weigh their testimonies, to consult ancient records, to see if there is any mention of this elephant in the public registers; to examine whether the whole account is not a fable, which certain impostors have an interest in sanctioning. You proceed upon an extravagant principle, but draw from it correct conclusions. CONSTANTINE. SECTION I. Of the Age of Constantine. AMONG the ages which followed the Augustan, that of Constantine merits par ticular distinction. It is immortalised by the great changes which it ushered int the world. It commenced, it is true with bringing back barbarism. Not merel were there no Ciceros, Horaces, and Vir gils, any longer to be found, but ther was not even a Lucan or a Seneca; ther was not even a philosophic and accurat historian. Nothing was to be seen bu equivocal satires or mere random pane Logic is not so much wanting to men as the source of logic. It is not sufficient for a madman to say, six vessels which belong to me carry two hundred tons each; the ton is two thousand pounds weight; I have therefore twelve hundred thousand pounds weight of merchandize in the port of the Piraus. The great point is, are those vessels yours? That is the principle upon which your fortune de-gyrics. pends; when that is settled, you may estimate and reckon up afterwards. An ignorant man, who is a fanatic, and who at the same time strictly draws his conclusions from his premises, ought sometimes to be smothered to death as a madman. He has read that Phineas, transported by a holy zeal, having found a Jew in bed with a Midianitish woman, slew them both, and was imitated by the Levites, who massacred every household that consisted one half of Midianites and the other of Jews. He learns that Mr. It was at that time that the Christian began to write history, but they took no Titus Livy or Thucydides as their model The followers of the ancient religio wrote with no greater eloquence or truu The two parties, in a state of mutual e asperation, did not very scrupulously in vestigate the charges which they heape upon their adversaries; and hence arises that the same man is sometimes r presented as a god and sometimes as monster. The decline of everything, even in t his Catholic neighbour, intrigues commonest mechanic arts, as well as with Mrs. another neighbour, but eloquence and virtue, took place aft a Hugunot, and he will kill both of them the reign of Marcus Aurelius. He w without scruple. It is impossible to act the last emperor of the sect of stoics," in greater consistency with principle; elevated man above himself by render but what is the remedy for this dreadful him severe to himself only, and comp disease of the soul? It is to accustom sionate to others. After the death of t children betimes to admit nothing which emperor, who was a genuine philosoph shocks reason, to avoid relating to them there was nothing but tyranny and c histories of ghosts, apparitions, witches, fusion. The soldiers frequently dispos demoniacal possessions, and ridiculous of the empire. The senate had fal prodigies. Â girl of an active and sus-into such complete contempt that, in ceptible imagination hears a story of de-time of Galienus, an express law v moniacal possessions; her nerves become shaken, she falls into convulsions, and believes herself possessed by a demon or devil. I actually saw one young woman die in consequence of the shock her frame received from these abominable histories. enacted to prevent senators from engag in war. Thirty heads of parties w seen, at one time, assuming the title emperor in thirty provinces of the emp The barbarians already poured in, every side, in the middle of the third c tury, on this rent and lacerated emp Yet it was held together by the mere military discipline on which it had been founded. so true that they attained to honours, that Dioclesian and Galerius deprived no fewer than three hundred and three of them of those honours, in the persecution of which we shall have to speak. access to offices in the state. Such has been the case with the Calvinists in France, all the Nonconformists in England, the During all these calamities, Christianity Catholics in Holland, the Armenians in gradually established itself, particularly Persia, the Banians in India, and the in Egypt, Syria, and on the coasts of Jews all over the world. However, at Asia Minor. The Roman empire ad- last, the toleration was so great, and the mitted all sorts of religions, as well as all administration of the goverment so mild, sects of philosophy. The worship of that the Christians gained access to all Osiris was permitted, and even the Jews the honours and dignities of the state. were left in the enjoyment of considerable They did not sacrifice to the gods of the privileges, notwithstanding their revolts. empire; they were not