[1: Valentinian was less attentive to the religion of
his son; since he intrusted the education of Gratian to Ausonius,
a professed Pagan. (Mem. de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xv.
p. 125 - 138. The poetical fame of Ausonius condemns the taste
of his age.]
[2: Ausonius was successively promoted to the Praetorian
praefecture of Italy, (A.D. 377,) and of Gaul, (A.D. 378;) and
was at length invested with the consulship, (A.D. 379.) He
expressed his gratitude in a servile and insipid piece of
flattery, (Actio Gratiarum, p. 699 - 736,) which has survived
more worthy productions.]
[3: Disputare de principali judicio non oportet.
Sacrilegii enim instar est dubitare, an is dignus sit, quem
elegerit imperator. Codex Justinian, l. ix. tit. xxix. leg. 3.
This convenient law was revived and promulgated, after the death
of Gratian, by the feeble court of Milan.]
[4: Ambrose composed, for his instruction, a theological
treatise on the faith of the Trinity: and Tillemont, (Hist. des
Empereurs, tom. v. p. 158, 169,) ascribes to the archbishop the
merit of Gratian's intolerant laws.]
[5: Qui divinae legis sanctitatem nesciendo omittunt,
aut negligende violant, et offendunt, sacrilegium committunt.
Codex Justinian. l. ix. tit. xxix. leg. 1. Theodosius indeed may
claim his share in the merit of this comprehensive law.]
[6: Ammianus (xxxi. 10) and the younger Victor
acknowledge the virtues of Gratian; and accuse, or rather lament,
his degenerate taste. The odious parallel of Commodus is saved by
"licet incruentus;" and perhaps Philostorgius (l. x. c. 10, and
Godefroy, p. 41) had guarded with some similar reserve, the
comparison of Nero.]
[7: Zosimus (l. iv. p. 247) and the younger Victor
ascribe the revolution to the favor of the Alani, and the
discontent of the Roman troops Dum exercitum negligeret, et
paucos ex Alanis, quos ingenti auro ad sa transtulerat,
anteferret veteri ac Romano militi.]
[8: Britannia fertilis provincia tyrannorum, is a
memorable expression, used by Jerom in the Pelagian controversy,
and variously tortured in the disputes of our national
antiquaries. The revolutions of the last age appeared to justify
the image of the sublime Bossuet, "sette ile, plus orageuse que
les mers qui l'environment."]
[9: Zosimus says of the British soldiers.]
[10: Helena, the daughter of Eudda. Her chapel may
still be seen at Caer-segont, now Caer-narvon. (Carte's Hist. of
England, vol. i. p. 168, from Rowland's Mona Antiqua.) The
prudent reader may not perhaps be satisfied with such Welsh
evidence.]
[11: Camden (vol. i. introduct. p. ci.) appoints him
governor at Britain; and the father of our antiquities is
followed, as usual, by his blind progeny. Pacatus and Zosimus
had taken some pains to prevent this error, or fable; and I shall
protect myself by their decisive testimonies. Regali habitu
exulem suum, illi exules orbis induerunt, (in Panegyr. Vet. xii.
23,) and the Greek historian still less equivocally, (Maximus)
(l. iv. p. 248.)]
[12: Sulpicius Severus, Dialog. ii. 7. Orosius, l. vii.
c. 34. p. 556. They both acknowledge (Sulpicius had been his
subject) his innocence and merit. It is singular enough, that
Maximus should be less favorably treated by Zosimus, the partial
adversary of his rival.]
[13: Archbishop Usher (Antiquat. Britan. Eccles. p. 107,
108) has diligently collected the legends of the island, and the
continent. The whole emigration consisted of 30,000 soldiers,
and 100,000 plebeians, who settled in Bretagne. Their destined
brides, St. Ursula with 11,000 noble, and 60,000 plebeian,
virgins, mistook their way; landed at Cologne, and were all most
cruelly murdered by the Huns. But the plebeian sisters have been
defrauded of their equal honors; and what is still harder, John
Trithemius presumes to mention the children of these British
virgins.]
[14: Zosimus (l. iv. p. 248, 249) has transported the
death of Gratian from Lugdunum in Gaul (Lyons) to Singidunum in
Moesia. Some hints may be extracted from the Chronicles; some
lies may be detected in Sozomen (l. vii. c. 13) and Socrates, (l.
v. c. 11.) Ambrose is our most authentic evidence, (tom. i.
