offering up sacrifices to the gods, or by bribery obtained from the magistrates certificates that they had thus sacrificed, or by surrendering the sacred books. The joy of the confessors and martyrs was so great that they often rushed to meet death in a way not approved by the more considerate leaders and teachers. The virtues of Greek and Roman antiquity were renewed in this devotion to a super-earthly fatherland. The power of faith triumphed over natural feelings, and over all the shrinking of delicate culture and refined civilization. Even children took delight in death, and noble maidens endured what was worse than death. If this passion for martyrdom was promoted by the disgrace which attached to the treacherous and apostate, and by the glory and honor which the martyr received on earth from his admiring friends, and which he might expect to await him in Paradise, it was none the less a genuine enthusiasm to follow in the steps of Jesus, and it gave the Church the feeling that she could never be conquered. - KARL HASE.

A general sacrifice was commenced, which occasioned various martyrdoms. No distinction was made of age or sex; the name of Christian was so obnoxious to the pagans, that all indiscriminately fell sacrifices to their opinions. Many houses were set on fire, and whole Christian families perished in the flames; and others had stones fastened about their necks, and being tied together were driven into the sea. The persecution became general in all the Roman provinces, but more particularly in the East; and as it lasted ten years, it is impossible to ascertain the numbers martyred, or to enumerate the various modes of martyrdom. Racks, scourges, swords, daggers, crosses, poison, and famine were made use of in various parts to despatch the Christians, and invention was exhausted to devise tortures against such as had no crime but thinking differently from the votaries of superstition. JOHN FOX.

Lament for Diocletian's fiery sword
Works busy as the lightning; but instinct

With malice ne'er to deadliest weapons linked,

Which God's ethereal storehouses afford

Against the Followers of the incarnate Lord

It rages; some are smitten in the field —

Some pierced beneath the unavailing shield
Of sacred home; -with pomp are others gored
And dreadful respite.

WORDSWORTH.

CONSTANTINE THE GREAT.

CONSTANTINOPLE THE SEAT OF EMPIRE.

CONSTANTINE THE GREAT united the whole empire in 323, and, Rome having been forsaken by the emperors as their ordinary place of abode, he made the ancient Greek city of Byzantium, on the Bosphorus, the seat of empire in 330. He called the city New Rome, but it has since been known, after him, as Constantinople, that is, the city of Constantine (Greek polis, a city).

After that Constantine the eagle turned

Against the course of heaven which it had followed
Behind the ancient who Lavinia took.

Two hundred years and more the bird of God

In the extreme of Europe held itself,

Near to the mountains whence it issued first;

And under shadow of the sacred plumes

It governed there the world from hand to hand.

DANTE, Paradiso. Tr. Longfellow. The transfer of the empire from west to east was turning the imperial eagle against the course of heaven, which it had followed in coming from Troy to Italy with Eneas, who married Lavinia, daughter of King Latinus, and was the founder of the Roman Empire. LONGFELLOW.

of

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 tyranny, the relaxation of discipline, and the increase of taxes. The impartial historian, who acknowledges the justice of their complaints, will observe some favorable 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 re

