eive the homage of their subjects. A bishop,
Amphilochius of Iconium, approached the throne, and after saluting, with
due reverence, the person of his sovereign, he accosted the royal youth
with the same familiar tenderness which he might have used towards a
plebeian child. Provoked by this insolent behavior, the monarch gave
orders, that the rustic priest should be instantly driven from his
presence. But while the guards were forcing him to the door, the
dexterous polemic had time to execute his design, by exclaiming, with a
loud voice, "Such is the treatment, O emperor! which the King of heaven
has prepared for those impious men, who affect to worship the Father,
but refuse to acknowledge the equal majesty of his divine Son."
Theodosius immediately embraced the bishop of Iconium, and never forgot
the important lesson, which he had received from this dramatic parable.

Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius.--Part II.

Constantinople was the principal seat and fortress of Arianism; and, in
a long interval of forty years, the faith of the princes and prelates,
who reigned in the capital of the East, was rejected in the purer
schools of Rome and Alexandria. The archiepiscopal throne of Macedonius,
which had been polluted with so much Christian blood, was successively
filled by Eudoxus and Damophilus. Their diocese enjoyed a free
importation of vice and error from every province of the empire; the
eager pursuit of religious controversy afforded a new occupation to the
busy idleness of the metropolis; and we may credit the assertion of an
intelligent observer, who describes, with some pleasantry, the effects
of their loquacious zeal. "This city," says he, "is full of mechanics
and slaves, who are all of them profound theologians; and preach in
the shops, and in the streets. If you desire a man to change a piece of
silver, he informs you, wherein the Son differs from the Father; if you
ask the price of a loaf, you are told by way of reply, that the Son is
inferior to the Father; and if you inquire, whether the bath is ready,
the answer is, that the Son was made out of nothing." The heretics, of
various denominations, subsisted in peace under the protection of the
Arians of Constantinople; who endeavored to secure the attachment of
those obscure sectaries, while they abused, with unrelenting severity,
the victory which they had obtained over the followers of the council
of Nice. During the partial reigns of Con