Gregory Comes to Constantinople, and Theodosius Is Baptized

By the common vote of many bishops, Gregory was at this time moved from the see of Nazianzus to that of Constantinople, in the way described earlier. About the same time the emperors Gratian and Theodosius each won a victory over the barbarians. Gratian at once set out for Gaul, because the Alemanni were ravaging those provinces. But Theodosius, after setting up a monument to his victory, hurried toward Constantinople and came to Thessalonica. There he fell dangerously ill and expressed a wish to receive Christian baptism. He had been taught the Christian faith by his forebears and professed the homoousian faith. So, growing more and more anxious to be baptized as his illness got worse, he sent for the bishop of Thessalonica and first asked him what doctrine he held. The bishop answered “that the opinion of Arius had not yet invaded the provinces of Illyricum, nor had the novelty that heretic had brought into being begun to prey on the churches in those regions; they still kept unshaken the faith that was handed down by the apostles from the beginning and had been confirmed at the Synod of Nicaea.” At this the emperor was baptized most gladly by the bishop, Ascholius. Not many days later he recovered from his illness, and he came to Constantinople on the twenty-fourth of November, in the fifth consulship of Gratian and the first of his own. [a]