the son of Valentinian the First by his first wife, was declared Augustus by his father at the city of Amiens in 365, and succeeded him in 367. This prince was equally extolled for his wit, eloquence, modesty, chastity, and zeal against heretics. He associated Theodosius with him in the empire, and advanced the poet Ausonius to the consulate. He made a great slaughter of the Germans near Strasbourg; and was hence surnamed Alemannicus. He was the first emperor who refused the title of Pontifex Maximus, upon the score of its being a pagan dignity. He was assassinated by Andragathius in 375, in the twenty-fourth year of his age.

famous Benedictine monk of the twelfth century, was born at Chiusi in Tuscany. He employed above twenty-four years in composing a work entitled Decretum, vel Concordantia Discordantium Canonum, because he there endeavoured to reconcile the canons which seemed contradictory to each other. This work was first printed at Mentz in 1472. But as the learned Benedictine has frequently fallen into mistakes, both in regard to the canons and the fathers, and has often cited false decrets, several authors have endeavoured to correct his errors; particularly Anthony Augustin, in his excellent work entitled De Emendatione Gratiani. To the decrets of Gratian the popes principally owed the great authority which they exercised in the thirteenth and succeeding centuries.