Enarrat. in Psalm lxi. p. 961, tom ii. epist. xxiv. p. 888 &c.,
and de Obitu Valentinian Consolat. Ner. 28, p. 1182.)]
[15: Pacatus (xii. 28) celebrates his fidelity; while
his treachery is marked in Prosper's Chronicle, as the cause of
the ruin of Gratian. Ambrose, who has occasion to exculpate
himself, only condemns the death of Vallio, a faithful servant of
Gratian, (tom. ii. epist. xxiv. p. 891, edit. Benedict.)
Note: Le Beau contests the reading in the chronicle of
Prosper upon which this charge rests. Le Beau, iv. 232. - M.
Note: According to Pacatus, the Count Vallio, who commanded the
army, was carried to Chalons to be burnt alive; but Maximus,
dreading the imputation of cruelty, caused him to be secretly
strangled by his Bretons. Macedonius also, master of the
offices, suffered the death which he merited. Le Beau, iv. 244. - M.]
[16: He protested, nullum ex adversariis nisi in acissie
occubu. Sulp. Jeverus in Vit. B. Martin, c. 23. The orator
Theodosius bestows reluctant, and therefore weighty, praise on
his clemency. Si cui ille, pro ceteris sceleribus suis, minus
crudelis fuisse videtur, (Panegyr. Vet. xii. 28.)]
[17: Ambrose mentions the laws of Gratian, quas non
abrogavit hostia (tom. ii epist. xvii. p. 827.)]
[18: Zosimus, l. iv. p. 251, 252. We may disclaim his
odious suspicions; but we cannot reject the treaty of peace which
the friends of Theodosius have absolutely forgotten, or slightly
mentioned.]
[19: Their oracle, the archbishop of Milan, assigns to
his pupil Gratian, a high and respectable place in heaven, (tom.
ii. de Obit. Val. Consol p. 1193.)]
[20: For the baptism of Theodosius, see Sozomen, (l.
vii. c. 4,) Socrates, (l. v. c. 6,) and Tillemont, (Hist. des
Empereurs, tom. v. p. 728.)]
[21: Ascolius, or Acholius, was honored by the
friendship, and the praises, of Ambrose; who styles him murus
fidei atque sanctitatis, (tom. ii. epist. xv. p. 820;) and
afterwards celebrates his speed and diligence in running to
Constantinople, Italy, &c., (epist. xvi. p. 822.) a virtue which
does not appertain either to a wall, or a bishop.]
[22: Codex Theodos. l. xvi. tit. i. leg. 2, with
Godefroy's Commentary, tom. vi. p. 5 - 9. Such an edict deserved
the warmest praises of Baronius, auream sanctionem, edictum pium
et salutare. - Sic itua ad astra.]
[23: Sozomen, l. vii. c. 6. Theodoret, l. v. c. 16.
Tillemont is displeased (Mem. Eccles. tom. vi. p. 627, 628) with
the terms of "rustic bishop," "obscure city." Yet I must take
leave to think, that both Amphilochius and Iconium were objects
of inconsiderable magnitude in the Roman empire.]
[24: Sozomen, l. vii. c. v. Socrates, l. v. c. 7.
Marcellin. in Chron. The account of forty years must be dated
from the election or intrusion of Eusebius, who wisely exchanged
the bishopric of Nicomedia for the throne of Constantinople.]
[25: See Jortin's Remarks on Ecclesiastical History,
vol. iv. p. 71. The thirty-third Oration of Gregory Nazianzen
affords indeed some similar ideas, even some still more
ridiculous; but I have not yet found the words of this remarkable
passage, which I allege on the faith of a correct and liberal
scholar.]
[26: See the thirty-second Oration of Gregory Nazianzen,
and the account of his own life, which he has composed in 1800
iambics. Yet every physician is prone to exaggerate the
inveterate nature of the disease which he has cured.]
[27: I confess myself deeply indebted to the two lives
of Gregory Nazianzen, composed, with very different views, by
Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 305 - 560, 692 - 731) and Le
Clerc, (Bibliotheque Universelle, tom. xviii. p. 1 - 128.)]
[28: Unless Gregory Nazianzen mistook thirty years in
his own age, he was born, as well as his friend Basil, about the
year 329. The preposterous chronology of Suidas has been
graciously received, because it removes the scandal of Gregory's
father, a saint likewise, begetting children after he became a
bishop, (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 693 - 697.)]
[29: Gregory's Poem on his own Life contains some
beautiful lines, (tom. ii. p. 8,) which burst from the heart, and
speak the pangs of injured and lost friendship.
