 467.)]

136 (return) [ Les Goths ravagerent tout depuis le Danube

jusqu’au Bosphore; exterminerent Valens et son armée; et ne

repasserent le Danube, que pour abandonner l’affreuse solitude

qu’ils avoient faite, (Œuvres de Montesquieu, tom. iii. p. 479.

Considerations sur les _Causes_ de la Grandeur et de la Décadence

des Romains, c. xvii.) The president Montesquieu seems ignorant

that the Goths, after the defeat of Valens, _never_ abandoned the

Roman territory. It is now thirty years, says Claudian, (de Bello

Getico, 166, &c., A.D. 404,) Ex quo jam patrios gens hæc oblita

Triones, Atque Istrum transvecta semel, vestigia fixit Threicio

funesta solo—the error is inexcusable; since it disguises the

principal and immediate cause of the fall of the Western empire

of Rome.]

VOLUME THREE

Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius.—Part I.

Death Of Gratian.—Ruin Of Arianism.—St. Ambrose.—First Civil War,

Against Maximus.—Character, Administration, And Penance Of

Theodosius.—Death Of Valentinian II.—Second Civil War, Against

Eugenius.—Death Of Theodosius.

The fame of Gratian, before he had accomplished the twentieth

year of his age, was equal to that of the most celebrated

princes. His gentle and amiable disposition endeared him to his

private friends, the graceful affability of his manners engaged

the affection of the people: the men of letters, who enjoyed the

liberality, acknowledged the taste and eloquence, of their

sovereign; his valor and dexterity in arms were equally applauded

by the soldiers; and the clergy considered the humble piety of

Gratian as the first and most useful of his virtues. The victory

of Colmar had delivered the West from a formidable invasion; and

the grateful provinces of the East ascribed the merits of

Theodosius to the author of his greatness, and of the public

safety. Gratian survived those memorable events only four or five

years; but he survived his reputation; and, before he fell a

victim to rebellion, he had lost, in a great measure, the respect

and confidence of the Roman world.

The remarkable alteration of his character or conduct may not be

imputed to the arts of flattery, which had besieged the son of

Valentinian from his infancy; nor to the headstrong passions

which the that gentle youth appears to have escaped. A more

attentive view of the life of Gratian may perhaps suggest the

true cause of the disappointment of the public hopes. His

apparent virtues, instead of being the hardy productions of

experience and adversity, were the premature and artificial

fruits of a royal education. The anxious tenderness of his father

was continually employed to bestow on him those advantages, which

he might perhaps esteem the more highly, as he himself had been

deprived of them; and the most skilful masters of every science,

and of every art, had labored to form the mind and body of the

young prince. 1 The knowledge which they painfully communicated

was displayed with ostentation, and celebrated with lavish

praise. His soft and tractable disposition received the fair

impression of their judicious precepts, and the absence of

passion might easily be mistaken for the strength of reason. His

preceptors gradually rose to the rank and consequence of

ministers of state: 2 and, as they wisely dissembled their secret

authority, he seemed to act with firmness, with propriety, and

with judgment, on the most important occasions of his life and

reign. But the influence of this elaborate instruction did not

penetrate beyond the surface; and the skilful preceptors, who so

accurately guided the steps of their royal pupil, could not

infuse into his feeble and indolent character the vigorous and

independent principle of action which renders the laborious

pursuit of glory essentially necessary to the happiness, and

almost to the existence, of the hero. As soon as time and

accident had removed those faithful counsellors from the throne,

the emperor of the West insensibly descended to the level of his

natural genius; abandoned the reins of government to the

ambitious hands which were stretched forwards to grasp them; and

amused his leisure with the most frivolous gratifications. A

public sale of favor and injustice was instituted, both in the

court and in the provinces, by the worthless delegates of his

power, whose merit it was made sacrilege to question. 3 The

conscience of the credulous prince was directed by saints and

bishops; 4 who procured an Imperial edict to punish, as a capital

offence, the violation, the neglect, or even the ignorance, of

the divine law. 5 Among the various arts which had exercised the

youth of Gratian, he had applied himself, with singular

inclination and success, to manage the horse, to draw the bow,

and to dart the javelin; and these qualifications, which might be

useful to a soldier, were prostituted to the viler purposes of

hunting. Large parks were enclosed for the Imperial pleasures,

and plentifully stocked with every species of wild beasts; and

Gratian neglected the duties, and even the dignity, of his rank,

to consume whole days in the vain display of his dexterity and

boldness in the chase. The pride and wish of the Roman emperor to

excel in an art, in which he might be surpassed by the meanest of

his slaves, reminded the numerous spectators of the examples of

Nero and Commodus, but the chaste and temperate Gratian was a

stranger to their monstrous vices; and his hands were stained

only with the blood of animals. 6 The behavior of Gratian, which

degraded his character in the eyes of mankind, could not have

disturbed the security of his reign, if the army had not been

provoked to resent their peculiar injuries. As long as the young

emperor was guided by the instructions of his masters, he

professed himself the friend and pupil of the soldiers; many of

his hours were spent in the familiar conversation of the camp;

and the health, the comforts, the rewards, the honors, of his

faithful troops, appeared to be the objects of his attentive

concern. But, after Gratian more freely indulged his prevailing

taste for hunting and shooting, he naturally connected himself

with the most dexterous ministers of his favorite amusement. A

body of the Alani was received into the military and domestic

service of the palace; and the admirable skill, which they were

accustomed to display in the unbounded plains of Scythia, was

exercised, on a more narrow theatre, in the parks and enclosures

of Gaul. Gratian admired the talents and customs of these

favorite guards, to whom alone he intrusted the defence of his

person; and, as if he meant to insult the public opinion, he

frequently showed himself to the soldiers and people, with the

dress and arms, the long bow, the sounding quiver, and the fur

garments of a Scythian warrior. The unworthy spectacle of a Roman

prince, who had renounced the dress and manners of his country,

filled the minds of the legions with grief and indignation. 7

Even the Germans, so strong and formidable in the armies of the

empire, affected to disdain the strange and horrid appearance of

the savages of the North, who, in the space of a few years, had

wandered from the banks of the Volga to those of the Seine. A

loud and licentious murmur was echoed through the camps and

garrisons of the West; and as the mild indolence of Gratian

neglected to extinguish the first symptoms of discontent, the

want of love and respect was not supplied by the influence of

fear. But the subversion of an established government is always a

work of some real, and of much apparent, difficulty; and the

throne of Gratian was protected by the sanctions of custom, law,

religion, and the nice balance of the civil and military powers,

which had been established by the policy of Constantine. It is

not very important to inquire from what cause the revolt of

Britain was produced. Accident is commonly the parent of

disorder; the seeds of rebellion happened to fall on a soil which

was supposed to be more fruitful than any other in tyrants and

usurpers; 8 the legions of that sequestered island had been long

famous for a spirit of presumption and arrogance; 9 and the name

of Maximus was proclaimed, by the tumultuary, but unanimous

voice, both of the soldiers and of the provincials. The emperor,

or the rebel,—for this title was not yet ascertained by

fortune,—was a native of Spain, the countryman, the

fellow-soldier, and the rival of Theodosius whose elevation he

had not seen without some emotions of envy and resentment: the

events of his life had long since fixed him in Britain; and I

should not be unwilling to find some evidence for the marriage,

which he is said to have contracted with the daughter of a

wealthy lord of Caernarvonshire. 10 But this provincial rank

might justly be considered as a state of exile and obscurity; and

if Maximus had obtained any civil or military office, he was not

invested with the authority either of governor or general. 11 His

abilities, and even his integrity, are acknowledged by the

partial writers of the age; and the merit must indeed have been

conspicuous that could extort such a confession in favor of the

vanquished enemy of Theodosius. The discontent of Maximus might

incline him to censure the conduct of his sovereign, and to

encourage, perhaps, without any views of ambition, the murmurs of

the troops. But in the midst of the tumult, he artfully, or

modestly, refused to ascend the throne; and some credit appears

to have been given to his own positive declaration, that he was

compelled to accept the dangerous present of the Imperial purple.

1 (return) [ Valentinian was less attentive to the religion of

his son; since he intrusted the education of Gratian to Ausonius,

a professed Pagan. (Mem. de l’Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xv.

p. 125-138). The poetical fame of Ausonius condemns the taste of

his age.]

2 (return) [ Ausonius was successively promoted to the Prætorian

praefecture of Italy, (A.D. 377,) and of Gaul, (A.D. 378;) and

was at length invested with the consulship, (A.D. 379.) He

expressed his gratitude in a servile and insipid piece of

flattery, (Actio Gratiarum, p. 699-736,) which has survived more

worthy productions.]

3 (return) [ Disputare de principali judicio non oportet.

Sacrilegii enim instar est dubitare, an is dignus sit, quem

elegerit imperator. Codex Justinian, l. ix. tit. xxix. leg. 3.

This convenient law was revived and promulgated, after the death

of Gratian, by the feeble court of Milan.]

4 (return) [ Ambrose composed, for his instruction, a theological

treatise on the faith of the Trinity: and Tillemont, (Hist. des

Empereurs, tom. v. p. 158, 169,) ascribes to the archbishop the

merit of Gratian’s intolerant laws.]

5 (return) [ Qui divinae legis sanctitatem nesciendo omittunt,

aut negligende violant, et offendunt, sacrilegium committunt.

Codex Justinian. l. ix. tit. xxix. leg. 1. Theodosius indeed may

claim his share in the merit of this comprehensive law.]

6 (return) [ Ammianus (xxxi. 10) and the younger Victor

acknowledge the virtues of Gratian; and accuse, or rather lament,

his degenerate taste. The odious parallel of Commodus is saved by

“licet incruentus;” and perhaps Philostorgius (l. x. c. 10, and

Godefroy, p. 41) had guarded with some similar reserve, the

comparison of Nero.]

7 (return) [ Zosimus (l. iv. p. 247) and the younger Victor

ascribe the revolution to the favor of the Alani, and the

discontent of the Roman troops Dum exercitum negligeret, et

paucos ex Alanis, quos ingenti auro ad sa transtulerat,

anteferret veteri ac Romano militi.]

8 (return) [ Britannia fertilis provincia tyrannorum, is a

memorable expression, used by Jerom in the Pelagian controversy,

and variously tortured in the disputes of our national

antiquaries. The revolutions of the last age appeared to justify

the image of the sublime Bossuet, “sette ile, plus orageuse que

les mers qui l’environment.”]

9 (return) [ Zosimus says of the British soldiers.]

10 (return) [ Helena, the daughter of Eudda. Her chapel may still

be seen at Caer-segont, now Caer-narvon. (Carte’s Hist. of

England, vol. i. p. 168, from Rowland’s Mona Antiqua.) The

prudent reader may not perhaps be satisfied with such Welsh

evidence.]

11 (return) [ Camden (vol. i. introduct. p. ci.) appoints him

governor at Britain; and the father of our antiquities is

followed, as usual, by his blind progeny. Pacatus and Zosimus had

taken some pains to prevent this error, or fable; and I shall

protect myself by their decisive testimonies. Regali habitu

exulem suum, illi exules orbis induerunt, (in Panegyr. Vet. xii.

23,) and the Greek historian still less equivocally, (Maximus)

(l. iv. p. 248.)]

12 (return) [ Sulpicius Severus, Dialog. ii. 7. Orosius, l. vii.

c. 34. p. 556. They both acknowledge (Sulpicius had been his

subject) his innocence and merit. It is singular enough, that

Maximus should be less favorably treated by Zosimus, the partial

adversary of his rival.]

