IL LINO I


UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS


S


AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN


PRODUCTION NOTE

   University of Illinois at
 Urbana-Champaign Library
 Brittle Books Project, 2012.











COPYRIGHT NOTIFICATION


                 In Public Domain.
              Published prior to 1923.



This digital copy was made from the printed version held
   by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
     It was made in compliance with copyright law.

  Prepared for the Brittle Books Project, Main Library,
       University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
                         by
               Northern Micrographics
                 Brookhaven Bindery
                 La Crosse, Wisconsin


2012


(  L J.
CZ2.













THE UNIVERSITY

  OF ILLINOIS
  LIBRARY



    C23P








r .? t/ y5:






  EPOCHS OF CHURCH HISTORY.

         Edited by the Rev. M. CREIGHTON, M.A.
      Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Cambridge.

                Fep. 8vo. price 80 ets. each.

THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND. By the Rev Canon PERRY.
                                             [Ready.
THE ENGLISH     CHURCH   IN  OTHER LANDS; or, T HI
    SPIRITUAL EXPANSION OF ENGLAND. By Rev. H. W. TUCRER, M.A.
    Secretary to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel.  [Ready.
THE EVANGELICAL REVIVAL IN THE EIGHTEENTH
    CENTURY. By the Rev. Canon OVERTON, M.A.      [Ready.
THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD. By
    the Hon. G. C. BRODRICK, D.O.L. Warden of Merton Oollege.  [Ready.
THE CHURCH OF THE EARLY         FATHERS. By Rev. A.
    PLUMMER, D.D. Master of University College, Durham.  [Ready.
THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE. By Rev. A. CARR,
    M.A. late Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford.    [Ready.

  The following is a List of the Volumes at present proposed :
THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE. By J. BASS MULLINGER,
    M.A. Lecturer of St. John's College, (ambridge.
THE GERMAN REFORMATION. By Rev. M. CREIGHTON, M.A.
    D.C.L. Professor of Ecclesiastical His ory in the University of Cambridge.
ENGLAND AND THE PAPACY. By Rev. W. HUNT, M.A. Trinity
    College, Oxford.
WYCLIF AND THE BEGINNINGS OF THE REFORMA-
    TION. By REGINALD LANE POoLE, M.A. Balliol College, Oxford.
THE ARIAN CONTROVERSY. By H. M. GWATKIN, M.A. Lecturer
    and late Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge.
THE CHURCH     AND THE EASTERN EMPIRE. By Rev.
    H. F. TOZER, M.A. Lecturer and late Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford.
CHURCH AND STATE IN MODERN TIMES.
THE WARS OF RELIGION.
THE COUNTER-REFORMATION.
ECCLESIASTICAL PROBLEMS IN ENGLAND, 1570-1660.
THECHURCH AND THE TEUTONS.
CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM.
HILDEBRAND AND HIS TIMES.
THE POPES AND THE HOHENSTAUFEN.
MONKS AND FRIARS.

           London: LONGMANS, GREEN, & CO.

                     NEW YORK

    AN SON    D. F. RANDOLPH      &  COMPANY
              38 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET







   Cpod)w   of Cucts I)iitorp
             EDITED BY THE
      REV. MANDELL CREIGHTON, M.A.













THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE








      THE CHURCH


               AND



THE ROMAN EMPIRE







              BY THE

      REV. ARTHUR CARR, M.A.

    LATE FELLOW  OF  ORIEL  COLLEGE, OXFORD



















             NEW YORK
  ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY
        38 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET





   Q7, 2









                   PREFACE.


 H, THIS LITTLE VOLUME does not profess to be a Church
 -  History of the momentous period with which it deals.
    Its scope is limited to a particular aspect of the Eccle-
    siastical movement in that period. The internal ques-
    tions which agitated the Church, and the great Councils
    in which those disputes were arranged-in other words,
    the dogmatic and conciliar history of the Church-must
    be looked for elsewhere. Here it is intended to trace
  - in outline the relations between Christianity and the
    Roman Empire, and the external growth of the Church,
 J. during the fourth and fifth centuries. It was an era
3   of change and revolution more complete and far-reach-
a ing in consequences than any which had yet befallen
    the civilised world.  The disruption of the Roman
h   Empire, the invasion and settlements of the Teutonic
s   races, the reception of the Church into the political
    system, and its growth into a force strong enough to


    4>L                  O Pg g D~


O 7I82


,L-





PRE FA CE


remould the shattered world, form a subject of supreme
interest and of great complexity.
    It is clear, therefore, that in a work of this kind
the leading events and personages alone can be touched
upon. Its aim is to describe especially those acts
which seem to have had a decisive and determining
effect on the external growth of the Church. And if
sometimes an undue proportion appear to be given to
what are termed, secular affairs, if sometimes. a great
statesman or a great general rather than a great bishop
or theologian be the- prominent figure in these pages.
none the less will the subject still be ecclesiastical
history. The advance of the Church in its external
aspect is sometimes visibly and appropriately the work
of a priest or statiesman-bishop; another crisis requires
the sword of a conqueror;, sometimes even the tyranny
of a barbarian leader remotely ends in good. The
march of Constantine from Gaul to Rome, and the
alliance of Theodoric and Aetius against the pagan
Hun, were in a real sense ecclesiastical events ;' though
in a different way, they bore upon the future of the
Church as definitely as the decisions of the (Ecumenical
Councils.
    The thoughts which give the impulse to acts are the
key to history. And whether emperor or general or


vi





PREFACE


ecclesiastic seemed for the moment to have the leading
influence in affairs, all the while Christianity was the
spirit which breathed into every movement and in
reality shaped results.
    It is with results alone that we propose to deal.
But even thus limited the, subject is a vast one, far
surpassing the possibility of adequate treatment in a
work like this.  But the: object will be achieved if a
wider interest be awakened: in this period of Church
History, and fresh attention be directed to these earlier
attempts to work out problems in Church and State
which are still unsolved:
    The chief original authorities for this period are:
Eusebius, 'Ecclesiastical History' and the 'Life of
Constantine '; Lactantius, ' Deaths of the Persecu-
tors'; the ecclesiastical histories of Socrates, Sozomen,
Theodoret and Evagrius; the ' Misopogon' and Letters
of the Emperor Julian; the histories of Zosimus, Am-
mianus Marcellinus, Procopius, and Priscus; the his-
torical poems of Claudian; the works of St. Athanasius,
St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Chrysostom, St.
Jerome, St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, and other Fathers
of the fourth and fifth centuries.
    Modern works which may be consulted to fill in
 the details of the sketch in this volume are: Gibbon,


vii





viii                 PREFACE

'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire '; De Broglie,
'L'Eglise et l'Empire Romain au IVe Siacle '; Professor
Bright's 'History of the   Church, A.D. 313-451 ';
Milman, 'History of Christianity '; Gieseler, 'Eccle-
siastical History'; Neander, 'General History of the
Christian Religion and Church'; Mason's ' Diocletian';
and the different articles relating to this period in the
'Dictionary of Christian Biography,' edited by Dr.
William Smith and Professor Wace.
                                    ARTHUR CARR.

   ST. SEBASTIAN'S VICARAGE, WOKINGHAM:
               ZarcOk 24, 1887.













                CONTENTS.


                        CHAPTER     I.
                      INTRODUCTORY.
                                                         PAGB
 Importance of the term Basileia or Kingdom of God --It implies
    attributes of imperial power-Therefore rivalry with Rome
    -This sense of rivalry felt-The strength of the Church in
    this contest ..                                         1

                        CHAPTER II.
                 DIOCLETIAN. A.D. 286-305.
 Death of the emperor Carus-Diocletian elected emperor-The
    imperial system of Diocletian-Consequences to the Church
    of this system-The Casar Galerius-The Caesar Constantius
    -The division of empire-Diocletian's attitude to the Church
    --The numbers and resources of the Christian body-Perse-
    cution begins-The first edict-Mysterious fires in the palace
    -The persecution becomes more fierce-The second edict
    -The persecution not equally severe in different parts of
    the empire-The third edict-Diocletian leaves Rome in
    disgust-His abdication-The fourth edict .              6

                       CHAPTER III.
             FROM DIOCLETIAN TO CONSTANTINE.
Constantine escapes from Nicomedia-Elected emperor by the
   troops-Maxentius in Rome-A great conflict imminent-
   The end of Maximian-Death of Galerius-The meaning of
   the favourable decree of Galerius-The plan of Maximin-
   Death of Diocletian-Christianity misrepresented in schools 21

                      CHAPTER IV.
                      CONSTANTINE.
The great resolve of Constantine-The sign of the Cross-The
   march of Constantine--Constantine is victorious-The battle






X                        CONTENTS
                                                          PAGE
   of Ponte Molle--Constantine professes Christianity in Rome
   -The edict of Milan-Defeat and death of Maximin-
   Church controversy in Africa-The fanaticism of the Dona-
   tists-Effect of Christianity on the laws--Slavery and Chris-
   tianity-Paganism still a force in the empire-Struggle
   between Licinius and Constantine-Licinius defeated-The
   changes in the empire favourable to Christianity-The new
   Rome                    ... . . .   .   .    .    .   .27

                       CH APTER V.
          THE COUNCIL OF NICEA-ATHAN'ASIUS.
Arianism-The Council of Nicea-Eusebius-Athanasius--
   Charges brought against Athanasius-Death of Arius-Death
   of Constantine-His influence on the Church   .    .   . 40

                       CHAPTER     VI.
                 THE SONS OF CONSTANTINE.
Accession of the three emperors-Athanasius returns to Alex-
   andria-Again in exile-The growth of the Roman see-
   Influence of Athanasius in Rome-The Council of Sardica
   -Athanasius again returns to his see-Constantius sole
   emperor - Athanasius driven from Alexandria --George
   of Cappadocia- Council of Ariminum - The sequel of
   Athanasius' career.                 ........          . 47

                      CHAPTER VII.
       THE EMPEROR JULIAN CALLED THE APOSTATE.
The interest of Julian's career-Gallus-Julian at Milan-He
   studies at Athens-Julian's education-The title of Apo-
   state-Basil and Gregory fellow-students of Julian-Julian
   despatched to Gaul-St. Martin of Tours-The jealousy of
   Constantius-The march of Julian against Constantius-
   Constantius dies-Julian succeeds to the empire-The
   paganism of Julian-Julian's attempt to rebuild the temple
 * at Jerusalem-Julian abstains from persecution-Persecu-
   tion becomes inevitable-Christians debarred from reading
   the classics--Julian at Antioch-Julian's last campaign
   and death        . .    .    .    .   .. 56






CONTENTS


                      CHAPTER VIII.
                 ST. BASIL AND ST. GREGORY.
                                                         PAGE
 Early life of Gregory and Basil-Student life at Athens-Basil
    adopts a monastic life-Gregory assists his father at Na-
    zianzus-Basil Bishop of Casarea-The teaching of these
    two lives                            ..........       71

                       CHAPTER IX.
               JOVIAN--VALENTINIAN-VALENS.
 Jovian elected emperor-The change from paganism-Jovian's
    Church policy-The death of Jovian-Choice of a new em-
    peror-Valens-Valentinian's Church policy-Non-interven-
    tion impossible-An ecclesiastical dispute in Rome-Growth
    of the episcopal power in Rome-The Church a refuge from
    despotism                             ..........      76

                       CHAPTER X.
            VALENS- INVASION OF THE GOTHS.
Valens conquers Procopius--An Arian persecution-The Gothic
   invasion-Gothic version of the Scriptures-The Goths cross
   the Danube-The Goths occupy the imperial provinces-
   The battle of Hadrianople-Death of Valens   .        . 85

                      CHAPTER XI.
                  GRATIAN-ST. AMBROSE.
The childhood of Ambrose-Ambrose goes to Milan-Elected
   Bishop-St. Ambrose and Gratian-Gratian's policy in
   Church matters-Theodosius-St. Ambrose and Theodosius
   -The massacre at Thessalonica-Repentance of Theodosius
   -The empress Justina-St. Ambrose and Valentinian II.
   -Death of St. Ambrose-The work and policy of St. Am-
   brose-Heresy made a capital offence  .      .        . 92

                      CHAPTER XII.
                THEODOSIUS. A.D. 379-395.
Theodosius avenges the death of Valentinian II.-The defeat
   of Eugenius--The death of Theodosius-The decline of the
   empire-Stilicho-The sieges of Rome by Alaric .  .   . 103


Xi






CONTENTS


                      CHAPTER      XIII.

                   THE FALL OF PAGANISM.
                                                          PAGE
 Tolerance of paganism in a Christian state-Tolerance enjoined
    by Constantine-The inutility of Christian persecution-
    The effects of Julian's policy-Important action of Gratian
    -The meeting of St. Ambrose and Symmachus-Theodosius
    brings the question of religion before the senate-Decisive
    measures of Theodosius--Pagan apologies--Pagan temples
    destroyed-Theophilus of Alexandria-The destruction of
    the Serapeum-Evils of prosperity-Hypatia-The weakness
    of Honorius-The year 365-Paganism    still powerful in
    places-evidence of Salvianus  .    .   .    .   .    . 107


                      CHAPTER      XIV.
                 ST. JEROME.   A.D. 346-420.
Theories of the Christian life-Monasticism in Egypt-Dif-
   ferent phases of the monastic life-Early life of St. Jerome
   -St. Jerome at Bethlehem-The Vulgate-St. Jerome's
   literary labours .    .   .    ,   .    .    .   .    . 121


                      CHAPTER XV.
               ST. AUGUSTINE.    A.D. 354-430.
St. Augustine's early life-St. Augustine at Milan-Meets St.
   Ambrose-Is made Bishop of Hippo-The influence of St.
   Augustine-The ' De Civitate Dei '-Death of St. Augustine 127


                      CHAPTER XVI.
              ST. CHRYSOSTOM. A.D. 347-407.
Early life of St. Chrysostom-- His asceticism -Seditious outbreak
   at Antioch-St. Chrysostom calms the people-The emperor's
   sentence-Announcement of pardon-Chrysostom Bishop of
   Constantinople-Attacks abuses among the clergy-He raises
   enemies by his faithfulness-Antipathy of the empress-
   Chrysostom is driven into exile-Review of his life  . . 131


X ii
Xll






CONTENTS


X111i


                      CHAPTER XVII.
        HONORIUS. A.D. 395-423--RUFINUS, STILICHO.
                                                         PAGE
Accession of Honorius-Early life of Rufinus-His rise-The
   crimes of Rufinus-Rufinus foiled in his ambition-His fall
   and death--The early life of Stilicho--His rapid rise to
   power-Defeats Gildo-Assassination of Rufinus-Marriage
   of Stilicho's daughter .......                        . 139

                     COHAPTER XVIII.
                  ALARIC AND THE GOTHS.
Invasion of Greece by Alaric-Stilicho repels the invasion
   Alaric's first invasion of Italy--General confidence in Stilicho
   -His measures-Defeat of Alaric-The victory too late to
   save Rome from ruin-The real force in the world-Gladia-
   torial shows stopped by Christianity-The transference of
   the capital-Ravenna-The artistic and historical interest
   of Ravenna-The invasion of Radagaisus-St. Augustine's
   view of the defeat of Radagaisus-Alaric allies himself
   with the Western empire-Stilicho's policy unpopular-
   Intrigues against Stilicho-His death-Stilicho's wisdom
   proved by events-Olympius-Disqualification of pagans-
   First siege of Rome by Alaric-Generidus--Second siege of
   Rome-Attalus proclaimed emperor-Capture of Rome by
   the Goths-Results for Christianity-Death and burial of
   Alaric .  .      .    .          ..........           . 146

                      CHAPTER XIX.
                THE WEST UNDER HONORIUS.
The hold on the West by the two empires-The usurper Con-
   stantine-He is slain-The end of Ataulf-Galla Placidia-
   Britain-The effects of the Saxon invasion .  .   .    . 164

                      CHAPTER XX.
                         THE EAST.
Characteristics of Church and State in East and West-Eutro-
   pius-Gainas and the Goths .   .              .....     170






xiv


CONTENTS


                      CHAPTER XXI.
              THEODOSIUS II. AND PULCHERIA.
Pulcheria virtually regent-The education of Arcadius-The
   empress Eudocia-Persecution of Christians in Persia-
   Christianity a easus belli--Christian charity-The character
   of Theodosius II.-Intimate union of Church and State . 173

                     CHAPTER XXII.
        THE WEST FROM THE DEATH OF HONORIUS.
Galla Placidia -The rebellion of John-Valentinian III.-Boni-
   face and Aetius-The Vandals under Genseric invade Africa
   -The capture of Carthage .             .....         . 180

                     CHAPTER XXIII.
                  THE HUNS AND ATTILA.
The barbarians gradually civilised-The Huns--Attila-The
   invasion begins-Theodoric-Attila's pretexts for war-
   Attila marches across the Rhine-The battle of Chalons-
   Attila invades the north of Italy .    .   ...       . 185

                     CHAPTER XXIV.
         POPE LEO I. AND THE CHURCH OF ROME.
Prestige of the Roman see-This prestige due to growth of
   jurisdiction-The increase in wealth-Growth of episcopal
   power- Checks on the power of the Church-Rome becomes
   the arbiter of disputes-The apostolical origin of the see-
   The authority of Leo-His rise to the Papacy-His claims
   for the see of Rome-The idea of the unity of Christendom
   -Italy not wholly subservient to Rome-Disputes with Leo
   -Spain-Africa-Mistakes of the Roman see-The influ-
   ence of Leo in the East-Leo's attitude towards heresy-
   Leo and the barbarian invasion-Leo intercedes for Rome
   with Genseric-Leo the greatest statesman as well as the
   greatest Churchman of his day          .....         . 193

IN DEX.        .    .        .......... .               .207


                           MAP
THE ROMAN EMPIRE, A.D. 292-305.                . To face Title


















PRINCIPAL EVENTS OF THIS EPOCH.


A.D.
284 Diocletian emperor
286 Maximian chosen as his
      colleague
292 Constantius and Galerius,
      Cesars
303 Persecution of Christians
305 Diocletian and Maximian
      abdicate
    Constantius and Galerius
      Augusti
    Severns   and   Maximin
      Catsars
306 Maxentius     proclaimed
      emperor by the Prm-
      torian guard
    Constantine begins to reign
307 Severus slain
    Licinius declared Augustus
311 Death of Galerius
312 Maxentius defeated and
      slain at Ponte Molle
313 Edict of Milan
    Maximin    defeated  by
      Licinius
314 Battle of Hadrianople
323 Licinius defeated
324 Death of Licinius
325 Council of Nicma
331 Birth of Julian
335 First exile of St. Athan-
      asius


A.D.
336 Death of Arius
337 Death of Constantine
    The three sons succeed as
      Augusti -  Constantine
      II., Constantius, and
      Constans
340 Constantine II. defeated
      and slain
341 Second exile of St. Athan-
      asius
346 Birth of St. Jerome
350 Death of Constans
    Usurpation  of Magnen-
      tius
351 Battle of Mursa-Magnen-
      tius defeated
354 Birth of St. Augustine
356 Third exile of St. Athan-
      asius
359 Council of Ariminum
360 Julian proclaimed Augus-
      tus by his army     at
      Lutetia (Paris)
361 Death of Constantius
    Julian emperor
362 Julian at Antioch
    Fourth exile of St. Athan-
      asius
363 Julian's disastrous cam-
      paign and death
    Jovian succeeds






xvi      PRINCIPAL EVENTS OF THIS EPOCH


A.D.
364 Death of Jovian
    Valentinian I. Emperor of
      the West
    Valens of the East
370 St. Basil Bishop of Cme-
      sarea
373 Death of St. Athanasius
374 St. Ambrose Bishop of
      Milan
375 Valentinian I. dies
    Valentinian II. and Gratian
      succeed
378 Battle of Hadrianople
    Death of Valens
379 Theodosius    proclaimed
      Augustus by Gratian
    Death of St. Basil
381 Council of Constantinople
383 Gratian murdered
386 Conversion of St. Augus-
      tine
390 Penance of Theodosius
392 Murder of    Valentinian
      II.
394 Defeat of Eugenius and
      Arbogastes
395 St. Augustine Bishop of
      Hippo
    Death of Theodosius I.
    Arcadius Emperor of the
      East
    Honorius of the West
    Alaric invades Greece
397 Death of St. Ambrose
398 St. Chrysostom Bishop of
      Constantinople


A.D.
403 Battle of Pollentia-Re-
       treat of Alaric
 405 Radagaisus defeated  by
       Stilicho
407 Death of St. Chrysost om
408 Theodosius II. succeeds
      Arcadius in the East
    Stilicho slain at Ravenna
410 Capture of Rome by Alaric
420 Death of St. Jerome
    Persecution of Christians
      in Persia
424 Valentinian III. succeeds
      Honorius
429 Invasion of Africa by the
      Vandals under Genseric
430 Siege of Hippo-Death of
      St. Augustine
431 Council of Ephesus
440 Leo the Great, Bishop of
      Rome
441 The Huns under Attila
      cross the Danube
450 Marcian succeeds Theo-
      dosius II., whose sister
      Pulcheria he marries
451 Council of Chalcedon
    Battle of Chalons-Attila
      defeated by Aetius and
      Theodoric
452 Attila ravages the north of
      Italy
453 Death of Attila and of
      Pulcheria
461 Death of Pope Leo the
      Great













           THE CHURCH
                       AND

   THE ROMAN EMPIRE.



                  CHAPTER I.
                INTRODUCTORY.

THE first leading idea implanted by Christ in the minds
of His followers was the idea of a kingdom. ' Seek ye
first His Kingdom [,Ial cXia] and His righteousness;
and all these things shall be added unto you' 1 were
words which bore fruit. It was a command with a
promise, and the promise was fulfilled in time. The
Church did seek the Kingdom of God and His right-
eousness. And for three centuries those things which
the Gentiles sought after seemed to be denied to her.
The Gentiles still sought after the power and riches
of the world, and the Church grew on without them
in her quest for righteousness, in organised strength,
in patience, love, faith, clearness of view, wisdom of
judgment and interpretation. At length the centuries
of oppression and persecution ended, and the Church
                  I St. Matt. vi. 33.
    C. H.                                  B





2    THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

became allied with kings. Riches poured in upon her:
political power came in too abundant measure. She
had sought first the Kingdom of God and all things
were added to her. For if by ruling the world is
meant to dictate the principles of government, to con-
trol legislation, to repeal or to change one class of laws,
to pass and carry into effect another, to regulate the
pursuits and amusements of the people, to define the
limits of right and wrong, then Christianity ruled the
world, and the Empire of Christ-the Kingdom of
Heaven    was constituted. The Twelve sat on thrones,
ruling and   judging  the  earth.   Their words and
thoughts and rules have inspired the code of modern
civilisation.
    These results are historical facts. It may be added
that the direction given to the advance of Christianity
Importance was clearly ruled by the term which describes
of this term
baileir   it-the basileia, the Kingdom, the imperium,
of God. For although      the spiritual aspect of the
Kingdom was carefully defined and pressed, yet this
term adopted by the Master and always prominent in
the teaching of His Apostles could not be used without
a sense of comparison with the Roman Empire. In
inscriptions and in all contemporary historians such as
Zosimus, Socrates, or Sozomen, the Roman emperor was
known as basileus (j3aXE;v'9) and the Greek for the
It implies empire was basileia (3ac-Xcs).1   In some
some attri-
butes of  sense the Kingdom   of which Christ spoke
imperial
power     would be mightier and more enduring than
the empire of the Caesars.      And   in some sense
   In 1 Tim. ii. 2, and 1 Peter ii. 17, the Apostles are of course
speaking of Claudius or of Nero.





INTRODUC TORY


that cruel and hated despotism    was a symbol and
image of the Kingdom of God. History disproved the
earthly conception of the basileia at first present to
the Apostles' minds. But certain elements of empire-
and that meant of the Roman Empire--organised rule,
unity of headship, universality of extension, resistless
success, power of growth, discipline and law, were
characteristic of the divinely organised society which
Jesus Christ founded.
    Another result of this word basileia or imperium
was to suggest a rival and therefore a hostile power.
Therefore For the modern notion of great and powerful
rivalry
with Rome kingdoms existing side by side at peace, and
respecting one another, was foreign to the political
sentiment of the ancient world.
    This thought is a key to many incidents in the
course of Church history. It explains the attitude of
the civil power towards the Church-there was a point
where persecution became a necessity-and it explains
the magnificent courage of the Christian martyrs, and
the far-reaching hopes and exalted confidence of great
Churchmen in every age.
    The very words of the Lord's Prayer carried in
them the seeds of a revolution. No Roman magistrate
could hear with perfect complacency that the words
aXOr    i f3ao-rtXla oov (Thy Kingdom come) were uttered
in a most sacred, and to some extent a secret, form of
prayer every day by hundreds of thousands who formed
part of what seemed to him   to be an organised and
dangerous conspiracy.
   The instinctive sense of this danger soon came
to the front. It had already appeared in the trial of
                                             B2





4    THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Christ before Pilate: ' If thou let this man go thou
art not Casar's friend ;' and it appears in the trial of St.
The sene Paul before the politarchs of Thessalonica.'
of a rival
power felt  It is, however, a remarkable point in Church
history that the Christians never did organise them-
selves against the empire, as the Jews, for instance,
organised themselves, with far less chance of success,
against the earlier emperors. But it is no wonder that
the danger of such disaffection was felt. Expressions
which would sound like open sedition were frequently
on the lips of Christians. In the Diocletian persecution
Alphmus and Zacchaus, two clergymen, suffered death
for declaring that they acknowledged but one God, and
Jesus as the   anointed  emperor, XpuoS      /3aartX a
'Ivboiv.  And when Procopius, the first martyr whose
death Eusebius saw with his own eyes, was told to
sacrifice to the gods, he answered there was only one
God to whom it was right to offer sacrifices in the way
he wished, and then being urged at least to pour a
health to the four emperors, he replied with Homer's
well-known verses :
        Obic <yaObv 7roXVrOpavirY, Eic tioipavos Uaro
        Eic Irto-Xtvs
('it is not good to have lords many, let there be one
lord, one king' [or emperor]). To the presiding magis-
trate the meaning would be treason, an utterance
against Diocletian's system, to say nothing of the
suggestion of another emperor. Procopius was ordered
to instant execution.2   In  this way Caesa.rism and
Christianity clashed. In this way the idea of the


s Mason's Diocletian, p. 187.


. Acts xvii 7.





INTRODUC TORY


/ao- Xeta worked itself out to the supremacy of the
Church in the world. All that vast development which
we lightly trace in these pages sprang from the thoughts
which Jesus Christ infused into this conception of a
basileia. The possession of this imperial idea has
made Church history what it was. The Church was
to absorb all the forces of the world. Its history was
to be the history of a conquest. All the proud expres-
sions in which the Augustan poets describe the great-
ness of Rome and the empire were capable of being
transferred in a figure to the Church of Christ. ' Tu
regere imperio populos, Romane, memento,' might serve
as a watchword for Christian missions.
    In this contest of rival powers, the two /3ao-tX&'a or
imperia of Rome and the Church, which began their
The      great careers almost simultaneously, the Church
strength won the victory. In a true sense 'the king-
church   doms of the world became the Kingdom of
contest  Christ.' But, in truth, against all seeming
the advantages all along had been on the side of the
Church.   How -fully this was realised in Christian
thought we may learn from the pictures and parables
of the Apocalypse, which are the real sequel to the Acts
of the Apostles.
    Glance at the history of the Roman Empire. At
any moment the career of an emperor might be closed
by assassination. This became so serious an evil, and
the succession so swift and changeable, that the system
of Diocletian, by which the government was shared by
four princes, associated in rule and by family ties, became
a necessity. But this change, though a gain in one
direction, involved the loss of unity, and introduced





6    THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

the weakness of rivalry. Again, the empire was ex-
posed to dissolution by the plague-spots of luxury and
moral corruption, and by the attacks of the vigorous
hordes of barbarians pressing on the Danube and the
Rhine.
    But the Kingdom of Christ could suffer from none
of these things. No blow could strike it down. Christ
the King could not be slain, or deposed, or influenced.
There could be no partition of the pao-tXEla, no loss of
unity. It did not rest on the passions or fears of men,
or on corrupting influences, but on an appeal to the
spirit of liberty, and on all that is finest and noblest
in the nature of man. It was invincible, because there
was not only no fear of death, but its subjects were,
as their persecutors said, 'only too ready to die.' A
history with such principles underlying it could not
fail to be glorious. And no epoch in that history has
been more fruitful in great men and great events than
the fourth and fifth centuries.



                   CHAPTER . II.
              DIOCLETIAN. A.D. 284-305.

IN the year 283 the hopes of the Roman world were
raised to the hig]lest pitch' by the successes of the
Death of emperor Carus in the East. It seemed that
the emperor
trpe     at length the most formidable danger which
had menaced the empire from Augustus to Aurelian was
to disappear before the advance of an emperor whose
simplicity- of life and severity of: discipline recalled the





DIOCLETIAN.    A.D. 284-305


old and virtuous days of the Republic. His victorious
armies had crossed the Euphrates and the Tigris, and
were encamped a few miles from the latter river, when
a terrific storm broke over the plain. After one of the
loudest peals of thunder, a cry arose that the emperor was
dead, and his tent was observed to be in flames. His
death was variously ascribed to the stroke of lightning,
to the natural course of a malady from which he suffered,
or to assassination. In any case the visions of con-
quest vanished, and the 'patient' East once more wit-
nessed the retreat of a Roman army.
    The death of Numerian, the young and virtuous
son of Carus, soon followed. Aper, the Prefect of the
Praetorian guard, aspiring to the empire, for some time
concealed the death, of which he was probably the
cause. When this intrigue was discovered, Aper was
loaded with chains and dragged before a council of
officers.
    In the hasty trial which followed, Diocletian, com-
mander of the late emperor's bodyguard, was at once
Dioc:etian the chief witness, the judge, and the execu-
elected
empeor   tioner. He had probably also been the ac-
complice of Aper.: At any rate, the precipitate action
by which he plunged his dagger into the prisoner's
heart before he had time to reply, has left a dark and
merited suspicion in history.
    Such was the sinister beginning of a reign which
 makes an epoch in the constitutional annals of Rome,
 and is ever memorable in the history of the Christian
 Church.
    Diocles (such was the earlier form of the name) was
 of servile origin. His father, however, obtained his





8     THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN UMPIRE

freedom, and exercised the office of a scribe -a calling,
which implies some, amount of culture, and certainly
left its mark on Diocletian. The campaigns of Aure-
lian-restorer of the Roman Empire '--and those of
Probus and of Carus had produced and trained in a severe
school of discipline a number of able and illustrious
officers.  Among these Diocletian had been highly
distinguished, and on the death of Numerian was pro-
nounced to be the most worthy to assume the purple.
There was, indeed, one rival for the possession of
empire-the despicable Carinus, son of the late em-
peror.   But the decisive battle of Margus, in which
Carinus was slain, left Diocletian sole master of the
Roman world. From that moment the qualities which
distinguished Diocletian were rather those of the great
statesman than of the brilliant soldier.
     He conceived a system of government which en-
 titled him to be called the second founder of the empire,
 The imperial and which certainly had momentous conse-
 system of
 Dioc:etian  quences for the future of the world's history.
     A monarchy holding sway over a vast and varied
 empire like that of Rome was a terribly insecure and
 unsettling form of government. It placed the peace of
 the world and the tenure of power at the mercy of the
 assassin's knife, or the caprice of a military conspiracy,
a: t any moment in any distant corner of the earth. As
a matter of fact the despotism had been transferred
from the emperor to the soldiers of the Praetorian guard.
     Diocletian's plan was to create four rulers in place
 of one. Two, holding a higher rank with the supreme
 title of Augustus, were to govern the prefectures of
                 Vopiscus, Div. Aurel. � 1.





DIOCLETIAN.    A.D. 284-305


Italy and the East; two others of lower but still im-
perial rank, bearing the name of Casar, were to hold
their respective courts, and to keep the enemies of
Rome at bay on the banks of the Rhine and the Danube.
The members of this quadruple autocracy were to be
so closely associated by the bonds of common interest
and of family alliance as to combine the strength and
solidity of a monarchy with the advantage of an ex-
tended and ubiquitous defence.
    Combined with this system, and an integral part of
it, was the deliberate and final abandonment of Rome as
the capital of the world. Hereafter, as there were to
be four rulers, there were to be four capitals of the
empire. Hence the names of Nicomedia, of Milan, of
Sirmium, and of Augusta Trevirorum-the modern
Trier or Traves-rise into importance.
    It was a masterly scheme and had many conse-
quences.   It made assassination useless, it crushed the
conse-   influence of the Pratorian guard, and reduced
quences to
the Church the Roman senate to the status of a municipal
of this
system   council.   Its consequences to the Church,
which was still latent as a political force, will be de-
veloped as this history proceeds.   Two results were
obvious, and, when persecution arose, immediate. Dil-
ferences of rule must produce differences of adminis-
tration, however carefully a compact is sealed. donso-
quently, if persecution raged in one quarter, toleratioi
if not immunity prevailed in another..: Again, division
of power however carefully guarded, and the creation
of separate courts and armies, could only result in rival-
ries and a contest for supremacy. In such a contest
Christianity as a political force must sooner or later be


9





1o   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

recognised, used and suitably rewarded. In carrying
his plan into effect, Diocletian chose as his immediate
colleague and brother Augustus Maximian, a rude
uncultivated soldier, son of a Dalmatian peasant, a
compatriot therefore of Diocletian, and one who had
like him risen to distinction in the wars of Aurelian and
Probus. This was in the year 286. It was not till the
year 292 that Diocletian's system was completed by the
choice of the two Caesars-Galerius and Constantius-
both names of grave import to the Christian Church.
    Galerius like the two Augusti had risen entirely by
his military talents. These he possessed in an eminent
The Csar degree.   He deserves the name of a great
Galerius general.  In other respects the historian has
no good thing to tell of Galerius. 'In this evil beast,'
says Lactantius, ' there dwelt a native barbarity and a
savageness foreign to Roman blood.' Even if we do
not accept to the full the hideous and repulsive portrait
which the Christian historian has drawn of the perse-
cutor of the Church, it is difficult to credit Galerius
with the redeeming features possessed by such pagans
as the humane and statesmanlike Diocletian.
    Constantius, surnamed Chlorus or pale, claims a
nobler birth and was certainly endowed with a finer
The Caar culture and more generous qualities than his
Constantius compeers. By his mother he was connected
with the emperor Claudius Gothicus, and by his father
with a noble house in Mcesia.
    In accordance with that part of Diocletian's plan
which was to connect the Augusti and the Caesars in
marriage, Galerius married Valeria, daughter of Diocle-
tian, and Constantius was compelled to divorce his first





DIOCLE TIAN.   A.D. 284-305


wife Helena the mother of Constantine, and to become
the son-in-law of Maximian by marriage with his step-
daughter Theodora.
    In the distribution of power, Diocletian, fixing on
Nicomedia in Bithynia as the seat of empire, retained
The division under his immediate authority Thrace, Egypt
of empire and Asia. Maximian ruled from Milan, Italy
and Africa.    Galerius, in his arduous post on the
Danube, was answerable for Illyricum and the ad-
joining provinces. To Constantius were assigned the
care and defence of Gaul, Spain and Britain.
    The new experiment in governing the world at first
succeeded admirably. Peace, indeed, there was not in
any of the imperial provinces; but in each the empire
prevailed. While Constantius and Galerius were fight-
ing on the line of the Danube and the Rhine, Maximian
and Diocletian crushed a dangerous rising which ex-
tended from Mauritania to Egypt. Persia, too, after a
momentary triumph suffered a decisive defeat by the
Roman forces under the command of Galerius.
    These great successes were celebrated by what had
now   become an unusual and remarkable       event---a
Roman triumph. For the first time in his reign, which
was now drawing to its close, Diocletian determined to
visit the ancient capital of his empire, and in company
with Maximian to celebrate a triumph destined to be
the last, though certainly not the least magnificent or
the least sumptuous with the spoils of conquered nations,
that had proudly moved along the Sacred Way.1
   ' According to Gibbon, ch. xiii., this triumph was coincident
with the celebration of the Vicennalia at Rome (p. 18), but the
latest authorities distinguish the two events.


II





12 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

    The beginning of the end had come. To Diocle-
tian's friends this great and politic career was almost
concluded.   The interest of it had gone.  But to the
Christian historian the enduring interest is centred in
its concluding years. Here begins its direct and dire
Diocletian's relation to Christianity. What up to this
attitude to
the Church time had been Diocletian's attitude to the
Christian Church?    The only possible answer is that
it had been most favourable. Diocletian had sur-
rounded himself with Christians.    The most influen-
tial, the most confidential offices in his household,
those which were most nearly concerned with his own
person, were filled by Christians. His wife and daughter
had roused the suspicion of the pagan society by their
absence from sacrifices to the gods, and by their leaning
to Christianity.  There were some who asserted that
Diocletian himself was almost a Christian. It is certain
that he admired Christianity, and it is probable that
as a statesman he saw the folly and the danger of stir-
ring the hostility of an organisation, which had spread
quickly and mysterioqusly, but firmly and increasingly,
throughout the Empire.
    It is difficult to gather statistics now, but various
indications had shown that the Christian body was
The num- numerous.   There was a large contingent in
bers and re-
sources of  the army. Another proof of the numbers, the
the Chris-
tian body wealth, and the energy of this strange people,
lay in the frequency and growing magnificence of
Christian churches, which now appeared in all large
centres of l)opulation. At Nicomedia the Christian
Church   dominated the whole city.     Persecution of
Christians, indeed, had never quite ceased; but it was





DIOCLE TIAN. A.D. 284-305


not officially authorised, and each particular instance, if
investigated, would show that there were secondary
causes at work, such for instance as military insubordi-
nation.
    Now there were signs of a change. In the autumn
of the year 302, Galerius, 'the evil beast,' as Lactantius
Persecution calls him, came to Nicomedia to confer with
begins   Diocletian. No third person was present at
these interviews. But events soon disclosed the nature
and meaning of them.
    Symptoms of reviving hostility against Christianity
had shown themselves in various quarters. The sense
of danger arising from an organised secret confederacy
within the empire grew as the evidence of its strength
became more manifest. On one occasion Diocletian him-
self had given the signal for persecution. He had asked
the advice of his soothsayers, who examined the entrails
of victims in the emperor's presence. When no signs
or tokens appeared which should give indications of the
future, the trembling soothsayers repeated the sacrifices,
but still no response came.    'At length Tages, the
chief of the soothsayers, either from guess or his own
observation, said: "There are profane persons here who
obstruct the rites." Then Diocletian in furious passion
ordered not only all who were assisting at the holy
ceremonies, but also all who resided within the palace,
to sacrifice, and in case of their refusal to be scourged.
And further, by letters to the commanding officers, he
enjoined that all soldiers should be forced to the like
impiety under pain of being    dismissed the service.
Thus far his rage proceeded, but at that season he
did nothing more against the law and religion of


13





14 THE CHURCI AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

God."   Such a thunderbolt might have fallen harmless.
But the fierce and impolitic nature of Galerius had also
been stirred to passionate hatred against the Christians.
His mother, a devoted worshipper of the gods, invited to
her frequent sacrificial feasts the officers of the army
and her own     household. But. when the Christians
among them refused to partake of those meats offered
to idols, she was deeply incensed, and stimulated her
son in his designs against the Church.       Diocletian
was too great a statesman to approve of a general
viocletian  persecution of Christians. He had recognised
yields to
Galerius and the strength and powerful organisation of the
consents to
persecution Church, and saw the desirability of winning
her as an ally. He knew that Christians, so far from
fearing death, were only too eager to die. Never-
theless, he was overcome by the violence of Gale-
rius. Diocletian agreed to two steps which showed
a faltering resolution. He convened a council, and
he consulted the oracle of Apollo at Branchidae near
Miletus. It was easy to forecast the result; council
and oracle joined in persuading the evil course, and
Diocletian consented to persecute. But he made one
reservation; he insisted that there should be no blood-
shed.
    The festival of the god Terminus, the god of limits
and boundaries, was fixed upon for the beginning of
the persecution, as if that day was to mark the limit
of the Christian religion and influence.   In the dim
light of a winter's morning-it was on February 23,
A.D. 303--the imperial officers forced open the doors


a Lactantius, Deaths of the Persecutors, ch. x.





