own conclusions from
Scripture, a clear sense of duty forbade him to shrink from manfully
defending it. Such was the man whom the brutal policy of Constantius
forced to take his place at the head of the Nicene opposition. As he was
not present at Milan, the courtiers had to silence him some other way.
In the spring of 356 they exiled him to Asia, on some charge of conduct
'unworthy of a bishop, or even of a layman.'

[Sidenote: Hosius and Liberius.]

Meanwhile Hosius of Cordova was ordered to Sirmium and there detained.
Constantius was not ashamed to send to the rack the old man who had been
a confessor in his grandfather's days, more than fifty years before. He
was brought at last to communicate with the Arianizers, but even in his
last illness refused to condemn Athanasius. After this there was but one
power in the West which could not be summarily dealt with. The grandeur
of Hosius was merely personal, but Liberius claimed the universal
reverence due to the apostolic and imperial See of Rome. It was a great
and wealthy church, and during the last two hundred years had won a
noble fame for world-wide charity. Its orthodoxy was without a stain;
for whatever heresies might flow to the great city, no heresy had ever
issued thence. The strangers of every land who found their way to Rome
were welcomed from St. Peter's throne with the majestic blessing of a
universal father. 'The church of God which sojourneth in Rome' was the
immemorial counsellor of all the churches; and now that the voice of
counsel was passing into that of command, Bishop Julius had made a
worthy use of his authority as a judge of Christendom. Such a bishop was
a power of the first importance now that Arianism was dividing the
Empire round the hostile camps of Gaul and Asia. If the Roman church had
partly ceased to be a Greek colony in the Latin capital, it was still
the connecting link of East and West, the representative of Western
Christianity to the Easterns, and the interpreter of Eastern to the
Latin West. Liberius could therefore treat almost on the footing of an
independent sovereign. He would not condemn Athanasius unheard, and
after so many acquittals. If Constantius wanted to reopen the case, he
must summon a free council, and begin by expelling the Arians. To this
demand he firmly adhered. The Emperor's threats he disregarded, the
Emperor's gifts he flung out of the church. It was not long before
Constantius was obliged to risk the scandal