But there was danger likewise in refusing the empire; and from

the moment that Maximus had violated his allegiance to his lawful

sovereign, he could not hope to reign, or even to live, if he

confined his moderate ambition within the narrow limits of

Britain. He boldly and wisely resolved to prevent the designs of

Gratian; the youth of the island crowded to his standard, and he

invaded Gaul with a fleet and army, which were long afterwards

remembered, as the emigration of a considerable part of the

British nation. 13 The emperor, in his peaceful residence of

Paris, was alarmed by their hostile approach; and the darts which

he idly wasted on lions and bears, might have been employed more

honorably against the rebels. But his feeble efforts announced

his degenerate spirit and desperate situation; and deprived him

of the resources, which he still might have found, in the support

of his subjects and allies. The armies of Gaul, instead of

opposing the march of Maximus, received him with joyful and loyal

acclamations; and the shame of the desertion was transferred from

the people to the prince. The troops, whose station more

immediately attached them to the service of the palace, abandoned

the standard of Gratian the first time that it was displayed in

the neighborhood of Paris. The emperor of the West fled towards

Lyons, with a train of only three hundred horse; and, in the

cities along the road, where he hoped to find refuge, or at least

a passage, he was taught, by cruel experience, that every gate is

shut against the unfortunate. Yet he might still have reached, in

safety, the dominions of his brother; and soon have returned with

the forces of Italy and the East; if he had not suffered himself

to be fatally deceived by the perfidious governor of the Lyonnese

province. Gratian was amused by protestations of doubtful

fidelity, and the hopes of a support, which could not be

effectual; till the arrival of Andragathius, the general of the

cavalry of Maximus, put an end to his suspense. That resolute

officer executed, without remorse, the orders or the intention of

the usurper. Gratian, as he rose from supper, was delivered into

the hands of the assassin: and his body was denied to the pious

and pressing entreaties of his brother Valentinian. 14 The death

of the emperor was followed by that of his powerful general

Mellobaudes, the king of the Franks; who maintained, to the last

moment of his life, the ambiguous reputation, which is the just

recompense of obscure and subtle policy. 15 These executions

might be necessary to the public safety: but the successful

usurper, whose power was acknowledged by all the provinces of the

West, had the merit, and the satisfaction, of boasting, that,

except those who had perished by the chance of war, his triumph

was not stained by the blood of the Romans. 16

13 (return) [ Archbishop Usher (Antiquat. Britan. Eccles. p. 107,

108) has diligently collected the legends of the island, and the

continent. The whole emigration consisted of 30,000 soldiers, and

100,000 plebeians, who settled in Bretagne. Their destined

brides, St. Ursula with 11,000 noble, and 60,000 plebeian,

virgins, mistook their way; landed at Cologne, and were all most

cruelly murdered by the Huns. But the plebeian sisters have been

defrauded of their equal honors; and what is still harder, John

Trithemius presumes to mention the children of these British

virgins.]

14 (return) [ Zosimus (l. iv. p. 248, 249) has transported the

death of Gratian from Lugdunum in Gaul (Lyons) to Singidunum in

Moesia. Some hints may be extracted from the Chronicles; some

lies may be detected in Sozomen (l. vii. c. 13) and Socrates, (l.

v. c. 11.) Ambrose is our most authentic evidence, (tom. i.

Enarrat. in Psalm lxi. p. 961, tom ii. epist. xxiv. p. 888 &c.,

and de Obitu Valentinian Consolat. Ner. 28, p. 1182.)]

15 (return) [ Pacatus (xii. 28) celebrates his fidelity; while

his treachery is marked in Prosper’s Chronicle, as the cause of

the ruin of Gratian. Ambrose, who has occasion to exculpate

himself, only condemns the death of Vallio, a faithful servant of

Gratian, (tom. ii. epist. xxiv. p. 891, edit. Benedict.) * Note:

Le Beau contests the reading in the chronicle of Prosper upon

which this charge rests. Le Beau, iv. 232.—M. * Note: According

to Pacatus, the Count Vallio, who commanded the army, was carried

to Chalons to be burnt alive; but Maximus, dreading the

imputation of cruelty, caused him to be secretly strangled by his

Bretons. Macedonius also, master of the offices, suffered the

death which he merited. Le Beau, iv. 244.—M.]

16 (return) [ He protested, nullum ex adversariis nisi in acissie

occubu. Sulp. Jeverus in Vit. B. Martin, c. 23. The orator

Theodosius bestows reluctant, and therefore weighty, praise on

his clemency. Si cui ille, pro ceteris sceleribus suis, minus

crudelis fuisse videtur, (Panegyr. Vet. xii. 28.)]

The events of this revolution had passed in such rapid

succession, that it would have been impossible for Theodosius to

march to the relief of his benefactor, before he received the

intelligence of his defeat and death. During the season of

sincere grief, or ostentatious mourning, the Eastern emperor was

interrupted by the arrival of the principal chamberlain of

Maximus; and the choice of a venerable old man, for an office

which was usually exercised by eunuchs, announced to the court of

Constantinople the gravity and temperance of the British usurper.

The ambassador condescended to justify, or excuse, the conduct of

his master; and to protest, in specious language, that the murder

of Gratian had been perpetrated, without his knowledge or

consent, by the precipitate zeal of the soldiers. But he

proceeded, in a firm and equal tone, to offer Theodosius the

alternative of peace, or war. The speech of the ambassador

concluded with a spirited declaration, that although Maximus, as

a Roman, and as the father of his people, would choose rather to

employ his forces in the common defence of the republic, he was

armed and prepared, if his friendship should be rejected, to

dispute, in a field of battle, the empire of the world. An

immediate and peremptory answer was required; but it was

extremely difficult for Theodosius to satisfy, on this important

occasion, either the feelings of his own mind, or the

expectations of the public. The imperious voice of honor and

gratitude called aloud for revenge. From the liberality of

Gratian, he had received the Imperial diadem; his patience would

encourage the odious suspicion, that he was more deeply sensible

of former injuries, than of recent obligations; and if he

accepted the friendship, he must seem to share the guilt, of the

assassin. Even the principles of justice, and the interest of

society, would receive a fatal blow from the impunity of Maximus;

and the example of successful usurpation would tend to dissolve

the artificial fabric of government, and once more to replunge

the empire in the crimes and calamities of the preceding age.

But, as the sentiments of gratitude and honor should invariably

regulate the conduct of an individual, they may be overbalanced

in the mind of a sovereign, by the sense of superior duties; and

the maxims both of justice and humanity must permit the escape of

an atrocious criminal, if an innocent people would be involved in

the consequences of his punishment. The assassin of Gratian had

usurped, but he actually possessed, the most warlike provinces of

the empire: the East was exhausted by the misfortunes, and even

by the success, of the Gothic war; and it was seriously to be

apprehended, that, after the vital strength of the republic had

been wasted in a doubtful and destructive contest, the feeble

conqueror would remain an easy prey to the Barbarians of the

North. These weighty considerations engaged Theodosius to

dissemble his resentment, and to accept the alliance of the

tyrant. But he stipulated, that Maximus should content himself

with the possession of the countries beyond the Alps. The brother

of Gratian was confirmed and secured in the sovereignty of Italy,

Africa, and the Western Illyricum; and some honorable conditions

were inserted in the treaty, to protect the memory, and the laws,

of the deceased emperor. 17 According to the custom of the age,

the images of the three Imperial colleagues were exhibited to the

veneration of the people; nor should it be lightly supposed,

that, in the moment of a solemn reconciliation, Theodosius

secretly cherished the intention of perfidy and revenge. 18

17 (return) [ Ambrose mentions the laws of Gratian, quas non

abrogavit hostia (tom. ii epist. xvii. p. 827.)]

18 (return) [ Zosimus, l. iv. p. 251, 252. We may disclaim his

odious suspicions; but we cannot reject the treaty of peace which

the friends of Theodosius have absolutely forgotten, or slightly

mentioned.]

The contempt of Gratian for the Roman soldiers had exposed him to

the fatal effects of their resentment. His profound veneration

for the Christian clergy was rewarded by the applause and

gratitude of a powerful order, which has claimed, in every age,

the privilege of dispensing honors, both on earth and in heaven.

19 The orthodox bishops bewailed his death, and their own

irreparable loss; but they were soon comforted by the discovery,

that Gratian had committed the sceptre of the East to the hands

of a prince, whose humble faith and fervent zeal, were supported

by the spirit and abilities of a more vigorous character. Among

the benefactors of the church, the fame of Constantine has been

rivalled by the glory of Theodosius. If Constantine had the

advantage of erecting the standard of the cross, the emulation of

his successor assumed the merit of subduing the Arian heresy, and

of abolishing the worship of idols in the Roman world. Theodosius

was the first of the emperors baptized in the true faith of the

Trinity. Although he was born of a Christian family, the maxims,

or at least the practice, of the age, encouraged him to delay the

ceremony of his initiation; till he was admonished of the danger

of delay, by the serious illness which threatened his life,

towards the end of the first year of his reign. Before he again

took the field against the Goths, he received the sacrament of

baptism 20 from Acholius, the orthodox bishop of Thessalonica: 21

and, as the emperor ascended from the holy font, still glowing

with the warm feelings of regeneration, he dictated a solemn

edict, which proclaimed his own faith, and prescribed the

religion of his subjects. “It is our pleasure (such is the

Imperial style) that all the nations, which are governed by our

clemency and moderation, should steadfastly adhere to the

religion which was taught by St. Peter to the Romans; which

faithful tradition has preserved; and which is now professed by

the pontiff Damasus, and by Peter, bishop of Alexandria, a man of

apostolic holiness. According to the discipline of the apostles,

and the doctrine of the gospel, let us believe the sole deity of

the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; under an equal majesty,

and a pious Trinity. We authorize the followers of this doctrine

to assume the title of Catholic Christians; and as we judge, that

all others are extravagant madmen, we brand them with the

infamous name of Heretics; and declare that their conventicles

shall no longer usurp the respectable appellation of churches.

Besides the condemnation of divine justice, they must expect to

suffer the severe penalties, which our authority, guided by

heavenly wisdom, shall think proper to inflict upon them.” 22 The

faith of a soldier is commonly the fruit of instruction, rather

than of inquiry; but as the emperor always fixed his eyes on the

visible landmarks of orthodoxy, which he had so prudently

constituted, his religious opinions were never affected by the

specious texts, the subtle arguments, and the ambiguous creeds of

the Arian doctors. Once indeed he expressed a faint inclination

to converse with the eloquent and learned Eunomius, who lived in

retirement at a small distance from Constantinople. But the

dangerous interview was prevented by the prayers of the empress

Flaccilla, who trembled for the salvation of her husband; and the

mind of Theodosius was confirmed by a theological argument,

adapted to the rudest capacity. He had lately bestowed on his

eldest son, Arcadius, the name and honors of Augustus, and the

two princes were seated on a stately throne to receive the homage

of their subjects. A bishop, Amphilochius of Iconium, approached

the throne, and after saluting, with due reverence, the person of

his sovereign, he accosted the royal youth with the same familiar

tenderness which he might have used towards a plebeian child.

Provoked by this insolent behavior, the monarch gave orders, that

the rustic priest should be instantly driven from his presence.

But while the guards were forcing him to the door, the dexterous

polemic had time to execute his design, by exclaiming, with a

loud voice, “Such is the treatment, O emperor! which the King of

heaven has prepared for those impious men, who affect to worship

the Father, but refuse to acknowledge the equal majesty of his

divine Son.” Theodosius immediately embraced the bishop of

Iconium, and never forgot the important lesson, which he had

received from this dramatic parable. 23

19 (return) [ Their oracle, the archbishop of Milan, assigns to

his pupil Gratian, a high and respectable place in heaven, (tom.

ii. de Obit. Val. Consol p. 1193.)]

20 (return) [ For the baptism of Theodosius, see Sozomen, (l.

vii. c. 4,) Socrates, (l. v. c. 6,) and Tillemont, (Hist. des

Empereurs, tom. v. p. 728.)]

21 (return) [ Ascolius, or Acholius, was honored by the

friendship, and the praises, of Ambrose; who styles him murus

fidei atque sanctitatis, (tom. ii. epist. xv. p. 820;) and

afterwards celebrates his speed and diligence in running to

Constantinople, Italy, &c., (epist. xvi. p. 822.) a virtue which

does not appertain either to a wall, or a bishop.]

22 (return) [ Codex Theodos. l. xvi. tit. i. leg. 2, with

Godefroy’s Commentary, tom. vi. p. 5-9. Such an edict deserved

the warmest praises of Baronius, auream sanctionem, edictum pium

et salutare.—Sic itua ad astra.]

23 (return) [ Sozomen, l. vii. c. 6. Theodoret, l. v. c. 16.

Tillemont is displeased (Mem. Eccles. tom. vi. p. 627, 628) with

the terms of “rustic bishop,” “obscure city.” Yet I must take

leave to think, that both Amphilochius and Iconium were objects

of inconsiderable magnitude in the Roman empire.]

Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius.—Part II.

