ong detention, were plied with threats and cajolery till most of them
yielded. When Phoebadius and a score of others remained firm, their
resistance was overcome by as shameless a piece of villany as can be
found in history. Valens came forward and declared that he was not one
of the Arians, but heartily detested their blasphemies. The creed would
do very well as it stood, and the Easterns had accepted it already; but
if Phoebadius was not satisfied, he was welcome to propose additions.
A stringent series of anathemas was therefore drawn up against Arius and
all his misbelief. Valens himself contributed one against 'those who say
that the Son of God is a creature like other creatures.' The court party
accepted everything, and the council met for a final reading of the
amended creed. Shout after shout of joy rang through the church when
Valens protested that the heresies were none of his, and with his own
lips pronounced the whole series of anathemas; and when Claudius of
Picenum produced a few more rumours of heresy, 'which my lord and
brother Valens has forgotten,' they were disavowed with equal readiness.
The hearts of all men melted towards the old dissembler, and the bishops
dispersed from Ariminum in the full belief that the council would take
its place in history among the bulwarks of the faith.

[Sidenote: Conferences at Constantinople.]

The Western council was dissolved in seeming harmony, but a strong
minority disputed the conclusions of the Easterns at Seleucia. Both
parties, therefore, hurried to Constantinople. But there Acacius was in
his element. He held a splendid position as the bishop of a venerated
church, the disciple and successor of Eusebius, and himself a patron of
learning and a writer of high repute. His fine gifts of subtle thought
and ready energy, his commanding influence and skilful policy, marked
him out for a glorious work in history, and nothing but his own
falseness degraded him to be the greatest living master of backstairs
intrigue. If Athanasius is the Demosthenes of the Nicene age, Acacius
will be its AEschines. He had found his account in abandoning
conservatism for pure Arianism, and was now preparing to complete his
victory by a new treachery to the Anomoeans. He had anathematized
_unlike_ at Seleucia, and now sacrificed Aetius to the Emperor's dislike
of him. After this it became possible to enforce the prohibition of the
Nicene _of like essence_. Meanwhile the final report arriv