influencing her son's mind to the support of Christianity it is
impossible to determine, but that some credit is due to her in this
respect the nature of the circumstances warrants us in believing. In any
case, Helena was so important a figure in early Church history that her
life and doings were a favorite theme for the chroniclers of her time
and a welcome opportunity for the legendists of the mediaeval age. These
latter have so glorified her ancestry and confused the place of her
birth that it is entirely impossible to harmonize their statements with
those of the former. As an example of the legends of the Middle Ages we
give the account of her as it is found in Hakluyt's _Voyages_ and quoted
by Dr. McGiffert in his Prolegomena to Eusebius's _Constantine the
Great_. "Helena Flavia Augusta, the heire and only daughter of Coelus,
sometime the most excellent king of Britaine, by reason of her singular
beautie, faith, religion, goodnesse, and godly Maiestie (according to
the testimonie of Eusebius) was famous in all the world. Amongst all the
women of her time there was none either in the liberall arts more
learned, or in the instruments of musike more skilfull, or in the divers
languages of nations more abundant than herselfe. She had a naturall
quicknesse of wit, eloquence of speech, and most notable grace in all
her behaviour. She was seen in the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin tongues. Her
father (as Virumnius reporteth) had no other childe, ... Constantius had
by her a sonne called Constantine the great, while hee remained in
Britaine ... peace was granted to the Christian churches by her good
meanes. After the light and knowledge of the Gospel, she grew so
skilfull in divinity that she wrote and composed divers bookes and
certaine Greek verses also, which (as Ponticus reporteth) are yet
extant... went to Jerusalem... lived to the age of fourscore yeeres, and
then died at Rome the fifteenth day of August, in the yeere of oure
redemption 337.... Her body is to this day very carefully preserved at
Venice." As the learned author of the Prolegomena says, this is "a
matter-of-fact account of things which are not so."
There is another story, to the effect that Helena was the daughter of a
nobleman of Treves. While on a pilgrimage to Rome she was seen by
Emperor Constantius, and he, falling in love with her beauty, caused her
to be detained in the city until after her companions had returned home.
The result was disastrous to Helena's character as a virgin. To assuage
her grief, the emperor presented her with an ornament of precious stones
and his ring. She continued to remain in Rome with the son that was born
to her, allowing it to be understood that her husband was dead.
Constantine, her son, grew up to be a young man of remarkably fine
presence and unusual parts. These qualities in him attracted the
attention of some rich merchants, who conceived the project of palming
him off on the Emperor of the Greeks as the son of the Roman emperor, so
that the former might accept him as a son-in-law.
This scheme was successful, and after a time the merchants reembarked
for Rome, taking with them the princess as Constantine's wife, and also
much treasure, which presumably was the object of the adventure. One
night they went ashore on a little island, and in the morning the young
people awoke to find that they were deserted. Constantine then confessed
to the princess the fraud that had been practised upon her; but she
magnanimously declared that she was satisfied with him as her husband,
whatever his family might be. After some days of privation, they were
rescued by passing voyagers and taken on to Rome. There, with the
treasure which the princess had managed to retain, they purchased an
inn, and, with Helena's assistance, supported themselves by its means.
Constantine became so famous through his prowess at tournaments that he
attracted the attention of the emperor, who refused to believe that he
was of low extraction. Helena was sent for, and, after much questioning,
she at last confessed as to who she and her son really were. The truth
of her statement was confirmed by the ring which Constantius had given
her. The emperor then caused the merchants to be put to death and their
property given to Constantine. A treaty was made with the Greek emperor,
and Constantine was recognized as the heir to the whole Empire. This
story may be regarded as a sort of Middle Age historical novel, the
history being metamorphosed without stint in order to enhance the
interest of the tale.
The old chroniclers, such as Henry of Huntington, Geoffrey of Monmouth,
and Pierre de Langtoft, assert that Helena was the daughter of Duke Coel
of Colchester, who became King of Britain. She was the most beautiful
and cultivated woman of her time-the attribute of beauty is always
awarded to women who have been so fortunate as to become legendary. The
most interesting thing about this story is the fact that modern students
have identified Duke Coel, the alleged father of Helena, with "Old King
Cole," who was the "merry old soul" immortalized in the Mother Goose
rhymes.
