СНАР. Whatever symptoms of Christian piety might tranXX. spire in the discourses or actions of Constantine, he His Pagan persevered till he was near forty years of age in the supersti. practice of the established religion; and the same con tion. duct which in the court of Nicomedia might be imputed to his fear, could be ascribed only to the inclination or policy of the sovereign of Gaul. His liberality restored and enriched the temples of the gods; the medals which issued from his imperial mint are impressed with the figures and attributes of Jupiter and Apollo, of Mars and Hercules; and his filial piety increased the council of Olympus by the solemn apotheosis of his father Constantius". But the devotion of Constantine was more peculiarly directed to the genius of the Sun, the Apollo of Greek and Roman mythology; and he was pleased to be represented with the symbols 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, seem to point him out as the patron of a young hero. The altars of Apollo were crowned with the votive offerings of Constantine; and the credulous multitude were taught to believe, that the emperor was permitted to behold with mortal eyes the visible majesty of their tutelar deity; and that, either waking or in a vision, he was blessed with the auspicious omens of a long and victorious reign. The Sun was universally celebrated as the invincible guide and protector of Constantine; and the Pagans might reasonably expect that the insulted god would pursue with unrelenting vengeance the impiety of his ungrateful favourite12. 10 Theodoret (1.i. c. 18.) seems to insinuate that Helena gave her son a Christian education; but we may be assured, from the superior authority of Eusebius (in Vit. Constant. I. iii. c. 47.), that she herself was indebted to Constantine for the knowledge of Christianity. 11 See the medals of Constantine in Ducange and Banduri. As few cities had retained the privilege of coining, almost all the medals of that age issued from the mint under the sanction of the Imperial authority. 12 The panegyric of Eumenius, (vii. inter Panegyr. Vet.) which was pronounced a few months before the Italian war, abounds with the most unexceptionable evidence of the Pagan superstition of Constantine, and of his particular veneration for Apollo, or the Sun; to which Julian alludes, (Orat. vii. p. 228. c). See Commentaire de Spanheim sur les Césars, p. 317. XX. of Gaul, As long as Constantine exercised a limited sove- CHAP. reignty over the provinces of Gaul, his Christian subjects were protected by the authority, and perhaps by He prothe laws, of a prince, who wisely left to the gods the tects the care of vindicating their own honour. If we may cre Christians dit the assertion of Constantine himself, he had been A. D. an indignant spectator of the savage cruelties which 306-312. were inflicted, by the hands of Roman soldiers, on those citizens whose religion was their only crime13. In the East and in the West, he had seen the different effects of severity and indulgence; and as the former was rendered still more odious by the example of Galerius, his implacable enemy, the latter was recommended to his imitation by the authority and advice of a dying father. The son of Constantius immediately suspended or repealed the edicts of persecution, and granted the free exercise of their religious ceremonies to all those who had already professed themselves members of the church. They were soon encouraged to depend on the favour as well as on the justice of their sovereign, who had imbibed a secret and sincere reverence for the name of Christ, and for the God of the Christians11. March. About five months after the conquest of Italy, the A. D. 313, emperor made a solemn and authentic declaration of Edict of his sentiments, by the celebrated edict of Milan, which Milan. restored peace to the Catholic church. In the personal interview of the two western princes, Constantine, by the ascendant of genius and power, obtained the ready concurrence of his colleague Licinius; the union of their names and authority disarmed the fury of Maximin; and, after the death of the tyrant of the East, the edict of Milan was received as a general and fundamental law of the Roman world15. 13 Constantin. Orat. ad Sanctos, c. 25. But it might easily be shewn, that the Greek translator has improved the sense of the Latin original; and the aged emperor might recollect the persecution of Diocletian with a more lively abhorrence than he had actually felt in the days of his youth and Paganism. 14 See Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 1. viii. 13. 1. ix. 9. and in Vit. Const. 1. i. c. 16, 17. Lactant. Divin. Institut. i. 1. Cæcilius de Mort. Persecut. c. 25. 15 Cæcilius (de Mort. Persecut. c. 48.) has preserved the Latin origi CHAP. XX. The wisdom of the emperors provided for the restítution of all the civil and religious rights of which the Christians had been so unjustly deprived. It was enacted that the places of worship, and public lands, which had been confiscated, should be restored to the church, without dispute, without delay, and without expense and this severe injunction was accompanied with a gracious promise, that if any of the purchasers had paid a fair and adequate price, they should be indemnified from the Imperial treasury. The salutary regulations which guard the future tranquillity of the faithful, are framed on the principles of enlarged and equal toleration; and such an equality must have been interpreted by a recent sect as an advantageous and honourable distinction. The two emperors proclaim to the world, that they have granted a free and absolute power to the Christians, 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 best adapted to his own use. They carefully explain