to his
conversion to Christianity, no person can doubt who believes that men's
actions are an index of their real feelings. It is indeed true that
Constantine's life was not such as the precepts of Christianity
required; and it is also true that he remained a catechumen all his
life, and was received to full membership in the Church, by baptism,
only a few days before his death, at Nicomedia. But neither of these is
adequate proof that the Emperor had not a general conviction of the
truth of the Christian religion, or that he only feigned himself a
Christian. For in that age many persons deferred baptism till near the
close of life, that they might pass into the other world altogether pure
and undefiled with sin; and it is but too notorious that many persons
who look upon the Christian religion as indubitably true and of divine
origin, yet do not conform their lives to all its holy precepts. It is
another question whether worldly motives might not have contributed in
some degree to induce Constantine to prefer the Christian religion to
the ancient Roman, and to all other religions, and to recommend the
observance of it to his subjects. Indeed, it is no improbable conjecture
that the Emperor had discernment to see that Christianity possessed
great efficacy, and idolatry none at all, to strengthen public
authority, and to bind citizens to their duty.

The sign of the cross, which Constantine most solemnly affirmed he saw
in the heavens, near midday, is a subject involved in the greatest
obscurities and difficulties. It is, however, an easy thing to refute
those who regard this prodigy as a cunning fiction of the Emperor, or
who rank it among fables; and also those who refer the phenomenon to
natural causes, ingeniously conjecturing that the form of a cross
appeared in a solar halo, or in the moon; and likewise those who ascribe
the transaction to the power of God, who intended by a miracle to
confirm the wavering faith of the Emperor. Now these suppositions being
rejected, the only conclusion that remains is that Constantine saw, in a
dream while asleep, the appearance of a cross, with the inscription, _In
hoc signo vinces_ ("By this sign thou shalt conquer"). Nor is this
opinion unsupported by competent authorities of good credit.

The happiness anticipated by the Christians from the edicts of
Constantine and Licinius was a little afterward interrupted by Licinius,
who waged war against his kinsman Constantine. Being v