History Of The Decline And Fall Of The
Edward Gibbon, Esq.
With notes by the Rev. H. H. Milman
Vol. 3
1782 (Written), 1845 (Revised)
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
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
theatre, in the parks and enclosures of
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
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
what cause the revolt of
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
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
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. ^12
[Footnote 1: 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.]
[Footnote 2: Ausonius was successively promoted to the
Praetorian
praefecture of
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.]
[Footnote 3: 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.]
[Footnote 4: 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.]
[Footnote 5: 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.]
[Footnote 6: 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.]
[Footnote 7: 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.]
[Footnote 8: 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."]
[Footnote 9: Zosimus says of the British soldiers.]
[Footnote 10: Helena, the daughter of Eudda. Her chapel may
still be seen at Caer-segont, now Caer-narvon. (Carte's Hist. of
prudent reader may not perhaps be satisfied with such
Welsh
evidence.]
[Footnote 11:
governor at
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.)]
[Footnote 12: 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
Gratian; the youth of the island crowded to his standard,
and he
invaded
remembered, as the emigration of a considerable part of
the
British nation. ^13 The emperor, in his peaceful
residence of
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
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
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
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
[Footnote 13: 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.]
[Footnote 14: 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.)]
[Footnote 15: 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.]
[Footnote 16: 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
[Footnote 17: Ambrose mentions the laws of Gratian, quas
non
abrogavit hostia (tom. ii epist. xvii. p. 827.)]
[Footnote 18: 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
[Footnote 19: 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.)]
[Footnote 20: 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.)]
[Footnote 21: 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.]
[Footnote 22: 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.]
[Footnote 23: 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
[Footnote 24: 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.]
[Footnote 25: 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.]
[Footnote 26: 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.]
[Footnote 27: 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, (Bibliotheque Universelle, tom. xviii. p. 1 -
128.)]
[Footnote 28: 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.)]
[Footnote 29: 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.]
[Footnote 30: 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.)]
[Footnote 31: 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.]
[Footnote 32: See Ducange, Constant. Christiana, l. iv.
p. 141,
142. The Sozomen
(l. vii. c. 5) is interpreted to mean the
Virgin Mary.]
[Footnote 33: Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 432,
&c.)
diligently collects, enlarges, and explains, the
oratorical and
poetical hints of Gregory himself.]
[Footnote 34: 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.]
[Footnote 35: 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.]
[Footnote 36: 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.
[Footnote 37: 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.]
[Footnote 38: 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.]
[Footnote 39: 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.]
[Footnote 40: 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
[Footnote 41: Le Clerc has given a curious extract
(Bibliotheque
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.]
[Footnote 42: 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.)]
[Footnote 43: 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.)]
[Footnote 44: 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.
[Footnote 45: 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.]
[Footnote 46: 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!]
[Footnote 47: 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
[Footnote 48: 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.]
[Footnote 49: 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.]
[Footnote 50: 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
Praetorian 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. 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 anima 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.
[Footnote 51: 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!]
[Footnote 52: 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.]
[Footnote 53: 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.]
[Footnote 54: 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.]
[Footnote 55: 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.)]
[Footnote 56: 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.]
[Footnote 57: Ambros. tom. ii. Epist. xxiv. p. 891.]
[Footnote 58: 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.]
[Footnote 59: 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 Praetorian 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.
[Footnote 60: 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.]
[Footnote 61: 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.]
[Footnote 62: 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.
[Footnote 63: 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.
[Footnote 64: 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.
(Memoires, 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
[Footnote 65: Sozomen alone (l. vii. c. 13) throws this
luminous
fact into a dark and perplexed narrative.]
[Footnote 66: 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]
[Footnote 67: 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.]
[Footnote 68: 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.]
[Footnote 69: 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.]
[Footnote 70: Paulin, in Tit. St. Ambros. c. 5, in
Append.
Benedict. p. 5.]
[Footnote 71: 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.
[Footnote 72: The modest censure of Sulpicius (Dialog.
iii. 15)
inflicts a much deeper wound than the declamation of
Pacatus,
(xii. 25, 26.)]
[Footnote 73: Esto tutior adversus hominem, pacis
involurco
tegentem, was the wise caution of Ambrose (tom. ii. p.
891) after
his return from his second embassy.]
[Footnote 74: 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, ^* had fixed his
camp in
the neighborhood of Siscia, a city of Pannonia, strongly
fortified by the broad and rapid stream of the Save.
[Footnote 75: 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.]
[Footnote *: 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.
^77
[Footnote 76: See Godefroy's Chronology of the Laws, Cod.
Theodos, tom l. p. cxix.]
[Footnote 77: 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
[Footnote 78: 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.]
[Footnote 79: 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.]
[Footnote 80: Ambros. tom. ii. Epist. xl. p. 55. Pacatus, from
the want of skill or of courage, omits this glorious
circumstance.]
[Footnote 81: 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.
[Footnote 82: 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.]
[Footnote 83: 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
[Footnote 84: 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.]
[Footnote 85: 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.]
[Footnote 86: 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.]
[Footnote 87: 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.]
[Footnote 88: 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.)]
[Footnote 89: Chrysostom opposes their courage, which was
not
attended with much risk, to the cowardly flight of the
Cynics.]
[Footnote 90: 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
[Footnote 91: 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, ^* 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.
[Footnote *: Raeca, on the Euphrates - M.]
[Footnote 92: 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.]
[Footnote 93: 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.]
[Footnote 94: 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.]
[Footnote 95: 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.]
When Ambrose
was informed of the massacre of Thessalonica,
his mind was filled with horror and anguish. He retired into the
country to indulge his grief, and to avoid the presence
of
Theodosius. But as
the archbishop was satisfied that a timid
silence would render him the accomplice of his guilt, he
represented, in a private letter, the enormity of the
crime;
which could only be effaced by the tears of
penitence. The
episcopal vigor of Ambrose was tempered by prudence; and
he
contented himself with signifying ^96 an indirect sort of
excommunication, by the assurance, that he had been
warned in a
vision not to offer the oblation in the name, or in the
presence,
of Theodosius; and by the advice, that he would confine
himself
to the use of prayer, without presuming to approach the
altar of
Christ, or to receive the holy eucharist with those hands
that
were still polluted with the blood of an innocent
people. The
emperor was deeply affected by his own reproaches, and by
those
of his spiritual father; and after he had bewailed the
mischievous and irreparable consequences of his rash
fury, he
proceeded, in the accustomed manner, to perform his
devotions in
the great church of Milan. He was stopped in the porch by the
archbishop; who, in the tone and language of an
ambassador of
Heaven, declared to his sovereign, that private
contrition was
not sufficient to atone for a public fault, or to appease
the
justice of the offended Deity. Theodosius humbly
represented,
that if he had contracted the guilt of homicide, David,
the man
after God's own heart, had been guilty, not only of
murder, but
of adultery.
"You have imitated David in his crime, imitate then
his repentance," was the reply of the undaunted
Ambrose. The
rigorous conditions of peace and pardon were accepted;
and the
public penance of the emperor Theodosius has been
recorded as one
of the most honorable events in the annals of the church.
According to the mildest rules of ecclesiastical
discipline,
which were established in the fourth century, the crime
of
homicide was expiated by the penitence of twenty years:
^97 and
as it was impossible, in the period of human life, to
purge the
accumulated guilt of the massacre of Thessalonica, the
murderer
should have been excluded from the holy communion till
the hour
of his death. But
the archbishop, consulting the maxims of
religious policy, granted some indulgence to the rank of
his
illustrious penitent, who humbled in the dust the pride
of the
diadem; and the public edification might be admitted as a
weighty
reason to abridge the duration of his punishment. It was
sufficient, that the emperor of the Romans, stripped of
the
ensigns of royalty, should appear in a mournful and
suppliant
posture; and that, in the midst of the church of Milan,
he should
humbly solicit, with sighs and tears, the pardon of his
sins. ^98
In this spiritual cure, Ambrose employed the various methods
of
mildness and severity. After a delay of about eight
months,
Theodosius was restored to the communion of the faithful;
and the
edict which interposes a salutary interval of thirty days
between
the sentence and the execution, may be accepted as the worthy
fruits of his repentance. ^99 Posterity has applauded the
virtuous firmness of the archbishop; and the example of
Theodosius may prove the beneficial influence of those
principles, which could force a monarch, exalted above
the
apprehension of human punishment, to respect the laws,
and
ministers, of an invisible Judge. "The prince,"
says Montesquieu,
"who is actuated by the hopes and fears of religion,
may be
compared to a lion, docile only to the voice, and
tractable to
the hand, of his keeper." ^100 The motions of the
royal animal
will therefore depend on the inclination, and interest,
of the
man who has acquired such dangerous authority over him;
and the
priest, who holds in his hands the conscience of a king,
may
inflame, or moderate, his sanguinary passions. The cause
of
humanity, and that of persecution, have been asserted, by
the
same Ambrose, with equal energy, and with equal success.
[Footnote 96: Ambros. tom. ii. Epist. li. p. 997 -
1001. His
epistle is a miserable rhapsody on a noble subject. Ambrose
could act better than he could write. His compositions are
destitute of taste, or genius; without the spirit of
Tertullian,
the copious elegance of Lactantius the lively wit of
Jerom, or
the grave energy of Augustin.]
[Footnote 97: According to the discipline of St. Basil,
(Canon
lvi.,) the voluntary homicide was four years a mourner;
five a
hearer; seven in a prostrate state; and four in a
standing
posture. I have
the original (Beveridge, Pandect. tom. ii. p. 47
- 151) and a translation (Chardon, Hist. des Sacremens,
tom. iv.
p. 219 - 277) of the Canonical Epistles of St. Basil.]
[Footnote 98: The penance of Theodosius is authenticated
by
Ambrose, (tom. vi. de Obit. Theodos. c. 34, p. 1207,)
Augustin,
(de Civitat. Dei, v. 26,) and Paulinus, (in Vit. Ambros.
c. 24.)
Socrates is ignorant; Sozomen (l. vii. c. 25) concise;
and the
copious narrative of Theodoret (l. v. c. 18) must be used
with
precaution.]
[Footnote 99: Codex Theodos. l. ix. tit. xl. leg.
13. The date
and circumstances of this law are perplexed with
difficulties;
but I feel myself inclined to favor the honest efforts of
Tillemont (Hist. des Emp. tom. v. p. 721) and Pagi,
(Critica,
tom. i. p. 578.)]
[Footnote 100: Un prince qui aime la religion, et qui la
craint,
est un lion qui cede a la main qui le flatte, ou a la
voix qui
l'appaise. Esprit
des Loix, l. xxiv. c. 2.]
Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius.
Part V.
After the
defeat and death of the tyrant of Gaul, the Roman
world was in the possession of Theodosius. He derived from the
choice of Gratian his honorable title to the provinces of
the
East: he had acquired the West by the right of conquest;
and the
three years which he spent in Italy were usefully
employed to
restore the authority of the laws, and to correct the
abuses
which had prevailed with impunity under the usurpation of
Maximus, and the minority of Valentinian. The name of
Valentinian was regularly inserted in the public acts:
but the
tender age, and doubtful faith, of the son of Justina,
appeared
to require the prudent care of an orthodox guardian; and
his
specious ambition might have excluded the unfortunate
youth,
without a struggle, and almost without a murmur, from the
administration, and even from the inheritance, of the
empire. If
Theodosius had consulted the rigid maxims of interest and
policy,
his conduct would have been justified by his friends; but
the
generosity of his behavior on this memorable occasion has
extorted the applause of his most inveterate
enemies. He seated
Valentinian on the throne of Milan; and, without
stipulating any
present or future advantages, restored him to the
absolute
dominion of all the provinces, from which he had been
driven by
the arms of Maximus.
To the restitution of his ample patrimony,
Theodosius added the free and generous gift of the
countries
beyond the Alps, which his successful valor had recovered
from
the assassin of Gratian. ^101 Satisfied with the glory
which he
had acquired, by revenging the death of his benefactor,
and
delivering the West from the yoke of tyranny, the emperor
returned from Milan to Constantinople; and, in the
peaceful
possession of the East, insensibly relapsed into his
former
habits of luxury and indolence. Theodosius discharged his
obligation to the brother, he indulged his conjugal
tenderness to
the sister, of Valentinian; and posterity, which admires
the pure
and singular glory of his elevation, must applaud his
unrivalled
generosity in the use of victory.
[Footnote 101: It is the niggard praise of Zosimus
himself, (l.
iv. p. 267.) Augustin says, with some happiness of
expression,
Valentinianum .... misericordissima veneratione
restituit.]
The empress Justina did not long survive her return to
Italy;
and, though she beheld the triumph of Theodosius, she was
not
allowed to influence the government of her son. ^102 The
pernicious attachment to the Arian sect, which
Valentinian had
imbibed from her example and instructions, was soon
erased by the
lessons of a more orthodox education. His growing zeal
for the
faith of Nice, and his filial reverence for the character
and
authority of Ambrose, disposed the Catholics to entertain
the
most favorable opinion of the virtues of the young
emperor of the
West. ^103 They applauded his chastity and temperance,
his
contempt of pleasure, his application to business, and
his tender
affection for his two sisters; which could not, however,
seduce
his impartial equity to pronounce an unjust sentence
against the
meanest of his subjects.
But this amiable youth, before he had
accomplished the twentieth year of his age, was oppressed
by
domestic treason; and the empire was again involved in
the
horrors of a civil war. Arbogastes, ^104 a gallant
soldier of the
nation of the Franks, held the second rank in the service
of
Gratian. On the
death of his master he joined the standard of
Theodosius; contributed, by his valor and military
conduct, to
the destruction of the tyrant; and was appointed, after
the
victory, master-general of the armies of Gaul. His real merit,
and apparent fidelity, had gained the confidence both of
the
prince and people; his boundless liberality corrupted the
allegiance of the troops; and, whilst he was universally
esteemed
as the pillar of the state, the bold and crafty Barbarian
was
secretly determined either to rule, or to ruin, the
empire of the
West. The
important commands of the army were distributed among
the Franks; the creatures of Arbogastes were promoted to
all the
honors and offices of the civil government; the progress
of the
conspiracy removed every faithful servant from the
presence of
Valentinian; and the emperor, without power and without
intelligence, insensibly sunk into the precarious and
dependent
condition of a captive. ^105 The indignation which he
expressed,
though it might arise only from the rash and impatient
temper of
youth, may be candidly ascribed to the generous spirit of
a
prince, who felt that he was not unworthy to reign. He secretly
invited the archbishop of Milan to undertake the office
of a
mediator; as the pledge of his sincerity, and the guardian
of his
safety. He contrived to apprise the emperor of the East
of his
helpless situation, and he declared, that, unless
Theodosius
could speedily march to his assistance, he must attempt
to escape
from the palace, or rather prison, of Vienna in Gaul,
where he
had imprudently fixed his residence in the midst of the
hostile
faction. But the
hopes of relief were distant, and doubtful:
and, as every day furnished some new provocation, the
emperor,
without strength or counsel, too hastily resolved to risk
an
immediate contest with his powerful general. He received
Arbogastes on the throne; and, as the count approached
with some
appearance of respect, delivered to him a paper, which
dismissed
him from all his employments. "My authority," replied
Arbogastes, with insulting coolness, "does not
depend on the
smile or the frown of a monarch;" and he
contemptuously threw the
paper on the ground.
The indignant monarch snatched at the sword
of one of the guards, which he struggled to draw from its
scabbard; and it was not without some degree of violence
that he
was prevented from using the deadly weapon against his
enemy, or
against himself. A few days after this extraordinary
quarrel, in
which he had exposed his resentment and his weakness, the
unfortunate Valentinian was found strangled in his
apartment; and
some pains were employed to disguise the manifest guilt
of
Arbogastes, and to persuade the world, that the death of
the
young emperor had been the voluntary effect of his own
despair.
^106 His body was conducted with decent pomp to the
sepulchre of
Milan; and the archbishop pronounced a funeral oration to
commemorate his virtues and his misfortunes. ^107 On this
occasion the humanity of Ambrose tempted him to make a
singular
breach in his theological system; and to comfort the
weeping
sisters of Valentinian, by the firm assurance, that their
pious
brother, though he had not received the sacrament of
baptism, was
introduced, without difficulty, into the mansions of
eternal
bliss. ^108
[Footnote 102: Sozomen, l. vii. c. 14. His chronology is very
irregular.]
[Footnote 103: See Ambrose, (tom. ii. de Obit.
Valentinian. c.
15, &c. p. 1178. c. 36, &c. p. 1184.) When the
young emperor gave
an entertainment, he fasted himself; he refused to see a
handsome
actress, &c.
Since he ordered his wild beasts to to be killed,
it is ungenerous in Philostor (l. xi. c. 1) to reproach
him with
the love of that amusement.]
[Footnote 104: Zosimus (l. iv. p. 275) praises the enemy
of
Theodosius. But he is detested by Socrates (l. v. c. 25)
and
Orosius, (l. vii. c. 35.)]
[Footnote 105: Gregory of Tours (l. ii. c. 9, p. 165, in
the
second volume of the Historians of France) has preserved
a
curious fragment of Sulpicius Alexander, an historian far
more
valuable than himself.]
[Footnote 106: Godefroy (Dissertat. ad. Philostorg. p.
429 - 434)
has diligently collected all the circumstances of the
death of
Valentinian II. The variations, and the ignorance, of
contemporary writers, prove that it was secret.]
[Footnote 107: De Obitu Valentinian. tom. ii. p. 1173 -
1196. He
is forced to speak a discreet and obscure language: yet
he is
much bolder than any layman, or perhaps any other
ecclesiastic,
would have dared to be.]
[Footnote 108: See c. 51, p. 1188, c. 75, p. 1193. Dom Chardon,
(Hist. des Sacramens, tom. i. p. 86,) who owns that St.
Ambrose
most strenuously maintains the indispensable necessity of
baptism, labors to reconcile the contradiction.]
The prudence
of Arbogastes had prepared the success of his
ambitious designs: and the provincials, in whose breast
every
sentiment of patriotism or loyalty was extinguished,
expected,
with tame resignation, the unknown master, whom the
choice of a
Frank might place on the Imperial throne. But some remains of
pride and prejudice still opposed the elevation of
Arbogastes
himself; and the judicious Barbarian thought it more
advisable to
reign under the name of some dependent Roman. He bestowed the
purple on the rhetorician Eugenius; ^109 whom he had
already
raised from the place of his domestic secretary to the
rank of
master of the offices.
In the course, both of his private and
public service, the count had always approved the
attachment and
abilities of Eugenius; his learning and eloquence,
supported by
the gravity of his manners, recommended him to the esteem
of the
people; and the reluctance with which he seemed to ascend
the
throne, may inspire a favorable prejudice of his virtue
and
moderation. The ambassadors of the new emperor were
immediately
despatched to the court of Theodosius, to communicate,
with
affected grief, the unfortunate accident of the death of
Valentinian; and, without mentioning the name of
Arbogastes, to
request, that the monarch of the East would embrace, as
his
lawful colleague, the respectable citizen, who had
obtained the
unanimous suffrage of the armies and provinces of the
West. ^110
Theodosius was justly provoked, that the perfidy of a
Barbarian,
should have destroyed, in a moment, the labors, and the
fruit, of
his former victory; and he was excited by the tears of
his
beloved wife, ^111 to revenge the fate of her unhappy
brother,
and once more to assert by arms the violated majesty of
the
throne. But as the
second conquest of the West was a task of
difficulty and danger, he dismissed, with splendid presents,
and
an ambiguous answer, the ambassadors of Eugenius; and
almost two
years were consumed in the preparations of the civil
war. Before
he formed any decisive resolution, the pious emperor was
anxious
to discover the will of Heaven; and as the progress of
Christianity had silenced the oracles of Delphi and
Dodona, he
consulted an Egyptian monk, who possessed, in the opinion
of the
age, the gift of miracles, and the knowledge of futurity.
