in their Letter, to which he thought he had given no Occasion; unless they had taken it amiss, that he had summoned them to the Council; which he could not persuade himself they did, since, at the Request of their Deputies, he had appointed the Council to meet, and, at their Request, invited them to it. As for the Regard due to the Decrees and Decisions of Councils, he told them, that they had trespassed the first against the Decrees of the Oecumenical Council of _Nice_, by admitting the _Arians_ to their Communion, which he conceived to be more criminal in them, than it was in him to receive _Athanasius_ and _Marcellus_. He reproaches them with another Transgression of the Canons of the Church, namely with that of passing from one Bishoprick to another, which _Eusebius_ had done. He then justifies his Conduct with regard to _Athanasius_ and _Marcellus_; exhorts the _Eusebians_, with great Zeal and Earnestness, to find out some Remedy against the Evils and Disorders that reigned in the East, which he describes at Length; and concludes with complaining of the Orientals for condemning and deposing Bishops, those especially of the Apostolic Sees, without the Concurrence or Knowlege of their Brethren in the West[688]. _Julius_, finding his Letter made no Impression on the _Eusebians_, applied with several other Bishops to the Emperor _Constans_, who, at their Request proposed to his Brother _Constantius_ the assembling of an Oecumenical Council, in order to put an End to those unhappy Divisions. [Sidenote: _The Council of_ Sardica.] To this Proposal _Constantius_ agreed; and accordingly, by the Command of the two Princes, a numerous Council met in 347. at _Sardica_, the Metropolis of _Dacia_ in _Illyricum_[689]. _Julius_, apprehending it dangerous to abandon his Flock at that Juncture, did not assist in Person, but by his Deputies _Archidamus_ and _Philoxenes_, who signed in his Name[690]. The Orientals came, but withdrew soon after, upon the Council’s refusing to exclude _Athanasius_, and some others, whom they had condemned[691]. But by the orthodox Bishops, who remained, the Acts of the Council of _Rome_ were confirmed, _Athanasius_ and Three other Bishops declared innocent; and those, who had been placed in their room, not only deposed, but anathematized, and intirely cut off from the Communion of the Catholic Church[692]. The Council, before they broke up, writ several Letters; and, among the rest, one to the Emperors; one to the Bishop of _Rome_; and a circular Letter to all the Bishops of the Catholic Church, acquainting them with what had passed, and exhorting them to join the Council, and declare to the World, that they accepted their Decrees by subscribing to them[693]. The circular Letter was subscribed first by the great _Osius_ Bishop of _Cordoua_, and in the Second place by the Pope’s Legates[694]. In their Letter to _Julius_ they beg him to notify their Decrees to the Bishops of _Sardinia_, _Sicily_, and _Italy_, lest