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XXXIV. Theodosius
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294 Then the fabled Justinian, Roman judge, increased his abilities and his successes until he was very mighty indeed. He had such willing support from all his men that no one could resist his authority. He also became quite good at playing the lyre and added many other achievements to his name. He kept this up as long as he lived. But, finally, it happened that King Justinian seduced a lady and secretly slept with her. Her husband was named Marcellus; his brother was called Theodosius. When Marcellus found out that his wife was unfaithful to him, he spoke with great feeling. “By my love of God the Good! He will sorely regret this day what he has done!” He then crept stealthily and all alone to where the king was with his men who had arrived at his court. He approached the king, who was surrounded by his men, and ran him through with his sword, shouting defiantly, “The devil betrayed you, luring you into seducing my wife, but you will never seduce another woman ! My honor was very dear to me so long as I could maintain it. [It is gone, but] this is also your last day!” For a fact, Justinian had the Empire for just seven and a half years and twelve days more, and then this lord killed him. XXXIV Theodosius Early in his reign, Theodosius I, “the Great” (r. 379–395), established what became Roman Catholicism as the Roman state religion and, after some disputes with Saint Ambrose, accepted the principle that the emperor should be guided by the church in matters where church and state interests crossed. He was also a man of the utmost piety, who prayed long and fervently before battles and gave God full credit for his victories. His wife, Plakilla, as mentioned in the introduction to the previous chapter, may be the model for our author’s Tharsilla. Theodosius 295 The fact that a Council of Ephesus figures prominently in the account below, however, would point to Theodosius II as our author’s subject figure, since he convoked the first Council of Ephesus in 434 and the second in 448. Coping with heretics through councils or synods and debate— rather than simply trying to annihilate them—was part of church policy in the fourth and fifth centuries. In our author’s own day the handling of heresy was heading towards the prompt, physical elimination of offenders, and it is of some interest that the Book of Emperors defends the earlier policy of debate with heretics against the more recent policy of wiping them out. Arius taught, we recall, that there must have been a time when there was a God the Father but no God the Son. This teaching denies Jesus as co-eternal with God the Father and contradicts the opening passage in the book of John, which portrays Jesus as God’s Word, given at the dawn of eternity, that became flesh. Arius was accused of making Jesus into a separate, lesser divinity, and the Arian controversy rocked the church during the time of Constantine , who dealt with it at the Council of Nicaea. Arius died unexpectedly of unknown causes in 336. The story below that he died in a privy was widespread by the twelfth century. Theodosius II lived a century after Arius, and the Councils of Ephesus dealt with different questions. Debated at Ephesus was the Monophysite idea that Christ had only one (divine) nature—and not a human one—rather than the Arian heresy or the idea of the Resurrection. Saint Eusebius of Caesarea was the foremost chaplain of Constantine I, in whose service he distinguished himself as a Christian orator and historian in the 320s and 330s. The story of the devil entrapping a young man with a beautifiul statue was probably inspired by an account of Roman mirabilia. William of Malmesbury ’s Deeds of the Kings of England contains a more elaborate version some twenty-five years before the Book of Emperors was completed. The two accounts are similar enough that they may well descend from a common source that has been lost. [18.205.114.205] Project MUSE (2024-03-19 03:24 GMT) 296 Chapter Thirty-four the Book tells us that Theodosius, born a Greek, then held the Empire. He stood completely in the fear of God when he was chosen judge. He did many good works and devoted all his thoughts to how he might serve Holy Christ...