t, implacably pursued his policy, and this great persecution did
not end until the persecutor, perishing, it is said, of the dire malady
of Herod and Philip II. of Spain, sent out an edict of toleration (A.D.
311).

By the edict of Milan (A.D. 313), Constantine, with the agreement of his
colleague Licinius, acknowledged Christianity as having at least equal
rights with other religions, and when he gained sole power he wrote to
all his subjects advising them, like him, to become Christians (A.D.
324). The Egyptian Church, hitherto free from schism, was now divided by
a fierce controversy, in which we see two Greek parties, rather than a
Greek and an Egyptian, in conflict. The council of Nicaea was called
together (A.D. 325) to determine between the Orthodox and the party of
the Alexandrian presbyter Arius. At that council the native Egyptian
bishops were chiefly remarkable for their manly protest against
enforcing celibacy on the clergy. The most conspicuous controversialist
on the Orthodox side was the young Alexandrian deacon Athanasius, who
returned home to be made archbishop of Alexandria (A.D. 326). After
being four times expelled by the Arians, and once by the emperor Julian,
he died, A.D. 373, at the moment when an Arian persecution began. So
large a proportion of the population had taken religious vows that under
Valens it became necessary to abolish the privilege of monks which
exempted them from military service. The reign of Theodosius I.
witnessed the overthrow of Arianism, and this was followed by the
suppression of Paganism, against which a final edict was promulgated
A.D. 390. In Egypt, the year before, the temple of Serapis at Alexandria
had been captured after much bloodshed by the Christian mob and turned
into a church. Generally the Coptic Christians were content to build
their churches within the ancient temples, plastering over or effacing
the sculptures which were nearest to the ground and in the way of the
worshippers. They do not seem to have been very zealous in the work of
destruction; the native religion was already dead and they had no fear
of it. The prosperity of the church was the sign of its decay, and
before long we find persecution and injustice disgracing the seat of
Athanasius. Cyril, the patriarch of Alexandria (A.D. 415), expelled the
Jews from the capital with the aid of the mob, and by the murder of the
beautiful philosopher Hypatia marked the lowest depth to which ignorant
fanatic