Orthodox
bishops and priests were expelled from their sees and offices to make
room for “betrayers of the faith,” i.e. men who had
apostatized to Arianism. The mingled tumult of blasphemy and
foreign onslaughts is a description of the condition of the eastern
provinces of the empire, where Arianism was rampant, and all was
overrun by the Goths. The latter was regarded by some as the
result of the former. Thus St. Jerome: “Our sins are
the strength of the barbarians, our vices bring defeat upon the arms of
Rome.”—H. The provinces here mentioned lay along the
right bank of the Danube, and took in what is now Lower Hungary,
Servia, and Bulgaria. The result of the disaster of Hadrianople
was to put all these countries in the power of the Goths.