acons. They had been clad in
faith, holiness, humility, and charity; but Constantine robed them in
honour, wealth, and power; and to this many of them soon added pride,
avarice, and ambition.

This reign is no less remarkable for the religious quarrel which then
divided the Christians, which set church against church and bishop
against bishop, as soon as they lost that great bond of union, the fear
of the pagans. Jesus of Nazareth was acknowledged by Constantine as
a divine person; and, in the attempt then made by the Alexandrians to
arrive at a more exact definition of his nature, while the emperor was
willing to be guided by the bishops in his theological opinions, he
was able to instruct them all in the more valuable lessons of mutual
toleration and forbearance. The followers of early religions held
different opinions, but distinguished themselves apart only by outward
modes of worship, such as by sacrifices among the Greeks and Romans,
and among the Jews and Egyptians by circumcision, and abstinence from
certain meats. When Jesus of Nazareth introduced his spiritual religion
of repentance and amendment of life, he taught that the test by which
his disciples wrere to be known was their love to one another. After
his death, however, the Christians gave more importance to opinions
in religion, and towards the end of the third century they proposed to
distinguish their fellow-worshippers in a mode hitherto unknown to the
world, namely, by the profession of belief in certain opinions; for as
yet there was no difference in their belief of historic facts. This gave
rise to numerous metaphysical discussions, particularly among the more
speculative and mystical.

At about this time the chief controversy was as to whether Christ was
of the _same_, or of _similar_ substance with God the Father, this being
the dispute which divided Christendom for centuries. This dispute and
others not quite so metaphysical were brought to the ears of the emperor
by Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, and Arius, the presbyter. The bishop
had been enquiring into the belief of the presbyter, and the latter
had argued against his superior and against the doctrine of the
_consubstantiality_ of the Father and the Son. The emperor's letter
to the theologians, in this first ecclesiastical quarrel that was ever
brought before a Christian monarch, is addressed to Alexander and Arius,
and he therein tells them that they are raising useless questions, which