uxentius to Milan and Eudoxius to
Constantinople. Philagrius also, the prefect who drove out Athanasius in
339, was another of their countrymen. Above all, the heresiarch Eunomius
came from Cappadocia, and had abundance of admirers in his native
district. In this old Arian stronghold the league was formed which
decided the fate of Arianism. Earnest men like Meletius had only been
attracted to the Homoeans by their professions of reverence for the
person of the Lord. When, therefore, it appeared that Eudoxius and his
friends were no better than Arians after all, these men began to look
back to the decisions of 'the great and holy council' of Nicaea. There,
at any rate, they would find something independent of the eunuchs and
cooks who ruled the palace. Of the old conservatives also, who were
strong in Pontus, there were many who felt that the Semiarian position
was unsound, and yet could find no satisfaction in the indefinite
doctrine professed at court. Here then was one split in the Homoean,
another in the conservative party. If only the two sets of malcontents
could form a union with each other and with the older Nicenes of Egypt
and the West, they would sooner or later be the arbiters of Christendom.
If they could secure Valentinian's intercession, they might obtain
religious freedom at once.

[Sidenote: Basil of Caesarea.]

Such seems to have been the plan laid down by the man who was now
succeeding Athanasius as leader of the Nicene party. Basil of Caesarea
was a disciple of the schools of Athens, and a master of heathen
eloquence and learning. He was also man of the world enough to keep on
friendly terms with men of all sorts. Amongst his friends we find
Athanasius and Gregory of Nazianzus, Libanius the heathen rhetorician,
the barbarian generals Arinthaeus and Victor, the renegade Modestus, and
the Arian bishop Euippius. He was a Christian also of a Christian
family. His grandmother, Macrina, was one of those who fled to the woods
in the time of Diocletian's persecution; and in after years young Basil
learned from her the words of Gregory the Wonder worker. The connections
of his early life were with the conservatives. He owed his baptism to
Dianius of Caesarea, and much encouragement in asceticism to Eustathius
of Sebastia. In 359 he accompanied Basil of Ancyra from Seleucia to the
conferences at Constantinople, and on his return home came forward as a
resolute enemy of Arianism at Caesarea. The young deacon wa