They were like the poor horse in the fable, who having taken the man on his back, to fight the stag, brought a cursed slavery on himself, and entailed it on his posterity: Non equitem dorso, non frenum depulit ore. In the time of Constantius, Sapor the Persian king besieged Nisibis, but could not take it, many miracles being wrought for its protection by James, the bishop of that city. So Theodoret assures us. Valesius observes that Theodoret hath made some mistakes in his relation of the story. * James of Nisibis is said to have been a very good man, and a worker of several miracles. His piety we have no reason to call in question of his miracles there is some cause to doubt. Here is one of them, by way of sample, as it is gravely related by Theodo ret and Theodorus Lector: As James was come into Persia, he passed by a fountain, where some young women were washing their linens, who making an indecent appearance, instead of covering themselves, stared at him in an impudent manner. Upon this he cursed the fountain, which instantly dried up, and changed the hair of the girls from a black to a sandy-colour. Being humbly intreated by the inhabitants of the town, he restored the fountain to them; but left the girls their red (or gray) hair, because they had not applied to him, and begged pardon*. Gallus, the brother of the emperor Julian, took up the body of the martyr St Babylas, and devoutly transported it from Antioch to Daphne; which he did by inspiration, says Chrysostom De Babyla. He loved, * ii. 30. + Tillemont, H. E. vii. 261. S. Basnage ii. 855. loved, it seems, to prate about religion, and held martyrs and martyrs' bones in great veneration, and had, as Jerom informs us a princely disposition, regiam indolem. In truth, he was a worthless, stubborn, cruel prince. A proper person to have inspirations, and angels and saints at his bed's head! En animam et mentem, cum qua Di nocte loquan tur! What Marcellinus relates concerning visions of another sort presenting themselves to Gallus, seems more probable : "When he slept, his sleep was restless, and he was haunted in his dreams by terrible apparitions; and those whom he had slain, seized him, as he thought, and dragged him away and tormented him *" It was contrary to the Roman laws, and according to the common notions of mankind it was ever ac counted an irreligious and sacrilegious thing, to disturb the ashes of the dead: unless they had died abroad, and were brought back to their own country †. Qui corpus perpetuæ sepulture traditum, vel ad tempus alicui loco commendatum nudaverit, et solis radiis ostenderit, piaculum committit. Babylas is said on this occasion to have put the devil to flight, and to have silenced the Oracle of Apollo Daphnéus. Julian afterwards sent the martyr back * xiv. II. + Upon a monument, mentioned by Mabillon, are engraved these words; tos. Qui hic minxerit, aut cacaverit, habeat Deos superos et inferos ira Paulus Recept. Sentent. L. i. back, civilly enough, to his own original grave, where the Christians would not let him lie at quiet, but moved him again to some other place; for in those days the bones of a martyr had as little rest as a dog in a wheel. Constantius, who was a zealous relique-monger, ordered the body of Timothy to be brought from Ephesus, and those of St Andrew and St Luke from Achaia to Constantinople; and thus (A. D. 356.) began the carrying of reliques from place to place, and the invention of ten thousand lies concerning the wonders wrought by the dead; all which must have greatly scandalized the Pagans*. It is observable that the saints, whose exuviæ wrought so many miracles in the fourth and following centuries, lost all their power or inclination to perform them at the reformation. Doubtless they were offended at the wickedness of the Protestants, and grew sullen upon it as Catullus observes concerning the Pagan gods † : Sed postquam tellus scelere est imbuta nefundo,- A. D. 344. Sapor, the Persian king, instigated by the Magi, and by the Jews, persecuted his Christian subjects, and put multitudes of them to death, who suffered with the utmost constancy and courage the most *Fabricius B. Gr. vii. 172. S. Basnage ii. 835. Middleton Pref. to Letter from Rome. Epith. Thet. & Pel. most inhuman and horrible tortures; which is a good proof that they were virtuous and pious people. It is well known that the Persians were always barbarous and brutish in their punishments; it is usually so in despotic governments. Sozomen* gives an account of this persecution. The relation is simple, honest, reasonable, and very different from the style and manner of most of the martyrologies; and it was probably taken from the memoirs of the Christians of Persia, Syria, and Edessa, who lived at the time. The sufferings of these Persian Christians were accompanied with no miracles, with none of the fantastical prodigies so often recorded on those occasions, which makes the narrations the less liable to suspicion. It is to be supposed that these eastern Christians, who had lived by connivance and toleration under a Pagan king, were better and more religious men than the Christian subjects of Constantius, who had nothing to fear at that time from unbelievers, and no persecution to endure, except that which they carried on against each other with wonderful alacrity. A meteor was seen in the east, and at Jerusalem, representing a cross: and was accounted a miraculous sign t. A. D. 361. Eusebius of Samosata had been suspected and accused of Arianism; yet he was a Consubstantialist. The Arians and the Consubstantialists had agreed to chuse Meletius to be bishop of Antioch, and subscribed to it, each party imagining that he was on their side. The Arians, finding themselves mistaken in their man, wanted to get the subscription * ii. 9. † Socrates ii. 28. Sozomen. out out of the hands of Eusebius, with whom it had been deposited, to be kept by him. Constantius therefore sent an officer to command him to deliver it up, and to tell him that if he refused, his right hand was immediately to be cut off by the emperor's order. This was a stratagem contrived to intimidate him; for the emperor did not intend that the threatening should be executed. Eusebius held forth both his hands, and bade him cut them off; for, said he, I will not betray the trust. When Constantius heard of it, he greatly admired and commended the prelate for his courage and constancy. Valens afterwards banished Eusebius, and sent an officer to carry him away to Thrace. The officer came and told his order to Eusebius, who advised him by all means to keep it secret; for, said he, the people here are so full of zeal, that if they knew your errand, they would instantly rise, and seize you, and fling you into the river; and so I should be the unhappy cause of your death. Eusebius therefore at midnight silently departed with the messenger. An Arian bishop was put in his place; but the people of Samosata would not speak to the new prelate, and shunned the very sight of him. A. D. 341. Of the canons of the council of Antioch, the twenty-fifth is concerning ecclesiastical revenues. It orders that bishops shall have out of them as much as sufficeth for food and raiment, and exercising hospitality, and no more *. A. D. 350. The Emperor Constans was slain by the tyrant Magnentius. Athanasius and Baronius |