OF THE HOMAN EMPIRE.

the empire; the personal merit and long expe-rience of the venerable Osius, who was reveredas the favourite of the great Constantine , andthe father of the nicene faith ; placed those pre-lates at the head of the Latin church: and theirexample, either of submission or resistance,would probably be imitated by the episcopalcrowd. But the repeated attempts of the em-peror, to seduce or to intimidate the bishops ofRome and Cordova, w'ere for some time ineffec-tual. The Spaniard declared himself ready tosuffer under Constantins, as he had sufferedthreescore years before under his grandfatherMaximian . The Roman, in the presence of hissovereign, asserted the innocence of Athanasius ,and his own freedom. When he was banishedm Berasa. in Trace, he sent back a large sumwhich had been offered for the accommodationof his journey; and insulted (he court of Milanby the haughty remark, that the emperor andhis eunuchs might want that gold to pay theirsoldiers and their bishops. 0 The resolution ofLiberius and Osius, was at length subdued bythe hardships of exile and confinement. TheRoman pontiff purchased his return by somecriminal compliances; and afterwards expiatedhis guilt by a seasonable repentance. Persua-sion and violence were employed to extort thereluctant signature of the decrepit bishop ofCordova, whose strength w as broken, and whosefaculties were perhaps impaired, by the weight

” The exile of Liberius is mentioned by Ammiamts, xv, T. SeeThcodoret, 1. ii, c. 10, Athanaa. tom. i, i>. SS-i-SoT. Hilar. Frag,ment.i.

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XXI.