them when
downcast, comforting and consoling them in suffering. Though absent,
he was their Father and their Bishop still. His voice reached even to
distant Gaul, where it encouraged St. Hilary of Poitiers and others,
who were striving, even as he was, against heresy.

The Arians were behaving in their usual way--"always slippery, always
shuffling," as one who knew them asserted.* At one council, having
been accused of denying the Divinity of Christ, they had said: "Let
anyone who says that Jesus Christ is a creature like unto other
creatures be anathema" (accursed). At another which followed it
closely--for the Arians and Constantius held a council every few
months to gain their ends--they openly stated that Jesus Christ was
not God, but a creature. Someone present who had been at the previous
council reminded them of the statement they had made on that occasion.
"We never meant that Jesus Christ was not a creature," they retorted,
"only that he was a different kind of creature from the others!"

* The Arians, seeing that their original doctrines were offensive to
all Catholic consciences, had now taken up the position known as
"Semi-Arian." The Son was like the Father, they declared, though not
of one substance with Him.

In the meantime, as things had quieted down a little in Alexandria,
George of Cappadocia resolved to return and see if he could not make a
little more money. He was received in an ominous silence, for he was
held in abhorrence almost as much by the pagans as by the Christians.
A few days later the news reached the city that Constantius was dead
and that his nephew Julian had succeeded him as Emperor.

The moment of reckoning had come. George was seized by the pagan
population and literally torn to pieces; his body was burned and its
ashes scattered to the winds. Thus perished Constantius' "prelate
above all praise," and it was not likely that the new Emperor would
take much trouble to avenge his death.

Julian, known as "the Apostate," had been a pupil of Eusebius of
Nicomedia and a model of youthful piety; but the Christianity of which
Eusebius was a living example had struck but shallow roots. Later he
went to Athens, where St. Basil and St. Gregory, the two great doctors
of the Church, were his fellow students. "What a viper the Roman
Empire is cherishing in its bosom!" exclaimed Gregory, no mean judge
of character, "but God grant that I prove a false prophet."

No sooner was Julian crowned