Book 10

The Tenth Book of the Ecclesiastical History contains the following: I. On the peace granted to us from God. II. On the restoration of the churches. III. On the dedications held in every place. IV. Panegyric on the brightness of our affairs. [V. Copies of imperial laws concerning the things that belong to the Christians.] [VI. On the exemption of the clergy from public offices.] VII. On the later wickedness of Licinius and his destruction. VIII. On the victory of Constantine and the benefits that under him came to the subjects of the Roman power.

1. 1. Thanks be to God, the Almighty and King of the universe, for all things; and most abundant thanks also to the Saviour and Redeemer of our souls, Jesus Christ, through whom we pray that the blessings of peace, both from outward troubles and from those of the mind, may be preserved for us ever steadfast and unshaken.

2. And, together with our prayers, having here added the tenth volume of the Ecclesiastical History to those already gone through before, we shall inscribe it to you, most holy Paulinus, hailing you as it were the seal of the whole work;

3. and fittingly, in a perfect number, we shall here arrange the perfect and festal discourse on the restoration of the churches, in obedience to the Divine Spirit, which thus exhorts us: 'Sing unto the Lord a new song, for he hath done marvellous things; his right hand and his holy arm have wrought salvation for him. The Lord hath made known his salvation; in the sight of the nations he hath revealed his righteousness.'

4. And so, in obedience to the oracle that bids us sing the new song, let us now accordingly cry aloud through it, that after those dreadful and dark sights and narratives we have now been deemed worthy to behold such things and to keep festival over such things as many before us, truly righteous men and martyrs of God, longed to see upon earth and saw not, and to hear and heard not.

5. But they, hastening with all speed, obtained far better things, caught up into the heavens themselves and into the paradise of divine delight; whereas we, confessing that these very things are greater than we deserve, are overwhelmed at the grace of the bounty of him who is its cause, and rightly marvel at it, with the whole strength of our soul reverencing him and bearing witness to the truth of the written predictions, in which it is said:

6. 'Come and behold the works of the Lord, what wonders he hath set upon the earth, making wars to cease unto the ends of the earth: he shall break the bow and shatter the weapon, and shall burn the shields with fire.' Rejoicing that these things have been plainly fulfilled toward us, let us continue the discourse that follows.

7. The whole race of the haters of God had indeed been destroyed in the manner that has been shown, and so suddenly blotted out from the sight of men, that once again a divine saying received its fulfilment, which declares: 'I have seen the ungodly highly exalted and lifting himself up like the cedars of Lebanon; and I passed by, and lo, he was not; and I sought his place, and it was not found.'

8. But now at last a bright and shining day, with no cloud overshadowing it, lit up with beams of heavenly light the churches of Christ throughout the whole inhabited world; nor was there any grudging even on the part of those outside our company against their sharing, if not in the equal blessings, yet at least in an effluence and participation of the things dispensed to us from God.

9. 1. To all men, then, deliverance from the oppression of the tyrants was come, and being rid of their former evils, each in his own way confessed that the one true God was the champion of the godly. But above all to us, who had set our hopes on the Christ of God, there was unspeakable gladness, and a kind of divinely inspired joy bloomed in all, as we beheld every place, which a little while before had been laid in ruins by the impieties of the tyrants, now reviving as it were from a long and deadly destruction, and churches once more rising from their foundations to a boundless height, and receiving a splendour far greater than that of those of old which had been besieged.

10. Nay, the supreme emperors too, by their continual enactments on behalf of the Christians, confirmed yet more largely and abundantly the bounty of God toward us; and letters from the emperor came to the bishops in person, with honours and gifts of money. It will not be out of place, at the proper point in our narrative, to engrave the words of these upon this book, as upon a sacred monument, translated from the Roman into the Greek tongue, that they may be carried in memory to all who come after us.

11. 1. After these things there was brought about for us the spectacle which all had prayed for and longed for: festivals of dedication throughout the cities, and consecrations of the newly built houses of prayer, gatherings of bishops to the same place, comings together of those from afar out of foreign lands, kindly offices of peoples toward peoples, the union of the members of Christ's body coming together into one harmony.

12. There was gathered together, accordingly, in fulfilment of the prophetic prediction that mystically foretold what was to come, bone to bone and joint to joint, and all that the word, prophesying through riddles, had truthfully foreannounced;

13. and there was one power of the Divine Spirit pervading all the members, and one soul in all, and the same eagerness of faith, and one hymn of praise of God from the lips of all; yea, and there were perfect ceremonies on the part of the leaders, and sacred rites performed by the consecrated, and seemly ordinances of the Church, here with psalmody and the hearing of the other utterances delivered to us from God, there with the celebration of divine and mystic ministries; and there were the ineffable symbols of the Saviour's passion.

14. And together every age, both of male and of female nature, with the whole strength of the mind, with a rejoicing heart and soul, through prayers and thanksgiving honoured God, the author of their blessings. And every one of the rulers present delivered panegyric discourses, as far as each was able, inspiring the assembly.

15. 1. And a certain one of those of moderate eminence came forward into the midst, and having composed an oration, delivered the following discourse, as in a gathering of the Church, in the presence of very many pastors who in stillness and good order lent their hearing, addressed to the person of one bishop, in all respects most excellent and dear to God, by whose zeal the church at Tyre, the most distinguished of all those throughout the nation of the Phoenicians, had been munificently built.

