Eusebius of Caesarea · a new plain-English translation from the Greek
arg| Book ten of the Ecclesiastical History has this content. 1. On the peace granted to us by God. 2. On how the churches were restored. 3. On the dedications held in every place. 4. A panegyric on the brightness of our affairs. 5. Copies of the imperial laws concerning the Christians. 6. On the exemption of the clergy from public duties. 7. On the later depravity of Licinius and his downfall. 8. On the victory of Constantine and the benefits he conferred on those under the authority of the Romans.
1.1| Thanks be to God for all things, the Almighty and King of the universe, and the fullest thanks to the Savior and Redeemer of our souls, Jesus Christ, by whom it is our prayer that peace, both from troubles without and from troubles of the mind, may be kept for us firm and unshaken for ever.
1.2| Together with our prayers, we now add this tenth volume of the Ecclesiastical History to those already completed, and we shall inscribe it to you, my most holy Paulinus, hailing you as the seal set upon the whole work.
1.3| And fittingly, in a perfect number, we shall set here the perfect discourse, a festal discourse on the renewal of the churches, obeying the divine Spirit, who urges us in words something like these: "Sing a new song to the Lord, because he has worked wonders; his right hand and his holy arm have saved for him. The Lord has made his salvation known; in the sight of the nations he has revealed his righteousness."
1.4| And indeed, as the oracle commands the new song, let us now accordingly proclaim that after those terrible and dark sights and narratives we have been counted worthy at last to see such things, and to celebrate the like, as many righteous men and God's martyrs before us truly longed to see on earth but did not see, and to hear but did not hear.
1.5| But they, hastening on with all speed, obtained far better things, caught up into the very heavens and into a paradise of divine delight; while we, confessing that even these blessings are greater than we deserve, are utterly astonished at the grace of the munificence of their Author, and rightly marvel at it, worshiping him with all the strength of our souls and bearing witness to the truth of the written prophecies, in which it is said:
1.6| "Come, behold the works of the Lord, the wonders he has set on the earth, putting an end to wars even to the ends of the earth. He shall break the bow and crush the weapon, and burn the shields with fire." Rejoicing that these things have been plainly fulfilled for us, let us take up the thread of our account.
1.7| The whole race of the enemies of God had been wiped out, in the manner already described, and so suddenly blotted from human sight that once again a divine saying found its fulfillment, the one that says: "I saw the ungodly man exalted and raised high like the cedars of Lebanon; yet I passed by, and behold, he was no more; and I searched for his place, and it was not found."
1.8| And now at last a bright and radiant day, with no cloud to overshadow it, shone down with beams of heavenly light upon the churches of Christ in every part of the world. Nor did we grudge even those outside our fellowship a share, if not in equal measure, at least in the overflow and participation of the blessings God had granted us.
2.1| All people, then, were set free from the oppression of the tyrants, and, released from their former miseries, each in his own way confessed the one true God, the champion of the godly. But for us above all, who had fixed our hopes on the Christ of God, there was unspeakable gladness, and a divine joy blossomed in all as we saw every place that a little before had been reduced to ruins by the impieties of the tyrants coming back to life as if from a long and deadly devastation, and temples rising again from their foundations to boundless height, taking on a splendor far surpassing that of the ones formerly besieged.
2.2| Moreover, the supreme emperors, by continual legislation in favor of the Christians, confirmed even further and more fully the munificence God had shown us; and letters from the emperor came to the bishops in person, together with honors and gifts of money. It would not be out of place, at the proper point in this account, to engrave in this book, as on a sacred monument, their texts rendered from the Roman language into the Greek tongue, so that they may be kept in memory for all who come after us.
3.1| After this, the sight that all of us had prayed for and longed for was brought to completion: festivals of dedication in the cities, consecrations of the freshly built houses of prayer, gatherings of bishops in one place, crowds converging from far away and from foreign lands, tokens of goodwill passing from people to people, and the members of Christ's body coming together into one harmony.
3.2| Thus, in keeping with a prophetic utterance that foretold the future in mystery, bone was joined to bone and joint to joint, and everything else that the Word, in inspired speech, had truthfully set forth beforehand in riddles came together.
3.3| There was one power of the divine Spirit passing through all the members, one soul in everyone, the same eagerness of faith, and a single hymn of theology rising from them all. Indeed, the rites of the leaders were performed in full, as were the sacred services of the priests and the institutions of the church that befit God: here with psalmody and the hearing of the other utterances handed down to us from God, there with divine and mystical ministrations carried out, and there were the ineffable symbols of the Savior's passion.
3.4| Together, every kind of age, male and female alike, honored God, the author of all good things, with the full strength of their minds, through prayers and thanksgiving, with joyful mind and soul. Every one of the rulers present also delivered festal speeches, each according to his ability, making the festival a divine occasion.
4.1| Then one of the moderately gifted men stepped forward into the middle, having composed a speech, as if in a gathering of the church. Very many pastors were present and listened in quiet and good order, and it was addressed to one bishop in particular, in every respect the best of men and dear to God, through whose zeal the temple at Tyre, the most distinguished in the region of the Phoenician nation, had been lavishly restored. He delivered the following speech.
4.2| A FESTAL ORATION ON THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCHES, DIRECTED TO PAULINUS, BISHOP OF THE TYRIANS. Friends of God, and priests clothed in the holy robe to the feet, the heavenly crown of glory, the divine anointing, and the priestly vestment of the Holy Spirit; and you, new pride of the holy temple of God, honored by God with the wisdom of old age, yet displaying the costly works and deeds of a young and flourishing virtue, to whom God himself, he who encompasses the whole world, has granted the singular gift of building on earth a house for Christ, his only-begotten and firstborn Word, and for Christ's holy bride, who is fit for God, and of renewing it,
4.3| whether one wishes to call you a new Bezalel, the divine master builder of a tabernacle, or a Solomon, king of a new and far better Jerusalem, or even a new Zerubbabel, who put around the temple of God a glory far better than the former one;
4.4| and you also, nurslings of the sacred flock of Christ, hearth of good words, school of self-control, and reverent, God-loving audience of piety:
4.5| In former times, when we received through the divine readings the astonishing signs from God and the benefactions of the Lord's wonders toward men, we were able to send up hymns and odes to God and, as those being instructed, to say: "God, in our ears we have heard it; our fathers have reported to us the work you accomplished in their days, in ancient days."
4.6| But now those who receive the lofty arm, and the right hand from heaven, of our all-good God and universal King no longer do so by hearing or by the report of words; with works, one might say, and with their own eyes they see that what was handed down in memory long ago is faithful and true. So it is possible to sing out a second hymn of victory, to proclaim it plainly, and to say: "Just as we heard, so we also saw, in the city of the Lord of powers, in the city of our God."
