Eusebius of Caesarea · a new plain-English translation from the Greek
1.1| While the emperor was doing so much to build up the church of God and to bring it glory, and was carrying out everything so that the teaching of the Savior might be well spoken of, he did not neglect affairs outside it either. In these too he went on bestowing benefits of every kind, one after another and without pause, on all the inhabitants of every province alike. At one moment he showed a fatherly care shared by all; at another he honored each of those known to him with various ranks; and he gave everything to everyone with a magnanimous mind. It was impossible for anyone who asked a favor of the emperor to miss his aim, and no one who hoped for good things was disappointed of what he had expected. Some received an abundance of money, others of property; others obtained prefectural rank, some senatorial honor, some that of the consuls; still more were designated governors; of the counts, some were deemed worthy of the first order, some of the second, some of the third; and in the same way countless others shared the rank of clarissimus and very many other dignities besides. For the emperor devised a variety of ranks so that he might honor more people.
2.1| How he also saw to it that people at large were glad of heart, one might observe from a single example, beneficial to life, that reached everyone and is still known even now. From the yearly taxes levied on land he made a gift to the owners of the fields of a fourth part, so that anyone reckoning up the yearly remission would find that every four years the occupiers of the land became free of tax. This, once ratified by law and in force for the time to come, made the emperor's grace unforgettable and everlasting, not only for those then living but for their children and their successors as well.
3.1| When others complained of the land surveys made under those who had ruled before, charging that their territory had been overburdened, here too, by an ordinance of justice, he sent out men as assessors to equalize the burden, who would secure relief from loss for those who had petitioned.
4.1| When the emperor judged a case between others, so that the party who had lost before him should not go away less pleased than the victor, he would give the losers, from his own resources, now goods and now landed estates. In this way he made the defeated party rejoice equally with the one who had won the suit, as one who had been granted the sight of him; for it was not right, he held, that anyone who had stood before so great an emperor should go away downcast and grieved. And so both sides left the trial with bright and smiling faces, and wonder at the emperor's magnanimity took hold of everyone.
5.1| Why should I treat as a mere aside how he made the barbarian nations subject to Roman rule; how he was the first to bring under the yoke the races of the Scythians and the Sauromatians, who had never before learned to be slaves, compelling them, even against their will, to regard the Romans as their masters? For the rulers before him had even paid tribute to the Scythians, and Romans were in servitude to barbarians through yearly payments.
5.2| But this state of affairs was not, it seems, to be endured by the emperor, nor did the conqueror think it honorable to pay the same as his predecessors. Trusting in his Savior and raising over these peoples too the trophy of victory, he brought them all to submission within a short time. Some who chafed at the bit he chastened with a soldier's hand; the rest he tamed by reasoned embassies, bringing them over from a lawless and bestial life to one governed by reason and law. Thus at last the Scythians learned to be subject to the Romans.
6.1| As for the Sauromatians, God himself drove them beneath the feet of Constantine, subduing in some such way as this men who prided themselves on their barbarian spirit. When the Scythians rose against them, the masters armed their slaves to fend off the enemy. But once the slaves had won, they raised their shields against their masters and drove them all from their own land.
6.2| The masters found no other haven of safety than Constantine alone. He, knowing how to save, received them all into Roman territory. Those who were fit he enrolled in his own armies; to the rest he distributed land to farm for the needs of their livelihood, so that they acknowledged their misfortune to have turned out for their good, since they now enjoyed Roman freedom instead of barbarian savagery. In this way God granted him victories over every nation, so that barbarian tribes of every kind were even willing to submit to him of their own accord.
7.1| Envoys came continuously from every quarter, bringing gifts of great value from their own lands. Once I myself happened to be present and saw them standing in rows, in order, before the outer gates of the palace: a striking company of barbarians, whose dress was outlandish and whose manner of appearance differed from one to the next. The style of their hair, of head and beard, varied enormously; their faces were fierce and barbarous, their look alarming, and their bodies were of immense stature. Some had faces flushed red, some whiter than snow, some blacker than ebony and pitch, and some of a mixed complexion. Even the tribes of the Blemmyes, and of the Indians and Ethiopians, who are divided in two and dwell at the farthest edge of mankind, could be seen there, as we know them from the accounts that describe them.
7.2| Each group in turn, as in a painted tableau, offered the emperor what was prized in their own country: some golden crowns, some diadems set with precious stones, others fair-haired boys, others barbarian robes woven with gold and flowers, others horses, others shields, long spears, javelins and bows. By these gifts they showed that they were willing to offer the emperor their service and their alliance, if he wished it.
7.3| The emperor received these gifts from those who brought them and had them put in order, and he gave in return so much that he made the recipients very rich at a stroke. He also honored the more distinguished among them with Roman dignities, so that many by now were content to stay here, having forgotten their return to their own homes.
8.1| Then the king of the Persians also asked, through an embassy, to be made known to Constantine, and he too sent gifts as tokens of a friendly treaty. The emperor concluded the agreement with him as well, outdoing in his generous exchange of gifts the one who had first offered the honor. Indeed, when he learned that in the Persian nation the churches of God were numerous and that countless multitudes were being gathered into Christ's flocks, he rejoiced at the news, and, like a common guardian of people everywhere, he again took thought here also for the welfare of all. He established this too in his own words, in the letter he sent to the king of the Persians, in which he commended these people to him with all courtesy and earnestness. This letter in the emperor's own hand is in circulation among us in the Roman language, but translated into Greek it will be more familiar to readers, and it runs somewhat as follows.
9.1| Letter of the Emperor to Shapur, king of the Persians, concerning care for the people of God. "Keeping the divine faith, I share in the light of truth. With that light of truth as my guide, I come to recognize the divine faith. Thus, as events confirm, I recognize the most holy religion. I acknowledge that this form of worship is my teacher in the knowledge of the holy God. Having the power of this God as my ally, I began from the ends of the Ocean and roused the whole inhabited world in turn with sure hopes of salvation, so that everything that had been enslaved under so many tyrants, had yielded to daily misfortunes and had faded away, regained the defense of the common good and was revived as though by some healing. This is the God I revere, whose sign my army, dedicated to God, carries on its shoulders, and it is led wherever the call of justice summons it; and from those very undertakings I at once receive his favor in conspicuous trophies. This God I acknowledge that I honor with undying remembrance; this God I affirm, with a pure and unclouded mind, to dwell in the highest places, shining beyond all.
