CHAPTER XVII.

CRUCIFIED UNTO THE WORLD.

Arius having been joyfully ordained to be a presbyter, and being

uninformed of the martyrdom of Am-nem-hat and of Theckla, with gladness

of heart and bright anticipations of coming happiness reached the city

of Alexandria, and went first of all, as his duty was, to Peter, the

bishop, whose return from Antioch had briefly preceded his own arrival.

And, after the usual salutations had passed between them, the bishop,

looking tenderly upon him, said: "Son, thou hast been ordained a

presbyter, and hast been consecrated to the Master's service, and the

Bishop Lucanius highly extolleth thy fitness for the holy office. But

thou art young, my son, and the Lord hath laid a heavy cross upon thee.

Hast thou received any recent news from our unfortunate city of

Alexandria?"

"The last news I received was borne by thee when thou didst come unto

Antioch bringing a letter from my betrothed, and that from the

community, and the casket containing the perfect and beautiful copies of

the sacred writings which Theckla wrote with her own hand for me. Why

dost thou ask so seriously?"

"I did only precede thee by three days, my son; but upon my arrival

heard the news of a sudden outbreak of persecution in which many of the

pious were perfected, and their goods despoiled, the recital whereof

will pierce thy heart. Thine old friend Am-nem-hat did bravely testify

for Jesus even in the midst of the flame by which he was made perfect."

"I loved him much," said Arius, "and his long life hath ended

gloriously!" Then a ghastly pallor came over the young man's cheek and

lip, and he could only murmur, "And Theckla, bishop?"

"Son," said the bishop, tenderly, "thy beautiful Theckla was also a

perfect witness for our Lord at the same time and place with the ancient

Am-nem-hat." Then bowed the youth his head upon his hands, and

writhings as of some mortal agony swept over him.

"Son," said old Peter, tearfully, "canst thou not say, 'He doeth all

things well, and blessed be his name'?"

"Not yet! not yet!" sobbed out the broken-hearted man; "but give unto me

the key of the church Baucalis!"

And the bishop called a young deacon unto him, and bade him take the key

and guide the youthful presbyter unto that church. And in silence the

sorely-smitten man followed his guide until they had reached the door of

the beautiful church; then said Arius unto him: "Thou mayst return.

Farewell!"

And Arius opened the door and passed within, and locked the door behind

him. And it was twilight; and the full moon shed a soft and mellow

light through the vast area of the sacred room; and, not far off, the

gentle waves of the sea gleamed in the golden sheen, and lapsed away

along the quiet coast.

Back and forth, along the great aisle, with slow and heavy

footsteps--back and forth, until the long night waned away, and the

muffled tread of the sufferer seemed to become regular, unceasing,

continuous, as part of the very course of nature itself--all night long,

back and forth, wrestling sorely with his sudden, mighty grief, the

young man trod the desolate aisle, and his bosom heaved with anguish,

but not a single word escaped his compressed, ashy lips. The first

faint light of dawn mottled the eastern sky; then the glad sunlight

streamed far out along the peaceful sea, and the freshness of the

morning laughed from earth and heaven. Then went he slowly unto a

window opening unto the east, and the sun was rising gloriously, and

then the man raised up his right hand reverently, and, gazing away into

the glowing heavens, with trembling lips and broken heart, he murmured:

"Yea! He doeth all things well; and blessed be his name!"

But the first great sorrow of his life had fallen upon him; that which

ages a man in a single day; that which breaketh off and casteth far from

him all the brightness and freshness of his youth forever, and setteth

him henceforth face to face with the hard and bitter realities of life,

making all of the beautiful past only a dim and blessed memory of

happiness, the light and sweetness whereof his lip shall taste no more

on earth.

The youth was a man now; tried in the furnace of affliction; exercised

by grief; strengthened and hardened and chastened by the bitter cup of

woe.

Quietly he departed from the church; with calm, unfaltering tread he

went back unto the bishop; and then unwaveringly he asked for, and

unflinchingly heard, the pathetic details of the martyrdom. And the

kind-hearted old man said unto him: "Son, thou triest thy heart too

bitterly. If thou desirest to be alone, I can give thee a room unto

thyself, and thou canst abide quietly with me until thou shalt feel

better able to assume thy pastoral charge."

"I thank thee much, bishop, for thou art very kind. But God forbid that

private grief should ever keep me from a sacred task! I will even

preach to my people in the Baucalis church this morning. For I

know"--and then the right hand momently began its rhythmic movement, the

mesmeric light gleamed in his somber eyes, the strong, bold head sprang

forward upon the lithe, serpentine neck, and, with a light, plaintive

hiss in every tone that cut through the hearer's heart, he

continued--"for I know that Theckla would even have it so if she could

counsel me."

The good old bishop sprang toward and embraced him, crying out: "My son!

my son! Thou art of the splendid stuff of which God maketh martyrs!

May he console and comfort thee, and feed thee with the bread of

everlasting life!"

For the bishop saw in his haggard countenance the ineffaceable traces of

his mighty struggle with that night-long agony; he saw the grandeur and

beauty of the imperious will that wearied down the complainings of an

aching heart; and the clear, resolute soul that fixed its eye upon the

path of Christian duty, not to be swerved therefrom by any earthly

agency, and ready to immolate even its sacred hours of grief for the

sake of other souls.

Henceforth the fair forms of youth, and love, and hope, would pass him

by upon life's lonely pilgrimage almost unrecognized--strangers to him

except for some far-off, heart-broken memories. Henceforth upon his

chastened hearing the voices of honor and ambition would fall unheeded

as the sounding brass or the tinkling cymbal! Only when the stern, cold

face of Duty might meet his gaze, henceforth, his spirit would look up

and say: "I know thee. Welcome here!" Only when the shrinking forms of

human sorrow, and pain, and wretchedness, should henceforth claim his

sympathy, his soul would reach forth ministering hands and say: "Ye are

old friends of mine! I welcome you!"

And he did preach in the Baucalis church, that very morning, a sermon

which was never forgotten by those who heard it. "The love of Christ

constraineth us," he exclaimed; then in words that leaped, and flashed,

and glinted, ringing distinct as bell-notes, yet all flowing in a

strong, even, jubilant current unto a definite purpose, he set before

them the loftiest form and manner in which love hath ever showed its

power and beauty, in the best stories of pagan mythology and history, in

high and glorious examples from the Old and New Testament, and from

church history, all brought out like pictures before the mind, and above

them all he glorified and magnified that love divine of Jesus; then how

we are bound, constrained thereby; unto what end; and, finally, that the

necessary result of this bondage to Christ is absolute freedom as to all

other authority upon earth, higher than any natural courage or Stoic

philosophy could confer. But there was not even the remotest reference

to his private sorrow. All of them had known Theckla, and the covenant

between her and Arius, and the building of the church for him, and the

transcribing of the scriptures for him by her hand; and all of their

hearts had yearned after him in sympathizing sorrow; but not one word of

self even inadvertently found utterance in his clear, cold, steel-like

exegesis of the truth, or in the copious, affluent stream of exhortation

and comfort. He had come to minister unto them, not to be ministered

unto by them; he had come to help them bear all things, with clear eyes

to see, with open heart to feel and share, with strong, resolute,

uncomplaining spirit to bear all of their sorrows and trials; his own to

be sealed up in his own soul, buried out of human sight forever. He

took all hearts by storm: instinctively they felt that this young man

was thoroughly furnished unto every good work; they could rely upon him,

they could trust him under all circumstances, in any emergency. An old

Christian in the congregation, who had been a Roman officer for many

years before his conversion, and had faced every form of death upon the

battlefield, whispered to the friend next to him: "What a splendid

commander he would have made! He is the bravest man I ever saw, for, if

there had been a streak of weakness, or cowardice, or selfishness in his

nature, he could not have buried his own grief out of sight, and put his

whole heart into his work as he hath done."

It was so through all the services of that first day. Quiet, grave,

courteous, he discharged every duty of his position without the

slightest reference to his own feelings or trials. For, during that

night of awful sorrow, he had fully settled all his earthly life.

Henceforth the church at Baucalis was to be his home; the community that

might worship there, his family; he was, henceforth, to have no griefs,

ambitions, trials of his own; no hopes, no fears; he was to bear the

burdens of others; to love, guide, counsel, and strengthen the souls

intrusted to his care; to do a minister's work, that is, a spiritual

servant's work, so long as life might last, and to wait patiently,

uncomplainingly, without disquietude or bitterness of spirit, if

possible with gladness, until the end might come. Such was the destiny

he had mapped out for himself during that night of bitter anguish in the

beautiful church; such was the destiny that upon the next morning, with

grand, simple, unselfish faith and courage, he arose to meet.

The thoroughness of this profound self-abnegation was exhibited on the

night succeeding that first day's labors, when, in the solitude of his

own apartment, he took from out its cedar casket the beautiful

manuscript which Theckla's hand had lovingly prepared for him, and made

an indorsement thereon, in the Arabic tongue, that it had been

transcribed by Theckla, a noble Egyptian lady, who also was a martyr in

Alexandria. But he did not write that it was transcribed for him; his

name nowhere appears on any part of the manuscript; there is not a word

or sign that can by any possibility connect his name or fate with hers.

