safeguard, the fervor
of his prayers for the success of the righteous cause might perhaps be
somewhat abated. The ruin of Athanasius was no longer contrived by
the obscure malice of a few bigoted or angry bishops, who abused
the authority of a credulous monarch. The monarch himself avowed the
resolution, which he had so long suppressed, of avenging his private
injuries; [122] and the first winter after his victory, which he passed
at Arles, was employed against an enemy more odious to him than the
vanquished tyrant of Gaul.

[Footnote 120: Athanasius (tom. i. p. 677, 678) defends his innocence
by pathetic complaints, solemn assertions, and specious arguments. He
admits that letters had been forged in his name, but he requests that
his own secretaries and those of the tyrant might be examined, whether
those letters had been written by the former, or received by the
latter.]

[Footnote 121: Athanas. tom. i. p. 825-844.]

[Footnote 122: Athanas. tom. i. p. 861. Theodoret, l. ii. c. 16.
The emperor declared that he was more desirous to subdue Athanasius,
than he had been to vanquish Magnentius or Sylvanus.]

If the emperor had capriciously decreed the death of the most eminent
and virtuous citizen of the republic, the cruel order would have been
executed without hesitation, by the ministers of open violence or of
specious injustice. The caution, the delay, the difficulty with which
he proceeded in the condemnation and punishment of a popular bishop,
discovered to the world that the privileges of the church had already
revived a sense of order and freedom in the Roman government. The
sentence which was pronounced in the synod of Tyre, and subscribed by
a large majority of the Eastern bishops, had never been expressly
repealed; and as Athanasius had been once degraded from his episcopal
dignity by the judgment of his brethren, every subsequent act might be
considered as irregular, and even criminal. But the memory of the firm
and effectual support which the primate of Egypt had derived from the
attachment of the Western church, engaged Constantius to suspend the
execution of the sentence till he had obtained the concurrence of the
Latin bishops. Two years were consumed in ecclesiastical negotiations;
and the important cause between the emperor and one of his subjects was
solemnly debated, first in the synod of Arles, and afterwards in the
great council of Milan, [123] which consisted of above three hundred
bishops. Their