CHAPTER XIII

EUNOMIUS SEPARATES FROM EUDOXIUS; THROUGH WHOM A DISTURBANCE BEING RAISED AT ALEXANDRIA, ATHANASIUS SECRETES HIMSELF AGAIN, UNTIL BY VIRTUE OF THE EMPEROR’S LETTERS, HE IS RE-ESTABLISHED

ABOUT the same time Eunomius separated himself from Eudoxius, and held assemblies apart, because, after he had repeatedly entreated that his preceptor Aëtius might be received into communion, Eudoxius continued to oppose it. Yet Eudoxius in this did violence to his own inclination, for he entirely coincided in opinion with Aëtius; but he yielded to the prevailing sentiment of his own party, who objected to Aëtius as heterodox. This was the cause of the division referred to, and such was the state of things at Constantinople. But the church at Alexandria was disturbed by an edict of the Prætorian Præfects, sent thither by means of Eudoxius. Whereupon Athanasius, dreading the irrational impetuosity of the multitude, and fearing lest he should be regarded as the author of any excesses that might be committed, concealed himself for four months in his father’s tomb. When however the people, on account of their affection for him, became seditious in impatience of his absence, the emperor, on ascertaining the reason why such agitation prevailed at Alexandria, ordered by his letters that Athanasius should be suffered to preside over the churches without molestation; in consequence of which the Alexandrian church enjoyed tranquillity until the death of Athanasius. How the Arian faction became possessed of the churches after his decease, we shall unfold in the course of our history.