PANEGYRIC ON THE BUILDING OF THE CHURCHES, ADDRESSED TO PAULINUS, BISHOP OF TYRE 2. O friends of God and priests, you who are clothed with the holy robe that reaches to the feet, and with the heavenly crown of glory, with the divine anointing and the priestly vesture of the Holy Spirit; and you too, O new ornament of the holy temple of God, honoured by God with venerable wisdom, yet displaying the costly works and deeds of a young and vigorous virtue, to whom God himself, who embraces the whole world, has granted, as an exceptional prize, to build and to renew upon earth his house to Christ, his only-begotten and first-begotten Word, and to Christ's holy and divinely beautiful bride— 3. whether one should choose to call you a new Bezaleel, the architect of a divine tabernacle, or a Solomon, king of a new and far better Jerusalem, or even a new Zerubbabel, who clothes the temple of God with a glory far greater than the former— 4. and you also, O nurslings of the sacred flock of Christ, home of good words, school of self-control, and reverent and God-beloved auditory of godliness: 5. of old it was permitted to us, who received by hearing through the divine readings the marvellous signs of God and the benefits of the Lord's wonders toward men, to send up hymns and songs to God, being taught to say, 'O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have declared to us the work which thou didst in their days, in the days of old'; 6. but now, in truth, we no longer perceive the high arm and the heavenly right hand of our all-good and all-sovereign God by hearings and reports of words, but, so to speak, by deeds and with our very eyes, beholding as faithful and true the things long since handed down to memory; so that it is permitted to chant a second hymn of victory, and plainly to cry aloud and say, 'As we have heard, so also have we seen, in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God.' 7. And in what city but this, the newly built and God-fashioned, which is the Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth, concerning which another divine oracle thus brings glad tidings: 'Glorious things have been spoken of thee, O city of God'? Since the all-good God has gathered us together unto her, through the grace of his only-begotten, let each of those who have been called sing her praises, all but crying aloud and saying, 'I was glad because of those that said to me, We will go into the house of the Lord,' and 'Lord, I have loved the beauty of thy house, and the place of the dwelling of thy glory.' 8. And let not only each one, but let all of us together, with one spirit and one soul, give honour and cry out in praise, saying, 'Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in his holy mountain.' For great indeed he is in truth, and great is his house, lofty and spacious and beautiful in comeliness beyond the sons of men. Great is the Lord, who alone does wondrous things; great is he who does great things and unsearchable, glorious and marvellous, of which there is no number; great is he who changes times and seasons, who removes kings and sets up kings, who raises up the poor man from the earth and lifts the needy from the dunghill. He has put down the mighty from their thrones, and exalted the lowly from the earth; the hungry he has filled with good things, and the arms of the proud he has broken in pieces—not for the faithful only, 9. but also for the unbelieving, having confirmed the record of the old narratives: the worker of wonders, the doer of great deeds, the Lord of all, the Maker of the whole world, the Almighty, the all-good, the one and only God; to whom let us sing the new song, taking up the refrain to him 'who alone does wondrous things, for his mercy endures for ever; who smote great kings and slew mighty kings, for his mercy endures for ever; for in our low estate he remembered us, and redeemed us from our enemies.' 10. And may we never cease to give honour with these words to the Father of all; and let us with our lips ever honour him who is the second cause of our blessings, the introducer of the knowledge of God, the teacher of true religion, the destroyer of the impious, the slayer of tyrants, the corrector of life, the Saviour of us who had been despaired of, even Jesus, 11. for he alone, being the only all-good Son of an all-good Father, in accordance with the purpose of his Father's love toward men, most willingly put on our nature, which lay below in corruption; and, like some excellent physician who, for the sake of saving the sick, 'sees dreadful things, touches loathsome things, and from the misfortunes of others reaps griefs of his own,' he saved by himself for himself not us only when sick, nor merely when pressed by dreadful sores and already festering wounds, but even us who lay among the dead, out of the very recesses of death; for to no other of the beings in heaven was there so much strength as to minister without harm to the salvation of so many. 12. He alone, then, having laid hold of our own grievously suffering corruption, he alone having endured our toils, he alone having taken upon himself the penalties of our impieties, took us up again—not half-dead merely, but already wholly loathsome and stinking in tombs and graves—and, both of old and now, by his loving-kindness, beyond all hope of any other or even of our own selves, he saves us and imparts to us the abundance of the Father's blessings: he, the giver of life, the bringer of light, our great physician and king and Lord, the Christ of God. 13. But then, indeed, once, when he saw the whole race of men buried in deep night and dense darkness through the deceit of accursed demons and the workings of God-hated spirits, by his mere appearing, as wax melts at the beams of his light, he loosed the many-knotted chains of our impieties. 14. But now, at so great a grace and benefit, when the envy that hates the good and the demon that loves wickedness was all but bursting asunder, and was marshalling against us all his death-dealing powers—and at first, like a raging dog, was dashing his teeth against the stones that were thrown at him, and venting his fury against those who fought him upon the lifeless missiles, fixing his beastlike madness upon the stones of the houses of prayer and the lifeless materials of the buildings, and, as at least he himself supposed, working desolation of the churches; and then, sending forth his terrible hissings and his serpentlike voices, now in the threats of impious tyrants, now in the blasphemous decrees of impious rulers; and moreover belching forth his own death, and poisoning with deadly and soul-destroying drugs the souls that were taken captive by him, and all but slaying them by the death-dealing sacrifices of dead idols, and stirring up against us every man-shaped beast and every kind of savagery— 15. then once again the Angel of great counsel, the great Captain of God's host, after the sufficient training which the greatest soldiers of his kingdom displayed through their endurance and steadfastness in all things, appearing thus suddenly, brought the things hostile and warlike to nothing and to vanishing, so that they seemed never even to have been named; but the things friendly and akin to himself he advanced beyond glory in the eyes of all, not of men only, but already of the heavenly powers also, of sun and moon and stars and the whole heaven and universe— 16. so that now, a thing never done before, the emperors highest of all, conscious of the honour they have received from him, spit upon the faces of dead idols, trample upon the unlawful rites of demons, and laugh to scorn the ancient deceit handed down from their fathers; but acknowledge the one and only God, the common benefactor of all and of themselves, and confess Christ the Son of God to be sovereign of all, and proclaim him Saviour upon their monuments, inscribing in imperishable memory, in royal characters, in the very midst of the city that reigns over those upon earth, his right deeds and his victories over the impious; so that Jesus Christ our Saviour, alone of all from eternity, is confessed, even by the very highest of those upon earth, not as a common king sprung from men, but is worshipped as the genuine Son of the God of all, and as himself God. 17. And rightly so; for which of the kings that ever were carried off so great a measure of virtue as to fill with his name the hearing and the tongue of all men upon earth? What king, having ordained laws so godly and so temperate, prevailed to have them continually read aloud, in the hearing of all men, from the ends of the earth to the uttermost bounds of the whole inhabited world? 18. Who abolished the barbarous and savage customs of uncivilized nations by his civilized and most humane laws? Who, being warred upon for whole ages by all, displayed a virtue beyond man, so as to flourish every day and to be ever young throughout all his life? 19. Who founded a nation never even heard of from of old, not lying hid in some corner of the earth, but spread over the whole world beneath the sun? Who so fenced his soldiers with the arms of godliness, that their souls showed themselves stronger than adamant in their struggles against their adversaries? 20. Which of the kings reigns and commands to such a degree even after death, and sets up trophies over enemies, and fills every place and country and city, both Greek and barbarian, with royal houses dedicated to him and with the offerings of divine temples, such as these beautiful adornments and votive gifts of this temple? These very things are truly venerable and great, worthy of amazement and wonder, and clear tokens of the kingdom of our Saviour; for even now 'he spake, and they were made; he commanded, and they were created' (for what could withstand the nod of the all-sovereign and all-ruling Word of God himself?). These things stand in need of leisure of discourse for their accurate contemplation and interpretation. 21. Yet how great and of what kind the zeal of those who have laboured has been adjudged in the eyes of him who is hymned as God, who beholds the living temple of all of you, and looks upon the house built of living and firmly set stones, well and securely founded upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, the chief corner stone being Jesus Christ himself, whom not only the builders of that old and now no longer existing house rejected, but also those who, being evil builders of evil, build even now in the case of many men; but the Father, both then and now, having approved him, set him for the head of the corner of this our common Church. This living temple, then, of the living God, built up of yourselves, 22. I mean the greatest and, in true reason, the truly divine sanctuary, whose inmost shrine is unseen by the many and is truly holy and the holy of holies—who, having beheld it, would dare to describe it? Who is able even to peer within the sacred enclosures, save only the great High Priest of all, to whom alone it is permitted to search out the secrets of every rational soul? 23. But perhaps it is granted to one other also, second to him, to be of the same rank—to this one who presides as leader of this host, whom the first and great High Priest himself, having honoured with the second place among the priests here, and having allotted, by the lot and judgement of the Father, your people as shepherd of your God-inspired flock, has appointed as his own servant and interpreter—the new Aaron, or Melchizedek, made like to the Son of God, abiding and kept by him for ever, by the common prayers of us all. To him alone, then, after the first and greatest High Priest, let it be permitted, 24. if not the first things, yet at least the second, to behold and to oversee of the inmost contemplation of your souls; he who has accurately examined each one by experience and length of time, and who by his own zeal and care has set you all in order and in the reason that is according to godliness, and who, more than all others, is able, in works rivalling those things which he himself, with divine power, has accomplished, to render words. 25. Now our first and great High Priest, whatever he sees the Father doing, these things, he says, the Son also does likewise; and this man too, looking with the pure eyes of his mind upon the first as upon a teacher, whatever he sees him doing, using these as archetypal patterns, fashioned and wrought their images, as far as was possible, into the closest likeness, leaving nothing behind that Bezaleel, whom God himself, filling him with a spirit of wisdom and understanding and of all other skilled and scientific knowledge, called to be the maker, by symbols, of the building of the temple that represented the heavenly types. 