have erred only through ignorance, declared that the two Bishops should hold a public disputation in his presence. This was eagerly accepted by Hilary, who brought the theological learning he had acquired both in Gaul and in the East, and his own personal experience also, to bear upon the subject. He not only reduced his adversary to silence, but actually made a convert of the Emperor himself, who publicly declared his conviction and his adherence to the communion of Hilary.

There are minor points of doctrine on which this great man was not altogether sound. But this is no uncommon thing with the earlier Fathers. And this shows the real service which the rise of the various heresies afforded to the true and orthodox doctrines of the Church. Many of these doctrines had not in Hilary's time been called in question; and upon these each Father held the opinion which his own unassisted judgment had enabled him to arrive at. The great and leading doctrines were of course preserved with care, and handed down with accuracy; but several minor points, which subsequent discussions have enabled the Church to settle, were then open questions, because they had never been handled at all. We need not, therefore, be surprised that the great champion of orthodoxy, the great maintainer of the Coequal Divinity of the SON against the Arian heretics, should himself have asserted that the LORD, Whose Divinity occupied his main attention, should in His Humanity have suffered no pain on the Cross; or, in his anxiety to realize the Resurrection, should have declared that the souls of men are palpable and material like their bodies.

THE CHALLENGE OF LUCIUS.

A. D. 373.

Ir was almost noon; and the great quay of Alexandria was crowded. Merchants were discussing the news of the day; captains of trading vessels were coming from or returning to their ships; agents of all kinds were transacting business with traders from every part of the world. Here the Roman citizen, who had never before been out of sight of the seven hills, was marvelling to find another city that so nearly rivalled the Queen of the World. Here the tall, pale Armenian-the American of ancient times-was driving the best bargain he could with the fashionable merchant from Constantinople. There were all religions on that busy piece of ground;followers of CHRIST, worshippers of Jupiter, adorers of

fire just as in the huge city close at hand, you might pass, first a domed church, with its great western porch and cross, and then a temple of Jupiter, with the colonnade of Ionic or Doric columns that ran all around it, and then a sanctuary of Serapis, where the old, clumsy Egyptian art still, in some measure, survived. And it was, as it could hardly help being, a place where men were careless about any religion. When Auxentius, the great salt-fish merchant, who professed the faith of Nicæa, and Onomarchus, the corn-dealer, who clave to the old religion, and Agathocles, the builder, who was an Arian, met every day, and every day transacted worldly business together, they gradually contented themselves with that pernicious doctrine of agreeing to differ, and ceased to look for either converting or being converted.

But gradually, as twelve o'clock drew on, the assembly on the quay, and in the great square of Osiris, while it thickened and increased, lost part of those who had previously composed it. Any one who knew the city would have seen that it was now almost entirely made up of Arians and Pagans, and that scarcely here and there was a believer in the Consubstantial to be found. The church of S. Mark, too, where the doctrine was preached which that blessed Evangelist would have held accursed, was open. Look! you may see persons passing in through its great western narthex, and may, every now and then, catch a burst of melody from the interior. But the little church of S. Dionysius, where the faith of Nicæa is still held, at the corner of the quay, is closed, and bears traces, in its patched doors and repaired walls, of some outbreak of popular violence.

"What is all this about ?" cried Caius Severus, the master of a trireme just arrived from the Port of Rome. "Business hours are over, are they not? What does this crowd mean ?"

"Do you not know," returned Agathocles, "that our Bishop, Lucius, is to make his entrance to-day? Thank GOD, there is some hope of common sense and reason prevailing at last. While that obstinate wretch, Athanasius, was alive, we had no chance of fair play; but now, no more Catholic Bishops for us!"

"What! is Athanasius dead ?" inquired the captain, "That will be a heavy blow to the

himself a pagan.
Catholics. But how did he die, pray ?"
"Die!" cried Agathocles.

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Why, after all, he died in his bed. Five times we drove him out of the city, and five times he came back, all the stronger and the more beloved for his banishment. However, he will return no more now; that is certain. Palladius, the prefect, has made short work with Peter, whom they elected to succeed him; and we have Lucius from Antioch, who was here before. A capital Bishop he will make, too. I remember, when he was last here, I had one of the best dinners in his house that I ever ate; on my word as an honest man, sir, it would have done credit to Valens himself. I know that he imported his oysters from that place, what is its name ?-Rutupium,-ay, Rutupium, in Britain. A very spirited thing that. A most capital dinner, and an excellent Bishop !"

"But it is odd, too," said his friend; "there seem as many of our way of thinking as of yours here. I am sure half the men I see must be of the old religion."