Eutropius, one of the favorite eunuchs of the palace of
Constantinople, embarked for Alexandria, from whence he
sailed up
the Nile, as far as the city of Lycopolis, or of Wolves,
in the
remote province of Thebais. ^112 In the neighborhood of
that
city, and on the summit of a lofty mountain, the holy
John ^113
had constructed, with his own hands, an humble cell, in
which he
had dwelt above fifty years, without opening his door,
without
seeing the face of a woman, and without tasting any food
that had
been prepared by fire, or any human art. Five days of the week
he spent in prayer and meditation; but on Saturdays and
Sundays
he regularly opened a small window, and gave audience to
the
crowd of suppliants who successively flowed from every
part of
the Christian world.
The eunuch of Theodosius approached the
window with respectful steps, proposed his questions
concerning
the event of the civil war, and soon returned with a
favorable
oracle, which animated the courage of the emperor by the
assurance of a bloody, but infallible victory. ^114 The
accomplishment of the prediction was forwarded by all the
means
that human prudence could supply. The industry of the two
master-generals, Stilicho and Timasius, was directed to
recruit
the numbers, and to revive the discipline of the Roman
legions.
The formidable troops of Barbarians marched under the
ensigns of
their national chieftains. The Iberian, the Arab, and the Goth,
who gazed on each other with mutual astonishment, were
enlisted
in the service of the same prince; ^* and the renowned
Alaric
acquired, in the school of Theodosius, the knowledge of
the art
of war, which he afterwards so fatally exerted for the
destruction of Rome. ^115
[Footnote 109: Quem sibi Germanus famulam delegerat exul,
is the
contemptuous expression of Claudian, (iv. Cons. Hon. 74.)
Eugenius professed Christianity; but his secret
attachment to
Paganism (Sozomen, l. vii. c. 22, Philostorg. l. xi. c.
2) is
probable in a grammarian, and would secure the friendship
of
Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 276, 277.)]
[Footnote 110: Zosimus (l. iv. p. 278) mentions this
embassy; but
he is diverted by another story from relating the event.]
[Footnote 111: Zosim. l. iv. p. 277. He afterwards says (p. 280)
that Galla died in childbed; and intimates, that the
affliction
of her husband was extreme but short.]
[Footnote 112: Lycopolis is the modern Siut, or Osiot, a
town of
Said, about the size of St. Denys, which drives a
profitable
trade with the kingdom of Senaar, and has a very
convenient
fountain, "cujus potu signa virgini tatis
eripiuntur." See
D'Anville, Description de l'Egypte, p. 181 Abulfeda,
Descript.
Egypt. p. 14, and the curious Annotations, p. 25, 92, of
his
editor Michaelis.]
[Footnote 113: The Life of John of Lycopolis is described
by his
two friends, Rufinus (l. ii. c. i. p. 449) and Palladius,
(Hist.
Lausiac. c. 43, p. 738,) in Rosweyde's great Collection
of the
Vitae Patrum.
Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. x. p. 718, 720) has
settled the chronology.]
[Footnote 114: Sozomen, l. vii. c. 22. Claudian (in Eutrop. l.
i. 312) mentions the eunuch's journey; but he most contemptuously
derides the Egyptian dreams, and the oracles of the
Nile.]
[Footnote *: Gibbon has embodied the picturesque verses
of
Claudian: -
.... Nec
tantis dissona linguis
Turba, nec
armorum cultu diversion unquam]
[Footnote 115: Zosimus, l. iv. p. 280. Socrates, l. vii. 10.
Alaric himself (de Bell.
Getico, 524) dwells with more
complacency on his early exploits against the Romans.
.... Tot
Augustos Hebro qui teste fugavi.
Yet his vanity could scarcely have proved this plurality
of
flying emperors.]
The emperor of
the West, or, to speak more properly, his
general Arbogastes, was instructed by the misconduct and
misfortune of Maximus, how dangerous it might prove to
extend the
line of defence against a skilful antagonist, who was
free to
press, or to suspend, to contract, or to multiply, his
various
methods of attack. ^116 Arbogastes fixed his station on
the
confines of Italy; the troops of Theodosius were
permitted to
occupy, without resistance, the provinces of Pannonia, as
far as
the foot of the Julian Alps; and even the passes of the
mountains
were negligently, or perhaps artfully, abandoned to the
bold
invader. He
descended from the hills, and beheld, with some
astonishment, the formidable camp of the Gauls and
Germans, that
covered with arms and tents the open country which
extends to the
walls of Aquileia, and the banks of the Frigidus, ^117 or
Cold
River. ^118 This narrow theatre of the war, circumscribed
by the
Alps and the Adriatic, did not allow much room for the
operations
of military skill; the spirit of Arbogastes would have
disdained
a pardon; his guilt extinguished the hope of a
negotiation; and
Theodosius was impatient to satisfy his glory and
revenge, by the
chastisement of the assassins of Valentinian. Without weighing
the natural and artificial obstacles that opposed his
efforts,
the emperor of the East immediately attacked the
fortifications
of his rivals, assigned the post of honorable danger to
the
Goths, and cherished a secret wish, that the bloody
conflict
might diminish the pride and numbers of the
conquerors. Ten
thousand of those auxiliaries, and Bacurius, general of
the
Iberians, died bravely on the field of battle. But the victory
was not purchased by their blood; the Gauls maintained
their
advantage; and the approach of night protected the
disorderly
flight, or retreat, of the troops of Theodosius. The emperor
retired to the adjacent hills; where he passed a
disconsolate
night, without sleep, without provisions, and without
hopes; ^119
except that strong assurance, which, under the most
desperate
circumstances, the independent mind may derive from the
contempt
of fortune and of life.
The triumph of Eugenius was celebrated
by the insolent and dissolute joy of his camp; whilst the
active
and vigilant Arbogastes secretly detached a considerable
body of
troops to occupy the passes of the mountains, and to
encompass
the rear of the Eastern army. The dawn of day discovered to the
eyes of Theodosius the extent and the extremity of his
danger;
but his apprehensions were soon dispelled, by a friendly
message
from the leaders of those troops who expressed their
inclination
to desert the standard of the tyrant. The honorable and
lucrative rewards, which they stipulated as the price of
their
perfidy, were granted without hesitation; and as ink and
paper
could not easily be procured, the emperor subscribed, on
his own
tablets, the ratification of the treaty. The spirit of his
soldiers was revived by this seasonable reenforcement;
and they
again marched, with confidence, to surprise the camp of a
tyrant,
whose principal officers appeared to distrust, either the
justice
or the success of his arms. In the heat of the battle, a
violent
tempest, ^120 such as is often felt among the Alps,
suddenly
arose from the East.
The army of Theodosius was sheltered by
their position from the impetuosity of the wind, which
blew a
cloud of dust in the faces of the enemy, disordered their
ranks,
wrested their weapons from their hands, and diverted, or
repelled, their ineffectual javelins. This accidental advantage
was skilfully improved, the violence of the storm was
magnified
by the superstitious terrors of the Gauls; and they
yielded
without shame to the invisible powers of heaven, who
seemed to
militate on the side of the pious emperor. His victory was
decisive; and the deaths of his two rivals were
distinguished
only by the difference of their characters. The rhetorician
Eugenius, who had almost acquired the dominion of the
world, was
reduced to implore the mercy of the conqueror; and the
unrelenting soldiers separated his head from his body as
he lay
prostrate at the feet of Theodosius. Arbogastes, after the loss
of a battle, in which he had discharged the duties of a
soldier
and a general, wandered several days among the mountains. But
when he was convinced that his cause was desperate, and
his
escape impracticable, the intrepid Barbarian imitated the
example
of the ancient Romans, and turned his sword against his
own
breast. The fate
of the empire was determined in a narrow corner
of Italy; and the legitimate successor of the house of
Valentinian embraced the archbishop of Milan, and
graciously
received the submission of the provinces of the
West. Those
provinces were involved in the guilt of rebellion; while
the
inflexible courage of Ambrose alone had resisted the
claims of
successful usurpation. With a manly freedom, which might
have
been fatal to any other subject, the archbishop rejected
the
gifts of Eugenius, ^* declined his correspondence, and
withdrew
himself from Milan, to avoid the odious presence of a
tyrant,
whose downfall he predicted in discreet and ambiguous
language.
The merit of Ambrose was applauded by the conqueror, who
secured
the attachment of the people by his alliance with the
church; and
the clemency of Theodosius is ascribed to the humane
intercession
of the archbishop of Milan. ^121
[Footnote 116: Claudian (in iv. Cons. Honor. 77, &c.)
contrasts
the military plans of the two usurpers: -
.... Novitas
audere priorem
Suadebat;
cautumque dabant exempla sequentem.
Hic nova
moliri praeceps: hic quaerere tuta
Providus. Hic fusis; colectis viribus ille.
Hic vagus
excurrens; hic intra claustra reductus
Dissimiles,
sed morte pares ......]
[Footnote 117: The Frigidus, a small, though memorable,
stream in
the country of Goretz, now called the Vipao, falls into
the
Sontius, or Lisonzo, above Aquileia, some miles from the
Adriatic. See
D'Anville's ancient and modern maps, and the
Italia Antiqua of Cluverius, (tom. i. c. 188.)]
[Footnote 118: Claudian's wit is intolerable: the snow
was dyed
red; the cold ver smoked; and the channel must have been
choked
with carcasses the current had not been swelled with
blood.
Confluxit populus: totam pater undique secum
Moverat
Aurorem; mixtis hic Colchus Iberis,
Hic mitra
velatus Arabs, hic crine decoro
Armenius, hic
picta Saces, fucataque Medus,
Hic gemmata
tiger tentoria fixerat Indus. - De Laud. Stil.
l. 145. - M.]
[Footnote 119: Theodoret affirms, that St. John, and St.
Philip,
appeared to the waking, or sleeping, emperor, on
horseback, &c.
This is the first instance of apostolic chivalry, which
afterwards became so popular in Spain, and in the
Crusades.]
[Footnote 120: Te propter, gelidis Aquilo de monte
procellis
Obruit
adversas acies; revolutaque tela
Vertit in auctores, et turbine reppulit hastas
O nimium
dilecte Deo, cui fundit ab antris
Aeolus armatas hyemes; cui militat Aether,
Et
conjurati veniunt ad classica venti.
These famous
lines of Claudian (in iii. Cons. Honor. 93, &c.
A.D. 396) are alleged by his contemporaries, Augustin and
Orosius; who suppress the Pagan deity of Aeolus, and add
some
circumstances from the information of eye-witnesses. Within four
months after the victory, it was compared by Ambrose to
the
miraculous victories of Moses and Joshua.]
[Footnote *: Arbogastes and his emperor had openly
espoused the
Pagan party, according to Ambrose and Augustin. See Le Beau, v.
40. Beugnot
(Histoire de la Destruction du Paganisme) is more
full, and perhaps somewhat fanciful, on this remarkable
reaction
in favor of Paganism, but compare p 116. - M.]
[Footnote 121: The events of this civil war are gathered
from
Ambrose, (tom. ii. Epist. lxii. p. 1022,) Paulinus, (in
Vit.
Ambros. c. 26 - 34,) Augustin, (de Civitat. Dei, v. 26,)
Orosius,
(l. vii. c. 35,) Sozomen, (l. vii. c. 24,) Theodoret, (l.
v. c.
24,) Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 281, 282,) Claudian, (in iii.
Cons. Hon.
63 - 105, in iv. Cons. Hon. 70 - 117,) and the Chronicles
published by Scaliger.]
After the
defeat of Eugenius, the merit, as well as the
authority, of Theodosius was cheerfully acknowledged by
all the
inhabitants of the Roman world. The experience of his past
conduct encouraged the most pleasing expectations of his
future
reign; and the age of the emperor, which did not exceed
fifty
years, seemed to extend the prospect of the public
felicity. His
death, only four months after his victory, was considered
by the
people as an unforeseen and fatal event, which destroyed,
in a
moment, the hopes of the rising generation. But the indulgence
of ease and luxury had secretly nourished the principles
of
disease. ^122 The strength of Theodosius was unable to
support
the sudden and violent transition from the palace to the
camp;
and the increasing symptoms of a dropsy announced the
speedy
dissolution of the emperor. The opinion, and perhaps the
interest, of the public had confirmed the division of the
Eastern
and Western empires; and the two royal youths, Arcadius
and
Honorius, who had already obtained, from the tenderness
of their
father, the title of Augustus, were destined to fill the
thrones
of Constantinople and of Rome. Those princes were not permitted
to share the danger and glory of the civil war; ^123 but
as soon
as Theodosius had triumphed over his unworthy rivals, he
called
his younger son, Honorius, to enjoy the fruits of the
victory,
and to receive the sceptre of the West from the hands of
his
dying father. The
arrival of Honorius at Milan was welcomed by a
splendid exhibition of the games of the Circus; and the
emperor,
though he was oppressed by the weight of his disorder,
contributed by his presence to the public joy. But the remains
of his strength were exhausted by the painful effort
which he
made to assist at the spectacles of the morning. Honorius
supplied, during the rest of the day, the place of his
father;
and the great Theodosius expired in the ensuing night.
Notwithstanding the recent animosities of a civil war,
his death
was universally lamented.
The Barbarians, whom he had vanquished
and the churchmen, by whom he had been subdued,
celebrated, with
loud and sincere applause, the qualities of the deceased
emperor,
which appeared the most valuable in their eyes. The Romans were
terrified by the impending dangers of a feeble and
divided
administration, and every disgraceful moment of the
unfortunate
reigns of Arcadius and Honorius revived the memory of
their
irreparable loss.
[Footnote 122: This disease, ascribed by Socrates (l. v.
c. 26)
to the fatigues of war, is represented by Philostorgius
(l. xi.
c. 2) as the effect of sloth and intemperance; for which
Photius
calls him an impudent liar, (Godefroy, Dissert. p. 438.)]
[Footnote 123: Zosimus supposes, that the boy Honorius
accompanied his father, (l. iv. p. 280.) Yet the quanto
flagrabrant pectora voto is all that flattery would allow
to a
contemporary poet; who clearly describes the emperor's
refusal,
and the journey of Honorius, after the victory (Claudian
in iii.
Cons. 78 - 125.)]
In the
faithful picture of the virtues of Theodosius, his
imperfections have not been dissembled; the act of
cruelty, and
the habits of indolence, which tarnished the glory of one
of the
greatest of the Roman princes. An historian, perpetually adverse
to the fame of Theodosius, has exaggerated his vices, and
their
pernicious effects; he boldly asserts, that every rank of
subjects imitated the effeminate manners of their
sovereign; and
that every species of corruption polluted the course of
public
and private life; and that the feeble restraints of order
and
decency were insufficient to resist the progress of that
degenerate spirit, which sacrifices, without a blush, the
consideration of duty and interest to the base indulgence
of
sloth and appetite. ^124 The complaints of contemporary
writers,
who deplore the increase of luxury, and depravation of
manners,
are commonly expressive of their peculiar temper and
situation.
There are few observers, who possess a clear and
comprehensive
view of the revolutions of society; and who are capable
of
discovering the nice and secret springs of action, which
impel,
in the same uniform direction, the blind and capricious
passions
of a multitude of individuals. If it can be affirmed, with any
degree of truth, that the luxury of the Romans was more
shameless
and dissolute in the reign of Theodosius than in the age
of
Constantine, perhaps, or of Augustus, the alteration
cannot be
ascribed to any beneficial improvements, which had gradually
increased the stock of national riches. A long period of
calamity or decay must have checked the industry, and
diminished
the wealth, of the people; and their profuse luxury must
have
been the result of that indolent despair, which enjoys
the
present hour, and declines the thoughts of futurity. The
uncertain condition of their property discouraged the
subjects of
Theodosius from engaging in those useful and laborious
undertakings which require an immediate expense, and
promise a
slow and distant advantage. The frequent examples of ruin and
desolation tempted them not to spare the remains of a
patrimony,
which might, every hour, become the prey of the rapacious
Goth.
And the mad prodigality which prevails in the confusion
of a
shipwreck, or a siege, may serve to explain the progress
of
luxury amidst the misfortunes and terrors of a sinking
nation.
[Footnote 124: Zosimus, l. iv. p. 244.]
The effeminate
luxury, which infected the manners of courts
and cities, had instilled a secret and destructive poison
into
the camps of the legions; and their degeneracy has been
marked by
the pen of a military writer, who had accurately studied
the
genuine and ancient principles of Roman discipline. It is the
just and important observation of Vegetius, that the
infantry was
invariably covered with defensive armor, from the
foundation of
the city, to the reign of the emperor Gratian. The relaxation of
discipline, and the disuse of exercise, rendered the
soldiers
less able, and less willing, to support the fatigues of
the
service; they complained of the weight of the armor,
which they
seldom wore; and they successively obtained the
permission of
laying aside both their cuirasses and their helmets. The heavy
weapons of their ancestors, the short sword, and the formidable
pilum, which had subdued the world, insensibly dropped
from their
feeble hands. As
the use of the shield is incompatible with that
of the bow, they reluctantly marched into the field;
condemned to
suffer either the pain of wounds, or the ignominy of
flight, and
always disposed to prefer the more shameful
alternative. The
cavalry of the Goths, the Huns, and the Alani, had felt
the
benefits, and adopted the use, of defensive armor; and,
as they
excelled in the management of missile weapons, they easily
overwhelmed the naked and trembling legions, whose heads
and
breasts were exposed, without defence, to the arrows of
the
Barbarians. The
loss of armies, the destruction of cities, and
the dishonor of the Roman name, ineffectually solicited
the
successors of Gratian to restore the helmets and the
cuirasses of
the infantry. The
enervated soldiers abandoned their own and the
public defence; and their pusillanimous indolence may be
considered as the immediate cause of the downfall of the
empire.
^125
[Footnote 125: Vegetius, de Re Militari, l. i. c.
10. The series
of calamities which he marks, compel us to believe, that
the
Hero, to whom he dedicates his book, is the last and most
inglorious of the Valentinians.]
Chapter XXVIII: Destruction Of Paganism.
Part I.
Final
Destruction Of Paganism. - Introduction Of The Worship
Of Saints, And Relics, Among The Christians.
The ruin of
Paganism, in the age of Theodosius, is perhaps
the only example of the total extirpation of any ancient
and
popular superstition; and may therefore deserve to be
considered
as a singular event in the history of the human
mind. The
Christians, more especially the clergy, had impatiently
supported
the prudent delays of Constantine, and the equal
toleration of
the elder Valentinian; nor could they deem their conquest
perfect
or secure, as long as their adversaries were permitted to
exist.
The influence which Ambrose and his brethren had acquired
over
the youth of Gratian, and the piety of Theodosius, was
employed
to infuse the maxims of persecution into the breasts of
their
Imperial proselytes.