26. In this way, then, this man also, bearing within his own soul the whole image of Christ, the Word, the Wisdom, the Light—it is impossible to say with what greatness of soul, and with what a rich and unstinting hand of mind, and with what eagerness on the part of all of you (the magnanimity of your contributions striving in honourable rivalry that you might in no way be left behind in the same purpose with him), he set up this magnificent temple of God the Most High, like in nature to the better pattern, as the visible to the invisible: this site, which—and this is the first thing of all worthy to be told—being buried under heaps of unclean material by the plots of the enemies, he did not overlook, nor did he yield to the wickedness of those responsible, though it was open to him, by going to another place (since the city had countless others available), to find ease from his toil and to be rid of trouble. 27. But having first roused himself to the work, and then strengthened the whole people with eagerness and gathered them into one great hand out of all, he engaged in the first contest, thinking that this very church which had been besieged by the enemies, which had toiled before and had endured the same persecutions as we, and before us—the church bereaved, like a mother, of her children—must share in the bounty of the all-good God. 28. For since the great Shepherd, having again driven away the beasts and the wolves and every cruel and savage kind, and, as the divine oracles say, having broken the grinders of the lions, was pleased that his children should come together again to the same place, most justly he set up again the fold of the flock, to put to shame the enemy and avenger, and that he might bring forward a refutation of the God-fighting daring of the impious. 29. And now they are not, the haters of God, because they never were; having troubled and been troubled for a little while, and then having paid no contemptible penalty to Justice, they utterly overthrew themselves and their friends and their houses, so that the predictions long since recorded on sacred monuments are by deeds confessed to be true, in which the divine word, among other things, declares true, and especially declares this concerning them: 'The sinners have drawn the sword,' 30. 'they have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, to slay the upright in heart: let their sword enter into their own hearts, and let their bows be broken'; and again, 'Their memorial has perished with a noise,' and 'Their name is blotted out for ever and ever'; for, when they too were in evils, 'they cried, and there was none to save: unto the Lord, and he heard them not'; but they 'were fettered and fell, while we are risen and stand upright'; and that which proclaims beforehand among these things, 'O Lord, in thy city thou shalt bring their image to nothing,' has been shown true before the eyes of all. 31. But they, having waged such a war against God in the manner of the giants, have met with such an end of their life; whereas she that was desolate and despaired of among men gained, through the endurance that is according to God, such an end as is now seen, so that the prophecy of Isaiah cries aloud to her these words: 32. 'Rejoice, O thirsty wilderness; let the wilderness exult and blossom as a lily; and the desert places shall blossom and exult. Be strong, ye relaxed hands and feeble knees; take comfort, ye faint-hearted in mind, be strong, fear not. Behold, our God renders judgement, and will render it; he himself will come and will save us; for, it says, water has broken forth in the wilderness, and a torrent in a thirsty land, and the waterless place shall become marshes, and in the thirsty land there shall be a spring of water.' 33. And these things, long ago foretold in words, were laid up in sacred books; but the deeds have been handed down to us no longer by hearings, but by deeds. This wilderness, this waterless place, this widowed and helpless one, whose gates 'they cut down with axes as in a forest of timber; with hatchet and stone-cutter they broke her down together; her books too they destroyed, and burned with fire the sanctuary of God; to the ground they profaned the dwelling-place of his name, which all that passed by the way plundered, having first thrown down her fences, which the boar out of the wood ravaged, and the wild solitary beast fed upon'—she has now, by the marvellous power of Christ, when he himself wills it, become as a lily; for then too, at his nod, as of a Father who cares beforehand, she was chastened; for whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives. 34. Having therefore been corrected in due measure, she is bidden again from the beginning to rejoice and to blossom as a lily, and to breathe forth the divine fragrance unto all men; for, it says, water has broken forth in the wilderness—the stream of the divine regeneration of the saving laver—and now the place that a little while before was a wilderness has become marshes, and in the thirsty land a spring of living water has gushed forth; and the hands that before were relaxed have been made strong indeed, and these great and manifest tokens are the works of the strength of those hands; nay, the knees too, that of old were enfeebled and palsied, having recovered their proper footing, now walk straight forward on the way of the knowledge of God, hastening to the proper flock of the all-good Shepherd. 35. And if any have grown numb in soul at the threats of the tyrants, neither does the saving Word overlook even these as past cure, but, healing these too most effectively, urges them on to the divine comfort, saying: 36. 'Take comfort, ye that are faint-hearted in mind; be strong, fear not.' This new and good Zerubbabel of ours, hearing with the keen ear of his mind the Word foretelling that the wilderness which had become so for God's sake should enjoy these things, after that bitter captivity and the abomination of desolation, did not overlook the corpse as dead; but first of all, by entreaties and supplications, having made the Father merciful, with the common concord of all of you, and having taken as his ally and fellow-worker the only one who makes the dead alive, he raised up her who had fallen, having first cleansed and treated her of her evils; and he clothed her, not with the old garment from the beginning, but with such as he was again taught from the divine oracles, which thus clearly say: 'And the latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former.' 37. Embracing therefore in this way the whole area, much larger, he fortified the outer enclosure with the wall surrounding the whole, that it might be the most secure rampart of the whole; 38. and having opened a great gateway, raised to a height, toward the very beams of the rising sun, he afforded even to those standing far outside the sacred precincts an ungrudging view of the things within, all but turning the eyes even of strangers to the faith toward the first entrances, so that none might pass by without first being smitten in soul by the memory both of the former desolation and of the present marvellous wonder, by which he hoped that one so smitten might perhaps be drawn on, and by the very sight be urged toward the entrance. 39. And to one passing within the gates he did not at once permit to set foot, with unhallowed and unwashed feet, upon the holy things within; but having marked off the largest possible space between the temple and the first entrances, he adorned it round about with four transverse colonnades, fencing the place into a kind of quadrangular figure, with columns rising on every side; the spaces between which he closed with lattice screens of wood reaching to a fitting height, and left an open court in the midst for the view of the sky, providing an air bright and open to the rays of the light. 40. And here he placed symbols of sacred purifications, setting up fountains directly opposite the front of the temple, which by the abundant flow of their stream afforded cleansing to those advancing within the sacred precincts. And this is the first halting-place for those entering, providing at once ornament and splendour to the whole, and a station suited to those still in need of the first instructions. 41. But passing by the sight of these things also, he made the passages to the temple, lying yet farther within, open by means of still more inner porches; setting, on the side beneath the sun's rays, three gates under one wing, of which he graced the middle one as far exceeding those on either side in size and breadth, and adorned it especially with bronze fittings bound with iron and with embossed carvings, yoking the others beneath it as bodyguards to a queen. 42. And in the same way, having arranged the number of the porches for the colonnades on either side of the whole temple, he contrived above these, by yet more light, various entrances to the building, embellishing also the surrounding ornament with carvings in wood. But the royal house he now fortified with richer and more lavish materials, employing an ungrudging munificence of expenditure; 43. wherein it seems to me superfluous to record the lengths and breadths of the building, these bright beauties and these magnitudes beyond words, and the dazzling appearance of the works, recounting in my discourse the heaven-high heights, and the costly cedars of Lebanon set above them, of which not even the divine oracle was silent in its remembrance, saying, 'The trees of the Lord shall rejoice, and the cedars of Lebanon which he planted.' 44. Why need I now describe in detail the all-wise and architectural arrangement and the surpassing beauty in each part, when the testimony of the sight shuts out instruction through the ears? But having thus completed the temple, and having adorned it with the highest thrones for the honour of the presidents, and moreover with benches set in order throughout in fitting fashion, and having placed in the midst, over all, the holy of holies, the altar—and this too he fenced round, that it might be inaccessible to the many, with lattices of wood wrought to the height of artistic refinement, so as to present a marvellous sight to the beholders. 45. Nor indeed did even the pavement lie neglected by him; for this too he made bright with marble stone in all comely fashion, and now at last he passed also to the parts outside the temple, constructing on either side the largest exedrae and chambers, skilfully joined to the sides of the royal house and united with the entrances to the central building. These too our most peaceful Solomon, who built the temple of God, was making for those still in need of cleansing and of sprinklings with water and the Holy Spirit, so that the prophecy spoken above is no longer a word but a deed; 46. for it has now come to pass, and in truth the latter glory of this house is greater than the former. For it was necessary and fitting that, since her Shepherd and Master had once accepted death on her behalf, and after his passion had changed the defiled body which for her sake he had put on into the bright and glorious, and had brought the very flesh that was dissolved from corruption into incorruption, she too should likewise have the benefit of the dispensations of the Saviour; for, having received from him a promise far better than these, she longs to receive the far greater glory of the regeneration, in the resurrection of an incorruptible body, with the festal company of angels in light, in the kingdoms of God beyond the heavens, together with Christ Jesus himself, the all-beneficent and Saviour, abidingly throughout the ages to come. 47. But for the present, meanwhile, with these things, she who of old was widowed and desolate, having by the grace of God been clothed with the blossoms, has truly become as a lily, as the prophecy says, and having taken up the bridal robe and put on the crown of comeliness, she is taught by Isaiah, as it were to dance, honouring God her King with words of blessing, in thanksgiving, 48. herself saying—let us hear—'Let my soul rejoice in the Lord, for he has clothed me with a garment of salvation and a robe of gladness; he has set upon me a mitre as upon a bridegroom, and as a bride he has adorned me with ornament; and as the earth that makes its flower to grow, and as a garden brings forth its seeds, so the Lord, the Lord, has made righteousness and exultation to spring up before all the nations.' 