QUEEN HELENA ad. 



C.274. 

 atque ex ei filium in Britannia genuit Constantinum 

 Magnum. Sed eo tandem Eboraci defuncto, cum Anna 

 ilia Evangelica, in sancta viduitate perduravit ad ultimum 

 vitae diem, tota Christianae religioni dedita. Sunt enim [II. i. 2.] 

 authores, qui narrent per istam, cessante persecutione, 

 pacem Ecclesiis datam : Ad tantam coelestis Philosophiae 

 cognitionem earn ferunt post agnitum Evangelium per- 

 venisse, ut olim multos ediderit libros, & carmina quasdam 

 Grasca, quae hucusque a Pontico superesse perhibentur. 

 Visionibus admonita Hierosolymam petiit, & omnia 

 salvatoris loca perlustravit. Romae tandem octogenaria 

 foeliciter in Christo quievit. 15. Kalendas Septembris, 

 filio adhuc superstite, anno salutis humanas 337. Regnante 

 apud Britannos Octavio. Hujus corpus non minima 

 nunc cura Venetiis servatur. 



The same in English. 



H Elena Flavia Augusta, the heire and onely daughter 

 of Coelus sometime the most excellent king of 

 Britaine, the mother of the Emperour Constantine the 

 great, by reason of her singular beautie, faith, religion, 

 goodnesse and godly Majestie (according to the testi- 

 monie of Eusebius) was famous in all the world. 

 Amongst all the women of her time, there was none 

 either in the liberall arts more learned, or in instruments 

 of musike more skilfull, or in the divers languages of 

 nations more abundant then herselfe. She had a naturall 

 quicknesse or excellency of wit, eloquence of speech, and 

 a most notable grace in all her behaviour. She was scene 

 in the Hebrew, Greeke and Latine tongues. 



Her father (as Virumnius reporteth) had no other 

 childe to succeed in the kingdome after him but her, 

 and therefore caused her to be instructed in these things 

 by the best teachers, that thereby she might the better 

 in time governe the Realme : so that by reason of her 

 passing beautie, and other her excellent giftes of body 

 and minde, Constantius Chlorus the Emperour married 

 her, and had by her a sonne called Constantine the 



271 