10.1| I call upon him on bended knee, shunning all abominable blood and foul, repellent odors, and avoiding every earthly glitter. By all these the unlawful and unspeakable error is defiled, and it has cast down many of the nations, and whole peoples, handing them over to the lowest regions.
10.2| For what the God of all has brought into the open for the care of human beings, out of his own love for humanity and for their need, he will not allow to be drawn toward each person's desire. He demands from people only a pure mind and a spotless soul, and in these he weighs the actions of virtue and piety.
10.3| For he is pleased by deeds of fairness and gentleness; he is fond of the meek and hates the troublesome; he cherishes faith and punishes faithlessness; he breaks down all power that comes with arrogance; he takes vengeance on the insolence of the proud and overthrows from their foundations those puffed up with conceit, while he gives to the humble and the forbearing what they deserve.
10.4| Thus he also holds a just rule in high regard and strengthens it with his own aid, and he preserves the understanding of an emperor in the calm of peace."
11.1| “I do not think I am mistaken, my brother, in confessing this one God as the source and Father of all things. Many of those who have ruled in these lands, carried away by maddened error, tried to deny him, but a punishing end consumed them all, so that the whole race of men after them has set their misfortunes before those who emulate them in such conduct as an example like no other.
11.2| One of these, I believe, was that man whom divine wrath, like a thunderbolt, drove out of these lands and handed over to your regions, making the trophy over him that stands among you, to his shame, widely talked of.”
12.1| “But it seems to have turned out for the good that even in our own age the punishment of such men has been shown plainly. For I myself have looked upon the ends of those who recently, by unlawful decrees, harassed the people dedicated to God. For this reason there is great thanks to God, because I am convinced that by his perfect providence all humankind that serves the divine law, now that it has been restored to them, are in the best and safest condition in every respect, since through the pure and tested religion of these people, by harmony in the worship of the divine, he deems it worthy to gather everyone to himself.”
13.1| “To this company of people, I mean the Christians (for my whole discourse concerns them), how do you think I rejoice to hear that the finest parts of Persia too have been adorned with them to a great extent, just as I wish! May the best things belong to you in the fullest measure, and likewise to them, since they are yours as well. For in this way you will have the Father and Master of the universe, God, gracious and kindly toward you. These people, then, since you are so great a ruler, I commend to you, and, because you too are distinguished for piety, I place these very people in your hands. Cherish them in a manner fitting your own kindness; for you will thereby give a boundless favor both to yourself and to us, through your faith.”
14.1| Thus, with the rest of the nations everywhere throughout the inhabited world governed as if by a single helmsman, and welcoming the government under the servant of God, with no one any longer troubling the Roman empire, everyone lived their lives in settled and untroubled peace. The emperor, judging that the prayers of the God-fearing contribute greatly to the safeguarding of all, saw to it that these were offered, both becoming a suppliant of God himself and commanding the presidents of the churches to make supplications on his behalf.
15.1| One could learn how great a power of God-inspired faith supported his soul from this consideration as well: on the gold coins he had his own likeness stamped in such a way that he seemed to be looking upward, stretched toward God, in the manner of one praying.
15.2| Copies of this likeness traveled through the whole Roman world. In the images set up high on the gateways [the text is damaged here] he was depicted standing upright, gazing up to heaven, with both hands outstretched in the posture of one at prayer.
16.1| In this way, then, he presented himself in his portraits as one at prayer. By law he also forbade images of himself to be set up in the temples of idols, so that his likeness might not be defiled by the error of forbidden things, even to the extent of a mere shadow-sketch.
17.1| One might consider things still more solemn than these, on learning that within the palace itself he arranged a church of God, as it were, leading in zeal those who assembled inside. He would take the books in his hands and devote his mind to the study of the divinely inspired oracles; then he would offer the prayers prescribed by law together with those who filled the imperial house.
18.1| He also appointed that a day be reckoned suitable for prayers, the one that is truly principal and really first, the Lord's day and the day of salvation. Attendants and servants consecrated to God, men of dignified life and adorned with every virtue, were established as guardians of the whole house, and the guards, loyal bodyguards armed with dispositions of faithful goodwill, inscribed their names as pupils of the emperor, a teacher of pious ways, themselves honoring no less the day of salvation and of the Lord and performing on it the prayers dear to the emperor.
18.2| The blessed man urged all people to do the same, as though he had made it his prayer to bring all humankind gradually to reverence for God. Therefore he enacted a law that all who lived under Roman rule should keep leisure on the days named for the Savior, and likewise honor the days before the sabbath, in memory, I think, of what was accomplished on those days by the common Savior, as they are remembered.
18.3| As for the day of salvation, which happens to be named for light and for the sun, he taught the whole army to honor it with zeal. To those who shared in God-inspired faith he gave leisure to attend the church of God without hindrance, so that they might perform their prayers with nothing standing in their way,
19.1| For those who had not yet shared in the divine Word, he laid down a second law: on the Lord's days they were to go out to the open country in the suburbs, onto clean ground, and there, at a single signal, all together send up to God a prayer they had learned beforehand. For they must not place their hopes in spears, or full armor, or the strength of their bodies, but must recognize the God who is over all, the giver of every blessing, and of victory itself, to whom it is fitting to offer the prayers prescribed: lifting their hands high toward heaven, and sending the eyes of the mind higher still toward the King of heaven, and calling on him in their prayers as the giver of victory, and as savior, guardian and helper. He himself was the teacher of this prayer for all the soldiers, commanding them all to say it in the Roman language, as follows.
20.1| "You alone we acknowledge as God; you we recognize as King; you we call upon as helper. From you we have received our victories; through you we have become stronger than our enemies. To you we give thanks for the good things already granted, and in you we hope for those to come. We all become your suppliants, and we beseech you to keep our emperor Constantine and his God-beloved sons safe and victorious for us through the longest possible life." Such were the practices he enacted for the military units on the day of light, and such were the words he taught them to send up to God in their prayers.
21.1| He now also had the symbol of the saving trophy stamped upon the weapons themselves, and ordered that at the head of the armed host there be carried in procession not golden images, as had formerly been their custom, but nothing except the saving trophy alone.
22.1| He himself, like one initiated into sacred mysteries, shut himself away at fixed times each day in the secret inner chambers of his palace, and alone conversed with his God alone. Kneeling in suppliant petitions, he entreated God to grant what he asked. On the days of the saving festival he intensified his discipline, and with all the strength of soul and body he performed the divine sacred rites, devoting himself wholly to purity of life on the one hand, and on the other leading everyone in the festival.