4.7| And what city is this, if not this newly built one, made by God? It is the church of the living God, pillar and foundation of the truth, about which another divine saying proclaims the good news in these words: "Glorious things were spoken of you, city of God." Since the all-good God has brought us together into it by the favor of his Only-begotten, let each one of those called sing hymns, all but crying out and saying: "I rejoiced in those who said to me, 'Into the house of the Lord we shall go,'" and "Lord, I have loved the comeliness of your house and the dwelling-place of your glory."
4.8| And let not each of us alone, but all of us together, with one spirit and one soul, raise our praise and acclaim, saying: "Great is the Lord and exceedingly praiseworthy in the city of our God, on his holy mountain." And in truth he is great, and his house is great, lofty and long and fair in splendor beyond the sons of men. The Lord is great, who alone works wonders; great is he who does great, unsearchable things, glorious and extraordinary, past number; great is he who changes seasons and times, who removes kings and sets them up, who raises the poor from the earth and lifts the needy from the dunghill. He has pulled down rulers from their thrones and exalted the lowly from the earth; he has filled the hungry with good things and crushed the arms of the proud, having confirmed the memory of the ancient accounts not for believers only,
4.9| but for unbelievers too: the worker of wonders, the doer of mighty deeds, the Master of all, the Maker of the entire world, the Almighty, the supremely good, the one and sole God. To him let us chant the new song, as we respond to him who alone does wonders, "for his mercy is forever"; to him who smote great kings and put to death powerful kings, "for his mercy is forever"; "for in our humiliation he remembered us and rescued us from our enemies."
4.10| And may we never cease to acclaim the Father of all with these words. But let us also honor, with his name on our lips, the second author of our blessings: Jesus, who introduced the knowledge of God, the instructor in true piety, the destroyer of the ungodly, the slayer of tyrants, the corrector of our way of life, the savior of us who had been given up as lost,
4.11| because he alone, as the supremely good Son of a supremely good Father, being most uniquely so, by the will of the Father's love for humankind and with the greatest readiness clothed himself with the nature of us who lay somewhere below in corruption. Like the best of physicians, who for the sake of the sick's recovery looks on dreadful things, touches repulsive ones, and reaps his own grief from the misfortunes of others, he saved for himself us who were not merely ill or oppressed by terrible sores and wounds already festering, but were lying among the dead, out of the very depths of death, since no one else in heaven had so much strength as to serve, without harm to himself, the salvation of so many.
4.12| He alone, then, took hold of our own grievous corruption, alone endured our labors, alone took upon himself the penalties for our impieties. Not half-dead, but utterly lying in monuments and tombs, already foul and stinking, he took us up, both long ago and now, and with zeal born of his love for humankind, beyond any hope that any of us, even ourselves, could have, he saves us and shares with us the abundance of the Father's blessings: the giver of life, the leader into light, our great physician, king, and Lord, God's Christ.
4.13| Back then, once, seeing the whole human race buried in a murky night and deep darkness by the deceit of wicked demons and the workings of god-hating spirits, merely by appearing, as though they were wax melted by the rays of his light, he broke the many-bound chains of our impieties.
4.14| But now, in return for so great a grace and benefaction, the demon who hates what is good and loves what is evil, bursting with envy, as it were, and marshaling against us all his death-dealing powers, at first, like a mad dog, gnashed his teeth against the stones that were cast at him, and brought down on the lifeless missiles the wrath he felt toward those who defended themselves; he fastened his beastly frenzy on the stones of the prayer-houses and on the lifeless timbers of buildings, and made the churches desolate, as he himself supposed. Then he let loose terrible hisses and his serpent's voices, now in the threats of impious tyrants, now in the blasphemous edicts of godless rulers; and moreover he spewed out his own death and drugged with his venomous, soul-destroying poisons the souls he had caught, all but killing them with the death-dealing sacrifices to dead idols, and he stirred up against us every beast in human form and every kind of savagery,
4.15| Once more, from the beginning, the messenger of the great counsel, the great commander-in-chief of God, after the sufficient training that the greatest soldiers of his kingdom displayed through endurance and steadfastness in every trial, appeared all at once in this way. He reduced what was hostile and warlike to obscurity and nothing, so that it seemed never even to have been named, while those who were dear and close to him he advanced beyond glory among everyone, not only among human beings but now even among the heavenly powers, the sun and moon and stars, and all of heaven and the world,
4.16| so that now, as never before, the highest of all emperors, conscious of the honor received from him, spit in the faces of dead idols, trample the lawless ordinances of demons, and laugh at the ancient deceit handed down from their fathers. They acknowledge him alone as the one God, the common benefactor of themselves and of all, and confess Christ as the Son of God and universal King of all things, and proclaim him Savior on inscribed pillars, writing his achievements and his victories over the impious, in imperial characters and in an unfading record, in the very middle of the city that rules over those on earth. In this way Jesus Christ our Savior alone of all who have ever lived is acknowledged, even by the highest rulers on earth, not as an ordinary king born from human beings, but is worshiped as the true Son of the God of all things, and as God himself.
4.17| And fittingly so. For which of all the kings who ever lived has attained such excellence that he has filled the hearing and the tongue of all people on earth with his name? Which king has established such pious and temperate laws, and has secured that they are read aloud, from the ends of the earth to the farthest limits of the whole inhabited world, in the hearing of all people?
4.18| Who has abolished the barbarous and savage customs of untamed nations by his gentle and most humane laws? Who, though fought against by all for whole ages, has shown a virtue beyond human, so that he flourishes and grows young again day by day throughout his whole life?
4.19| Who has established a nation never heard of since the beginning of time, not hidden away in some corner of the earth, but spread throughout all the world under the sun? Who has fenced in his soldiers with the weapons of piety so well that in their struggles against their adversaries their souls appear stronger than adamant?
4.20| Which of the kings so rules and commands after death, and sets up trophies against his enemies, and fills every place and country and city, among Greeks and barbarians, with his royal houses and the dedications of divine temples, such as these beautiful ornaments and offerings of this very temple? These too are truly majestic and great, worthy of astonishment and wonder, and clear proofs of the kingdom of our Savior, because even now he spoke and they came to be, he commanded and they were created. (Indeed, what could ever stand against the nod of the universal King and Ruler of all, God the Word himself?) And they need a leisure for fitting words, for careful contemplation and interpretation.
