CONVERSION OF A SARACENIC TRIBE. 1 309 bishops, priests, and deacons, of whom some have been sent into exile, and others condemned to the mines. It is clear that your sentiments are opposed to the faith of Christ, and to all orthodox doctrines concerning the Godhead." Having again protested, upon oath, that he would not receive ordination at the hands of Lucius, the Roman rulers conducted him to the bishops who were then in exile. After receiving ordination from them, he went to exercise the functions of his office among the Saracens. He concluded a peace with the Romans, and converted many of the Saracens to the faith. It appears that the Saracens were descended from Ishmael, the son of Abraham, and were, in consequence, originally denominated Ishmaelites. As their mother Hagar was a slave, they afterwards, to conceal the opprobium of their origin, assumed the name of Saracens, as if they were descended from Sara, the wife of Abraham. Such being their origin, they practise circumcision like the Jews, refrain from the use of pork, and observe many other Jewish rites and customs. If, indeed, they deviate in any respect from the observances of that nation, it must be ascribed to the lapse of time, and to their intercourse with neighbouring nations. Moses, who lived many centuries after Abraham, only legislated for those whom he led out of Egypt. The inhabitants of the neighbouring countries, being strongly addicted to superstition,2 probably soon corrupted the laws imposed upon them by their forefather Ishmael. These laws, though not set down in writing, were the only ones known to the ancient Hebrews before the promulgation of the written laws of Moses. These people certainly served the same gods as the neighbouring nations, recognised them by the same appellations, and rendered them the same species of homage; and this clearly evidences their departure from the laws of their forefathers. It appears probable that, in the lapse of time, their ancient customs fell into oblivion, and that they gradually learnt to follow the practices of other nations. Some of their tribe afterwards happening to come in contact with the Jews, gathered from them the facts of their true origin, and returned to the observance of the Hebrew customs and laws. Indeed, there are See above, book ii. 46. 2 wç ayav deioidaiμoves övтes. Compare Acts xvii. 22, and Xenophon Cyr. iii. 3, 58. some among them, even at the present day, who regulate their lives according to the Jewish precepts. Some of the Saracens were converted to Christianity not long before the accession of Valens. Their conversion appears to have been the result of their intercourse with the priests who dwelt among them, and with the monks who dwelt in the neighbouring deserts, and who were distinguished by their purity of life, and by their miraculous gifts. It is said that a whole tribe, and Zocomus, their chief, were converted to Christianity and baptized about this period, under the following circumstances:Zocomus was childless, and went to a certain monk of great celebrity to complain to him of this calamity; for among the Saracens, and I believe other barbarian nations, it was accounted of great importance to have children. The monk desired Zocomus to be of good cheer, engaged in prayer on his behalf, and sent him away with the promise that if he would believe in Christ, he would have a son. When this promise was accomplished by God, and when a son was born to him, Zocomus was baptized, and all his subjects with him. From that period this tribe was peculiarly fortunate, and became strong in point of number, and formidable to the Persians as well as to the other Saracens. Such are the details that I have been enabled to collect concerning the conversion of the Saracens and their first bishops. CHAP. XXXIX.-PETER, HAVING RETURNED FROM ROME, SUPERSEDES LUCIUS IN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE CHURCHES OF EGYPT. EXPEDITION OF VALENS AGAINST THE SCYTHIANS. THOSE in every city who maintained the Nicene doctrine, now began to take courage, and more particularly the inhabitants of Alexandria. Peter had returned thither with a letter from Damascus, confirmatory of the tenets of Nicæa, and of his own ordination, and he was installed in the government of the churches in the place of Lucius, who retired to Constantinople. The emperor Valens was so distracted by other affairs, that he had no leisure to attend to these transactions. He had no sooner arrived at Constantinople than he incurred the suspicion and hatred of the people. The barbarians were pillaging Thrace, and were even advancing to the very gates A. D. 378.] DEATH OF VALENS. 311 . of Constantinople, and yet the emperor made no effort to repress their incursions. Hence he became an object of popular indignation, and was even regarded as the cause of the inroads of the enemy. At length, when he was present at the sports of the Hippodrome, the people openly and loudly accused him of neglecting the affairs of the state, and demanded arms that they might fight in their own defence. Valens, offended at these reproaches, immediately undertook an expedition against the barbarians; but he threatened to punish the insolence of the people on his return, and also to take vengeance on them for having formerly supported the tyrant Procopius. CHAP. XL.