CHAPTER XIX THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, VOLUME II CHAPTER XIX Under these melancholy circumstances an unexperienced youth was appointed to save and to govern the provinces of Gaul, or rather, as he expressed it himself, to exhibit the vain image of imperial greatness. The retired scholastic education of Julian, in which he had been more conversant with books than with arms, with the dead than with the living, left him in profound ignorance of the practical arts of war and government, and when he awkwardly repeated some military exercise, which it was necessary for him to learn, he exclaimed with a sigh, O Plato, Plato, what a task for a philosopher! Yet even this speculative philosophy, which men of business are too apt to despise, had filled the mind of Julian with the noblest precepts and the most shining examples, had animated him with the love of virtue, the desire of fame, and the contempt of death. The habits of temperance recommended in the schools are still more essential in the severe discipline of a camp. The simple wants of nature regulated the measure of his food and sleep. Rejecting with disdain the delicacies provided for his table, he satisfied his appetite with the course and common fare which was allotted to the meanest soldiers. During the rigor of a gallic winter he never suffered a fire in his bedchamber, and after a short and interrupted slumber he frequently rose in the middle of the night from a carpet spread on the floor to dispatch any urgent business, to visit his round, or to steal a few moments for the prosecution of his favourite studies. The precepts of eloquence, which he had hitherto practised on fancied topics of declamation, were more usefully applied to excite or to assuage the passions of an armed multitude. And although Julian, from his early habits of conversation and literature, was more familiarly acquainted with the beauties of the Greek language, he had attained a competent knowledge of the Latin tongue. Since Julian was not originally designed for the character of a legislator, or a judge, it is probable that the civil jurisprudence of the Romans had not engaged any considerable share of his attention. But he derived from his philosophic studies an inflexible regard for justice, tempered by a disposition to clemency, the knowledge of the general principles of equity and evidence, and the faculty of patiently investigating the most intricate and tedious questions which could be proposed for his discussion. The measures of policy and the operations of war must submit to the various accidents of circumstance and character, and the unpracticed student will often be perplexed in the application of the most perfect theory. But in the acquisition of this important science, Julian was assisted by the active vigor of his own genius, as well as by the wisdom and experience of Salast, an officer of rank, who soon conceived a sincere attachment for a prince so worthy of his friendship, and whose incorruptible integrity was adorned by the talent of insinuating the harshest truths without wounding the delicacy of a royal ear. Immediately after Julian had received the purple at Milan, he was sent into Gaul with a feeble retinue of three hundred and sixty soldiers. At Vienna, where he passed a painful and anxious winter in the hands of those ministers to whom Constantius had entrusted the direction of his conduct, the Caesar was informed of the siege and deliverance of Aten. That large and ancient city, protected only by a ruined wall and pusillanimous garrison, was saved by the generous resolution of a few veterans who resumed their arms for the defense of their country. In his march from Aten, through the heart of the Gallic provinces, Julian embraced with ardor the earliest opportunity of signalizing his courage. At the head of a small body of archers and heavy cavalry, he preferred the shorter but the more dangerous of the two roads, and sometimes eluding and sometimes resisting the attacks of the barbarians who were masters of the field, he arrived with honor and safety at the camp near Reims where the Roman troops had been ordered to assemble. The aspect of their young prince revived the dripping spirits of the soldiers, and they marched from Reims in search of the enemy with a confidence which had almost proved fatal to them. The Alemani, familiarized to the knowledge of the country, secretly collected their scattered forces, and seizing the opportunity of a dark and rainy day, poured with unexpected fury on the rear guard of the Romans. Before the inevitable disorder could be remedied, two legions were destroyed, and Julian was taught by experience that caution and vigilance are the most important lessons of the art of war. In a second and more successful action he recovered and established his military fame, but as the agility of the barbarians saved them from the pursuit, his victory was neither bloody nor decisive. He advanced, however, to the banks of the Rhine, surveyed the ruins of Cologne, convinced himself of the difficulties of the war, and retreated on the approach of winter, discontented with the court, with his army, and with his own success. The power of the enemy was yet unbroken, and the Caesar had no sooner separated his troops and fixed his own quarters at Senns in the centre of Gaul than he was surrounded and besieged by a numerous host of Germans. Reduced in this extremity to the resources of his own mind he displayed a prudent intrepidity which compensated for all the deficiencies of the place and garrison, and the barbarians at the end of thirty days were obliged to retire with disappointed rage. The conscious pride of Julian, who was indebted only to his sword for this signal deliverance, was embittered by the reflection that he was abandoned, betrayed, and perhaps devoted to destruction, by those who were bound to assist him by every tie of honour and fidelity. Marcellus, master general of the cavalry in Gaul, interpreting too strictly the jealous orders of the court, beheld with supine indifference the distress of Julian, and had restrained the troops under his command for marching to the relief of Senns. If the Caesar had dissembled in silence so dangerous an insult his person and authority would have been exposed to the contempt of the world. And if an action so criminal had been suffered to pass with impunity the emperor would have confirmed the suspicions which received a very specious colour from his past conduct towards the princes of the Flavian family. Marcellus was recalled and gently dismissed from his office. In his room Severus was appointed general of the cavalry, an experienced soldier of approved courage and fidelity who could advise with respect and execute with zeal, and who submitted without reluctance to the supreme command which Julian, by the interest of his patroness Eusebia, at length obtained over the armies of Gaul. A very judicious plan of operations was adopted for the approaching campaign. Julian himself, at the head of the remains of the veteran bands and of some new levies which he had been permitted to form, boldly penetrated into the centre of the German cantonments, and carefully re-established the fortifications of Severn in an advantageous post which would either check the incursions or intercept the retreat of the enemy. At the same time Barbachio, general of the infantry, advanced from Milan with an army of thirty thousand men, and passing the mountains prepared to throw a bridge over the Rhine in the neighbourhood of Basel. It was reasonable to expect that the Alemani, pressed on either side by the Roman arms, would soon be forced to evacuate the provinces of Gaul and to hasten to the defence of their native country. But the hopes of the campaign were defeated by the incapacity, or the envy, or the secret instructions of Barbachio, who acted as if he had been the enemy of the Caesar and the secret ally of the Barbarians, the negligence with which he permitted a troop of pillagers freely to pass and to return almost before the gates of his camp may be imputed to his want of abilities. But the treasonable act of burning a number of boats, and a superfluous stock of provisions which would have been of the most essential service to the army of Gaul, was an evidence of his hostile and criminal intentions. The Germans despised an enemy who appeared destitute either of power or of inclination to offend them, and the ignominious retreat of Barbachio deprived Julian of the expected support, and left him to extricate himself from a hazardous situation where he could neither remain with safety nor retire with honour. As soon as they were delivered from the fears of invasion, the Alemani prepared to chastise the Roman youth, who presumed to dispute the possession of that country, which they claimed is their own by the right of conquest and of treaties. They employed three days and as many nights in transporting over the Rhine their military powers. The fears Knudomar, shaking the ponderous javelin which he had victoriously wielded against the brother of Magnentius, led the van of the Barbarians, and moderated by his experience the martial ardour which his example inspired. He was followed by six other kings, by ten princes of regal extraction, by a long train of high-spirited nobles, and by thirty-five thousand of the bravest warriors of the tribes of Germany. The confidence derived from the view of their own strength was increased by the intelligence which they received from a deserter, that the Caesar with a feeble army of thirteen thousand men occupied a post about one and twenty miles from their camp of Strasburg. With this inadequate force Julian resolved to seek and to encounter the Barbarian host, and the chance of a general action was preferred to the tedious and uncertain operation of separately engaging the dispersed parties of the Allimani. The Romans marched in close order and in two columns the cavalry on the right, the infantry on the left, and the day was so far spent when they appeared in sight of the enemy, that Julian was desirous of deferring the battle to the next morning, and of allowing his troops to recruit their exhausted strength by the necessary refreshments of sleep and food. Yielding, however, with some reluctance to the clamors of the soldiers, and even to the opinion of his council, he exhorted them to justify by their valor the eager impatience which, in case of a defeat, would be universally branded with the epithets of rashness and presumption. The trumpet sounded, the military shout was heard through the field, and the two armies rushed with equal fury to the charge. The Caesar, who conducted in person his right wing, depended on the dexterity of his archers and the weight of his corseers. But his ranks were instantly broken by an irregular mixture of light horse and of light infantry, and he had the mortification of beholding the flight of six hundred of his most renowned corseers. The fugitives were stopped and rallied by the presence and authority of Julian, who, careless of his own safety, threw himself before them, and urging every motive of shame and honour, led them back against the victorious enemy. The conflict between the two lines of infantry was obstinate and bloody. The Germans possessed the superiority of strength and stature, the Romans that of discipline and temper. And as the barbarians, who served under the standard of the Empire, united the respective advantages of both parties, their strenuous efforts, guided by a skillful leader, at length determined the event of the day. The Romans lost four tribunes and two hundred and forty-three soldiers, in this memorable battle of Strasburg, so glorious to the Caesar, and so salutary to the afflicted provinces of Gaul. Six thousand of the Alemani were slain in the field, without including those who were drowned in the Rhine, or transfixed with darts while they attempted to swim across the river. Knodomar himself was surrounded and taken prisoner, with three of his brave companions, who had devoted themselves to follow in life or death the fate of their chieftain. Julian received him with military pomp in the council of his officers, and expressing a generous pity for the fallen state, dissembled his inward contempt for the abject humiliation of his captive. Instead of exhibiting the vanquished king of the Alemani, as a grateful spectacle to the cities of Gaul, he respectfully laid at the feet of the emperor this splendid trophy of his victory. Knodomar experienced an honourable treatment, but the impatient barbarian could not long survive