49. With these words, then, she dances; and with what words the Bridegroom, the heavenly Word, Jesus Christ himself, answers her, hear the Lord saying: 'Fear not because thou wast put to shame, neither be confounded because thou wast reproached; for thou shalt forget the everlasting shame, and the reproach of thy widowhood thou shalt remember no more. Not as a woman forsaken and faint-hearted has the Lord called thee, nor as a woman hated from her youth. Thy God has said: For a little while I forsook thee, and with great mercy will I have mercy upon thee; in a little wrath I turned away my face from thee, and with everlasting mercy will I have mercy upon thee, said the Lord that delivered thee.' 50. 'Awake, awake, thou that hast drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his wrath; for the cup of falling, the bowl of my wrath, thou hast drunk and drained. And there was none to comfort thee of all thy children whom thou didst bear, and there was none to take thee by the hand. Behold, I have taken out of thy hand the cup of falling, the bowl of my wrath, and thou shalt no more add to drink it; and I will give it into the hands of them that wronged thee and humbled thee.' 51. 'Awake, awake, put on thy strength, put on thy glory; shake off the dust and arise. Sit down, loose the bond from thy neck. Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold thy children gathered together; behold they are gathered and have come to thee. As I live, says the Lord, thou shalt clothe thyself with them all as with an ornament, and gird them on as a bride her ornament; 52. for thy desolate and ruined and fallen places shall now be too narrow because of those that dwell in thee, and they that swallowed thee up shall be removed far from thee. For thy children, whom thou hadst lost, shall say in thine ears: The place is too narrow for me, make me room that I may dwell; and thou shalt say in thy heart: Who has begotten me these? But I am childless and a widow; and who has reared me these? But I was left alone; and these, where were they for me?' 53. These things Isaiah foretold; these things were long ago laid up concerning us in sacred books; but it was needful that we should at length receive the truth of them by deeds. 54. And so, since the Bridegroom, the Word, addresses such words to his own bride, the sacred and holy Church, fittingly has this bridesman here raised her up—her the desolate, her that lay a corpse, her despaired of among men—stretching out the hands of you yourselves, by the common prayers of us all; and by the nod of God the all-sovereign King and by the manifestation of the power of Jesus Christ he raised her up, and having so raised her, established her such as he was taught from the record of the sacred oracles. 55. This, then, is a very great marvel, and beyond all amazement, especially to those who fix their minds only on the outward appearance of things; but more marvellous than marvels are the archetypes and the intellectual and divine prototypes of these things—I mean the renewals of the divine and rational building in our souls; 56. which the Son of God himself, having created after his own image, and bestowing on it in every way and in all things the likeness of God—an incorruptible nature, incorporeal, rational, alien to all earthly matter, a self-intelligent substance—once, in the beginning, having brought it into being out of non-being, he wrought as a holy bride and an all-sacred temple for himself and for the Father; which also he himself clearly confesses and reveals, saying, 'I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.' And such is the perfect and purified soul, brought into being from the first to bear the heavenly Word as an image. 57. But through the envy and jealousy of the demon that loves wickedness, having become, by its own free choice, a lover of passion and a lover of wickedness, and the divine guardian having withdrawn from it, it was left as it were desolate of a protector, and was convicted of being easily captured and ready prey to the designs of those who had long envied it; and being cast down by the engines and devices of the invisible enemies and the spiritual foes, it fell a prodigious fall, so that not even one stone of virtue, so to speak, remained standing upon another in it, but the whole of it lay flat upon the ground, dead, stripped utterly of the natural notions concerning God. 58. So then she who had fallen—she that had been fashioned after the image of God—was ravaged, not by this boar out of the visible forest among us, but by some destroying demon and spiritual wild beasts, who, having set her aflame with the darts of their own wickedness, as it were with fiery brands of the passions, burned with fire the truly divine sanctuary of God, and to the ground profaned the dwelling-place of his name, and then, having buried the wretched one under a great mound, turned her into despair of all salvation. 59. But her guardian, the Word, the God-shining and saving, after she had paid the due penalty for her sins, took her up again from the beginning, being persuaded by the loving-kindness of the all-good Father. 60. Having therefore first chosen the very souls of the supreme emperors, he cleansed the whole inhabited world, through these men most dear to God, of all the impious and destructive—of the very dreadful and God-hated tyrants themselves; and then, bringing into the open the men known to him, those long since consecrated to him for life, but who had been hidden in secret, as in a storm of evils, beneath his shelter, and having honoured them worthily with the Father's bounties, through these too he cleansed and wiped clean the souls that a little before had been defiled, that had been heaped over with all manner of material and the rubbish of impious decrees, with the mattocks and pickaxes of the smiting teachings of the doctrines; 61. and having made the place of the mind of all of you bright and clear, he then at last handed it over to this all-wise and God-beloved leader; who, being in other respects discerning and judicious, and well distinguishing and discriminating the mind of the souls allotted to him, from the first day, so to speak, building, has not even yet ceased, fitting in among you all now the bright gold, now the approved and pure silver and the precious and costly stones, so as to fulfil again toward you, by deeds, the sacred and mystic prophecy, 62. through which it is said: 'Behold, I prepare carbuncle for thy stone, and sapphire for thy foundations, and jasper for thy battlements, and crystal stones for thy gates, and choice stones for thy enclosure; and all thy sons shall be taught of God, and thy children in great peace; and thou shalt be built in righteousness.' 63. Building therefore in righteousness, he divided the powers according to the worth of the whole people: for some he fenced round only the outer enclosure, walling them about with unwavering faith (and great and numerous is such a people, not able to bear a stronger building); to others he entrusted the entrances to the house, setting them to keep watch at the doors and to guide those who enter, being not unfitly accounted the porches of the temple; and others he supported as the first columns about the court on the outside, from the quadrangle, leading them on to the first approach of the letter of the four Gospels; and others again he yokes on either side about the royal house—those still under instruction and in a state of growth and progress, yet not separated far off and remote from the inmost vision of God enjoyed by the faithful. 64. From among these, taking the pure souls that have been scoured by the divine laver like gold, he here too supports some with columns far better than those of the outermost, drawn from the inmost mystic doctrines of the Scripture, and illumines others with the openings toward the light; 65. adorning the whole temple with one great gateway—the praise of the one and only all-sovereign God, the Father—and furnishing, on either side of the Father's authority, the secondary rays of the light, of Christ and the Holy Spirit; and throughout the whole house showing the clear and bright manifestation, in each part, of the truth, ungrudging and greatly varied; and having everywhere and from every side selected the living and firmly set and well-compacted stones of the souls, he builds up out of them all the great and royal house, bright and full of light both within and without; for not soul and mind only, but their body too was made resplendent with the much-blossoming ornament of purity and self-control. 66. And there are in this temple thrones too, and countless benches and seats, even all those souls upon which rest the gifts of the Divine Spirit, such as of old were seen by those about the holy apostles, to whom there appeared dividing tongues as of fire, and one sat upon each one of them. 67. But in him who rules over all, it may be that Christ himself sits whole; and in those who are second after him, in proportion, according as each has room, by the distributions of the power of Christ and of the Holy Spirit. And benches might be also the souls of certain angels, those handed over to each one for guidance and guard; 68. but as for the venerable and great and only-begotten altar, what could it be but the pure and holy of holies of the soul of the priest common to all? Standing beside which, on the right hand, the great High Priest of all, Jesus himself, the only-begotten of God, receiving with bright countenance and upturned hands the sweet-smelling incense from all, and the bloodless and immaterial sacrifices offered through prayers, sends them up to the Father in heaven and the God of all, himself first worshipping, and alone rendering to the Father the reverence due to him; and then also entreating that he may remain gracious and propitious to us all for ever. 69. Such is the great temple which the great Maker of all, the Word, set up throughout the whole inhabited world beneath the sun, having himself again wrought this intellectual image upon earth of the things beyond the heavenly vaults, so that through all creation and through the rational living beings upon earth the Father might be honoured and reverenced by him. 70. But the region above the heavens, and the patterns there of the things here, and the Jerusalem above, as it is called, and the heavenly Mount Sion, and the supramundane city of the living God, in which myriads of angels in festal assembly, and the church of the firstborn enrolled in heaven, honour their Maker and the Sovereign of all with theologies unutterable and beyond our reckoning—these no mortal is able worthily to hymn, for indeed 'eye has not seen, and ear has not heard, and it has not entered into the heart of man'—those very things which God has prepared for them that love him; 71. of which we, having now in part been deemed worthy, men together with children and women, small and great, all of us together with one spirit and one soul, let us not cease to give thanks and to praise the author of so many blessings to us, who is gracious to all our iniquities, who heals all our diseases, who redeems our life from corruption, who crowns us with mercy and compassions, who satisfies our desire with good things; for he has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor requited us according to our iniquities; for as far as the east is distant from the west, so far has he removed our iniquities from us. As a father pities his sons, so the Lord has pitied them that fear him. 72. Kindling afresh in our memories these things, both now and for all time to come, and moreover keeping before our minds, night and day, through every hour, and through, so to speak, our every breath, the author and master of this present assembly and of this bright and most splendid day, loving and reverencing him with the whole strength of our soul, let us also now arise and beseech him with a loud voice of devotion, that he may shelter and preserve us to the end beneath his fold, awarding through himself that unbroken and unshaken eternal peace in Christ Jesus our Saviour, through whom be glory to him unto all the ages of the ages. Amen.