-SAINT ISAAC, THE MONK, PREDICTS THE DEATH OF VALENS. VALENS IS DEFEATED. HIS DEATH. WHEN Valens was on the point of departing from Constantinople, Isaac, a monk of great virtue, who feared no danger in the cause of God, presented himself before him, and addressed him in the following words: "Give back, O emperor, to the orthodox, and to those who maintain the Nicene doctrines, the churches of which you have deprived them, and the victory will be yours." The emperor was offended at this act of boldness, and commanded that Isaac should be arrested and kept in chains until his return, when he meant to bring him to justice for his temerity. Isaac, however, replied, "You will not return unless you restore the churches." And so, in fact, it came to pass. Valens marched at the head of his troops in pursuit of the Goths, through Thrace, as far as Adrianople; here he found the barbarians encamped in a very advantageous position, and yet he had the rashness to attack them before he had ranged his own legions in proper order. His cavalry was dispersed, his infantry compelled to retreat, and he himself escaped with difficulty with a few of his attendants, and sought refuge and concealment in a small house or tower. The barbarians were in full pursuit, and went beyond the tower, not suspecting that he had selected it for his place of concealment. As the last detachment of the barbarians was passing by the tower, the attendants of the emperor let fly a volley of arrows, which immediately led to the conjecture that Valens was concealed within the building: the barbarians loudly shouted this intelligence to their companions who were in advance of them, and thus the news was conveyed till it reached the detachments which were foremost in the pursuit. They returned, and encompassed the tower. They collected vast quantities of wood from the country around, which they piled up against the tower, and finally set fire to the mass. A wind which then happened to arise, favoured the progress of the conflagration; and in a short period, the tower, with all that it contained, including the emperor and his attendants, was utterly destroyed. Valens was fifty years of age; he had reigned thirteen years conjointly with his brother, and three by himself. BOOK VII. CHAP. I.-MAVIA ASSISTS THE ROMANS AGAINST THE BARBAGRATIAN LEAVES TO EVERY ONE FULL LIBERTY OF RIANS. OPINION. SUCH was the fate of Valens. The barbarians,1 flushed with victory, overran Thrace, and advanced to the gates of Constantinople. In this emergency, a few Saracens, sent by Mavia, were of great service. Dominica, the widow of Valens, furnished money out of the public treasury, and some of the people, after hastily arming themselves, attacked the barbarians and drove them from the city. Gratian, who at this period reigned conjointly with his brother over the whole Roman empire, disapproved of the late persecution that had been carried on to check the diversity in religious creeds, and recalled all those who had been banished on account of their religion. He also enacted a law by which it was decreed that every individual should be freely permitted the exercise of his own religion, and should be allowed to hold assemblies, with the exception of the Manichæans and the followers of Photinus and Eunomius. 1 Compare Socrates, Eccl. Hist. v. 1, 2. THEODOSIUS ASSOCIATES WITH GRATIAN. 313 CHAP. II.-THEODOSIUS IS ASSOCIATED WITH GRATIAN IN THE GOVERNMENT OF THE EMPIRE. OUT THE EASTERN CHURCHES ARIANISM PREVAILS THROUGH- ON reflecting that, while it was indispensably requisite to check the incursions of the barbarians of the Danube in Thrace and Illyria, his presence was equally necessary in Gaul to repel the inroads of the Alemanni,2 Gratian associated Theodosius with himself at Sirmich, in the government of the empire. Theodosius belonged to an illustrious family of the Pyrnees in Spain, and had acquired so much renown in war, that before he was raised to the imperial power, he was universally considered capable of guiding the reins of the empire. At this period all the churches of the East, with the exception of that of Jerusalem, were in the hands of the Arians. The Macedonians differed but little in opinion from those who maintained the doctrines of Nicæa, and held intercourse and communion with them in all the cities; and this had been more especially the case with the Macedonians of Constantinople, ever since their reconciliation with Liberius. But after the enactment of Gratian's law, by which every sect was permitted the full exercise of its own form of religion, the Macedonians re-took possession of the churches from which they had been ejected by Valens. They assembled together at Antioch in Caria,3 and protested that the Son is not to be declared "consubstantial" with the Father, but only like unto him in substance. From that period, many of the Macedonians seceded from the others, and held separate assemblies, while others, condemning this schismatic spirit, united themselves still more closely with the followers of the Nicene doctrines. Many of the bishops who had been banished by Valens, and who were recalled about this period in consequence of the law of Gratian, manifested no ambition to be restored to the highest offices in the church: on the contrary, they urged the Arian With this chapter compare the parallel account given in Socrates, Eccl. Hist. v. 3. 2 This people dwelt near Belge and on the east of the river Rhine; their name has remained as an appellation of Germany itself. 3 See above, vi. 12, and note. |