ion, from the moment that he assembled three hundred bishops
within the walls of the same palace. The presence of the monarch swelled
the importance of the debate; his attention multiplied the arguments;
and he exposed his person with a patient intrepidity, which animated
the valor of the combatants. Notwithstanding the applause which has
been bestowed on the eloquence and sagacity of Constantine, [78] a Roman
general, whose religion might be still a subject of doubt, and whose
mind had not been enlightened either by study or by inspiration,
was indifferently qualified to discuss, in the Greek language, a
metaphysical question, or an article of faith. But the credit of his
favorite Osius, who appears to have presided in the council of Nice,
might dispose the emperor in favor of the orthodox party; and a
well-timed insinuation, that the same Eusebius of Nicomedia, who now
protected the heretic, had lately assisted the tyrant, [79] might
exasperate him against their adversaries. The Nicene creed was ratified
by Constantine; and his firm declaration, that those who resisted the
divine judgment of the synod, must prepare themselves for an immediate
exile, annihilated the murmurs of a feeble opposition; which, from
seventeen, was almost instantly reduced to two, protesting bishops.
Eusebius of Caesarea yielded a reluctant and ambiguous consent to the
Homoousion; [80] and the wavering conduct of the Nicomedian Eusebius
served only to delay, about three months, his disgrace and exile. [81]
The impious Arius was banished into one of the remote provinces of
Illyricum; his person and disciples were branded by law with the odious
name of Porphyrians; his writings were condemned to the flames, and a
capital punishment was denounced against those in whose possession they
should be found. The emperor had now imbibed the spirit of controversy,
and the angry, sarcastic style of his edicts was designed to inspire his
subjects with the hatred which he had conceived against the enemies of
Christ. [82]

[Footnote 77: Eusebius, in Vit. Constant. l. ii. c. 64-72. The
principles of toleration and religious indifference, contained in this
epistle, have given great offence to Baronius, Tillemont, &c., who
suppose that the emperor had some evil counsellor, either Satan or
Eusebius, at his elbow. See Cortin's Remarks, tom. ii. p. 183. * Note:
Heinichen (Excursus xi.) quotes with approbation the term "golden
words," applied by Ziegler to this mode