5. 1. Come, then, let us now set forth also the translations, rendered from the Roman tongue, of the imperial enactments of Constantine and Licinius.

COPY OF IMPERIAL ENACTMENTS TRANSLATED FROM THE ROMAN TONGUE 2. 'Already long ago, considering that freedom of worship ought not to be denied, but that to the mind and will of each one authority should be given to attend to divine matters according to his own choice, each one for himself, we had commanded both the Christians ... to preserve the faith of their own sect and worship; 3. but since many and various sects clearly seemed to be added in that rescript, in which such authority was granted to them, it may perhaps be that some of them shortly afterward were repelled from such observance. 4. When, with good fortune, I, Constantine Augustus, and I too, Licinius Augustus, had come to Milan, and were taking into consideration all things that pertained to the advantage and benefit of the public, among the rest these things which seemed to be of profit to all men, or rather first of all, we resolved to ordain those things by which reverence and worship toward the Deity were secured; that is, that we should grant both to the Christians and to all men free choice of following whatever worship they will, so that whatever there is of divinity and of heavenly matter may be able to be propitious to us and to all who live under our authority. 5. This our will, therefore, we have ordained by sound and most upright reasoning, that to no one whatsoever should authority be denied of following and choosing the observance or worship of the Christians, and that to each one authority should be given of giving his mind to that worship which he himself thinks fitting for himself, so that the Deity may be able to afford us in all things its accustomed care and goodness; 6. which things it was fitting that we should write back are thus pleasing to us, in order that, the conditions being entirely removed which were contained in our former letters sent to your devotedness concerning the Christians, and which seemed altogether unfavourable and alien to our clemency, these too should be done away, and now freely and simply each one of those who have had this same purpose of preserving the worship of the Christians may, without any disturbance, observe this very thing. 7. These things we have resolved to declare most fully to your diligence, that you may know that we have given to these same Christians free and unrestricted authority to attend to their own worship. 8. And since you see that this has been granted by us to them without restriction, your devotedness perceives that authority has been given to others also, to those who wish, of pursuing their own observance and worship—which it is plain is done in keeping with the tranquillity of our times—so that each one may have authority of choosing and attending to whatever he will. This has been done by us, that it might not seem that any honour or any worship had been in any way diminished by us. 9. And this also, in addition to the rest, we ordain in the case of the Christians: that their places, in which it was formerly their custom to assemble, concerning which also in the letters formerly given to your devotedness a different ordinance had been determined for the earlier time, if any appear to have purchased them either from our treasury or from any other person, these they shall restore to these same Christians without money and without any demand of the price, all negligence and ambiguity being set aside; and that those also who have received them as a gift shall in like manner restore the same places to the same Christians, 10. with all speed; in such wise that, if either those who have purchased these same places or those who have received them as a gift seek anything from our goodness, let them go to the prefect on the spot, that provision may be made for them too through our kindness. All which things will have to be handed over forthwith to the body of the Christians through your zeal, without any delay. 11. And since the same Christians are known to have possessed not only those places in which it was their custom to assemble, but other places also, belonging not to each one of them severally, but to the right of their body—that is, of the Christians—all these you will command to be restored, on the law which we have stated above, without any dispute whatever, to these same Christians, that is, to their body and to their assembly, the aforesaid principle being plainly observed: that those who restore the same without price, as we have said, may hope for indemnity from our goodness. 12. In all which things you ought to afford the aforesaid body of the Christians your zeal most effectively, that our command may be most speedily fulfilled, that in this too, through our kindness, provision may be made for the common and public tranquillity. 13. For by this principle, as has also been said before, the divine favour toward us, which in many matters we have already experienced, will abide securely through all time; 14. and in order that the terms of this our legislation and goodness may be brought to the knowledge of all, it is fitting that these things written by us be set forth everywhere, prefixed by your edict, and brought to the knowledge of all, that the legislation of this our goodness may be able to escape no one.'