Let us now turn to what may be seriously regarded as history and therein
ascertain what may be known of the life and character of the
empress-mother Helena. It must be taken as a well-established fact that
her father, so far from being either a king or a duke of Britain, was
indeed an innkeeper at Drepanum, a town on the Gulf of Nicomedia. The
story suggested by this circumstance is the commonplace one of a soldier
in the service of the emperor Aurelian passing a brief sojourn at the
hostelry in Drepanum, and, with the proverbially quick susceptibility of
the men of his calling, falling in love with the daughter of his host.
The necessary negotiations were easy, for a man like Constantius was an
unusual catch for a girl in the position of Helena. No time was lost
over preliminaries; in fact, the marriage was so little noted that some
historians claim that it never took place at all. These hold that Helena
was never anything more than the concubine of Constantius; but the fact
that Diocletian insisted upon her divorce proves that she was legally
married. That, as is often stated, the birth of Constantine took place
before the marriage of Helena may not be untrue. Some have found a
support for this allegation in the fact that "he first established that
natural children should be made legitimate by the subsequent marriage of
their parents." From the fact that a number of places lay claim to the
honor of being the birthplace of Constantine, it would seem that Helena
accompanied her husband in the wanderings consequent to the profession
of a soldier. Gibbon thinks that the historians who award this
distinction to Naissus, in Dacia, are the best authorities, though later
writers think it rightly belongs to Drepanum, the home of Helena. This
place was afterward called Helenopolis by Constantine, in honor of his
mother.
Theodoret seems to have thought that Helena gave her son a Christian
education, while, on the other hand, we are plainly told by Eusebius
that she was indebted to Constantine for her knowledge of Christianity.
It is very easy to entertain a doubt of both these theories. If Helena
was a Christian when Constantine was a child, and if she trained him in
that belief, his after conduct shows extremely unsatisfactory results of
a mother's teaching. Constantine certainly did not withdraw his support
and patronage from the ancient religion until he was past forty years of
age; and it is well known that he delayed his baptism until near the end
of his life, so as to enjoy the advantage of its purifying effect at the
latest possible moment. These cumulative circumstances render us
exceedingly sceptical of the possibility of so zealous a convert as was
Helena resulting from so indifferent a teacher as was Constantine.
When his son was eighteen years old, Constantius was promoted to the
rank of Cæsar. This majesty, however, Helena was not allowed to share
with her husband. The innkeeper's daughter was displaced by a more
advantageous match with Theodora, the daughter of the Augustus Maximian.
Later on, Fausta, another daughter of Maximian, was married to
Constantine, and thus Theodora was made sister-in-law to her own
stepson. Such intricate matrimonial alliances were not uncommon among
rulers, where the main object is to conserve the family prestige.
How Helena consoled herself in her humiliation, or in what way she
occupied herself during the interval between her divorce and the
accession of Constantine, we do not know. As is the wont with women in
such circumstances who are no longer young, she turned her thoughts to
religion. It was most probably at this time that Helena became a
Christian openly, though she may have been friendly to the Church while
she was still the wife of Constantius.
In the year 306 Constantius died. He left three sons and three
daughters, who had been born to him by his second wife Theodora; but the
son of Helena, a mature man and an experienced soldier, was immediately
promoted by the army from the Cæsarship to the Empire of the West. It is
much to his credit that in that age when family ties were no safeguard
against inhuman treatment by close but stronger relatives, who sought to
secure themselves in the possession of a throne, Constantine nobly cared
for the children of the woman for whose sake his own mother had been
repudiated. Unfortunately for his reputation, he was not always so
humane.