Constantinople was the principal seat and fortress of Arianism;

and, in a long interval of forty years, 24 the faith of the

princes and prelates, who reigned in the capital of the East, was

rejected in the purer schools of Rome and Alexandria. The

archiepiscopal throne of Macedonius, which had been polluted with

so much Christian blood, was successively filled by Eudoxus and

Damophilus. Their diocese enjoyed a free importation of vice and

error from every province of the empire; the eager pursuit of

religious controversy afforded a new occupation to the busy

idleness of the metropolis; and we may credit the assertion of an

intelligent observer, who describes, with some pleasantry, the

effects of their loquacious zeal. “This city,” says he, “is full

of mechanics and slaves, who are all of them profound

theologians; and preach in the shops, and in the streets. If you

desire a man to change a piece of silver, he informs you, wherein

the Son differs from the Father; if you ask the price of a loaf,

you are told by way of reply, that the Son is inferior to the

Father; and if you inquire, whether the bath is ready, the answer

is, that the Son was made out of nothing.” 25 The heretics, of

various denominations, subsisted in peace under the protection of

the Arians of Constantinople; who endeavored to secure the

attachment of those obscure sectaries, while they abused, with

unrelenting severity, the victory which they had obtained over

the followers of the council of Nice. During the partial reigns

of Constantius and Valens, the feeble remnant of the Homoousians

was deprived of the public and private exercise of their

religion; and it has been observed, in pathetic language, that

the scattered flock was left without a shepherd to wander on the

mountains, or to be devoured by rapacious wolves. 26 But, as

their zeal, instead of being subdued, derived strength and vigor

from oppression, they seized the first moments of imperfect

freedom, which they had acquired by the death of Valens, to form

themselves into a regular congregation, under the conduct of an

episcopal pastor. Two natives of Cappadocia, Basil, and Gregory

Nazianzen, 27 were distinguished above all their contemporaries,

28 by the rare union of profane eloquence and of orthodox piety.

These orators, who might sometimes be compared, by themselves,

and by the public, to the most celebrated of the ancient Greeks,

were united by the ties of the strictest friendship. They had

cultivated, with equal ardor, the same liberal studies in the

schools of Athens; they had retired, with equal devotion, to the

same solitude in the deserts of Pontus; and every spark of

emulation, or envy, appeared to be totally extinguished in the

holy and ingenuous breasts of Gregory and Basil. But the

exaltation of Basil, from a private life to the archiepiscopal

throne of Caesarea, discovered to the world, and perhaps to

himself, the pride of his character; and the first favor which he

condescended to bestow on his friend, was received, and perhaps

was intended, as a cruel insult. 29 Instead of employing the

superior talents of Gregory in some useful and conspicuous

station, the haughty prelate selected, among the fifty bishoprics

of his extensive province, the wretched village of Sasima, 30

without water, without verdure, without society, situate at the

junction of three highways, and frequented only by the incessant

passage of rude and clamorous wagoners. Gregory submitted with

reluctance to this humiliating exile; he was ordained bishop of

Sasima; but he solemnly protests, that he never consummated his

spiritual marriage with this disgusting bride. He afterwards

consented to undertake the government of his native church of

Nazianzus, 31 of which his father had been bishop above

five-and-forty years. But as he was still conscious that he

deserved another audience, and another theatre, he accepted, with

no unworthy ambition, the honorable invitation, which was

addressed to him from the orthodox party of Constantinople. On

his arrival in the capital, Gregory was entertained in the house

of a pious and charitable kinsman; the most spacious room was

consecrated to the uses of religious worship; and the name of

Anastasia was chosen to express the resurrection of the Nicene

faith. This private conventicle was afterwards converted into a

magnificent church; and the credulity of the succeeding age was

prepared to believe the miracles and visions, which attested the

presence, or at least the protection, of the Mother of God. 32

The pulpit of the Anastasia was the scene of the labors and

triumphs of Gregory Nazianzen; and, in the space of two years, he

experienced all the spiritual adventures which constitute the

prosperous or adverse fortunes of a missionary. 33 The Arians,

who were provoked by the boldness of his enterprise, represented

his doctrine, as if he had preached three distinct and equal

Deities; and the devout populace was excited to suppress, by

violence and tumult, the irregular assemblies of the Athanasian

heretics. From the cathedral of St. Sophia there issued a motley

crowd “of common beggars, who had forfeited their claim to pity;

of monks, who had the appearance of goats or satyrs; and of

women, more terrible than so many Jezebels.” The doors of the

Anastasia were broke open; much mischief was perpetrated, or

attempted, with sticks, stones, and firebrands; and as a man lost

his life in the affray, Gregory, who was summoned the next

morning before the magistrate, had the satisfaction of supposing,

that he publicly confessed the name of Christ. After he was

delivered from the fear and danger of a foreign enemy, his infant

church was disgraced and distracted by intestine faction. A

stranger who assumed the name of Maximus, 34 and the cloak of a

Cynic philosopher, insinuated himself into the confidence of

Gregory; deceived and abused his favorable opinion; and forming a

secret connection with some bishops of Egypt, attempted, by a

clandestine ordination, to supplant his patron in the episcopal

seat of Constantinople. These mortifications might sometimes

tempt the Cappadocian missionary to regret his obscure solitude.

But his fatigues were rewarded by the daily increase of his fame

and his congregation; and he enjoyed the pleasure of observing,

that the greater part of his numerous audience retired from his

sermons satisfied with the eloquence of the preacher, 35 or

dissatisfied with the manifold imperfections of their faith and

practice. 36

24 (return) [ Sozomen, l. vii. c. v. Socrates, l. v. c. 7.

Marcellin. in Chron. The account of forty years must be dated

from the election or intrusion of Eusebius, who wisely exchanged

the bishopric of Nicomedia for the throne of Constantinople.]

25 (return) [ See Jortin’s Remarks on Ecclesiastical History,

vol. iv. p. 71. The thirty-third Oration of Gregory Nazianzen

affords indeed some similar ideas, even some still more

ridiculous; but I have not yet found the words of this remarkable

passage, which I allege on the faith of a correct and liberal

scholar.]

26 (return) [ See the thirty-second Oration of Gregory Nazianzen,

and the account of his own life, which he has composed in 1800

iambics. Yet every physician is prone to exaggerate the

inveterate nature of the disease which he has cured.]

27 (return) [ I confess myself deeply indebted to the two lives

of Gregory Nazianzen, composed, with very different views, by

Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 305-560, 692-731) and Le

Clerc, (Bibliothèque Universelle, tom. xviii. p. 1-128.)]

28 (return) [ Unless Gregory Nazianzen mistook thirty years in

his own age, he was born, as well as his friend Basil, about the

year 329. The preposterous chronology of Suidas has been

graciously received, because it removes the scandal of Gregory’s

father, a saint likewise, begetting children after he became a

bishop, (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 693-697.)]

29 (return) [ Gregory’s Poem on his own Life contains some

beautiful lines, (tom. ii. p. 8,) which burst from the heart, and

speak the pangs of injured and lost friendship. ——In the

Midsummer Night’s Dream, Helena addresses the same pathetic

complaint to her friend Hermia:—Is all the counsel that we two

have shared. The sister’s vows, &c. Shakspeare had never read the

poems of Gregory Nazianzen; he was ignorant of the Greek

language; but his mother tongue, the language of Nature, is the

same in Cappadocia and in Britain.]

30 (return) [ This unfavorable portrait of Sasimae is drawn by

Gregory Nazianzen, (tom. ii. de Vita sua, p. 7, 8.) Its precise

situation, forty-nine miles from Archelais, and thirty-two from

Tyana, is fixed in the Itinerary of Antoninus, (p. 144, edit.

Wesseling.)]

31 (return) [ The name of Nazianzus has been immortalized by

Gregory; but his native town, under the Greek or Roman title of

Diocaesarea, (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 692,) is

mentioned by Pliny, (vi. 3,) Ptolemy, and Hierocles, (Itinerar.

Wesseling, p. 709). It appears to have been situate on the edge

of Isauria.]

32 (return) [ See Ducange, Constant. Christiana, l. iv. p. 141,

142. The Sozomen (l. vii. c. 5) is interpreted to mean the Virgin

Mary.]

33 (return) [ Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 432, &c.)

diligently collects, enlarges, and explains, the oratorical and

poetical hints of Gregory himself.]

34 (return) [ He pronounced an oration (tom. i. Orat. xxiii. p.

409) in his praise; but after their quarrel, the name of Maximus

was changed into that of Heron, (see Jerom, tom. i. in Catalog.

Script. Eccles. p. 301). I touch slightly on these obscure and

personal squabbles.]

35 (return) [ Under the modest emblem of a dream, Gregory (tom.

ii. Carmen ix. p. 78) describes his own success with some human

complacency. Yet it should seem, from his familiar conversation

with his auditor St. Jerom, (tom. i. Epist. ad Nepotian. p. 14,)

that the preacher understood the true value of popular applause.]

36 (return) [ Lachrymae auditorum laudes tuae sint, is the lively

and judicious advice of St. Jerom.]

The Catholics of Constantinople were animated with joyful

confidence by the baptism and edict of Theodosius; and they

impatiently waited the effects of his gracious promise. Their

hopes were speedily accomplished; and the emperor, as soon as he

had finished the operations of the campaign, made his public

entry into the capital at the head of a victorious army. The next

day after his arrival, he summoned Damophilus to his presence,

and offered that Arian prelate the hard alternative of

subscribing the Nicene creed, or of instantly resigning, to the

orthodox believers, the use and possession of the episcopal

palace, the cathedral of St. Sophia, and all the churches of

Constantinople. The zeal of Damophilus, which in a Catholic saint

would have been justly applauded, embraced, without hesitation, a

life of poverty and exile, 37 and his removal was immediately

followed by the purification of the Imperial city. The Arians

might complain, with some appearance of justice, that an

inconsiderable congregation of sectaries should usurp the hundred

churches, which they were insufficient to fill; whilst the far

greater part of the people was cruelly excluded from every place

of religious worship. Theodosius was still inexorable; but as the

angels who protected the Catholic cause were only visible to the

eyes of faith, he prudently reenforced those heavenly legions

with the more effectual aid of temporal and carnal weapons; and

the church of St. Sophia was occupied by a large body of the

Imperial guards. If the mind of Gregory was susceptible of pride,

he must have felt a very lively satisfaction, when the emperor

conducted him through the streets in solemn triumph; and, with

his own hand, respectfully placed him on the archiepiscopal

throne of Constantinople. But the saint (who had not subdued the

imperfections of human virtue) was deeply affected by the

mortifying consideration, that his entrance into the fold was

that of a wolf, rather than of a shepherd; that the glittering

arms which surrounded his person, were necessary for his safety;

and that he alone was the object of the imprecations of a great

party, whom, as men and citizens, it was impossible for him to

despise. He beheld the innumerable multitude of either sex, and

of every age, who crowded the streets, the windows, and the roofs

of the houses; he heard the tumultuous voice of rage, grief,

astonishment, and despair; and Gregory fairly confesses, that on

the memorable day of his installation, the capital of the East

wore the appearance of a city taken by storm, and in the hands of

a Barbarian conqueror. 38 About six weeks afterwards, Theodosius

declared his resolution of expelling from all the churches of his

dominions the bishops and their clergy who should obstinately

refuse to believe, or at least to profess, the doctrine of the

council of Nice. His lieutenant, Sapor, was armed with the ample

powers of a general law, a special commission, and a military

force; 39 and this ecclesiastical revolution was conducted with

so much discretion and vigor, that the religion of the emperor

was established, without tumult or bloodshed, in all the

provinces of the East. The writings of the Arians, if they had

been permitted to exist, 40 would perhaps contain the lamentable

story of the persecution, which afflicted the church under the

reign of the impious Theodosius; and the sufferings of their holy

confessors might claim the pity of the disinterested reader. Yet

there is reason to imagine, that the violence of zeal and revenge

was, in some measure, eluded by the want of resistance; and that,

in their adversity, the Arians displayed much less firmness than

had been exerted by the orthodox party under the reigns of

Constantius and Valens. The moral character and conduct of the

hostile sects appear to have been governed by the same common

principles of nature and religion: but a very material

circumstance may be discovered, which tended to distinguish the

degrees of their theological faith. Both parties, in the schools,

as well as in the temples, acknowledged and worshipped the divine

majesty of Christ; and, as we are always prone to impute our own

sentiments and passions to the Deity, it would be deemed more

prudent and respectful to exaggerate, than to circumscribe, the

adorable perfections of the Son of God. The disciple of

Athanasius exulted in the proud confidence, that he had entitled

himself to the divine favor; while the follower of Arius must

have been tormented by the secret apprehension, that he was

guilty, perhaps, of an unpardonable offence, by the scanty

praise, and parsimonious honors, which he bestowed on the Judge

of the World. The opinions of Arianism might satisfy a cold and

speculative mind: but the doctrine of the Nicene creed, most

powerfully recommended by the merits of faith and devotion, was

much better adapted to become popular and successful in a

believing age.

37 (return) [ Socrates (l. v. c. 7) and Sozomen (l. vii. c. 5)

relate the evangelical words and actions of Damophilus without a

word of approbation. He considered, says Socrates, that it is

difficult to resist the powerful, but it was easy, and would have

been profitable, to submit.]

38 (return) [ See Gregory Nazianzen, tom. ii. de Vita sua, p. 21,

22. For the sake of posterity, the bishop of Constantinople

records a stupendous prodigy. In the month of November, it was a

cloudy morning, but the sun broke forth when the procession

entered the church.]