Arius seemed to him to have been slain and buried long ago; only God's

presbyter survived the ruin of his life, and stood up in the place of

Arius, calm, strong, fearless, unselfish, and devout.

And this great manuscript, which was the offering of Theckla's love unto

him, hath survived the lapse of ages, bearing yet upon its priceless

pages the indorsement of Arius. It is known throughout Christendom as

the "CODEX ALEXANDRINUS"--"A" of the British Museum, although some later

writings have been blended therewith, and some of the manuscripts

prepared by Theckla have been lost.

BOOK II.

CHAPTER I.

"HIS MOST CATHOLIC MAJESTY."

The historians, secular and ecclesiastic, have alike failed to do

justice to the vast abilities of Constantine the Great. Those who have

questioned his superiority to all other Roman emperors (if, indeed, not

to all other men) have united in ascribing to accident, to the mere

drifting of events, facts which were really the forecastings of

profoundest statesmanship, guided by a political sagacity that pierced

through to the very core of the whole social and religious life of the

vast empire over which he ruled, almost untroubled by the influences of

human passions, fears, and faith. On the other hand, those who have

felt constrained to give even the slightest credence to his alleged

profession of faith in Christ have attributed to religious zeal,

enthusiasm, or fears, the most salient actions of a life that was, from

beginning to end, dominated only by the lust for dominion, incapable of

any creed but atheism, and absolutely content with the negation of the

existence of any Being greater than himself. To those who take a more

rational view of his magnificent but criminal career, and who, looking

behind the mask of reverence for paganism which he cast aside at

precisely the politic moment, in order to assume a false pretense of

reverence for Christianity, discern the cool, deliberate atheist, who

was ready to profess any creed and foster any superstition that might

best serve to smooth the road to absolute power, and make mankind his

slaves: to them the astute politician, the successful warrior, the

consummate ruler of men, assumes such colossal proportions that,

compared with him, Alexander, Caesar, and Napoleon, seem to sink into

the lower grade of butchers and stabbers, only half-taught in the

science of government, of which Constantine alone was master. For it is

no more certain that he despised and pitied paganism while he was

solemnly offering sacrifices to Jupiter, and winning the admiration and

love of the Roman world for his imperial piety, than it is certain that

he pitied and despised the Church of Christ, even while he was

manipulating the faith into a sure and reliable support of the empire;

in both courses he only played with the world, giving men any religious

toy which the greater part might prefer to have, in exchange for the

liberty of which he robbed them so plausibly and successfully that they

scarcely perceived his theft, and enthusiastically caressed the royal

thief.

The Christians of that age died at the stake, or by the sword, or by

wild beasts, rather than to cast a pinch of incense into the sacred

fires and say, "Proh Jupiter!" The pagans would have plunged into civil

war, and would have endured or inflicted any pain, rather than

acknowledge any feeling for Christ except hatred, loathing, and

contempt. But Constantine both adopted the cross as a military

standard, and also observed the heathen rites with customary ostentation

and solemnity; having absolutely no conscientious scruples for or

against any religion; regarding both the old and the new faiths as

things proper enough for common men, but altogether indifferent to him;

and using both alike as mere instruments convenient for the advancement

of his own political purposes.

After he had defeated Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge, he caused his own

statue to be erected at Rome; and, while the general design and

execution of the work were unexceptionable to his pagan subjects, the

image bore in its hand the symbol of the cross, which, until that day,

had been esteemed to be a badge of crime and infamy, as disgraceful to

any Roman as the lewd Priapi of the gardens could have been to the

Christians; and the thanksgiving which he offered to commemorate his

victory was couched in such enigmatical terms that in applying it to

Mars or Jupiter, the pagan did no more violence to the text than the

Christian would do in ascribing it to Christ and God. So, when, to

please the Christians, he decreed the solemn observance of Sunday, he

inspired the pagans with confidence and respect, by calling the sacred

day _Dies Solis_ (the Day of the Sun), a formula of heathendom with

which they had been familiar all their lives.

Utterly devoid of faith in anything else except himself and his own

destiny, unyielding in that ambition to exercise dominion which nerved

him for the doubtful war against Maxentius, he regarded both mankind and

religion with pity and contempt, and sought to rule men for their good

and his own glory, by means of any faith which they might prefer; and

hence, as Christianity became more known and popular, he identified

himself with it more and more, only in order to foster an agency which

seemed to be available in the work of consolidating the warring factions

of the empire and securing the permanency of his throne. But the gospel

of love and peace over which he extended the imperial protection did not

deter him from exterminating the whole race of Maxentius after he had

defeated him in battle; nor from the deliberate and politic murder of

Maximin, who was the father of Fausta his wife, and who had been the

benefactor of his father Constantius; nor from the destruction of his

wife herself, nor of his sons; nor from the assassination of the Emperor

Licinius and his son, the offspring of his sister Constantia--crimes so

infamous and unnecessary that the first spark of real animosity against

the gods of Rome that ever flashed across the serene and boundless

depths of his almost superhuman intelligence gleamed for a moment past

his consummate and life-long duplicity when the pagan priests refused

all expiation for such crimes; and be turned away more decidedly to a

religion which promises pardon for every sin: not that he cared anything

for the sacred rites of either church; but because he was the first

Roman ruler to attach any definite meaning to the words "public

opinion," and he desired to maintain the confidence of his people, and

also to secure the full benefit of those crimes which he committed to

place his own authority beyond the reach of accident.

So thoroughly indifferent to all sense of religion was this greatest of

the rulers of mankind that dissimulation was an easy task which involved

no conscientious scruples of any kind; and was so gracefully and

perfectly enacted that even Eusebius, the father of ecclesiastical

history, himself no ordinary man, was for a long time very thoroughly

deceived into believing that the atheistic emperor was God's vicegerent

for the establishment of the Christian Church on earth. "Constantine,

therefore, in the very commencement" (says Eusebius), "being proclaimed

supreme emperor and Augustus by the soldiers, and much longer before

this by the universal sovereign, God--Constantine, the protector of the

good, combining his hatred of wickedness with the love of goodness, went

forth with his son Crispus, the most benevolent Caesar, to extend a

caring arm to all them that were perishing. Both, therefore, the father

and the son, having, as it were, God the Universal King and his Son, our

Saviour, as their leader and aid, drawing up the army on all sides

against the enemies of God, bore away an easy victory." "With choirs

and hymns," says Eusebius, "in the cities and villages, at the same time

they celebrated and extolled first of all God the Universal King,

because they were thus taught; then they also celebrated the praises of

the pious emperor, and with him all his divinely-favored children,"

including Crispus Caesar whom he caused to be murdered afterward.

Only the lone and incorruptible seer of Patmos, John the Divine, foresaw

the mighty pagan in his real character, and depicted him in words of

scathing denunciation and rebuke which the prostituted Church then

failed to understand when the things were transacted before her eyes--a

prophetic and apocalyptic view of Constantine and Constantinople which

becomes of easier interpretation as the centuries glide away, revealing

more and more clearly what things John foretold, that were to follow

upon the subversion of Christianity by the most potent human enemy that

Jesus ever had, and locating the seat of Antichrist upon seven hills

above the sea to which the commerce of the world resorted--a description

inapplicable to any capital on earth except the city of Constantinople.

The tentative effort made by Constantine in 312 and 313, when he had

used the influence of the Christians against Maxentius, had proved

entirely successful, and the great ruler at once began to make inquiries

to ascertain to what extent the same faith might prevail throughout the

Empire of the East, and how far he might depend upon its aid in

subverting the sovereign power of Licinius, who then reigned over the

Eastern Empire. For, upon the death of Diocletian, Constantius and

Galerius had parted the empire between themselves in accordance with the

emperor's will, dividing both the provinces and the legions, which was

the first division of Roman sovereignty. Constantine succeeded his

father Constantius, and, by the overthrow of Maxentius, had become

master of all of the Western Empire, although north of the Mediterranean

Licinius ruled Pannonia, Dalmatia, Dacia, Greece, and Thrace; and,

having overthrown Maximian, ruled the East, including Asia Minor, Syria,

and Egypt.

But it was always Constantine's set purpose to restore the unity of the

empire, and to concentrate the whole imperial authority in his own

hand--a purpose of which he never for one moment lost sight, and which

is the explanation of his whole magnificent career. The present

difficulty in the way was the fact that he had permitted, perhaps

solicited, Licinius to sign with him the Decree of Milan, which gave

peace to the Church; and this celebrated document had been issued in

both their names, by their joint authority, and had been so published

throughout the empire. In addition to this was the fact that the

Christians universally regarded the defeat of Maximian and the triumph

of Licinius as providential, for the former had persecuted the Church,

and the latter had protected it in conjunction with Constantine. The

public actions of Maximian gave countenance to this opinion: for, while

he had great faith in the heathen gods and priests, and had resorted to

magic in order to conduct the war with Licinius triumphantly, after he

had been defeated in battle "he slew many of his priests as jugglers and

impostors, and as the destroyers of his own safety, since by their

oracles he had been induced to undertake the disastrous war. Moreover,

having heard that Constantine and Licinius were both Christians, he

supposed that their success was the result of their religion, and

himself immediately issued a decree providing safety for the Christians

whom less than a year before he had ordered to be persecuted, by decrees

engraved on brazen tablets; he gave them liberty to rebuild their

churches, and commanded that all of their property which had been seized

and sold under the former decrees should be restored to them. Shortly

afterward he miserably died, and Licinius ruled alone."

