it not so from
the beginning, and will it not be so until the end? Did not the Master
Himself say, 'They have persecuted Me, they will persecute you also'?
Did not the 'perils from false brethren' begin even in the lifetime of
those who had been the companions of Christ? And yet, did not the
Master Himself promise that, although she must live in the midst of
persecution, He would be with His Church forever and that the gates of
Hell should not prevail against her?"

With these words of hope and comfort on his lips, St. Antony passed to
his reward, and they laid him in his lonely desert grave. His coat of
sheepskin, given him by Athanasius long years before, he sent with his
dying blessing to the Patriarch, who cherished it as his most precious
possession.

The Alexandrians had not given in without a struggle. They had
protested openly against the violence of Syrianus, proclaiming
throughout the city that Athanasius was their true Patriarch and that
they would never acknowledge another. It was of no use; a new reign of
terror began in which all who refused to accept the Arian creed were
treated as criminals. Men and women were seized and scourged; some
were slain. Athanasius was denounced as a "runaway, an evildoer, a
cheat and an impostor, deserving of death." Letters came from the
Emperor ordering all the churches in the city to be given up to the
Arians and requiring the people to receive without objections the new
Patriarch whom he would shortly send them.

As time went on, things grew worse. The churches were invaded; altars,
vestments and books were burned and incense thrown on the flames. An
ox was sacrificed in the sanctuary; priests, monks and nuns were
seized and tortured; the houses of the faithful were broken into and
robbed. Bishops were driven into exile and their sees filled by
Arians, those who were ready to give the most money being generally
chosen. Some of them were even pagans; the people were ready to bear
any suffering rather than hold communion with them.

When the Emperor Constantius considered that the resistance of the
Alexandrians had been sufficiently broken, he addressed them in a
conciliatory letter.

Now that the impostor had been driven out, he said, he was about to
send them a Patriarch above praise. They would find in the venerable
George of Cappadocia the wisest of teachers, one who was fit in every
way to lead them to the kingdom of Heaven and to raise their hearts
from earthly