oth in name and in reality. In
some of the conventional pictures of the council his humble rank as a
deacon does not allow of his appearance. But his activity and prominence
behind the scenes made enemies for him there, who will never leave him
through life. Anyone who had read his passionate invectives afterward
may form some notion of what he was when in the thick of his youthful
battles. That small, insignificant deacon is the great Athanasius.

Next after the pope and deacon of Alexandria we must turn to one of its
most important presbyters--the parish priest of its principal church,
which bore the name of Baucalis, and marked the first beginnings of what
we should call a parochial system. In appearance he is the very opposite
of Athanasius. He is sixty years of age, very tall and thin, and
apparently unable to support his stature; he has an odd way of
contorting and twisting himself, which his enemies compare to the
wrigglings of a snake. He would be handsome but for the emaciation and
deadly pallor of his face, and a downcast look, imparted by a weakness
of eyesight. At times his veins throb and swell and his limbs tremble,
as if suffering from some violent internal complaint--the same, perhaps,
that will terminate one day in his sudden and frightful death. There is
a wild look about him, which at first sight is startling. His dress and
demeanor are those of a rigid ascetic. He wears a long coat with short
sleeves, and a scarf of only half size, such as was the mark of an
austere life; and his hair hangs in a tangled mass over his head. He is
usually silent, but at times breaks out into fierce excitement, such as
will give the impression of madness. Yet with all this there are a
sweetness in his voice and a winning, earnest manner which fascinates
those who come across him. Among the religious ladies of Alexandria he
is said to have had from the first a following of not less than seven
hundred. This strange, captivating, moon-struck giant is the heretic
Arius, or, as his adversaries called him, the madman of Ares or Mars.
Close beside him was a group of his countrymen, of whom we know little,
except their fidelity to him through good report and evil: Saras, like
himself a presbyter, from the Libyan province; Euzoius, a deacon of
Egypt; Achillas, a reader; Theonas, bishop of Marmarica in the
Cyrenaica; and Secundus, bishop of Ptolemais in the Delta.

These were the most remarkable deputies from the Church of Alexan