CONSTANTINE'S MOTIVES. 313 vision of Constantine maintained an honorable 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.5 The conver sion of Constantine might be sincere. The protestant and philosophic readers of the present age, will incline to believe, that in the account of his own conversion, Constantine attested a wilful 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 fervor, 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 53 Godefroy was the first, who in the year 1643 (Not. ad Philostorgium, 1. i. c. 6, p. 16), expressed any doubt of a miracle which had been supported with equal zeal by Cardinal Baronius, and the Centuriators of Madgeburgh. Since that time many of the Protestant critics have inclined toward doubt and disbelief. The objections are urged, with great force, by M. Chauffepié (Dictionnaire Critique, tom. iv. pp. 6-11); and, in the year 1774, a doctor of Sorbonne, the Abbe du Voisin, published an apology, which deserves the praise of learning and moderation.* 54 Lors Constantin dit ces propres paroles; J'ai renverse le culte des idoles: Sur les debris de leurs temples fumans Au Dieu du Ciel j'ai prodigue l'encens. Mais tous mes soins pour sa grandeur supreme N'eurent jamais d'autre objet que moi-meme; Les saints autels n'etoient à més regards Qu'un marchepié du trone des Cesars. L'ambition, la fureur, les delices Etoient mes Dieux, avoient mes sacrifices. L'or des Chrétiens, leur intrigues, leur sang Ont Cimenté ma fortune et mon rang. The poem which contains these lines may be read with pleasure, but cannot be named with decency. was the sign of the cross, together with a ram's horn, in indication of the "Lamb of God. Jupiter also bore a cross with a horn, Venus a cross with a "circle. The famous Crux ansata is to be seen in all the buildings of Egypt; "and the most celebrated temples of the idol Chrishna in India, like our Gothic cathedrals, were built in the form of crosses."-E. *The first Excursus of Heinichen (in Vitam Constantini, p. 507) contains a full summary of the opinions and arguments of the later writers who have discussed this interminable subject. As to his conversion, where interest and inclination, state policy, and, if not a sincere conviction of its truth, at least a respect, an esteem, an awe of Christianity, thus coincided, Constantine himself would probably have been unable to trace the actual history of the workings of his own mind, or to assign its real influence to each concurrent motive.-MILMAN. 314 CHRISTIAN FRIENDS OF CONSTANTINE. 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 for the residence 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 had adorned the precepts of the gospel with the eloquence of Cicero;" and Eusebius, who has consecrated the learning and philosophy of the Greek to the service of religion, were both received 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, from 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 Grotius, a Pascal, or a 55 This favorite was probably the great Osius, bishop of Cordova, who preferred the pastoral care of the whole church to the government of a particular diocese. His character is magnificently, though concisely, expressed by Athanasius (tom. i. p. 793). See Tillemont, Mém. Eccles. tom. vii. pp. 524-261. Osius was accused, perhaps unjustly, of retiring from court with a very ample fortune. 56 See Eusebius (in Vit. Constant. passim) and Zosimus, I. ii. p. 104. 5: The Christianity of Lactantius was of a moral rather than of a mysterious cast. "Erat pæne rudis (says the orthodox Bull) disciplina Christianæ, et in rhetorica "melius quam in theologia versatus." Defensio Fidei Nicenæ, sect. ii. c. 14. 5 Fabricius, with his usual diligence, has collected a list of between three and four hundred authors quoted in the Evangelical Preparation of Eusebius. See Bib. Græc. A. v. c. 4, tom. vi. pp. 37 56. CONSTANTINE'S ARGUMENT FOR CHRISTIANITY. 315 Locke. In the midst of the incessant labors 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 expatiates on the various proofs of religion; but he dwells with peculiar complacency on the Sybilline verses," and the fourth eclogue of Virgil. Forty 59 See Constantin. Orat. ad Sanctos, c. 19, 20. He chiefly depends on a mysterious acrostic, composed in the sixth age after the Deluge, by the Erythræan Sibyl, and translated by Cicero into Latin. The initial letters of the thirty-four Greek verses form this prophetic sentence: JESUS CHRIST, SON OF GOD, SAVIOUR OF THE WORLD. 60 In his paraphrase of Virgil, the emperor has frequently assisted and improved the literal sense of the Latin text. See Blondel des Sibylles, 1. i. c. 14, 15, 16. *Rev. Robt. Taylor, in the Diegesis, page 355, calls attention to the fact that Constantine was not only a Christian convert and disciple, but was also a teacher and preacher of the Christian religion. His great wealth, power and influence as emperor of Rome, placed at his disposal every particle of evidence that could be adduced in favor of the divine origin of Christianity. His conversion, which occurred but 279 years after the death of Christ, was so near in time to the Saviour's life and alleged miracles, that the records of those events-the history of those occurrences-must have been easily accessible to the royal advocate; and when we consult his celebrated Oration, delivered before the most distinguished Christian clergy of his age and empire, On the Evidences of the Christian Religion, we are prepared to listen at least to something tangible, -something better than the vague legends, the obscure prophecies, the questionable traditions, which pass for evidence among educated believers. "Here we must needs mention," says Constantine, chap. 18, of his Oration, "a certain testimony of Christ's divinity, fetched from those who were aliens "and strangers from the faith. For those who contumeliously detract from him, "if they will give credence to their own testimonies, may sufficiently understand "thereby that he is both God and the Son of God. For the Erythræan Sibyl, who "lived in the sixth age after the flood, being a priestess of Apollo, did yet, by the power of divine inspiration, prophecy of future matters that were to come to pass concerning God; and, by the first letters, which is called an acrostic, "declared the history of Jesus. The acrostic is, Jesus Christus, Dei Filius, "Servator, Crux. And these things came into the Virgin's mind by inspiration "and by way