every ambiguous word, remove every exception, and exact from the governors of the provinces, a strict obedience to the true and simple meaning of an edict, which was designed to establish and secure, without any limitation, the claims of religious liberty. They condescend to assign two weighty reasons which have induced them to allow this universal toleration: the humane intention of consulting the peace and happiness of their people; and the pi ous hope, that, by such a conduct, they shall appease and propitiate the Deity, whose seat is in heaven.They gratefully acknowledge the many sigual proofs which they have received of the divine favour; and they trust that the same Providence will for ever continue to protect the prosperity of the prince and people. From these vague and indefinite expressions of piety, three suppositions may be deduced, of a different, but not of an incompatible nature. The mind of Constantine might fluctuate between the Pagan and the Christian religions. According to the loose and comnal; and Eusebius (Hist. Eccles. 1. x. c. 5.) has given a Greek translation of this perpetual edict, which refers to some provisional regulations. plying notions of Polytheism, he might acknowledge CHAP. the God of the Christians as one of the many deities XX. who composed the hierarchy of heaven. Or perhaps he might embrace the philosophic and pleasing idea, that, notwithstanding the variety of names, of rites, and of opinions, all the sects and all the nations of mankind are united in the worship of the common Father and Creator of the universe1. the Chris. But the counsels of princes are more frequently in- Use and fluenced by views of temporal advantage, than by con- beauty of siderations of abstract and speculative truth. The tian mopartial and increasing favour of Constantine may natu- rality. rally be referred to the esteem which he entertained for the moral character of the Christians; and to a persuasion that the propagation of the gospel would inculcate the practice of private and public virtue. Whatever latitude an absolute monarch may assume in his own conduct, whatever indulgence he may claim for his own passions, it is undoubtedly his interest that all bis subjects should respect the natural and civil obligations of society. But the operation of the wisest Jaws is imperfect and precarious. They seldom inspire virtue, they cannot always restrain vice. Their power is insufficient to prohibit all that they condemn, nor can they always punish the actions which they prohibit. The legislators of antiquity had summoned to their aid the powers of education and of opinion. But every principle which had once maintained the vigour and purity of Rome and Sparta, was long since extinguished in a declining and despotic empire. Philosophy still exercised her temperate sway over the human mind, but the cause of virtue derived very feeble support from the influence of the Pagan superstition. Under these discouraging circumstances, a prudent magistrate might observe with pleasure the pro 16 A panegyric of Constantine, pronounced seven or eight months after the edict of Milan (see Gothofred. Chronolog. Legum, p. 7. and Tillemont, Hist. des. Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 246.), uses the following remarkable expression: "Summe rerum sator, cujus tot nomina sunt, quot linguas gen"tium esse voluisti, quem enim te ipse dici velis, scire non possumus." Panegyr. Vet. ix. 26. In explaining Constantine's progress in the faith, Mosheim (p. 971, &c.) is ingenious, subtle, prolix. 3 E VOL. II. XX. CHAP. gress of a religion which diffused among the people a pure, benevolent, and universal system of ethics, adapted to every duty and every condition of life; recommended as the will and reason of the Supreme Deity, and enforced by the sanction of eternal rewards or punishments. The experience of Greek and Roman history could not inform the world how far the system of national manners might be reformed and improved by the precepts of a divine revelation; and Constantine might listen with some confidence to the flattering and indeed reasonable assurances of Lactantius. The eloquent apologist seemed firmly to expect, and almost ventured to promise, that the establishment of Christianity would restore the innocence and felicity of the primitive age; that the worship of the true God would extinguish war and dissension among those who mutually considered themselves as the children of a common parent; that every impure desire, every angry or selfish passion, would be restrained by the knowledge of the gospel; and that the magistrates might sheath the sword of justice among a people who would be universally actuated by the sentiments of truth and piety, of equity and moderation, of harmony and universal love17. Theory tice of The passive and unresisting obedience, which bows and prac- under the yoke of authority, or even of oppression, must passive o- have appeared, in the eyes of an absolute monarch, the bedience. most conspicuous and useful of the evangelic virtues". The primitive Christians derived the institution of civil government, not from the consent of the people, but from the decrees of heaven. The reigning emperor, though he had usurped the sceptre by treason and murder, immediately assumed the sacred character of vicegerent of the Deity. To the Deity alone he was accountable for the abuse of his power; and his sub 17 See the elegant description of Lactantius (Divin. Institut. v. 8), who is much more perspicuous and positive than it becomes a discreet prophet. 18 The political system of the Christians is explained by Grotius, de Jure Belli et Pacis, 1. i. c. 3, 4. Grotius was a republican and an exile, but the mildness of his temper inclined him to support the established powers. |