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Rh  escaped, and arrived at his father's camp at Gessoriacum (Boulogne-sur-Mer) before embarking on another expedition to Britain. In A.D. 306 Constantius died in the imperial palace at Eboracum (York). He is described as one of the most excellent characters among the later Romans. He took the keenest interest in the welfare of his people, and limited his personal expenses to the verge of affectation, declaring that "his most valued treasure was in the hearts of his people." The Gauls delighted to contrast his gentleness and moderation with the haughty sternness of Galerius. His internal administration was as honourable as his success in war. The Christians always praised his tolerance and impartiality. Theophanes calls him Χριστιανόφρων, a man of Christian principles. He had Christians at his court. Although a pagan, he disapproved of the persecution of Diocletian, and contented himself by closing a few churches and overthrowing some dilapidated buildings, respecting (as the author of the de Morte Persecutorum says) the true temple of God. Christianity spread in Gaul under his peaceful rule, and at the end of the 4th cent. that province had more than 20 bishops. Eutrop. ix.; Aurel. Vict. Caes. 39, etc.; Theoph. pp. 4‒8, ed. Paris; Eus. ''Vit. Const. i. 13‒21; Lactantius, de Morte Persecutorum, 15; Smith, D. of G. and R. Biog.''; Ceillier, iii. 48, 140, 579. [W.M.S.]  Constantius II., son of Constantius the Great, was the second of the sons of Fausta, born at Sirmium Aug. 6, 317, and emperor 337‒361. De Broglie remarks of him (iii. pp. 7, 8), "Of the sons of Constantine he was the one who seemed best to reproduce the qualities of his father. Although very small in stature, and rendered almost deformed by his short and crooked legs, he had the same address as his father in military exercises, the same patience under fatigue, the same sobriety in diet, the same exemplary severity in all that had regard to continence. He put forward also, with the same love for uncontrolled preeminence, the same literary and theological pretensions: he loved to shew off his eloquence and to harangue his courtiers." Victor, Caes. 42, speaks well of Constantius: the writer of the Epitome credits him with some virtues but speaks of the eunuchs, etc., who surrounded him, and of the adverse influence of his wife Eusebia. Ammianus (xxi. 16) gives an elaborate and balanced character of Constantius which seems to be fair. The Christian writers were naturally not partial to an emperor who leaned so constantly towards Arianism and was such a bitter persecutor of the Nicene faith, and did not scruple to call him Ahab, Pilate, and Judas. St. Athanasius nevertheless addressed him in very complimentary terms in the apology which he composed as late as 356. Constantius was not baptized till his last year, yet interfered in church matters with the most arrogant pretensions.

Period i., 337‒350.—Constantine II., Constans, Constantius II., Augusti.—On the death of Constantine, Constantius hurried to Constantinople for the funeral of his father. The armies, says Eusebius, declared unanimously that they would have none but his sons to succeed him (V. C. iv. 68)—to the exclusion, therefore, of his nephews Dalmatius and Hannibalian. There followed shortly after a general massacre of the family of Constantius Chlorus and Theodora. Many writers, and those of such distinct views as St. Athanasius, Ammianus, and Zosimus as well as Julian, openly charge Constantius with being the author of this great crime, others imply only that he allowed it. Constantine and Constans are in no way implicated in it. A new division of empire followed; for which purpose the brothers met at Sirmium. Speaking generally, Constantine had the west, Constans the centre, and Constantius the East.

From the division of empire between Constans and Constantius we must date the beginnings of separation of the churches. The Eastern church recovered indeed at length from Arian and semi-Arian influences, but the habit of division had been formed and varieties of theological conception became accentuated; then the Roman church grew rapidly in power and independence, having no rival of any pretensions in the West, while in the East the older apostolic sees were gradually subordinated to that of Constantinople, and the whole church was constantly distracted by imperial interference.

Constantius was especially ready to intervene. In 341, in deference to the Dedication Council of Antioch, he forcibly intruded one Gregorius into the see of Alexandria; in 342 he sent his magister equitum, Hermogenes, to drive Paulus from Constantinople, but he did not confirm Macedonius, the rival claimant (Socr. ii. 13). These events took place while St. Athanasius was received with honour at the court of Constans, for whose use he had prepared some books of Holy Scripture (Athan. Apolog. ad Const. 4). Constans determined to convoke another oecumenical council, and obtained his brother's concurrence. The place fixed upon was Sardica, on the frontier of the Eastern and Western empires, where about 170 bishops met in 343. Then occurred the first great open rupture between East and West, the minority consisting of Western bishops siding with St. Athanasius, while the Eastern or Eusebian faction seceded to Philippopolis across the border. After the dissolution of the council Constans still attempted to enforce the decrees of Sardica, by requiring of his brother the restoration of Athanasius and Paulus, threatening force if it was refused (Socr. ii. 22; Soz. iii. 20). The shameful plots of the Arian bp. of Antioch, Stephen, against the messengers of Constans were happily discovered, and the faith of Constantius in the party was somewhat shaken (St. Athan. Hist. Arian. ad mon. 20; Theod. ii. 9, 10). The pressure of the war with Persia no doubt inclined him to avoid anything like a civil war, and be put a stop to some of the Arian persecutions. Ten months later—after the death of the intruded Gregory—he invited St. Athanasius to return to his see, which Athanasius did in 346, after a curious interview with the emperor at Antioch (see the letters in Socr. ii. 23 from Athan. Apol. c. Arianos, 54 f.). Other exiled bishops were likewise restored. In the West, meanwhile, Constans was occupied with the Donatists, whose case had been one of the 