CHAPTER XIII

PAUL IS AGAIN EJECTED FROM THE CHURCH BY CONSTANTIUS, IN CONSEQUENCE OF THE SLAUGHTER OF HERMOGENES HIS GENERAL

WHEN intelligence of these proceedings reached the emperor Constantius, whose residence was then at Antioch, he ordered his general Hermogenes who had been despatched to Thrace, to pass through Constantinople on his way, and expel Paul from the church. He accordingly went to Constantinople, but in endeavouring to execute his commission, threw the whole city into confusion; for the people in their eagerness to defend the bishop, were reckless of all subordination. And when Hermogenes persisted in his efforts to drive out Paul by means of his military force, the people became exasperated as is usual in such cases; and making a desperate attack upon him, they set his house on fire, and after dragging him by the feet through the city, they at last put him to death. This took place in the consulate of the two Augusti, Constantius being a third, and Constans a second time consul: at which time the latter having subdued the Franks, admitted them to an allied confederacy with the Romans. The emperor Constantius on being informed of the assassination of Hermogenes, set off on horseback from Antioch, and arriving at Constantinople he immediately expelled Paul, and then punished the inhabitants by withdrawing from them more than 40,000 measures of the daily allowance of wheat which his father had granted for gratuitous distribution among them: for prior to this catastrophe, nearly 80,000 measures of wheat brought from Alexandria had been bestowed on the citizens. He hesitated however to ratify the appointment of Macedonius to the bishopric of that city, being irritated against him not only because he had been ordained without his consent; but also on account of the contests in which he had been engaged with Paul, which had eventually caused the death of Hermogenes his general, and that of many other persons. But having given him permission to assemble the people in the church in which he had been consecrated, he returned to Antioch.