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ABOUT the same time Eunomius separated himself from Eudoxius,
and held assemblies apart, because after he had repeatedly entreated
that his preceptor Aetius might be received into communion, Eudoxius
continued to oppose it. Now Eudoxius did this against his
preference, for he did not reject the opinion with Aetius since it was
the same as his own; but he yielded to the prevailing sentiment of his
own party, who objected to Aetius as heterodox. This was the cause
of the division between Eunomius and Eudoxius, and such was the state
of things at Constantinople. But the church at Alexandria was
disturbed by an edict of the praetorian prefects, sent hither by means
of Eudoxius. Whereupon Athanasius, dreading the irrational
impetuosity of the multitude, and fearing lest he should be regarded as
the author of the excesses that might be committed, concealed himself
for four entire months in an ancestral tomb. Inasmuch however as the
people, on account of their affection for him, became seditious in
impatience of his absence, the emperor, on ascertaining that on this
account agitation pre-railed at Alexandria, ordered by his letters
that Athanasius should be suffered to preside over the churches without
molestation; and this was the reason why the Alexandrian church
enjoyed tranquillity until the death of Athanasius. How the Arian
faction became possessed of the churches after his decease, we shall
unfold in the course of our history.
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