Section 22
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LIFE OF EUSEBIUS. xv broken a sacred cup ; and lastly, that he had murdered one Arsenius, a bishop. Constantine, wearied with these vexatious litigations, appointed a council in the city of Tyre, and directed Athanasius the bishop to pro ceed there, to make his defence. In that synod, Eusebius bishop of Caesarea, whom Constantine had desired should be present, sat amongst others, as judge. Potamo bishop of Heracleopolis, who had come with Athanasius the bishop and some Egyptian prelates, seeing him sitting in the council, is said to have addressed him in these words : "Is it fit, Eusebius, that you should sit, and that the innocent Athanasius should stand to be judged by you ? Who can endure this ? Were you not in custody with me, during the time of the persecution? And I truly, in defence of the truth, lost an eye ; but you are injured in no part of your body, neither did you undergo martyrdom, but are alive and whole. In what manner did you escape out of prison, unless you promised to our persecutors that you would commit the detestable* thing? And perhaps you have done it." This is related by Epiphanius, in the heresy of the Meletians. Hence it appears, that they are mistaken who affirm, that Eusebius had sacrificed to idols, and that he had been convicted of the fact in the Tyrian synod. For Potamo did not attest that Eusebius had sacrificed to idols, but only that he was dismissed out of prison safe and whole ; a cir cumstance that favoured the malevolent surmise of Potamo. It was, however, evidently possible that Eusebius might have been dismissed from confinement in a manner very different from that of Potamo's insinuation. From the words of Epiphanius, it seems to be inferred that Eusebius bishop of Caesarea presided at this synod; for he adds, that Eusebius being previously affected in hearing the accusation against him by Potamo, dismissed the council. Yet by other writers we are informed, that not Eusebius bishop of Csesarea, but Eusebius of Nicomedia, presided at the Tyrian synod.t After that council, all the bishops who had assembled at Tyre, re paired, by the emperor's orders, to Jerusalem, to celebrate the conse * That is, to sacrifice to idols. •j-Is it not a possible case that both presided 1 viz., First, Eusebius of Csesareu, until the insult he sustained in the disparagement of his character by Potamo's insinuation. Feeling then, that his character stood arraigned by that insinuation, that he judged it expedient either to dismiss the council, or at least to leave it to the presidential jurisdiction of one less objectionable to Potamo, viz., to Eusebius of Nicomedia,