Two specious principles of religious
jurisprudence were established, from whence they deduced
a direct
and rigorous conclusion, against the subjects of the
empire who
still adhered to the ceremonies of their ancestors: that
the
magistrate is, in some measure, guilty of the crimes
which he
neglects to prohibit, or to punish; and, that the
idolatrous
worship of fabulous deities, and real daemons, is the
most
abominable crime against the supreme majesty of the
Creator. The
laws of Moses, and the examples of Jewish history, ^1
were
hastily, perhaps erroneously, applied, by the clergy, to
the mild
and universal reign of Christianity. ^2 The zeal of the
emperors
was excited to vindicate their own honor, and that of the
Deity:
and the temples of the Roman world were subverted, about
sixty
years after the conversion of Constantine.
[Footnote 1: St. Ambrose (tom. ii. de Obit. Theodos. p.
1208)
expressly praises and recommends the zeal of Josiah in
the
destruction of idolatry The language of Julius Firmicus
Maternus
on the same subject (de Errore Profan. Relig. p. 467,
edit.
Gronov.) is piously inhuman. Nec filio jubet (the Mosaic Law)
parci, nec fratri, et per amatam conjugera gladium vindicem
ducit, &c.]
[Footnote 2: Bayle (tom. ii. p. 406, in his Commentaire
Philosophique) justifies, and limits, these intolerant
laws by
the temporal reign of Jehovah over the Jews. The attempt is
laudable.]
From the age
of Numa to the reign of Gratian, the Romans
preserved the regular succession of the several colleges
of the
sacerdotal order. ^3 Fifteen Pontiffs exercised their
supreme
jurisdiction over all things, and persons, that were
consecrated
to the service of the gods; and the various questions
which
perpetually arose in a loose and traditionary system,
were
submitted to the judgment of their holy tribunal Fifteen
grave
and learned Augurs observed the face of the heavens, and
prescribed the actions of heroes, according to the flight
of
birds. Fifteen
keepers of the Sibylline books (their name of
Quindecemvirs was derived from their number) occasionally
consulted the history of future, and, as it should seem,
of
contingent, events.
Six Vestals devoted their virginity to the
guard of the sacred fire, and of the unknown pledges of
the
duration of Rome; which no mortal had been suffered to
behold
with impunity. ^4 Seven Epulos prepared the table of the
gods,
conducted the solemn procession, and regulated the
ceremonies of
the annual festival.
The three Flamens of Jupiter, of Mars, and
of Quirinus, were considered as the peculiar ministers of
the
three most powerful deities, who watched over the fate of
Rome
and of the universe.
The King of the Sacrifices represented the
person of Numa, and of his successors, in the religious
functions, which could be performed only by royal
hands. The
confraternities of the Salians, the Lupercals, &c.,
practised
such rites as might extort a smile of contempt from every
reasonable man, with a lively confidence of recommending
themselves to the favor of the immortal gods. The authority,
which the Roman priests had formerly obtained in the
counsels of
the republic, was gradually abolished by the
establishment of
monarchy, and the removal of the seat of empire. But the dignity
of their sacred character was still protected by the
laws, and
manners of their country; and they still continued, more
especially the college of pontiffs, to exercise in the
capital,
and sometimes in the provinces, the rights of their
ecclesiastical and civil jurisdiction. Their robes of purple,
chariotz of state, and sumptuous entertainments,
attracted the
admiration of the people; and they received, from the
consecrated
lands, and the public revenue, an ample stipend, which
liberally
supported the splendor of the priesthood, and all the
expenses of
the religious worship of the state. As the service of the altar
was not incompatible with the command of armies, the
Romans,
after their consulships and triumphs, aspired to the
place of
pontiff, or of augur; the seats of Cicero ^5 and Pompey
were
filled, in the fourth century, by the most illustrious
members of
the senate; and the dignity of their birth reflected
additional
splendor on their sacerdotal character. The fifteen priests, who
composed the college of pontiffs, enjoyed a more
distinguished
rank as the companions of their sovereign; and the
Christian
emperors condescended to accept the robe and ensigns,
which were
appropriated to the office of supreme pontiff. But when Gratian
ascended the throne, more scrupulous or more enlightened,
he
sternly rejected those profane symbols; ^6 applied to the
service
of the state, or of the church, the revenues of the
priests and
vestals; abolished their honors and immunities; and
dissolved the
ancient fabric of Roman superstition, which was supported
by the
opinions and habits of eleven hundred years. Paganism was still
the constitutional religion of the senate. The hall, or temple,
in which they assembled, was adorned by the statue and
altar of
Victory; ^7 a majestic female standing on a globe, with
flowing
garments, expanded wings, and a crown of laurel in her
outstretched hand. ^8 The senators were sworn on the
altar of the
goddess to observe the laws of the emperor and of the
empire: and
a solemn offering of wine and incense was the ordinary
prelude of
their public deliberations. The removal of this ancient monument
was the only injury which Constantius had offered to the
superstition of the Romans. The altar of Victory was again
restored by Julian, tolerated by Valentinian, and once
more
banished from the senate by the zeal of Gratian. ^10 But
the
emperor yet spared the statues of the gods which were
exposed to
the public veneration: four hundred and twenty-four
temples, or
chapels, still remained to satisfy the devotion of the
people;
and in every quarter of Rome the delicacy of the
Christians was
offended by the fumes of idolatrous sacrifice. ^11
[Footnote 3: See the outlines of the Roman hierarchy in
Cicero,
(de Legibus, ii. 7, 8,) Livy, (i. 20,) Dionysius
Halicarnassensis, (l. ii. p. 119 - 129, edit. Hudson,)
Beaufort,
(Republique Romaine, tom. i. p. 1 - 90,) and Moyle, (vol.
i. p.
10 - 55.) The last is the work of an English whig, as
well as of
a Roman antiquary.]
[Footnote 4: These mystic, and perhaps imaginary, symbols
have
given birth to various fables and conjectures. It seems
probable, that the Palladium was a small statue (three
cubits and
a half high) of Minerva, with a lance and distaff; that
it was
usually enclosed in a seria, or barrel; and that a
similar barrel
was placed by its side to disconcert curiosity, or
sacrilege.
See Mezeriac (Comment. sur les Epitres d'Ovide, tom i. p.
60 -
66) and Lipsius, (tom. iii. p. 610 de Vesta, &c. c
10.)]
[Footnote 5: Cicero frankly (ad Atticum, l. ii. Epist. 5)
or
indirectly (ad Familiar. l. xv. Epist. 4) confesses that
the
Augurate is the supreme object of his wishes. Pliny is proud to
tread in the footsteps of Cicero, (l. iv. Epist. 8,) and
the
chain of tradition might be continued from history and
marbles.]
[Footnote 6: Zosimus, l. iv. p. 249, 250. I have suppressed the
foolish pun about Pontifex and Maximus.]
[Footnote 7: This statue was transported from Tarentum to
Rome,
placed in the Curia Julia by Caesar, and decorated by
Augustus
with the spoils of Egypt.]
[Footnote 8: Prudentius (l. ii. in initio) has drawn a
very
awkward portrait of Victory; but the curious reader will
obtain
more satisfaction from Montfaucon's Antiquities, (tom. i.
p.
341.)]
[Footnote 9: See Suetonius (in August. c. 35) and the
Exordium of
Pliny's Panegyric.]
[Footnote 10: These facts are mutually allowed by the two
advocates, Symmachus and Ambrose.]
[Footnote 11: The Notitia Urbis, more recent than
Constantine,
does not find one Christian church worthy to be named
among the
edifices of the city.
Ambrose (tom. ii. Epist. xvii. p. 825)
deplores the public scandals of Rome, which continually
offended
the eyes, the ears, and the nostrils of the faithful.]
But the
Christians formed the least numerous party in the
senate of Rome: ^12 and it was only by their absence,
that they
could express their dissent from the legal, though
profane, acts
of a Pagan majority.
In that assembly, the dying embers of
freedom were, for a moment, revived and inflamed by the
breath of
fanaticism. Four
respectable deputations were successively voted
to the Imperial court, ^13 to represent the grievances of
the
priesthood and the senate, and to solicit the restoration
of the
altar of Victory.
The conduct of this important business was
intrusted to the eloquent Symmachus, ^14 a wealthy and
noble
senator, who united the sacred characters of pontiff and
augur
with the civil dignities of proconsul of Africa and
praefect of
the city. The
breast of Symmachus was animated by the warmest
zeal for the cause of expiring Paganism; and his
religious
antagonists lamented the abuse of his genius, and the
inefficacy
of his moral virtues. ^15 The orator, whose petition is
extant to
the emperor Valentinian, was conscious of the difficulty
and
danger of the office which he had assumed. He cautiously avoids
every topic which might appear to reflect on the religion
of his
sovereign; humbly declares, that prayers and entreaties
are his
only arms; and artfully draws his arguments from the
schools of
rhetoric, rather than from those of philosophy. Symmachus
endeavors to seduce the imagination of a young prince, by
displaying the attributes of the goddess of victory; he
insinuates, that the confiscation of the revenues, which
were
consecrated to the service of the gods, was a measure
unworthy of
his liberal and disinterested character; and he
maintains, that
the Roman sacrifices would be deprived of their force and
energy,
if they were no longer celebrated at the expense, as well
as in
the name, of the republic. Even scepticism is made to supply an
apology for superstition.
The great and incomprehensible secret
of the universe eludes the inquiry of man. Where reason cannot
instruct, custom may be permitted to guide; and every
nation
seems to consult the dictates of prudence, by a faithful
attachment to those rites and opinions, which have
received the
sanction of ages.
If those ages have been crowned with glory and
prosperity, if the devout people have frequently obtained
the
blessings which they have solicited at the altars of the
gods, it
must appear still more advisable to persist in the same
salutary
practice; and not to risk the unknown perils that may
attend any
rash innovations.
The test of antiquity and success was applied
with singular advantage to the religion of Numa; and Rome
herself, the celestial genius that presided over the
fates of the
city, is introduced by the orator to plead her own cause
before
the tribunal of the emperors. "Most excellent princes," says the
venerable matron, "fathers of your country! pity and respect my
age, which has hitherto flowed in an uninterrupted course
of
piety. Since I do
not repent, permit me to continue in the
practice of my ancient rites. Since I am born free, allow me to
enjoy my domestic institutions. This religion has reduced the
world under my laws.
These rites have repelled Hannibal from the
city, and the Gauls from the Capitol. Were my gray hairs
reserved for such intolerable disgrace? I am ignorant of the new
system that I am required to adopt; but I am well
assured, that
the correction of old age is always an ungrateful and
ignominious
office." ^16 The fears of the people supplied what
the discretion
of the orator had suppressed; and the calamities, which
afflicted, or threatened, the declining empire, were
unanimously
imputed, by the Pagans, to the new religion of Christ and
of
Constantine.
[Footnote 12: Ambrose repeatedly affirms, in
contradiction to
common sense (Moyle's Works, vol. ii. p. 147,) that the
Christians had a majority in the senate.]
[Footnote 13: The first (A.D. 382) to Gratian, who
refused them
audience; the second (A.D. 384) to Valentinian, when the
field
was disputed by Symmachus and Ambrose; the third (A.D.
388) to
Theodosius; and the fourth (A.D. 392) to
Valentinian. Lardner
(Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 372 - 399) fairly
represents
the whole transaction.]
[Footnote 14: Symmachus, who was invested with all the
civil and
sacerdotal honors, represented the emperor under the two
characters of Pontifex Maximus, and Princeps Senatus. See the
proud inscription at the head of his works.
Note: Mr.
Beugnot has made it doubtful whether Symmachus was
more than Pontifex Major.
Destruction du Paganisme, vol. i. p.
459. - M.]
[Footnote 15: As if any one, says Prudentius (in Symmach.
i. 639)
should dig in the mud with an instrument of gold and
ivory. Even
saints, and polemic saints, treat this adversary with
respect and
civility.]
[Footnote 16: See the fifty-fourth Epistle of the tenth
book of
Symmachus. In the form and disposition of his ten books
of
Epistles, he imitated the younger Pliny; whose rich and
florid
style he was supposed, by his friends, to equal or excel,
(Macrob. Saturnal. l. v. c. i.) But the luxcriancy of
Symmachus
consists of barren leaves, without fruits, and even
without
flowers. Few
facts, and few sentiments, can be extracted from
his verbose correspondence.]
But the hopes
of Symmachus were repeatedly baffled by the
firm and dexterous opposition of the archbishop of Milan,
who
fortified the emperors against the fallacious eloquence
of the
advocate of Rome.
In this controversy, Ambrose condescends to
speak the language of a philosopher, and to ask, with
some
contempt, why it should be thought necessary to introduce
an
imaginary and invisible power, as the cause of those
victories,
which were sufficiently explained by the valor and
discipline of
the legions. He
justly derides the absurd reverence for
antiquity, which could only tend to discourage the
improvements
of art, and to replunge the human race into their
original
barbarism. From
thence, gradually rising to a more lofty and
theological tone, he pronounces, that Christianity alone
is the
doctrine of truth and salvation; and that every mode of
Polytheism conducts its deluded votaries, through the paths
of
error, to the abyss of eternal perdition. ^17 Arguments
like
these, when they were suggested by a favorite bishop, had
power
to prevent the restoration of the altar of Victory; but
the same
arguments fell, with much more energy and effect, from
the mouth
of a conqueror; and the gods of antiquity were dragged in
triumph
at the chariot-wheels of Theodosius. ^18 In a full
meeting of the
senate, the emperor proposed, according to the forms of
the
republic, the important question, Whether the worship of
Jupiter,
or that of Christ, should be the religion of the Romans.
^* The
liberty of suffrages, which he affected to allow, was
destroyed
by the hopes and fears that his presence inspired; and
the
arbitrary exile of Symmachus was a recent admonition,
that it
might be dangerous to oppose the wishes of the
monarch. On a
regular division of the senate, Jupiter was condemned and
degraded by the sense of a very large majority; and it is
rather
surprising, that any members should be found bold enough
to
declare, by their speeches and votes, that they were
still
attached to the interest of an abdicated deity. ^19 The
hasty
conversion of the senate must be attributed either to
supernatural or to sordid motives; and many of these
reluctant
proselytes betrayed, on every favorable occasion, their
secret
disposition to throw aside the mask of odious
dissimulation. But
they were gradually fixed in the new religion, as the
cause of
the ancient became more hopeless; they yielded to the
authority
of the emperor, to the fashion of the times, and to the
entreaties of their wives and children, ^20 who were
instigated
and governed by the clergy of Rome and the monks of the
East.
The edifying example of the Anician family was soon
imitated by
the rest of the nobility: the Bassi, the Paullini, the
Gracchi,
embraced the Christian religion; and "the luminaries
of the
world, the venerable assembly of Catos (such are the
high-flown
expressions of Prudentius) were impatient to strip
themselves of
their pontifical garment; to cast the skin of the old
serpent; to
assume the snowy robes of baptismal innocence, and to
humble the
pride of the consular fasces before tombs of the
martyrs." ^21
The citizens, who subsisted by their own industry, and
the
populace, who were supported by the public liberality,
filled the
churches of the Lateran, and Vatican, with an incessant
throng of
devout proselytes.
The decrees of the senate, which proscribed
the worship of idols, were ratified by the general
consent of the
Romans; ^22 the splendor of the Capitol was defaced, and
the
solitary temples were abandoned to ruin and contempt. ^23
Rome
submitted to the yoke of the Gospel; and the vanquished
provinces
had not yet lost their reverence for the name and
authority of
Rome. ^*
[Footnote 17: See Ambrose, (tom. ii. Epist. xvii. xviii.
p. 825 -
833.) The former of these epistles is a short caution;
the latter
is a formal reply of the petition or libel of
Symmachus. The
same ideas are more copiously expressed in the poetry, if
it may
deserve that name, of Prudentius; who composed his two
books
against Symmachus (A.D. 404) while that senator was still
alive.
It is whimsical enough that Montesquieu (Considerations,
&c. c.
xix. tom. iii. p. 487) should overlook the two professed
antagonists of Symmachus, and amuse himself with
descanting on
the more remote and indirect confutations of Orosius, St.
Augustin, and Salvian.]
[Footnote 18: See Prudentius (in Symmach. l. i. 545,
&c.) The
Christian agrees with the Pagan Zosimus (l. iv. p. 283)
in
placing this visit of Theodosius after the second civil
war,
gemini bis victor caede Tyranni, (l. i. 410.) But the
time and
circumstances are better suited to his first triumph.]
[Footnote *: M. Beugnot (in his Histoire de la
Destruction du
Paganisme en Occident, i. p. 483 - 488) questions,
altogether,
the truth of this statement. It is very remarkable that Zosimus
and Prudentius concur in asserting the fact of the
question being
solemnly deliberated by the senate, though with directly
opposite
results. Zosimus
declares that the majority of the assembly
adhered to the ancient religion of Rome; Gibbon has
adopted the
authority of Prudentius, who, as a Latin writer, though a
poet,
deserves more credit than the Greek historian. Both concur in
placing this scene after the second triumph of
Theodosius; but it
has been almost demonstrated (and Gibbon - see the
preceding note
- seems to have acknowledged this) by Pagi and Tillemont,
that
Theodosius did not visit Rome after the defeat of
Eugenius. M.
Beugnot urges, with much force, the improbability that
the
Christian emperor would submit such a question to the
senate,
whose authority was nearly obsolete, except on one
occasion,
which was almost hailed as an epoch in the restoration of
her
ancient privileges.
The silence of Ambrose and of Jerom on an
event so striking, and redounding so much to the honor of
Christianity, is of considerable weight. M. Beugnot would
ascribe the whole scene to the poetic imagination of
Prudentius;
but I must observe, that, however Prudentius is sometimes
elevated by the grandeur of his subject to vivid and
eloquent
language, this flight of invention would be so much
bolder and
more vigorous than usual with this poet, that I cannot
but
suppose there must have been some foundation for the
story,
though it may have been exaggerated by the poet, or
misrepresented by the historian. - M]
[Footnote 19: Prudentius, after proving that the sense of
the
senate is declared by a legal majority, proceeds to say,
(609,
&c.) -
Adspice quam
pleno subsellia nostra Senatu
Decernant
infame Jovis pulvinar, et omne
Idolum longe
purgata ex urbe fugandum,
Qua vocat
egregii sententia Principis, illuc
Libera, cum
pedibus, tum corde, frequentia transit.
Zosimus ascribes to the conscript feathers a heathenish
courage,
which few of them are found to possess.]
[Footnote 20: Jerom specifies the pontiff Albinus, who
was
surrounded with such a believing family of children and
grandchildren, as would have been sufficient to convert
even
Jupiter himself; an extraordinary proselyted (tom. i. ad
Laetam,
p. 54.)]
[Footnote 21: Exultare Patres videas, pulcherrima mundi
Lumina;
Conciliumque senum gestire Catonum
Candidiore
toga niveum pietatis amictum
Sumere; et
exuvias deponere pontificales.
The fancy of Prudentius is warmed and elevated by
victory]
[Footnote 22: Prudentius, after he has described the
conversion
of the senate and people, asks, with some truth and
confidence,
Et dubitamus
adhuc Romam, tibi, Christe, dicatam
In leges
transisse tuas?]
