Valentinianus
Valentinianus (1) I., emperor a.d. 364–375,
a native of Cibalis in Pannonia. Having
served in the army with distinction, he was
captain of the guards during the reign of
Julian, when he boldly confessed Christ.
Theodoret tells us (H. E. iii. 16) that when
Julian was one day entering the temple of
Fortune with great pomp, Valentinian was
marching in the procession before him. Two
priests were at the gate to sprinkle all who
entered with lustral water. Some fell upon
Valentinian's robe, whereupon, crying out that
he was defiled, not purified, he struck the
priest and banished him to a desert fortress.
When Jovian died, Valentinian was elected,
Feb. 26, 364, and reigned till his death, Nov.
17, 375. For an account of his civil history
see D. of G. and R. Biogr. He presents the
rare phenomenon of an emperor who, sincerely
attached to orthodoxy, was yet tolerant of the
Arians and other heretical sects. He published
an edict at the very beginning of his
reign, giving complete toleration in religious
opinion. To this fact we have the most
opposite testimonies. The emperor refers to
it in Cod. Theod. ix. 16. 9, in a law directed
against the practices of the haruspices.
Ammianus Marcellinus (xxx. 9) praises him
for it, and St. Ambrose, in his oration de
Obitu Valent. Junioris, implicitly censures him
(cf. Hilar. Pictav. Cont. Auxent. Opp. t. iii.
p. 64). His toleration did not, however,
extend to practices. Thus in Sept. 364 he
issued a law (Cod. Theod. ix. 16. 7) prohibiting
nocturnal sacrifices and magical incantations,
and further enforced it by legg. viii. and ix.
of the same title. These edicts seem to have
been issued more from a moral and social than
religious point of view. They were directed
against immorality, not paganism, as is
evident from the fact, which Ambrose (l.c.)
laments, that he tolerated the public profession
and practices of paganism in the Roman
senate-house. One circumstance demonstrates
his tolerance towards the followers of
the ancient religion. There is not a single
edict in the Theodosian code, lib. xvi. tit. x.—the
celebrated title de Paganis, which is filled
with persecuting laws—dating from any year
between 356 and 381; while the same remark
will also apply with one exception to the titles
de Haeretici and de Judaeis, lib. xvi. tit. v.
and viii. The one exception is the Manichean
heresy, which he strictly prohibited by a law
of 372 (Cod. Theod. xvi. v. 3) ordering the
punishment of their teachers and the confiscation
of the houses where they instructed their
pupils in Rome; for Manicheism seems at
that time to have assumed the character of a
philosophy rather than of a religion. That
this tolerant spirit of the emperor was helpful
to true religion appears from the fact that,
under Valentinian heathenism began first to
be called the peasant's religion ("religio
paganorum"), a name first so applied in a law
of 368 (ib. xvi. ii. 18). Valentinian legislated
also for the clergy (ib. xv. ii. 17–22), restraining
the tendency of rich men to take holy orders
to escape civil duties (legg. 17, 18, 19); and
rendering illegal the bequests to clergy and
monks from widows and virgins by a celebrated
law (leg. 20) addressed in 370 to Damasus, bp.
of Rome, under the description "De Vita,
998Honestate, Conversatione Ecclesiasticorum et
Continentium," which was the model for much
subsequent legislation. (Cf. the commentary
of Godefroy, Theod. Cod. t. vi. p. 54, where all
contemporary notices of this law are collected.)
The legislative activity of Valentinian in
every direction was very great, as shewn by
the Theodosian Code.
Other modern authorities are Clinton's
Fasti, i. 460, and appendix, pp. 110–119, where
is an exhaustive statement of all his legislation,
together with notices of medals, coins, etc.,
bearing on his reign, and De Broglie's L’Egdise
et l’Empire Romain, pt. iii. c. i.
[G.T.S.]
Valentinianus
Valentinianus (2) II., emperor, a.d.
375–392, son of Valentinian I. and of Justina, his
second wife. For his secular life see D. of G.
and R. Biogr. His name is celebrated in
church history in connexion with two matters:
(1) An attempt in 384 by the Roman Senate
to restore the altar of Victory and the pagan
rites connected with the Senate. We possess
the document Relatio Symmachi Urbis Praefecti
on the one side and the Epp. xvii. and xviii.
of St. Ambrose to Valentinian on the other
(cf. St. Ambr. opp. Migne, Patr. Lat. t. xvi.
col. 962–982 ). St. Ambrose carried the day,
and the senatorial petition was rejected, as
again in 391 (see Tillem. Emp. v. 244, 300,
349). (2) The other matter concerned the
necessity of baptism. Valentinian died at
Vienne in Gaul, being then about 20, and only
a catechumen. Being anxious to receive
baptism, he sent for St. Ambrose to baptize
him. Before the sacrament could be administered,
he was found dead. St. Ambrose's
treatise, de Obitu Valentiniani Consolatio, §§ 51–56,
shews how Ambrose rose superior to
any hard mechanical view of the sacraments
and recognized the sincere will and desire as
equivalent to the deed (cf. Tillem. Emp. v.
356; De Broglie, L’Eglise et l’Empire, pt. iii.
cc. v. and viii.). At one time Valentinian
was inclined to support the Arian party at
Milan, influenced by his mother Justina, who
was bitterly hostile to St. Ambrose. Sozomen
(H. E. vii. 13), followed by Ceillier (v. 386),
represents Valentinian and the empress as
persecuting St. Ambrose and the Catholics of
Milan in 386, referring to Cod. Theod. lib. xvi.
tit. i. leg. 4.
[Ambrosius;
Justina.]
[G.T.S.]