XXI. CHA P. lefs and extravagant accufations. Their language was fpecious; their conduct was honourable: but in this long and obftinate conteft, which fixed the eyes of the whole empire on a fingle bifhop, the ecclefiaftical factions were prepared to facrifice truth and justice, to the more interesting object of defending, or removing, the intrepid champion of the Nicene faith. The Arians ftill thought it prudent to difguife in ambiguous language, their real fentiments and defigns: but the orthodox bishops, armed with the favour of the people, and the decrees of a general council, infisted on every occafion, and particularly at Milan, that their adverfaries fhould purge themselves from the suspicion of herefy, before they prefumed to arraign the con. duct of the great Athanafius 27. Condemn- Athanafius, But the voice of reafon (if reafon was indeed on the fide of Athanafius) was filenced by the clamours of a factious or venal majority; and the councils of Arles and Milan were not diffolved, till the archbishop of Alexandria had been fo lemnly condemned and depofed by the judgment of the Western, as well as of the Eastern, church. The bishops who had oppofed, were required to fubfcribe, the fentence; and to unite in religious communion with the fufpected leaders of the adverfe party. A formulary of confent was tranf, mitted by the meffengers of ftate to the abfent bifhops and all thofe who refufed to fubmit their private opinion to the public and infpired wisdom of the councils of Arles and Milan, were 127 Sulp. Severus in Hift. Sacra, 1. ii. p. 412. immediately XXI. immediately banished by the emperor, who affect- CHAP. 128 The exile of Liberius is mentioned by Ammianus, XV. 7. See Bb 4 refolution XXI. CHA P. refolution of Liberius and Ofius was at length fubdued by the hardships of exile and confinement. The Roman pontiff purchased his return by fome criminal compliances; and afterwards expiated his guilt by a feafonable repentance. Perfuafion and violence were employed to extort the reluctant fignature of the decrepid bifhop of Cordova, whofe ftrength was broken, and whofe faculties were perhaps impaired, by the weight of an hundred years; and the infolent triumph of the Arians provoked fome of the orthodox party to treat with inhuman feverity the character, or rather the memory, of an unfortunate old man, to whofe former fervices Chriftianity itself was fo deeply indebted 129. Exiles. The fall of Liberius and Ofius reflected a brighter luftre on the firmnefs of thofe bishops who still adhered, with unfhaken fidelity, to the cause of Athanafius and religious truth. The ingenious malice of their enemies had deprived them of the benefit of mutual comfort and advice, feparated thofe illuftrious exiles into diftant provinces, and carefully felected the moft inhofpitable fpots of a great empire 130, Yet they foon 129 The life of Chus is collected by Tillemont (tom. vii. p. 524561.), who in the most extravagant terms firft admires, and then reprobates, the bishop of Cordova. In the midft of their lamentations on his fall, the prudence of Athanafius may be diftinguithed from the blind and intemperate zeal of Hilary. 130 The confeffors of the Weft were fucceffively banished to the deferts of Arabia or Thebais, the lonely places of Mount Taurus, the wildest parts of Phrygia, which were in the poffeffion of the im. pious Montanists, &c. When the heretic Etius was too favourably entertained at Moplucftia in Cilicia, the place of his exile wa; changed, foon experienced that the deferts of Libya, and CHA P. the most barbarous tracts of Cappadocia, were XXI. lefs inhofpitable, than the refidence of thofe cities in which an Arian bishop could fatiate, without restraint, the exquifite rancour of theological hatred 132. Their confolation was derived from the consciousness of rectitude and independence, from the applaufe, the vifits, the letters, and the liberal alms of their adherents 132; and from the fatisfaction which they foon enjoyed of obferving the intestine divifions of the adverfaries of the Nicene faith. Such was the nice and capricious taste of the emperor Conftantius, and so easily was he offended by the flighteft deviation from his imaginary standard of Christian truth ; that he perfecuted, with equal zeal, thofe who defended the confubftantiality, those who afferted the fimilar fubftance, and those who denied the likeness, of the Son of God. Three bishops, degraded and banished for thofe adverfe opinions, might poffibly meet in the fame place of exile; and according to the difference of their temper, might either pity or infult the blind enthufiafm of their antagonists, whose present sufferings would never be compenfated by future happiness. changed, by the advice of Acacius, to Amblada, a diftrict inha. bited by favages, and infefted by war and pestilence. Philoftorg. 1. v. c. 2. 131 See the cruel treatment and strange obftinacy of Eufebius, in his own letters, published by Baronius, A. D. 356. No 92-10". 132 Cæterum exules fatis conftat, totius orbis ftudiis celebratos pecuniafque eis in fumptum affatim congeftas legationibus quoque cos plebis Catholicæ ex omnibus fere provinciis frequentatos. Suip. Sever. Hist. Sacra. P. 414. Athanaf. tom. i, p. 836. 840, The CHAP. XXI. Third ex pulfion of Athanafius andria. A.D. 356. The difgrace and exile of the orthodox bishops of the Weft were defigned as fo many preparatory fteps to the ruin of Athanafius himself 133. and twenty months had elapfed, during which from Alex- the Imperial court fecretly laboured, by the most infidious arts, to remove him from Alexandria, and to withdraw the allowance which fupplied his popular liberality. But when the primate of Egypt, deferted and profcribed by the Latin church, was left deftitute of any foreign fupport, Conftantius dispatched two of his fecretaries with a verbal commiffion to announce and execute the order of his banishment. As the juftice of the fentence was publicly avowed by the whole party, the only motive which could restrain Conftantius from giving his meffengers the fanction of a written mandate, must be imputed to his doubt of the event; and to a fenfe of the danger to which he might expofe the fecond city, and the moft fertile province of the empire, if the people fhould perfift in the refolution of defending, by force of arms, the innocence of their fpiritual father. Such extreme caution, afforded Athanafius a fpecious pretence refpectfully to difpute the truth of an order, which he could not reconcile, either with the equity, or with the former declarations, 133 Ample materials for the hiftory of this third perfecution cf Athanafius may be found in his own works. See particularly his very able apology to Conftantius (tom. i. p. 673.), his firft Apology for his flight (p. 701.), his prolix epifle to the Solitaries (p. 8o8.), and the original Proteft of the People of Alexandria against the violences committed by Syrianus (p. 866.). Sozomen (1. iv. c. 9) has thrown into the narrative two or three luminous and important circumftances. |
