eft neither Arian nor Nicene successors. The ten provinces of
Asia 'verily knew not God' in Hilary's time; and even the later Nicene
doctrine of Cappadocia was almost as much Semiarian as Athanasian. Thus
Constantius and Valens pursued throughout an Asiatic policy, striking
with one hand at Egypt, with the other at Rome. Every change in their
action can be explained with reference to the changes of opinion in
Asia.

[Sidenote: Conclusion.]

Upon the whole, we may say that Arian hatred of the council would have
been powerless if it had not rested on a formidable mass of conservative
discontent, while the conservative discontent might have died away if
the court had not supplied it with the means of action. If the decision
lay with the majority, every initiative had to come from the court.
Hence the reaction went on as long as these were agreed against the
Nicene party; it was suspended as soon as Julian's policy turned another
way, became unreal when conservative alarm subsided, and finally
collapsed when Asia went over to the Nicene side.

[Sidenote: Sequel of the council.]

We may now return to the sequel of the great council. If Constantine
thought he had restored peace in the churches, he soon found out his
mistake. The literary war began again almost where his summons had
interrupted it. The creed was signed and done with and seemed forgotten.
The conservatives hardly cared to be reminded of their half unwilling
signatures. To Athanasius it may have been a watchword from the first,
but it was not so to many others. In the West it was as yet almost
unknown. Even Marcellus was more disposed to avoid all technical terms
than to lay stress on those which the council sanctioned. Yet all
parties had learned caution at Nicaea. Marcellus disavowed Sabellianism;
Eusebius avoided Arianism, and nobody seems to have disowned the creed
as long as Constantine lived.

[Sidenote: Athanasius bishop of Alexandria, A.D. 328.]

The next great change was at Alexandria. The bishop Alexander died in
the spring of 328, and a stormy election followed. Its details are
obscure, but the Nicene party put forward the deacon Athanasius, and
consecrated him in spite of a determined opposition from Arians and
Meletians. And now that we stand before the greatest of the Eastern
fathers, let us see how his character and training fitted him to be the
hero of the Arian controversy.

[Sidenote: Character of Athanasius.]

Athanasius was a Greek