them, and
not they to the heretics.' This, however, was mere grumbling. Now that
the Marcellians had given up the point in dispute, there was no great
difficulty about their formal reconciliation. The West held out for
Marcellus after his own disciples had forsaken him, so that he was not
condemned at Rome till 380, nor by name till 381.

[Sidenote: Confusion of: (1) Churches.]

Meanwhile the churches of Asia seemed in a state of universal
dissolution. Disorder under Constantius had become confusion worse
confounded under Valens. The exiled bishops were so many centres of
disaffection, and personal quarrels had full scope everywhere. Thus when
Basil's brother Gregory was expelled from Nyssa by a riot got up by
Anthimus of Tyana, he took refuge under the eyes of Anthimus at Doara,
where a similar riot had driven out the Arian bishop. Pastoral work was
carried on under the greatest difficulties. The exiles could not attend
to their churches, the schemers would not, and the fever of controversy
was steadily demoralizing both flocks and pastors.

[Sidenote: (2.) Creeds.]

Creeds were in the same confusion. The Homoeans as a body had no
consistent principle at all beyond the rejection of technical terms, so
that their doctrinal statements are very miscellaneous. They began with
the indefinite Sirmian creed, but the confession they imposed on
Eustathius of Sebastia was purely Macedonian. Some of their bishops were
Nicenes, others Anomoeans. There was room for all in the happy family
presided over by Eudoxius and his successor Demophilus. In this anarchy
of doctrine, the growth of irreligious carelessness kept pace with that
of party bitterness. Ecclesiastical history records no clearer period of
decline than this. There is a plain descent from Athanasius to Basil, a
rapid one from Basil to Theophilus and Cyril. The victors of
Constantinople are but the epigoni of a mighty contest.

[Sidenote: Hopeful signs.]

Hopeful signs indeed were not entirely wanting. If the Nicene cause did
not seem to gain much ground in Pontus, it was at least not losing.
While Basil held the court in check, the rising power of asceticism was
declaring itself every day more plainly on his side. One schism was
healed by the reception of the Marcellians; and if Apollinarius was
forming another, he was at least a resolute enemy of Arianism. The
submission of the Lycian bishops in 375 helped to isolate the Semiarian
phalanx in Asia, and the Illyria