but the emperor admitted a formal distinction to
protect the ancient methods of divination, which were approved by the
senate, and exercised by the Tuscan haruspices. He had condemned,
with the consent of the most rational Pagans, the license of nocturnal
sacrifices; but he immediately admitted the petition of Praetextatus,
proconsul of Achaia, who represented, that the life of the Greeks would
become dreary and comfortless, if they were deprived of the invaluable
blessing of the Eleusinian mysteries. Philosophy alone can boast, (and
perhaps it is no more than the boast of philosophy,) that her gentle
hand is able to eradicate from the human mind the latent and deadly
principle of fanaticism. But this truce of twelve years, which was
enforced by the wise and vigorous government of Valentinian, by
suspending the repetition of mutual injuries, contributed to soften the
manners, and abate the prejudices, of the religious factions.

The friend of toleration was unfortunately placed at a distance from the
scene of the fiercest controversies. As soon as the Christians of the
West had extricated themselves from the snares of the creed of Rimini,
they happily relapsed into the slumber of orthodoxy; and the small
remains of the Arian party, that still subsisted at Sirmium or Milan,
might be considered rather as objects of contempt than of resentment.
But in the provinces of the East, from the Euxine to the extremity of
Thebais, the strength and numbers of the hostile factions were more
equally balanced; and this equality, instead of recommending the
counsels of peace, served only to perpetuate the horrors of religious
war. The monks and bishops supported their arguments by invectives;
and their invectives were sometimes followed by blows. Athanasius still
reigned at Alexandria; the thrones of Constantinople and Antioch were
occupied by Arian prelates, and every episcopal vacancy was the
occasion of a popular tumult. The Homoousians were fortified by the
reconciliation of fifty-nine Macedonian, or Semi-Arian, bishops; but
their secret reluctance to embrace the divinity of the Holy Ghost,
clouded the splendor of the triumph; and the declaration of Valens, who,
in the first years of his reign, had imitated the impartial conduct of
his brother, was an important victory on the side of Arianism. The two
brothers had passed their private life in the condition of catechumens;
but the piety of Valens prompted him to solicit the sacrament