Licinius was a firm believer in Christianity, and his faith and the

decrees of Maximian alike confirmed both himself and his subjects in the

opinion that he was under the divine protection.

Constantine was not long in perceiving the greatest political error,

perhaps the only one, committed by him, the affixing of the signature of

Licinius to the Decree of Milan; but, at the time it was done, human

foresight could hardly have anticipated such a wholesale abandonment of

paganism, and such an ardent and enthusiastic adoption of Constantine's

new ecclesiasticism, on the part of the people, as did actually occur.

To have left the name of Licinius out of the decree would have fostered

any ambitious views which that emperor might have entertained, by

enabling him to set up himself as the especial guardian of the heathen

religion, and so concentrating in his own hands all the resources of the

pagan world. Constantine was compelled, therefore, either to divide the

influence of the Christians with Licinius, or else to array himself and

Christianity on the one side, against Licinius and paganism on the

other; and he was too wise a ruler not to perceive that such a civil and

religious war would be disastrous to both rulers, if not the ultimate

ruin of the empire; and, not knowing the vast numerical strength of the

Christians, he chose the former alternative. But no sooner had he

succeeded in getting all power in the North and West concentrated firmly

in his owe hands, than he began to seek for means whereby to undermine

the power of his rival, and so carry into effect his life-long

purpose--the reuniting of the divided empire, and the concentration of

all power in his own hands.

The Christians of the Eastern Empire maintained the primitive religion,

and persevered in their original opposition to bearing arms in war, and

to slavery, and to private-property rights, and so added nothing to the

military power of Licinius, except their constantly increasing communal

wealth. Licinius simply left the Church at peace, and was not

consummate politician enough to use its vast resources in aid of his

government, as Constantine had done, by inducing the Christians to

abandon the primitive organization of the Church and become Roman

subjects in everything except the mere article of faith. When Ulfilas,

the Goth, converted his barbarous countrymen, and transformed the fierce

and warlike tribes into peaceful and settled peoples among whom war,

slavery, polygamy, and private property, were unknown, and among whom no

king was recognized but Christ, Constantine declared war against them,

and pursued them with fire and sword until they were forced to adopt

Roman laws and customs, and agreed by treaty to supply a permanent force

of forty thousand young men to the imperial army; and, after that, he

caused Ulfilas himself to be ordained a bishop, and sent him back to his

own people to teach the imperial religion instead of Christianity. But

this profound and atheistic policy was too deep for the Emperor

Licinius; and Constantine knew well that, according to the primitive

Christianity, a whole Christian province would not furnish a single

recruit to his rival's legions, since no Christian would bear arms.

Eusebius of Caesarea, who had prepared the way for Constantine to become

the head of the Church in the Western Empire, was the emperor's chosen

friend and constant counselor, and the ruler of Rome never forgot that

the bishop had, first of all men, invited his attention to the fact that

the despised and persecuted Christians constituted already a body of men

so numerous, so virtuous, and so prosperous, as to hold the balance of

power between any factions which might divide the Roman people just as

soon as the legal disabilities which both concealed their numbers and

fettered their influence might be removed by imperial favor.

Under the advice of Eusebius, the emperor, in his own name, sent to

Anulinus, Proconsul of Africa, a decree most favorable to the Christians

throughout that region; he also made presents of large sums of money to

the bishops of Africa, Numidia, and Mauritania, who had been plundered

in the persecutions of Maximian; he also sent a decree ordaining that

all church prelates be freed from obligation to discharge any public,

military, or political duties and offices; also, he made a decree

commanding a certain council to be held concerning the affairs of

Caecilianus, Bishop of Carthage, and sent to Miltiades, Bishop of Rome,

copies of the charges against Caecilianus; also, a decree addressed to

Chrestus, Bishop of Syracuse, commanding that a council of many bishops,

both of Africa and of Gaul, should assemble at the city of Arles, in

order to consider and determine certain questions which were disputed

among the faithful.

In short, counseled by Eusebius, who never doubted the ultimate

overthrow of idolatry, and the ultimate triumph of whatever

ecclesiastical system might be established in place of the Christian

communities, Constantine zealously strove in every way to identify

himself and his government with the new religion, and to hold himself

out as the head of the Church, as well as of the state. At the same

time he steadily pursued a secret policy of winning to himself the

affection and confidence of the Christian subjects of the Emperor

Licinius, by the use of agents whom he kept in his own service, in the

household of every bishop of the Eastern Church. This zeal in the

service of the established ecclesiasticism soon met with the great

reward which Eusebius had promised to the emperor; for, throughout the

length and breadth of the churches it began to be commonly declared that

"Constantine was the divinely-appointed protector of the Christians";

that "God was the friend and vigilant protector of Constantine"; and

that "no man could be his equal, and no man could stand against him."

Licinius soon perceived the influence of these machinations, and saw

that, even in his own dominions, the Christians, and especially the

prelates, offered up more prayers for Constantine than for himself--"so

that he did not suppose," saith Eusebius, "that they offered prayers for

him at all, but persuaded himself that they did all things, and

propitiated the Deity, only for the divinely-favored Emperor

Constantine."

This treasonable sentiment, of course, aroused the resentment of the

jealous Licinius, and more and more developed that estrangement between

him and the Christians for which Constantine secretly but zealously

labored; and Licinius sought revenge by fomenting every disaffection

which manifested itself against the rule of Constantine in Africa. But

the bishops were as perfect a police force as modern times have ever

succeeded in organizing, and kept Rome fully advised of every movement

inaugurated by the enemies of the "most Christian emperor." And

Eusebius saith, concerning Licinius, that "when he saw that his secret

preparations by no means succeeded according to his wish, _as God

detected every artifice and villainy to his favorite prince_, no longer

able to conceal himself, Licinius commenced an open war. And in thus

determining war against Constantine, he now _proceeded to array himself

against the Supreme God whom he knew Constantine to worship_. Afterward

he began imperceptibly to assail those pious subjects under him who had

never at any time troubled his government. This too, he did, violently

urged on by the innate propensity of his malice, that overclouded and

darkened his understanding. He did not, therefore, bear in mind _those

that had persecuted the Christians before him_, nor those _whose

destroyer and punisher he himself had been appointed_, for their

wickedness. But, departing from sound reason, and, as one might say,

seized with insanity, he had determined _to wage war against God

himself_, the protector and aid of Constantine, _in place of the one

whom He assisted_. And first, indeed, he _drove away all the Christians

from his house_, the wretch thus divesting himself of those prayers to

God for his safety which they were taught to offer up for all men.

After this he ordered the soldiers in the cities to be cashiered and

stripped of military honors unless they chose to sacrifice to demons."

Constantine having craftily succeeded in embroiling Licinius with the

Church, watched with secret joy, until the enemy whom he wished to

destroy followed up this lustration of his army and navy, which was

designed to drive out the Christian spies of Constantine, with more

strenuous measures; and, in the language of Eusebius, "at last proceeded

to such an extent of madness _as to attack the bishops_, now indeed

regarding them as the servants of the Supreme God, _but hostile to his

measures_." And as the angry tyrant adopted extreme remedies for this

ecclesiastical treason, "razing the churches to the ground"; "subjecting

the bishops to the same punishment as the worst criminals"; "cutting the

bodies of some into small pieces and feeding them out to fishes in the

sea"; and "destroying others by various modes of torture and

death"--"the whole Christian world regarded him with horror and

detestation, and looked to Constantine for deliverance."

So that the error which the emperor had committed, in soliciting

Licinius to affix his signature to the Decree of Milan, was not only

fully compensated by his consummate skill and artifice, but the Church

prayed earth and Heaven for the destruction of Licinius. Licinius,

irritated more and more by the wide-spread disaffection of his subjects,

espoused the cause of Bassianus, who had married Anastasia, the sister

of Constantine, and urged him into rebellion in order to gain larger

power; and, Bassianus having been defeated and dethroned, Licinius

refused to deliver up the partisans of the fallen Caesar who had taken

refuge in his dominions; and upon this pretext Constantine declared war

against him; and in two battles, one at Cibalis in Pannonia, and the

other upon the plains of Mardia in Thrace, he defeated Licinius, and so

crippled him that he was compelled to make peace, with the loss of

Pannonia, Dalmatia, Dacia, Macedonia, and Greece, which provinces were

added to the dominions of Constantine, and extended his empire to the

extremity of Peloponnesus, leaving Licinius Emperor of Thrace, Asia

Minor, Syria, and Egypt.