[Footnote 23: Jerom exults in the desolation of the
Capitol, and
the other temples of Rome, (tom. i. p. 54, tom. ii. p.
95.)]
[Footnote *: M. Beugnot is more correct in his general
estimate
of the measures enforced by Theodosius for the abolition of
Paganism. He
seized (according to Zosimus) the funds bestowed by
the public for the expense of sacrifices. The public sacrifices
ceased, not because they were positively prohibited, but
because
the public treasury would no longer bear the
expense. The public
and the private sacrifices in the provinces, which were
not under
the same regulations with those of the capital, continued
to take
place. In Rome
itself, many pagan ceremonies, which were without
sacrifice, remained in full force. The gods, therefore, were
invoked, the temples were frequented, the pontificates
inscribed,
according to ancient usage, among the family titles of
honor; and
it cannot be asserted that idolatry was completely
destroyed by
Theodosius. See
Beugnot, p. 491. - M.]
Chapter XXVIII: Destruction Of Paganism.
Part II.
The filial
piety of the emperors themselves engaged them to
proceed, with some caution and tenderness, in the
reformation of
the eternal city. Those absolute monarchs acted with less
regard
to the prejudices of the provincials. The pious labor
which had
been suspended near twenty years since the death of
Constantius,
^24 was vigorously resumed, and finally accomplished, by
the zeal
of Theodosius.
Whilst that warlike prince yet struggled with the
Goths, not for the glory, but for the safety, of the
republic, he
ventured to offend a considerable party of his subjects,
by some
acts which might perhaps secure the protection of Heaven,
but
which must seem rash and unseasonable in the eye of human
prudence. The
success of his first experiments against the
Pagans encouraged the pious emperor to reiterate and
enforce his
edicts of proscription: the same laws which had been
originally
published in the provinces of the East, were applied,
after the
defeat of Maximus, to the whole extent of the Western
empire; and
every victory of the orthodox Theodosius contributed to
the
triumph of the Christian and Catholic faith. ^25 He
attacked
superstition in her most vital part, by prohibiting the
use of
sacrifices, which he declared to be criminal as well as
infamous;
and if the terms of his edicts more strictly condemned
the
impious curiosity which examined the entrails of the
victim, ^26
every subsequent explanation tended to involve in the
same guilt
the general practice of immolation, which essentially
constituted
the religion of the Pagans. As the temples had been erected for
the purpose of sacrifice, it was the duty of a benevolent
prince
to remove from his subjects the dangerous temptation of
offending
against the laws which he had enacted. A special commission was
granted to Cynegius, the Praetorian praefect of the East,
and
afterwards to the counts Jovius and Gaudentius, two
officers of
distinguished rank in the West; by which they were
directed to
shut the temples, to seize or destroy the instruments of
idolatry, to abolish the privileges of the priests, and
to
confiscate the consecrated property for the benefit of
the
emperor, of the church, or of the army. ^27 Here the
desolation
might have stopped: and the naked edifices, which were no
longer
employed in the service of idolatry, might have been
protected
from the destructive rage of fanaticism. Many of those temples
were the most splendid and beautiful monuments of Grecian
architecture; and the emperor himself was interested not
to
deface the splendor of his own cities, or to diminish the
value
of his own possessions.
Those stately edifices might be suffered
to remain, as so many lasting trophies of the victory of
Christ.
In the decline of the arts they might be usefully
converted into
magazines, manufactures, or places of public assembly:
and
perhaps, when the walls of the temple had been
sufficiently
purified by holy rites, the worship of the true Deity
might be
allowed to expiate the ancient guilt of idolatry. But as long as
they subsisted, the Pagans fondly cherished the secret
hope, that
an auspicious revolution, a second Julian, might again
restore
the altars of the gods: and the earnestness with which
they
addressed their unavailing prayers to the throne, ^28
increased
the zeal of the Christian reformers to extirpate, without
mercy,
the root of superstition.
The laws of the emperors exhibit some
symptoms of a milder disposition: ^29 but their cold and
languid
efforts were insufficient to stem the torrent of enthusiasm
and
rapine, which was conducted, or rather impelled, by the
spiritual
rulers of the church.
In Gaul, the holy Martin, bishop of Tours,
^30 marched at the head of his faithful monks to destroy
the
idols, the temples, and the consecrated trees of his
extensive
diocese; and, in the execution of this arduous task, the
prudent
reader will judge whether Martin was supported by the aid
of
miraculous powers, or of carnal weapons. In Syria, the divine
and excellent Marcellus, ^31 as he is styled by Theodoret,
a
bishop animated with apostolic fervor, resolved to level
with the
ground the stately temples within the diocese of
Apamea. His
attack was resisted by the skill and solidity with which
the
temple of Jupiter had been constructed. The building was seated
on an eminence: on each of the four sides, the lofty roof
was
supported by fifteen massy columns, sixteen feet in
circumference; and the large stone, of which they were
composed,
were firmly cemented with lead and iron. The force of the
strongest and sharpest tools had been tried without
effect. It
was found necessary to undermine the foundations of the
columns,
which fell down as soon as the temporary wooden props had
been
consumed with fire; and the difficulties of the
enterprise are
described under the allegory of a black daemon, who
retarded,
though he could not defeat, the operations of the
Christian
engineers. Elated
with victory, Marcellus took the field in
person against the powers of darkness; a numerous troop
of
soldiers and gladiators marched under the episcopal
banner, and
he successively attacked the villages and country temples
of the
diocese of Apamea.
Whenever any resistance or danger was
apprehended, the champion of the faith, whose lameness
would not
allow him either to fight or fly, placed himself at a
convenient
distance, beyond the reach of darts. But this prudence was the
occasion of his death: he was surprised and slain by a
body of
exasperated rustics; and the synod of the province
pronounced,
without hesitation, that the holy Marcellus had
sacrificed his
life in the cause of God.
In the support of this cause, the
monks, who rushed with tumultuous fury from the desert,
distinguished themselves by their zeal and
diligence. They
deserved the enmity of the Pagans; and some of them might
deserve
the reproaches of avarice and intemperance; of avarice,
which
they gratified with holy plunder, and of intemperance,
which they
indulged at the expense of the people, who foolishly
admired
their tattered garments, loud psalmody, and artificial
paleness.
^32 A small number of temples was protected by the fears,
the
venality, the taste, or the prudence, of the civil and
ecclesiastical governors.
The temple of the Celestial Venus at
Carthage, whose sacred precincts formed a circumference
of two
miles, was judiciously converted into a Christian church;
^33 and
a similar consecration has preserved inviolate the
majestic dome
of the Pantheon at Rome. ^34 But in almost every province
of the
Roman world, an army of fanatics, without authority, and
without
discipline, invaded the peaceful inhabitants; and the
ruin of the
fairest structures of antiquity still displays the
ravages of
those Barbarians, who alone had time and inclination to
execute
such laborious destruction.
[Footnote 24: Libanius (Orat. pro Templis, p. 10, Genev.
1634,
published by James Godefroy, and now extremely scarce)
accuses
Valentinian and Valens of prohibiting sacrifices. Some partial
order may have been issued by the Eastern emperor; but
the idea
of any general law is contradicted by the silence of the
Code,
and the evidence of ecclesiastical history.
Note: See in
Reiske's edition of Libanius, tom. ii. p. 155.
Sacrific was prohibited by Valens, but not the offering
of
incense. - M.]
[Footnote 25: See his laws in the Theodosian Code, l.
xvi. tit.
x. leg. 7 - 11.]
[Footnote 26: Homer's sacrifices are not accompanied with
any
inquisition of entrails, (see Feithius, Antiquitat.
Homer. l. i.
c. 10, 16.) The Tuscans, who produced the first
Haruspices,
subdued both the Greeks and the Romans, (Cicero de
Divinatione,
ii. 23.)]
[Footnote 27: Zosimus, l. iv. p. 245, 249. Theodoret. l. v. c.
21. Idatius in Chron. Prosper. Aquitan. l. iii. c. 38,
apud
Baronium, Annal. Eccles. A.D. 389, No. 52. Libanius (pro
Templis, p. 10) labors to prove that the commands of
Theodosius
were not direct and positive.
Note: Libanius
appears to be the best authority for the
East, where, under Theodosius, the work of devastation
was
carried on with very different degrees of violence,
according to
the temper of the local authorities and of the clergy;
and more
especially the neighborhood of the more fanatican monks.
Neander
well observes, that the prohibition of sacrifice would be
easily
misinterpreted into an authority for the destruction of
the
buildings in which sacrifices were performed. (Geschichte
der
Christlichen religion ii. p. 156.) An abuse of this kind
led to
this remarkable oration of Libanius. Neander, however, justly
doubts whether this bold vindication or at least
exculpation, of
Paganism was ever delivered before, or even placed in the
hands
of the Christian emperor. - M.]
[Footnote 28: Cod. Theodos, l. xvi. tit. x. leg. 8,
18. There is
room to believe, that this temple of Edessa, which
Theodosius
wished to save for civil uses, was soon afterwards a heap
of
ruins, (Libanius pro Templis, p. 26, 27, and Godefroy's
notes, p.
59.)]
[Footnote 29: See this curious oration of Libanius pro
Templis,
pronounced, or rather composed, about the year 390. I have
consulted, with advantage, Dr. Lardner's version and
remarks,
(Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p. 135 - 163.)]
[Footnote 30: See the Life of Martin by Sulpicius
Severus, c. 9 -
14. The saint once
mistook (as Don Quixote might have done) a
harmless funeral for an idolatrous procession, and
imprudently
committed a miracle.]
[Footnote 31: Compare Sozomen, (l. vii. c. 15) with
Theodoret,
(l. v. c. 21.) Between them, they relate the crusade and
death of
Marcellus.]
[Footnote 32: Libanius, pro Templis, p. 10 - 13. He rails at
these black- garbed men, the Christian monks, who eat
more than
elephants. Poor
elephants! they are temperate animals.]
[Footnote 33: Prosper. Aquitan. l. iii. c. 38, apud
Baronium;
Annal. Eccles. A.D. 389, No. 58, &c. The temple had been shut
some time, and the access to it was overgrown with
brambles.]
[Footnote 34: Donatus, Roma Antiqua et Nova, l. iv. c. 4,
p. 468.
This consecration was performed by Pope Boniface IV. I am
ignorant of the favorable circumstances which had
preserved the
Pantheon above two hundred years after the reign of
Theodosius.]
In this wide
and various prospect of devastation, the
spectator may distinguish the ruins of the temple of
Serapis, at
Alexandria. ^35 Serapis does not appear to have been one
of the
native gods, or monsters, who sprung from the fruitful
soil of
superstitious Egypt. ^36 The first of the Ptolemies had
been
commanded, by a dream, to import the mysterious stranger
from the
coast of Pontus, where he had been long adored by the
inhabitants
of Sinope; but his attributes and his reign were so
imperfectly
understood, that it became a subject of dispute, whether
he
represented the bright orb of day, or the gloomy monarch
of the
subterraneous regions. ^37 The Egyptians, who were
obstinately
devoted to the religion of their fathers, refused to
admit this
foreign deity within the walls of their cities. ^38 But
the
obsequious priests, who were seduced by the liberality of
the
Ptolemies, submitted, without resistance, to the power of
the god
of Pontus: an honorable and domestic genealogy was
provided; and
this fortunate usurper was introduced into the throne and
bed of
Osiris, ^39 the husband of Isis, and the celestial
monarch of
Egypt. Alexandria,
which claimed his peculiar protection,
gloried in the name of the city of Serapis. His temple, ^40
which rivalled the pride and magnificence of the Capitol,
was
erected on the spacious summit of an artificial mount,
raised one
hundred steps above the level of the adjacent parts of
the city;
and the interior cavity was strongly supported by arches,
and
distributed into vaults and subterraneous
apartments. The
consecrated buildings were surrounded by a quadrangular
portico;
the stately halls, and exquisite statues, displayed the
triumph
of the arts; and the treasures of ancient learning were
preserved
in the famous Alexandrian library, which had arisen with
new
splendor from its ashes. ^41 After the edicts of
Theodosius had
severely prohibited the sacrifices of the Pagans, they
were still
tolerated in the city and temple of Serapis; and this
singular
indulgence was imprudently ascribed to the superstitious
terrors
of the Christians themselves; as if they had feared to
abolish
those ancient rites, which could alone secure the
inundations of
the Nile, the harvests of Egypt, and the subsistence of
Constantinople. ^42
[Footnote 35: Sophronius composed a recent and separate
history,
(Jerom, in Script. Eccles. tom. i. p. 303,) which has
furnished
materials to Socrates, (l. v. c. 16.) Theodoret, (l. v.
c. 22,)
and Rufinus, (l. ii. c. 22.) Yet the last, who had been
at
Alexandria before and after the event, may deserve the
credit of
an original witness.]
[Footnote 36: Gerard Vossius (Opera, tom. v. p. 80, and
de
Idoloaltria, l. i. c. 29) strives to support the strange
notion
of the Fathers; that the patriarch Joseph was adored in
Egypt, as
the bull Apis, and the god Serapis.
Note: Consult
du Dieu Serapis et son Origine, par J D.
Guigniaut, (the translator of Creuzer's Symbolique,)
Paris, 1828;
and in the fifth volume of Bournouf's translation of
Tacitus. -
M.]
[Footnote 37: Origo dei nondum nostris celebrata. Aegyptiorum
antistites sic memorant, &c., Tacit. Hist. iv.
83. The Greeks,
who had travelled into Egypt, were alike ignorant of this
new
deity.]
[Footnote 38: Macrobius, Saturnal, l. i. c. 7. Such a living
fact decisively proves his foreign extraction.]
[Footnote 39: At Rome, Isis and Serapis were united in
the same
temple. The precedency which the queen assumed, may seem
to
betray her unequal alliance with the stranger of Pontus. But the
superiority of the female sex was established in Egypt as
a civil
and religious institution, (Diodor. Sicul. tom. i. l. i.
p. 31,
edit. Wesseling,) and the same order is observed in
Plutarch's
Treatise of Isis and Osiris; whom he identifies with Serapis.]
[Footnote 40: Ammianus, (xxii. 16.) The Expositio totius
Mundi,
(p. 8, in Hudson's Geograph. Minor. tom. iii.,) and
Rufinus, (l.
ii. c. 22,) celebrate the Serapeum, as one of the wonders
of the
world.]
[Footnote 41: See Memoires de l'Acad. des Inscriptions,
tom. ix.
p. 397 - 416. The
old library of the Ptolemies was totally
consumed in Caesar's Alexandrian war. Marc Antony gave the whole
collection of Pergamus (200,000 volumes) to Cleopatra, as
the
foundation of the new library of Alexandria.]
[Footnote 42: Libanius (pro Templis, p. 21) indiscreetly
provokes
his Christian masters by this insulting remark.]
At that time
^43 the archiepiscopal throne of Alexandria was
filled by Theophilus, ^44 the perpetual enemy of peace
and
virtue; a bold, bad man, whose hands were alternately
polluted
with gold and with blood.
His pious indignation was excited by
the honors of Serapis; and the insults which he offered
to an
ancient temple of Bacchus, ^* convinced the Pagans that
he
meditated a more important and dangerous enterprise. In the
tumultuous capital of Egypt, the slightest provocation
was
sufficient to inflame a civil war. The votaries of Serapis,
whose strength and numbers were much inferior to those of
their
antagonists, rose in arms at the instigation of the
philosopher
Olympius, ^45 who exhorted them to die in the defence of
the
altars of the gods.
These Pagan fanatics fortified themselves in
the temple, or rather fortress, of Serapis; repelled the
besiegers by daring sallies, and a resolute defence; and,
by the
inhuman cruelties which they exercised on their Christian
prisoners, obtained the last consolation of despair. The efforts
of the prudent magistrate were usefully exerted for the
establishment of a truce, till the answer of Theodosius
should
determine the fate of Serapis. The two parties assembled,
without arms, in the principal square; and the Imperial
rescript
was publicly read.
But when a sentence of destruction against
the idols of Alexandria was pronounced, the Christians set
up a
shout of joy and exultation, whilst the unfortunate
Pagans, whose
fury had given way to consternation, retired with hasty
and
silent steps, and eluded, by their flight or obscurity,
the
resentment of their enemies. Theophilus proceeded to demolish
the temple of Serapis, without any other difficulties,
than those
which he found in the weight and solidity of the
materials: but
these obstacles proved so insuperable, that he was
obliged to
leave the foundations; and to content himself with
reducing the
edifice itself to a heap of rubbish, a part of which was
soon
afterwards cleared away, to make room for a church,
erected in
honor of the Christian martyrs. The valuable library of
Alexandria was pillaged or destroyed; and near twenty
years
afterwards, the appearance of the empty shelves excited
the
regret and indignation of every spectator, whose mind was
not
totally darkened by religious prejudice. ^46 The
compositions of
ancient genius, so many of which have irretrievably
perished,
might surely have been excepted from the wreck of
idolatry, for
the amusement and instruction of succeeding ages; and
either the
zeal or the avarice of the archbishop, ^47 might have
been
satiated with the rich spoils, which were the reward of
his
victory. While the
images and vases of gold and silver were
carefully melted, and those of a less valuable metal were
contemptuously broken, and cast into the streets,
Theophilus
labored to expose the frauds and vices of the ministers
of the
idols; their dexterity in the management of the
loadstone; their
secret methods of introducing a human actor into a hollow
statue;
^* and their scandalous abuse of the confidence of devout
husbands and unsuspecting females. ^48 Charges like these
may
seem to deserve some degree of credit, as they are not
repugnant
to the crafty and interested spirit of superstition. But the
same spirit is equally prone to the base practice of
insulting
and calumniating a fallen enemy; and our belief is
naturally
checked by the reflection, that it is much less difficult
to
invent a fictitious story, than to support a practical
fraud.
The colossal statue of Serapis ^49 was involved in the
ruin of
his temple and religion.
A great number of plates of different
metals, artificially joined together, composed the majestic
figure of the deity, who touched on either side the walls
of the
sanctuary. The aspect of Serapis, his sitting posture,
and the
sceptre, which he bore in his left hand, were extremely
similar
to the ordinary representations of Jupiter. He was distinguished
from Jupiter by the basket, or bushel, which was placed
on his
head; and by the emblematic monster which he held in his
right
hand; the head and body of a serpent branching into three
tails,
which were again terminated by the triple heads of a dog,
a lion,
and a wolf. It was
confidently affirmed, that if any impious
hand should dare to violate the majesty of the god, the
heavens
and the earth would instantly return to their original
chaos. An
intrepid soldier, animated by zeal, and armed with a
weighty
battle-axe, ascended the ladder; and even the Christian
multitude
expected, with some anxiety, the event of the combat. ^50
He
aimed a vigorous stroke against the cheek of Serapis; the
cheek
fell to the ground; the thunder was still silent, and
both the
heavens and the earth continued to preserve their
accustomed
order and tranquillity.
The victorious soldier repeated his
blows: the huge idol was overthrown, and broken in
pieces; and
the limbs of Serapis were ignominiously dragged through
the
streets of Alexandria.
His mangled carcass was burnt in the
Amphitheatre, amidst the shouts of the populace; and many
persons
attributed their conversion to this discovery of the
impotence of
their tutelar deity.
