ius of AElia (we know that city better as Jerusalem)
were on Alexander's side, the bishops of Tyre and Laodicea with the
learned Eusebius of Caesarea leaned the other way or took a middle
course. Altogether there were about a dozen more or less decided
Arianizers thinly scattered over the country from the slopes of Taurus
to the Jordan valley. Of the Pontic bishops we need notice only
Marcellus of Ancyra and the confessor Paul of Neocaesarea. Arianism had
no friends in Pontus to our knowledge, and Marcellus was the busiest of
its enemies. Among the Asiatics, however, there was a small but
influential group of Arianizers, disciples of Lucian like Arius himself.
Chief of these was Eusebius of Nicomedia, who was rather a court
politician than a student like his namesake of Caesarea, and might be
expected to influence the Emperor as much as any one. With him went the
bishops of Ephesus and Nicaea itself, and Maris of Chalcedon. The Greeks
of Europe were few and unimportant, but on the outskirts of the Empire
we find some names of great interest. James of Nisibis represented the
old Syrian churches which spoke the Lord's own native language. Restaces
the Armenian could remind the bishops that Armenia was in Christ before
Rome, and had fought the persecutors in their cause. Theophilus the Goth
might tell them the modest beginnings of Teutonic Christianity among his
countrymen of the Crimean undercliff. John the Persian, who came from
one or another of the many distant regions which bore the name of India,
may dimly remind ourselves of the great Nestorian missions which one day
were to make the Christian name a power in Northern China. Little as
Eusebius of Caesarea liked some issues of the council, he is full of
genuine enthusiasm over his majestic roll of churches far and near, from
the extremity of Europe to the farthest ends of Asia. Not without the
Holy Spirit's guidance did that august assembly meet. Nor was its
meeting a day of hope for the churches only, but also for the weary
Empire. In that great crisis the deep despair of ages was forgotten. It
might be that the power which had overcome the world could also cure its
ancient sickness. Little as men could see into the issues of the future,
the meaning of the present was beyond mistake. The new world faced the
old, and all was ready for the league which joined the names of Rome and
Christendom, and made the sway of Christ and Caesar one.

[Footnote 5: 318; in Greek [Gre