which they enjoyed, to the gentle interposition of their sovereign (165). But Datianus, the president or governor of Spain, actuated either by zeal or policy, chose rather to execute the public edicts of the emperors, than to understand the secret intentions of Constantius: and it can scarcely be doubted, that his provincial administration was stained with the blood of a few martyrs (166). The elevation of Constantius to the supreme and independent dignity of Augustus, gave a free scope to the exercise of his virtues, and the shortness of his reign did not prevent him from establishing a system of toleration, of which he left the precept and the example to his son Constantine. His fortunate son, from the first moment of his accession, declaring himself the protector of the church, at length deserved the appellation of the first emperor who publicly professed and established the Christian religion. The motives of his conversion, as they may variously be deduced from benevolence, from policy, from conviction, or from remorse; and the progress of the revolution, which, under his powerful influence and that of his sons, rendered Christianity the reigning religion of the Roman empire, will form a very interesting and important chapter in the third volume of this history. At present it may be sufficient to observe, that every victory of Constantine was productive of some relief or benefit to the church. The provinces of Italy and Africa experienced a short but violent in Italy and Africa, under persecution. The rigorous edicts of Diocletian were strictly and Maximian cheerfully executed by his associate Maximian, who had long hated and Severus ; the Christians, and who delighted in acts of blood and violence. In the autumn of the first year of the persecution, the two emperors met at Rome to celebrate their triumph; several oppressive laws appear to have issued from their secret consultations, and the diligence of the magistrates was animated by the presence of their sovereigns. After Diocletian had divested himself of the purple, Italy and Africa were administered under the name of Severus, and were exposed, without defence, to the implacable resentment of his master Galerius. Among the martyrs of Rome, Adauctus deserves the notice of posterity. He was of a noble family in Italy, and had raised himself, through the successive honours of the palace, to the important office of treasurer of the private demesnes. Adauctus is the more remarkable for being the only person of rank and distinc (165) Eusebius, 1. viii. c. 13. Lactantius de M. P. c. 15. Dodwell (Dissertat. Cyprian. xi. 75.) represents them as inconsistent with each other. But the former evidently speaks of Constantius in the station of Cæsar, and the latter of the same prince in the rank of Augustus. (166) Datianus is mentioned in Gruter's Inscriptions, as having determined the limits between the territories of Pax Julia, and those of Ebora, both cities in the southern part of Lusitania. If we recollect the neighbourhood of those places to Cape St. Vincent, we may suspect that the celebrated deacon and martyr of that name has been inaccurately assigned by Prudentius, &c. to Saragossa, or Valentia. See the pompous history of his sufferings, in the Mémoires de Tillemont, tom. v. part ii. p. 58-85. Some critics are of opinion, that the department of Constantius, as Cæsar, did not include Spain, which still continued under the immediate jurisdiction of Maximian. Under tion who appears to have suffered death, during the whole course of this general persecution (167). The revolt of Maxentius immediately restored peace to the Maxentius; churches of Italy and Africa; and the same tyrant who oppressed every other class of his subjects, showed himself just, humane, and - even partial, towards the afflicted Christians. He depended on their gratitude and affection, and very naturally presumed, that the injuries which they had suffered, and the dangers which they still apprehended from his most inveterate enemy, would secure the fidelity of a party already considerable by their numbers and opulence (168). Even the conduct of Maxentius towards the bishops of Rome and Carthage, may be considered as the proof of his toleration, since it is probable that the most orthodox princes would adopt the same measures with regard to their established clergy. Marcellus, the former of those prelates, had thrown the capital into confusion, by the severe penance which he imposed on a great number of Christians, who, during the late persecution, had renounced or dissembled their religion. The rage of faction broke out in frequent and violent seditions; the blood of the faithful was shed by each other's hands, and the exile of Marcellus, whose prudence seems to have been less eminent than his zeal, was found to be the only measure capable of restoring peace to the distracted church of Rome (169). The behaviour of Mensurius, bishop of Carthage, appears to have been still more reprehensible. A deacon of that city had published a libel against the emperor. The offender (167) Eusebius, 1. viii. c. 11. Gruter, Inscript. p. 1171. No. 18. Rufinus has mistaken the office of Adauctus, as well as the place of his martyrdom.* (168) Eusebius, I. viii. c. 14. But as Maxentius was vanquished by Constantine, it suited the purpose of Lactantius to place his death among those of the persecutors.