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throtigh cunning rattier than by valour, first of all attaches to 

 his guilty rule certain neighbouring counti'ies or provinces, 

 against the Eoman power, by acts of perjury and falsehood. He 

 Lhen extends one wing to Spain, the other to Italy, fixing the 

 throne of his iniquitous empire at Treves, and raged with such 

 madness against his lords that he drove the legitimate emperors, 

 the one from Rome, the other from a most pious life. Though 

 fortified by hazardous deeds of so dangerous a character, it was 

 not long ere he lost his accursed head at Aquileia, he who had, 

 in a way, cut off the crowned heads of the empire of the whole 

 world." 



Maximus had established himself at Treves as the capital of 

 his portion of the Empire, and doubtless Helen was there with 

 him. The tradition at Treves is that the present cathedral was 

 the palace of the Empress Helena, which she gave up to the 

 Church. To this day it bears evidence of having been adapted 

 from a domestic purpose to sacred usages. The atrium, open to 

 the sky, was only domed over comparatively late in Mediaeval 

 times. At Treves, however, Helen the British Princess, wife of 

 Maximus, has been confounded with Helena the mother of 

 Constantine; but there is no historical evidence for asserting 

 that the more famous Helena was ever there, and this misconcep- 

 tion has been made to serve as a basis for the origin of the "Holy 

 Coat," shown as a relic in the Cathedral. 



Whilst Maximus was at Treves, some Spanish bishops 

 appealed to him against Priscillian, Bishop of Avila, and others 

 who had been led away by his teaching, which was a fusion of 

 Manichseism with Christianity. 



By the sentence of the preetorian prefect at Treves, seven of 

 these heretics were tortured and executed. The first of these 

 were Priscillian himself, with two priests and two deacons. The 

 others were Latronian, a poet, and Euchrocia, a noble widow. 

 Thus Maximus obtained the odious notoriety of having been the 

 first among Christian princes to wield the sword of religious 

 persecution. It is pleasing to learn that S. Martin entreated the 

 Emperor to spare the lives of the victims. He insisted that 

 excommunication, pronounced against the heretics by episcopal 

 sentence, sufficed. Under the impression that he had succeeded in 

 his suit, having received the imperial promise of pardon, he left 



