No career better illustrates the way in which imperial power took over actual control of the church than that of Athanasius. He may well have attended the council as secretary to Alexander, bishop of Alexandria. If so he could claim to be a contributor to Nicene faith as well as its champion defender. Soon after that, at the age of thirty-three, he succeeded Alexander upon his death. For the next fifty years, however, no one could predict who would win in the struggle with Arianism. During these decades, Athanasius was banished no fewer than five times, each banishment and return to Alexandria
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