Page:Historical Works of Venerable Bede vol. 2.djvu/344

 272 is made bishop of Nisibis, and in answer to his prayers the city was often saved in time of danger. The Arian impiety, strengthened by the countenance of Constantius, inflicted first on Athanasius, and then on all the bishops who were not of its own party, exile, imprisonment, and afflictions of every kind. Maximin of Treves is an illustrious bishop; he nobly sheltered Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, when he was in danger from the vindictiveness of Constantius. Hilary, bishop of Poictiers, who was banished into Phrygia by the Arians, presented a book in his defence to Constantine at Constantinople, and received permission to return to Gaul.

A.M. 4316 [365].

Julian reigned 2 years and 8 months. He returned to the worship of idols, and persecuted the Christians. The pagans at Sebaste, a city of Palestine, attack the sepulchre of John the Baptist, and scatter his bones; they again collect and burn them, and scatter them again; but by the providence of God there were there some monks from Jerusalem, who, mixing with those who were collecting them, brought as many as they could carry away to their father Philip; who straightway, not thinking himself worthy to be the guardian of so great a treasure, sent them by Julian, his deacon, to Athanasius the archbishop, who received them in the presence of a few witnesses, and shut them up in a hole of the wall of a chapel, declaring by the spirit of prophecy that they should be a blessing to a succeeding generation; which came to pass in the reign of Theodosius by the instrumentality of Theophilus bishop of that city, who, when the temple of Serapis was destroyed, consecrated on the same spot a church to St. John.

A.M. 4317 [366].

At a synod held at Antioch by Miletius and his clergy,