The History of Christianity - John S. C. Abbott (bookstand for reading .txt) 📗

“I cannot command idolaters. I am a Christian. The displeasure of God is even now falling upon us as an army of his enemies.”

When troubles come, nearly all men are disposed to look to God for aid. The whole army was at that time in imminent peril of annihilation from famine, pestilence, and the sword. The officers in a body gathered around Jovian, and earnestly entreated him to accept the crown.

“We will all,” they said, “be Christians. The reign of idolatry has been too short to efface the teachings of the good Constantine. Lead us, and we will return to the worship of the true God.”

This noble young man was but thirty-two years of age. He had already given proof of remarkable courage, not only upon the field of battle, but in braving the wrath of Julian by refusing to bow down to idols. Jovian, having accepted the perilous office of emperor, soon succeeded in entering into a treaty of peace with the Persians, and in thus extricating the army from otherwise inevitable ruin.

It is refreshing to a spirit weary of the corruptions of mankind to contemplate the sincerity and honesty with which this extraordinary man conducted the most important affairs. For seven months the army was on its march, of fifteen hundred miles; from the Euphrates to Antioch. Jovian maintained the principles of true toleration: all men were allowed to worship as they pleased. The disastrous career of Julian had led to a general distrust of the heathen gods; and the moral influence of a Christian emperor, operating in a thousand ways, increased the disposition of the soldiers to abandon the idols, and to return to Christianity. Paganism had met with but a transient revival. Now, like a hideous dream of the night, it was passing away, to be revived no more forever. The sign of the cross, which Julian had effaced, was replaced upon the Roman banners.

The Arian controversy continued to agitate the Church. Arius had declared the Son to be, not the equal of the Father, but the first-born and highest in rank of all created beings. The Council of Nice, with almost perfect unanimity, had declared the doctrine of Arius to be new, unscriptural, and a dangerous heresy. Jovian adhered to the ancient faith as pronounced by the Council of Nice. He recalled the bishops who had been banished by Julian, and restored the church property which had been confiscated.

It will be remembered that Athanasius, the renowned Bishop of Alexandria, had been driven into exile by Julian, because, through his preaching, some Grecian ladies of noble birth had been converted and baptized. Jovian recalled the faithful Christian pastor by the following letter, which he published to the world:—

“To the most religious friend of God, Athanasius. As we admire beyond expression the sanctity of your life, in which shine forth marks of resemblance to the God of the universe, and your zeal for Jesus Christ our Saviour, we take you, venerable bishop, under our protection. You deserve it by the courage you have shown in the most painful labors and cruel persecutions. Return to the churches; feed the people of God; offer prayers for us; for we are persuaded that God will bestow upon us, and upon our fellow-Christians, his signal favors, if you afford us the assistance of your prayers.”

The city of Alexandria, in Egypt, had been one of the strongholds of paganism. The pagan priests had represented to Julian that the presence of Athanasius in Alexandria rendered all their magic arts unavailing; that his preaching was causing the temples of the gods to be abandoned in the city and throughout all Egypt; and that, unless he were silenced, there would soon be left no worshippers of the gods. Athanasius, upon his restoration to his church in Alexandria, wrote a letter of thanks to Jovian, in which he says,—

“Be it known to you, emperor, beloved of God, that the doctrine established by the Council of Nice is preached in all the churches,—in those of Spain, of Britain, of Gaul; in all those of Italy, of Campania, of Dalmatia, of Mysia, of Macedonia, and of all Greece; in all those of Africa, of Sardinia, of Cyprus, of Crete, of Pamphylia, of Lycia, of Isauria; in all those of Egypt, of Libya, of Pontus, of Cappadocia, and of the neighboring countries; and those of the East, excepting a few there who follow the opinions of Arius. We know the faith of the churches by the effects produced; and we have received letters from them. The small number of those who are hostile to this faith is scarcely worthy of consideration in opposition to the sentiment of the entire Christian world.”186

This is very striking testimony to the almost universal assent of the Church in that day to the equality of the Son with the Father. “The Council of Nice,” writes Athanasius, “has not said merely that the Son is like the Father, or like God, but that he is God, and the true God. It says that he is consubstantial with the Father. And the bishops have not separated the Holy Spirit as a stranger from the Father and the Son; but they have glorified him with the Father and the Son, because the Holy Trinity has but one and the same divinity.”187

Gregory, Bishop of Nazianzen, wrote a very interesting circular letter to all Christians, giving them truly Christian counsel as to the course they should pursue in the new and almost miraculous change in their affairs.

