Page:Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography Volume 1.pdf/291

the emperor. Constantinople was dependent for its supply of corn on Egypt, and the prelate of Alexandria was accused of scheming to force the emperor into his measures by stopping the supplies of corn from that port. This charge prevailed. The emperor, sensitively alive to whatever threatened the prosperity of his new metropolis, was hurried into a belief of the calumny, and the innocent Athanasius was banished to the city of Treves in Gaul. His exile lasted only for a short time. In the year 337 Constantine died, and his son, Constantine II., who had obtained the western part of the empire, restored Athanasius to his see in the following year. Arius also was by this time dead, and it was hoped that the dissensions, of which he was the exciting cause, would cease, now that he was out of the way. This reasonable expectation, however, was not to be fulfilled. Though Athanasius was welcomed on his return to Alexandria with the liveliest demonstrations of joy on the part of the clergy and people, the party of Arius still remained, and were animated with unabated hostility to him. No sooner, therefore, was he reinstated in his office than they resumed their machinations for his downfall. Having succeeded in prejudicing the mind of the Emperor Constantine against him, they went so far as, in a council held at Antioch, to appoint Pistus to supersede him as archbishop of Alexandria. To counteract these proceedings, Athanasius convoked a council at Alexandria, by which he was acquitted of all the charges brought against him, and, with commendations of his character and administration, confirmed in his right to his see. Another council, however, convoked at Antioch where the emperor was present, and where his adversaries attended in force, revoked this decision, condemned Athanasius, and nominated Gregory, a native of Cappadocia, bishop in his stead. On the publication of this edict at Alexandria, the most violent scenes occurred. The new prelate, a man of fierce and vehement spirit, enforced submission to his rule by the most unscrupulous severity. The churches were violently occupied; the clergy who adhered to Athanasius were treated with the utmost indignity; virgins were scourged or beaten; and a ferocious soldiery let loose upon the people, committed the hideous excesses to which the unbridled license of such usually gives rise. Athanasius fled to Rome, where he found a protector in the Emperor Constans, who, as he had succeeded his brother in the larger part of his dominions, followed him also in his adoption of the Nicene doctrines. In a letter addressed to the bishops of every church, the exiled prelate detailed the injuries he had received, exposed the wrongs inflicted upon his flock, and implored their interposition on his behalf. The Roman bishop, Julius, warmly espoused his cause, the more so, perhaps, because it afforded him an opportunity of advancing his claims to jurisdiction over the bishops of the East, whom on this occasion he summoned to give account of their proceedings at a council to be held at Rome. Whether from a desire to resist these pretensions, or distrusting the goodness of their cause, the bishops refused to attend; and in then absence Athanasius, after having been heard in his own defence, was honourably acquitted and restored to his place. This decision was confirmed by the emperor, and by a second council held under his auspices at Milan a.d. 343. Constans having proposed to his brother, that, for the sake of promoting concord, a council of both empires should be convoked, it was agreed that this should be done, and Sardica, as a neutral place, was fixed upon as the place of meeting. This council was held a.d. 346, and was attended by one hundred bishops from the West, and by seventy-five from the East. The Arian party was here in a minority, and having in vain endeavoured to carry the unreasonable proposal, that Athanasius and all whom they had excommunicated should be excluded from the council, they ultimately seceded and betook themselves to Philippopolis in Thrace, where they held a rival council. By those who remained at Sardica, Athanasius and his friends were honourably absolved from all the charges which had been laid against them, and were restored to their offices. The influence of the Emperor Constans was exerted to induce his brother Constantius to restore Athanasius to his see; and some acts of misconduct on the part of the Arians, combined with considerations of a political nature, at length induced the Eastern potentate to comply with that proposal. The murder of Gregory in the following year (349) paved the way for the restoration of Athanasius, and the emperor even went so far as to write three letters, in which he entreated the exiled prelate to return to his former place. Athanasius visited