22.2| He also turned the sacred all-night vigil into the light of day. Those appointed for this purpose lit towering pillars of wax throughout the whole city, and there were torches of fire illuminating every place, so that the mystic vigil became brighter than a radiant day. When dawn broke, imitating the saving benefactions, he stretched out his generous right hand to all nations, peoples and communities, bestowing rich gifts of every kind on everyone.
23.1| In this way, then, he himself served as priest to his own God. In general, for the peoples and the soldiers under Roman rule, the gates of all idol worship were shut, and every form of sacrifice was forbidden. A law likewise went out to the governors of each province to honor the Lord's day, and by the emperor's nod these same men also honored the days of the martyrs and gave glory to the seasons of festivals with the churches. All such things were done to the emperor's heartfelt satisfaction.
24.1| Hence it was natural that on one occasion, when he was entertaining bishops at a banquet, he let fall the remark that he too was a bishop, saying to them, in my hearing, words to this effect: "You are bishops of those within the church, but I may be a bishop appointed by God over those outside." And in keeping with this saying, he took thought for all his subjects, overseeing them, and urged them, as far as his power went, to pursue the pious life.
25.1| Hence, naturally, by successive laws and ordinances he commanded everyone not to sacrifice to idols, not to pry into oracles, not to set up carved images, not to perform secret rites, and not to pollute the cities with the murderous bloodshed of gladiators.
25.2| To the people of Egypt and Alexandria itself, who were accustomed to worship their river through effeminate men, another law was sent: the whole race of the half-men, like some counterfeit thing, was to vanish from life, and those sick with this licentiousness were not to be permitted to be seen anywhere.
25.3| But when the superstitious supposed that the river would no longer flow for them as usual, God, working together with the emperor's law, brought about the very opposite of what they expected. For those who defiled the cities with their filth were no more, and the river, as though the land had been cleansed for it, flowed as never before, and rose in a rich flood, inundating all the fields. By this deed it taught the foolish to turn away from defiled men and to ascribe the cause of good things solely to the giver of every good.
26.1| But the countless deeds of this kind that the emperor performed in every province would be easy work for those who are eager to write them down, as would his laws, which he renewed by changing them from the old ones toward what was more holy. Of these too it is easier to show the manner briefly.
26.2| The ancients punished the childless by depriving them of succession by their acquaintances, and this was a harsh law against those without children, as though it punished them with a penalty for having done wrong. The emperor repealed it and allowed their relatives to inherit. This he adapted toward what is holy, saying that those who offend deliberately ought to be disciplined with the fitting punishment.
26.3| For nature has produced many who are childless, who prayed to be blessed with many children but were deprived of them by weakness of nature. Others have become childless not by refusing the succession of children but by turning away from intercourse with women, which they chose out of the most intense love of philosophy. And women consecrated to the priesthood of God have pursued purity and complete virginity, dedicating themselves to a pure and wholly holy life of soul and body.
26.4| What then? Ought this to be thought worthy of punishment, or of wonder and acceptance? For the eagerness is worth much, and the achievement is greater than nature. Those who by weakness of nature are denied the children they desire should be pitied and not punished, while the lover of what is better deserves to be greatly admired and not penalized. In this way the emperor reshaped the law with sound reasoning.
26.5| Then, concerning those who depart from life, the old laws likewise required that wills drawn up at the very last breath be made with exact verbal phrasing, and prescribed which forms and what expressions had to be used; and many wrongs were committed through these rules to defeat the intention of the deceased.
26.6| The emperor, seeing this, reformed this law as well, saying that the dying person should be able to arrange his wishes in bare words and any chance expressions, and set out his opinion in any chance document; and even if he wished to do so without writing, he need only do it before reliable witnesses, able to keep faith truthfully.
27.1| He also legislated that no Christian should be a slave to Jews. For it was not lawful, he said, for those who had killed prophets and the Lord to place under the yoke of slavery those who had been redeemed by the Savior. And if anyone were found in such a position, the slave was to be set free and the owner punished with a fine.
27.2| He also confirmed with his seal the decisions of the bishops made in synods, so that the governors of the provinces could not annul what had been decided; for the priests of God, he said, were more worthy of trust than any judge.
27.3| He laid down countless other measures akin to these for those under his rule, which would require leisure and a subject of their own to set forth, for an exact appreciation of the emperor's wisdom in these matters too. Why need I now recount how, having bound himself to the God over all, from dawn to evening he considered whom among people he might benefit, and how he was impartial to all and ready to share his kindness with everyone?
28.1| To the churches of God he gave in particular, beyond all others, very many special gifts, here granting estates, elsewhere grain allowances for the support of poor men, orphaned children, and pitiable women. With great care he also provided a great many garments for the naked and ill-clad. He judged those who had dedicated their lives to the philosophy in accord with God worthy of especially great honor. The chorus of the all-holy ever-virgins of God he continued almost to revere, convinced that the God to whom they had consecrated themselves dwelt within the souls of such women.
29.1| Moreover, fostering his own mind with divinely inspired words, he spent the hours of the night in wakefulness, and in his leisure he composed speeches and came forward often to deliver them, thinking it fitting for himself to govern his subjects by educative speech and to establish his entire empire as one governed by reason.
29.2| For this reason he would himself convene assemblies, and countless crowds hurried to hear him philosophize. And whenever the occasion arose for him to speak on theology, standing upright throughout, with a composed face and a subdued voice, he seemed to initiate those present, with complete reverence, into the divinely inspired teaching. Then, as his hearers cried out in words of acclaim, he would signal them to look up to heaven, and to admire and honor with reverent praise the King over all alone.
29.3| Dividing up his themes, at one time he laid down refutations of the error of many gods, showing that the superstition of the nations is deception and a bulwark of godlessness; at another he handed on the knowledge of the single sovereign Deity; and next he went through the account of providence, both over the whole and over its parts. From there he descended to the saving dispensation, showing that it had necessarily come about according to fitting reason. Passing on from this, he took up the teaching about the divine judgment.
29.4| Here above all he struck his hearers most sharply, exposing the plunderers and the grasping, and those who had given themselves over to the insatiable love of money. With his words he beat and, as it were, scourged some of the acquaintances standing around him, so that they lowered their heads, stricken in conscience. He charged them in ringing tones, solemnly declaring that they would have to give God an account of what had been entrusted to them: to himself, he said, the God over all had granted the kingdom over all on earth, and he, in imitation of that greater rule, had entrusted to them the administration of its separate parts; but all of them, in due time, would render an account of their actions to the great King.
