station and profession. He ordained Frumentius bishop of that country, who instantly returned and found the young king his pupil in the same good disposition as formerly; he embraced Christianity; the greatest part of Abyssinia followed his example, and the church of Ethiopia continued with this bishop in perfect unity and friendship till his death; and though great troubles arose from heresies being propagated in the East, that church, and the fountain whence it derived its faith (Alexandria,) remained uncontaminated by any false doctrine.
But it was not long after this, that Arianism broke out under Constantius the Emperor, and was strongly favoured by him. We have indeed a letter of St Athanasius to that Emperor, who had applied to him to depose Frumentius from his See for refusing to embrace that heresy, or admit it into his diocese.
It should seem, that this conversion of Abyssinia was quietly conducted, and without blood; and this is the more remarkable, that it was the second radical change of religion, effected in the same manner, and with the same facility and moderation. No fanatic preachers, no warm saints, or madmen, ambitious to make or to be made martyrs, disturbed either of these happy events, in this wise, though barbarous nation, so as to involve them in bloodshed: no persecution was the consequence of this difference of tenets, and if wars did follow, it was from matters merely temporal.