The popular modes of religion, that propose
any visible and material objects of worship, have the
advantage
of adapting and familiarizing themselves to the senses of
mankind: but this advantage is counterbalanced by the
various and
inevitable accidents to which the faith of the idolater
is
exposed. It is scarcely
possible, that, in every disposition of
mind, he should preserve his implicit reverence for the
idols, or
the relics, which the naked eye, and the profane hand,
are unable
to distinguish from the most common productions of art or
nature;
and if, in the hour of danger, their secret and
miraculous virtue
does not operate for their own preservation, he scorns
the vain
apologies of his priests, and justly derides the object,
and the
folly, of his superstitious attachment. ^51 After the
fall of
Serapis, some hopes were still entertained by the Pagans,
that
the Nile would refuse his annual supply to the impious
masters of
Egypt; and the extraordinary delay of the inundation
seemed to
announce the displeasure of the river-god. But this delay was
soon compensated by the rapid swell of the waters. They suddenly
rose to such an unusual height, as to comfort the
discontented
party with the pleasing expectation of a deluge; till the
peaceful river again subsided to the well-known and
fertilizing
level of sixteen cubits, or about thirty English feet.
^52
[Footnote 43: We may choose between the date of
Marcellinus (A.D.
389) or that of Prosper, ( A.D. 391.) Tillemont (Hist.
des Emp.
tom. v. p. 310, 756) prefers the former, and Pagi the
latter.]
[Footnote 44: Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xi. p. 441 -
500. The
ambiguous situation of Theophilus - a saint, as the
friend of
Jerom a devil, as the enemy of Chrysostom - produces a
sort of
impartiality; yet, upon the whole, the balance is justly
inclined
against him.]
[Footnote *: No doubt a temple of Osiris. St. Martin, iv 398 -
M.]
[Footnote 45: Lardner (Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv. p.
411) has
alleged beautiful passage from Suidas, or rather from
Damascius,
which show the devout and virtuous Olympius, not in the light
of
a warrior, but of a prophet.]
[Footnote 46: Nos vidimus armaria librorum, quibus
direptis,
exinanita ea a nostris hominibus, nostris temporibus
memorant.
Orosius, l. vi. c. 15, p. 421, edit. Havercamp. Though a bigot,
and a controversial writer. Orosius seems to blush.]
[Footnote 47: Eunapius, in the Lives of Antoninus and
Aedesius,
execrates the sacrilegious rapine of Theophilus. Tillemont (Mem.
Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 453) quotes an epistle of Isidore
of
Pelusium, which reproaches the primate with the
idolatrous
worship of gold, the auri sacra fames.]
[Footnote *: An English traveller, Mr. Wilkinson, has
discovered
the secret of the vocal Memnon. There was a cavity in which a
person was concealed, and struck a stone, which gave a
ringing
sound like brass.
The Arabs, who stood below when Mr. Wilkinson
performed the miracle, described sound just as the author
of the
epigram. - M.]
[Footnote 48: Rufinus names the priest of Saturn, who, in
the
character of the god, familiarly conversed with many
pious ladies
of quality, till he betrayed himself, in a moment of
transport,
when he could not disguise the tone of his voice. The authentic
and impartial narrative of Aeschines, (see Bayle,
Dictionnaire
Critique, Scamandre,) and the adventure of Mudus, (Joseph.
Antiquitat. Judaic. l. xviii. c. 3, p. 877 edit.
Havercamp,) may
prove that such amorous frauds have been practised with
success.]
[Footnote 49: See the images of Serapis, in Montfaucon,
(tom. ii.
p. 297:) but the description of Macrobius (Saturnal. l.
i. c. 20)
is much more picturesque and satisfactory.]
[Footnote 50: Sed
fortes tremuere manus, motique verenda
Majestate loci, si robora sacra ferirent
In
sua credebant redituras membra secures.
(Lucan. iii. 429.) "Is it true," (said Augustus
to a veteran of
Italy, at whose house he supped) "that the man who
gave the first
blow to the golden statue of Anaitis, was instantly
deprived of
his eyes, and of his life?" - "I was that man,
(replied the
clear-sighted veteran,) and you now sup on one of the
legs of the
goddess." (Plin. Hist. Natur. xxxiii. 24)]
[Footnote 51: The history of the reformation affords
frequent
examples of the sudden change from superstition to
contempt.]
[Footnote 52: Sozomen, l. vii. c. 20. I have supplied the
measure. The same
standard, of the inundation, and consequently
of the cubit, has uniformly subsisted since the time of
Herodotus. See
Freret, in the Mem. de l'Academie des
Inscriptions, tom. xvi. p. 344 - 353. Greaves's Miscellaneous
Works, vol. i. p. 233.
The Egyptian cubit is about twenty- two
inches of the English measure.
Note: Compare
Wilkinson's Thebes and Egypt, p. 313. - M.]
The temples of
the Roman empire were deserted, or destroyed;
but the ingenious superstition of the Pagans still
attempted to
elude the laws of Theodosius, by which all sacrifices had
been
severely prohibited.
The inhabitants of the country, whose
conduct was less opposed to the eye of malicious
curiosity,
disguised their religious, under the appearance of
convivial,
meetings. On the
days of solemn festivals, they assembled in
great numbers under the spreading shade of some
consecrated
trees; sheep and oxen were slaughtered and roasted; and
this
rural entertainment was sanctified by the use of incense,
and by
the hymns which were sung in honor of the gods. But it
was
alleged, that, as no part of the animal was made a
burnt-offering, as no altar was provided to receive the
blood,
and as the previous oblation of salt cakes, and the
concluding
ceremony of libations, were carefully omitted, these
festal
meetings did not involve the guests in the guilt, or
penalty, of
an illegal sacrifice. ^53 Whatever might be the truth of
the
facts, or the merit of the distinction, ^54 these vain
pretences
were swept away by the last edict of Theodosius, which
inflicted
a deadly wound on the superstition of the Pagans. ^55 ^*
This
prohibitory law is expressed in the most absolute and
comprehensive terms.
"It is our will and pleasure," says the
emperor, "that none of our subjects, whether
magistrates or
private citizens, however exalted or however humble may
be their
rank and condition, shall presume, in any city or in any
place,
to worship an inanimate idol, by the sacrifice of a
guiltless
victim." The act of sacrificing, and the practice of
divination
by the entrails of the victim, are declared (without any
regard
to the object of the inquiry) a crime of high treason
against the
state, which can be expiated only by the death of the
guilty.
The rites of Pagan superstition, which might seem less
bloody and
atrocious, are abolished, as highly injurious to the
truth and
honor of religion; luminaries, garlands, frankincense,
and
libations of wine, are specially enumerated and
condemned; and
the harmless claims of the domestic genius, of the
household
gods, are included in this rigorous proscription. The use of any
of these profane and illegal ceremonies, subjects the
offender to
the forfeiture of the house or estate, where they have
been
performed; and if he has artfully chosen the property of
another
for the scene of his impiety, he is compelled to
discharge,
without delay, a heavy fine of twenty-five pounds of
gold, or
more than one thousand pounds sterling. A fine, not less
considerable, is imposed on the connivance of the secret
enemies
of religion, who shall neglect the duty of their
respective
stations, either to reveal, or to punish, the guilt of
idolatry.
Such was the persecuting spirit of the laws of
Theodosius, which
were repeatedly enforced by his sons and grandsons, with
the loud
and unanimous applause of the Christian world. ^56
[Footnote 53: Libanius (pro Templis, p. 15, 16, 17)
pleads their
cause with gentle and insinuating rhetoric. From the earliest
age, such feasts had enlivened the country: and those of
Bacchus
(Georgic. ii. 380) had produced the theatre of
Athens. See
Godefroy, ad loc. Liban. and Codex Theodos. tom. vi. p.
284.]
[Footnote 54: Honorius tolerated these rustic festivals,
(A.D.
399.) "Absque ullo sacrificio, atque ulla
superstitione
damnabili." But nine years afterwards he found it
necessary to
reiterate and enforce the same proviso, (Codex Theodos.
l. xvi.
tit. x. leg. 17, 19.)]
[Footnote 55: Cod. Theodos. l. xvi. tit. x. leg. 12. Jortin
(Remarks on Eccles.
History, vol. iv. p. 134) censures, with
becoming asperity, the style and sentiments of this
intolerant
law.]
[Footnote *: Paganism maintained its ground for a
considerable
time in the rural districts. Endelechius, a poet who lived at
the beginning of the fifth century, speaks of the cross
as
Signum quod
perhibent esse crucis Dei,
Magnis qui
colitur solus inurbibus.
In the middle
of the same century, Maximus, bishop of Turin,
writes against the heathen deities as if their worship
was still
in full vigor in the neighborhood of his city. Augustine
complains of the encouragement of the Pagan rites by
heathen
landowners; and Zeno of Verona, still later, reproves the
apathy
of the Christian proprietors in conniving at this abuse.
(Compare Neander, ii. p. 169.) M. Beugnot shows that this
was the
case throughout the north and centre of Italy and in
Sicily. But
neither of these authors has adverted to one fact, which
must
have tended greatly to retard the progress of
Christianity in
these quarters. It
was still chiefly a slave population which
cultivated the soil; and however, in the towns, the
better class
of Christians might be eager to communicate "the
blessed liberty
of the gospel" to this class of mankind; however
their condition
could not but be silently ameliorated by the humanizing
influence
of Christianity; yet, on the whole, no doubt the servile
class
would be the least fitted to receive the gospel; and its
general
propagation among them would be embarrassed by many
peculiar
difficulties. The
rural population was probably not entirely
converted before the general establishment of the
monastic
institutions.
Compare Quarterly Review of Beugnot. vol lvii. p.
52 - M.]
[Footnote 56: Such a charge should not be lightly made;
but it
may surely be justified by the authority of St. Augustin,
who
thus addresses the Donatists: "Quis nostrum, quis
vestrum non
laudat leges ab Imperatoribus datas adversus sacrificia
Paganorum? Et
certe longe ibi poera severior constituta est;
illius quippe impietatis capitale supplicium est."
Epist. xciii.
No. 10, quoted by Le Clerc, (Bibliotheque Choisie, tom.
viii. p.
277,) who adds some judicious reflections on the
intolerance of
the victorious Christians.
Note: Yet
Augustine, with laudable inconsistency,
disapproved of the forcible demolition of the
temples. "Let us
first extirpate the idolatry of the hearts of the
heathen, and
they will either themselves invite us or anticipate us in
the
execution of this good work," tom. v. p. 62. Compare Neander,
ii. 169, and, in p. 155, a beautiful passage from
Chrysostom
against all violent means of propagating Christianity. -
M.]
Chapter XXVIII: Destruction Of Paganism.
Part III.
In the cruel
reigns of Decius and Dioclesian, Christianity
had been proscribed, as a revolt from the ancient and
hereditary
religion of the empire; and the unjust suspicions which
were
entertained of a dark and dangerous faction, were, in
some
measure, countenanced by the inseparable union and rapid
conquests of the Catholic church. But the same excuses of fear
and ignorance cannot be applied to the Christian emperors
who
violated the precepts of humanity and of the Gospel. The
experience of ages had betrayed the weakness, as well as
folly,
of Paganism; the light of reason and of faith had already
exposed, to the greatest part of mankind, the vanity of
idols;
and the declining sect, which still adhered to their
worship,
might have been permitted to enjoy, in peace and
obscurity, the
religious costumes of their ancestors. Had the Pagans been
animated by the undaunted zeal which possessed the minds
of the
primitive believers, the triumph of the Church must have
been
stained with blood; and the martyrs of Jupiter and Apollo
might
have embraced the glorious opportunity of devoting their
lives
and fortunes at the foot of their altars. But such obstinate
zeal was not congenial to the loose and careless temper
of
Polytheism. The
violent and repeated strokes of the orthodox
princes were broken by the soft and yielding substance
against
which they were directed; and the ready obedience of the
Pagans
protected them from the pains and penalties of the
Theodosian
Code. ^57 Instead of asserting, that the authority of the
gods
was superior to that of the emperor, they desisted, with
a
plaintive murmur, from the use of those sacred rites
which their
sovereign had condemned.
If they were sometimes tempted by a
sally of passion, or by the hopes of concealment, to
indulge
their favorite superstition, their humble repentance
disarmed the
severity of the Christian magistrate, and they seldom
refused to
atone for their rashness, by submitting, with some secret
reluctance, to the yoke of the Gospel. The churches were filled
with the increasing multitude of these unworthy
proselytes, who
had conformed, from temporal motives, to the reigning
religion;
and whilst they devoutly imitated the postures, and
recited the
prayers, of the faithful, they satisfied their conscience
by the
silent and sincere invocation of the gods of antiquity.
^58 If
the Pagans wanted patience to suffer they wanted spirit
to
resist; and the scattered myriads, who deplored the ruin
of the
temples, yielded, without a contest, to the fortune of
their
adversaries. The disorderly opposition ^59 of the
peasants of
Syria, and the populace of Alexandria, to the rage of
private
fanaticism, was silenced by the name and authority of the
emperor. The
Pagans of the West, without contributing to the
elevation of Eugenius, disgraced, by their partial
attachment,
the cause and character of the usurper. The clergy vehemently
exclaimed, that he aggravated the crime of rebellion by
the guilt
of apostasy; that, by his permission, the altar of
victory was
again restored; and that the idolatrous symbols of
Jupiter and
Hercules were displayed in the field, against the
invincible
standard of the cross.
But the vain hopes of the Pagans were
soon annihilated by the defeat of Eugenius; and they were
left
exposed to the resentment of the conqueror, who labored
to
deserve the favor of Heaven by the extirpation of
idolatry. ^60
[Footnote 57: Orosius, l. vii. c. 28, p. 537. Augustin (Enarrat.
in Psalm cxl apud Lardner, Heathen Testimonies, vol. iv.
p. 458)
insults their cowardice.
"Quis eorum comprehensus est in
sacrificio (cum his legibus sta prohiberentur) et non
negavit?"]
[Footnote 58: Libanius (pro Templis, p. 17, 18) mentions,
without
censure the occasional conformity, and as it were
theatrical
play, of these hypocrites.]
[Footnote 59: Libanius concludes his apology (p. 32) by
declaring
to the emperor, that unless he expressly warrants the destruction
of the temples, the proprietors will defend themselves
and the
laws.]
[Footnote 60: Paulinus, in Vit. Ambros. c. 26. Augustin de
Civitat. Dei, l. v. c. 26. Theodoret, l. v. c. 24.]
A nation of
slaves is always prepared to applaud the
clemency of their master, who, in the abuse of absolute
power,
does not proceed to the last extremes of injustice and
oppression.
Theodosius might undoubtedly have proposed to his
Pagan subjects the alternative of baptism or of death;
and the
eloquent Libanius has praised the moderation of a prince,
who
never enacted, by any positive law, that all his subjects
should
immediately embrace and practise the religion of their
sovereign.
^61 The profession of Christianity was not made an
essential
qualification for the enjoyment of the civil rights of
society,
nor were any peculiar hardships imposed on the sectaries,
who
credulously received the fables of Ovid, and obstinately
rejected
the miracles of the Gospel. The palace, the schools, the army,
and the senate, were filled with declared and devout
Pagans; they
obtained, without distinction, the civil and military
honors of
the empire. ^* Theodosius distinguished his liberal
regard for
virtue and genius by the consular dignity, which he
bestowed on
Symmachus; ^62 and by the personal friendship which he
expressed
to Libanius; ^63 and the two eloquent apologists of
Paganism were
never required either to change or to dissemble their
religious
opinions. The
Pagans were indulged in the most licentious
freedom of speech and writing; the historical and
philosophic
remains of Eunapius, Zosimus, ^64 and the fanatic
teachers of the
school of Plato, betray the most furious animosity, and
contain
the sharpest invectives, against the sentiments and
conduct of
their victorious adversaries. If these audacious libels were
publicly known, we must applaud the good sense of the
Christian
princes, who viewed, with a smile of contempt, the last
struggles
of superstition and despair. ^65 But the Imperial laws,
which
prohibited the sacrifices and ceremonies of Paganism,
were
rigidly executed; and every hour contributed to destroy
the
influence of a religion, which was supported by custom,
rather
than by argument.
The devotion or the poet, or the philosopher,
may be secretly nourished by prayer, meditation, and
study; but
the exercise of public worship appears to be the only
solid
foundation of the religious sentiments of the people,
which
derive their force from imitation and habit. The interruption of
that public exercise may consummate, in the period of a
few
years, the important work of a national revolution. The memory
of theological opinions cannot long be preserved, without
the
artificial helps of priests, of temples, and of books.
^66 The
ignorant vulgar, whose minds are still agitated by the
blind
hopes and terrors of superstition, will be soon persuaded
by
their superiors to direct their vows to the reigning
deities of
the age; and will insensibly imbibe an ardent zeal for
the
support and propagation of the new doctrine, which spiritual
hunger at first compelled them to accept. The generation that
arose in the world after the promulgation of the Imperial
laws,
was attracted within the pale of the Catholic church: and
so
rapid, yet so gentle, was the fall of Paganism, that only
twenty-eight years after the death of Theodosius, the
faint and
minute vestiges were no longer visible to the eye of the
legislator. ^67
[Footnote 61: Libanius suggests the form of a persecuting
edict,
which Theodosius might enact, (pro Templis, p. 32;) a rash
joke,
and a dangerous experiment. Some princes would have taken his
advice.]
[Footnote *: The most remarkable instance of this, at a
much
later period, occurs in the person of Merobaudes, a
general and a
poet, who flourished in the first half of the fifth
century. A
statue in honor of Merobaudes was placed in the Forum of
Trajan,
of which the inscription is still extant. Fragments of
his poems
have been recovered by the industry and sagacity of
Niebuhr. In
one passage, Merobaudes, in the genuine heathen spirit,
attributes the ruin of the empire to the abolition of
Paganism,
and almost renews the old accusation of Atheism against
Christianity. He
impersonates some deity, probably Discord, who
summons Bellona to take arms for the destruction of Rome;
and in
a strain of fierce irony recommends to her other fatal
measures,
to extirpate the gods of Rome: -
Roma, ipsique
tremant furialia murmura reges.
Jam superos
terris atque hospita numina pelle:
Romanos
populare Deos, et nullus in aris
Vestoe
exoratoe fotus strue palleat ignis.
Ilis instructa
dolis palatia celsa subibo;
Majorum mores,
et pectora prisca fugabo
Funditus;
atque simul, nullo discrimine rerum,
Spernantur
fortes, nec sic reverentia justis.
Attica neglecto
pereat facundia Phoebo:
Indignis
contingat honos, et pondera rerum;
Non virtus sed
casus agat; tristique cupido;
Pectoribus
saevi demens furor aestuet aevi;
Omniaque hoec
sine mente Jovis, sine numine sumimo.
Merobaudes in Niebuhr's edit. of the Byzantines, p. 14. -
M.]
[Footnote 62:
Denique pro meritis terrestribus aequa rependens
Munera,
sacricolis summos impertit honores.
Dux bonus, et
certare sinit cum laude suorum,
Nec pago implicitos per debita culmina mundi Ire
viros prohibet.
Ipse
magistratum tibi consulis, ipse tribunal
Contulit.
Prudent. in Symmach. i. 617, &c.
Note: I have
inserted some lines omitted by Gibbon. - M.]
