proach from Jerusalem and from
Britain alike; 'for the kingdom of God is _within_ you'" (_St. Luke_
xvii. 21).

There were, indeed, some persons who rose up to oppose the errors of
which I have been speaking. But unhappily they mixed up the truths which
they wished to teach with so many errors of their own, and they carried
on their opposition so unwisely, that, instead of doing good, they did
harm, by setting people against such truth as they taught on account of
the error which was joined with it, and of the wrong way which they took
of teaching it. By such opposition the growth of superstition was not
checked, but advanced and strengthened.

CHAPTER XIX.

ARCADIUS AND HONORIUS.

A.D. 395-423.

The great emperor Theodosius was succeeded in 395 by his two sons,
Arcadius, who was eighteen years of age, and Honorius, who was only
eleven. Arcadius had the east, and Honorius the west; and after this
division, the empire was never again united in anything like the full
extent of its old greatness. The reigns of these princes were full of
misfortunes, especially in the western empire, where swarms of
barbarians poured down from the north, and did a vast deal of mischief.
One of these barbarous nations, the Goths, whose king was named Alaric,
thrice besieged Rome itself. The first time, Alaric was bought off by a
large sum of money. After the second siege, he set up an emperor of his
own making; and after the third siege, the city was given up to his
soldiers for plunder. Rude as these Goths were, they had been brought
over to a kind of Christianity, although it was not the true faith of
the Church. There had, indeed, been Christians among the Goths nearly
150 years before this time; for many of them had been converted by
Christian captives, whom they carried off in the reigns of Valerian and
Gallienus, about the year 260; and a Gothic bishop, named Theophilus,
had sat at the council of Nicaea. But great changes had since been
wrought among them by a remarkable man named Ulfilas, who was
consecrated as their bishop in the year 348. He found that they did not
know the use of letters; so he made an alphabet for them, and translated
the Scriptures into their language, and he taught them many useful arts.
Thus he got such an influence over them, that they received all his
words as law, and he was called "the Moses of the Goths." But,
unhappily, Ulfilas was drawn into Arianism, and this was the doctrine
which he tau