The Fall of the great _Osius_, whom the Orthodox Party looked upon as their invincible Hero, surprised the whole World[852]. Some could not believe it; others ascribed it to his great Age, which might have weakened his Judgment[853]. It was immediately published all over the East, and great Rejoicings were made on the Occasion, by the Bishops in those Parts, who looked upon such a Conquest as a signal Victory over the Orthodox[854]. _Phœbadius_ tells us, that the chief Argument alleged by the _Arians_, in favour of their Doctrine, against the Bishops of _Gaul_, was _the Conversion of_ Osius, as they styled it[855]. Here _Davidius_ pleases himself with ridiculing, and indeed very justly, this and several other Conversions, greatly boasted by the _Arians_; but he must give me Leave to put him in mind, that he ridicules, at the same time, the many Conversions which his Church is constantly boasting, since most of them, especially those thus made in the new World, have been owing to Arguments of the same Nature as that of _Osius_, and other _Arian_ Proselytes, and were not perhaps at all more sincere. [Sidenote: Hilarius _not well informed as to the Circumstances of his Fall_.] _Hilarius_, Bishop of _Poitiers_, who lived at this time in Exile, amidst the _Arians_ in _Phrygia_, seems not to be well informed as to the Circumstances of the Fall of _Osius_; else he had made some Allowance for the barbarous and inhuman Treatment the unhappy Prelate met with, and not reflected on him with so much Bitterness and Severity, saying, that it had pleased God to prolong his Life till he fell, that the World might know what he had been before he fell[856]. That a Man in the Hundredth Year of his Age should yield to most exquisite and repeated Torments, is not at all to be wondered at; and therefore had _Hilarius_ been better informed, he had rather pitied than reproached him. But the _Arians_, among whom he lived, took care to conceal whatever could any ways depreciate their boasted Victory: at least that _Hilarius_ was a Stranger to what _Osius_ had suffered, is manifest, from his ascribing the Fall of that great Prelate not to the Cruelty of his Enemies, but to the too great Love he had for his Sepulchre[857], meaning, I suppose, the Desire he had of dying in his native Country, and not in Exile. [Sidenote: _He is restored to his See._]