DIOCLETIAN. A.D. 284-305


of the church in Nicomedia, searched, it is said, for an
image of the deity-so great was still the ignorance
of Christian ritual-then proceeded to burn the sacred
books and to pillage the furniture of the Church. The
building itself was levelled to the ground by the axes
and iron implements of the Praetorian guard.
    Next day the imperial edict was published-1. All
churches were to be demolished.   2. All sacred books
The First committed to the flames.    3. All who per-
Edict    sisted in Christianity to be deprived of any
office or dignity they might possess; if free, to lose their
freedom.
    The third clause was by far the most serious in its
effects.  It was a sentence of outlawry against all free
men who professed Christianity; it subjected Roman
citizens to torture, and prevented all redress of griev-
ances or possibility of pleading in the courts of law. It
was a deliberate return to the persecuting regime of
Valerian. The first act on the side of the Christians
showed the spirit with which the persecutors had.to
deal. A certain man, whom Eusebius describes as of no
mean origin and esteemed for his temporal dignities,
tore down the decree and cut it in pieces ' improperly,
indeed, but with high spirit,' says Lactantius with true
sobriety of judgment. This man suffered a cruel death
of torture and slow burning, not, strictly speaking;
because of his Christianity, but, in form of law, for con-
tempt of the emperor's authority.
    But it was precisely in this way that Diocletian's
humane reservation against bloodshed was certain to
become a dead letter. It was not difficult for pagan
judges to put a fatal construction on the acts of out-


15





I6 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

lawed Christians. It was impossible for them    not to
punish obstinacy or acts of open treason.
    Diocletian was now    compelled  to  plunge   more
deeply into persecution. A fire broke out in the palace
Mysterious at Nicomedia, which is ascribed not without
fires in the
palace   good reason to the crafty policy of Galerius.
Diocletian instantly commanded his household slaves
to be put to the torture to force some confession of
guilt. No discovery was made; and it was significant
that the servants of Galerius were not put to the
question.  Shortly afterwards for a second time the
palace was set on fire.    Galerius did not cease to
ply the aged Augustus with suspicions, and before
long hurried out of the city to escape, he said, being
burnt alive.
    The poison of suspicion did its work. Diocletian
now allowed the persecution to rage without let or
The perse- hindrance. His own daughter Valeria and
cution be- his wife Prisca were compelled to sacrifice.
comes more
fierce   He had the pain of handing over to torture
and death the officers of his household, whom he had
loved and trusted as his own children.  The annals of
the historians are filled with horrors only relieved and
enlightened by the testimony of patience, devotion, and
courage which the persecution of Christians has elicited
in every age.    In the secure times, which followed
the era of persecution, the maimed confessors, who
triumphed over Diocletian's torturers, had    tales of
wonderful endurance to tell to the Christian annalists.
'Having been nine times exposed to racks and diver-
sified torments,' says Lactantius, writing to Donatus,
'nine times, by a glorious profession of your faith, you





DIOCLETIAN. A.D. 284-305


foiled the adversary ; in nine combats you subdued the
devil and his chosen soldiers . . . after this sort to lord
it over the lords of the earth is triumph indeed !'
    A second persecuting edict was directed against
the clergy. It was ruled that the clergy everywhere
The Second from the Bishops to the humblest ministers of
Edict    the Church should be arrested and cast into
prison without the option of sacrifice.
    The shafts of the persecutor had been discharged
with cruel skill. They were aimed not so much to slay
the Christian as to ruin and break up the Church.
How could this hated confederacy continue to exist
without temples for worship, without the right of
assembly, without bishop or priest to rule the Church
and officiate at her altars ? Rigorously, remorselessly,
and consistently carried out, the decrees were calculated
to exterminate Christianity. It has been said that it
is impossible to bring an indictment against a whole
people, and the Christian community had become a
people whom it was impossible to slay by legislation.
The new constitution, too, prevented the systematic
and even enforcement of the edicts without which they
could not be effectual.
    The records of Christian suffering have not been
preserved with sufficient accuracy of time and place to
The perse- draw a certain inference; but it is clear the
cution not
equally   persecution was keen and cruel in the countries
severe in
aifferent which fell under Diocletian's special govern-
parts of the
empire    ment.   Galerius might safely be trusted with
the execution of the edicts in his division of the world.
We find the zeal of the enemies of the faith quickened
and fires of martyrdom blazing more fiercely in the
    C. I.                                        C


17





1,8  THE CHURCH AND THE ROAN EMPIRE

places visited by the Caesar in his progresses.  Maxi-
mian, too, was well pleased to indulge his coarse and
cruel nature by carrying out the edicts which were now
construed to authorise, without any limitation whatever,
the infliction of death in forms of the most exquisite
and protracted agony.  But one imperial province en-
joyed a comparative immunity. ' All the world was
afflicted,' says Lactantius ; 'and with the exception of
the Gallic provinces alone, from east to west three
rancorous wild beasts continued to rage.'
    The decrees could not, indeed, become completely a
dead letter even with Constantius.   One famous in-
stance-the story of a martyrdom dear to the English
Church--the passion of St. Alban, is enough to prove
that the edicts were published in the provinces ruled
by Constantius.   But, allowing for some rhetorical
license in the reign of Constantine, we may believe that
the historian's words are substantially true : ' Constan-
tius permitted the demolition of churches-mere walls,
and capable of being built up again-but he preserved
entire that true temple of God which is the human
body.'
    From the November of the year 303, in which the
edicts were issued, dated the commencement of the
twentieth year of Diocletian's reign. He arranged to
celebrate the occasion, technically called the Vicennalia,
in Rome.
    At such a time it was usual to grant a general
amnesty.    It was an act of clemency which largely
The Third affected the imprisoned Christians.  But a
Edict     note added to the edicts made release con-
ditional on doing sacrifice to the gods. The Christian





DIOCLE TIAN.   A.D. 284-305


historian frankly admits that many even thus availed
themselves of the amnesty. Others, and the acts of
some of these are recorded, endured torture and a
lengthened imprisonment rather than yield.
    Diocletian had intended after the ceremony of the
 Vicennalia to remain in Rome until the Calends of
 Diocletian  January, when he was to be invested with the
 leaves Rome
 in disgust  consulship. But Rome became distasteful to
 him. Vexed, it is said, with the freedom of the imperial
 city, he burst impatiently away from it. 'The Roman
 emperor had in fact with the dress and adornments and
 the titles assumed also the proud exclusiveness of an
 Oriental monarch. This is, indeed, to be ascribed to the
 policy rather than to the pride or ostentation of the
 Dalmatian freedman's son. Still, custom    infects the
 nature of a man, and the spirit of freedom in speech and
 act which still breathed in the streets of the city of the
 Gracchi was displeasing to the monarch of Nicomedia.
 Diocletian entered on his consulship at Ravenna. The
 journey thither having been made through intense cold
 and incessant rain, he contracted a slight but lingering
 disease which obliged him to be carried in a litter. He
 left Ravenna in the summer and travelled first to the
 Danube and thence to Nicomedia. His malady now
 assumed a dangerous form-a report of his death, and
 even of his burial, was spread through the palace. He
Srecovered, however, sufficiently to show   himself in
public, but probably never wholly regained his mental
vigour and power of judgment.
     Shortly afterwards Diocletian abdicated the govern-
 ment-a step long contemplated, indeed, but hastened
 in the end by the vehement pressure of Galerius. His
                                               c2


I9





20 THE CHURCH AND TITE ROMAN EMlPIR

colleague Maximian was compelled to follow his ex-
ample.   Galerius and Constantius now     became the
Dioc etian's Augusti.  The title of Caesar was bestowed
abdication  upon Severus, a man of the lowest reputation,
and Daia, afterwards named Maximin, whose only claim
was relationship to Galerius.
    With this change a fresh and still more cruel era of
persecution set in. While Diocletian was still battling
The Fourth with disease and taking no part in public
Edict     affairs, an edict, harsher and more sweeping
than any of the former, was issued. It enacted that
wherever Christians should be found still adhering to
their superstition, they should be compelled to sacrifice
or die. Whole communities in towns and cities were
literally called over individually by name and offered
the alternative. It is clear, indeed, that such a measure
could not be executed to the full extent of its intended
malignity; but it left Christian people at the mercy
of savage magistrates, and the annals of martyrdom are
filled with accounts of wide-spread and cruel suffering.
But systematic persecution like this exhibited the
numbers of the Christian body; and the inflexible
courage of Christian men and women made an im-
pression which must have added enormously to their
influence and consideration in the State. Soon it will
be seen that this influence was taken openly into
account in the decisions of history.





21


                   CIIAPTER    III.
          FROM DIOCLETIAN TO CONSTANTINE.

IN the turbulent events of the next few years, when
persecution was at its height, and the immense resources
of the empire were directed against the Church, a force
was gathering in the Western provinces which was
destined to shatter the opposing power, and to place
the Christian Church in a commanding position by the
side of the imperial throne.
    Constantine, the son of Constantius Chlorus and
Helena, on whose action great events depended, was
Constantine residing at the court of Nicomedia when Dio-
escapes from
Nicomedia cletian resigned. When he was passed over
in the choice of the Casars, his position became critical.
He obtained permission from Galerius to rejoin his
father in Gaul. (Fearing treachery or a withdrawal of
leave, Constantine started on his journey on the evening
before the day fixed for his departure. He took the
precaution of maiming or carrying off the horses at the
various stages of the road, to prevent all possibility of
pursuit, and reached in safety the camp of Constantius
at Boulogne, in time to share the last expedition of his
father against the Picts. On the death of Constantius,
Elected  which occurred shortly afterwards, Constan-
enq eror by
the troops  tine was saluted emperor by the troops. This
event, so critical and momentous in the history of the
Church, as to form a very striking point in the new
phase into which Christianity was entering, took place
at York. It was the first act which distinguishes the





22   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

city of Paulinus and Alcuin in ecclesiastical history.
Galerius was induced to recognise the accomplished
fact, and to forward to Constantine the imperial purple
with the title of Casar, the higher dignity of Augustus
being withheld.
    Almost at the same moment Galerius was foiled in
another quarter. Again, though in a different sense,
the foe was of his own household.     Discontent had
arisen in Rome, partly owing to the loss of its imperial
position, partly to the heavy taxation which had been
imposed upon it, partly because Galerius had reduced
the numbers of the Pratorian guards.     The citizens
only required some one to give expression to their
grievance, and to restore their lost privileges.
    Maxentius, son of the ex-emperor Maximian and
son-in-law of Galerius, accepted the perilous task. His
Maxentius first step was to recall his father Maximian to
in Rome  his ancient dignity. The name and prestige
of their old general drew to his stanlard the troops of
Severus, who was forced to die by his own hand at
Ravenna. And when Galerius marched into Italy to
avenge the insult to his power, he, too, found resistance
everywhere, and was glad to escape the fate of Severus,
and to secure his retreat to Bithynia.
    A contest for power between Maximian and his son
followed. Maxentius triumphed, and his father fled to
A great  the court of Galerius at Nicomedia. In this
conflict
imminent  way the stage was cleared for the great con-
flict. Maxentius for the moment was master in Italy,
Constantine supreme in the West, watching events
calmly, Maximin (Daia) on the Danube, and the beaten
and baffled Galerius in the East.





FROM DIOCLETIAN TO CONSTANTINE


    A swift and tragic end now befell Maximian. His
thirst for power found little satisfaction at Nicomedia.
The end of He was present, together with Diocletian, at
Maximian U Carnuntum, a place on the Danube, where
Galerius created Licinius emperor in place of Severus.
Hence he carried his insatiable ambition to the West,
and there plotted against his son-in-law Constantine.
Fausta proved to be truer wife than daughter, disclosed
her father's treachery, and delivered him to the death
which his crimes had deserved.
    The life of Galerius also was drawing to a close.
The Church historians are careful to note the cruel
Death of and prolonged tortures, which seemed to be a
Galerius retribution for the widespread misery and pain
which he had brought upon the world. But before he
died, some feeling of remorse struck him, and he issued
an edict, carefully guarded indeed, but still favourable
to Christianity.  'It had ever been his aim,' he says,
'to maintain the ancient discipline of the Romans; he
had urged the misguided Christians to return to their
old allegiance. Some, indeed, had yielded to the terrors
of the earlier edicts, and now paid adoration to the gods
of Rome, but most were obstinate (cum plurimi in pro-
posito perseverarent); still, as an act of clemency, he
would allow them to leave their prisons, and rebuild
their churches, and meet for worship, provided' (and
this surely is a clause to leave Galerius free in case of
recovery) 'they do nothing against good discipline.'
He ends by demanding the prayers of Christians for his
restoration to health.
    This edict is a significant event in Church history,
not for its immediate results, which must have been


23





24 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

transitory 1-for Galerius died a few days after its
promulgation- -but far more because it implies the fail-
ure of persecution.  It is a tribute to the strength of
The mean- ChristianitvJ' and even points to belief forcing
ing of the
favourable itself upon the emperor, or upon those who
decree of
Galerius  influenced his counsels.
    There had been a real and not a metaphorical con-
test between the two empires. The Church was literally
the conqueror. The success of course was not complete
as yet. The decree of Galerius was a wave of advance
which would recede for a while. But when the long
train of Christian confessors marched forth from the
prisons and the mines, mainied in the conflict, but still
resolute, it was as real a triumph of one power over
another as when Ccesar rode up to the Capitol laden
with the spoils of the East. Persecution had resulted
so far only in displaying the numbers of the Church,
and in showing that her spiritual force and her organi-
sation were superior to those of her adversary.
    MVaximin, who now shared with Licinius the govern-
ment of the eastern empire, though possibly he did
he plan of not formally revoke the favourable edict of
Maximin  Galerius, and though he certainly permitted
the release of Christians from the prisons and the mines
and made no hostile sign for a few months, before
long caused the persecution to revive. But a different
system was pursued. In order that at least it might
have the appearance of a popular movement, the various

   See Eus. H.E. ix. 1, who describes the result of the temporary
lull, the return of Christians to their homes. 'All on a sudden, like
a flash of lightning blazing from dense darkness, in every city one
"ould see congregations collected, &c.'





FROM DIOCLETIAN TO CONSTANTINE


communities were permitted or incited to petition the
emperor against the Christians.   In accordance with
these forced addresses the emperor prohibited the
assembling of Christians in their churches. He even
anticipated the system of Julian by reorganising the
heathen  hierarchy somewhat on the model of the
Christian episcopate. High priests were constituted in
the cities, who were to offer daily sacrifices. They were
to be robed in white -a mark of the highest distinction.
It was part of their charge to prevent the erection of
churches and the meetings for Christian worship; they
were to compel Christians to do sacrifice, or in default
to hand them over to the courts, where the cruel mercy
of mutilation rather than death was found to be the
more formidable sentence. Lactantius describes with
indignant pathos the barbarous cruelty, the rapacity,
the gross and unbridled sensuality of this heartless
and inhuman despot. Among other acts of indecent
cruelty, not the least unseemly was his treatment of
Valeria, widow of Galerius and daughter of Diocletian,
and of her mother, Prisca. These two ladies had taken
refuge at the court of Maximin. But when Valeria
bravely repelled his solicitations for marriage, he banished
the wife and daughter of emperors from his court, driv-
ing them from place to place, notwithstanding the in-
dignant protests of Diocletian, until at length they
perished at Thessalonica under Licinius.
   This was not the only painful insult to which
Diocletian had been exposed in his retreat at Salona in
Death of Dalmatia.   He had indeed found there a
Diocletian  charming and secure repose from the weari-
ness of supreme rule. He had beguiled his days with


25.





26 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

building palaces, with gardening, and with the pursuits
of a cultivated leisure. But he could not shield him-
self from the vexation of being witness to the ruin of
his own political fabric, and of seeing his wise counsels
set at nought by his successors. Circumstances forced
him to turn persecutor again, to do the very thing which
he detested, to resume the blunder which had driven
him from the throne. Then rumours of personal insult
reached his seclusion. The statues and portraits of
this new founder of the empire were overthrown and
destroyed by the Augusti whose fortunes he had in-
itiated.  These accumulated grievances made his life
unendurable, wore out his strength, and brought him
to death. After nine years of retirement Diocletian died
in A.D. 313.
    At Antioch-the cradle of Hellenic Christianity-
a persecuting measure of novel and impious ingenuity
Christianity was adopted, which seems to show the grow-
misrepre- ing effect of Christian education. Theotecnus,
seted in
schools  the governor of that city under Maximin,
with the sanction of the emperor forged certain ' Acts
of Pilate,' a tale of infamous slander intended to dis-
parage and confute the Christian message. This docu-
ment was published throughout the empire and delivered
to the schoolmasters to be studied and learned by their
pupils-an educational system   deliberately founded on
a lie.
    Meantime the coarser methods of terror were relent-
lessly pursued. We read especially of Christian leaders
in thought and teaching, and the most influential rulers
of the Church, being slain by wild beasts or by the
sword. Among these are recorded Lucian of Antioch,





FROM DIOCLETIAN TO CONSTANTINE


priest and scholar, Silvanus, an aged Bishop, and Peter,
Bishop of Alexandria.
    But deliverance was at hand. Events were drawing
to a head in the West which were destined to take off
this burden of persecution from the Church and to bring
it into entirely new relations with the State.



                  CHAPTER IV.
                    CONSTANTINE.

THE first care of Constantine had been to crush the
barbarians who had risen in rebellion on the Rhine
The great frontier and in Britain. He now determined
resolve of
Constantine on a great adventure. The population   of
Rome and of Italy had endured for five years the savage
lust and the hateful oppression of Maxentius. It is
well to remember, on the eve of the impending change,
how despotism of this cruel and sensual kind, abso-
lutely without any check or restraint, was soon to
become impossible. The higher motive was already
beginning to influence events. The injured citizens
appealed to Constantine, who resolved to cross the Alps
and attack the tyrant. On whatever grounds the con-
flict began, eventually it became a struggle between
paganism and Christianity. Constantine is represented
as wavering for a while between two opinions. It was
a momentous choice for the world as well as for Con-
stantine. His decision in favour of Christianity is one
of those critical and determining acts which mark the
beginning of a new epoch.


2,





28 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

    It was at this time that the famous vision appeared
which confirmed the emperor in his choice. The army
The sin of was on the march, when one day, early in the
the cross afternoon, Constantine beheld a shining Cross
in the heavens above the dclining sun. On the Cross
appeared an inscription in Greek letters, ' by this con-
quer' (v rot5r1 vica). This was in sight of the whole
army. The story is given in contemporary historians,
and was related to Eusebius by Constantine himself on
oath. Nor is there any good reason to doubt the occur-
rence. In its main features a similar phenomenon has
been not unfrequently observed; 1 and the labarum or
sacred symbol, made in commemoration of the event,
should be taken in evidence.
   Constantine crossed the Alps by the Mont Cenis
pass. The campaign was full of risk for his troops. In
The march numbers they were far inferior to the enemy.
of constan-
tine     Constantine was at the head of forty thou-
sand men, Maxentius commanded at least four times
as many. But in discipline and hardihood there could
be no comparison between the Gallic legions fresh from
campaigns on the borders of the empire, and the troops
of Maxentius enervated by the luxury of Italian cities.
For the first time, too, in history the Christian cause
inspired an army. To thousands of Constantine's sol-
diers that advance from the passes of the Alps to the
gates of Rome was a symbol of the Christ going forth
conquering and to conquer. It was indeed a visible
token of the progress of Christianity. More than a
hundred years before Tertullian had openly spoken of
   1 For a remarkable parallel, see Whym er's Scrambles amongst
the Alps, ch. xxii.





CONSTANTINE


the Christian body as a force in the State. ' If we chose
to put forth our strength in open war, would there be
lack of numbers to fill our ranks ? we are but of yes-
terday, and yet we have occupied all that belongs to
you, your cities, your islands, your camps and council-
chambers, your very palace, the senate, and the forum.' 1
And now the time had come when the Church was
too powerful an element in the imperial system to be
ignored by the contending powers. It is the part of
genius in every age to detect and turn to account
new forces. Constantine had the skill to do this; he
triumphed by means of an open profession of faith
and alliance with Christianity. But to the Christian
in the retrospect, if not at the moment, there could only
be one interpretation of the campaign. The unequal
contest crowned with success, the preservation of Con-
stantine's own life in spite of his conspicuous and daring
courage, lastly the mad improvidence of Maxentius, who
at Ponte Molle lost the battle before the troops engaged,
could only mean the imminent rule of Christ in his
Church over mankind. It meant the Kingdom of God
coming with power.
    Two victories, at Susa beneath Mont Cenis, and
 before the gates of Turin, placed the north-west of Italy
 constantine at the feet of Constantin . In the east,
 is victorious Verona, strongly placed and strongly held by
 the troops of Maxentius, proved a formidable obstacle.
 It was invested, however, by the invading army; and
 when Pompeianus advanced to relieve the city he was
 met by Constantine, who, by a masterly display of
 generalship, completely defeated the opposing forces
                 ' Tertull. Apol. ch. xxxvi.


29





30   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

in a battle which raged from evening to the dawn of
day.
    Though immense resources still remained at the
disposal of Maxentius, he had neither the skill nor
the courage to use them. He was only induced to
leave the city on the strength of a very ambiguous
oracle : 'that on that day the enemy of Rome should
perish.' Maxentius gave his own solution to the dark
saying and took the field.
    Constantine found the defending army posted at
Saxa Rubra, about nine miles from Rome, their rear
The battle resting on the Tiber near the Pons Milvius,
of Pons
Milvius  now Ponte Molle. Impetuous charges of the
Gallic horse put to flight the cavalry of Maxentius and
exposed the infantry. The rout became general and
confused. Maxentius himself was carried in the crowd
of fugitives to the Tiber, where he sank in the deep mud
and perished miserably. Some may remember the
famous picture in the Vatican galleries by Raphael or his
school, in which this decisive scene in Christian history
is nobly represented.
    One of Constantine's measures on assuming the
sovereignty of Rome and Italy was the suppression of
the Praetorian guard-the powerful body which had so
often made and unmade emperors in the past. One
result of this was to leave Rome unprotected and with-
out power of resistance against the encroachments of
the empire. Another was to hand over Rbme to the
Christian Church with her great name and her im-
memorial traditions of empire-a factor in history of
hardly less moment than the battle of Pons Milvius
itself.





CONS TAN TINE


    The outward sign of this great revolution was a
statue of himself, which Constantine caused to be
Constantine erected. The Emperor was represented hold-
professes ing in his right hand a Cross, and on the
Christianity
in Rome  pedestal beneath an inscription ran as follows:
'By virtue of this salutary sign, which is the true
symbol of valour, I have preserved and liberated your
city from the yoke of tyranny. I have also set at
liberty the Roman senate and people, and restored them
to their ancient greatness and splendour.' Such an
inscription reflects the attitude of Constantine towards
Christianity at this crisis. He had taken the Christian
side, but he was still but a novice, a catechumen in
Christian truth.
    Towards the end of the year Constantine left Rome
for Milan, where he met Licinius. This meeting re-
The edict of sulted in the issue of the famous edict of
Milan, A.D.
313an, A  Milan.   Up to that hour Christianity had
been an illicita religio, and it was a crime to be a Chris-
tian. Even in Trajan's answer to Pliny this position is
assumed, though it forms the basis of humane regula-
tions. The edict of Milan is the charter of Christianity;
it proclaims absolute freedom in the matter of religion.
Both Christians and all others were to be freely per-
mitted to follow whatsoever religion each might choose.
Moreover, restitution was to be made to the Christian
body of all churches and other buildings which had
been alienated from them during the persecution. This
was in 313 A.D.
    The conference at Milan, and the alliance between
 Constantine and Licinius, roused Maximin to action.
 He left Syria at the head of his army in the depth of





32   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

winter, and reached Bithynia by forced marches after
sustaining a grievous diminution in the numbers both
Defeat and  of men and baggage animals.   Byzantium
death of
Maximin  capitulated after a short siege.  Meantime
Licinius was pressing forward to meet his rival. The
decisive conflict took place near Hadrianople. It is said
that on the night before the battle Maximin made a
vow that if victory were to be on his side, he would show
his gratitude by the extirpation of Christianity. Lici-
nius, on the other hand, warned by a vision, joined with
his army in prayer to the Supreme God. In the battle
which ensued, the troops of Licinius, notwithstanding
their numerical inferiority, were completely victorious.
Maximin fled, exchanging the imperial purple for the
dress of a slave. In this disguise he made his way to
the mountains of Cilicia, and took refuge in Tarsus;
where, being pressed by the enemy, he drank poison
and died in great agony. Thus perished the last of the
persecuting emperors. Licinius entered Antioch with-
out opposition. He gave orders for the execution of the
near relatives and the chief ministers of the late emperors
Galerius and Maximin.. Candidianus, the illegitimate son
of his benefactor Galerius, and the young children of
Maximin were included in that proscription. It was at
this time that the empress Valeria and her mothe'
Prisca were put to death at Thessalonica by the orders
of Licinius, as has been narrated. (See p. 25.)
    It was a wonderful reversal of events. The ten years'
warfhire (such it seemed to have been) had ended in a
glorious victory for the Christian cause. Language was
inadequate to express the exultation of the Church.
~ Of a truth the Lord hath destroyed them and blotted





CONS TA NTINE


them out,' writes Lactantius, ' let us, therefore, celebrate
the triumph of God with rejoicing, and with praises tell
of the Lord's victory, with prayers night and day let us
celebrate it.'
    So far little has been said of controversy within the
 Church itself. To enter deeply into such questions is
 Church con- indeed foreign to the purpose of this work.
 troversy in
 Africa   But one controversy which shook and threa-
 tened to shatter the African Church cannot be passed
 over in silence.
    Africa had suffered more than the other provinces
in the late persecutions. The fierce, unyielding, and
passionate type of Christianity which there prevailed
had burst forth into fanatical zeal. And when the storm
had passed, many priests and ministers of the Church
who had faithfully kept their trust and refused to de-
liver up sacred vessels, copies of the Holy Scriptures,
and service books, declined to re-admit into full com-
munion those weaker brethren-traditors, as they were
called,-who had yielded to the threats and perils of
persecution and surrendered the sacred deposits. This
question divided the African Church.      The quarrel
culminated in the election to the Bishopric of Carthage.
Cecilian had been regularly appointed Bishop and
consecrated by Felix, Bishop of Aptunga; but the
election was impugned on the ground that Felix was
a traditor.  A   council of the opposing faction met
in Carthage under the presidency of Donatus, Bishop
of Casem Nigrm. On the refusal of Cecilian to ac-
knowledge their jurisdiction, they proceeded to elect a
rival Bishop of Carthage. In this crisis an appeal was
made to the emperor Consthntine, who referred the
   C. H.                                        D


33





34 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

question to a council of Bishops which he convened at
Rome.
    The decision was given against the Donatists, the
name by which the severe and fanatical faction of the
The fanati- African Church began to be known. At the
cism of the
Donatists Council of Arles (314), as in every other in-
stance, the Donatists were met by adverse decisions.
But the spirit of fanaticism rose higher at every rebuff,
till at length it became necessary to use against it the
engines of the civil power. Exile and confiscation only
served to exasperate and solidify those who remained,
and no external pressure availed to crush out Donatism.
On the contrary, an extreme sect of this fanatical fac-
tion broke into greater excesses. The Circumcellions, as
they were termed, rose in open insurrection against the
Roman government. They proclaimed wild theories of
equality, to which they gave effect by means of blood-
shed and robbery. The excitable African character of
the sect showed itself sometimes in a rigid asceticism,
sometimes in the most violent excesses, and in reckless
desire for martyrdom. The history of this strange
religious enthusiasm carries us considerably beyond the
reign of Constantine. The Circumcellions received a
crushing defeat in the reign of Constans; but the
Donatists continued to exist and to flourish as a sect
till a far later period. Even in the reign of Honorius
they could boast of an equally divided allegiance with
the Catholics.
    There are several points of interest in these events
The signi-  beyond - the immediate dispute. First, the
ficance of
these events appeal of the Donatists to the emperor on a
question of doctrine and internal discipline deserves no-





CONS TANTINE


tice, though the appeal was made not by the Church,
but by the adherents of a schism. Then the assemblage
of a council at Rome on a momentous question like this
marks an era in the history of the Roman Church. It
is, however, easy to exaggerate the historical import-
ance of the incident. It tells in favour of the inde-
structible prestige of Rome, not in favour of the supre-
macy of the Roman Church. In the Council of Arles
some notable decisions were given, which marked the
changed relations between   Church and State. For
instance, a soldier who deserted in time of peace was
to be deprived of the Communion; scholars educated at
the public expense were to bring letters from their Bishop
to prove that they belnged to the Christian Church.
    But in various directions Christianity began to
exercise a decided and a softening influence on legis-
Effect of lation. In accordance with a natural feeling,
Christianity
on the laws crucifixion, now  surrounded  by the holiest
associations, ceased to be a legal mode of execution.
Laws were passed against the exposure of infants, a
frequent and allowed practice in pagan civilisation. In
the punishment of guilt the principle of equality before
the law was recognised; no regard was to be paid to
the rank or dignity of the offender (' honorem reatus
excludit '). Branding on the forehead was prohibited,
expressly on the ground that no dishonour ought to be
done to the dignity of the countenance, framed as
it was in the image of God. The crimes of seduction
and rape were visited with a severity which contrasted
sharply with the pagan palliation of these offences.
No rigour of vengeance for these crimes would seem too
harsh in the eyes of a generation which had suffered
                                              D2


3,5





36 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

the sensual and cruel indignities of Maximin and
Maxentius. On the other hand, celibacy, involving
legal disabilities in the ancient code, ceased with Chris-
tianity to bear that character, and in some of its aspects
was raised to the rank of a supreme virtue. Public
relief was to be administered in districts suffering from
famine, lest by hunger men should be driven to commit
crimes. The severity of prison life and treatment was
alleviated by law.
    In this way the first gleam of Christianity, by an
instant effect, sent a ray of gentleness and light through
the whole of human life in its most painful phases and
its most hopeless and miserable regions.
    Slavery, indeed, continued to be a social institution.
Its aspect in the new light of Christianity had not yet
Slavery and touched the human conscience; and, indeed,
Christianity there were reasons against a sudden abolition.
Trade and commerce in the ancient world were mainly
administered by slaves; to abolish slavery would be to
disorganise commerce. The great lesson of the dignity
of labour was to be gradually taught; but still the
tendency was in favour of freedom. Encouragement was
given to the liberation of slaves, and regulations were
framed for carrying it out in the presence of the priest
or of the congregation.
    Imperial edicts were issued in favour of the clergy,
who now became a privileged order in the State, a
result by no means of unmixed advantage to the Church.
Ruined churches were rebuilt, and the confiscated re-
venues were restored to Christian corporations. As for
polytheism, the public worship of the gods was not pro-
hibited, though the celebration of secret rites at home





CONS TANTINE


was disallowed, as tending to the practice of magic and
of immorality.
    And yet, notwithstanding the rapid and astonishing
success of Constantine, paganism was still a considerable
Paganism  force in the empire, and its cause did not
itla force appear desperate as yet.  Christianity had
empire    lost as well as gained by the revolution; and
the change of imperial favour had clashed with many
interests. These interests and the indignant spirit of
paganism gathered to a head and remained a source of
danger to the government of Constantine.
    It became clear, too, that Licinius was prepared to
use all these elements of discontent in a struggle for
struggle empire with   Constantine.   He changed his
between  attitude towards the Christians, who were
Licinius and
constantine dismissed from the imperial service in the
army and in the palace. Bishops were forbidden to
meet in synod; even such offices of humanity as visit-
ing prisoners in their cells, an act which may be
claimed as distinctively Christian, were declared illegal.
Once again men were put to death for their religion.
Perhaps the policy of these acts, not discerned at
the time, was simply to proclaim an open opposition to
Christianity, and to gather under one standard all
the opposing forces.
    The alleged pretexts of the war may be dismissed.
The issue was once more between Christianity and
paganism. The good fortune (felicitas) of Constantine
followed him in this campaign. Licinius was defeated
first at Cibalis on the river Save, and a second time,
after a  desperate encounter, at Mardia     in Thrace
(314).   Constantine, however, granted terms to his


37





3.8  THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

adversary, and for eight years the empire enjoyed in-
ternal peace.
    But the causes of dissension remained behind. Once
more (323) the question between paganism and Chris-
Licinius tianity was to be tried on the field of battle,
defeated and their armies confronted one another on the
plains of Hadrianople. Again the skill of Constantine
and the trained valour of his troops proved superior
to the undisciplined levies of Licinius ; while at sea
Orispus, the eldest and ill-fated son of Constantine,
destroyed the enemy's fleet in the crowded waters of
the Hellespont, sowing thereby the seeds of his father's
jealousy. Byzantium fell, but not without a vigorous
resistance; and, after one more crushing defeat on the
site of the modern Scutari, Licinius submitted himself
to the mercy of Constantine. He was permitted to live
at Thessalonica; but his death soon followed; whether
in a military tumult or by express order of the senate,
is uncertain. There can, however, be little doubt that
the death of Licinius was required by the policy of
Constantine.
    What we notice in the whole of these events is the
enormous power which still belonged to paganism. The
balance still wavered between paoanism and Christianity.
This alone accounts both for the clemency shewn to
Licinius after his defeat, and for the doom which overtook
him so speedily at Thessalonica. It was only the con-
summate strategy of Constantine which determined the
event. A less skilful arrangement, or a less resolute
attack at Hadrianople or at Scutari, might have changed
the course of history.
    Constantine had now, by a marvellous succession of





CONS TA NTINE


victories, placed himself in a position of supreme and
undisputed power. At this juncture it is of interest
to observe that, just as the quadruple system of Dio-
The changes cletian was essential for the breaking up of
in the    paganism, so the restored monarchy of Con-
empire
favourable stantine was required for the con'solidation
to Chris-
tianity  of Christianity; and again that the divided
empire, which followed the reign of Constantine, served
to sustain Catholicity at least in one half of the world.
Each change of system seemed to favour the advance,
the expansion, and the purity of the Church.
    The foundation of Constantinople was the outward
symbol of the new monarchy and of the triumph of
The new  Christianity. It was impossible for Rome, in
Rome     the changed condition of the world, to continue
to be the centre of power. Nicomedia was stained by
the records of persecution; but the choice of this in-
comparable position for the new capital of the world
remains the lasting proof of Constantine's genius.  It
was the first of Christian cities. It was Christian from
its foundation, and unlike Rome or Antioch or Alex-
andria, had no records of pagan tradition or custom to
erase before the new faith prevailed. The magnificence
of its public buildings, its treasures of art, its vast en-
dowments, the beauty of its situation, the rapid growth
of its commerce, made it worthy to be 'as it were a
daughter of Rome herself.' " But the most important
thought for us is the relation of Constantinople to the
advance of Christianity. That the city which had sprung
into supremacy from   its birth and had become the
capital of the conquered world, should have excluded
                  ' De Civitate Dei, v. 25.


39





40 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

from the circuit of its walls all public recognition of
polytheism, and made the Cross its most conspicuous
ornament, and the token of its greatness, gave a reality
to the religious revolution. The religious as well as the
imperial centre of the world had been visibly displaced.
    But Constantine's intense desire for unity in Church
 as well as State was disappointed. The opposing forces
 of paganism had no sooner been reduced to silence
 than a formidable heresy sprang up within the bosom
 of the Church.



                    CHAPTER V.
         THE COUNCIL OF NIC1EA-ATHANASIUS.

 THE history and significance of Arianism will be fully
 treated in another volume of this series. But even in
 a general sketch of the period some notice of this
 important movement is required.
    The great storm which Arianism excited has not in
truth subsided yet. The Council of Nicea was only an
         incident in the struggle.    The contention
         raged round the central figures of that council
long afterwards, and Athanasius and Arius have still
their representatives in modern theology.
    Of Arius himself the first thing we know is that he
was a scholar of the presbyter Lucian at Antioch. He
is described as being a diligentb but narrow and unen-
lightened student of Holy Scripture, by no means fitted
through force of intellect to create an epoch of religious
thought. He was placed in charge of a parish in Alex-





      THE COUNCIL OF NICIEA-A THANASIUS           4 I

 andria named Baucalis, where he gained so high a repu-
 tation by his asceticism and by his popular manners
 that, when a vacancy occurred in the see of Alexandria,
 the election all but fell upon him instead of his opponent
 Alexander.
    Briefly stated, the purport of the teaching of Arius
was to deny the co-equality and co-eternity of the Son
with the Father. The origin of the heresy may be traced
partly to unduly pressing by the rules of human logic the
analogy of the human relation between father and son,
and partly to the supposed danger of polytheism in the
statement of two uncreated Persons.     Arius stated,
indeed, that the Father created Christ, but that He
created Him in order that through Him He might create
all things. Moreover, he represented Christ as widely,
nay, infinitely separate from all other created beings;
he even ascribed to Him the name of God (because he
found that name ascribed to Him in the New Testament),
and he affirmed that Christ was 'born before all time
as perfect God, only begotten, unchangeable.' It was
only the subtlety of the Greek language that enabled
Arius to make such distinctions. He was able to express
the idea that Christ was born before all time, and yet
' there was when he was not' (v 'T-E O;I rp), avoiding
the use of the word for time. But of course it was
impossible to uphold such fine distinctions.  It was
the rift within the lute. Popular speech broke down
the nice definitions of the scholar, and asserted the
inferiority of the Son as touching the Godhead.
   Arius took especial pains to popularise his system.
He wrote a collection of songs for sailors, millers, and
pilgrims, so that the deepest and most sacred expres-





42   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMIAN EMPIRE

sions of Christian theology were bandied to and fro in
taverns and market-places, as the watchwords of oppos-
ing factions.
    The opinions of Arius were condemned in a council
of Libyan and Egyptian Bishops at Alexandria, in the
year 321 A.D. Still the contest went on with increased
bitterness. Attempts were made to compromise the
matter, especially by Eusebius, Bishop of Caesarea, the
well-known historian, a man of the very highest reputa-
tion in the Eastern Church as a learned and accomplished
theologian. Eusebius ' dreaded the intrusion of profane
passions into such investigations, which required, beyond
all others, the purity, calmness, and quiet of a soul con-
secrated to God.' 1 'We men,' he argued, ' are unable
to understand a thousand things that lie immediately at
our feet. Who knows, for instance, how the soul became
united to the body, and how it leaves it? ... Why then
do we, when we see ourselves surrounded here by so
many difficulties, presume to search after the perfect
knowledge of the essence of the Eternal Godhead ?'
    But it was too late to allay the storm. At length a
remarkable intervention took place. For the first time
The Council in the history of the Church, the civil power,
of Nioeea seeing the danger of intestine strife among
Christians, stepped in to settle a controversy concerning
the Faith. With Constantine the empire had become
Christian. It was his earnest wish and his policy to
unite his dominions by the bond of a common religion.
But the Arian schism threatened to split his subjects
into opposite camps. It was a danger to the empire as
well as to Christianity.
       ' Neander, Church History, iv. 13. (Eng. Trans.)





