Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius.—Part IV

The veterans, who still remembered the long resistance, and
successive resources, of the tyrant Magnentius, might prepare
themselves for the labors of three bloody campaigns. But the
contest with his successor, who, like him, had usurped the throne
of the West, was easily decided in the term of two months, 76 and
within the space of two hundred miles. The superior genius of the
emperor of the East might prevail over the feeble Maximus, who,
in this important crisis, showed himself destitute of military
skill, or personal courage; but the abilities of Theodosius were
seconded by the advantage which he possessed of a numerous and
active cavalry. The Huns, the Alani, and, after their example,
the Goths themselves, were formed into squadrons of archers; who
fought on horseback, and confounded the steady valor of the Gauls
and Germans, by the rapid motions of a Tartar war. After the
fatigue of a long march, in the heat of summer, they spurred
their foaming horses into the waters of the Save, swam the river
in the presence of the enemy, and instantly charged and routed
the troops who guarded the high ground on the opposite side.
Marcellinus, the tyrant’s brother, advanced to support them with
the select cohorts, which were considered as the hope and
strength of the army. The action, which had been interrupted by
the approach of night, was renewed in the morning; and, after a
sharp conflict, the surviving remnant of the bravest soldiers of
Maximus threw down their arms at the feet of the conqueror.
Without suspending his march, to receive the loyal acclamations
of the citizens of Aemona, Theodosius pressed forwards to
terminate the war by the death or captivity of his rival, who
fled before him with the diligence of fear. From the summit of
the Julian Alps, he descended with such incredible speed into the
plain of Italy, that he reached Aquileia on the evening of the
first day; and Maximus, who found himself encompassed on all
sides, had scarcely time to shut the gates of the city. But the
gates could not long resist the effort of a victorious enemy; and
the despair, the disaffection, the indifference of the soldiers
and people, hastened the downfall of the wretched Maximus. He was
dragged from his throne, rudely stripped of the Imperial
ornaments, the robe, the diadem, and the purple slippers; and
conducted, like a malefactor, to the camp and presence of
Theodosius, at a place about three miles from Aquileia. The
behavior of the emperor was not intended to insult, and he showed
disposition to pity and forgive, the tyrant of the West, who had
never been his personal enemy, and was now become the object of
his contempt. Our sympathy is the most forcibly excited by the
misfortunes to which we are exposed; and the spectacle of a proud
competitor, now prostrate at his feet, could not fail of
producing very serious and solemn thoughts in the mind of the
victorious emperor. But the feeble emotion of involuntary pity
was checked by his regard for public justice, and the memory of
Gratian; and he abandoned the victim to the pious zeal of the
soldiers, who drew him out of the Imperial presence, and
instantly separated his head from his body. The intelligence of
his defeat and death was received with sincere or well-dissembled
joy: his son Victor, on whom he had conferred the title of
Augustus, died by the order, perhaps by the hand, of the bold
Arbogastes; and all the military plans of Theodosius were
successfully executed. When he had thus terminated the civil war,
with less difficulty and bloodshed than he might naturally
expect, he employed the winter months of his residence at Milan,
to restore the state of the afflicted provinces; and early in the
spring he made, after the example of Constantine and Constantius,
his triumphal entry into the ancient capital of the Roman empire.
77

76 (return) [ See Godefroy’s Chronology of the Laws, Cod.
Theodos, tom l. p. cxix.]

77 (return) [ 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.]

