]

[Footnote 22: Codex Theodos. l. xvi. tit. i. leg. 2, with Godefroy's
Commentary, tom. vi. p. 5-9. Such an edict deserved the warmest praises
of Baronius, auream sanctionem, edictum pium et salutare.--Sic itua ad
astra.]

[Footnote 23: Sozomen, l. vii. c. 6. Theodoret, l. v. c. 16. Tillemont
is displeased (Mem. Eccles. tom. vi. p. 627, 628) with the terms of
"rustic bishop," "obscure city." Yet I must take leave to think, that
both Amphilochius and Iconium were objects of inconsiderable magnitude
in the Roman empire.]

Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius.--Part II.

Constantinople was the principal seat and fortress of Arianism; and,
in a long interval of forty years, [24] the faith of the princes and
prelates, who reigned in the capital of the East, was rejected in the
purer schools of Rome and Alexandria. The archiepiscopal throne of
Macedonius, which had been polluted with so much Christian blood, was
successively filled by Eudoxus and Damophilus. Their diocese enjoyed a
free importation of vice and error from every province of the empire;
the eager pursuit of religious controversy afforded a new occupation to
the busy idleness of the metropolis; and we may credit the assertion
of an intelligent observer, who describes, with some pleasantry, the
effects of their loquacious zeal. "This city," says he, "is full of
mechanics and slaves, who are all of them profound theologians; and
preach in the shops, and in the streets. If you desire a man to change
a piece of silver, he informs you, wherein the Son differs from the
Father; if you ask the price of a loaf, you are told by way of reply,
that the Son is inferior to the Father; and if you inquire, whether the
bath is ready, the answer is, that the Son was made out of nothing."
[25] The heretics, of various denominations, subsisted in peace under
the protection of the Arians of Constantinople; who endeavored to secure
the attachment of those obscure sectaries, while they abused, with
unrelenting severity, the victory which they had obtained over
the followers of the council of Nice. During the partial reigns of
Constantius and Valens, the feeble remnant of the Homoousians was
deprived of the public and private exercise of their religion; and it
has been observed, in pathetic language, that the scattered flock was
left without a shepherd to wander on the mountains, or to be devoured
by rapacious wolves. [26] But, as their zeal, instead of being subdue