kened it to that of
Judas. Only Athanasius relates it with reserve and dignity.

[Sidenote: Policy of Constantine.]

Upon the whole, Constantine had done his best for peace by leaving
matters in an uneasy suspense which satisfied neither party. This seems
the best explanation of his wavering. He had not turned Arian, for there
is no sign that he ever allowed the decisions of Nicaea to be openly
rejected inside the churches. Athanasius was not exiled for heresy, for
there was no question of heresy in the case. The quarrel was ostensibly
one of orthodox bishops, for Eusebius had signed the Nicene creed as
well as Athanasius. Constantine's action seems to have been determined
by Asiatic feeling. Had he believed the charge of delaying the
corn-ships, he would have executed Athanasius at once. His conduct does
not look like a real explosion of rage. The merits of the case were not
easy to find out, but the quarrel between Athanasius and the Asiatic
bishops was a nuisance, so he sent him out of the way as a troublesome
person. The Asiatics were not all of them either Arians or intriguers.
It was not always furtive sympathy with heresy which led them to regret
the heresiarch's expulsion for doctrines which he disavowed; neither was
it always partizanship which could not see the innocence of Athanasius.
Constantine's vacillation is natural if his policy was to seek for unity
by letting the bishops guide him.

CHAPTER IV.

_THE COUNCIL OF SARDICA._

[Sidenote: Death of Constantine, May 22, 337.]

Constantine's work on earth was done. When the hand of death was on him,
he laid aside the purple, and the ambiguous position of a Christian
Caesar with it, and passed away in the white robe of a simple convert.
Long as he had been a friend to the churches, he had till now put off
the elementary rite of baptism, in the hope one day to receive it in the
waters of the Jordan, like the Lord himself. Darkly as his memory is
stained with isolated crimes, Constantine must for ever rank among the
greatest of the emperors; and as an actual benefactor of mankind, he
stands alone among them. Besides his great services to the Empire in his
own time, he gave the civilization of later days a new centre on the
Bosphorus, beyond the reach of Goth or Vandal. Bulgarians and Saracens
and Russians dashed themselves in pieces on the walls of Constantinople,
and the [Sidenote: A.D. 1204.] strong arms of Western and crusading
traitors were nee