“Let us show our gratitude to God,” he writes, “by purity of soul, by inward peace, by holy thoughts, and a spiritual life. Let us not avenge ourselves upon the pagans, but win them by our gentleness and love. Let him who has suffered most from the pagans refer them to the judgment of God. Let us not think of confiscating their goods, of dragging them before the tribunals, or of inflicting upon them any of the woes which they have inflicted upon us. Let us render them more humane, if it be possible, by our example.”188

The army had passed by Tarsus, the birthplace of Paul, where the remains of Julian were consigned to the tomb, and had reached the village of Dadastane, on the confines of Galatia and Bithynia, when Jovian died, in the night of the 17th of February, 364, within about three hundred miles of Constantinople. He was found one morning dead in his bed; having been accidentally stifled, it is supposed, by the fumes of charcoal in his apartment. His broken-hearted wife, who was hastening to greet her husband, met his remains on the road. With the anguish and tears of widowhood, bitter then as now, she accompanied them to the tomb in Constantinople. He was but thirty-three years of age, and had reigned but eight months. The main body of the army, being a little in advance, had then reached Nice, the capital of Bithynia. As soon as the soldiers heard of the death of Jovian, they unanimously elected Valentinian, who was captain of the imperial guard, his successor. Valentinian was also a Christian. The following anecdote illustrates the nobility of his character:—

It was the custom of Julian on special occasions to distribute gifts to those who had merited them. The apostate emperor, who would stoop to every kind of trickery to lure the soldiers, even unconsciously, to pay homage to the idol gods, on one of these occasions, when about to bestow rewards, had an altar erected before him, upon which were placed glowing coals. By the side of the altar stood a table covered with frankincense.

As a part of the ceremony, each one who was to receive an imperial gift was to sprinkle a little of the incense upon the coals, from which a fragrant cloud would gracefully arise. It was a stratagem to lead the Christians to offer incense to the gods, without being conscious that they were doing so. Julian thus endeavored to entrap three of his leading Christian generals,—Jovian (who became his successor), Valentinian, and Valens.

After burning the frankincense, and receiving the imperial gift, Valentinian returned to his tent. As he sat down to partake of some refreshments, he, according to his custom, asked a blessing in the name of Jesus Christ. A pagan companion, observing this, exclaimed, with real or affected astonishment,—

“How is this? Do you invoke the name of Christ after having publicly renounced him?”

“What do you mean?” inquired Valentinian, alarmed and surprised.

“I mean,” was the reply, “that you have just offered incense to the gods upon one of their altars.”

Valentinian immediately rose, and, hastening to the presence of the emperor, laid down at his feet the precious gifts he had received, saying,—

“Sire, I am a Christian. I wish all the world to know it. I have not intentionally renounced my Saviour, Jesus Christ. If my hand has erred, my heart has not followed it: the emperor has deceived me. I renounce the act of impiety, and am ready to make expiation with my blood.”

Jovian, and Valentinian’s brother Valens, did the same with their gifts. The emperor was exasperated. In the first impulse of his rage, he ordered them to be led immediately to execution. As the executioner stood ready with his heavy sword to sever their heads from their bodies, and the victims were upon their knees to receive the death-blow, a herald hastily approached, and arrested the execution. The emperor, upon reflection, deemed it not wise for such an offence to consign to death three of the best and most influential officers in his army.

Another characteristic anecdote is related of Valentinian, worthy of record. He was commander of the imperial guard. As such, it was necessary for him, upon all important occasions, to be at the side of the emperor. At one time, when Julian, in performance of some rites of the pagan religion, was entering the Temple of the Goddess of Fortune, dancing in religious homage, two priests stood, one on each side of the vestibule, to sprinkle the emperor with holy-water. This was a pagan rite which the Papal Church has transferred from the temples of idolatry to the sanctuaries of Christ.

A drop of this water fell upon the dress of Valentinian. Turning to one of the priests, he said, “You have sullied my garments.” Immediately he tore from his robe the portion upon which the water consecrated to idols had fallen.

The emperor was so irritated, that for a time he banished him from his command. It is said that Julian would not put him to death, because, with strange inconsistency, he was unwilling that he should wear the crown of martyrdom. Such was the character of the Christian Valentinian, upon whose shoulders the robes of imperial purple were now placed.

Valentinian seems to have proved himself, in all respects, worthy of his high position. He was majestic in stature, commanding in intellect, and of irreproachable purity of morals. He was crowned by the army at Nice, in Bithynia; his brother Valens receiving from him the appointment of assistant emperor. The Eastern empire, from the Danube to the confines of Persia, was assigned to Valens, with Constantinople for his capital. Valentinian took charge of the Western empire, selecting the city of Milan for his metropolis.

Still the barbarian hordes from all directions were crowding upon the crumbling Roman empire. While Valentinian was struggling against their locust legions in the West, Valens was making an equally desperate and equally unavailing struggle against them in the East. The Huns came howling on from the wilds of Tartary, fierce as the wolves, and in numbers which no man could count. They could not be resisted. In an impetuous flood they surged along, till all the plains of Greece were swept by the inundation. Even the Goths fled in terror before these shaggy and merciless warriors.

Valens entered into an alliance with the Goths, hoping by