The History of Christianity by John S. C. Abbott (free children's ebooks pdf .TXT) đź“–
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A nominal Christian emperor was now upon the throne at Rome. Paganism had received its death-blow. But a system the growth of centuries, interwoven into poetry, eloquence, statuary, and all the manners and customs of life, could not die easily. It lingered still for ages in its dying struggles, and made several convulsive efforts to obtain a new lease of life.
But the conversion of Constantine, a Roman emperor, to Christianity, was one of the most important events in the history of the Christian Church. It invested the new religion, in the eyes of the community, with dignity. It emboldened the timid, and inspired the resolute with new zeal. The pagans complained that nearly all were forsaking the worship of the gods, and joining themselves to the Christian party.
Constantine manifested a noble spirit of toleration. He made no attempt to suppress the rites of paganism by force. “Those,” he said in one of his edicts, “who are desirous of continuing slaves to the ancient superstition, have perfect liberty for the public exercise of their worship.”
Very resolutely he protected the Christians from outrage. Several Jews became converts to Christianity. The Jews persecuted them with vituperation and abuse. The emperor issued a decree, that any persons who should in future be guilty of a similar crime should be burned at the stake.
The Roman world was now, as we have mentioned, divided into two portions; and there were two emperors,—Constantine in the west, and Licinius in the east. Gradually rivalry sprang up between them. As Constantine had embraced Christianity, Licinius decided to rally to his support all the energies of paganism. He first caused gross slanders to be circulated against the Christian pastors.
He then forbade them to enter any house of the pagans, lest they should convert them. Next he forbade their holding any councils, or visiting each other’s churches. Growing more and more zealous in his persecution, he banished all Christians from his palace, sending several into exile, confiscating their property, and threatening them with death.
He forbade all women from meeting in the same assemblies or churches with the men, or from listening to any prayers or religious teachings from men. Finally he forbade the Christians from holding any religious meetings whatever in the cities: they were allowed to meet only in the open air in the country, the emperor saying mockingly, “that the open air of the fields was more healthy than the confined air of a room.”
When one enters upon a career of wickedness, he invariably presses on with ever-increasing impetuosity. Licinius now issued a decree, that every man in governmental employ should offer sacrifices to the pagan gods. The wrath of Licinius was directed mainly against the bishops, or pastors, in consequence of the affection which they manifested for Constantine. Many churches were torn down; others were shut up. Several bishops were put to death: their bodies, cut into small fragments, were thrown into the water as food for fishes. The Christians in dismay began to fly from the cities and villages, and to seek refuge among the mountains.
In the city of SĂ©baste, in Armenia, there were in one of the regiments forty young men who were Christians. The governor, Agricola, ordered them to sacrifice to the idols. Unitedly and firmly they refused. The governor, having exhausted the power of promises and menaces, devised a new form of torture and death.
It was a cold climate, and mid-winter. In a night of freezing wind and bitter cold, these forty young men were exposed, with no clothing, upon a high scaffold swept by the wintry blast. By the side of the scaffold was a room, in which were glowing fires, ample clothing, and a warm bath. Any one who would renounce Christ might descend from the scaffold, and immediately enjoy all the comforts which warmth and clothing could give.
The young men encouraged each other, saying, that, after a few hours of suffering, they would all meet in a happy, heavenly home. One only of the number failed: in the intensity of his anguish he denied Christ, descended from the scaffold, and plunged into a warm bath, where he instantly died. One of the attendants in charge of the baths was so moved by this, that he immediately declared himself a Christian, and, divesting himself of his clothing, took his place upon the scaffold, by the side of the freezing disciples. The morning came. They were all nearly dead, with their extremities badly frozen. A huge funeral-pyre was erected: the still-breathing bodies were placed upon it; the torch was applied, and their bodies were burned to ashes.
One of the young men, of vigorous constitution, had not suffered so much as the rest from the cold. The executioners tried to persuade him to recant, and to save himself from the fire. His Christian mother stood by. Nerved by that sublime faith which seemed to inspire the early Christians in those days of martyrdom, she said,—
“Go, my son, and finish with your comrades this short journey, that you may not be one of the last to appear in the presence of your God.”
In the mean time, Constantine was more and more favoring the Christians. He issued edicts recommending the universal observance of the Lord’s day; he abolished all those laws which forbade Christians when dying to bequeath their property to the Church; and he forbade the cross from ever again being used as an instrument of punishment.
THE CONVERSION OF CONSTANTINE.
The Arian Controversy.—​Sanguinary Conflict between Paganism and Christianity.—​Founding of Constantinople.—​The Council of Nice.—​Its Decision.—​Duplicity of some of the Arians.—​The Nicene Creed.—​Tragic Scene in the life of Constantine.—​His Penitence and true Conversion.—​His Baptism, and Reception into the Church.—​Charles V.—​The Emperor Napoleon I.
