nt_ was
disturbed. Men whom the Middle Ages would have burned--such as
Galen, Lucian, Plotinus--lived in peace, protected by the
law."[444:2]

Born and educated a pagan, Constantine embraced the Christian faith from
the following motives. Having committed horrid crimes, in fact, having
committed murders,[444:3] and,

"When he would have had his (Pagan) priests purge him by
sacrifice, of these horrible murders, and could not have his
purpose (for they answered plainly, it lay not in their power
to cleanse him)[444:4] he lighted at last upon an _Egyptian_
who came out of Iberia, and being persuaded by him that the
Christian faith was of force to wipe away every sin, were it
ever so heinous, he embraced willingly at whatever the
Egyptian told him."[444:5]

Mons. Dupuis, speaking of this conversion, says:

"Constantine, soiled with all sorts of crimes, and stained
with the blood of his wife, after repeated perjuries and
assassinations, presented himself before the heathen priests
in order to be absolved of so many outrages he had committed.
He was answered, that amongst the various kinds of expiations,
there was none which could expiate so many crimes, and that no
religion whatever could offer efficient protection against the
justice of the gods; and Constantine was emperor. One of the
courtiers of the palace, who witnessed the trouble and
agitation of his mind, torn by remorse, which nothing could
appease, informed him, that the evil he was suffering was not
without a remedy; that there existed in the religion of the
Christians certain purifications, which expiated every kind of
misdeeds, of whatever nature, and in whatsoever number they
were: that one of the promises of the religion was, that
whoever was converted to it, as impious and as great a villain
as he might be, could hope that his crimes were immediately
forgotten.[445:1] From that moment, Constantine declared
himself the protector of a sect which treats great criminals
with so much lenity.[445:2] He was a great villain, who tried
to lull himself with illusions to smother his remorse."[445:3]

By the delay of baptism, a person who had accepted the _true_ faith
could venture freely to indulge their passions in the enjoyment of this
world, while they still retained in their own hands the means of
sal