This war happened in the year 315, and the ambition of Constantine was

temporarily sated, so that he then refrained from pushing to extremities

the defeated but still powerful Licinius until he might have time and

opportunity to alienate the affection and confidence of his subjects in

Asia as thoroughly as he had done in Europe. And, besides this, he

wanted time in order to subjugate the Goths whom Ulfilas had converted,

subvert the Christian communities organized among them on the primitive

foundation, and force them to adopt the ecclesiastical system which he

had established at Rome, in order to make the Gothic nation an available

factor in any future war in which he might engage. But in a few years

afterward, having successfully waged war against the Goths, and having

seen the influence of Licinius greatly impaired by the persecutions of

the Church in Syria and Egypt which he had encouraged and, perhaps,

instigated, as well as by that secret diplomacy of which Constantine was

master, the Roman emperor deemed that the time had come to destroy

Licinius, and restore the unity of the empire, and consolidate all power

in his own hands, especially as the great age and unpopular vices of

Licinius seemed to presage an easy victory. He accordingly (and without

any pretext whatever on this occasion) declared war against the Illyrian

emperor; and in the great battle of Adrianople, and in the siege of

Byzantium, and in the decisive action of Chrysopolis, in all of which he

engaged Licinius with inferior numbers, his vast military genius

asserted itself, so that by continuous defeats he reduced the Emperor of

the East to the necessity of making an unconditional surrender.

Constantia, the wife of Licinius, was the sister of Constantine, and, at

her request and entreaties, the conqueror temporarily spared the life of

his fallen rival, and banished him to Thessalonica, where he was soon

afterward assassinated in some mysterious manner, it being to this day

uncertain whether he perished by the order of the senate, by a tumult of

the soldiers, or by the machinations of Constantine. But it is certain

that the "first Christian emperor" regarded the fact that a man might

stand in the way of his ambition, or possibly compromise his safety, as

a sufficient reason for putting him to death, even if the unlucky person

happened to be his own son.

"Thus the mighty and victorious Constantine," saith Eusebius, "adorned

with every virtue of religion, with his most pious son, Crispus Caesar,

resembling in all things his father, recovered the East as his own, and

thus restored the Roman Empire to its ancient state of one united body;

extending their peaceful sway around the world, from the rising sun to

the opposite regions, to the north and the south, even to the borders of

the declining day."

But this greatest statesman, politician, and ruler--this absolute,

untroubled, and self-confident atheist--had only "the godliness that is

profitable for the life that now is"; for this "Christian" had never

been baptized (knowing that an emperor can not be a Christian); and he

afterward murdered in cold blood, without provocation, "his most pious

son, Crispus Caesar, resembling in all things his father"; his own wife

Fausta, and the youthful Licinius, son of his sister Constantia; just as

he systematically assassinated every one whom his calm, merciless, wise

policy thought to be possibly inimical to his own safety. But he

realized the life-long ambition of his soul, the restoration of the

unity of the Roman Empire under his own authority; and did it by the aid

of the Christian Church, which he bribed, corrupted, and secularized,

until it acknowledged him to be king instead of Jesus Christ.

These historical details, however, anticipate our narrative of Arius the

Libyan, to which we must now return.

CHAPTER II.

A NAVAL QUESTION.

After the overthrow of the Christian communities which Ulfilas had

founded among the Goths, Constantine called Eusebius, Bishop of

Caesarea, unto himself, and began to make diligent inquiries concerning

the churches of Syria and of Egypt; and, having obtained all of the

information current among the bishops, he entered into conversation with

Eusebius, apparently for the purpose of still further satisfying himself

upon certain points involved in his investigations.

"Thou sayest," said Constantine, "that, in spite of the persecution in

which many bishops and private persons have suffered martyrdom, the

Church constantly increases in numbers and influence."

"Yea," replied Eusebius, "but not so rapidly as in thine own dominions;

for in most places their services are secretly conducted because of the

heathen; yet the truth triumphs everywhere, and the churches prosper

wonderfully. The cruel wrongs done unto the faithful excite the interest

and compassion of all fair-minded men, and there are always many who

seek for fuller information concerning our holy religion, and there are

always some at hand ready to impart it."

"I would that it were possible for me at this time to occupy the same

relation to the Eastern Church that so happily obtains in the Empire of

the West. But that seems to be impossible while the Emperor Licinius

reigns over those realms."

"Thou art as much beloved by the Christians of the East as by those of

Europe or of Africa; and they look unto thee for deliverance, and

hopefully await thy coming."

"But Europe and Africa are under mine own hand, and Asia is not; the

Church of the East is beyond the reach of my protection."

"Stretch forth thine arm of power, thou favorite of the supreme God, and

take it unto thyself. Thou alone art fitted to be emperor, and Asia, as

part of the Roman Empire, is rightfully thine own."

Then Constantine gave way to one of those fits of sudden, silent

meditation which were not unusual to him, and continued to gaze upon his

bishop long and earnestly. At last he said: "The Emperor Licinius is a

brave and skillful commander, trained all his life in the discipline of

the Roman army. He not only hath yet a solid foothold upon European

soil, but he could call into action out of populous Asia double as many

soldiers as the Western Empire could put into the field, including the

hardy Goths, whom I have added to the military force of Rome. He is no

merely titular emperor, but is a consummate warrior, a wise ruler, an

able and valiant man, as he hath already proved against both Maximian

and myself."

"Thou and God art greater still!" said the bishop, solemnly.

"That might be so upon the land," murmured Constantine, absently, "for

many of my legions are veterans, who have followed me through seventeen

campaigns without defeat, and the Goths are brave and hardy. But the

old emperor's vast superiority is on the sea. For, since Rome ceased to

be the seat of empire, the naval establishments of Misenum and Ravenna

have been greatly neglected, and the maritime cities of Greece no longer

furnish those formidable fleets which made the republic of Athens so

famous. But the Emperor Licinius can draw from Egypt and the adjacent

coasts of Africa, from the ports of Phoenicia and the Isle of Cyprus,

and from Bithynia, Ionia, and Caria, a fleet to which the rest of

mankind could offer no effective opposition; so that, if I should be

successful on land, the emperor's naval superiority would enable him to

carry an offensive war into every sea-coast of Hispania, Gaul, and

Italy, cut off all my supplies, and force me to retreat even in the face

of victory. It will not do!" he cried, passionately and

despondingly--"it will not do! and it requires years to prepare a navy!

There must be some other way--some other way!"

What dark and secret thought slumbered in the capacious deeps of that

calm, unwavering spirit to which expediency was ever a sufficient

justification for any crime that might advance political designs, no man

can ever know; but Eusebius at once perceived that the thing which he

supposed to have been a suggestion of his own--a temptation held out by

him to the emperor and ventured upon because his zeal for the persecuted

Christians of the Eastern Church made him earnestly desire that

Constantine should conquer and protect those regions--had in truth long

been a subject of profoundest meditation in the emperor's soul; a most

dangerous ambition, which he had considered in every possible aspect of

it. Neither of these able men spoke for some time. Then the emperor

said, musingly: "Would that it were possible for me at this time to

occupy the same relation to the Eastern Churches that so happily obtains

in the Empire of the West! But there must be some other way--some other

way!"

Eusebius perceived from the repetition of these words that they in some

way contained the particular matter concerning which Constantine desired

him to speak; and he shuddered at the unwelcome thought of what might

possibly be required at the hand of some bishop of the Church by the

implacable and unscrupulous emperor; but, not fully comprehending the

drift of the royal mind, he answered: "It would be easy to attach the

bishops and their congregations unto thyself as thou didst those of

Africa, by secret aid to the churches, and by kind messages unto those

who have experienced the tyrant's cruelty; for already all Christians

regard thee as divinely raised up for their succor, and they are

comforted by the hope that, when thou dost rule the world, the gospel

shall be as free in the East as it is in the West."

"But that is a mere sentiment," answered Constantine. "The Christians

are not soldiers; in the East they refuse to bear arms, or to recognize

an earthly ruler. Surely thou dost remember how difficult it was to

bring them over to any active support of mine empire even in the West."

"Yea, verily! But thou mayst gradually assume direction of the Church

there as thou hast done here: by largesses to the bishops; by calling

councils in thine own name to settle clerical differences; and by

training them, as thou hast done here, to regard thee alone as the real

source of both ecclesiastical and political authority; and so by degrees

control them as thou wilt."

"I have meditated over all of that," said Constantine, "and the great

difficulty in the way of its accomplishment grows out of the fact that

any attempt to interfere in the trial of charges against bishops or

presbyters, whether upon accusations of personal misconduct, or of

erroneous doctrine, within the dominions of the Emperor Licinius, would

be regarded by him, and by his subjects, as an unwarrantable

interference in matters which do not concern the Empire of the West; and

such a course would only inflame and consolidate those whom I prefer to

divide in sentiment."

"But," said Eusebius, "if the question in dispute should be one, not

between the members of some particular community, or locality, but

between almost the whole body of the Christians in the Western Empire on

the one hand, and almost the whole body of the Eastern Church upon the

other, could there be any impropriety in calling a council of the whole

Church, East and West, to consider and determine it?"

"No," said Constantine. "If there were only such a question, the way

would be laid open at least for a beginning. But how couldst thou ever

create such a question?"

"The question, or rather the questions (for there are two of them), are

already created--the East upon one side of both, and the West upon the

other."

"What are these questions?"