of prophecy. And therefore I esteem her happy whom our Savior did "choose to be a prophetess, to divine and foretell of his providence toward us." "The acrostic is thus versified into English by the translator, Wye Saltonstall: 316 VIRGIL'S FOURTH ECLOGUE. years before the birth of Christ, the Mantuan 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 human kind, and govern the peaceful universe with the virtues of his father; the rise and appearance of a heavenly race, a primitive nation throughout 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 these sublime predictions, which have been so unworthily applied to the infant son of a consul, or a triumvir; but if a more splendid, and indeed specious, interpretation of the fourth eclogue contributed to the conversion of the first Christian emperor, Virgil may 61 The different claims of an elder and younger son of Pollio, of Julia, of Drusus, of Marcellus, are found to be incompatible with chronology, history, and the good sense of Virgil. "writers have with great study so accurately compared the times, that none can suspect that this poem was made and came forth after Christ's coming; and, "therefore, they are convicted of falsehood who blaze abroad, that these verses were not made by the Sibyl. 646 "And then follows Chapter 20, entitled 'Other verses of Virgil concerning Christ, in which under certain veils (as poets use) this knotty mystery is set 'forth; and to be sure, the fourth Bucolic of Virgil: commencing "Sicelides musæ paulo majora canamus; is quoted as the ultimate proof and main evidence of the Christian revelation. "The amount of evidence then, for the Christian religion in the fourth century, as far as evidence influenced the mind of the most illustrious convert it could ever boast, was the Sibylline verses, now on all hands admitted to be a Christian forgery; and a mystical interpretation arbitrarily put on an eclogue of Virgil, which neither the poet himself, nor any rational man on earth, ever dreamed "of charging with such an application. Surely we had a right to expect from Constantine, that if evidence to the historical facts on which the gospel rests its claims, existed, he was the man who "should have been acquainted with it ;-this was the occasion on which it should have been brought forward. Who, of all the human race, could better have known the fact, or with greater propriety have given a certificate of it, had it "been true that such a person as Jesus Christ had suffered an ignominious death." The Rev. Robert Taylor evidently believed with Gibbon, that in the account "of his own conversion, Constantine attested a willful falsehood by a solemn and "deliberate perjury:" and if the language of the worthy clergyman now seems somewhat emphatic, it must be remembered that when The Diegesis was written its author was unjustly imprisoned in Oakham jail for uttering heresies which are now tolerated in many pulpits. If the Sibylline verses and the fourth eclogue of Virgil may not now be considered as historical evidence of the statements on which the Gospel rests, it must at least be admitted that Constantine so considered them, and that the first Christian emperor, in his argument for Christianity, freely quoted Pagan poetry as proof of Holy-Writ. Forty years before the birth of Christ," says Gibbon, the Mantuan bard 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 human "kind;" and if we but substitute Jehovah for Jupiter-the God of Israel for the immortal Jove - -we may admit with Constantine the remarkable resemblance between ancient Paganism and primitive Christianity.-E. INITIATION OF CONSTANTINE. 317 deserve to be ranked among the most successful missionaries of the gospel.“2 Devotion and privileges of Constantine. The awful mysteries of the Christian faith and worship were concealed from the eyes of strangers, and even of catechumens, 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 favor of an imperial proselyte, 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, disputed with 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 ; an ill-timed rigor might have 62 See Lowth de Sacra Poesi Hebræærorum Prælect, xxi. pp. 289-293. In the examination of the fourth eclogue, the respectable bishop of London has displayed, learning, taste, ingenuity, and a temperate enthusiasm, which exalts his fancy without degrading his judgment. 63 The distinction between the public and the secret parts of divine service, the missa catechumenorum and the missa fidelium, and the mysterious veil which piety or policy had cast over the latter, are very judiciously explained by Thiers, Exposition du Saint Sacrament, 1. i. c. 8-12, pp. 59-91: but, as on this subject, the Papists may reasonably be suspected, a Protestant reader will depend with more confidence on the learned Bingham, Antiquities, 1. x. c. 5. 64 See Eusebius in Vit. Constant. 1. iv. c. 15-32, and the whole tenor of Constantine's sermon. The faith and devotion of the emperor have furnished Baronius with a specious argument in favor of his early baptism.* *Compare Heinichen, Excursus iv. et v., where these questions are examined with candor and acuteness, and with constant reference to the opinions of more modern writers.-MILMAN. "In the form and wording of several of Constantine's edicts," says Rev. Robt. Taylor," we have specimens of that conjunction of holiness and blood-thirstiness, religion and murder, which portrays his character with a precision and fidelity "that needs no further illustration. "1. Constantine the puissant, the mighty and noble emperor, unto the bishops, pastors, and people wheresoever. "Moreover we thought good, that if there can be found extant any work or "book compiled by Arius, the same should be burned to ashes, so that not only "his damnable doctrine may thereby be wholly rooted out, but also that no relic "thereof may remain unto posterity This also we straightly command and charge, that if any man be found to hide or conceal any book made by Arius, "and not immediately bring forth the said book, and deliver it up to be burned, "that the said offender for so doing shall die the death. For as soon as he is taken, our pleasure is, that his head be stricken off from his shoulders. God 'keep you in his tuition. (In Socrates Scholasticus, lib. 1. c. 6. fol. p. 227. 2. Constantine's speech in the council concerning peace and concord. 66 Having by God's assistance, gotten the victory over mine enemies, I entreat |