[Footnote 63: Libanius (pro Templis, p. 32) is proud that
Theodosius should thus distinguish a man, who even in his
presence would swear by Jupiter. Yet this presence seems
to be no
more than a figure of rhetoric.]
[Footnote 64: Zosimus, who styles himself Count and
Ex-advocate
of the Treasury, reviles, with partial and indecent
bigotry, the
Christian princes, and even the father of his
sovereign. His
work must have been privately circulated, since it
escaped the
invectives of the ecclesiastical historians prior to
Evagrius,
(l. iii. c. 40 - 42,) who lived towards the end of the
sixth
century.
Note: Heyne in
his Disquisitio in Zosimum Ejusque Fidem.
places Zosimum towards the close of the fifth
century. Zosim.
Heynii, p. xvii. - M.]
[Footnote 65: Yet the Pagans of Africa complained, that
the times
would not allow them to answer with freedom the City of
God; nor
does St. Augustin (v. 26) deny the charge.]
[Footnote 66: The Moors of Spain, who secretly preserved
the
Mahometan religion above a century, under the tyranny of
the
Inquisition, possessed the Koran, with the peculiar use
of the
Arabic tongue. See
the curious and honest story of their
expulsion in Geddes, (Miscellanies, vol. i. p. 1 - 198.)]
[Footnote 67: Paganos qui supersunt, quanquam jam nullos
esse
credamus, &c. Cod. Theodos. l. xvi. tit. x. leg. 22,
A.D. 423.
The younger Theodosius was afterwards satisfied, that his
judgment had been somewhat premature.
Note: The
statement of Gibbon is much too strongly worded.
M. Beugnot has traced the vestiges of Paganism in the
West, after
this period, in monuments and inscriptions with curious
industry.
Compare likewise note, p. 112, on the more tardy progress
of
Christianity in the rural districts. - M.]
The ruin of
the Pagan religion is described by the sophists
as a dreadful and amazing prodigy, which covered the
earth with
darkness, and restored the ancient dominion of chaos and
of
night. They
relate, in solemn and pathetic strains, that the
temples were converted into sepulchres, and that the holy
places,
which had been adorned by the statues of the gods, were
basely
polluted by the relics of Christian martyrs. "The monks" (a race
of filthy animals, to whom Eunapius is tempted to refuse
the name
of men) "are the authors of the new worship, which,
in the place
of those deities who are conceived by the understanding,
has
substituted the meanest and most contemptible
slaves. The heads,
salted and pickled, of those infamous malefactors, who
for the
multitude of their crimes have suffered a just and
ignominious
death; their bodies still marked by the impression of the
lash,
and the scars of those tortures which were inflicted by
the
sentence of the magistrate; such" (continues
Eunapius) 'are the
gods which the earth produces in our days; such are the
martyrs,
the supreme arbitrators of our prayers and petitions to
the
Deity, whose tombs are now consecrated as the objects of
the
veneration of the people." ^68 Without approving the
malice, it
is natural enough to share the surprise of the sophist,
the
spectator of a revolution, which raised those obscure
victims of
the laws of Rome to the rank of celestial and invisible
protectors of the Roman empire. The grateful respect of the
Christians for the martyrs of the faith, was exalted, by
time and
victory, into religious adoration; and the most
illustrious of
the saints and prophets were deservedly associated to the
honors
of the martyrs.
One hundred and fifty years after the glorious
deaths of St. Peter and St. Paul, the Vatican and the
Ostian road
were distinguished by the tombs, or rather by the
trophies, of
those spiritual heroes. ^69 In the age which followed the
conversion of Constantine, the emperors, the consuls, and
the
generals of armies, devoutly visited the sepulchres of a
tentmaker and a fisherman; ^70 and their venerable bones
were
deposited under the altars of Christ, on which the
bishops of the
royal city continually offered the unbloody sacrifice.
^71 The
new capital of the Eastern world, unable to produce any
ancient
and domestic trophies, was enriched by the spoils of
dependent
provinces. The
bodies of St. Andrew, St. Luke, and St. Timothy,
had reposed near three hundred years in the obscure
graves, from
whence they were transported, in solemn pomp, to the
church of
the apostles, which the magnificence of Constantine had
founded
on the banks of the Thracian Bosphorus. ^72 About fifty
years
afterwards, the same banks were honored by the presence
of
Samuel, the judge and prophet of the people of
Israel. His
ashes, deposited in a golden vase, and covered with a
silken
veil, were delivered by the bishops into each other's
hands. The
relics of Samuel were received by the people with the
same joy
and reverence which they would have shown to the living
prophet;
the highways, from Palestine to the gates of
Constantinople, were
filled with an uninterrupted procession; and the emperor
Arcadius
himself, at the head of the most illustrious members of
the
clergy and senate, advanced to meet his extraordinary
guest, who
had always deserved and claimed the homage of kings. ^73
The
example of Rome and Constantinople confirmed the faith
and
discipline of the Catholic world. The honors of the saints and
martyrs, after a feeble and ineffectual murmur of profane
reason,
^74 were universally established; and in the age of
Ambrose and
Jerom, something was still deemed wanting to the sanctity
of a
Christian church, till it had been consecrated by some
portion of
holy relics, which fixed and inflamed the devotion of the
faithful.
[Footnote 68: See Eunapius, in the Life of the sophist
Aedesius;
in that of Eustathius he foretells the ruin of Paganism.]
[Footnote 69: Caius, (apud Euseb. Hist. Eccles. l. ii. c.
25,) a
Roman presbyter, who lived in the time of Zephyrinus,
(A.D. 202 -
219,) is an early witness of this superstitious
practice.]
[Footnote 70: Chrysostom.
Quod Christus sit Deus. Tom. i.
nov.
edit. No. 9. I am indebted for this quotation to Benedict
the
XIVth's pastoral letter on the Jubilee of the year
1759. See the
curious and entertaining letters of M. Chais, tom. iii.]
[Footnote 71: Male facit ergo Romanus episcopus? qui, super
mortuorum hominum, Petri & Pauli, secundum nos, ossa
veneranda
... offeri Domino sacrificia, et tumulos eorum, Christi
arbitratur altaria.
Jerom. tom. ii. advers. Vigilant. p. 183.]
[Footnote 72: Jerom (tom. ii. p. 122) bears witness to
these
translations, which are neglected by the ecclesiastical
historians. The
passion of St. Andrew at Patrae is described in
an epistle from the clergy of Achaia, which Baronius
(Annal.
Eccles. A.D. 60, No. 34) wishes to believe, and Tillemont
is
forced to reject.
St. Andrew was adopted as the spiritual
founder of Constantinople, (Mem. Eccles. tom. i. p. 317 -
323,
588 - 594.)]
[Footnote 73: Jerom (tom. ii. p. 122) pompously describes
the
translation of Samuel, which is noticed in all the
chronicles of
the times.]
[Footnote 74: The presbyter Vigilantius, the Protestant
of his
age, firmly, though ineffectually, withstood the
superstition of
monks, relics, saints, fasts, &c., for which Jerom
compares him
to the Hydra, Cerberus, the Centaurs, &c., and
considers him only
as the organ of the Daemon, (tom. ii. p. 120 - 126.)
Whoever will
peruse the controversy of St. Jerom and Vigilantius, and
St.
Augustin's account of the miracles of St. Stephen, may
speedily
gain some idea of the spirit of the Fathers.]
In the long
period of twelve hundred years, which elapsed
between the reign of Constantine and the reformation of
Luther,
the worship of saints and relics corrupted the pure and
perfect
simplicity of the Christian model: and some symptoms of
degeneracy may be observed even in the first generations
which
adopted and cherished this pernicious innovation.
I. The satisfactory experience, that the relics
of saints
were more valuable than gold or precious stones, ^75
stimulated
the clergy to multiply the treasures of the church. Without much
regard for truth or probability, they invented names for
skeletons, and actions for names. The fame of the apostles, and
of the holy men who had imitated their virtues, was
darkened by
religious fiction.
To the invincible band of genuine and
primitive martyrs, they added myriads of imaginary
heroes, who
had never existed, except in the fancy of crafty or
credulous
legendaries; and there is reason to suspect, that Tours
might not
be the only diocese in which the bones of a malefactor
were
adored, instead of those of a saint. ^76 A superstitious
practice, which tended to increase the temptations of
fraud, and
credulity, insensibly extinguished the light of history,
and of
reason, in the Christian world.
[Footnote 75: M. de Beausobre (Hist. du Manicheisme, tom.
ii. p.
648) has applied a worldly sense to the pious observation
of the
clergy of Smyrna, who carefully preserved the relics of
St.
Polycarp the martyr.]
[Footnote 76: Martin of Tours (see his Life, c. 8, by
Sulpicius
Severus) extorted this confession from the mouth of the
dead man.
The error is allowed to be natural; the discovery is
supposed to
be miraculous.
Which of the two was likely to happen most
frequently?]
II. But the progress of superstition would have
been much
less rapid and victorious, if the faith of the people had
not
been assisted by the seasonable aid of visions and
miracles, to
ascertain the authenticity and virtue of the most
suspicious
relics. In the
reign of the younger Theodosius, Lucian, ^77 a
presbyter of Jerusalem, and the ecclesiastical minister
of the
village of Caphargamala, about twenty miles from the
city,
related a very singular dream, which, to remove his
doubts, had
been repeated on three successive Saturdays. A venerable
figure
stood before him, in the silence of the night, with a
long beard,
a white robe, and a gold rod; announced himself by the
name of
Gamaliel, and revealed to the astonished presbyter, that
his own
corpse, with the bodies of his son Abibas, his friend
Nicodemus,
and the illustrious Stephen, the first martyr of the
Christian
faith, were secretly buried in the adjacent field. He added,
with some impatience, that it was time to release himself
and his
companions from their obscure prison; that their
appearance would
be salutary to a distressed world; and that they had made
choice
of Lucian to inform the bishop of Jerusalem of their
situation
and their wishes. The doubts and difficulties which still
retarded this important discovery were successively
removed by
new visions; and the ground was opened by the bishop, in
the
presence of an innumerable multitude. The coffins of Gamaliel,
of his son, and of his friend, were found in regular
order; but
when the fourth coffin, which contained the remains of
Stephen,
was shown to the light, the earth trembled, and an odor,
such as
that of paradise, was smelt, which instantly cured the
various
diseases of seventy-three of the assistants. The companions of
Stephen were left in their peaceful residence of
Caphargamala:
but the relics of the first martyr were transported, in
solemn
procession, to a church constructed in their honor on
Mount Sion;
and the minute particles of those relics, a drop of
blood, ^78 or
the scrapings of a bone, were acknowledged, in almost
every
province of the Roman world, to possess a divine and
miraculous
virtue. The grave
and learned Augustin, ^79 whose understanding
scarcely admits the excuse of credulity, has attested the
innumerable prodigies which were performed in Africa by
the
relics of St. Stephen; and this marvellous narrative is
inserted
in the elaborate work of the City of God, which the
bishop of
Hippo designed as a solid and immortal proof of the truth
of
Christianity. Augustin solemnly declares, that he has
selected
those miracles only which were publicly certified by the
persons
who were either the objects, or the spectators, of the
power of
the martyr. Many
prodigies were omitted, or forgotten; and Hippo
had been less favorably treated than the other cities of
the
province. And yet
the bishop enumerates above seventy miracles,
of which three were resurrections from the dead, in the
space of
two years, and within the limits of his own diocese. ^80
If we
enlarge our view to all the dioceses, and all the saints,
of the
Christian world, it will not be easy to calculate the
fables, and
the errors, which issued from this inexhaustible
source. But we
may surely be allowed to observe, that a miracle, in that
age of
superstition and credulity, lost its name and its merit,
since it
could scarcely be considered as a deviation from the
ordinary and
established laws of nature.
[Footnote 77: Lucian composed in Greek his original
narrative,
which has been translated by Avitus, and published by
Baronius,
(Annal. Eccles. A.D. 415, No. 7 - 16.) The Benedictine
editors of
St. Augustin have given (at the end of the work de
Civitate Dei)
two several copies, with many various readings. It is the
character of falsehood to be loose and inconsistent. The
most
incredible parts of the legend are smoothed and softened
by
Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. tom. ii. p. 9, &c.)]
[Footnote 78: A phial of St. Stephen's blood was annually
liquefied at Naples, till he was superseded by St.
Jamarius,
(Ruinart. Hist. Persecut. Vandal p. 529.)]
[Footnote 79: Augustin composed the two-and-twenty books
de
Civitate Dei in the space of thirteen years, A.D. 413 -
426.
(Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 608, &c.) His
learning is
too often borrowed, and his arguments are too often his
own; but
the whole work claims the merit of a magnificent design,
vigorously, and not unskilfully, executed.]
[Footnote 80: See Augustin de Civitat. Dei, l. xxii. c.
22, and
the Appendix, which contains two books of St. Stephen's
miracles,
by Evodius, bishop of Uzalis. Freculphus (apud Basnage, Hist.
des Juifs, tom. vii. p. 249) has preserved a Gallic or a
Spanish
proverb, "Whoever pretends to have read all the
miracles of St.
Stephen, he lies."]
III. The innumerable miracles, of which the tombs
of the
martyrs were the perpetual theatre, revealed to the pious
believer the actual state and constitution of the
invisible
world; and his religious speculations appeared to be
founded on
the firm basis of fact and experience. Whatever might be the
condition of vulgar souls, in the long interval between
the
dissolution and the resurrection of their bodies, it was
evident
that the superior spirits of the saints and martyrs did
not
consume that portion of their existence in silent and
inglorious
sleep. ^81 It was evident (without presuming to determine
the
place of their habitation, or the nature of their
felicity) that
they enjoyed the lively and active consciousness of their
happiness, their virtue, and their powers; and that they
had
already secured the possession of their eternal
reward. The
enlargement of their intellectual faculties surpassed the
measure
of the human imagination; since it was proved by
experience, that
they were capable of hearing and understanding the
various
petitions of their numerous votaries; who, in the same
moment of
time, but in the most distant parts of the world, invoked
the
name and assistance of Stephen or of Martin. ^82 The
confidence
of their petitioners was founded on the persuasion, that
the
saints, who reigned with Christ, cast an eye of pity upon
earth;
that they were warmly interested in the prosperity of the
Catholic Church; and that the individuals, who imitated
the
example of their faith and piety, were the peculiar and favorite
objects of their most tender regard. Sometimes, indeed,
their
friendship might be influenced by considerations of a
less
exalted kind: they viewed with partial affection the
places which
had been consecrated by their birth, their residence,
their
death, their burial, or the possession of their
relics. The
meaner passions of pride, avarice, and revenge, may be
deemed
unworthy of a celestial breast; yet the saints themselves
condescended to testify their grateful approbation of the
liberality of their votaries; and the sharpest bolts of
punishment were hurled against those impious wretches,
who
violated their magnificent shrines, or disbelieved their
supernatural power. ^83 Atrocious, indeed, must have been
the
guilt, and strange would have been the scepticism, of
those men,
if they had obstinately resisted the proofs of a divine
agency,
which the elements, the whole range of the animal
creation, and
even the subtle and invisible operations of the human
mind, were
compelled to obey. ^84 The immediate, and almost
instantaneous,
effects that were supposed to follow the prayer, or the
offence,
satisfied the Christians of the ample measure of favor
and
authority which the saints enjoyed in the presence of the
Supreme
God; and it seemed almost superfluous to inquire whether
they
were continually obliged to intercede before the throne
of grace;
or whether they might not be permitted to exercise,
according to
the dictates of their benevolence and justice, the
delegated
powers of their subordinate ministry. The imagination, which had
been raised by a painful effort to the contemplation and
worship
of the Universal Cause, eagerly embraced such inferior
objects of
adoration as were more proportioned to its gross
conceptions and
imperfect faculties.
The sublime and simple theology of the
primitive Christians was gradually corrupted; and the
Monarchy of
heaven, already clouded by metaphysical subtleties, was
degraded
by the introduction of a popular mythology, which tended
to
restore the reign of polytheism. ^85
[Footnote 81: Burnet (de Statu Mortuorum, p. 56 - 84)
collects
the opinions of the Fathers, as far as they assert the
sleep, or
repose, of human souls till the day of judgment. He afterwards
exposes (p. 91, &c.) the inconveniences which must
arise, if they
possessed a more active and sensible existence.]
[Footnote 82: Vigilantius placed the souls of the
prophets and
martyrs, either in the bosom of Abraham, (in loco
refrigerii,) or
else under the altar of God. Nec posse suis tumulis et
ubi
voluerunt adesse praesentes. But Jerom (tom. ii. p. 122)
sternly
refutes this blasphemy.
Tu Deo leges pones? Tu apostolis
vincula injicies, ut usque ad diem judicii teneantur
custodia,
nec sint cum Domino suo; de quibus scriptum est,
Sequuntur Agnum
quocunque vadit.
Si Agnus ubique, ergo, et hi, qui cum Agno
sunt, ubique esse credendi sunt. Et cum diabolus et daemones
tote vagentur in orbe, &c.]
[Footnote 83: Fleury Discours sur l'Hist. Ecclesiastique,
iii p.
80.]
[Footnote 84: At Minorca, the relics of St. Stephen converted,
in
eight days, 540 Jews; with the help, indeed, of some
wholesome
severities, such as burning the synagogue, driving the
obstinate
infidels to starve among the rocks, &c. See the original letter
of Severus, bishop of Minorca (ad calcem St. Augustin. de
Civ.
Dei,) and the judicious remarks of Basnage, (tom. viii.
p. 245 -
251.)]
[Footnote 85: Mr. Hume (Essays, vol. ii. p. 434)
observes, like a
philosopher, the natural flux and reflux of polytheism
and
theism.]
IV. As the objects of religion were gradually
reduced to
the standard of the imagination, the rites and ceremonies
were
introduced that seemed most powerfully to affect the
senses of
the vulgar. If, in
the beginning of the fifth century, ^86
Tertullian, or Lactantius, ^87 had been suddenly raised
from the
dead, to assist at the festival of some popular saint, or
martyr,
^88 they would have gazed with astonishment, and
indignation, on
the profane spectacle, which had succeeded to the pure
and
spiritual worship of a Christian congregation. As soon as the
doors of the church were thrown open, they must have been
offended by the smoke of incense, the perfume of flowers,
and the
glare of lamps and tapers, which diffused, at noonday, a
gaudy,
superfluous, and, in their opinion, a sacrilegious light.
If they
approached the balustrade of the altar, they made their
way
through the prostrate crowd, consisting, for the most
part, of
strangers and pilgrims, who resorted to the city on the
vigil of
the feast; and who already felt the strong intoxication
of
fanaticism, and, perhaps, of wine. Their devout kisses
were
imprinted on the walls and pavement of the sacred
edifice; and
their fervent prayers were directed, whatever might be
the
language of their church, to the bones, the blood, or the
ashes
of the saint, which were usually concealed, by a linen or
silken
veil, from the eyes of the vulgar. The Christians frequented the
tombs of the martyrs, in the hope of obtaining, from
their
powerful intercession, every sort of spiritual, but more
especially of temporal, blessings. They implored the
preservation of their health, or the cure of their
infirmities;
the fruitfulness of their barren wives, or the safety and
happiness of their children. Whenever they undertook any distant
or dangerous journey, they requested, that the holy
martyrs would
be their guides and protectors on the road; and if they
returned
without having experienced any misfortune, they again
hastened to
the tombs of the martyrs, to celebrate, with grateful
thanksgivings, their obligations to the memory and relics
of
those heavenly patrons.
