[492] Or Theognis; he was, as well as Eusebius, a pupil of Lucian's, and was deposed together with him after the Nicene Council for communicating with Arians. [They were not ecclesiastically deposed, but exiled by the Emperor, see Prolegg. ch. ii. §§3 (1) and (2) c, 6 (1).] Constantine banished them to Gaul; they were recalled in the course of two or three years. He was dead by the date of the Council of Sardica.
[493] Eusebian Council of Tyre, a.d. 335.
[494] On his return from Gaul, Nov. 23, a.d. 337. [Prolegg. ch. ii. §6 (1).]
[495] Cf. §77.
[496] At the Council of Tyre, Potamo, an Egyptian Bishop and Confessor asked Eusebius what had happened to him in prison during the persecution, Epiph. Hær. 68, 7, as if hinting at his cowardice. It appears that Eusebius was prisoner at Cæsarea with S. Pamphilus; yet he never mentions the fact himself, which is unlike him, if it was producible. [The insinuation of Potammon was groundless: see Dic. C. Biog. ii. 311.]
[497] George, Bishop of Laodicea, had been degraded when a priest by S. Alexander, for his profligate habits as well as his Arianism. Athan. speaks of him elsewhere as reprobated even by his party. de Fug. 26. [Cf. §49, de Syn. 17. Prolegg. ch. ii. §3 (2) c, 2.]
[498] Conventarius.
[499] Hist. Ari. 11, and below §§36, 71.
[500] §65.
[501] By Constantine into Gaul, a.d. 336.
[502] The circumstances of this appeal, which are related by Athan. below, §86, are thus summed up by Gibbon; "Before the final sentence could be pronounced at Tyre, the intrepid primate threw himself into a bark which was ready to hoist sail for the imperial city. The request of a formal audience might have been opposed or eluded; but Athanasius concealed his arrival, watched the moment of Constantine's return from an adjacent villa, and boldly encountered his angry sovereign as he passed on horseback through the principal street of Constantinople. So strange an apparition excited his surprise and indignation; and the guards were ordered to remove the importunate suitor; but his resentment was subdued by involuntary respect; and the haughty spirit of the Emperor was awed by the courage and eloquence of a Bishop, who implored his justice and awakened his conscience." Decl. and Fall, xxi. Athan. was a small man in person.
[503] i.e. to Constantinople.
[504] §87.
[505] This period, when Christianity was acknowledged by the state but not embraced by the population, is just the time when we hear most of this Reserve as a principle. While Christians were but a sect, persecution enforced a discipline, and when they were commensurate with the nation, faith made it unnecessary. We are now returned to the state of the fourth century.
[506] Tob. xii. 7.
[507] Matt. vii. 6.
[508] [Cf. §59, and Ep. Æg. 22, Prolegg. ch. ii. §2 init.]
[509] This seems to imply that the Holy Communion was only celebrated on Sundays in the Egyptian Churches. [Cf. §§63, 74, 76.]
[510] Vid. Can. Ap. 65.
[511] 1 Cor. xi. 25.
[512] Cf. §85.
[513] Vid. also Ep. Æg. 7. Euseb. Vit. C. iv. 43. Hilar. ad Const. i. 5. Fragm. ii. 12. [Diognius' is another form of Theognius' or Theognis. See Prolegg. ch. ii. §5.]
[514] Vid. also Ep. Æg. 7. Euseb. Vit. C. iv. 43. Hilar. ad Const. i. 5. Fragm. ii. 12. [Diognius' is another form of Theognius' or Theognis. See Prolegg. ch. ii. §5.]
[515] Cf. Encycl. 3, Apol. Const. 33.
[516] Hist. Arian. 12.
[517] [Not in Lent, for the commission were at Alexandria in September, see the date of the protest, infra, §76.]
[518] This Alexander had been one of the Nicene Fathers, in 325, and had the office of publishing their decrees in Macedonia, Greece, &c. He was at the Council of Jerusalem ten years after, at which the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was consecrated, and afterwards Arius admitted to communion. His influence with the Court party seems to have been great, judging from Count Dionysius's tone in speaking of him. Infr. §§66, 80, 81.
[519] Infr. §64.
[520] Vid infr. §63 fin. §85 fin.
[521] Infr. §74.
[522] The district, called Mareotis from a neighbouring lake, lay in the territory and diocese of Alexandria, to the south-west. It consisted of various large villages, with handsome Churches, and resident Priests, and of hamlets which had none; of the latter was "Irene of Secontarurus)" (infr. §85.) where Ischyras lived.
[523] Infr. §79.
[524] §72 fin.
[525] Arcaph. infr. 65 fin., head of the Meletians.
[526] Vid. infr. §37, 46. and de Syn. 32, note.
[527] Cathedræ velatæ, see Bingh. viii. 6. §10.
[528] Vid. their names infr. §40.
[529] Pistus.
[530] Vid. infr. §21.
[531] 1 Cor. v. 13.
[532] The Eusebians availed themselves of the subscriptions of the Meletians, as at Philippopolis, Hilar. Fragm. 3.
[533] Infr. §73.