Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/510

488 THE DECLINE AND FALL in the tone of charity and resignation ; the private codicil breathed the direst anathemas against the authors of his dis- grace, whom he excluded for ever from the commmiion of the Holy Trinity, the angels, and the saints. This last paper he enclosed in an earthen pot, which was placed, by his order, on the top of one of the pillars in the dome of St. Sophia, in the distant hope of discovery and revenge. At the end of four years, some youths, climbing by a ladder in search of pigeons' nests, detected the fatal secret ; and, as Andronicus felt himself touched and bound by the excommunication, he trembled on the brink of the abyss which had been so treacherously dug under his feet. A synod of bishops was instantly convened to debate this important question ; the rashness of these clan- destine anathemas was generally condemned ; but, as the knot could be untied only by the same hand, as that hand was now deprived of the crosier, it appeared that this posthumous decree was irrevocable by any earthly power. Some faint testimonies of repentance and pardon were extorted from the author of the mischief; but the conscience of the emperor was still wounded, and he desired, with no less ardour than Athanasius himself, the restoration of a patriarch by whom alone he could be healed. At the dead of night a monk rudely knocked at the door of the royal bed-chamber, announcing a revelation of plague and famine, of inundations and earthquakes. Andronicus started from his bed, and spent the night in prayer, till he felt, or thought that he felt, a slight motion of the earth. The em- peror, on foot, led the bishops and monks to the cell of Athana- sius ; and, after a proper resistance, the saint, from whom this message had been sent, consented to absolve the prince and [A.D. 1303] govern the church of Constantinople. Untamed by disgrace and hardened by solitude, the shepherd was again odious to the flock ; and his enemies contrived a singular and, as it proved, a successful mode of revenge. In the night they stole away the foot-stool or foot-cloth of his throne, which they secretly replaced with the decoration of a satirical picture. The em- peror was painted with a bridle in his mouth, and Athanasius leading the tractable beast to the feet of Christ. The authors of the libel were detected and punished ; l)ut, as their lives had [A.D. 13U] been spared, the Christian priest in sullen indignation retired to his cell ; and the eyes of Andronicus, which had been opened for a moment, Avere again closed by his successor. If this transaction be one of the most curious and important of a reign of fifty years, I cannot at least accuse the brevity of