+ (169) The epitaph of Marcellus is to be found in Gruter, Inscrip. p. 1172. No. 3., and it contains all that we know of his history. Marcellinus and Marcellus, whose names follow in the list of popes, are supposed by many critics to be different persons; but the learned Abbé de Longuerue was convinced that they were one and the same. * M. Guizot suggests the powerful eunuchs of the palace, Dorotheus, Gorgonius, and Andrew, admitted by Gibbon himself to have been put to death, p. 161. †M. Guizot directly contradicts this statement of Gibbon, and appeals to Eusebius. "Maxentius, who assumed the power in Italy, pretended at first to be a Christian (xaOUTExpívato), to gain the favour of the Roman people'; he ordered his ministers to cease to persecute the Christians, affecting an hypocritical piety, in order to appear more mild than his predecessors; but his actions soon proved that he was very different from what they had at first hoped." The actions of Maxentius were those of a lascivious and cruel tyrant, but not those of a persecutor; the Christians, like the rest of his subjects, suffered from his vices, but they were not oppressed as a sect. Christian fe males were exposed to his lusts, as well as to the brutal violence of his colleague Maximian, but they were not selected as Christians.— M. took refuge in the episcopal palace; and though it was somewhat early to advance any claims of ecclesiastical immunities, the bishop refused to deliver him up to the officers of justice. For this treasonable resistance, Mensurius was summoned to court, and instead of receiving a legal sentence of death or banishment, he was permitted, after a short examination, to return to his diocese (170). Such was the happy condition of the Christian subjects of Maxentius, that whenever they were desirous of procuring for their own use any bodies of martyrs, they were obliged to purchase them from the most distant provinces of the East. A story is related of Aglae, a Roman lady, descended from a consular family, and possessed of so ample an estate, that it required the management of seventythree stewards. Among these, Boniface was the favourite of his -mistress; and as Aglae mixed love with devotion, it is reported that he was admitted to share her bed. Her fortune enabled her to gratify the pious desire of obtaining some sacred relics from the East. She entrusted Boniface with a considerable sum of gold, and a large quantity of aromatics; and her lover, attended by twelve horsemen and three covered chariots, undertook a remote pilgrimage, as far as Tarsus in Cilicia (171). The sanguinary temper of Galerius, the first and principal author of the persecution, was formidable to those Christians, whom their misfortunes had placed within the limits of his dominions; and it may fairly be presumed, that many persons of a middle rank, who were not confined by the chains either of wealth or of poverty, very frequently deserted their native country, and sought a refuge in the milder climate of the West. As long as he commanded only the armies and provinces of Illyricum, he could with difficulty either find or make a considerable number of martyrs, in a warlike country, which had entertained the missionaries of the Gospel with more coldness and reluctance than any other part of the empire (172). (170) Optatus contr. Donatist. I. i. c. 17, 18.* (171) The acts of the Passion of St. Boniface, which abound in miracles and declamation, are puh. lished by Ruinart (p. 283-291.), both in Greek and Latin, from the authority of very ancient manuscripts.t (172) During the four first centuries, there exist few traces of either bishops or bishoprics in the *The words of Optatus are: Profectus (Romam) causam dixit; jussus est reverti Carthaginem; Perhaps, in pleading his cause, he exculpated himself, since he received an order to return to Carthage.-G. We are ignorant whether Aglae and Boniface were Christians at the time of their unlawful connection. See Tillemont, Mém. Ecclés. Note on the Persecution of Domitian, tom. v. note 82. M. de Tillemont proves also that the history is doubtful.-G. Sir D. Dalrymple (Lord Hailes) calls the story of Aglae and Boniface as of equal authority with our popular histories of Whittington and Hickathrift. Christian Antiquities, ii. 64.-M. A little after this, Christianity was propagated to the north of the Roman provinces, among the tribes of Germany: a multitude of Christians, forced by the persecutions of the emperors to take refuge among the Barbarians, were received with kindness. Euseb. de Vit. Constant. ii. 53. Semler Select. cap. H. E. p. 115. The Goths owed their first knowledge of Christianity to a young girl, a prisoner of war; she continued in the midst of them her exercises of piety; she fasted, prayed, and praised God day and night. When she was asked, what good could come of so much painful trouble? she answered, "It is thus that Christ, the Son of God, is to be honoured." Sozomen, ii. c. 6. — G. in Illyricum and the East, under Galerius and Maximian. Galerius publishes an edict of toleration. But when Galerius had obtained the supreme power and the government of the East, he indulged in their fullest extent his zeal and cruelty, not only in the provinces of Thrace and Asia, which acknowledged his immediate jurisdiction, but in those of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, where Maximin gratified his own inclination, by yielding a rigorous obedience to the stern commands of his benefactor (173). The frequent disappointments of his ambitious views, the experience of six years of persecution, and the salutary reflections which a