his defeat, his confinement, and his exile. After Julian had repulsed the Alemani from the provinces of the Upper Rhine, he turned his arms against the Franks, who were seated nearer to the ocean, on the confines of Gaul and Germany, and who, from their numbers, and still more from their intrepid valor, had ever been esteemed the most formidable of the barbarians. Although they were strongly actuated by the allurements of Rapine, they professed a disinterested love of war, which they considered as the supreme honour and felicity of human nature, and their minds and bodies were so completely hardened by perpetual action that, according to the lively expression of an orator, the snows of winter were as pleasant to them as the flowers of spring. In the month of December, which followed the battle of Strasburg, Julian attacked a body of six hundred Franks, who had thrown themselves into two castles on the mews. In the midst of that severe season they sustained, with inflexible constancy, a siege of fifty-four days, till at length exhausted by hunger, and satisfied that the vigilance of the enemy, in breaking the ice of the river, left them no hopes of escape, the Franks consented, for the first time, to dispense with the ancient law which commanded them to conquer or to die. The Caesar immediately sent his captives to the court of Constantius, who, accepting them as a valuable present, rejoiced in the opportunity of adding so many heroes to the choicest troops of his domestic guards. The obstinate resistance of this handful of Franks apprised Julian of the difficulties of the expedition which he meditated for the ensuing spring, against the whole body of the nation. His rapid diligence surprised and astonished the act of barbarians. Ordering his soldiers to provide themselves with a biscuit for twenty days, he suddenly pitched his camp near Tongres, while the enemy still supposed him in his winter quarters of Paris, expecting the slow arrival of his convoys from Aquitaine. Without allowing the Franks to unite or deliberate, he skillfully spread his legions from Cologne to the ocean, and by the terror as well as by the success of his arms, soon reduced the suppliant tribes to implore the clemency and to obey the commands of their conqueror. The Shemavians submissively retired to their former habitations beyond the Rhine, but the salians were permitted to possess their new establishment of Toxandria as the subjects and auxiliaries of the Roman Empire. The treaty was ratified by solemn oaths, and perpetual inspectors were appointed to reside among the Franks, with the authority of enforcing the strict observance of the conditions. An incident is related, interesting enough in itself, and by no means were pugnant to the character of Julian, who ingeniously contrived both the plot and the catastrophe of the tragedy. When the Shemavians sued for peace he required the son of their king as the only hostage on whom he could rely. A mournful silence interrupted by tears and groans declared the sad perplexity of the barbarians.  While the Shemavians lay prostrated the foot of his throne, the royal captive, whom they believed to have been slain, unexpectedly appeared before their eyes, and as soon as the tumult of joy was hushed into attention, the Caesar addressed the assembly in the following terms. Quote, Behold the son, the prince, whom you wept. You had lost him by your fault. God and the Romans have restored him to you. I shall still preserve and educate the youth, rather as a monument of my own virtue, than as a pledge of your sincerity. Should you presume to violate the faith which you have sworn, the arms of the Republic will avenge the perfidy not on the innocent, but on the guilty." The barbarians withdrew from his presence, impressed with the warmest sentiments of gratitude and admiration. It was not enough for Julian to have delivered the provinces of Gaul from the barbarians of Germany. He aspired to emulate the glory of the first and most illustrious of the emperors, after whose example he composed his own commentaries of the Gallic War. Caesar has related, with conscious pride, the manner in which he twice passed the Rhine. Julian could boast that before he assumed the title of Augustus he had carried the Roman eagles beyond that great river in three successful expeditions. The consternation of the Germans, after the battle of Strasburg, encouraged him to the first attempt, and the reluctance of the troops soon yielded to the persuasive eloquence of a leader, who shared the fatigues and dangers which he imposed on the meanest of the soldiers. The villages on either side of the mean, which were plentifully stored with corn and cattle, felt the ravages of an invading army. The principal houses, constructed with some imitation of Roman elegance, were consumed by the flames, and the Caesar boldly advanced about ten miles till his progress was stopped by a dark and impenetrable forest, undermined by subterraneous passages which threatened with secret snares and ambush every step of the assailants. The ground was already covered with snow, and Julian, after repairing an ancient castle which had been erected by Trajan, granted a truce of ten months to the submissive barbarians. At the expiration of the truce, Julian undertook a second expedition beyond the Rhine to humble the pride of Surmar and Horterre, two of the kings of the Alemani, who had been present at the battle of Strasburg. They promised to restore all the Roman captives, who yet remained alive, and as the Caesar had procured an exact account of the cities and villages of Gaul, of the inhabitants whom they had lost, he detected every attempt to deceive him, with a degree of readiness and accuracy which almost established the belief of his supernatural knowledge. His third expedition was still more splendid and important than the two former. The Germans had collected their military powers, and moved along the opposite banks of the river, with the design of destroying the bridge, and of preventing the passage of the Romans. But this judicious plan of defence was disconcerted by a skillful diversion. Three hundred light-armed and active soldiers were detached in forty small boats, to fall down the stream in silence and to land at some distance from the posts of the enemy. They executed their orders with so much boldness and celerity that they had almost surprised the barbarian chiefs who returned in the fearless confidence of intoxication from one of their nocturnal generals. Without repeating the uniform and disgusting tale of slaughter and devastation, it is sufficient to observe that Julian dictated his own conditions of peace to six of the haughtiest kings of the Alemani, three of whom were permitted to view the severe discipline and martial pomp of a Roman camp. Followed by twenty thousand captives, whom he had rescued from the chains of the barbarians, the Caesar repass the Rhine, after terminating a war, the success of which has been compared to the ancient glories of the Punic and Cymbric victories. As soon as the valor and conduct of Julian had secured an interval of peace, he applied himself to a work more congenial to his humane and philosophic temper. The cities of Gaul which had suffered from the inroads of the barbarians, he diligently repaired, and seven important posts between men's and the mouth of the Rhine are particularly mentioned as having been rebuilt and fortified by the order of Julian. The vanquished Germans had submitted to the just but humiliating condition of preparing and conveying the necessary materials. The act of zeal of Julian urged the prosecution of the work, and such was the spirit which he had diffused among the troops, that the auxiliaries themselves, waiving their exemption from any duties of fatigue, contended in the most servile labours with the diligence of the Roman soldiers. It was incumbent on the Caesar to provide for the subsistence, as well as for the safety of the inhabitants and of the garrisons. The desertion of the former and the mutiny of the latter must have been the fatal and inevitable consequences of famine. The tillage of the provinces of Gaul had been interrupted by the calamities of war, but the scanty harvests of the continent were supplied by his paternal care from the plenty of the adjacent island. Six hundred large barks, framed in the forest of the Ardennes, made several voyages to the coast of Britain, and returning from Vence, laden with corn, sailed up the Rhine, and distributed their cargoes to the several towns and fortresses along the banks of the river. The arms of Julian had restored a free and secure navigation which Constantius had offered to purchase at the expense of his dignity, and of a tributary present of two thousand pounds of silver. The emperor parsimoniously refused to his soldiers the sums which he granted with a lavish and trembling hand to the barbarians. The dexterity as well as the firmness of Julian was put to a severe trial, when he took the field with the discontented army which had already served two campaigns without receiving any regular pay or any extraordinary donative. A tender regard for the peace and happiness of his subjects was the ruling principle which directed, or seemed to direct, the administration of Julian. He devoted the leisure of his winter quarters to the offices of civil government, and effected to assume, with more pleasure, the character of a magistrate than that of a general. Before he took the field he devolved on the provincial governors most of the public and private causes which had been referred to his tribunal, but on his return he carefully revised their proceedings, mitigated the rigor of the law, and pronounced a second judgment on the judges themselves. Superior to the last temptation of virtuous minds, an indiscreet and intemperate zeal for justice, he restrained with calmness and dignity the warmth of an advocate who prosecuted for extortion the president of the Narbanez Province. Quote, Who will ever be found guilty, exclaimed the vehement Delphideus? If it be enough to deny, unquote, and who, replied Julian, will ever be innocent if it be sufficient to affirm, unquote. In the general administration of peace and war the interest of the sovereign is commonly the same as that of his people. But Constantius would have thought himself deeply injured if the virtues of Julian had defrauded him of any part of the tribute which he extorted from an oppressed and exhausted country. The prince who was invested with the ensigns of royalty might sometimes presume to correct the rapacious insolence of his inferior agents, to expose their corrupt arts, and to introduce an equal and easier mode of collection. But the management of the finances was more safely entrusted to Florentius, praetorian prefect of Gaul, an effeminate tyrant incapable of pity or remorse, and the haughty minister complained of the most decent and gentle opposition, while Julian himself was rather inclined to censure the weakness of his own behavior. The Caesar had rejected, with abhorrence, a mandate for the levy of an extraordinary tax, a new super-indiction which the prefect had offered for his signature, and the faithful picture of the public misery by which he had been obliged to justify his refusal, offended the court of Constantius. We may enjoy the pleasure of reading the sentiments of Julian as he expresses them with warmth and freedom in a letter to one of his most intimate friends. After stating his own conduct he proceeds in the following terms. Quote, Was it possible for the disciple of Plato and Aristotle to act otherwise than I have done? Could I abandon the unhappy subjects I entrusted to my care? Was I not called upon to defend them from the repeated injuries of these unfeeling robbers? A tribune who deserts his post is punished with death, and deprived of the honors of burial. With what justice could I pronounce his sentence, if in the hour of danger I myself neglected a duty far more sacred and far more important? God has placed me in this elevated post, his providence will guard and support me. Should I be condemned to suffer, I shall derive comfort from the testimony of a pure and upright conscience, would to heaven that I still possess to counsellor like Salist. If they think proper to send me a successor, I shall submit without reluctance, and had much rather improved the short opportunity of doing good than enjoy a long and lasting impunity of evil. The precarious and dependent situation of Julian displayed his virtues and concealed his defects. The young hero who supported, in