elsewhere; but serious men were mostly Nicenes or Anomoeans.
Demophilus of Constantinople headed the party, and his blunders did it
almost as much harm as the profane jests of Eudoxius. At Antioch
Euzoius, the last of the early Arians, was replaced by Dorotheus. Milan
under Ambrose was aggressively Nicene, and the Arian tyrants were very
weak at Alexandria. On the other hand, the greatest of the Nicenes had
passed away, and few were left who could remember the great council's
meeting. Athanasius and Hilary were dead, and even Basil did not live to
greet an orthodox Emperor. Meletius of Antioch was in exile, and Cyril
of Jerusalem and the venerated Eusebius of Samosata, while Gregory of
Nazianzus had found in the Isaurian mountains a welcome refuge from his
hated diocese of Sasima. If none of the living Nicenes could pretend to
rival Athanasius, they at least outmatched the Arians.
[Sidenote: Gratian's toleration.]
As Valens left no children, the Empire rested for the moment in the
hands of his nephew, Gratian, a youth of not yet twenty. Gratian,
however, was wise enough to see that it was no time to cultivate
religious quarrels. He, therefore, began by proclaiming toleration to
all but Anomoeans and Photinians. As toleration was still the theory
of the Empire, and none but the Nicenes were practically molested, none
but the Nicenes gained anything by the edict. But mere toleration was
all they needed. The exiled bishops found little difficulty in resuming
the government of their flocks, and even in sending missions to Arian
strongholds. The Semiarians were divided. Numbers went over to the
Nicenes, while others took up an independent or Macedonian position. The
Homoean power in the provinces fell of itself before it was touched by
persecution. It scarcely even struggled against its fate. At Jerusalem
indeed party spirit ran as high as ever, but Alexandria was given up to
Peter almost without resistance. We find one or two outrages like the
murder of Eusebius of Samosata by an Arian woman in a country town, who
threw down a tile on his head, but we hardly ever find a Homoean
bishop heartily supported by his flock.
[Sidenote: Gregory of Nazianzus.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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