29.5| These things he testified continually, these he recalled to their minds, of these he was the teacher. But while he, confident in a genuine faith, thought and declared such things, they were ignorant men, deaf to what is noble; with their tongues and cries of good omen they applauded what was said, but through insatiable greed they neglected to act on it,
30.1| so that on one occasion he took hold of one of those about him and said, "And how far, my good man, are we going to stretch our insatiable greed?" Then, marking out on the ground with the spear he happened to be carrying the length of a man's stature, he said, "If you were to gain all the wealth of life and the whole substance of the earth, you will carry away no more than this little plot of ground that I have outlined, if indeed you even obtain that." Yet by saying and doing these things the blessed man did not stop anyone; but events plainly persuaded them that the emperor's pronouncements were like very oracles of God and not mere empty phrases.
31.1| But since no fear of death held the wicked back from their villainy, the emperor being wholly inclined to kindness, and the governors of each nation nowhere pursuing those who did wrong, this brought no small reproach on the general administration. Whether the reproach was reasonable or not, let each judge as he pleases; but let me be permitted to write the truth.
32.1| The emperor supplied the written text of his speeches in the Roman tongue, and interpreters whose task this was turned it into Greek. As a sample of the speeches thus translated, after the present subject I shall attach in sequence the one that he himself entitled "To the Assembly of the Saints," having dedicated the writing to the church of God, so that no one may suppose that my testimony about what was said is mere boasting.
33.1| There is also something I think should not be left out of memory, which the admirable man did in our own presence. Once, trusting in his reverence for the divine, we asked to deliver a discourse on the Savior's tomb in his hearing. He lent his ears most eagerly, and though a crowd of hearers stood around inside the palace itself, he stood upright and listened with the rest. When we begged him to rest on the royal throne placed nearby, he would not be persuaded at all, but with intense concentration he weighed what was said, and bore witness to the truth of our doctrinal theology.
33.2| When much time had passed and the discourse was growing long, we chose to stop, but he would not let us go, and urged us to bring it to the end. When we begged him to sit, he pleaded in return, saying at one moment that it was not lawful to listen casually to teachings stirred up about God, and at another that standing was to his own benefit and advantage, for it is holy to listen standing to divine things. When this too came to its end, we returned home and resumed our customary occupations,
34.1| but he, who had care for the churches of God, addressed a letter to me about the production of divinely inspired scriptures. He joined to it another, about the most holy festival of Passover. For when we had addressed to him a mystical unveiling of the meaning of the festival, anyone who reads this letter of his will learn how he honored us and answered in return.
35.1| Letter of the emperor Constantine, which he wrote in reply to my discourse. "Constantine, Victor, Greatest, Augustus, to Eusebius. The undertaking is very great and beyond the power of any words: to speak the mysteries of Christ worthily, and to expound in the fitting manner the dispute over Passover and its origin, a task both profitable and laborious. For it is impossible for human beings to describe the divine worthily, even for those capable of understanding it.
35.2| Nevertheless, I greatly admired your love of learning and your ambition. I read the book myself with pleasure, and as you wished I gave orders that it be published for the many who genuinely devote themselves to the worship of the divine. Since you can see, then, with what delight we receive such gifts from your keen intelligence, be eager to gladden us more often with the kinds of writings in which you admit you were raised. (For we are urging you on as you already run, as the saying goes, toward your usual pursuits.) Indeed, such great confidence in your writings shows that the man who recasts your labors into the Roman tongue has been found not unworthy, even though such a translation is quite unable to do justice to the beauty of the originals. May God keep you safe, beloved brother." Such was the letter concerning this matter; the one concerning the preparation of the sacred scriptures runs roughly as follows.
36.1| Letter of the emperor concerning the preparation of the divine scriptures. "Victor Constantine, Greatest, Augustus, to Eusebius. In the city that bears our name, with the help of the providence of God the Savior, a very great multitude of people has given itself to the most holy church, so that, since everything there is receiving great growth, it seemed very fitting that more churches be built in it.
36.2| Therefore receive most readily what has seemed good to our judgment. For it appeared fitting to make this known to your discernment: that you should order fifty volumes on parchment to be prepared, easy to read and convenient to carry for use, and written by skilled scribes who know their craft precisely. These are, of course, the divine scriptures, whose preparation and use you know to be especially necessary for the church's purposes.
36.3| Letters have been sent from our Clemency to the finance officer of the diocese, so that he may take care to provide everything needed for their preparation. It will be your task, by your diligence, to see that the volumes are completed as quickly as possible. You should also know that you have authority, by this letter of ours, to take two public carriages for their transport. In this way the beautifully written volumes can most easily be conveyed even to our own sight, and a single one of the deacons from your church will carry this out; when he reaches us, he will experience our kindness. May God keep you safe, beloved brother."
37.1| These were the emperor's orders. The deed immediately followed the word: we sent him volumes in threes and fours, in splendidly adorned cases. . . . This, too, another reply from the emperor will make clear. In it, having learned that our city of Constantia, which was previously full of extremely superstitious men, had changed from its former idolatrous error through an impulse of reverence for God, he declared his joy and his approval of the action . . .
38.1| Already, then, among the nation of the Palestinians, Constantia, having inscribed on itself the worship of God that brings salvation, was deemed worthy of greater honor both from God himself and from the emperor. It was declared a city, which it had not been before, and it exchanged its name for a better one, taking its title from the emperor's pious sister.
39.1| Many other regions did the same, such as the city in the nation of the Phoenicians that bears the emperor's own name. Its citizens handed over to fire a countless number of images of wooden idols and exchanged them for the law of salvation.
39.2| In other provinces as well, people came over of their own accord to the knowledge that brings salvation, in crowds, region by region and city by city. The shrines they had previously held sacred, thick with idols of every kind, they wiped out as though they were nothing; their temples and sacred precincts, raised on high, they pulled down with no one ordering it; and raising churches from the foundations, they set these up in place of their former error. But to write out each of the deeds of the God-beloved emperor would be the task less of us than of those who were deemed worthy to be with him for all his time. We, having handed down in brief in this writing what has come to our knowledge, will pass on to the last period of his life.
40.1| The cycles of thirty years of his reign were being completed. Three sons of his, most distinguished Caesars, were proclaimed sharers in the empire at different times: first, Constantine, who bore his father's name, received a share of the honor of empire around his father's tenth anniversary; the second, Constantius, adorned with the name of his grandfather, was proclaimed around the festival of the twentieth anniversary; and the third, Constans, whose name signifies one who is steadfast and firmly established, was advanced around the third decade.