THE Arian controversy, which subsequently so distracted the Church, commenced about this time,—A. D. 318. Arias, a pastor of Alexandria, introduced the doctrine, that the Son was not equal to the Father; that he was created by him, and that there consequently was a time when the Son did not exist.
This denial of the divinity of Christ, and consequently of the doctrine of the Trinity, involved, as it was deemed, the necessary denial of the stone which was regarded as the fundamental doctrine of Christianity,—the corner-stone upon which the whole edifice of the salvation of sinners was reared. The controversy greatly agitated the Church for ages, and has not fully subsided even to the present day.
As Constantine had embraced the cause of the Christians, and Licinius that of the pagan party, it is not strange that the two emperors should soon find themselves arrayed in arms against each other. On the 13th of July, 324, the two armies of the rival emperors met near Adrianople.181 Licinius had a hundred and fifty thousand infantry and fifteen thousand cavalry: Constantine had a hundred and twenty thousand infantry and ten thousand cavalry. It was clearly understood on both sides that it was a battle between the two religions, as in olden time between God and Baal.
Constantine took with him as chaplains several Christian bishops. The banner of the cross, like the ancient ark of the covenant, was very conspicuously borne before the troops. Constantine set apart the day before the battle for a season of fasting and prayer with his whole army.
Licinius gathered around him the magicians of Egypt and the idolatrous priests. The most imposing sacrifices were offered to the pagan gods. He assembled all his officers in a grove filled with idols, and thus addressed them:—
“Behold, my friends, the gods of our fathers, whom we honor as we have been taught to do by them! Our adversary has abandoned them for I know not what strange God, whose infamous standard profanes his army. This battle will decide which of us is in error.
“Should the strange God of Constantine, whom we deride, give him the victory, notwithstanding our superiority in numbers, we shall be compelled to recognize him. If, on the contrary, our gods should give us the victory,—of which there can be no doubt,—we will utterly exterminate those wretches who have rejected them.”
Eusebius records this speech, saying that he received it from the lips of those who heard it.182
The battle raged fiercely from dawn till dark. In the night Licinius fled, leaving twenty thousand of his soldiers dead upon the field, and abandoning his camp and all his magazines. Gathering recruits as he retreated, he made another stand on the plains of Thrace. Constantine, who had vigorously pursued, again attacked him, and nearly annihilated his army. From a force of a hundred and thirty thousand men, scarcely three thousand escaped. Licinius fled to the mountains of Macedonia, and sued for peace. Constantine, out of regard to his sister Constantia, treated his brother-in-law generously. He, however, wrested from him nearly all his domains in Europe, leaving him sovereign only in Asia and Egypt.
Eight years of comparative tranquillity passed away, when the two emperors again found themselves in arms against each other. Licinius, though an infirm old man, displayed on the occasion amazing energy. He assembled on the fields of Thrace a hundred and fifty thousand infantry and fifteen thousand horse. The Bosphorus and the Hellespont were crowded with his fleet of three hundred and fifty galleys, with three banks of oars. Constantine met them with a hundred and twenty thousand horse and foot and two hundred transports. There was another of those awful scenes of blood and woe called a battle. How faintly can imagination picture the scene!—two hundred and eighty-five thousand men hurling themselves against each other in the most desperate hand-to-hand fight; the cry of onset, the clangor of weapons, the shrieks of death. In a few hours, thirty thousand of the troops of Licinius were dead in their blood. The monarch himself, with the disordered remainder of his troops, fled wildly to Byzantium.
There was a long and cruel siege. Constantine was victorious: the world was again under one monarch, and he a nominal Christian. This extraordinary man issued a decree to his subjects, especially to those of his newly-conquered Eastern empire, assuring them of his conviction that the God of the Christians, the true and Almighty God, had given him the victory over the powers of paganism, in order that the worship of the true God might he universally diffused. He also issued the following prayer:—
“I invoke thy blessing, O Supreme God! Be gracious to all thy citizens of the Eastern provinces; bestow on them salvation through me, thy servant. And well may I ask this of the Lord of the universe, Holy God; for by the guidance of thy hand have I undertaken and accomplished salutary things. Thy banner, the cross, everywhere precedes my armies: whenever I advance against the enemy, I follow the cross, the symbol of thy power. Hence I consecrate to thee my soul imbued with love and fear. Sincerely I love thy name; and I venerate thy power, which thou hast revealed to me by so many proofs, and by which thou hast confirmed my faith.”
This would be deemed extraordinary language to appear in the proclamation of any, even of the most Christian monarch of the present day. How much more remarkable must it have seemed coming from a Roman emperor just emerging from paganism, and addressed to the whole Roman world!
It was the wish of Constantine that Christianity might be the recognized religion of the empire, and that all his subjects might be
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