of
baptism, before he exposed his person to the dangers of a Gothic war. He
naturally addressed himself to Eudoxus, * bishop of the Imperial city;
and if the ignorant monarch was instructed by that Arian pastor in the
principles of heterodox theology, his misfortune, rather than his guilt,
was the inevitable consequence of his erroneous choice. Whatever had
been the determination of the emperor, he must have offended a numerous
party of his Christian subjects; as the leaders both of the Homoousians
and of the Arians believed, that, if they were not suffered to reign,
they were most cruelly injured and oppressed. After he had taken this
decisive step, it was extremely difficult for him to preserve either
the virtue, or the reputation of impartiality. He never aspired,
like Constantius, to the fame of a profound theologian; but as he had
received with simplicity and respect the tenets of Eudoxus, Valens
resigned his conscience to the direction of his ecclesiastical guides,
and promoted, by the influence of his authority, the reunion of the
Athanasian heretics to the body of the Catholic church. At first, he
pitied their blindness; by degrees he was provoked at their obstinacy;
and he insensibly hated those sectaries to whom he was an object of
hatred. The feeble mind of Valens was always swayed by the persons with
whom he familiarly conversed; and the exile or imprisonment of a private
citizen are the favors the most readily granted in a despotic court.
Such punishments were frequently inflicted on the leaders of the
Homoousian party; and the misfortune of fourscore ecclesiastics of
Constantinople, who, perhaps accidentally, were burned on shipboard,
was imputed to the cruel and premeditated malice of the emperor, and his
Arian ministers. In every contest, the Catholics (if we may anticipate
that name) were obliged to pay the penalty of their own faults, and of
those of their adversaries. In every election, the claims of the Arian
candidate obtained the preference; and if they were opposed by the
majority of the people, he was usually supported by the authority of
the civil magistrate, or even by the terrors of a military force.
The enemies of Athanasius attempted to disturb the last years of his
venerable age; and his temporary retreat to his father's sepulchre has
been celebrated as a fifth exile. But the zeal of a great people, who
instantly flew to arms, intimidated the praefect: and the archbishop
was permitted to en