pe of Rome, of the Emperor
Constans, and of the Synod of Sardica. It was a brief triumph. In 350
Paul was exiled for life to Cucusus, and Macedonius ruled once more in
his stead.[126] For the next thirty years S. Irene with the other
churches of the capital remained in the hands of the Arians.

[Illustration: PLATE XVII.
(1) S. IRENE, SOUTH SIDE.
(2) S. IRENE, NORTH SIDE. IN THE DISTANCE, S. SOPHIA.
_To face page 86._]

During that period the Nicene faith was preached by Gregory of Nazianzus
only in a small chapel, subsequently dedicated to S. Anastasia.[127] But
with the accession of Theodosius the Great the adherents of the Creed of
Nicaea prevailed, and the Second General Council, held in Constantinople
in 381, adopted that creed as the true faith of the Christian Church.

According to the biographer of S. Stephen the Younger, who enumerates
the six ecumenical councils, and indicates, in most cases, where each
met, that famous Council met in the church of S. Irene.[128] But
Theodore Lector[129] says the Council assembled in the church of
Homonoia, and explains the name of that church as commemorative of the
harmony which prevailed among the bishops who gathered there on that
occasion. As a matter of fact, one of the churches of the city bore the
name Homonoia.[130] Possibly the discrepancy between the statements of
the authors just mentioned may be due to a confusion arising from a
similar meaning of the names of the two churches.

According to the Anonymus,[131] the usurper Basiliscus took refuge with
his wife and children in S. Irene, when he was overthrown in 477, and
the Emperor Zeno recovered the throne. But, according to the _Paschal
Chronicle_,[132] Basiliscus fled on that occasion to the great
baptistery of S. Sophia. As that baptistery stood between S. Irene and
S. Sophia and may have served both churches, the difference between the
two statements is not serious.

After standing for two centuries the Constantinian edifice was burnt to
the ground by the fire which the rebel factions in the Nika Riot set to
the offices of the prefect on Friday, the 16th of January 532. The
building had narrowly escaped the same fate in the fire which destroyed
S. Sophia earlier in the course of the riot, and might have survived
also the conflagration in which it actually perished, but for the strong
wind which carried the flames from the praetorium to the church,
devouring on their way the bath of Alexander, a pa