The walls were hung round with symbols
of the favors which they had received; eyes, and hands,
and feet,
of gold and silver: and edifying pictures, which could
not long
escape the abuse of indiscreet or idolatrous devotion,
represented the image, the attributes, and the miracles
of the
tutelar saint. The
same uniform original spirit of superstition
might suggest, in the most distant ages and countries,
the same
methods of deceiving the credulity, and of affecting the
senses
of mankind: ^89 but it must ingenuously be confessed,
that the
ministers of the Catholic church imitated the profane
model,
which they were impatient to destroy. The most respectable
bishops had persuaded themselves that the ignorant
rustics would
more cheerfully renounce the superstitions of Paganism,
if they
found some resemblance, some compensation, in the bosom
of
Christianity. The
religion of Constantine achieved, in less than
a century, the final conquest of the Roman empire: but
the
victors themselves were insensibly subdued by the arts of
their
vanquished rivals. ^90 ^*
[Footnote 86: D'Aubigne (see his own Memoires, p. 156 -
160)
frankly offered, with the consent of the Huguenot
ministers, to
allow the first 400 years as the rule of faith. The Cardinal du
Perron haggled for forty years more, which were
indiscreetly
given. Yet neither
party would have found their account in this
foolish bargain.]
[Footnote 87: The worship practised and inculcated by
Tertullian,
Lactantius Arnobius, &c., is so extremely pure and
spiritual,
that their declamations against the Pagan sometimes
glance
against the Jewish, ceremonies.]
[Footnote 88: Faustus the Manichaean accuses the
Catholics of
idolatry. Vertitis idola in martyres .... quos votis
similibus
colitis. M. de
Beausobre, (Hist. Critique du Manicheisme, tom.
ii. p. 629 - 700,) a Protestant, but a philosopher, has
represented, with candor and learning, the introduction
of
Christian idolatry in the fourth and fifth centuries.]
[Footnote 89: The resemblance of superstition, which
could not be
imitated, might be traced from Japan to Mexico. Warburton has
seized this idea, which he distorts, by rendering it too
general
and absolute, (Divine Legation, vol. iv. p. 126,
&c.)]
[Footnote 90: The imitation of Paganism is the subject of
Dr.
Middleton's agreeable letter from Rome. Warburton's
animadversions obliged him to connect (vol. iii. p. 120 -
132,)
the history of the two religions, and to prove the
antiquity of
the Christian copy.]
[Footnote *: But there was always this important
difference
between Christian and heathen Polytheism. In Paganism this was
the whole religion; in the darkest ages of Christianity,
some,
however obscure and vague, Christian notions of future
retribution, of the life after death, lurked at the
bottom, and
operated, to a certain extent, on the thoughts and
feelings,
sometimes on the actions. - M.]
Chapter XXIX: Division Of Roman Empire Between Sons Of
Theodosius.
Part I.
Final Division
Of The Roman Empire Between The Sons Of
Theodosius. - Reign Of Arcadius And Honorius -
Administration Of
Rufinus And Stilicho. - Revolt And Defeat Of Gildo In
Africa.
The genius of
Rome expired with Theodosius; the last of the
successors of Augustus and Constantine, who appeared in
the field
at the head of their armies, and whose authority was
universally
acknowledged throughout the whole extent of the
empire. The
memory of his virtues still continued, however, to
protect the
feeble and inexperienced youth of his two sons. After the
death
of their father, Arcadius and Honorius were saluted, by
the
unanimous consent of mankind, as the lawful emperors of
the East,
and of the West; and the oath of fidelity was eagerly
taken by
every order of the state; the senates of old and new
Rome, the
clergy, the magistrates, the soldiers, and the
people. Arcadius,
who was then about eighteen years of age, was born in
Spain, in
the humble habitation of a private family. But he received a
princely education in the palace of Constantinople; and
his
inglorious life was spent in that peaceful and splendid
seat of
royalty, from whence he appeared to reign over the
provinces of
Thrace, Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, from the Lower
Danube to
the confines of Persia and Aethiopia. His younger brother
Honorius, assumed, in the eleventh year of his age, the
nominal
government of Italy, Africa, Gaul, Spain, and Britain;
and the
troops, which guarded the frontiers of his kingdom, were
opposed,
on one side, to the Caledonians, and on the other, to the
Moors.
The great and martial praefecture of Illyricum was
divided
between the two princes: the defence and possession of
the
provinces of Noricum, Pannonia, and Dalmatia still
belonged to
the Western empire; but the two large dioceses of Dacia
and
Macedonia, which Gratian had intrusted to the valor of
Theodosius, were forever united to the empire of the
East. The
boundary in Europe was not very different from the line
which now
separates the Germans and the Turks; and the respective
advantages of territory, riches, populousness, and
military
strength, were fairly balanced and compensated, in this
final and
permanent division of the Roman empire. The hereditary sceptre
of the sons of Theodosius appeared to be the gift of
nature, and
of their father; the generals and ministers had been
accustomed
to adore the majesty of the royal infants; and the army
and
people were not admonished of their rights, and of their
power,
by the dangerous example of a recent election. The gradual
discovery of the weakness of Arcadius and Honorius, and
the
repeated calamities of their reign, were not sufficient
to
obliterate the deep and early impressions of
loyalty. The
subjects of Rome, who still reverenced the persons, or
rather the
names, of their sovereigns, beheld, with equal
abhorrence, the
rebels who opposed, and the ministers who abused, the
authority
of the throne.
Theodosius had
tarnished the glory of his reign by the
elevation of Rufinus; an odious favorite, who, in an age
of civil
and religious faction, has deserved, from every party,
the
imputation of every crime. The strong impulse of ambition and
avarice ^1 had urged Rufinus to abandon his native
country, an
obscure corner of Gaul, ^2 to advance his fortune in the
capital
of the East: the talent of bold and ready elocution, ^3
qualified
him to succeed in the lucrative profession of the law;
and his
success in that profession was a regular step to the most
honorable and important employments of the state. He was raised,
by just degrees, to the station of master of the
offices. In the
exercise of his various functions, so essentially
connected with
the whole system of civil government, he acquired the
confidence
of a monarch, who soon discovered his diligence and
capacity in
business, and who long remained ignorant of the pride,
the
malice, and the covetousness of his disposition. These vices
were concealed beneath the mask of profound
dissimulation; ^4 his
passions were subservient only to the passions of his
master; yet
in the horrid massacre of Thessalonica, the cruel Rufinus
inflamed the fury, without imitating the repentance, of
Theodosius. The
minister, who viewed with proud indifference the
rest of mankind, never forgave the appearance of an
injury; and
his personal enemies had forfeited, in his opinion, the
merit of
all public services.
Promotus, the master-general of the
infantry, had saved the empire from the invasion of the
Ostrogoths; but he indignantly supported the preeminence
of a
rival, whose character and profession he despised; and in
the
midst of a public council, the impatient soldier was
provoked to
chastise with a blow the indecent pride of the
favorite. This
act of violence was represented to the emperor as an
insult,
which it was incumbent on his dignity to resent. The disgrace
and exile of Promotus were signified by a peremptory
order, to
repair, without delay, to a military station on the banks
of the
Danube; and the death of that general (though he was
slain in a
skirmish with the Barbarians) was imputed to the
perfidious arts
of Rufinus. ^5 The sacrifice of a hero gratified his
revenge; the
honors of the consulship elated his vanity; but his power
was
still imperfect and precarious, as long as the important
posts of
praefect of the East, and of praefect of Constantinople,
were
filled by Tatian, ^6 and his son Proculus; whose united
authority
balanced, for some time, the ambition and favor of the
master of
the offices. The
two praefects were accused of rapine and
corruption in the administration of the laws and
finances. For
the trial of these illustrious offenders, the emperor
constituted
a special commission: several judges were named to share
the
guilt and reproach of injustice; but the right of
pronouncing
sentence was reserved to the president alone, and that
president
was Rufinus himself. The father, stripped of the
praefecture of
the East, was thrown into a dungeon; but the son,
conscious that
few ministers can be found innocent, where an enemy is
their
judge, had secretly escaped; and Rufinus must have been
satisfied
with the least obnoxious victim, if despotism had not
condescended to employ the basest and most ungenerous
artifice.
The prosecution was conducted with an appearance of
equity and
moderation, which flattered Tatian with the hope of a
favorable
event: his confidence was fortified by the solemn
assurances, and
perfidious oaths, of the president, who presumed to
interpose the
sacred name of Theodosius himself; and the unhappy father
was at
last persuaded to recall, by a private letter, the
fugitive
Proculus. He was instantly
seized, examined, condemned, and
beheaded, in one of the suburbs of Constantinople, with a
precipitation which disappointed the clemency of the
emperor.
Without respecting the misfortunes of a consular senator,
the
cruel judges of Tatian compelled him to behold the
execution of
his son: the fatal cord was fastened round his own neck;
but in
the moment when he expected. and perhaps desired, the relief of
a speedy death, he was permitted to consume the miserable
remnant
of his old age in poverty and exile. ^7 The punishment of
the two
praefects might, perhaps, be excused by the exceptionable
parts
of their own conduct; the enmity of Rufinus might be
palliated by
the jealous and unsociable nature of ambition. But he indulged a
spirit of revenge equally repugnant to prudence and to
justice,
when he degraded their native country of Lycia from the
rank of
Roman provinces; stigmatized a guiltless people with a
mark of
ignominy; and declared, that the countrymen of Tatian and
Proculus should forever remain incapable of holding any
employment of honor or advantage under the Imperial
government.
^8 The new praefect of the East (for Rufinus instantly
succeeded
to the vacant honors of his adversary) was not diverted,
however,
by the most criminal pursuits, from the performance of
the
religious duties, which in that age were considered as
the most
essential to salvation.
In the suburb of Chalcedon, surnamed the
Oak, he had built a magnificent villa; to which he
devoutly added
a stately church, consecrated to the apostles St. Peter
and St.
Paul, and continually sanctified by the prayers and
penance of a
regular society of monks.
A numerous, and almost general, synod
of the bishops of the Eastern empire, was summoned to
celebrate,
at the same time, the dedication of the church, and the
baptism
of the founder.
This double ceremony was performed with
extraordinary pomp; and when Rufinus was purified, in the
holy
font, from all the sins that he had hitherto committed, a
venerable hermit of Egypt rashly proposed himself as the
sponsor
of a proud and ambitious statesman. ^9
[Footnote 1: Alecto, envious of the public felicity,
convenes an
infernal synod Megaera recommends her pupil Rufinus, and
excites
him to deeds of mischief, &c. But there is as much difference
between Claudian's fury and that of Virgil, as between
the
characters of Turnus and Rufinus.]
[Footnote 2: It is evident, (Tillemont, Hist. des Emp.
tom. v. p.
770,) though De Marca is ashamed of his countryman, that
Rufinus
was born at Elusa, the metropolis of Novempopulania, now
a small
village of Gassony, (D'Anville, Notice de l'Ancienne
Gaule, p.
289.)]
[Footnote 3: Philostorgius, l. xi c. 3, with Godefroy's
Dissert.
p. 440.]
[Footnote 4: A passage of Suidas is expressive of his
profound
dissimulation.]
[Footnote 5: Zosimus, l. iv. p. 272, 273.]
[Footnote 6: Zosimus, who describes the fall of Tatian
and his
son, (l. iv. p. 273, 274,) asserts their innocence; and
even his
testimony may outweigh the charges of their enemies,
(Cod. Theod.
tom. iv. p. 489,) who accuse them of oppressing the
Curiae. The
connection of Tatian with the Arians, while he was
praefect of
Egypt, (A.D. 373,) inclines Tillemont to believe that he
was
guilty of every crime, (Hist. des Emp. tom. v. p.
360. Mem.
Eccles. tom vi. p. 589.)]
[Footnote 7: - Juvenum rorantia colla
Ante
patrum vultus stricta cecidere securi.
Ibat
grandaevus nato moriente superstes
Post
trabeas exsul.
In
Rufin. i. 248.
The facts of Zosimus explain the allusions of Claudian;
but his
classic interpreters were ignorant of the fourth
century. The
fatal cord, I found, with the help of Tillemont, in a
sermon of
St. Asterius of Amasea.]
[Footnote 8: This odious law is recited and repealed by
Arcadius,
(A.D. 296,) on the Theodosian Code, l. ix. tit. xxxviii.
leg. 9.
The sense as it is explained by Claudian, (in Rufin. i.
234,) and
Godefroy, (tom. iii. p. 279,) is perfectly clear.
- Exscindere
cives
Funditus; et
nomen gentis delere laborat.
The scruples of Pagi and Tillemont can arise only from
their zeal
for the glory of Theodosius.]
[Footnote 9: Ammonius .... Rufinum propriis manibus
suscepit
sacro fonte mundatum.
See Rosweyde's Vitae Patrum, p. 947.
Sozomen (l. viii. c. 17) mentions the church and
monastery; and
Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 593) records this
synod, in
which St. Gregory of Nyssa performed a conspicuous part.]
The character
of Theodosius imposed on his minister the task
of hypocrisy, which disguised, and sometimes restrained,
the
abuse of power; and Rufinus was apprehensive of
disturbing the
indolent slumber of a prince still capable of exerting
the
abilities and the virtue, which had raised him to the
throne. ^10
But the absence, and, soon afterwards, the death, of the
emperor,
confirmed the absolute authority of Rufinus over the
person and
dominions of Arcadius; a feeble youth, whom the imperious
praefect considered as his pupil, rather than his
sovereign.
Regardless of the public opinion, he indulged his passions
without remorse, and without resistance; and his
malignant and
rapacious spirit rejected every passion that might have
contributed to his own glory, or the happiness of the
people.
His avarice, ^11 which seems to have prevailed, in his
corrupt
mind, over every other sentiment, attracted the wealth of
the
East, by the various arts of partial and general
extortion;
oppressive taxes, scandalous bribery, immoderate fines,
unjust
confiscations, forced or fictitious testaments, by which
the
tyrant despoiled of their lawful inheritance the children
of
strangers, or enemies; and the public sale of justice, as
well as
of favor, which he instituted in the palace of
Constantinople.
The ambitious candidate eagerly solicited, at the expense
of the
fairest part of his patrimony, the honors and emoluments
of some
provincial government; the lives and fortunes of the
unhappy
people were abandoned to the most liberal purchaser; and
the
public discontent was sometimes appeased by the sacrifice
of an
unpopular criminal, whose punishment was profitable only
to the
praefect of the East, his accomplice and his judge. If avarice
were not the blindest of the human passions, the motives
of
Rufinus might excite our curiosity; and we might be
tempted to
inquire with what view he violated every principle of
humanity
and justice, to accumulate those immense treasures, which
he
could not spend without folly, nor possess without
danger.
Perhaps he vainly imagined, that he labored for the
interest of
an only daughter, on whom he intended to bestow his royal
pupil,
and the august rank of Empress of the East. Perhaps he deceived
himself by the opinion, that his avarice was the
instrument of
his ambition. He
aspired to place his fortune on a secure and
independent basis, which should no longer depend on the
caprice
of the young emperor; yet he neglected to conciliate the
hearts
of the soldiers and people, by the liberal distribution
of those
riches, which he had acquired with so much toil, and with
so much
guilt. The extreme
parsimony of Rufinus left him only the
reproach and envy of ill-gotten wealth; his dependants
served him
without attachment; the universal hatred of mankind was
repressed
only by the influence of servile fear. The fate of Lucian
proclaimed to the East, that the praefect, whose industry
was
much abated in the despatch of ordinary business, was
active and
indefatigable in the pursuit of revenge. Lucian, the son
of the
praefect Florentius, the oppressor of Gaul, and the enemy
of
Julian, had employed a considerable part of his
inheritance, the
fruit of rapine and corruption, to purchase the
friendship of
Rufinus, and the high office of Count of the East. But the new
magistrate imprudently departed from the maxims of the
court, and
of the times; disgraced his benefactor by the contrast of
a
virtuous and temperate administration; and presumed to
refuse an
act of injustice, which might have tended to the profit
of the
emperor's uncle.
Arcadius was easily persuaded to resent the
supposed insult; and the praefect of the East resolved to
execute
in person the cruel vengeance, which he meditated against
this
ungrateful delegate of his power. He performed with incessant
speed the journey of seven or eight hundred miles, from
Constantinople to Antioch, entered the capital of Syria
at the
dead of night, and spread universal consternation among a
people
ignorant of his design, but not ignorant of his
character. The
Count of the fifteen provinces of the East was dragged,
like the
vilest malefactor, before the arbitrary tribunal of Rufinus.
Notwithstanding the clearest evidence of his integrity,
which was
not impeached even by the voice of an accuser, Lucian was
condemned, almost with out a trial, to suffer a cruel and
ignominious punishment.
The ministers of the tyrant, by the
orders, and in the presence, of their master, beat him on
the
neck with leather thongs armed at the extremities with
lead; and
when he fainted under the violence of the pain, he was
removed in
a close litter, to conceal his dying agonies from the
eyes of the
indignant city. No
sooner had Rufinus perpetrated this inhuman
act, the sole object of his expedition, than he returned,
amidst
the deep and silent curses of a trembling people, from
Antioch to
Constantinople; and his diligence was accelerated by the
hope of
accomplishing, without delay, the nuptials of his
daughter with
the emperor of the East. ^12
[Footnote 10: Montesquieu (Esprit des Loix, l. xii. c.
12)
praises one of the laws of Theodosius addressed to the
praefect
Rufinus, (l. ix. tit. iv. leg. unic.,) to discourage the
prosecution of treasonable, or sacrilegious, words. A tyrannical
statute always proves the existence of tyranny; but a
laudable
edict may only contain the specious professions, or
ineffectual
wishes, of the prince, or his ministers. This, I am afraid, is a
just, though mortifying, canon of criticism.]
[Footnote 11: - fluctibus auri
Expleri sitis
ista nequit -
- - - - - - -
Congestae
cumulantur opes; orbisque ruinas
Accipit una
domus.
This character (Claudian, in. Rufin. i. 184 - 220) is
confirmed
by Jerom, a disinterested witness, (dedecus insatiabilis
avaritiae, tom. i. ad Heliodor. p. 26,) by Zosimus, (l.
v. p.
286,) and by Suidas, who copied the history of Eunapius.]
Footnote 12: - Caetera segnis;
Ad facinus
velox; penitus regione remotas
Impiger ire
vias.
This allusion of Claudian (in Rufin. i. 241) is again
explained
by the circumstantial narrative of Zosimus, (l. v. p.
288, 289.)]
But Rufinus
soon experienced, that a prudent minister should
constantly secure his royal captive by the strong, though
invisible chain of habit; and that the merit, and much
more
easily the favor, of the absent, are obliterated in a
short time
from the mind of a weak and capricious sovereign. While the
praefect satiated his revenge at Antioch, a secret
conspiracy of
the favorite eunuchs, directed by the great chamberlain
Eutropius, undermined his power in the palace of
Constantinople.