39 (return) [ Of the three ecclesiastical historians, Theodoret

alone (l. v. c. 2) has mentioned this important commission of

Sapor, which Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 728)

judiciously removes from the reign of Gratian to that of

Theodosius.]

40 (return) [ I do not reckon Philostorgius, though he mentions

(l. ix. c. 19) the explosion of Damophilus. The Eunomian

historian has been carefully strained through an orthodox sieve.]

The hope, that truth and wisdom would be found in the assemblies

of the orthodox clergy, induced the emperor to convene, at

Constantinople, a synod of one hundred and fifty bishops, who

proceeded, without much difficulty or delay, to complete the

theological system which had been established in the council of

Nice. The vehement disputes of the fourth century had been

chiefly employed on the nature of the Son of God; and the various

opinions which were embraced, concerning the Second, were

extended and transferred, by a natural analogy, to the Third

person of the Trinity. 41 Yet it was found, or it was thought,

necessary, by the victorious adversaries of Arianism, to explain

the ambiguous language of some respectable doctors; to confirm

the faith of the Catholics; and to condemn an unpopular and

inconsistent sect of Macedonians; who freely admitted that the

Son was consubstantial to the Father, while they were fearful of

seeming to acknowledge the existence of Three Gods. A final and

unanimous sentence was pronounced to ratify the equal Deity of

the Holy Ghost: the mysterious doctrine has been received by all

the nations, and all the churches of the Christian world; and

their grateful reverence has assigned to the bishops of

Theodosius the second rank among the general councils. 42 Their

knowledge of religious truth may have been preserved by

tradition, or it may have been communicated by inspiration; but

the sober evidence of history will not allow much weight to the

personal authority of the Fathers of Constantinople. In an age

when the ecclesiastics had scandalously degenerated from the

model of apostolic purity, the most worthless and corrupt were

always the most eager to frequent, and disturb, the episcopal

assemblies. The conflict and fermentation of so many opposite

interests and tempers inflamed the passions of the bishops: and

their ruling passions were, the love of gold, and the love of

dispute. Many of the same prelates who now applauded the orthodox

piety of Theodosius, had repeatedly changed, with prudent

flexibility, their creeds and opinions; and in the various

revolutions of the church and state, the religion of their

sovereign was the rule of their obsequious faith. When the

emperor suspended his prevailing influence, the turbulent synod

was blindly impelled by the absurd or selfish motives of pride,

hatred, or resentment. The death of Meletius, which happened at

the council of Constantinople, presented the most favorable

opportunity of terminating the schism of Antioch, by suffering

his aged rival, Paulinus, peaceably to end his days in the

episcopal chair. The faith and virtues of Paulinus were

unblemished. But his cause was supported by the Western churches;

and the bishops of the synod resolved to perpetuate the mischiefs

of discord, by the hasty ordination of a perjured candidate, 43

rather than to betray the imagined dignity of the East, which had

been illustrated by the birth and death of the Son of God. Such

unjust and disorderly proceedings forced the gravest members of

the assembly to dissent and to secede; and the clamorous majority

which remained masters of the field of battle, could be compared

only to wasps or magpies, to a flight of cranes, or to a flock of

geese. 44

41 (return) [ Le Clerc has given a curious extract (Bibliothèque

Universelle, tom. xviii. p. 91-105) of the theological sermons

which Gregory Nazianzen pronounced at Constantinople against the

Arians, Eunomians, Macedonians, &c. He tells the Macedonians, who

deified the Father and the Son without the Holy Ghost, that they

might as well be styled Tritheists as Ditheists. Gregory himself

was almost a Tritheist; and his monarchy of heaven resembles a

well-regulated aristocracy.]

42 (return) [ The first general council of Constantinople now

triumphs in the Vatican; but the popes had long hesitated, and

their hesitation perplexes, and almost staggers, the humble

Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 499, 500.)]

43 (return) [ Before the death of Meletius, six or eight of his

most popular ecclesiastics, among whom was Flavian, had abjured,

for the sake of peace, the bishopric of Antioch, (Sozomen, l.

vii. c. 3, 11. Socrates, l. v. c. v.) Tillemont thinks it his

duty to disbelieve the story; but he owns that there are many

circumstances in the life of Flavian which seem inconsistent with

the praises of Chrysostom, and the character of a saint, (Mem.

Eccles. tom. x. p. 541.)]

44 (return) [ Consult Gregory Nazianzen, de Vita sua, tom. ii. p.

25-28. His general and particular opinion of the clergy and their

assemblies may be seen in verse and prose, (tom. i. Orat. i. p.

33. Epist. lv. p. 814, tom. ii. Carmen x. p. 81.) Such passages

are faintly marked by Tillemont, and fairly produced by Le

Clerc.]

A suspicion may possibly arise, that so unfavorable a picture of

ecclesiastical synods has been drawn by the partial hand of some

obstinate heretic, or some malicious infidel. But the name of the

sincere historian who has conveyed this instructive lesson to the

knowledge of posterity, must silence the impotent murmurs of

superstition and bigotry. He was one of the most pious and

eloquent bishops of the age; a saint, and a doctor of the church;

the scourge of Arianism, and the pillar of the orthodox faith; a

distinguished member of the council of Constantinople, in which,

after the death of Meletius, he exercised the functions of

president; in a word—Gregory Nazianzen himself. The harsh and

ungenerous treatment which he experienced, 45 instead of

derogating from the truth of his evidence, affords an additional

proof of the spirit which actuated the deliberations of the

synod. Their unanimous suffrage had confirmed the pretensions

which the bishop of Constantinople derived from the choice of the

people, and the approbation of the emperor. But Gregory soon

became the victim of malice and envy. The bishops of the East,

his strenuous adherents, provoked by his moderation in the

affairs of Antioch, abandoned him, without support, to the

adverse faction of the Egyptians; who disputed the validity of

his election, and rigorously asserted the obsolete canon, that

prohibited the licentious practice of episcopal translations. The

pride, or the humility, of Gregory prompted him to decline a

contest which might have been imputed to ambition and avarice;

and he publicly offered, not without some mixture of indignation,

to renounce the government of a church which had been restored,

and almost created, by his labors. His resignation was accepted

by the synod, and by the emperor, with more readiness than he

seems to have expected. At the time when he might have hoped to

enjoy the fruits of his victory, his episcopal throne was filled

by the senator Nectarius; and the new archbishop, accidentally

recommended by his easy temper and venerable aspect, was obliged

to delay the ceremony of his consecration, till he had previously

despatched the rites of his baptism. 46 After this remarkable

experience of the ingratitude of princes and prelates, Gregory

retired once more to his obscure solitude of Cappadocia; where he

employed the remainder of his life, about eight years, in the

exercises of poetry and devotion. The title of Saint has been

added to his name: but the tenderness of his heart, 47 and the

elegance of his genius, reflect a more pleasing lustre on the

memory of Gregory Nazianzen.

45 (return) [ See Gregory, tom. ii. de Vita sua, p. 28-31. The

fourteenth, twenty-seventh, and thirty-second Orations were

pronounced in the several stages of this business. The peroration

of the last, (tom. i. p. 528,) in which he takes a solemn leave

of men and angels, the city and the emperor, the East and the

West, &c., is pathetic, and almost sublime.]

46 (return) [ The whimsical ordination of Nectarius is attested

by Sozomen, (l. vii. c. 8;) but Tillemont observes, (Mem. Eccles.

tom. ix. p. 719,) Apres tout, ce narre de Sozomene est si

honteux, pour tous ceux qu’il y mele, et surtout pour Theodose,

qu’il vaut mieux travailler a le detruire, qu’a le soutenir; an

admirable canon of criticism!]

47 (return) [ I can only be understood to mean, that such was his

natural temper when it was not hardened, or inflamed, by

religious zeal. From his retirement, he exhorts Nectarius to

prosecute the heretics of Constantinople.]

It was not enough that Theodosius had suppressed the insolent

reign of Arianism, or that he had abundantly revenged the

injuries which the Catholics sustained from the zeal of

Constantius and Valens. The orthodox emperor considered every

heretic as a rebel against the supreme powers of heaven and of

earth; and each of those powers might exercise their peculiar

jurisdiction over the soul and body of the guilty. The decrees of

the council of Constantinople had ascertained the true standard

of the faith; and the ecclesiastics, who governed the conscience

of Theodosius, suggested the most effectual methods of

persecution. In the space of fifteen years, he promulgated at

least fifteen severe edicts against the heretics; 48 more

especially against those who rejected the doctrine of the

Trinity; and to deprive them of every hope of escape, he sternly

enacted, that if any laws or rescripts should be alleged in their

favor, the judges should consider them as the illegal productions

either of fraud or forgery. The penal statutes were directed

against the ministers, the assemblies, and the persons of the

heretics; and the passions of the legislator were expressed in

the language of declamation and invective. I. The heretical

teachers, who usurped the sacred titles of Bishops, or

Presbyters, were not only excluded from the privileges and

emoluments so liberally granted to the orthodox clergy, but they

were exposed to the heavy penalties of exile and confiscation, if

they presumed to preach the doctrine, or to practise the rites,

of their accursed sects. A fine of ten pounds of gold (above four

hundred pounds sterling) was imposed on every person who should

dare to confer, or receive, or promote, an heretical ordination:

and it was reasonably expected, that if the race of pastors could

be extinguished, their helpless flocks would be compelled, by

ignorance and hunger, to return within the pale of the Catholic

church. II. The rigorous prohibition of conventicles was

carefully extended to every possible circumstance, in which the

heretics could assemble with the intention of worshipping God and

Christ according to the dictates of their conscience. Their

religious meetings, whether public or secret, by day or by night,

in cities or in the country, were equally proscribed by the

edicts of Theodosius; and the building, or ground, which had been

used for that illegal purpose, was forfeited to the Imperial

domain. III. It was supposed, that the error of the heretics

could proceed only from the obstinate temper of their minds; and

that such a temper was a fit object of censure and punishment.

The anathemas of the church were fortified by a sort of civil

excommunication; which separated them from their fellow-citizens,

by a peculiar brand of infamy; and this declaration of the

supreme magistrate tended to justify, or at least to excuse, the

insults of a fanatic populace. The sectaries were gradually

disqualified from the possession of honorable or lucrative

employments; and Theodosius was satisfied with his own justice,

when he decreed, that, as the Eunomians distinguished the nature

of the Son from that of the Father, they should be incapable of

making their wills or of receiving any advantage from

testamentary donations. The guilt of the Manichaean heresy was

esteemed of such magnitude, that it could be expiated only by the

death of the offender; and the same capital punishment was

inflicted on the Audians, or Quartodecimans, 49 who should dare

to perpetrate the atrocious crime of celebrating on an improper

day the festival of Easter. Every Roman might exercise the right

of public accusation; but the office of Inquisitors of the Faith,

a name so deservedly abhorred, was first instituted under the

reign of Theodosius. Yet we are assured, that the execution of

his penal edicts was seldom enforced; and that the pious emperor

appeared less desirous to punish, than to reclaim, or terrify,

his refractory subjects. 50

48 (return) [ See the Theodosian Code, l. xvi. tit. v. leg. 6—23,

with Godefroy’s commentary on each law, and his general summary,

or Paratitlon, tom vi. p. 104-110.]

49 (return) [ They always kept their Easter, like the Jewish

Passover, on the fourteenth day of the first moon after the

vernal equinox; and thus pertinaciously opposed the Roman Church

and Nicene synod, which had fixed Easter to a Sunday. Bingham’s

Antiquities, l. xx. c. 5, vol. ii. p. 309, fol. edit.]

50 (return) [ Sozomen, l. vii. c. 12.]

