XIX.

ful and respectable members: the youth were no lon- CHAP. ger apprehensive of marriage; and married persons were no longer apprehensive of posterity: the public and private festivals were celebrated with customary pomp; and the frequent and secure intercourse of the provinces displayed the image of national prosperityo1. A mind like that of Julian, must have felt the general happiness of which he was the author; but he viewed, with peculiar satisfaction and complacency, the city of Paris; the seat of his winter residence, and the object even of his partial affection". That splendid capital, which now embraces an ample territory on either side of the Seine, was originally confined to the small island in the midst of the river, from whence the inhabitants derived a supply of pure and salubrious water. The river bathed the foot of the walls; and the town was accessible only by two wooden bridges. A forest overspread the northern side of the Seine; but on the south, the ground, which now bears the name of the University, was insensibly covered with houses, and adorned with a palace and amphitheatre, baths, an aqueduct, and a field of Mars for the exercise of the Roman troops. The severity of the climate was tempered by the neighbourhood of the ocean; and with some precautions, which experience had taught, the vine and fig-tree were successfully cultivated. But, in remarkable winters, the Seine was deeply frozen; and the huge pieces of ice that floated down the stream, might be compared by an Asiatic, to the blocks of white marble which were extracted from the quarries of Phrygia. The licentiousness and corruption of Antioch, recalled to the memory of Julian the severe and simple manners of his beloved Lutetia; where the

91 Libanius, Orat. Parental, in Imp. Julian. c. 38. in Fabricius Biblio. thec. Græc. tom. vii. p. 263, 264.

92 See Julian. in Misopogon. p. 340, 341. The primitive state of Paris is illustrated by Henry Valesius (ad Ammian. xx. 4.), his brother Hadrian Valesius, or de Valois, and M. d'Anville (in their respective Notitias of ancient Gaul), the Abbé de Longuerue Description de la France, tom. i. p. 12, 13. and M. Bonamy (in the Mem. de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xv. p. 656-691.

93 Tv Qin Aeuxeriav. Julian. in Misopogon. p. 340. Leucetia, or Lutetia, was the ancient name of the city which, according to the fashion of the fourth century, assumed the territorial appellation of Parisii. 3 D

VOL. II.

CHAP. amusements of the theatre were unknown or despised. XIX. He indignantly contrasted the effeminate Syrians with

the brave and honest simplicity of the Gauls, and almost forgave the intemperance, which was the only stain of the Celtic character. If Julian could now revisit the capital of France, he might converse with men of science and genius, capable of understanding and of instructing a disciple of the Greeks; he might excuse the lively and graceful follies of a nation, whose martial spirit has never been enervated by the indulgence of luxury; and he must applaud the perfection of that inestimable art, which softens and refines and embellishes the intercourse of social life.

94 Julian. in Mesopogon. p 359, 360

CHAPTER XX.

The Motives, Progress, and Effects of the Conver sion of Constantine.-Legal Establishment and Constitution of the Christian or Catholic Church.

XX.

THE public establishment of Christianity may be CHAP. considered as one of those important and domestic revolutions which excite the most lively curiosity, and afford the most valuable instruction. The victories and the civil policy of Constantine no longer influence the state of Europe: but a considerable portion of the globe still retains the impression which it received from the conversion of that monarch; and the ecclesiastical institutions of his reign are still connected, by an indissoluble chain, with the opinions, the passions, and the interests of the present generation.

sion of

In the consideration of a subject which may be ex- Date of the amined with impartiality, but cannot be viewed with converindifference, a difficulty immediately arises of a very Constanunexpected nature; that of ascertaining the real and tine. precise date of the conversion of Constantine. The A. D. 306. eloquent Lactantius, in the midst of his court, seems impatient' to proclaim to the world the glorious example of the sovereign of Gaul; who, in the first moments of his reign, acknowledged and adored the majesty of the true and only God. The learned Eusebius has

1 The date of the Divine Institutions of Lactantius has been accurately discussed,difficulties have been started, solutions proposed,and an expedient imagined of two original editions; the former published during the persecu tion of Diocletian, the latter under that of Licinius. See Dufresnoy, Prefat. p. v. Tillemont, Mem. Ecclesiast. tom. vi. p. 465-470. Lardner's Credibility, part ii. vol. vii. p. 78-86. For my own part I am almost convinged that Lactantius dedicated his Institutions to the sovereign of Gaul, at a time when Galerius, Maximin, and even Licinius, persecuted the Christians; that is between the years 306 and 311.

