ius, rendered the
necessity of an entire separation to communion more notorious; and many
who were orthodox in their faith, yet, through weakness or ignorance of
facts, had till then communicated with the Arians in the great church,
would have no communion with Euzoius, or his adherents; but under the
protection of Diodorus and Flavian, then eminent and learned laymen,
afterwards bishops, held their religious assemblies with their own
priests, in the church of the apostles without the city, in a suburb
called Palaea, that is, the old suburb or church. They attempted in vain
to unite themselves to the Eustathians, who for thirty years past had
held their separate assemblies; but these refused to admit them, or to
allow the election of Meletius, on account of the share the Arians had
had therein: they therefore continued their private assemblies within
the city. The emperor Constantius, in his return from the Persian war,
with an intention to march against his cousin Julian, Caesar, in the
West, arrived at Antioch, and was baptized by the Arian bishop Euzoius;
but died soon after, in his march at Mopsucrene, in Cilicia, on the 3d
of November, 361. Julian having allowed the banished bishops to go to
their respective churches, St. Meletius returned to Antioch about the
end of the year 362, but had the affliction to see the breach made by
the schism grow wider. The Eustathians not only refused still to receive
him, but proceeded to choose a bishop for themselves. This was Paulinus,
a person of great meekness and piety, who had been ordained priest by
St. Eustathius himself, and had constantly attended his zealous flock.
Lucifer, bishop of Cagliari, passing by Antioch in his return from
exile, consecrated Paulinus bishop, and by this precipitate action,
riveted the schism which divided this church near fourscore and five
years, and in which the discussion of the facts upon which the right of
the claimants was founded, was so intricate that the saints innocently
took part on both sides. It was an additional affliction to St.
Meletius, to see Julian the Apostate make Antioch the seat of the
superstitious abominations of idolatry, which he restored; and the
generous liberty with which he opposed them, provoked that emperor to
banish him a second time. But Jovian soon after succeeding that unhappy
prince, in 363, our saint returned to Antioch. Then it appeared that the
Arians were men entirely guided by ambition and interest, and t