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world the glorious example of the fovereign of CHAP. Gaul; who, in the first moments of his reign, acknowledged and adored the majesty of the true and only God. The learned Eufebius has afcribed the faith of Conftantine to the miraculous fign which was displayed in the heavens whilst he meditated and prepared the Italian expedition 3. A.D. 312. 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 per- A.D. 326, plexity produced by thefe difcordant authorities, is derived from the behaviour of Conftantine himfelf. According to the ftrictness of ecclefiaftical language, the first of the Christian emperors was unworthy of that name, till the mom nt of his death; fince it was only during his laft illness A.D. 337. that he received, as a catechumen, the impofition

fiaft. tom. vi. p. 465-470. Lardner's Credibility, part ii. vol. vii. p. 78-86. For my own part, I am almost convinced that Lactantius dedicated his Inftitutions to the fovereign of Gaul, at a time when Galerius, Maximin, and even Licinius, perfecuted the Christians i that is, between the years 306 and 311.

2 Lactant. Divin. Inftitut. i. 1. vii. 27. The first and most important of these paffages is indeed wanting in twenty-eight manufcripts; but it is found in nineteen. If we weigh the comparative value of those manufcripts, one of 900 years old in the king of France's library, may be alleged in it's favour; but the paffage is omitted in the correct manuscript of Bologna, which the P. de Montfaucon afcribes to the fixth or feventh century (Diarium Italic. p. 409.). The talte of most of the editors (except Isæus, fee LaЯtant. edit. Dufresnoy, tom. i. p. 596.) has felt the genuine Byle of Lactantius.

3 Eufeb. in Vit. Conftant. l. i. c. 27—32.

4 Zofimus, l. ii. p. 104.

of

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CHAP. of hands', and was afterwards admitted, by the initiatory rites of baptifm, into the number of the faithful". The Chriftianity of Conftantine must be allowed in a much more vague and qua lified fense; and the niceft accuracy is required in tracing the flow 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 Chrift, 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

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5 That right was always used in making a catechumen (fee Bingham's Antiquities, 1. x. c. 1. p. 419. Dom. Chardon, Hift. des Sacremens, tom. i. p. 62.) and Conftantine received it for the fir time (Eufeb. in Vit. Conftant. 1. iv. c. 61.) immediately before his baptifm and death. From the connection of these two facts, Valefius (ad loc. Eufeb.) has drawn the conclufion which is reluctantly ad mitted by Tillemont (Hift. des Empereurs, tom. iv. p. 628.), and oppofed with feebie arguments by Mofheim (p. 968.).

6 Eufeb. in Vit. Conftant. 1. iv. C. 61, 62, 63. The legend of Conftantine's baptifin 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 progrefs of knowledge, that a story of which Cardinal Baronius (Annal. Ecclefiaft. A. D. 324. No. 43-49.) declared himself the unblufhing advocate, is now feebly fupported, even within the verge of the Vatican. See the Antiqui tates Chriftianæ, tom. ii. p. 232.; a work published with fix approbations at Rome, in the year 1751, by Father Mamachi, a learned Dominican.

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fafety and with effect. During the whole courfe CHA P. 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 circumstances of the times, and by the prudence, or posfibly 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 refpective principles; and he artfully balanced the hopes and fears of his fubjects, by publifhing in the fame year two edicts; A.D. 321. the first of which enjoined the folemn obfervance of Sunday, and the fecond directed the regular confultation of Arufpices". While this portant revolution yet remained in fufpenfe, the Christians and the Pagans watched the conduct of their fovereign with the fame anxiety, but with very oppofite 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 just apprehenfions were changed into defpair and

im

7 The quæftor, or fecretary, who compofed the law of the Theodofian Code, makes his master fay with indifference, "hominibus fupradi&tæ religionis” (1. xvi. tit. ii. leg. 1.). The minifter of ecclefiaftical affairs was allowed a more devout and respectful Ayle, της εύθεσμα και αγιωτατης καθολικής θρησκείας; the legal, molt holy, and Catholic worship. See Eufeb. Hift. Ecclef. 1. x. c. 6.

8 Cod. Theodof. 1. ii, tit. viii. leg. 1. Cod. Juftinian. 1. iii. tit. xii. leg. 3. Conftantine ftyles the Lord's day dies folis, a name which could not offend the ears of his Pagan subjects.

9 Cod. Theodof. 1. xvi. tit. x. 1. 1. Godefroy, in the character of a commentator, endeavours (tom. vi. p. 257.) to excufe Conftantine; but the more zealous Baronius (Annal. Eccles. A, D. 321, No. 18.) cenfures his profane conduct with truth and asperity.

VOL. III.

R

refent

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CHA P. refentment, attempted to conceal fron 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 Chriftianity with the most glorious or the most ignominious æra of the reign of Conftantine.

His Pagan fuperfti. tion.

Whatever fymptoms of Chriftian piety might tranfpire in the difcourfes or actions of Conftantine, he perfevered till he was near forty years of 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 pleased to be reprefented with the fymbols of the

Theodoret (1. i. c. 18.) feems to infinuate that Helena gave her fon a Chriftian education; but we may be affured, from the fuperior authority of Eufebius (in Vit. Conftant. 1. iii. c. 47.) that the herself was indebted to Conftantine for the knowledge of Christianity.

11 See the medals of Conftantine in Ducange and Banduri. As few cities had retained the privilege of coining, almost all the medals of that age iffued from the mint under the fanction of the Imperial authority.

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God of Light and Poetry. The unerring fhafts CHA P.
of that deity, the brightness of his eyes, his laurel
wreath, immortal beauty, and elegant accom-
plishments, 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 be-
lieve, that the emperor was permitted to behold
with mortal eyes the vifible majesty of their tu-
telar deity; and that either waking or in a vision,
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
expect that the infulted god would pursue with
unrelenting vengeance the impiety of his ungrate-
ful favourite 12.

Christians

A.D. 306,

-312.

As long as Conftantine exercifed a limited He profovereignty over the provinces of Gaul, his Chrif- teats the tian fubjects were protected by the authority, and of Gaul, 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 affertion of Conftantine himself, he had been an indignant spectator of the savage cruelties which were inflicted, by the hands of Roman foldiers, on those citizens whose religion was their only crime ". In the Eaft and

in

22 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 fuperftition of Constantine, and of his particular veneration for Apollo, or the Sun; to which Julian' alludes (Orat. vii. p. 228. aπoλuπWY DE.). See Commentaire de Spanheim fur les Céfars, p. 317.

13 Conftantin. Orat. ad Sanctos, c. 25. But it might easily be hewn, that the Greek tranflator has improved the sense of the Latin

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