broiling the ecclesiastical confusion.
If the Christians were only left to themselves, they might be trusted
'to quarrel like beasts.'

[Sidenote: Its results.]

Julian was gratified with a few unseemly wrangles, but the general
result of his policy was unexpected. It took the Christians by surprise,
and fairly shamed them into a sort of truce. The very divisions of
churches are in some sense a sign of life, for men who do not care about
religion will usually find something else to quarrel over. If nations
redeem each other, so do parties; and the dignified slumber of a
catholic uniformity may be more fatal to spiritual life than the vulgar
wranglings of a thousand sects. The Christians closed their ranks before
the common enemy. Nicenes and Arians forgot their enmity in the pleasant
task of reviling the gods and cursing Julian. A yell of execration ran
all along the Christian line, from the extreme Apollinarian right to the
furthest Anomoean left. Basil of Caesarea renounced the apostate's
friendship; the rabble of Antioch assailed him with scurrilous lampoons
and anti-pagan riots. Nor were the Arians behind in hate. Blind old
Maris of Chalcedon came and cursed him to his face. The heathens
laughed, the Christians cursed, and Israel alone remembered Julian for
good. 'Treasured in the house of Julianus Caesar,' the vessels of the
temple still await the day when Messiah-ben-Ephraim shall take them
thence.

[Sidenote: Return of Athanasius, Feb. 362.]

Back to their dioceses came the survivors of the exiled bishops, no
longer travelling in pomp and circumstance to their noisy councils, but
bound on the nobler errand of seeking out their lost or scattered
flocks. Eusebius of Vercellae and Lucifer left Upper Egypt, Marcellus and
Basil returned to Ancyra, while Athanasius reappeared at Alexandria. The
unfortunate George had led a wandering life since his expulsion in 358,
and did not venture to leave the shelter of the court till late in 361.
It was a rash move, for his flock had not forgotten him. Three days he
spent in safety, but on the fourth came news that Constantius was dead
and Julian master of the Empire. The heathen populace was wild with
delight, and threw George straight into prison. Three weeks later they
dragged him out and lynched him. Thus when Julian's edict came for the
return of the exiles, Athanasius was doubly prepared to take advantage
of it.

[Sidenote: Council of Alexandria discusses:]

It was