In the Midsummer Night's Dream, Helena addresses the same
pathetic complaint to her friend Hermia: -
Is all the counsel that we two have shared.
The sister's vows, &c.
Shakspeare had never read the poems of Gregory Nazianzen; he was
ignorant of the Greek language; but his mother tongue, the
language of Nature, is the same in Cappadocia and in Britain.]
[30: This unfavorable portrait of Sasimae is drawn by
Gregory Nazianzen, (tom. ii. de Vita sua, p. 7, 8.) Its precise
situation, forty- nine miles from Archelais, and thirty-two from
Tyana, is fixed in the Itinerary of Antoninus, (p. 144, edit.
Wesseling.)]
[31: The name of Nazianzus has been immortalized by
Gregory; but his native town, under the Greek or Roman title of
Diocaesarea, (Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 692,) is
mentioned by Pliny, (vi. 3,) Ptolemy, and Hierocles, (Itinerar.
Wesseling, p. 709). It appears to have been situate on the edge
of Isauria.]
[32: See Ducange, Constant. Christiana, l. iv. p. 141,
142. The Sozomen (l. vii. c. 5) is interpreted to mean the
Virgin Mary.]
[33: Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 432, &c.)
diligently collects, enlarges, and explains, the oratorical and
poetical hints of Gregory himself.]
[34: He pronounced an oration (tom. i. Orat. xxiii. p.
409) in his praise; but after their quarrel, the name of Maximus
was changed into that of Heron, (see Jerom, tom. i. in Catalog.
Script. Eccles. p. 301). I touch slightly on these obscure and
personal squabbles.]
[35: Under the modest emblem of a dream, Gregory (tom.
ii. Carmen ix. p. 78) describes his own success with some human
complacency. Yet it should seem, from his familiar conversation
with his auditor St. Jerom, (tom. i. Epist. ad Nepotian. p. 14,)
that the preacher understood the true value of popular applause.]
[36: Lachrymae auditorum laudes tuae sint, is the lively
and judicious advice of St. Jerom.]
[37: Socrates (l. v. c. 7) and Sozomen (l. vii. c. 5)
relate the evangelical words and actions of Damophilus without a
word of approbation. He considered, says Socrates, that it is
difficult to resist the powerful, but it was easy, and would have
been profitable, to submit.]
[38: See Gregory Nazianzen, tom. ii. de Vita sua, p. 21,
22. For the sake of posterity, the bishop of Constantinople
records a stupendous prodigy. In the month of November, it was a
cloudy morning, but the sun broke forth when the procession
entered the church.]
[39: Of the three ecclesiastical historians, Theodoret
alone (l. v. c. 2) has mentioned this important commission of
Sapor, which Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 728)
judiciously removes from the reign of Gratian to that of
Theodosius.]
[40: I do not reckon Philostorgius, though he mentions
(l. ix. c. 19) the explosion of Damophilus. The Eunomian
historian has been carefully strained through an orthodox sieve.]
[41: Le Clerc has given a curious extract (Bibliotheque
Universelle, tom. xviii. p. 91 - 105) of the theological sermons
which Gregory Nazianzen pronounced at Constantinople against the
Arians, Eunomians, Macedonians, &c. He tells the Macedonians,
who deified the Father and the Son without the Holy Ghost, that
they might as well be styled Tritheists as Ditheists. Gregory
himself was almost a Tritheist; and his monarchy of heaven
resembles a well-regulated aristocracy.]
[42: The first general council of Constantinople now
triumphs in the Vatican; but the popes had long hesitated, and
their hesitation perplexes, and almost staggers, the humble
Tillemont, (Mem. Eccles. tom. ix. p. 499, 500.)]
[43: Before the death of Meletius, six or eight of his
most popular ecclesiastics, among whom was Flavian, had abjured,
for the sake of peace, the bishopric of Antioch, (Sozomen, l.
vii. c. 3, 11. Socrates, l. v. c. v.) Tillemont thinks it his
duty to disbelieve the story; but he owns that there are many
circumstances in the life of Flavian which seem inconsistent with
the praises of Chrysostom, and the character of a saint, (Mem.
Eccles. tom. x. p. 541.)]
[44: Consult Gregory Nazianzen, de Vita sua, tom. ii. p.
25 - 28. His general and particular opinion of the clergy and
their assemblies may be seen in verse and prose, (tom. i. Orat.
i. p. 33. Epist. lv. p. 814, tom. ii. Carmen x. p. 81.) Such
passages are faintly marked by Tillemont, and fairly produced by
Le Clerc.]
