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AT a later time the actual remains of the great doctor were conveyed
to the imperial city, and once again the faithful crowd turning the sea
as it were into land by their close packed boats, covered the mouth of
the Bosphorus towards the Propontis with their torches. The precious
possession was brought into Constantinople by the present emperor, who
received the name of his grandfather and preserved his piety undefiled.
After first gazing upon the bier he laid his head against it, and
prayed for his parents and for pardon on them who had ignorantly
sinned, for his parents had long ago been dead, leaving him an orphan
in extreme youth, but the God of his fathers and of his forefathers
permitted him not to suffer trial from his orphanhood, but provided for
his nurture in piety, protected his empire from the assaults of
sedition, and bridled rebellious hearts. Ever mindful of these
blessings he honours his benefactor with hymns of praise. Associated
with him in this divine worship are his sisters, who have maintained
virginity throughout their lives, thinking the study of the divine
oracles the greatest delight, and reckoning that riches beyond
robbers' reach are to be found in ministering to the poor. The
emperor himself was adorned by many graces, and not least by his
kindness and clemency, an unruffled calm of soul and a faith as
undefiled as it is notorious. Of this I will give an undeniable
proof.
A certain ascetic somewhat rough of temper came to the emperor with a
petition. He came several times without attaining his object, and at
last excommunicated the emperor and left him under his ban. The
faithful emperor returned to his palace, and as it was the time for the
banquet, and his guests were assembled, he said that he could not
partake of the entertainment before the interdict was taken off. On
this account he sent the most intimate of his suite to the bishop,
beseeching him to order the imposer of the interdict to remove it. The
bishop replied that an interdict ought not to be accepted from every
one, and pronounced it not binding, but the emperor refused to accept
this remission until the imposer of it had after much difficulty been
discovered, and had restored the communion withdrawn. So obedient was
he to divine laws.
In accordance with the same principles he ordered a complete
destruction of the remains of the idolatrous shrines, that our
posterity might be saved from the sight of even a trace of the ancient
error, this being the motive which he expressed in the edict published
on the subject. Of this good seed sown he is ever reaping the fruits,
for he has the Lord of all on his side. So when Rhoilas, Prince of
the Scythian Nomads, had crossed the Danube with a vast host and was
ravaging and plundering Thrace, and was threatening to besiege the
imperial city, and summarily seize it and deliver it to destruction,
God smote him from on high with thunderbolt and storm, burning up the
invader and destroying all his host. A similar providence was shewn,
too, in the Persian war. The Persians received information that the
Romans were occupied elsewhere, and so in violation of the treaty of
Peace, marched against their neighbours, who found none to aid them
under the attack, because, in reliance on the Peace, the emperor had
despatched his generals and his men to other wars. Then the further
march of the Persians was staved by a very violent storm of rain and
hail; their horses refused to advance; in twenty days they had not
succeeded in advancing as many furlongs. Meanwhile the generals
returned anti mustered their troops.
In the former war, too, these same Persians, when besieging the
emperor's eponymous city, were providentially rendered ridiculous.
For after Vararanes had beset the aforesaid city for more than thirty
days with all his forces, and had brought up many helepoles, and
employed innumerable engines, and built up lofty towers outside the
wall, resistance was offered, and the assault of the attacking engines
repelled, by the bishop Eunomius alone. Our men had refused to fight
against the foe, and were shrinking from bringing aid to the besieged,
when the bishop, by opposing himself to them, preserved the city from
being taken. When one of the barbarian chieftains ventured on his
wonted blasphemy, and with words like those of Rabshakeh and
Sennacherib, madly threatened to burn the temple of God, the holy
bishop could not endure his furious wrath, but himself commanded a
balista, which went by the name of the Apostle Thomas, to be set up
upon the battlements, and a mighty stone to be adjusted to it. Then,
in the name of the Lord who had been blasphemed, he gave the word to
let go, down crashed the stone on that impious chief and hit him on his
wicked mouth, and crushed in his face, and broke his head in pieces,
and sprinkled his brains upon the ground. When the commander of the
army who had hoped to take the city saw what was done, he confessed
himself beaten and withdrew, and in his alarm made peace.
Thus the universal sovereign protects the faithful emperor, for he
clearly acknowledges whose slave he is, and performs fitting service to
his Master.
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