It was long ere _Damasus_ could be brought to give any Attention to the Affairs of the East; and when he did, it was only to add Fewel to the Fire, which had lately begun to rage with great Violence. For, looking upon the Office of a bare Mediator, which alone had been offered him, as no-ways suitable to his Dignity, he arrogantly assumed that of a Judge, and not only acknowleged _Paulinus_ for lawful Bishop of _Antioch_, but, misled by false and groundless Reports, declared _Meletius_ a Transgressor of the Canons, an Intruder, a Schismatic, and even an Heretic[1053]; that _Meletius_, who had suffered Exile, and innumerable Hardships, in Defence of the Orthodox Faith, who was then revered all over the East, as a Man of extraordinary Sanctity, and is now honoured by the Church of _Rome_ as a Saint of the first Class. [Sidenote: _His Conduct condemned by St._ Basil.] But his thus openly declaring in favour of _Paulinus_, his treating in such a base and unworthy manner one of the most eminent Prelates in the East, served only to engage the Followers of _Meletius_ more warmly in his Cause; and the great _Basil_, among the rest, who could not help censuring the Conduct of _Damasus_ as rash, partial, and injudicious: he even repented his having ever applied to him; for, in one of his Letters to _Eusebius_ of _Samosata_, he expresses himself thus: _The Saying of_ Diomedes _occurs to my Mind_; Intreaties are not to be used with _Achilles_, he is too haughty[1054]; _and truly the more you flatter haughty and insolent Men, the more haughty and insolent they become_[1055]. As no Regard was had to the Authority of _Damasus_, and the Western Bishops, who, following his Example, acknowleged _Paulinus_, and not _Meletius_, the Orthodox Bishops in the East not only continued divided among themselves, but a new Division arose between the Western Bishops, and those of the Party of _Meletius_, at the Head of which was _Basil_ Bishop of _Cæsarea_. But, of these unhappy Divisions, so far as the Bishops of _Rome_ were concerned in them, we shall have Occasion to speak hereafter. [Sidenote: _New Disturbances raised in_ Rome, _by the Partisans of_ Ursinus;]