      THE COUNCIL OF NIC'EA-A THANASIUS           43

   First he wrote to the two leading parties in the
struggle-to Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, and to
Arius. But his letter showed little grasp of the point
in dispute, and little knowledge of human nature, and
proved of no effect.
    When this failed, he looked around for other means
of restoring peace to the Church and empire. Questions
that had agitated particular Churches had frequently
been settled by synods composed of the provincial
Bishops.   But this question concerned the universal
Church. The solution of it therefore seemed to lie in
a general assembly of all the provinces. Accordingly
he summoned the first oecumenical council at Nicoea in
Bithynia, now a miserable village called Is-nik (325).
    No complete account of the proceedings of the
council has been preserved; but the letters of Atha-
nasius, and the history of Eusebius, who attended the
council, have preserved many facts concerning it, and
the so-called Nicene Creed gives the leading results.
    Eusebius of Caesarea took a prominent position in
this great debate. Two reasons are sufficient to account
         for this: he was the most learned man of his
Eusebius
         time; he was the confidant of the emperor.
Though Eusebius had not been a partisan of Arius, he
endeavoured to give him fair play. He represented
the party of moderation, and, if such were possible, of
compromise.
    But the most remarkable personage present at the
council was Athanasius. At that time he was not more
         than thirty years of age, possibly not more
Athanasius
         than twenty-five. He held no more dignified
position than that of Archdeacon to the Bishop or





44   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

' Pope' Alexander; but he had already acquired a mar-
vellous ascendency. Alexander had detected the great
promise of his boyhood, and when he grew up, he had
taken him to live 'as a son with his father.'
    Alexandria was the meeting-place of creeds and
of all systems of philosophy, art, and literature. All
phases of Christianity were represented there-mysti-
cism, neoplatonism, the tendency to asceticism, the
practice of monasticism. In these surroundings the keen
intellect of Athanasius grew.' Soon he became the
leading and the most resolute opponent of Arianism,
and at the Council of Nicaea he stood by the side of
the Bishop, advising, suggesting, and keenly observant
of every turn and argument in the debate.
    His after life, which extended far into the history of
the fourth century, was full of interest and adventure.
He stood almost the sole champion of truth in the
midst of menace and slander and of danger to his life.
' Athanasius contra mundum,' ' Athanasius against the
world,' is hardly an exaggerated phrase.
    The triumph of the orthodox cause at Nicma was
expressed by the reception of the symbol which, with
the additions made afterwards at the Council of Con-
stantinople, has descended to us as the Nicene Creed.
That Creed became the highest symbol and standard of
faith in the centuries which followed.  And, though
inferior to the noble simplicity of the Apostles' Creed,
though 'scarred by controversy,' and though to the
subtle Greek mind not absolutely unambiguous and pre-
cise, yet it is an admirable exposition of the Catholic
faith, and worthy to be the rallying point of the
             Neander, Clturch History, iv. 17.





      THE COUNCIL OF NICZA--A THANASIUS           45

Churches. But the Council of Nicea failed entirely to
root out Arianism.   It left as its legacy a long and
bitter controversy, and the central figure round which
the conflict raged was Athanasius.
    The emperor Constantine at first commanded obe-
dience to the Nicene decisions, but was won over to the
side of the Arianisers, chiefly through the influence of
Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia, who was a personal
friend of Constantia, the emperor's sister.
    Various charges, quite unfounded, and even of an
absurd and impossible character, were brought against
Charges  Athanasius, who now succeeded Alexander as
brought  Bishop of Alexandria. He had, it was alleged,
Athanasius prevented the sailing of the corn ships from
Alexandria to Rome; he had taken on himself authority
to tax the Egyptians for Church purposes; again, he
had sent a purse of gold to Philumenos, a rebel. It is
easy to detect the undercurrent in these charges-the
attempt to represent Christianity as high treason. When
they were easily confuted, another was added. ' He had
caused an attendant priest to enter a church, where a
schismatic clergyman was offering the Holy Eucharist;
the office had been interrupted, the altar overthrown,
the chalice broken.' Athanasius was able to show that
there was no church in the place named in the indict-
ment, and that on the day mentioned no celebration of
the Eucharist took place. A still graver accusation, but
one as unfounded as the others, and still more easily con-
futed, charged him with the murder of one Arsenius.
Athanasius was able to produce the murdered man in
court, to the confusion of his enemies.
   Notwithstanding this triumphant acquittal, so great





46 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

was the Arian influence at court, and so persistent the
enemies of Athanasius, that a new charge was brought
against him of preventing the sailing of the Alexandrian
corn ships to Constantinople. The emperor, feigning
belief in the accusation, with the hope perhaps of
securing peace for the empire, banished Athanasius
to Traves in the year 336. Many readers, who have
visited that quaint and interesting old Roman city on
the banks of the beautiful Mosel, will like to associate
it with the story of the great and saintly Athanasius.
    In this year the momentarily triumphant opponent
of Athanasius, the author of much confusion and evil to
Death of the Church, Arius, himself perished at Con-
Arius    stantinople by a sudden and shocking form of
death.   He was about to be received into communion
with the Church at Constantinople, to the scandal of the
Catholics, by the compulsion of the emperor himself,
when the end came by the stroke of a sudden malady,
which seemed to Athanasius and others at the time to
be a manifest token of the divine displeasure.
    In the following year (337) died Constantine the
Death of  Great, having been baptized a few days only
Constantine before his death.
    It is difficult to estimate in a few words the in-
fluence of Constantine on the history of the Church;
is influ- but some lines of thought may be indicated.
ence on the
Church   1. The association of the Church with the im-
perial power brought with it evil as well as good. If
freedom from persecution was a gain, dangers of a more
subtle, but not less fatal, character supervened. 2. It
at once became apparent that the religious views of an
emperor might exercise a paramount, which would often





      THE COUNCIL OF NICEA-A THANASIUS            47

be a dangerous, influence on Christian opinion. 3. The
prominent place instantly taken by Church interests in
the councils of the State foreshadowed the inevitable
results of this contact; actual separation between
Church and State became henceforth impossible. 4.
One result of this 'establishment' of Christianity was
the strain which it put on the simplicity of the Christian
life. We begin to hear of wealthy endowments, stately
and magnificent churches, growing ecclesiastical privi-
lege, and of a clergy exposed to the temptations of
dignity and riches rather than to those of poverty and
scorn. 5. The foundation of Constantinople and the
transference of power to the East greatly tended to
the independence of the Roman Church, and was the
beginning of the separation between East and West.




                  CHAPTER VI.

             THE SONS OF CONSTANTINE.

AT Trbves Athanasius formed a friendship with Con-
stantine, the namesake and eldest surviving son of
Accession of the late emperor. Constantine the younger
the three
emperors shared the sovereignty of the world with his
brothers Constantius and Constans-Constantine ruling
the western provinces, Constans Italy and Africa, and
Constantius the eastern portion of the empire.
    The succession of the three sons of Constantine was
signalised by the cruel massacre of all their nearest
kindred, with the exception of two nephews of the late





48 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

emperor-- Gallus, who was thought to be dying, and
Julian, afterwards emperor, and called 'the Apostate'
by Church historians, who was saved by the intervention
of Mark, Bishop of Arethusa.
     This crime is laid to the charge of Constantius alone
 by the testimony of Julian, of Athanasius, and of the
 historian Zosimus.
     Constantine's career was short. In 340 he was
 slain in battle near the walls of Aquileia in the course
 of a campaign against his brother Constans.      This
 event was followed by the partition of the empire be-
 tween the two surviving brothers.
     In 338 Athanasius was restored to his bishopric
 with the consent of the three emperors.   His return
 Athanasius Was welcomed with signs of the most en-
 returns to
 Aiexaudria thusiastic joy by the citizens of Alexandria.
-But his Arian enemies allowed him     no rest. Rival
claimants were put forward for the see of Alexandria;
first Pistus, and, when he was completely discredited,
Gregory of Cappadocia.     Gregory, supported by the
whole strength of the Arian, which was also the im-
perial party, forced his way through scenes of blood-
shed and desecration to the episcopal throne. For the
second time Athanasius fled. On this occasion, setting
Again in  sail for Rome, he laid his case before Pope
exile     Julius for decision by a council.
    It is impossible not to observe the growing influence
 of Rome. Up to this point and beyond it that in-
 The growth fluence was natural, legitimate, and limited,
 of the
 Roman see Many reasons converged to create and extend
 the authority of the Apostolic Roman see: the prestige
 of the metropolis of the empire, its historic fame, the





THE SONS OF CONSTANTINE


desertion of it' by the imperial courts, the sanctity of
its Apostolic founders, the blood of its martyrs, and the
traditions already venerable of that Church: all these
and other conditions gave the Church of Rome a
naturally leading position in Christendom. The growth
and the decay, the good and the evil of this influence
form in themselves an interesting chapter in ecclesias-
tical history.
    The visit of Athanasius to Rome was productive of
far-reaching results, and that in an unexpected way.
Influence of The Bishop or Pope of Alexandria was accom-
Athanasius
in Rome  panied by two monks of the Egyptian deserts.
Their strange and uncouth garb, their absorbed looks,
the intensity of their devotion, attracted the gaze and
curiosity of the citizens of Rome. Athanasius described
the practices of the ascetic life-a growth of Oriental
piety then unknown in western Europe-and narrated
in detail the story of the celebrated hermit St. Anthony.
A noble Roman lady named Marcella, afterwards an
intimate friend of St. Jerome, was among the audience.
She was captivated by the description, and became
the founder of a convent in Rome. The seed of monas-
ticism thus planted yielded in after years a rich harvest
in this place. In other ways, too, this master-mind
made a deep impression on the Church in Rome, which,
in Milman's words, became 'the scholar as well as the
partisan of Athanasius.'
    The Eastern Bishops had declined to be present
 at the Council of Rome which formally purged Athan-
 asius of the charges laid against him. This may be
 noted as an instance of the widening breach between
 the Churches of the East and West. The latter had
    C. H.                                      E


49





50    THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

remained almost entirely free from the taint of Arian-
ism which had deeply infected the Eastern Church.
    A further example was afterwards exhibited at
 the Council of Sardica (347), a city of Mcesia near
 The council the frontier line of the Eastern and Western
 of Sardica  empires. The Oriental Bishops reached the
.city indeed, but refused to take part in the council
except on impossible conditions, and eventually left
Sardica and formed a council of their own at Philip-
popolis. The Western Bishops continued their session.
Among the canons passed at the Council of Sardica
was one permitting, in certain circumstances, an appeal
to Rome, a canon which, as Professor Bright remarks,
approached dangerously near to giving a supremacy to
the Pope.
    And now news came from Alexandria of the death
 or the murder of the usurper Gregory, and Athanasius
 Athanasius was once more allowed to return to his see.
 again
 eturns   It is said that Constans exacted this permis-
 sion from his brother Constantius under the threat of
 war-a signal instance of the influence which eccle-
 siastical affairs were beginning to have on the destiny
 of the empire an influence which forty years previously
 would have seemed quite incredible.
    For the moment the attitude of Constantius to
 Athanasius was gracious and affable: he admitted him
 to a personal interview at Antioch, and wrote letters in
 his favour to the authorities in Egypt, ecclesiastical and
 civil. " But a change was at hand. In the year 350 an
 event occurred which deprived Athanasius of a powerful
 friend, and placed the whole civilised world under the
 rule of a single Arian despot. This was the death of





THE SONS OF CONSTANTINE


Constans. The emperor of the West was staying in
the neighbourhood of Autun, surrounded by troops,
Constantius devoting himself to the chase and other plea-
sole emperor sures, when one of his generals, Magnentius,
a German by birth, formed a conspiracy, assumed the
imperial purple, and forced Constans to put himself to
death.
    In less than two years Magnentius was defeated at
the battle of Mursa by Constantius, whose first act as
sole emperor was to direct a cruel persecution against
the Catholic Christians in several parts of the world.
    At a council held at Arles under his auspices,
Athanasius was condemned; and at Milan, now the
acknowledged capital of the West, an interview took
place which vividly illustrates the danger of this im-
perial connexion for the Church. Constantits sum-
moned a council of Western Bishops to meet at Milan.
With his own hand he drew up an edict against
Athanasius, supported by such theological arguments
as he was master of. This document was presented to
the assembled Bishops. The emperor did not at first
appear in person, but remained concealed for a while
behind the tapestry hangings, which were suspended at
the end of the council chamber. But when the murmurs
of dissent, which greeted the reading of the edict,
broke upon his ear, he burst impatiently into the
assemblage, exclaiming,' This doctrine which you reject
is my doctrine: if it be false, as you say, how comes it
that heaven has given success to my arms, and placed
the world in my power ?'-
    Fortunately a Christian Bishop was found bold
enough to refute an argument which was only formidable
                                             z2


5I





52   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

because it came from  imperial lips. ' Your success,'
said Lucifer, Bishop of Cagliari, 'proves nothing:
Scripture is full of instances of apostate kings whom
God did not overthrow at once,' and he cited the in-
stances of the Midianites and Amalekites, of Saul
and Solomon; then turning to the arguments of the
edict he continued, ' Your doctrine is the doctrine of
Arius himself, neither more nor less, and those who
support it are the precursors of anti-Christ.' Though
the council ended by the exile of Lucifer and other
faithful Bishops who had refused to condemn Athanasius,
and by, the forced and formal assent of the rest, the
firm and dignified resistance offered to the tyrant was a
substantial victory for the cause of truth.
   The significance of the scene, however, cannot escape
us. Here was an emperor, who had not advanced so far
in Christianity as to become a catechumen, endeavouring
to force heretical theology by crude arguments on an
assemblage of Bishops, and daring to say : 'That which
I will is a canon of the Church,' 1 and again: ' Have
I chosen you to be my advisers that I may be prevented
from doing what I choose ?' It was a moment of peril
and ominous for the future.
   But, on the other hand, it may be thought a pro-
vidential circumstance that, at this beginning of the
connexion between the empire and the Church, the
Church was brought into open conflict with the em-
peror, and was not persuaded by the flattery of court
favour to yield herself a bondslave to the civil power.
An orthodox emperor might have been more dangerous
to the infant liberty of the Church than a declared Arian
        I irEp 4yw po!oac TroUO  avcv, E'Eye, VOALCEdo'lo.





THE SONS OF CONS T4NTINE


like Constantius.   The adjustment of the relations
between Church and State had already become a grave
and difficult question; and one of the chief points of
interest in this peried of Church history is to watch the
great experiments by which a solution of that question
was attempted.
    We now return to Athanasius. The partisans of
 Constantius required no formal edict or imperial com-
 Athanasius mand to attempt the Bishop's overthrow.
 driven by
 violence Several emissaries from  the - court reached
 from Alex-
 andria   Alexandria, and after a treacherous calm of
 a few weeks, a preconcerted attack was made on the
 church of St. Theonas, where Athanasius was assisting
 at a midnight service.   The church was surrounded
 by troops. An impressive scene followed. The Bishop
 seated on his throne desired the deacon to read the
 Psalm-the 1386th-and the people to respond 'for
his mercy endureth for ever.' The Psalm was scarcely
finished, when the soldiers rushed into the church,
trampling down, wounding, and slaying the worship-
pers. Athanasius himself, after remaining almost to
the last, miraculously escaped, and retired to the con-
vents and cells of the Egyptian deserts.
    Then a bitter trial came upon him. The Arians
 introduced into the see of Alexandria an adventurer of
 George of coarse manners and evil repute, named George
 Cappadocia of Cappadocia. For more than five years the
 orthodox Christians of Alexandria were exposed to a
 brutal and systematic persecution only terminated by
 the murder of George at the hands of the pagan popu-
 lation, whom his arrogance and oppression had equally
 exasperated. This was in A.D. 362.


53





54   THE CHUR-H AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

   in the previous year Constantius had died. By the
Council of Ariminum (Rimini) A.D. 359, he had made
Counnil of  one more attack on the purity of the Nicene
Ariminum faith. By the subtlety of Valens, an Arian
Bishop, that important council had been induced to
accept a Creed which in specious language conveyed
heretical teaching. When that Creed was by the em-
peror's influence pressed upon the Eastern and Western
Churches, in the words of Jerome, 'the whole world
groaned and marvelled to find itself Arian.'
    It may be convenient here to anticipate events by
briefly tracing to its end the noble career of the saintly
Athanasius. He had returned to Alexandria under an
edict of toleration issued by the emperor Julian. There
The sequel he succeeded by the wisdom of his rule and
of Athan-
asius' career great personal influence in maintaining quiet
in that turbulent city. Nor was his pastoral activity
confined to the narrow limits of Egypt. 'The age, the
merit, the reputation of Athanasius,' says Gibbon, ( en-
abled him to assume in a moment of danger the office
of ecclesiastical moderator.' The danger of a schism,
which the misguided decision of Ariminum might have
occasioned, was averted by the gentleness and wisdom
of Athanasius. But all this was quite contrary to the
intention of the emperor Julian, who succeeded Con-
stantius. He issued a hostile edict against Athanasius,
whose life at once became in danger. For a fourth
time he fled, waiting till 'the little cloud,' as he termed
it, of Julian's power should be dispersed.
    The Nile boat which was carrying Athanasius into
exile was closely pursued by the pagan governor of
Alexandria. By a clever manceuvre, the boat of Athan-





THE SONS OF CONSTANTINE


asius turned and met its pursuer. As they passed Their
enemies, they were asked, 'Have you seen Athanasius
and his friends pass on the river, and are we near to
them ?'  ' Yes,' exclaimed one, standing out from the
crowd of sailors, probably the Bishop himself, 'we saw
them  close to this spot; they cannot be far distant.'
So he eluded further pursuit.
    The cloud of the pagan reaction under Julian soon
passed away, and Athanasius was enabled to return,
this time for a season of long and almost uninterrupted
peace. He devoted himself to writing books, to the
administration of his diocese, to correspondence with
his friends, to the care, it may be said, of the universal
Church, of which St. Basil calls him ' the very summit,
a man of truly grand and Apostolic soul, who from
boyhood had been an athlete in the cause of religion.'
    Athanasius died peacefully in his own home, after a
life of persecution and exile. The exact date is stated
to be Thursday, May 2, 373.
    Undoubtedly no figure in ecclesiastical history stands
out with more impressive grandeur or more clearly than
that of Athanasius; no one has rendered higher or more
difficult and varied service to the cause of truth and of
Christ. Other leaders in a great crisis may have been
more learned, more powerful in speech and argument, of
quicker intuition, of deeper contemplation; but no one,
since St. Paul, had singly filled a wider space in con-
temporary Church history, no one had risen nearer to
the Apostolic ideal in zeal for Christ, in activity of service,
and in courageous defence of the faith as delivered to
the saints.


55.





56   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE



                  CHAPTER VII.
     THE EMPEROR JULIAN CALLED THE APOSTATE.

WE now proceed to narrate the dramatic story of the
emperor Julian. That story is a romance and a tragedy.
The interest The romance of a young and gallant prince
of Julian's
career   passing through many vicissitudes of fortune,
from imminent peril of death to the imperial throne;
the tragedy of an absolute earthly ruler fighting with
self-chosen weapons against the Kingdom of Christ,
and by his own self-will devoting himself to ruin. It
was a career which deeply affected Christianity-the
last desperate struggle of a dying paganism which sealed
the certainty of the triumph of the Church.
    Besides the great Athanasius, the names of Gregory
Nazianzen and of Basil are closely linked with the
history of Julian. The threefold record will give us
interesting glimpses of the Church life and of the better
side of paganism which were so strangely mingled in
those dark and terrible days of conflict.
   We must go back once more to the time of Con-
stantine's death. It will be remembered that, besides
the three Augusti, two only of the imperial family
were allowed to live-Gallus and Julian, sons of Julius
Constantius and nephews of Constantine the Great.
    It will not be necessary to follow in detail the
career of the unfortunate Gallus. The two brothers
         were nurtured and educated under the careful
Gallus
         and suspicious supervision of the emperor
Constantius. At length, after six years of thinly dis-





THE EMPEROR JULIAN CALLED THE APOSTATE 57

guised imprisonment in a Cappadocian fortre ;s, Gallus
was allowed to share the government of the world with
the title of Casar. His rule was a cruel and impolitic
despotism, which was aggravated by the inhuman
ferocity of his wife, the princess Constantina, who is
described as a very tigress in her thirst for blood.
    The massacre of two emissaries of the emperor
Constantius, sent to make enquiries at Antioch where
Gallus held his court, sealed the fate of that prince.
He was summoned under a pretext of friendship to the
imperial presence at Milan; and signs of his impending
fate might be discerned in the coldness or insolence of
his reception at the various cities through which he
passed. Before long he found himself deprived of
his guards, stripped of the ensigns of a Casar, a
helpless prisoner in the power of Constantius, who
ordered his execution at Pola, a fortress in Istria.
    Julian was now left sole survivor of the family of
Constantine, with the exception of the emperor himself.
Julian at He had a difficult and dangerous part to play.
Milan    He was summoned by the murderer of his
brother to the court at Milan, where, it is said to his
credit, no word passed his lips which could be inter-
preted as a condonation of that crime. At the same
time, with an address and caution beyond his years, he
was able to avoid the pitfalls prepared for him by the
intriguing ministers of Constantius, who were ever on
the watch to give an evil significance to his language
or his silence. Fortunately he had a friend at court.
Eusebia, the emperor's wife, whose gracious disposition
has won the praise of all historians, espoused the cause
of Julian. It was probably by her intervention that





58   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Julian wa permitted to retire from Milan and to reside
at Athens.
    At that time Athens was, as we should term it, the
university of the civilised world.   All the political
Re studies influence of former days and the pride of
at Athens empire had of course long passed away from it,
but it was still the home of the Muses. All that was best
in the literature and philosophy of that declining age
was to be found there.     To Julian, therefore, who
was an enthusiastic lover of the Greek language and of
Greek speculation, Athens offered the strongest attrac-
tion. It is important to remember this; for the paganism,
with which Christianity was soon to be confronted, was
not the coarse and popular paganism which it had sup-
planted, but a refined and philosophic system which
was intended to appeal to the nobler instincts and
cultivated tastes of mankind.
    Up to this time Julian was professedly a Christian.
He had been the pupil of Eusebius, the Arian Bishop
Julian's of Nicomedia; he had been carefully, almost
education rigorously, initiated into  the ritual and
usages of the Church; he had taken part in the services
as a reader. But Christianity as it had been presented
to him by Arian teaching, and in the lives and aims of
Constantius and his courtiers, had no attraction for
Julian; it had not touched his heart.
    For this reason some modern historians have hesi-
tated to add the title of apostate to Julian's name.
The title of Indeed  no  one can rightly be called an
apostate apostate who has not been an adherent or
willing servant of a leader or a master; and it cannot
be said of Julian that he was either an adherent of





THE EMPEROR JULIAN CALLED THE APOSTATE 59

Christ or His true servant. He had been forced into a
service which had been misrepresented to him     and
which he found irksome. He never gave his heart to
Christ or the enthusiasm of his nature to the Christian
cause. Already in secret he had yielded to the fasci-
nation of pagan teaching and of mystic rites, and
had become a worshipper of the gods of Greece after
the idealised fashion of the modern philosophy; but
the time had not arrived for an open declaration of his
real belief.
    Meanwhile an opposite influence presented itself to
him   in the schools of Athens.    Among the most
         distinguished of his fellow-students were two
:Basil and
Gregory  Christian scholars, whose close and loving
fe low
stuents of friendship forms one of   those  touching
Julian   human episodes which break in upon       the
severity of history with a gentle and domestic in-
terest. These were Basil of Cesarea and Gregory of
Nazianzus. In the light of their learning, deep as his
own, and in their no less vivid enthusiasm for the great
classical writers, Julian might observe a Christianity
which was as keen as philosophic paganism in the
search for truth, and as receptive of the highest results
of Hellenic thought.
   These devoted Christian youths became intimate with
Julian; and it is said that, long afterwards, when Julian
gained the summit .of imperial power, the vast influ-
ence, the noble career, and the unsullied fame of these
great Churchmen, more than anything else moved the
master of the world to jealousy. Julian left Athens
with the deepest regret, and never ceased to regard it
with a loving and tender reminiscence.





60   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

   With the fate of his brother Gallus before him he
must have obeyed the emperor's summons to Milan
with some misgivings. When he arrived at court he
Julian   was despatched to Gaul to take the command
despatched
to Gaul  in that province, and to ward off the attacks
of the barbarian tribes on the Rhine frontier. It was
a post in which it was dangerous either to succeed or
to fail. Julian, however, soon developed conspicuous
military talents and endeared himself to his soldiers.
Thrice he crossed the Rhine and each time the cam-
paign was crowned with success. Thousands of Roman
citizens were rescued from a shameful imprisonment
among the barbarian Alemanni, and when the triumph
of his arms was complete, the peaceful administration
of Julian restored the blessings of order and prosperity
to the province.
   A story is told of the first of these victorious cam-
paigns, which shows how the leaven of Christianity was
at work in the Roman armies, and brings an interesting
and familiar name before us.
    One day, when the imperial bounty was being dis-
tributed to the army, a young soldier stepped out from
st. Martin  the ranks, and marching straight up to Julian
of Tours exclaimed, 'Caesar, hitherto I have served
you; now let me serve God. Let him who wishes to
fight under your banner take your pay; as for me, I
wish henceforth to be Christ's soldier alone. Fighting
is no longer lawful for me.' Taunted with cowardice,
the young soldier offered to pass through the enemies'
ranks unarmed in the name of the Lord Jesus and with
the sign of the Cross. It so happened that that very
day ended the campaign, and the proof of valour was





THE EMPEROR JULIAN CALLED THE APOSTATE 61

not exacted. Julian, however, made enquiry about the
young soldier, and was informed of his affectionate
nature, of his charity, and of the love which his comrades
bore him. He was told, also, how one bitterly cold
night this soldier had divided his military cloak into
two halves, and had given one half to a shivering
beggar; in the night the Christ had appeared to him
clothed in that half cloak, saying: ' It was Martin
that clothed me.' The story is familiar, but it is not
remembered by all as an incident in the campaign of
the pagan Julian.
    The success of Julian was by no means grateful
to the emperor Constantius, who began to employ
The jealousy against him the policy which he practised on
of Con-
sta tius Gallus. A demand came to Julian to despatch
some of his best troops across the Alps to the East,
where Constantius was preparing for his war with
Persia. Julian perceived the danger; but to disobey
the commands of the emperor seemed impossible. The
devotion of his troops came to his aid. They sur-
rounded the palace where he resided at Lutetia, the
modern Paris, and first with low and isolated voices,
then with a chorus of tumultuous cries, called on
Julian to assume the titles of Augustus and emperor.
After a certain show    of resistance Julian accepted
the situation.  The conciliatory letter which he ad-
The march dressed to Constantius was answered by a
of Julan peremptory message to lay down the title
Constantius which he had assumed, and to trust himself
to the clemency of the emperor. To such a letter the
only possible response was war.
    This was the occasion which Julian took of publicly





62   THE CHURCH AND THE RO1/iMAN EMPIRE

renouncing Christianity, so that the campaign, which
he instantly commenced against Constantius, bore to a
certain extent the character of a reaction in favour of
paganism. Symptoms of such a reaction had already
appeared, and perhaps had given hopes to Magnentius
in his desperate conflict with Constantius.
    We will not linger over Julian's gallant and ad-
venturous march, with a flying column, as we should
term it, detached from its base and from the main
division of his army, through the unknown depths of
the Black Forest, and across the Alps, to a point on the
banks of the Danube between Ratisbon and Vienna,
and thence by the river to Sirmium in Illyricum, one
of the chief imperial residences. Everywhere he was
received with  joy.   Constantius turned back from
the Persian war to meet his adversary, and the fright-
ful prospect of imminent civil war disclosed itself
to the world. Happily for the peace of the empire,
Constantius caught a fever in a town where he halted
constantius not far from Tarsus, and there died. He
dies     was succeeded by Julian, who now, at the
age of thirty-two, became sole master of the Roman
world (361).
    It was a critical and dramatic moment in the history
of mankind.    Once more Christianity and paganism
Julian   confronted one another; but the circum-
succeeds to
the empire stances and conditions of the conflict had
changed. Formerly paganism had endeavoured to hold
back the advancing tide of Christian influence; but
Christianity had won the victory.    Constantine had
avowedly fought his way to supreme power in the name
of Christ, and he upheld with all the authority of the





THE EMPEROR JULIAN CALLED THE APOSTATE 63

State the religion which had carried him to victory.
Still that revolution was not effected without wounding
and destroying many interests, and without exciting
deep  antipathies.  There were many anti-Christian
influences which were strong enough at any favourable
moment to create a formidable reaction.
    Julian took advantage of the lingering prejudice in
favour of the old religion, and gave all his energy to
The pagan- promote a revival of paganism.    But the
Juiani   paganism which Julian sought to restore was
very different to any form of religion which the world
had yet seen or known. In one important particular,
at any rate, it differed from the ancient idea of a
religion which confined special gods and special ob-
servances to particular countries. Julian's paganism
was to be a catholic paganism, and in this, as in
other elements, the influence of Christianity may be
traced.
    He accepted the Greek and Roman polytheism,
and the Homeric Olympus, but he allegorised these
conceptions after the manner of Alexandrian philo-
sophers. He acknowledged, indeed, a supreme eternal
cause of the universe; but that cause was invisible
and inaccessible to the human intellect, and was only
to be reached by the ministers and interpreters of
the supreme deity, known to men by the familiar
names of Jupiter, Mars, Minerva, or Venus. Lastly,
the celestial bodies were, he held, rightfully objects
of worship; amongst them the Sun held sovereignty,
and was in a special sense the favourite divinity of
Julian.
    Such  was the religion which    Julian attempted





64   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

to oppose to Christianity. It awoke no enthusiasm,
because it contained no principle. It made no response
to human needs or to the human conscience. Julian,
pure-minded and even ascetic in his own views and life,
was disappointed to find that the revival of paganism
only meant renewed license to indulge in the coarse
ritual of the heathen gods.
    The two directions in which Julian delighted to make
a display of his convictions were, a profuse expenditure
on sacrifices to the gods, and an exaggerated devotion
to those philosophers and mystics who had been his
teachers and religious guides. So bitter was the re-
sentment which he felt against the Christians, that any
cult or worship which they opposed was taken under
his protection.
    This feeling became the occasion of one of the most
remarkable events in his reign. Because a Christian
Julian's at- prophecy had foretold the utter destruction of
tempt to re-
build the the Temple at Jerusalem, and had declared
Temple at
Jerusalem against its restoration, Julian determined to
rebuild the Temple. He assumed a friendly attitude
towards the Jews, for no other reason except that they
were enemies of the Christians.
    What follows is attested not only by the Christian
writers, Ambrose, Chrysostom and Gregory Nazianzen,
but by a more impartial witness, the heathen historian
Ammianus Marcellinus.
    The Jews hastened with great alacrity to carry out
the emperor's wish. Men and delicate women, rich
and poor alike, vied with each other in preparing the
foundations of the Temple.    'But,' says Ammianus,
'whilst Alypius, assisted by the governor of the pro-





THE EMPEROR JULIAN CALLED THE APOSTATE 65

vince, urged with vigour and diligence the execution
of the work, horrible balls of fire breaking out near
the foundations with frequent and reiterated attacks
rendered the place from   time to time inaccessible to
the scorchecJ and blasted workmen, and the victorious
element continuing in this manner obstinately and re-
solutely bent, as it were, to drive them to a distance,
the undertaking was abandoned.'
    We leave the story as we find it: whatever explana-
tions may be offered, few historical incidents are better
authenticated, and few are more significant.
    Julian had persuaded himself that his mission was
to destroy Christianity. But he did not propose to
Julian ab- persecute, both because he was not naturally
stains from
persecution cruel, and because persecution as a political
measure had been tried and failed. It had increased
the number of martyrs, deepened the enthusiasm for
the faith, and drawn fresh adherents by the attraction
of danger. So Julian determined not to persecute; the
'Galileans,' as he contemptuously terms the Christians,
were only to be deprived of those favourable exemp-
tions from taxation and civic duty granted them by
Constantine. They were to restore or rebuild the pagan
temples which they had destroyed; they were to render
back the sites on which the temples stood, and the
sacred vessels which they contained.
    But whatever resolve Julian might make about
refraining from  persecution, he soon found that the
process of destroying Christianity involved it.   His
measures as to the restoration of pagan temples became
the occasion of cruel and irritating persecution. In
many cases churches had risen on the sites of temples:
    C. H.                                       F





66    THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

and the temples could not be rebuilt except at enormous
expense. The zeal of provincial magistrates and popu-
Persecution lations carried out what they conceived to be
beome,
inevitabe the emperor's wish, by the oppression of many
Christians; if the Christian was quite ruined, .Julian
was ready with his sneer, 'It is the condition which
their Master called "' blessed."'
    Another curious and petty mode of persecution, and
one which raises an interesting question, was the pro-
Christians  hibition to Christian teachers of the great
debarred
from read-  classical works of Greek and Roman authors.
ing the
cassics   'If they do not believe the gods,' he decreed,
'let them   not read the books which describe their
deeds.'
    Julian's object was doubtless to lower the standard
of Christian education and to reduce the Galilzeans to
the status of a despised and illiterate sect. Even pagan
historians feel a sense of shame in recording this unj ust
and illiberal measure.  St. Augustine speaks of it in
indignant terms. In a fine passage of the De Civitate
Dei addressed to those who formed a priori schemes
about the Advent of Christ, and tried to round off the
number of persecutions, so as to make them   tally with
their theories, he asks" 'Is not he a persecutor of the
Church who prohibits a liberal education ? '1 The Chris-
tian response to these measures was a noble one. Within
a few months, works were composed by Christian scholars
setting forth the history and the verities of Christianity
in dialogues or poems modelled on the style of Homer,
Euripides, or Plato.
   ' An ipse non est ecclesiam persecutus qui Christianos liberales
literas docere ac discere vetuit ?-De Civ. Dei, xviii. 52.





THE EMPEROR JULIAN CALLED THE APOSTATE 67

    This striking and unexampled effort in iterature
has had no slight influence in deciding the future of
Christian education.  It is in great measure owing to
the position taken by Gregory Nazianzen, Basil of
Caesarea, and other great scholars of this epoch, that
Christianity is not a narrow enthusiasm, but a Church
divinely built upon a foundation    broader than all
human knowledge.
    But the opposite view, condemnatory of all pagan
literature and its influence, found vigorous defenders in
this age as it has at other epochs. The depreciation of
secular learning has been an animating principle in
schools of Christian thought as widely opposed in time
and characteristics as the monasticism of Egypt and
the Evangelical school of the eighteenth century. The
historian Socrates found it necessary to put forth an
elaborate defence of teaching from the great pagan
writers.  'Christ,' he says, 'has taught us to become
approved money-changers' (an expression not else-
where found) ' in order that we may prove all things
and hold fast that which is good.' He cites also the
instance of St. Paul and of L the ancient doctors of the
Church.'
    Among the scholars who took part in this literary
movement against the decree of Julian, and who claimed
for Christianity the whole range of human learning,
and refused to place it outside the highest results of
Hellenic wisdom, the two Apollinarii, father and son,
the one celebrated as a grammarian, the other as a
rhetorician, were especially distinguished. The elder
Apollinarius translated the Pentateuch and paraphrased
the historical books of the Old Testament in Greek





68    THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

verse, using all the different metres, says Socrates, 'in
order that no form of expression peculiar to the Greek
language might be unknown or unheard of among
Christians.'' The younger Apollinarius explained the
teaching of the New Testament in the form of Platonic
dialogues.  But nowhere did Julian find a more able
and strenuous resistance to his illiberal method of per-
secution than in his former fellow-students Gregory
Nazianzen and Basil of Caesarea. St. Gregory has left
many poems, some descriptive of his own career and
of contemporary events, some on abstract subjects of
Christian thought, which, though falling short of classic
correctness and beauty, have a charm of their own re-
cognised by modern criticism.
    St. Basil wrote a special address to the young,
showing how they may study Greek literature to ad-
vantage.   He takes the view     already adopted  by
Eusebius, that all that is good in pagan literature was
an echo of the inspired teaching of the Old Testament.
The whole movement is full of interest, and suggests
modern parallels in many points; with Synesius of
Cyrene, for instance, there is the same tendency to push
classic influence and modes of thought to an extreme
which is observable in some phases of the Renaissance
in Europe.
    Julian's brief reign of eighteen months (from No-
vember 361 to June 363) was divided between a resi-
dence at Constantinople, a residence at Antioch, and
his campaign on the Euphrates against the Persians.
It would lie beyond the limits of our subject to go
minutely into the details of Julian's active and interest-
                  ' Socr. Bk. iii. ch. 16





THE EMPEROR JULIAN CALLED THE APOSTATE 69

ing career.  It is enough to say that, notwithstanding
his self-denial and energy as a ruler, and his military skill
and brilliant rhetoric, troubles grew thick upon him.
    At Antioch the greater part of the population was
hostile to him, and he was exposed to petty annoyances
Jujian at of looks or muttered words which it was im-
Antioch  possible to restrain or to punish. Julian was
drawn more and more into the hateful necessity of per-
secution. Christians were excluded from civil employ-
ment in the imperial service. Soldiers who declined
to take part in the idolatrous rites with which Julian
surrounded the military life were put to death. The
great temple of Apollo near Antioch was burnt to the
ground, probably by accident; but Julian attributed the
calamity to the fanaticism of the Christians. The order
was given to demolish Christian churches.     Several
Christians were brought to trial, and were cruelly tor-
tured and slain. Their constancy amazed and baffled
their judges. One, Theodoret by name, in the midst of
his tortures calmly prophesied the death of his judge;
and of the emperor he said: ' An unknown hand shall
take his life, and his body shall lie unburied in a foreign
land.' Within a few days the first part of the prophecy
was fulfilled. Count Julius, Theodoret's judge and a
near kinsman of the emperor, died in agonies. The rest
of the prophecy lingered in men's minds till it was
fulfilled in the Assyrian deserts.
    It is not necessary to describe at large Julian's
 disastrous campaign on the Euphrates and the Tigris.
 Julan's last Nor does that campaign immediately affect
 and death the history of the Church except so far as it
 terminated the career of her last pagan persecutor.





70    THE CHURCH AVD THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Julian had proved himself a brilliant commander in his
Gaulish campaigns, and in his daring march for empire
from the Rhine to the Danube. In the present expedi-
tion his old soldierly qualities remained, but as a general
he made fatal mistakes. At the instigation of a Persian
spy he burnt his ships and provisions on the Tigris,
marched into the heart of the waterless deserts, was
there abandoned by his treacherous adviser, and exposed
to the onslaught of the enemy's cavalry. After some
days of unspeakable hardships and privations Julian
determined on a retreat. In one of the skirmishes with
a body of Persian horse he rushed unarmed to the front
and was fatally wounded. A scream of agony escaped
him, which, so far as it shaped itself into articulate
words, was interpreted to mean, '0 G alilean, thou hast
conquered ! ' or else, ' Sun god, thou hast deceived
me!' The scholar will recognise that in Greek the two
sentences would have a far closer similarity of sound
than in English.
    Such was the end of Julian, and such the success of
his attack on Christianity. In some ways this great
trial of the Church was not without its results for good
-the removal of dangerous exemptions from      eccle-
siastics, the cutting down of unseemly state and wealth
in the Church, the spread of Christian teaching by the
partial assumption of it into his system by Julian, the
purification and strengthening of the Church by the
excision of weak and cowardly members.





71


                  CHAPTER VIII.
             ST. BASIL AND ST. GREGORY.

