science. Constantine listened to the
complaints of Athanasius with impartial and even gracious attention; the
members of the synod of Tyre were summoned to justify their proceedings;
and the arts of the Eusebian faction would have been confounded, if
they had not aggravated the guilt of the primate, by the dexterous
supposition of an unpardonable offence; a criminal design to intercept
and detain the corn-fleet of Alexandria, which supplied the subsistence
of the new capital. The emperor was satisfied that the peace of Egypt
would be secured by the absence of a popular leader; but he refused to
fill the vacancy of the archiepiscopal throne; and the sentence, which,
after long hesitation, he pronounced, was that of a jealous ostracism,
rather than of an ignominious exile. In the remote province of Gaul, but
in the hospitable court of Treves, Athanasius passed about twenty eight
months. The death of the emperor changed the face of public affairs and,
amidst the general indulgence of a young reign, the primate was restored
to his country by an honorable edict of the younger Constantine, who
expressed a deep sense of the innocence and merit of his venerable
guest.

The death of that prince exposed Athanasius to a second persecution;
and the feeble Constantius, the sovereign of the East, soon became
the secret accomplice of the Eusebians. Ninety bishops of that sect or
faction assembled at Antioch, under the specious pretence of dedicating
the cathedral. They composed an ambiguous creed, which is faintly tinged
with the colors of Semi-Arianism, and twenty-five canons, which still
regulate the discipline of the orthodox Greeks. It was decided, with
some appearance of equity, that a bishop, deprived by a synod, should
not resume his episcopal functions till he had been absolved by the
judgment of an equal synod; the law was immediately applied to the case
of Athanasius; the council of Antioch pronounced, or rather confirmed,
his degradation: a stranger, named Gregory, was seated on his throne;
and Philagrius, the praefect of Egypt, was instructed to support the new
primate with the civil and military powers of the province. Oppressed
by the conspiracy of the Asiatic prelates, Athanasius withdrew from
Alexandria, and passed three years as an exile and a suppliant on the
holy threshold of the Vatican. By the assiduous study of the Latin
language, he soon qualified himself to negotiate with the western
clergy; his decent flattery