"One is a great dispute concerning the proper time for the celebration

of Easter; and the other a most subtile controversy concerning the

nature of Godhead and the relation of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; a

dispute in which Hosius of Cordova leads many bishops and presbyters

upon one side, and Arius the Libyan as many upon the other."

"Arius the Libyan!" cried Constantine, with sudden wrath. "The Libyan

serpent! The ram of Baucalis! a presbyter of Alexandria! By thundering

Jove, I will yet crush that hard, stubborn, fearless nature, for he hath

been more in my way than even the Emperor Licinius himself! Curse the

man! curse him!"

Eusebius gazed upon the emperor in mute astonishment. He knew that

Constantine possessed an almost supernatural knowledge of all political

movements and persons, even in the remotest corner of the empire over

which he reigned, but he had never even dreamed that the mighty emperor

had heard so much as the name of the gaunt, unsocial, self-denying, and

inflexible presbyter of the Baucalis church at Alexandria, in the

dominions of Licinius.

"Knowest thou the man?" he asked with unconcealed astonishment.

Constantine had already regained his usual calmness, and in placid tones

replied: "I have never seen Arius, but have constantly and often heard

of his dangerous and revolutionary teachings, and of his rugged,

implacable, unyielding character. He hateth me without any cause,

except that I am emperor, and scorneth every favor I was inclined to

show him. I even tendered unto him the bishopric of Alexandria, which

Alexander now holds, but he refused to accept it, for no other reason

than that he supposed his advancement to that high place to have been

procured by the influence of mine agents in that city."

"I regret that he is not thy friend," answered Eusebius; "but wilt thou

instruct me how a presbyter could teach dangerous and revolutionary

doctrines? Perhaps such teachings might furnish matter for which the

Church might suspend him from the office of presbyter, and silence his

utterances."

"I do not think so," answered Constantine. "He teaches that a Christian

can not be an emperor, nor bear arms in war; and that to take sides in a

struggle between any earthly governments is to betray the Christ. He

teaches that no Christian can hold slaves, own private property, or

recognize Roman and Egyptian laws and customs in reference to marriage

and divorce. In a word, he still rigidly adheres to that primitive

Christianity, the prevalence of which would soon render all government

over the people unnecessary if not impossible, and which, as thou

knowest, it was so difficult for us to guide to right and reasonable

action even in Rome and in other parts of the West. But his primitive

and fearless teachings have reduced to the ghostly form of a mere

sentiment all the active aid I had expected to obtain from the

Christians of Syria and of Egypt. The fleet, the mighty fleet, which

putteth all my coasts at the mercy of Licinius, ought to have been mine

own, and would have been but for that Libyan serpent who paralyzed the

arms of willing Christians by his accursed teachings."

"But," said Eusebius, solemnly, "these teachings were the very doctrines

of our Lord, and Arius hath proclaimed nothing but the truths of the

gospel, and for three hundred years no Christian man hath owned a slave

or claimed private title to property, or lifted up a weapon even in

defense of the faith for which he does not hesitate to die." And the

bishop's fine face darkened, and his heart twitched as if some transient

gleam of lightning had revealed before him a bottomless pit that opened

down to perdition; and for a moment he half-way felt that he had lost

his own soul by juggling with the empire in the name of Jesus and for

the glory of the Church.

While he stood in painful meditation, the emperor continued: "Yea!

doubtless this was the primitive system; and, thoroughly permeated with

its new and radical principles, Arius seeketh to enforce them. The

African ram, bold, self-confident, aggressive! the Libyan serpent,

agile, beautiful, tameless, and dangerous! scorning all earthly

ambitions as trifles unworthy of the consideration of an immortal

spirit; despising pain, and toil, and peril; almost courting martyrdom;

immovable by threats of vengeance, or by hope of reward; alike

inaccessible to flattery and to fear--but for that one man I would hold

the East in my hand to-day! For the fleet was largely manned and

officered by Christians, and all things were arranged to deliver up the

ships to me, when this fierce, invincible, immovable presbyter poured

out the angry torrent of his eloquence and learning, urging the

Christians to obey all laws of the government under which they lived

that were not contrary to conscience, and denouncing those who might

engage on either side in favor of an earthly ruler as traitors to Christ

and his kingdom. Their courage shriveled up before his fierce

denunciation, as if it had been smitten by the wrath of God, and all the

carefully prepared plans for getting possession of more than half the

fleet of Licinius, and especially of the great galleys with three banks

of oars, faded away before the breath of this one irreconcilable and

immovable man. Then the attention of the Emperor Licinius having been

called to the matter, he made a lustration of his army and navy, and

dishonorably dismissed therefrom every man who refused to offer

sacrifice to the gods; and also from his civil service, and from his

palaces. And since that day there hath been no man in the service of

Licinius that is a Christian. But the emperor sent to Arius a parchment

giving to him legal authority to preach the gospel publicly in his city

of Alexandria, because his gospel had saved the fleet; and the stern,

uncompromising presbyter sent it back with a message that his authority

to preach was from God, not from man."

"For what reason did Arius so bitterly take sides against thee, the

favorite of God, the protector of the Church?"

"It would be unjust," said Constantine, "to say that he ever did so. He

did not; but his powerful influence in holding the Christians of Egypt

and of Syria to strictest neutrality was the most injurious policy he

could have pursued against me; but he would have pursued the same course

against any other ruler in the world."

Eusebius was the fast friend of Arius, whom he admired and loved beyond

all living men (for Pamphilus had already suffered martyrdom); and the

great ecclesiastic, rejoicing at the praises bestowed upon his friend by

the greatest ruler of men, strove to call out yet more of his opinion,

and accordingly said unto him, "Couldst thou not, then, attack the moral

character of Arius, and call a council to condemn him for some

irregularity, and so get rid of him?"

"Nay," answered the emperor, "the man is proof against all earthly

temptations. When all arrangements had been made to confer upon him the

see of Alexandria, he calmly but positively refused to accept the

office, saying he would live and die presbyter of the Baucalis church.

Gifts of money sent unto him anonymously he poured into the common

treasury of the Church uncounted, and, in the midst of opulence, lived

the life of an anchorite. Seven hundred of the noblest women of

Alexandria are his communicants, and constant watchfulness never

detected him in the slightest impropriety with any of them. In the

pestilence which decimated and terrified the great city, by day and

night he ministered unto the afflicted, when even parents abandoned

their children and children their parents, and the ties of blood were

disregarded, until the people believed him to be invested with a charmed

life that was invulnerable to poniard, poison, or pestilence. He is the

purest and the strongest soul on earth," said the emperor, with

undisguised admiration, "but he hath barred my way unto the conquest of

the East!"

Eusebius glowed with pleasure as he listened to the language in which

the emperor depicted the character of Arius, and replied: "Only the

truly great are able to do justice to those whom they have strong reason

to dislike, but thou hast painted the grand and lonely soul of the

Libyan even as it is. He hath been purified by sorrow. He is all for

Christ, and earthly hopes, fears and ambitions no more can move his

chaste and lofty spirit."

"But," said Constantine, sternly, "however admirable the presbyter may

be, I will not forget that he hath robbed me of the fleet! He hath

barred my way unto the conquest of the East."

Then said Eusebius: "If the fleet of Licinius could be by some means

neutralized; if that valiant tyrant could, perhaps, be induced to keep

his fleet out of the war altogether, and leave the fate of the empire to

be decided by the armies of the East and of the West--would that content

thee?"

The handsome face of Constantine glowed with a wonderful light of hope

and pleasure as he answered, eagerly; "Yea, thou most wise and

infallible bishop! If thou canst accomplish this thing, soon shall the

churches of the East enjoy the imperial protection as fully as do those

of the Western Empire; and, freed from the persecutions of Licinius and

of the pagan priests, the Church shall triumph over all the world. But

I have told thee that no more able warrior lives than the emperor; he

will never forego the use of his right arm of power: thou canst not

neutralize his navy."

The greatest of ecclesiastics gazed with affectionate admiration upon

the greatest of emperors, and calmly answered: "I am a man of peace, and

know nothing of the conduct of a war. But I do know something of the

human heart, and of the secret springs that govern the actions of men.

When I did visit thee in Gaul, before the war with Maxentius, thou didst

tell me that I could not cast a javelin, nor smite with a sword, nor

draw out a legion in battle order, but that I knew all Italy, and showed

thee how to conquer Rome. Verily I know not how to sail a ship, yet I

will endeavor diligently to keep the tyrant's navy far off from thy

coasts. If I should fail, thou wilt quickly know the unwelcome truth;

and if I succeed thou shalt learn it immediately."

"Thou hast always succeeded," answered Constantine; "no promise made by

thee hath failed. Thou hast never once disappointed thine emperor and

friend."

"For the present," said Eusebius, "I do greatly desire of thee an

indefinite leave of absence, but I trust not a protracted one, in order

that I may pay a visit to my beloved brother Eusebius, the Bishop of

Nicomedia."

For an instant the face of Constantine was clouded. "Within the

dominions of Licinius?" he softly murmured, but in a moment he answered:

"Thou hast leave to go! But tell me, bishop, why thou goest unto

Nicomedia. What canst thou do there except to expose thy dear and

valuable head to the fury of the emperor?"