IT is a relief to turn from Julian to his two fellow-
students in the schools of Athens-Gregory Nazianzen
and Basil. The careers of these two noble champions
of the faith against the influence of pagan and Arian
emperors make an instructive and stirring contrast to
the life and work of Julian.
    Gregory and Basil were born about 330.      Both
were natives of Cappadocia; the parents of Basil living
at Casarea, then the capital of the province; those of
Gregory at the little town of Nazianzus in the south-
west of Cappadocia, of which place Gregory's father
was Bishop.
    The life-long friendship began when Basil and
Gregory were schoolfellows together at Caesarea, under
Early life  the tutorship of Carterius, afterwards, it is
of Gregory
nd Basil thought, the instructor of Chrysostom, and
always tenderly loved and remembered in after days
by Gregory. From Caesarea in Cappadocia, Gregory
and his brother Caesarius-afterwards a celebrated
physician-passed to the city of the same name in
Palestine to pursue the study of rhetoric.    Shortly
before that time the empress Helena had discovered, or
believed she had discovered, the true Cross on Calvary,
and the young students at Casarea would doubtless
visit at Jerusalem the noble church which had been
lately consecrated on the spot.    Still eager in the
pursuit of knowledge, Gregory went to Alexandria





72    THE CHUzchr AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

then the seat of the most refined culture and the most
advanced learning of the age. After a short residence
at Alexandria he became anxious to visit a city of still
older renown and greater memories.       Like Julian,
Gregory was attracted to the schools of Athens, which
was still the eye of Greece, the centre of Hellenic
culture.
    At Athens Gregory and Basil met again.       It is
amusing to read how Gregory saved his old friend from
Student life the annoyance of rough practical jokes, to
at Athens which freshmen were exposed at Athens as
they have been at more modern seats of learning. As
fellow-students they lived   in the closest intimacy,
sharing one room, studying the same books, and stimu-
lating each other to aim at the highest ideal of Christian
scholarship. Here Basil especially became intimately
acquainted with Julian.    They studied together, as
Basil afterwards reminds the emperor, not only the
models of classical eloquence and poetry, but also the
Holy Scriptures. It is interesting to remember in after
life this intercourse of the scholar emperor and the
scholar saint.
    Gregory and Basil achieved the highest reputation
at Athens. Distinguished and lucrative careers were
open to either of them, but each resolved to devote all
to the cause of Christ.  Each, however, had his temp-
tations and his weaknesses.
    The classical writers of Greece and Rome still
possessed a great, perhaps a dangerous, attraction for
Basil adopts Gregory.. As for Basil, a wise and loving
a monastic
life      elder sister--Macrina--detected   an   intel-
lectual pride which kept him back from entire self-





ST. BASIL AND ST. GREGORY


abandonment to Christ. A letter of his brother has
been preserved, which implies that Basil had adopted
the manner and airs of a line gentleman. But the
spirit of devotion prevailed, and Basil determined to
retire from the world and live a secluded life with a
community of like-minded brethren.     First, he visited
the celebrated hermits and ascetic communities in Pales-
tine, Syria and Egypt; then he resolved to carry out
his plan of life in a quiet spot on the banks of the river
Iris in Pontus.
    This age of Church history was the age of great
experiments in the Christian life; and Basil's experi-
ment, with its teaching for the future, deserves to be
carefully noted.
    Basil decided for the life of a community as against
the solitary life with much reason. ' What discipline of
humility, of pity, or of patience,' he says, 'can exist if
there be no one on whom   those virtues are to be prac-
tised ?' In a letter to Gregory, inviting him  to join
his society, Basil gives a charming account of his
monastic home, with an appreciation of natural scenery,
which seems to be a gift of Christianity. 'My mountain
is lofty, covered with thick woods, watered on the north
with clear streams. At its foot extends a vast plain
made fruitful by the mountain rivulets, so closed in by
stream and mountain, as to make it like an island.'
' And it was,' he said, with recollections of his Homer,
'as beautiful as the island of Calypso.'
    Gregory, however, had    duties at Nazianzus in
assisting his aged father in    his episcopal lubours,
helping too in domestic management, in which he finds
intolerable difficulties. 'To govern servants,' he says,


73





74    THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

'is a very net of ruin.' He visited Basil, however, and
was charmed by the scene of mingled industry and de-
Gregory   votion. Soon after this Gregory was ordained,
assists his
father d  not voluntarily, but, as happened sometimes
.azianzus in those days, suddenly by compulsion on the
part of the congregation. Such forced ordinations-
we hear too of forced baptisms and of forced episcopal
consecrations-are among the most remarkable eccle-
siastical incidents at this period of Church history. It
is another instance of the Church feeling her way to a
more perfect discipline.
    Once ordained Gregory made it a principle to fulfil
his duties as priest to the utmost of his powers. The
address which he delivered on pastoral work, after-
wards amplified into a treatise, has remained a standard
authority on this subject through all the Christian cen-
turies.  Soon the terror of Julian's accession fell upon
the Church. His cruel and illiberal edict against the
use of classics by Christian teachers was deeply felt by
the two friends. But a more bitter and nearer visita-
tion was at hand. Julian passed through Caesarea on
his march to Persia. He found a Christian population,
and the last heathen temple levelled to the grouind.
He levied an enormous fine on the city, but was nobly
resisted by Basil. Then he left Casarea, threatening
a terrible vengeance on his return from the Persian
expedition.
    St. Basil became Bishop of Casarea, a position of
great and wide importance and supremacy.      By him
St. Basil St. Gregory was appointed Bishop of Sasima,
Bishop of
Csesarea a small and unattractive spot, but chosen as
the seat of a Bishopric that it might be a sort of eccle-





ST. BASIL AND ST. GREGORY


siastical outpost in a dispute on the question of episcopal
jurisdiction. This position was distasteful to St. Gregory,
and produced a coolness for a while between him and
St. Basil.
    Basil's weak and tortured frame was the first to suc-
cumb to death. His episcopal rule had been surrounded
with difficulties and dissensions, but his splendid reso-
lution triumphed over all. He was threatened by the
emperor Valens, but his noble Christian courage not
only compelled the emperor to retract his edict of
banishment, but preserved for his city the purity of the
Catholic faith.
    St. Gregory was summoned to the see of Constanti-
nople, where he presided at the oecumenical council held
in the year 381. He had a hard fight against the Arian
faction in  Constantinople under the emperor Valens,
but better times came with Theodosius. Eventually St.
Gregory left Constantinople, after delivering an impres-
sive valedictory address, and retired  to  his native
Nazianzus, where he died in about the sixtieth year of
his life.
    The life and works and examples of these two
great Saints have left an indelible impression on the
The teach- Church. Their history, of which our limits
ing of   have afforded only a meagre outline, is full
these two
lives    of deep and modern interest. In the course
of it important questions were raised, such as the
Christian study of the classics, the pastoral duties of
the Christian minister, the   ties of friendship  and
religion, the attitude of a Catholic Bishop to an un-
believing emperor-questions which we may learn to
decide in the clear light of ancient ecclesiastical history,


75





76    THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

and by the eloquent words and devoted lives of two
of the greatest and saintliest of holy and heroic men
whose linked memories are a heritage of the Church.




                   CHAPTER IX.

            JOVIAN, VALENTINIAN, VALENS.

THE death of Julian left the army in a miserable and
even desperate position. It became necessary to elect
rovian   a new general and a new     emperor. For a
elected
emperor while it seemed possible that the spirit of
faction would seal the ruin of the unfortunate expedi-
tion. But while the leaders of the army were discussing
rival claims, a shout was raised in the rear in favour of
Jovianus, an officer of medium rank.   The favourable
but almost accidental cry of a few soldiers was carried
from rank to rank and resulted in the choice of Jovian
as emperor, an election furthered, it is said, by the
confusion occasioned by the similarity of sound between
the names of Julian and Jovian, which created a Ino-
mentary belief among the veterans of the late emperor
that their favourite leader had returned to life.
    The emperor thus elected by a knot of the inferior
officers and common soldiers of a retreating army was a
Christian, a circumstance which seems to imply that
the sentiments of Julian, and his bitter hostility to
Christianity, had not deeply penetrated the mass of his
soldiers. Many signs pointed in the same direction
throughout the empire. Altars which had smoked with





JOVIAN, VALENTINIAN, VALENS


innumerable victims were left cold and dishonoured.
The massive and half-finished remains of magnificent
The change heathen temples stood witnessing to the mo-
from
paganism mentous change. In the army the pagan
emblems once more gave place to the Christian symbol
of the labarum.
    The new emperor had a task of immense peril and
difficulty before him. He had to achieve the rescue of
his famished and despondent troops from the intermin-
able deserts, and from the pursuit of the enemy. Gibbon
has truly marked this as an important epoch in the
decline and fall of the Roman empire, when Jovian
concluded a shameful, though perhaps a necessary,
treaty with the Persian monarch, by which he abandoned
five provinces and the impregnable fortress of Nisibis to
the victorious Sapor. It is not, however, true to assert,
as Gibbon does, that this was the first occasion on
which the limits of empire were contracted.
    The impenetrable silence in which the Persian ex-
pedition had been involved was at length broken by
the news of Julian's death, and the succession of Jovian.
That news was variously received.  At Antioch it pro-
duced the liveliest satisfaction. There the Christian
emperor was welcomed with delight. St. Jerome de-
scribes his boyish recollections of the scene when the
news reached his native town.      He witnessed the
desertion of the temples, and the sudden cessation of
heathen sacrifice. He records, too, the saying of a pagan
bystander which he overheard: 'Why do the Christians
call their God long-suffering ?  Here He has not lost a
single day in taking vengeance.'
   It is unhappily characteristic of the history of


77





78    THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Christianity, that the removal of external pressure or
persecution opens the field to internal dispute. Jovian
was surrounded by the advocates of the different Chris-
tian parties, each eager to secure the imperial interest
for his own faction. He took the wisest possible course.
He summoned Athanasius to his presence, and asked his
Jovian's counsel. It was a policy which disappointed
Church
policy    a crowd of Arian Bishops who had expected
another Constantius, and whose sole object was to obtain
a share of court favour.
    St. Athanasius had written to Jovian, referring him
to the Nicene Creed as the standard of faith, and on his
arrival at court had urged the emperor to adopt a policy
of toleration and religious freedom. Consequently both
Arianism and pagan philosophy, no longer basking in
the sun of imperial protection, began to pine away
and disappear.    Jovian proceeded to restore to the
Churches, with some restrictions, those favours and
immunities which they had enjoyed before the reign of
Julian.
    Altogether the firm and prudent attitude of this
rude soldier suddenly elevated to supreme power was a
precedent which promised well for the future relations
of Church and State. We seem here to have an ad-
mirable adjustment between those relations, neither
displacing the other, but each regardful of mutual
interests; the empire supporting and drawing spiritual
strength from the Church, and in spiritual matters
ruling and judging by the advice and wisdom    of her
chief pastor ; the Church in all temporal things submit-
ting herself to Casar's rule.
    But the career of Jovian was destined to be short





JOVIAN, VALENTINIAN, VALENS


and tragic. The difficulties of his position seemed to
be surmounted. He was passing though Asia Minor on
The death his way to Constantinople. His wife Charito
of Jovian with her youthful son was hastening to meet
him, when the tidings met her that her husband was
no more.    He had reached a halting place, Dadas-
tana, on the confines of Bithynia and Galatia; the
night was intensely cold, his lodgings happened to
be in a newly built house, the walls of the chamber
in which he slept were damp and a large fire was
lighted.  In the morning the emperor was disco-
vered to be dead. Either the exhalation from the damp
walls or the fumes of the charcoal had been fatal to
him.
    St. Augustine in the 'City of God' remarks: 'It
was well for divine wisdom to load Constantine wit-h
prosperity, to show it can recompense its servants; it
was well too to smite Jovian in spite of his piety, that
men should learn not to follow the Christian faith in
the hope of earthly gain.'
    For ten days the Roman empire was without a
head.   Several names were proposed, but none met
choice of with the unanimous approval of the high
emperor  officials who had met in council, until the
name of Valentinian was mentioned. Valentinian, the
son of a distinguished general, had himself served with
merit on the Rhine and in the campaigns against
Persia.  He was a Christian and had run some risk in
consequence of his sincerity in the reign of Julian.
The heathen historian, Ammianus Marcellinus, praises
the proved courage of Valentinian and the purity and
simplicity of his life. But one dark stain, which the


79





80    THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

possession of supreme power rendered darker and more
injurious, marked the character of Valentinian. He was
subject to fits of furious and indiscriminating passion
which hurried him into acts of inexcusable cruelty. The
administration of the empire under this prince became
a reign of terror. A brighter side of his policy, which
especially commended itself to his heathen biographer,
was his impartiality in all matters of religion. We
shall see, however, how impossible and, indeed, how
criminal it is for a Christian ruler to preserve this
attitude when the usurpations of heresy demanded the
interference of the civil power.
    The election of Valentinian was confirmed by the
army.   It is a sign of the confusion and indecision of
         religious thought at this crisis that the
         ceremony was deferred until the arrival of a
day esteemed propitious in the light of pagan super-
stition. In obedience to the demands of his soldiers
Valentinian appointed a colleague not, however, one
who would have been the choice of others-his own
brother, the feeble and incompetent Valens. In the
division of empire Valentinian took for his share the
more difficult task of governing the West with Milan for
his capital; the East, with its centre at Constantinople,
was left to Valens.
    Valentinian did not entirely reverse the policy of
Julian towards the Christian Church. He withdrew, in-
valen-   deed, from the heathen temples the Christian
tini's   endowments conferred on them by Julian, but
policy   he did not restore them to the Church.  The
Christian priesthood was no longer permitted to carry





JOVIAN, VALENTINIAN, VALENS


with it immunity from taxation-the dangerous gift of
Constantine.
    In Church questions he endeavoured to separate
himself entirely from religious controversy. When he
was met on his way to Italy by a deputation from the
Bishops of the Hellespont and of Bithynia, requesting
him to summon a council: : I am but one of the laity
(or people),' he said, 'and have therefore no right to
interfere in these transactions. Let the Bishops to whom
such matters appertain assemble where they please.' 1
It is important for us in these days to take note how
impossible it is for a Christian ruler to adhere to such
resolutions.
    Almost immediately after his arrival at Milan Valen-
tinian found a state of affairs in the Christian Church
which demanded his intervention. Auxentius, Bishop
of Milan, had throughout his career belonged to the
Arian party, and it was by the influence of the Arian
Non-     Constantius that he had been placed in his
intervention
impossible see. But now that Arianism had ceased to be
fashionable at the imperial court in the West, Auxentius
professed a change, and declared himself on the Catholic
side. This sudden and suspicious conversion failed to
secure the confidence of the Christians in Milan, who took
up an attitude of mistrust and resistance. At that time
Hilary, the celebrated Bishop of Poitiers, was visiting
the Churches of Italy with the view of reconciling
with their flocks certain Bishops who in an unguarded
moment had subscribed the erring Creed of Ariminum.
In many cases such reconciliation was easy and de-
lightiful; the Bishops had erred from ignorance rather
                    a Sozomen, vi-vii.
    C. I.                                       G


8I





82    THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

than from any deliberate opposition to the Nicene Creed.
But at Milan Hilary took the side of the Catholic
Christians in their resistance to the time-serving Bishop
Auxentius.
    Valentinian wished to stand aloof. But his coun-
sellors forced upon him the necessity of putting an end
to a state of affairs which threatened the public peace.
Accordingly, Valentinian   commanded    all Christian
people to submit to Auxentius, and to frequent only
the regularly consecrated churches. Discovering the
impossibility of enforcing this decree, he next proposed
a measure equally distasteful, and equally impracticable,
namely, the appointment of a commission of Bishops
and lay officials to settle the question. The end of the
affair was that Auxentius gained so great an influence
over the emperor that Hilary was ordered to quit
Milan.
    From Gaul, Hilary addressed a letter to Valentinian,
in which he nobly maintains the independence of the
Church in her own province, and the danger of seeking
an unworthy alliance with the civil power. It is a
model treatise on the true relations between Church
and State.
    Another incident, into which we shall not enter at
length, presents some suggestive details to the Church
historian.
    On the death of Liberius, Bishop of Rome, the
question of his successor gave rise to a fierce and even
An ecclesias- sanguinary conflict between the partisans of
in Rome  Damasus and Ursinus, rival candidates for
the see. In the end, the party of Damasus prevailed.
But in the course of the contention, the authority of





JOVIAN, VALENTINL4N, VALENS


the civil governor had been overridden, the emperor
himself had been appealed to. He intervened, but to
little purpose indeed. The result was significant. An
Growth of imperial officer had  broken  Valentinian's
the eigco- principle of non-interference. A rival power
in Rome  resting on popular choice had shown itself
supreme in Rome. The prestige of the Christian pontiff
seemed already to be a danger to the empire. A say-
ing of Praetextatus, prefect of Rome, points to the
growing sense of the episcopal power in that city:
'Make me Bishop of Rome,' he exclaimed, I and I pro-
mise to become a Christian.'
    Another pagan, Ammianus Marcellinus, contrasts
the dignity, the magnificence, and the luxury of the
Bishop of Rome with the frugal, humble, and self-deny-
ing life of his provincial brethren. This glimpse at the
history of the Roman Church will suffice at least to
draw attention to one of the most intensely interesting
lines of historical research-the growth and influence of
the papal power.
    Before we leave the history of Valentinian, an in-
stance may be given of the tendency, the unconscious
tendency of the Church to absorb within itself the
powers of the world. A principal aim in Valentinian's
government was to counteract ecclesiastical influence.
Partly with this view he created a body of function-
aries named Defensores civitatum (protectors of cities).
These were placed in the several cities of the empire,
charged with the duty of defending the popular rights
and of redressing grievances. They were to be elected
by the people, and confirmed in office by the emperor.
The institution was intended to be a check on the
                                              G2


83





84    THE CHURCH AND TI!E ROMAN EMPRe

popular authority of the Bishops. But before a genera-
tion had passed, the Bishop and clergy were associated
in the election of this officer, who eventually became
little else than the nominee and lieutenant of the
Bishop.
    There is little more in the reign of Valentinian that
directly affects the Church. The ferocity of his cha-
racter, which has been already mentioned, increased in
intensity as he advanced in years. Instances are re-
corded, not only of cruelty, but of treacherous cruelty.
The story is well known of the two pet bears which he
kept in his own sleeping apartment, and to which he
exposed condemned criminals to be torn in pieces under
his own eyes.
    The magistrates and officials in the provinces were
ordered to carry out the same hard and cruel policy
The Church of suspicion and death. All this tended to
a refuge augment the influence of the Church of Christ.
from des-
potism   For everywhere men turned to the Church
and to the episcopal rule, as the only refuge from the
tyranny of the imperial government. In this way,
without countenancing the thought of disloyalty, and
without any consciously aggressive action, the Kingdom
of God grew in power.
    Some years before his death, Valentinian had nomi-
nated his son Gratian, then a boy eight years of age, to
be his associate in empire with the title of Augustus.
He expired in a fit of apoplexy, induced by a passionate
interview with the ambassadors of the Quadi, a barbar-
ous tribe with whom he was at war (375).


__









CHTAPTER X.


          VALENS--INVASION OF THE GOTHS.

TILE East was regarded as the less arduous division of
the world to govern; but Valens, brother and colleague
va'ens   of Valentinian, found himself entangled with
Copi     difficulties from  the first. While the threat-
ening of a Persian war detained him in Syria, the news
reached him of a formidable insurrection under Pro-
copius in the western part of his dominions. Procopius,
a kinsman of the emperor Julian, and at one time, it is
said, designated as his successor, was considered too
dangerous a subject to live. He escaped, however, the
imperial officers who had been sent to arrest him, and
found himself compelled to assume the purple rather
than perish ignominiously as a rebel. He was soon
surrounded by a considerable force. Perhaps we may
trace in the first successes of Procopius renewed evi-
dence of a pagan reaction.
    So formidable did the rising appear that Valens
was eager to abdicate ; but his officers disclaimed
submission, and insisted on Valens giving battle to
his rival.  The field of Nacolia in Phrygia justified
their resolution. Procopius was deserted by his officers,
his troops listened to the persuasion of their old leaders,
and the unfortunate Procopius, an emperor against his
will, was captured and slain.
    Valens had fallen under the influence of Eudoxius,
the Arian Bishop of Constantinople.     The religious
interest of his reign lies, not in the struggle between





86    THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Christianity and paganism, but between Arianism and
Catholic Christianity. The time had come when 'Chris-
An Arian tian love an ong the Churches looked the
persecution twin of heathen hate.' Everywhere pressure
was laid on the orthodox Churches. Meletius, Bishop
of Antioch, was driven into exile, and an Arian put in
his place; in Alexandria the Arian Lucius was thrust
into the see of Athanasius.   An imperial order de-
livered over to pillage and the sword the monasteries
of the Egyptian deserts.   Many Christians who re-
mained true to the Nicene faith were slain at Antioch
and other cities of the East. A scene which took
place at Edessa finely illustrates the Christian view of
persecution. Valens had ordered a general massacre
of the faithful assembled for worship in the ' martyry'
of St. Thomas in Edessa. A cordon of soldiers sur-
rounded the church, when a poor woman bearing a
little child tried to force her way into the congregation.
Brought before the prefect and asked whither she was
pressing, 'To the same place to which others are hasten-
ing,' she replied. ' Have you not heard that the prefect
is about to put to death all who shall be found there ?'
' Yes,' said the woman, 'and therefore I hasten that I
may be present.' ' And whither are you dragging that
little child ?' said the prefect. ' That he also may be
vouchsafed the honour of martyrdom,' was the mother's
reply. Thus once more was the folly of persecution
taught. It was vain to contend against a faith and
against a community in which the women and little
children were possessed of such calm courage.
   The mind of Valens, too, was diverted from Christian
   Such was the name given to churches dedicated to martyrs.





VALENS-INVASION OF THE GOTS


persecution by a superstitious fear. It was a fashion-
able weakness of the day to dip into the secrets of the
future by various devices. By one of these a revolving
table and an alphabetical arrangement spelt out the
names of destined dignitaries. Asked who should be the
future emperor, the oracle gave forth the letters Th-e-o-d
and then paused. By the voice of all the supreme
power was promised to Theodorus, a person of some
distinction. The designation was not only fatal to this
Theodorus, but was a danger to all the unhappy persons
who bore that name, or whose names began with the
fatal letters.
    Valens proceeded to put in force severe measures
against all who professed or practised the arts of sorcery
and magic. It is said that his zealous ministers con-
trived to include in this proscription sophists, neo-
platonists and others whose sympathies were with the
pagan system, and whose studious lives gave colour to
the charge of divination. A story is told of St. Chry-
sostom in connexion with this imperial edict. Walking
with a friend by the side of the Orontes he picked up a
fragment of writing which to his horror he discovered
to be part of a treatise on magic-a fatal possession.
To fling it away or to keep it was equally dangerous.
Fortunately he was not detected, but the incident made
a deep impression on his mind.
    An event now   occurred which became a turning
point in the history of the empire. For long different
The Gothic divisions of the Teutonic race had hung like
invasion a dark cloud on the borders of the Roman
empire. Up to this time the Danube, strongly guarded
by a succession of fortresses, had proved a sufficient





88    THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

barrier against the Gothic invasion. But now a new
motive, rather a necessity for advance, pressed upon
the Teutons. A fierce barbarian tribe of another race,
the Turanian Huns, had swept down upon the Goths
and forced them onwards. In countless hordes they
stood on the northern banks of the Danube which
flowed between them and the safe and fruitful plains of
Moesia, imploring permission to cross.
    The Goths had in some measure come under the
influence of Roman civilisation. Many of them had
The conver- served in the imperial armies, and had carried
sion of the
Goths    home some lessons in the arts of peace and
war. They must also have taken home the dangerous
secret of the weakness of the empire and the de-
clining valour and strength of Roman armies.      In
another respect they had grown akin to Rome. They
had become Christians through the preaching of one
of the greatest missionaries of our faith--Ulfilas,
the latinised form  of Wulfila or Wolfel.   Ulfilas, a
Goth, succeeded Theophilus, the first Bishop of the
Goths, who had sat at the Nicene Council. His great
work was the translation of the Scriptures into the
Gothic ver- language of the Goths. In order to accom-
sion of the
Scriptures  plish this work it was necessary to compose an
alphabet of twenty-four letters, four expressing sounds
unknown to Greek or Latin. Fragments of this version
are preserved, the most celebrated of which, the ' Codex
Argenteus,' forms the most precious treasure of the
University of Upsala. This 'superb codex' is written
in gold and silver letters on a violet ground, it contains
portions of the Gospels, and dates from the fifth or early
in the sixth century. Ulfilas had subscribed the Creed





VALENS--INVASION OF THE GOTHS


of Ariminum, but his declared Arianism dates from a
mission to Valens, from whom he petitioned assistance
for the Christianised Goths in a feud against their still
heathen brethren.   Through the preaching of Ulfilas
the Goths adopted an Arian type of Christianity, though
it may be doubted whether. the barbarian intellect
grasped in any degree of accuracy the fine distinctions
of the Arian teaching.
    When the demand of the G oths to cross the Danube
reached Valens, he hesitated for a while and then gave
the permission. Their guide was Ulfilas. They claimed
him as a second Moses to lead them across the stream
to a land of promise.
    The date of this important event is A.D. 376.
Two conditions were exacted of the Goths: that they
The Goths should deliver up their arms and their children.
cross the
Danube   The latter were to be dispersed and brought
up to civilisation among the cities of Asia. The terms
were agreed to, but subsequent events soon rendered
them inoperative. Their arms were for the most part
retained by bribery, and victory restored the children to
their parents. To permit the passage of the Goths was
a fatal blunder on the part of Valens, but it tended to
the strength and advance of the Christian cause. The
officers of Valens added to the original blunder by their
treatment of their Gothic allies. Markets were closed
to them, food sold at an exorbitant price, and all the
benefits of a fruitful land withheld. Meanwhile the
Ostrogoths succeeded in crossing the Danube and join-
ing their brethren the Visigoths.
    The seething discontent between the two nations
broke out at Marcianopolis. A quarrel about rights of


89





go    THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

market ended in drawn swords and spilling of blood.
A conflict followed in which the imperial forces were
The Goths shamefully defeated by Fritigern  and  his
occupy the
imperial victorious Goths. From  that day the Goths
provinces were virtual rulers from the Danube to Con-
stantinople.  Their numbers were further augmented
by a body of fellow-countrymen in the imperial service
whom a studied insult turned against their masters.
    When intelligence of this threatening state of
affairs reached Valens, he resolved to leave Antioch and
meet the danger-for once unseasonably brave. Two
incompetent generals, 'anhelantes quidem altius sed
imbelles,' says Ammianus, were sent in advance.
    The armies met near the southernmost mouth of the
Danube. A fierce, sanguinary, and undecisive engage-
ment damped the spirit of the barbarians. They were
besieged in their camp and might have been reduced
by famine, when an unlooked-for diversion occurred by
a fresh incursion of Gothic tribes. The Roman general
raised the siege, and the two branches of the Visigoths
and Ostrogoths, uniting their forces, flooded the pro-
vinces south of the Danube with rapine and violence.
    Valens had summoned to his aid his nephew Gratian,
now covered with fresh glory from the defeat of the
The battle of hosts of the Alemanni on the plains of Alsace.
Iadrianople
A.. 3ple But his rash impatience, the scornful clamours
of Constantinople, and some trifling successes of his
generals urged Valens to instant action. He marched
at the head of his army to Hadrianople, near which
place the enemy were encamped. The long march of
twelve miles was performed in the heat of the day.
Fritigern increased his advantage by carrying on nego-





VALENS -INVASION OF THE GOTHS


tiations, while the men stood to their arms under the
burning rays of the sun. The battle commenced with
a rash attack made by Bacurius the Iberian, at the head
of a body of archers. As they retreated, the Gothic
horse swept like a thunder-bolt from the mountain,
carrying all before them. The infantry alone stood their
ground, but were surrounded and cut to pieces by the
victorious Goths.  'In no battle since Canna,' says
Ammianus Marcellinus, ' has such complete destruction
befallen the Roman arms.'
   There is some uncertainty about the fate of Valens;
according to one account he was fatally wounded by an
Death of arrow while fighting in the ranks, and fell
valens   among the undistinguishable dead.    Others
state that he took refuge with a few attendants in a
countryman's cottage, which was set on fire by a band
of Goths who were ignorant of the prize which they
might have secured. One only of the refugees escaped
the flames to tell the tale.
    His pagan biographer gives Valens the praise of
being a firm and faithful friend, stern in discipline,
inflexibly just: on the other hand he accuses him of
avarice, cruelty, and ignorance. He had the faults as
well as some of the virtues of a tyrant. The Gothic
war which withdrew him from the persecution of the
Catholic Christians, seemingly the grave disaster of his
reign, proved in the end to be the gain of the Church.


91





92    THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE



                  CHAPTER XI.
               GRATIAN-ST. AMBROSE.

GRATIAN was sixteen years old when he succeeded his
father. The army took the initiative in giving him as
a colleague his younger brother Valentinian II.
    The story of these ill-fated princes is closely con-
nected with the name of the great Churchman who was
The      at this time Bishop of Milan-St. Ambrose,
childhood
of Ambrose who ranks with St. Jerome, St. Augustine,
and Gregory the Great, as one of the four famous doctors
of the Latin Church.    His father was a Roman of
distinguished position, who rose to high official rank as
prefect of the Gauls, a term which includes Britain,
Spain, France, and the Rhine countries.   His birth-
place is unknown. One or two stories of his boyhood
have been remembered, of which the best known is one
which is common to the childhood of Pindar and of
Plato as well as of Ambrose. It narrates that a swarm
of bees settled upon the head of the sleeping infant,
some of them crawling over his parted lips. It was
thought to be an omen of his future eloquence.
    When Ambrose grew up to manhood he took to the
study and practice of law in Rome. There he attracted
the notice of Anienus Petronius Probus, prefect of the
city and a Christian, who introduced Ambrose into his
court as secretary, and afterwards appointed him con-
sular magistrate of Liguria and Aemilia, of which pro-
vinces Milan was the chief place, and therefore the
official residence of Ambrose.





GRA TIAN--ST. ArBROSB


    It is said that as Probus dismissed him to his post,
he used the prophetic words: ' Vade, age non ut judex
Ambrose  sed ut Episcopus' (Go, act not as judge but as
goes to
milan    bishop). If we remember the condition of the
empire at this time, and the general character of the
magistracy under Valentinian, this will be thought to
be a significant direction. It points to a contrast be-
tween the acknowledged gentleness of the Christian
and the harshness of the imperial rule; and it points
to the fusion and mutual reaction on each other of the
two kingdoms in the administration of justice.
    The very remarkable scene which follows makes it
clear that Ambrose had commended himself to the
people of Milan as a just and clement magistrate.
    On the death of Auxentius it became necessary to
appoint a successor.   The Bishops of the province
Ambrose  were assembled for that purpose. The great
elected
Bishop   basilica of Milan was crowded from   end to
end with an expectant throng. Ambrose was present in
his capacity as magistrate to preserve order.   The
discussion of the electing Bishops was prolonged; when
suddenly a voice from the assembly in the Church
broke out, ' Ambrosius Episcopus' (Ambrose is Bishop).
The cry was like the voice of a child, but it seemed
to be inspired. The idea, strange and impossible as it
might be thought, was taken up with acclamations. No
one was more astonished and bewildered than Ambrose
himself; as soon as the intention became evidently
serious, he repudiated it by every means in his power.
It was, indeed, a singular choice; Ambrose, though an
earnest Christian and the son of Christian parents, was
not even baptized. A statement of that fact might


93





94    THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

have seemed a sufficient bar to his elevation, but it
was impossible to resist the tide of popular feeling.
Ambrose used every expedient to avert the act; he
tried to make himself out to be cruel, to be unjust, to
be licentious even. Then he fled from the city, and
when he was discovered and brought back, for a time
he concealed himself in the house of a friend. But the
popular choice was approved by Valentinian, and at
length Ambrose yielded. He was baptized and conse-
crated Bishop within ten days.
    At every moment in the ecclesiastical history of this
period interesting questions start up, which would take
long to discuss fully. What are we to say for instance
from the Church point of view of these two things,-of
the deferred baptism of St. Ambrose, 'and of the irre-
gular election ? The first is an occurrence not only
not rare, but even usual at this epoch. We find it in
the case of St. Augustine and St. Chrysostom, as well
as in the case of Constantine, of Constantius, and of
Valentinian II. Here we only stop to remark that the
practice seems to have arisen at least partly from an
exaggerated feeling of the effect of post-baptismal sin,
or perhaps we may say from a false practical inference
from the effects of Holy Baptism.
    As to the election of St. Ambrose, it was un-
doubtedly irregular, but it was not without parallel at
this epoch.   At Constantinople Nectarius, a layman,
was hurriedly and against his wish pressed into the
episcopate; and at Caesarea in Cappadocia Eusebius, a
layman of distinction, was elected to the Bishopric, much
to the annoyance of Julian, who complained of having
been deprived of the services of a capable magistrate.





GRATIAN-ST. AMBROSE


In the case of Ambrose it was an instance either of
quick-sighted popular intuition, or possibly of the
intervention of some friends who knew him well and
saw in him the solution of a pressing difficulty.
    It is needless to say how completely the choice was
justified. As a Bishop St. Ambrose was wise and tender
and fearless.   All these qualities were needed and
exercised in turn.
    One of the most touching episodes in his life is his
intercourse with the young emperor Gratian. Between
st. Ambrose these two a great affection subsisted. Gratian
and Gratian writing to St. Ambrose with a request to
be furnished with arguments in defence of the Catholic
faith, addresses him as 'parens.' In answer Ambrose
sent to Gratian two books ' De Fide' (concerning the
faith) to which three others were added. This treatise is
still extant, and is not the least valuable of the works
of St. Ambrose.
    A quotation from Gratian's letter may be cited as a
proof of this friendly, indeed loving, intercourse: 'I
desire much,' he writes, 'to enjoy the bodily presence
of him whose recollection I carry with me, and with
whom I am present in spirit. Therefore, hasten to me,
religious priest of God, to teach me the doctrine of the
true faith.' . . . . Then at the end of the letter : ' May
the Deity preserve you for many years, my father, wor-
shipper of the eternal God, Jesus Christ whom we
worship.'
    The effect of this influence on Gratian may be traced
in some of the laws passed by him, and in some of his
public acts. He was the first of the Roman emperors
to refuse the robe of office presented to the emperor as


95





96    THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Pontifex Maximus, or high priest of the pagan worship.
He appears, however, to have retained the title on his
Gratian's coins. Among other acts which showed Gra-
policy in tian's zeal for the Christian faith was the re-
Church
matters  moval of the altar of Victory from the senate
house at Rome, and the confiscation of the endowments
of the temple of Victory. His laws in respect to the
stage, to apostasy from Christianity, and in favour of
exemption of the poorer clergy from taxation, point in
the same direction.
    The winning qualities of Gratian, his cultivated
abilities, his graces of person and manner were un-
happily associated with an indolence and a want of high
capacity which rendered him unfit to govern in difficult
times. In a rising under Maximus which spread from
Britain to Gaul he was deserted by his troops and
perished by a miserable and ignominious death.
    The wisest, and in some respects the bravest, act of
Gratian was the nomination of the great Theodosius
as emperor of the East after the disastrous battle of
Hadrianople (A.D. 378), in which, as narrated in the last
chapter, Valens and two-thirds of his vast army were
destroyed by the victorious Goths.
    Theodosius was a Spaniard, the son of an illustrious
general of the same name, who under Valentinian had
         suppressed a dangerous revolt in Africa. The
Theodosius elder Theodosius had subsequently been put
to death, probably by the permission at least of Gratian.
When, therefore, in the extremity of danger Gratian
summoned to his aid the great capacity of Theodosius,
he took a step which might have proved fatal to him-
self.





GRA TIAN--ST. A MBROSE


    His confidence, however, was justified. Theodosius
became the friend, and before long the brother-in-law,
of Gratian by his marriage with his half-sister Galla.
Afterwards he avenged his death by the defeat of the
usurper Maximus.
    For the ecclesiastical historian the election of Tlheo-
dosius was in every way a memorable event. Under
St. Ambrose Gratian and Theodosius for the first time the
and
Theodosius civilised world  was governed by orthodox
Christian princes, and the relations between the great
and powerful emperor Theodosius and the brave and
pious Bishop of Milan exhibit in the most picturesque
and instructive way the working out of some great
problems in Church and State. The scenes in which
these two great men took a leading part are among the
most famous and the& most familiar of historical events.
    One of these was a tragedy of which the first act
took place at The :salonica. It was during the celebra-
The      tion of the games of the circus in that city.
massacre at
Thessalonica A favourite chariotccer had been detained in
prison on acconlt of a sharmeful crime by Botheric,
commander of the imperial troo s. The pleasure-loving
citizens, fired by resentment, made a furious attack
upon Botheric, whom   together with some of his prin-
cipal officers they slew, and tree ed their bodies with
inhuman indigntie s. It was a ,ross and open affront
to the imperial lhnour, and Tbheo osius, whose gravest
fault was a pasionate dispositi<on, determined on a
speedy and bloody vengeance.   H even sanctioned the
use of treachery. The inhabitants; were invited to an
exhibition of gan:es in the circus.  The whole space
was filled with eager spectators, when on a given signal
    C. H.                                      H


97





98    THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

the soldiers of Theodosius rushed in and perpetrated an
indiscriminate massacre.
    This base and cruel action sent a thrill of horror
through the Christian world. St. Ambrose was over-
Repentance whelmed with indignant grief. He addressed
dosius   a letter to Theodosius urging him to repent.
He pointed out to the emperor that it was impossible
for him to celebrate the Eucharist in the presence of
one who was stained with recent and unrepented crime.
Theodosius showed true greatness of soul in submitting
to the rebuke of St. Ambrose. He openly did penance,
appearing in the basilica of Milan stripped of his
imperial robes, in the dress and posture of a suppliant.
Theodoret, a later writer, makes a dramatic addition to
the scene, which is set forth in a picture by Vandyke
in the National Gallery, in which the emperor is re-
presented as imploring admission into the Church on
the Christmas festival, while St. Ambrose with his
attendant priests and ministers, holding the Cross on
high, refuses permission to. enter.
    The incident is, however, sufficiently marked and
significant without any such doubtful additions.   It
was one which brought out the noblest traits in the
characters both of the emperor and the bishop. It is
no record of priestly pride or pomp, as Gibbon misre-
presents it. Of that there is no trace in the letter or
demeanour of St. Ambrose. Rather, it is a remark-
able and striking proof of the advance of the power
of Christ, both in its gentleness and in its strength.
When a priest of His Church could be found fearless
enough, and Christ-like enough to bear such testimony
before great kings for the sake of Christ, and an em-





GRA TIAN-ST. A BROSE


peror sufficiently obedient to the law of Christ, to ac-
knowledge the guilt of a great political sin before his
people, we have an acknowledgment of moral restraint,
impossible in the days, we do not say of Nero or Caligula,
but of Augustus or Diocletian. It was an act which
marked an epoch in the history of the Church of
Christ.
    Other events in the life of Ambrose must be in-
dicated rather than described.   In those wild and
turbulent times, there was frequent need of the exer-
cise of Christian charity. When the barbarian Goths,
after the defeat of Valens, carried off many Christian
prisoners, St. Ambrose devoted all the resources of
the Church to obtain their ransom. For that pur-
pose he sold even the Eucharistic vessels. Deep as
was his reverence for that Holy Sacrament, and for
all connected with it, he held the lives and liberty
of human beings to be more sacred still. 'If the
Blood   of Christ,' he said, 'redeemed   their souls,
should not the vessels which held that Blood be used
to redeem  their bodies?   Again, we trace the same
high courage which enabled him to brave the anger
of the great Theodosius, when on two occasions he
entered unprotected the camp of the usurper Maximus
on an embassy of peace; or when he resisted with all
his authority the Arianising policy of the empress
Justina, mother of Valentinian II.
    The history of that resistance is exciting and full
of incident. Justina had demanded one of the Milan
The empress churches for the use of the Arians. St. Am-
Justina  brose with a high sense of the sacredness of
his trust refused his assent. The population of Milan
                                              H2


99





IOO   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMAPIRE

was for the most part Catholic, and took the side of
the Bishop. At Easter the quarrel came to a climax.
Ambrose was ordered to appear before the council. He
obeyed the summons, but the surging crowd of citi-
zens who followed him to the palace made it dangerous
to lay upon him any penalty, or to enforce any com-
mand. Eventually the ministers of Valentinian were
compelled to appeal to Ambrose to guard the person
of the emperor, and to calm the city. When the
immediate danger was over, the imperial court returned
to their rash and short-sighted policy of opposition
to Ambrose. When the rumour spread that he was
to be driven from the city, the people rose in de-
fence of their beloved Bishop, who took refuge in
the basilica, and there remained guarded by the de-
voted population until the court once more gave way.
The weariness and suspense of this watch in the
basilica were cheered by addresses from Ambrose, and
by singing hymns-a practice said to have been then
first introduced into the West from     the Eastern
Church.
    It is also narrated that during this crisis the bodies
of two martyrs, Gervasius and Protasius, were discovered
beneath the pavement of the church, through a reve-
lation to St. Ambrose; and St. Augustine, speaking
of these days of excitement, confidently appeals to the
people of Milan as witnesses of miracles wrought in
confirmation of the Catholic faith.'
    It was soon after these events that Justina, not-
withstanding what had passed, implored the aid and


'De Civitate Dei, xxii. 8.





