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THE divine Athanasius returned to Alexandria, after having
remained two years and four months at Treves . Constantine, the
eldest son of Constantine the Great, whose imperial sway extended
over Western Gaul, wrote the following letter to the church of
Alexandria. Epistle of the Emperor Constantine, the son of
Constantine the Great, to the Alexandrians.
"CONSTANTINUS CAESAR to the people of the Catholic
Church of Alexandria.
"I think that it cannot have escaped your pious intelligence that
Athanasius, the interpreter of the venerated law, was opportunely
sent into Gaul, in order that, so long as the savagery of these
bloodthirsty opponents was threatening peril to his sacred head, he
might be saved from suffering irremediable wrongs. To avoid this
imminent peril, he was snatched from the jaws of his foes, to remain
in a city under my jurisdiction, where he might be abundantly supplied
with every necessary. Yet the greatness of his virtue, relying,on
the grace of God, led him to despise all the calamities of adverse
fortune. Constantine, my lord and my father, of blessed memory,
intended to have reinstated him in his former bishopric, and to have
restored him to your piety; but as the emperor was arrested by the hand
of death before his desires were accomplished, I, being his heir,
have deemed it fitting to carry into execution the purpose of this
sovereign of divine memory. You will learn from your bishop himself,
when you see him, with how much respect I have treated him. Nor
indeed is it surprising that he should have been thus treated by me. I
was moved to this line of conduct by his own great virtue, and the
thought of your affectionate longing for his return. May Divine
Providence watch over you, beloved brethren!"
Furnished with this letter, St. Athanasius returned from exile,
and was most gladly welcomed both by the rich and by the poor, by the
inhabitants of cities, and by those of the provinces. The followers
of the madness of Arius were the only persons who felt any vexation at
his return. Eusebius, Theognis, and those of their faction resorted
to their former machinations, and endeavoured to prejudice the ears of
the young emperor against him.
I shall now proceed to relate in what manner Constantius swerved from
the doctrines of the Apostles.
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