most carnestly to Jesus Christ to help him. Instantly the door flew open, and he escaped, and went directly to the woman. She took him again to Meletius, and he gave him to Cyril of Jerusalem, who carried him. to Palæstine, where he dwelt safely; and after the death of Julian, he made himself known to his father, and converted him to Christianity. He told me this story with his own mouth, says Theodoret *, when he was an old man.

Mark of Arethusa suffered under Julian. See Remarks on Eccl. Hist. ii. 141, concerning this Martyr or Confessor; for it is not agreed whether he died of his torments or no. The ecclesiastical writers, Socrates, Sozomen, Theodoret, and Gregory Nazianzen know only one Mark of Arethusa; but Valesins conjectures that there were two, in his notes on Sozoment. His proofs are not conclusive. There might indeed be more bishops than one in those times, who had the name of Mark; but we find only one Mark of Arethusa.

A. D. 362. Lucifer Calaritanus was a furious zealot, of whose works Du Pin gives us this character, that they are void of art, eloquence, reason, decency and moderation, and delivered in a mean and barbarous style. This man was the father of a schismatical party; for in those days, as well as in these, every booby could make a sect.

A. D. 963. Jovian was advanced to the empire. He made a law, says Themistius, that every one should be at liberty to serve God after his own way; for which

which this Pagan Orator highly commends him. The law is not extant, and perhaps Themistius was in some measure mistaken, and the emperor had only declared that he would force no man to act against his own conscience. See Fabricius*, and Tillemont †. Bleterie hath made some good remarks on the occasion. I wish his countrymen may profit by them, and learn at last to hate persecution.

Jovian was persuaded, it is to be supposed, by the ecclesiastics, to publish a decree that whosoever courted a nun, and enticed her to marriage, should be put to death. This law was judged too severe, and was mitigated in following times.

Athanasius extolled the piety of Jovian, and by way of recompence promised him a long and happy reign.—Τὴν βασιλείαν μετ ̓ εἰρήνης πολλαῖς ἐτῶν περιόδοις ἐπιτελέus. Imperium multis annorum curriculis pacate gubernaturus es §.

But the good bishop's a failed him sadly; and the emperor reigned only one year, and died in the flower of his age.

Posterior autem pars hujus periodi in vulgatis Athanasii editionibus desideratur : eamque Baronius adjectam existimat ab Ariano quopiam, qui Athanasium irridere vellet tanquam falsum vatem. Neque enim imperium Joviani diu stetit. Mili tamen nihil hic adulterinum ac supposititium videtur: nec vituperandus idcirco est Athanasius, si Jovianus non tot annos in principutu vixit, quot Athanasius eum vivere optaverat .

* Bilb. Gr. viii. 56.

t Hist. de Jovien.

This

+ Hist. des Emp. iv. 505. #Chron. Cod. Theod. P. lxviii.

$ Apud Theodoret. iv. 3. ¶ Valesius.

This prophetic sentence, says Baronius, was foisted in by the wicked Arians, to ridicule Athanasius. An unprejudiced critic would rather conclude that it was left out of some copies by the Athanasians, lest it should give occasion to the Arians to deride Athanasius as a false prophet. The passage is genuine, and the favourable interpretation of Valesius is preferable to the foolish conjecture of the cardinal; and we may consider the words of Athanasius as words of course, as compliments and pious ejaculations; though certainly it had been more prudent in him to have dressed up his civilities rather in the form of a wish than of a promise.

Jovian died suddenly; and Baronius, as being one of the privy council of heaven, declares, that this emperor was taken out of the world by a divine judgment, because he had made a decent funeral for his predecessor Julian. So then Jovian's orthodoxy, and the kindness which he shewed to the Consubstantialists and to Athanasius, could not atone for the horrid crime of shewing some civility to Julian's bones.

Such churchmen are much fitter to draw up an Index Expurgatorius, or to preside at an Inquisition, than to write Ecclesiastical History*.

A. D. 363. A sect arose of men called Messalians, who, if we may trust to ecclesiastical writers, were lazy vagabonds, and frantic enthusiasts. They began to appear in a warm climate, in Mesopotamia, and thence repaired to Antioch. The bishops cleared their dioceses of this vermin, by burning the monasteries into which they had gotten access, and by sending them all into banishment. An expeditious way certainly,

See Basnage iii. 1.

certainly, but not the most Christian way of illuminating these heretics *.

The father of this sect was one Peter, called Lycopetrus, or Peter the Wolf; because when he was to be stoned to death for his blasphemies, he promised his followers that on the third day he would rise again. But at the time appointed, the devil, in the shape of a wolf, was seen to come out from under the stones. Thus saith Euthymius Zigabenus, a monk of the twelfth century.

A. D. 364. Valentinian I. was made emperor; and shared the empire with his brother Valens.

He was a confessor, but in the military way; for once, in the presence of Julian, he buffetted a Pagan priest, who had thrown holy water upon him; and on account of this offence, he was cashiered by Julian, and sent from the army into banishment.

He declared himself an enemy to all persecution, and a tolerator of all religious sects.

says;

Ammianus

Inclaruit hoc moderamine principatús, quod inter religionum diversitates medius stetit; nec quenquam inquietavit, neque ut hoc coleretur imperavit, aut illud; nec interdictis minacibus subjectorum cervicem ad id quod ipse coluit, inclinabat, sed intemeratas reliquit has partes, ut reperit.

A. D. 367. The same writer records a prodigy, which perplexed the learned in divination. An ass clambered up into the judgment-seat, and there brayed long and loud.

Hoc

*Theodoret, iv. 11. Basnage, iii. 91. Tillemont, viii. 527.

Hoc tempore, nova portenti species per Annonariam apparuit Tusciam: idque quorsum evaderet prodigialium rerum periti penitus ignorarunt. In oppido enim Pistoriensi, prope horum dici tertiam, spectantibus multis, asinus tribunali adscenso, audiebatur destinatius rugiens

The most obvious interpretation of this was, that asses would be made judges and magistrates. But perhaps the soothsayers thought that such common events did not deserve to be foretold by portents and prodigies, and therefore sought in vain for some hidden meaning.

A. D. 369. The council of Gangra made some good canons. These fathers condemn those who censure matrimony, and say that wives and husbands cohabiting together cannot be saved: those who separate themselves from a presbyter who hath been married, and will not receive the communion from his hands those who embrace a state of celibacy and continence, not for the sake of piety, but through an abhorrence of marriage, and who insult and revile married persons: those women who for the same cause forsake their husbands: those parents who leave their children under pretence of leading a solitary life, and neglect to feed and instruct them: children who under the same pretence forsake their parents: slaves who run away from their masters for the like reasons: those who require abstinence from flesh, &c.

These canons were not made for nothing. Superstition and monkery were grown so troublesome and audacious, that the council found it absolutely necessary to endeavour to curb this spirit †.

A. D.

xxvii. 5.

+ See Fleury, iv. 334