“Since Arius hath imitated wicked and ungodly men, it is just that he should undergo the same infamy with them. As therefore Porphyrius, an enemy of godliness, for his having composed wicked books against Christianity, hath found a suitable recompense, so as to be infamous for the time to come, and to be loaded with great reproach, and to have all his impious writings quite destroyed; so also it is now my pleasure, that Arius, and those of Arius’s sentiments, shall be called Porphyrians, so that they may have the appellation of those, whose manners they have imitated. Moreover, if any book composed by Arius shall be found, it shall be delivered to the fire; that “not only his evil doctrine may be destroyed, but that there may not be the least remembrance of it left.” This also I enjoin, that if any one shall be found to have concealed “any writing” composed by Arius, and shall not immediately bring it and consume it in the fire, death shall be his punishment; for as soon as ever he is taken in this crime, he shall suffer a capital punishment. God preserve you.” Footnote S: See note [S] at the end of the volume. Footnote 109: Epist. xiii. ----- If one reads the complaints of the orthodox writers against the Arians, one would think the Arians the most execrable set of men that ever lived, they being loaded with all the crimes that can possibly be committed, and represented as bad, or even worse, than the devil himself. But no wise man will easily credit these accounts, which the orthodox give of their enemies, because, as Socrates tells us,[110] “This was the practice of the bishops towards all they deposed, to accuse and pronounce them impious, but not to tell others the reasons why they accused them as such.” It was enough for their purpose to expose them to the public odium, and make them appear impious to the multitude, that so they might get them expelled from their rich sees, and be translated to them in their room. And this they did as frequently as they could, to the introducing infinite calamities and confusions into the Christian church. And if the writings of the Arians had not been prudently destroyed, I doubt not but we should have found as many charges laid by them, with equal justice, against the orthodox, as the orthodox have produced against them; their very suppression of the Arian writings being a very strong presumption against them, and the many imperial edicts of Constantine, Theodosius, Valentinian, Martian, and others, against heretics, being an abundant demonstration that they had a deep share in the guilt of persecution. ----- Footnote 110: E. H. l. 1. c. 24. -----