A. D. 391. the people prostrated themselves at their tombs, and believed that a sanctifying influence was gained by visiting them; in fine, that their images were kept, and that these bore the marks of their sufferings. p. 809.] Conc. Chalc. Act. 3 Vit. S. Pach. The most famous monastery at Canopus was that of S. Hier. Metanæa, which is a Greek word, signifying Penitence'. Præf.in reg. S. Pachom. The rule observed there was, as at Tabenna, that of St. Pacho[t. 4. ps. 2. mius, and it preserved the right of asylum which the Pagans had attributed to it. [It was in A.D. 348 that] St. Pachomius 3. p. 408. E. died. Two days before this happened he assembled all his [Mans. 6. p. 1025.] fraternity, and after some instructions for their conduct, *Tillem.7. named St. Petronius, one of their number, as most worthy p. 799.] to succeed him3. So he died in peace on the 14th day of the c. (12.) 53. Egyptian month Pachon, or [the ninth of] May, the day on [Bolland., which the Church honours his memory. His disciples cont.14.p.324.] ducted his funeral according to custom; they passed the night near his body, singing psalms and hymns, and the next day buried him in the mountain. St. Pachomius had sent for St. Petronius, who was lying sick at the monastery of Chinoboscus. He was a man of great faith and humility, disciplined in his habits, of the utmost wisdom and discretion, but was weak in health. He was sick when he came to Tabenna, and after ruling the community but a few days, died, and left for his successor a holy man named Orsiesius. XXXII. State of the West. Idolatry was assailed with equal vigour in the West, but there its defenders were most powerful. While Theodosius was still in Italy, he made, in conjunction with the Younger Valentinian, two laws relating to the West, where he left him. The first was addressed to Albinus, Præfect of Rome, Cod. Th. and dated from Milan, 27th Feb. A.D. 391. It forbids any person to sacrifice victims, to go to the temples, or to adore the idols. The judges are expressly included in the prohibition, under a penalty of a fine of fifteen pounds of gold, as 16. tit. 10. 10. de Pagam made to them, Bellarm. 1. c. 20. de on account of the abuses to which they tit. 7. 4, 5. well as their officers, unless they informed against them. A. D. 391. The other law is dated from Concordia', 11th May A.D. 391, [' near Aand addressed to Flavian, the Prætorian Præfect of Illyricum Baudrand.] quileia. See and Italy. This is against apostates, who profaned their Ibid. 16. Baptism by becoming Pagans; it declares that their testimony de Apost. is null, that they may neither make wills nor inherit by will; et de Fide and so pronounces them infamous, and, to use the Latin word, 39. 11. intestable. It deprives them of any dignity which they might have either by birth inherited or might since have been conferred on them; it deprives them, moreover, of all hope of restoration, however they may shew their penitence. On the departure of Theodosius, Valentinian, who was but twenty years of age, found himself too weak to withstand the power of the Pagans. There were still many in the Senate, and among the rest the famous Symmachus, Consul of this year, A.D. 391. The most influential of all was the Count Arbogastes. He was by nation a Frank, warm-hearted, a great general, unselfish, but ambitious, daring, fierce. The Emperor Gratian had employed him with Bauto; he had become the Master-General of the forces of Valentinian. He had been foremost in the defeat of Maximus, whose son Victor he had slain, and he effected peace with the Franks, in the year 389. Since that time he had been all-powerful with Valentinian. Having the command of the army he spoke to him with the utmost freedom, and arranged several matters even against his will. The military posts he gave to the Franks, and the civil offices to his own partisans3; no officer of the Court dared execute the orders of Valentinian, without the approval of Arbogastes. youthful Prince felt his bondage intolerable: he wrote constantly to Theodosius complaining of the contemptuous behaviour of the Count, and conjuring him to hasten to his help, otherwise that he would himself come and seek Theodosius. The His mother All men, but the Pagans, loved Valentinian. Justina died some years before this, and the wrong impressions he had received from her had been effaced by the instruction and example of Theodosius. His character was already grave, and he had learned to master himself. He was accused of a fondness for the games of the circus and of spending his time Test. 9. tit. Sulpit. Alex. apud Greg. Tu ron. lib. 2. c. 9. 4 11. 1. Ob. Val. A. D. 391. in combats of wild beasts'. He corrected this failing so well, 'Philost. that he put an end to these shows, even on the usual anniS. Ambr.de versaries, and ordered all the beasts to be killed. It was $ 15,16,&c. objected that he ate too early; he practised frequent fasting, without ceasing, however, to preside at his table, and entertaining with the due courtesy his Counts. While he was yet unmarried, he heard that at Rome there was an actress, by whose beauty the young nobility were all desperately enamoured; he gave orders that she should come to his Court. His envoy suffered himself to be bribed, and returned without effecting the object of his mission. Valentinian was not to be thus treated, and sent another; but when the actress was brought, he would see her neither in public on the stage, nor in private, and then, satisfied with the example which he had set, sent her back. 3 § 37. $18. He carefully attended to business in his Consistory, and frequently set right his aged counsellors, who either hesitated *S. Ambr. or were unduly prepossessed in favour of any one'. He was Ibid. § 16. affectionately attached to his sisters; in the case, however, of a disputed inheritance, which their mother had left them and which was claimed as the property of an orphan, he referred the matter to the public