History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 2

Edward Gibbon · Written 1782; revised 1845 (for the later edition context of the modern title page)

passage 463 of 558 · Chapter XVI: Conduct Towards The Christians, From Nero To > Chapter XXV: Reigns Of Jovian And Valentinian, Division Of The (5/10)

in brief

Gibbon summarizes the aftermath of Athanasius’ death: persecution of Egypt, the installation of Lucius on the archiepiscopal throne, and lament over toleration for pagan and Jewish worship by Valens’ regime.

of the heathen and Jewish worship was bitterly lamented, as a circumstance which aggravated the misery of the Catholics, and the guilt of the impious tyrant of the East. 68

66 (return) [ Eudoxus was of a mild and timid disposition. When he baptized Valens, (A. D. 367,) he must have been extremely old; since he had studied theology fifty-five years before, under Lucian, a learned and pious martyr. Philostorg. l. ii. c. 14-16, l. iv. c. 4, with Godefroy, p 82, 206, and Tillemont, Mém. Eccles. tom. v. p. 471-480, &c.]

6611 (return) [ Through the influence of his wife say the ecclesiastical writers.—M.]

67 (return) [ Gregory Nazianzen (Orat. xxv. p. 432) insults the persecuting spirit of the Arians, as an infallible symptom of error and heresy.]

68 (return) [ This sketch of the ecclesiastical government of Valens is drawn from Socrates, (l. iv.,) Sozomen, (l. vi.,) Theodoret, (l. iv.,) and the immense compilations of Tillemont, (particularly tom. vi. viii. and ix.)]

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topics: religious persecution and toleration · rights and liberties

History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire — Volume 2 · Edward Gibbon · 1782–1845