perial
treasury to give it according to her judgment. Her death, too, was
glorious; for when, at the age of eighty, she departed this life, she
left her son and her descendants masters of the Roman world. And if
there be any advantage in such fame--forgetfulness did not conceal her
though she was dead--the coming age has the pledge of her perpetual
memory; for two cities are named after her, the one in Bithynia, and the
other in Palestine. Such is the history of Helena."

Of the fact that Helena is rightly regarded as a prominent character in
the history of women there can be no question; that she was the mother
of Constantine and the first avowed Christian empress is enough to
warrant this opinion. Her virtue and charity may also be regarded as
unimpeachable. Her canonization as a saint, however, is founded upon her
alleged discovery of the Cross. Apart from the other difficulties which
a sceptical mind may find in this story, there is the fact that
Eusebius, who in the lifetime of Constantine wrote the account of
Helena's journey to Jerusalem, makes no mention whatever of the Cross,
notwithstanding his recital of the appearing of the sacred sign to the
emperor and its adoption as the Roman ensign. But the legend, be it true
or false, has highly glorified the name of Helena in the religious
history of the world.

V

POST-NICENE MOTHERS

It requires a considerable amount of imagination, coupled with a
facility for overlooking untoward historical facts, to enable one to
draw an honest and at the same time an entirely pleasing picture of the
Church in the fourth and fifth centuries. And yet this may rightly be
looked upon as the heroic age of Christianity; it was the period of the
Church's greatest victories. It is true that, emerging from the
sickening asceticism and rising above the theological squabbles of the
time, are mighty men and women of didactic and also of moral renown.
"There were giants in those days." Nevertheless, the average moral
character of the "Christian" Empire was raised such a slight degree
above that of the pagan regime that it is barely perceptible in the
records of history. Both Constantine and Constantius stained their
palaces with the blood of their innocent relatives. The populace still
gloated over gladiatorial combats. Courtesans were licensed in order
that their trade might help to replenish the imperial treasury. The
rigor of slavery was somewhat softened; yet if a man beat hi