2 Lactant. Divin. Institut. i. 1. vii. 27. The first and most important of these passages is indeed wanting in twenty-eight manuscripts: but it is found in nineteen. If we weigh the comparative value of those manuscripts, one of 900 years old, in the king of France's library, may be alleged in it's favour; but the passage is omitted in the correct manuscript of Bologna, which the P. de Montfaucon ascribes to the sixth or seventh century

XX.

A. D. 312.

CHAP. ascribed the faith of Constantine to the miraculous sign which was displayed in the heavens whilst he meditated and prepared the Italian expedition3. The historian Zosimus maliciously asserts, that the emperor had embrued his hands in the blood of his eldest son, before he publicly renounced the gods of Rome A. D. 326. and of his ancestors'. The perplexity produced by these discordant authorities, is derived from the behaviour of Constantine himself. According to the strictness of ecclesiastical language, the first of the Christian emperors was unworthy of that name, till the moA. D. 337. ment of his death; since it was only during his last illness that he received, as a catechumen, the imposition of hauds, and was afterwards admitted, by the initiatory rites of baptism, into the number of the faithful". The Christianity of Constantine must be allowed in a much more vague and qualified sense; and the nicest accuracy is required in tracing the slow and almost imperceptible gradations by which the monarch declared himself the protector, and at length the proselyte, of the church. It was an arduous 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 obstacles which he had probably experienced in his own mind, in

(Diarium Italic. p. 400). The taste of most of the editors (except Isæus, see Lactant. edit. Dufresnoy, tom. i. p. 596.) has felt the genuine style of Lactantius.

3 Euseb. in Vit. Constant. 1. i. c. 27-32.

4 Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 104.

5 That rite was always used in making a catechumen (see Bingham's Antiquities, I. x. c. 1. p. 419. Dom. Chardon, Hist. des Sacremens, tom. i. p. 62), and Constantine received it for the first time (Euseb. in Vit. Constant. l. iv. c. 61.) immediately before his baptism and death. From the connection of these two facts, Valecius (ad loc. Euseb.) has drawn the conclusion which is reluctantly admitted by Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 628), and opposed with feeble arguments by Mosheim (p. 968).

6 Euseb. in Vit. Constant. 1. iv. c. 61, 62, 63. The legend of Constantine's baptism at Rome, thirteen years before his death, was invented in the eighth century, as a proper motive for the donation. Such has been the gradual progress of knowledge, that a story, of which Cardinal Baronius Annal. Ecclesiast. A. D. 324, No. 43-49.) declared himself the unblushing advocate, is now feebly supported, even within the verge of the Varican. See the Antiquitates Christianæ, tom, ii. p. 532; a work published with six approbations at Rome, in the year 1751, by Father Mamachi, a learned Dominican.

XX.

structed him to proceed with caution in the momentous CHAP. change of a national religion; and he insensibly discovered his new opinions, as far as he could enforce them with safety and with effect. During the whole course of his reign, the stream of Christianity flowed with a gentle, though accelerated, motion: but its general direction was sometimes checked, and sometimes diverted, by the accidental circumstances of the times, and by the prudence, or possibly by the caprice of the monarch. His ministers were permitted to signify the intentions of their master in the various language which was best adapted to their respective principles'; and he artfully balanced the hopes and fears of his subjects, by publishing in the same year two edicts; the first of which enjoined the solemn observance of Sun-A. D. 321. day, and the second directed the regular consultation of Aruspices. While this important revolution yet remained in suspense, the Christians and the Pagans watched the conduct of their sovereign with the same anxiety, but with very opposite sentiments. 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 just apprehensions were changed into despair and resentment, 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 same passions and prejudices have engaged the partial writers of the times to connect the public profession of Christianity with the most glorious or the most ignominious æra of the reign of Constantine.

7 The quæstor, or secretary, who composed the law of the Theodosian Code, makes his master say with indifference, "hominibus supradictæ religionis" (1. xvi. tit. ii. leg. 1.). The minister of ecclesiastical affairs was allowed a more devout and respectful style, της ενθεσμα και αγιωτάτης καθο aans Opnoxsias; the legal, most holy, and Catholic worship. Sec Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 1. x. c. 6.

8 Cod. Theodos. I. ii. tit. viii. leg. 1. Cod. Justinian. 1. iii. tit. xii. leg. 3. Constantine styles the Lord's day dies solis, a name which could not offend the ears of his Pagan subjects.

9 Cod. Theod. 1. xvi. tit. x. leg. 1. Godefroy, in the character of a commentator, endeavours (tom. vi. p. 257.) to excuse Constantine; but the more zealous Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A. D. $21, No. 18.) censures his profane conduct with truth and asperity.