[45: See Gregory, tom. ii. de Vita sua, p. 28 - 31. The
fourteenth, twenty-seventh, and thirty-second Orations were
pronounced in the several stages of this business. The
peroration of the last, (tom. i. p. 528,) in which he takes a
solemn leave of men and angels, the city and the emperor, the
East and the West, &c., is pathetic, and almost sublime.]
[46: The whimsical ordination of Nectarius is attested
by Sozomen, (l. vii. c. 8;) but Tillemont observes, (Mem. Eccles.
tom. ix. p. 719,) Apres tout, ce narre de Sozomene est si
honteux, pour tous ceux qu'il y mele, et surtout pour Theodose,
qu'il vaut mieux travailler a le detruire, qu'a le soutenir; an
admirable canon of criticism!]
[47: I can only be understood to mean, that such was his
natural temper when it was not hardened, or inflamed, by
religious zeal. From his retirement, he exhorts Nectarius to
prosecute the heretics of Constantinople.]
[48: See the Theodosian Code, l. xvi. tit. v. leg. 6 -
23, with Godefroy's commentary on each law, and his general
summary, or Paratitlon, tom vi. p. 104 - 110.]
[49: They always kept their Easter, like the Jewish
Passover, on the fourteenth day of the first moon after the
vernal equinox; and thus pertinaciously opposed the Roman Church
and Nicene synod, which had fixed Easter to a Sunday. Bingham's
Antiquities, l. xx. c. 5, vol. ii. p. 309, fol. edit.]
[50: Sozomen, l. vii. c. 12.]
[51: See the Sacred History of Sulpicius Severus, (l.
ii. p. 437 - 452, edit. Ludg. Bat. 1647,) a correct and original
writer. Dr. Lardner (Credibility, &c., part ii. vol. ix. p. 256
- 350) has labored this article with pure learning, good sense,
and moderation. Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. viii. p. 491 - 527)
has raked together all the dirt of the fathers; a useful
scavenger!]
[52: Severus Sulpicius mentions the arch-heretic with
esteem and pity Faelix profecto, si non pravo studio corrupisset
optimum ingenium prorsus multa in eo animi et corporis bona
cerneres. (Hist. Sacra, l ii. p. 439.) Even Jerom (tom. i. in
Script. Eccles. p. 302) speaks with temper of Priscillian and
Latronian.]
[53: The bishopric (in Old Castile) is now worth 20,000
ducats a year, (Busching's Geography, vol. ii. p. 308,) and is
therefore much less likely to produce the author of a new
heresy.]
[54: Exprobrabatur mulieri viduae nimia religio, et
diligentius culta divinitas, (Pacat. in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 29.)
Such was the idea of a humane, though ignorant, polytheist.]
[55: One of them was sent in Sillinam insulam quae ultra
Britannianest. What must have been the ancient condition of the
rocks of Scilly? (Camden's Britannia, vol. ii. p. 1519.)]
[56: The scandalous calumnies of Augustin, Pope Leo,
&c., which Tillemont swallows like a child, and Lardner refutes
like a man, may suggest some candid suspicions in favor of the
older Gnostics.]
[57: Ambros. tom. ii. Epist. xxiv. p. 891.]
[58: In the Sacred History, and the Life of St. Martin,
Sulpicius Severus uses some caution; but he declares himself more
freely in the Dialogues, (iii. 15.) Martin was reproved, however,
by his own conscience, and by an angel; nor could he afterwards
perform miracles with so much ease.]
[59: The Catholic Presbyter (Sulp. Sever. l. ii. p. 448)
and the Pagan Orator (Pacat. in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 29) reprobate,
with equal indignation, the character and conduct of Ithacius.]
[60: The Life of St. Martin, and the Dialogues
concerning his miracles contain facts adapted to the grossest
barbarism, in a style not unworthy of the Augustan age. So
natural is the alliance between good taste and good sense, that I
am always astonished by this contrast.]
[61: The short and superficial Life of St. Ambrose, by
his deacon Paulinus, (Appendix ad edit. Benedict. p. i. - xv.,)
has the merit of original evidence. Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom.
x. p. 78 - 306) and the Benedictine editors (p. xxxi. - lxiii.)
have labored with their usual diligence.]
[62: Ambrose himself (tom. ii. Epist. xxiv. p. 888 -
891) gives the emperor a very spirited account of his own
embassy.]