"I go thither," said Eusebius, with a light and musical laugh, "seeking

to prepare a problem over which the historians and warriors of all

future ages shall puzzle their weary brains in vain. The question which

will be, I trust, a riddle unto them, is briefly this: Why was it that,

in the second war with the most Christian Emperor Constantine, the brave

and competent commander Licinius, possessing so vast a superiority at

sea, utterly failed to carry an offensive war into the very center of

his rival's dominions, and, having moored his fleet safely in some

secure strait or bay, left the issue of the war to be decided by the

land-forces alone, in the conduct of which the most glorious Emperor

Constantine was known to be invincible?"

Then Constantine sprang from his seat, and with eager, glowing face he

embraced the bishop and kissed him, saying: "Canst thou, indeed, do this

thing for me? If thou canst, thou art stronger than ten legions, and

deservest a reward equal to their pay!"

"Thou knowest well," said Eusebius, kindly but with inexpressible

dignity, "that I have served thee faithfully without reward, because I

love thee, Augustus, and love the Church of Christ, and know assuredly

that thine own triumph will secure the triumph of the faith!"

"Thou speakest nothing but the truth, bishop," replied Constantine, his

fine face lighting up with strong emotions, "and I have loved and

honored thee in my heart accordingly. Thou knowest that, whenever thou

needest me, I am all thine own. But how can this miracle that shall

neutralize the emperor's maritime ascendency be wrought?"

"I think," answered Eusebius, gravely and sadly, "that miracles have

recently ceased throughout the world, so that even the Church of Christ

hath to depend upon only human agencies, which thou knowest was not

formerly the case. It is well known, however, that the old Emperor

Licinius doth not doubt the truth and divinity of our holy religion,

although he hateth the Christians because he hath been persuaded that

they offer up more prayers for thee than for himself. Now, it hath

seemed probable to me that if an authentic Christian prophecy could be

privately circulated through the imperial palace of Nicomedia to the

purport that the Eastern Empire would be overthrown whenever it might

send a hostile fleet to ravage the coasts of Europe, his fear and hatred

of the Christians would influence him to retain his fleet at home in

order to forestall the prophecy. Of course, the common sense of the

matter would be, as thou hast said, for him to use his vast naval

strength to desolate thy coasts in Greece, Italy, Africa, Hispania, and

Gaul; but, perhaps, he may not do so. The matter is not very clearly

wrought out in my mind, but gradually takes shape as I consider it, and

I desire to see my brother, Eusebius of Nicomedia, a wise and prudent

man, to converse with him concerning it."

"Thou art a great and wonderful bishop," said Constantine. "Go thou,

and may God prosper thee! Keep me well informed of thy movements, and

of all events that happen. Thou shalt have orders for all supplies,

attendance, and money, which thou canst possibly need for thy purposes.

If thou fall into any trouble at Nicomedia, or elsewhere, have sure

means of informing me, for I would risk the sovereignty of the world to

deliver thee, thou incomparable friend and bishop. When wilt thou

depart?"

"Within a few days, at most," said Eusebius. "And thou shalt do nothing

except to grant me leave of absence. We bishops can further each other

upon our journeys quite well, and I wish to go secretly and without

attracting notice."

"When thou hast leisure," said Constantine, "come unto me again, and

come prepared to unravel these questions concerning the celebration of

Easter, and concerning the Godhead, to the very last threads of them;

for I earnestly desire to be perfectly informed therein."

CHAPTER III.

THE POLITICS OF RELIGION.

A day or two afterward, Eusebius again sought audience of the emperor,

and in a long interview, during which Constantine, with his own hand,

kept copious and accurate memoranda of the conversation, the bishop

carefully explained the nature of the church controversy respecting the

observance of Easter, and also the nature of the abstract and peculiar

ideas involved in the dispute concerning the Deity; and in the whole

interview the emperor manifested the perfect thoroughness with which his

calm, grand intelligence was accustomed to go to the very bottom of

every matter which once secured his interest, grasping all possible

aspects and relationships of the subject--the evidence upon which

alleged facts might be founded, the authority upon which each opinion

might rest--so that at the close of the long and studious interview he

was as well informed upon the subjects discussed as were the most

learned ecclesiastics of his generation.

"I perceive," he said to Eusebius, "that thou art an advocate of the

opinion of Arius the Libyan, concerning what Hosius calleth the Holy

Trinity?"

"Yea!" answered the bishop; "for neither do the Gospels teach me, nor

can the aid of reason enable me to understand that three are one any

more than that one is three; nor can I evade the fact that 'Father' and

'Son' are terms which of necessity imply that the Father antedates the

Son; nor can I believe that God the Father lived in our flesh and died

upon the cross. So that, whenever the 'Arian heresy,' as they call it,

shall be heard before a general council, I shall be numbered among the

heterodox, if it is indeed possible that any council shall ever condemn

the grand Libyan's doctrines!"

"I regret much," replied the emperor, "that thy conscience leadeth thee

in that direction, although the fact must never become a cause of

difference between thee and me. For, while I would yield cheerful

acquiescence to thy superior learning about all merely religious

questions, I perceive already that the political aspects of this

controversy will make it politic for me to maintain the opinions of

Hosius and his party."

"What possible political significance can exist in such an abstract

dispute about matters of theological faith and doctrine?"

Constantine laughed pleasantly, and answered: "Of course, a pious and

learned bishop would sooner perceive the minutest ramifications of the

theological roots of any question than to grasp its most palpable

political outgrowth. I will tell thee, bishop, but the communication is

for thee alone. As to the paschal controversy, it is a mere matter of

sentiment or feeling between those who do not wish to follow the Jews in

fixing the time of its observance, and desire to have some period

assigned by the Christian authority, on the one hand; and, on the other,

those who are unwilling to depart from the practice of three centuries

for any reason--but these differences can be easily reconciled. But, as

to this other controversy, it is of an essentially different kind. Thy

statement of it revealed to me the salient fact that the doctrine of

Arius is that of the Eastern Church, the doctrine of Hosius that of the

Western; and a geographical line might almost be run through the faith

upon this question--Arius and his party upon one side, Hosius and his

upon the other--and along the line itself many who are not the partisans

of either opinion. Thou seest, therefore, that it is really a question

between two empires, and, whenever it shall be determined, a proper

regard for the prestige of mine own empire requires me to see that the

decision shall be in favor of the Western Church. Dost thou now

perceive one plainest and least important point of its political

bearings?"

"Yea, verily," answered Eusebius. "But it had not occurred to me

before!"

"After the matter shall have been accomplished," said Constantine, "many

others shall also see it, but not just yet; for it is the business of

him who is fit to rule not only to see, but to foresee, whatever may

concern his empire!"

"Thou alone hast seen it yet," replied the bishop. "But what other

political significance can the controversy possibly possess?"

"Ah! bishop," said the emperor, "it is the great question of our age.

It involves in itself the whole field of controversy between the old

civilizations and the new; between paganism and Christianity; between

Jesus Christ and the rulers of mankind. The doctrines of Arius are the

utterances of that primitive Christianity which proclaimed the

fraternity of all men, condemned war, slavery, and private-property

rights. It maintaineth Jesus as the king of a kingdom established in

the world; a real and actual government among the Christian communities,

which may yield obedience to laws that do not fetter conscience, but

does not acknowledge allegiance to any human emperor or king. Its

universal prevalence would speedily render all government over the

people ridiculous and unnecessary; for Christ would be the only king,

and all men brethren, free and equal, as was the case in Moasia, under

the apostolical Ulfilas, until I was constrained to send an army thither

and force the Goths to give up their communal organization, and adopt

the Roman laws and customs. The system of Arius, primitive Christianity,

dear bishop, would leave no room for Constantine on earth. But the

doctrine of Hosius, by elevating Jesus to actual Godhead, leaveth his

earthly career a mere manifestation, or appearance, of the divine in

human flesh; and, since the God hath returned to his former ineffable

condition, it leaveth his kingdom to be only a pure and lofty spiritual

phantasm--and leaves mankind for Constantine to govern. Thou seest that

there can be no rivalry between the Christianity of Hosius and the

sovereigns of this world, while the faith of Arius would soon subvert

all human governments, and dethrone every prince on earth. Beyond any

question, the emperors, from Nero to my own times, sought only to

preserve the empire by persecuting the Christians, and properly

described Christianity as 'a baleful and malignant superstition,' 'a

criminal association,' 'a new society that departed from the laws and

ceremonies of our fathers, inventing a new government for itself

inconsistent with the imperial laws and rights.' They understood that

Roman sovereignty could not maintain itself against a rapidly increasing

association that proposed to abolish war, slavery, private rights of

property, offices, rank, and prerogative; and they tried to stamp it out

of existence. These emperors strove to defend the empire by

exterminating the Christians; if they had been greater men, they would

have adopted the new religion, pruned it of all doctrines that might

menace the imperial authority, translating Jesus to the highest heaven,

and taking for themselves his place upon the earth--as I have done. I

am, therefore, the champion of the Holy Trinity, as Hosius hath defined

it; and at the right time Arius must be condemned as a heretic. For I

will no more suffer him to build up the churches of the East upon this

basis of primitive Christianity than I would suffer Ulfilas to

accomplish a similar purpose among the Gothic tribes. Dost thou now

perceive the political significancy of this Arian heresy, my dear

bishop?"

