IV.

SEVERUS, assumed the imperial dignity, and c EN T. found the less difficulty in making good this PARTI. usurpation, that the Roman people hoped, by his means, to deliver themselves from the insupportable tyranny of GALERIUS. Having caused himself to be proclaimed emperor, he chose his father MAXIMIAN for his colleague, who, receiving the purple from the hands of his son, was universally acknowledged in that character by the senate and the people. Amidst all these troubles and commotions, CONSTANTINE, beyond all human expectation, made his way to the imperial throne.

The western Christians, those of Italy and Africa excepted [p], enjoyed a tolerable degree of tranquillity and liberty during these civil tumults. Those of the east seldom continued for any considerable time in the same situation; subject to various changes and revolutions; their condition was sometimes adverse and sometimes tolerably easy, according to the different scenes that were presented by the fluctuating state of public affairs. At length, however, MAXIMIN GALERIUS, who had been the author of their heaviest calamities, being brought to the brink of the grave by a most dreadful and lingering disease [q], whose complicated horrors no language can express, published, in the year 311, a solemn edict, ordering the persecution to cease, and restoring freedom and repose to the Christians, against whom he had exercised such unheardof cruelties [r].

VI.

[] The reason of this exception is, that the provinces of Italy and Africa, though nominally under the government of SEVERUS, were yet in fact ruled by GALERIUS with an iron sceptre.

[9] See a lively description of the disease of GALERIUS in the Universal History, vol. xv. p. 359. of the Dublin edition.

[r] EUSEB. Hist. Eccles. lib. viii. cap. xvi. p. 314. LACTAN TIUS, De mortibus persequut, cap. xxxiii. p. 981.

CENT.

PART I.

VI. After the death of GALERIUS, his domiIV. nions fell into the hands of MAXIMIN and LICINIUS, who divided between them the provinces he and by the had possessed. At the same time, MAXENTIUS, Maxentius. who had usurped the government of Africa and

defeat of

Different o

Italy, determined to make war upon CONSTANTINE, who was now master of Spain and the Gauls, and this with the ambitious view of reducing, under his dominion, the whole western empire. CONSTANTINE, apprised of this design, marched with a part of his army into Italy, gave battle to MAXENTIUS at a small distance from Rome, and defeated totally that abominable tyrant, who in his precipitate flight fell into the Tiber, and was drowned. After this victory, which happened in the year 312, CONSTANTINE, and his colleague LICINIUS, immediately granted to the Christians a full power of living according to their own laws and institutions; which power was specified still more clearly in another edict, drawn up at Milan, in the following year [s]. MAXIMIN, indeed, who ruled in the east, was preparing new calamities for the Christians, and threatening also with destruction the western emperors. But his projects were disconcerted by the victory which LICINIUS gained over his army, and, through distraction and despair, he ended his life by poison, in the year 313.

VII. About the same time, CONSTANTINE the pinions GREAT, who had hitherto discovered no religious the faith of principles of any kind, embraced Christianity,

concerning

Constan

tine.

in consequence, as it is said, of a miraculous cross, which appeared to him in the air, as he was marching towards Rome to attack MAXENTIUS. But that this extaordinary event was the reason of his conversion, is a matter that has never yet been

[] EUSEB. Hist. Eccles. lib. x. cap. v. p. 388. LACTAN Tits, De mortibus persequut. cap. xlvii. p. 1007.

IV.

been placed in such a light, as to dispel all C EN T. doubts and difficulties. For the first edict of PART I CONSTANTINE in favour of the Christians, and many other circumstances that might be here alleged, shew, indeed, that he was well disposed to them and to their worship, but are no proof that he looked upon Christianity as the only true religion; which, however, would have been the natural effect of a miraculous conversion. It appears evident, on the contrary, that this emperor considered the other religions, and particularly that which was handed down from the ancient Romans, as also true and useful to mankind; and declared it as his intention and desire, that they should all be exercised and professed in the empire, leaving to each individual the liberty of adhering to that which he thought the best. Constantine, it is true, did not remain always in this state of indifference. In process of time, he acquired more extensive views of the excellence and importance of the Christian religion, and gradually arrived at an entire persuasion of its bearing alone the sacred marks of celestial truth, and of a divine origin. He was convinced of the falsehood and impiety of all other religious institutions; and, acting in consequence of this conviction, he exhorted earnestly all his subjects to embrace the gospel; and at length employed all the force of his authority in the abolition of the ancient superstition. It is not indeed easy,. nor perhaps possible, to fix precisely the time when the religious sentiments of CONSTANTINE were so far changed, as to render all religions, but that of CHRIST, the objects of his aversion. All that we know, with certainty, concerning this matter is, that this change was first published to the world by the laws and edicts [t] which this VOL. I. emperor

