ered the foundations
which had been laid; balls of fire burst forth from the ground,
scorching and killing many of the workmen; their tools were melted by
lightning; and stories are told of other fearful sights, which put an
end to the attempt. Julian, indeed, meant to set about it once more,
after returning from a war which he had undertaken against the Persians.
But he never lived to do so. Athanasius was not mistaken when he said
that his heathen emperor's tyranny would be only as a passing cloud; for
Julian's reign lasted little more than a year and a half in all. He led
his army into Persia in the spring of 363, and in June of that year he
was killed in a skirmish by night.

Julian left no child to succeed him in the empire, and the army chose as
his successor a Christian named Jovian, who soon undid all that Julian
had done in matters of religion. The new emperor invited Athanasius to
visit him at Antioch, and took his advice as to the restoration of the
true faith. But Jovian's reign lasted only eight months, and
Valentinian, who was then made emperor, gave the empire of the East to
his brother Valens, who was a furious Arian, and treated the Catholics
with great cruelty. We are told, for instance, that when eighty of their
bishops had carried a petition to him, he put them on board a ship, and
when it had got out to sea, the sailors, by his orders, set it on fire,
and made their escape in boats, leaving the poor bishops to be burned to
death.

Valens turned many orthodox bishops (that is to say, bishops _of the
right faith_) out of their sees, and meant to turn out Athanasius, who
hid himself for a while in his father's tomb. But the people of
Alexandria begged earnestly that their bishop might be allowed to remain
with them, and the emperor did not think it safe to deny their request,
lest there should be some outbreak in the city. And thus, while the
faith of which Athanasius had so long been the chief defender, and for
the sake of which he had borne so much, was under persecution in all
other parts of the eastern empire, the great bishop of Alexandria was
allowed to spend his last years among his own flock without disturbance.
He died in the year 373, at the age of seventy-six.

CHAPTER XIII.

THE MONKS.

In the story of St. Athanasius, _monks_ have been more than once
mentioned, and it is now time to give some account of these people and
of their ways.

The word _monk_ properly means one who