[63: His own representation of his principles and
conduct (tom. ii. Epist. xx xxi. xxii. p. 852 - 880) is one of
the curious monuments of ecclesiastical antiquity. It contains
two letters to his sister Marcellina, with a petition to
Valentinian and the sermon de Basilicis non madendis.]
[64: Retz had a similar message from the queen, to
request that he would appease the tumult of Paris. It was no
longer in his power, &c. A quoi j'ajoutai tout ce que vous
pouvez vous imaginer de respect de douleur, de regret, et de
soumission, &c. (Memoires, tom. i. p. 140.) Certainly I do not
compare either the causes or the men yet the coadjutor himself
had some idea (p. 84) of imitating St. Ambrose]
[65: Sozomen alone (l. vii. c. 13) throws this luminous
fact into a dark and perplexed narrative.]
[66: Excubabat pia plebs in ecclesia, mori parata cum
episcopo suo .... Nos, adhuc frigidi, excitabamur tamen civitate
attonita atque curbata. Augustin. Confession. l. ix. c. 7]
[67: Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. ii. p. 78, 498. Many
churches in Italy, Gaul, &c., were dedicated to these unknown
martyrs, of whom St. Gervaise seems to have been more fortunate
than his companion.]
[68: Invenimus mirae magnitudinis viros duos, ut prisca
aetas ferebat, tom. ii. Epist. xxii. p. 875. The size of these
skeletons was fortunately, or skillfully, suited to the popular
prejudice of the gradual decrease of the human stature, which has
prevailed in every age since the time of Homer.
Grandiaque effossis mirabitur ossa sepulchris.]
[69: Ambros. tom. ii. Epist. xxii. p. 875. Augustin.
Confes, l. ix. c. 7, de Civitat. Dei, l. xxii. c. 8. Paulin. in
Vita St. Ambros. c. 14, in Append. Benedict. p. 4. The blind
man's name was Severus; he touched the holy garment, recovered
his sight, and devoted the rest of his life (at least twenty-five
years) to the service of the church. I should recommend this
miracle to our divines, if it did not prove the worship of
relics, as well as the Nicene creed.]
[70: Paulin, in Tit. St. Ambros. c. 5, in Append.
Benedict. p. 5.]
[71: Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. x. p. 190, 750. He
partially allow the mediation of Theodosius, and capriciously
rejects that of Maximus, though it is attested by Prosper,
Sozomen, and Theodoret.]
[72: The modest censure of Sulpicius (Dialog. iii. 15)
inflicts a much deeper wound than the declamation of Pacatus,
(xii. 25, 26.)]
[73: Esto tutior adversus hominem, pacis involurco
tegentem, was the wise caution of Ambrose (tom. ii. p. 891) after
his return from his second embassy.]
[74: Baronius (A.D. 387, No. 63) applies to this season
of public distress some of the penitential sermons of the
archbishop.]
[75: The flight of Valentinian, and the love of
Theodosius for his sister, are related by Zosimus, (l. iv. p.
263, 264.) Tillemont produces some weak and ambiguous evidence to
antedate the second marriage of Theodosius, (Hist. des Empereurs,
to. v. p. 740,) and consequently to refute ces contes de Zosime,
qui seroient trop contraires a la piete de Theodose.]
[A: Aemonah, Laybach. Siscia Sciszek. - M.]
[76: See Godefroy's Chronology of the Laws, Cod.
Theodos, tom l. p. cxix.]
[77: Besides the hints which may be gathered from
chronicles and ecclesiastical history, Zosimus (l. iv. p. 259 -
267,) Orosius, (l. vii. c. 35,) and Pacatus, (in Panegyr. Vet.
xii. 30 - 47,) supply the loose and scanty materials of this
civil war. Ambrose (tom. ii. Epist. xl. p. 952, 953) darkly
alludes to the well-known events of a magazine surprised, an
action at Petovio, a Sicilian, perhaps a naval, victory, &c.,
Ausonius (p. 256, edit. Toll.) applauds the peculiar merit and
good fortune of Aquileia.]
[78: Quam promptum laudare principem, tam tutum siluisse
de principe, (Pacat. in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 2.) Latinus Pacatus
Drepanius, a native of Gaul, pronounced this oration at Rome,
(A.D. 388.) He was afterwards proconsul of Africa; and his friend
Ausonius praises him as a poet second only to Virgil. See
Tillemont, Hist. des Empereurs, tom. v. p. 303.]