The three half-sisters of the emperor were Constantia, Anastasia, and
Eutropia. This is perhaps as good a place as any in which to glance at
the history of these women, who did not greatly affect the course of
events. Constantia married the Emperor Licinius. She was greatly beloved
by Constantine, and at times seemed to wield some influence over his
decisions, not sufficient, however, to save the life of her husband or
that of her young son. It was during the magnificent festivities
occasioned by her marriage at Milan that the two emperors made the first
proclamation of religious liberty that was ever heard in an imperial
edict by the subjects of Rome. "Religious liberty," they said, "should
not be denied, but it should be granted to every man to perform his
duties toward God according to his own judgment." Licinius, however, did
not live up to this decision, nor was he loyal to his brother-in-law in
other matters. Civil war followed, in which Constantine was victorious,
and through his victory he became sole emperor. Constantia pleaded for
the life of her husband, and gained from her brother the promise that he
should suffer no severer punishment than banishment; but,
notwithstanding this brotherly pledge of mercy, a motive was soon
discovered which seemed to justify the death of Licinius. Gibbon
remarks: "The behavior of Constantia, and her relation to the contending
parties, naturally recall the remembrance of that virtuous matron who
was the sister of Augustus and the wife of Antony." In later years, when
Constantine had become the arbiter of the theological disputes which
rent the newly established Church and had banished Arius for his heresy,
Constantia again acted the part of peacemaker and, on her deathbed,
warned the emperor to "consider well lest he should incur the wrath of
God and suffer great temporal calamities, since he had been induced to
condemn good men to perpetual banishment." It was probably largely owing
to these good offices that Arius was recalled. Notwithstanding her
indulgent attitude toward heretics, Constantia seems to have been a
woman of genuine Christian feeling, honoring her faith by the nobility
of her life, a comment which cannot justly be passed upon all the
Christian princesses of her time.
Anastasia, the second sister of Constantine, was married to Bassianus, a
man of high position, who, on being favored with this imperial alliance,
was further promoted to the rank of Cæsar. He was later discovered in a
conspiracy against Constantine and put to death. Further than this there
is nothing noteworthy to be told of Anastasia. Eutropia was espoused to
Nepotianus. Of her history there is nothing remarkable recorded except
that after the death of her great brother she was slain with her son,
who in Rome had headed the rebellion against the usurpation of
Magnentius.
We will return now to the court of Constantine, where we shall find his
mother installed in great honor and dignity and not without an influence
of her own. Whatever may have been the faults of her son, Helena had no
cause to complain of any lack of duty on his part toward herself.
The court of Constantine, nominally Christian though it was, exhibited
the same characteristics of jealousy and intrigue as had the palaces of
the pagan emperors. Before his marriage with Fausta, the emperor had,
like his father, contracted a "left-handed" marriage, in his case with a
woman named Minervina, whom he repudiated for the sake of an alliance
which policy dictated. Some authors, seem to insinuate, as in the case
of Helena, that there was no marriage in the legal sense; but the
testimony rather points to the contrary. However this may have been,
Crispus, the son of Minervina, was retained by his father and brought up
as a legitimate heir to the purple. This naturally resulted, on the part
of Fausta, in jealousy for the rights of her own children. This whole
story is deeply shrouded in mystery, as is the wont with the domestic
affairs of court; but the few rays of historical light which do
penetrate the gloom reveal to us nothing but a horrible intricacy of
moral turpitude. The murder of Crispus by the order of his father was
the outcome. Some ancient writers accuse Fausta of indulging an unchaste
passion for her stepson and of bringing about his death in revenge for
his disappointing her desires. They represent her as charging the young
man with an attempt of which his innocence was in reality the cause of
her malice toward him; but it is more likely that her fear of his
standing in the way of her own sons was the motive for bringing about
his downfall. Whether innocent or guilty, Crispus perished, for
Constantine, whatever may have been his religion, was as implacably
cruel as Tiberius. He even put to death the twelve-year-old son of his
favorite sister Constantia, for no other reason than that the lad's
existence might prove an injury to his own sons.
But, as Victor Duruy writes, "the tragedy was not yet ended. In the
imperial palace lived Helena, the aged mother of the emperor, a
rough-mannered, energetic woman, to whom the murder of Crispus was a
horrible crime. Repudiated by Constantius Chlorus, she had seen the
imperial title and honors pass to a rival; when policy expelled
Minervina, as it had driven out herself, from an emperor's dwelling,
this similarity in misfortune attached her to the son whom that
daughter-in-law had borne to Constantine, and who was to grow up with a
stepmother in his father's house. Helena watched over the boy with
anxiety, and toward the children of Fausta she felt the same aversion
that the latter manifested toward Crispus. Between these two women, no
doubt, a mutual hatred existed. How did Helena succeed in making Fausta
appear the author of abominable machinations? This we do not know; but
we have the fact that, by order of Constantine, the empress was seized
by her women, shut up in a hot bath, and smothered."