Gaul, the throne of Constantius, was not permitted to reform the vices of the government, but he had courage to alleviate or to pity the distress of the people. Unless he had been able to revive the martial spirit of the Romans, or to introduce the arts of industry and refinement among their savage enemies, he could not entertain any rational hopes of securing the public tranquility, either by the peace or conquest of Germany. Yet the victories of Julian suspended, for a short time, the inroads of the barbarians, and delayed the ruin of the Western Empire. His salutary influence restored the cities of Gaul, which had been so long exposed to the evils of civil discord, barbarian war, and domestic tyranny, and the spirit of industry was revived with the hopes of enjoyment. Agriculture, manufacturers, and commerce again flourished under the protection of the laws, and the curie or civil corporations were again filled with useful and respectable members. The youth were no longer apprehensive of marriage, and married persons were no longer apprehensive of posterity. The public and private festivals were celebrated with customary pomp, and the frequent and secure intercourse of the provinces displayed the image of national prosperity. A mind like that of Julian must have felt the general happiness of which he was the author, but he viewed with particular satisfaction and complacency the city of Paris, the seat of his winter residence, and the object even of his partial affection, that splendid capital, which now embraces an ample territory on either side of the Seine, was originally confined to the small island in the midst of the river, from whence the inhabitants derived a supply of pure and salubrious water. The river bathed the foot of the walls, and the town was accessible only by two wooden bridges. A forest overspread the northern side of the Seine, but on the south the ground, which now bears the name of the university, was sensibly covered with houses, and adorned with a palace and amphitheater, baths, an aqueduct, and a field of Mars for the exercise of the Roman troops. The severity of the climate was tempered by the neighborhood of the ocean, and with some precautions which experience had taught, the vine and fig tree were successfully cultivated. But in remarkable winters the Seine was deeply frozen, and the huge pieces of ice that floated down the stream might be compared by an Asiatic to the blocks of white marble which were extracted from the quarries of Frigia. The licentiousness and corruption of Antioch were called to the memory of Julian the severe and simple manners of his beloved Lutetia, where the amusements of the theater were unknown or despised. He indignantly contrasted the effeminate Syrians with the brave and honest simplicity of the Gauls, and almost forgave the intemperance which was the only stain of the Celtic character. If Julian could now revisit the capital of France, he might converse with men of science and genius capable of understanding and of instructing a disciple of the Greeks. He might excuse the lively and graceful follies of a nation whose martial spirit has never been innervated by the indulgence of luxury, and he must applaud the perfection of that inestimable art which softens and refines and embellishes the intercourse of social life. 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. 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 of ascertaining the real and precise state of the conversion of Constantine. The eloquent lactantius in the midst of his effort seems impatient to proclaim to the world the glorious example of the sovereign of Gaul, who in the first moments of his reign acknowledged and adored the majesty of the true and only God. The learned Eusebius has ascribed the faith of Constantine to the miraculous sign which was displayed in the heavens whilst he meditated and prepared the Italian expedition. The historian Zosimos maliciously asserts that the emperor had imbrued his hands in the blood of his eldest son before he publicly renounced the gods of Rome and of his ancestors. The perplexity produced by these discordant authorities is derived from the behaviour of Constantine himself. According to the strictness of ecclesiastical language, the first of the Christian emperors was unworthy of the name till the moment of his death, since it was only during his last illness that he received as a catechumen the imposition of hands and was afterwards admitted by the initiatory rites of baptism into the number of the faithful. The Christianity of Constantine must be allowed in a much more vague and qualified sense, and the nicest accuracy is required in tracing the slow and almost imperceptible gradations by which the monarch declared himself the protector and at length crossed the light of the church. It was an arduous task to eradicate the habits and prejudices of his education to acknowledge the divine power of Christ and to understand that the truth of his revelation was incompatible with the worship of the gods. The obstacles which he had probably experienced in his own mind instructed him to proceed with caution in the momentous change of a national religion, and he insensibly discovered his new opinions as far as he could enforce them with safety and with effect. During the whole course of his reign the stream of Christianity flowed with a gentle though accelerated motion, but its general direction was sometimes checked and sometimes diverted by the accidental circumstances of the time and by the prudence or possibly by the caprice of the monarch. His ministers were permitted to signify the intentions of their master in the various language which was best adapted to their respective principles, and he artfully balanced the hopes and fears of his subjects by publishing in the same year two edicts, the first of which enjoined the solemn observance of Sunday and the second directed the regular consultation of the arus species. While this important revolution yet remained in suspense the Christians and the pagans watched the conduct of their sovereign with the same anxiety but with very opposite sentiments. 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 apprehensions were changed into despair and resentment attempted to conceal him from the world and from themselves that the gods of Rome could no longer reckon the emperor in the number of their votaries. The same passions and prejudices have engaged the partial writers of the times to connect the public profession of Christianity with the most glorious or the most ignominious era of the reign of Constantine. Whatever symptoms of Christian piety might transpire in the discourses or actions of Constantine he persevered till he was near 40 years of age in the practice of the established religion and the same conduct which in the court of Nicomedia might be imputed to his fear could be ascribed only to the inclination or policy of the sovereign of Gaul. His liberality restored and enriched the temples of the gods the medals which issued from his imperial mint are impressed with the figures and attributes of Jupiter and Apollo of Mars and Hercules and his filial piety increased the council of Olympus by the solemn apotheosis of his father Constantius. But the devotion of Constantine was more peculiarly directed to the genius of the sun the Apollo of Greek and Roman mythology and he was pleased to be represented with the symbols of the god of light and poetry. The unerring shafts of that deity the brightness of his eyes his laurel reef immortal beauty and elegant accomplishments seemed to point him out as the patron of a young hero. The altars of Apollo were crowned with a vote of offerings of Constantine and the credulous multitude were taught to believe that the emperor was permitted to behold with mortal eyes the visible majesty of their tutular deity and that either waking on a vision he was blessed with the auspicious omens of a long and victorious reign the sun was universally celebrated as the invincible guide and protector of Constantine and the pagans might reasonably expect that the insulted god will pursue with unrelenting vengeance the impiety of his ungrateful favorite. As long as Constantine exercised a limited sovereignty over the provinces of Gaul his Christian subjects were protected by the authority and perhaps by the laws of a prince who wisely left to the gods the care of vindicating their own honor. 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. 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 favor 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. 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. In the personal interview of the two western princes Constantine by the ascendant of genius and power obtained the ready concurrence of his colleague Lysinius the union of their names and authority disarmed the fury of Maximus 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 lands which had been confiscated should be restored to the church without dispute without delay and without expense and this severe injunction was accompanied with a gracious promise that if any of the purchasers had paid a fair and adequate price they should be indemnified from the imperial treasury. The salutary regulations which guard the future tranquility of the faithful are framed on the principles of enlarged and equal toleration and such inequality must have been interpreted by a recent sect as an advantageous and honorable distinction. The two emperors proclaimed to the world that they have granted a free and absolute power to the Christians and to all others of following the religion which each individual thinks proper to prefer to which he has addicted his mind and which he may deem the best adapted to his own use. They carefully explained every ambiguous word remove every exception and exact from the governors of the provinces a strict obedience to the true and simple meaning of the edict which was designed to establish and secure without any limitation the claims of religious liberty. They condescend to assigned to weighty reasons which have induced them to allow this universal toleration the humane intention of consulting the peace and happiness of their people and the pious hope that by such a conduct they shall appease and propitiate the deity whose seat is in heaven. They gratefully acknowledge the many signal proofs which they have received of the divine favor and they trust that the same providence will forever continue to protect the prosperity of the prince and people. From these vague and indefinite expressions of piety three suppositions may be deduced of a different but not of an incompatible nature. The mind of Constantine might fluctuate between the pagan and the Christian religions according to the loose and complying notions of polytheism he might acknowledge the God of the Christians as one of the many deities who compose the hierarchy of heaven or perhaps he might embrace the philosophic and pleasing idea that notwithstanding the variety of names of rights and of opinions all the sects and all the nations of mankind are united in the worship of the common father and creator of the universe. But the councils of princes are more frequently influenced by views of temporal advantage than by considerations of abstract and speculative truth the partial and increasing favor of Constantine may naturally be referred to the esteem which he entertained for the moral character of the Christians and to a persuasion that the propagation of the gospel would inculcate the practice of private and public virtue. Whatever latitude an absolute monarch may assume in his own conduct whatever indulgence he may claim for his own passions it is undoubtedly his interest that all his subjects should respect the natural and civil obligations of society but the operation of the wisest laws is imperfect and precarious they seldom inspire virtue they cannot always restrain vice their power is insufficient to prohibit all that they condemn nor can they always punish the actions which they prohibit. The legislators of antiquity had summoned to their aid the powers of education and of opinion but every principle which had once maintained the vigor and purity of Rome and Sparta was long since extinguished in a declining and despotic empire. Philosophy still exercised her temperate sway over the human mind but the cause of virtue derived very feeble support from the influence of the pagan superstition. Under these discouraging circumstances a prudent magistrate might observe with pleasure the progress of a religion which