Christian Network
You are visitor: 
In Scotland the time is: 
Christian Network
IX. How during the reign of Gratian, Maximus, being created Emperor in Britain, returned into Gaul with a mighty army. [377 AD]
CHAP. VIII. How, when the persecution ceased, the Church in Britain enjoyed
peace till the time of the
Arian heresy. [325 AD]
When the storm of persecution ceased, the faithful Christians, who, during the
time of danger, had hidden themselves in woods and deserts and secret caves,
came forth and rebuilt the churches which had been levelled to the ground;
founded, erected, and finished the cathedrals raised in honour of the holy
martyrs, and, as if displaying their conquering standards in all places,
celebrated festivals and performed their sacred rites with pure hearts and lips.
This peace continued in the Christian churches of Britain until the time of the
Arian madness, which, having corrupted the whole world, infected this island
also, so far removed from the rest of the world, with the poison of its error;
and when once a way was opened across the sea for that plague, straightway all
the taint of every heresy fell upon the island, ever desirous to hear some new
thing, and never holding firm to any sure belief.
At this time Constantius, who, whilst Diocletian was alive, governed Gaul and
Spain, a man of great clemency and urbanity, died in Britain. This man left his
son Constantine [Constantine the Great] born of Helena, his concubine, emperor
of the Gauls. Eutropius writes that Constantine, being created emperor in
Britain, succeeded his father in the sovereignty. In his time the Arian heresy
broke out, and although it was exposed and condemned in the Council of Nicaea,
nevertheless, the deadly poison of its evil spread, as has been said, to the
Churches in the islands, as well as to those of the rest of the world.
CHAP. IX. How during the reign of Gratian, Maximus, being created Emperor in
Britain, returned into Gaul with a mighty army. [377 AD]
In the year of our Lord 377, Gratian, the fortieth from Augustus, held the
empire for six years after the death of Valens; though he had long before
reigned with his uncle Valens, and his brother Valentinian. Finding the
condition of the commonwealth much impaired, and almost gone to ruin, and
impelled by the necessity of restoring it, he invested the Spaniard, Theodosius,
with the purple at Sirmium, and made him emperor of Thrace and the Eastern
provinces. At that time, Maximus, a man of energy and probity, and worthy of the
title of Augustus, if he had not broken his oath of allegiance, was made emperor
by the army somewhat against his will, passed over into Gaul, and there by
treachery slew the Emperor Gratian, who in consternation at his sudden invasion,
was attempting to escape into Italy. His brother, the Emperor Valentinian,
expelled from Italy, fled into the East, where he was entertained by Theodosius
with fatherly affection, and soon restored to the empire, for Maximus the
tyrant, being shut up in Aquileia, was there taken by them and put to death.