GRA TIAN - ST. AM BROSE


intercession of St. Ambrose against Maximus, who
was rapidly marching upon Italy. This mission of
Ambrose was ineffectual. But Maximus soon afterwards
was defeated and slain by Theodosius.
    Valentinian II. too came under the influence of St.
Ambrose, who won him     over to the orthodox faith.
Ambrose  And when a cruel and treacherous death
and Valen-
tinian II.  overtook the youthful emperor at Vienne
in Gaul, Ambrose sincerely mourned him. He had
died unbaptized, deferring the rite in accordance with
a prevalent usage of the time. But St. Ambrose con-
soled his relatives with the thought that 'the desire
for baptism was equivalent to the act, and that he
had been baptized in his piety, as martyrs in their
blood.'
    St. Ambrose died as became the great and good
bishop who had lived so nobly and so well. The states-
The death man Count Stilicho said of him, that the death
of Ambrose of such a man threatened death to Italy itself.
The citizens of Milan implored him to pray for con-
tinued life.  His answer was: ' I have not so lived
amongst you that I should be ashamed to live; and I
do not fear to die, because we have a good Lord.' He
expired on the night of Good Friday, A.D. 397, and was
buried in the basilica, which preserves his name, in the
presence of an immense concourse of all ranks and
classes of citizens, the pagan and Jewish population
joining with the rest to do him honour.
    St. Ambrose had carried the authority of the Church
in affairs of State to a higher pitch than any of his
predecessors. His principles, indeed, on this point, if
actually put in force, would destroy the just balance


IOI





102 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

between civil and ecclesiastical government. But his
practical assertion of the supreme authority of conscience
The work and moral right in the government of the
of t.li  world, and the limitation thereby imposed
Ambrose  on the imperial rule, gives a supreme import-
ance to his episcopate. If on the one hand he put a
strain upon the authoritative side of the Kingdom   of
God, on the other hand he was the first to place its
legitimate influence in a conspicuous light before the
eyes of rulers.
    It was during the period sketched in this chapter
that an event occurred which is noteworthy as the
Heresymade first instance when the penalty of death was
a capital
oence    inflicted by a Christian court for heretical
opinions. This was the execution of Priscillian, Bishop
of Avila in Spain, which took place at Trives under the
administration of the usurper Maximus. The doctrines
professed by Priscillian and his followers may be de-
scribed as a kind of Gnosticism. They were a strange
medley of erroneous teaching. In accordance with the
discipline of their sect, the Priscillianists practised the
greatest austerities, and abstained from every kind of
indulgence.
    This extreme act of persecution was condemned by
the wisest of the Western Bishops, St. Ambrose of Milan,
and St. Martin of Tours. The latter is said to have
protested against the decision of an ecclesiastical cause
by a secular tribunal (the appeal having been made to
Maximus, at that time emperor of the West), and to
have exacted a promise that the life of Priscillian
should be spared. In this way the incident raised for
solution the difficult question as to the duty of the State





GRATIAN-ST. AMBROSE


in point of orthodoxy, which remained unsettled, or was
settled grievously in the wrong way, for many centuries
of Christian life.



                  CHAPTER XII.
              THEODOSIUS. A.D. 379-395.

WE have seen how the great Theodosius avenged the
treacherous murder of Gratian, and sustained the cause
Theodosius of Valentinian II. by the defeat of Maximus
avenges the
death of in Pannonia. This was followed by his exe-
Vaentin-
ian II.  cution at Aquileia, A.D. 388, two years before
the rising in Thessalonica, which was succeeded by the
celebrated scene of the imperial penitence under the
censure of St. Ambrose.
    Soon after this, Valentinian II. suffered the fate of
his half-brother Gratian. He had ventured to resist
the will of the most powerful of his generals, a Goth
named Arbogastes, whom he attempted to dismiss from
his command. Valentinian was found strangled in his
bed. Arbogastes declined to assume the purple him-
self, but placed it on the shoulders of Eugenius, a rhe-
torician of some note.
    After a slight hesitation, Theodosius determined on
war. It is said that, before embarking on this enter-
prise, he took the precaution of consulting an Egyptian
anchorite, John of Lycopolis, and was assured by him
of victory, to be won, however, at the cost of much
bloodshed. The story is interesting, as one instance
among many of the dangerous vitality of pagan ideas,


I03





104    THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

which in spite of higher and truer teaching continued
to thrust themselves into Christian thought and prac-
tice. It is but a slight step from the priestess of Delphi
to the hermit of Lycopolis.
    Eugenius and Arbogastes had occupied Milan and
 the northern provinces of Italy. Ambrose had reso-
 lutely declined all the overtures of Eugenius and had
 left the capital. This conduct, worthy of the admir-
 able and courageous Bishop, was appreciated by Theo-
 dosius when he returned in triumph to Milan after his
 hardly won victory.
    The decisive contest took place under the walls of
 Aquileia, the scene of many momentous events in these
 critical times.
    On the first day of battle the attack of Theodosius
on the enemy's camp was repulsed with immense loss.
The defeat  For a moment his situation seemed to be
of Eugenius desperate. But two things contributed to his
success on the following day. In the morning a message
came from the leaders of the enemy's troops, who had
encircled his army, offering to desert Eugenius in the
course of the engagement. Added to this, when the
armies joined battle, a furious tempest poured down
the passes of the Alps, and beat upon the faces of the
troops of Arbogastes and Eugenius, blinding them with
dust and hindering the use of their weapons.   As of
old 'the stars in their courses fought against' the ene-
mies of the divine cause,-a thought which occurred to
St. Ambrose, and which is nobly expressed in some
magnificent verses by the poet Claudian :
     Te propter gelidis Aquilo de monte procellis
     Obruit adversas acies; revolutaque tela





THEODOSIUS. A.D. 379-395


     Vertit in auctores, et turbine reppulit hastas.
     O nimium dilecte Dco, cui fundit ab antris
     EAlolus armatas hyemes, cui militat tether,
     Et conjurati veniunt ad classica venti.
                          In Ter. Cons. Honor. 93-98.
    The victory was complete and decisive. A different
result would probably have been calamitous to the
Church, because, though Eugenius professed Christianity,
his strength probably lay in the heathen reaction, which
would have inspired his policy if his enterprise had been
successful.
    Once more for a brief space the Roman world ac-
knowledged a single master. But the death of Theo-
The death of dosius soon followed (395), and under his two
Theodosius sons Arcadius and Honorius the old divisions
were resumed, Arcadius becoming emperor of the East
at the age of eighteen years, Honorius a child of eleven
nominally assuming the government of the West.
    The reigns of these weak emperors were marked by
great and terrible events indicating the rapid decline of
The decline the empire. But while the empire was swiftly
of the empire hurrying to its end, and the devastating hordes
of barbarian invaders were pressing in on every side to the
very heart of it, laying waste its fairest and most fruitful
provinces, and storming and delivering over to pillage
its wealthiest and most historic cities, the Church was
gathering strength and laying up a rich store of guid-
ance in the lives of some of her greatest and holiest sons.
    The Church and the empire had been born together,
The Church but when the empire was rocking to its foun-
rising on
its ruins dation, the Church was engaged in strength-
ening the outworks of that City of God which was de-


105





Io6   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

stined to gather within its walls, and mould to its uses,
the better elements of those barbaric forces which were
breaking up the old and tottering society of the ancient
world.
    One great man, worthy to be placed in the catalogue
of heroes for all ages, had for a while kept back the
         flood of invasion. This was the distinguished
         general, Stilicho, trained in the service of
Theodosius and celebrated in the verse of Claudian.
But in 408 Stilicho was slain.
    In the same year Alaric king of the Goths laid
siege to Rome. On this occasion his retreat was pur-
The sieges  chased by a vast and exhausting ransom. But
of Rome
by Alaric twice again within the space of three years
Alaric appeared before the unhappy city. Once the
horrors of a sack were averted by a political arrange-
ment, but in 410 Alaric, stung by the insults of the
foolish Honorius, marched from Ravenna to Rome. The
gates were opened by treachery, and Rome awoke to
find itself at the mercy of its barbarian foe.
    It is deeply interesting to find that even then and
there the influence of Christianity was felt.  Alaric
himself gave orders that the Churches of the Apostles
St. Peter and St. Paul should be spared, and that
quarter should be given to unresisting citizens. Sacred
vessels of gold and silver were rescued from pillage by
an appeal to the conscience of the rude soldier to
whom the treasure had been pointed out, and were even
conveyed under an escort of Gothic troops to custody
in the Vatican.   There also many of the defenceless
citizens were allowed to find a refuge.
    Still, notwithstanding all gentler influences, the





7HEODOSrvS. A.D. 379-395


proud capital of the world, unassailed for eight hundred
years, suffered many of the worst horrors of a captured
city, from slaughter, from fire, and from injuries more
unbearable than these.'



                  CHAPTER      XIII.
                THE FALL OF PAGANISM.

BEFORE we leave the history of Theodosius some account
should be given of the first Catholic emperor's direct
dealing with paganism.
    With Theodosius Christianity had become supreme.
The question arose in a thousand breasts, how far it
Is toler- should permit the    continued  existence of
anicem to paganism.   Paganism   had   endeavoured  to
be permitted extirpate Christianity ; should Christianity
in a Chris-
tian state ? finally crush out paganism ? Pagan perse-
cution had failed, should Christian persecution be at-
tempted ?   Or put in another form: was it right or
allowable for a Christian prince to concede to his
subjects freedom of religious thought and practice,
even if freedom meant persistence in error ?
    The religious question in the ancient world started
from premisses different from those which are recog-
nised now. The conception of a religion in Rome, or at
Athens, was intimately connected with the political
constitution of the State. There was tolerance of all
religions because each religion was national. The idea
   SSee ch. xviii. and xix., where these events are more fully
narrated.


.IO7





T o8 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

of an universal religion extending to all nations, or that
of a religion which claimed to be the only true one, and
whose truth proved all others false, or even the idea of
a religion which demanded righteousness, and which
professed to govern motives, was alien to the ancient
spirit of statesmanship or religion.   In the pagan
system the connexion between the national religion
and the State was intimate and close. With Chris-
tianity this connexion could not be continued or re-
vived. For the first time religion claimed the position
of an independent power. It became a possible rival
of the State. It was the intuition of this which lay at
the root of persecution and resistance to the growing
power of Christianity.
    All that was over now; but two questions of wide
and deep importance rose for solution. One was the
Two great relation of the State to Christianity.  The
questions other was the relation of the Christian State
or the Christian ruler to paganism.
    We have seen the former working itself out in the
reigns of Constantine, Valentinian, and Theodosius.
One thing, at any rate, had become plain-that abso-
lute neutrality in the ruler was impossible.      One
solution, which lay in the complete supremacy of the
Church, had already been started and was destined to
have great effects in the course of history. Another,
the complete domination of the supreme State power
over religion and the conscience, had been already con-
demned by the Christian history of the first three
centuries. Christian resistance, even witfi death as a
penalty, where obedience to .Christ clashed with obe-
dience to Caesar, had once for all shown the impossibility





THE FALL OF PAGANISM


of successful persecution. The failure of Constantine,
Constantius and Valens indicated a like impossibility
on the part of the civil ruler to impose a perverted
view of Christianity on the Church.
    The other question of the day was the relation of
the Christian ruler to paganism.
    The policy of Constantine the Great was to grant
religious liberty to his subjects. In his letter to the
Tolerance eastern provinces, quoted by Eusebius, he
enjoined by
constantine says: 'Let no one molest another in this
matter, but let everyone be free to follow his own in-
clination.  But,' he adds, 'with regard to those who
will hold themselves aloof from  us, let them have, if
they please, their temples of lies: we have the glorious
edifice of the truth.' 1 Still, paganism continued to
prosper, especially in Rome itself, where the chief
families held to the ancient customs as much from
family pride as from any other motive. In the year
331 the temple of Concordia was restored by the
senate, and   several altars were  erected about the
same time.
    A few instances only of disestablishment occurred.
Temples were destroyed where immoral rites were
carried on, and their revenues were devoted to Christian
churches or to the building of Constantinople. Beyond
this Constantine does not appear to have advanced.
Many of the most distinguished persons about his court
and in high military command were pagans; and even
if severe edicts were enacted against heathenism-some
Christian writers mention the penalty of death-they
were probably inoperative.
                 1 Euseb. Vit. Const. ii. 56.


lO9





I IO  T  CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

    Under the successors of Constantine the feeling
against paganism grew in intensity. Lactantius writing
under Constantine could say, 'religio cogi non potest:
The policy  nihil est tam voluntarium quam religio ' (Reli-
of his
successors  gion cannot be forced; nothing is so voluntary
as religion). In the succeeding reigns a Christian writer
refers the emperors to Deuteronomy xiii. 6-10, and
urges upon them the duty of persecuting the ' crime of
idolatry.' Constantius acted on the spirit of this advice,
and expressly prohibited sacrifice-' volumus etiam
cunctos sacrificiis abstinere' (It is our will that all
men abstain from sacrifice). In these circumstances the
name of pagan came into use, the followers of heathen
rites and practices being compelled to take refuge in the
country villages or pacgi, while imperial officials, agents
or spies (agentes in rebus, curiosi) were on the watch to
detect any infraction of the edicts.
    These measures of persecution did no good to the
Christian cause. They were opposed to the higher and
The in-   truer spirit expressed in the words of Lac-
utility of  tantius-' religio cogi non potest '-and they
Christian
persecution could not fail to raise a prejudice against the
Faith in the minds of the best and most religious pagan
thinkers. On the other hand they compelled into a
nominal profession of Christianity large numbers of the
cowardly and worldly-minded who are always found on
the winning side. Thoughtful and philosophic paganism
gained somewhat of that unworldly and disinterested
element which had been the essential characteristic of
Christianity in the days of persecution.
    This is an aspect of the gradual disendowment and
disappearance of paganism on which the Church his-





THE FALL OF PAGANISM


torian seldom  dwells. And yet there were doubtless
incidents of a touching and pathetic kind connected
with that disappearance. It was among the dwellers in
country villages that the old belief lingered the longest.
With many it must have been hard indeed to relinquish
the immemorial sacrifices or ancient custom   hallowed
through many generations-to do this, too, before the
advancing tide of a Christianity which, in some cases,
through the dangerous influence of power, had forgotten
the spirit of gentleness and persuasion. Among the
many lessons to be drawn from this epoch that is one
which ought not to escape us.
    The reaction under Julian has been already sketched.
 It probably made little impression on genuine Christi-
 The effects anity, though the floating mass of time-servers
 of Julian's
 policy   again flowed into the stream of paganism.
    Jovian, Valentinian, and Valens pursued a policy of
 tolerance in respect to paganism. Gratian, however,
 Important took an important and decisive step in the
 action of
.Gratian  movement towards the     ascendency of the
Church, when he refused or resigned the office of Pon-
tifex Maximus. According to the account in Zosimus,
when the pontifical robe was presented to Gratian as
first Augustus, he declined it, though from the inscrip-
tions of this date he appears to have borne the title of
Pontifex for a while. In any case it was a step which
severed the public connexion between the empire and
paganism. Gratian proceeded to confiscate the revenues
of heathen temples, and to deprive the priests and the
vestal virgins of their immunities and State allowance
(victum modicum justaque privilegia). Another blow
created an even deeper impression and was struck at


III





I 12  THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

a higher power.  A deeply venerated altar of Victory,
and an historic statue of the goddess with flowing robes
and outstretched wings, stood in the temple where
the senate were accustomed to assemble. The presence
of the goddess and the offerings made upon her altar
had given a solemn sanction to the deliberations of the
senate.  Constantius had ordered their removal, but
they were restored by Julian. By Gratian's order they
were once more removed from the senate house, and
the embassy which came to implore their restitution
was refused audience, A.D. 382.
    The significance of this transaction in the rivalry of
the two imperia was so clearly seen by thoughtful
The meeting pagans, that repeated attempts were made to
of St. Am.  reverse the imperial decision. A second em-
brose and
Symmachus bassy, again headed by Symmachus, the chief
of the senate and pontifex maximus, approached Valen-
tinian II. with a prayer for the restoration of the
statue. He was confronted by St. Ambrose. It was a
dramatic meeting between the power of the old world
and of the new. All that was best in pagan morality oi
wisdom was to be found in Symmachus; he was an
ardent advocate of the dying system, and all that could
be said in its favour was urged by its representative
pontifex with good taste and skill. He appealed to the
generosity and high feeling of the young prince, not to
crush out, by so mean a measure as confiscation, the
religion which Rome had sanctioned for eleven cen-
turies, nor to desert by his policy the gods under whose
auspices the Roman legions had subdued the world.
The answer of Ambrose was calm and assured. ' There
was no need,' he said, 'to ascribe to imaginary gods





THE FALL OF PAGANISAM


what was due to the courage and discipline of Roman
soldiers.' Then putting aside the arguments of senti-
ment, he contended for the absolute truth of Christianity.
In part it was the argument of the 'City of God.' To
Valentinian, in place of the appeal of Symmachus to
personal pride or weakness, the argument was a threat
of ecclesiastical censure.
    If the mission to Valentinian II. was unsuccessful,
it may be inferred that the repeated petition to Theo-
Theodosius dosius was condemned to failure A.D. 388.
brine~ the  But Theodosius was resolved to push   his
ire'ion be- victories further. It was a remarkable point
fore the
senate   in history when a Roman emperor proposed in
formal language the question ' whether the worship of
Jupiter or that of Christ should be the religion of the
Romans.' This statement of Gibbon, resting on the
authority of Prudentius, may be open to some doubt.
But that some formal defence of Christianity was laid
before the senate by the emperor, and found a majority
in its favour, by whatever motives influenced, seems to
be beyond question.
   The words of Prudentius are worth quoting :-
     Adspice quam pleno subsellia nostra senatu
     Decernant infame Jovis pulvinar, et omne
     Idolium longe purgata ex urbe fugandum.
     Qua vocat egregii sententia principis, illuc
     Libera cum pedibus, tum corde frequentia transit.'

     But a still more decisive step of Theodosius was the
absolute prohibition of sacrifice, and of all approach to
pagan temples. Henceforth no victim was to fall before
                1 In Symmachum, i. 608 foell.
    C. H.                                       I


113





114 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

the images of the gods, no lar or household god was to
be worshipped with fire, no genius appeased by offering
Decisive of wine, no penates by the steam  of sacrifice,
measures of
Theodosius no festive lamps, or fragrant incense, or gar-
lands of flowers were to be used in honour of the gods.'
    In these circumstances the words of the Christian
poet Prudentius exhibit an exultation which can be
understood, though exception may be taken to the
manner in which the final victory of the faith was
won :-
     Et dubitamus adhuc .Romam tibi, Christe, dicatam
     In leges transisse tuas ?
     Though the poet may have anticipated the triumph
of Christianity, his words are interesting, as the testi-
mony of a contemporary who observed the signs of the
times, and desired to lay his finger on the moment of
this great crisis.
    By the irony of fate the honours paid in past times
to the memory of deceased pagan emperors were paid to
the Christian Theodosius, whose death is represented by
the poet Claudian as a reception among the gods in
terms similar to those in which Virgil or Horace speak
of the apotheosis of Julius or Augustus Caesar.2  But
the instructed and philosophic pagans themselves felt
that paganism was dead, as is shown by their vain at-
PLgaal    tempts to reconcile paganism with Christianity.
a nologies We now read apologies, not for Christianity
and Christ, but for the heathen gods; and these apologies
are penetrated with Christian ideas, the leaven was
secretly at work even when the influence was most
                ' Cod. Theodos. xvi. 10, 12.
                Q iii. Cons. Hlonorii, 162 foll.





THE FALL OF PAGANISM  


eagerly resisted. On the other hand the wisest of the
Christian teachers claimed the harvest of the best
thoughts of pagan philosophy. Jerome, for instance,
enthusiastically praises the erudition   of Christian
writers, 'all of whom,' he says, 'in such wise fill their
books with the teaching and thoughts of philosophers,
that you know not what first to admire in them, the
learning of the world, or the knowledge of the Scrip-
tures' (Qui omnes in tantum philosophorum doctrinis
atque sententiis suos referciunt libros, ut nescias quid
in illis primum admirari debeas, eruditionem seeculi an
scientiam Scripturarum).'
    While the finer intellects were thus being influenced
by argument, coarser and less excusable means sealed
Pagan    the fate of paganism   in the populations of
temples
destroyed town and country. The pagan temples were
closed. A few were afterwards converted into Christian
churches, but before long by far the greater number
were levelled to the ground by fanatical mobs of
Christians, headed in many instances by the bishop and
his clergy. In some districts a vigorous resistance was
made by the pagan population, and anyone who has
visited the ruined temples of Baalbec can understand
how readily such buildings lent themselves to defence.
    A scene took place in the Lebanon, which illustrates
the temper of the times, and the moderation of the
government. The story is told by Sozomen. A Bishop
named Marcellus commanded a party of soldiers in an
attack on a large temple at Aulone in Apamea. He
himself, being afflicted with the gout, remained behind
while the fight proceeded. Here he was discovered by
           Jerome, Ep. 10, ad Magnum 9ratorenm.
                                              x2


115





I 16   THE CHURCH AND      T/IE ROMAN EMPIRE

some of the pagans and slain. The council of the pro-
vince, however, prevented his friends taking vengeance
for his death, 'when they should rather return thanks
to God for having accounted him worthy to die in such
a cause.' For the same reason, Theodosius offered free
pardon to those who had slain the Christians in the
temple of Serapis at Alexandria, L hoping thereby that
they would be the more readily induced to embrace
Christianity.' i Such instances indicate the need which
was felt of moderation and clemency. There was still
danger of a pagan reaction, and in face of such risings
as those under Maximus or Procopius, it would be mad-
ness to exasperate too deeply pagan susceptibilities.
    Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, was one of those
who carried out the emperor's orders with inconsiderate
Theophilus violence. Determined to expose the whole
of Alex-
andria   system  of idolatry, he caused the temple of
Serapis to be ransacked, and the obscene figures of
idolatrous worship to be paraded through the streets.
This grave insult gave the signal for a massacre of the
Christians. In the encounter the grammarians Helladius
and Ammonius took a leading part. Helladius boasted
that he had slain nine victims at the shrine of the in-
sulted deities. It is a note of the complex relations of
the time that: Socrates, the ecclesiastical historian, was
a pupil of these zealous champions of heathenism.
    Theodosius, as we have seen, pardoned the rioters,
but an imperial edict condemned the edifice. For a
The destruc- moment superstition stayed the destroyer's
tion of the
Serapeum hand. A   peculiar sanctity was attached to
the statue of Serapis. It was believed that if a human
                     ' Soz. vii. 15





THE FALL OF PAGANISM  


hand should touch the statue, the solid earth would
open, and the heavens fall with a crash.' A brave soldier
dispelled the superstition with a blow which cleft the
head of the idol. The other fear that the enraged di-
vinity would check the rising waters of the Nile was like-
wise belied by a flood which exceeded the usual height.
    In this way the war against paganism     was not
without grievous excess and worldly motive on the
Christian side, but on the other hand with an absence
of heroism and faith on the side of paganism which
marks a declining religion. St. Augustine contrasts
the stedfastness of Christian martyrs with the cowardice
of the pagan ministers: ' Which of them has been caught
in the act of sacrifice which is against the laws, and
did not deny it ? Which of them has been caught
worshipping idols, and did not in fear of the judgment
exclaim, I did it not ? Such are the devil's ministers'
('Quis eorum   comprehensus est in sacrificio, cum his
legibus ista prohiberentur, et non negavit ?     Quis
eorum  comprehensus est adorare idolum    et non cla-
mavit, non feci, et timuit ne convinceretur ? Tales
ministros Diabolus habebat ').2
    But if Christianity seemed to speed well externally,
prosperity brought with it it's accustomed evils. False
Evils of and dishonest Christians brought on the faith
prosperity  the scorn of honest paganism.  ' Why do you
persuade me to be a Christian ?' exclaims a heathen.
'I am innocent of false dealing, but have been cheated
by a Christian. I who never swore a false oath have
suffered froth Christian perjury.'3 'If all Christians
      i Rufin. i. 23.     2 Enar. in Psalm. 141, � 20.
            8 Augustin. Ena'. in Psalm. 25, � 14.


117





II 18 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

were as they ought to be,' says St. Chrysostom, 'there
would be no unbeliever ("EXXyv) now.'
    In the East there was less resistance to the im-
perial edicts than in the West. The Eastern provinces
were traversed by monks commissioned to sweep away
all traces of idolatry. In Alexandria, scenes of in-
creased violence occurred in the episcopate of St. Cyril,
and culminated in the cruel murder of the beautiful and
gifted Hypatia.
    HIypatia, daughter of the philosopher Theon, was
not only so highly distinguished for her learning and
         eloquence as to draw crowds of eager listeners
Hypatia  to her lectures, but even, pagan though she
was, she won the admiration of Christian writers. ' Such
was her self-possession,' says Socrates,' 'and ease of
manner arising from the refinement and cultivation of
her mind, that she not unfrequently appeared in public
in presence of the magistrates without even losing, in
an assembly of men, that dignified modesty for which
she was conspicuous, and which gained for her uni-
versal respect and admiration.' But she fell a victim to
the turbulent politics and evil surmisings of the time.
She was supposed to use her influence over Orestes, the
civil governor of Alexandria, to prevent his reconcilia-
tion with Cyril. A fanatical Christian reader, named
Peter, with a band of followers, dragged Hypatia from
her carriage, as she was driving home, carried her into
the Church called the Casareum, and there stripped
her of her clothes and murdered her, it is said, by tear-
ing her flesh with oyster-shells.
    'An act so inhuman,' says Socrates, ' could not fail
                       I vii. 15.





THE FALL OF PAGANISM


to, bring the greatest opprobrium not only on Cyril, but
also on the whole Alexandrian Church. And surely
nothing can be farther from the spirit of Christianity
than the allowance of massacres, fights, and transactions
of that sort.'' ' Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum ! '
This was in the year 416.
    In the West the severity of the movement against
paganism relaxed under the weak Honorius. The laws
The weak- remained unrepealed, but they were not en-
ness of
Honorius forced with the vigour of Theodosius. In some
instances they were practically suspended.  Honorius
checked the destruction of temples, acknowledged the
official position of heathen priests, and after having
expressly stated that 'no one should be in any way
connected with him who differed from him in faith and
religion,' offered to nominate Generidus, a heathen, to
command in Rhatia.
    When Italy was invaded and Rome besieged by the
Goths, a cry arose that the Christians were at the bottom
of this humiliation and misery. It was this cry which
gave occasion to St. Augustine's ' City of God.'
    A widely prevalent belief amongst Christians assigned
the second Advent of Christ to the three hundred and
The year sixty-fifth year after His first appearance. This
365      floating prophecy was interpreted by pags
to mean the limit of the Christian power, and both
eagerly awaited the fulfilment of prophecy.   But the
year passed unmarked by either event, and when the
Gothic invaders themselves embraced the Christian faith,
the pagan argument was discredited. Later on even
Valentinian III. could put forth edicts against paganism
                        Svii. 16.


I19





120 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EIMPIRE

which a generation earlier would have required a strong
ruler to enforce: ' All heresies, unbeliefs, schisms, and
superstitions of the heathen, all errors opposed to the
Catholic rule we visit with punishment.'
    But here and there evidence appears of predominant
paganism.   In the year 443 the Council of Arles passes
Paganism canons against Christians who have witnessed
stil     heathen rites without prohibiting them, against
powerful in
places   those who have denied the faith under persecu-
tion, or who have been forced by torture to do sacrifice.
In Corsica sacrifices were still publicly offered, and a
story is told of a Christian woman, named Julia, being
crucified because she refused to take part in the pagan
rites.'
    In Rome, too, some pagan observances were retained
even in State affairs. Salvianus, a presbyter of Mar-
Evidence  seilles, about the year 440, declares that auguries
of salvianus were still taken from the flight or the feeding
of birds for the election of consuls. He testifies to the
continued passion for the circus in which the fights with
wild beasts were still continued, and contrasts the
emptiness of Christian churches with the crowded circus
during the celebration of the games: 'not only do pro-
fessing Christians (qui Christianos se esse dicunt) not
come to church, but those who have come there in
ignorance, if they hear that the games are going on,
instantly quit the church.'
    All the great Christian writers of this period inveigh
against the practice of taking part in the lascivious cele-
brations of heathen festivals; and Salvianus, speaking
of the African Church, denounces those Christians who
         Acta Sanctorum, viii. 167, quoted by Gieseler.





THE FALL OF PAGANISM


enter Christian shrines when they are reeking with the
steam of sacrifices offered to demons.
    Such are home of the features of this great contention,
of the relations of civil rulers to Christianity and to
paganism, of the conditions under which the Kingdom
of Christ was by slow and painful process moulding a
new world.


                  CHAPTER XIV.
              ST. JEROME. A.D. 346-420.

WE now turn to trace some of the directions in which
the leaven of the Kingdom of God was transfusing itself
into the mass of worldly opinion and motive, and was
influencing human action.
    The name of Jerome suggests an important movement
and an important work-monasticism and the Vulgate.
    The epoch which we are considering was a time
when the conduct of life and the problems of society had
Theories of  to be re-discussed. Christianity was still so
the Christian
life     new and undeveloped an element that its social
relations were as yet undefined. How were Christian
men and women to be in the world and yet not of it ?
The question was simple in the old days before the
Church became a political force, and before Christians
were exposed to the dangerous temptations of high
position, of wealth, and of influence; but it was no
longer simple; indeed    it had become exceedingly
intricate and  complex.    Accordingly  the foremost
theologians were putting forth thoughts, which were
destined to take effect with more or less permanency.


121





122 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

One of these thoughts was monasticism. The monastic
life is the expression of ideas which will always animate
Christian society and Christian thought. It is a pro-
test against the world. It is a refuge for disappoint-
ment, weariness, and hopeless sorrow, and a retreat
for learning and piety of a special type. No system
has been more abused or distorted in its applica-
tion, or has more fully exposed itself at times to
condemnation by the best and purest Christian judg-
ment in particular epochs. But the system and life
were infinitely varied, and in one place or another
have given scope to the energy and intellect of such
men as Jerome, Chrysostom, Anselm, St. Bernard, and
Fra Angelico.
    Egypt was the home of monasticism. Its influence
in the West may be said to date from the visit of St.
Monasticism Athanasius to Rome, accompanied by two
in Egypt Egyptian monks.    Athanasius had, himself,
in early life been fascinated by the personal attraction
of St. Anthony, whom he describes, in different terms
from what we should have expected, as 'urbane and
polished.' St. Anthony is regarded as the founder of
Christian monasticism ; and the life of this Saint,
written by Athanasius, gave an impulse to the mo-
nastic tendency, which at one time strongly influenced
St. Augustine also.
    Many causes increased the popularity of monasti-
cism.   The unsettled condition of society, the inse-
Different curity of possessions, the prevailing vice and
phases of iniquity of the age, the yearning in some
the monas-
tic life minds for a life of quiet contemplation and
the pursuit of learning; while others, guided by lower





ST. JEROME. A.D. 346-420


motives, may have seen in the solitary or ccenobitic
life an avenue to spiritual influence or even high ec-
clesiastical position. Some who devoted themselves to
the monastic life adopted rigid rules of abstinence and
austerity. The more weird, desolate and lonely the
spot, the harsher and more exacting the rule, the more
sparing or even repulsive the diet, the greater was the
attraction to many minds. Some voluntarily yielded
themselves to what can only be described as a lifelong
torture.  Such were the pillar saints familiarised to
English readers by Tennyson's 'St. Simeon Stylites.'

  Let this avail, just, dreadful, mighty God,
  This not be all in vain, that thrice ten years,
  Thrice multiplied by superhuman pangs,
  In hungers and in thirsts, fevers and cold,
  In coughs, aches, stitches, ulcerous throes and cramps,
  A sign betwixt the meadow and the cloud,
  Patient on this tall pillar I have borne
  Rain, wind, frost, heat, hail, damp, and sleet, and snow.

Simeon was a Syrian shepherd boy who left his flock
on the mountains thirty miles east of Antioch for a
monastic life, and not content with its austerities, raised
a pillar within the enclosure of a sheep-fold or mandra,
and with a ponderous chain attached to his body as-
cended the pillar and there remained for thirty years,
not even descending to die.
    But under all this crude fanaticism, there was a
substratum of practical truth, and to the strange ex-
aggerations of the principle there succeeded the sober
and temperate discipline of life, which produced great
scholars, great bishops, great thinkers. St. Basil of


123





1 24  THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Caesarea, as we have seen, enjoyed the beauties of nature
in the midst of which his monastery was placed, courted
the society of his friend St. Gregdry, and was delighted
by the alternations of manual and mental exercise which
he made the rule of his community.
    In the West the history of monasticism connects
itself with the name of St. Jerome, or Hieronymus.
This great doctor of the Latin Church, whose character
and example have left deep traces on the conception
and discipline of the Christian life, was born at Stridon,
near Aquileia, probably in the year 346.
    After studying rhetoric in Rome, Jerome visited
Spain, and then settled for a time at Aquileia, where
his experience of the ascetic life began. He pursued
this experience in the East, where he travelled for
some while, visiting great cities-Jerusalem, Antioch,
and Constantinople-and studying under distinguished
teachers, one of whom was Gregory Nazianzen. During
five years he lived in the Syrian desert, submitting him-
self to all the austerities of the solitary life. In 382 he
was summoned to Rome by Pope Damasus.       Here the
whole weight of his great influence was directed to the
advocacy of asceticism.   He attracted a large and
devoted following; but on the death of Darnasus he
resolved to quit Rome.
    For his final retreat and monastic home he fixed
upon the most interesting spot on earth, and w as joined
St. Jerome  at Bethlehem by his dearest friends and
2 "m     pupils, the lady Paula, and her daughter
Eustochium. Nor was his life there one of idle con-
templation and rest.   On the contrary, it was filed
with eager and arduous literary labours, with a wide





ST. JEROME. A.D. 346-420


correspondence, and often, it must be added, with hot
and fierce controversy.   Of these controversies the
most important were those with Pelagius on the sub-
ject of original sin, of grace, and the human intellect;
with Helvidius on the subject of the perpetual virginity
of the Blessed Virgin Mary; and with Rufinus and
others on the question of Origen's: writings--a point of
keen theological controversy at this period.
    Into these subjects of dispute we do not propose to
enter, but we cannot pass over without some descrip-
         tion the great literary achievement which has
The Vulgate made the name of Jerome famous throughout
all ages, which exercised a dominant influence over the
whole Western Church, and which indirectly affects the
life and thought of Englishmen at the present day,
nay, even the very words which we use.
    Jerome had been what we should now call a great
classical scholar. He confesses that he had allowed him-
self to be carried away too far by his love for the famous
writers of Greece and Rome, till the voice of a vision,
telling him that he was not a Christian but a Ciceronian,
made him turn to the almost exclusive study of the Bible.
The scene and the country in which he wrote aided and
stimulated him in his great work. In Palestine he was
not only able to identify and visit Biblical scenes, but
also to study with advantage the original language of
the Old Testament. The result of these labours was
the version of the Holy Scriptures from  Hebrew and
Greek into Latin, known to us as the Vulgate trans-
lation.
    The English word Vulgate represents the Latin
 Vulgata Editio, 'the current edition' of the Bible, the


125!





126   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

edition to be understood of the people. This term was
applied to versions of the Bible from Greek into Latin
which had preceded Jerome's Vulgate. Jerome's first
task was to correct these old, and in many cases corrupt,
versions of the Greek Testament and of the Greek Old
Testament or Septuagint. But the great and monu-
mental work on which St. Jerome spent the immense
energy and labour of the later years of his life was a
translation of the Old Testament directly from the
Hebrew. The books were published at intervals at the
request of various friends from the year 389 to the year
404, the forty-fourth to the fifty-ninth of Jerome's life.
    From this time the Vulgate took its place as the
authorised Bible of the Western Church. With the
exception of the Gothic Bible of Ulfilas, all the ver-
sions of the Bible into the languages of the West, our
own included, are more or less directly founded on the
Vulgate of Jerome. Wyclif's Bible (1324-1384) is a
literal rendering of the current Vulgate text. The Bible
of Tyndale and Coverdale rests chiefly on the Latin of
Jerome and the German of Luther. Our own Authorised
Version was accomplished by men to whom the Vulgate
was the most familiar text. In this way the influence
of St. Jerome has a close and interesting relation to
modern life.
   The Vulgate by no means exhausts the literary
work of St. Jerome in Palestine. He wrote commen-
Jerome's taries on portions of the prophetical books,
labours  on  St. Matthew, and    on  several of the
Epistles. He translated some of Origen's homilies. His
book of Hebrew names and his questions on Genesis,
written at this period, are of value to the present day.





ST. JEROME. A.D. 346-420


Besides these works biographies, controversial treatises,
letters, and translations justified his retirement.
    St. Jerome died in the year 420.    His tomb is
shown in the narrow cell, where he lived and wrote,
near that rocky cavern to which a very ancient tradition
points as the scene of the Saviour's birth.



                  CHAPTER XV.
             ST. AUGUSTINE. A.D. 354-430.

IN turning from St. Jerome to St. Augustine we find
ourselves in the presence of a gentler influence and
assuredly of a greater name in the Church of Christ.
    Perhaps it is the early life of St. Augustine, the
child of many tears, which has most widely touched
St. Augus-  human hearts.  His mother Monnica, her
tine's early
life     tender care, her loving anxiety, her prayers,
her tears; then the dissolute youth of this great
saint; then his conviction of sin, his inward struggles,
his search after truth, his conversion and reconciliation
with God-all these things told in the glowing and
passionate language of the ' Confessions' have found a
response in every generation: ' Mentem mortalia tan-
gunt.'
    But perhaps the light in which the name of St.
Augustine is most justly honoured in the Church is
that in which he is regarded as the founder of system-
atic theology. He was the first of great ecclesiastical
teachers to touch with no uncertain hand those deep
and mysterious questions which began to agitate the


127





I28 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

minds of men in respect of the relation of the soul to
God, and the acts or thoughts or attitudes on which its
eternal destinies depend-
      Fixed fate, free will, foreknowledge absolute.

These were the high, and, we may add, the insoluble,
themes which engaged the mind of Augustine.
    The ' Confessions' of St. Augustine refer to the
period of his life which preceded his baptism. This did
The'Confes- not take place till the thirty-third year of
sions' of St.
Augustine his age. For at least nine years of his early
manhood he had been led away by Manicheism, a
system which recognises a dual government of the world
by the equal and contending powers of good and evil,
a kingdom of light and a kingdom of darkness.
    The crisis came when he obtained an appointment
as teacher of rhetoric at Milan.    There he became
t. Augus- known to St. Ambrose, by whose eloquence
tine at  and goodness he was at once attracted; at.
Milan meets
St. Ambrose first, however, in a critical spirit. 'I listened
diligently,' he says in  his 'Confessions,' 'to him
preaching to the people, not with that intent I ought,
but as it were trying his eloquence, whether it answered
the fame thereof, or flowed fuller or lower than was
reported of the matter. I was as a careless and scornful
looker-on . . . and yet,' he says, 'was I drawing nearer
little by little and unconsciously.' Such was the begin-
ning of that sweet and fruitful intercourse of these two
great Saints.
    Augustine returned to Africa after his conversion.
Here he became associated with Valerius, Bishop of
                        1 v. 13.