The theory of persecution was established by Theodosius, whose

justice and piety have been applauded by the saints: but the

practice of it, in the fullest extent, was reserved for his rival

and colleague, Maximus, the first, among the Christian princes,

who shed the blood of his Christian subjects on account of their

religious opinions. The cause of the Priscillianists, 51 a recent

sect of heretics, who disturbed the provinces of Spain, was

transferred, by appeal, from the synod of Bordeaux to the

Imperial consistory of Treves; and by the sentence of the

Prætorian praefect, seven persons were tortured, condemned, and

executed. The first of these was Priscillian 52 himself, bishop

of Avila, in Spain; who adorned the advantages of birth and

fortune, by the accomplishments of eloquence and learning. 53 Two

presbyters, and two deacons, accompanied their beloved master in

his death, which they esteemed as a glorious martyrdom; and the

number of religious victims was completed by the execution of

Latronian, a poet, who rivalled the fame of the ancients; and of

Euchrocia, a noble matron of Bordeaux, the widow of the orator

Delphidius. 54 Two bishops who had embraced the sentiments of

Priscillian, were condemned to a distant and dreary exile; 55 and

some indulgence was shown to the meaner criminals, who assumed

the merit of an early repentance. If any credit could be allowed

to confessions extorted by fear or pain, and to vague reports,

the offspring of malice and credulity, the heresy of the

Priscillianists would be found to include the various

abominations of magic, of impiety, and of lewdness. 56

Priscillian, who wandered about the world in the company of his

spiritual sisters, was accused of praying stark naked in the

midst of the congregation; and it was confidently asserted, that

the effects of his criminal intercourse with the daughter of

Euchrocia had been suppressed, by means still more odious and

criminal. But an accurate, or rather a candid, inquiry will

discover, that if the Priscillianists violated the laws of

nature, it was not by the licentiousness, but by the austerity,

of their lives. They absolutely condemned the use of the

marriage-bed; and the peace of families was often disturbed by

indiscreet separations. They enjoyed, or recommended, a total

abstinence from all animal food; and their continual prayers,

fasts, and vigils, inculcated a rule of strict and perfect

devotion. The speculative tenets of the sect, concerning the

person of Christ, and the nature of the human soul, were derived

from the Gnostic and Manichaean system; and this vain philosophy,

which had been transported from Egypt to Spain, was ill adapted

to the grosser spirits of the West. The obscure disciples of

Priscillian suffered languished, and gradually disappeared: his

tenets were rejected by the clergy and people, but his death was

the subject of a long and vehement controversy; while some

arraigned, and others applauded, the justice of his sentence. It

is with pleasure that we can observe the humane inconsistency of

the most illustrious saints and bishops, Ambrose of Milan, 57 and

Martin of Tours, 58 who, on this occasion, asserted the cause of

toleration. They pitied the unhappy men, who had been executed at

Treves; they refused to hold communion with their episcopal

murderers; and if Martin deviated from that generous resolution,

his motives were laudable, and his repentance was exemplary. The

bishops of Tours and Milan pronounced, without hesitation, the

eternal damnation of heretics; but they were surprised, and

shocked, by the bloody image of their temporal death, and the

honest feelings of nature resisted the artificial prejudices of

theology. The humanity of Ambrose and Martin was confirmed by the

scandalous irregularity of the proceedings against Priscillian

and his adherents. The civil and ecclesiastical ministers had

transgressed the limits of their respective provinces. The

secular judge had presumed to receive an appeal, and to pronounce

a definitive sentence, in a matter of faith, and episcopal

jurisdiction. The bishops had disgraced themselves, by exercising

the functions of accusers in a criminal prosecution. The cruelty

of Ithacius, 59 who beheld the tortures, and solicited the death,

of the heretics, provoked the just indignation of mankind; and

the vices of that profligate bishop were admitted as a proof,

that his zeal was instigated by the sordid motives of interest.

Since the death of Priscillian, the rude attempts of persecution

have been refined and methodized in the holy office, which

assigns their distinct parts to the ecclesiastical and secular

powers. The devoted victim is regularly delivered by the priest

to the magistrate, and by the magistrate to the executioner; and

the inexorable sentence of the church, which declares the

spiritual guilt of the offender, is expressed in the mild

language of pity and intercession.

51 (return) [ See the Sacred History of Sulpicius Severus, (l.

ii. p. 437-452, edit. Ludg. Bat. 1647,) a correct and original

writer. Dr. Lardner (Credibility, &c., part ii. vol. ix. p.

256-350) has labored this article with pure learning, good sense,

and moderation. Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. viii. p. 491-527)

has raked together all the dirt of the fathers; a useful

scavenger!]

52 (return) [ Severus Sulpicius mentions the arch-heretic with

esteem and pity Faelix profecto, si non pravo studio corrupisset

optimum ingenium prorsus multa in eo animi et corporis bona

cerneres. (Hist. Sacra, l ii. p. 439.) Even Jerom (tom. i. in

Script. Eccles. p. 302) speaks with temper of Priscillian and

Latronian.]

53 (return) [ The bishopric (in Old Castile) is now worth 20,000

ducats a year, (Busching’s Geography, vol. ii. p. 308,) and is

therefore much less likely to produce the author of a new

heresy.]

54 (return) [ Exprobrabatur mulieri viduae nimia religio, et

diligentius culta divinitas, (Pacat. in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 29.)

Such was the idea of a humane, though ignorant, polytheist.]

55 (return) [ One of them was sent in Sillinam insulam quae ultra

Britannianest. What must have been the ancient condition of the

rocks of Scilly? (Camden’s Britannia, vol. ii. p. 1519.)]

56 (return) [ The scandalous calumnies of Augustin, Pope Leo,

&c., which Tillemont swallows like a child, and Lardner refutes

like a man, may suggest some candid suspicions in favor of the

older Gnostics.]

57 (return) [ Ambros. tom. ii. Epist. xxiv. p. 891.]

58 (return) [ In the Sacred History, and the Life of St. Martin,

Sulpicius Severus uses some caution; but he declares himself more

freely in the Dialogues, (iii. 15.) Martin was reproved, however,

by his own conscience, and by an angel; nor could he afterwards

perform miracles with so much ease.]

59 (return) [ The Catholic Presbyter (Sulp. Sever. l. ii. p. 448)

and the Pagan Orator (Pacat. in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 29) reprobate,

with equal indignation, the character and conduct of Ithacius.]

Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius.—Part III.

Among the ecclesiastics, who illustrated the reign of Theodosius,

Gregory Nazianzen was distinguished by the talents of an eloquent

preacher; the reputation of miraculous gifts added weight and

dignity to the monastic virtues of Martin of Tours; 60 but the

palm of episcopal vigor and ability was justly claimed by the

intrepid Ambrose. 61 He was descended from a noble family of

Romans; his father had exercised the important office of

Prætorian praefect of Gaul; and the son, after passing through

the studies of a liberal education, attained, in the regular

gradation of civil honors, the station of consular of Liguria, a

province which included the Imperial residence of Milan. At the

age of thirty-four, and before he had received the sacrament of

baptism, Ambrose, to his own surprise, and to that of the world,

was suddenly transformed from a governor to an archbishop.

Without the least mixture, as it is said, of art or intrigue, the

whole body of the people unanimously saluted him with the

episcopal title; the concord and perseverance of their

acclamations were ascribed to a praeternatural impulse; and the

reluctant magistrate was compelled to undertake a spiritual

office, for which he was not prepared by the habits and

occupations of his former life. But the active force of his

genius soon qualified him to exercise, with zeal and prudence,

the duties of his ecclesiastical jurisdiction; and while he

cheerfully renounced the vain and splendid trappings of temporal

greatness, he condescended, for the good of the church, to direct

the conscience of the emperors, and to control the administration

of the empire. Gratian loved and revered him as a father; and the

elaborate treatise on the faith of the Trinity was designed for

the instruction of the young prince. After his tragic death, at a

time when the empress Justina trembled for her own safety, and

for that of her son Valentinian, the archbishop of Milan was

despatched, on two different embassies, to the court of Treves.

He exercised, with equal firmness and dexterity, the powers of

his spiritual and political characters; and perhaps contributed,

by his authority and eloquence, to check the ambition of Maximus,

and to protect the peace of Italy. 62 Ambrose had devoted his

life, and his abilities, to the service of the church. Wealth was

the object of his contempt; he had renounced his private

patrimony; and he sold, without hesitation, the consecrated

plate, for the redemption of captives. The clergy and people of

Milan were attached to their archbishop; and he deserved the

esteem, without soliciting the favor, or apprehending the

displeasure, of his feeble sovereigns.

60 (return) [ The Life of St. Martin, and the Dialogues

concerning his miracles contain facts adapted to the grossest

barbarism, in a style not unworthy of the Augustan age. So

natural is the alliance between good taste and good sense, that I

am always astonished by this contrast.]

61 (return) [ The short and superficial Life of St. Ambrose, by

his deacon Paulinus, (Appendix ad edit. Benedict. p. i.—xv.,) has

the merit of original evidence. Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. x.

p. 78-306) and the Benedictine editors (p. xxxi.—lxiii.) have

labored with their usual diligence.]

62 (return) [ Ambrose himself (tom. ii. Epist. xxiv. p. 888—891)

gives the emperor a very spirited account of his own embassy.]

The government of Italy, and of the young emperor, naturally

devolved to his mother Justina, a woman of beauty and spirit, but

who, in the midst of an orthodox people, had the misfortune of

professing the Arian heresy, which she endeavored to instil into

the mind of her son. Justina was persuaded, that a Roman emperor

might claim, in his own dominions, the public exercise of his

religion; and she proposed to the archbishop, as a moderate and

reasonable concession, that he should resign the use of a single

church, either in the city or the suburbs of Milan. But the

conduct of Ambrose was governed by very different principles. 63

The palaces of the earth might indeed belong to Caesar; but the

churches were the houses of God; and, within the limits of his

diocese, he himself, as the lawful successor of the apostles, was

the only minister of God. The privileges of Christianity,

temporal as well as spiritual, were confined to the true

believers; and the mind of Ambrose was satisfied, that his own

theological opinions were the standard of truth and orthodoxy.

The archbishop, who refused to hold any conference, or

negotiation, with the instruments of Satan, declared, with modest

firmness, his resolution to die a martyr, rather than to yield to

the impious sacrilege; and Justina, who resented the refusal as

an act of insolence and rebellion, hastily determined to exert

the Imperial prerogative of her son. As she desired to perform

her public devotions on the approaching festival of Easter,

Ambrose was ordered to appear before the council. He obeyed the

summons with the respect of a faithful subject, but he was

followed, without his consent, by an innumerable people; they

pressed, with impetuous zeal, against the gates of the palace;

and the affrighted ministers of Valentinian, instead of

pronouncing a sentence of exile on the archbishop of Milan,

humbly requested that he would interpose his authority, to

protect the person of the emperor, and to restore the tranquility

of the capital. But the promises which Ambrose received and

communicated were soon violated by a perfidious court; and,

during six of the most solemn days, which Christian piety had set

apart for the exercise of religion, the city was agitated by the

irregular convulsions of tumult and fanaticism. The officers of

the household were directed to prepare, first, the Portian, and

afterwards, the new, Basilica, for the immediate reception of the

emperor and his mother. The splendid canopy and hangings of the

royal seat were arranged in the customary manner; but it was

found necessary to defend them. by a strong guard, from the

insults of the populace. The Arian ecclesiastics, who ventured to

show themselves in the streets, were exposed to the most imminent

danger of their lives; and Ambrose enjoyed the merit and

reputation of rescuing his personal enemies from the hands of the

enraged multitude.

63 (return) [ His own representation of his principles and

conduct (tom. ii. Epist. xx xxi. xxii. p. 852-880) is one of the

curious monuments of ecclesiastical antiquity. It contains two

letters to his sister Marcellina, with a petition to Valentinian

and the sermon de Basilicis non madendis.]

But while he labored to restrain the effects of their zeal, the

pathetic vehemence of his sermons continually inflamed the angry

and seditious temper of the people of Milan. The characters of

Eve, of the wife of Job, of Jezebel, of Herodias, were indecently

applied to the mother of the emperor; and her desire to obtain a

church for the Arians was compared to the most cruel persecutions

which Christianity had endured under the reign of Paganism. The

measures of the court served only to expose the magnitude of the

evil. A fine of two hundred pounds of gold was imposed on the

corporate body of merchants and manufacturers: an order was

signified, in the name of the emperor, to all the officers, and

inferior servants, of the courts of justice, that, during the

continuance of the public disorders, they should strictly confine

themselves to their houses; and the ministers of Valentinian

imprudently confessed, that the most respectable part of the

citizens of Milan was attached to the cause of their archbishop.

He was again solicited to restore peace to his country, by timely

compliance with the will of his sovereign. The reply of Ambrose

was couched in the most humble and respectful terms, which might,

however, be interpreted as a serious declaration of civil war.

“His life and fortune were in the hands of the emperor; but he

would never betray the church of Christ, or degrade the dignity

of the episcopal character. In such a cause he was prepared to

suffer whatever the malice of the daemon could inflict; and he

only wished to die in the presence of his faithful flock, and at

the foot of the altar; he had not contributed to excite, but it

was in the power of God alone to appease, the rage of the people:

he deprecated the scenes of blood and confusion which were likely

to ensue; and it was his fervent prayer, that he might not

survive to behold the ruin of a flourishing city, and perhaps the

desolation of all Italy.” 64 The obstinate bigotry of Justina

would have endangered the empire of her son, if, in this contest

with the church and people of Milan, she could have depended on

the active obedience of the troops of the palace. A large body of

Goths had marched to occupy the Basilica, which was the object of

the dispute: and it might be expected from the Arian principles,

and barbarous manners, of these foreign mercenaries, that they

would not entertain any scruples in the execution of the most

sanguinary orders. They were encountered, on the sacred

threshold, by the archbishop, who, thundering against them a

sentence of excommunication, asked them, in the tone of a father

and a master, whether it was to invade the house of God, that

they had implored the hospitable protection of the republic. The

suspense of the Barbarians allowed some hours for a more

effectual negotiation; and the empress was persuaded, by the

advice of her wisest counsellors, to leave the Catholics in

possession of all the churches of Milan; and to dissemble, till a

more convenient season, her intentions of revenge. The mother of

Valentinian could never forgive the triumph of Ambrose; and the

royal youth uttered a passionate exclamation, that his own

servants were ready to betray him into the hands of an insolent

priest.

