re
directed to meet at Seleucia, in Isauria; while those of the West
held their deliberations at Rimini, on the coast of the Hadriatic; and
instead of two or three deputies from each province, the whole episcopal
body was ordered to march. The Eastern council, after consuming four
days in fierce and unavailing debate, separated without any definitive
conclusion. The council of the West was protracted till the seventh
month. Taurus, the Praetorian praefect was instructed not to dismiss
the prelates till they should all be united in the same opinion; and
his efforts were supported by the power of banishing fifteen of the most
refractory, and a promise of the consulship if he achieved so difficult
an adventure. His prayers and threats, the authority of the sovereign,
the sophistry of Valens and Ursacius, the distress of cold and hunger,
and the tedious melancholy of a hopeless exile, at length extorted the
reluctant consent of the bishops of Rimini. The deputies of the East and
of the West attended the emperor in the palace of Constantinople, and he
enjoyed the satisfaction of imposing on the world a profession of
faith which established the likeness, without expressing the
consubstantiality, of the Son of God. [95] But the triumph of Arianism
had been preceded by the removal of the orthodox clergy, whom it
was impossible either to intimidate or to corrupt; and the reign of
Constantius was disgraced by the unjust and ineffectual persecution of
the great Athanasius.

[Footnote 91: So curious a passage well deserves to be transcribed.
Christianam religionem absolutam et simplicem, anili superstitione
confundens; in qua scrutanda perplexius, quam componenda gravius
excitaret discidia plurima; quae progressa fusius aluit concertatione
verborum, ut catervis antistium jumentis publicis ultro citroque
discarrentibus, per synodos (quas appellant) dum ritum omnem ad suum
sahere conantur (Valesius reads conatur) rei vehiculariae concideret
servos. Ammianus, xxi. 16.]

[Footnote 92: Athanas. tom. i. p. 870.]

[Footnote 93: Socrates, l. ii. c. 35-47. Sozomen, l. iv. c. 12-30.
Theodore li. c. 18-32. Philostorg. l. iv. c. 4--12, l. v. c. 1-4, l. vi.
c. 1-5]

[Footnote 94: Sozomen, l. iv. c. 23. Athanas. tom. i. p. 831. Tillemont
(Mem Eccles. tom. vii. p. 947) has collected several instances of the
haughty fanaticism of Constantius from the detached treatises of Lucifer
of Cagliari. The very titles of these treaties inspire zeal and