On the Death of Theodosius · Part 3

the remedy of salvation, and by a certain invisible power torments demons! We thought that we had conquered, but we confess that we are conquered. Christ has risen again, and princes acknowledge that he has risen. He who is not seen lives again. Now we have a greater struggle; now the battle against him is more furious. We have despised Him whom kingdoms attend, whom power serves. How shall we resist kings? Kings are bowed down by the iron of his feet! Kings adore Him and Photinians deny His divinity! Emperors display the nail of His cross in their diadem, and Arians violate His power!

50. But I ask: Why is the holy relic upon the bridle, unless to curb the insolence of emperors, to check the wantonness of tyrants, who as horses neigh after lust, that they may be allowed to commit adultery unpunished? What infamies do we find of Nero, Caligula and the rest, because for them there was no holy thing upon the bridle?

51. What else therefore has the beneficence of Helen accom- plished when she gave direction to the reins, than to seem to say by the Holy Spirit to all emperors: “ Do not become like the horse and mule,” and in bridle and bit to bind the jaws of those who did not realize that they were kings to rule themselves, as subjects. For power was prostrated in vice, and like cattle they defiled them- selves by rampant lust. They knew not God. The cross of the Lord has restrained them and has recalled them from wickedness. It has raised their eyes that they might look toward heaven for Christ. They have stripped themselves of the bit of perfidy; they have taken up the reins of devotion and faith, following Him who said: “Take up my yoke upon you... for my yoke is sweet and my burden light.” And so the succeeding emperors were Chris- tians except Julian alone, who abandoned the Author of his salva- tion when he gave himself over to philosophic error. And so Gratian and Theodosius were Christians.

52. So then the prophecy has not led which says: “ Kings shall walk in thy light.” They shall walk openly and especially Gratian and Theodosius, surpassing the other princes; no longer protected by the weapons of soldiers but by their own merits; clothed not in purple garments, but in the mantle of glory. Since in this world they were delighted by the pardoning of many, how much the more are they consoled in the other life by the remembrance of their

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piety, in the recollection of the many they had spared? They now enjoy the radiant light, possessing far better dwellings there than they enjoyed here and saying: “ O Israel, how great is the house of the Lord, and how vast is the place of his possession! It is great and hath no end.” And they who have endured the greatest hard- ships confer with one another, saying: “It is good for a man when he hath borne the heavy yoke.” For he who has borne the heavy yoke from youth rests afterward. Apart from ‘the throng, he pos- sesses the distinguished place of his rest, saying: “Since Thou O Lord singularly hast settled me in hope.”

53. Lazarus, the poor man, bore the heavy yoke from his youth, therefore he rests apart in Abraham’s bosom, according to the testi- mony of the divine text. Theodosius bore the heavy yoke from youth, since those who killed his father, the conqueror, were plot- ting against his safety. He bore the heavy yoke, since he endured an exile of filial devotion; since he assumed the imperial power in the Roman empire when it was overrun by barbarians. He bore the heavy yoke that he might remove tyrants from the Roman empire. But because here he laboured, there he rests.

54, But now let us come to the transmission of the illustrious body. You weep, Honorius, august scion, and by your tears express filial love, because you transport through a great distance the body of your father thus far unvenerated by the honor of a tomb. But the patriarch Jacob, because of the necessity of liberating his people whom dire famine was pressing with great danger, left his home, though an old man, and hastened to a strange country; and after he died there, he was borne to the sepulchre of his fathers, a journey

of some days, accompanied by his son. Nor was there anything.

taken away from his merits, but rather his praise was augmented, because, for the sake of his own, he was deprived by fate of his rightful home and travelled in a sort of exile after death.

55. You weep, also, august Emperor because you yourself will not accompany the honored remains to Constantinople. The cause is alike for you and for us. We all accompany them with rightful sorrow. We all should like, if it were possible, to go with you as an escort for the body. But Joseph went into a neighboring provy- ince. Here many divergent kingdoms intervene; here seas must be crossed. Even this would not be laborious to you, did not the public weal hold you, which good emperors place before parents

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and children. Finally then, your father made you emperor. God has confirmed this, so that you might not do military service for your father alone, but that you might have command over all.

56. Do not fear lest the triumphant body may seem to be un- honored wherever it goes. Italy does not feel so who has witnessed his magnificent triumphs, who, freed a second time from tyrants, acclaims the author of her liberty. Constantinople does not feel so, who a second time has sent a prince to victory; for though she wished to retain him, she was not able. She was indeed awaiting triumphal celebrations for his return and the tokens of victories. She was awaiting the Emperor of the whole world, surrounded by the army from Gaul and supported by the might of the whole world. But now Theodosius returns thither, more powerful, more glorious. Choirs of angels escort him. A multitude of saints accompanies him. Surely blessed art thou, Constantinople, who receivest a citi- zen of paradise, and who will possess in the august hospice of his buried body an inhabitant of the celestial city.