molested, whether But the people in the provinces frequently they attended or avoided the temples; rose up against the Christians. The ma- there was at Rome the most perfect ligistrates persecuted them, and edicts were {berty with respect to the exercises of their frequently obtained against them from the religion; none were compelled to engage emperors. There is no ground for aston-in them. The Christians, therefore, enishment at the general hatred in whichjoyed the same liberty as others. It is Christians were at first held, while so many other religions were tolerated. The reason was, that neither Egyptians nor Jews, nor the worshippers of the goddess of Syria and so many other foreign deities, ever declared open hostility to the gods It is our duty to adore Providence in of the empire. They did not array them- all its dispensations; but I confine myselves against the established religion; self to political history. Manes, under but one of the most imperious duties of the reign of Probus, about the year 278, the Christians was to exterminate the pre-formed a new religion in Alexandria. The vailing worship. The priests of the gods principles of this sect were made up of raised a clamour on perceiving the dimi- some ancient doctrines of the Persians nution of sacrifices and offerings; and the and certain tenets of Christianity. Propeople, ever fanatical and impetuous, bus, and his successor Carus, left Manes were stirred up against the Christians, and the Christians in the enjoyment of while in the meantime many emperors peace. Numerien permitted them entire protected them. Adrian expressly for- liberty. Dioclesian protected the Chrisbade the persecution of them. Marcus tians, and tolerated the Manicheans, durAurelius commanded that they shoulding twelve years; but in 296, he issued not be prosecuted on account of religion.an edict against the Manicheans, and Caracalla, Heliogabalus, Alexander, Philip, and Galienus, left them entire liberty. They had, in the third century, publie churches numerously attended and very opulent; and so great was the liberty they enjoyed, that, in the course of that century, they held sixteen councils. The road to dignities was shut up against the first Christians, who were nearly all of{ To complete the sketch, it is necessary obscure condition, and they turned their to describe of what at that period the Roattention to commerce, and some of them man empire consisted. Notwithstanding amassed great affluence. This is the re-internal and foreign shocks, notwithstandsource of all societies who cannot haveing the incursions of barbarians, it com proscribed them as enemies to the empire and adherents of the Persians. The Christians were not comprehended in the edict; they continued in tranquillity under Dioclesian, and made open profession of their religion throughout the whole empire until the latter years of that prince's reign. CONSTANTINE. dication of Dioclesian. There were after his death six emperors at once. Constantine triumphed over them all, changed the religion of the empire, and was not merely the author of that great revolu prised all the possessions of the Grand Seignor at the present day, except Arabia; all that the house of Austria possesses in Germany, and all the German provinces as far as the Elbe; Italy, France, Spain, England, and half of Scotland; all Africation, but of all those which have since as far as the Desert of Sarah, and even the Canary Isles. All these nations were retained under the yoke by bodies of military less considerable than would be raised by Germany and France at the present day, when in actual war. occurred in the west. What was his character? Ask it of Julian, of Zozimus, of Sozomen, and of Victor; they will tell you that he acted at first like a great prince, afterwards as a public robber, and that the last stage of his life was that of They will describe him as ever ambia sensualist, a trifler, and a prodigal. tious, cruel, and sanguinary. Ask his character of Eusebius, of Gregory Na This immense power became more confirmed and enlarged, from Cæsar down to Theodosius, as well by laws, police, and real services conferred on the people, as by arms and terror. It is even yet azianzen, and Lactantius, they will inform matter of astonishment that none of these you that he was a perfect man. Beconquered nations have been able, since tween these two extremes authentic facts they became their own rulers, to form alone can enable us to obtain the truth. such highways, and to erect such amphi- He had a father-in-law, whom he imtheatres and public baths, as their con-pelled to hang himself; he had a broquerors bestowed upon them. Countries {ther-in-law, whom he ordered to be which are at present nearly barbarous strangled; he had a nephew twelve or and deserted, were