diffused among the people a pure benevolent and universal system of ethics adapted to every duty and every condition of life recommended as the will and reason of the supreme deity and enforced by the sanction of eternal reward and punishments. The experience of Greek and Roman history could not inform the world how far the system of national manners might be reformed and improved by the precepts of a divine revelation and Constantine might listen with some confidence to the flattering and indeed reasonable assurances of lactantius. The eloquent apologist seemed firmly to expect an almost ventured to promise that the establishment of Christianity would restore the innocence and felicity of the primitive age that the worship of the true God would extinguish war and ascension among those who mutually considered themselves as the children of a common parent that every impure desire, every angry or selfish passion would be restrained by the knowledge of the gospel and that the magistrates might sheath the sword of justice among the people who would be universally actuated by the sentiments of truth and piety of equity and moderation of harmony and universal love. The passion and unresisting obedience which bows under the yoke of authority or even of oppression must have appeared in the eyes of an absolute monarch the most conspicuous and useful of the evangelical virtues. The primitive Christians derived the institution of civil government not from the consent of the people but from the decrees of heaven. The reigning emperor though he had usurped the scepter by treason and murder immediately assumed the sacred character vice-region to the deity. To the deity alone he was accountable for the abuse of his power and his subjects were indissolubly bound by their oath of fidelity to a tyrant who had violated every law of nature and society. The humble Christians were sent into the world as sheep among wolves and since they were not permitted to employ force even in the defense of their religion they should be still more criminal if they were tempted to shed the blood of their fellow creatures in disputing the vain privileges or the sordid possessions of this transitory life. Faithful to the doctrine of the apostle who in the reign of Nero had preached the duty of unconditional submission the Christians of the three first centuries preserved their conscience pure and innocent of the guilt of secret conspiracy or open rebellion. While they experienced the rigor of persecution they were never provoked either to meet their tyrants in the field or indignantly to withdraw themselves into some remote and sequestered corner of the globe. The Protestants of France, of Germany and of Britain who asserted with such intrepid courage their civil and religious freedom have been insulted by the invidious comparison between the conduct of the primitive and of the reformed Christians due to the superior sense of spirit of our ancestors who had convinced themselves that religion cannot abolish the unalienable rights of human nature. Perhaps the patience of the primitive church may be ascribed to its weakness as well as to its virtue. A sect of unwarlike plebeians without leaders without arms without fortifications must have encountered inevitable destruction in a rash and fruitless resistance to the master of the Roman legions. But the Christians, when they deprecated the wrath of Diocletian or solicited the favour of Constantine could allege with truth and confidence that they held the principles of passive obedience and that in the space of three centuries their conduct had always been conformable to their principles. They might add that the throne of the emperors would be established on a fixed and permanent basis if all their subjects embracing the Christian doctrine should learn to suffer and to obey. In the general order of providence, princes and tyrants are considered as the ministers of heaven appointed to rule or to chastise the nations of the earth, but sacred history affords many illustrious examples of the more immediate interposition of the deity in the government of his chosen people. The scepter and the sword were committed to the hands of Moses, of Joshua, of Gideon, of David, of the Maccabees. The virtues of these heroes were the motive or the effect of the divine favour. The success of their arms was destined to achieve the deliverance or the triumph of the church. If the judges of Israel were occasional and temporary magistrates, the kings of Judah derived from the royal unction of their great ancestor and hereditary and indefeasible right which could not be forfeited by their own vice nor recalled by the capris of their subjects. The same extraordinary providence which was no longer confined to the Jewish people might elect Constantine and his family as the protectors of the Christian world and the devout Laktantius announces in a prophetic tone the future glories of his long and universal reign. Galerius and Maximus, Maccentius and Licinius, with the rivals who shared with the favourites of heaven the provinces of the empire, the tragic deaths of Galerius and Maximus soon gratified the resentment and fulfilled the sanguine expectations of the Christians. The success of Constantine against Maccentius and Licinius removed the two formidable competitors who still opposed the triumph of the second David and his cause might seem to claim the peculiar interposition of providence. The character of the Roman tyrant disgraced the purple and human nature and though the Christians might enjoy his precarious favour they were exposed with the rest of his subjects to the effects of his wanton and capricious cruelty. The conduct of Licinius soon betrayed the reluctance with which he had consented to the wise and humane regulations of the state of Milan. The convocation of provincial synods was prohibited in his dominions. His Christian officers were ignominiously dismissed and if he avoided the guilt or rather danger of a general persecution his partial oppressions were rendered still more odious by the violation of a solemn and voluntary engagement while the east, according to the lively expression of Eusebius, was involved in the shades of infernal darkness. The auspicious rays of celestial light warmed and illuminated the provinces of the west. The piety of Constantine was admitted as an unexceptional proof of the justice of his arms and his use of victory confirmed the opinion of the Christians that their hero was inspired and conducted by the Lord of Hosts. The conquest of Italy produced a general edict of toleration and as soon as the defeat of Licinius had invested 17 with the sole dominion of the Roman world he immediately, by circular letters, exhorted all his subjects to imitate without delay the example of their sovereign and to embrace the divine truth of Christianity. End of Chapter 20 Part 1 Recording by Nicholas James Bridgewater This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org This recording by Nicholas James Bridgewater Chapter 20 Part 2 of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 2 The assurance that the elevation of Constantine was intimately connected with the designs of Providence instilled into the minds of the Christians two opinions which by very different means assisted the accomplishment of the prophecy. Their warm and active loyalty exhausted in his favour every resource of human industry and they confidently expected that their strenuous efforts would be seconded by some divine and miraculous aid. The enemies of Constantine have imputed to interested motives the alliance which he insentably contracted with the Catholic Church and which apparently contributed to the success of his ambition. In the beginning of the fourth century the Christians still bore a very inadequate proportion to the inhabitants of the empire but among a degenerate people who viewed the change of masters with the indifference of slaves the spirit and union of religious party might assist the popular leader to whose service from a principle of conscience they had devoted their lives and the example of his father had instructed Constantine to esteem and to reward the merit of the Christians and in the distribution of public offices he had the advantage of strengthening his government by the choice of ministers or generals in whose fidelity he could propose a just and unreserved confidence. By the influence of these dignified missionaries the proselytes of the new faith must have multiplied in the Christian army. The barbarians of Germany who filled the ranks of the legions were of a careless temper which acquiesced without resistance in the religion of their commander and when they passed the Alps it may fairly be presumed that a great number of the soldiers had already consecrated their swords to the service of Christ and of Constantine. The habits of mankind and the interests of religion were of war and bloodshed which had so long prevailed among the Christians and in the councils which were assembled under the gracious protection of Constantine the authority of the bishops was seasonably employed to ratify the obligation of the military oath and to inflict the penalty of excommunication on those soldiers who threw away their arms during the peace of the church. While Constantine in his own number and zeal of his faithful adherents he could depend on the support of a powerful faction in those provinces which were still possessed or usurped by his rivals. A secret disaffection was diffused among the Christian subjects of Maccentius and Licinius and the resentment which the latter did not attempt to conceal served only to engage them still more deeply in the interests of his competitor. The regular correspondence which the bishops of the most distant provinces enabled them freely to communicate their wishes and their designs and to transmit without danger any useful intelligence or any pious contributions which might promote the service of Constantine who publicly declared that he had taken up arms for the deliverance of the church. The enthusiasm which inspired the troops and perhaps the emperor himself had sharpened their swords while it satisfied their conscience. They marched to battle with the full assurance that the same god who had formally opened a passage to the Israelites through the waters of Jordan and had thrown down the walls of Jericho at the sound of the trumpets of Joshua would display his visible majesty and power and the victory of Constantine. The evidence of ecclesiastical history is prepared to affirm that their expectations were justified by the conspicuous miracle to which the conversion of the first Christian emperor has been almost unanimously ascribed. The real or imaginary cause of so important an event deserves and demands the attention of posterity and I shall endeavour to form a just estimate of the famous vision of Constantine by a distinct consideration of the standard, the dream and the celestial sign by separating the historical, the natural and the marvellous parts of this extraordinary story which in the composition of a specious argument have been artfully confounded in one splendid and brittle mass. An instrument of the tortures which were inflicted only on slaves and strangers became an object of horror in the eyes of a Roman citizen and the ideas of guilt, of pain and of ignominy the idea of the cross. The piety, rather than the humanity of Constantine soon abolished in his dominions the punishment which the saviour of mankind had condescended to suffer, but the emperor had already learned to despise the prejudices of his education and of his people before he could erect in the midst of Rome his own statue bearing a cross in his right hand with an inscription which referred to the victory of his arms and the deliverance of Rome to the virtue of that salutary sign the true symbol of force and courage the same symbol sanctified the arms of the soldiers of Constantine the cross glittered on their helmet was engraved on their shields was interwoven in their banners and the consecrated emblems which adorned the person of the emperor himself were distinguished only by richer materials a more exquisite workmanship but the principle standard which displayed the triumph of the cross was styled the labrum an obscure though celebrated name which had been vainly derived from almost all the languages of the world it is described as a long pike intersected by a transversal beam the silken veil which hung down from the beam was curiously in-wrought with the images of the reigning monarch and his children the