sword in hand, to frighten his Hunnish majesty from making slaves of the
Roman people.
Would it not be more consonant with the general acts of his providence
to point Attila to his diseased army; to their consequent want of
supplies, and to the threatening danger of his being totally cut off by
the two armies of Marcian, saying nothing of the possibility of a
restored confidence among the then panic-struck Romans? Besides, it has
been well ascertained that, at the time of Leo’s arrival, he had been
hesitating whether to march on Rome—or recross the Alps. See _Bower_,
vol. ii. p. 202; also, _Jornandez Rer. Goth._ c. 41, 49.
But, we acknowledge the intervening influences of the Divine will, in
this case, as forcibly as it could be urged, even if attended with all
the particulars and extravagancies of the poetic painter’s fancy. We
have alluded to this particle of the history of that day, as it stands
upon the records, in order that, while we quote, we may not be
misunderstood as to our view of the providences of God.
But to return to our subject:—Upon a review of these times, we may
notice the distractions of the church by means of the various heresies
which imbittered against each other the different professions of the
Christian faith. How the followers of Arius, for more than half a
century, spread confusion and violence over the entire Christian
world:—How, crushed and driven out by Theodosius, thousands took shelter
among the pagans, whose movements they stimulated, and whom we now
perceive in progress of the gradual overthrow of the Roman Empire:—How,
upon the partial or more general successes of these hordes, their Arian
confederates, with a fresh memory of their late oppressions and the
cruelties inflicted on them, retaliated with unsparing severity and
bloodshed upon their Nicene opponents; while, among all these savage
invaders, the Arian creed supplanted and succeeded the pagan
worship:—How this wild Attila swept the banks of the Danube and the
Rhine, carrying death or desolation to the followers of Pharamond, and
to the Goths, who had then already established themselves in the
strongholds of ancient Gaul and of the more modern Romans. True, his
career was checked on the banks of the Rhone, but, like a hunted lion,
he rushed towards the Mediterranean, and, recruiting his force in
Pannonia, directed his march to Italy; and to-day, after fourteen
centuries, it is said that Aquillia still stands the monument of his
barbarity. We have this moment noticed the extraordinary manner in
which, it is said, by the monition of Leo, his path of ruin was suddenly
directed to the ice-bound fortresses of the north. But the captives made
on both sides, in these desolating wars, greatly increased the number of
slaves of the white race, which otherwise, from operating causes, would
have been diminished.
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