COPY OF ANOTHER IMPERIAL ENACTMENT WHICH HE ALSO MADE, INDICATING THAT THE GIFT WAS GRANTED TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH ALONE 15. 'Greeting, Anulinus, most honoured by us. It is the manner of our love of good, that those things which belong to another's right we should not only not have molested, but should even wish to restore, Anulinus most honoured. 16. Wherefore we will that, when you receive this letter, if any of those things which belonged to the catholic church of the Christians in the several cities or in other places are now held either by citizens or by any others, you cause these to be restored at once to the same churches, since we have determined that those things which the same churches formerly possessed shall be restored to their right. 17. Since therefore your devotedness perceives that the command of this our ordinance is most clear, make haste, whether they be gardens or houses or whatsoever belonged to the right of the same churches, that all be restored to them as quickly as possible, that we may learn that you have rendered most diligent obedience to this our command. Farewell, Anulinus, most honoured and most beloved by us.'

COPY OF AN IMPERIAL LETTER BY WHICH HE COMMANDS A SYNOD OF BISHOPS TO BE HELD AT ROME FOR THE UNION AND CONCORD OF THE CHURCHES 18. 'Constantine Augustus to Miltiades, bishop of the Romans, and to Mark. Since such documents have been sent to me by Anulinus, the most illustrious proconsul of Africa, more than one, in which it is reported that Caecilian, the bishop of the city of the Carthaginians, is being called to account in many matters by certain of his colleagues established throughout Africa, and this seems to me very grievous, that in these provinces, which divine providence of its own accord committed to my devotedness, and where there is a great multitude of people, the crowd should be found persisting in the worse course, as if dividing, and that there should be differences among bishops: 19. it seemed good to me that Caecilian himself, with ten bishops of those who seem to call him to account, and ten others whom he himself may suppose necessary to his cause, should go by ship to Rome, that there, in your presence, and moreover in the presence of Reticius and Maternus and Marinus, your colleagues, whom for this reason I have ordered to hasten to Rome, he may be able to be heard, in such wise as you may learn to be in keeping with the most venerable law. 20. But that you may be able to have most full knowledge of all these matters, I have, subjoining to my letter copies of the documents sent to me by Anulinus, dispatched them to your aforesaid colleagues; on reading which your firmness will determine in what manner the aforesaid cause is to be most diligently examined and terminated according to justice, since it does not escape your diligence either that I render such reverence to the lawful catholic church that I wish you to leave no schism or division at all in any place. May the divinity of the great God preserve you for many years, most honoured.'

