CHAP. A. D. 326. fign which was displayed in the heavens whilft he meditated and prepared the Italian expedition'. The hiftorian Zofimus maliciously afferts, that the emperor had embrued his hands in the blood of his eldest fon, before he publicly renounced the gods of Rome and of his ancestors *. The perplexity produced by these difcordant authorities, is derived from the behaviour of Conftantine himfelf. According to the ftrictness of ecclefiaftical language, the first of the Chriftian emperors was unworthy of that name, till the moment of his death; fince it was only during his laft illness A. D. 337. that he received, as a catechumen, the impofition of hands', and was afterwards admitted, by the initiatory rites of baptifm, into the number of the faithful ". The Christianity of Conftantine must be allowed in a much more vague and qualified fenfe; and the niceft accuracy is required in tracing the slow and almost imperceptible gradations by which the monarch declared himself the protector, and at length the profelyte, of the church. It was an arduous task to eradicate the habits and prejudices of his education, to acknowledge the divine power of Christ, and to understand that the truth of his revelation was incompatible with the worship of the gods. The obftacles which he had probably experienced in his own mind, inftructed him to proceed with caution in the momentous change of a national religion; and he infenfibly difcovered his new opinions, as far as he could enforce them with XX. CHAP. fafety and with effect. During the whole courfe of his reign, the ftream of Chriftianity flowed with a gentle, though accelerated, motion: but its general direction was fometimes checked, and fometimes diverted, by the accidental circumftances of the times, and by the prudence, or poffibly by the caprice, of the monarch. His minifters were permitted to fignify the intentions of their master in the various language which was beft adapted to their respective principles; and he artfully balanced the hopes and fears of his fubA. D. 321. jects, by publishing in the fame year two edicts; the firft of which enjoined the folemn observance of Sunday, and the fecond directed the regular confultation of the Arufpices. While this important revolution yet remained in fufpenfe, the Christians and the Pagans watched the conduct of their fovereign with the fame anxiety, but with very opposite fentiments. The former were prompted by every motive of zeal, as well as vanity, to exaggerate the marks of his favour, and the evidences of his faith. The latter, till their juft apprehenfions were changed into defpair and refentment, attempted to conceal from the world, and from themselves, that the gods of Rome could no longer reckon the emperor in the number of their votaries. The fame paffions and prejudices have engaged the partial writers of the times to connect the public profeffion of Chrif tianity with the most glorious or the most ignominious æra of the reign of Conftantine. Whatever His Pagan Whatever fymptoms of Chriftian piety might CHAP. tranfpire in the difcourfes or actions of Conftan- XX. tine, he perfevered till he was near forty years of fuperftition. age in the practice of the established religion ° and the fame conduct which in the court of Nicomedia might be imputed to his fear, could be afcribed only to the inclination or policy of the fovereign of Gaul. His liberality restored and enriched the temples of the gods: the medals which iffued from his Imperial mint are impreffed with the figures and attributes of Jupiter and Apollo, of Mars and Hercules; and his filial piety increased the council of Olympus by the folemn apotheofis of his father Conftantius ". But the devotion of Conftantine was more peculiarly directed to the genius of the Sun, the Apollo of Greek and Roman mythology; and he was pleafed to be reprefented with the fymbols of the God of Light and Poetry. The unerring shafts of that deity, the brightness of his eyes, his laurel wreath, immortal beauty, and elegant accomplishments, feem to point him out as the patron of a young hero. The altars of Apollo were crowned with the votive offerings of Conftantine; and the credulous multitude were taught to believe, that the emperor was permitted to behold with mortal eyes the visible majefty of their tutelar deity; and that, either waking or in a vifion, he was bleffed with the aufpicious omens of a long and victorious reign. The Sun was univerfally celebrated as the invincible guide and protector of Conftantine; and the Pagans might reasonably Vol. III. N XX. CHAP. expect that the infulted god would pursue with unrelenting vengeance the impiety of his ungrateful favourite ". He protects of Gaul, 312. As long as Conftantine exercised a limited the Chriftians fovereignty over the provinces of Gaul, his ChrifA. D. 306 tian fubjects were protected by the authority, and perhaps by the laws, of a prince, who wifely left to the gods the care of vindicating their own honour. If we may credit the affertion of Conftantine himself, he had been an indignant fpectator of the favage cruelties which were inflicted, by the hands of Roman foldiers, on those citizens whose religion was their only crime ". In the Eaft and in the Weft, he had feen the different effects of feverity and indulgence; and as the former was rendered ftill more odious by the example of Galerius, his implacable enemy, the latter was re. commended to his imitation by the authority and advice of a dying father. The fon of Conftantius immediately fufpended or repealed the edicts of perfecution, and granted the free exercife of their religious ceremonies to all those who had already profeffed themselves members of the church. They were foon encouraged to depend on the favour as well as on the juftice of their fovereign, who had imbibed a fecret and fincere reverence for the name of Christ, and for the God of the Chriftians ", A. D. 313, Edict of 14 About five months after the conqueft of Italy, the emperor made a folemn and authentic declaration of his fentiments, by the celebrated edict of Milan, which restored peace to the Catholic CHAP. XX. church. In the perfonal interview of the two western princes, Conftantine, by the afcendant of genius and power, obtained the ready concurrence of his colleague Licinius; the union of their names and authority difarmed the fury of Maximin; and, after the death of the tyrant of the Eaft, the edict of Milan was received as a general and fundamental law of the Roman world "". The wisdom of the emperors provided for the reftitution of all the civil and religious rights of which the Chriftians had been fo unjustly deprived. It was enacted, that the places of worship, and public lands, which had been confifcated, should be restored to the church, without difpute, without delay, and without expence: and this severe injunction was accompanied with a gracious promife, that if any of the purchasers had paid a fair and adequate price, they should be indemnified from the Imperial treasury. The falutary regulations which guard the future tranquillity of the faithful, are framed on the principles of enlarged and equal toleration; and fuch an equality must have been interpreted by a recent fect as an advantageous and honourable diftinction. The two emperors proclaim to the world, that they have granted a free and abfolute power to the Chrif tians, and to all others, of following the religion which each individual thinks proper to prefer, to which he has addicted his mind, and which he may deem the beft adapted to his own ufe. They carefully explain every ambiguous word, remove every exception, and exact from the governors of |