The orator, who may be silent without danger, may praise without
difficulty, and without reluctance; 78 and posterity will
confess, that the character of Theodosius 79 might furnish the
subject of a sincere and ample panegyric. The wisdom of his laws,
and the success of his arms, rendered his administration
respectable in the eyes both of his subjects and of his enemies.
He loved and practised the virtues of domestic life, which seldom
hold their residence in the palaces of kings. Theodosius was
chaste and temperate; he enjoyed, without excess, the sensual and
social pleasures of the table; and the warmth of his amorous
passions was never diverted from their lawful objects. The proud
titles of Imperial greatness were adorned by the tender names of
a faithful husband, an indulgent father; his uncle was raised, by
his affectionate esteem, to the rank of a second parent:
Theodosius embraced, as his own, the children of his brother and
sister; and the expressions of his regard were extended to the
most distant and obscure branches of his numerous kindred. His
familiar friends were judiciously selected from among those
persons, who, in the equal intercourse of private life, had
appeared before his eyes without a mask; the consciousness of
personal and superior merit enabled him to despise the accidental
distinction of the purple; and he proved by his conduct, that he
had forgotten all the injuries, while he most gratefully
remembered all the favors and services, which he had received
before he ascended the throne of the Roman empire. The serious or
lively tone of his conversation was adapted to the age, the rank,
or the character of his subjects, whom he admitted into his
society; and the affability of his manners displayed the image of
his mind. Theodosius respected the simplicity of the good and
virtuous: every art, every talent, of a useful, or even of an
innocent nature, was rewarded by his judicious liberality; and,
except the heretics, whom he persecuted with implacable hatred,
the diffusive circle of his benevolence was circumscribed only by
the limits of the human race. The government of a mighty empire
may assuredly suffice to occupy the time, and the abilities, of a
mortal: yet the diligent prince, without aspiring to the
unsuitable reputation of profound learning, always reserved some
moments of his leisure for the instructive amusement of reading.
History, which enlarged his experience, was his favorite study.
The annals of Rome, in the long period of eleven hundred years,
presented him with a various and splendid picture of human life:
and it has been particularly observed, that whenever he perused
the cruel acts of Cinna, of Marius, or of Sylla, he warmly
expressed his generous detestation of those enemies of humanity
and freedom. His disinterested opinion of past events was
usefully applied as the rule of his own actions; and Theodosius
has deserved the singular commendation, that his virtues always
seemed to expand with his fortune: the season of his prosperity
was that of his moderation; and his clemency appeared the most
conspicuous after the danger and success of a civil war. The
Moorish guards of the tyrant had been massacred in the first heat
of the victory, and a small number of the most obnoxious
criminals suffered the punishment of the law. But the emperor
showed himself much more attentive to relieve the innocent than
to chastise the guilty. The oppressed subjects of the West, who
would have deemed themselves happy in the restoration of their
lands, were astonished to receive a sum of money equivalent to
their losses; and the liberality of the conqueror supported the
aged mother, and educated the orphan daughters, of Maximus. 80 A
character thus accomplished might almost excuse the extravagant
supposition of the orator Pacatus; that, if the elder Brutus
could be permitted to revisit the earth, the stern republican
would abjure, at the feet of Theodosius, his hatred of kings; and
ingenuously confess, that such a monarch was the most faithful
guardian of the happiness and dignity of the Roman people. 81

78 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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 (return) [ Ambros. tom. ii. Epist. xl. p. 55. Pacatus, from
the want of skill or of courage, omits this glorious
circumstance.]

81 (return) [ Pacat. in Panegyr. Vet. xii. 20.]

Yet the piercing eye of the founder of the republic must have
discerned two essential imperfections, which might, perhaps, have
abated his recent love of despostism. The virtuous mind of
Theodosius was often relaxed by indolence, 82 and it was
sometimes inflamed by passion. 83 In the pursuit of an important
object, his active courage was capable of the most vigorous
exertions; but, as soon as the design was accomplished, or the
danger was surmounted, the hero sunk into inglorious repose; and,
forgetful that the time of a prince is the property of his
people, resigned himself to the enjoyment of the innocent, but
trifling, pleasures of a luxurious court. The natural disposition
of Theodosius was hasty and choleric; and, in a station where
none could resist, and few would dissuade, the fatal consequence
of his resentment, the humane monarch was justly alarmed by the
consciousness of his infirmity and of his power. It was the
constant study of his life to suppress, or regulate, the
intemperate sallies of passion and the success of his efforts
enhanced the merit of his clemency. But the painful virtue which
claims the merit of victory, is exposed to the danger of defeat;
and the reign of a wise and merciful prince was polluted by an
act of cruelty which would stain the annals of Nero or Domitian.
Within the space of three years, the inconsistent historian of
Theodosius must relate the generous pardon of the citizens of
Antioch, and the inhuman massacre of the people of Thessalonica.

82 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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.]