64 (return) [ Retz had a similar message from the queen, to

request that he would appease the tumult of Paris. It was no

longer in his power, &c. A quoi j’ajoutai tout ce que vous pouvez

vous imaginer de respect de douleur, de regret, et de soumission,

&c. (Mémoires, tom. i. p. 140.) Certainly I do not compare either

the causes or the men yet the coadjutor himself had some idea (p.

84) of imitating St. Ambrose]

The laws of the empire, some of which were inscribed with the

name of Valentinian, still condemned the Arian heresy, and seemed

to excuse the resistance of the Catholics. By the influence of

Justina, an edict of toleration was promulgated in all the

provinces which were subject to the court of Milan; the free

exercise of their religion was granted to those who professed the

faith of Rimini; and the emperor declared, that all persons who

should infringe this sacred and salutary constitution, should be

capitally punished, as the enemies of the public peace. 65 The

character and language of the archbishop of Milan may justify the

suspicion, that his conduct soon afforded a reasonable ground, or

at least a specious pretence, to the Arian ministers; who watched

the opportunity of surprising him in some act of disobedience to

a law which he strangely represents as a law of blood and

tyranny. A sentence of easy and honorable banishment was

pronounced, which enjoined Ambrose to depart from Milan without

delay; whilst it permitted him to choose the place of his exile,

and the number of his companions. But the authority of the

saints, who have preached and practised the maxims of passive

loyalty, appeared to Ambrose of less moment than the extreme and

pressing danger of the church. He boldly refused to obey; and his

refusal was supported by the unanimous consent of his faithful

people. 66 They guarded by turns the person of their archbishop;

the gates of the cathedral and the episcopal palace were strongly

secured; and the Imperial troops, who had formed the blockade,

were unwilling to risk the attack, of that impregnable fortress.

The numerous poor, who had been relieved by the liberality of

Ambrose, embraced the fair occasion of signalizing their zeal and

gratitude; and as the patience of the multitude might have been

exhausted by the length and uniformity of nocturnal vigils, he

prudently introduced into the church of Milan the useful

institution of a loud and regular psalmody. While he maintained

this arduous contest, he was instructed, by a dream, to open the

earth in a place where the remains of two martyrs, Gervasius and

Protasius, 67 had been deposited above three hundred years.

Immediately under the pavement of the church two perfect

skeletons were found, 68 with the heads separated from their

bodies, and a plentiful effusion of blood. The holy relics were

presented, in solemn pomp, to the veneration of the people; and

every circumstance of this fortunate discovery was admirably

adapted to promote the designs of Ambrose. The bones of the

martyrs, their blood, their garments, were supposed to contain a

healing power; and the praeternatural influence was communicated

to the most distant objects, without losing any part of its

original virtue. The extraordinary cure of a blind man, 69 and

the reluctant confessions of several daemoniacs, appeared to

justify the faith and sanctity of Ambrose; and the truth of those

miracles is attested by Ambrose himself, by his secretary

Paulinus, and by his proselyte, the celebrated Augustin, who, at

that time, professed the art of rhetoric in Milan. The reason of

the present age may possibly approve the incredulity of Justina

and her Arian court; who derided the theatrical representations

which were exhibited by the contrivance, and at the expense, of

the archbishop. 70 Their effect, however, on the minds of the

people, was rapid and irresistible; and the feeble sovereign of

Italy found himself unable to contend with the favorite of

Heaven. The powers likewise of the earth interposed in the

defence of Ambrose: the disinterested advice of Theodosius was

the genuine result of piety and friendship; and the mask of

religious zeal concealed the hostile and ambitious designs of the

tyrant of Gaul. 71

65 (return) [ Sozomen alone (l. vii. c. 13) throws this luminous

fact into a dark and perplexed narrative.]

66 (return) [ Excubabat pia plebs in ecclesia, mori parata cum

episcopo suo.... Nos, adhuc frigidi, excitabamur tamen civitate

attonita atque curbata. Augustin. Confession. l. ix. c. 7]

67 (return) [ Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. ii. p. 78, 498. Many

churches in Italy, Gaul, &c., were dedicated to these unknown

martyrs, of whom St. Gervaise seems to have been more fortunate

than his companion.]

68 (return) [ Invenimus mirae magnitudinis viros duos, ut prisca

aetas ferebat, tom. ii. Epist. xxii. p. 875. The size of these

skeletons was fortunately, or skillfully, suited to the popular

prejudice of the gradual decrease of the human stature, which has

prevailed in every age since the time of Homer.—Grandiaque

effossis mirabitur ossa sepulchris.]

69 (return) [ Ambros. tom. ii. Epist. xxii. p. 875. Augustin.

Confes, l. ix. c. 7, de Civitat. Dei, l. xxii. c. 8. Paulin. in

Vita St. Ambros. c. 14, in Append. Benedict. p. 4. The blind

man’s name was Severus; he touched the holy garment, recovered

his sight, and devoted the rest of his life (at least twenty-five

years) to the service of the church. I should recommend this

miracle to our divines, if it did not prove the worship of

relics, as well as the Nicene creed.]

70 (return) [ Paulin, in Tit. St. Ambros. c. 5, in Append.

Benedict. p. 5.]

71 (return) [ Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. x. p. 190, 750. He

partially allow the mediation of Theodosius, and capriciously

rejects that of Maximus, though it is attested by Prosper,

Sozomen, and Theodoret.]

The reign of Maximus might have ended in peace and prosperity,

could he have contented himself with the possession of three

ample countries, which now constitute the three most flourishing

kingdoms of modern Europe. But the aspiring usurper, whose sordid

ambition was not dignified by the love of glory and of arms,

considered his actual forces as the instruments only of his

future greatness, and his success was the immediate cause of his

destruction. The wealth which he extorted 72 from the oppressed

provinces of Gaul, Spain, and Britain, was employed in levying

and maintaining a formidable army of Barbarians, collected, for

the most part, from the fiercest nations of Germany. The conquest

of Italy was the object of his hopes and preparations: and he

secretly meditated the ruin of an innocent youth, whose

government was abhorred and despised by his Catholic subjects.

But as Maximus wished to occupy, without resistance, the passes

of the Alps, he received, with perfidious smiles, Domninus of

Syria, the ambassador of Valentinian, and pressed him to accept

the aid of a considerable body of troops, for the service of a

Pannonian war. The penetration of Ambrose had discovered the

snares of an enemy under the professions of friendship; 73 but

the Syrian Domninus was corrupted, or deceived, by the liberal

favor of the court of Treves; and the council of Milan

obstinately rejected the suspicion of danger, with a blind

confidence, which was the effect, not of courage, but of fear.

The march of the auxiliaries was guided by the ambassador; and

they were admitted, without distrust, into the fortresses of the

Alps. But the crafty tyrant followed, with hasty and silent

footsteps, in the rear; and, as he diligently intercepted all

intelligence of his motions, the gleam of armor, and the dust

excited by the troops of cavalry, first announced the hostile

approach of a stranger to the gates of Milan. In this extremity,

Justina and her son might accuse their own imprudence, and the

perfidious arts of Maximus; but they wanted time, and force, and

resolution, to stand against the Gauls and Germans, either in the

field, or within the walls of a large and disaffected city.

Flight was their only hope, Aquileia their only refuge; and as

Maximus now displayed his genuine character, the brother of

Gratian might expect the same fate from the hands of the same

assassin. Maximus entered Milan in triumph; and if the wise

archbishop refused a dangerous and criminal connection with the

usurper, he might indirectly contribute to the success of his

arms, by inculcating, from the pulpit, the duty of resignation,

rather than that of resistance. 74 The unfortunate Justina

reached Aquileia in safety; but she distrusted the strength of

the fortifications: she dreaded the event of a siege; and she

resolved to implore the protection of the great Theodosius, whose

power and virtue were celebrated in all the countries of the

West. A vessel was secretly provided to transport the Imperial

family; they embarked with precipitation in one of the obscure

harbors of Venetia, or Istria; traversed the whole extent of the

Adriatic and Ionian Seas; turned the extreme promontory of

Peloponnesus; and, after a long, but successful navigation,

reposed themselves in the port of Thessalonica. All the subjects

of Valentinian deserted the cause of a prince, who, by his

abdication, had absolved them from the duty of allegiance; and if

the little city of Aemona, on the verge of Italy, had not

presumed to stop the career of his inglorious victory, Maximus

would have obtained, without a struggle, the sole possession of

the Western empire.

72 (return) [ The modest censure of Sulpicius (Dialog. iii. 15)

inflicts a much deeper wound than the declamation of Pacatus,

(xii. 25, 26.)]

73 (return) [ Esto tutior adversus hominem, pacis involurco

tegentem, was the wise caution of Ambrose (tom. ii. p. 891) after

his return from his second embassy.]

74 (return) [ Baronius (A.D. 387, No. 63) applies to this season

of public distress some of the penitential sermons of the

archbishop.]

Instead of inviting his royal guests to take the palace of

Constantinople, Theodosius had some unknown reasons to fix their

residence at Thessalonica; but these reasons did not proceed from

contempt or indifference, as he speedily made a visit to that

city, accompanied by the greatest part of his court and senate.

After the first tender expressions of friendship and sympathy,

the pious emperor of the East gently admonished Justina, that the

guilt of heresy was sometimes punished in this world, as well as

in the next; and that the public profession of the Nicene faith

would be the most efficacious step to promote the restoration of

her son, by the satisfaction which it must occasion both on earth

and in heaven. The momentous question of peace or war was

referred, by Theodosius, to the deliberation of his council; and

the arguments which might be alleged on the side of honor and

justice, had acquired, since the death of Gratian, a considerable

degree of additional weight. The persecution of the Imperial

family, to which Theodosius himself had been indebted for his

fortune, was now aggravated by recent and repeated injuries.

Neither oaths nor treaties could restrain the boundless ambition

of Maximus; and the delay of vigorous and decisive measures,

instead of prolonging the blessings of peace, would expose the

Eastern empire to the danger of a hostile invasion. The

Barbarians, who had passed the Danube, had lately assumed the

character of soldiers and subjects, but their native fierceness

was yet untamed: and the operations of a war, which would

exercise their valor, and diminish their numbers, might tend to

relieve the provinces from an intolerable oppression.

Notwithstanding these specious and solid reasons, which were

approved by a majority of the council, Theodosius still hesitated

whether he should draw the sword in a contest which could no

longer admit any terms of reconciliation; and his magnanimous

character was not disgraced by the apprehensions which he felt

for the safety of his infant sons, and the welfare of his

exhausted people. In this moment of anxious doubt, while the fate

of the Roman world depended on the resolution of a single man,

the charms of the princess Galla most powerfully pleaded the

cause of her brother Valentinian. 75 The heart of Theodosius wa

softened by the tears of beauty; his affections were insensibly

engaged by the graces of youth and innocence: the art of Justina

managed and directed the impulse of passion; and the celebration

of the royal nuptials was the assurance and signal of the civil

war. The unfeeling critics, who consider every amorous weakness

as an indelible stain on the memory of a great and orthodox

emperor, are inclined, on this occasion, to dispute the

suspicious evidence of the historian Zosimus. For my own part, I

shall frankly confess, that I am willing to find, or even to

seek, in the revolutions of the world, some traces of the mild

and tender sentiments of domestic life; and amidst the crowd of

fierce and ambitious conquerors, I can distinguish, with peculiar

complacency, a gentle hero, who may be supposed to receive his

armor from the hands of love. The alliance of the Persian king

was secured by the faith of treaties; the martial Barbarians were

persuaded to follow the standard, or to respect the frontiers, of

an active and liberal monarch; and the dominions of Theodosius,

from the Euphrates to the Adriatic, resounded with the

preparations of war both by land and sea. The skilful disposition

of the forces of the East seemed to multiply their numbers, and

distracted the attention of Maximus. He had reason to fear, that

a chosen body of troops, under the command of the intrepid

Arbogastes, would direct their march along the banks of the

Danube, and boldly penetrate through the Rhaetian provinces into

the centre of Gaul. A powerful fleet was equipped in the harbors

of Greece and Epirus, with an apparent design, that, as soon as

the passage had been opened by a naval victory, Valentinian and

his mother should land in Italy, proceed, without delay, to Rome,

and occupy the majestic seat of religion and empire. In the mean

while, Theodosius himself advanced at the head of a brave and

disciplined army, to encounter his unworthy rival, who, after the

siege of Aemona, 7511 had fixed his camp in the neighborhood of

Siscia, a city of Pannonia, strongly fortified by the broad and

rapid stream of the Save.