4.21| Not so, however, the works of the zeal of those who laboured: how many they are and of what kind has been judged by the very one who is spoken of as God, who looks upon the living temple that you all are, and watches over the house of living and moving stones, well and securely founded on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ himself as the cornerstone. This stone was rejected not only by the architects of that old building, which no longer exists, but also by the architects of the building of the many that still stands today, evil architects of evil things. But the Father approved him then and now, and set him as head of the corner for this church we share. This, then, is the living temple of the living God, built up from yourselves,
4.22| I mean the greatest sanctuary, in true speech worthy of God, whose innermost shrines—who, having looked upon them, unseen by the many, truly holy and the holy of holies, would dare to tell of them? And who is able even to peer inside the sacred precincts, except the great High Priest of all things, to whom alone it is granted to search out the secrets of every rational soul?
4.23| Perhaps it is possible for one other man alone, among his peers, to hold second place after him: the leader who presides over this host. The first and great high priest himself honored him with second rank among the priests here, and appointed him shepherd of your God-inspired flock, since by the lot and judgment of the Father he received your people; he set him in his own service as attendant and interpreter, made like the Son of God, a new Aaron or Melchizedek, who remains and is kept safe by him for all time through the common prayers of us all. So let this man alone, next after the first and greatest high priest,
4.24| if not the first things, then at least the second, be permitted to see and oversee the inmost contemplation of your souls. By long experience and the passage of time he has examined each one of you exactly, and by his own zeal and care he has set you all in order and in godly speech and conduct; and he is more able than anyone to render in words an account matching the works that he himself has achieved with divine power.
4.25| Now our first and great high priest, as he himself says, does likewise whatever he sees the Father doing: "these things the Son also does likewise." And this man too, looking with the pure eyes of the mind toward the first teacher as toward a master, and using what he sees him doing as original patterns, has fashioned their images, as far as possible, in the closest likeness, falling short in nothing of that Bezalel, whom God himself had filled with a spirit of wisdom and understanding, as well as the remaining skilled and expert knowledge, and named as the maker of the temple's construction, which represents heavenly patterns through symbols.
4.26| In this way, then, this man too, bearing the whole Christ, who is the Word, the wisdom, and the light, as an image within his own soul, has built this magnificent temple of the most high God to the pattern of the better one, so that the visible is like the invisible in nature. One cannot say with what greatness of mind and what rich, insatiable generosity of thought, and with what eager zeal on the part of all of you, who rivaled one another in the magnanimity of your contributions so as in no way to fall short of his purpose. And first of all, as is worth telling, he did not overlook this site, buried under every kind of unclean rubbish by the plots of our enemies, nor yield to the wickedness of those responsible, though he could have gone to another place, since the city had countless others to offer, and found relief from toil and been free of trouble.
4.27| Instead he first roused himself to the work, then strengthened the whole people with eagerness and gathered from them all one great force, and so he contested the first contest: for the very church that had been besieged by the enemies, that had suffered beforehand and borne the same persecutions that we did, and before us, and, like a mother, been left bereft of her children, he thought must share in the generosity of the all-good God.
4.28| For when the great shepherd had driven off the beasts and wolves and every cruel and savage kind, and, as the divine oracles say, had crushed the molars of the lions, and had deemed his children worthy to gather together again in one place, it was most just that he raise up the fold of the flock, to put the enemy and avenger to shame and to bring forward a refutation of the god-fighting daring of the impious.
4.29| And now the god-hated are no more, because they never truly were; having troubled others and been troubled for a short while, they then paid a penalty not to be faulted in its justice, and brought themselves, their friends and their households to utter ruin, so that the predictions long ago recorded on sacred tablets are acknowledged as proved true by events. By these the divine word confirms the truth in other matters, and also declares this about them: The sinners drew the sword,
4.30| they bent their bow to bring down the poor and needy, to slaughter the upright in heart; let their sword enter their own hearts, and let their bows be shattered; and again: Their memorial has perished with a noise, and their name has been blotted out forever and ever; for even when they were in evils they cried out, and there was no one to save them; to the Lord, and he did not listen to them; but they were bound together and fell, while we have risen and been set upright. And the word spoken beforehand among these, Lord, in your city you will despise their image, has been shown true before the eyes of all.
4.31| Such was the end of life that came to those who, like the giants, set themselves up in war against God. But the desert, abandoned even by men, has had the outcome of its endurance for God's sake such as we now see, so that the prophecy of Isaiah cries out over it these words:
4.32| Rejoice, parched desert; let the wilderness exult and blossom like a lily; the wastelands will bloom and exult. Be strong, slackened hands and paralyzed knees; take comfort, you faint of mind; be strong, do not be afraid. Look, our God is repaying judgment and will repay it; he himself will come and save us. For, it says, water has broken out in the wilderness, and a ravine in the thirsty land; the waterless land will become marshes, and for the thirsty land there will be a spring of water.
4.33| These things were set down long ago in sacred books as words of prophecy, but the events no longer come down to us by hearsay but in deeds. This desert, waterless, widowed and unprotected, whose gates they hacked down with axes as in a forest of trees, and together shattered with hatchet and chisel; whose books they destroyed and burned; whose sanctuary of God they set on fire, and whose tabernacle of his name they defiled to the ground; which all who passed along the road plucked bare after tearing down its fences; which the boar out of the forest ravaged and the wild beast grazed upon: by the marvelous power of Christ, now that it is his own will, it has become like a lily. For even then it was being disciplined at his nod, as by a father who cares for his children. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and scourges every son whom he receives.
4.34| Having turned back in due measure, as was fitting, it is commanded once more to rejoice from the beginning, and to blossom like a lily and breathe out a divine fragrance to all people. For water, it says, has burst forth in the desert: the stream of the divine rebirth of the saving bath. And now what was a little while ago a desert has become marshes, and for the thirsty land a spring of living water has gushed forth. The hands that were once slackened have truly grown strong, and these great and manifest signs are the works of that strength of hands. Moreover, the knees that were long ago rotten and loosened have recovered their own footing and walk straight along the way of the knowledge of God, hastening to the all-good shepherd's own flock.
4.35| And if some have had their souls benumbed by the threats of the tyrants, the saving Word does not overlook even these as beyond healing, but heals them thoroughly and urges them to the comfort that comes from God, saying:
4.36| Take comfort, you faint of mind; be strong, do not be afraid. The Word declared that the desert made so for God's sake must enjoy these things. Listening with the keen ear of understanding, this new and noble Zerubbabel of ours, after that bitter captivity, and after the abomination of desolation, did not neglect the fallen body as dead. First of all, with entreaties and prayers he made the Father gracious, together with the common concord of all of you, and took as ally and fellow worker the one who alone gives life to the dead. He raised up what had fallen, having first cleansed it and treated its ills, and he put around it not the old robe from ancient times, but the kind he was taught anew by the divine oracles, which say plainly: And the last glory of this house will be greater than the former.
4.37| In this way, then, he took in a far larger space altogether, and strengthened the outer enclosure with a wall around the whole, so that it would be the safest fence for everything.