ST. AUGUSTINE. A.D. 354-430


Hippo, who ordained him. On the death of Valerius
St. Augustine succeeded to the comparatively unimpor-
is made  tant bishopric. But his influence extended
Bishop of
Hippo    far and wide beyond the limits of his see; for
no voice swayed men's minds more effectively than St.
Augustine's, no one directed the current of thought on
The influ- momentous questions with greater authority,
ence of St.
Augustine or affected the course of the Church's history
more profoundly than the Bishop of Hippo.
    The most famous controversies in vhich he was en-
gaged were, first, that in which he upheld the discipline
and the doctrine of the Catholic Church on the one
hand against the Donatists, who asserted the possibility
of maintaining an ideally pure and holy Church on
earth, and separated themselves from the Church of
their brethren, in which they could trace laxity of
discipline or the elements of sin; next, that against
the Pelagians, who denied the need or efficacy of the
grace of God, and attributed to the unassisted human
will and intellect the capacity of attaining righteous-
ness.
    We cannot enter into these important subjects at
length, nor can we here describe or estimate the wealth
The De   and value of St. Augustine's literary works.
Civitate
Dei'     But something must be said of the ' De
Civitate Dei' or the ' City of God,' or, more accurately,
'Concerning the Divine State, or the Kingdom of God'
-a book which had immense weight in determining
men's minds at the time, and has influenced the history
of the world more perhaps than any other book.
    The 'De Civitate Dei' was written at a memorable
epoch and with a memorable purpose. The epoch was
    C. H.                                      K


I29





I30 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

the capture of Rome by Alaric in 410; the purpose
was to confute the idea that the calamities of the time
were due to Christianity. It is the wisest and most
complete of Christian 'apologies,' a searching enquiry
into the meaning of history, a vindication of the King-
dom of Heaven.
    The sack of Rome produced an indescribable shock
through the civilised world.    Society seemed to be
falling into ruin. Men looking about for a cause blamed
Christianity. St. Augustine proves incontestably that
it was by the vices and corruptions of the old pagan
system that ruin had overtaken the empire. He shows
the helplessness of paganism and of the philosophic
systems which had succeeded it, and then exhibits the
lofty aims, the mighty progress, the assured future,
the blessed hopes and promise of the 'City of God.'
It is at once a review of history and an exposition
of the discipline and doctrine of the Catholic Church.
There are few things finer in literature than the com-
prehensive sweep of St. Augustine's intellect in his
criticism of the events and politics of the pagan past,
of all philosophy and of all aspects of life, in his ' City
of God.'
    Nothing can be gentler or more generous than his
attitude towards mistaken beliefs. Nothing can exceed
his readiness to recognise what is beautiful and noble
in character or in nationality, or his eagerness to claim
it for Christianity. Nor is there any fear in the in-
terests of Christianity for results of research or keenness
of analysis. It is polemic theology at its best.'
   St. Augustine is chosen as the exemplar of polemic theology
in tile noble and impressive fresco by Simone Memmi in the Spanish
Chapel of Santa Maria Novella in Florence.





ST. AUGUSTINE. A.D. 354-430


    So far as outward events were concerned the life
of St. Augustine was quiet and uneventful till close
upon its end. Then it was disturbed, as all north Africa
was disturbed, by the cruel and desolating invasion of
the Vandals under Genseric. The Count Boniface had
thrown himself into the city of Hippo, which was at once
closely invested. ' There,' writes Gibbon, ' in the third
Death of month of the siege, and in the seventy-sixth
St. Augus-
tine     year of his age, St. Augustine, the light and
pillar of the Catholic Church, was gently released from
the actual and impending calamity of his country.'




                  CHAPTER XVI.
            ST. CHRYSOSTOM. A.D. 347-407.

TURNING for a while from the West to the East, we will
endeavour to trace at least in outline the life and work of
the great Bishop and eloquent preacher John surnamed
Chrysostom. In some respects his life is more modern
in its characteristics and modes of influence than any of
the others which have been described.
    St. Chrysostom's life naturally divides itself into
three parts-his rise into power and brilliance as a
preacher at Antioch, his career at Constantinople, his
sufferings in banishment at different places in Asia
Minor.
    John Chrysostom-we must remember that John
 was the only name by which he was known to his con-
 temporaries, the title of Chrysostom, ' golden-mouthed,'
                                              x2


I3I





132    THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

being a later tribute to his eloquence-was born at An-
tioch in the year 347 and died in 407. He was gifted
Early life  with great and brilliant ability, and seemed
of St.
Chrysostom destined to be the foremost of rhetoricians in
his native city. His mother Anthusa was a devout
Christian; all that we know of her points to a sweet
and loving nature, and to the utmost anxiety for her
son's spiritual welfare. After some hesitation, and not
until he had grown up to manhood, he was baptized,
and renounced the world.
    The form of religion which suited his temperament
was asceticism in its severest guise. But though he sub-
His      mitted to a rigid discipline, he yielded to his
asceticism  mother's tears and remained for a while under
her roof. But he longed for a more rigorous self-denial,
and for six years he exposed himself to privations
among the Syrian mountains, which permanently injured
his health. After this he returned to Antioch, was
ordained, and began his course of Christian oratory
which has left an imperishable fame. His promise had
already been great. When Libanius, the most eminent
sophist and rhetorician of his time, and the devoted
friend of the emperor Julian, was asked on his death-
bed who should take his place when he was gone, he
answered: 'It would have been John, had not the Chris-
tians taken him from us.'
    Soon events took place in Antioch which gave occa-
sion to the most brilliant and the most moving of
Chrysostom's homilies.
   The East was at this time-in the year 387-groan-
ing under an oppressive taxation, which had become
                     ' Socr. viii. 2.





ST. CHRYSOSTOM. A.D. 347-407


necessary for the military operations in the West and
for the approaching celebration of the decennalia, or
Seditious festival on the tenth year of the emperor's
outbreak at
Antioch  reign. Seditious meetings were held at Alex-
andria, at Antioch, and at other chief towns in the
Eastern empire. When the edict of taxation was pro-
claimed at Antioch a tumult broke out. The mob rushed
into the governor's palace and overthrew the statues of
the imperial family, which were placed in the hall of
judgment. For three hours the madness raged through
the city. The statues of Theodosius, his wife and family,
in the city were hurled down and broken up or dragged
along the streets. It was a deadly insult, and what
made the sting more keenly felt by Theodosius was the
recent death of his wife Flaccilla, to whom he was deeply
attached.
    In Antioch swift repentance and the gloomiest ap-
prehensions followed the outbreak. The aged Bishop
Flavian was sent with a deputation including, according
to Zosimus, the pagan orator Libanius, to solicit the
emperor's pardon. While the city waited in terrified
suspense, the magistracy with miserable cowardice were
sending victims to execution in order to shield them-
selves from blame of complicity. In this condition
of things Chrysostom intervened. Every day in words
of 'golden' eloquence he addressed the people who
Chrysostom flocked to the basilica, exhorting them to calm-
ca ms the
people   ness, to show what Christian courage meant
in times of danger. He pointed to reasons for hope-
fulness from the ability of their advocates and the
clemency of a Christian emperor. At the same time
he took this opportunity to urge the need of repentance,


I33





134 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

and of trust in the Heavenly King.    At length the
imperial envoys came. As they moved through the
streets they were met by the hermits from the moun-
tains-strange figures-who for once had descended to
the crowded city to intercede. The envoys, who were
Christians, alighted and fell on their knees before the
hermits, who with the utmost courage delivered their
message of intercession.
    A severe sentence had indeed already been issued.
The city was degraded from its metropolitan position;
The em-  the public baths, the circus and places of
peror's
sentence amusement were closed.   But before severer
measures were taken or sentences of death inflicted,
a respite was granted and an appeal to the emperor
allowed.
    Meanwhile Bishop Flavian returned bearing the
joyous news that a pardon had been granted. He
Announce- had pleaded in the emperor's presence in
ment of
pardon   words which St. Chrysostom   has preserved.
The appeal to the Christianity of the emperor prevailed.
'If the Lord of the earth,' said Theodosius, ' who be-
came a servant for our sakes, and was crucified by
those whom He came to benefit, prayed for the pardon
of His crucifiers, what wonder was it that man should
forgive his fellow-servants ?'
    It was an Easter of joyous thankfulness for Antioch.
The whole scene was significant of the growing in-
fluence of Christianity.  The historian has to take
note of this new force in the world, this new possi-
bility of clemency, this avenue to pity opened out by
the Church. We read too without astonishment that
'one great and happy result of the recent trouble was





ST. CHRYSOSTOM. A.D. 347--407


a large accession of pagans to the ranks of the Church.'
If the power that wins is the power that rules, the
Kingdom of God had shown itself to be the stronger
irperium.
    The removal of Chrysostom from Antioch to Con-
stantinople is another of those picturesque and dramatic
chrysostom incidents which fill the annals of this epoch.
becomes
Bishop of The episcopal throne of Constantinople was
Constanti-
nople    vacant. LJohn,' says the historian Sozomen,
'was adjudged worthy in word and in deed, by all
the subjects of the Roman empire, to preside over the
Church of Constantinople. The clergy and people
were unanimous in electing him; their choice was
approved by the emperor ; messengers were despatched
for John ; and, to confer greater solemnity on his ordina-
tion, a council was convened.' But the difficulty was
to persuade St. Chrysostom to quit Antioch, or to steal
their favourite preacher from the unwilling citizens.
Both fraud and force were employed. He was tempted
to go beyond the city walls, and there seized by im-
perial officers and carried a prisoner to the capital over
which he had been elected to preside as Bishop.
    At Constantinople Chrysostom  found many evils to
correct in the dissolute society of the capital. For him-
self he carried the simple and ascetic habit of his life at
Antioch into the episcopal palace. It was his custom
to eat alone and never to accept an invitation to a feast.
Whatever his motive may have been, needed carefulness
in diet, or a vow of abstinence, this seclusion made him
unpopular. He endeavoured first of all to check the
growing luxury of his clergy. Already the temptations
of wealthy houses had sapped spiritual strength. Im-


135





136   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

morality too, or the danger of immorality, had produced
scandals such as no true and pure Church could endure.
Attacks  In sweeping away these evils, possibly with too
abuses of
the clergy  harsh and unsparing a hand, St. Chrysostom
raised enemies who combined against him when his time
of trial came.
    But St. Chrysostom was not content with restoring
discipline to his clergy.  He inveighed against the
extravagance, the idleness, the finery of the fashionable
world.   The homilies and addresses of Chrysostom
prove how uniform and monotonous are the lines on
which human sin and folly proceed, and how alike the
preacher's arguments must be in every age. ' As long
as John attacked the clergy only,' says Socrates, ' the
machinations of his enemies were utterly powerless; but
when he proceeded to rebuke the nobles also with his
characteristic vehemence, the tide of unpopularity began
to set against him with far greater impetus, and the
stories which were told to his disparagement found many
attentive listeners.'
    The eunuch Eutropius, who had been raised to the
dignity of consul, and Gainas, the Gothic chieftain, and
we raises other persons of distinction assailed and up-
enemies by
his faithful- braided by this courageous Bishop, became
buke     powerful adversaries.  His most inveterate
enemy however was Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria,
whose designs had been thwarted by the election of
John to the see of Constantinople. But the gravest
danger to St. Chrysostom lay in the hostility of the
empress Eudoxia, who saw in him an obstacle to her
complete ascendency over the emperor. At length
through the joint practices of the empress and of Theo-





ST. CHRYSOSTOM. A.D. 347-407


philus, by the vote of a packed synod composed of
Bishops hostile to St. Chrysostom, meeting at a placeo
Antipathy called ' The Oak' near Chalcedon, he was con-
of the em-
press     demned to exile. He fled from the city, but
on the same night a violent storm excited the supersti-
tious fears of Eudoxia, and Chrysostom   was recalled.
The population of the capital welcomed his return with
demonstrations of delight.
    However, the renlewed friendship with Eudoxia was
short-lived. On this occasion the fiery nature of St.
Chrysostom seems to have carried him away. A silver
statue of the empress had been placed on a porphyry
pillar close to the Church of St. Sophia. At this pillar
public games were performed which Chrysostom objected
to as an insult to the sacredness of the place   The
empress incensed at Chrysostom's protest endeavoured
to convene another council against him. A synod of
Bishops met, and though no formal decree was passed,
the emperor Arcadius was persuaded to sign an order
for the removal of Chrysostom.
    Then took place in the Church of St. Sophia one
of those wild and cruel scenes, to which this history has
Chrysostom accustomed us.  The sacrament of baptism
driven into
exile    was being administered; soldiers rushed in and
interrupted the sacred rite. Chrysostom escaped from
the church; but, as soon as the weak Arcadius could
be persuaded to sign the decree of banishment, he was
driven into exile. The place of exile was Cucisus, a
nmountain village in the range of the Taurus to the north
of Cilicia. After a journey hastened on with cruel ex-
pedition, he reached Cucisus, where he was received with
hospitality by many friends.


I37





138    THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

    From that secluded village Chrysostom exercised an
immense influence over the Church of the East, taking
special thought of his own flock in Constantinople.
Never was he more a Bishop than when he ruled from
Cucfisus. But the end was near. His enemies were
disappointed that the severities of exile had not slain
Chrysostom. He was ordered to a spot still more
bleak and dreary, Pityus in the Caucasian mountains.
Thither he was hurried by guards, whose merciless
haste proved fatal at Comana, a halting-place on the
way. This was on September 14, A.D. 407. Thirty-
one years afterwards, the remains of St. Chrysos-
tom were translated with great pomp to his epis-
copal city, and placed in the Church of the Holy
Apostles.
    The times and scenes in which St. Chrysostom
played no unimportant part exhibit some of the worst
Review of as well as some of the best and brightest
Chryso-
stom's life  features of ecclesiastical history. In his own
early life we trace not only the coarse seductions of
half-extinguished paganism, but the finer and more
noble temptations of the trained intellect. When the
change came, we see asceticism carried to an extreme
and a narrowed conception of Christianity.    On his
own high and saintly character in its development it is
a delight to dwell. It is as a beacon light thrown
across the stormy sea of intrigue and sin. It is a
delight also to trace the deep impress that his person-
ality and his eloquent teaching made on society, espe-
cially on the masses of Antioch and Constantinople,
who were enthusiastically attached to their eloquent
:guide.





ST. CHRYSOSTOM. A.D. 347-407


    Here is a beginning of that Christian influence on
vast urban populations which it has always been the
just ambition of the Church to secure. The new force
has not only swayed the minds of emperors and claimed
mercy as a right, but it has stirred multitudes of men
by an appeal to the religious sense,-two modifications
of imperialism, and mitigations of absolute power, un-
dreamt of and impossible except in the light of Chris-
tianity.
    We are, however, compelled to see darker lines in
the picture. Christianity has not been able, as enthu-
siasts might have hoped, to sweep away the selfishness,
the lust, the cruelty of the pagan world. Society was
still unpurged; every page of Chrysostom's homilies
teaches this. We note also an even darker stain, because
seemingly more incurable, the beginning of ecclesiastical
intrigue, the battle of pride and jealousy in the Church
of Christ, the Church divided not by differences of
religious thought or discipline, but, as in the contest
between Theophilus of Alexandria and Chrysostom, by
the base and mundane spirit of faction and that other
dark spirit of rivalry and hate.



                 CHAPTER      XVII.
      HONORIUS. A.D. 395-423-RUFINUS, STILICHO.

A WEAK reign is the opportunity of powerful ministers;
and in the eventful history of the falling empire it is
not the names of Honorius and Arcadius that fill the
pages of history. The whole of the administration of


I39





14o THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

affairs was thrown into the hands of statesmen and
generals who had thrust themselves into power, or of
the more capable members of the imperial family.'
Accession    Two men had gained surpassing influence
of Honorius in the closing years of Theodosius,-Rufinus
and Stilicho, men of marked, but widely differing cha-
racters, one an extreme instance of corrupt and selfish
ambition, the other not indeed a faultless character, yet
a light in dark and evil days, and a support of falling
Rome.
    Rufinus, as we learn from the verses of Claudian, the
chief authority for this period, was a native of Elusa,
Early life a small town of Aquitania. In the language
of Rufous of the poet he is summoned by Alecto from
his mean penates by the temptations of wealth and
power, to take his part in the movements of a larger
world :
    Otia te, Rufine, juvant ? frustraque juventee
    Consumis florem patriis inglorius arvis ?
    TIeu nescis quid fata tibi, quid sidera donent,
    Quid fortuna paret : toti dominabere mundo,
    Si parere velis.
    Rufinus rose to eminence as a lawyer, and his elo-
quence and capacity for business attracted the attention
         of the emperor Theodosius, who advanced him
         from one post of dignity to another, until he
became his leading minister and trusted adviser. The
true character of Rufinus revealed itself by degrees.
Only when the control of Theodosius was removed was
the world to know the secret of his cruel and ruthless


Zosimus, v. 1.





  HONORIUS. A.D. 395-423 - - RUFINUS, STILICHO    141

ambition. But we have authority for the belief that he
stood by the emperor's side when he planned the mas-
sacre of Thessalonica, and that he resisted with all his
force the humane and civilising influence of Ambrose.
He would present at this crisis in the relations between
Church and State the argument, which is true if not
pressed to an extremity, that in civil administration and
in great State questions the Church as such has no right
to interfere. This point a minister may justly urge;
but he may not forget that the principles of Christianity,
of which the Church is the exponent, hold good in
Church and State alike.
    The profound secresy with which the crime of
Thessalonica was veiled until the moment of its per-
The crimes petration is characteristic of the deep dissimu-
of Rufnus lation attributed to Rufinus.'  In his advance
to supreme and undisputed influence two rivals stood
in his way-Promotus, a soldier who had braved the
dangers and hardships of campaigning by the side of
Theodosius, and was now commander of the infantry;
and Tatian, prefect of the palace. Promotus was the
first victim. Stung by a scornful speech of Rufinus,
he struck him on the cheek. The insult was avenged
by an imperial order to Promotus to leave the capital
for a fortress on the Danube.    There, according to
Zosimus,2 he was slain in an ambuscade planned by
Rufinus.   Tatian was tried on the charge of mal-
administration. His son Proculus, who had been united
with him in authority, had escaped, but the father was
persuaded by the most perfidious promises to recall his
   1 $aevyvcwv     Opwros Ka Kpuivoos, Suidas, quoted by Gibbon.
   2 iv. 5.





142 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

son. On his return Proculus was instantly slain before
his father's eyes :-
                        juvenum rorantia colla
       Ante patrum vultus strict, ceidere securi;
writes Claudian in a passage in which he indignantly
sums up the crimes of Rufinus.l
   It is a significant mark of the influence of Christi-
anity, and of the change which made an outward pro-
fession of it respectable, that an evil and unprincipled
statesman should have deemed it expedient to include
a church and monastery in the precincts of his palace
near Chalcedon.    The hypocrisy of false Christians,
predicted  by the Master,2 which    once seemed   in-
credible, had  come to   pass.   Christianity, instead
of being perilous and scorned, had become safe and
dignified.
    With the accession of Arcadius, Rufinus enjoyed
complete liberty of action.    ' The whole power of
sovereignty,' says Zosimus,3 'was with Rufinus in the
East and with Stilicho in the West . . . all the edicts
of the emperors were prescribed by Rufinus or by
Stilicho.' In this position Rufinus acquired enormous
wealth by the sale of prefectures and other high digni-
ties. At length he aspired to imperial power. The
first step was to be the marriage of his daughter to
Arcadius.
    This design was intercepted by a stratagem. Arca-
Rufinus  dius had been persuaded to discard the alli-
foiled in his
ambition ance with Rufinus, and to choose     for his
bride the beautiful Eudoxia. It is an interesting note


SIn Rfin. i. 220-258.


Z St. Luke xiii. 25, 26.


8 v. 1.





  HONORIUS. A.D. 395-423-RUFINUS, S TILICHO       143

of Byzantine art that the charms of Eudoxia were
commended to Arcadius by means of a picture. This
lady, the daughter of Bauto, a Frankish general, was
residing in the house of one of the sons of Promotus,
the rival of Rufinus. The scheme was arranged with
the utmost secresy by Eutropius, a powerful eunuch
of the palace.   When the festive procession moved
through the streets under the direction of Eutropius, a
gorgeous robe and ornaments worthy of an emperor's
bride being carried by attendants, instead of a.dvancing
to the palace of Rufinus, it turned aside and halted at
the house where lived Eudoxia, who was clothed in the
imperial robes and conveyed to the palace. This check
to the ambition of Rufinus was followed after a short
interval by his complete ruin.
    Rufinus instinctively foresaw his doom in the march
of Stilicho to the East, and he put forth every expedient
His fall to hinder this dangerous advance.   An order
and death from Arcadius compelled Stilicho to stop at
Thessalonica, but he was able to entrust the execution
of his plans to the Gothic general Gainas.
    To make the interest of this crisis intelligible it
will be necessary to trace the earlier career of Stilicho.
    If the glowing verse of Claudian may not be accep-
ted as literally historical in every point, the greatness of
Stilicho's career proves at least the substantial accuracy
The early of the poet. Claudian describes him  as fired
life of
stiicho   from boyhood with high and noble aspirations
and as winning from his fellow-citizens a recognition
of his youthful promise :
                         taciti suffragia vulgi
      Jam tibi detulerant quicquid mox debuit aula.





144   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

An embassy to Persia displayed his high capacity
in another direction, and on his return he received a
His rapid most distinguished mark of court favour in his
rise to power marriage with Serena, the niece of Theodosius.
This alliance brought with it a position of unrivalled
power in the State. Stilicho received in succession the
highest dignities which the empire could bestow, and
eventually obtained the control of the whole military
force of the West. On the death of Theodosius, Stilicho
became the guardian of Honorius and Arcadius. In
this office, according to some writers, Rufinus was
associated with him; but in the West at least Stilicho
was now    supreme. His first act was to visit and
reinstate the garrisons on the Rhine. He then pro-
ceeded to strike down the two great enemies of the
Defeats  empire - Gildo in Africa, and Rufinus at
Gildo    the court of Constantinople.    The former,
a tyrant of the most brutal and despotic character,
had for twelve years oppressed Africa with a reign of
terror:
      Instat terribilis vivis, morientibus hieres,
      Virginibus raptor, thalamis obscoenus adulter.

The great danger to be apprehended from an interference
with his rule was the stoppage of the corn supply from
Africa, which had for centuries been the granary of
Rome. Here Stilicho displayed his skill by arranging
for a supply of corn from the province of Gaul, which
was floated down the Rhone and so forwarded to the
Roman market.     The expedition against Gildo was
entrusted to his brother Mascezel, who had taken refuge
at Milan from the dangers which threatened him at





  HONORIUS. A.D. 395-423-RUFINUS, STILICHO       145

home. For there had been a deadly feud between the
two brothers; and Mascezel was now made desperate
by a crowning act of atrocity-the murder of his
children by Gildo.
    The expedition was, in the language of later de-
votion, a crusade. The leader himself was a devout
Christian; and on his way to Africa he landed at
Capraria, in those days a settlement of monks, some of
whom were persuaded to come on board his ships.
The victory of Mascezel was complete, and even, as
it appeared to some, miraculous. Gildo put himself to
death; and Mascezel returned in triumph. But an
accident in crossing over a bridge put an end to a life
which might have been glorious. This was in the year
398. The attack upon Rufinus had taken place three
years previously.
    When Gainas approached Constantinople with his
victorious troops, Arcadius and his minister, Rufinus,
Assassina- advanced to meet them. As Rufinus passed
tion of
R uanus  along the line, the wings of the army were
observed to be closing in upon him. At length Gainas
gave the signal, and a dagger was plunged into the
breast of Rufinus, who instantly expired at the feet of
Arcadius. It was an act which blackens the fair fame
of Stilicho, a return to the tyrant's policy of government
by assassination and fear. Nor did Stilicho gain the
end at which he aimed, for the power of the Eastern
court passed into the hands of the eunuch Eutropius,
and of Gainas.    The latter, no longer faithful to
Stilicho, joined with Eutropius in resisting his influence
at Constantinople.   Stilicho consequently had the
magnanimity to abandon the East, though the event of
    C. H.                                      L





146 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

a civil war might have left him supreme at Constanti-
nople as well as at Milan.
    His prestige was enhanced by the betrothal of his
daughter, Maria, to the emperor Honorius, who aban-
Marriage of doned the defence of the empire to his power-
Stificho's
daughter ful minister, and gave himself up to such
unexciting pursuits as feeding poultry. Stilicho was,
in fact, virtually emperor, and that at a time of critical
importance. In a fine passage Claudian describes the
solitary greatness achieved by this distinguished soldier
and statesman, his prescience of danger, and his forti-
tude in nieeting it:
       Solus erat Stilicho qui desperantibus augur
       Sponderet meliora manu ; dubioeque salutis
       Dux idem vatesque fuit.'
He praises the courage with which he raised the fainting
hopes of Italy, until at length Ishe dared to emerge
from the darkness of despair and to rest assured with
so mighty a hostage for her destiny.'



                 CHAPTER      XVIII.
               ALARIC AND THE GOTHS.

THE threatening cloud of danger to which Claudian
alludes was the approach of the Goths.  The death of
Invasion of Theodosius had been the signal for their in-
Alaric   cursion; and they crossed the Danube under
the leadership of Alaric. The position and strength
                  i De Bello Getico, 267.





ALARIC AND THE GOTHS


of Constantinople-the first object of attack--deter-
mined Alaric to retreat in order to press his invasion
on another quarter of the empire. In the year 396 he
followed the historic footsteps of the Persian invader,
passing through Macedonia and Thessaly to the narrow
defile of Thermopyle, where, as in the days of Leonidas,
a handful of men might have opposed his advance. No
resistance, however, was offered; but the defenders (f
the pass were treacherously withdrawn by the orders
of their leader Gerontius. Alaric led his army past
Thermopylae, 'as though,' says a scornful writer, 'he
were traversing a racecourse.' Thence he advanced to
the sack of defenceless cities in the plains of Phocis
and Boeotia, making a broad track of flame and
ruin long afterwards discernible. 'Even now,' writes
Zosimus,' ' all the Boeotians and other Grecian peoples
point to a desolation which dates from this period.'
All males capable of bearing arms were slain, the
women and children were carried off with the rest
of the spoil. Thebes was spared, partly owing to
the strength of its fortifications, partly to Alaric's im-
patience to reach Athens. Here it is said that the
goddess Pallas appeared to protect the sacred walls, and
that Alaric consented to honourable terms of peace, and
entered Athens rather as an invited and distinguished
guest than as a dreaded conqueror. He next turned his
arms against Megara, which fell at the first blow, crossed
the Isthmus, again through the treacherous negligence
of Gerontius, and finally secured entire mastery over the
Peloponnesus.
    Stilicho, the only Roman general capable of stem-
                       i v. 5.
                                              L2


147





148   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

ming the tide of ruin, hastened to Greece, and in a brief
space of time compelled the Gothic army to take refuge
Stilicho in Mount Pholoe, where it was surrounded
repels the
invasion by his troops. From   this desperate position
Alaric only escaped by the negligence of his enemies,
who allowed themselves to be enticed by the amusements
of a pleasure-loving people, and relaxed the rigours
of the siege. This was in the year 396. Alaric con-
ducted his retreat with masterly skill, and then, without
delay and with consummate policy, concluded with the
court of Constantinople a treaty of peace which was no
doubt facilitated by jealousy of Stilicho's success.
    A still more surprising stroke of statesmanship
followed.   Alaric was proclaimed master-general of
Eastern Illyricum.   No government could inflict a
more cruel insult on its subjects who had fought and
suffered in the cause of their country. In a passage of
generous indignation Claudian contrasts the times when
the good old custom prevailed of rewarding high desert
and crushing the rebel, with his own time, when 'he
who breaks treaties grows rich, he who keeps them
comes to want: the scourge of Greece, the devastator
of Epirus is master of Illyricuin, enters by right the
cities which he besieged, and metes out justice to the
men whose wives he ruined and whose sons he slew.'
Alaric used his authority to furnish his troops with
military supplies and equipment from the armouries of
Greece. He turned the discord of the Eastern and
Western empires to his own aggrandisement, and soon
felt himself strong enough to attempt the cherished
object of his ambition-the conquest of Italy and
Rome.





ALARIC AND THE GOTHS


    Of Alaric's first campaign in Italy in the year 402
few particulars are known. Probably after occupying
Alaric's first the northern provinces of Istria and Venetia
invasion
of Italy  he recrossed the Alps to draw reinforcements
from the Danube.
    Once more all hopes of resistance to the Gothic
invasion were centred in Stilicho, who was worthy of
Confidence the general trust. His first concern was to
in Stilicho  urge the timid Honorius to hold his ground in
Milan, until an army should be collected to check the
Tis mea-  advance of Alaric; then in mid-winter he
sures     crossed the Alps to subdue a barbarian tribe
which had invaded Rhetia. A rapid conquest gave him
fresh recruits and released the troops engaged in tran-
quillising the district. He then issued orders to call
in the Roman legionaries from the remotest regions of
the empire. The Rhine frontier was denuded of troops ;
even our own island had to give up her protecting
garrison in this dire necessity of Rome:
        Venit et extremis legio proetenta Britannis,
        Quie Scoto dat frena truci.'
    The advance of Alaric, favoured by the unusual
dryness of the spring, was swifter than Stilicho had
Defeat of calculated. Honorius fled before him and
Alaric    took refuge in Asta, a small Ligurian town,
where he was besieged by Alaric and driven to the verge
of a capitulation. At the moment of his extremity
Stilicho appeared at the head of an advanced guard
with which he cut his way through the investing
lines.  The rescue of Honorius was followed by a
             ' Claudian, De Bello Getico, 416.


149





15o THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

general attack on the forces of Alaric at Pollentia, a
few miles south of Asta and twenty-five miles south-
east of Turin. The Goths were surprised during the
celebration of the Easter festival. The battle raged all
day with varying success, but ended in the utter defeat
of the Goths. The spoils of the East fell into the hands
of Western conquerors, and thousands of captives,
'released,' to use the poet's words, ' by the slaughter of
their masters, impressed grateful kisses on the blood-
stained hands of their deliverers.' 1
    In his retreat Alaric resolved to seize the important
fortress of Verona; but his line of march and design
were betrayed to Stilicho. His troops were caught
in the mountain defiles, and attacked in front, flank,
and rear. Another crushing defeat left him with a
small body of survivors, who prepared for a desperate
resistance on some mountain fastness. But, probably
through the policy of Stilicho, Alaric was allowed to
escape.
    It was a great success, and one which might have
awakened visionary hopes of a restored Rome, resting
The victory once more on the valour and wisdom of her
Itoo lIte )  citizens. But this was not the destined course
from ruin of history, and a more exact judgment de-
cides that the seeds of corruption were too widely sown
in the declining empire to make it worth while or
possible to rebuild the shattered edifice on the old
lines.
    Behind the glitter of the procession, in which
Honorius and Stilicho celebrated the victories over
Alaric and the Goths, a keen eye might discern the
             Claudian, De Bello Getico, 618, 619.





ALARIC AND THE GOTHS


real and enduring forces which were to mould the future
empire. It is in vain that Claudian recalls the ex-
amples of ancient Rome, and speaks of this phantom
triumph as if it meant the same thing as the triumph
of Marius or of Scipio. The Church and Kingdom of
Christ, which Claudian never names, and the Teutonic
races, which a proud inscription and a train of captives
The real declared to have been vanquished utterly, were
forces in the
world    the realities which lay behind this glorious
semblance of imperial power.
    Two incidents occurring at this time respectively
manifested  the two   forces which   were  beginning
to rule the world and to determine the events of
history.
    1. One was the daring feat of the monk Telemachus
during this visit of Honorius to Rome.
    2. The other was the resolution of Honorius to
abandon Milan for the secure retreat of Ravenna.
    1. One of the most revolting features of Roman
civilisation was the exhibition of gladiatorial shows, in
Glmdiatorial which slaves or captives taken in war were
soed by  compelled to slay each other in cold blood, 'to
Christianity make a Roman holiday.'  Christianity had
from the first raised a protest against this inhuman
and degrading barbarity. The practice had even been
formally condemned in the code of the first Christian
emperor; but the cruel custom, to which thousands
were sacrificed every year in the chief towns and cities
of the empire, lived on.
   -At length the needed self-devotion came.   When
Honorius entered the ancient capital of the world to
celebrate his triumph, the games were being celebrated


I51





,152  THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

on a magnificent scale. But when the time arrived for
the gladiatorial combats, hardly had the fight begun when
Telemachus, an Oriental monk, stepped down from the
circle of spectators on to the arena, and parted the
combatants.   He was instantly stoned to death by
the indignant populace, but his heroic act stopped once
and for ever the barbarities of gladiatorial shows in
Roman amphitheatres.'
    2. We have seen how Honorius was stayed for a
while in Milan by the imperious bidding of his minister,
and how he had fled before the Goths to Asta. After
this experience Milan ceased to be a possible capital
for a monarch who had a ' pre-eminence of cowardice.'
The chosen seat of imperial timidity was Ravenna.
This transference of the capital was a well-marked
step in the decadence of the empire. Milan had been
The trans- chosen to be a frontier fortress against a
ference of
the capital Gothic invasion; Ravenna was chosen to be a
secure retreat from Gothic attack.
    Ravenna, like Venice, was built on piles at the edge
of a vast lagune or swamp. The surrounding marshes
         were only passable by means of bridges.  At
Ravenna
         one time it had been a naval station and port;
but by degrees the harbour was filled with alluvial
deposits from the Po, and the strip of land thus formed
between the city and -he sea was covered with a belt
of pine wood. In this way nature continued to con-
tribute to the defences of Ravenna.
    The political history of Ravenna is the history of
cowardice, of decline, and of shrinking from high re-
sponsibilities. But viewed from another side, it has
                   ' Theodoret, v. 26.





ALARIC AND THE GOTHS


associations and an interest of the most sacred and
ennobling kind. In the storms and revolutions of this
The artistic turbulent and changeful age, monuments of
and histor-
ical inte-  Christian art were growing into existence, with
rest of
navenna  matchless and undying beauty of form     and
colour, under the care and direction of Galla Placidia.
Five of the churches of Ravenna owe their origin
to her, and are the enduring memorials of her reign.
Externally plain and uninteresting, the churches of
Ravenna still preserve on their walls and vaulted roofs,
almost in original brightness and truth of colouring,
the imperishable mosaics placed there by Byzantine
artists of the fifth and sixth centuries. It is possible
to see, in the long processions there depicted, the shape
and colour of priestly vestments and imperial robes,
and the features of men and women who made history
at this epoch.    Here are the earliest of Christian
symbols of priceless interest and value: the Cross itself
both in the ground-plan of the churches and represented
on the monuments; the Lamb of God; the emblems of
the Evangelists; the Christ Himself, always a youthful
beardless figure, now as the Good Shepherd, now as the
Conqueror bearing on high the flag of victory, now, it
would seem, committing heretical works to the flames,
now calmly enthroned. Another symbol has a peculiar
importance in this age. More than once two stags are
represented coming to a fountain of water, which is
interpreted as an emblem of the heathen world being
brought into the Church of Christ.     One shrine in
Ravenna, the Chapel in the Archbishop's palace, still
used for daily service, stands without alteration, hal-
lowed by uninterrupted rites since the days of St. Peter


I53





154   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Chrysologus, who founded it in this century. The body
of Galla Placidia herself was placed in a chapel of surpass-
ing beauty, beneath a vault of deep blue mosaic spangled
with golden stars. For eleven centuries her form could
be seen clothed as in life with imperial robes and seated
on a throne of cypress wood. In 1577 by an unhappy
accident this was destroyed by fire.
    Such are the memorials which still lend an unfail-
ing interest to Ravenna. By its very seclusion, rendered
still more guarded by the gradual withdrawal of the sea,
this sheltered city has preserved unimpaired the unique
monuments of an age which has elsewhere left few
memorials.
    While Honorius sought protection in the security of
his new capital, Stilicho was once more engaged in the
defence of the empire. A fresh invasion of barbarian
hordes poured down the passes of the Alps, this time
The inva- under the guidance of Radagaisus, a type of
sion of
Radagaisus barbarian very different from Alaric. Alaric
was a Christian, and as a soldier and statesman under-
stood the rules of civilised warfare, and acknowledged
the obligation of treaties. Radagaisus was not only a
barbarian and a pagan, but a fierce and merciless
tyrant.  Many cities had fallen before his arms, and
the siege of Florence was being pressed with eager
haste, when at the moment of direst extremity Stilicho
came to the relief.
    He declined a pitched battle with Radagaisus, pre-
ferring to reduce the enemy by the slower process of
starvation. He drew lines around the barbarian forces
and maintained the blockade with such strictness that
the enemy were compelled to capitulate. Radagaises





ALARIC AND THE GOTHS


was put to death-an act utterly unjustifiable-and his
soldiers were sold into slavery.
    St. Augustine has some remarks on this decisive
Christian victory in the 'De Civitate Dei.''    In his
St. Augus- view it was a direct conflict between paganism
tine's view
of thedefeat and Christianity; for Radagaisus openly ap-
of rlada-
gaisus    peased the gods and invited them  to his aid
by daily sacrifices, 'a thing,' says Augustine, finely in-
dicating the religious revolution, ' which the Christian
religion forbids Roman citizens to do.' It was the firm
belief and the subject of boast in the pagan army, that
the gods would never suffer a nation who neglected
them to vanquish so devout a worshipper as Radagaisus.
St. Augustine describes the victory as miraculous and
swift, achieved without the cost of a single life, even
without a wound, in the Christian army-an exaggera-
tion, perhaps, but owing to the defensive tactics of
Stilicho not impossible. St. Augustine goes on to
point out the providence by which the capture of
Rome was effected, not by an idolatrous pagan, who
knew no mercy, but by a general who, if he was a
barbarian, was yet a Christian, under whose auspices-
for the first time in the history of the world-men and
women were spared who fled for refuge to the sanctuary
of Christian churches.
    Though Alaric took no part in this campaign, he,
Alrio allies nevertheless, must have watched it with a
himself  keen interest. When it was over, he took an
the Western
empire   unexpected step in seeking an alliance with the
court of Ravenna, and broke off his relations with the
Eastern emperor. He even succeeded in gaining the
                        ' v. 23.


155





156 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

friendship of his great adversary Stilicho. In recogni-
tion of these advances, he was appointed master-general
of the Roman armies in Illyricum, and, through the in-
fluence of Stilicho, obtained a subsidy from the Roman
senate. The shame of this last concession was bitterly
felt by the senators themselves, even when they sup-
ported Stilicho by a reluctant vote. ' This is not peace,
but a contract of slavery,' exclaimed the senator Lam-
padius, in words so true to the crisis and so welcome to
popular feeling, that the Greek historian Zosimus,
wishing the ipsissima verba to be remembered, has pre-
served them in the Latin language in which they were
pronounced.
    Stilicho had taken an unpopular step. He was ac-
cused of undue favour to the barbarians, and of neglect-
stilicho's  ing his Roman soldiers. Olympius, the new
popuar   favourite of Honrorius, destroyed the reputation
of Stilicho, by accusing him of scheming to place his
son Eucherius on the imperial throne. Honorius was
persuaded to believe in Stilicho's ambition and treason,
and gave his sanction to the intrigues which planned
his downfall.
    At Pavia, where the troops were encamped on their
way to a campaign in Gaul against the usurper Con-
Intrigues stantine,' a massacre of Stilicho's friends took
againsto place. Officers of the highest distinction were
mercilessly cut down by the partisans of Olympius, and
the emperor was forced to approve the deed, and pardon
the assassins. Stilicho, who was at Bologna, consulted
his friends, but hesitated to take up arms against the
empire. Instead of choosing the only path of safety
                     I See p. 165.