[79: See the fair portrait of Theodosius, by the younger
Victor; the strokes are distinct, and the colors are mixed. The
praise of Pacatus is too vague; and Claudian always seems afraid
of exalting the father above the son.]
[80: Ambros. tom. ii. Epist. xl. p. 55. Pacatus, from
the want of skill or of courage, omits this glorious
circumstance.]
[81: Pacat. in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 20.]
[82: Zosimus, l. iv. p. 271, 272. His partial evidence
is marked by an air of candor and truth. He observes these
vicissitudes of sloth and activity, not as a vice, but as a
singularity in the character of Theodosius.]
[83: This choleric temper is acknowledged and excused by
Victor Sed habes (says Ambrose, in decent and many language, to
his sovereign) nature impetum, quem si quis lenire velit, cito
vertes ad misericordiam: si quis stimulet, in magis exsuscitas,
ut eum revocare vix possis, (tom. ii. Epist. li. p. 998.)
Theodosius (Claud. in iv. Hon. 266, &c.) exhorts his son to
moderate his anger.]
[84: The Christians and Pagans agreed in believing that
the sedition of Antioch was excited by the daemons. A gigantic
woman (says Sozomen, l. vii. c. 23) paraded the streets with a
scourge in her hand. An old man, says Libanius, (Orat. xii. p.
396,) transformed himself into a youth, then a boy, &c.]
[85: Zosimus, in his short and disingenuous account, (l.
iv. p. 258, 259,) is certainly mistaken in sending Libanius
himself to Constantinople. His own orations fix him at Antioch.]
[86: Libanius (Orat. i. p. 6, edit. Venet.) declares,
that under such a reign the fear of a massacre was groundless and
absurd, especially in the emperor's absence, for his presence,
according to the eloquent slave, might have given a sanction to
the most bloody acts.]
[87: Laodicea, on the sea-coast, sixty-five miles from
Antioch, (see Noris Epoch. Syro-Maced. Dissert. iii. p. 230.)
The Antiochians were offended, that the dependent city of
Seleucia should presume to intercede for them.]
[88: As the days of the tumult depend on the movable
festival of Easter, they can only be determined by the previous
determination of the year. The year 387 has been preferred, after
a laborious inquiry, by Tillemont (Hist. des. Emp. tom. v. p. 741
- 744) and Montfaucon, (Chrysostom, tom. xiii. p. 105 - 110.)]
[89: Chrysostom opposes their courage, which was not
attended with much risk, to the cowardly flight of the Cynics.]
[90: The sedition of Antioch is represented in a lively,
and almost dramatic, manner by two orators, who had their
respective shares of interest and merit. See Libanius (Orat.
xiv. xv. p. 389 - 420, edit. Morel. Orat. i. p. 1 - 14, Venet.
1754) and the twenty orations of St. John Chrysostom, de Statuis,
(tom. ii. p. 1 - 225, edit. Montfaucon.) I do not pretend to much
personal acquaintance with Chrysostom but Tillemont (Hist. des.
Empereurs, tom. v. p. 263 - 283) and Hermant (Vie de St.
Chrysostome, tom. i. p. 137 - 224) had read him with pious
curiosity and diligence.]
[91: The original evidence of Ambrose, (tom. ii. Epist.
li. p. 998.) Augustin, (de Civitat. Dei, v. 26,) and Paulinus,
(in Vit. Ambros. c. 24,) is delivered in vague expressions of
horror and pity. It is illustrated by the subsequent and unequal
testimonies of Sozomen, (l. vii. c. 25,) Theodoret, (l. v. c.
17,) Theophanes, (Chronograph. p. 62,) Cedrenus, (p. 317,) and
Zonaras, (tom. ii. l. xiii. p. 34.) Zosimus alone, the partial
enemy of Theodosius, most unaccountably passes over in silence
the worst of his actions.]
[B: Raeca, on the Euphrates - M.]
[92: See the whole transaction in Ambrose, (tom. ii.
Epist. xl. xli. p. 950 - 956,) and his biographer Paulinus, (c.
23.) Bayle and Barbeyrac (Morales des Peres, c. xvii. p. 325,
&c.) have justly condemned the archbishop.]
[93: His sermon is a strange allegory of Jeremiah's rod,
of an almond tree, of the woman who washed and anointed the feet
of Christ. But the peroration is direct and personal.]