4.38| He opened a great gateway, raised high toward the very rays of the rising sun, and thus offered an abundant view, even to people standing far outside the sacred precincts, of what lay within, all but turning the eyes even of those foreign to the faith toward the first entrances, so that no one might pass by without first being pierced in soul by the memory of the earlier desolation and of the present marvelous wonder. By this he hoped that such a person, pierced in heart, would be drawn on, and by the very sight be turned toward entering.
4.39| But for the one who passed inside the gates, he did not allow him straightaway to tread the holy places within with unpurified and unwashed feet. Instead he left a very wide space between the first entrances and the temple, and surrounded it with four cross-built porticoes, enclosing the place in a rectangular shape, with columns rising on every side. He closed off the spaces between these columns with wooden lattice screens rising to a fitting height, and left the middle open to the sky, providing air that was bright, exposed to the rays of light.
4.40| Here he also set up symbols of sacred purification, building fountains directly facing the temple, whose abundant streams of water offered cleansing to those who advance inward from the sacred enclosures. This is the first place of pause for those entering, providing at once ornament and splendor for the whole, and a fitting place to stay for those who still need the first introductions.
4.41| But passing beyond the sight of these, he made the approaches to the temple open still more widely through the innermost gateways. Facing the rays of the sun he again set three doors side by side, granting the middle one the right to far exceed the doors on either side in size and breadth. The middle one he adorned especially with bronze plates bound with iron and with ornaments carved in relief, as though he had yoked the bodyguards to this one as to a queen.
4.42| In the same way he arranged the same number of gateways along the colonnades to each side of the whole temple, and above these, to admit still more light, he devised various additional entrances into the house, decorating the ornament around them with delicate woodwork. The royal house itself he fortified with richer and more abundant materials, spending with unstinting generosity.
4.43| Here I think it superfluous to set down the lengths and breadths of the building, to describe in my account its radiant beauty, its grandeur beyond words, the gleaming appearance of the works, the heights reaching to heaven, and, laid above these, the costly cedars of Lebanon, which not even the divine oracle passed over in silence when it says: The trees of the Lord will rejoice, and the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
4.44| Why should I now labor to give an exact account of the all-wise architectural design and of the exceeding beauty in every part, when the testimony of the eyes shuts out learning through the ears? But when he had completed the temple in this way, he adorned it fittingly with high thrones to honor the presiding officers and also with benches set in order throughout. Over all of this he placed the altar, the holy of holies, in the middle, and again, so that these parts should be inaccessible to the many, he fenced them off with wooden lattices wrought to the utmost point of skilled craftsmanship, so that they offered a marvelous sight to those who looked.
4.45| Nor did he leave the floor neglected. This too he made brilliant with marble and every ornament, and then at last he moved on to the parts outside the temple, building with skill very large exedrae and chambers on either side, joined together along the flanks of the royal house and connected with the entrances to the central house. These also our most peaceful Solomon, who built the temple of God, completed for those who still needed purification and sprinklings of water and of the Holy Spirit, so that the prophecy spoken above was no longer a word but a deed:
4.46| for it has now come about, and truly, that this house's final glory is greater than the earlier. For it was necessary, and it followed, that since her shepherd and master once accepted death on her behalf, and after the suffering changed the body he had put on for her sake in its defilement into something radiant and glorious, and brought the very flesh that had been dissolved from corruption to incorruption, she too should likewise enjoy the Savior's dispensations. For she has received from him a promise far better than these things, and she longs to receive, lastingly through the ages to come, the far greater glory of the rebirth, in the resurrection of an incorruptible body, with the chorus of angels in light, in the royal courts of God beyond the heavens, together with Christ Jesus himself, benefactor of all and Savior.
4.47| But for the present, by God's grace, she who was long ago a widow and desolate has been clothed with these flowers and has truly become like a lily, as the prophecy says. She has taken up the bridal garment and put on the crown of beauty, and, as she is taught through Isaiah to dance, she honors God the King with auspicious voices of thanksgiving,
4.48| while we listen to her saying: Let my soul exult in the Lord; for he has put on me a robe of salvation and a tunic of gladness. He has placed a turban upon me like a bridegroom, and decked me with ornament like a bride. And as earth makes its blossom grow, and as a garden makes what is sown in it spring up, so the Lord, the Lord, has made righteousness and exultation spring up before all the nations.
4.49| This is the song to which she dances. But hear what the heavenly Word, the bridegroom, Jesus Christ himself, says to her in return: "Do not be afraid, because you were put to shame, and do not be abashed because you were reproached. For you will forget everlasting shame, and you will not remember the reproach of your widowhood. The Lord has called you not as a woman forsaken and fainthearted, nor as a woman who has been hated since her youth. Your God has said: For a little while I forsook you, but I will have mercy on you with great mercy. In a brief anger I turned my face away from you, but I will have mercy on you with everlasting mercy, says the Lord who has redeemed you."
4.50| "Rouse yourself, rouse yourself, you who from the Lord's hand have drunk the cup of his anger. For the cup of falling, the bowl of my anger, you have drunk and drained. And there was no one to comfort you among all the children you bore, and no one to take hold of your hand. Behold, I have taken from your hand the cup of falling, the bowl of my anger, and you shall never again drink it. I will give it into the hands of those who wronged you and those who humbled you."
4.51| "Rouse yourself, rouse yourself, clothe yourself in your strength, clothe yourself in your glory. Shake the dust off and rise up. Sit down, and loose the bond from your neck. Lift your eyes all around and see your children gathered together. Behold, they have been gathered and have come to you. By my life, says the Lord, you will put them all on like an adornment, and wrap them around you like the adornment of a bride.
4.52| For your places that were desolate, ruined and fallen will now be too cramped for those who live in you, and those who swallowed you up will be driven far from you. For the sons you lost will speak into your ears: The place is cramped for me; make room for me to live in. And you will say in your heart: Who bore these for me? I was childless and a widow; who reared these for me? I was left alone; where were these?"
4.53| These things Isaiah prophesied; these things were laid down long ago concerning us in the sacred books. It was surely fitting that their truthfulness should at last be received in deeds.
4.54| And so, while the bridegroom Word cries out such things to his own bride, the holy and sacred church, it was fitting that this bride's attendant, with your own hands stretched out, and through the common prayers of us all, should rouse her up and raise her, desolate as she was, lying fallen, without hope among men. By the nod of God, the King of all, and by the appearing of the power of Jesus Christ, he raised her and established her as such a bride as she had been taught to expect from the written record of the sacred oracles.
4.55| This, then, is a very great wonder, beyond all astonishment, above all to those whose minds are fixed only on outward appearance. Yet the archetypes are more wonderful than wonders, and, prior to these, the originals: the intelligible patterns, worthy of God, I mean the renewals of the divinely inspired and rational building in souls.
