But the reconciliation between the sovereign and the primate was only on the surface.  Basil would not admit the Arians to communion, and Valens could not brook the refusal.  The decree of exile was to be enforced, though the pens had refused to form the letters of the imperial signature. Theod. iv. 16.  Valens, however, was in distress at the dangerous illness of Galates, his infant son. and, on the very night of the threatened expatriation, summoned Basil to pray over him.  A brief rally was followed by relapse and death, which were afterwards thought to have been caused by the young prince’s Arian baptism. Theod. iv. 16.  Soz. vi. 17.  Soc. iv. 26.  Greg. Naz., Or. xliii.  Ruf. xi. 9.  Rudeness was from time to time shewn to the archbishop by discourteous and unsympathetic magistrates, as in the case of the Pontic Vicar, who tried to force an unwelcome marriage on a noble widow.  The lady took refuge at the altar, and appealed to Basil for protection.  The magistrate descended to contemptible insinuation, and subjected the archbishop to gross rudeness.  His ragged upper garment was dragged from his shoulder, and his emaciated frame was threatened with torture.  He remarked that to remove his liver would relieve him of a great inconvenience. Greg. Naz., Or. xliii.