§ 3. TliE SONS OF CONSTAJifTINE. 37
337, trusting in the mercv of God, and leaving a long, a fortii nate. and a brilliant reign, snch as none but Augustus, of all his predecessors, had enjoyed. " So passed awaj the first Christian Emperor, the first Defender of the Faith, the first Imperial patron of the Papal see, and cf the whole Eastern Chm'ch, the first founder of the Holy Places, Pagan and Christian, orthodox and heretical, liberal and fanatical, not to be imitated or admired, but much to be remembered, and deeply to be studied." '
His remains were removed in a golden coffin by a pro cession of distinguished civilians and the whole army, from Nicomedia to Constantinople, and deposited, with the highest Christian honors, in the chm'ch of the Apostles," while the Roman senate, al\er its ancient custom, proudly ignoring the great religious revolution of the age, enrolled him among the gods of the heathen Olympus. Soon after his death, Eusebius set him above the greatest princes of all times ; from the fifth century he began to be recognized in the East as a saint ; and the Greek and Russian church to this day celebrates his memory under the extravagant title of " Isapostolos," the " Equal of the apostles." ' The Latin church, on the contrary, with truer tact, has never placed him among the saints, but has been content with naming him "the Great," in just and grateful remembrance of his services to the cause of Christianity and civilization.
§ 3. The Sons of Consicmtme. a.d. 337-361.
For the literature see § 2 and § 4.
With the death of Constantino the monarchy also cam^:, for the present, to an end. The empire was divided among his
* Stanley, I. c. p. 320.
' This church became the burial place of the Byzantine emperors, till in the fourth crusade the coffins were rifled and the bodies cast out. Mahomet 11. destroyed Ihe church and built in its place the magnificent mosque which bears his name. See von Hammer, i. 390.
* Comp the Acta Sanct. ad 21 Maii, p. 13 sq. Niebuhr justly remarks: "When certain oriental writers call Constantine ' equal to the Apostles,' they do not know what they are saying ; and to speak of h'm as a ' saint' is a profanation of the word.*
38 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
three sons, Constantine II., Coustans, and Cousta'ntius. TLeii accession was not in Christian style, but after the manner of genuine Turkish, oriental despotism ; it trod upon the corpses of the numerous kindred of their father, excepting two nephews, Gallus and Julian, who were saved only by sickness and youth from the fury of the soldiers. Three years later followed a war of the brothers for the sole supremacy. Con btantine 11. was slain by Constans (340), who was in turn murdered by a barbarian field officer and rival, Magnentius (350). After the defeat and the suicide of Magnentius, Constantius, who had hitherto reigned in the East, became sole emperor, and maintained himself through many storms until his natural death (353-361).
The sons of Constantine did their Christian education little honor, and departed from their father's wise policy of toleration. Constantius, a temperate and chaste, but jealous, vain, and weak prince, entirely under the control of eunuchs, women, and bishops, entered upon a violent suppression of the heathen religion, pillaged and destroyed many temples, gave the booty to the church, or to his eunuchs, flatterers, and worthless favorites, and prohibited, under penalty of death, all sacrifices and worship of images in Rome, Alexandria, and Athens, though the prohibition could not be carried out. Hosts now came over to Christianity, though, of course, foi the most part with the lips only, not with the heart. But this emperor proceeded with the same intolerance against the ad herents of the Nicene orthodoxy, and punished them with confiscation and banishment. Plis brothers supported Athanasius, but he himself was a fanatical Arian. In I'act, he meddled in all the affairs of the church, which was convulsed during his reign with doctrinal controversy. He summoned a multitude of councils, in Gaul, in Italy, in Illyricum, and in Asia ; aspired to the renown of a theologian ; and was fond of being called bishop of bishops, though, like his father, he postponed baptism till shortly before his death.
There were those, it is true, who justified this violent sup^ pression of idolatry, by reference to the extenninati i)u of the