It must be admitted, however, that all the information that we have on
this subject is very hazy. The treatment which the ancient authors gave
to the reputation of Fausta depended very considerably upon their
purpose of either eulogizing or denouncing Constantine. While some
justify him by declaring that the empress was discovered in the arms of
a slave of the stables,--a most incredible story as told of a
middle-aged empress,--others speak of her as the most divine and pious
of empresses. There is in existence a bronze medallion showing a
portrait of Fausta; the strongly marked Grecian features are those of a
woman who is evidently fully conscious of the dignity which pertained to
"the daughter, wife, sister, and mother of emperors."
After these tragedies had taken place, it is not surprising that Helena
decided to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, this being considered, even
in times so early, as one of the most effective of moral purgatives. It
is asserted that she was directed by dreams to repair to Jerusalem and
there search for the Holy Sepulchre. The difficulty of this task was so
great that there need be no wonder that the ancient chroniclers believed
that she was divinely led. The place of the tomb had been covered with
earth, and a temple to Venus erected thereupon. This, Helena caused to
be destroyed; and, after much excavating, the sacred cave was found.
What emotion, what pious promptings she must have then felt as she stood
where, a little over three centuries earlier, the trembling feet of the
holy women of Galilee had halted as they fearfully wondered how they
should remove the great stone from the mouth of the Sepulchre, when lo!
the stone was removed, the entrance was open, and before them stood an
angel all in white who announced to them that the Lord had arisen!
Some authorities assert that, believing the Jewish inhabitants possessed
definite knowledge that would solve her difficulties, she determined to
secure it by the means usually employed by Christians in dealing with
reluctant Jews. First, she commanded that all the Jewish rabbis should
be assembled. They came in great fear, suspecting that the object of her
visit was to find the Cross. The whereabouts of this precious relic they
knew; but they had pledged themselves not to reveal it, even under
torture. When they would not satisfactorily answer Helena's questions,
she commanded that they should all be burned. This sufficiently overcame
their resolution to induce them to deliver up Judas, their leader,
saying that he could give the desired information. At first he was
obstinate; but Helena gave him the choice of either telling what he knew
or of being starved to death. Six days of total abstinence was
sufficient to bring him to terms. He was conducted to the place which he
indicated; and after prayer by the Christians, there occurred an
earthquake, and a beautiful perfume filled the air, because of which
Judas was converted. Then he set to digging vigorously, and at a depth
of twenty feet came upon three crosses. But how to know which was the
cross of the Saviour was the next puzzle to be solved. Macarius, the
Bishop of Jerusalem, was equal to the occasion. According to Socrates:
"A certain woman of the neighborhood, who had long been afflicted with
disease, was now just at the point of death; the bishop therefore
arranged that each cross should be brought to the dying woman, believing
that she would be healed on touching the precious Cross. Nor was he
disappointed in his expectation: for the two crosses having been applied
which were not the Lord's, the woman still continued in a dying state;
but when the third, which was the true Cross, touched her, she was
immediately healed, and recovered her former strength."
Helena then set Judas to work at searching for the nails. They were
found shining like gold. These, with the larger portion of the Cross,
she sent to Constantine. The nails he converted into bridle-bits, and
the wood of the Cross he secretly enclosed in his own statue, which was
set up in the forum at Constantinople.
Helena erected a magnificent church on the site of the Holy Sepulchre,
calling it New Jerusalem. She also built a Christian temple at
Bethlehem, and still another on the Mount of the Ascension.
Sozomen tells us that "during her residence at Jerusalem, she assembled
the sacred virgins at a feast, ministered to them at supper, presented
them with food, poured water on their hands, and performed other similar
services customary to those who wait upon guests." It is no wonder that
the Christian devotees of celibacy came to believe that virginity
conferred upon them a rank superior to that obtained from nobility of
birth.