lingering and painful distemper suggested to the mind of Galerius, at length convinced him that the most violent efforts of despotism are insufficient to extirpate a whole people, or to subdue their religious prejudices. Desirous of repairing the mischief that he had occasioned, he published in his own name, and in those of Licinius and Constantine, a general edict, which, after a pompous recital of the Imperial titles, proceeded in the following manner : 66 "Among the important cares which have occupied our mind for "the utility and preservation of the empire, it was our intention to correct and re-establish all things according to the ancient laws "and public discipline of the Romans. We were particularly de"sirous of reclaiming into the way of reason and nature the deluded "Christians who had renounced the religion and ceremonies insti"tuted by their fathers; and presumptuously despising the prac"tice of antiquity, had invented extravagant laws and opinions "according to the dictates of their fancy, and had collected a various "society from the different provinces of our empire. The edicts "which we have published to enforce the worship of the gods, "having exposed many of the Christians to danger and distress, "many having suffered death, and many more, who still persist in "their impious folly, being left destitute of any public exercise of "religion, we are disposed to extend to those unhappy men the "effects of our wonted clemency. We permit them therefore freely "to profess their private opinions, and to assemble in their con"venticles without fear or molestation, provided always that they 66 preserve a due respect to the established laws and government. "By another rescript we shall signify our intentions to the judges "and magistrates; and we hope that our indulgence will engage the "Christians to offer up their prayers to the Deity whom they adore, "for our safety and prosperity, for their own and for that of the "republic (174)." It is not usually in the language of edicts and western Illyricum. It has been thought probable that the primate of Milan extended his jurisdiction over Sirmium, the capital of that great province. See the Geographia Sacra of Charles de St. Paul, p. 68-76., with the observations of Lucas Holstenius. (173) The viiith book of Eusebius, as well as the supplement concerning the martyrs of Palestine, principally relate to the persecution of Galerius and Maximin. The general lamentations with which Lactantius opens the vth book of his Divine Institutions, allude to their cruelty.; (174) Eusebius (1. viii. c. 17.) has given us a Greek version, and Lactantius (de M. P. c. 34.), the manifestos, that we should search for the real character or the secret motives of princes; but as these were the words of a dying emperor, his situation, perhaps, may be admitted as a pledge of his sincerity. When Galerius subscribed this edict of toleration, he was well Peace of the assured that Licinius would readily comply with the inclinations church. of his friend and benefactor, and that any measures in favour of the Christians would obtain the approbation of Constantine. But the emperor would not venture to insert in the preamble the name of Maximin, whose consent was of the greatest importance, and who succeeded a few days afterwards to the provinces of Asia. In the first six months, however, of his new reign, Maximin affected to adopt the prudent counsels of his predecessor; and though he never condescended to secure the tranquillity of the church by a public edict, Sabinus, his Prætorian præfect, addressed a circular letter to all the governors and magistrates of the provinces, expatiating on the Imperial clemency, acknowledging the invincible obstinacy of the Christians, and directing the officers of justice to cease their ineffectual prosecutions, and to connive at the secret assemblies of those enthusiasts. In consequence of these orders, great numbers of Christians were released from prison, or delivered from the mines. The confessors, singing hymns of triumph, returned into their own countries; and those who had yielded to the violence of the tempest, solicited with tears of repentance their re-admission into the bosom of the church (175). Maximin But this treacherous calm was of short duration; nor could the Christians of the East place any confidence in the character of their prepares to sovereign. Cruelty and superstition were the ruling passions of persecution. the soul of Maximin. The former suggested the means, the latter pointed out the objects, of persecution. The emperor was devoted to the worship of the gods, to the study of magic, and to the belief of oracles. The prophets or philosophers, whom he revered as the favourites of heaven, were frequently raised to the government of provinces, and admitted into his most secret councils. They easily convinced him, that the Christians had been indebted for their victories to their regular discipline, and that the weakness of polytheism had principally flowed from a want of union and subordination among the ministers of religion. A system of government was therefore instituted, which was evidently copied from the policy of the church. In all the great cities of the empire, the tem Latin original, of this memorable edict. Neither of these writers seems to recollect how directly it *But Gibbon has answered this by his just and manifestos that we should search * * for the observation, that it is not in the language of edicts secret motives of princes.-M. |