THE DECLINE AND PALL
342
CHAP.
XXI.
Conductof the em-perors intiie ariancontro-versy.
was not alio veil separate, till the membershad imprudently subscribed a captious creed,in which some expressions, susceptible of anheretical sense, were inserted in the room of thehomoousion. It was on this occasion, that, ac-cording to Jerom, the world was surprised tofind itself arian/ But the bishops of the Latin provinces had no sooner reached their respectivedioceses, than they discovered their mistake, andrepented of their weakness. The ignominiouscapitulation was rejected with disdain and ab-horrence; and the homoousian standard, whichhad been shaken, but not overthrown, was morefirmly replanted in all the churches of theWest.*
Such was the rise and progress, and such werethe natural revolutions of those theological dis-putes, w hich disturbed the peace of Christianity under the reigns of Constantine and of his sons.But as those princes presumed to extend theirdespotism over the faith, as well as over the livesand fortunes, of their subjects, the weight oftheir suffrage sometimes inclined the ecclesias-tical balance ; and the prerogatives of the kingof heaven were settled, or changed, or modified,in the cabinet of an earthly monarch.
The unhappy spirit of discord which pervad-ed the provinces of the East interrupted thetriumph of Constantine ; but the emperor con-
r Tngemnit totns orbis, ct arianum ae esse miratns est. Hicronym.idv. Lucifer, tom. i, p. 115.
1 Tlie story of the council of Rimini is very elegantly told by Sulpi-cins Sevei us (Hist. Sana, I. ii, p. 419 430, edit. Li gd. Rat. 1647), andby Jerom, in his dialogue against the lueiferians. The design of thelatter is to apologize for the conduct of the Latin bishops who weredeceived, and who repented.