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cefs, Conftantius ventured to approve the conduct CHAP. of his minifters. By a public and paffionate epiftle, the emperor congratulates the deliverance of Alexandria from a popular tyrant, who deluded his blind votaries by the magic of his eloquence; expatiates on the virtues and piety of the most reverend George, the elected bishop; and afpires, as the patron and benefactor of the city, to furpass the fame of Alexander himself. But he folemnly declares his unalterable refolution to purfue with fire and fword the feditious adherents of the wicked Athanafius, who, by flying from juftice, has confeffed his guilt, and escaped the ignominious death which he had fo often deferved

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Athanafius had indeed escaped from the most His behaimminent dangers; and the adventures of that extraordinary man deferve and fix our attention. On the memorable night when the church of St. Theonas was invefted by the troops of Syrianus, the archbishop, feated on his throne, expected, with calm and intrepid dignity, the approach of death. While the public devotion was interrupted by shouts of rage, and cries of terror, he animated his trembling congregation to exprefs their religious confidence, by chanting one of the pfalms of David, which celebrates the triumph of the God of Ifrael over the haughty and impious tyrant of Egypt. The doors were at length burst open; a cloud of arrows was discharged among the people; the foldiers, with drawn fwords, rushed forwards into the fanctuary; and the dreadful

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CHAP. gleam of their armour was reflected by the holy luminaries which burnt round the altar "". Athanafius ftill rejected the pious importunity of the Monks and Presbyters, who were attached to his perfon; and nobly refufed to defert his epifcopal ftation, till he had difmiffed in fafety the laft of the congregation. The darkness and tumult of the night favoured the retreat of the archbishop; and though he was oppreffed by the waves of an agitated multitude, though he was thrown to the ground, and left without fense or motion, he ftill recovered his undaunted courage; and eluded the eager fearch of the foldiers, who were inftructed by their Arian guides, that the head of Athanafius would be the most acceptable present to the emperor. From that moment the primate of Egypt disappeared from the eyes of his enemies, and remained above fix years concealed in impenetrable obfcurity ".

His retreat, A. D. 356-363.

The defpotic power of his implacable enemy filled the whole extent of the Roman world; and the exasperated monarch had endeavoured, by a very preffing epiftle to the Chriftian princes of Ethiopia, to exclude Athanafius from the most remote and fequeftered regions of the earth. Counts, præfects, tribunes, whole armies, were fucceffively employed to purfue a bishop and a fugitive; the vigilance of the civil and military powers were excited by the Imperial edicts; liberal rewards were promised to the man who should produce Athanafius, either alive or dead; and the most severe penalties were denounced against

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those who should dare to protect the public CHAP. But the deferts of Thebaïs were now enemy peopled by a race of wild, yet fubmiffive fanatics, who preferred the commands of their abbot to the laws of their fovereign. The numerous disciples of Antony and Pachomius received the fugitive primate as their father, admired the patience and humility with which he conformed to their ftricteft inftitutions, collected every word which dropt from his lips as the genuine effufions of infpired wifdom; and perfuaded themselves, that their prayers, their fafts, and their vigils, were lefs meritorious than the zeal which they expressed, and the dangers which they braved, in the defence of truth and innocence """. The monasteries of Egypt were feated in lonely and defolate places, on the fummit of mountains, or in the islands of the Nile; and the facred horn or trumpet of Tabenne was the well-known fignal which affembled several thousand robuft and determined Monks, who, for the most part, had been the peasants of the adjacent country. When their dark retreats were invaded by a military force, which it was impoffible to refift, they filently ftretched out their necks to the executioner; and fupported their national character, that tortures could never wreft from an Egyptian the confeffion of a fecret which he was refolved not to dif close ***. The archbishop The archbishop of Alexandria, for whose safety they eagerly devoted their lives, was loft among a uniform and well-difciplined multitude; and on the nearer approach of danger,

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CHAP. he was swiftly removed, by their officious hands, from one place of concealment to another, till he reached the formidable deserts, which the gloomy and credulous temper of fuperftition had peopled with dæmons and favage monsters. The retirement of Athanafius, which ended only with the life of Conftantius, was fpent, for the moft part, in the fociety of the Monks, who faithfully ferved him as guards, as fecretaries, and as meffengers; but the importance of maintaining a more intimate connection with the Catholic party, tempted him, whenever the diligence of the purfuit was abated, to emerge from the defert, to introduce himself into Alexandria, and to truft his perfon to the difcretion of his friends and adherents. His various adventures might have furnished the fubject of a very entertaining romance. He was once fecreted in a dry ciftern, which he had fcarcely left before he was betrayed by the treachery of a female slave ***; and he was once concealed in a still more extraordinary afylum, the house of a virgin, only twenty years of age, and who was celebrated in the whole city for her exquifite beauty. At the hour of midnight, as she related the flory many years afterwards, she was furprised by the appearance of the archbishop in a loofe undrefs, who, advancing with hafty steps, conjured her to afford him the protection which he had been directed by a celeftial vifion to seek under her hofpitable roof. The pious maid accepted and preferved the facred pledge which was entrusted to her prudence and courage. Without imparting

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imparting the fecret to any one, she inftantly con- CHAP. ducted Athanafius into her moft fecret chamber and watched over his fafety with the tenderness of a friend and the affiduity of a fervant. As long as the danger continued, she regularly fupplied him with books and provifions, washed his feet, managed his correfpondence, and dexterously concealed from the eye of fufpicion, this familiar and folitary intercourfe between a faint whose character required the most unblemished chastity and a female whofe charms might excite the most dangerous emotions. During the fix years of perfecution and exile, Athanafius repeated his vifits to his fair and faithful companion; and the formal declaration, that he saw the councils of Rimini and Seleucia forces us to believe that he was fecretly prefent at the time and place of their convocation. The advantage of perfonally negociating with his friends, and of observing and improving the divifions of his enemies, might justify, in a prudent ftate fman, fo bold and dangerous an enterprife: and Alexandria was connected by trade and navigation with every feaport of the Mediterranean. From the depth of his inacceffible retreat, the intrepid primate waged an inceffant and offenfive war against the protector of the Arians;, and his feasonable writings, which were diligently circulated, and eagerly perused, contributed to unite and animate the orthodox party. In his public apologies, which he addreffed to the emperor himself, he fometimes affected the praise of moderation; whilft at the Vol. III. V

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