viving brother of Constans, which afflicted the empire above three
years, secured an interval of repose to the Catholic church; and the
two contending parties were desirous to conciliate the friendship of a
bishop, who, by the weight of his personal authority, might determine
the fluctuating resolutions of an important province. He gave audience
to the ambassadors of the tyrant, with whom he was afterwards accused of
holding a secret correspondence; and the emperor Constantius repeatedly
assured his dearest father, the most reverend Athanasius, that,
notwithstanding the malicious rumors which were circulated by their
common enemies, he had inherited the sentiments, as well as the throne,
of his deceased brother. Gratitude and humanity would have disposed the
primate of Egypt to deplore the untimely fate of Constans, and to
abhor the guilt of Magnentius; but as he clearly understood that the
apprehensions of Constantius were his only safeguard, the fervor of his
prayers for the success of the righteous cause might perhaps be somewhat
abated. The ruin of Athanasius was no longer contrived by the obscure
malice of a few bigoted or angry bishops, who abused the authority of a
credulous monarch. The monarch himself avowed the resolution, which he
had so long suppressed, of avenging his private injuries; and the first
winter after his victory, which he passed at Arles, was employed against
an enemy more odious to him than the vanquished tyrant of Gaul.

If the emperor had capriciously decreed the death of the most eminent
and virtuous citizen of the republic, the cruel order would have been
executed without hesitation, by the ministers of open violence or of
specious injustice. The caution, the delay, the difficulty with which
he proceeded in the condemnation and punishment of a popular bishop,
discovered to the world that the privileges of the church had already
revived a sense of order and freedom in the Roman government. The
sentence which was pronounced in the synod of Tyre, and subscribed by
a large majority of the Eastern bishops, had never been expressly
repealed; and as Athanasius had been once degraded from his episcopal
dignity by the judgment of his brethren, every subsequent act might be
considered as irregular, and even criminal. But the memory of the firm
and effectual support which the primate of Egypt had derived from the
attachment of the Western church, engaged Constantius to suspend the
execution of the sent