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The History of Christianity: Consisting of the Life and Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth; the Adventures of Paul and the Apostles; and the Most Interesting Events in the Progress of Christianity, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time.Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)

History

The History of Christianity: Consisting of the Life and Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth; the Adventures of Paul and the Apostles; and the Most Interesting Events in the Progress of Christianity, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time.

Name: The History of Christianity: Consisting of the Life and Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth; the Adventures of Paul and the Apostles; and the Most Interesting Events in the Progress of Christianity, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time.
Author: Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)

Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)

Church history; Jesus Christ -- Biography; Paul, the Apostle, Saint

Jovian, and Valentinian’s brother Valens, did the same with their
gifts. The emperor was exasperated. In the first impulse of his rage,
he ordered them to be led immediately to execution. As the executioner
stood ready with his heavy sword to sever their heads from their bodies,
and the victims were upon their knees to receive the death-blow, a
herald hastily approached, and arrested the execution. The emperor,
upon reflection, deemed it not wise for such an offence to consign to
death three of the best and most influential officers in his army.

Another characteristic anecdote is related of Valentinian, worthy
of record. He was commander of the imperial guard. As such, it was
necessary for him, upon all important occasions, to be at the side of
the emperor. At one time, when Julian, in performance of some rites of
the pagan religion, was entering the Temple of the Goddess of Fortune,
dancing in religious homage, two priests stood, one on each side of
the vestibule, to sprinkle the emperor with holy-water. This was a
pagan rite which the Papal Church has transferred from the temples of
idolatry to the sanctuaries of Christ.

A drop of this water fell upon the dress of Valentinian. Turning to one
of the priests, he said, “You have sullied my garments.” Immediately
he tore from his robe the portion upon which the water consecrated to
idols had fallen.

The emperor was so irritated, that for a time he banished him from his
command. It is said that Julian would not put him to death, because,
with strange inconsistency, he was unwilling that he should wear the
crown of martyrdom. Such was the character of the Christian Valentinian,
upon whose shoulders the robes of imperial purple were now placed.

Valentinian seems to have proved himself, in all respects, worthy of
his high position. He was majestic in stature, commanding in intellect,
and of irreproachable purity of morals. He was crowned by the army
at Nice, in Bithynia; his brother Valens receiving from him the
appointment of assistant emperor. The Eastern empire, from the Danube
to the confines of Persia, was assigned to Valens, with Constantinople
for his capital. Valentinian took charge of the Western empire,
selecting the city of Milan for his metropolis.

Still the barbarian hordes from all directions were crowding upon the
crumbling Roman empire. While Valentinian was struggling against their
locust legions in the West, Valens was making an equally desperate and
equally unavailing struggle against them in the East. The Huns came
howling on from the wilds of Tartary, fierce as the wolves, and in
numbers which no man could count. They could not be resisted. In an
impetuous flood they surged along, till all the plains of Greece were
swept by the inundation. Even the Goths fled in terror before these
shaggy and merciless warriors.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History

The History of Christianity: Consisting of the Life and Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth; the Adventures of Paul and the Apostles; and the Most Interesting Events in the Progress of Christianity, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time.

Abbott, John S. C. (John Stevens Cabot)

Church history; Jesus Christ -- Biography; Paul, the Apostle, Saint

Jovian, and Valentinian’s brother Valens, did the same with their
gifts. The emperor was exasperated. In the first impulse of his rage,
he ordered them to be led immediately to execution. As the executioner
stood ready with his heavy sword to sever their heads from their bodies,
and the victims were upon their knees to receive the death-blow, a
herald hastily approached, and arrested the execution. The emperor,
upon reflection, deemed it not wise for such an offence to consign to
death three of the best and most influential officers in his army.

Another characteristic anecdote is related of Valentinian, worthy
of record. He was commander of the imperial guard. As such, it was
necessary for him, upon all important occasions, to be at the side of
the emperor. At one time, when Julian, in performance of some rites of
the pagan religion, was entering the Temple of the Goddess of Fortune,
dancing in religious homage, two priests stood, one on each side of
the vestibule, to sprinkle the emperor with holy-water. This was a
pagan rite which the Papal Church has transferred from the temples of
idolatry to the sanctuaries of Christ.

A drop of this water fell upon the dress of Valentinian. Turning to one
of the priests, he said, “You have sullied my garments.” Immediately
he tore from his robe the portion upon which the water consecrated to
idols had fallen.

The emperor was so irritated, that for a time he banished him from his
command. It is said that Julian would not put him to death, because,
with strange inconsistency, he was unwilling that he should wear the
crown of martyrdom. Such was the character of the Christian Valentinian,
upon whose shoulders the robes of imperial purple were now placed.

Valentinian seems to have proved himself, in all respects, worthy of
his high position. He was majestic in stature, commanding in intellect,
and of irreproachable purity of morals. He was crowned by the army
at Nice, in Bithynia; his brother Valens receiving from him the
appointment of assistant emperor. The Eastern empire, from the Danube
to the confines of Persia, was assigned to Valens, with Constantinople
for his capital. Valentinian took charge of the Western empire,
selecting the city of Milan for his metropolis.

Still the barbarian hordes from all directions were crowding upon the
crumbling Roman empire. While Valentinian was struggling against their
locust legions in the West, Valens was making an equally desperate and
equally unavailing struggle against them in the East. The Huns came
howling on from the wilds of Tartary, fierce as the wolves, and in
numbers which no man could count. They could not be resisted. In an
impetuous flood they surged along, till all the plains of Greece were
swept by the inundation. Even the Goths fled in terror before these
shaggy and merciless warriors.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

The History of Christianity: Consisting of the Life and Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth; the Adventures of Paul and the Apostles; and the Most Interesting Events in the Progress of Christianity, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time.

The History of Christianity: Consisting of the Life and Teachings of Jesus of Nazareth; the Adventures of Paul and the Apostles; and the Most Interesting Events in the Progress of Christianity, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time.

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