Among these laws or decrees tending to soothe the pangs of a suffering nation, we must note several that bear evident traces of a Christian inspiration. Thus, close to a law binding the tenant to the land on which he is condemned to live and die, we find another defending him against the excessive pretensions of the landowner. Elsewhere, if the authority of the judges is duly enforced, minute precautions are taken against their accidental or interested errors; they are ordered to enact their sentences in public, prohibited from holding property within the limits of their residence, and threatened with severe penalties if they should listen to the insinuations of informers. At the same time, physicians were appointed to attend the poor in large towns at the expense of the treasury, and other measures of a similar character were carried, all betraying a benevolent disposition totally unknown to the heathen world.
We must refer to the author's pages for many other instances of innovations in which we detect the increasing influence of Christianity, and draw the reader's notice to one of the most remarkable institutions of those times, out of which grew perhaps the ecclesiastical principalities of the feudal ages. As there was a constant stream of grievances and claims sent up from the provinces to the crown, Valentinian thought proper to appoint an official defender of their rights, defensor civitatis.
"Such was the title of a new office, which appears for the first time in 365, filling an intermediate station between the curia, or municipality, and the treasury. The duties of this new agent were twofold, and well adapted to the high-pressure mechanism which held the curiae responsible for the total amount of taxes due to the fiscus and allowed them at the same time to fall back on the small proprietors of the city. On the defender incumbs the duty, as a representative of the curiales, of discussing with the state the amount of the whole contingent; and then, with the curiales themselves, the aliquot part of each rate-payer. Himself a stranger to the curia, he is obliged at once to protect and keep it within bounds; to speak for it and against it; to defend it, to lighten its burden, and to prevent it from throwing that burden on other people's shoulders. In fact, the defender was something like the popular tribune, whose veto is now directed, not against aristocratical influence, but against the tyranny of the administration. In its decrepitude, the empire was returning, like many an old man, to the habits and ways of its childhood," (p. 51, seq.)
But the difficulty was to find a man of sufficient integrity, power, and influence to hold this delicate position between the crown and the nation. In the general downfall of public virtue, there was hardly a citizen or a landowner capable of fulfilling such arduous duties. His magistracy was elective; but it was soon found out that the bishop alone had both virtue and power to withstand the fitful caprices of imperial despotism, no less than the raging passions of the barbarians. Did Valentinian dream of such a result when be instituted the defensores? Doubtless not: and this very fact throws a flood of light upon the real state of things at the period we have before our eyes.
It is not merely in the West that we thus meet with the irresistible ascendency of Christianity, making its way both with and against temporal power; the same spectacle awaits us in a still more striking manner in the East. Every one is more or less familiar with the great struggle between Arianism and the illustrious Athanasius. That contest, however, bore more of a purely theological than of a political character, and we shall therefore pass on to scenes of a different nature, and perhaps less known to the general reader. The famous heresy, so like Protestantism in its main features, was fast dwindling into a court intrigue, though fostered by the weak arm of a Valens. Under that degenerate prince the orthodox bishops were once more banished from their sees; but the church had already overcome two recent persecutions, whilst the state had well nigh succumbed to four successive revolutions. Every man could now see with his own eyes where resided true influence and power, so that, even in a worldly view, it was no longer safe to trust solely to the sovereign's whim and pleasure. Valens himself was destined to experience, in his fatal downfall, that he would have to deal alike with a true bishop and a true statesman in the person of St. Basil, who ruled over the diocese of Caesarea.
The importance of Caesarea, as the ecclesiastical metropolis of Asia Minor, was very considerable, extending its jurisdiction over the independent exarchate of Pontus, and even beyond the limits of the empire, over Armenia and certain parts of Persia. Valens was desirous of placing at the head of this large see one of his Arian creatures; but at the very first rumor of such a scandal the whole population called for Basil, who had not yet been raised to the episcopal dignity. Shortly after, however, the old Bishop of Caesarea offered a share of his power to the popular candidate, who thus was brought forth to the foremost rank in the impending struggle between the church and the emperor.
