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Athanasios, to persuade the bishops and to try to elevate him, who had already undertaken the protection, for the sake of the 371 charge and judgement over men. For a good hope for the rest of affairs also took hold of him, that they would immediately be well if Athanasios were restored to the throne. And he brought together bishops and clergy and monks, and he considered the deliberations, whether it was necessary for him to ascend, as a trivial matter, trusting in what had gone before; for there was not one of the bishops who, upon seeing and learning of him on that first day, did not bow his head and receive him as patriarch and urge his ascension; but concerning how he should ascend and when, if for the time being he should wish it, as he said (for even those hitherto attached to John disregarded him), he gathered them and asked.

(2) The bishops, up until that first day, were zealous, and with no contrary thought arising in their reasoning, they treated him well. Then, subjecting the matter to the test of reasoning, some again held to their former views and maintained their inclination for him, and they brought forward objections to his then unseemly actions, and they also put forward the inactivity for so many 372 years, during which another, canonically established as if he himself had resigned, had directed the affairs of the church, whom it was not just to enroll among the hirelings and to mark as illegitimate, having held the church for so many years and having performed very many ordinations; for one of two things must happen, either that he be justified and that man be among the illegitimate, or indeed, with that man having been canonically established and acting canonically, that he himself not be counted at all among the priests and patriarchs. And they suspected that the claim on behalf of the wronged was cleverly contrived, so that there would immediately be many running together for the sake of help from the emperor, and that the honor of the presidency would necessarily be established, even if it did not seem so to them. With the bishops thus being divided in two—both those who were wronged and then judged the priest and now thought it right for him to be elevated, some of whom, even if they were from his ordination, nevertheless thought it right for themselves to be held accountable, if he wished; and those who would not accept him at all, both because he had resigned, and also because 373 on account of accusations of harshness and of mistreating and excluding many, with any chance accusation arising, for which reasons he was, if he did not change, to be held accountable even according to the canons—a third party also formed among them, who, being ashamed of their change of mind, but putting forward a plausible pretext for it, received the man as patriarch, as before, but with the greatest security that nothing of the sort would be done by him from now on, since those things were destructive and able to depose bishops, if one were indeed to trust the canons. Saying these things they contended for whole days, and their opinions did not at all agree. But the emperor, knowing that the man's stubbornness and inflexibility and uncompromising nature in chance matters—which was perhaps from virtue, but it was to be conjectured that it was more from his disposition, the one seeking exactness in all things, the other naturally persuading him to hold even the unhelpful as helpful—insisted that he become different, as far as one could conjecture from many things. For not so much 374 he himself, but those around him, through ignorance of judgment, were being forced to do what was not right. And if he himself, having taken up exactness, were to suspect that it would stand as an obstacle to many when it happened contrary to what was right, he would seem all the more stubborn to the emperor, who was led to do many things necessarily and contrary to what was reasonable. Nevertheless, to accept it, with him greatly reopening his wounds or otherwise softening them. "For me, then," he said, "one thing is necessary and more precious than breath itself, that the will of God be done, whether it causes pain or not. But that which happens according to pain, if God should command it, is superior to all joy. For these reasons, if anything has proceeded from the exactness according to the laws, having seemed lax, lax indeed, it is necessary to put forward the accusations, but he himself