he accosted the royal youth with the same familiar tenderness which he
might have used towards a plebeian child. Provoked by this insolent
behavior, the monarch gave orders, that the rustic priest should be
instantly driven from his presence. But while the guards were forcing
him to the door, the dexterous polemic had time to execute his design,
by exclaiming, with a loud voice, "Such is the treatment, O emperor!
which the King of heaven has prepared for those impious men, who
affect to worship the Father, but refuse to acknowledge the equal
majesty of his divine Son." Theodosius immediately embraced the bishop
of Iconium, and never forgot the important lesson, which he had
received from this dramatic parable.

Chapter XXVII: Civil Wars, Reign Of Theodosius. -- Part II.

Constantinople was the principal seat and fortress of Arianism; and,
in a long interval of forty years, the faith of the princes and
prelates, who reigned in the capital of the East, was rejected in the
purer schools of Rome and Alexandria. The archiepiscopal throne of
Macedonius, which had been polluted with so much Christian blood, was
successively filled by Eudoxus and Damophilus. Their diocese enjoyed a
free importation of vice and error from every province of the empire;
the eager pursuit of religious controversy afforded a new occupation
to the busy idleness of the metropolis; and we may credit the
assertion of an intelligent observer, who describes, with some
pleasantry, the effects of their loquacious zeal. "This city," says
he, "is full of mechanics and slaves, who are all of them profound
theologians; and preach in the shops, and in the streets. If you
desire a man to change a piece of silver, he informs you, wherein the
Son differs from the Father; if you ask the price of a loaf, you are
told by way of reply, that the Son is inferior to the Father; and if