[94: Hodie, Episcope, de me proposuisti. Ambrose
modestly confessed it; but he sternly reprimanded Timasius,
general of the horse and foot, who had presumed to say that the
monks of Callinicum deserved punishment.]
[95: Yet, five years afterwards, when Theodosius was
absent from his spiritual guide, he tolerated the Jews, and
condemned the destruction of their synagogues. Cod. Theodos. l.
xvi. tit. viii. leg. 9, with Godefroy's Commentary, tom. vi. p.
225.]
[96: Ambros. tom. ii. Epist. li. p. 997 - 1001. His
epistle is a miserable rhapsody on a noble subject. Ambrose
could act better than he could write. His compositions are
destitute of taste, or genius; without the spirit of Tertullian,
the copious elegance of Lactantius the lively wit of Jerom, or
the grave energy of Augustin.]
[97: According to the discipline of St. Basil, (Canon
lvi.,) the voluntary homicide was four years a mourner; five a
hearer; seven in a prostrate state; and four in a standing
posture. I have the original (Beveridge, Pandect. tom. ii. p. 47
- 151) and a translation (Chardon, Hist. des Sacremens, tom. iv.
p. 219 - 277) of the Canonical Epistles of St. Basil.]
[98: The penance of Theodosius is authenticated by
Ambrose, (tom. vi. de Obit. Theodos. c. 34, p. 1207,) Augustin,
(de Civitat. Dei, v. 26,) and Paulinus, (in Vit. Ambros. c. 24.)
Socrates is ignorant; Sozomen (l. vii. c. 25) concise; and the
copious narrative of Theodoret (l. v. c. 18) must be used with
precaution.]
[99: Codex Theodos. l. ix. tit. xl. leg. 13. The date
and circumstances of this law are perplexed with difficulties;
but I feel myself inclined to favor the honest efforts of
Tillemont (Hist. des Emp. tom. v. p. 721) and Pagi, (Critica,
tom. i. p. 578.)]
[100: Un prince qui aime la religion, et qui la craint,
est un lion qui cede a la main qui le flatte, ou a la voix qui
l'appaise. Esprit des Loix, l. xxiv. c. 2.]
[101: It is the niggard praise of Zosimus himself, (l.
iv. p. 267.) Augustin says, with some happiness of expression,
Valentinianum .... misericordissima veneratione restituit.]
[102: Sozomen, l. vii. c. 14. His chronology is very
irregular.]
[103: See Ambrose, (tom. ii. de Obit. Valentinian. c.
15, &c. p. 1178. c. 36, &c. p. 1184.) When the young emperor gave
an entertainment, he fasted himself; he refused to see a handsome
actress, &c. Since he ordered his wild beasts to to be killed,
it is ungenerous in Philostor (l. xi. c. 1) to reproach him with
the love of that amusement.]
[104: Zosimus (l. iv. p. 275) praises the enemy of
Theodosius. But he is detested by Socrates (l. v. c. 25) and
Orosius, (l. vii. c. 35.)]
[105: Gregory of Tours (l. ii. c. 9, p. 165, in the
second volume of the Historians of France) has preserved a
curious fragment of Sulpicius Alexander, an historian far more
valuable than himself.]
[106: Godefroy (Dissertat. ad. Philostorg. p. 429 - 434)
has diligently collected all the circumstances of the death of
Valentinian II. The variations, and the ignorance, of
contemporary writers, prove that it was secret.]
[107: De Obitu Valentinian. tom. ii. p. 1173 - 1196. He
is forced to speak a discreet and obscure language: yet he is
much bolder than any layman, or perhaps any other ecclesiastic,
would have dared to be.]
[108: See c. 51, p. 1188, c. 75, p. 1193. Dom Chardon,
(Hist. des Sacramens, tom. i. p. 86,) who owns that St. Ambrose
most strenuously maintains the indispensable necessity of
baptism, labors to reconcile the contradiction.]
[109: Quem sibi Germanus famulam delegerat exul, is the
contemptuous expression of Claudian, (iv. Cons. Hon. 74.)
Eugenius professed Christianity; but his secret attachment to
Paganism (Sozomen, l. vii. c. 22, Philostorg. l. xi. c. 2) is
probable in a grammarian, and would secure the friendship of
Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 276, 277.)]
[110: Zosimus (l. iv. p. 278) mentions this embassy; but
he is diverted by another story from relating the event.]
[111: Zosim. l. iv. p. 277. He afterwards says (p. 280)
that Galla died in childbed; and intimates, that the affliction
of her husband was extreme but short.]