Valens, after many delays, at last set out upon his progress through Asia Minor. He journeyed slowly, in order to make himself acquainted with the real feelings of the surrounding population. To secure a favorable reception, he sent before him his prefect Modestus, who took good care that no hostile figure should meet the eye of the sovereign. On entering any town, with a numerous retinue of courtiers, the prefect immediately sent for the bishop, and questioned him as to his dispositions in regard to the emperor's views. If the answer proved satisfactory, the prelate was loaded with honors and privileges; if, on the contrary, he adhered to the true faith, banishment or even death was awarded against him. The whole of Bithynia and Galatia was thus traversed by the imperial cortége, which met everywhere that silent attitude on the part of the people so often mistaken for a sincere feeling of satisfaction. At last Modestus entered Cappadocia, on his way to the city inhabited, one might almost say governed, by Basil. And here we must give way to our author's narrative, for no words of ours could supply the interest of the following scene:
"On his arrival in town, the prefect sent for the bishop. Basil obeyed the summons; when he entered the prefect's room, he maintained an attitude of calm superiority, which gave him, says Gregory Nyssa, far more the appearance of a physician visiting a patient than that of a delinquent before his judge. This firmness intimidated the prefect, who had recourse at first to mildness. 'The emperor is coming,' said he; 'pray beware, for he is highly irritated; and, for a mere scruple about a dogma, do not jeopardize wantonly the interests of your church: if, on the contrary, you show yourself submissive, you will feel the effects of his good-will' 'Pay attention yourself,' replied Basil, 'to the fact that you have no power over such men as seek for nothing else but the kingdom of God, and pray do not talk to me as you would to children.' 'Well, but won't you do anything for the emperor?' asked the prefect. 'Is it nothing in your eyes to see the emperor mingling with your flock and becoming one of your auditors? This is what you may gain by yielding a little, and by sacrificing one single word of the symbol.' 'Doubtless, it is a great thing to see an emperor at church, for it is a great thing to save a soul, not only the soul of an emperor, but the soul of any man, whatever it may be. And yet, far from adding to or taking from the symbol one single word, I would not even alter the disposition of the letters that make up the syllables.' 'What, will you forget so far the respect you owe to the emperor?' exclaimed Modestus in a loud voice, and giving way to impatience. 'But in what I do really offend him,' retorted Basil, 'is more than I can understand.' 'Why, you don't adopt his faith, when all around you submit to it.' 'But my own emperor wills it not; I can never worship a creature, having myself been created by God, and called to become one like unto him.' 'Well, but we who command in this place, what do you think of us! Are we nothing in your eyes? and would you not deem yourself happy to be our equal, and to be associated to our dignity?' 'You may lord it over us, and I by no means dispute your exalted rank. To be your equal is, doubtless, a fine thing; but I am already your equal, since you are, like myself, the creature of God, and since I am likewise the equal, which I deem an honor, of those whom you rule.' 'At least, don't you fear my power?' 'What can you do to me?' 'What?—why, inflict upon you any degree of suffering I may command.' 'Pray speak out clearly and tell me what?' 'Confiscation, banishment, tortures—death itself.' 'None of those things can reach me; a man who has nothing leaves nothing for confiscation; a man who is attached to no place, and looks upon himself everywhere as a stranger, is beyond the reach of banishment. What tortures can you inflict upon this weak body, when the very first blow will do for it at once? Indeed, indeed,' added Basil, pointing to his chest, 'you would do me a good service were you to rid me of this miserable pair of bellows. As for death, I should deem it a favor, as leading me to that God for whom I wish to live, and for whose cause I am already half dead.' 'Nobody ever dared,' interrupted Modestus, 'to speak to me in this way.' 'Because you never met a bishop.' Bewildered and angry, yet still afraid of carrying matters to the last extremities, Modestus put an end to the interview by giving the bishop one day for reflection. 'To-morrow you will find me what I am to-day,' concluded Basil, 'and I don't wish that you should yourself change in regard to me.'
"On the morrow, and on the following days, Valens was expected every hour. The bishop was besieged with parleys and entreaties of every description. There was not one noble personage who did not undertake to argue with the prelate. The head cook, Demosthenes—an influential man, by the by—returned constantly to the attack. Modestus, on the other hand, feeling vexed at having no better result to bring before the emperor, and anxious to avoid any charge of weakness, made public preparations for an execution. Heralds, lictors, executioners—every judicial agent was summoned, ready at a signal to seize upon the factious priest. Having thus taken every precaution, the prefect, somewhat abashed, yet confident at least in his preventive measures, repaired to the prince. 'Emperor,' said he, 'I have failed in my attempt; this man is unmanageable; threats, entreaties, kindness, are all unavailing with him. This is a matter of stern severity; do but give the order, and it shall be fulfilled.' But this was exactly what Valens was not inclined to do. Though no less incensed than bewildered, still be did not dare to shed such illustrious blood on the path he was about to enter. He reprieved the execution, and penetrated into the city in a sort of wavering state of mind, just like a piece of iron, says Gregory Nyssa, already melting in the fire; but nevertheless still remaining a bit of iron.