XXI. A. D. 336. CHAP. had not been countenanced by the submission, or even by the prefence, of Athanafius. He refolved to make a bold and dangerous experiment, whether the throne was inacceffible to the voice of truth; and before the final fentence could be pronounced at Tyre, the intrepid primate threw himself into a bark, which was ready to hoist fail for the Imperial city. The request of a formal audience might have been oppofed or eluded ; but Athanafius concealed his arrival, watched the moment of Conftantine's return from an adjacent villa, and boldly encountered his angry fovereign as he paffed on horfeback through the principal ftreet of Conftantinople. So ftrange an apparition excited his surprise and indignation; and the guards were ordered to remove the importunate fuitor; but his refentment was fubdued by involuntary refpect; and the haughty fpirit of the emperor was awed by the courage and eloquence of a bishop, who implored his juftice, and awaked his confcience 17. Conftantine liftened to the complaints of Athanafius with impartial and even gracious attention; the members of the fynod of Tyre were fummoned to justify their proceedings; and the arts of the Eufebian faction would have been confounded; if they had not aggravated the guilt of the primate by the dexterous fuppofition of an unpardonable offence; a criminal defign to intercept and detain the cornfleet of Alexandria, which fupplied the fubfiftence of the new capital. The emperor was fatisfied that the peace CHAP. XXI. of Egypt would be fecured by the absence of a 109 The death of that prince expofed Athanafius to a fecond perfecution; and the feeble Conftantius, the fovereign of the Eaft, foon became the fecret accomplice of the Eufebians. Ninety bishops of that fect or faction affembled at Antioch, under the fpecious pretence of dedicating the cathedral. They compofed an ambiguous creed, which is faintly tinged with the colours of Semi-Arianifm, and twenty-five canons, which still regulate the difcipline of the orthodox Greeks ". It was decided, with fome appearance of equity, that a bishop, deprived by a fynod, should not refume his epifcopal functions, till he had been abfolved by the judgment of an equal fynod; the law was immediately applied to the cafe of Athanafius; the council of Antioch pronounced, or rather confirmed, his degradation: a stranger named ration, XXI. III CHAP. Gregory, was feated on his throne; and Philagrius the præfect of Egypt, was inftructed to support the new primate with the civil and mili tary powers of the province. Oppreffed by the confpiracy of the Afiatic prelates, Athanafius withdrew from Alexandria, and paffed three *** years as an exile and a fuppliant on the holy threshold of the vatican ". By the affiduous study of the Latin language, he foon qualified himself to negotiate with the western clergy; his decent flattery fwayed and directed the haughty Julius: the Roman Pontiff was perfuaded to confider his appeal as the peculiar intereft of the Apoftolic fee; and his innocence was unanimously declared in a council of fifty bishops of Italy. At the end of three years, the primate was fummoned to the court of Milan by the emperor Conftans, who, in the indulgence of unlawful pleasures, ftill profeffed a lively regard for the orthodox faith. The caufe of truth and juftice was promoted by the influence of gold "*, and the minifters of Conftans advised their fovereign to require the convocation of an ecclefiaftical affembly, which might act as the reprefentatives of the Catholic A. D. 346. church Ninety-four bishops of the West, seventyfix bishops of the Eaft, encountered each other at Sardica, on the verge of the two empires, but in the dominions of the protector of Athanafius. Their debates foon degenerated into hoftile altercations; the Afiatics, apprehenfive for their perfonal fafety, retired to Philippopolis in Thrace; and the rival fynods reciprocally hurled their 114 fpiritual XXI. fpiritual thunders against their enemies, whom they CHAP. piously condemned as the enemies of the true God. Their decrees were published and ratified in their respective provinces; and Athanafius, who in the Weft was revered as a faint, was expofed as a criminal to the abhorrence of the Eaft "". The council of Sardica reveals the firft fymptoms of difcord and fchifm between the Greek and Latin churches, which were feparated by the accidental difference of faith, and the permanent diftinction of language. 116 ration, A. D. 349. During his fecond exile in the Weft, Athanafius and refowas frequently admitted to the Imperial prefence; at Capua, Lodi, Milan, Verona, Padua, Aqui. leia, and Treves. The bishop of the diocese usually affifted at these interviews; the mafter of the offices ftood before the veil or curtain of the facred apartment; and the uniform moderation of the primate might be attefted by these respect. able witneffes, to whofe evidence he folemnly appeals ". Prudence would undoubtedly fuggest the mild and refpectful tone that became a fub. ject and a bishop. In these familiar conferences with the fovereign of the West, Athanafius might lament the error of Conftantius; but he boldly arraigned the guilt of his eunuchs and his Arian prelates; deplored the diftrefs and danger of the Catholic church; and excited Conftans to emulate the zeal and glory of his father. The emperor declared his refolution of employing the troops and treafures of Europe in the orthodox caufe; and fignified, by a concife and peremptory epiftle Vol. III. T СНАР. XXI. 117 to his brother Conftantius, that unless he confented to the immediate reftoration of Athanafius, he himself, with a fleet and army, would feat the archbishop on the throne of Alexandria "". But this religious war, fo horrible to nature, was prevented by the timely compliance of Conftantius; and the emperor of the Eaft condefcended to folicit a reconciliation with a fubject whom he had injured. Athanafius waited with decent pride, till he had received three fucceffive epiftles full of the strongest affurances of the protection, the favour, and the esteem of his fovereign; who invited him to refume his epifcopal feat, and who added the humiliating precaution of engaging his principal ministers to atteft the fincerity of his intentions. They were manifefted in a ftill more public manner, by the ftrict orders which were dispatched into Egypt to recall the adherents of Athanafius, to restore their privileges, to proclaim their innocence, and to eraze from the public registers the illegal proceedings which had been obtained during the prevalence of the Eufebian faction. After every fatisfaction and fecurity had been given, which juftice or even delicacy could require, the primate proceeded, by slow journeys, through the provinces of Thrace, Afia, and Syria; and his progrefs was marked by the abject homage of the Oriental bishops, who excited his contempt without deceiving his penetration". At Antioch he faw the emperor Conftantius; sustained, with modeft firmness, the embraces and proteftations of his mafter, and |