75 (return) [ The flight of Valentinian, and the love of

Theodosius for his sister, are related by Zosimus, (l. iv. p.

263, 264.) Tillemont produces some weak and ambiguous evidence to

antedate the second marriage of Theodosius, (Hist. des Empereurs,

to. v. p. 740,) and consequently to refute ces contes de Zosime,

qui seroient trop contraires a la piete de Theodose.]

7511 (return) [ Aemonah, Laybach. Siscia Sciszek.—M.]

Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius.—Part IV.

The veterans, who still remembered the long resistance, and

successive resources, of the tyrant Magnentius, might prepare

themselves for the labors of three bloody campaigns. But the

contest with his successor, who, like him, had usurped the throne

of the West, was easily decided in the term of two months, 76 and

within the space of two hundred miles. The superior genius of the

emperor of the East might prevail over the feeble Maximus, who,

in this important crisis, showed himself destitute of military

skill, or personal courage; but the abilities of Theodosius were

seconded by the advantage which he possessed of a numerous and

active cavalry. The Huns, the Alani, and, after their example,

the Goths themselves, were formed into squadrons of archers; who

fought on horseback, and confounded the steady valor of the Gauls

and Germans, by the rapid motions of a Tartar war. After the

fatigue of a long march, in the heat of summer, they spurred

their foaming horses into the waters of the Save, swam the river

in the presence of the enemy, and instantly charged and routed

the troops who guarded the high ground on the opposite side.

Marcellinus, the tyrant’s brother, advanced to support them with

the select cohorts, which were considered as the hope and

strength of the army. The action, which had been interrupted by

the approach of night, was renewed in the morning; and, after a

sharp conflict, the surviving remnant of the bravest soldiers of

Maximus threw down their arms at the feet of the conqueror.

Without suspending his march, to receive the loyal acclamations

of the citizens of Aemona, Theodosius pressed forwards to

terminate the war by the death or captivity of his rival, who

fled before him with the diligence of fear. From the summit of

the Julian Alps, he descended with such incredible speed into the

plain of Italy, that he reached Aquileia on the evening of the

first day; and Maximus, who found himself encompassed on all

sides, had scarcely time to shut the gates of the city. But the

gates could not long resist the effort of a victorious enemy; and

the despair, the disaffection, the indifference of the soldiers

and people, hastened the downfall of the wretched Maximus. He was

dragged from his throne, rudely stripped of the Imperial

ornaments, the robe, the diadem, and the purple slippers; and

conducted, like a malefactor, to the camp and presence of

Theodosius, at a place about three miles from Aquileia. The

behavior of the emperor was not intended to insult, and he showed

disposition to pity and forgive, the tyrant of the West, who had

never been his personal enemy, and was now become the object of

his contempt. Our sympathy is the most forcibly excited by the

misfortunes to which we are exposed; and the spectacle of a proud

competitor, now prostrate at his feet, could not fail of

producing very serious and solemn thoughts in the mind of the

victorious emperor. But the feeble emotion of involuntary pity

was checked by his regard for public justice, and the memory of

Gratian; and he abandoned the victim to the pious zeal of the

soldiers, who drew him out of the Imperial presence, and

instantly separated his head from his body. The intelligence of

his defeat and death was received with sincere or well-dissembled

joy: his son Victor, on whom he had conferred the title of

Augustus, died by the order, perhaps by the hand, of the bold

Arbogastes; and all the military plans of Theodosius were

successfully executed. When he had thus terminated the civil war,

with less difficulty and bloodshed than he might naturally

expect, he employed the winter months of his residence at Milan,

to restore the state of the afflicted provinces; and early in the

spring he made, after the example of Constantine and Constantius,

his triumphal entry into the ancient capital of the Roman empire.

76 (return) [ See Godefroy’s Chronology of the Laws, Cod.

Theodos, tom l. p. cxix.]

77 (return) [ Besides the hints which may be gathered from

chronicles and ecclesiastical history, Zosimus (l. iv. p.

259—267,) Orosius, (l. vii. c. 35,) and Pacatus, (in Panegyr.

Vet. xii. 30-47,) supply the loose and scanty materials of this

civil war. Ambrose (tom. ii. Epist. xl. p. 952, 953) darkly

alludes to the well-known events of a magazine surprised, an

action at Petovio, a Sicilian, perhaps a naval, victory, &c.,

Ausonius (p. 256, edit. Toll.) applauds the peculiar merit and

good fortune of Aquileia.]

The orator, who may be silent without danger, may praise without

difficulty, and without reluctance; 78 and posterity will

confess, that the character of Theodosius 79 might furnish the

subject of a sincere and ample panegyric. The wisdom of his laws,

and the success of his arms, rendered his administration

respectable in the eyes both of his subjects and of his enemies.

He loved and practised the virtues of domestic life, which seldom

hold their residence in the palaces of kings. Theodosius was

chaste and temperate; he enjoyed, without excess, the sensual and

social pleasures of the table; and the warmth of his amorous

passions was never diverted from their lawful objects. The proud

titles of Imperial greatness were adorned by the tender names of

a faithful husband, an indulgent father; his uncle was raised, by

his affectionate esteem, to the rank of a second parent:

Theodosius embraced, as his own, the children of his brother and

sister; and the expressions of his regard were extended to the

most distant and obscure branches of his numerous kindred. His

familiar friends were judiciously selected from among those

persons, who, in the equal intercourse of private life, had

appeared before his eyes without a mask; the consciousness of

personal and superior merit enabled him to despise the accidental

distinction of the purple; and he proved by his conduct, that he

had forgotten all the injuries, while he most gratefully

remembered all the favors and services, which he had received

before he ascended the throne of the Roman empire. The serious or

lively tone of his conversation was adapted to the age, the rank,

or the character of his subjects, whom he admitted into his

society; and the affability of his manners displayed the image of

his mind. Theodosius respected the simplicity of the good and

virtuous: every art, every talent, of a useful, or even of an

innocent nature, was rewarded by his judicious liberality; and,

except the heretics, whom he persecuted with implacable hatred,

the diffusive circle of his benevolence was circumscribed only by

the limits of the human race. The government of a mighty empire

may assuredly suffice to occupy the time, and the abilities, of a

mortal: yet the diligent prince, without aspiring to the

unsuitable reputation of profound learning, always reserved some

moments of his leisure for the instructive amusement of reading.

History, which enlarged his experience, was his favorite study.

The annals of Rome, in the long period of eleven hundred years,

presented him with a various and splendid picture of human life:

and it has been particularly observed, that whenever he perused

the cruel acts of Cinna, of Marius, or of Sylla, he warmly

expressed his generous detestation of those enemies of humanity

and freedom. His disinterested opinion of past events was

usefully applied as the rule of his own actions; and Theodosius

has deserved the singular commendation, that his virtues always

seemed to expand with his fortune: the season of his prosperity

was that of his moderation; and his clemency appeared the most

conspicuous after the danger and success of a civil war. The

Moorish guards of the tyrant had been massacred in the first heat

of the victory, and a small number of the most obnoxious

criminals suffered the punishment of the law. But the emperor

showed himself much more attentive to relieve the innocent than

to chastise the guilty. The oppressed subjects of the West, who

would have deemed themselves happy in the restoration of their

lands, were astonished to receive a sum of money equivalent to

their losses; and the liberality of the conqueror supported the

aged mother, and educated the orphan daughters, of Maximus. 80 A

character thus accomplished might almost excuse the extravagant

supposition of the orator Pacatus; that, if the elder Brutus

could be permitted to revisit the earth, the stern republican

would abjure, at the feet of Theodosius, his hatred of kings; and

ingenuously confess, that such a monarch was the most faithful

guardian of the happiness and dignity of the Roman people. 81

78 (return) [ Quam promptum laudare principem, tam tutum siluisse

de principe, (Pacat. in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 2.) Latinus Pacatus

Drepanius, a native of Gaul, pronounced this oration at Rome,

(A.D. 388.) He was afterwards proconsul of Africa; and his friend

Ausonius praises him as a poet second only to Virgil. See

Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 303.]

79 (return) [ See the fair portrait of Theodosius, by the younger

Victor; the strokes are distinct, and the colors are mixed. The

praise of Pacatus is too vague; and Claudian always seems afraid

of exalting the father above the son.]

80 (return) [ Ambros. tom. ii. Epist. xl. p. 55. Pacatus, from

the want of skill or of courage, omits this glorious

circumstance.]

81 (return) [ Pacat. in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 20.]

Yet the piercing eye of the founder of the republic must have

discerned two essential imperfections, which might, perhaps, have

abated his recent love of despostism. The virtuous mind of

Theodosius was often relaxed by indolence, 82 and it was

sometimes inflamed by passion. 83 In the pursuit of an important

object, his active courage was capable of the most vigorous

exertions; but, as soon as the design was accomplished, or the

danger was surmounted, the hero sunk into inglorious repose; and,

forgetful that the time of a prince is the property of his

people, resigned himself to the enjoyment of the innocent, but

trifling, pleasures of a luxurious court. The natural disposition

of Theodosius was hasty and choleric; and, in a station where

none could resist, and few would dissuade, the fatal consequence

of his resentment, the humane monarch was justly alarmed by the

consciousness of his infirmity and of his power. It was the

constant study of his life to suppress, or regulate, the

intemperate sallies of passion and the success of his efforts

enhanced the merit of his clemency. But the painful virtue which

claims the merit of victory, is exposed to the danger of defeat;

and the reign of a wise and merciful prince was polluted by an

act of cruelty which would stain the annals of Nero or Domitian.

Within the space of three years, the inconsistent historian of

Theodosius must relate the generous pardon of the citizens of

Antioch, and the inhuman massacre of the people of Thessalonica.

82 (return) [ Zosimus, l. iv. p. 271, 272. His partial evidence

is marked by an air of candor and truth. He observes these

vicissitudes of sloth and activity, not as a vice, but as a

singularity in the character of Theodosius.]

83 (return) [ This choleric temper is acknowledged and excused by

Victor Sed habes (says Ambrose, in decent and many language, to

his sovereign) nature impetum, quem si quis lenire velit, cito

vertes ad misericordiam: si quis stimulet, in magis exsuscitas,

ut eum revocare vix possis, (tom. ii. Epist. li. p. 998.)

Theodosius (Claud. in iv. Hon. 266, &c.) exhorts his son to

moderate his anger.]

The lively impatience of the inhabitants of Antioch was never

satisfied with their own situation, or with the character and

conduct of their successive sovereigns. The Arian subjects of

Theodosius deplored the loss of their churches; and as three

rival bishops disputed the throne of Antioch, the sentence which

decided their pretensions excited the murmurs of the two

unsuccessful congregations. The exigencies of the Gothic war, and

the inevitable expense that accompanied the conclusion of the

peace, had constrained the emperor to aggravate the weight of the

public impositions; and the provinces of Asia, as they had not

been involved in the distress were the less inclined to

contribute to the relief, of Europe. The auspicious period now

approached of the tenth year of his reign; a festival more

grateful to the soldiers, who received a liberal donative, than

to the subjects, whose voluntary offerings had been long since

converted into an extraordinary and oppressive burden. The edicts

of taxation interrupted the repose, and pleasures, of Antioch;

and the tribunal of the magistrate was besieged by a suppliant

crowd; who, in pathetic, but, at first, in respectful language,

solicited the redress of their grievances. They were gradually

incensed by the pride of their haughty rulers, who treated their

complaints as a criminal resistance; their satirical wit

degenerated into sharp and angry invectives; and, from the

subordinate powers of government, the invectives of the people

insensibly rose to attack the sacred character of the emperor

himself. Their fury, provoked by a feeble opposition, discharged

itself on the images of the Imperial family, which were erected,

as objects of public veneration, in the most conspicuous places

of the city. The statues of Theodosius, of his father, of his

wife Flaccilla, of his two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, were

