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emperor believed the story, or whether he wished to shelter Athanasius
for a while from his persecutors by putting him out of the way--he sent
him into banishment at Treves, on the banks of the Moselle, in a part of
Gaul which is now reckoned to belong to Germany. Except for the
separation from his flock, this banishment would have been no great
hardship for Athanasius; for he was treated with great respect by the
bishop of Treves, and by the emperor's eldest son, who lived there, and
all good men honoured him for his stedfastness in upholding the true
faith.

But, although Athanasius was removed, the Alexandrian Church would not
admit Arius. So, after a while, the emperor resolved to have him
admitted at Constantinople, and a council of bishops agreed that it
should be so. The bishop of Constantinople, whose name was Alexander,
and who was almost a hundred years old, was grievously distressed at
this; he desired his people to entreat God, with fasting and prayer,
that it might not come to pass, and he threw himself under the altar,
and prayed very earnestly that the evil which was threatened might be
somehow turned away, or that, at least, he himself might not live to see
it.

At length, on the evening before the day which had been fixed for
receiving Arius into the Church, he was going through the streets of
Constantinople, in high spirits, and talking with some friends of what
was to take place on the morrow. But all at once he felt himself ill,
and went into a house which was near; and in a few minutes he was dead!
His death, taking place at such a time and in such a way, made a great
impression, and people were ready enough to look on it as a direct
judgment of God on his impiety. But Athanasius, although he felt the
awfulness of the unhappy man's sudden end, did not take it on himself to
speak in this way; and we too shall do well not to pronounce judgment in
such cases, remembering what our Lord said as to the Galileans who were
slain by Pilate, and as to the men who were killed by the falling of the
tower in Siloam (_St. Luke_ xiii. 1-5). While we abhor the errors of
Arius, let us leave the judgment of him to God.

Although Constantine in his last years was very much in the hands of the
Arians, we must not suppose that he meant to favour their heresy. For
these people (as I have said already, and shall have occasion to say
again) were very crafty, and took great pains to hide the worst of their
opinions. T