66

Why, yes," replied Agathocles, looking rather foolish, we and they have made common cause, you see, against the Catholics. Sink all differences, say I, except with those who worship the Consubstantial; there, sir, I am firm-firm as a rock; but with respect to others, let each man serve GOD according to his own conscience: that's my maxim."

"A very liberal one," said the captain, "and it does you great honour. But by Castor, sir, I am sick of these disputes, and I wish to my heart there had never been such a place as Nicæa. Why, I declare to you, the last time I was here, I was walking up the street of Bacchus, and feeling rather hungry, I went into a baker's shop. Well, I asked for a biscuit, and the baker-what answer do you think he gave me ?"

Nay, how should I know ?"

Why, says he, Great is the Only-begotten, but

1 Some readers may need to be told that this anecdote is strictly

true.

greater is He That begat.' I can promise you, I turned on my heel, and went out in a rage. I wanted my biscuit, not your disputes."

"Well," said the other, "there has been a great deal of that sort of thing. These perpetual Councils keep it up, till I am almost as sick of it as you can be."

As he spoke, a great shout was heard in the direction of S. Mark's, and the crowd round the door, which had by this time very much increased, fell back on this side and on that. Again the shout arose; and this time you might catch the words: "Welcome to the Bishop who does not acknowledge the SON! Welcome to the Bishop who is loved by Serapis !"

"He is coming out," cried Agathocles. "I said so; look! there he is, just mounting that splendid horse, and that is Count Magnus by him."

"What Count Magnus ?" asked the captain.

"The Quæstor," returned his friend. "He is a famous hunter-out of Athanasians. He had some scourged in the town-hall the other day till they could not stand."

"Is that the same Magnus," said the other, "who in the reign of the god Julian threw down a church, and was very nearly beheaded for it when Jovian came in ?"

"The same," replied the merchant; "but you had better not mention that here; the Count is not very fond of hearing of it. We must stand back. Here they come!"

Right and left the crowd fell back, leaving a broad passage from the church of S. Mark to the quay. First came a hundred and fifty soldiers, the centurion, with his vinerod, taking the last place; next, women and girls, with baskets of flowers; then the parabolani,-the ecclesiastical life-guard, if I may use the expression, of the Archbishop of Alexandria; then fifty or sixty priests of the city and of the province; next, Lucius himself, on a spirited white horse, wearing no Episcopal robes, but the toga and the lacerna, like any other Roman citizen; immediately behind him, the lictors of Magnus, each with his axe and bundle of rods; after them, the Count himself, to the left, and Euzoius, Arian Patriarch of Antioch, and the leader of his party, to the right; while the procession

was closed by a rabble of men and women, the offscouring of Alexandria, chiefly pagans. As they advanced into the midst of the square, the priests intoned a psalm; not in one of the ecclesiastical tones, which in substance belonged to the Church then, as much as now, but to one of the trifling melodies to which the Arians were always attached. But the chant, such as it was, scarcely rose above the tumult and uproar, the cheerings and applause for Count Magnus and Lucius, the yells and howls, as the mob passed the Catholic church; the shouts of "Serapis," and "Osiris!" And every now and then, swelling above the lesser uproar, rose the repeated cry, "Welcome to the Bishop who does not confess the SON! to the Bishop who is favoured by the gods!"

Welcome

"I never saw

"This is an odd sight," said Severus. such a mixture of religions before. Look! there is a fellow carrying an image of Serapis, close to yonder Deacon with the Cross. By Hercules! they will come to blows; each is trying to get before the other."

"Stand back!" cried two or three of the parabolani, running up to the place where the pagan was endeavouring to elbow the Deacon out of the line. "You are not

in the procession; take off that god of yours, and put him in the fire when you get home."

Words like these consorted strangely with the psalm. The unfortunate pagan, however, being knocked down, and Serapis kicked in pieces, some degree of order was restored. The procession was to go along the quay; to proceed up the street of Horus; to pass the town-hall, and so to end at the Episcopal palace. It was a fine sight, too, as it turned from the square on to the quay. The vast piles of building, story above story, and arcade towering over arcade; the hundreds of vessels that thronged the harbour; the forest of masts, then glittering with flags of every colour and device; the gay dresses of the citizens; the sun, shining down from a cloudless sky; domes, cornices, and porticos, alive with spectators; pillars wreathed with victor's laurel; oxen garlanded with roses and led to the sacrifice for great was the rejoicing among the worshippers of the gods.

"At all events," said the captain, as with his friend