40.2| Having thus gained, in keeping with the number three, a threefold offspring of God-beloved sons, and having honored each of them at the close of a ten-year period by admitting him to a share in the empire, the emperor judged that the thirtieth year of his own reign was the fitting time for thank-offerings to the universal Sovereign of all. He therefore decided it was right to carry out the dedication of the martyrium that he himself had built at Jerusalem with all his zeal for what is beautiful.
41.1| But envy, which hates what is beautiful, once again in this very matter threw the churches of Egypt into turmoil with its quarrels, like a dark cloud passing over the far-shining brilliance of the sun.
41.2| The man who was in God's care, however, equipped yet another council, a full gathering of bishops, as though it were God's own army, and set it against the malicious demon. He commanded them to hasten from all Egypt and Libya, from Asia and Europe, first to settle the dispute, and then to proceed to the dedication of the temple mentioned above.
41.3| As a side-task on the journey he ordered them to resolve the quarrels at the metropolis of the Phoenicians. For it was not permitted, he said, to come to the worship of God with minds divided, since the divine law declares that those who are at odds must not offer their gifts until they have made a pact of friendship and settled their differences with one another in peace.
41.4| The emperor, kindling these saving precepts in his own mind, made known by a letter, which read as follows, that they should hold to the matters before them with complete harmony and concord:
42.1| Letter of the emperor to the council at Tyre. Constantine, victorious, greatest, Augustus, to the holy council at Tyre. It would perhaps have been fitting, and most suited to the favorable state of our times, for the catholic church to be free of faction and for the servants of Christ to be now rid of every kind of abuse. But since certain people, driven by the frenzy of an unhealthy love of strife (for I could not say they are living in a way worthy of themselves), are attempting to throw everything into confusion, a thing that seems to me to have gone beyond every calamity, for this reason I urge you, as the saying goes, to run, and without any delay to gather in one place, to fill up the council, to defend those who need assistance, to heal brothers who are in danger, to lead the divided members back to unity, and to correct what is going wrong while the occasion allows, so that you may restore to so many provinces the harmony that befits them, which, alas for the absurdity, the contempt of a very few men has destroyed.
42.2| That this is pleasing to God, the Master of all, and for us more to be wished for than any prayer, and for yourselves as well, if you call peace back, you will become the cause of no ordinary good. So from this point on, intensify your eagerness and strive to set upon the matters before you the fitting limit, meeting with complete sincerity and faith, which that Savior whom we serve, all but sending forth His voice everywhere, demands above all from you.
42.3| Nothing that falls within my reverent care will be lacking to you. I have done everything that you indicated to me in writing. I have written to the bishops whom you wished, that they come and share your labors with you. I have sent Dionysius, who is of consular rank, and he will remind those who ought to come to the council to come with you, and who will be present as an observer of what is done, and especially of good order.
42.4| For if anyone, which I do not expect, should even now try to evade our command and be unwilling to attend, a man will be sent from here who, expelling him by imperial order, will judge that it is not fitting for him to resist decisions which an emperor has issued on behalf of the truth.
42.5| What remains will be the work of your holiness: with a judgment that sets proper bounds, neither out of hatred nor out of favor, but in accordance with the rule of the church and of the apostles, to apply the fitting remedy to the offenses, whether they happened through error, so that you may free the church from every slander, lighten my own anxieties, and, by restoring the grace of peace to those who are now in strife, win the greatest renown for yourselves. May God keep you safe, beloved brothers.
43.1| When the orders were being carried out, another imperial officer arrived, urging the council on with a letter from the emperor, and pressing them to hurry and not to put off the journey to Jerusalem.
43.2| So they all set out from the land of the Phoenicians and drove on by the public post toward their appointed goal. The whole region there was then filled with a very great chorus of God, as the distinguished bishops from every province were assembled together at Jerusalem.
43.3| The Macedonians sent along the bishop of their own metropolis; the Pannonians and Moesians sent the flowering beauty of God's youth among them, and there was present also a holy marvel of a Persian bishop, a man who had made an exact study of the divine oracles. Bithynians and Thracians adorned the full complement of the council.
43.4| Nor were the distinguished men of Cilicia left behind, and the Cappadocians who were foremost in rhetorical learning stood out in the midst of all. All of Syria and Mesopotamia, Phoenicia and Arabia together with Palestine, Egypt and Libya, and those who inhabit the land of Thebes, all together filled the great choir of God, and a countless crowd from every province followed them. Besides all these there was a royal service in attendance, and men of proven worth were sent from the palace itself to brighten the festival with the emperor's provisions.
44.1| Indeed, the man set over all these arrangements was a capable servant of the emperor, conspicuous for faith and reverence and for his practice of the divine words. He had been made famous by his confessions on behalf of piety in the time of the tyrants, and so was reasonably trusted with the management of these matters. Serving the emperor's wish in complete sincerity, he honored the synod with a friendly welcome, with splendid banquets and festive drinking-parties. To the poor, who went unclothed, and to countless multitudes of destitute men and women who lacked food and the other necessities, he made lavish distributions of money and of garments. He also adorned the whole church with rich, royal offerings. So he fulfilled this service,
45.1| while the ministers of God adorned the festival with prayers and discourses. Some of them hymned the devotion of the God-beloved emperor toward the Savior of the universe, recounting in speech the great works connected with the martyrium; others, through festal theologies drawn from the divine doctrines, offered a feast of spiritual nourishment to the ears of all.
45.2| Others gave interpretations of the divine readings, uncovering their hidden contemplations. Those who were unable to proceed by these means propitiated the Deity with bloodless sacrifices and mystical rites, offering to God prayers of supplication for the common peace, on behalf of the church of God, and for the emperor himself, the author of so many blessings, and for his God-beloved sons. 3There we also, deemed worthy of blessings beyond our deserts, honored the festival with various public discourses: at one time interpreting descriptions of the emperor's fine works as set out in writing, at another drawing out prophetic contemplations suited to the symbols set before us. In this way the festival of dedication was celebrated with rejoicing during the emperor's thirtieth anniversary itself.