4.56| This building the Son of God himself made in his own image, bestowing on it in every way the likeness of God in all respects: a nature incorruptible, bodiless, rational, foreign to all earthly matter, an essence that thinks by itself. Having once, at the first, brought it from nothing into being, he fashioned it as a holy bride and an all-holy temple both for himself and for the Father. This he himself plainly declares when he says: "I will dwell in them and walk among them, and I will be God to them, and they will be a people to me." Such is the perfect and cleansed soul, made so from the beginning, fit to carry the heavenly Word as its image.
4.57| But by the envy and jealousy of the evil-loving demon, the soul became a lover of passion and of wickedness by a choice of its own free will. The divine presence withdrew from it, as from a place left without a protector, and it was shown to be easily captured and ready prey for the plots of those who had long begrudged it. Overthrown by the siege engines and contrivances of its unseen enemies and spiritual foes, it fell in an immense collapse, so that not so much as one stone of virtue was left standing upon another in it, but it lay wholly on the ground, dead throughout, entirely deprived of its natural conceptions of God.
4.58| That soul, fashioned in the image of God, had fallen, and what ravaged it was not some boar out of a forest we can see, but a destroying demon and savage beasts of the mind. They set it alight with the passions, as if with the fire-heated arrows of their own malice, and burned with fire the truly divine sanctuary of God. They profaned to the ground the dwelling of his name, and then, burying the wretched soul under a huge mound of earth, they turned it over to a state beyond all hope of salvation.
4.59| But the Word, its guardian, who gives the light of God and brings salvation, took it up again from the beginning, after it had paid the penalty its sins deserved, persuaded by the love for humanity of the all-good Father.
4.60| First, then, he chose the souls of the highest rulers themselves, and through those most beloved of God he purged the whole inhabited world of all the impious and destructive men, of those dreadful tyrants hated by God. Then he brought into the open the men who were known to him, who had long been consecrated to him throughout their lives but had been hidden in secret, as in a storm of evils, under his shelter, and he honored them as they deserved with the great gifts of the Father. Through these men in turn he cleansed and scoured the souls that a little earlier had been befouled, heaped over with every kind of rubbish and with the earth of impious decrees, digging them out with the mattocks and picks of teaching that strikes home,
4.61| and having made the ground of the minds of you all bright and clear, he then handed it over to this wise and God-loved leader. He is discerning and thoughtful in every way, judges well and sorts out the mind of the souls allotted to him, and from the first day, one might say, he has been building and has not stopped even until now, fitting together among all of you now the shining gold, now the tested and pure silver, and the precious and costly stones, so that by his works toward you the sacred and mystical prophecy is fulfilled once more,
4.62| in which it was said: "Behold, I am preparing for you the carbuncle as your stone, and sapphire as your foundations, and jasper as your battlements, and crystal stones as your gates, and chosen stones as your surrounding wall; and all your sons shall be taught by God, and great shall be the peace of your children; and in righteousness you shall be built."
4.63| Building in righteousness, then, he distributed the capacities of the whole people according to their worth. For some he fenced in only the outer surrounding wall, enclosing them with unwavering faith (and such people are many, a great multitude, able to bear no better structure). To others he committed the entrances of the house, assigning them to keep the doors and guide those who enter, and it is not unfitting that they be counted the temple's forecourt. Others he supported with the outermost columns around the court, set in a square, leading them in to the first approaches of the text of the four gospels. Those already near the royal house he joins on either side, still catechumens, standing in growth and progress, yet not separated far or long from the vision of God enjoyed by the faithful in the innermost place.
4.64| From these, taking up the pure souls, scoured like gold by the divine washing, he now supports some with columns far better than the outermost ones, drawn from the innermost mystical teachings of Scripture, and others he lights by openings toward the light,
4.65| adorning the whole temple with one very great portal, the praise of God, the one and only, King of all, and furnishing on either side of the Father's authority the second beams of light, those of Christ and the Holy Spirit. Throughout the whole house he shows, in abundance and in great variety, the clarity and brightness of each truth in the rest. Everywhere and from every quarter he has selected the living, firm and well-set stones of souls, and from them all he builds up the great royal house, shining and full of light both inside and outside, since not only their soul and mind but their body too was made radiant with the flowery adornment of purity and self-control.
4.66| In this sanctuary there are also countless thrones, seats and places of rest, in all the souls upon which the gifts of the divine Spirit settle, such as were seen long ago among the holy apostles, to whom tongues appeared, divided as if of fire, and rested on each one of them.
4.67| But in the one who rules over all, perhaps Christ himself dwells entire, while in those who rank second after him he dwells in proportion, according as each can contain the distributions of Christ's power and of the Holy Spirit. Further, the souls of certain people might be seats even for angels, those angels who have been entrusted to each person for guidance and protection.
4.68| As for the solemn, great, and unique altar, what could it be but the pure soul, the holy of holies, of the priest common to all? Standing at its right hand, Jesus himself, the universe's great high priest and God's only-begotten, receives with bright gaze and outstretched hands the sweet incense offered by all, and the bloodless and immaterial sacrifices of prayer, and sends them on to the Father, the God of the universe, in heaven. He is the first to worship, and the only one to render the Father the reverence he deserves; then he also entreats that the Father remain gracious and favorable to all of us forever.
4.69| Such is the great temple that the Word, the great Maker of the universe, has built throughout the whole inhabited world under the sun. Having himself fashioned, in turn, this intelligible image on earth of the heavenly vaults beyond, he made it so that through all creation, and through the rational living beings on earth, the Father might be honored and revered by means of him.
4.70| Concerning the region above the heavens, and the originals there of the things here, the so-called Jerusalem above, the heavenly Mount Zion, and the city of the living God beyond the world, where myriads of angels in festal assembly, and the church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, honor their maker and the sovereign of all with theologies unutterable and beyond our reckoning, no mortal is able to praise them as they deserve, for indeed eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and it has not entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for those who love him.
4.71| Having already been counted worthy of a share of these things, men together with children and women, small and great, all of us together, in one spirit and one soul, let us not cease to give thanks and to acclaim the one who is the cause of so many good things for us: who is propitious toward all our iniquities, who cures all our diseases, who ransoms our life from corruption, who crowns us with mercy and compassion, and who satisfies our desire with good things; for he has not treated us according to our sins, nor repaid us in keeping with our iniquities; for as far as east is from west, so far has he removed from us our iniquities. As a father has compassion on his sons, the Lord has had compassion on those who fear him.
4.72| Rekindling these things in our memories now and for all the time to come, and moreover keeping in mind, by night and day, at each hour and, so to speak, with every breath, the author of this present festival, of this bright and most splendid day, the master of this assembly, loving and revering him with all the strength of our soul, let us now also rise and entreat him with a great voice of devotion that he may keep us sheltered under his fold to the end and preserve us, bestowing his own unbroken and unshaken eternal peace in Christ Jesus our Savior, through whom to him be glory for all ages of ages. Amen.
