The Libyan himself had long regarded his fate as decisively settled. He had interpreted the Apocalypse as referring to Constantine, and did not doubt either the temporary overthrow of Christianity by the emperor, or the fact that he would be involved in its ruin. He looked without fear, perhaps more with a feeling of curiosity than anything else, for signs which might enable him to form a conjecture as to how long the kingdom of heaven might be banished out of the world: its ultimate restoration and final triumph over human governments he never doubted; but he would hardly have turned his hand, or raised his head, to avoid the death which he supposed Constantine had determined to bring upon him. "If," he said unto his intimate friends, "the emperor’s council carry out his wishes, I desire ye all to remember, in the future, that no Christian council hath, or hath ever attempted, to exercise authority to put any man to death for heresy. The only punishments the Church hath ever imposed stop with the refusal to fellowship an unbeliever or a wrong-doer. If Constantine condemn me, remember that he is not a bishop, hath never even been baptized, and hath no authority to decide upon what is or what is not heretical; and the Roman law hath never, so far at least, attempted to define what a Christian may lawfully believe. Ye see, therefore, that the fact of my destruction illustrateth well the character of the council, and showeth that even the magnificent spectacle of his resignation which he so well enacted can not convert Constantine’s meeting into a council of the Christian Church. And I suppose that this will more plainly appear as the matter proceedeth further." Then answered the Bishop of Nicomedia, saying: "Brother, if thou must perish for the cause of Christ, I perish also with thee. I am an Arian, and shall claim the right to die with thee if any murder shall be done." "And I also!" said Eusebius of Cæsarea. "And I also!" said Maris of Chalcedon; and Theognis of Nicea; and Menophantes of Ephesus; and a score of other bishops, each in his turn pressing the old presbyter’s hand. Then said the presbyter: "If your resolution hold, either the policy and craft of Constantine will deny us a death so glorious, or our martyrdom will of itself reinstate the kingdom of heaven in spite of the emperor. Let us rejoice, then, in hope of the triumph of the truth!" And having thus quietly but unflinchingly made a covenant that, if the matter should be prosecuted to extremities against Arius, they would share his fate, and thereby furnish to the whole body of Christians throughout the world a most terrible and unanswerable protest against the council and the emperor, these devoted men calmly awaited the beginning of the struggle which they knew to be steadily approaching, although they were unable to determine from what quarter it would come. CHAPTER IX. "I HAVE NO SUPERIOR BUT CHRIST."