46.1| What sort of church the Savior's is, what sort of saving cave, and what the emperor's splendid gifts were, and the multitude of offerings made in gold, silver and precious stones, we have set out as best we could in a work of our own and addressed it to the emperor himself. We shall present that discourse at the proper time after the present subject of this writing, and join with it the oration for the thirtieth anniversary, which a little later, having made the journey to the city named for the emperor, we delivered in the emperor's hearing, glorifying a second time, in the palace itself, God the King over all. Listening to it, the friend of God seemed delighted, and he showed this after the hearing, feasting the bishops who were present and entertaining them with honor of every kind.
47.1| This was the greatest synod we know of, the second which the emperor convened, at Jerusalem itself, after that first one which he had held in the famous city of the Bithynians. The earlier one was a synod of victory, fulfilling at Nicaea itself, in the twentieth year of his reign, the prayer made against his enemies and foes; the later one graced the completion of the third decade, as the emperor dedicated the martyrium around the Savior's tomb to God, the giver of all good things, as an offering of peace.
48.1| While the emperor was bringing these things to completion, and his godly virtue was hymned on every tongue, one of the ministers of God dared to declare him blessed to his face, saying that even in the present life he would share the rule with the Son of God in the life to come. The emperor listened to the remark with distaste and urged the man not to dare say such things, but rather to pray that he himself might be found worthy of service to God both in the present and in the future.
49.1| When the thirtieth year of his reign was also being completed, he celebrated the marriage of the second of his sons, having long before arranged a marriage for the eldest when he came of age. Festivities and banquets were held, the emperor himself outfitting the bridegroom and feasting and entertaining magnificently, with companies of men in one place and, apart elsewhere, choruses of women; and rich distributions of gifts were bestowed on peoples and cities alike.
50.1| At this time envoys also arrived from the Indians of the eastern lands, where the sun rises, bringing gifts: precious stones of every kind flashing with light, and animals that differ in nature from those we know. They presented these to the emperor, and with paintings of images and with dedicated statues of men they showed that the Ocean itself lay under his rule, and the leaders of the Indian country agreed that they acknowledged him as sovereign and emperor. So when he began his reign, the Britons, by the Ocean in the west where the sun sets, were the first to be subjected to him, and now it was the Indians, whose lot lies toward the rising sun.
51.1| Since, then, he held both extremities of the whole inhabited world, he divided the entire government of his empire among his three sons, bequeathing it to those most dear to him like a family estate. To the eldest he assigned the portion that had been his grandfather's, to the second the dominion of the east, and to the third the portion lying between these.
51.2| Providing them also with a good inheritance that would save the soul, he planted in them the seeds of piety, introducing them to divine teachings and placing over them as instructors men proven in godliness; and he set over them as well other teachers of secular letters who had reached the height of education. Some led them in the arts of war, others made them knowledgeable in civil affairs, and others made them skilled in the laws.
51.3| Each of the sons had also received an imperial establishment by lot: heavy infantry, spearmen, bodyguards, and divisions of troops of every kind, and over these commanders, captains, generals and brigade leaders, whose skill in war and whose goodwill toward himself their father had already tested.
52.1| While the Caesars were still tender in age, those who assisted them were necessarily at their side and managed public affairs together with them. But as they advanced to manhood, their father alone sufficed for their instruction. At times, when they were with him, he urged them on with private counsels, teaching them to become zealous imitators of his own piety; at times, when they were away, he addressed to them written instructions on imperial matters, of which the greatest and first was that knowledge and reverence of God, the King of all, be honored above all wealth and above the empire itself.
52.2| He was also already giving them authority to do through their own agency what benefited the common good, and he urged them to hold the church of God among their first concerns, and expressly commanded them to be Christians. So he advanced his sons; and they, not as though under orders but with willing minds of their own, surpassed their father's exhortations, directing their thoughts toward God with devotion, and fulfilling the ordinances of the church within the palaces themselves together with all their households. It was also the work of their father's foresight to hand over to his sons household members who were all God-fearing, and the commanders of the leading divisions and those who had taken charge of public affairs were men of that kind. Thus he secured them with men faithful to God, as with strong ramparts. When these matters too had been fittingly arranged by the thrice-blessed emperor, God, the steward of every good, as though the universal state of affairs had been set in good order for him, judged it at last a fitting time for him to receive the better things, and brought on what nature requires.
53.1| He completed thirty-two years of reign, lacking a few months and days, and of life about twice that span. Throughout that time his body remained free from sickness and decay, clear of every blemish and more youthful than any young man's, handsome to look at and strong enough to accomplish whatever was needed by his power, so that he exercised, rode on horseback, traveled on foot, exposed himself in wars, raised trophies over enemies, and won his customary victories over those opposed to him without bloodshed.
54.1| The qualities of his soul likewise advanced to the highest perfection attainable among human beings. He was distinguished in every noble quality, but above all in kindness toward people. This was in fact regarded by many as a fault, because of the baseness of wicked men, who blamed the emperor's forbearance for their own wickedness.
54.2| For truly, in the times I have described, we ourselves also observed these two grievous things: the license given to insatiable and wicked men, who ruin all of life, and the unspeakable dissembling of those who slipped into the church and falsely put on the name of Christians.
54.3| His kindness and love of what is good, the sincerity of his faith and the truth-loving cast of his character, led him to trust those who passed for Christians in outward appearance and who professed to preserve a genuine goodwill toward him, though their souls were feigned. Entrusting himself to them, he might perhaps at some time have mixed with unworthy people, since envy was bringing this stain upon his virtues.
55.1| But before long divine wrath pursued those men. The emperor himself had advanced so far in his soul through reasoned understanding that until his death he went on, as was his habit, composing speeches, as was his habit giving audiences and offering his listeners instruction worthy of God, and as was his habit making laws, now for civil matters and now for military ones, and devising everything to suit the life of men.
55.2| It is worth recalling that when he was close to the very end of his life, he delivered a funeral oration in his accustomed lecture hall. Extending it at length, he discussed in it the immortality of the soul, those who have passed the present life in piety, and the good things kept in store with God himself for those dear to God. With lengthy proofs he also made clear what end awaits the opposing party, committing the downfall of the godless to writing. In bearing solemn witness to this he seemed to cut his associates to the quick, so much so that he asked one of the would-be wise men what he thought of what was said, and the man bore witness to the truth of what was said, very strongly, although he had no wish to praise teachings directed against polytheists.
55.3| Having spoken to his acquaintances in such terms before his death, he seemed to be making smooth and level for himself the journey to better things.
56.1| This too deserves to be remembered: at about the time just mentioned, when word came of a stirring among the barbarians in the East, he said that this victory over them still remained for him, and set out to campaign against the Persians.
