OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. 353

bate, separated without any definitive conclu- chap.

sion. The council of the West was protracted.

till the seventh month. Taurus, the praetorianprefect, was instructed not to dismiss the pre-lates till they should all be united in the sameopinion; and his efforts were supported by apower of banishing fifteen of the most refrac-tory and a promise of the consulship if heachieved so difficult an adventure. His pray- a. ». s6o,ers and threats, the authority of the sovereign,the sophistry of Valens and Ursacius , the dis-tress of cold and hunger, and the tedious me-lancholy of a hopeless exile, at length extortedthe reluctant consent of the bishops of Rimini.

The deputies of the East and of the West at-tended the emperor in the palace of Constanti-nople , and he enjoyed the satisfaction of im-posing on the world a profession of faith whichestablished the likeness, without expressing theconsnbstanliality , of the Son of God. 0 But thetriumph of arianism had been preceded by theremoval of the orthodox clergy, whom it wasimpossible either to intimidate or to corrupt;and the reign of Constantius was disgraced bythe unjust and ineffectual persecution of thegreat Athanasius .

We have seldom an opportunity of observing, f n h d r ad ° tcreither in active or speculative life, what effect venturesmay be produced, or what obstacles may be sur- nasius.mounted, by the force of a single mind, when itis inflexibly applied to the pursuit of a single

c Snip. Sever. Hist. Sacr. 1. ii, p. 418 430. The Greek historianswere very ignorant of the affairs of the West.

VOL. III. A a