rate and tolerant letter of
Constantine. May an English clergyman venture to express his regret that
"the fine gold soon became dim" in the Christian church?--M.]

[Footnote 78: Eusebius in Vit. Constantin. l. iii. c. 13.]

[Footnote 79: Theodoret has preserved (l. i. c. 20) an epistle from
Constantine to the people of Nicomedia, in which the monarch declares
himself the public accuser of one of his subjects; he styles Eusebius
and complains of his hostile behavior during the civil war.]

[Footnote 80: See in Socrates, (l. i. c. 8,) or rather in Theodoret,
(l. i. c. 12,) an original letter of Eusebius of Caesarea, in which he
attempts to justify his subscribing the Homoousion. The character of
Eusebius has always been a problem; but those who have read the second
critical epistle of Le Clerc, (Ars Critica, tom. iii. p. 30-69,) must
entertain a very unfavorable opinion of the orthodoxy and sincerity of
the bishop of Caesarea.]

[Footnote 81: Athanasius, tom. i. p. 727. Philostorgius, l. i. c. 10,
and Godefroy's Commentary, p. 41.]

[Footnote 82: Socrates, l. i. c. 9. In his circular letters, which
were addressed to the several cities, Constantine employed against the
heretics the arms of ridicule and comic raillery.]

But, as if the conduct of the emperor had been guided by passion instead
of principle, three years from the council of Nice were scarcely elapsed
before he discovered some symptoms of mercy, and even of indulgence,
towards the proscribed sect, which was secretly protected by his
favorite sister. The exiles were recalled, and Eusebius, who gradually
resumed his influence over the mind of Constantine, was restored to the
episcopal throne, from which he had been ignominiously degraded. Arius
himself was treated by the whole court with the respect which would have
been due to an innocent and oppressed man. His faith was approved by
the synod of Jerusalem; and the emperor seemed impatient to repair his
injustice, by issuing an absolute command, that he should be solemnly
admitted to the communion in the cathedral of Constantinople. On the
same day, which had been fixed for the triumph of Arius, he expired;
and the strange and horrid circumstances of his death might excite a
suspicion, that the orthodox saints had contributed more efficaciously
than by their prayers, to deliver the church from the most formidable
of her enemies. [83] The three principal leaders of the Catholics,
Athanasius of Alexandria, Eu