68. Following these, holy Eusebius went
forth out of his country, and from his own relatives, and preferred a
foreign wandering to ease at home. For the faith also he
preferred and chose the hardships of exile, in conjunction with
Dionysius The two
Bishops, Eusebius of Vercellæ and Dionysius of Milan, were
banished by Valens, because in a council at Milan a.d. 355. of holy
memory, who esteemed a voluntary exile above an Emperor’s
friendship. And so these illustrious men, surrounded with arms,
closed in by soldiers, when torn away from the larger
Church, triumphed over the
imperial power, because by earthly shame they purchased fortitude of
soul, and kingly power; they from whom the band of soldiers and the din
of arms could not tear away the faith subdued the raging of the brutal
mind, which was unable to hurt the saints. For, as you read in
Proverbs, “the king’s wrath is as the wrath of a
lion.” Prov. xix. 12.