insolently thrown down from their pedestals, broken in pieces, or

dragged with contempt through the streets; and the indignities

which were offered to the representations of Imperial majesty,

sufficiently declared the impious and treasonable wishes of the

populace. The tumult was almost immediately suppressed by the

arrival of a body of archers: and Antioch had leisure to reflect

on the nature and consequences of her crime. 84 According to the

duty of his office, the governor of the province despatched a

faithful narrative of the whole transaction: while the trembling

citizens intrusted the confession of their crime, and the

assurances of their repentance, to the zeal of Flavian, their

bishop, and to the eloquence of the senator Hilarius, the friend,

and most probably the disciple, of Libanius; whose genius, on

this melancholy occasion, was not useless to his country. 85 But

the two capitals, Antioch and Constantinople, were separated by

the distance of eight hundred miles; and, notwithstanding the

diligence of the Imperial posts, the guilty city was severely

punished by a long and dreadful interval of suspense. Every rumor

agitated the hopes and fears of the Antiochians, and they heard

with terror, that their sovereign, exasperated by the insult

which had been offered to his own statues, and more especially,

to those of his beloved wife, had resolved to level with the

ground the offending city; and to massacre, without distinction

of age or sex, the criminal inhabitants; 86 many of whom were

actually driven, by their apprehensions, to seek a refuge in the

mountains of Syria, and the adjacent desert. At length,

twenty-four days after the sedition, the general Hellebicus and

Caesarius, master of the offices, declared the will of the

emperor, and the sentence of Antioch. That proud capital was

degraded from the rank of a city; and the metropolis of the East,

stripped of its lands, its privileges, and its revenues, was

subjected, under the humiliating denomination of a village, to

the jurisdiction of Laodicea. 87 The baths, the Circus, and the

theatres were shut: and, that every source of plenty and pleasure

might at the same time be intercepted, the distribution of corn

was abolished, by the severe instructions of Theodosius. His

commissioners then proceeded to inquire into the guilt of

individuals; of those who had perpetrated, and of those who had

not prevented, the destruction of the sacred statues. The

tribunal of Hellebicus and Caesarius, encompassed with armed

soldiers, was erected in the midst of the Forum. The noblest, and

most wealthy, of the citizens of Antioch appeared before them in

chains; the examination was assisted by the use of torture, and

their sentence was pronounced or suspended, according to the

judgment of these extraordinary magistrates. The houses of the

criminals were exposed to sale, their wives and children were

suddenly reduced, from affluence and luxury, to the most abject

distress; and a bloody execution was expected to conclude the

horrors of the day, 88 which the preacher of Antioch, the

eloquent Chrysostom, has represented as a lively image of the

last and universal judgment of the world. But the ministers of

Theodosius performed, with reluctance, the cruel task which had

been assigned them; they dropped a gentle tear over the

calamities of the people; and they listened with reverence to the

pressing solicitations of the monks and hermits, who descended in

swarms from the mountains. 89 Hellebicus and Caesarius were

persuaded to suspend the execution of their sentence; and it was

agreed that the former should remain at Antioch, while the latter

returned, with all possible speed, to Constantinople; and

presumed once more to consult the will of his sovereign. The

resentment of Theodosius had already subsided; the deputies of

the people, both the bishop and the orator, had obtained a

favorable audience; and the reproaches of the emperor were the

complaints of injured friendship, rather than the stern menaces

of pride and power. A free and general pardon was granted to the

city and citizens of Antioch; the prison doors were thrown open;

the senators, who despaired of their lives, recovered the

possession of their houses and estates; and the capital of the

East was restored to the enjoyment of her ancient dignity and

splendor. Theodosius condescended to praise the senate of

Constantinople, who had generously interceded for their

distressed brethren: he rewarded the eloquence of Hilarius with

the government of Palestine; and dismissed the bishop of Antioch

with the warmest expressions of his respect and gratitude. A

thousand new statues arose to the clemency of Theodosius; the

applause of his subjects was ratified by the approbation of his

own heart; and the emperor confessed, that, if the exercise of

justice is the most important duty, the indulgence of mercy is

the most exquisite pleasure, of a sovereign. 90

84 (return) [ The Christians and Pagans agreed in believing that

the sedition of Antioch was excited by the daemons. A gigantic

woman (says Sozomen, l. vii. c. 23) paraded the streets with a

scourge in her hand. An old man, says Libanius, (Orat. xii. p.

396,) transformed himself into a youth, then a boy, &c.]

85 (return) [ Zosimus, in his short and disingenuous account, (l.

iv. p. 258, 259,) is certainly mistaken in sending Libanius

himself to Constantinople. His own orations fix him at Antioch.]

86 (return) [ Libanius (Orat. i. p. 6, edit. Venet.) declares,

that under such a reign the fear of a massacre was groundless and

absurd, especially in the emperor’s absence, for his presence,

according to the eloquent slave, might have given a sanction to

the most bloody acts.]

87 (return) [ Laodicea, on the sea-coast, sixty-five miles from

Antioch, (see Noris Epoch. Syro-Maced. Dissert. iii. p. 230.) The

Antiochians were offended, that the dependent city of Seleucia

should presume to intercede for them.]

88 (return) [ As the days of the tumult depend on the movable

festival of Easter, they can only be determined by the previous

determination of the year. The year 387 has been preferred, after

a laborious inquiry, by Tillemont (Hist. des. Emp. tom. v. p.

741-744) and Montfaucon, (Chrysostom, tom. xiii. p. 105-110.)]

89 (return) [ Chrysostom opposes their courage, which was not

attended with much risk, to the cowardly flight of the Cynics.]

90 (return) [ The sedition of Antioch is represented in a lively,

and almost dramatic, manner by two orators, who had their

respective shares of interest and merit. See Libanius (Orat. xiv.

xv. p. 389-420, edit. Morel. Orat. i. p. 1-14, Venet. 1754) and

the twenty orations of St. John Chrysostom, de Statuis, (tom. ii.

p. 1-225, edit. Montfaucon.) I do not pretend to much personal

acquaintance with Chrysostom but Tillemont (Hist. des. Empereurs,

tom. v. p. 263-283) and Hermant (Vie de St. Chrysostome, tom. i.

p. 137-224) had read him with pious curiosity and diligence.]

The sedition of Thessalonica is ascribed to a more shameful

cause, and was productive of much more dreadful consequences.

That great city, the metropolis of all the Illyrian provinces,

had been protected from the dangers of the Gothic war by strong

fortifications and a numerous garrison. Botheric, the general of

those troops, and, as it should seem from his name, a Barbarian,

had among his slaves a beautiful boy, who excited the impure

desires of one of the charioteers of the Circus. The insolent and

brutal lover was thrown into prison by the order of Botheric; and

he sternly rejected the importunate clamors of the multitude,

who, on the day of the public games, lamented the absence of

their favorite; and considered the skill of a charioteer as an

object of more importance than his virtue. The resentment of the

people was imbittered by some previous disputes; and, as the

strength of the garrison had been drawn away for the service of

the Italian war, the feeble remnant, whose numbers were reduced

by desertion, could not save the unhappy general from their

licentious fury. Botheric, and several of his principal officers,

were inhumanly murdered; their mangled bodies were dragged about

the streets; and the emperor, who then resided at Milan, was

surprised by the intelligence of the audacious and wanton cruelty

of the people of Thessalonica. The sentence of a dispassionate

judge would have inflicted a severe punishment on the authors of

the crime; and the merit of Botheric might contribute to

exasperate the grief and indignation of his master.

The fiery and choleric temper of Theodosius was impatient of the

dilatory forms of a judicial inquiry; and he hastily resolved,

that the blood of his lieutenant should be expiated by the blood

of the guilty people. Yet his mind still fluctuated between the

counsels of clemency and of revenge; the zeal of the bishops had

almost extorted from the reluctant emperor the promise of a

general pardon; his passion was again inflamed by the flattering

suggestions of his minister Rufinus; and, after Theodosius had

despatched the messengers of death, he attempted, when it was too

late, to prevent the execution of his orders. The punishment of a

Roman city was blindly committed to the undistinguishing sword of

the Barbarians; and the hostile preparations were concerted with

the dark and perfidious artifice of an illegal conspiracy. The

people of Thessalonica were treacherously invited, in the name of

their sovereign, to the games of the Circus; and such was their

insatiate avidity for those amusements, that every consideration

of fear, or suspicion, was disregarded by the numerous

spectators. As soon as the assembly was complete, the soldiers,

who had secretly been posted round the Circus, received the

signal, not of the races, but of a general massacre. The

promiscuous carnage continued three hours, without discrimination

of strangers or natives, of age or sex, of innocence or guilt;

the most moderate accounts state the number of the slain at seven

thousand; and it is affirmed by some writers that more than

fifteen thousand victims were sacrificed to the names of

Botheric. A foreign merchant, who had probably no concern in his

murder, offered his own life, and all his wealth, to supply the

place of one of his two sons; but, while the father hesitated

with equal tenderness, while he was doubtful to choose, and

unwilling to condemn, the soldiers determined his suspense, by

plunging their daggers at the same moment into the breasts of the

defenceless youths. The apology of the assassins, that they were

obliged to produce the prescribed number of heads, serves only to

increase, by an appearance of order and design, the horrors of

the massacre, which was executed by the commands of Theodosius.

The guilt of the emperor is aggravated by his long and frequent

residence at Thessalonica. The situation of the unfortunate city,

the aspect of the streets and buildings, the dress and faces of

the inhabitants, were familiar, and even present, to his

imagination; and Theodosius possessed a quick and lively sense of

the existence of the people whom he destroyed. 91

91 (return) [ The original evidence of Ambrose, (tom. ii. Epist.

li. p. 998.) Augustin, (de Civitat. Dei, v. 26,) and Paulinus,

(in Vit. Ambros. c. 24,) is delivered in vague expressions of

horror and pity. It is illustrated by the subsequent and unequal

testimonies of Sozomen, (l. vii. c. 25,) Theodoret, (l. v. c.

17,) Theophanes, (Chronograph. p. 62,) Cedrenus, (p. 317,) and

Zonaras, (tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 34.) Zosimus alone, the partial

enemy of Theodosius, most unaccountably passes over in silence

the worst of his actions.]

The respectful attachment of the emperor for the orthodox clergy,

had disposed him to love and admire the character of Ambrose; who

united all the episcopal virtues in the most eminent degree. The

friends and ministers of Theodosius imitated the example of their

sovereign; and he observed, with more surprise than displeasure,

that all his secret counsels were immediately communicated to the

archbishop; who acted from the laudable persuasion, that every

measure of civil government may have some connection with the

glory of God, and the interest of the true religion. The monks

and populace of Callinicum, 9111 an obscure town on the frontier

of Persia, excited by their own fanaticism, and by that of their

bishop, had tumultuously burnt a conventicle of the Valentinians,

and a synagogue of the Jews. The seditious prelate was condemned,

by the magistrate of the province, either to rebuild the

synagogue, or to repay the damage; and this moderate sentence was

confirmed by the emperor. But it was not confirmed by the

archbishop of Milan. 92 He dictated an epistle of censure and

reproach, more suitable, perhaps, if the emperor had received the

mark of circumcision, and renounced the faith of his baptism.

Ambrose considers the toleration of the Jewish, as the

persecution of the Christian, religion; boldly declares that he

himself, and every true believer, would eagerly dispute with the

bishop of Callinicum the merit of the deed, and the crown of

martyrdom; and laments, in the most pathetic terms, that the

execution of the sentence would be fatal to the fame and

salvation of Theodosius. As this private admonition did not

produce an immediate effect, the archbishop, from his pulpit, 93

publicly addressed the emperor on his throne; 94 nor would he

consent to offer the oblation of the altar, till he had obtained

from Theodosius a solemn and positive declaration, which secured

the impunity of the bishop and monks of Callinicum. The

recantation of Theodosius was sincere; 95 and, during the term of

his residence at Milan, his affection for Ambrose was continually

increased by the habits of pious and familiar conversation.

9111 (return) [ Raeca, on the Euphrates—M.]

92 (return) [ See the whole transaction in Ambrose, (tom. ii.

Epist. xl. xli. p. 950-956,) and his biographer Paulinus, (c.

23.) Bayle and Barbeyrac (Morales des Peres, c. xvii. p. 325,

&c.) have justly condemned the archbishop.]

93 (return) [ His sermon is a strange allegory of Jeremiah’s rod,

of an almond tree, of the woman who washed and anointed the feet

of Christ. But the peroration is direct and personal.]

94 (return) [ Hodie, Episcope, de me proposuisti. Ambrose

modestly confessed it; but he sternly reprimanded Timasius,

general of the horse and foot, who had presumed to say that the

monks of Callinicum deserved punishment.]

95 (return) [ Yet, five years afterwards, when Theodosius was

absent from his spiritual guide, he tolerated the Jews, and

condemned the destruction of their synagogues. Cod. Theodos. l.

xvi. tit. viii. leg. 9, with Godefroy’s Commentary, tom. vi. p.

225.]

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Table of Contents with links in the HTML file to the two Project Gutenberg editions (12 volumes) · 第 29 / 79 章

Notwithstanding these specious arguments, and these sanguine