“How is this? Do you invoke the name of Christ after having publicly renounced him?”
“What do you mean?” inquired Valentinian, alarmed and surprised.
“I mean,” was the reply, “that you have just offered incense to the gods upon one of their altars.”
Valentinian immediately rose, and, hastening to the presence of the emperor, laid down at his feet the precious gifts he had received, saying,—
“Sire, I am a Christian. I wish all the world to know it. I have not intentionally renounced my Saviour, Jesus Christ. If my hand has erred, my heart has not followed it: the emperor has deceived me. I renounce the act of impiety, and am ready to make expiation with my blood.”
Jovian, and Valentinian’s brother Valens, did the same with their gifts. The emperor was exasperated. In the first impulse of his rage, he ordered them to be led immediately to execution. As the executioner stood ready with his heavy sword to sever their heads from their bodies, and the victims were upon their knees to receive the death-blow, a herald hastily approached, and arrested the execution. The emperor, upon reflection, deemed it not wise for such an offence to consign to death three of the best and most influential officers in his army.
Another characteristic anecdote is related of Valentinian, worthy of record. He was commander of the imperial guard. As such, it was necessary for him, upon all important occasions, to be at the side of the emperor. At one time, when Julian, in performance of some rites of the pagan religion, was enteringthe Temple of the Goddess of Fortune, dancing in religious homage, two priests stood, one on each side of the vestibule, to sprinkle the emperor with holy-water. This was a pagan rite which the Papal Church has transferred from the temples of idolatry to the sanctuaries of Christ.
A drop of this water fell upon the dress of Valentinian. Turning to one of the priests, he said, “You have sullied my garments.” Immediately he tore from his robe the portion upon which the water consecrated to idols had fallen.
The emperor was so irritated, that for a time he banished him from his command. It is said that Julian would not put him to death, because, with strange inconsistency, he was unwilling that he should wear the crown of martyrdom. Such was the character of the Christian Valentinian, upon whose shoulders the robes of imperial purple were now placed.
Valentinian seems to have proved himself, in all respects, worthy of his high position. He was majestic in stature, commanding in intellect, and of irreproachable purity of morals. He was crowned by the army at Nice, in Bithynia; his brother Valens receiving from him the appointment of assistant emperor. The Eastern empire, from the Danube to the confines of Persia, was assigned to Valens, with Constantinople for his capital. Valentinian took charge of the Western empire, selecting the city of Milan for his metropolis.