ely arises of a very unexpected nature; that of
ascertaining the real and precise date of the conversion of Constantine.
The eloquent Lactantius, in the midst of his court, seems impatient [1]
to proclaim to the world the glorious example of the sovereign of Gaul;
who, in the first moments of his reign, acknowledged and adored the
majesty of the true and only God. [2] The learned Eusebius has ascribed
the faith of Constantine to the miraculous sign which was displayed in
the heavens whilst he meditated and prepared the Italian expedition. [3]
The historian Zosimus maliciously asserts, that the emperor had imbrued
his hands in the blood of his eldest son, before he publicly renounced
the gods of Rome and of his ancestors. [4] The perplexity produced by
these discordant authorities is derived from the behavior of Constantine
himself. According to the strictness of ecclesiastical language, the
first of the Christian emperors was unworthy of that name, till the
moment of his death; since it was only during his last illness that
he received, as a catechumen, the imposition of hands, [5] and was
afterwards admitted, by the initiatory rites of baptism, into the number
of the faithful. [6] The Christianity of Constantine must be allowed
in a much more vague and qualified sense; and the nicest accuracy is
required in tracing the slow and almost imperceptible gradations by
which the monarch declared himself the protector, and at length the
proselyte, of the church. It was an arduous task to eradicate the habits
and prejudices of his education, to acknowledge the divine power
of Christ, and to understand that the truth of his revelation was
incompatible with the worship of the gods. The obstacles which he had
probably experienced in his own mind, instructed him to proceed
with caution in the momentous change of a national religion; and he
insensibly discovered his new opinions, as far as he could enforce them
with safety and with effect. During the whole course of his reign, the
stream of Christianity flowed with a gentle, though accelerated, motion:
but its general direction was sometimes checked, and sometimes diverted,
by the accidental circumstances of the times, and by the prudence, or
possibly by the caprice, of the monarch. His ministers were permitted to
signify the intentions of their master in the various language which
was best adapted to their respective principles; [7] and he artfully
balanced the hopes and fears of his