ways a powerful argument.

On receiving this letter, the Emperor--to his shame, be it said--wrote
to the Patriarch as follows: "Being informed of my pleasure, admit all
who wish to communion with the Church. If I hear of your standing in
the way of any who seek it, I will send at once those who will depose
you from your see."

The reply of the Patriarch was firm and courageous. "It is impossible,"
he answered, "for the Catholic Church to hold communion with those who
deny the Divinity of the Son of God and who are therefore fighting
against Him."

Eusebius was absent when the letter arrived, and the changeable
Constantine was favorably impressed by its noble and fearless tone;
the matter was therefore dropped.

Eusebius, still determined on the Patriarch's ruin, looked about him
for a tool. He found the Meletians always troublesome and ready to
join in a plot against those in authority. Three of them, appearing
suddenly at Nicomedia where Constantine was then staying, accused
Athanasius of having usurped the Royal power by levying an unlawful
tax upon the people. Unfortunately for the success of this little
plot, there were present at Court at that moment two priests of
Alexandria who were able to prove to the Emperor that the Patriarch
was completely innocent. Constantine even wrote a letter to Athanasius
telling him of the false charge brought against him, severely blaming
those who had made it and inviting him to come himself to Nicomedia.

This was not at all what Eusebius wanted. He could not prevent the
arrival of Athanasius; he therefore set to work once more to prejudice
Constantine against him before he came. The Meletians were pressed
into service again, and accused the Patriarch of treason. He had sent
a purse of gold, they said, to a certain rebel, who had stirred up a
rising against the Emperor. But when Athanasius appeared at Nicomedia,
he was able to prove that the story was a falsehood; and, to the
disgust of Eusebius and his party, he returned to Alexandria bearing a
letter from the Emperor fully establishing his innocence and the
perfidy of his accusers.

Rumors of what was passing had even reached St. Antony in his desert
solitude, and the old man, on hearing of all that his friend and
disciple had had to suffer, came down from his mountain cave to praise
him for his courage and to speak to the people.

"Have nothing to do with the Arians," he said; "you are Christians,
and they say that the