This was the unhappy state of the church in the reign of Constantius, which affords us little more than the history of councils and creeds, differing from, and contrary to each other; bishops deposing, censuring, and anathematizing their adversaries, and the Christian people divided into factions under their respective leaders, for the sake of words they understood nothing of the sense of, and striving for victory even to bloodshed and death. Upon the succession of Julian to the empire, though the contending-parties could not unite against the common enemy, yet they were by the emperor’s clemency and wisdom kept in tolerable peace and order.[144] The bishops, which had been banished by Constantius his predecessor, he immediately recalled, ordered their effects, which had been confiscated, to be restored to them, and commanded that no one should injure or hurt any Christian whatsoever. And as Ammianus Marcellinus,[145] an heathen writer of those times, tells us, he caused the Christian bishops and people, who were at variance with each other, to come into his palace, and there admonished them, that they should every one profess their own religion, without hindrance or fear, provided they did not disturb the public peace by their divisions. This was an instance of great moderation and generosity, and a pattern worthy the imitation of all his successors. ----- Footnote 144: Soc. l. 3. c. 1. Footnote 145: l. 22. c. 5. ----- In the beginning of Julian’s reign[146] some of the inhabitants of Alexandria, and, as was reported, the friends of Athanasius, by his advice, raised a great tumult in the city, and murdered George, the bishop of the place, by tearing him in pieces, and burning his body; upon which Athanasius returned immediately from his banishment, and took possession of his see, turning out the Arians from their churches, and forcing them to hold their assemblies in private and mean places. [T]Julian, with great equity, severely reproved the Alexandrians for this their violence and cruelty, telling them, that though George might have greatly injured them, yet they ought not to have revenged themselves on him, but to have left him to the justice of the laws. Athanasius, upon his restoration, immediately convened a synod at Alexandria, in which was first asserted the divinity of the Holy Spirit, and his consubstantiality with the Father and the Son.[147] But his power there was but short; for being accused to Julian as the destroyer of that city, and all Egypt, he saved himself by flight,[148] but soon after secretly returned to Alexandria, where he lived in great privacy till the storm blown over by Julian’s death, and the succession of Jovian to the empire, who restored him to his see, in which he continued undisturbed to his death. ----- Footnote 146: Soc. l. 3. c. 2, 3, 4. Philost. l. 7. c. 2. Footnote T: See note [T] at the end of the volume. Footnote 147: Philost. l. 7. c. 13. Footnote 148: Theod. l. 4. c. 2.