§ 2. CONST antinp: the geea.t. 31
eificallj of Catholic hierarchical Christianity, with its excjhisiv^eness towards heretical and schismatic sects, to be the religion of the state. For, once put on equal footing with heathenism, it must soon, in spite of numerical minority, bear away the victory from a religion which had already inwardly outlived itself.
From this time Constantine decidedly favored the church, though without persecuting or forbidding the pagan religions. He always mentions the Christian church with reverence in. his imperial edicts, and uniformly applies to it, as we have already observed, the predicate of catholic. For only as a catholic, thoroughly organized, firmly compacted, and conservative institution did it meet his rigid monarchical interest, and afford the splendid state and court dress he wished for his empire. So early as the year 313 we find the bishop Hosius of Cordova among his counsellors, and heathen writers ascribe to the bishop even a magical influence over the emperor. Lactantius, also, and Eusobius of Caesarea belonged to his confidential circle. He exempted the Christian clergy from military and municipal dutj (March, 313) ; abolished various customs and ordinances oft'ensive to the Christians (315) ; facilitated the emancipation of Christian slaves (before 316) ; legalized bequests to catholic churches (321) ; enjoined the civil observance of Sunday, though not as dies Domini, but as dies Solis, in conformity to his worship of Apollo, and in company with an ordinance for the regular consulting of the haruspex (321) ; contributed liberally to the building of churches and the support of the clergy ; erased the heathen symbols of Jupiter and Apollo, Mars and Hercules from the imperial coins (323) ; and gave his sons a Christian education.
Tliis mighty example was followed, as might be expected, by a general transition of those subjects, who were more influenced in then* conduct by outward circumstances, than by inward conviction and principle. The story, that in one year (324) twelve thousand men, with women and children in proportion, were baptized in Kome, and that the emperor had promised to each convert a white garment and twenty pieces
32 THEED PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
of gold, is at least in accordance with the spirit of that reign, though the fact itself, in all probability, is greatly exaggerated.'
Constantine came out with still greater decision, when, by his victory over his Eastern colleague and brother-in-law, Licinius, he became sole head of the whole Eoman empire. To strengthen his position, Licinius had gradually placed himself at the head of the heathen party, still very numerous, and had vexed the Christians first with wanton ridicule," then with exclusion from civil and military office, with banishmentj and in some instances perhaps even with bloody persecution. This gave the political strife for the monarchy between himself and Constantine the character also of a w^ar of religions ; and the defeat of Licinius in the battle of Adrianople in July, 324, and at Chalcedon in September, was a new triumph of the standard of the cross over the sacrifices of the gods ; save that Constantine dishonored himself and his cause by the execution of Licinius and his son.
The emperor now issued a general exhortation to his subjects to embrace the Christian religion, still leaving them, however, to their own free conviction. In the year 325, as patron of the church, he summoned the council of Nice, and himself attended it; banished the Arians, though he afterwards recalled them; and, in his monarchical spirit of uniformity, showed great zeal for the settlement of all theological disputes, while he was blind to their deep significance. He first introduced the practice of subscription to the articles of a written creed and of the infliction of civil punishments for non-conformity. In the years 325-329, in connection with his mother, Helena, he erected magnificent churches on the sacred spots in Jerusalem.
As heathenism had still the preponderance in Rome, where it was hallowed by its great traditions, Constantino, by divine
' For the Acta St. Silvastri and the IT. Eccl. of Nicephovus Callist. vii. 34 (in Baronius, ad ann. 324) arc of course not reliable authority on this point.
' He commanded the Christians, for example, to hold their large assemblies ib open fields instead of in the churches, because the fresh air was more wholesome for them than the close atmosphere in a building I