summit of the pike supported a crown of gold which enclosed the mysterious monogram at once expressive of the figure of the cross and the initial letters of the name of Christ the safety of the labrum was entrusted to fifty guards of approved valor and fidelity their station was marked by honors and emoluments and some fortunate accidents soon introduced an opinion the guards of the labrum were engaged in the execution of their office they were secure and invulnerable amidst the darts of the enemy in the second civil war Lysinius felt and dreaded the power of this consecrated banner the sight of which in the distress of battle animated the soldiers of Constantine with an invincible enthusiasm and scattered terror and dismay through the ranks of the adverse legions the Christian emperors who respected the example of Constantine displayed in all their military expeditions the standard of the cross but when the degenerate successors of Theodosius had ceased to appear in person at the head of their armies the labrum was deposited as a venerable but useless relic in the palace of Constantinople its honors are still preserved on the medals of the Flavian family their grateful devotion has placed the monogram of Christ in the midst of the ensigns of Rome the solemn epithets of safety to the republic glory of the army restoration of public happiness are equally applied to the religious and military trophies and there is still a stand to medal of the emperor Constantius where the standard of the labrum is accompanied with these memorable words by this sign thou shalt conquer in all occasions of danger and distress it was the practice of the primitive Christians to fortify their minds and bodies by the sign of the cross which they used in all their ecclesiastical rites in all the daily occurrences of life as an infallible preservative against every species of spiritual or temporal evil the authority of the church might alone have had sufficient weight to justify the devotion of Constantine who in the same prudent and gradual progress acknowledged the truth and assumed the symbol of Christianity but the testimony of a contemporary writer who in a formal treatise has avenged the cause of religion bestows on the piety of the emperor a more awful and sublime character he affirms with the most perfect confidence that in the night which preceded the last battle against Constantius Constantine was admonished in a dream to inscribe the shields of his soldiers with the celestial sign of God the sacred monogram of the name of Christ that he executed the commands of heaven and that his valour and obedience were rewarded by the decisive victory of the Milvian bridge some considerations might perhaps incline a sceptical mind to suspect the judgment or the veracity of the rhetorician whose pen either from zeal or lust was devoted to the cause of the prevailing faction he appears to have published his deaths of the persecutors at Nicomedia about three years after the Roman victory but the interval of a thousand miles and a thousand days will allow an ample latitude for the invention of declaimers the credulity of party and the tacit approbation of the emperor himself who might listen without indignation to a marvellous tale that exalted his fame and promoted his designs in favour of Lysinius who still dissembled his animosity to the Christians the same author has provided a similar vision of a form of prayer which was communicated by an angel and repeated by the whole army before they engaged the legions of the tyrant Maximon the frequent repetition of miracles serves to provoke where it does not subdue but if the dream of Constantine is separately considered it may be naturally explained either by the policy or the enthusiasm of the emperor whilst his anxiety for the approaching day which must decide the fate of the empire was suspended by a short and interrupted slumber the venerable form of Christ and the well known symbol of his religion might forcibly offer themselves to the active fancy of a prince the name and had perhaps secretly implored the power of the god of the Christians as readily might a consummate statesman indulge himself in the use of one of those military stratagems one of those pious frauds which Philip and Sertorius had employed with such art in effect the preter natural origins of dreams was universally omitted by the nations of antiquity and a considerable part of the Gallic army was already prepared to place the confidence in the salutary sign of the Christian religion the secret vision of Constantine could be disproved only by the event and the intrepid hero who had passed the Alps and the Apenine might view with careless despair the consequences of a defeat under the walls of Rome the senate and people exalting in their own deliverance from an odious tyrant acknowledged that the victory of Constantine surpassed the powers of man without daring to insinuate that it had been obtained by the protection of the gods the triumphal arch which was erected about three years after the event proclaims in ambiguous language that the greatness of his own mind and by an instinctive or impulsive divinity he had saved and avenged the Roman Republic the pagan orator who had seized an earlier opportunity of celebrating the virtues of the conqueror supposes that he alone would avoid a secret and intimate commerce with the supreme being who delegated the care of mortals to his subordinate deities and thus assigns a very plausible reason why the subjects of Constantine should not presume to embrace the new religion of their sovereign the philosopher who with calm suspicion examines the dreams and omens the miracles and prodigies of profane or even of ecclesiastical history will probably conclude that if the eyes of the spectators have sometimes been deceived by fraud the understanding of the readers has much more frequently been insulted by fiction every event or appearance or accident which seems to deviate from the ordinary course of nature has been rashly ascribed to the immediate action of the deity and the astonished fancy of the multitude has sometimes given shape and colour language and motion to the fleeting but uncommon meteors of the air Nazarius and Eusebius are the two most celebrated orators who, in studied panagyrics have laboured to exalt the glory of Constantine nine years after the Roman victory Nazarius describes an army of divine warriors who seem to fall from the sky he marks their beauty their spirit, their gigantic forms the stream of light which beamed from their celestial armour their patience in suffering themselves to be heard as well as seen by mortals and their declaration that they were sent that they flew to the assistance of the great Constantine for the truth of this prodigy the pagan orator appeals to the whole Gallic nation in whose presence he was then speaking and seems to hope that the ancient apparitions would now obtain credit from this recent and public event the table of Eusebius which in the space of 26 years might arise from the original dream is cast in a much more correct and elegant mould in one of the marches of Constantine he is reported to have seen with his own eyes the luminous trophy of the cross placed above the meridian sun and inscribed with the following words by this conquer this amazing object in the sky astonished the whole army as well as the emperor himself who was yet undetermined in the choice of a religion but his astonishment was converted into faith by the vision of the ensuing night Christ appeared before his eyes and displayed the same celestial sign of the cross he directed Constantine to frame a similar standard and to march with an assurance of victory against Mccentius and all his enemies the learned bishop of Caesarea appears to be sensible that the recent discovery of this marvellous anecdote would excite some surprise and distrust among the most pious of his readers yet instead of ascertaining the precise circumstances of time and place which always serve to detect falsehood or establish truth instead of collecting and recording the evidence of so many living witnesses who must have been spectators of this stupendous miracle with alleging a very singular testimony that of the deceased Constantine who many years after the event in the freedom of conversation had related to him this extraordinary incident of his own life and had attested the truth of it by a solemn oath the prudence and gratitude of the learned prelate forbade him to suspect the veracity of his victorious master but he plainly intimates that in fact of such a nature he should have refused his assent to any meaner authority this motive of credibility could not survive the power of the Flavian family and the celestial sign which the infidels might afterwards to ride was disregarded by the Christians of the age which immediately followed the conversion of Constantine but the catholic church both of the east and of the west has adopted a prodigy which favours or seems to favour the popular worship of the cross the vision of Constantine maintained an honourable place in the legend of superstition till the bold and sagacious spirit of criticism presumed to depreciate the triumph and to arraign the truth of the first Christian emperor the protestant and philosophic readers of the present age will incline to believe that in the account of his own conversion Constantine attested a willful falsehood by a solemn and deliberate perjury they may not hesitate to pronounce that in the choice of a religion his mind was determined only by a sense of interest and that according to the expression of a profane poet he used the altars of the church as a convenient footstool to the throne of the empire a conclusion so harsh and so absolute is not however warranted by our knowledge of human nature of Constantine or of Christianity in an age of religious fervour the most artful statesmen are observed to feel some part of the enthusiasm which they inspire and the most orthodox saints assume the dangerous privilege of defending the cause of truth by the arms of deceit and falsehood personal interest is often the standard of our belief as well as of our practice and the same motives of temporal advantage which might influence the public conduct and professions of Constantine would insensibly dispose his mind to embrace a religion so propitious to his fame and fortunes his vanity was gratified by the flattering assurance that he had been chosen by heaven to reign over the earth success had justified his divine title to the throne and that title was founded on the truth of the Christian revelation as real virtue is sometimes excited by undeserved applause the specious piety of Constantine if at first it was only specious might gradually by the influence of praise of habit and of example be matured into serious faith and fervent devotion the bishops and teachers of the new sect whose dress and manners had not qualified them the residents of a court were admitted to the imperial table they accompanied the monarch in his expeditions and the ascendant which one of them an Egyptian or a Spaniard acquired over his mind was imputed by the pagans to the effect of magic Lactantius who has adorned the precepts of the gospel with the eloquence of Cicero and Eusebius who has consecrated the learning and philosophy of the Greeks to the service of religion who have moved into the friendship and familiarity of their sovereign and those able masters of controversy could patiently watch the soft and yielding moments of persuasion and dexterously apply the arguments which were the best adapted to his character and understanding whatever advantages might be derived from the acquisition of an imperial proselyte he was distinguished by the splendor of his purple rather than by the superiority of wisdom or virtue and the many thousands of his subjects who had embraced the doctrines of Christianity nor can it be deemed incredible that the mind of an unlettered soldier should have yielded to the weight of evidence which in a more enlightened age has satisfied or subdued the reason of a grotesque a pascal or a lock in the midst of the incessant labours of his great office this soldier employed or affected to employ the hours of the night in the diligent study of the scriptures and the composition of theological discourses which he afterwards pronounced in the presence of a numerous and applauding audience in a very long discourse which is still extant the royal preacher expaciates on the various proofs of religion but he dwells with peculiar complacency on the sibling verses