r-seeing eye which in Victor and Vincentius, the
two unknown elders, representing their sick old bishop, could have
detected the predecessors of Pandulf or of Wolsey. With them, however,
was a man who, though now long forgotten, was then an object of deeper
interest to Christendom than any bishop of Rome could at that time have
been. It was the world-renowned Spaniard, as he is called by Eusebius;
the magician from Spain, as he is called by Zosimus; Hosius, bishop of
Cordova. He was the representative of the westernmost of European
churches; but, as Eusebius of Caesarea was the chief counsellor of the
Emperor in the Greek Church, so was Hosius in the Latin, as shown in the
darkest and most mysterious crisis of Constantine's life.

It was probably by degrees that these different arrivals took place, and
the lapse of two or three weeks must be supposed for the preparatory
arrangements before the council was formally opened. This interval was
occupied by eager discussions on the questions likely to be debated. The
first assemblage had been, as we have seen, within the walls of a public
building. But the other preliminary meetings were held, as was natural,
in the streets or colonnades in the open air. The novelty of the
occasion had collected many strangers to the spot. Laymen, philosophers,
heathen as well as Christians, might be seen joining in the arguments on
either side, orthodox as well as heretical. There were also discussions
among the orthodox themselves as to the principle on which the debates
should be conducted. The enumeration of the characters just given shows
that there were two very different elements in the assembly, such indeed
as will always constitute the main difficulty in making any general
statements of theology which shall be satisfactory at once to the few
and to the many. A large number, perhaps the majority, consisted of
rough, simple, almost illiterate men, like Spyridion the shepherd,
Potammon the hermit, Acesius the puritan, who held their faith earnestly
and sincerely, but without conscious knowledge of the grounds on which
they maintained it, incapable of arguing themselves, or of entering into
the arguments of their opponents. These men, when suddenly brought into
collision with the acutest and most learned disputants of the age,
naturally took up the position that the safest course was to hold by
what had been handed down, without any further inquiry or explanation.

A story somewhat vario