It is also recorded of Helena that she not only enriched churches, but
that she liberally supplied the necessities of the poor, and released
prisoners and those condemned to labor in the mines. Sozomen writes: "It
seems to me that so many holy actions demanded a recompense; and indeed,
even in this life, she was raised to the summit of magnificence and
splendor; she was proclaimed Augusta; her image was stamped on golden
coins, and she was invested by her son with authority over the imperial
treasury to give it according to her judgment. Her death, too, was
glorious; for when, at the age of eighty, she departed this life, she
left her son and her descendants masters of the Roman world. And if
there be any advantage in such fame--forgetfulness did not conceal her
though she was dead--the coming age has the pledge of her perpetual
memory; for two cities are named after her, the one in Bithynia, and the
other in Palestine. Such is the history of Helena."
Of the fact that Helena is rightly regarded as a prominent character in
the history of women there can be no question; that she was the mother
of Constantine and the first avowed Christian empress is enough to
warrant this opinion. Her virtue and charity may also be regarded as
unimpeachable. Her canonization as a saint, however, is founded upon her
alleged discovery of the Cross. Apart from the other difficulties which
a sceptical mind may find in this story, there is the fact that
Eusebius, who in the lifetime of Constantine wrote the account of
Helena's journey to Jerusalem, makes no mention whatever of the Cross,
notwithstanding his recital of the appearing of the sacred sign to the
emperor and its adoption as the Roman ensign. But the legend, be it true
or false, has highly glorified the name of Helena in the religious
history of the world.
V
POST-NICENE MOTHERS
It requires a considerable amount of imagination, coupled with a
facility for overlooking untoward historical facts, to enable one to
draw an honest and at the same time an entirely pleasing picture of the
Church in the fourth and fifth centuries. And yet this may rightly be
looked upon as the heroic age of Christianity; it was the period of the
Church's greatest victories. It is true that, emerging from the
sickening asceticism and rising above the theological squabbles of the
time, are mighty men and women of didactic and also of moral renown.
"There were giants in those days." Nevertheless, the average moral
character of the "Christian" Empire was raised such a slight degree
above that of the pagan regime that it is barely perceptible in the
records of history. Both Constantine and Constantius stained their
palaces with the blood of their innocent relatives. The populace still
gloated over gladiatorial combats. Courtesans were licensed in order
that their trade might help to replenish the imperial treasury. The
rigor of slavery was somewhat softened; yet if a man beat his
bondservant to death, he was considered to be acting within his right,
providing that he declared that the killing was not in his intention.
For offences which to-day are treated with great leniency, slave women
were then punished by having melted lead poured down their throats.
Moreover, it was during the first centuries of the Christian state that
the fetters of feudalism were forged, by which the poor were bound down
to their hopeless wretchedness. Of the artisans the law said: "Let them
not dare to aspire to any honor, even if they might deserve it, the men
who are covered with the filth of labor, and let them remain forever in
their own condition."
The leaven of Christian morality was present in the lump of traditional
social conditions; but it had not yet begun to work extensively.
Nineteen centuries have produced only the immature results we see at
present. The evolution of human kindliness is slow, though, as we may
believe, inevitable. A learned and lively English writer of the
beginning of the last century, referring to those Church doctors who
would have the world venerate the Nicene period as the ideal age of
Christianity, says that if "they could but be blindfolded (if any such
precaution, in their case, were needed) and were fairly set down in the
midst of the pristine Church, at Carthage, or at Alexandria, or at Rome,
or at Antioch, they would be fain to make their escape, with all
possible celerity, toward their own times and country; and that
thenceforward we should never hear another word from them about
'venerable antiquity' or the holy Catholic Church of the first ages. The
effect of such a trip would, I think, resemble that produced sometimes
by crossing the Atlantic, upon those who have set out, westward,
excellent Liberals, and have returned, eastward, as excellent Tories."
There never has come to the world an opportunity to make substantial and
unusual progress in its moral development, but that there have been
plenty to turn the newly-acquired wisdom into foolishness. The great
opportunity in the history of Christianity came in the century marked by
the Nicene Council and in that succeeding it.