ALARIC AND THE GOTHS


open to him, and one which promised success, he threw
himself into Ravenna, the stronghold of his enemies,
and took refuge at the altar. He was induced to leave
         his sanctuary by a perfidious falsehood of
His death Count Heraclian, who, the instant Stilicho
left the church, produced the warrant for his execu-
tion.  'He fell,' says Gibbon, ' with a courage not un-
worthy of the last of the Roman generals.' Zosimus
awards him the high praise of unselfish moderation.
Notwithstanding his imperial condition, and the vast
sums of money placed at his disposal, he took no occa-
sion of enriching himself, and he conferred no higher
dignity on his only son than the office of Praefectus
Notariorum (Praefect of the Notaries or Clerks).
    Sozomen sums up contemporary opinion when he
says of Stilicho: 'he had attained almost absolute
power; and all men, so to speak, whether Romans
or barbarians, were under his control.' 1 His death
occurred in August 408.
    A significant incident took place in the Italian gar-
rison towns, which helps us to understand the policy
stilicho's  and position of Stilicho. As soon as the news
wisdom   Of his death reached the soldiers quartered in
proved by
events   the various cities, they attacked the wives and
children of the barbarians, massacred all whom they
found, and carried off their goods.
    Nothing could indicate with greater clearness the
wise and temperate policy of Stilicho. His death was
the signal for an outbreak of the race hatred between
the Romans, or subjects of the emperor, and the bar-
barians. Stilicho's later policy, on which he shipwrecked
                     ' Book ix. c. 4.


157





1 58 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

his personal fortune and popularity, was to recognise the
presence of the barbarian element in the empire. He
alone had the statesman's prophetic insight to discern
the rising and irresistible force-the force of the new
world now working itself into existence-which lay in
the Teutonic race. The true policy of Rome was, he
saw, to win over, and to assimilate, if possible, this
vigorous element with the imperial system. For this
reason an alliance with Alaric, at first sight a startling
departure, became indispensable, because Alaric alone
could efficiently direct the new force. Events proved
the soundness of this policy, but it was the cause of
Stilicho's fall. The Romans, as the subjects of Honorius
were still proud to call themselves, resented the idea of
making terms with the barbarians.
    The death of Stilicho gave the commanding voice in
the court and empire to Olympius. His first measures
         were to pursue the relatives and friends of
Olympius Stilicho with relentless cruelty. The empress
Thermantia, daughter of Stilicho and sister of Maria,
the first wife of Honorius, was divorced. Many of the
fallen minister's partisans were tortured to obtain evi-
dence of their master's treason, but no discovery was
made.   The innocence of Stilicho is established in
history.
    Olympius then proceeded to disqualify from State
service all pagans and all persons tainted with Arianism.
Disquali- This sweeping measure lost to the imperial
fication
of pagans armies numbers of the most skilful officers
and some thirty    thousand  of the bravest soldiers.
Passed at that critical epoch it was a measure fatal to
Rome.    Alaric himself could not have shaped a policy





ALARIC AND THE GOTHS


more favourable to his cause than one which gave him
thousands of recruits and a motive which fired their
indignation.
    It was a blunder in State policy, and it was a mis-
take in ecclesiastical discipline. It has taken many
centuries to determine that the relations between the
State and the Church do not prevent the State from
employing the services of all its citizens. But in this in-
stance the policy pursued sprang from no high principle;
it was simply the result of rancorous hatred of Stilicho
and his measures.
    The natural result followed. Alaric instantly in-
vaded Italy, and most of the towns in the north opened
Invasion of their gates to him. Leaving unapproachable
taly by  Ravenna behind     him, he marched swiftly
The siege of against Rome itself and formed the siege
Rome     (408). 'During a period of six hundred and
nineteen years,' writes Gibbon, 'the seat of empire
had never been violated by the presence of foreign
enemies.' A siege of Rome therefore seemed to be like
a violation of a fixed law of nature. The first feel-
ings were those of shame and indignation, and then in
an access of suspicion--a frequent phenomenon in such
cases- a cruel deed was wrought.
    Serena, widow of Stilicho and niece of Theodosius,
was within the walls of the city. A rumour spread that
she was in league with the Goths, and that her death
would be the signal for their departure. The aunt and
mother-in-law of the emperor was mercilessly slain; but
still the siege went on with inicreasing severity.
    The Romans sent an embassy to negotiate. When
the legates spoke of the fierce resistance of a people


I59





I6o   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

maddened by despair, Alaric's scornful answer was:
'The thicker the hay, the easier it is mowed.'    At
length the terms of retreat were arranged on payment
of an enormous fine.
    The negotiations which followed were marked by the
presumptuous folly of Olympius, who soon afterwards
suffered the fate of favourites, and was supplanted by
Jovius, the prEetorian prefect.
   The palace had learned by experience the evil re-
sults of the edict against pagans and Arians. The
         restriction was removed, and many Roman
         soldiers returned to their standard. Among
these was Generidus, who presented an example of
unselfishness and magnanimity, a type of character not
seldom to be found in the history of a losing cause.
Generidus, the heathen, displayed the qualities which a
prosperous Christianity was in danger of losing. He
refused to be restored to his rank in the army by a
privilegium, preferring to wait until his brethren of the
ancient faith could re-enter the imperial service with
him. He afterwards served with distinction on the
frontier of northern Italy. There the old Roman disci-
pline seemed once more to revive, and Generidus was
able to protect the Dalmatian frontier from the attacks
of fresh barbarian foes.
    Some efforts were now made to bring about a re-
conciliation between Alaric and the emperor. Alaric
met the imperial envoys at Ariminum; but Honorius
was firm for once, when it was impolitic to be firm, and
though he granted to Alaric as much corn and money
as he might desire, he sternly refused to put him in
command of the cavalry and .infantry.    Accordingly





ALARIC AND THE GOTHS


Alaric was soon again at the gates of Rome.       He
seized on the port of Ostia and stopped the importation
Second siege of supplies, so that the city was starved into
of Rome by
Alaric   submission. Alaric entered in triumph, and
Attalus  proclaimed Attalus, then prefect of Rome, em-
proclaimed
emperor  peror in place of Honorius.    Once more a
Roman emperor reigned in Rome. Alaric was placed
at the head of the Roman armies, and his brother-in-
law, Ataulf (Adolphus), was raised to the command
of the domestic cavalry. So strong did the position
of Attalus appear that Honorius offered to share the
imperial dignity with him, when an unexpected interven-
tion once more turned the scale in favour of Honorius.
A body of four thousand men arrived unexpectedly at
Ravenna, and by their aid the city was secured. Mean-
time Rome was again exposed to the horrors of famine,
through the cessation of the accustomed supplies of
food from Africa. Attalus, completely discredited, and
now deserted by Alaric, had no course left but to submit
to Honorius. He was stripped of his imperial robes,
but by the favour of Honorius was allowed to live.
    Again there was a prospect of peace between Alaric
and the emperor, but again the folly of Honorius
turned the arms of the Goths against Rome. Sarus, a
barbarian chieftain then at the court of Ravenna, dread-
ing the influence of Alaric, attacked his forces with a
body of three hundred men, and after inflicting much
loss on the Gothic army, sheltered himself within the
walls of Ravenna. Receiving no satisfaction for this
insult and the damage which he sustained, Alaric for
the third time marched upon Rome.
    The gates were opened by treachery, and this time
    C. H.                                      M


161





162 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

the city was given over to be sacked and plundered by
the barbarian soldiers. The scenes which followed are
Rome     those with which military historians of all ages
occupied
by the   have made us familiar. But for the first time
Goths
S..410.  in the history of the world there was some
mitigation of the horrors of a sack. The Christian his-
torians record with pride the immunity from sacrilege
granted to the sanctuary of the 'large and beautiful
Church erected around the tomb of St. Peter.' 1 They
relate instances where the chastity and the courage of
Christian ladies commanded the respect and secured the
protection of the barbarians. St. Augustine is careful
to emphasise the details of this capture of Rome. 'All
the desolation, the butchery, the plunderings and burn-
ings, the misery wrought in this recent disaster, belong
to the usages of war; but that which is new, the choice
of spacious basilicas to serve as places of refuge where
men and women can be safe from the sword, from slavery,
from violence of every kind-all this is to be attributed
to the Christian name and to a Christian epoch.' 2
    The fall of Rome (410) sent a shock through the
civilised world. Though long deserted by the sovereign
Results for power, and no longer the seat of empire, Rome,
Christianity with her great and undying associations, still
held men's minds in thrall. One of the chief and
proudest of these associations was her freedom from
conquest; and when at length the spell was broken, no
fresh development of history could astonish mankind.
This great disaster, as it seemed, marked the beginning
of a new epoch. A new Rome, Christian instead of
pagan, rose from the ashes of Alaric's conflagration.
         a Sozomen, ix. 9.        2 De Civ. i. 7.





ALARIC AND THE GOT'HS


The ancient capital of the world had been the strong-
hold of the old religion. The patrician families clung
to their ancestral rites more from pride than from
religious conviction. But the sword and flames of the
Gothic conquerors wrecked the fortunes of the Roman
patriciate, and involved their pagan clients and followers
in the same ruin.
    It would have been different if Radagaisus had
triumphed. The sword of Stilicho saved Rome and the
world at least from a temporary revival, of paganism.
Alaric swept away paganism, and left Rome, still
crowned with its ancient prestige, to be the capital, no
longer of Caesarism, but of Christianity. 'The capture
of Rome by Alaric,' writes Milman, 'was one of the
great steps by which the Pope arose to his plenitude
of power. There could be no question that from this
time the greatest man in Rome was the Pope; he alone
was invested with permanent and real power; he alone
possessed all the attributes of supremacy, the reverence,
it was his own fault, if not the love of the people.''
The removal of the seat of government from Milan to
Ravenna contributed to the same result. The influence
of St. Ambrose, centred at the court, and both supported
and deferred to by the temporal power, dominated the
Western Church. But at Ravenna no great churchman
had appeared, and Ravenna was rather a refuge from
the barbarians than the capital of an empire. Rome
became once more the foremost city of the West, and
the power which ruled there was not the empire but the
Church.
    Alaric withdrew his troops from Rome after an
                a Latin Christianity, ii. 1.
                                             M2


163





164   THE CHURCH AND 'THE ROMAN EMPIRE

occupation of six days, and proceeded to ravage the
fruitful fields and prosperous cities of southern Italy.
Death and His designs extended to a conquest of Sicily
burial of
Alaric   and Africa, but his career was closed by death
in 412. If the story told by Jornandes, a writer who
lived a century and a half after the event, is to be
credited, Christianity had failed to quell the native
savagery of the Goths. This author narrates that the
waters of the little river Busentinus were diverted, and
the tomb of Alaric placed in the vacant bed.     The
stream was then allowed to return to its natural chan-
nel; and in order that the place of the great conqueror's
sepulchre might be concealed for ever, the captives who
had been employed in its construction were inhumanly
massacred.


                  CHAPTER XIX.
             THE WEST UNDER HONORIUS.

THE feebleness of Honorius began to bear fruit in
the distant parts of the empire. Both in regard to
The hold on Church and State the Western provinces had
the West by shown a tendency to independent government.
the two
empires  But in all probability the Churches of Gaul
were more subservient to the see of Rome than the
civil and military administration to the central authority
at Ravenna. Pope Innocent I. claimed for the Roman see
obedience from the Churches of Britain, Gaul, Spain,
and Africa, as well as from those of Italy, on the ground
that St. Peter and his successors were the founders of
each and all of these Churches. In great measure this





THE WEST UNDEh Ho- ORIUS


wide and unhistorical claim was admitted. The juster
claims of the imperial power had scant recognition in
the West.    The legionaries in Britain revolted, and
after electing and deposing   two emperors in swift
The usurper succession, agreed in the choice of a common
Constantine soldier named Constantine, whose sole merit
seems to have consisted in his illustrious name. Not-
withstanding his incapacity- such was the weakness
of the imperial administration-this new Constantine
was able to establish himself in Britain, and to overrun
Gaul from   Boulogne to the Cottian Alps.    His son
Constans was equally successful in Spain, where he made
himself master of the province, the only serious opposi-
tion being offered by two brothers named Didymus and
Verinian, who were related to the emperor Honorius,
After a gallant resistance the rising was quelled and the
brothers taken and slain. Constantine himself crossed
the Alps and penetrated into Italy as far as to Verona.
Here the rebellion collapsed. Alanicus, commanding
the troops of Honorius, who was about to betray his
master's cause, was assassinated in a procession, and
Gerontius, one of the ablest of Constantine's generals,
deserted him, setting   up  a rival emperor named
Maximus.
    Constantine retreated from Italy and threw himself
into Arles. Here he was besieged first by Gerontius,
who, hearing of the approach of the imperial forces under
Constantius, raised the siege.   Gerontius was sur-
rounded, and at length, driven to desperation, put him-
self to death. The Christian historian, Sozomen, names
with commendation the conduct of his wife Nunechia,
who was a Christian. It is interesting in this strange


165





166   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

complexity of intricate rebellion to be brought in con-
tact with the thought of Christian life and love going
on bravely through thle storm. Gerontius, we read,
might easily have escaped with his life had not his
affection for his wife detained him by her side. And
when all hope was gone, Gerontius first, in compliance
with his prayer, slew the one friend who had remained
with him, and then his wife besought him to do the
like to her, lest she should fall into the hands of her
enemies. Accordingly, he complied with her request
before falling on his own sword. Sozomen adds, with-
out the hesitation which might occur to deeper Christian
thought : 'Thus died one who manifested a degree of
courage worthy of her religion; for she was a Christian.'
    Meantime the siege of Arles was pressed, and Con-
stantine, despairing of the succour for which he had
Constantine hoped, had recourse to a strange and sug-
is sain  gestive expedient. Casting aside his purple
robe and imperial ornaments, he caused himself to be
ordained a priest, and, trusting to the protection of
the sacred office, surrendered himself to Constantius,
who sent him under a guard to Ravenna together with
his son Julian. Both, however, were slain before they
reached that city, and the various leaders who had
risen against Honorius suffered the same fate. It was
indeed a remarkable fact, carefully noted by the Christian
historians, that seven usurpers who had successively
risen against this feeble and incompetent, though pious
and orthodox, emperor, failed to make any effective
head against his power, and fell almost without striking
a blow. One alone of these threatened to be formidable ;
for a time Jovinus was aided by the alliance with





THE WEST UNDER HONORIUs


Ataulf, the king of the    Visigoths in succession to
Alaric. For some unexplained reason Constantius re-
treated before him, leaving the whole of Gaul open to
the usurper. But before long Atauif found cause to
withdraw his alliance and turn his arms against Jovinus,
who fell as swiftly as he had risen to power. Atanlf
proved his loyalty to Honorius by sending to him the
heads of Jovinus and his brother Sebastian.
    The disturbed and unsettled condition of Western
Europe had opened the gates of Spain to the incursions
The end of  of the Vandals, the Suevi, and the Alani. In
Atauni   the process of conquest the unhappy country
endured untold miseries of war, rapine, and famine.
Ataulf was directed to recover the possession of Spain
for his imperial brother-in-law. He took Barcelona by
surprise, but was assassinated within its walls by one of
his slaves, who had been a follower of Sarus, one of
Galla    his vanquished rivals.'  His widow was Galla
Placidia Placidia (a name memorable in the history of
Christian art), sister of the emperor IHonorius, who had
been captured in the sack of Rome. In spite of the pro-
tests of the Roman court, she was united in marriage with
Ataulf, whose affection for his bride, and whose pride in
the imperial alliance, gave the court of Ravenna the sup-
port of his services, with the brief exception of his
transitory alliance with Jovinus. The death of Ataulf
exposed   Galla Placidia  to the  scornful cruelty of
Singeric, his short-lived successor. Under Wallia, who
after the death of Singeric was chosen king of the

   ' This invasion of Ataulf laid the foundation of the Gothic
kingdom in Spain and south-western Gaul. See Freeman's His-
torical Geography, p. 89; Gibbon, iii. 455.


167





I68 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Visigoths, Galla Placidia was restored to her brother on
the payment of a ransom.
    It was at this period of confusion that the Roman
 legions left Britain and abandoned the Celtic inhabitants
          of our island to the attacks of the Teutonic
 Britain  invaders-the Saxons, Jutes, and English.
 This definite act on the part of the Roman armies gave
 a character to the settlement of Britain entirely different
 from that of Gaul and Spain. In the latter countries
 the settlement was gradual, and the barbarian invaders
 adopted in great measure the language, customs, and
 religion of the Roman population.     In the case of
 Britain the invading force consisted of uncivilised and
 pagan strangers. The conflict was one of extermination.
 The victorious Saxons, Jutes, and English assimilated
 nothing. They swept away the race, the religion, and
 the stores of Roman civilisation.
    This difference of settlement deeply affected the ec-
clesiastical history of Britain and south-western Europe.
The effects In Britain a fresh process of conversion had
of the Saxon
invasion  become necessary. In Gaul and Spain Chris-
tian teaching and influence were continuous and pro-
gressive.  The Gothic kingdoms remained in some
sense an integral part of the empire, long after Britain
bad become isolated and independent by the desertion
of the Roman government.
    The express testimony of Zosimus places this impor-
tant movement in the time of the usurper Constantine.'
The events, therefore, which have just been narrated
mark a crisis in British ecclesiastical history, which is,
   1 4 pv Bpe avvSas Kal r Tv Ev Ke1Aros E0vio Arroaoss Ka' ~v Eiu-
odvet. pdvov 6 Kwvravrivos  Y yvero.-.Lib. vi. c. 6.





THE WEST UNDER HoNoRIus


as it were, cleft in two at this point by the wedge of
Saxon paganism.      Politically, Britain was separated
for ever from   the empire; but its ecclesiastical rela-
tions with Rome were destined to be close and impor-
tant, with varied results of good and evil.
    Previous to this time, although the British Church
 was too far removed from the centre of imperial autho-
 Christianity rity to be brought into close connexion with
 in Britain the higher civil administration, though it had
 sent forth no St. Ambrose or St. Jerome to sway the
 councils of emperors, or to decide the course of reli-
 gious controversy, yet there is evidence of an important
 and flourishing Church in the British Isles, full of mis-
 sionary zeal and saintly examples, which sent Bishops
 to the Councils of Arles, Ariminum and Sardica. The
 era of St. Patrick is placed in the year 433, and in
 Ireland there were probably more Bishops in the fifth
 century than at any subsequent period. The rise of
 Pelagianism is a stain on the annals of the British
 Church, but the existence of false teaching, cast in a
 thoughtful and philosophical mould, implies the pre-
 sence of culture as well as of religion in these isles.
 The influence of Christian teaching was probably deep
 and wide-spread during the Roman occupation. It is
 possible to believe that the new version of the Scriptures
 by Jerome, and the hymns of St. Ambrose, found a
 welcome within the walls of Uriconium or Silchester,
 and that the penance of Theodosius, the conversion of
 St. Augustine, and the pious deeds of Honorius and
 Placidia were discussed in all their freshness of in-
terest by Christian men and women in country villas
and military stations, from York to London, and from


I69





I7o   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Bangor to Lincoln, in the land which sent forth the first
emperor who dared to give Christianity a place in the
imperial system.


                  CHAPTER XX.
                     THE EAST.
WE have brought the affairs of the Western empire
under survey, up to the important epoch marked by the
fall of pagan Rome, and by the defeat of the usurper
Constantine, and its consequences in the Western pro-
vinces.
    Events in the Eastern division of the empire have
hardly the same critical and momentous character in
determining the course of history; but they bear testi-
mony to the same marvellous ascendency of the Church
in the affairs of men which we have traced in the West.
This supreme influence is so familiar that it is needful
to- remind ourselves, more than once, how recent the
revolution was, which conferred this great authority on
the Christian religion.
    The Church and the empire in East and West
respectively differed considerably in character. The
Character-  East adopted the symbols and the state in
istics of
hurch ana which Oriental despotism is wont to. clothe
State in East
an d est itself. All traces of republican freedom had
vanished. An absolute monarch demanded the servile
submission of his subjects. The eunuchs of the palace
         became the ministers of State. The career of
Eutropius Rufinus was closed, and he was succeeded by
the eunuch Eutropius, a man of infamous antecedents.





THE EAST


The poet Claudian exhausts the resources of language
in describing the scorn and shame with which the rule
of this misshapen and wrinkled being was accepted by
the Roman subjects of Arcadius, and the satisfaction
which the appearance of such a general and statesman
gives to the enemies of the nation.
    The ruling passion of Eutropius was avarice, though
he could have no children to inherit his wealth. The
commands of provinces were put up for sale by this
'trafficker of empire and dishonest broker of dignities'
(Institor imperii, caupo famosus honorum). Claudian 1
describes the process of sale :--
                   Certantum seepe duorum
      Diversum suspendit onus; cum pondere judex
      Vergit, et in geminas nutat provincia lances.
    Another plan of amassing wealth-a favourite one
with tyrants--was to confiscate the estates of wealthy
men condemned in the servile courts of law on simulated
charges.
    At length the gathering storm of hatred broke.
The fall of Eutropius came to pass partly by the peti-
tion of the empress Eudoxia, partly by the demand of
the Gothic general Gainas, who bitterly resented his
influence and position.
    Gainas, who had been sent to put down a rising
of the Ostrogoths on the Hellespont, secretly joined
Gainai and hands with the enemy, and under pretence of
the Goths making terms of peace pressed his own wishes
upon the emperor. He represented that Tribigild, the
leader of the Ostrogoths, demanded the execution of
                   SIi EBytrop. i. 207.


I7l





172 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Eutropius as the condition of laying down his arms, a
demand which it would be impolitic to refuse..
    Eutropius took refuge in the basilica. Chrysostom,
 who was officiating at the time, defended the trembling
 fugitive with all his eloquence, and obtained for him a
 promise that his life should be spared; but the enemies
 of the disgraced statesman soon found a pretext for
 breaking the promise. After a summary trial Eutropius
 was put to death at Chalcedon, not on the ground of the
 many enormities which had stained a flagrantly wicked
 life, but on a charge of high treason for having driven
 a pair of horses of a particular breed and colour reserved
 for the imperial use.
    Gainas now pressed the ascendency which he had
obtained. He placed himself at the head of the Goths,
and dictated terms to Arcadius, who permitted him to
cross over into Europe, and to occupy Constantinople
with his troops. He then proceeded to demand one of
the churches of the capital for the use of his Arian
followers. Against this proposal Chrysostom protested.
He assembled the Bishops then resident in the city,
sought an interview with the emperor, whom in the
presence of Gainas he urged to put in force the laws
against heretics; I it would be better,' he said, 'to be
deprived of the empire than to betray the House of God
into the hands of the impious.' 'Thus did John boldly
contend in defence of the church that was under his
care.' ' The answer of Arcadius is not recorded; but
events decided in favour of Chrysostom. The city was
greatly excited. It was suspected that Gainas with his
G oths was about to make a raid on the shops of the
                 1 Sozomen, lib. viii. c. 4.





THE EAST


silversmiths, who accordingly protected their stores.
The Goths retaliated by an attempt to fire the palace.
The next day the gates of the city were closed and a
massacre ensued in which thousands of the barbarians
were slain. Gainas thus lost the flower of his army;
a vast number of the remainder perished in a desperate
effort to cross the Hellespont. Eventually Gainas broke
away from his main army and led a few faithful followers
to the Danube, where he was encountered in Thrace
by Uldin, king of the Huns, with superior forces, was
defeated and slain.
    The history of Chrysostom which belongs to this
period has been already sketched.' No career illustrates
more admirably or in a more picturesque way the variety
of ecclesiastical life and the great religious conflicts of the
fourth and fifth centuries; nor is there a more striking
example of the influence, it may even be said of the
ascendency, of the Church over the empire at this
period.


                  CHAPTER XXI.
           THEODOSIUS II. AND PULCHERIA.

IN the year 408 Arcadius died, and was succeeded by
his son Thedosius II., then a child of eight. But besides
Pulcheria Theodosiis, Arcadius left  three daughters,
virtually
resent   Pulcheria, Arcadia, and Marina. Pulcheria,
the eldest, was only fifteen years of age, but from the
first she showed a high intelligence and capacity for
government, which sustained her brother's throne and
                      ' See ch. xvi.


I73





174   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

left a mark on history. Socrates   speaks of the go-
vernment being entrusted to Anthemius, the Pratorian
prefect, during the minority of Theodosius. Sozomen
makes no mention of Anthemius, and certainly expresses
himself as if the direction of affairs was controlled by
Pulcheria, of whom  he writes in terms of such un-
measured praise that he even checks himself, 'lest,' he
says, ' I should be condemned as a mere panegyrist.'
    Pulcheria took a step at the commencement of her
reign, for such it proved to be, which was surely the
strangest ever taken in the history of civil government,
and which marks in a striking manner the revolution
in thought which the last hundred years had wit-
nessed. In the presence of priests and people she took
a vow of perpetual virginity; in this vow her sisters
associated themselves, and, as a memorial of this solemn
act, the three imperial sisters dedicated an altar set
with gold and precious stones in the Church of Con-
stantinople.
    Pulcheria's palace became a convent into which no
male was permitted to enter, and so the empire of the
The educa- East was administered from a cloister. The
tion of
Arcadius education of the young emperor was superin-
tended by Pulcheria with the most exact and loving care.
In the manly arts of horsemanship and war masters
were provided; but Pulcheria herself undertook to teach
him the graces of imperial manner, 'how to gather up
his robes, and take his seat with dignity, how to assume
a mild or formidable mien, as occasion might require.'
Above all she taught him devotion to the Church and
to its ministers, and the duty of regular attendance
                    I Lib. vii. c. 13,





THEODOSIUS II. AND PULCHERIA


at its services. Pulcheria herself caused magnificent
churches to be erected, and built hospitals, monasteries
- nd other ecclesiastical houses. The private life of the
sisters was in accordance with these outward acts of
religion. Attendance in the house of prayer, charity to
strangers and the poor, days and nights spent in singing
the praises of God, together with such manual tasks as
occupy the time of exemplary women, formed, as Sozo-
men tells us, the occupation of Pulcheria and her sisters.
    The history of the young emperor's marriage is a
romance. Athenais, the beautiful daughter of a Greek
The empress philosopher, learned in all the wisdom of her
Eudocia  age, had been deprived by her brethren's
fraud of the little legacy bequeathed her by her father.
She came as a suppliant to Pulcheria, who listened to
her prayer, and taking note of her intelligence and
charm of manner, resolved that she should be empress.
Her portrait was shown to Theodosius, who was further
allowed to see the lady herself from a place of conceal-
ment.   The emperor admired and loved. Athenais
abandoned the pagan religion in which she had been
brought up, and received the name of Eudocia at her
baptism. The married life which followed was happy
for Eudocia in its earlier part, but adventurous and
melancholy at its close. Her scholarly tastes continued,
but instead of the pagan classics, her former delight,
she devoted herself to the study of the Holy Scriptures
and Christian literature.  She paraphrased in verse
some of the books of the Old Testament, composed a
Homeric poem on the life of Christ and the acts of St.
Cyprian, and a panegyric on the Persian victories of
Theodosius. When her daughter Eudoxia at the age


175





176   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

of fifteen married Valentinian III., emperor of the
West, Eudocia made      a pilgrimage to    Jerusalem.
Her progress was magnificent and ostentatious; she
showered gifts on Antioch and other cities through
which she passed, and in Jerusalem itself rivalled the
empress Helena by her alms and magnificence.      On
her return she vainly endeavoured to overthrow the
ascendency of Pulcheria. The struggle ended in the
disgrace of Eudocia and in the ruin of her most faithful
friends. Unhappily, too, an estrangement arose between
Eudocia and her husband. The empress was permitted
to retire to Jerusalem, where, divested of all imperial
state, she lived in exile, devoting herself to a religious
life, and to the end protesting her innocence of the
charges which her enemies had preferred against her.
   The Persian war which broke out in 421 presents
some points of interest to the ecclesiastical historian.
Persecution The occasion of it as related by Theodoret '
of Christians
in Persia raises a question which reappears in every
age. A certain piouts Bishop named Abdas, carried
away by zeal, caused a pyreon or fire temple to be
destroyed. The Persian king, Isdegerdes, informed of
this by the Magi, at first spoke kindly to Abdas, for he
was a friend of the Romans, and had been in some
sense regarded as protector of the young emperor. He
ordered Abdas, however, to rebuild the temple. The
Bishop refusing to do this was ordered to execution.
A persecution followed which involved the demolition
of the Christian churches. Theodoret's comment on
the transaction is noteworthy. He cannot approve the
act of destruction. 'For the Apostle Paul,' he says,
                     'H. E. v. 39.





THEODOSIUS I. AND PULCHERIA


'did not destroy any of the idolatrous altars which he
saw in Athens, but preached truth to the citizens. At
the same time,' adds Theodoret, 'I greatly admire the
firmness of Abdas in consenting to die rather than
re-erect the temple which he had destroyed, and I judge
that he thereby merited a crown. Indeed to me it
seems almost the same thing to erect a temple to fire,
and to fall down and worship it as a deity.' A sounder
Christianity will reject a logic which admits a wrong
but holds it unrighteous to redress it. It will be re-
membered, however, that the same principle was pressed
upon Theodosius by St. Ambrose in the case of the
Jewish synagogue destroyed by Christian zeal at Fort
Callinicus near Aquileia. It is at least evident from
this incident that the spirit of martyrdom still animated
the Christian Church.
    Socrates, who gives the best account of this war,
assigns as its immediate cause the refusal of the Romans
Christianity to deliver up to the Persians some Christian
a cas s  fugitives who had fled from  the persecution
into Roman territory. The Romans refused to surrender
these unhappy men, because 'they were ready to do
anything for the sake of the Christian religion. They
chose rather therefore to renew the war with the Persians
than to suffer the Christians to be miserably destroyed.'
In this answer we remark the decisive Christianity of
the imperial councils at this period. The defence of
the Faith is a casus belli, a noticeable step in Christian
influence.
    The war ended to the advantage of the Roman
armies, though the fortress of Nisibis still refused to
yield. The ecclesiastical historian turns aside from his
    C. H.                                       N


I77





178   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

narrative to record the incredible speed with which the
Roman victories were announced by the messenger
Palladius, who could cover the distance between Con-
stantinople and the Persian frontier in the space of
three days. It is instructive to read in these days with
their modern application the shrewd words of one who
said: 'This man by his speed seems to contract the vast
expanse of the Roman territories.'
    Another story of Christian action deserves to be
recorded. The Romans in the course of their successes
Christian had captured seven thousand Persian prisoners.
charity  A famine set in, to the great distress of the
miserable captives. Acacius, Bishop of Amida, hearing
of their sad case, called his clergy together and said:
' Our God, my brethren, needs neither dishes nor cups,
for He neither eats nor drinks, nor is in want of any-
thing. Since then, by the liberality of the faithful,
the Church possesses many vessels both of gold and
silver, it behoves us to sell them, that by the money
thus raised we may be able to redeem the prisoners, and
also supply them with food.' Accordingly the sacred
vessels were melted down, and the captives were ran-
somed, furnished with all that was necessary for their
journey, and so restored. This gracious act paved the
way for an honourable peace.
    Socrates, who is the professed advocate of Theo-
dosius II., as Sozomen is of Pulcheria, breaks out into
The charac- praise of his hero with amusing   naivetM.
ter of Theo-
doi   .    Aeo 'Although I neither seek the notice of my
sovereign, nor wish to make an exhibition of my
oratorical powers, yet have I felt it my duty to record
                    I Socrates, vii. 19





THEODOSIUS II. AND PULCHERIA


without exaggeration the singular virtues with which
the emperor Theodosius is endowed.' 1 He then pro-
ceeds to describe the courage and hardihood of one
born to the purple, his wisdom and knowledge, his
observance of Christian duties, his self-command, his
humanity; never would he suffer capital punishment to
be inflicted on any criminal. Theodoret adds a story
which confirms this account of the religious feeling of
Theodosius II. An ascetic had made a demand upon
the emperor; when refused, he uttered a sentence of
excommunication upon him. This had so deep an effect
upon the emperor that he refused to sit down to table
until the same monk who had pronounced the excom-
munication should come forward and remove it.
    On the whole the reign of Theodosius II. deserves
a special study in the particular point of view from which
Intimate we are surveying history. Ecclesiastical dis-
unio and cipline has laid its principles and rules on the
state    highest executive power. A time when an
empress studied the works of St. Cyprian, and the
virtual sovereign lady of the land was as eager to keep
the faith pure from heresy as the State free from
attack, is surely too singular an epoch to be passed over
or ignored.
    If it was a weak reign, it was not without its suc-
cesses. The   barbarians were still pressing on   the
frontiers of the empire, but as yet they had not
threatened Constantinople. Again, if it was a weak
reign, it was one in which the influence of the Church
had become paramount, and the fair way to judge of
Christian influence is to consider what a weak reign
                       ' viii. 22.
                                              N2


I79





I80    THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMIRE

would have been without the thought of the Cross or
the discipline of the Church.
    In one respect this age was greater than we shall
 probably ever be able to appreciate properly. It must
 have been pre-eminently an age of Christian art: the
 mosaics of Ravenna owe much to the study of Eastern
 designs and to the skill of Eastern artificers.



                 CHAPTER     XXII.
      THE WEST FROM THE DEATH OF HONORIUS.

WHILE rejoicings over the successes in the Persian war
were proceeding at Constantinople, Placidia, sister of
Galla    Honorius, arrived at that city. Already her
Placidia strange and romantic history had seen her
twice a captive. We have described her redemption
from the hands of Wallia, king of the Visigoths. On
her return to Ravenna, Honorius gave her in marriage,
a reluctant bride, to Constantius, the general who had
defeated the usurper Constantine. Her husband was
associated in the empire, but only enjoyed the title of
Augustus for some months. He left two children by
Placidia, Honoria and Valentinian III. After the death
of Constantius, Honorius and his sister lived together for
a while on terms of the deepest affection, but by some evil
intrigue hatred was sown between them, and Placidia
left the court of Ravenna for Constantinople. Soon
afterwards news came that Honorius was dead, A.D. 423.
   The rightful successor, the infant Valentinian, was
proclaimed and supported by Theodosius; but a high





  THE WEST FROM      THE DEATH OF HONORIUS 181

official at Ravenna naried John seized the occasion
and assumed the imperial purple in the absence of
The rebel- Valentinian and his mother.  The struggle
lion of John for power ended in Valentinian's success, after
strange vicissitudes of fortune. John shut himself up
in inaccessible Ravenna. Ardaburius, a general of the
Western empire, embarked a large force to assert the
claims of Valentinian. But a storm dispersed his fleet,
abd he was taken prisoner and carried to Ravenna.
Meanwhile the cavalry contingent under Aspar, son of
Ardaburius, marched successfully along the coast, and
surprised and took Aquileia, when' the news of his
father's disaster reached him. All seemed to be lost;
but Ardaburius used his time so well at Ravenna that
the troops were persuaded to desert John and return to
their allegiance. Aspar was conducted across the diffi-
cult and treacherous morasses by a shepherd. After a
short struggle the gates of Ravenna were thrown open,
and   the city taken. John was seized, carried    to
Aquileia, and beheaded.
    Theodosius II. by an express enactment acknow-
ledged Valentinian III. as emperor of the West (425),
valentinian and though the two empires were associated
III.     by the marriage of Valentinian with Eudoxia,
daughter of Theodosius II., the legal and final separa-
tion between East and West took place at this epoch. It
was a crisis in the history of the civilised world when
it was expressly declared that the laws of either
emperor should be valid only in his own dominions.
    When this decisive act took place the world was
governed by two women. We have noted the ascen-
dency of Pulcheria in the East. In the West Placidia,





I82   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

daughter of the great Theodosius, was virtually supreme.
Placidia, however, did not possess the governing capa-
city of Pulcheria, and the intrigues of her two great
generals, Aetius and Boniface, resulted in the loss o
Africa, and brought the empire to the verge of destruc
tion.
    Boniface had been true to the cause of Placidia;
Aetius had supported     John. When     the rebellion
Boniface collapsed, Aetius managed     to  regain  the
and Aetius  favour of the court, and abused his position
by involving Bonjface in war with the empire, first
persuading Placidia to recall him from his command in
Africa, and then persuading Boniface to refuse. This
base intrigue was discovered too late. Boniface in de-
spair allied himself with the Vandals, then the strongest
power in Spain. The terrible Genseric had lately'suc-
The Vandals ceeded to the chief command, and the harbour
under Gen- of Cartagena was in his hands. At the in-
seric invade
Africa    stance of Boniface the hordes of the Vandals
crossed the straits, and under the skilful guidance of
Genseric and Boniface overran the fruitful province of
Africa. The horrors of war were increased by the
vengeance which the fanatical Donatists took on their
Catholic oppressors. These fierce schismatics had been
deprived of their churches, their revenues, and their
civil rights. In the invasion of Genseric they saw their
opportunity, and much of the barbarity of this inva-
sion is to be ascribed to the unsparing vengeance
of the Donatists, rather than to the ferocity of the
Vandals.
    Possidius, the biographer of St. Augustine, vividly
 describes the scenes of which St. Augustine was an eye-





THE WEST FROM        THE DEA TH OF HONORIUS 18 3

witness. 'They spared,' he writes,' neither sex nor age,
not even the priests and ministers of God, nor the very
ornaments of churches, nor the sacred vessels, nor the
buildings themselves. . . . That man of God witnessed
states ruined, and the inhabitants of the country houses,
some slain, some driven into exile and dispersed in many
directions; in many places Christian worship had ceased,
there was no one found to partake of the Holy Eucha-
rist, or, if anyone came, there was no priest to minister.
Thus the influence of the Catholic Church, as well as
the authority of the imperial government, was extin-
guished in North Africa.''
    When the province was irretrievably lost to the em-
pire, and when war, cruelty, and passion had wrought
their accustomed horrors, Boniface discovered his fatal
error.  The intrigues of Aetius were unmasked; but it
was too late to restore lost lives and ruined homes,
as Genseric declined all overtures. All that Boniface
could do was to turn his arms against his former ally.
He was defeated, and then threw himself into Hippo,
one of the few places which still held out against the
Vandals. There, while the storm raged wildly round
him, the aged Bishop Augustine was calmly ending his
life. After a second defeat, Boniface sailed from Hippo
for Ravenna, where Placidia received him with favour.
Meanwhile Aetius, exasperated by the discovery of his
treasonable practices, marched from Gaul into Italy
at the head of an army. In the battle which ensued
Boniface was victorious, but died of a wound which he
had received at the hands of his great rival. Aetius
took refuge among the Huns.
                       I Ch. xiii.





184   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

   Meanwhile in Africa Genseric showed an unexpected
moderation. Probably sedition in his own camp com-
The capture pelled him to negotiate. He made peace with
of Carthage the Romans, and relinquished a portion of his
conquests. Then he proceeded to capture the one or
two cities which remained unconquered. With treache-
rous professions of peace and friendship, he surprised
Carthage, the capital of the African province. The
wretched inhabitants of this wealthy and voluptuous
city were exposed to the rapine and pillage of the bar-
barian soldiers.  The noblest families and the most
devoted Catholics were forced into slavery and exile.
Europe was filled with fugitives from the sword of
Genseric.
    A legend, which belongs to the age of the younger
Theodosius, deserves notice as at least a picturesque and
The seven memorable illustration of the vast change
sleepers of
Ephesus  which the two centuries, from the persecution
of Decius to the time of Thcodosius II., had brought
upon the world.
    The story runs that, in the days of the Decian perse-
cution (A.D. 250), seven young men of Ephesus retired to
a cave, in a mountain near the city, to take refuge from the
danger to which the profession of their faith exposed them.
The emperor gave orders that the mouth of the cave
should be blocked with stones. Then the seven youths
fell into a deep sleep, which was miraculously prolonged
for two hundred years. When they woke up, uncon-
scious of the lapse of time, one of them went to the city
to buy bread. His strange speech, old-fashioned dress,
and the ancient coins which he proffered in payment,
discovered the miracle to the men of Ephesus.     The





  THE WEST FROM THE DEATH OF HONORIUS 185

young man (if, as Gibbon says, he can be termed young),
in his turn was astonished at the changed world which
he saw.   The Cross-the symbol of Christianity-no
longer proscribed, was displayed conspicuously over
the principal gate of the city; everywhere Christ was
acknowledged; everywhere there was an altered life;
old Pagan abominations had been swept away; the
world had become new. The story ends by narrating that
the Bishop and clergy of Ephesus, even, it is said, the
emperor Theodosius himself, hastened to the mouth of the
cavern, where they received the benediction of the seven
sleepers, who then peacefully sank to rest again.