They discovered that Arcadius was not inclined to love
the
daughter of Rufinus, who had been chosen, without his
consent,
for his bride; and they contrived to substitute in her
place the
fair Eudoxia, the daughter of Bauto, ^13 a general of the
Franks
in the service of Rome; and who was educated, since the
death of
her father, in the family of the sons of Promotus. The young
emperor, whose chastity had been strictly guarded by the
pious
care of his tutor Arsenius, ^14 eagerly listened to the
artful
and flattering descriptions of the charms of Eudoxia: he
gazed
with impatient ardor on her picture, and he understood
the
necessity of concealing his amorous designs from the
knowledge of
a minister who was so deeply interested to oppose the
consummation of his happiness. Soon after the return of Rufinus,
the approaching ceremony of the royal nuptials was
announced to
the people of Constantinople, who prepared to celebrate,
with
false and hollow acclamations, the fortune of his
daughter. A
splendid train of eunuchs and officers issued, in
hymeneal pomp,
from the gates of the palace; bearing aloft the diadem,
the
robes, and the inestimable ornaments, of the future
empress. The
solemn procession passed through the streets of the city,
which
were adorned with garlands, and filled with spectators;
but when
it reached the house of the sons of Promotus, the
principal
eunuch respectfully entered the mansion, invested the
fair
Eudoxia with the Imperial robes, and conducted her in
triumph to
the palace and bed of Arcadius. ^15 The secrecy and
success with
which this conspiracy against Rufinus had been conducted,
imprinted a mark of indelible ridicule on the character
of a
minister, who had suffered himself to be deceived, in a
post
where the arts of deceit and dissimulation constitute the
most
distinguished merit.
He considered, with a mixture of
indignation and fear, the victory of an aspiring eunuch,
who had
secretly captivated the favor of his sovereign; and the
disgrace
of his daughter, whose interest was inseparably connected
with
his own, wounded the tenderness, or, at least, the pride
of
Rufinus. At the
moment when he flattered himself that he should
become the father of a line of kings, a foreign maid, who
had
been educated in the house of his implacable enemies, was
introduced into the Imperial bed; and Eudoxia soon
displayed a
superiority of sense and spirit, to improve the ascendant
which
her beauty must acquire over the mind of a fond and
youthful
husband. The
emperor would soon be instructed to hate, to fear,
and to destroy the powerful subject, whom he had injured;
and the
consciousness of guilt deprived Rufinus of every hope,
either of
safety or comfort, in the retirement of a private
life. But he
still possessed the most effectual means of defending his
dignity, and perhaps of oppressing his enemies. The praefect
still exercised an uncontrolled authority over the civil
and
military government of the East; and his treasures, if he
could
resolve to use them, might be employed to procure proper
instruments for the execution of the blackest designs,
that
pride, ambition, and revenge could suggest to a desperate
statesman. The
character of Rufinus seemed to justify the
accusations that he conspired against the person of his
sovereign, to seat himself on the vacant throne; and that
he had
secretly invited the Huns and the Goths to invade the
provinces
of the empire, and to increase the public confusion. The subtle
praefect, whose life had been spent in the intrigues of
the
palace, opposed, with equal arms, the artful measures of
the
eunuch Eutropius; but the timid soul of Rufinus was
astonished by
the hostile approach of a more formidable rival, of the
great
Stilicho, the general, or rather the master, of the
empire of the
West. ^16
[Footnote 13: Zosimus (l. iv. p. 243) praises the valor,
prudence, and integrity of Bauto the Frank. See Tillemont, Hist.
des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 771.]
[Footnote 14: Arsenius escaped from the palace of
Constantinople,
and passed fifty-five years in rigid penance in the
monasteries
of Egypt. See
Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiv. p. 676 - 702;
and Fleury, Hist Eccles. tom. v. p. 1, &c.; but the
latter, for
want of authentic materials, has given too much credit to
the
legend of Metaphrastes.]
[Footnote 15: This story (Zosimus, l. v. p. 290) proves
that the
hymeneal rites of antiquity were still practised, without
idolatry, by the Christians of the East; and the bride
was
forcibly conducted from the house of her parents to that
of her
husband. Our form
of marriage requires, with less delicacy, the
express and public consent of a virgin.]
[Footnote 16: Zosimus, (l. v. p. 290,) Orosius, (l. vii.
c. 37,)
and the Chronicle of Marcellinus. Claudian (in Rufin. ii. 7 -
100) paints, in lively colors, the distress and guilt of
the
praefect.]
The celestial
gift, which Achilles obtained, and Alexander
envied, of a poet worthy to celebrate the actions of
heroes has
been enjoyed by Stilicho, in a much higher degree than
might have
been expected from the declining state of genius, and of
art.
The muse of Claudian, ^17 devoted to his service, was
always
prepared to stigmatize his adversaries, Rufinus, or
Eutropius,
with eternal infamy; or to paint, in the most splendid
colors,
the victories and virtues of a powerful benefactor. In the
review of a period indifferently supplied with authentic
materials, we cannot refuse to illustrate the annals of
Honorius,
from the invectives, or the panegyrics, of a contemporary
writer;
but as Claudian appears to have indulged the most ample
privilege
of a poet and a courtier, some criticism will be
requisite to
translate the language of fiction or exaggeration, into
the truth
and simplicity of historic prose. His silence concerning the
family of Stilicho may be admitted as a proof, that his
patron
was neither able, nor desirous, to boast of a long series
of
illustrious progenitors; and the slight mention of his
father, an
officer of Barbarian cavalry in the service of Valens,
seems to
countenance the assertion, that the general, who so long
commanded the armies of Rome, was descended from the
savage and
perfidious race of the Vandals. ^18 If Stilicho had not
possessed
the external advantages of strength and stature, the most
flattering bard, in the presence of so many thousand
spectators,
would have hesitated to affirm, that he surpassed the
measure of
the demi-gods of antiquity; and that whenever he moved,
with
lofty steps, through the streets of the capital, the
astonished
crowd made room for the stranger, who displayed, in a
private
condition, the awful majesty of a hero. From his earliest youth
he embraced the profession of arms; his prudence and
valor were
soon distinguished in the field; the horsemen and archers
of the
East admired his superior dexterity; and in each degree
of his
military promotions, the public judgment always prevented
and
approved the choice of the sovereign. He was named, by
Theodosius, to ratify a solemn treaty with the monarch of
Persia;
he supported, during that important embassy, the dignity
of the
Roman name; and after he return to Constantinople, his
merit was
rewarded by an intimate and honorable alliance with the
Imperial
family. Theodosius
had been prompted, by a pious motive of
fraternal affection, to adopt, for his own, the daughter
of his
brother Honorius; the beauty and accomplishments of
Serena ^19
were universally admired by the obsequious court; and
Stilicho
obtained the preference over a crowd of rivals, who
ambitiously
disputed the hand of the princess, and the favor of her
adopted
father. ^20 The assurance that the husband of Serena
would be
faithful to the throne, which he was permitted to approach,
engaged the emperor to exalt the fortunes, and to employ
the
abilities, of the sagacious and intrepid Stilicho. He rose,
through the successive steps of master of the horse, and
count of
the domestics, to the supreme rank of master-general of
all the
cavalry and infantry of the Roman, or at least of the
Western,
empire; ^21 and his enemies confessed, that he invariably
disdained to barter for gold the rewards of merit, or to
defraud
the soldiers of the pay and gratifications which they
deserved or
claimed, from the liberality of the state. ^22 The valor
and
conduct which he afterwards displayed, in the defence of
Italy,
against the arms of Alaric and Radagaisus, may justify
the fame
of his early achievements and in an age less attentive to
the
laws of honor, or of pride, the Roman generals might
yield the
preeminence of rank, to the ascendant of superior genius.
^23 He
lamented, and revenged, the murder of Promotus, his rival
and his
friend; and the massacre of many thousands of the flying
Bastarnae is represented by the poet as a bloody
sacrifice, which
the Roman Achilles offered to the manes of another
Patroclus.
The virtues and victories of Stilicho deserved the hatred
of
Rufinus: and the arts of calumny might have been
successful if
the tender and vigilant Serena had not protected her
husband
against his domestic foes, whilst he vanquished in the
field the
enemies of the empire. ^24 Theodosius continued to
support an
unworthy minister, to whose diligence he delegated the
government
of the palace, and of the East; but when he marched
against the
tyrant Eugenius, he associated his faithful general to
the labors
and glories of the civil war; and in the last moments of
his
life, the dying monarch recommended to Stilicho the care
of his
sons, and of the republic. ^25 The ambition and the
abilities of
Stilicho were not unequal to the important trust; and he
claimed
the guardianship of the two empires, during the minority
of
Arcadius and Honorius. ^26 The first measure of his
administration, or rather of his reign, displayed to the
nations
the vigor and activity of a spirit worthy to
command. He passed
the Alps in the depth of winter; descended the stream of
the
Rhine, from the fortress of Basil to the marshes of
Batavia;
reviewed the state of the garrisons; repressed the
enterprises of
the Germans; and, after establishing along the banks a
firm and
honorable peace, returned, with incredible speed, to the
palace
of Milan. ^27 The person and court of Honorius were
subject to
the master-general of the West; and the armies and
provinces of
Europe obeyed, without hesitation, a regular authority,
which was
exercised in the name of their young sovereign. Two rivals only
remained to dispute the claims, and to provoke the
vengeance, of
Stilicho. Within the limits of Africa, Gildo, the Moor,
maintained a proud and dangerous independence; and the
minister
of Constantinople asserted his equal reign over the
emperor, and
the empire, of the East.
[Footnote 17: Stilicho, directly or indirectly, is the
perpetual
theme of Claudian.
The youth and private life of the hero are
vaguely expressed in the poem on his first consulship, 35
- 140.]
[Footnote 18: Vandalorum, imbellis, avarae, perfidae, et
dolosae,
gentis, genere editus.
Orosius, l. vii. c. 38. Jerom
(tom. i.
ad Gerontiam, p. 93) call him a Semi-Barbarian.]
[Footnote 19: Claudian, in an imperfect poem, has drawn a
fair,
perhaps a flattering, portrait of Serena. That favorite niece of
Theodosius was born, as well as here sister Thermantia,
in Spain;
from whence, in their earliest youth, they were honorably
conducted to the palace of Constantinople.]
[Footnote 20: Some doubt may be entertained, whether this
adoption was legal or only metaphorical, (see Ducange,
Fam.
Byzant. p. 75.) An old inscription gives Stilicho the
singular
title of Pro-gener Divi Theodosius]
[Footnote 21: Claudian (Laus Serenae, 190, 193)
expresses, in
poetic language "the dilectus equorum," and the "gemino mox idem
culmine duxit agmina." The inscription adds,
"count of the
domestics," an important command, which Stilicho, in
the height
of his grandeur, might prudently retain.]
[Footnote 22: The beautiful lines of Claudian (in i.
Cons.
Stilich. ii. 113) displays his genius; but the integrity
of
Stilicho (in the military administration) is much more
firmly
established by the unwilling evidence of Zosimus, (l. v.
p.
345.)]
[Footnote 23: -
Si bellica moles
Ingrueret, quamvis annis et jure minori,
Cedere grandaevos equitum peditumque magistros
Adspiceres. Claudian, Laus Seren. p. 196, &c. A
modern general would deem their submission either heroic
patriotism or abject servility.]
[Footnote 24: Compare the poem on the first consulship
(i. 95 -
115) with the Laus Serenoe (227 - 237, where it
unfortunately
breaks off.) We may perceive the deep, inveterate malice
of
Rufinus.]
[Footnote 25: -
Quem fratribus ipse
Discedens, clypeum defensoremque dedisti.
Yet the nomination (iv. Cons. Hon. 432) was private,
(iii. Cons.
Hon. 142,) cunctos discedere ... jubet; and may therefore
be
suspected. Zosimus
and Suidas apply to Stilicho and Rufinus the
same equal title of guardians, or procurators.]
[Footnote 26: The Roman law distinguishes two sorts of
minority,
which expired at the age of fourteen, and of
twenty-five. The
one was subject to the tutor, or guardian, of the person;
the
other, to the curator, or trustee, of the estate,
(Heineccius,
Antiquitat. Rom. ad Jurisprudent. pertinent. l. i. tit.
xxii.
xxiii. p. 218 - 232.) But these legal ideas were never
accurately
transferred into the constitution of an elective
monarchy.]
[Footnote 27: See Claudian, (i. Cons. Stilich. i. 188 -
242;) but
he must allow more than fifteen days for the journey and
return
between Milan and Leyden.]
Chapter XXIX: Division Of Roman Empire Between Sons Of
Theodosius.
Part II.
The
impartiality which Stilicho affected, as the common
guardian of the royal brothers, engaged him to regulate
the equal
division of the arms, the jewels, and the magnificent
wardrobe
and furniture of the deceased emperor. ^28 But the most
important
object of the inheritance consisted of the numerous
legions,
cohorts, and squadrons, of Romans, or Barbarians, whom
the event
of the civil war had united under the standard of
Theodosius.
The various multitudes of Europe and Asia, exasperated by
recent
animosities, were overawed by the authority of a single
man; and
the rigid discipline of Stilicho protected the lands of
the
citizens from the rapine of the licentious soldier. ^29
Anxious,
however, and impatient, to relieve Italy from the
presence of
this formidable host, which could be useful only on the
frontiers
of the empire, he listened to the just requisition of the
minister of Arcadius, declared his intention of reconducting
in
person the troops of the East, and dexterously employed
the rumor
of a Gothic tumult to conceal his private designs of
ambition and
revenge. ^30 The guilty soul of Rufinus was alarmed by
the
approach of a warrior and a rival, whose enmity he deserved;
he
computed, with increasing terror, the narrow space of his
life
and greatness; and, as the last hope of safety, he
interposed the
authority of the emperor Arcadius. Stilicho, who appears to have
directed his march along the sea-coast of the Adriatic,
was not
far distant from the city of Thessalonica, when he
received a
peremptory message, to recall the troops of the East, and
to
declare, that his nearer approach would be considered, by
the
Byzantine court, as an act of hostility. The prompt and
unexpected obedience of the general of the West,
convinced the
vulgar of his loyalty and moderation; and, as he had
already
engaged the affection of the Eastern troops, he
recommended to
their zeal the execution of his bloody design, which
might be
accomplished in his absence, with less danger, perhaps,
and with
less reproach. Stilicho left the command of the troops of
the
East to Gainas, the Goth, on whose fidelity he firmly
relied,
with an assurance, at least, that the hardy Barbarians
would
never be diverted from his purpose by any consideration
of fear
or remorse. The
soldiers were easily persuaded to punish the
enemy of Stilicho and of Rome; and such was the general
hatred
which Rufinus had excited, that the fatal secret,
communicated to
thousands, was faithfully preserved during the long march
from
Thessalonica to the gates of Constantinople. As soon as they had
resolved his death, they condescended to flatter his
pride; the
ambitious praefect was seduced to believe, that those
powerful
auxiliaries might be tempted to place the diadem on his
head; and
the treasures which he distributed, with a tardy and
reluctant
hand, were accepted by the indignant multitude as an
insult,
rather than as a gift.
At the distance of a mile from the
capital, in the field of Mars, before the palace of
Hebdomon, the
troops halted: and the emperor, as well as his minister,
advanced, according to ancient custom, respectfully to
salute the
power which supported their throne. As Rufinus passed along the
ranks, and disguised, with studied courtesy, his innate
haughtiness, the wings insensibly wheeled from the right
and
left, and enclosed the devoted victim within the circle
of their
arms. Before he
could reflect on the danger of his situation,
Gainas gave the signal of death; a daring and forward
soldier
plunged his sword into the breast of the guilty praefect,
and
Rufinus fell, groaned, and expired, at the feet of the
affrighted
emperor. If the
agonies of a moment could expiate the crimes of
a whole life, or if the outrages inflicted on a
breathless corpse
could be the object of pity, our humanity might perhaps
be
affected by the horrid circumstances which accompanied
the murder
of Rufinus. His
mangled body was abandoned to the brutal fury of
the populace of either sex, who hastened in crowds, from
every
quarter of the city, to trample on the remains of the
haughty
minister, at whose frown they had so lately
trembled. His right
hand was cut off, and carried through the streets of
Constantinople, in cruel mockery, to extort contributions
for the
avaricious tyrant, whose head was publicly exposed, borne
aloft
on the point of a long lance. ^31 According to the savage
maxims
of the Greek republics, his innocent family would have
shared the
punishment of his crimes.
The wife and daughter of Rufinus were
indebted for their safety to the influence of
religion. Her
sanctuary protected them from the raging madness of the
people;
and they were permitted to spend the remainder of their
lives in
the exercise of Christian devotions, in the peaceful
retirement
of Jerusalem. ^32
[Footnote 28: I. Cons. Stilich. ii. 88 - 94. Not only the robes
and diadems of the deceased emperor, but even the
helmets,
sword-hilts, belts, rasses, &c., were enriched with
pearls,
emeralds, and diamonds.]
[Footnote 29: - Tantoque remoto
Principe, mutatas orbis non sensit habenas. This
high commendation (i. Cons. Stil. i. 149) may be
justified by the
fears of the dying emperor, (de Bell. Gildon. 292 - 301;)
and the
peace and good order which were enjoyed after his death,
(i.
Cons. Stil i. 150 - 168.)]
[Footnote 30: Stilicho's march, and the death of Rufinus,
are
described by Claudian, (in Rufin. l. ii. 101 - 453,)
Zosimus, l.
v. p. 296, 297,) Sozomen (l. viii. c. 1,) Socrates, (l.
vi. c.
1,) Philostorgius, (l. xi c. 3, with Godefory, p. 441,)
and the
Chronicle of Marcellinus.]
[Footnote 31: The dissection of Rufinus, which Claudian
performs
with the savage coolness of an anatomist, (in Rufin. ii.
405 -
415,) is likewise specified by Zosimus and Jerom, (tom.
i. p.
26.)]
[Footnote 32: The Pagan Zosimus mentions their sanctuary
and
pilgrimage. The sister of Rufinus, Sylvania, who passed
her life
at Jerusalem, is famous in monastic history. 1. The studious
virgin had diligently, and even repeatedly, perused the
commentators on the Bible, Origen, Gregory, Basil,
&c., to the
amount of five millions of lines. 2. At the age of threescore,
she could boast, that she had never washed her hands,
face, or
any part of her whole body, except the tips of her fingers
to
receive the communion.
See the Vitae Patrum, p. 779, 977.]
The servile
poet of Stilicho applauds, with ferocious joy,
this horrid deed, which, in the execution, perhaps, of
justice,
violated every law of nature and society, profaned the
majesty of
the prince, and renewed the dangerous examples of
military
license. The
contemplation of the universal order and harmony
had satisfied Claudian of the existence of the Deity; but
the
prosperous impunity of vice appeared to contradict his
moral
attributes; and the fate of Rufinus was the only event
which
could dispel the religious doubts of the poet. ^33 Such
an act
might vindicate the honor of Providence, but it did not
much
contribute to the happiness of the people. In less than three
months they were informed of the maxims of the new
administration, by a singular edict, which established
the
exclusive right of the treasury over the spoils of
Rufinus; and
silenced, under heavy penalties, the presumptuous claims
of the
subjects of the Eastern empire, who had been injured by
his
rapacious tyranny. ^34 Even Stilicho did not derive from
the
murder of his rival the fruit which he had proposed; and
though
he gratified his revenge, his ambition was
disappointed. Under
the name of a favorite, the weakness of Arcadius required a