334 



ON THE MIDDLE OR DARK AGES. 



the tyranny of Maxentius ; nothing less than the dehvering of the churcU 

 from the cruel persecution under which it had groaned for the space of 

 near three hundred years. Constantino had inherited of his father some 

 love and esteem for the Christians ; for the first use he made of his au- 

 thority was to put a stop to the persecution m the provinces subject to 

 him. However, he had not yet shown any inclination to embrace a reli- 

 gion which he both honoured and esteemed ; but in the war with Max- 

 entius, apprehending that he stood m need of an extraordinary assistance 

 from heaven, he began seriously to consider with himself what deity he 

 should implore as his guardian and protector. He revolved in his mind 

 the fallacious answers given by the oracles to other princes, and the suc- 

 cess that had attended his father Constantius in all his wars, who despised 

 the many gods wcjrshipped by the Romans, and acknowledged only one 

 Supreme Being. At the same time he observed, that such of his prede- 

 cessors as had persecuted the Christians, the adorers of thia God, had 

 miscarried in most of their undertakings, and perished by an unfortunate, 

 and untimely end ; whereas his father, who countenanced and protected 

 them, had, in all his wars, been attended with uncommon success, and 

 ended his life in the arms of his children. 



" Upon these considerations he resolved to have recourse to the God of 

 his father, and adhere to him alone. To him, therefore, he addressed him- 

 self with great humility and fervour, beseeching him to make himself 

 known to him, and to assist him in his present expedition. Heaven heard 

 his prayer in a manner altogether miraculous ; which, however incredible 

 it may appear to gome, Eusebius assures us he received from the emperor's 

 own mouth, who solemnly confirmed the truth of it with his oath. As 

 he was marching at the head of his troops in the open fields, there sud- 

 denly appeared to him and the whole army, a little after mid-day, a 

 pillar of light above the sun, in the form of a cross, with this inscrip^ 

 tion : 



" CONQIJER BY THIS."* 



The emperor was in great pain about the meaning of this wonderful 

 vision till the following night ; when our Saviour appearing to him, with 

 the same sign that he had seen in the heavens, commanded him to cause 

 such another to be framed, and to make use of it in conquering his 

 enemies. The next morning, Constantino imparted to his friends what he 

 had seen ; and sending for the ablest artificers and workmen, ordered them 

 to frame a cross of gold, and precious stones, according to the directions 

 which he gave them. Constantino being, afte? the miraculous vision, im- 

 mutably determined to adore that God alone who had appeared to him, 

 sent for several bishops in order to be instructed by them in the mysteries of 

 their religion, and in several particulars of the late apparition. He heark- 

 ened to them with the utmost respect, and behoved what they told him of 

 the divinity, incarnation, cross, and death of our Saviour, reading with 

 great attention the Holy Scriptures, and consulting in his doubts the 

 bishops whom, for that purpose, he kept constantly about him."t 



* T«rw vim. 



t Roro. Hist. b. iii. ch. xxv. vol. xv. 554, 8vo. ed. 1747. The account is taken from 

 Eusebius ; and by some writers, who find it easier to ridicule than to weigh testimony, it 

 has been called a pious fiction ; but with what justice, the following remarks will sufficieBtly 

 show. First, Constantine and Eusebius are allowed by all parties to have been men m ^ 