56.2| Having decided on this, he set the military divisions in motion, and he also consulted the bishops around him about the march, taking care that some whose presence was essential for the service of God should accompany him.
56.3| They said very eagerly that they wished to follow him and had no desire to withdraw, but would campaign with him and fight alongside him through their supplications to God. Greatly pleased by their promises, he laid out the route for them.
56.4| Then, with great zeal, he also had a tent made in the form of a church for the battle array of that war, in which he intended to offer supplications, together with the bishops, to God, the giver of victory.
57.1| Meanwhile the Persians, learning of the emperor's preparation for war and greatly fearing to meet him in battle, begged him by an embassy to make peace. And so the most peace-loving emperor received the Persian embassy and gladly concluded a friendly agreement with them. By now the great festival of the Passover had arrived, on which the emperor, rendering his prayers to God, kept the all-night vigil together with the others.
58.1| After this he prepared to build the martyrium in the city that bears his name, in memory of the apostles. He raised the whole building to an indescribable height and made it flash with every kind of stone in great variety, paving it from floor to roof; he divided the ceiling into fine coffers and covered it entirely with gold. Above this, on the very top of the roof, bronze instead of tile gave the work protection against the rains, and abundant gold shone around this as well, so that, with the sun's rays reflected back, it sent out dazzling flashes to those looking from afar. Latticework wrought in bronze and gold in relief ran in a circle around the roof.
59.1| In this way the church was honored with the emperor's great zeal and diligence. Around it lay an open-air court of vast size, spread out to the clear air. Colonnades ran around this court on four sides, enclosing the open space in the middle, with the church itself in the center. Royal apartments, baths and resting places extended alongside the colonnades, and very many other lodgings were suitably built for the guards of the place.
60.1| The emperor dedicated all this to perpetuate for all people the memory of the apostles of our Savior. Yet he was building with another aim in mind as well, which, hidden at first, was revealed to everyone near the end.
60.2| He himself, then, had set this place aside for himself against the proper time of his death, providing in his foresight, out of an exceeding eagerness of faith, that his own body after death would share in the title of the apostles, so that even after his end he might benefit from the prayers that were to be offered here in honor of the apostles. For this reason he also ordered that the church assemble here, and he set an altar in the middle.
60.3| He raised twelve tombs there, like sacred pillars, for the honor and remembrance of the company of the apostles, and placed his own coffin in the middle, with six of the apostles' tombs lying on either side of it. This too, as I said, he planned with sober judgment, looking to the place where his body, once he had ended his life, would rest in fitting honor.
60.4| He had long since, far in advance, sketched all this out in his mind, and he dedicated the church to the apostles, believing that remembrance of them would bring his soul a saving benefit; and God did not think him unworthy of what he had prayed for and hoped. For when he had completed the first observances of the feast of Easter and had spent the saving day in splendor and gladness, making the feast bright for himself and for all, God, in whose honor he was carrying out these things, judged him worthy, at the opportune moment, of the divine passage to a better state, as he was bringing his life to its close while still occupied in these things.
61.1| First he suffered some disorder of the body, and then a sickness followed it. After that he went out to the hot-water baths of his own city, and from there he came to the city that bore his mother's name. There he stayed in the house of prayer of the martyrs and offered up to God prayers of supplication and entreaty.
61.2| When the thought came to him that his life was ending, he reckoned that this was the time for cleansing whatever offenses he had ever committed, and, trusting in the saving power of the ineffable words and in the saving bath, he intended to wash from his soul every failing that a mortal could fall into.
61.3| With this in mind he knelt on the floor as a suppliant of God and made his confession in the martyrs' shrine itself, where he was also first judged worthy of the prayers with the laying on of hands. Then he moved from there to a suburb of the city of Nicomedia, and there he called the bishops together and spoke to them somewhat as follows.
62.1| "This is the very time I long ago hoped for, when I thirsted and prayed to obtain salvation in God. It is time for us too to enjoy the seal that makes immortal, time to share in the saving seal,
62.2| which I once intended to receive in the streams of the river Jordan, where our Savior too is recorded to have shared in the bath as a pattern for ours. But God, who knows what is to our advantage, now judges us worthy of it here.
62.3| So let there be no doubt. For even if the Lord of life and death should wish us to live on here again, it is settled once and for all that from now on I shall be gathered with the people of God, joining all of them in prayer as a member of the church, and I shall lay down for myself rules of life worthy of God."
62.4| So he spoke, and those who performed the rites fulfilled the divine ordinances and gave him a share in the ineffable mysteries, after explaining beforehand all that was needful. And so Constantine, alone of the emperors of all time, was reborn and perfected in the mysteries of Christ; counted worthy of the divine seal, he rejoiced in the Spirit, was renewed, and was filled with divine light, delighting in his soul at the abundance of his faith and astounded at the plain evidence of the divine power.
62.5| When all that was required had been completed, he was clothed in bright imperial garments that shone like light, and he lay down to rest on a pure white couch, no longer willing to touch the purple.
63.1| Then, raising his voice, he sent up to God a prayer of thanksgiving, and after it he went on to say: "Now, in very truth, I know myself to be blessed; now I know I have been shown worthy of immortal life; now I know I have shared in the divine light." He also called those wretched and miserable who are deprived of these blessings.
63.2| When the officers and commanders of the legions came in and lamented, weeping that they would be left bereft, and prayed that he might have years of life, he answered them by saying that he had now been granted true life and that he alone knew the blessings he had received; therefore, he said, he was hastening and would not delay his journey to his God.
63.3| After this he gave the appropriate instructions. He honored the Romans who dwelt in the imperial city with yearly gifts, and to his sons he handed over the allotment of the empire as a kind of inheritance from their father, having set down in writing all that was dear to him.
64.1| All of this was completed during the greatest of festivals, the most solemn and venerable Pentecost, honored by seven weeks and sealed by a single day, on which, as the divine writings hold, the ascension of the common Savior into the heavens took place, together with the descent of the Holy Spirit upon human beings.
64.2| On this feast the emperor was thought worthy of these things. On the very last day, which one would not err in calling the feast of feasts, around the midday hours of the sun, he was taken up to his God. He left to mortals what was akin to them, while he himself, in all of his soul that was intellectual and devoted to God, was joined to his God. This was the end of Constantine's life. But let us go on to what follows.
