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| Gregory of Nazianzus is transferred to the See of Constantinople. The Emperor Theodosius falling Sick at Thessalonica, after his Victory over the Barbarians, is there baptized by Ascholius the Bishop.
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Chapter VI.—Gregory of
Nazianzus is transferred to the See of Constantinople. The Emperor
Theodosius falling Sick at Thessalonica, after his Victory over the
Barbarians, is there baptized by Ascholius the Bishop.
By the common suffrage of many
bishops, Gregory was at this time translated from the see of Nazianzus
to that of Constantinople,693
| 693So also Gregory Nazianz. Carmen de Vita Sua,
595. ‘The grace of the Spirit sent us, many shepherds and members
of the flock inviting.’ See, however, on Gregory’s
episcopate at Nazianzus, IV. 26 and note.
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and this happened in the manner before described. About the same time
the emperors Gratian and Theodosius each obtained a victory over the
barbarians.694
| 694Cf. Zosimus, IV.; Sozom. VII. 4; Am. Marcellinus,
XXXI. 9 and 10.
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And Gratian immediately set out for Gaul, because the Alemanni were
ravaging those provinces: but Theodosius, after erecting a trophy,
hastened towards Constantinople, and arrived at Thessalonica. There he
was taken dangerously ill, and expressed a desire to receive Christian
baptism.695
| 695Cf. Zosimus, IV. 39, on the dangerous illness of
Theodosius. On delayed baptism, called ‘clinic,’ see I. 39,
note 2. Evidently baptism was not thought essential to one’s
title to be called a Christian. Theodosius and Constantine were both
considered Christians and ‘professed the homoousian faith, and
yet they both postponed their baptism to what they believed to be the
latest moments of their lives.’
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Now he had been instructed in Christian principles by his ancestors,
and professed the ‘homoousian’ faith. Becoming increasingly
anxious to be baptized therefore, as his malady grew worse, he sent for
the bishop of Thessalonica, and first asked him what doctrinal views he
held? The bishop having replied, ‘that the opinion of Arius had
not yet invaded the provinces of Illyricum, nor had the novelty to
which that heretic had given birth begun to prey upon the churches in
those countries; but they continued to preserve unshaken that faith
which from the beginning was delivered by the apostles, and had been
confirmed in the Nicene Synod,’ the emperor was most gladly
baptized by the bishop Ascholius; and having recovered from his disease
not many days after, he came to Constantinople on the twenty-fourth of
November, in the fifth consulate of Gratian, and the first of his own.696
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