The lively impatience of the inhabitants of Antioch was never
satisfied with their own situation, or with the character and
conduct of their successive sovereigns. The Arian subjects of
Theodosius deplored the loss of their churches; and as three
rival bishops disputed the throne of Antioch, the sentence which
decided their pretensions excited the murmurs of the two
unsuccessful congregations. The exigencies of the Gothic war, and
the inevitable expense that accompanied the conclusion of the
peace, had constrained the emperor to aggravate the weight of the
public impositions; and the provinces of Asia, as they had not
been involved in the distress were the less inclined to
contribute to the relief, of Europe. The auspicious period now
approached of the tenth year of his reign; a festival more
grateful to the soldiers, who received a liberal donative, than
to the subjects, whose voluntary offerings had been long since
converted into an extraordinary and oppressive burden. The edicts
of taxation interrupted the repose, and pleasures, of Antioch;
and the tribunal of the magistrate was besieged by a suppliant
crowd; who, in pathetic, but, at first, in respectful language,
solicited the redress of their grievances. They were gradually
incensed by the pride of their haughty rulers, who treated their
complaints as a criminal resistance; their satirical wit
degenerated into sharp and angry invectives; and, from the
subordinate powers of government, the invectives of the people
insensibly rose to attack the sacred character of the emperor
himself. Their fury, provoked by a feeble opposition, discharged
itself on the images of the Imperial family, which were erected,
as objects of public veneration, in the most conspicuous places
of the city. The statues of Theodosius, of his father, of his
wife Flaccilla, of his two sons, Arcadius and Honorius, were
insolently thrown down from their pedestals, broken in pieces, or
dragged with contempt through the streets; and the indignities
which were offered to the representations of Imperial majesty,
sufficiently declared the impious and treasonable wishes of the
populace. The tumult was almost immediately suppressed by the
arrival of a body of archers: and Antioch had leisure to reflect
on the nature and consequences of her crime. 84 According to the
duty of his office, the governor of the province despatched a
faithful narrative of the whole transaction: while the trembling
citizens intrusted the confession of their crime, and the
assurances of their repentance, to the zeal of Flavian, their
bishop, and to the eloquence of the senator Hilarius, the friend,
and most probably the disciple, of Libanius; whose genius, on
this melancholy occasion, was not useless to his country. 85 But
the two capitals, Antioch and Constantinople, were separated by
the distance of eight hundred miles; and, notwithstanding the
diligence of the Imperial posts, the guilty city was severely
punished by a long and dreadful interval of suspense. Every rumor
agitated the hopes and fears of the Antiochians, and they heard
with terror, that their sovereign, exasperated by the insult
which had been offered to his own statues, and more especially,
to those of his beloved wife, had resolved to level with the
ground the offending city; and to massacre, without distinction
of age or sex, the criminal inhabitants; 86 many of whom were
actually driven, by their apprehensions, to seek a refuge in the
mountains of Syria, and the adjacent desert. At length,
twenty-four days after the sedition, the general Hellebicus and
Caesarius, master of the offices, declared the will of the
emperor, and the sentence of Antioch. That proud capital was
degraded from the rank of a city; and the metropolis of the East,
stripped of its lands, its privileges, and its revenues, was
subjected, under the humiliating denomination of a village, to
the jurisdiction of Laodicea. 87 The baths, the Circus, and the
theatres were shut: and, that every source of plenty and pleasure
might at the same time be intercepted, the distribution of corn
was abolished, by the severe instructions of Theodosius. His
commissioners then proceeded to inquire into the guilt of
individuals; of those who had perpetrated, and of those who had
not prevented, the destruction of the sacred statues. The
tribunal of Hellebicus and Caesarius, encompassed with armed
soldiers, was erected in the midst of the Forum. The noblest, and
most wealthy, of the citizens of Antioch appeared before them in
chains; the examination was assisted by the use of torture, and
their sentence was pronounced or suspended, according to the
judgment of these extraordinary magistrates. The houses of the
criminals were exposed to sale, their wives and children were
suddenly reduced, from affluence and luxury, to the most abject
distress; and a bloody execution was expected to conclude the
horrors of the day, 88 which the preacher of Antioch, the
eloquent Chrysostom, has represented as a lively image of the
last and universal judgment of the world. But the ministers of
Theodosius performed, with reluctance, the cruel task which had
been assigned them; they dropped a gentle tear over the
calamities of the people; and they listened with reverence to the
pressing solicitations of the monks and hermits, who descended in
swarms from the mountains. 89 Hellebicus and Caesarius were
persuaded to suspend the execution of their sentence; and it was
agreed that the former should remain at Antioch, while the latter
returned, with all possible speed, to Constantinople; and
presumed once more to consult the will of his sovereign. The
resentment of Theodosius had already subsided; the deputies of
the people, both the bishop and the orator, had obtained a
favorable audience; and the reproaches of the emperor were the
complaints of injured friendship, rather than the stern menaces
of pride and power. A free and general pardon was granted to the
city and citizens of Antioch; the prison doors were thrown open;
the senators, who despaired of their lives, recovered the
possession of their houses and estates; and the capital of the
East was restored to the enjoyment of her ancient dignity and
splendor. Theodosius condescended to praise the senate of
Constantinople, who had generously interceded for their
distressed brethren: he rewarded the eloquence of Hilarius with
the government of Palestine; and dismissed the bishop of Antioch
with the warmest expressions of his respect and gratitude. A
thousand new statues arose to the clemency of Theodosius; the
applause of his subjects was ratified by the approbation of his
own heart; and the emperor confessed, that, if the exercise of
justice is the most important duty, the indulgence of mercy is
the most exquisite pleasure, of a sovereign. 90

84 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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 (return) [ Chrysostom opposes their courage, which was not
attended with much risk, to the cowardly flight of the Cynics.]

