The Return of the Bishops

The emperor at once gave clear signs that he held to true religion. He offered the first fruits of his reign to the Lord of all by publishing an edict that commanded the exiled shepherds to return and be restored to their flocks, and ordered the sacred buildings to be handed over to the congregations that were in communion with Damasus. [a] This Damasus, who succeeded Liberius in the see of Rome, was a man of most praiseworthy life, and by his own choice a champion of the apostles’ teaching in word and deed alike. To put his edict into force, Gratian sent Sapor the general, a very famous man at that time. His orders were to drive the preachers of the blasphemies of Arius out of the sacred folds like wild beasts, and to see that the excellent shepherds were restored to God’s flocks. [b] In every place this was carried out without dispute, except in Antioch, the capital of the East. There a quarrel broke out, which I will now describe.