5.1| Come now, let us next set down the imperial ordinances of Constantine and Licinius, in the interpretations translated from the Roman tongue.
5.2| COPY OF IMPERIAL ORDINANCES TRANSLATED FROM THE ROMAN LANGUAGE. Having long considered that freedom of worship must not be denied, but that each person's mind and will should be given the authority to attend to divine matters according to his own choice, we had commanded both the Christians ... to keep the faith of their own sect and form of worship;
5.3| but since many different sects seemed to have been clearly added in that rescript, in which such authority was granted to those same people, it may be that some of them, after a short time, were being turned away from such observance.
5.4| When I, Constantine Augustus, and I as well, Licinius Augustus, had come happily to Milan and had considered everything that bore on the advantage and benefit of the public, we resolved to arrange, among the other matters that seemed beneficial to many, and indeed before all others, those in which reverence and respect for the divine were involved. That is, we resolved to give both the Christians and everyone free choice to follow whatever worship they wished, so that whatever divinity and heavenly power exists may be favorable to us and to all who live under our authority.
5.5| We therefore resolved, on sound and entirely correct reasoning, that this is our will: that no one at all be denied the freedom to follow and choose the observance or worship of the Christians, and that each person be given the freedom to turn his mind to the worship that he himself considers suited to him, so that the divine may be able to show us in everything its customary care and goodwill.
5.6| It was fitting to write back that it pleases us thus, so that, with the conditions entirely removed which were contained in our earlier letters sent to your devotion concerning the Christians, and which seemed quite harsh and foreign to our gentleness, these may be taken away, and now each of those who hold the same intention of keeping the worship of the Christians may freely and simply keep to it without any molestation.
5.7| We resolved to make these things fully known to your diligence, so that you may know that we have given to these same Christians free and unrestricted freedom to practice their own worship.
5.8| Since you see that this has been granted to them unreservedly by us, your devotion understands that freedom has also been given to others who wish to pursue their own observance and worship. It is evident that this accords with the tranquility of our times, so that each person may have the freedom to choose and practice whatever worship he wishes. This has been done by us so that nothing may seem to be diminished by us from any honor or any form of worship.
5.9| Besides the rest, we also decree the following concerning the Christians: that their places, where they were formerly accustomed to assemble, and about which a different rule was laid down in the letters earlier given to your devotion, be treated thus. If any persons are found to have bought them, whether from our treasury or from anyone else, they are to restore them to these same Christians without payment and without any demand for the price, setting aside all negligence and doubt. And if any happen to have received them as a gift, they are to restore the same places to these same Christians
5.10| as quickly as possible. In that case, whether those who bought the places or those who received them as a gift, they may seek something from our goodwill by applying to the prefect who judges in the locality, so that provision may be made for them too through our kindness. All these things must be handed over to the body of the Christians directly, through your zeal, without any delay.
5.11| And since it is known that these same Christians possessed not only the places where they used to assemble but also other places, which belong not to each of them individually but to the right of their body, that is, of the Christians, you will order all these, under the law we mentioned above, to be restored without any dispute at all to these very Christians, that is, to their body and each of their assemblies. The aforesaid reasoning is of course to be observed, namely that those who restore the same places without payment, as we said before, may hope to be indemnified by our goodwill.
5.12| In all this you must give the aforesaid body of the Christians your most vigorous assistance, so that our command may be fulfilled as quickly as possible, and so that in this too provision may be made, through our kindness, for the common and public peace.
5.13| For by this reasoning, as was said earlier, the divine zeal on our behalf, of which we have already had experience in many matters, will remain secure for all time.
5.14| And so that the substance of this our legislation and goodwill may be made known to all, this writing of ours, posted under your edict, should properly be displayed everywhere and made known to everyone, so that the law embodying this goodwill of ours may escape the notice of no one.
5.15| Copy of another imperial ordinance, in which he again indicates that the gift is given to the catholic church alone. Greetings, Anulinus, our most honored friend. It is characteristic of our love of what is good that we wish not only that things belonging by right to another person should be left undisturbed, but that they should also be restored, most honored Anulinus.
5.16| Therefore it is our wish that, once you receive this letter, if any of the properties that were once the possession of the Christians’ catholic church in individual cities or in other places are now held either by citizens or by anyone else, you have them restored at once to those same churches, since we have resolved that what the churches possessed before should be restored to them by their right.
5.17| Since, then, your devotion sees that this command of ours is entirely plain in its order, take care that everything, whether gardens or houses or whatever else belonged by right to those churches, is restored to them as quickly as possible, so that we may learn that you have shown the most careful obedience to this order of ours. Farewell, Anulinus, most honored and dearly longed-for by us.
5.18| Copy of the emperor’s letter in which he commands that a synod of bishops meet at Rome for the sake of the unity and harmony of the churches. Constantine Augustus to Miltiades, the Romans’ bishop, and to Marcus. Since quite a few such documents were sent to me by Anulinus, proconsul of Africa and a most illustrious man, reporting that Caecilian, the bishop of the city of Carthage, is accused in many matters by certain of his colleagues in Africa, and since it appears to me a most grave thing that in these provinces, which divine providence has of its own will entrusted to my devotion, and where a great multitude of people exists, the crowd is found persisting in the worse course, divided as it were against itself, and that the bishops are at odds among themselves,
5.19| it has seemed good to me that Caecilian himself, together with ten of the bishops who seem to be accusing him, and ten others whom he himself judges needed for his case, should sail to Rome, so that there, in the presence of you, and of Reticius, Maternus and Marinus too, your colleagues, whom I have ordered for this purpose to hurry to Rome, he may be heard, as you will judge to be in keeping with the most revered law.
5.20| In order that you may possess the most complete knowledge about all these matters, I have appended to my own letter the copies of the documents that Anulinus sent me, and have sent them out to your above-mentioned colleagues. When your steadfastness has read them, it will judge how the case just named ought to be examined with the greatest care and settled according to justice; for it is not hidden from your diligence that I pay so much respect to the lawful catholic church that I want you to leave no schism or division whatever anywhere. May the divinity of the great God keep you safe for many years, most honored friends.
5.21| Copy of an imperial letter by which he orders a second synod to be held, so that all dissension of the bishops may be removed. Constantine Augustus to Chrestus, the bishop of the Syracusans. Even earlier, when some had begun to fall away wickedly and perversely from the religion of the holy and heavenly power and from the catholic sect, wishing to cut short such contentiousness of theirs, I had so arranged that some bishops be sent from Gaul, and that those of the opposing party be summoned from Africa to match them, who were contending resolutely and persistently, with the bishop of Rome also present, so that this matter which seemed to have been stirred up might, through their presence, be set right with all careful discernment.