COPY OF AN IMPERIAL LETTER BY WHICH HE COMMANDS A SECOND SYNOD TO BE HELD FOR THE PURPOSE OF REMOVING ALL DIVISION AMONG THE BISHOPS 21. 'Constantine Augustus to Chrestus, bishop of the Syracusans. Already before, when certain persons began, basely and perversely, to dissociate themselves concerning the worship of the holy and heavenly Power and concerning the catholic sect, wishing to cut short such contentions of theirs, I had so arranged that, certain bishops being sent from Gaul, and moreover these being summoned from Africa, those of the opposite party, who were contending obstinately and persistently, in like manner, and the bishop of Rome being also present, that which seemed to have been set in motion might, by their presence and with all diligent examination, be able to attain to a setting right. 22. But since, as it happens, certain persons, forgetting both their own salvation and the reverence due to the most holy sect, do not even now cease to prolong their own enmities, not wishing to agree with the judgement already pronounced, and asserting that, forsooth, some few brought forward their opinions and decisions, or even that, before all the matters that ought to be sought out had been accurately examined, they hastened far too quickly and hotly to pronounce the judgement; and out of all these things it comes to pass that those very men, who ought to have a brotherly and harmonious unanimity of soul, are shamefully, nay rather abominably, divided from one another, and give occasion of mockery to those men who have their souls alien from this most holy worship—wherefore it has become my care to provide that this, which ought to have ceased after the judgement already pronounced by their own voluntary agreement, may even now at length be able, in the presence of many, to reach an end. 23. Since, therefore, we have commanded very many bishops from divers and countless places to assemble in the city of Arles by the Kalends of August, we have thought to write to you also, that, having received from the most illustrious Latronianus, the corrector of Sicily, a public conveyance, and having joined to yourself two also of those of the second throne, whom you yourself shall judge fit to choose, and moreover having taken with you three servants able to attend upon you on the way, you arrive within the same day at the aforesaid place; 24. so that, through your firmness and through the like-minded and concordant understanding of the rest who come together, this also which up to now has basely remained, through certain shameful wranglings, may—all things being heard that are to be said by those now at variance with one another, whom we have in like manner commanded to be present—be able, even though slowly, to be recalled to the worship that is due, and to faith and brotherly concord. May God, the Almighty, preserve you in health for many years.'

6. 1. COPY OF AN IMPERIAL LETTER BY WHICH HE BESTOWS MONEY UPON THE CHURCHES 'Constantine Augustus to Caecilian, bishop of Carthage. Since it has pleased us that in all the provinces, the Africas and the Numidias and the Mauritanias, something should be supplied toward expenses to certain specified ministers of the lawful and most holy catholic worship, I have given letters to Ursus, the most distinguished finance-officer of Africa, and have signified to him that he should take care to pay over three thousand folles to your firmness.

7. Do you, therefore, when you have caused the aforesaid sum of money to be received, give order that this money be distributed among all the aforesaid, according to the schedule sent to you by Hosius.

8. But if you should find that anything is lacking toward the fulfilment of my purpose in this matter toward them all, you ought to ask without dispute, from Heraclides the steward of our estates, whatever you find to be necessary; for I have commanded him in person that, if your firmness should ask any money from him, he should take care to pay it over without any hesitation.

9. And since I have learned that certain men, being of unsettled mind, wish to pervert the people of the most holy and catholic church by some base corruption, know that I have given such commands to Anulinus the proconsul, and moreover to Patricius the vicar of the prefects, while they were present, that in all other matters and in this especially they should take the fitting care, and should not endure to overlook such a thing happening.

10. Wherefore, if you should observe any such men persisting in that madness, go without any hesitation to the aforesaid judges, and lay this very matter before them, that they may correct them, as I commanded them in person. May the divinity of the great God preserve you for many years.'

11. 1. COPY OF AN IMPERIAL LETTER BY WHICH HE ORDAINS THAT THE PRESIDENTS OF THE CHURCHES BE RELEASED FROM ALL THE PUBLIC LITURGIES 'Greeting, Anulinus, most honoured by us. Since from many circumstances it appears that, when the worship in which the supreme reverence of the most holy heavenly Power is preserved was set at nought, great dangers were brought upon public affairs, but that this same worship, lawfully taken up and preserved, has afforded the greatest prosperity to the Roman name and to all the affairs of men an exceptional felicity—since the divine benefits bestow this—it has seemed good that those men who, with due holiness and with constant attendance upon this law, render the services that come from them to the ministry of the divine worship, should receive the rewards of their own labours, Anulinus most honoured.

12. Wherefore those men within the province entrusted to you, in the catholic church over which Caecilian presides, who render the service that comes from them to this holy worship—those whom they are accustomed to call clerics—I will to be kept free from all public offices, once for all and altogether, that they may not by any error or sacrilegious slip be drawn away from the service due to the Deity, but rather may, without any molestation, serve their own law; for while they render the greatest worship toward the Deity, it seems likely to confer the very greatest benefit upon public affairs. Farewell, Anulinus, most honoured and most beloved by us.'

13. 1. Such, then, were the things that the divine and heavenly grace of the appearing of our Saviour bestowed upon us, and so great an abundance of blessings to all men was dispensed through our peace.

14. And thus, indeed, our affairs were being accomplished in gladness and festivals. But the appearance of what was being done was not endurable to the envy that hates the good and to the demon that loves wickedness; just as neither did the things that had befallen the tyrants before-mentioned suffice for Licinius to a sober reckoning; who, while his rule was prospering, and while he had been deemed worthy of the second place of honour after the great emperor Constantine, and of marriage-alliance and the closest kinship with him, abandoned the imitation of good men, and emulated the depravity of the impious tyrants, and chose to follow the purpose of those whose overthrow of life he had beheld with his own eyes, rather than to abide in friendship and affection with his better.

15. Filled with envy, then, against the all-beneficent one, he stirred up an unholy and most terrible war against him, sparing the laws of nature, taking into his mind no remembrance of oaths nor of blood nor of treaties.

16. For Constantine, like an all-good emperor, affording him true tokens of goodwill, did not grudge him kinship with himself, nor refuse him the sharing of his sister in a splendid marriage, but deemed him worthy to become a partner in the high-born nobility derived from their fathers and in the royal blood of old, and granted him to enjoy the rule over all as a kinsman by marriage and a fellow-emperor, bestowing on him the governance and administration of no smaller part of the nations under the Romans.

17. But he, on the contrary, did the very opposite of these things, devising day by day all manner of contrivances against his better, and inventing every manner of plot, that he might requite his benefactor with evils. At first, indeed, attempting to conceal the conspiracy, he pretended to be a friend, and, by employing guile and deceit very often, hoped that he would most easily obtain what he expected;

18. but to Constantine God was a friend and guardian and protector, who brought into the light and exposed the plots that were being contrived against him in secret and in darkness. So great is the strength of virtue's great weapon, godliness, for the defence against enemies and the guarding of one's own salvation; armed with which, our most God-beloved emperor escaped the manifold plots of him of the ill-omened name.

19. And he, when he saw that his secret conspiracy was in no way proceeding according to his mind, since God made every guile and craft manifest to the God-beloved emperor, no longer being able to conceal himself, raises open war. And so, having resolved to wage war upon Constantine to the uttermost,

20. he set himself even to array himself against the God of all, whom he knew Constantine to worship; and then he set about, gently for a while and quietly, to besiege the godly under him, who had at no time at all done anything to grieve his rule. And this he did, being grievously compelled by his inborn wickedness to be blind.