65.1| The spearmen at once, and the whole body of the bodyguards, tore their garments, threw themselves on the ground, and beat their heads, raising cries of lament with groans and shouts together, calling upon their master, their lord, their emperor, not as a master but as a father, in the manner of true children.
65.2| The commanders of units and the captains wept for their savior, their guardian, their benefactor, and the rest of the soldiers, in the proper order, longed for their good shepherd, as flocks do.
65.3| The populace likewise roamed throughout the whole city, making the deep pain of their souls plain by cries and shouts, while others stayed in their houses downcast and shaken, each making the mourning his own and beating himself, as though the common good of all had been taken from their own lives.
66.1| The soldiers lifted the body and laid it in a golden coffin, wrapped this in imperial purple, and carried it to the city named after the emperor, where they set it on a high platform in the palace. They lit lamps all around on golden stands, and provided those who saw it a marvelous spectacle, such as had never been seen on earth under the rays of the sun since the first foundation of the world. Inside the palace itself, in the very middle of the royal quarters, the emperor's body lay on a high golden coffin, honored with the imperial adornments, the purple and the diadem, and very many men stood around it and kept guard, sleeplessly, by day and by night.
67.1| The commanders of the entire army, the counts, and the whole order of officials, who by law had formerly been required to bow before the emperor, changed nothing of their customary manner. At the proper times they entered and, kneeling, greeted the emperor lying in the coffin as though he were alive, even after death. After these first men, the members of the senate itself and all those of rank did the same as they came in, and after them crowds from every kind of community, with women and children, came in to see.
67.2| This went on for a long time, since the soldiers had resolved that the body should remain so and be guarded until his sons arrived and honored their father by conveying him themselves. The blessed man reigned after death, alone among mortals, and the usual business was carried on just as if he were still living, for God had granted this to him alone from the beginning of time. For he alone, as no other emperor has done, honored the God who is King of all and his Christ by every kind of action, and so reasonably alone received these things. And God, who is over all, deemed it right that his mortal body should still reign among men, thus displaying the ageless and unending kingdom of his soul to those whose minds are not dulled. But these things were accomplished in this way,
68.1| and the commanders of the military units sent out select men from the army ranks, long known to the emperor for loyalty and goodwill, to make what had happened plain to the Caesars. These men did this,
68.2| and as if by some higher inspiration, all the armies everywhere, on learning of the emperor's death, were held by a single resolve: just as though the great emperor were still alive, to recognize no other as emperors of the Romans than his sons alone.
68.3| Not long afterward they resolved that they should no longer be Caesars, but that from then on all of them should be styled Augusti, which would be the sign. So the soldiers did these things, announcing to one another in writing their own votes and declarations, and within a single moment of time the agreement of the armies was made known to everyone everywhere.
69.1| But the people who lived in the imperial city, the senate itself and the Roman people, when they learned of the emperor's death, took the news as dreadful and beyond any calamity, and gave themselves up to uncontrollable grief. The baths were closed, as were the marketplaces, the public spectacles, and everything else that people in good spirits were accustomed to do for the ease of life. Those who had long lived in luxury went about with downcast faces, and all together they praised the blessed man as beloved of God and truly worthy of the empire.
69.2| And they did not merely cry this out in shouts but proceeded to deeds, honoring him as though he were still alive, though dead, with dedicated images: they portrayed the form of heaven in painted colors, and in the painting they represented him resting in the upper air, above the vaults of heaven. They also hailed his sons, and them alone, and no others, as emperors and Augusti, and with loud entreaties they implored that the body of their emperor be brought to them and laid to rest in the imperial city.
70.1| But these people too thus adorned the man who was honored by God. His second son arrived at the city and brought the body of his father to it, himself leading the funeral procession. The military units went ahead in dense ranks, an innumerable crowd followed, and spearmen and heavy-armed soldiers surrounded the emperor's body.
70.2| When they reached the church of the Apostles of the Savior, they set the coffin down there. So the young emperor Constantius, adorning his father in this way by his presence and by the rites due to him, fulfilled the duties of fitting piety.
71.1| When he withdrew with the military units, the ministers of God came forward into the middle together with the crowds and the whole people devoted to God, and they performed the rites of divine worship with prayers. There the blessed man lay on high on a lofty platform and was glorified, while the vast multitude together with those consecrated to God, not without tears but with greater lamentation, offered their prayers to God for the emperor's soul, fulfilling the wishes of the one beloved of God,
71.2| and in this too God displayed his favor toward his servant: even after his end he gave the empire to his dear and legitimate sons as successors, and he judged him worthy of the place he had labored over, together with the memorial of the apostles. So one may see even now the body of that thrice-blessed soul glorified along with the name of the apostles, gathered among the people of God, deemed worthy of the divine ordinances and the mystical service, and sharing in the holy prayers; and he himself, having taken hold of the empire even after death, as though governing the whole realm after coming back to life, holds sway over the Roman government with the very title Victor, Greatest, Augustus,
72.1| not like the Egyptian bird, which they say, being unique in its nature, dies on spices, offering its own death as a sacrifice to itself, and comes back to life from its very ashes, and flies up, growing to be such as it was before, but like his own Savior, who, like a grain of wheat, multiplied from one into many by the blessing of God, put forth the ear and filled the whole inhabited world with his fruits. In like manner the thrice-blessed man, through the succession of his sons, became many in place of one, so that he was honored among all nations, together with his sons, by the setting up of images, and his own name, Constantine, was retained even after the end of his life.
73.1| Soon, too, images were stamped on coins. On the front they depicted the blessed man with his head veiled, and on the other side he was shown as though on a four-horse chariot in the manner of a charioteer, being taken up from above by a right hand stretched out to him.
74.1| These things God who is over all showed to our own eyes in Constantine, the only one of all who have ever ruled to be shown plainly to be a Christian; and so he made clear how great a difference he sets between those who have been counted worthy to worship him together with his Christ and those who chose the opposite course, who set out to make war on his church and so made him their enemy and adversary. For the end of life that befell each of them displayed the manifest proof of their hatred of God, just as the end of Constantine made plain to all the pledges of his love for God. He alone of the emperors of the Romans proclaimed God the King of all and the word of Christ; he alone proclaimed the word of Christ to all with open boldness; he alone honored his church as no other in all the ages has done; he alone pulled down every error of the many gods and did away with every form of idolatry; and indeed he alone was counted worthy, both in life itself and after death, of such honors as no one could say had fallen to any other, whether among Greeks or among barbarians, or even among the Romans of the remotest past, since nothing of the kind from the whole of past ages has come down to us in memory.
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