then populous and thirteen years old, whose throat he orwell governed. Such were Epirus, Ma-dered to be cut; he had an eldest son, cedonia, Thessaly, Illyria, Pannonia, with whom he beheaded; he had a wife, Asia Minor, and the coasts of Africa; whom he ordered to be suffocated in a but, it must also be admitted that Ger- bath. An old Gallic author said, that "he many, France, and Britain, were then loved to make a clear house." very different from what they are now. These three states are those which have { that, being on the banks of the Rhine in If you add to all these domestic acts, most benefited by governing themselves; pursuit of some hordes of Franks who yet it required nearly twelve centuries to resided in those parts, and having taken place those kingdoms in the flourishing their kings, who probably were of the situation in which we now behold them; family of our Pharamond or Clodion le but it must be acknowledged that all the Chevelu, he exposed them to beasts for rest have lost much by passing under dif- his diversion; you may infer from all ferent laws. The ruins of Asia Minor this, without any apprehension of being and Greece, the depopulation of Egypt, deceived, that he was not the most courand the barbarism of Africa, are still ex-teous and accommodating personage in isting testimonials of Roman greatness. { the world. The great number of flourishing cities which covered those countries, are now become miserable villages; and the soil is become barren under the hands of a brutalised population. SECTION II. Character of Constantine. I will not here speak of the confusion which agitated the empire after the ab principal events of his reign. His fa Let us examine, in this place, the ther Constantius Chlorus was in the heart of Britain, where he had for some months assumed the title of emperor. Constantine was at Nicomedia, with the Emperor Galerius. He asked permisther, who was ill, Galerius granted it, sion of the emperor to go to see his fawithout difficulty. Constantine set off with government relays, called veredurii. It might be said to be as dangerous to be a post-horse as to be a member of the family of Constantine, for he ordered all the horses to be hamstrung after he had done with them, fearful lest Galerius should revoke his permission and order him to return to Nicomedia. He found his father at the point of death, and caused himself to be recognised emperor by the small number of Roman troops at that time in Britain. have been in Latin. A learned antiquary, of the name of Loisel, has refuted this narrative; but he was treated as a reprobate. It might, however, be worth while to reflect, that this war was not a war of religion, that Constantine was not a saint, that he died suspected of being an Arian, after having persecuted the orthodox; and, therefore, that there is no very obvious motive to support this prodigy. After this victory, the senate hastened An election of a Roman emperor at to pay its devotion to the conqueror, and York, by five or six thousand men, was to express its detestation of the memory not likely to be cousidered legitimate at of the conquered. The triumphal arch Rome. It wanted, at least the formula of Marcus Aurelius was speedily disof "Senatus populusque Romanus." mantled to adorn that of Constantine. The senate, the people, and the prætorian A statue of gold was prepared for him, bands, unanimously elected Maxentius, an honour which had never been shown son of the Cæsar Maximilian Hercules, except to the Gods. He received it, who had been already Cæsar, and bro- notwithstanding the labarum, and rether of that Fausta whom Constantine ceived further the title of Pontifex had married, and whom he afterwards Maximus, which he retained all his life. caused to be suffocated. This Maxen- His first care, according to Zozimus, was tius is called a tyrant and usurper by our to exterminate the whole race of the tyhistorians, who are uniformly the parti-rant, and his principal friends; after sans of the successful. He was the protector of the Pagan religion against Constantine, who already began to declare himself for the Christians. Being both Pagan and vanquished, he could not but be an abominable man. Eusebius tells us that Constantine, when going to Rome to fight Maxentius, saw in the clouds, as well as his whole army, the grand imperial standard called the labarum, surmounted with a Latin P. or a large Greek R. with a cross in "saltier," and certain Greek words which signified," By this sign thou shalt conquer." Some authors pretend that this sign appeared to him at Basinçon, others at Cologne, some at Treves, and other at Troyes. It is strange that in all these places heaven should have expressed its meaning in Greek. It would lave appeared more natural to the weak understandings of men