How Valens Fell into Heresy

I will now continue my narrative and describe the beginning of the storm that stirred up many great waves to batter the church. Valens, when he first received the imperial dignity, was distinguished for his faithfulness to the teaching of the apostles. But when the Goths had crossed the Danube and were ravaging Thrace, he decided to gather an army and march against them. And he resolved not to take the field without the garment of divine grace, but first to protect himself with the full armor of holy baptism. In making this decision he acted both well and wisely. But what he did next shows very great weakness of character, and ended in his abandoning the truth. His fate was the same as that of our first father, Adam. For he too was won over by the arguments of his wife, lost his freedom, and became not only a captive but an obedient listener to a woman’s crafty words. His wife had already been caught in the Arian snare, and now she caught her husband, and persuaded him to fall with her into the pit of blasphemy. Their leader and initiator was Eudoxius, who still held the tiller of Constantinople, with the result that the ship was not steered onward but sunk to the bottom. [a]