Constantius on his way to Alexandria, and with that singular influence which he seems to have possessed over all with whom he came in contact, he appears, for the time at least, to have drawn towards him the emperor's favour. His return to Alexandria was hailed by his adherents with the utmost enthusiasm and demonstrations of joy; but it formed only the prelude to fresh strife and new troubles. The vigour with which he proceeded against the Arian party stimulated them to renewed assaults upon his reputation and efforts for his overthrow, and the death of his patron, Constans, removed the only powerful protector to whom he could look. Constantius once more became zealous for the Arian party, and in councils held at Arles (a.d. 353) and Milan (a.d. 355), especially the latter, he threw the full weight of imperial influence into the scale against Athanasius and his friends. The expulsion of Athanasius from Alexandria was again decreed, but, from motives of policy, some time was allowed to elapse before this determination was put in execution. At length the Dux Syrianus, at the head of an armed force, attempted to secure the person of the archbishop, invading the church while he was engaged in his sacred duties. A little before midnight on the 9th of February, a.d. 356, whilst the congregation were engaged in services preparatory to the observance of the communion on the following day, the solemnities were interrupted by the sound of trumpets and the clash of arms; the doors were violently burst open, and troops of armed soldiers rushed into the church. Athanasius remained unmoved amidst the tumult, and by his directions the choir continued to chant the 136th psalm, of which the burden is, "For his mercy endureth for ever," till the noise of the disturbance was almost drowned in their swelling strains. At length, however, as the soldiers drew nearer to the place where the archbishop was seated, the pious zeal of his clergy forced him to retire, and he was conveyed by some secret passage to a place of safety. For a considerable time he remained concealed in Alexandria in spite of the most strenuous efforts made by his enemies to discover him, and at length escaped to the sandy deserts. There, surrounded and protected by the solitaries who, following the example of the hermit Anthony, had retired from the haunts of men, he spent about three years, safe from the malice of his enemies, though they spared no efforts to lay hold of him. His austerities gained for him the high esteem of the ascetics with whom he had taken refuge; and whilst the Arian party, headed by George of Cappadocia, who had succeeded him as archbishop of Alexandria, were pursuing their triumph with the most ferocious cruelty, Athanasius was beguiling the hours of his exile by the composition of works which confounded his adversaries by their united boldness and ability, and which still remain as an enduring monument of his genius and worth. In the meantime Constantius died (a.d. 361), and was succeeded by Julian, commonly called the Apostate, who, at the commencement of his reign, issued an edict permitting the banished bishops to return to their sees—a step which, in the case of Athanasius, was rendered the easier in consequence of his successor having recently fallen by the hand of the assassin. His return was, as formerly, hailed with joyful enthusiasm by his own party; and, once more reinstated in his authority, he proceeded to repair with a vigorous hand the disorders winch had been introduced during his absence, whilst at the same time he set an example of moderation and lenity in the treatment of his adversaries. His troubles, however, were not at an end. Again was he to incur the imperial resentment, and to taste the bitterness of exile. Instigated by the representations of the heathen party, and, doubtless, recognizing in Athanasius a most potent obstacle in the way of the re-establishment of heathenism, the emperor commanded him to leave not only Alexandria, but Egypt, and threatened the prefect with a heavy fine if he did not see this edict strictly executed. The harassed prelate escaped once more to the desert, where he remained till the death of Julian, which happened only a few months after. During the brief reign of Jovian, Athanasius enjoyed a period of repose and influence; nor does he appear to have been disturbed during the early part of the reign of Valens, by whom Jovian was succeeded. He employed the interval, amongst other duties, in the composition of his life of Anthony, and two treatises on the doctrine of the Trinity. In 367, Valens issued an edict commanding the deposition and banishment of all those bishops who had returned to their sees after the death of Constantius; and though the entreaties of the people of Alexandria secured a delay in the execution of this edict on their beloved bishop, the latter was compelled at length