judge, and privately persuaded his sisters to give up their pretensions. When some noble and wealthy persons were accused of crimes of state, he at first put off the trial' till after the holy season, and then, after the indictment had been read, pronounced the accusation a calumny, and ordered that the accused should have full liberty for his defence, till sentence had been passed by the Præfect. Thus, under his reign, such accusations ceased to be dreaded. Though he found the exchequer empty, he would allow no fresh burdens to be laid on the provinces3. "If they cannot support their old burdens," said he, "how "will they endure greater?" Such was Valentinian, beloved by the Romans, respected by the Barbarians. § 21. XXXIII. Death of Valentinian. Eugenius, Emperor. Ep. 57. $ 5. He was in Gaul when the Roman Senate sent to him a deputation to demand once more the restoration of those m Probably Holy Week. (Cf. S. Ambr. Ep. 20. § 6. Supra, bk. 18. ch. 41. p. 91.) Valentinian's piety was the more remarkable because both Valentinian I. (Cod. Th. 9. tit. 38. 3. A. D. 367) and himself (Ibid. 6. A. D. 381; 7. A.D. 384; 8. A.D. 385) had denied this indulgence to persons accused of treason. 1 $ 4. privileges of which his brother Gratian had deprived the A. D. 391. Pagan temples'. The solicitations of the Pagans, [nay, Vit. Paul. the recommendation of the Christians too,] who were in $ 26. his Consistory, availed nothing, he returned a peremptory refusal. He heard about the same time, that the Barbarians, § 19. on the side of Illyria, were threatening the Alps. He de- De Ob. termined to leave Gaul, and go to the help of Italy, and he Val. 2, 22. gave the necessary directions for his journey to Milan. So much was he respected by the Barbarians, that the bare report of his march induced them to retire. They even restored the captives, and excused themselves on the plea that they did not know them to be Italians'. St. Ambrose had promised the Præfect and the other magistrates" to go to the Emperor and urge him to hasten to the relief of Italy; but he desisted' from his purpose as soon as he heard that 3 § 23, 24. the Emperor was on his way. Valentinian, while yet at Vienne, sent him a Silentiarius, (i. e. one of his Chamberlains,) with a letter, urging him to go to him without delay, and wishing him to be surety of his good faith to Count Arbogastes, whose respect and friendship towards St. Ambrose were very greats. To hasten him, he added that he desired to be Paul. Vit. baptized by him, before passing into Italy. There were other Prelates in Gaul of great sanctity, at whose hands Valentinian might have received baptism, as St. Martin, St. Victricius of Rouen, and St. Delphinus of Bordeaux, but he had especial confidence in St. Ambrose, whom he looked upon as his father. After he had sent for him, his impatience was continual. His messenger left Vienne in the evening, and on the morning of the third day he enquired whether he had returned. This day was Valentinian's last. After he had dined and been left alone by his attendants, who were gone to their own repast, he was amusing himself on the banks of the Rhine', within the precincts of his palace, when Arbo-Philost. gastes ordered some of his guards to strangle him, who after- 11. 1. [Vid. wards hanged him with his handkerchief, that he might appear to have been himself the author of his death. Valentinian 8 Oros.7.35. Honorati. Those who had discharged public offices and were in consequence held in repute. The Silentiary attended at the door of the Council Chamber and secured the Emperor from interruption. He $ 30. not. Vales.] Ruff. 11.31. A. D. 392. was killed on [the Sabbath or] Saturday, the 15th of May, on the Eve of Pentecost, under the Consulship of Ruffinus, and S. Epiph. of the Emperor Arcadius for the second time, A. D. 392 $28. Cal. 20. He was only twenty years of age, and of them had reigned t.2. p.177.] rather more than sixteen. de Pond. niorum.] ibid. ✦ de Ob. Val. § 26. Arbogastes, unable himself, in consequence of his birth, to assume the Imperial title, gave it to a man named Eugenius. He was a man of learning, and after having taught grammar [Typa- and rhetoric had been made Secretary to the Emperor', and φεύς, Μα gister Seri- gained his esteem by his knowledge and eloquence. He favoured Paganism, and gave implicit faith to the predictions of wizards and astrologers. Arbogastes was in fact the Emperor, and reigned under the name of Eugenius. The obsequies of Valentinian were performed the day after he Epiph. died, on the day of Pentecost, and his body was conveyed to Milan, to be buried there. St. Ambrose learned these sad tidings on his journey to Vienne', and in consequence retraced his steps. Theodosius sent directions for the burial of Valentinian, and St. Ambrose, after laying him in a tomb of porphyry, near to that of Gratian, pronounced his funeral oration. Valentinian's two sisters, Justa and Grata, were present. He had a third, Galla, the wife of Theodosius; the other two continued virgins. In this oration, St. Ambrose deplores the death of Valentinian with the tenderness of a father, and consoles his sisters for his never having received Baptism; "Tell me," says he, "what more can we do than "to desire and to ask? Long has he desired Baptism, and "that he might receive it was the principal cause of his "sending for me. Grant then, O LORD', to Thy servant "Valentinian the grace which he longed for, which in the 66 vigour of health he asked for. Had he delayed even when "assailed by disease, he had not been utterly excluded from "Thy mercy, for it would not have been the will that failed "him but the time." And a little further * § 52. on, "If you are "rials, the second to Epistles, the third "to Petitions, and the fourth to papers " and orders of a miscellaneous kind. "Each of these was directed by an "inferior Master of respectable dignity, "and the whole business was despatched "by 148 secretaries." Gibbon, ch. 17. |