Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| By what Means the Emperor Constantine became a Christian.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter II.—By what
Means the Emperor Constantine became a Christian.
When Diocletian and
Maximian,111
| 111‘Socrates is here in error; for Maximianus
Herculius, who was otherwise called Maximian the Elder, was, by
Constantine’s command, slain in Gallia in 310 a.d. But Maximius Cæsar, two years after, being
conquered by Licinius, died at Tarsus.’ (Valesius.) On the
confusion of Maximian and Maximin, see Introd. III.
|
surnamed Herculius, had by mutual consent laid aside the imperial
dignity, and retired into private life, Maximian, surnamed Galerius,
who had been a sharer with them in the government, came into Italy and
appointed two Cæsars, Maximin in the eastern division of the
empire, and Severus in the Italian. In Britain, however, Constantine
was proclaimed emperor, instead of his father Constantius, who died in
the first year of the two hundred and seventy-first112
Olympiad, on the 25th of July. And at Rome Maxentius, the son of
Maximian Herculius, was raised by the prætorian soldiers to be a
tyrant rather than an emperor. In this state of things Herculius,
impelled by a desire to regain the sovereignty, attempted to destroy
his son Maxentius; but this he was prevented by the soldiery from
effecting, and he soon afterwards died at Tarsus in Cilicia. At the
same time Severus Cæsar being sent to Rome by Galerius Maximian,
in order to seize Maxentius, was slain, his own soldiers having
betrayed him. At length Galerius Maximian, who had exercised the chief
authority,113
| 113πάντα
περιέπων, not to be
taken literally, inasmuch as there were two other
Augusti—Constantine and Maxentius; and hence though senior
Augustus, he was not sole ruler. On the appointment of the Augusti
under Diocletian, and meaning of the title, see Gibbon, Decline and
Fall, chap. xiii.
|
also died, having previously appointed as his successor, his old friend
and companion in arms, Licinius, a Dacian by birth. Meanwhile,
Maxentius sorely oppressed the Roman people, treating them as a tyrant
rather than as a king, shamelessly violating the wives of the nobles,
putting many innocent persons to death, and perpetrating other similar
atrocities. The emperor Constantine being informed of this, exerted
himself to free the Romans from the slavery under him (i.e. Maxentius),
and began immediately to consider by what means he might overthrow the
tyrant. Now while his mind was occupied with this great subject, he debated as to what
divinity’s aid he should invoke in the conduct of the war. He
began to realize that Diocletian’s party had not profited at all
by the pagan deities, whom they had sought to propitiate; but that his
own father Constantius, who had renounced the various religions of the
Greeks, had passed through life far more prosperously. In this state of
uncertainty, as he was marching at the head of his troops, a
preternatural vision, which transcends all description, appeared to
him. In fact, about that part of the day when the sun after posing the
meridian begins to decline towards the west, he saw a pillar of light
in the heavens, in the form of a cross, on which were inscribed these
words, By This Conquer.114
| 114᾽Εν τούτῳ
νίκᾳ. For an extensive and satisfactory
treatment of this famous passage in the life of Constantine, see
Richardson, Prolegomena to the Life of Const., Vol. I., Second
Series, Post-Nicene Fathers.
|
The appearance of this sign struck the emperor with amazement and
scarcely believing his own eyes, he asked those around him if they
beheld the same spectacle; and as they unanimously declared that they
did, the emperor’s mind was strengthened by this divine and
marvelous apparition. On the following night in his slumbers he saw
Christ who directed him to prepare a standard according to the pattern
of that which had been seen; and to use it against his enemies as an
assured trophy of victory. In obedience to this divine oracle, he
caused a standard in the form of a cross to be prepared, which is
preserved in the palace even to the present time: and proceeding in his
measures with greater earnestness, he attacked the enemy and vanquished
him before the gates of Rome, near the Mulvian bridge, Maxentius
himself being drowned in the river. This victory was achieved in the
seventh year of the conqueror’s reign.115
After this, while Licinius, who shared the government with him, and was
his brother-in-law, having married his sister Constantia, was residing
in the East, the emperor Constantine, in view of the great blessing he
had received, offered grateful thanksgivings to God as his benefactor;
these consisted in his relieving the Christians from persecution,
recalling those who were in exile, liberating such as were imprisoned,
and causing the confiscated property of the prescribed to be restored
to them; he moreover rebuilt the churches, and performed all these
things with the greatest ardor. About this time Diocletian, who had
abdicated the imperial authority, died at Salona in Dalmatia.116
| 116Cf. an account of these events in Sozomen, I. 3. See
also on the persecution instituted by Diocletian Neander, Hist. of
the Christ. Ch. Vol. I. pp. 143–156; Schaff, Hist. of the
Christ. Ch. Vol. I. pp. 174–177; Euseb. H. E., Books
VIII.–X. Lactantius, de Mortibus persec. c. 7 seq.
Diocletian abdicated in 305 a.d.
|
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
