ent into banishment about the middle of the year 356, with as great
alacrity as another would take a journey of pleasure, and never
entertained the least disquieting thought of hardships, dangers, or
enemies, having a soul above both the smiles and frowns of the world,
and fixed only on God. He remained in exile somewhat upwards of three
years, which time he employed in composing several learned works. The
principal and most esteemed of these is that _On the Trinity, against
the Arians_, in twelve {144} books. In them he proves the
consubstantiality of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. He teaches that
the church is one, out of which all heresies spring; not that by this
she is distinguished, as standing always one, always alone against them
all, and confounding them all: whereas they by perpetual divisions tear
each other in pieces, and so become the subject of her triumph.[16] He
proves that Arianism cannot be the faith of Christ, because not revealed
to St. Peter, upon whom the church was built and secured forever; for
whose faith Christ prayed, that it might never fail; who received the
keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whose judiciary sentence on earth is
that of heaven:[17] all which arguments he frequently urges.[18] He
proves the divinity of Christ by the miracles wrought at the sepulchres
of the apostles and martyrs, and by their relics: for the devils
themselves confess Christ's godhead, and roar and flee at the presence
of the venerable bones of his servants,[19] which he also mentions and
urges in his invective against Constantius.[20] In 358, he wrote his
book _On Synods_, or _On the Faith of the Orientals_, to explain the
terms and variation of the eastern Arians in their synods.

In his exile he was informed that his daughter Apra, whom he had left in
Gaul, had thoughts of embracing the married state; upon which he
implored Christ, with many tears, to bestow on her the precious jewel of
virginity. He sent her a letter that is still extant, in which he
acquaints her, that if she contemned all earthly things, spouse,
sumptuous garments, and riches, Christ had prepared for her, and had
shown unto him, at his prayers and tears, an inestimable never-falling
diamond, infinitely more precious than she was able to frame to herself
an idea of. He conjures her by the God of heaven, and entreats her not
to make void his anxiety for her, nor to deprive herself of so
incomparable a good. Fortunatus assures us that the o