and the fourth eclog of Virgil 40 years before the birth of Christ the Mantu and Bard as if inspired by the celestial muse of Isaiah had celebrated with all the pomp of oriental metaphor the return of the virgin the fall of the serpent the approaching birth of a godlike child the offspring of the great Jupiter who should expiate the guilt of humankind and govern the peaceful universe with the virtues of his father the rise and appearance of a heavenly race primitive nation without the world and the gradual restoration of the innocence and felicity of the golden age the poet was perhaps unconscious of the secret sense and object of the sublime predictions which have been so unworthily applied to the infant son of a consul or a triumph there but if a more splendid and indeed specious interpretation of the fourth eclog contributed to the conversion of the first Christian emperor Virgil may deserve to be ranked missionaries of the gospel end of chapter 20 part 2 recording by Nicholas James Bridgewater this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org this recording by Nicholas James Bridgewater chapter 20 part 3 of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire volume 2 the awful mysteries of the Christian faith and worship were concealed from the eyes of strangers and even of Catechumans with an affected secrecy which served to excite their wonder and curiosity but the severe rules of discipline which the prudence of the bishops had instituted were relaxed by the same prudence in favour of an imperial prosolite whom it was so important to allure by every gentle condescension into the pale of the church and Constantine was permitted at least by a tacit dispensation to enjoy most of the privileges before he had contracted any of the obligations of a Christian instead of retiring from the congregation when the voice of the deacon dismissed the profane multitude he prayed with the faithful with the bishops preached on the most sublime and intricate subjects of theology celebrated with sacred rites the vigil of Easter and publicly declared himself not only a partaker but in some measure a priest and hierophant of the Christian mysteries the pride of Constantine might assume and his services had deserved some extraordinary distinction in his conversion and if the doors of the church had been strictly closed against the prince who had deserted the altars of the gods the master of the empire would have been left destitute of any form of religious worship in his last visit to Rome he piously disclaimed then insulted the superstition of his ancestors by refusing to lead the military procession of the equestrian order and to offer the public vows to the Jupiter of the Capitoline hill many years before his baptism and death Constantine had proclaimed to the world that neither his person nor his image should ever more be seen within the walls of an idolatrous temple while he distributed throughout the provinces a variety of medals and pictures which represented the emperor in a humble and suppliant posture of Christian devotion the pride of Constantine who refused the privileges of a catechumen cannot easily be explained or excused but the delay of his baptism may be justified by the maxims and the practice of ecclesiastical antiquity the sacrament of baptism was regularly administered by the bishop himself with his assistant clergy in the cathedral church of the diocese during the 50 days between the solemn festivals of Easter and Pentecost and this holy term admitted a numerous band of infants and adult persons into the bosom of the church the discretion of parents often suspended the baptism of their children till they could understand the obligations which they contracted the severity of ancient bishops exacted from the new converts a novitiate of two or three years and the catechumens themselves from different motives of a temporal or spiritual nature was seldom impatient to assume the character of perfect and initiated Christians the sacrament of baptism was supposed to contain a full and absolute expiation of sin and the soul was instantly restored to its original purity and entitled to the promise of eternal salvation among the proselytes of christianity there are many who judged it imprudent to precipitate a salutary right which could not be repeated to throw away an inestimable privilege to be recovered by the delay of their baptism they could venture freely to indulge their passions in the enjoyments of the world while they still retained in their own hands the means of a sure and easy absolution the sublime theory of the gospel had made a much fainter impression on the heart than on the understanding of Constantine himself he pursued the great object of his ambition through the dark bloody paths of war and policy and after the victory he abandoned himself without moderation to the abuse of his fortune instead of asserting his just superiority above the imperfect heroism and profane philosophy of Trajan and the Antonines the mature age of Constantine forfeited the reputation which he had acquired in his youth as he gradually advanced in the knowledge of truth he proportionately declined in the practice of virtue and the same year of his reign in which he convened the Council of Nice was polluted by the execution or rather murder of his eldest son the date is alone sufficient to refute the ignorant and malicious suggestions of Zosimus who affirms that after the death of Crispus the remorse of his father accepted from the ministers of Christianity the expiation which he had vainly solicited from the pagan Pontiffs at the time of the death of Crispus the Emperor could no longer hesitate in the choice of a religion he could no longer be ignorant that the church was possessed of an infallible remedy though he chose to defer the application of it till the approach of death had removed the temptation and danger of a relapse the bishops whom he summoned in his last illness to the palace of Nicomedia were edified by the fervour with which he requested to believe the sacrament of baptism by the solemn protestation that the remainder of his life should be worthy of a disciple of Christ and by his humble refusal to wear the imperial purple after he had been clothed in the white garment of a neophyte the example and reputation of Constantine seemed to countenance the delay of baptism future tyrants were encouraged to believe that the innocent blood which they might shed in a long reign in the waters of regeneration and the abuse of religion dangerously undermine the foundations of moral virtue the gratitude of the church has exalted the virtues and excused the failings of a generous patron who seated Christianity on the throne of the Roman world and the Greeks who celebrated the festival of the imperial saint seldom mentioned the name of Constantine without adding the title of equal to the apostles such a comparison if it allude to the character of those divine missionaries must be imputed to the extravagance of impious flattery but if the parallel be confined to the extent and number of their evangelical victories the success of Constantine might perhaps equal that of the apostles themselves by the edicts of toleration he 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 and the piercing eye of ambition and avarice soon discovered that the profession of Christianity might contribute to the interest of the present as well as of a future life the hopes of wealth and honors the example of an emperor his exhortations his irresistible smiles diffused conviction among the venal and obsequious crowds which usually filled 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 denotives and the new capital of the east gloried in the singular advantage that Constantinople was never profaned by the worship of idols as the lower ranks of society are governed by imitation the conversion of those who possessed any eminence of birth of power or of riches was soon followed by dependent multitudes the salvation of the common people was purchased at an easy rate if it be true that in one year 12,000 men were baptized at Rome besides the proportionate number of women and children and that a white garment with 20 pieces of gold had been promised by the emperor to every convert the powerful influence of Constantin 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 spirit or at least the doctrine 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 a humble and proscribed sect soon learned to esteem a religion which had been so lightly embraced by the greatest monarch and the most civilized nation of the globe the Greeks 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 the kings of Iberia and Armenia worshiped the god of their protector and their subjects who had invariably preserved the name of Christians soon formed a sacred and perpetual connection with their Roman brethren who were suspected in time of war of preferring their religion to their country but as long as peace subsisted between the two empires the persecuting spirit of the Magi was effectually restrained by the interposition of Constantine the rays of the gospel illuminated the coast of India the colonies of Jews who had penetrated into Arabia and Ethiopia opposed the progress of Christianity where the labour of the missionaries was in some measure facilitated by a previous knowledge of the Mosaic revelation and Abyssinia still reveres the memory of Frumentius who in the time of Constantine devoted his life to the conversion of those sequestered regions under the reign of his son Constantius theophilus who was himself of Indian extraction was invested with the double character of ambassador and bishop he embarked on the Red Sea with 200 horses of the purest breed of Cappadocia which was sent by the emperor to the prince of the Sibians or Homerites theophilus was entrusted with many other useful or curious presence which might raise the admiration and conciliate the friendship of the barbarians and he successfully employed several years in a pastoral visit to the churches of the Torrid zone the irresistible power of the Roman emperors was displayed in the important and dangerous change of the national religion of a military force silenced the faint and unsupported murmurs of the pagans and there was reason to expect that the cheerful submission of the Christian clergy as well as people would be the result of conscience and gratitude it was long since established as a fundamental maxim of the Roman constitution that every rank of citizens was a like subject to the laws and that the care of religion was the right as well as duty and right Constantine and his successors could not easily persuade themselves that they had forfeited by their conversion any branch of the imperial prerogatives or that they were incapable of giving laws to a religion which they had protected and embraced the emperors still continued to exercise a supreme jurisdiction over the ecclesiastical order and the 16th book of the Theodosian code represents under a variety of titles which they assumed in the government of the Catholic Church but the distinction of the spiritual and temporal powers which had never been imposed on the free spirit of Greece and Rome was introduced and confirmed by the legal establishment of Christianity the office of supreme pontiff which from the time of Numa to that of Augustus had always been exercised by one of the most eminent of the Senators was at length united by the imperial dignity the first magistrate of the state as often as he was prompted by superstition or policy performed with his own hands the saccadotal functions nor was there any order of priests either at Rome or in the provinces who claimed a more sacred character among men or a more intimate communication with the gods but in the Christian church which entrusts the service of the altar to a perpetual succession of venerated ministers the monarch whose spiritual rank is less honourable than that of the meanest deacon was seated below the rails of the sanctuary and confounded with the rest of the faithful multitude the emperor might be saluted as the father of his people but he owed a filial duty and reverence to the fathers of the church and the same marks of respect which Constantine had paid to the persons of saints and confessors by the pride of the Episcopal Order a secret conflict between the civil and ecclesiastical jurisdictions embarrassed the operation of the Roman government and a pious emperor was alarmed by the guilt and danger of touching with a profane hand the Ark of the Covenant the separation of men