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| On the Faith and Piety of Theodosius Augustus.
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Chapter 26.—On the Faith and
Piety of Theodosius Augustus.
And on this account, Theodosius not
only preserved during the lifetime of Gratian that fidelity which
was due to him, but also, after his death, he, like a true
Christian, took his little brother Valentinian under his
protection, as joint emperor, after he had been expelled by
Maximus, the murderer of his father. He guarded him with paternal
affection, though he might without any difficulty have got rid of
him, being entirely destitute of all resources, had he been
animated with the desire of extensive empire, and not with the
ambition of being a benefactor. It was therefore a far greater
pleasure to him, when he had adopted the boy, and preserved to him
his imperial dignity, to console him by his very humanity and
kindness. Afterwards, when that success was rendering Maximus
terrible, Theodosius, in the midst of his perplexing anxieties, was
not drawn away to follow the suggestions of a sacrilegious and
unlawful curiosity, but sent to John, whose abode was in the desert
of Egypt,—for he had learned that this servant of God (whose fame
was spreading abroad) was endowed with the gift of prophecy,—and
from him he received assurance of victory. Immediately the slayer
of the tyrant Maximus, with the deepest feelings of compassion and
respect, restored the boy Valentinianus to his share in the empire
from which he had been driven. Valentinianus being soon after
slain by secret assassination,
or by some other plot or
accident, Theodosius, having again received a response from the
prophet, and placing entire confidence in it, marched against the
tyrant Eugenius, who had been unlawfully elected to succeed that
emperor, and defeated his very powerful army, more by prayer than
by the sword. Some soldiers who were at the battle reported to me
that all the missiles they were throwing were snatched from their
hands by a vehement wind, which blew from the direction of
Theodosius’ army upon the enemy; nor did it only drive with
greater velocity the darts which were hurled against them, but also
turned back upon their own bodies the darts which they themselves
were throwing. And therefore the poet Claudian, although an alien
from the name of Christ, nevertheless says in his praises of him,
“O prince, too much beloved by God, for thee Æolus pours armed
tempests from their caves; for thee the air fights, and the winds
with one accord obey thy bugles.”229
| 229 Panegyr, de tertio Honorii
consulatu. | But the victor, as he had
believed and predicted, overthrew the statues of Jupiter, which had
been, as it were, consecrated by I know not what kind of rites
against him, and set up in the Alps. And the thunderbolts of
these statues, which were made of gold, he mirthfully and
graciously presented to his couriers who (as the joy of the
occasion permitted) were jocularly saying that they would be most
happy to be struck by such thunderbolts. The sons of his own
enemies, whose fathers had been slain not so much by his orders as
by the vehemence of war, having fled for refuge to a church, though
they were not yet Christians, he was anxious, taking advantage of
the occasion, to bring over to Christianity, and treated them with
Christian love. Nor did he deprive them of their property, but,
besides allowing them to retain it, bestowed on them additional
honors. He did not permit private animosities to affect the
treatment of any man after the war. He was not like Cinna, and
Marius, and Sylla, and other such men, who wished not to finish
civil wars even when they were finished, but rather grieved that
they had arisen at all, than wished that when they were finished
they should harm any one. Amid all these events, from the very
commencement of his reign, he did not cease to help the troubled
church against the impious by most just and merciful laws, which
the heretical Valens, favoring the Arians, had vehemently
afflicted. Indeed, he rejoiced more to be a member of this church
than he did to be a king upon the earth. The idols of the
Gentiles he everywhere ordered to be overthrown, understanding well
that not even terrestrial gifts are placed in the power of demons,
but in that of the true God. And what could be more admirable
than his religious humility, when, compelled by the urgency of
certain of his intimates, he avenged the grievous crime of the
Thessalonians, which at the prayer of the bishops he had promised
to pardon, and, being laid hold of by the discipline of the church,
did penance in such a way that the sight of his imperial loftiness
prostrated made the people who were interceding for him weep more
than the consciousness of offence had made them fear it when
enraged? These and other similar good works, which it would be
long to tell, he carried with him from this world of time, where
the greatest human nobility and loftiness are but vapor. Of these
works the reward is eternal happiness, of which God is the giver,
though only to those who are sincerely pious. But all other
blessings and privileges of this life, as the world itself, light,
air, earth, water, fruits, and the soul of man himself, his body,
senses, mind, life, He lavishes on good and bad alike. And among
these blessings is also to be reckoned the possession of an empire,
whose extent He regulates according to the requirements of His
providential government at various times. Whence, I see, we must
now answer those who, being confuted and convicted by the most
manifest proofs, by which it is shown that for obtaining these
terrestrial things, which are all the foolish desire to have, that
multitude of false gods is of no use, attempt to assert that the
gods are to be worshipped with a view to the interest, not of the
present life, but of that which is to come after death. For as to
those who, for the sake of the friendship of this world, are
willing to worship vanities, and do not grieve that they are left
to their puerile understandings, I think they have been
sufficiently answered in these five books; of which books, when I
had published the first three, and they had begun to come into the
hands of many, I heard that certain persons were preparing against
them an answer of some kind or other in writing. Then it was told
me that they had already written their answer, but were waiting a
time when they could publish it without danger. Such persons I
would advise not to desire what cannot be of any advantage to them;
for it is very easy for a man to seem to himself to have answered
arguments, when he has only been unwilling to be silent. For what
is more loquacious than vanity? And though it be able, if it
like, to shout more loudly than the truth, it is not, for all that,
more powerful than the truth. But let men consider diligently
all
the things that we have said, and if, perchance, judging
without party spirit, they shall clearly perceive that they are
such things as may rather be shaken than torn up by their most
impudent garrulity, and, as it were, satirical and mimic levity,
let them restrain their absurdities, and let them choose rather to
be corrected by the wise than to be lauded by the foolish. For if
they are waiting an opportunity, not for liberty to speak the
truth, but for license to revile, may not that befall them which
Tully says concerning some one, “Oh, wretched man! who was at
liberty to sin?”230
Wherefore, whoever he be who
deems himself happy because of license to revile, he would be far
happier if that were not allowed him at all; for he might all the
while, laying aside empty boast, be contradicting those to whose
views he is opposed by way of free consultation with them, and be
listening, as it becomes him, honorably, gravely, candidly, to all
that can be adduced by those whom he consults by friendly
disputation.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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