be ready to enter into communion with that Athanasius
whom they had looked upon for years as their mortal enemy, nor was it
to be expected that they would allow the true Faith to prevail without
a struggle. It was thanks to Athanasius and his untiring efforts that
Egypt and Alexandria were still, in the main, true to the Catholic
Church.

We can imagine the joy with which the Alexandrians received their
exiled Patriarch after his six years' absence. They had been worthy of
their Bishop, for they too had made a brave fight for the Faith. Blood
had been shed for Christ, and much had been suffered by the Catholics;
they could face their Patriarch without shame. Many pagans who had
watched the behavior of the Christians under persecution now came
forward and asked to join the Church, among them some Greek ladies of
noble family whom Athanasius himself instructed and baptized.

News of this reached the ears of the Emperor Julian, who was already
furious at the influence that this Christian Bishop of Alexandria was
exercising throughout the whole empire. He had hoped that Athanasius'
return from exile would have been a cause for division among the
people, instead of which it had been the signal for everyone to make
peace with his neighbor. Never, he foresaw, as long as the voice of
this undaunted champion of the Catholic Church was ringing in the ears
of his subjects, would paganism triumph.

There were others who saw the matter in the same light. These were the
magicians, diviners, fortune-tellers, all the servants of idolatry who
had risen up at Julian's bidding and were swarming in Alexandria as
everywhere else. The presence of Athanasius in their midst, they
complained to the Emperor, was the ruin of their trade. Even their
charms would not work as long as he was near them. There would soon
not be a pagan left in the city if he were allowed to remain.

The Patriarch had been barely eight months in Alexandria when the
Governor of Egypt received a message from his royal master. "Nothing
that I could hear of would give me greater pleasure," he wrote, "than
the news that you have driven that miscreant out of the country."

Soon after, the Alexandrians themselves were addressed. "We have
allowed the Galileans," wrote Julian, "to return to their country, but
not to their churches. Nevertheless, we hear that Athanasius, with his
accustomed boldness, has replaced himself on what they call his
'episcopal throne.' We therefore