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 VALENTINE

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VALENTINIAN

rite, the child died, and the saint escaped the threat- ened exile. In 347, at Antioch, there was a curious anticipation of modern "spirit rapping": a spirit, asked to spell the name of him who should succeed Valens, was supposed to have rapped out the Greek letters SEOA which begin the name Thendorus. The lives of Theodorus, an oflicial of the imperial Court, and of those who had prepared this manifestation were forfeited, though the spirit may have meant to indicate Theodosius.

Throughout his reign, Valens had to defend his frontiers against formidable enemies. From 3(37 to 369 the Goths battleil with the imperial forces, until an agreement was reached, fi.xing the Danube as the southern boundary of their settlements. Frequent incursions of the Isaurians demanded attention. In 373 Sapor (Shapur) II, King of Persia, having in- vaded Armenia, was driven back beyond the Tigris. The Huns and Alans were meanwhile pressing upon the rear of the Goths north of the Danube. In 376 the latter obtained permission to settle south of the river as peaceable colonists, unarmed; but when the imperial commissioners abused theii- authority to plunder the strangers, these turned in exasperation to make common cause with their fellow-barbarians from whom they had but recently fled. Huns, Alans, and Goths under Fridigern were surprised and defeated in 378 by Sebastian, the imperial general, and Valens himself hastened from his capital to com- plete the conquest before his nephew Gratian, who had succeeded Valentinian, could reach the enemy. As the emperor was leaving Constantinople, a monk openly prophesied his speedy death. Valens caused the prophet of evil to be imprisoned pending his re- turn from Thrace. But the emperor never returned. Defeated by the barbarians near Adrianople, he took refuge in a country house and there perished in the conflagration with which the Goths or their allies un- wittingly avenged the death of St. Urbanus and his companions.

(See also Abianism; Athan.^sius, S.unt; Meletius OF Antioch.)

St. B.V8IL, Epistola: in P. 6., XXII; de Brogue, L'Eglise el I'Empire Romain; Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (London, 1S96); Newman, The Arians of the Fourth Century.

E. Macpherson.

Valentine, Saint. — At least three different Saint Valentines, all of them martyrs, are mentioned in the early martyrologies under date of 14 February. One is described as a priest at Rome, another as Bishop of Interamna (the modern Terni), and these two seem both to have suffered in the second half of the third century and to have been buried on the Flaminian Way, but at different distances from the city. In Wilham of Malmesbury's time what was known to the ancients as the Flaminian Gate of Rome and is now the Porta del Popolo, was called the Gate of St. Valentine. The name seems to have been taken from a small church dedicated to the saint which was in the immediate neighbourhood. Of both tliese St. Valen- tines some sort of Acta are preserved but they are of relatively late date and of no historical value. Of the third St. Valentine who suffered in Africa with a number of companions nothing further is known.

The popular customs connected with Saint Valen- tine's Day undoubtedly haii their origin in a conven- tional behef generally recei\cd in England and France during the iNIiddle Ages, that on 14 February, i. e. half way through the second month of the year, the birds began to jwir. Thus in Chaucer's "Parliament of Foules" we read;

For this was on Seynt Valentyne's day

Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.

For this reason the day was looked upon as specially consecrated to lovers and as a proper occasion for writing love letters and sending lovers' tokens. Both the French and English literatures of the fourteenth

and fifteenth centuries contain allusions to the prac- tice. Perhaps the earliest is to be found in the 34th and 3.5th ''Ballades" of the bilingual poet, John Gower. written in French; but Lydgate and Clauvowe supply other examples. Those who chose each other under these circumstances seem to have been called by each othertheir Valentines. Inthe"PastonLetters", Dame Elizabeth Brews writes thus about a match she hopes to make for her daughter (we modernize the spelling), addressing the favoured suitor: "And, cousin mine, upon Monday is St. Valentine's day and every bird chooseth himself a mate, and if it like )'ou to come on Thursday night, and make provision that you may abide till then, I trust to God that ye shall speak to my husband and I shaO pray that we may bring the matter to a conclusion." Shortly after the young lady herself wrote a letter to the same man ad- dressing it "Unto my right well beloved Valentine, John Paston Esquire". The custom of choosing and sending valentines has of late years fallen into comparative desuetude.

Herbert Thurston.

Valentine, Pope, date of birth unknown; d. about October, 827. Valentine was by birth a Roman, belonging to the Via Lata district. While still a youth he entered the service of the Church. His biographer in the "Liber pontificahs" (ed. Duchesne, II, 71-2) praises his piety and puritj- of morals, which won him the favour of Paschal I (817-24). Paschal ordained Valentine subdeacon and deacon, employed him at the Lateran palace, and placed him as arch- deacon at the head of the Roman diaconate. Valen- tine retained his influential position during the pontif- icate of Eugene II (824-7), and after Eugene's death (27 August, 827) was unanimously elected his succes- sor by the clergy, nobles, and people of Rome. The election had taken place at the Lateran whence the entire company proceeded to Santa Maria Maggiore, where Valentine was tarrying in prayer. He was led to the Lateran basilica and placed upon the papal throne. After this, probably on the succeeding Sunday, he was consecrated bishop at St. Peter's, and then enthroned as pope. No information has been preserved of his brief reign; he died after he had occupied the papal .see forty days according to the "Liber pontificahs", and barely a month according to the testimonv of the "Annales" of Einhard (ad an. 827).

Liber Poutificalis, ed. Duchesne, II, 71-2; Lanoen, Gesch. der r6mischen Kirche. II (Bonn, 1885), 815-6.

J. P. KiRSCH.

Valentinian, the name of three Emperors of the West.

Valentinian I (Flavius Valentinianus), 364-75, b. at Cibalis (probably Mikanovici), Pannonia, Hun- gary, of humble parents, in 321; d. at Bregetio, near Pressburg, 17 Nov., 375. He entered the army early, became a tribune of the scutarii about 360, and accom- panied Juhan the Apostate to .\ntioch, whence in 363 he was exiled to Gaul for refusing to honour idols. On Jovian's death Valentinian was proclaimed em- peror (26 Feb., 364), and at once he appointed his brother Valens ruler of the East. In 365 he went again to Gaid to stop the inroads of the Alammani and Burgundians; the former were defeated at Char- peigne and ChCilon.s-sur-Marne, but in 367 captured ^lainz. .\ little later they were overthrown by Val- entinian at Solicinium, but with heavy Roman losses. In 374 Valentinian concluded a treaty with their king Macrianus. In 368 the Picts and Scots were driven back from Britain, and the province of Valenlia formed. While in Gaul Valentinian repudiated his first wife Valeria Severa, or at least he married a Sicilian, Justina, who became the mother of Valen- tinian II. In June, 374, the emperor was called to Illyricum by the incursions of the Quadi and Sarma-