e
meantime, Maximus was growing more powerful in Britain, and Gratian, who
chiefly lived in Gaul, was disliked by the soldiers especially for
making friends with the young Gothic chief Alaric, whom he joined in
hunting in the forests of Gaul in a way they thought unworthy of an
Emperor. Finding that he was thus disliked, Maximus crossed the Channel
to attack him. His soldiers would not march against the British legions,
and he was taken and put to death, bitterly lamenting that he had so
long deferred his baptism till now it was denied to him.

Young Valentinian went on reigning at Milan, and Maximus in Gaul. This
last had become a Christian and a Catholic in name, but without laying
aside his fierceness and cruelty, so that, when some heretics were
brought before him, he had them put to death, entirely against the
advice of the great Saint and Bishop then working in Gaul, Martin of
Tours, and likewise of St. Ambrose, who had been sent by Valentinian to
make peace with the Gallic tyrant.

It was a time of great men in the Church. In Africa a very great man had
risen up, St. Augustine, who, after doubting long and living a life of
sin, was drawn to the truth by the prayers of his good mother Monica,
and, when studying in Italy, listened to St. Ambrose, and became a
hearty believer and maintainer of all that was good. He became Bishop of
Hippo in Africa.

[Illustration: CONVENT ON THE HILLS.]

But with the good there was much of evil. All the old cities, and
especially Rome, were full of a strange mixture of Christian show and
heathen vice. There was such idleness and luxury in the towns that
hardly any Romans had hardihood enough to go out to fight their own
battles, but hired Goths, Germans, Gauls, and Moors; and these learned
their ways of warfare, and used them in their turn against the Romans
themselves. Nothing was so much run after as the games in the
amphitheatres. People rushed there to watch the chariot races, and went
perfectly wild with eagerness about the drivers whose colors they wore;
and even the gladiator games were not done away with by Christianity,
although these sports were continually preached against by the clergy,
and no really devout person would go to the theatres. Much time was
idled away at the baths, which were the place for talk and gossip, and
where there was a soft steamy air which was enough to take away all
manhood and resolution. The ladies' dresses were exceedingly expensive
and ab