CHAPTER XXXII

ON THE DEPARTURE OF ATHANASIUS, THOSE WHO COMPOSED THE SYNOD VOTE HIS DEPOSITION

ATHANASIUS on his departure hastened immediately to the emperor. But the Synod meanwhile condemned him in his absence in the first place for deserting his cause: and when the result of the inquiry which had been instituted at Mareotes was presented, they passed sentence of deposition against him; loading him with opprobious epithets in their record of this act, but being wholly silent respecting the disgraceful defeat of his calumniators in the fictitious case of Arsenius. And having received into communion him who was reported to have been murdered, he who had formerly been a bishop of the Meletian heresy, was allowed to subscribe to the deposition of Athanasius as bishop of the city of Hypselis. Thus by an extraordinary course of circumstances, the alleged victim of assassination by Athanasius, was found alive to assist in degrading him.