CHAPTER II.

THE INVASIONS OF THE BARBARIANS (395-496).

Three Divisions: The Heresies and the Doctors-The Barbarians.— The Saints.

§ 1-THE HERESIES AND THE DOCTORS.

Condition of the Roman Empire.

When Theodosius the Great died (395), the Roman Empire only supported itself by the prestige of its name. The barbarian people, the Goths, sub-divided into Ostrogoths (in the East), and Visigoths (in the West), Vandals, Burgundians, Franks, Saxons, &c., remained near the frontiers, ready to cross as soon as they found there was no emperor who was capable of repelling them. In the interior, the barbarian soldiers formed the principal armed force; foreigners, such as the Vandal Stilicho, in the West, and the Gaul Rufinus, in the East, who occupied the principal posts. The empire was at that time divided into two parts, which were not destined to be ever again united; the empire of the West, where the feeble Honorius reigned, and the empire of the East governed by Arcadius, who was as incapable as his brother. If to these causes of ruin is added the corruption of morals brought on by long prosperity, habits of luxury and effeminacy, and divisions excited by the heresies, we shall understand that the

Roman Empire was in a state of complete decay, and that the field was free for the Barbarians. God wished to punish Roman corruption, and to regenerate the whole Christian world; the empire was destined to fall, because, though having become Christian in name, it was not penetrated with the spirit of Christianity. There were a great many saints and fine characters, but the entire people was not transformed; the West was destined to undergo great sufferings, and new blood was required to restore it; the East was spared at first, but, soon becoming more guilty, was reserved for a more terrible chastisement on account of its continual infidelities.

The Schism of the Donatists.

The Donatist schism continued to agitate Africa. After the condemnation with which they had been struck, the Donatists, for a moment taken aback, became afterwards only the more furious. They invaded the churches with armed force, broke the altars and the consecrated vessels. Their impiety went so far as to rebaptise by main force, and, if anyone refused to consent to it, he was subjected to the most cruel treatment.

St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, then appeared as one of the greatest lights of the Church. He was born at Tagaste, in Numidia (354). The keen solicitude of his mother, St. Monica, prepared him from a tender age for Christianity. But pagan philosophy and Manichæism ruined his early years, and he gave himself up to disorders which drew him further and further from the truth, as he has related so energetically in his Confessions. Monica wept and prayed: Augustine passed two years at Rome and at Milan (383-384) as a public professor of eloquence, and attracted to himself great applause. In the last of these two cities, he had the good fortune of hearing St. Ambrose preach. There God

waited for him: he was struck all at once to the very depths of his soul with a ray of grace, he renounced the world and his former errors for ever; he completely changed his life, was admitted to baptism, ordained priest (393), and became Bishop of Hippo (395). From this moment, his life was nothing else but a continual battle against error and against corruption.

He underwent the greatest labours in order to bring back the Donatists into the bosom of the Church, and he succeeded in converting a great number. But the others only became the more furious; they laid snares for him, and this great Bishop would have perished, without a special protection of Providence, who destined him for other battles. The Catholic bishops, roused by these evils, proposed a conference; and all the bishops of Africa, the Donatists as well as the Catholics, repaired to Carthage. They chose on each side seven bishops, in order to confer together in the name of all the others. The Catholic bishops, to the number of nearly three hundred, gave an admirable example of generosity; they offered to yield their Sees to the Donatist bishops, provided that these were willing to put an end to the schism, and re-unite themselves to the Church. St. Augustine, who had inspired his colleagues with this admirable. moderation, was one of the seven bishops chosen by the Catholics. All was carried on with great order. St. Augustine, commissioned to sustain the rights of the Catholic Church, proved with evidence that there could not be any legitimate reason for breaking with unity, and that the Donatists had no alternative, if they wished to be saved, but to return to the Church. The schismatic bishops had nothing solid to oppose to this cogent reasoning of St. Augustine; the people opened their eyes after this, for they saw clearly how error had been vanquished in this famous conference, and thus they returned to the Church in crowds (411).

End of St. John Chrysostom.

St. Innocent I. (402-417), successor of St. Anastasius (398-401), who had succeeded St. Sericius, then governed the Church. He witnessed the commencement of the invasions of the western barbarians; and the joy that he felt at the extinction of the schism in Africa, was troubled by the persecution that St. Chrysostom had to endure in the East.

This great saint, who was raised to the See of Constantinople, carried on in his province, with an intrepid zeal, the reform of the clergy, and the repression of all abuses; this raised up for him a great number of enemies, and these worked against him with so much cleverness, that they even persuaded St. Epiphanius, Archbishop of Salamina, in Cyprus, that Chrysostom was a heretic, and partook of the errors of Origen,* which were then beginning to agitate consciences. The Patriarch of Alexandria, named Theophilus, a violent and ambitious man, showed himself one of the most bitter enemies of the holy Patriarch of Constantinople, and he even came to persecute him in his episcopal city. A powerful party was formed against St. John Chrysostom. A homily of his, against the luxury and the looseness of women, was represented to the Empress Eudoxia as a personal allusion, directed against herself and against the ladies of her court. The Empress excited the Emperor against the zealous Patriarch; all the words and acts of the saint were misrepresented and envenomed, which at length brought about his banishBut the love of the faithful for their venerable

ment.

• This great Doctor, Origen, was never a heretic, since he was not condemned; but his books contain the germs of serious errors which were developed in the fifth century, and which brought some trouble to the Church.

pastor then shone forth. St. Chrysostom had been taken into exile during the night, and transported to the coast of Asia; his people, hearing of his banishment, filled all the churches and public places with groans and clamours. The following night an earthquake shook the city and all its environs. The Empress Eudoxia became alarmed herself, and she sent for St. John Chrysostom, with a letter composed thus: "Let your holiness believe that "they have done it unknown to me. I am not guilty of "this injustice. The plot is the work of perverse and "wicked men. God is a witness to the tears that I "offer him in sacrifice. I do not forget that my chil"dren received baptism at your hands." St. Chrysostom returned in triumph to his people; his enemies disappeared in confusion, and Theophilus, of Alexandria, being again in Egypt, ceased to persecute the monks who had taken part with the Patriarch of Constantinople.

The calm which was so suddenly re-established had only lasted two months, when Eudoxia's fears passed away, and her hatred again prevailed. Some new abuses, which the saint pointed out with an intrepid energy, owed their origin to her; and there was no difficulty in persuading her that St. John Chrysostom had thus personally insulted her. She resolved to ruin him. "Herodias has become furious," cried out Chrysostom, one day, who did not ignore that they were conspiring against him; "she is again dancing, and asking afresh "for the head of John." She in fact obtained it, for the Emperor Arcadius sent him an order to go into exile. "I have received my church from God," said the brave patriarch, "and I shall not abandon her unless your "soldiers carry me away." The Emperor did not scruple to use violence. St. Chrysostom was forced to leave Constantinople, and an intruder was put in his place.

The desolated Church of Constantinople had recourse