terror;
"Moriendum pro Dei Filio." "De Regibus Apostaticis." "De non conveniendo
cum Haeretico." "De non parcendo in Deum delinquentibus."]

[Footnote 95: Sulp. Sever. Hist. Sacra, l. ii. p. 418-430. The Greek
historians were very ignorant of the affairs of the West.]

We have seldom an opportunity of observing, either in active or
speculative life, what effect may be produced, or what obstacles may be
surmounted, by the force of a single mind, when it is inflexibly applied
to the pursuit of a single object. The immortal name of Athanasius [96]
will never be separated from the Catholic doctrine of the Trinity,
to whose defence he consecrated every moment and every faculty of his
being. Educated in the family of Alexander, he had vigorously opposed
the early progress of the Arian heresy: he exercised the important
functions of secretary under the aged prelate; and the fathers of the
Nicene council beheld with surprise and respect the rising virtues of
the young deacon. In a time of public danger, the dull claims of age
and of rank are sometimes superseded; and within five months after his
return from Nice, the deacon Athanasius was seated on the archiepiscopal
throne of Egypt. He filled that eminent station above forty-six years,
and his long administration was spent in a perpetual combat against the
powers of Arianism. Five times was Athanasius expelled from his throne;
twenty years he passed as an exile or a fugitive: and almost every
province of the Roman empire was successively witness to his merit, and
his sufferings in the cause of the Homoousion, which he considered as
the sole pleasure and business, as the duty, and as the glory of his
life. Amidst the storms of persecution, the archbishop of Alexandria was
patient of labor, jealous of fame, careless of safety; and although his
mind was tainted by the contagion of fanaticism, Athanasius displayed a
superiority of character and abilities, which would have qualified him,
far better than the degenerate sons of Constantine, for the government
of a great monarchy. His learning was much less profound and extensive
than that of Eusebius of Caesarea, and his rude eloquence could not be
compared with the polished oratory of Gregory of Basil; but whenever
the primate of Egypt was called upon to justify his sentiments, or his
conduct, his unpremeditated style, either of speaking or writing, was
clear, forcible, and persuasive. He has always been revered, in the
orthodox s