The Second Exile of Athanasius and the Death of Gregory

With these and similar arguments the bishops assailed the weak-minded emperor and persuaded him to drive Athanasius out of his church. But Athanasius learned of their plan in time and went away to the West. The party of Eusebius had sent false accusations against him to Julius, who was then bishop of Rome. In obedience to the laws of the church, Julius summoned both the accusers and the accused to Rome so that the case could be tried. Athanasius accordingly set out for Rome, but the slanderers refused to go, because they saw that their lies would easily be found out. [a]

But when they saw that the flock of Athanasius had been left without a pastor, they set a wolf over it instead of a shepherd. His name was Gregory, and in his cruel deeds toward the flock he outdid the wild beasts; but at the end of six years he was destroyed by the sheep themselves.

Athanasius went to Constans, for Constantine, the eldest brother, had fallen in battle. He complained of the plots the Arians had laid against him and of their opposition to the apostolic faith. He reminded Constans of his father: how he had attended in person the great and famous council he had summoned, how he had been present at its debates, had taken part in framing its decrees, and had confirmed them by law. The emperor was stirred to imitate his father’s zeal, and he promptly wrote to his brother, urging him to keep unbroken the religion of their father, which they had inherited. For, as he put it: “It was by piety that he made his empire great, destroyed the tyrants of Rome, and brought the foreign nations on every side under his rule.” This letter led Constantius to summon the bishops of the East and of the West to Sardica, a city of Illyricum and the chief city of Dacia, so that they might consider how to remove the other troubles of the church, which were many and pressing.