that this sign should have appeared in Italy on the day of the battle; but then it would have Leen necessary that the inscription should which he assisted very graciously at the public spectacles and games. The aged Dioclesian was at that time dying in his retreat at Salona. Constantine should not have been in such haste to pull down his Statues at Rome; he should have recollected that the forgotten emperor had been the benefactor of his father, and that he was indebted to him for the empire. Although he had conquered Maxentius, Licinius his brotherin-law, an Augustus like himself, was still to be got rid of; and Licinius was equally anxious to be rid of Constantine, if he had it in his power. However, their quarrels not having yet broken out in hostility, they issued conjointly at Milan, in 313, the celebrated edict of liberty of conscience. "We grant," they say, "to all the liberty of following whatever religion they please, in order to draw down the blessing of heaven upon us and our subjects; we declare that we have granted to the Christians the free and full power of exercising their religion ; it CONSTANTINE. being understood that all others shall, hateful to him; he quitted it for ever, and nople. How durst he say, in one of his rescripts, that he transferred the seat of empire to Constantinople, "by the combut an impudent mockery of God and mand of God himself?" Is it anything mand, would it not have been-not to assassinate his wife and son? Constantine was not as yet a Christian; nor, indeed, was his colleague Li-man? If God had given him any comcinius one. There was still an emperor or a tyrant to be exterminated; this was a determined pagan, of the name of Maximin. Licinius fought with him before he fought with Constantine. Heaven was still more favourable to him than to Constantine himself; for the latter had only the apparition of a standard, but Licinius that of an angel. This angel taught him a prayer, by means of which he would be sure to vanquish the barbarian Maximin. Licinius wrote it down, ordered it to be recited three times by his army, and obtained a complete victory. If this same Licinius, the brother-in-law of Constantine, had reigned happily, we should have heard of nothing but his angel; but { Constantine having had him hanged, and his son slain, and become absolute master of everything, nothing therefore has been talked of but Constantine's labarum. example of transferring the empire toDioclesian had already furnished an {wards Asia. The pride, the despotism, and the general manners of the Asiatics, disgusted the Romans, depraved and slavish as they had become. The emperors had not ventured to require, at Rome, that their feet should be kissed, their palaces. Dioclesian began in Ninor to introduce a crowd of eunuchs into comedia, and Constantine completed the system at Constantinople, to assimilate the Roman court to the courts of the Persians. The city of Rome from that time languished in decay; and the old Roman spirit declined with her. Constantine thus effected the greatest injury to the empire that was in his power. It is believed that he put to death his tionably the most absolute. Augustus Of all the emperors, he was unqueseldest son Crispus, and his own wife had left an image of liberty; Tiberius, Fausta, the same year that he convened and even Nero, had humoured the senate the council of Nice. Zozimus and Sozo- and people of Rome: Constantine humen pretend that, the heathen priests moured none. He had at first established having told him that there were no expi- his power in Rome by disbanding those ations for such great crimes, he then haughty prætorians who considered themmade open profession of Christianity, and selves the masters of the emperors. demolished many temples in the east. made an entire separation between the It is not very probable that the pagan gown and the sword. He pontiffs should have omitted so fine an opportunity of getting back their grand power, were only jurists in chains. The of the laws, kept down under military The depositories pontiff, who had abandoned them. How-provinces of the empire were governed ever, it is by no means impossible that upon a new system. there might be among them some severe men; scrupulous and austere persons are to be found everywhere. What is more extraordinary is, that Constantine, after becoming a Christian, performed no penance for his parricide. It was at Rome that he exercised that cruelty, and from that time residence at Rome became to be master in everything; he was so The grand object of Constantine was in the church as well as in the state. We behold him convoking and opening the council of Nice; advancing into the midst of the assembled fathers, covered over with jewels, and with the diadem upon his head, seating himself in the |