ere its partisans were so powerful, that the
unfortunate dissensions which divided the Christians were publicly exposed
to ridicule in the theatres of that city. The Arian writer Philostorgus
says that Constantine was worshipped after his death, not as a saint, but
as a god, by the orthodox Christians, who offered sacrifices to the statue
of that monarch placed upon a column of porphyry, and addressed prayers to
him as to God himself. It is impossible to ascertain whether examples of
such mad extravagance had ever taken place amongst Christians or not; but
the Western church has not bestowed upon his memory the honours of
saintship, though she has been generally very lavish of them.(34) Thus the
first Christian emperor was canonised only by the Pagans.

The sons of Constantine followed the religious policy of their father; and
the facility with which his nephew, Julian the Apostate, had restored
Paganism to the rank of the dominant religion, twenty-four years after his
death, proves how strong its party was even at that time. Julian's reign
of eighteen months was too short to produce any considerable effect upon
the religious parties into which the Roman empire was then divided. After
his death, the imperial crown was offered by the army to Sallust, a Pagan
general, who having refused it on account of his great age, it was
bestowed upon Jovian, a Christian, who reigned only three months. The
legions elected, after Jovian's death, Valentinian, who, though a sincere
Christian, strictly maintained the religious liberty of his subjects; and
the same policy was followed by his brother and colleague Valens, who
governed the eastern part of the empire, and was an Arian. Valentinian's
son and successor, Gratian, though educated by the celebrated poet
Ausonius, who adhered to the ancient worship, was a zealous Christian. He
published, immediately after his accession, an edict allowing perfect
religious liberty to all his subjects, with the exception of the
Manicheans and some other sects. He granted several new privileges to
Christians, but he continued to conform for some time to the duties
inherited from his Pagan predecessors, of which the most remarkable
instance was, that he caused his father to be placed amongst the gods,
according to the general custom followed at the death of the Roman
emperors.(35)

Though greatly enfeebled by the continual advance of Christianity,
Paganism was still the established religion of the stat