THE RELIGION OF JULIAN.-UNIVERSAL TOLERATION.-HE ATTEMPTS TO RE- STORE AND REFORM THE PAGAN WORSHIP-TO REBUILD THE TEMPLE OF 361. He is massacred by the PASSAGE OF THE TIGRIS. THE RETREAT AND DEATH OF THE GOVERNMENT AND DEATH OF JOVIAN. ELECTION OF VALENTINIAN, WHO ASSOCIATES HIS BROTHER VALENS, AND MAKES THE FINAL DIVISION OF THE EASTERN AND WESTERN EMPIRES.-REVOLT OF PROCOPIUS.-CIVIL AND ECCLE- EAST.- THE DANUBE.-DEATH OF VALENTINIAN.- HIS TWO SONS, GRATIAN THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. CHAPTER XX. THE MOTIVES, PROGRESS, AND EFFECTS OF THE CONVERSION OF CONSTANTINE. LEGAL ESTABLISHMENT AND CONSTITUTION OF THE CHRISTIAN OR CATHOLIC CHURCH. THE public establishment of Christianity may be 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. Date of the Constantine. In the consideration of a subject which may be examined with impartiality, but cannot be viewed with indifference, a difficulty immediately arises of a very unexpected nature-that conversion of of ascertaining the real and precise date of the conversion of Constantine. The eloquent Lactantius, in the midst of A.D. 306. his court, seems impatient' to proclaim to the world the glorious 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 persecution of Diocletian, the latter under that of Licinius. See Dufresnoy, Præfat. p. v. Tillemont, Mém. Ecclésiast. 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 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. VOL. 111. B |