cheerfulness prevailed, and the people ran together, hastening to obtain the desired sight of him. The churches were full of rejoicings, and thanksgivings were offered up to the Lord everywhere; and all the ministers and clergy beheld him with such feelings that their souls were possessed with delight, and they esteemed that the happiest day of their lives."*

But a new attack upon him was commenced before long, by a council held at Tyre, A.D. 341. It was followed by another at Antioch, where, by proceedings conducted with shameful craft and injustice, the Arian party pronounced sentence upon St. Athanasius, deposed him, and elected in his room Gregory, a native of Cappadocia. Great was the consternation of the Alexandrians, when suddenly they found their beloved and newly-restored pastor torn from them; and a riot of the fiercest nature occurred, in which the party who installed Gregory respected neither station, age, nor sex, in their violence.

Athanasius, a second time an exile, took refuge at Rome, where his virtues were duly valued by the two greatest of the western prelates, Julius of Rome and Hosius of Cordova; and so striking were his merits, and so imposing his character, that clergy and people unanimously paid him the most unshaken devotion, and adhered firmly to his precepts.

*Hist. Tract ii. 8.

It is probable that whilst at Rome his spiritual guidance was eagerly sought after. We are told that he was "mild in his reproofs, and instructive in his commendations, in both of which he observed such even measure, that his reproofs spoke the kindness of a father, and his commendation the authority of a master; so that neither was his indulgence over tender, nor his severity austere, but the one savoured of gentleness and moderation, the other of prudence, and both showed true religion and philosophy."

We can well imagine that the years he spent in Rome would be most soothing and grateful to him, thus beloved, and freed from the turmoils that agitated his residence in Alexandria; we can conceive with what fervour his religious mind would love to dwell on the spots hallowed by the presence of the holy Apostles and martyrs; and how earnestly he would realize their faith, and the Mercy and Power which had sustained them; that Power which had preserved him through many trials and persecutions, and to which he must have looked in entire trustfulness and resignation as his support through those yet remaining to him.

Perhaps, when he gazed on the Colosseum so recently (comparatively speaking) wet with the blood of Christian martyrs, he may have thought that his troubled course was to be closed at last with

* Cave.

the crown of martyrdom, which joyfully, we may be sure, he would have advanced to receive. But this, as all other events, he doubtless left entirely in the hands of the great Master, in Whose cause he was willing to spend, and be spent.

Meanwhile the disorders in Alexandria, under the Arian prelate, were terrible; we find him endeavouring to force the orthodox into communion with him by the most relentless persecutions; indeed Gregory was worse than the hireling shepherd; he seemed to be the wolf itself which "scattereth the sheep." Grieved to the heart at the sufferings of his people, Athanasius once more defied his enemies, and Bishop Julius summoned a synod to meet at Rome and judge his cause. But though both there and at Milan he was solemnly acquitted, little real good was gained, inasmuch as the eastern prelates rejected the authority of Rome, and chose to consider the Council of Tyre as decisive. At length, however, through the interference of the Emperor Constans, a general council was convened at Sardica, at which were assembled one hundred western bishops, and seventy-five from the east. Once more the aged and venerable Hosius presided. The Arians, finding themselves in a minority, left the council, and set up one in opposition at Philippopolis. But affairs were about to take a new turn. Under what influence we cannot now pretend to decide,

but suddenly Constantius became as eager for reconciliation with Athanasius, as he had ever been in opposing him. Three times did he write to him, beseeching in the most earnest and apparently sincere language, that he would resume his episcopal throne.

But the saint was no more dazzled by prosperity than he had been cast down by adversity; and he delayed some time before he responded to the emperor's overtures.

At last (A.D. 349) the monarch and the prelate met in Antioch, when the former could not do enough to testify his respect and filial veneration for St. Athanasius. He commanded that all accusations against him should be effaced from the city registers, and wrote a letter to the Alexandrians in his favour, couched in the following respectful terms. It ran thus:

"Victor Constantius Maximus Augustus to the People of the Catholic Church, at Alexandria."Desiring as we do your welfare in all respects, and knowing that you have been for a long time deprived of episcopal superintendence, we have thought good to send back to you your bishop, Athanasius, a man known to all men for the uprightness that is in him, and for his personal deportment.

"Receive him in a suitable manner; and putting him forth as your succour, in your prayers to God,

endeavour to preserve continually that unanimity and peace, according to the order of the church, which is, at the same time, becoming to you, and most advantageous to us..... We exhort you to continue steadfastly in your accustomed prayers, and to make him your advocate and helper towards God."*

Constantius likewise addressed a letter to "the Bishops and Presbyters of the Catholic Church," wherein he says: "The most reverend Athanasius has not been deserted by the grace of God, but although, for a brief season, he was subjected to trials to which human nature is liable, he has obtained from the superintending Providence such an answer to his prayers as was meet, and is restored, by the will of the Most High, and by our sentence, at once to his country and to the Church, over which by Divine permission he presided."†

St. Athanasius was at Aquileia when his affairs took this favourable turn, and he immediately repaired to Rome, to take leave of the church there. Bishop Julius addressed the following letter to the Alexandrian church: "I congratulate you, beloved brethren, that you now behold the fruit of your faith before your eyes; for any one may see that such is indeed the case with respect to my brother and fellow bishop, Athanasius, whom for the inno↑ Ibid. 54.

*Hist. Tracts, ii. 55.