But Eusebius stood before the emperor pale and trembling, the cold

perspiration standing in great drops upon his pallid brow. For a moment

an awful mist of horror enveloped his struggling soul. Had he, then,

made a terrible mistake in using his own large abilities and influence

to place the persecuted saints under the protection of the grand and

humane emperor? Had he betrayed the Church of Christ, and lost his own

soul, in bringing about that union of ecclesiastical and imperial

authority which made the kingdom of heaven an appanage of the Roman

emperor, and had secured safety, peace, and glory, for the Christians by

giving to Constantine the place that should belong only to Jesus Christ?

Had he indeed been overreached and manipulated by this most able of

mankind for his own political purposes, even while he thought himself to

be using Constantine for the glory of God and for the edification of the

Church? Sick, doubtful, terrified, he faintly answered: "But the things

which thou sayest the doctrines of Arius would accomplish are precisely

the triumph which our Lord did promise to the Church, and which he

pledged his divinity to achieve! Surely Arius must be right! War,

slavery, and mammon-worship, must be banished out of the world! Mankind

must become brethren in the Lord! The Church must triumph, and Christ

must be the only king!"

"Not in my time!" said Constantine, with the calmness and firmness of

mature and deliberate conviction; "not while I live! The empire shall

be mine own. I will yield my right to no man, human or divine! Let the

Church grow and prepare for future triumph over earthly sovereignty when

the scepter shall be held by some more weak and nerveless hand than

mine. I will govern while I live, both church and state, in spite of

gods or demons!"

The bishop made no answer. A terrible error into which he had gone with

glad heart and exuberant hope seemed palpably revealed to him. He was

utterly cowed and humbled. With a crushing sense of self-abasement,

shame, mortification, repentance, almost crime, he realized the fact

that, compared with that colossal man, who amused himself by playing

with the loftiest emotions of the human soul as he did with his

ever-victorious legions--a man who, under his calm, grand bearing,

concealed a devil of ambition that was ready to mock at all that men

hold sacred, and even to hurl his phalanx against Christ himself--he

felt like a child, a pygmy.

With ashy lips he murmured: "Almost thou hast defied the Son of God!

Beware!"

Then, with a singular smile that had in its beauty and light something

of lofty mournfulness, the emperor answered: "And if I should do so,

dear bishop, what then? Jesus hath no power against me except through

thaumaturgy, and thou dost know that thaumaturgy faded out when the

Church abandoned that communal system upon which Arius insisteth yet so

manfully. I have made my choice, and will abide the issue, bishop.

Thou knowest that I never was baptized. I might have been a Christian,

but I preferred to reign over the Roman Empire; and I will reign until

the end."

Ah! for him, then, with all the glad assurance born of utter ignorance

that such a being could exist among mankind, the bishop had carefully

freighted "the old ship Zion" with the godless furniture of Roman law

and custom, its statutes of slavery, its laws and usages of war and

conquest, its idolatrous system of private-property rights, titles,

prerogatives, political and social class distinctions between those whom

God made to be brethren, out of which idolatry the sorrow of the world

had grown, from all of which Jesus had died to ransom a fallen race. He

had unwittingly launched the freighted ship upon the troubled sea of

earthly politics. Thinking that he would win the Roman Empire for the

Church, he had betrayed and sold the cause of Christ to Constantine.

Thinking that he guided and controlled the emperor, he had labored with

all diligence to make himself the master's slave. He knew it now only

too well--he knew that Constantine had always known it; and, appalled by

the vast resources of that greatest of mankind, crushed by the sense of

his amazing genius, he seemed unto himself to grow small, contemptible,

and weak.

And the ship of the Church? Would she go down forever in the troubled

waters, amid the stormy strife for worldly gains and power? Or would

she yet, somehow, sometime, somewhere, outride the tempests, and in some

unknown and distant clime reach into a safe haven? "Not in my time,"

said Constantine; "not while I live!" When, then?

These bitter meditations were broken by the calm, sweet voice of

Constantine: "Bishop, thou must perceive for thyself that the radical

polity of the primitive Christianity to which Arius cleaves

unswervingly, and which Ulfilas founded among the Goths so firmly that I

had to send the legions thither to uproot it, was somewhat fanatical, or

at least premature, and not suited to the every-day life of selfish and

wicked men. Thou must perceive, also, with equal clearness, that the

splendid ecclesiasticism which I have established throughout the Western

Empire in place of the primitive religion is vastly better for mankind

than any system ever before attempted, and that it should be speedily

extended over all the East. What future, grander developments await the

Church, no mortal can foretell. For the present, I desire of thee to

seek means whereby to fan the flame of this Arian controversy: it must

not die out until it can be summoned before an imperial council, and

receive formal condemnation at the mouths of all the bishops called into

a synod by the Emperor of the west!"

"And if, when the council shall have been convened, its members shall

sustain Arius, what then?"

"A religious war, perhaps," answered Constantine, "or a return unto the

pagan gods; both dreadful alternatives, which the Church and the empire

should regard with equal horror. But the council will never so decide.

I answer for its action; only keep thou the flame of controversy burning

until the proper hour arrives!"

"I will contrive means that shall not fail to do so," answered Eusebius,

and, bowing low, at a sign from the emperor he withdrew, overwhelmed

with the perception of that calm, relentless, almost superhuman sagacity

which Constantine had permitted him to see.

"Yea!" murmured Eusebius, "I will fan this flame of controversy! It

shall blaze throughout the Church! And it may even happen that

Constantine, although the greatest of the human race, is not a match for

God. Who knows? Thaumaturgy may be restored to the Church, or, even

if, as Constantine asserteth, the kingdom of our Lord was prematurely

established, the spiritual truth of the gospel will sometime educate

mankind up to the ultimate reception of its socialism and politics. And

to this end it shall be my task before I die to organize within the

bosom of the Church sacred brotherhoods, bound by holy ties of chastity,

obedience, and poverty, to keep alive forever the memory of that

communal system upon which Christ founded his kingdom. At all events,

there is no possibility of going backward now; and more than ever do I

desire to see Constantine obtain the sovereignty of the East. And now

for Nicomedia!"

That very day the bishop set out upon his dangerous mission, to concert

measures by which to neutralize the naval power of the Emperor Licinius.

CHAPTER IV.

THE PROPHECY OF GAIUS.

Proceeding, therefore, with all diligence, not very many days afterward,

the Bishop of Caesarea arrived at Nicomedia, and straightway, by the use

of certain secret means of communication which were well known to all

Christians, he found, and took up his abode with Eusebius of that city;

and they together discussed at great length what means might be used to

neutralize the naval power of the tyrant Licinius.

Eusebius of Caesarea had been absent for many months, and Constantine

had begun to grow impatient at his long delay, during which he had

received no tidings from the bishop personally, and had heard nothing

concerning him, except that he was quietly residing in the city with the

other Eusebius. And the emperor, who valued his bishop highly, and

enjoyed his companionship more than that of any other man, began to fear

that the revelation of his own real character and purposes, which he had

made at their last memorable interview, had alienated his friend

forever, and thereby deprived himself of the services which he deemed to

be almost invaluable. It gave him unmingled pleasure, therefore, to

receive upon a certain day a written message that "Eusebius, Bishop of

Nicomedia, sent by his brother Eusebius Pamphilus, craves audience of

the emperor." Constantine eagerly ordered that he be admitted, and,

having dismissed all others, he gave the bishop a very cordial greeting,

and then said, with greatest interest and solicitude: "Tell me first of

all of thy brother, my friend the Bishop of Caesarea! Where now is the

holy and able man? Is he well? What doeth he?"

The bishop was somewhat lacking in the courtly elegance that

characterized his brother, but still had a certain ease born of good

sense and honesty of purpose, and he answered in a straightforward and

intelligent way that pleased Constantine, and enabled him instantly to

"take the measure of the man," and value him at once at his full worth,

a thing he was not always able to do with the other Eusebius.

"The bishop, my brother, fared well when I last saw him. We parted at

Nicomedia--he to go unto Alexandria, 'upon the emperor's business,' he

said; I to come hither by his desire. He sendeth love and reverence

unto thee, 'the greatest of mankind,' as he saith; and hath sent me

hither because he thought that the things which I am requested to tell

thee ought not to be committed to writing, nor intrusted to any ordinary

messenger. Whenever thou desirest to hear it, I will briefly narrate

what hath happened at Nicomedia."

"I am alone with thee, bishop, to hear thy report. Proceed with thy

narrative at once. But first be thou seated, and partake of such

refreshments as thou wilt."

"Nay," answered the bishop, "I need naught except thine own attention."

"Then sit thou there, and count upon an eager listener."

"The business upon which thy bishop came unto me having been carefully

unfolded by him, the delay therein was caused by the necessity of

sending far beyond Antioch for a fitting person to accomplish that upon

which we had agreed as necessary for thy service; but it hath been done.