90 (return) [ 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.]

The sedition of Thessalonica is ascribed to a more shameful
cause, and was productive of much more dreadful consequences.
That great city, the metropolis of all the Illyrian provinces,
had been protected from the dangers of the Gothic war by strong
fortifications and a numerous garrison. Botheric, the general of
those troops, and, as it should seem from his name, a Barbarian,
had among his slaves a beautiful boy, who excited the impure
desires of one of the charioteers of the Circus. The insolent and
brutal lover was thrown into prison by the order of Botheric; and
he sternly rejected the importunate clamors of the multitude,
who, on the day of the public games, lamented the absence of
their favorite; and considered the skill of a charioteer as an
object of more importance than his virtue. The resentment of the
people was imbittered by some previous disputes; and, as the
strength of the garrison had been drawn away for the service of
the Italian war, the feeble remnant, whose numbers were reduced
by desertion, could not save the unhappy general from their
licentious fury. Botheric, and several of his principal officers,
were inhumanly murdered; their mangled bodies were dragged about
the streets; and the emperor, who then resided at Milan, was
surprised by the intelligence of the audacious and wanton cruelty
of the people of Thessalonica. The sentence of a dispassionate
judge would have inflicted a severe punishment on the authors of
the crime; and the merit of Botheric might contribute to
exasperate the grief and indignation of his master.

The fiery and choleric temper of Theodosius was impatient of the
dilatory forms of a judicial inquiry; and he hastily resolved,
that the blood of his lieutenant should be expiated by the blood
of the guilty people. Yet his mind still fluctuated between the
counsels of clemency and of revenge; the zeal of the bishops had
almost extorted from the reluctant emperor the promise of a
general pardon; his passion was again inflamed by the flattering
suggestions of his minister Rufinus; and, after Theodosius had
despatched the messengers of death, he attempted, when it was too
late, to prevent the execution of his orders. The punishment of a
Roman city was blindly committed to the undistinguishing sword of
the Barbarians; and the hostile preparations were concerted with
the dark and perfidious artifice of an illegal conspiracy. The
people of Thessalonica were treacherously invited, in the name of
their sovereign, to the games of the Circus; and such was their
insatiate avidity for those amusements, that every consideration
of fear, or suspicion, was disregarded by the numerous
spectators. As soon as the assembly was complete, the soldiers,
who had secretly been posted round the Circus, received the
signal, not of the races, but of a general massacre. The
promiscuous carnage continued three hours, without discrimination
of strangers or natives, of age or sex, of innocence or guilt;
the most moderate accounts state the number of the slain at seven
thousand; and it is affirmed by some writers that more than
fifteen thousand victims were sacrificed to the names of
Botheric. A foreign merchant, who had probably no concern in his
murder, offered his own life, and all his wealth, to supply the
place of one of his two sons; but, while the father hesitated
with equal tenderness, while he was doubtful to choose, and
unwilling to condemn, the soldiers determined his suspense, by
plunging their daggers at the same moment into the breasts of the
defenceless youths. The apology of the assassins, that they were
obliged to produce the prescribed number of heads, serves only to
increase, by an appearance of order and design, the horrors of
the massacre, which was executed by the commands of Theodosius.
The guilt of the emperor is aggravated by his long and frequent
residence at Thessalonica. The situation of the unfortunate city,
the aspect of the streets and buildings, the dress and faces of
the inhabitants, were familiar, and even present, to his
imagination; and Theodosius possessed a quick and lively sense of
the existence of the people whom he destroyed. 91

91 (return) [ 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.]