[112: Lycopolis is the modern Siut, or Osiot, a town of
Said, about the size of St. Denys, which drives a profitable
trade with the kingdom of Senaar, and has a very convenient
fountain, "cujus potu signa virgini tatis eripiuntur." See
D'Anville, Description de l'Egypte, p. 181 Abulfeda, Descript.
Egypt. p. 14, and the curious Annotations, p. 25, 92, of his
editor Michaelis.]
[113: The Life of John of Lycopolis is described by his
two friends, Rufinus (l. ii. c. i. p. 449) and Palladius, (Hist.
Lausiac. c. 43, p. 738,) in Rosweyde's great Collection of the
Vitae Patrum. Tillemont (Mem. Eccles. tom. x. p. 718, 720) has
settled the chronology.]
[114: Sozomen, l. vii. c. 22. Claudian (in Eutrop. l.
i. 312) mentions the eunuch's journey; but he most contemptuously
derides the Egyptian dreams, and the oracles of the Nile.]
[C: Gibbon has embodied the picturesque verses of
Claudian: -
.... Nec tantis dissona linguis
Turba, nec armorum cultu diversion unquam]
[115: Zosimus, l. iv. p. 280. Socrates, l. vii. 10.
Alaric himself (de Bell. Getico, 524) dwells with more
complacency on his early exploits against the Romans.
.... Tot Augustos Hebro qui teste fugavi.
Yet his vanity could scarcely have proved this plurality of
flying emperors.]
[116: Claudian (in iv. Cons. Honor. 77, &c.) contrasts
the military plans of the two usurpers: -
.... Novitas audere priorem
Suadebat; cautumque dabant exempla sequentem.
Hic nova moliri praeceps: hic quaerere tuta
Providus. Hic fusis; colectis viribus ille.
Hic vagus excurrens; hic intra claustra reductus
Dissimiles, sed morte pares ......]
[117: The Frigidus, a small, though memorable, stream in
the country of Goretz, now called the Vipao, falls into the
Sontius, or Lisonzo, above Aquileia, some miles from the
Adriatic. See D'Anville's ancient and modern maps, and the
Italia Antiqua of Cluverius, (tom. i. c. 188.)]
[118: Claudian's wit is intolerable: the snow was dyed
red; the cold ver smoked; and the channel must have been choked
with carcasses the current had not been swelled with blood.
Confluxit populus: totam pater undique secum
Moverat Aurorem; mixtis hic Colchus Iberis,
Hic mitra velatus Arabs, hic crine decoro
Armenius, hic picta Saces, fucataque Medus,
Hic gemmata tiger tentoria fixerat Indus. - De Laud. Stil.
l. 145. - M.]
[119: Theodoret affirms, that St. John, and St. Philip,
appeared to the waking, or sleeping, emperor, on horseback, &c.
This is the first instance of apostolic chivalry, which
afterwards became so popular in Spain, and in the Crusades.]
[120: Te propter, gelidis Aquilo de monte procellis
Obruit adversas acies; revolutaque tela
Vertit in auctores, et turbine reppulit hastas
O nimium dilecte Deo, cui fundit ab antris
Aeolus armatas hyemes; cui militat Aether,
Et conjurati veniunt ad classica venti.
These famous lines of Claudian (in iii. Cons. Honor. 93, &c.
A.D. 396) are alleged by his contemporaries, Augustin and
Orosius; who suppress the Pagan deity of Aeolus, and add some
circumstances from the information of eye-witnesses. Within four
months after the victory, it was compared by Ambrose to the
miraculous victories of Moses and Joshua.]
[D: Arbogastes and his emperor had openly espoused the
Pagan party, according to Ambrose and Augustin. See Le Beau, v.
40. Beugnot (Histoire de la Destruction du Paganisme) is more
full, and perhaps somewhat fanciful, on this remarkable reaction
in favor of Paganism, but compare p 116. - M.]
[121: The events of this civil war are gathered from
Ambrose, (tom. ii. Epist. lxii. p. 1022,) Paulinus, (in Vit.
Ambros. c. 26 - 34,) Augustin, (de Civitat. Dei, v. 26,) Orosius,
(l. vii. c. 35,) Sozomen, (l. vii. c. 24,) Theodoret, (l. v. c.
24,) Zosimus, (l. iv. p. 281, 282,) Claudian, (in iii. Cons. Hon.
63 - 105, in iv. Cons. Hon. 70 - 117,) and the Chronicles
published by Scaliger.]