5.22| But since, as happens, some have forgotten both their own salvation and the reverence owed to the most holy sect, and even now do not cease to prolong their private enmities, refusing to agree to the judgment already delivered, and insisting that only a few had put forward their opinions and verdicts, or that they hurried to deliver the verdict very quickly and sharply before everything that ought to be investigated had been examined exactly, and since from all this it comes about that those very men, who ought to have brotherly and like-minded harmony, are shamefully, or rather abominably, divided from one another, and give a pretext for mockery to people whose souls are estranged from this most holy religion, I have therefore had to take thought that this matter, which should have come to an end through willing consent once the verdict had been given, might now at last be able to reach its conclusion with many present.
5.23| Since, then, we have ordered very many bishops from various and countless places to come together in the city of the Arelatians by the Kalends of August, and have thought it right to write to you as well, you are to take a public vehicle from the most distinguished Latronianus, corrector of Sicily, join to yourself two others of the second rank, whomever you yourself decide to choose, and also take three servants who can attend you on the journey, and be at the aforementioned place by the same day,
5.24| so that, through your firmness and through the harmonious and like-minded understanding of the rest who assemble, and after all the statements to be made by those now at odds with one another, whom we have likewise ordered to be present, have been heard, this matter, which until now has persisted in a wretched state because of some shameful quarrelling, may be brought back, even if slowly, to the due observance of religion, to faith, and to brotherly concord. May almighty God keep you in health for many years.
6.1| COPY OF AN IMPERIAL LETTER THROUGH WHICH FUNDS ARE BESTOWED ON THE CHURCHES. Constantine Augustus to Caecilian, bishop of Carthage. Since it has pleased me that in every province, in the Africas, the Numidias and the Mauretanias, something be supplied for expenses to certain named servants of the legitimate and most sacred catholic religion, I handed a letter to Ursus, the most distinguished catholicus of Africa, and have informed him that he is to take care to pay out three thousand folles to your Firmness.
6.2| You, therefore, when you have had the aforesaid sum of money received, are to command that this money be given out to all the persons named earlier, following the list that Hosius sent to you.
6.3| Yet if you discover that something is lacking for fulfilling my intention in this matter toward all of them, you should without dispute ask for whatever you find necessary from Heraclides, the procurator of our estates. For I instructed him, when he was here, that if your Firmness asked him for any money, he should take care to pay it out without any hesitation.
6.4| And since I have learned that some people who are not of sound mind are trying to lead astray the people of the most holy catholic church by some base corruption, know that I have given such orders to Anulinus the proconsul, who was present, and to Patricius, vicar of the prefects, who was also present, that among all their other duties they should give due attention to this in particular, and not allow themselves to overlook such a thing happening.
6.5| Therefore, if you see any such people persisting in this very madness, go without any hesitation to the judges mentioned and bring this very matter to them, so that they may set these people right, just as I ordered them when they were present. May the divinity of the great God keep you for many years.
7.1| COPY OF AN IMPERIAL LETTER BY WHICH IT IS ORDERED THAT THOSE WHO PRESIDE OVER THE CHURCHES BE EXEMPT FROM ALL PUBLIC SERVICE. Greetings, Anulinus, most honored by us. Since it appears from many instances that the neglect of the religion in which the supreme reverence for what is most holy and heavenly is preserved has brought great dangers on public affairs, and that this same religion, when lawfully taken up and guarded, has granted the greatest good fortune to the Roman name and an exceptional prosperity to all the affairs of human beings, the divine benefactions providing this, it was resolved that those men who, through their due holiness and constant attendance on this law, devote their services to the cult of the divine religion, should obtain the rewards of their own labors, most honored Anulinus.
7.2| Therefore I wish that those in the catholic church over which Caecilian presides, within the province committed to you, who give their service to this holy religion, and whom people are accustomed to call clergy, be kept once and for all entirely free from all public services, so that through some error or sacrilegious slip they may not be drawn away from the worship owed to the divinity, but rather may serve their own law without any disturbance. For if they make the greatest devotion toward the divine, it seems that they will contribute very greatly to the common good. Farewell, Anulinus, most honored and most beloved by us.
8.1| Such were the gifts bestowed on us by the divine and heavenly grace of our Savior's appearing, and such an abundance of good things was administered to all people through our peace.
8.2| So our own affairs were being carried out amid rejoicing and festivals. But the sight of what was happening could not be borne by Envy, that hater of the good, nor by the demon who loves evil; nor, for that matter, did what had happened to the tyrants already described prove enough to bring Licinius to sound reasoning. Though his rule was prospering and he had been judged worthy of second place in honor after the great emperor Constantine, and of the closest ties of marriage and kinship, he fell short of imitating what is good. Instead he emulated the wickedness and evil ways of the impious tyrants, and chose to follow in his judgment the very men whose lives he had seen end with his own eyes, rather than abide in friendship and goodwill with one who was better than he.
8.3| Moved by envy against his benefactor, he launched a hateful and most terrible war against him, sparing neither the laws of nature nor keeping in mind any memory of oaths, of blood, or of treaties.
8.4| For Constantine, like the thoroughly good emperor he was, had given him proofs of genuine goodwill. He did not begrudge him kinship with himself, nor refuse him a share in a splendid marriage with his sister, but thought him worthy to partake in the noble birth of his fathers and in royal blood from far back. He also gave him power to enjoy rule over all, as brother-in-law and fellow emperor, granting him the governing and administering of no smaller share of the nations under Roman rule.
8.5| But Licinius did the very opposite in return, devising all kinds of schemes every day against his superior and contriving every manner of plot, so as to repay his benefactor with evils. At first, trying to hide the conspiracy, he pretended to be a friend, and by guile and deceit, which he employed very often, he hoped to obtain easily what he expected.
8.6| But God was Constantine's friend, guardian and protector, and brought into the light the plots that were being devised in secrecy and darkness, and exposed them. So great is the power of godliness, that mighty weapon of virtue, to ward off enemies and to guard one's own safety. Shielded by it, our emperor, most beloved of God, escaped the many-twisted plots of that man of ill name.
8.7| When Licinius saw that his secret scheme was in no way proceeding as he wished, since God was making every trick and piece of villainy against the God-loved emperor plain to see, he could no longer conceal himself and took up open war. Having resolved, then, to fight Constantine directly,
8.8| he was already eager to draw up his battle line against the God of the universe himself, whom he knew Constantine to worship, and then he set about besieging, gently and quietly for the moment, the godly people under his own rule, who had never once done anything at all to vex his government. And he did this because his inborn wickedness had left him terribly blind.