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strain the irregular license 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. The rights of mankind might derive some protection from religion and philosophy; and the name of freedom, which could no longer alarm, might sometimes admonish, the successors of Augustus that they did not reign over a nation of slaves or barbarians. . . . It may be sufficient to observe, that whatever could adorn the dignity of a great capital, or contribute to the benefit or pleasure of its numerous inhabitants, was contained within the walls of Constantinople. A particular description, composed about a century after its foundation, enumerates a capitol or school of learning, a circus, two theatres, eight public and one hundred and fifty-three private baths, fifty-two porticos, five granaries, eight aqueducts or reservoirs of water, four spacious halls for the meetings of the senate or courts of justice, fourteen churches, fourteen palaces, and four thousand three hundred and eighty-eight houses which for their size or beauty deserved to be distinguished from the multitude of plebeian habitations. . . The master of the Roman world, who aspired to erect an eternal monument of the glories of his reign, could employ in the prosecution of that great work the wealth, the labor, and all that yet remained of the genius of obedient millions. . . . The buildings of the new city were executed by such artificers as the reign of Constantine could afford; but they were decorated by the hands of the most celebrated masters of the age of Pericles and Alexander. To revive the genius of Phidias and Lysippus surpassed, indeed, the power of a Roman emperor; but the immortal productions which they had bequeathed to posterity were exposed without defence to the rapacious vanity of a despot. By his commands the cities of Greece and Asia were despoiled of their most valuable ornaments. The trophies of memorable wars, the objects of religious veneration, the most finished statues of the gods and heroes, of the sages and poets, of ancient times, contributed to the splendid triumph of Constantinople. . . . In less than a century Constantinople disputed with Rome itself the pre-eminence of riches and numbers. New piles of buildings, crowded together with too little regard to health or convenience, scarcely allowed the intervals of narrow streets for the perpetual throng of men, of horses, and of carriages. The allotted space of ground was insufficient to contain the increasing people; and the additional foundations, which

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on either side were advanced into the sea, might alone have composed a very considerable city. . . . The magnificence of the first Cæsars was in some measure imitated by the founder of Constantinople, . . and the annual tribute of corn imposed upon Egypt for the benefit of his new capital was applied to feed a lazy and insolent populace at the expense of the husbandmen of an industrious province. GIBBON.

Constantine was the first Christian emperor, and under him Christianity became established as the religion of the state in 324,1 when he became sovereign of the Roman world.

The ruin of paganism in the age of Theodosius is perhaps the only example of the total extirpation of any ancient and popular superstition, and may therefore deserve to be considered as a singular event in the history of the human mind. . . . The religion of Constantine achieved, in less than a century, the final conquest of the Roman Empire; but the victors themselves were insensibly subdued by the arts of their vanquished rivals. — GIBBON.

Constantine, more clear-sighted and more fortunate than any of his predecessors, had understood his era and opened his eyes to the new light which was rising upon the world. Far from persecuting the Christians, as Diocletian and Galerius had done, he had given them protection, countenance, and audience, and towards him turned all their hopes. He had even, it is said, in his last battle against Maxentius, displayed the Christian banner, the cross, with this inscription, Hoc signo vinces (with this device thou shalt conquer). There is no knowing what was at that time the state of his soul, and to what extent it was penetrated by the first rays of Christian faith; but it is certain that he was the first amongst the masters of the Roman world to perceive and accept its influence. With him, Paganism fell and Christianity mounted the throne. With him, the decay of Roman society stops and the era of modern society begins. GUIZOT.

1 In 325 he convoked the First Council of Nice, at the place of that name (Nicea), which was attended by representatives of the whole Christian world, and in which Arianism was condemned and a famous Catholic creed was adopted.

That the greatest religious change in the history of mankind should have taken place under the eyes of a brilliant galaxy of philosophers and historians who were profoundly conscious of the decomposition around them, that all of these writers should have utterly failed to predict the issue of the movement they were observing, and that, during the space of three centuries, they should have treated as simply contemptible an agency which all men must now admit to have been, for good or for evil, the most powerful moral lever that has ever been applied to the affairs of man, are facts well worthy of meditation in every period of religious transition. The explanation is to be found in that broad separation between the spheres of morals and of positive religion we have considered. — LECKY.

Constantine died in 337.

After a tranquil and prosperous reign, the conqueror bequeathed to his family the inheritance of the Roman Empire; a new capital, a new policy, and a new religion; and the innovations which he established have been embraced and consecrated by succeeding generations. GIBBON.

DIVISION OF THE EMPIRE.

THE last sovereign who ruled over the whole empire was Theodosius I., after whose death the dominion became finally divided between his two sons in 395, into the Western and Eastern Empires.

The genius of Rome expired with Theodosius.

GIBBON.

The division of the Roman world between the sons of Theodosius marks the final establishment of the Empire of the East, which, from the reign of Arcadius to the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, subsisted one thousand and fifty-eight years in a state of premature and perpetual decay. - GIBBON.