IS THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
Sa\ioiir's cross which Helena l)rought. from Jeriisaiem, the one into the bit of his war-horse, the other into an ornament of hia helmet. ISTot a decided, pure, and consistent character, he stands on tlie line of transition between two ages and two religions ; and liis life bears plain marks of both. When at last on his death bed he submitted to baptism, with the remark, " Now let us cast away all dupUoity^'' he honestly admitted the conflict of two antagonistic principles which swayed his private character and public life.'
From these general remarks we turn to the leading features of Coiistantine's life and reign, so far as they bear upon the history of the church. We shall consider in order his youth and training, the vision of the Cross, the edict of toleration, his legislation in favor of Christianity, his baptism and death.
Coustantine, son of the co-emperor Constantius Chlorus, who reigned over Gaul, Spain, and Britain till his death in 306, was born probably in the year 272, either in Britain or at Naissus (now called Nissa), a town of Dardania, in lUyricum.'
' Tlie heathen historians extol the earlier part of his reigu, and depreciate the later. Thus Eutropius, x. 6 : " In primo imperii tempore optimis priucipibus, ultimo racdiis comparandus." With this judgment Gibbon agrees (ch. xviii.), presenting in Constantine an inverted Augustus : " In the life of Augustus we behold the tyrant of the republic, converted, almost bj' imperceptible degrees, into the father of his country and of human kind. In that of Constantine, we may contemplate a hero, who had so long inspired his subjects with love, and his enemies with terror, degenerating into a cruel and dis^solute monarch, cori'uptcd by his fortune, or raised by conquest above the necessity of dissimulation." But this theory of progressive degeneracy, adopted also by F. C. Schlosscr in his Weltgeschichte, by Stanley, I. c. p. 297, and many others, is as unten?^-^ as the opposite view of a progressive improvement, held by Euscbius, Mosheim, auu other ecclesiastical historians. For, on the ono hand, tlie earlier life of Constantine has such features of cruelty as the surrender of the conquered barbarian kings to the wild beasts in the ampitheatre at Treves in 810 or 311, for whicii he was lauded by a heathen orator; the ungenerous conduct toward Herculius, his father-in-law ; the murder of the infant son of Maxeutius ; and the triumphal exhibition of the head of Maxentius on his entrance into Rome in 312. On the other liand his most humane laws, such as the abolition of the gladiatorial shows and of licentious and cruel rites, date from his later reign.
'According to Baronius (Ann. 306, n. 16) and others he was born in Britain, Dccause an ancient {)ancgyric of 307 says that Constantine ennobled Britain by hia birth (lu Britanuias uobiles oriendo fecisti); but this may be understood of hig royal
§ 2. CONSTiLNTENE THE GREAT. 19
Hirf mother was Helena, daughter of an innkeeper/ tlie first wife of Constantius, afterwards divorced, when Constantius, for political reasons, married a daughter of Maximian/ She is described bj Christian writers as a discreet and devout woman, and has been honored with a place in the catalogue of saints Her name is identified with the discovery of the cross and the pious superstitions of the holy places. She lived to a very advanced age and died in the year 326 or 327, in or near the city of Home. Rising by her beauty and good fortune from obscurity to the splendor of the court, then meeting the fate of Josephine, but restored to imperial dignity by her son, and ending as a saint of the Catholic church : Helena would form an interesting subject for a historical novel illustrating the leading events of the Nicene age and the triumph of Christianity in the Roman empire.
Constantino first distinguished liimself in the service of Diocletian in the Egyptian and Persian wars ; went afterwards to Gaul and Britain, and in tlie Praetorium at York was proclaimed emperor by his dying father and by the Roman troops. His father before him held a favorable opinion of the Christians as peaceable and honorable citizens, and protected them in the "West during the Diocletian persecution in the East. This respectful tolerant regard descended to Constantine, and the good efl'eets of it, compared with the evil results of the opposite course of his antagonist Galerius, could but encourage him to pursue it. He reasoned, as Eusebius reports from his own mouth, in the following manner: "My father revered the
as well as of his natural birth, since he was there proclaimed Caesar by the soldiers. The other opinion rests also on ancient testimonies, and is held by Pagi, Tillemont, and most of the recent historians.
' Ambrose (De obitu Theodos.) calls her stabulariam, when Constantius made he acquaintance.
^ This is the more probable view, and rests on good authority. Zosimus and even the Paschal Chronicle call Helena the concubine of Constantius, and Constantine illegitimate. But in this case it would be difficult to understand that he was so well treated at the court of Diocletian and elected Caesar without opposition, since Constantius had three sons and three daughters by a legal wife, Theodora. It is possible, however, that Helena was first a concubine and afterwards legally married. Constantine, when emperor, took good care of her position and bestowed upon h(a the title of Augusta and empress with appropriate honors.