securing the public tranquillity, either by the peace | temperance, 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.

CHAP. XX.

tie

tal

se

OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

A. D. 326. by these discordant authorities, is de

A. D. 337.

291

ancestors. The perplexity produced | sentment, 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 era of the reign of Constantine.

rived 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 moment of his death; since it was only during his last illness that he received, as a catechumen, the imposition of hands, 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|lished religion; and the same conduct, which in

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 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 P worship of the gods. The obstacles which he had probably experienced in his own mind, instructed him to proceed with caution in the momentous 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 Sunday," 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 re

A. D. 321.

d Zosimus, l. ii. p. 104.

That rite was always used in making a catechumen, (see Bingham's Antiquities, 1. x. c. i. p. 419. Dom Chardon, Hist. des Sacremens, Tom. 1. 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 connexion of these two facts, Valesius (ad loc. Euseb.) has drawn the conclusion which is reluctantly admitted by Tillemont, (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 628.) and opposed with feeble argu ments by Mosheim, (p. 968.),

Euseb, in Vit. Constant. l. iv. c. 61-63. The legend of Constantine's baptism at Rome, thirteen years before his death, was invented in the eighth century, as a proper motive for his 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 Vatican. See the Antiquitates Christianæ, tom. ii. p. 232. a work published with six approbations at Rome, in the year 1751, by Father Mamachi, a learned Dominican.

The quæstor, or secretary, who composed the law of the Theodosian Code, makes his master say with indifference, "hominibns supradictae religionis" (1. xvi. tit. ii. leg. i.) The minister of ecclesiastical affairs was allowed a more devout and respectful style, Tns eveous kas

Whatever symptoms of christian His pagan supiety might transpire in the discourses perstition. or actions of Constantine, he persevered till he was near forty years of age in the practice of the estab

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 favourite." As long as Constantine exercised He protects the a limited sovereignty over the pro- christians of vinces of Gaul, his christian subjects A. D. 306–312. were protected by the authority, and perhaps by the laws, of a prince, who wisely left to the gods the care of vindicating their own honour. If we may credit the assertion of Constantine himself, he had

Gaul,

ἁγιωτατης καθολικής θρησκείας; the legal, most holy, and catholic worship. See Euseb. Hist. Eccles. I. x. c. 6.

h Cod. Theodos. 1. ii. tit. viii. leg. 1. Cod. Justinian. I. 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.

i Cod. Theodos. 1. xvi. tit. x. l. 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. 321. No. 18.) ceusures his profane conduct with truth and asperity.

k 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. 1. iii. c. 47.) that she herself was indebted to Constantine for the knowledge of christianity.

1 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. m 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. aπоλeinov ae.) See Commentaire de Spanheim sur les Césars, p. 317.

eb

the

.

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 love."

were never provoked either to meet their tyrants in the field, or indignantly to withdraw themselves into some remote and sequestered corner of the globe. The protestants of France, of Germany, and of Britain, who asserted with such intrepid courage their civil and religious freedom, have been insulted by the invidious comparison between the conduct of the primitive and of the reformed christians." Perhaps, instead of censure, some applause may be due to the superior sense and spirit of our ancestors, who had convinced themselves that religion cannot abolish the unalienable rights of human nature. Perhaps the patience of the primitive church may be ascribed to its weakness, as well as to its virtue. A sect of unwarlike plebeians, without leaders, without arms, without fortifications, must have encountered inevitable destruction in a rash and fruitless resistance to the master of the Roman legions. But the christians, when they deprecated the wrath of Diocletian, or solicited the favour of Constantine, could allege with truth and confidence, that they held the principle of passive obedience, and that, in the space of three centuries, their conduct had always been conformable to their principles. They might add, that the throne of the The passive and unresisting obe- emperors would be established on a fixed and perdience, which bows under the yoke of manent basis, if all their subjects, embracing the authority, or even of oppression, must christian doctrine, should learn to suffer and to obcy. have appeared, in the eyes of an absolute monarch, In the general order of Providence, Divine right of the most conspicuous and useful of the evangelic princes and tyrants are considered as Constantine. virtues. The primitive christians derived the in- the ministers of Heaven, appointed to rule or to stitution of civil government, not from the consent chastise the nations of the earth. But sacred hisof the people, but from the decrees of heaven. The tory affords many illustrious examples of the more reigning emperor, though he had usurped the immediate interposition of the Deity in the govern2 sceptre by treason and murder, immediately asment of his chosen people. The sceptre and the sumed the sacred character of vicegerent of the sword were committed to the hands of Moses, of Deity. To the Deity alone he was accountable for Joshua, of Gideon, of David, of the Maccabees; the abuse of his power; and his subjects were in- the virtues of those heroes were the motive or the dissolubly bound, by their oath of fidelity, to a effect of the Divine favour, the success of their tyrant, who had violated every law of nature and arms was destined to achieve the deliverance or society. The humble christians were sent into the the triumph of the church. If the judges of Israel world as sheep among wolves; and since they were were occasional and temporary magistrates, the not permitted to employ force, even in the defence kings of Judah derived from the royal unction of their religion, they should be still more criminal of their great ancestor, an hereditary and indefeaif they were tempted to shed the blood of their fel-sible right, which could not be forfeited by their low-creatures, in disputing the vain privileges, or own vices, nor recalled by the caprice of their subthe sordid possessions, of this transitory life. Faith-jects. The same extraordinary providence, which ful to the doctrine of the apostle, who in the reign of Nero had preached the duty of unconditional submission, the christians of the three first centuries preserved their conscience pure and innocent of the guilt of secret conspiracy, or open rebellion. While they experienced the rigour of persecution, they

1

Theory and prac. tice of passive obedience.

was no longer confined to the Jewish people, might elect Constantine and his family as the protectors of the christian world; and the devout Lactantius announces, in a prophetic tone, the future glories of his long and universal reign." Galerius and Maximin, Maxentius and Licinius, were the rivals who

pelled them to take an active part in the service of their respective governors. See Moyle's Works, vol. ii. p. 349.

u See the artful Bossuet Hist, des Variations des Eglises Protestantes, (tom. iii. p. 210-258.) and the malicious Bayle, (tom. ii. p. 620.) I name Bayle, for he was certainly the author of the Avis aux Refugiés; consult the Dictionnaire Critique de Chauffepié, tom. i. part ii. p. 145. x Buchanan is the earliest, or at least the most celebrated, of the reformers, who has justified the theory of resistance. See his Dialogue de Jure Regni apud Scotos, tom. ii. p. 28, 30. edit. fol. Ruddiman. y Lactant. Divin. Institut. i. 1. Eusebius, in the course of his history, his life, and his oration, repeatedly inculcates the divine right of Con stantine to the empire.

shared with the favourite of Heaven the provinces | the fourth century, the christians still bore a very of the empire. The tragic deaths of Galerius and Maximin soon gratified the resentment, and fulfilled the sanguine expectations, of the christians. The success of Constantine against Maxentius and Licinius, removed the two formidable competitors who still opposed the triumph of the second David, and his cause might seem to claim the peculiar interposition of Providence. The character of the Roman tyrant disgraced the purple and human nature; and though the christians might enjoy his precarious favour, they were exposed, with the rest of his subjects, to the effects of his wanton and capricious cruelty. The conduct of Licinius soon betrayed the reluctance with which he had consented to the wise and humane regulations of the edict of Milan. The convocation of provincial synods was prohibited in his dominions; his christian officers were ignominiously dismissed; and if he avoided the guilt, or rather danger, of a general persecution, his partial oppressions were rendered still more odious, by the violation of a solemn and voluntary engagement.' While the east, according to the lively expression of Eusebius, was involved in the shades of infernal darkness, the auspicious rays of celestial light warmed and illuminated the provinces of the west. The piety of Constantine was admitted as an unexceptionable proof of the justice of his arms; and his use of victory confirmed the opinion of the christians, that their hero was inspired, and conducted, by the Lord of hosts. The conquest of Italy produced a general edict of toleration: and as soon as the defeat of Licinius had invested Constantine with the sole dominion of the Roman world, he immediately, by circular letters, exhorted all his subjects to imitate, without delay, the example of their sovereign, and to embrace the divine truth of christianity."

A. D. 324.

Loyalty and zeal of the christian party.

The assurance that the elevation of Constantine was intimately connected with the designs of Providence, instilled into the minds of the christians two opinions, which, by very different means, assisted the accomplishment of the prophecy. Their warm and active loyalty exhausted in his favour every resource of human industry; and they confidently expected that their strenuous efforts would be seconded by some divine and miraculous aid. The enemies of Constantine have imputed to interested motives the alliance which he insensibly contracted with the catholic church, and which apparently contributed to the success of his ambition. In the beginning of

z Our imperfect knowledge of the persecution of Licinius is derived from Eusebius (Hist. Eccles. 1. x. c. 8. Vit. Constantin. I. i. c. 49.-56. 1. ii. c. 1, 2.) Aurelius Victor mentions his cruelty in general terms. a Euseb. in Vit. Constant. I, ii, c. 24–42. 48–60.

b In the beginning of the last century, the papists of England were only a thirtieth, and the Protestants of France only a fifteenth, part of the respective nations, to whom their spirit and power were a constant object of apprehension. See the relations which Bentivoglio (who was then nuncio at Brussels, and afterwards cardinal) transmitted to the court of Rome (Relazione, tom. ii. p. 211, 241.) Bentivoglio was curious, well-informed, but somewhat partial.

This careless temper of the Germans appears almost uniformly in the history of the conversion of each of the tribes. The legions of Constantine were recruited with Germans, (Zosimus, 1. ii. p. 86.) and the

inadequate proportion to the inhabitants of the empire; but among a degenerate people, who viewed the change of masters with the indifference of slaves, the spirit and union of a religious party might assist the popular leader, to whose service, from a principle of conscience, they had devoted their lives and fortunes. The example of his father had instructed Constantine to esteem and to reward the merit of the christians; and in the distribution of public offices, he had the advantage of strengthening his government, by the choice of ministers or generals, in whose fidelity he could repose a just and unreserved confidence. By the influence of these dignified missionaries, the proselytes of the new faith must have multiplied in the court and army; the barbarians of Germany, who filled the ranks of the legions, were of a careless temper, which acquiesced without resistance in the religion of their commander; and when they passed the Alps, it may fairly be presumed, that a great number of the soldiers had already consecrated their swords to the service of Christ and of Constantine. The habits of mankind, and the interest of religion, gradually abated the horror of war and bloodshed, which had so long prevailed among the christians; and in the councils which were assembled under the gracious protection of Constantine, the authority of the bishops was seasonably employed to ratify the obligation of the military oath, and to inflict the penalty of excommunication on those soldiers who threw away their arms during the peace of the church. While Constantine, in his own dominions, increased the number and zeal of his faithful adherents, he could depend on the support of a powerful faction in those provinces, which were still possessed or usurped by his rivals. A secret disaffection was diffused among the christian subjects of Maxentius and Licinius; and the resentment which the latter did not attempt to conceal, served only to engage them still more deeply in the interest of his competitor. The regular correspondence which connected the bishops of the most distant provinces, enabled them freely to communicate their wishes and their designs, and to transmit without danger any useful intelligence, or any pious contributions, which might promote the service of Constantine, who publicly declared that he had taken up arms for the deliverance of the church.

court even of his father had been filled with christians.
book of the Life of Constantine, by Eusebius.

See the first

d De his qui arma projiciunt in pace, placuit eos abstinere a com munione. Concil. Arelat. Canon iii. The best critics apply these words to the peace of the church.

e Eusebius always considers the second civil war against Licinins as a sort of religious crusade. At the invitation of the tyrant, some christian officers had resumed their zones; or, in other words, had returned to the military service. Their conduct was afterwards censured by the twelfth canon of the Council of Nice; if this particular application may be received, instead of the loose and general sense of the Greek interpreters, Balsamon, Zonaras, and Alexis Aristenus. See Beveridge, Pandect. Eccles, Græc. tom. i. p. 72. tom. ii, p. 78. Annotation.