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THE Arian party did not desist from their evil machinations. They
had only signed the confession of faith for the purpose of disguising
themselves in sheeps'-skins, while they were acting the part of
wolves. The holy Alexander, of Byzantium, for the city was not yet
called Constantinople, who by his prayer had pierced Arius to the
heart, had, at the period to which we are referring, been translated
to a better life. Eusebius, the propagator of impiety, little
regarding the definition which, only a short time previously, he with
the other bishops had agreed upon, without delay quitted Nicomedia and
seized upon the see of Constantinople, in direct violation of that
canon which prohibits bishops and presbyters from being translated from
one city to another. But that those who carry their infatuation so far
as to deny the divinity of the only-begotten Son of God, should
likewise violate the other laws, cannot excite surprise. Nor was this
the first occasion that he made this innovation; for, having been
originally entrusted with the see of Berytus, he leapt from thence to
Nicomedia. Whence he was expelled by the synod, on account of his
manifest impiety, as was likewise Theognis, bishop of Nicaea. This
is related a second time in the letters of the emperor Constantine;
and I shall here insert the close of the letter which he wrote to the
Nicomedians.
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