CHAPTER X

DEPOSITION OF STEPHEN

AFTER the judges had heard these replies, they ordered the youngest of those who had been arrested to be brought before them. Before he was subjected to the examination by scourging, he confessed the whole plot, and stated that it was planned and carried into execution by Onager. This latter affirmed that he had only acted according to the commands of Stephen. The guilt of Stephen being thus demonstrated, all those who were present at the trial desired the bishops to depose him, and expel him from the church. By his expulsion the church was not, however, freed from the evils of Arianism. Leontius, who succeeded him in his bishopric, was a Phrygian of so subtle and artful a disposition, that he might be said to resemble the sunken rocks of the sea. We shall presently narrate more concerning him. The emperor Constantius, finding by experience what plots were formed against the bishops, wrote to the great Athanasius three different times, exhorting him to return from the West. I shall here insert the second letter, because it is the shortest of the three.