Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 3 (1897).djvu/45

OF THE KOMAN EMPIEE 25 private life in the condition of catechumens ; but the piety of Valens prompted him to solicit the sacrament of baptism, before he exposed his person to the dangers of a Gothic war. He natm'ally addressed himself to Eudoxus,^^ bishop of the Imperial city ; and, if the ignorant monarch was instructed by that Arian pastor in the principles of heterodox theology, his misfortune, rather than his guilt, was the inevitable consequence of his erroneous choice. Whatever had been the determination of the emperor, he must have offended a numerous party of his Christian subjects ; as the leaders both of the Homoousians and of the Arians believed that, if they were not suffered to reign, they were most cruelly injured and oppressed. After he had taken this decisive step, it was extremely difficult for him to preserve either the virtue or the reputation of impartiality. He never aspired, like Constantius, to the fame of a profound theologian ; but, as he had received with simplicity and respect the tenets of Eudoxus, Valens resigned his conscience to the direction of his ecclesiastical guides, and promoted, by the influence of his authority, the re-union of the Athanasian heretics to the body of the catholic church. At first, he pitied their blindness ; by degrees he was provoked at their obstinacy ; and he insensibly hated those sectaries to whom he was an object of hatred.'^^ The feeble mind of Valens was always swayed by the persons with whom he familiarly conversed ; and the exile or imprison- ment of a private citizen are the favours the most readily granted in a despotic court. Such punishments were frequently inflicted on the leaders of the Homoousian party ; and the misfortune of fourscore ecclesiastics of Constantinople, who, perhaps accident- ally, were burnt on shipboard, was imputed to the cruel and premeditated malice of the emperor and his Arian ministers. In every contest, the catholics (if we may anticipate that name) were obliged to pay the penalty of their own faults, and of those of their adversaries. In every election, the claims of the Arian candidate obtained the preference ; and, if they were opposed by the majority of the people, he was usually supported by the authority of the civil magistrate, or even by the terrors of a military force. The enemies of Athanasius attempted to disturb 88 Eudoxus was of a mild and timid disposition. When he baptised Valens (a.d. 367), he must have been extremely old ; since he had studied theology fifty- five years before, under Lucian, a learned and pious martyr. Philostorg. 1. ii. c. 14-16, 1. iv. c. 4, with Godefroy, p. 82, 206, and Tillemont, M^m Eccl^s. torn. v. p. 474-480, &c. 8^ Gregory Nazianzsn (Orat. xxv. [=33] p. 432 [ap. Migne, vol. 36, p. 217 sqq."^ in- sults the persecuting spirit of the Arians, as an infallible symptom of error and heresy.