into the two orders of the clergy and of the laity was indeed familiar to many nations of antiquity and the priests of India of Persia of Assyria of Judea of Ethiopia of Egypt and of Gaul derived from a celestial origin the temporal power and possessions which they had acquired these venerable institutions had gradually assimilated themselves to the manners and governments of their respective countries but the opposition or contempt of the civil power served to cement the discipline of the primitive church the Christians had been obliged to raise and distribute a peculiar revenue and to regulate the internal policy of their republic by a code of laws which were ratified by the consent of the people and the practice of 300 years when Constantine embraced the faith of the Christians he seemed to contract a perpetual alliance with a distinct and independent society and the privileges granted or confirmed by that emperor or by his successors were accepted not as the precarious of the court but as the just and inalienable rights of the ecclesiastical order the Catholic church was administered by the spiritual and legal jurisdiction of 1800 bishops of whom 1000 were seated in the Greek and 800 in the Latin provinces of the empire the extent and boundaries of their respective dioceses had been variously and accidentally decided by the zeal and success of the first missionaries by the wishes of the people and by the propagation of the gospel Episcopal churches were closely planted along the banks of the Nile on the sea coast of Africa in the proconsular Asia and through the southern provinces of Italy the bishops of Gaul and Spain of Thrace and Pontus reigned over an ample territory and delegated their royal suffragens to execute the subordinate duties of the pastoral office Christian dioceses might be spread over a province or reduced to a village but all the bishops possessed an equal and indelible character they all derived the same powers and privileges from the apostles from the people and from the laws while the civil and military professions were separated by the policy of Constantine a new and perpetual order of ecclesiastical ministers always respectable sometimes dangerous was established by the church and state an important review of their station and attributes may be distributed under the following heads 1. Popular election 2. Ordination of the clergy 3. Property 4. Civil jurisdiction 5. Spiritual censures 6. Exercise of public oratory 7. Privilege of legislative assemblies in the east and the west 1. The freedom of elections 1. Existed long after the legal establishment of Christianity and the subjects of Rome enjoyed in the church the privilege which they had lost in the republic of choosing the magistrates whom they were bound to obey as soon as a bishop had closed his eyes the metropolitan issued a commission to one of his suffragens to administer the vacancy and prepare within a limited time the future election the right of voting was vested in the inferior clergy who were best qualified to judge the merit of the candidates in the senators or nobles of the city all those who are distinguished by their rank or property and finally in the whole body of the people who on the appointed day flocked in multitudes from the most remote parts of the diocese and sometimes silenced by their tumultuous acclamations the voice of reason and the laws of discipline these acclamations might accidentally fix on the head of the most deserving competitor of some ancient presbyter some holy monk or some layman conspicuous for his zeal and piety but the Episcopal chair was solicited especially in the great and opulent cities of the empire as a temporal rather than as a spiritual dignity the interested views the selfish and angry passions the arts of perfidy and dissimulation the secret corruption the open and even bloody violence which had formally disgraced the freedom of election in the common wealths of Greece and Rome too often influenced the choice of the successors of the apostles while one of the candidates boasted the honors of his family a second allured his judges by the delicacies of a plentiful table and a third more guilty than his rivals offered to share the plunder of the church among the accomplices of his sacrilegious hopes the civil as well as ecclesiastical laws attempted to exclude the populace from this solemn and important transaction the cannons of ancient discipline by requiring several Episcopal qualifications of age, station, etc restrained in some measure the indiscriminate capris of the electors the authority of the provincial bishops who were assembled in the vacant church to consecrate the choice of the people was interposed to moderate their passions and to correct their mistakes and to correct their mistakes the bishops could refuse to ordain an unworthy candidate and the rage of contending factions sometimes accepted their impartial mediation the submission or the resistance of the clergy and people on various occasions afforded different precedents which were insensibly converted into positive laws and provincial customs but it was everywhere admitted as a fundamental maxim of religious policy that no bishop could be imposed on an Orthodox church without the consent of its members the emperors as the guardians of the public peace and as the first citizens of Rome and Constantinople might effectually declare their wishes in the choice of a primate but those absolute monarchs respected the freedom of ecclesiastical elections and while they distributed and resumed the honors of the state and army they allowed 1800 perpetual magistrates to receive their important offices from the free suffrages of the people it was agreeable to the dictates of justice that these magistrates should not desert an honorable station from which they could not be removed but the wisdom of councils endeavored without much success to enforce the residence and to prevent the translation of bishops the discipline of the west was indeed less relaxed than that of the east but the same passions which made those regulations necessary rendered them ineffectual the approaches which angry prelates have so vehemently urged against each other serve only to expose their common guilt and their mutual indiscretion two the bishops alone possessed the faculty of spiritual generation and this extraordinary privilege might compensate in some degree for the painful celibacy which was imposed as a virtue as a duty and at length as a positive obligation the religions of antiquity which established a separate order of priests dedicated a holy race a tribe or family to the perpetual service of the gods such institutions were founded for possession rather than conquest the children of the priests enjoyed with proud and indolent security their sacred inheritance and the fiery spirit of enthusiasm was abated by the cares, the pleasures and the endearments of domestic life but the Christian sanctuary was open to every ambitious candidate who aspired to its heavenly promises or temporal possessions the office of priests like that of soldiers and magistrates was strenuously exercised by those men whose temper and abilities had prompted them to embrace the ecclesiastical profession or who had been selected by discerning bishop as the best qualified to promote the glory and interest of the church the bishops till the abuse was restrained by the prudence of the laws might constrain the reluctant and protect the distressed and the imposition of hands forever bestowed some of the most valuable privileges of civil society the whole body of the Catholic clergy more numerous perhaps than the legions was exempted by the emperors all service, private or public all municipal offices and all personal taxes and contributions which pressed on their fellow citizens with intolerable weight and the duties of their holy profession were accepted as a full discharge of their obligations to the republic each bishop acquired an absolute and indefeasible right to the perpetual obedience of the clerk whom he ordained the clergy of each episcopal church the most dependent parishes formed a regular and permanent society and the cathedrals of Constantinople and Carthage maintained their peculiar establishment of 500 ecclesiastical ministers their ranks and numbers were insensibly multiplied by the superstition of the times which introduced into the church the splendid ceremonies of a Jewish or pagan temple and a long train of priests deacons, subdeacons, acolythes exorcists, readers, singers and doorkeepers contributed in their respective stations to swell the pomp and harmony of religious worship the clerical name and privileges were extended to many pious fraternities who devoutly supported the ecclesiastical throne 600 parabolani or adventurers visited the sick at Alexandria 1100 copiatoi or gravediggers remained the dead at Constantinople and the swarms of monks who arose from the Nile overspread and darkened the face of the Christian world End of Chapter 20 Part 3 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org This recording by Nicholas James Bridgewater Chapter 20 Part 4 of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Volume 2 3. The Edict of Milan secured the revenue as well as the peace of the church The Christians not only recovered the lands and houses of which they had been stripped by the persecuting laws of Diocletian but they acquired a perfect title to all the possessions which they had hitherto enjoyed As soon as Christianity became the religion of the Emperor and the Empire the national clergy might claim a decent and honourable maintenance and the payment of an annual tax might have delivered the people from the more oppressive tribute which superstition imposes on her votaries But as the wants and expenses of the church increased with their prosperity the ecclesiastical order was still supported and enriched by the voluntary ablations of the faithful 8 years after the Edict of Milan Constantine granted to all his subjects the free and universal permission of bequeating their fortunes to the Holy Catholic Church and their devout liberality which during their lives was checked by luxury and avarice flowed with a profuse stream at the hour of their death The wealthy Christians were encouraged by the example of their sovereign an absolute monarch who is rich without patrimony may be charitable without merit and Constantine too easily believed that he should purchase the favour of heaven if he maintained the idol at the expense of the industrious and distributed among the saints the wealth of the republic The same messenger who carried over to Africa the head of Maccentius might be entrusted with an epistle to Caicillian the Bishop of Carthage The Emperor quaints him that the treasurers of the province intended to pay into his hands the sum of 3,000 follies or 18,000 pounds sterling and to obey his further requisitions for the relief of the churches of Africa, Numidia and Mauritania The liberality of Constantine increased in a just proportion to his faith and to his vices He assigned in each city a regular allowance of corn to supply the fund of ecclesiastical charity and the persons of both sexes who embraced the monastic life became the peculiar favourites of their sovereign The Christian temples of Antioch, Alexandria Jerusalem, Constantinople etc displayed the ostentatious piety of a prince ambitious in a declining age to equal the perfect labours of antiquity The form of these religious edifices was simple and oblong though they might sometimes swell into the shape of a dome and sometimes branch into the figure of a cross which was framed for the most part of cedars of libanus The roof was covered with tiles perhaps of gilt brass and the walls, the columns, the pavement were encrusted with variegated marbles The most precious ornaments of gold and silver of silk and gems were profusely dedicated to the service of the altar and this specious magnificence was supported on the solid and perpetual basis of landed property The priests of two centuries from the reign of Constantine to that of Justinian the 1800 churches of the empire were enriched by the frequent and unalienable rites of the prince and people An annual income of 600 pounds sterling may be reasonably assigned to the bishops who were placed at an equal distance between riches and poverty but the standard of their wealth insensibly rose with the dignity and opulence of the cities which they governed An authentic but imperfect rent roll specifies some houses, shops, gardens and farms which belonged to the three