|
BUT he fled again, saying to his intimates, 'Let us retire for a
little while, friends; it is but a small cloud which will soon pass
away.' He then immediately embarked, and crossing the Nile,
hastened with all speed into Egypt, closely pursued by those who
sought to take him. When he understood that his pursuers were not far
distant, his attendants were urging him to retreat once more into the
desert, but he had recourse to an artifice and thus effected his
escape. He persuaded those who accompanied him to turn back and meet
his adversaries, which they did immediately; and on approaching them
they were simply asked 'where they had seen Athanasius': to which
they replied that 'he was not a great way off,' and, that 'if they
hastened they would soon overtake him.' Being thus deluded, they
started afresh in pursuit with quickened speed, but to no purpose; and
Athanasius making good his retreat, returned secretly to Alexandria;
and there he remained concealed until the persecution was at an end.
Such were the perils which succeeded one another in the career of the
bishop of Alexandria, these last from the heathen coming after that to
which he was before subjected from Christians. In addition to these
things, the governors of the provinces taking advantage of the
emperor's superstition to feed their own cupidity, committed more
grievous outrages on the Christians than their sovereign had given them
a warrant for; sometimes exacting larger sums of money than they ought
to have done, and at others inflicting on them corporal punishments.
The emperor learning of these excesses, connived at them; and when
the sufferers appealed to him against their oppressors, he tauntingly
said, 'It is your duty to bear these afflictions patiently; for this
is the command of your God.'
|
|