The respectful attachment of the emperor for the orthodox clergy,
had disposed him to love and admire the character of Ambrose; who
united all the episcopal virtues in the most eminent degree. The
friends and ministers of Theodosius imitated the example of their
sovereign; and he observed, with more surprise than displeasure,
that all his secret counsels were immediately communicated to the
archbishop; who acted from the laudable persuasion, that every
measure of civil government may have some connection with the
glory of God, and the interest of the true religion. The monks
and populace of Callinicum, 9111 an obscure town on the frontier
of Persia, excited by their own fanaticism, and by that of their
bishop, had tumultuously burnt a conventicle of the Valentinians,
and a synagogue of the Jews. The seditious prelate was condemned,
by the magistrate of the province, either to rebuild the
synagogue, or to repay the damage; and this moderate sentence was
confirmed by the emperor. But it was not confirmed by the
archbishop of Milan. 92 He dictated an epistle of censure and
reproach, more suitable, perhaps, if the emperor had received the
mark of circumcision, and renounced the faith of his baptism.
Ambrose considers the toleration of the Jewish, as the
persecution of the Christian, religion; boldly declares that he
himself, and every true believer, would eagerly dispute with the
bishop of Callinicum the merit of the deed, and the crown of
martyrdom; and laments, in the most pathetic terms, that the
execution of the sentence would be fatal to the fame and
salvation of Theodosius. As this private admonition did not
produce an immediate effect, the archbishop, from his pulpit, 93
publicly addressed the emperor on his throne; 94 nor would he
consent to offer the oblation of the altar, till he had obtained
from Theodosius a solemn and positive declaration, which secured
the impunity of the bishop and monks of Callinicum. The
recantation of Theodosius was sincere; 95 and, during the term of
his residence at Milan, his affection for Ambrose was continually
increased by the habits of pious and familiar conversation.

9111 (return) [ Raeca, on the Euphrates—M.]

92 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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.]

When Ambrose was informed of the massacre of Thessalonica, his
mind was filled with horror and anguish. He retired into the
country to indulge his grief, and to avoid the presence of
Theodosius. But as the archbishop was satisfied that a timid
silence would render him the accomplice of his guilt, he
represented, in a private letter, the enormity of the crime;
which could only be effaced by the tears of penitence. The
episcopal vigor of Ambrose was tempered by prudence; and he
contented himself with signifying 96 an indirect sort of
excommunication, by the assurance, that he had been warned in a
vision not to offer the oblation in the name, or in the presence,
of Theodosius; and by the advice, that he would confine himself
to the use of prayer, without presuming to approach the altar of
Christ, or to receive the holy eucharist with those hands that
were still polluted with the blood of an innocent people. The
emperor was deeply affected by his own reproaches, and by those
of his spiritual father; and after he had bewailed the
mischievous and irreparable consequences of his rash fury, he
proceeded, in the accustomed manner, to perform his devotions in
the great church of Milan. He was stopped in the porch by the
archbishop; who, in the tone and language of an ambassador of
Heaven, declared to his sovereign, that private contrition was
not sufficient to atone for a public fault, or to appease the
justice of the offended Deity. Theodosius humbly represented,
that if he had contracted the guilt of homicide, David, the man
after God’s own heart, had been guilty, not only of murder, but
of adultery. “You have imitated David in his crime, imitate then
his repentance,” was the reply of the undaunted Ambrose. The
rigorous conditions of peace and pardon were accepted; and the
public penance of the emperor Theodosius has been recorded as one
of the most honorable events in the annals of the church.
According to the mildest rules of ecclesiastical discipline,
which were established in the fourth century, the crime of
homicide was expiated by the penitence of twenty years: 97 and as
it was impossible, in the period of human life, to purge the
accumulated guilt of the massacre of Thessalonica, the murderer
should have been excluded from the holy communion till the hour
of his death. But the archbishop, consulting the maxims of
religious policy, granted some indulgence to the rank of his
illustrious penitent, who humbled in the dust the pride of the
diadem; and the public edification might be admitted as a weighty
reason to abridge the duration of his punishment. It was
sufficient, that the emperor of the Romans, stripped of the
ensigns of royalty, should appear in a mournful and suppliant
posture; and that, in the midst of the church of Milan, he should
humbly solicit, with sighs and tears, the pardon of his sins. 98
In this spiritual cure, Ambrose employed the various methods of
mildness and severity. After a delay of about eight months,
Theodosius was restored to the communion of the faithful; and the
edict which interposes a salutary interval of thirty days between
the sentence and the execution, may be accepted as the worthy
fruits of his repentance. 99 Posterity has applauded the virtuous
firmness of the archbishop; and the example of Theodosius may
prove the beneficial influence of those principles, which could
force a monarch, exalted above the apprehension of human
punishment, to respect the laws, and ministers, of an invisible
Judge. “The prince,” says Montesquieu, “who is actuated by the
hopes and fears of religion, may be compared to a lion, docile
only to the voice, and tractable to the hand, of his keeper.” 100
The motions of the royal animal will therefore depend on the
inclination, and interest, of the man who has acquired such
dangerous authority over him; and the priest, who holds in his
hands the conscience of a king, may inflame, or moderate, his
sanguinary passions. The cause of humanity, and that of
persecution, have been asserted, by the same Ambrose, with equal
energy, and with equal success.

96 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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 (return) [ 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.]