Basilicoi of Rome, Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint John Lateran in the provinces of Italy, Africa and the East They produced besides a reserve rent of oil, linen, paper, aromatics etc a clear annual revenue of 22,000 pieces of gold or 12,000 pounds sterling In the age of Constantine and Justinian the bishops no longer possessed perhaps they no longer deserved the unsuspecting confidence of their clergy and people The ecclesiastical revenues of each diocese were divided into four parts for the respective uses of the bishop himself of his inferior clergy of the poor and of the public worship and the abuse of this sacred trust was strictly and repeatedly checked The patrimony of the church was still subject to all the public compositions of the state The clergy of Rome, Alexandria Chessionica etc might solicit and obtain some partial exemptions but the premature attempt of the great council of Rimini which aspired to universal freedom was successfully resisted by the son of Constantine Four, the Latin clergy who erected their tribunal on the ruins of the civil and common law have modestly accepted the gift of Constantine the independent jurisdiction which was the fruit of time of accident and of their own industry But the liberality of the Christian emperors had actually endowed them with some legal prerogatives which secured and dignified the saccadotal character Under a despotic government the bishops alone enjoyed and asserted the inestimable privilege of being tried only by their peers and even in a capital accusation a synod of their brethren with the sole judges of their guilt or innocence Such a tribunal unless it was inflamed by personal resentment or religious discord might be favourable or even partial to the saccadotal order But Constantine was satisfied that secret impunity would be less pernicious than public scandal and the Nicene council was edited by his public declaration that if he surprised a bishop in the act of adultery he should cast his imperial mantle over the episcopal sinner The domestic jurisdiction of the bishops was once a privilege and restraint of the ecclesiastical order whose civil causes were decently withdrawn from the cognizance of a secular judge The venial offences were not exposed to the shame of a public trial or punishment and the gentle correction which the tenderness of youth may endure was inflicted by the temperate severity of the bishops But if the clergy were guilty of any crime which could not be sufficiently expiated by their degradation from an honorable and beneficial profession the Roman magistrate drew the sword of justice without any regard to ecclesiastical immunities The arbitration of the bishops was ratified by a positive law and the judges were instructed without appeal or delay the episcopal decrees whose validity had hitherto depended on the consent of the parties The conversion of the magistrates themselves and of the whole empire might gradually remove the fears and scruples of the Christians But they still resorted to the tribunal of the bishops whose abilities and integrity they esteemed and the venerable Austin enjoyed the satisfaction of complaining These spiritual functions were perpetually interrupted by the invidious labour of deciding the claim or the possession of silver and gold of lands and cattle The ancient privilege of sanctuary was transferred to the Christian temples and extended by the liberal piety of the younger Theodosius to the precincts of consecrated ground The fugitive and even guilty suppliance were permitted to implore either the justice or the mercy of the deity and his ministers The rash violence of despotism was suspended by the mild interposition of the church and the lives or fortunes of the most eminent subjects might be protected by the mediation of the bishop 5. The bishop was the perpetual censor of the morals of his people The discipline of penance was digested into a system of canonical jurisprudence which accurately defined the duty of private or public confession the rules of evidence the degrees of guilt and the measure of punishment It was impossible to execute this spiritual censure if the Christian pontiff who punished the obscure sins of the multitude respected the conspicuous vices and destructive crimes of the magistrate But it was impossible to reign the conduct of the magistrate without controlling the administration of civil government Some considerations of religion or loyalty or fear protected the sacred persons of the emperors from the zeal or resentment of the bishops but they boldly censured and excommunicated the subordinate tyrants who were not invested with the majesty of the purple Saint Athanasius excommunicated one of the ministers of Egypt and the interdict which he pronounced of fire and water was solemnly delivered to the churches of Cappadocia Under the reign of the younger Theodosius the polite and eloquent Cinesius one of the descendants of Hercules filled the episcopal seat of Ptolemaeus near the ruins of ancient Cyrene and the philosophic bishops supported with dignity the character which he had assumed with reluctance he vanquished the monster of Libya the president and Dronicus invented new modes of rapine and torture and aggravated the guilt of oppression by that of sacrilege after a fruitless attempt to reclaim the haughty magistrate by mild and religious admonition Cinesius proceeds to inflict the last sentence of ecclesiastical justice which devotes andronicus with his associates and their families to the abhorrence of earth and heaven the impenitent sinners more cruel than phalaris and sinacharib more destructive than war pestilence or a crowd of locusts are deprived of the name and privileges of Christians of the participation of the sacraments and of the hope of paradise the bishop exhorts the clergy the magistrates and the people to renounce all society with the enemies of Christ to exclude them from their houses and tables and to refuse them the common offices of life and the decent rites of burial the church of Ptolemaus obscure and contemptible as she may appear addresses this declaration to all her sister churches in the world and the profane who reject her decrees will be involved in the guilt and punishment of andronicus and his empires followers the spiritual terrors were enforced by a dexterous application to the Byzantine court the trembling president implored the mercy of the church and the descendants of Hercules enjoyed the satisfaction of raising a prostate tyrant from the ground such principles and such examples insensibly prepared the triumph of the Roman pontiffs who have trampled on the necks of kings 6. every popular government has experienced the effects of rude or artificial eloquence the coldest nature has animated the firmest reason is moved by the rapid communication of the prevailing impulse each hearer is affected by his own passions and by those of the surrounding multitude the ruin of civil liberty had silenced the demagogues of Athens and the tribunes of Rome the custom of preaching which seems to constitute a considerable part of Christian devotion had not been introduced into the temples of antiquity and the ears of monarchs were never invaded by the harsh sound of popular eloquence till the pulpits of the empire were filled with sacred orators who possessed some advantages unknown to their profane predecessors the arguments and rhetoric of the tribune were instantly opposed with equal arms by skillful and resolute antagonists and the cause of truth and reason might derive an accidental support from the conflict of hostile passions the bishop was some distinguished presbyter to whom he cautiously delegated the powers of preaching to the danger of interruption nor apply a submissive multitude whose minds had been prepared and subdued by the awful ceremonies of religion such was the strict subordination of the catholic church that the same consecrated sounds might issue at once from a hundred pulpits of Italy or Egypt if they were tuned by the master hand of the Roman or Alexandrian primate the design of this institution was laudable and always salutary the preachers recommended the practice of the social duties but they exalted the perfection of monastic virtue which is painful to the individual and useless to mankind their charitable exhortations betrayed a secret wish that the clergy might be permitted to manage the wealth of the faithful for the benefit of the poor the most sublime representations of the attributes and laws of the deity the middle mixture of metaphysical subtleties purile rights and fictitious miracles and they expatiated with the most fervent zeal on the religious merit of hating the adversaries and obeying the ministers of the church when the public peace was distracted by heresy and schism the sacred orators sounded the trumpet of discord and perhaps of sedition the understandings of their congregations were perplexed by mystery their passions were inflamed by invectives and they rushed from the Christian temples of Antioch or Alexandria prepared either to suffer or to inflict martyrdom the corruption of taste and language is strongly marked in the vehement declamations of the Latin bishops but the compositions of Gregory and Chrysostom have been compared with the most splendid models of Attic or at least of Asiatic eloquence seven the representatives of the Christian Republic were regularly assembled in the spring and autumn of each year and these synods diffused the spirit of ecclesiastical discipline and legislation through the 120 provinces of the Roman world the archbishop or metropolitan was empowered by the laws to summon the suffraging bishops of his province to revise their conduct to vindicate their rights and to examine the merits of the candidates who were elected by the clergy and people to supply the vacancies of the Episcopal college the primates of Rome Alexandria Antioch Carthage and afterwards Constantinople who exercised a more ample jurisdiction convened the numerous assembly of their dependent bishops but the convocation of great and extraordinary synods was the prerogative of the emperor alone whenever the emergencies of the church required this decisive measure he dispatched a peremptory summons to the bishops or the deputies of each province with an order for the use of post horses and a combatant allowance for the expenses of their journey at an early period when Constantin was the protector rather than the proselyte of Christianity he referred the African controversy to the council of Arles in which the bishops of York of Treves, of Milan and of Carthage met as friends and brethren to debate in their native tongue on the common interest of the Latin or Western church 11 years afterwards a more numerous and celebrated assembly was convened at Nice in Bithynia to extinguish by their final sentence the subtle disputes which had arisen in Egypt on the subject of the Trinity 18 bishops obeyed the summons of their indulgent master the ecclesiastics of every rank and sect and denomination have been computed at 2048 persons the Greeks appeared in person and the consent of the Latins was expressed by the legates of the Roman Pontiff the session which lasted about two months was frequently honoured by the presence of the emperor leaving his guards at the door with the permission of the council on a low stool in the midst of the hall Constantine listened with patience and spoke with modesty and while he influenced the debates he humbly professed that he was the minister not the judge of the successors of the apostles who had been established as priests and as guards upon earth such profound reverence of an absolute monarch towards a feeble and unarmed assembly of his own subjects with the respect with which the senate had been treated by the Roman princes who adopted the policy of Augustus within the space of 50 years a philosophic spectator of the vicissitude of human affairs might have contemplated Tacitus in the senate of Rome and Constantine in the council of Nice the fathers of the capital and those of the church had alike degenerated from the virtues of their founders the priests were more deeply rooted in the public opinion they sustained their dignity with more decent pride and sometimes opposed with a manly spirit the wishes of their sovereign the progress of time and superstition erased the memory of the weakness the passion, the ignorance which disgraced these ecclesiastical synods and the Catholic world has unanimously submitted to the infallible decrees of the general councils end of chapter 20 part 4