Y

[] EUSEB. De vita Constant. lib. ii. cap. xx. p. 4,3. cap. liv. p. 464.

IV.

CEN T. emperor issued out in the year 324, when, after the PART 1.defeat and death of LICINIUS, he reigned, without a colleague, sole lord of the Roman empire. His designs, however, with respect to the abolition of the ancient religion of the Romans, and the tolerating no other form of worship but the Christian, were only made known towards the latter end of his life, by the edicts he issued out for destroying the heathen temples, and prohibiting sacrifices [u].

Of Constantine's

VIII. The sincerity of CONSTANTINE's zeal for sincerity in Christianity can scarcely be doubted, unless it be the profes maintained, that the outward actions of men are, Christian- in no degree, a proof of their inward sentiments.

sion of

ity.

It must, indeed, be confessed, that the life and actions of this prince were not such as the Christian religion demands from those who profess to believe its sublime doctrines. It is also certain, that, from his conversion to the last period of his life, he continued in the state of a catechumen, and was not received by baptism into the number of the faithful, until a few days before his death,when that sacred rite was administered to him at Nicomedia, by EUSEBIUS, bishop of that place [w]. But neither of these circumstances are sufficient to prove that he was not entirely persuaded of the divinity of the Christian religion, or that his profession of the gospel was an act of pure dissimulation.

[u] See GODOFRED ad codic. Theodosian. tom. vi. part I. p. 290.

[w] EUSEBIUS, De vita Constantini, lib. iv. cap. lxi, lxii. Those who, upon the authority of certain records (whose date is modern, and whose credit is extremely dubious) affirm, that CONSTANTINE was baptized in the year 324, at Rome, by SYLVESTER, the bishop of that city, are evidently mistaken. Those, even of the Romish church, who are the most eminent for their learning and sagacity, reject this notion. See NORIS, Hist. Donatist. tom. iv. opp. p. 650. THOM. MARIÆ MAMACHII Origin, et Antiquit. Christian. tom. H. p. 232.

IV. PART I.

mulation. For it was a custom with many, inc EN T. this century, to put off their baptism to the last hour, that thus immediately after receiving by this rite the remission of their sins, they might ascend pure and spotless to the mansions of life and immortality. Nor are the crimes of CONSTANTINE any proof of the insincerity of his profession, since nothing is more evident, though it be strange and unaccountable, than that many who believe, in the firmest manner, the truth and divinity of the gospel, yet violate its laws by repeated transgressions, and live in contradiction to their own inward principles. Another question of a different nature might be proposed here, viz. Whether motives of a worldly kind did not contribute, in a certain measure, to give Christianity, in the esteem of CONSTANTINE, a preference to all other religious systems? It is indeed probable, that this prince perceived the admirable tendency of the Christian doctrine and precepts to promote the stability of government, by preserving the citizens in their obedience to the reigning powers, and in the practice of those virtues that render a state happy. And he must naturally have observed, how defective the Roman superstition was in this important point [x].

IX.

[x] See EUSEBIUS, De vita Constant. lib. i. cap. xxvii. p. 421. It has been sometimes remarked by the more eminent writers of the Roman history, that the superstition of that people, contrary to what Dr MOSHEIM here observes, had a great influence in keeping them in their subordination and allegiance. It is more particularly observed, that in no other nation the solemn obligation of an oath was treated with such respect, and fulfilled with such a religious circumspection, and such an inviolable fidelity. But, notwithstanding all this, it is certain, that superstition, if it may be dexterously turned to good purposes, may be equally employed to bad. The artifice of an augur could have rendered superstition as useful to the infernal designs of a TARQUIN and a CATILINE, as to the noble and virtuous