                 CHAPTER XXIII.
                 THE HUNS AND ATTILA.

THE conquest of the empire by the Teutonic races had
been a gradual process. The barriers of the Rhine, the
The bar- Danube, and the Alps had sufficed to hold
baiany   1ack the invasion while vigorous and martial
civilised emperors held sway. The temporary delay was
an incalculable advantage to the provinces over which the
flood of invasion was soon to sweep. The interchange
of war and commerce had taught the barbarian to
respect and imitate the arts of civilisation; and when
the time came for the various barbarian tribes to settle
in the vanquished territories, they were prepared to
adopt the manners, the language, and the religion of
the Roman provincials. In this way Christianity pos-
sessed herself of the new world which was growing out





! 86  THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

of the changed, rather than the ruined, empire of
Rome.
    The Visigoths, converted to an Arian form of Christi-
anity by the labours of Ulfilas, spread the same teaching
among the Ostrogoths, the Vandals, and the Gepidae.
Even those tribes which, like the Burgundians and the
Suevi, had received the purer doctrine of Catholicism,
lapsed into the Arian error. The few Catholics who
remained were exposed to bitter persecution in the new
Teutonic kingdoms.    This was especially the case in
Africa, a province always characterised by the bitterness
of religious conflict.
    The interesting history of the recovery of the Gothic
kingdoms to the Nicene faith belongs to a later period.
The fact of historical importance at this epoch is that
the Gothic invasion, while it seemed to shatter the
empire, infused new force into the Christian Church,
and carried within it the seeds of a stronger and
purified order.  The first signal service which the
Teuton wrought for Christianity and civilisation in con-
junction with the subjects of the empire, was the re-
pulse of the Huns under the renowned and terrible
Attila. We hear of this Turanian people about the year
The Hens 372 in the region to the north of the Caspian
         Sea, whence they began to press westwards,
driving before them in their march the Teutonic tribes,
who were at length checked by the barrier of the
Danube. We have narrated the circumstances of that
famous passage of the Ostrogoths across the Danube
in the reign of Valens.'
    For a while the Turanian advance seemed to have
                       Ch. ix.





THE HUNS AND A TTILA


spent its force. The restless and undisciplined warriors
dissipated their strength   in scattered  expeditions,
wherever hopes were held out of victory or spoil. There
were Huns fighting side by side with Goths, when
Stilicho hemmed in the troops of Radagaisus on the
ridge of Fasuloe ; and in the formidable rebellion, after
the death of Honorius, Aetius led sixty thousand Huns
to the support of the usurper John.
    Under Rugulas, the uncle of Attila, the Huns were
united and threatened the existence of the Eastern
empire. Theodosius [I. staved off the danger by con-
ferring on Rugulas the title of general and by the
payment of three hundred and fifty pounds of gold,
as an annual tribute.
    On the death of Rugas or Rugulas, struck by a
thunderbolt, as Socrates would have us believe, his
         nephews, Attila and Bleda, not only doubled
         the tribute, but imposed other ignominious
conditions. Attila soon possessed himself of sovereign
power by the murder of his brother Bleda, and gained
an absolute ascendency over his countless followers,
whom he now prepared to lead to victory.     A vivid
description of Attila's personal appearance has been pre-
served. ' The large head, swarthy complexion, deep-
seated eyes, flat nose, sparse hairs, broad shoulders,
short square body, of nervous strength though of dis-
proportioned form,' present a picture not to be forgotten.
Under the guidance of this terrible hero began the
incursion into Europe, which gave him the title of
'Scourge of God.'
    Unlike the Teuton races, the Huns had never been
                   ' Gibbon, ch. xxxiv.


I87





188    THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

won by Christianity, or assimilated the culture of the
older civilisation. The savagery of the race gave no
promise of yielding to the influences of Rome. Their
victories were marked by a broad line of ruin, and by
the destruction of all that was ancient, or revered, or
beautiful. They left behind them  burning towns and
desolated plains. The founding of the Gothic kingdoms
was the salvation of Europe and the starting-point of
modern progress; the triumph of Attila would have
rolled back the tide of civilisation and have changed
the course of European history to an extent which it is
impossible to estimate. This is the reason which makes
the ultimate repulse of Attila a determining event in
ecclesiastical history.
    The sources for the history of Attila's campaign are
scanty, but we learn that the spark which fired the train
The inva- was the refusal of the Byzantine court to de-
sion begins liver up to the king of the Huns the Bishop of
Margus and some fugitives from his justice. Instantly
Attila's troops were in movement; the whole stretch of
country from the Euxine to the Adriatic was swept by
his armies. The Bishop of Margus, wise in his generation,
made friends with the Huns by opening the gates of his
city to the invaders. One after another, cities-some of
which have grown familiar in the history of this century
-fell before his ruthless sword, Sirmium, an imperial
capital, Sardica, the scene of the famous Council (p. 50),
and other places. The imperial troops which ventured
to dispute the advance of Attila were defeated in three
successive engagements, and were finally driven to bay
in the Thracian Chersonese. When Attila appeared
beneath the walls of Constantinople, he was absolute





THE HUNS AND ATTILA


master from the Danube to the Hellespont. No mercy
had been shown, and the land behind him was a waste.
A concession of territory along the Danube, extending
over a fifteen days' journey, a tribute thrice as large as
before, now amounting to twenty-one thousand pounds
of gold, release of all Huns who had been taken pri-
soners, a shameful surrender of refugees - such were
the hard and ignominious conditions of peace with
Attila.
    The death of Theodosius II. brought a change (450).
His successor Marcian declined to pay the exorbitant
tribute, whereupon Attila instantly resolved to renew
the war. But he hesitated whether he should carry his
arms first into the West or East.
    The West was virtually ruled by Aetius, the rival of
Boniface. In his early days he had been a friend of
Attila, and familiar with the camp of the barbarians.
This had been his refuge, when the rebellion of John
failed, and again, when he was defeated by Count
Boniface. This friendship and alliance continued. A
detachment of IHuns was employed by Aetius in the
defence of Gaul, but their march through the province
is described by the poet as formidable alike to friend
and foe:
     ' Nam socium vix ferre queas qui durior hoste.' 1
   Theodoric, son of Alaric and king of the Visigoths,
had established a powerful dominion in southern Gaul.
         Eager to extend his rule, he matched his forces
         against the Roman army.    Aetius, however,
was everywhere victorious, and at Narbonne, which lay
         ' Paulinus of Perigord. See Gibbon, oh. xxxv


I89





190o  THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

midway between Toulouse and Arles, the respective
capitals of the Goths and Romans, Theodoric suffered a
disastrous defeat. This he avenged, in the temporary
absence of Aetius, by a complete victory over the Roman
general, Litorius. Aetius hastened to retrieve the dis-
aster. But, when the two armies were drawn up facing
one another, and awaiting the signal for conflict, one
of those unexpected incidents occurred which seem to
be characteristic of this epoch. The two generals, each
conscious of the other's strength, and each in turn vic-
torious, came to terms of peace without the arbitrament
of battle. This act, in the highest sense civilised and
Christian, had momentous and salutary results for the
future of Christianity and civilisation.
    Circumstances soon brought Theodoric and Aetius
into closer alliance. Theodoric had suffered a cruel
Attila's pre- wrong at the hands of Genseric, king of the
texts for war Vandals; he took up arms against Genseric,
who in turn sought the alliance of Attila. A dispute
between two brothers for the kingdom of the Franks,
who at that time occupied the lower Rhine and spread
westward to the Somme, gave further occasion to Attila
for interference in the West by force of arms. A strange
and remarkable incident afforded a third pretext for
the intended invasion. The princess, Honoria, sister of
Valentinian III. and daughter of Placidia, weary of the
enforced celibacy and conventual life which had been
imposed upon her at Constantinople, formed the extra-
ordinary resolution of offering herself in marriage to
Attila. This proposal, at first treated with scorn, was
conveniently revived by Attila when his designs were
ripe for an invasion of Gaul. Before attacking the





THE HUNS AND ATTILA


empire, he laid claim to the hand and dowry of the
princess Honoria.
    With such excuses for the war, Attila began his
famous march across Europe.    The friendship of the
Attila   Franks who followed his banner facilitated the
marches  passage of the Rhine. One by one the cities
across the
Rhine    of eastern Gaul yielded to the merciless in-
vaders.  Resistance was short and ineffectual, and no
quarter was given. Cities and their inhabitants perished
in indiscriminate massacre and ruin. The first check
was received before the walls of Orleans, where the
brave  Bishop  Anianus inspired    the  garrison with
courage, and was the first to announce the approach of
succour in the united armies of Theodoric and Aetius.
A common danger induced the Goth and the Roman
to join forces, and in the cause of Christianity to give
battle to the barbarian Huns.
    Attila raised the siege of Orleans, and awaited the
enemy in the plain of Chalons. The site of the battle-
he battle field has not been identified. The level coun-
of chalons try spreads widely, and by some the scene of
conflict is placed fifty miles to the south-east of Chalons,
near M6ry-sur-Seine.
    The tactics of this great and decisive battle were
simple. By a furious charge the cavalry of the Huns
pierced and rode through the centre of the Teuton army,
and then, wheeling to the left, attacked the enemy's
right, which was commanded by Theodoric in person.
The javelin of an Ostrogothic chief reached Theodoric,
who fell mortally wounded, and was trampled under foot
by his own cavalry, thus fulfilling, it is said, a prediction
of the aruspices consulted by Attila.


191





192   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

    At this crisis in the fight Torismond, son of Theo-
doric, descended from the height which he had occupied
at the commencement of the day, poured his forces
into the flanks of the Huns, and threw them into con-
fusion. The Visigoths recovered their order, and turned
upon the enemy. Attila was defeated; but the ap-
proach of night covered his retreat to the entrenched
camp. A few days afterwards he carried the remnant
of his army across the Rhine, thus acknowledging the
repulse.
    The overthrow of Attila and the Huns was the
redemption   of Europe   from  a savage slavery.   It
was a decisive victory for Christianity, and for the
refining culture, the love of freedom, and respect for
law and order which are the charm and security of
modern society, and which make progress safe and in-
evitable.
    But Attila's spirit was far from being crushed. In
the spring of the following year he repeated his demand
Attiia   for Honoria, and on being refused crossed the
invades the Alps. Aquileia was stormed, taken, and so
north of
Italy    dealt with that scarcely a vestige was left to
show where the city of many memories once stood.
Other places shared the same fate.     The cities and
homesteads of northern Italy so often exposed to the
devastation of conquest were almost effaced by the havoc
of Attila's advance. Milan and Pavia enjoyed a partial
immunity. The buildings of these cities and the lives
of the inhabitants were spared from the flame and the
sword; but enormous contributions were exacted.
    At this point an embassy from Valentinian reached
Attila's camp. It was headed by Avienus, a senator





THE ifUNS AND ATTILA


of high distinction, and Leo, Bishop of Rome. The
most effective arguments were the dowry of Honoria -
a magnificent bribe--and, possibly, the demoralisation
of the barbarian forces. The majestic looks and elo-
quence of Leo seem also to have had their influence
on the rude conqueror. Attila retired, threatening, it
is said, a speedy return.
    Europe, however, was saved by the death of the
tyrant.   Attila died suddenly in Pannonia, by the
bursting of an artery during the night, after having
celebrated with great festivities his marriage with a
beautiful maiden of the country named Ildico, A.D. 453.



                 CHAPTER      XXIV.
          LEO I. AND THE CHURCH OF ROME.

THE prominent position of Leo on the embassy to Attila
marks the consideration which his great ability and vast
Prestige of organising power had acquired for the Bishop
the Roman
see      of Rome and the see which he ruled.      The
sources of this prestige have been already indicated.
As the empire continued to decline, these elements of
greatness in the Papacy increased to an enormous
extent.
    Two lines of influence tended to this result: first
the growth in power of the Roman see in regard to
This     jurisdiction; secondly the separate advance of
prestige due
to growth its authority and claims over other Churches.
of juris.
diction  In the first of these two lines of influence the
progress of Rome was at first parallel with that of other
   E. H.                                        0


I93





194 THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

Churches. The legal sanction which Constantine gave
to episcopal decisions in ecclesiastical causes was con-
tinued and confirmed by his successors.
    In a law of Honorius A.D. 399, it was laid down : ' In
matters of religion it is fitting that Bishops should
decide' (luotiens de religione agitur episcopis convenit
judicare).1 This sanction gave no authority to Bishops
in civil cases. On the other hand, two rights which
were acknowledged to rest with the clergy,-the right
of moral supervision, and the right of intercession for
prisoners,-were so used as to give great weight to the
voice of the Church in judicial cases. It was in accord-
ance with the first of these two rights that Ambrose
excommunicated Theodosius the Great.      As early as
the year 314 A.D. at the Council of Arles it was ruled
that Christian magistrates should, on their promotion to
another sphere of duty, carry with them letters to the
Church of the place to which they were appointed 'in
order that the Bishop might exercise supervision and
punish any infringement of discipline by excommunica-
tion' (Ut in quibuscunque locis gesserint ab episcopo
ejusdem loci cura de illis agatur, et cum coeperint contra
disciplinam agere tum demum a communione exclu-
dantur). This power of excommunication for the cor-
rection of morals was put in force in well-known
instances by St. Athanasius, by Synesius, and by Cyril,
whose encroachments on the civil administration of
the city were violently resented by the prefect Orestes,
and are condemned by the ecclesiastical historian,
Socrates.2
    The right and duty of intercession for condemned
      ' Cod. Theod. xvi. xi. 1.         2 vii. 7; 13.





LEO AND TH11_ CHURCHi OF ROME  '


persons were grounded by St. Augustine on the impos-
sibility of repentance after death; 'therefore,' he says,
'we are forced by charity to intercede for prisoners, lest
their punishment end not with their life.' But there
were wise Churclrmen who saw the danger to public
polity involved in the abuse of this right, and the
emperors Theodosius I. and Arcadius found it neces-
sary to restrain by law the interference of the clergy
with the course of justice. But the very terms of the
edicts show the extent to which this claim  had been
pushed, and the influence which it must have given to
the clergy.
    The growing wealth of the Church was another
source of political power. Imperial liberality and gifts
The      and legacies from private persons so enriched
increase in
wealth   ecclesiastical treasuries that the clerical pro-
fession became attractive to worldly-minded people, and
the pressure into its ranks became a danger to the State.
Constantine prohibited rich men seeking holy orders.
The sacred offices were to be filled by persons of slender
means (fortuna tenuis), and those who had no State
functions to discharge. Afterwards the resignation of
worldly goods was a duty     imposed   on  those who
entered the   ministry.  On the other hand clerical
avarice became a scandal and 'had to be checked by
law.   Of this Jerome writes to Nepotianus: ' It is not
of the law that I complain, but I grieve that we have
deserved the law. Cautery is good, but how comes
the wound that needs cauterising ?'
    The general result of this influx of wealth was to
place lucrative offices and large estates at the dis-
                        ' Ey. 34.
                                              Q"


I95





196    THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

posal of Bi-hops. The clergy became in all respects,
even for their maintenance, dependent on the Bishop.
Another element of stro igth in the episcopal position
was the popular consent and suffrage from which it
proceeded, and on which it rested. In the words of a
letter quoted by Theodoret, the election of a Bishop was
made ' in a synod of Bishops, by the vote of the clergy,
by the demand of the people,' who cried out dtos, or bene
meritus (' he is worthy'), if the choice were acceptable.
    These advantages placed the Bishops in a position
 of high dignity and power.    This was implied by
 Growth of the titles which began to be assigned to the
 episcopal
 power   Office, such as, successors of the Apostles, most
 blessed, most reverend, or most sacred lords. Other
 titles, such as Vicar of Christ, Papa or Pope, Apostolicus,
 Summus Pontifex, afterwards associated with the see
 of Rome, were at first applied to Bishops in general,
 especially to those who presided over metropolitan sees.
 On the principle that the priesthood stands above
 royalty, marks of reverence were exacted from the em-
 perors and their wives, who would descend from their
 thrones, bow their heads, and kiss the hands of Bishops.
 It is no wonder that episcopal pride was a term which
 found its way into the vocabulary of the time. 'They
 swell with the pride of 'episcopacy,' says Jerome; 'they
 imagine they have been entrusted not with the steward-
 ship of Christ, but with sovereignty; let priest and
 Bishop know that the people are not their servants but
 their fellow-servants.'
    Some checks, however, were placed on this growing
political power of the Church. 'Ever since the em-
perors became Christian,' writes Socrates, ' ecclesiastical





LEO AND THE CHURCH OF ROME


affairs depended on them, and the most important
synods have met, and still do meet, by their will.' This
Checks on statement was in large measure true, but
the power of
the Church the extent of its truth varied according to the
character of the ruling emperor, and to the firmness of
the Bishops; moreover, it expresses the condition of the
Eastern more accurately than that of the Western Church.
    Ultimate appeals lay to the emperor, not only in
respect of ecclesiastical property, but also in some cases
of doctrine. When many sects claimed severally the
title and right to term themselves Catholic, it became
necessary for the emperors to decide the question. With
this object they summoned councils, over which they
sometimes presided themselves, and sometimes appointed
commissioners to preside.
    On the whole, the authority of the emperor in ec-
clesiastical causes was unhesitatingly allowed. But this
was especially the case in the East, where the imperial
influence was powerful in the choice of Bishops, par-
ticularly for the see of Constantinople. Flattery went
so far as to attribute to the emperor a sacerdotal
character; 'chief priest   and  emperor' (adpXtpei
/aoatXs9) was a term used at a council at Constanti-
nople, A.D. 448.
    Such were the causes in general which tended to
make the episcopate a strong political force.    The
powers and    influence which we have indicated in
some degree surrounded the.throne of every Bishop.
In a special degree they were centred in what were
termed the patriarchal sees of Constantinople, Alex-
andria, Antioch, and Jerusalem I in the East (though it
  ' Raised to this position at the Council of Chalcedon A.D. 451.


I97





198   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

must be observed that the title of Patriarch was origin-
ally common to all Bishops),' and, in the West, pre-
eminently of Rome.
    The reasons which gave Rome this singular and
striking supremacy have been partly indicated. The
Rome be- fierce and intricate religious controversies,
comes the which  troubled, divided, and  consequently
arbiter of
disputes weakened  the Eastern Church, left Rome
practically unassailed. More than this, they had the
effect of placing Rome in the position of arbiter and
judge of the points in dispute, a.position quickly seized
and improved by the successive Bishops of Rome. Not
only the ancient prestige, but the immobility of Rome
helped to secure this authority. Other imperial capitals
had shifted and changed more than once since the em-
pire became Christian. Nicomedia, the capital of the
last of the persecuting emperors, had given place to
Constantinople; Sirmium had been all but submerged in
the flood of barbarian invasion; the same terrible cause
had driven the imperial court from Milan to Ravenna,
and further west from Treves to Arles. But Rome
stood fixed and firm like the stedfast rock of its own
Capitol (Capitoli immobile saxum) in the majesty of
eternal empire.
    Another cause of pre-eminence, which told far more
effectively in the fifth century than can be adequately
The apo-  conceived now, was the undoubted Apostolical
stolical origin of the Church of Rome. The voice of
origin of
the see   the Bishop of Rome carried with it the trans-
mitted authority of St. Peter. This deep and vivid im-
pression of the ever present and authoritative direction of
                   ' See Suicer sub voce.





LEO AND THE CHURCH OF ROME


the chief of the Apostles, had much to do with the influ-
ence of Rome in centuries far beyond the times with
which we are now dealing. It was the argument, for
instance, which turned the decision so important for the
history of the English Church at the Council of Whitby,
A.D. 664.
    The character, policy, and career of Leo the Great,
Bishop of Rome from 440-461, sum     up in a striking
The      and instructive way the aims and position of
authority
of Leo   the Roman see at this epoch. Leo included in
his authority not only the various general elements of
episcopal power which we have traced, but also those
special sources of prestige which became attached to
the throne of St. Peter. Moreover by the aid of his
vigorous intellect Leo added considerably to the strength
of his position, and gave evidence in his policy of a far-
sighted intuition of the future.
    The distinguished natural abilities of Leo placed him
early in life in a prominent position. As Archdeacon of
Ris rise to  Rome, he stood next to the Bishop in rank ; and
the Papacy letters addressed to Leo on important occasions
at this period attest the estimation in which he was held.
His high qualities were recognised by the State, and in
the year 439 or 440 he was sent on a special mission to
Gaul, to compose the difference between Aetius and a
rival general, Albinus. During his absence Pope Sixtus
died, and Leo was elected to fill his place. He accepted
the immense responsibilities of this dignity without
diffidence or false humility, only asking for the prayers
of the people for success in his administration.
    Leo took a magnificent and imperial view of the
 Roman pontificate, which has impressed itself upon


I99





200   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMIPIRE

history. In claiming for the see of Rome a supremacy
at least over the Western Churches, Leo had some pre-
His claims cedents on which to rely. A custom had arisen
for the see
of Rome of referring disputed questions to Rome as
the apostolical mother-church of Western Christendom.
Innocent I., the greatest of Leo's predecessors, had
written to the effect that important cases should, even
after a Bishop's decision, be referred to Rome for con-
firmation, and that nothing should be regarded as defined
and settled until it should have come under the cog-
nisance of the Apostolic see.'
    The great stress of Leo's policy was directed to
establish this principle, which appeared necessary for
The idea of the unity of Christendom.  The experience
the unity of
Christendom of after ages has shown the need of limiting
and guarding such a principle; but at this epoch the
sentiment of unity was forced upon the Church      by
the imperial idea, while the sentiment of unity com-
bined with autonomy of separate Churches had not
presented itself as conceivable.
    In Italy itself the Roman supremacy was not com-
Italy not pletely acknowledged; the Bishops of Milan,
wl~iey  of Aquileia, and Ravenna claimed independ-
subservient
to Rome   ence. At the same time there was no open
revolt against the authority of Rome.
    Eastern Illyricum, though politically assigned to the
          Eastern empire, continued to be subject to the
           Roman patriarchate.
    In the southern part of Gaul, which was still sub-
ject to the empire, a dispute for precedence had arisen
between the Bishops of Vienne and Arles. An appeal
                 1 Gieseler, � 94, note 20.





LEO AND THE CHURCH OF ROME


was made to Rome.      Zosimus, who was then Pope
(A.D. 417), declared in favour, of Arles, and appointed
Disputes the Bishop Patroclus his vicar in Gallia Nar-
with Leo bonensis.  In the time of Leo, Hilary was
Bishop of Arles, a man distinguished for eloquence
and the vigorous administration of his office. Charges
having been brought against Celidonius, one of the
Bishops within his jurisdiction, Hilary summoned a
council and deposed him. Celidonius appealed to Leo,
whereupon Hilary instantly journeyed to Rome on foot,
and protested against the appeal being made. Leo, how-
ever, reversed the judgment of Hilary, and removed the
sentence of deposition from Celidonius. Other accusa-
tions of ecclesiastical tyranny and misrule were brought
against Hilary; and Leo, insisting on his supremacy,
withdrew the privileges which had been conferred on
the see of Arles by his predecessor. In this asser-
tion of prerogative, Leo obtained the support of an im-
perial decree. Valentinian III. was persuaded to issue
a constitution affirming the primacy of the Roman
pontiff. 'No one was to presume to attempt anything
without the authority of the Roman see. The peace of
the Churches all over the world will only be preserved
if the whole of Christendom (universitas) acknowledges
its ruler. Let no one be allowed, contrary to ancient
use and custom, to take any measures without the sanc-
tion of the venerable Pope of the eternal city.' This
decree bears evidence of Leo's influence over the feeble
mind of Valentinian, and cannot be regarded as a spon-
taneous expression of imperial policy.
    Spain, which was no longer under the sway of the
empire, felt the influence of the Papacy. The opinions


20 I





202   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

of Priscillian, who was put to death by the usurper
Maximus, had survived in Spain, and deeply affected
         the purity of religion in that country. Turibius,
s a'n    Bishop of Astorga, appealed to Leo for advice,
and by his recommendation two councils were held, in
which the pernicious and immoral doctrines. of the
Priscillianists were condemned.
    The African Church which had been distinguished
by some of the greatest names and most saintly
         memories in the early history of Christianity,
Africa   had never surrendered her independence to
Rome. The one or two occasions on which disputed
questions were referred to the see of St. Peter, left the
liberties of the Church of Tertullian and Cyprian intact.
    More than once Rome was convicted of grievous
misjudgment. In 419 Zosimus endeavoured to sustain
Mistakes of an African presbyter deposed by his own
the Roman
see      Bishop. The Pope's legates boldly produced as
their authority certain canons which they alleged to be
decrees of the Nicene Council, establishing a right of
appeal to Rome from the whole of Christendom. The
members of the African synod, however, were able to
show conclusively that the alleged canons issued from
the Council of Sardica and not of Nicema. The pro-
ceeding displayed incredible ignorance or incredible
fraud on the part of the Roman legates. To add to
their humiliation, the accused presbyter was proved by
his own confession to have been guilty of the most
heinous crimes. In the time of Leo, however, the mis-
fortunes of the African Church drew it nearer to Rome.
The persecution by Genseric grew fiercer and more
vindictive towards the close of his reign. The Arians





LEO AND THE CHURCH OF ROME


were   everywhere  triumphant, and    the  persecuted
Catholic Bishops even welcomed the* intervention of
the Bishop of Rome.
    Thus the policy of Leo prevailed throughout the
Western empire. In the East he was less successful.
The influ- Notwithstanding the influence of Valentinian
ence of Leo
in the East and Placidia, Leo was unable to persuade
Theodosius to yield to his wish for a general council to
be held in Italy. Nor did the Eastern Bishops acknow-
ledge the authority of Rome, as their Western brethren
were content to do. At the great Council of Chalcedon,
A.D. 451, though the Roman legates were allowed to pre-
side, and though Leo's famous letter to Flavian, defining
the doctrine of the Incarnation, was received with respect
and with the general assent of the assembly, a decree
was passed which placed the see of Constantinople on
an equality with that of Rome. Leo bitterly protested
against the decree; and this twenty-eighth canon of
the Council of Chalcedon has been justly regarded by
historians as one of the causes which ultimately led
to the separation between the Eastern and Western
Churches.
    Nowhere was the strength of Leo's character more
 conspicuously shown than in his vigorous action against
 Leo's    the various heresies which were distracting
 attitueo the Church; he seemed to make the extinction
 towards
 heresy   of heresy his special work in every quarter of
 Christendom. Here too, as in his assertion of supremacy,
 he called in the aid of the civil power. His counsel in
 the struggle of the Catholic Bishops in Spain against
 Priscillianism has been mentioned. With still grea er
 vigour did he fling himself into the conflict with


203





204   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN LMPIRE

Manicheism. This sect was increased in Rome by fugi-
tives from Genseric's cruelties in Africa. Theoretically,
Manicheism was an attempt to infuse into Christianity
the teaching of Zoroaster; but, actually, Manicheism
had been given over to the practice of the grossest
immorality. This Leo determined to suppress by means
of the ecclesiastical and civil powers. A council was
held, and revelation was made of shameful sensuality
even in the religious ceremonial of this sect. Valen-
tinian made the profession of Manicheism     a penal
offence, and Leo exposed its real character by sermons
and letters addressed to different Bishops.
    The relations of Leo with Eutyches and with Euty-
chianism, and the part which he took in regard to the
councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon, belong to a different
side of ecclesiastical history. The general result was to
place his personal influence and the authority of his
see in a commanding position throughout the civilised
world.
    The most picturesque and impressive scenes in the
life of Leo were those in which he appeared as the
Leo and the champion of Rome against barbarian inva-
barbarian
invasion sion. Twice it was his fortune to come for-
ward in order to mitigate the horrors of war. We have
seen how he confronted Attila on the shore of lake
Benacus, and forced or persuaded him to retire, On a
still more memorable occasion he advanced to meet
Genseric before the gates of Rome.
    Valentinian III. deservedly met his death as a
direct consequence of a cruel act of licentiousness.
Petronius Maxim us, the husband of the lady whom he
had wronged, became emperor. He in turn misused





LEO AND THE CHURCH OF ROME


his power by forcing the empress Eudoxia to take the
place of his own wife, who had died since his acces-
Leo inter-  sion. Eudoxia in her resentment invited
cedes for Genseric to invade Italy.
Rom with
Gen~eric     The Vandal conqueror landed at Ostia and
was soon in the neighbourhood of Rome. Leo headed
a procession of his clergy to intercede with Genseric for
his unhappy countrymen. Though it was not given to
Leo to turn the tide of conquest a second time, he pro-
cured some concessions.   Those who made no resist-
ance should be spared - the buildings of the city were
to be protected against conflagration-the captives were
not to be exposed to torture.     If Leo's mediation
gained little, it was an impressive lesson and full of
promise for Christendom.
    The sack of Rome by the Vandal army swept away
the last relics of heathenism. The gilded roof of the
Capitol, and the statues of the gods of Rome, were
carried off by the same hands which pillaged the Chris-
tian churches. But for paganism the ruin was irre-
parable. No lingering enthusiasm cared to rebuild the
fallen temples of the gods.
    Leo's death in A.D. 461 coincided with the death
of Majorian, who had made a gallant effort to stay
Leo the  the progress of calamity, but failed. After
greatest
statesman his death, the empire swiftly hastened to its
as well as
the greatest end. The feeble rulers who close the line
Churchman
of his day  of the Western empire leave no mark in
history. Leo not only stands out as the grandest figure
among the Churchmen of his day, but he was the only
great statesman of his time in Italy. The relations
between Church and State, as he defined them, were


205





206   THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE

recognised for centuries to be the only true relations.
The position of the Roman see among the Churches of
the West, as he left it, continued to be for centuries its
acknowledged position.   The contest which Leo sus-
tained in defence of the Catholic faith against the here-
sies of East and West deservedly gave a prestige to
the see of Rome, which in his time and afterwards was
upheld by far more questionable means.
    The pontificate of Leo sums up the general results
of Christianity as a force in the affairs of the world, as
a powerful factor in history. At the special epoch when
it occurred, the strength and unity which his powerful
intellect achieved for the Church were undoubtedly
needed in view of the coming disruption. But the in-
significance to which the imperial power had been re-
duced in the feeble hands of Valentinian III., and in
the seclusion of Ravenna, gave a dangerously large
share of influence to the rival power of the Church,
wielded by a masterful genius in the city with which
twelve hundred years of empire had irreversibly asso-
ciated the idea of supremacy.
    Nearly an equal term of years was granted to the
 new empire to complete and develop the statesmanship
 of Leo; and when the break in the unity occurred, it
 was the Roman see, and not the Church of Christ, which
 was impaired.

















INDEX.


          ABDAS
ABDAS, Bishop, 176
Acacius, Bishop, 178
Aetius, 182, 189-191, 199
African Church, the, 33
Alaric, 106, 146-164
Alban, St., 18
Albinus, 199
Alemanni, 60
Alexandria, 44
Ambrose, St., 92-103, 194
Ammianus Marcellinus, 64, 79,
  90
Anianus, Bishop, 191
Anthony, St., 49, 122
Anthusa, 132
Antioch, 26, 57, 69, 131, 133
Apollinarii, the two, 67
Apostate, meaning of, 58
- Julian the, see Julian
Aptunga, Bishop of, 33
Aquileia, 48, 104, 181, 192
Arbogastes, 103
Arcadius, the emperor, 105,137
Ardaburius, 181
Arianism, 41, 158
Arles, 165, 190, 198, 200
- council at, 34
Ariminum, council of, 54
-, creed of, 81, 83, 88
Arius, 40, 46
Asceticism, 49, 132
Aspar, 181
Asta, 149


          CHURCH
Ataulf, 161, 167
Athanasius, St., 43, 45, 48, 49,
  53, 55, 78, 194
Athenais, see Eudocia
Athens, 58, 72, 147
Attalus, 161
Attila, 185-193
Augustine, St., 127-131
Auxent.ius, 81, 93
Avienus, 192


BAPTISM, deferred, 94
Basil, St., of Caesarea, 56, 59,
  71-76
Basileia (BarLAeia) the, 1
Bethlehem, 124.
Bologna, 156
Boniface, 131, 182
Botheric, 97
Britain, 149, 168, 169
Busentinus, the river, 164


CJECILIAN, 33
Carus, the emperor, 6
Celibacy, 36
Chalcedon, council of, 203
Chalons, battle of, 191
Charito, 79
Chrysostom, St, 131-139
Church and State, 53, 78, 81,
  82, 101, 108






208  THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE


       CIRCUMCELLIONS
 Circumcellions, 34
 ' City of God,' the, 79, 119, 129,
   155
 Claudian, 104, 143, 146, 150
 Classics, the study of, ques-
 tioned, 66
 'Confessions,' the, of St. Augus-
 tine, 127
 Constans, 47, 50, 51
 Constantine the Great, 21, 27-
   40, 46
Constantine II., 47
Constantine the Usurper, 165,
   168
Constantinople, 39, 188
Constantius Chlorus, 10
Constantius, son of Constan-
  tine I., 47, 50, 51, 62
Constantius, general   under
  Honorius, 165, 180
Crispus, 38
Cross, the, abolished as a legal
  penalty, 35
Cucilsus, 137
Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria,
  194


DADASTANA, 79
Damasus, Pope, 80, 124
Danube, passage of, by the
  Goths, 89
Defensores Civitatum, 83
Diocletian, 6-20, 25, 26
Donatism  and Donatists, 33,
  34, 129, 182


EDESSA, scene at, 85
Education, Christian, 66
Ephesus, the seven sleepers of,
  184
Eudocia, 175
Eudoxia, wife of Arcadius, 136
Eudoxia, wife of Valentinian
  III., 175, 181
Eudoxius, 85


          HYP ATIA
Eugenius, 103
Eusebia, 57
Eusebius of Cmsarea, 42, 43
Eusebius of Nicomedia, 45, 58
Eustochium, 124
Eutropius, 136, 145, 170


FA USTA, 23
Felix of Aptunga, 33
Flaccilla, 133
Flavian, Bishop of Antioch, 133
Fritigern, 90


GAINAS, 136, 143, 1.71-173
Galerius, 10, 13, 22, 23
Galla Placidia, 153, 167, 180,
  182, 203
Gallus, 48, 56
Generidus, 119, 160
Genseric, 131, 182 -184, 190, 205
George of Cappadocia, 53
Gerontius, 147
Gildo, 144
Gladiatorial shows, 151
Goths, the, 87-91, 146-164
Gratian, the emperor, 84, 92-
  96, 111
Gregory Nazianzen, 56-59, 71-
  76
Gregory, usurping Bishop of
  Alexandria, 50


HADRIANOPLE, 32, 38, 90
Helena, the empress, 21
Helvidius, 125
Heraclian, 157
Hilary of Poitiers, 81
Hilary, Bishop of Arles, 201
Hippo, 129, 131, 183
Honoria, 190, 192
Honorius, the emperor, 105
  139-146
Huns, the, 88, 185-193
Hypatia, 108






INDEX


          ILDICO
ILDICO, 193
Innocent I., Pope, 164
Intercession, right of, 194
Isdegerdes, 176


JEROME, St., 121-127
Jerusalem, Temple of, 64
Jews favoured by Julian, 64
John, see Chrysostom
- of Ravenna, 181
- of Lycopolis, 103
Jovian, the emperor, 76-79
Jovius, 160
Julian, the emperor, 48, 56-70
Julius, Pope, 48
Justina, 99


KINGDOM of God, 1, 29


Labarm, the, 28, 77
Laws, influence of Christianity
  on, 35
  Leo the Great, 199-206
  Libanius, 132, 133
  Liberius, Bishop of Rome, 82
  Licinius, the emperor, 23, 37
  Lucifer, Bishop of Cagliari, 52


  MACRINA, 72
  Magnentius, 51
  Manicheism, 204
  Marcella, 49
  Mardia, battle of, 37
  Margus, 8, 188
  Maria, 146
  Martin, St., of Tours, 60, 102
  Mascezel, 144
  Maxentius, 22, 28, 30
  Maximian, the emperor, 10-22
  Maximin, 20, 22, 32
  Maximus, 99, 101, 102, 103
  Meletius, Bishop of Antioch, 86
     C. H.


       PULCHERIA
Milan, edict of, 31
- council at, 51
- 92, 128, 192
Monasticism, 49, 73, 122
Monnica, 127
Mosaics at Ravenna, 153
Mursa, battle of, 51


NARBONNE, 189
Nicana, council of, 43
Nicene Creed, 44
Nicomedia, 9, 15, 21, 198
Nisibis, 77, 177


OLYMPUS, 156
Ordination, forced, 74, 93
Orleans, 156


PAGAN reaction, 62, 63, 85
Paganism, derivation of the
   word, 110
 -, revival of, by Julian, 63
 -, persecution of, 110
 Patrick, St., 169
 Patroclus, Bishop, 201
 Paula, 124
 Pavia, 192
 Pelagianism, 129, 169
 Pityus, 138
 Placidia, see Galla Placidia
 Pola, 57
 Pollentia, 150
 Pompeianus, 29
 Porte Molle, battle of, 30
 Possidius, 182
 Pratextatus, saying of, 83
 Prisca, 16, 25, 32
 Priscillian, 102, 202
 Prisons affected by Christi-
   anity, 36
 Procopius, 85
 Prudentius, 113
 Pulcheria, 173-180
                      P


-209






2IO THE CHURCH AND THE ROMAN EMPIRE


        RADAGAISUS
RADAGAISU, 154
Ravenna, 19, 152-154, 157, 161,
  163, 181, 198
Rome, deserted as a seat of
  empire, 9, 30
-, sieges of, 159, 161; 162
-, See of, 48, 193, 198, 206
Rufinus, 139-143, 145
Rugulas, 187


SALONA, 25
Salvianus, 120
Sapor, 77
Sardica, 188
-, council of, 50
Sarus, 161
Sasima, 74
Serena, 144, 159
Severus, 20
Simeon Stylites, 123
Singeric, 167
Sirmium, 62, 188, 198
Slavery, 36
Spain, 201
Stilicho, 101, 139, 143-146, 149,
  154, 156, 157
Supervision, moral, of Bishops,
  194
Symmachus, 112
Synesius, Bishop, 194


TARSUs, 32
Telemachus, the monk, 151
Tennyson quoted, 123
Theodoric, 189-191
Theodosius I., 96-107, 113, 134


          ZOSIMUS
Theodosius II., 173-180, 189
Theophilus, Bishop of Alexan-
  dria, 116, 136
Thermantia, 158
Thessalonica, 97, 143
Toleration, religious, 107
Torismond, 192
TrOves, 9, 47, 198
Triumph, last at Rome, 11
Turin, 29


ULFILAS, 88
Upsala, 88


VALENS, the    emperor, 80,
  85-91
Valentinian I., 79-84
Valentinian II., 92, 101-103
Valentinian III., 201, 204
Valeria, 16, 25, 32
Vandals, 131, 167, 182
Verona, 29, 150, 165
Victory, altar of, 96
Vienne, 101, 200
Vulgate, the, 125


WALLIA, 167
Wealth, growth   of, in the
  Church, 195


YORK, city of, 20


ZosIMUS, Pope, 201, 202












  GtG-P , * jC)-9 C0LC l d L
       6- 6GCc
   460CA C44Q~







&&o�AZ~~C- c~~A e/  7/~








j a.w - u



/ - b Y 6 (L -I










    Cc,  7e1 L









  ~rwL~ LiY Q

  ~  Th~B~  /Lt k  ' oWtL  A




   ~7t >4&        n~oc,&







        ptp            A
* fl(/j.















This book is a preservation facsimile produced for
  the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
  It is made in compliance with copyright law
       and produced on acid-free archival
            60# book weight paper
        which meets the requirements of
ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (permanence of paper).

   Preservation facsimile printing and binding
                      by
            Northern Micrographics
            Brookhaven Bindery
            La Crosse, Wisconsin
                     2012