372
THE DECLINE AND FALL
CHAP.
XXI.
but the orthodox bishops, armed with the fa-vour of the people, and the decrees of a generalcouncil, insisted on every occasion, and parti-cularly at Milan, that their adversaries shouldpurge themselves from the suspicion of heresy,before they presumed to arraign the conduct ofthe great Athanasius. 1 "
But the voice of reason (if reason was indeedon the side of Athanasius ) was silenced by theclamours of a factious or venal majority; andthe councils of Arles and Milan were not dis-solved, till the archbishop of Alexandria hadbeen solemnly condemned and deposed by thejudgment of the western, as well as of the east-ern, church. The bishops who had opposed,were required to subscribe, the sentence, andto unite in religious communion with the sus-pected leaders of the adverse party. A formu-lary of consent was transmitted by the messen-gers of state to the absent bishops; and allthose who refused to submit their private opi-nion to the public and inspired wisdom of thecouncils of Arles and Milan, were immediatelybanished by the emperor, who affected toexecute the decrees of the catholic church.Among those prelates who led the honourableband of confessors and exiles, Liberius of Rome ,Osius of Cordova, Paulinus of Treves, Diony-sius of Milan, Eusebius of Yercellae, Lucifer ofCagliari, and Hilary of Poitiers , may deserve tobe particularly distinguished. The eminent.station of Liberius , who governed the capital of
m Snip. Severus in Hist. Sacra, I. ii, p. 412.