21. He neither set before his eyes the memory of those who had persecuted the Christians before him, nor of those whose destroyer and avenger he himself had become, for the impieties which they had committed; but having turned aside from sober reckoning, and being plainly mad in mind, he resolved to wage war upon God himself, as the helper of Constantine, instead of upon the one who was being helped.

22. And first he drives from his own household every Christian, depriving himself, the wretched man, of their prayer to God on his behalf, which it is their ancestral teaching to make for all men; then he gives orders that the soldiers in each city be picked out and cast from the rank of their honour, unless they should choose to sacrifice to the demons. And still these things were small, compared with the array of the greater.

23. What need is there to mention the deeds done in particular and in detail by the hater of God, and how the most lawless of men devised lawless laws? For he made a law that no one of those who were suffering hardship in the prisons should be treated with humanity by the giving of food, nor that any should pity those in bonds who were perishing of hunger, nor in short that any should be good, nor do any good thing—even those drawn by their very nature toward sympathy with their neighbours. And this law was downright shameless and most cruel, transgressing all gentle nature; and to it was attached a penalty, that those who showed pity should suffer the same as those pitied, and that those who ministered the offices of humanity should be shut up in bonds and prisons, undergoing the same penalty as those in distress.

24. Such were the enactments of Licinius. Why should I recount his innovations concerning marriages, or his novelties touching those who departed this life, by which, having dared to set aside the ancient laws of the Romans, well and wisely established, he introduced in their stead certain barbarous and savage ones—laws truly lawless and unlawful—and devised countless exactions against the subject nations, and all manner of levyings of gold and silver, and re-measurings of land, and an injurious profit from men no longer existing in the country districts but long since departed?

25. And what manner of banishments did this hater of men devise against those who had wronged him in nothing; what carryings-off of well-born and notable men, whose wedded wives he tore from them and handed over to certain foul servants for the insult of a shameful deed; and upon how many married women and maiden girls did he himself, the utterly aged man, in his drunken outrage glut the unbridled lust of his soul—why need I prolong these things, when the excess of his last deeds proves the first to be small and as nothing?

26. The end of his madness, at any rate, advanced against the bishops; and now, accounting these, as servants of the God who is over all, to be opposed to what he was doing, he plotted against them—not yet openly, through fear of his better, but again secretly and craftily—and put to death, by the plotting of the governors, the most approved of them. And the manner of the murder of them was a strange one, and such as had never at any time been heard of.

27. The things, at any rate, that were done about Amasea and the other cities of Pontus surpassed every excess of cruelty; where some of the churches of God were again thrown down from their height to the ground, and others they closed up, that none of those accustomed might assemble, nor render to God the worship due.

28. For he did not suppose that the prayers were being offered on his behalf—reasoning this from his evil conscience—but was persuaded that we did all things on behalf of the God-beloved emperor, and made God propitious to him; whence he was moved to vent his fury against us.

29. And then those of the governors who were flatterers, persuaded that they were doing what was pleasing to the unholy man, surrounded some of the bishops with the penalties customary for malefactors; and those who had wronged no one were led away and punished without pretext, like murderers; and some now underwent a stranger death, their bodies hacked with the sword into many pieces, and after this cruel and most horrible spectacle being cast into the depths of the sea as food for fishes.

30. Whereupon flights of the godly men began again, and once more the fields, and once more the deserts, the glens and the mountains, received the servants of Christ. And when these things too prospered for the impious man in this fashion, he then conceived in his mind to stir up the persecution against all as well;

31. and he was prevailing in his purpose, and there was nothing to hinder him from proceeding to the deed, had not God, the champion of his own souls, most swiftly anticipating what was to come, suddenly caused to shine forth, as in deep darkness and most gloomy night, a great luminary and saviour for all—his own servant Constantine—leading him by a high arm to these regions.

32. 1. To him, then, from above out of heaven God gave the trophies of victory over the impious as a worthy fruit of godliness; but the guilty one, with all his counsellors and friends, he cast down headlong beneath the feet of Constantine.

33. For when his conduct was driving him to the extreme of madness, the emperor, the friend of God, reckoning that it was no longer endurable, gathering his sober judgement and tempering the firm character of justice with loving-kindness, decided to come to the help of those who were being oppressed under the tyrant, and set about to recover the greater part of the human race, putting out of the way the few destroyers.

34. For while he had employed loving-kindness alone in the time before this, and had pitied the one who was not worthy of sympathy, for the other nothing came of it—since he did not put away his wickedness, but rather increased his fury against the subject nations—while for those who were being maltreated no hope of salvation was left, tyrannized over by a dreadful beast.

35. Wherefore the helper of the good, having mingled the hatred of wickedness with the love of good, comes forth, together with his son Crispus, a most humane emperor, stretching out a saving right hand to all who were perishing. Then, employing as their guide and ally God the all-sovereign and the Son of God the Saviour of all, father and son together, both having divided their array on every side against the haters of God, easily carry off the victory, all the matters of the engagement having been made easy for them by God according to their mind.

36. Suddenly indeed, and quicker than word, those who yesterday and the day before were breathing death and threatening were no more, nor even remembered so much as by name; and their pictures and their honours received the disgrace they deserved; and what Licinius had seen with his own eyes befall the impious tyrants of old, these very things he himself in like manner suffered, because he too did not accept correction, nor was brought to soberness by the scourges of his neighbours, but, having pursued the same road of impiety as they, was justly carried round to the same precipice as they.

37. But he indeed lay thus, smitten and cast down; while he that excelled in all virtue of godliness, the greatest conqueror, Constantine, together with his son Crispus, an emperor most beloved of God and in all things like his father, recovered their own East, and presented the empire of the Romans, united into one, as in the days of old, bringing the whole of it, from the rising sun, all round on either side of the inhabited world, the north together with the south, to the uttermost setting of day, beneath their own peace.

38. There was taken away, then, from men all fear of those who before had oppressed them, and they kept bright and festal days of celebration; all things were full of light, and with smiling faces and shining eyes those who before were downcast looked upon one another; and there were dances and hymns to them, throughout cities and country districts alike, in honour first of all of God the all-sovereign, for so they had been taught, and then in honour of the godly emperor together with his God-beloved sons.

39. And there was forgetfulness of old evils and oblivion of all impiety, enjoyment of present good things, and besides, the expectation of those to come. And there were spread abroad in every place the enactments of the conquering emperor, full of loving-kindness, and laws containing tokens of munificence and true godliness.

40. Thus, indeed, every tyranny having been cleared away, there were preserved to Constantine and his sons alone, secure and free from envy, the things of the empire that belonged to them; who, having wiped away from life the hatred of God of all those who went before, perceiving the good things dispensed to them by God, displayed their love of virtue and devotion to God, and their piety and thankfulness toward the Deity, through which they presented to all men to behold.