he eager vehemence which animated the spectators in the
decisive moment of a horse-race, was now directed towards a different
object; and the Circus resounded with the shout of thousands, who
repeatedly exclaimed, "One God, One Christ, One Bishop!" The zeal of the
Roman people in the cause of Liberius was not confined to words alone;
and the dangerous and bloody sedition which they excited soon after the
departure of Constantius determined that prince to accept the submission
of the exiled prelate, and to restore him to the undivided dominion of
the capital. After some ineffectual resistance, his rival was expelled
from the city by the permission of the emperor and the power of the
opposite faction; the adherents of Faelix were inhumanly murdered in the
streets, in the public places, in the baths, and even in the churches;
and the face of Rome, upon the return of a Christian bishop, renewed the
horrid image of the massacres of Marius, and the proscriptions of Sylla.
[149]

[Footnote 149: See, on this ecclesiastical revolution of Rome, Ammianus,
xv. 7 Athanas. tom. i. p. 834, 861. Sozomen, l. iv. c. 15. Theodoret,
l. ii c. 17. Sulp. Sever. Hist. Sacra, l. ii. p. 413. Hieronym. Chron.
Marcellin. et Faustin. Libell. p. 3, 4. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. vi.
p.]

II. Notwithstanding the rapid increase of Christians under the reign of
the Flavian family, Rome, Alexandria, and the other great cities of the
empire, still contained a strong and powerful faction of Infidels, who
envied the prosperity, and who ridiculed, even in their theatres, the
theological disputes of the church. Constantinople alone enjoyed the
advantage of being born and educated in the bosom of the faith. The
capital of the East had never been polluted by the worship of idols;
and the whole body of the people had deeply imbibed the opinions, the
virtues, and the passions, which distinguished the Christians of
that age from the rest of mankind. After the death of Alexander, the
episcopal throne was disputed by Paul and Macedonius. By their zeal and
abilities they both deserved the eminent station to which they aspired;
and if the moral character of Macedonius was less exceptionable, his
competitor had the advantage of a prior election and a more orthodox
doctrine. His firm attachment to the Nicene creed, which has given Paul
a place in the calendar among saints and martyrs, exposed him to the
resentment of the Arians. In the space of fourteen years he was