8.9| He did not set before his eyes the memory of those before him who had driven Christians out, nor of how he himself had become their destroyer and avenger because of the impieties they had pursued. Turning aside from sound reasoning, and plainly mad in his wits, he resolved on war against God himself, as the helper of Constantine, instead of on the one being helped.
8.10| First he drove every Christian out of his own household, wretchedly depriving himself of these people's prayer to God on his behalf, which it is their ancestral teaching to make for all. Then he ordered that the soldiers in each city be sifted out and deprived of the dignity of their rank unless they chose to offer sacrifice to the demons. And even these things were small when set beside the greater ones.
8.11| Why must I recall each of the things the God-hated man did, one by one, or how this most lawless of men devised lawless laws? For example, he legislated that those suffering in the prisons were to be shown no kindness by a share of food, that no one was to pity those perishing of hunger in chains, and that no one at all was to be good or do anything good, even when nature itself draws people toward sympathy for their neighbors. This was a law utterly shameless and most harsh, one that went beyond all gentle nature, and a penalty was attached to it: those who showed pity were to suffer the same as those pitied, shut up in bonds and prisons, those who performed acts of kindness enduring the same punishment as the ones being tormented.
8.12| These were the ordinances of Licinius. Why need I enumerate his innovations concerning marriages, or his novel measures regarding those who depart this life, by which he dared to set aside the old laws of the Romans, so well and wisely established, and brought in certain barbarous and savage ones in their place, truly lawless laws and violations of law? He also devised countless levies against the subject nations, exactions of every kind of gold and silver, and land surveys, and a ruinous profit taken from countrysides where there were no longer any people, but only men long since dead,
8.13| What exiles that hater of mankind devised besides, against people who had done no wrong at all! What abductions of men of noble birth and high repute! He tore their lawful wives away from them and handed them over to filthy household slaves to be shamefully abused, and he himself, in the extremity of old age, ran riot among married women and maiden girls alike and satisfied the unbridled lust of his soul. Why should I draw this out, when the excess of his last deeds shows that his earlier ones were small and as good as nothing?
8.14| In the end, then, the final stage of his madness advanced against the bishops. Already he reckoned them, as servants of the God who is over all, to be opposed to what he was doing; he did not yet act openly, for fear of the Stronger One, but again he plotted in secret and by deceit, and through the scheming of the governors he put to death those of them who were most distinguished. The manner of their slaughter was strange, such as had never been heard of before.
8.15| What was done around Amasea and the other cities of Pontus surpassed every extreme of cruelty. There some of God's churches were again thrown down from top to bottom to the ground, and others were shut up, so that none of the usual worshippers might assemble or render to God the service owed him.
8.16| For he did not think the prayers were being made for his sake; his bad conscience reasoned thus. Rather he was convinced that we did everything for the sake of the emperor beloved of God and sought to propitiate God for him. From this he set out to vent his wrath upon us.
8.17| And so the governors' flatterers, persuaded that they were acting to please the impious man, subjected some of the bishops to the customary punishments of criminals, and men who had done no wrong were hauled off and punished without excuse, just like murderers. Some even endured a newer kind of death: their bodies were hacked by the sword into numerous segments; and after this cruel and most dreadful sight they were cast into the deep waters of the sea as food for the fish.
8.18| Upon this there was flight again of the God-fearing men, and again fields, again deserts, woods and mountains took in the servants of Christ. When this too had gone the impious man's way, he finally conceived the plan of stirring up a persecution against everyone,
8.19| and he held to his resolve, and nothing stood in the way of his putting it into action, had not God, the champion of his own people's souls, foreseen what was to come with all speed and, as in deep darkness and the gloomiest night, suddenly caused a great light and savior for all to shine forth, leading his servant Constantine by the hand with his lofty arm to these regions.
9.1| To Constantine, then, God granted from above, out of heaven, the trophies of victory over the impious as a fruit worthy of his piety, while the accursed man, together with all his counselors and friends, he cast down face-forward beneath the feet of Constantine.
9.2| For when Licinius had driven his affairs to the extreme of madness, the emperor who was dear to God judged that this could no longer be borne. Gathering his sober reasoning and tempering the firm manner of justice with kindness, he resolved to come to the aid of those suffering under the tyrant, and set out to save most of the human race by removing a few destroyers.
9.3| For in the time before this he had used kindness alone and had pitied one who did not deserve compassion, and nothing more had come of it: the man was not freed from his wickedness, but increased his rage against the nations under his hand, and for those who were mistreated no hope of safety was left, since they were tyrannized over by a terrible beast.
9.4| For this reason, then, the helper of the good, mixing hatred of evil with his love of what is good, came forward together with his son Crispus, a most kindly emperor, and stretched out a saving right hand to all who were perishing. Then, having as their guide and ally the God who is King of all, and God's Son, the Savior of all, father and son together divided the line of battle of the God-haters in a circle on both sides and won an easy victory, everything in the engagement being made smooth for them by God as they wished.
9.5| Suddenly, quicker than speech, those who only yesterday and the day before had been breathing death and threats were no more, nor were they remembered even by name; their inscriptions and honors received the shame they deserved. And what Licinius had watched with his own eyes befall the impious tyrants of old, he suffered in the same way himself, because he had not accepted instruction nor been brought to his senses by the scourging of his neighbors, but had gone the same road of impiety as they, and so was justly brought round to the same precipice.
9.6| So Licinius lay where he had been struck down. But Constantine, the mightiest victor, distinguished by every virtue that piety brings, together with his son Crispus, himself an emperor most dear to God and like his father in every respect, recovered the East that was rightly theirs and restored the Roman Empire to a single, united whole as it had been of old, bringing under their peace the entire circle of the inhabited world, from the rising sun round to the opposite quarter, north and south alike, to the farthest limits of the declining day.
9.7| All fear of those who had once oppressed them was now lifted from people's lives. They kept brilliant festival days with public celebrations; everything was full of light; those who had once gone about with downcast eyes now looked at one another with smiling faces and shining eyes; and in the cities and the countryside alike they honored with dances and hymns first and foremost God, the King of all, for so they had been taught, and then the pious emperor together with his sons, beloved of God.
9.8| Old evils were forgotten, and every act of impiety passed into oblivion; there was enjoyment of the good things at hand and, beyond that, hope of those still to come. Everywhere, in every place, the victorious emperor's ordinances were published, full of humanity, along with laws that bore the marks of munificence and of true piety.
9.9| And so, with all tyranny purged away, the sovereignty that was rightly theirs was kept secure and beyond envy for Constantine and his sons alone. Having wiped from their lives the hatred of God shown by all who had gone before them, and being conscious of the good things that God had bestowed upon them, they showed their love for virtue and for God, their piety toward the Divine, and their gratitude, through deeds that they set out plainly for all people to see.
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