The Resolution taken by the Confessors in the Council of _Alexandria_, is said to have saved the Church from utter Ruin. For had that prevailed, which was urged with so much Warmth by _Lucifer_, the Bishops, who had chosen rather to sign the _Arian_ Confession than forfeit their Sees, would have kept them in Defiance of a Decree made by a small Number of their Collegues, and in all Likelihood excommunicated and deposed, in their Turn, those who had excommunicated and deposed them: and, in that Case, the _Arian_ Party, comprehending almost all the Bishops of the Church, must have prevailed. But as nothing was required of them, to keep their Sees, besides their renouncing the Confession of _Rimini_, which they had embraced, and embracing that of _Nice_, which they had renounced, they readily complied with the Decree of the Council; insomuch that the following Year 363. _Athanasius_, in a Letter, which he wrote to the Emperor _Jovian_, immediately after the Death of _Julian_, could assure that Prince, that the Faith of _Nice_ had been received, and was professed, in all the Provinces of the Empire, which he enumerates; but omits those of _Thrace_, _Bithynia_, and the _Hellespont_[951], the Bishops there still continuing obstinately to maintain the Doctrine of _Arius_, and to reject the Faith of _Nice_, as we learn from _Sozomen_[952], _Socrates_[953], and _Basil_[954]; nay, at _Constantinople_, the Orthodox had but a small Chapel to assemble in, all the Churches being in Possession of the _Arians_, under _Eudoxius_, a leading Man among the _Pure Arians_, who had usurped that See[955]. [Sidenote: _The Faith of_ Nice _everywhere established_.] For the better establishing of the Orthodox Faith, after the violent Shock it had lately received, Councils were held in several Provinces of the Empire[N19], and by all was received the Faith of _Nice_, the Confession of _Rimini_ condemned, and the Words _Substance_ and _Consubstantial_ re-established[956]. A very strong Proof, that the Assent given before to the _Arian_ Doctrines had been solely the Effect of Force, or of Interest, which being now removed, and all left at Liberty to act as their Consciences only directed, the Orthodox Faith prevailed as much as the other had done under _Constantius_. ----- Footnote N19: