XIV. THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP. peror condescended to announce his accession, his consulship, the birth of a son, the creation of a Cæsar, a victory over the Barbarians, or any other real or imaginary event which graced the annals of his reign. The peculiar free gift of the senate of Rome was fixed by custom at sixteen hundred pounds of gold, or about sixty-four thousand pounds sterling. The oppressed subjects celebrated their own felicity, that their sovereign should graciously consent to accept this feeble but voluntary testimony of their loyalty and gratitude. Conclusion. A people elated by pride, or soured by discontent, are seldom qualified to form a just estimate of their actual situation. The subjects of Constantine were incapable of discerning the decline of genius and manly virtue, which so far degraded them below the dignity of their ancestors; but they could feel and lament the rage of tyranny, the relaxation of discipline, and the increase of taxes. The impartial historian, who acknowledges the justice of their complaints, will observe some favourable circumstances which tended to alleviate the misery of their condition. The threatening tempest of Barbarians, which so soon subverted the foundations of Roman greatness, was still repelled, or suspended, on the frontiers. The arts of luxury and literature were cultivated, and the elegant pleasures of society were enjoyed by the inhabitants of a considerable portion of the globe. The forms, the pomp, and the expense of the civil administration contributed to restrain the irregular licence of the soldiers; and although the laws were violated by power, or perverted by subtlety, the sage principles of the Roman jurisprudence preserved a sense of order and equity, unknown to the despotic governments of the east. mankind might derive some protection from religion The rights of and philosophy; and the name of freedom, which XIV. onger alarm, might sometimes admonish, CHAP. blic establishment of Christianity may here of Constantine no longer influence the rope; but a considerable portion of the retains the impression which it received nversion of that monarch; and the eccletitutions of his reign are still connected, soluble chain, with the opinions and the the present generation. nsideration of a subject which may be ex- as Constantine exercised a limited sove- odosius, in his judicious advice to his son (Claudian. in iv. 214, &c.), distinguishes the station of a Roman prince from monarch. Virtue was necessary for the one; birth might short sketch of the legal establishment of the Christian reliConstantine is taken from various parts of the 20th chapter story, but the words with very few alterations are the words r.-EDITOR. XIV. THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP. subjects were protected by the authority, and perhaps by the laws of the prince. If we may credit the assertion of Constantine himself, he had been an indignant spectator of the savage cruelties which were inflicted by the hands of Roman soldiers on those citizens whose religion was their only crime. A. D. 313, March. Edict of Milan. 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 Christians. In About five months after the conquest of Italy, the emperor made a solemn and authentic declaration of his sentiments, by the celebrated edict of Milan, which restored peace to the catholic church. 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 world. The wisdom of the emperors provided for the restitution 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 had been confiscated, should be restored rch without dispute, without delay, and pense; and this injunction was accomh a gracious promise that if any of the had paid a fair and adequate price, they indemnified from the Imperial treasury. cary regulations, which guard the future of the faithful, are framed on the prinlarged and equal toleration; and such an st have been interpreted by a recent sect tageous and honourable distinction. The rs proclaim to the world that they have ee and absolute power to the Christians, hers, of following the religion which each hinks proper to prefer, to which he has mind, and which he may deem the best his own use. They carefully explain uous word, remove every exception, and the governors of the provinces a strict the true and simple meaning of an edict, esigned to establish, and secure without n, the claims of religious liberty. They co assign two weighty reasons which have n to allow this universal toleration; the ntion of consulting the peace and hapeir people, and the pious hope that by ct they shall appease and propitiate the seat is in heaven. They gratefully ache many signal proofs which they have he divine favour, and they trust that the nce will for ever continue to protect the the prince and people. CHAP. XIV. est of Italy produced a general edict of A. D. 324. THE DECLINE AND FALL CHAP. example of their sovereign, and to embrace the divine truth of Christianity. XIV. By the edicts of toleration, Constantine removed the temporal disadvantages which had hitherto retarded the progress of Christianity; and its active and numerous ministers received a free permission, a liberal encouragement, to recommend the salutary truths of revelation by every argument which could affect the reason or piety of mankind. The exact balance of the two religions continued but a moment. The hopes of wealth and honour, the example of an emperor, and his exhortations, diffused conviction among the obsequious crowds which usually fill the apartments of a palace. The cities which signalized a forward zeal by the voluntary destruction of their temples were distinguished by municipal privileges, and rewarded with popular donatives; and the new capital of the East gloried in the singular advantage, that Constantinople was never profaned by the worship of idols. The powerful influence of Constantine was not circumscribed by the narrow limits of his life, or of his dominions. The education which he bestowed on his sons, and nephews, secured to the empire a race of princes whose faith was still more lively and sincere, as they imbibed in their earliest infancy the doctrines of Christianity. War and commerce had spread the knowledge of the Gospel beyond the confines of the Roman provinces, and the Barbarians, who had disdained an humble and proscribed sect, soon learned to esteem a religion which had been so lately embraced by the greatest monarch and the most civilized nation of the globe. The Goths and Germans who enlisted under the standard of Rome revered the cross which glittered at the head of the legions, and their fierce countrymen received at the same time the lessons of faith and of humanity. |