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THUS were the schemes of those who upheld various heresies in
opposition to truth successfully carried into execution; and thus did
they depose those bishops who strenuously maintained throughout the
East the supremacy of the doctrines of the Nicaean Council. These
heretics had taken possession of the most important sees, such as
Alexandria in Egypt, Antioch in Syria, and the imperial city of
the Hellespont, and they held all the persuaded bishops in
subjection. The ruler of the Church at Rome and all the priests of
the West regarded these deeds as a personal insult; for they had
accorded from the beginning with all the decisions in the vote made by
those convened at Nice, nor did they now cease from that way of
thinking. On the arrival of Athanasius, they received him kindly,
and espoused his cause among themselves. Irritated at this
interference, Eusebius wrote to Julius, exhorting him to constitute
himself a judge of the decrees that had been enacted against Athanasius
by the council of Tyre. But before he had been able to ascertain the
sentiments of Julius, and, indeed, not long after the council of
Antioch, Eusebius died. Immediately upon this event, those
citizens of Constantinople who maintained the doctrines of the Nicaean
Council, conducted Paul to the church. At the same time those of
the opposing multitude seized this occasion and came together in another
church, among whom were the adherents of Theognis, bishop of
Nicaea, of Theodore, bishop of Heraclea, and others of the same
party who chanced to be present, and they ordained Macedonius bishop
of Constantinople. This excited frequent seditions in the city which
assumed all the appearance of a war, for the people fell upon one
another, and many perished. The city was filled with tumult, so that
the emperor, who was then at Antioch, on hearing of what had
occurred, was moved to wrath, and issued a decree for the expulsion of
Paul. Hermogenes, general of the cavalry, endeavored to put this
edict of the emperor's into execution; for having been sent to
Thrace, he had, on the journey, to pass by Constantinople, and he
thought, by means of his army, to eject Paul from the church by
force. But the people, instead of yielding, met him with open
resistance, and while the soldiers, in order to carry out the orders
they had received, attempted still greater violence, the insurgents
entered the house of Hermogenes, set fire to it, killed him, and
attaching a cord to his body, dragged it through the city. The
emperor had no sooner received this intelligence than he took horse for
Constantinople, in order to punish the people. But he spared them
when he saw them coming to meet him with tears and supplications. He
deprived the city of about half of the corn which his father,
Constantine, had granted them annually out of the public treasury from
the tributes of Egypt, probably from the idea that luxury and excess
made the populace idle and disposed to sedition. He turned his anger
against Paul and commanded his expulsion from the city. He manifested
great displeasure against Macedonius also, because he was the occasion
of the murder of the general and of other individuals and also, because
he had been ordained without first obtaining his sanction. He,
however, returned to Antioch, without having either confirmed or
dissolved his ordination. Meanwhile the zealots of the Arian tenets
deposed Gregory, because he was indifferent in the support of their
doctrines, and had moreover incurred the ill-will of the Alexandrians
on account of the calamities which had befallen the city at his
entrance, especially the conflagration of the church. They elected
George, a native of Cappadocia, in his stead; this new bishop was
admired on account of his activity and his zeal in support of the Arian
dogma.
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