CHAPTER XII

THE MODE IN WHICH VALENS WAS SEDUCED INTO HERESY

I SHALL now proceed to relate the rest of the history; and shall describe the commencement of that tempest which excited so many evils in the church. Valens held the doctrines of the apostles when he was first put in possession of the imperial power. The Goths having passed the Danube and invaded Thrace, he raised an army, intending to march against them. But he reflected, that he ought not to rush into danger destitute of the protection of Divine grace, but that he ought first to obtain the complete armour of God, by means of the holy rite of baptism. This was a wise and prudent reflection. But his subsequent conduct evinced the weakness of his mind, and the ease with which he could be led away from the truth. A misfortune happened to him, similar to that which befell Adam, the first man. His wife enslaved him by her arguments, and he was captured; not by the spears of the enemy, but by the deceitful words of a woman. Having been herself ensnared into the errors of Arianism, she entrapped her husband likewise, and they both fell into the deep pit of blasphemy. This catastrophe was mainly attributable to the influence of Eudoxius, who, at this period, was at the head of the church of Constantinople, and who was more capable of submerging it than of guiding it aright.