The great fleet of the Emperor Licinius hath been so far neutralized

that not a ship thereof will cross the sea to molest thy coasts if there

should be war. On that thou mayst implicitly rely."

"Tell me the means by which this most important work hath been

accomplished; and spare thou no details of the business: my only wish

now is to hear thee fully!"

"It happened more than a year ago," said the bishop, "that I received

letters from a presbyter at Chalcis, far beyond Antioch in Syria,

concerning a most singular youth of that village, who was an

epileptic--a devout Christian, but of strange fancies and of

extraordinary appearance. This lad, the presbyter informed me, during

the paroxysms of his disease seemed to be possessed by some sort of a

spirit of divination, and the Church there had vainly attempted to

exorcise the spirit; for thaumaturgy hath recently been lost. But the

presbyter himself had little faith in his prophetic powers, because he

had discovered that it was possible, by strongly impressing the mind of

the youth, before the paroxysms came upon him, with some peculiar and

striking thought, to anticipate the subject, and often even the very

words, of his supposed prophetic ravings. Now, when the bishop unfolded

to me what he desired to attempt for thy service, I at once thought of

this Syrian youth, and judged that he might be advantageously used

therein. The sending of a messenger to Chalcis for him wrought some

delay, and, when the messenger reached that place, the youth had gone

elsewhere; and it was a work of time to discover him, and might, indeed,

have been impossible, but for a certain notoriety bestowed upon him by

the strange misfortune under which he labored. And, after we had

received the youth at Nicomedia, it was a work of time, and care, and

patience, to secure his entire confidence, and train him properly for

the business we had undertaken. Do I state the matter too minutely for

thy patience?"

"Nay," said Constantine; "it is wonderfully interesting. Thou need have

no fear that thy narrative will weary me: I do desire to hear thee

fully."

"We found by frequent experiments," continued Eusebius, "that the

paroxysms of the youth's disease were not strictly periodical, but that

any sudden, strong emotion was liable to bring on an attack. We found

that when we had made him memorize certain words beforehand, he was

liable, on the increment of his disease, to repeat just those words in a

sort of chanting tone, the melody and manner of which were very

impressive, even when the words themselves were unmeaning. We found

that he was ready to do or suffer anything if persuaded that it would be

for the good of the Church. We kept the youth in safe retreat,

carefully secluded, so that he might remain entirely unknown in

Nicomedia. We then constantly assured him that God was able to

accomplish his own designs by using even the most humble agencies, and

that no man had the right to look upon himself as a being too

insignificant to work for the glory of his Creator; and that even he,

although sorely afflicted, by zeal and faithfulness might be able some

time to perform a great service to the persecuted Church. He eagerly

inquired how that might be, and was manifestly ready to seek for

martyrdom if that had been the duty enjoined upon him. But we carefully

impressed upon him that all that was required of him was to memorize and

constantly repeat a certain form of words that we dictated to him; to

meditate upon them day and night; to suffer nothing else to occupy his

thoughts; and to wait in faith and hope the result of this discipline.

We instructed him that, if any one should ask him about the words he

might utter when the fit was on him, to say nothing, except that he was

moved so to speak; if any should ask him whom he knew in Nicomedia, he

was to answer, 'Eusebius the bishop'; and that in answer to every

question put to him he should tell the exact truth. We soon found that,

whenever he suffered under a paroxysm of his malady, he would fall to

the ground and presently repeat in that sad, wailing chant that seemed

to be natural to him, the very words which we had dictated to him, and

no others."

"What words were these?" asked Constantine.

"The words," replied Eusebius, "were as follows: 'Joy to the land of

Syria! Joy to the holy ones of Egypt! for their deliverer cometh! When

the great ships shall cross the middle sea, the tyrant's power shall

fail, and a holy emperor shall add the East unto his Western Empire! Joy

to Syria and to Egypt, when the great ships shall cross the middle sea!'

"Having experimented with the lad until it seemed to be morally certain

that, under the influence of a paroxysm of his disease, he would chant

these words only, we directed him to go daily to the gate which opened

into the grounds surrounding the imperial palace at Nicomedia, until he

might see the Emperor Licinius about to come forth, and that then he

should boldly force his way through the gates, at any hazard, without

offering salutations or explanation to any one. This the youth promised

faithfully to do; and it happened that, the first time he went thither,

he saw one whom he supposed to be the emperor, coming forth accompanied

by a throng of attendants, and he rushed forward so impetuously that the

emperor was compelled to give place to him; and then a soldier knocked

down the poor lad with the pole of his pike. Licinius stopped to

ascertain the meaning of an intrusion so bold and unusual, and the pain

of the blow and the excitement of the situation brought upon the youth

one of his strange attacks, and while he lay writhing and twisting about

upon the paving-stones, in a loud, weird voice, whose unearthly melody

filled all the place, he chanted the words that had been taught to him:

'Joy to the land of Syria! Joy to the holy ones of Egypt! for their

deliverer cometh! When the great ships shall cross the middle sea, the

tyrant's power shall fail, and a holy emperor shall add the East unto

his Western Empire! Joy to Syria and to Egypt, when the great ships

shall cross the middle sea!' Then a centurion sprang forward, and would

have slain the youth with his sword, but Licinius waved him off, and

stood looking upon the singular lad with interest and wonder. And the

youth flopped up off of the ground like a fish, and fell back heavily,

and almost immediately resumed his wild, sweet chanting of the self-same

words; and a profound silence obtained until his song was ended. And

very soon that paroxysm passed off, and the lad arose, and looked about

him, as if he knew not where he was nor how he came to be there."

Constantine laughed a low, joyous, almost boyish laugh, exclaiming: "A

superb performance, indeed! A masterly thing! But continue thy most

welcome narrative!"

"Then the Emperor Licinius, whose features are bronzed, and hard, and

cruel, looked steadily upon the abashed young man, saying in a stern,

imperious voice, 'Who art thou?'

"And the lad answered, 'I am Gaius, a poor youth of Chalcis in Syria!'

"'Knowest thou to whom thou art speaking?'

"'Nay, verily,' answered Gaius, 'but I suppose thee to be the emperor!'

"'What is thy business in Nicomedia?'

"'I have no business anywhere,' said the lad. 'I am diseased, an

invalid, an epileptic, and am incapacitated for business. Verily I came

unto Nicomedia hoping to be cured of this fearful malady.'

"'What brought thee unto our palace-gates?'

"'I came hither to look upon the emperor, having never seen so great a

man; but some cowardly brute did strike me down with a pike!'

"'Why didst thou chant such things as thou hast done even in mine own

presence?'

"'What things did I chant? I know not, for the hard blow brought upon

me an attack of the epilepsy, and while it continueth I know not what I

say, but speak only as I am moved to speak!'

"'What, then, moveth thee to chant at all?'

"'I know not, nor do I even know that I have done so, unless some one

who hath heard me informeth me thereof!'

"'Whom knowest thou in my city of Nicomedia?'

"'None save the Bishop Eusebius!'

"'Art thou, then, a Christian?'

"'Yea! Thanks to the boundless mercy of our Lord!'

"Then said the emperor: 'Let immediate search be made for this Eusebius,

and let him be straightway brought before me. Keep ye this boy in

strictest prison, but use him kindly; for it may be that he hath a

demon!'

"I did not choose to be found upon that day, although the city was

sifted well for that purpose. And upon the next day, Licinius caused

the lad Gaius to be brought before him, and he spoke kindly unto him,

saying: 'Thou art a strange and interesting youth, and I desire to take

thee into my service, and to attach thee unto myself, and to care for

thee well. Hast thou memory good enough to keep in thy mind for me a

catalogue of more than three hundred ships?'

"'I know not,' said the lad. 'At school I learned rapidly and retained

well all that I acquired; but I fear that the malady wherewith I am

afflicted hath injured both mind and body.'

"'Let me test thy memory somewhat to ascertain thy capacity for the

service I would have thee render. Canst thou name the stations and

distances upon the road from Chalcis unto Antioch, and thence unto the

sea?'

"And the boy gave the whole itinerary correctly. And the emperor asked

of him a great many questions with exceeding affability, and finally

said unto him: 'Thou hast a fine, retentive memory, and I will make a

man of thee. See, now, how much thou canst remember of the song which

thou didst twice chant on yesterday!'

"But the lad said: 'I know not the words at all, and know not that I did

chant at all. All that occurreth when the fit is upon me is blankness

and darkness, so that I know nothing, and suffer not, and if fire were

put upon me, I would not feel any pain so long as the paroxysm

continueth!'

"Then the emperor gave way to wrath, and shouted furiously: 'Thou liest,

villain! Thou seekest to deceive me! Repeat thy chant instantly, or I

will put thee to torture to extract the truth!'

"Then the boy grew very pale, and trembled, but he only answered: 'Thou

demandest of me that which is impossible! I do not know the words, and

can not repeat them, though thou shouldst slay me!'

"Then cried out the emperor, 'Bring thumb-screws hither, and torment

this wretch!'

"Then one put upon his thumb that cruel screw, and twisted hard upon it,

and the boy shrieked with pain. Then the fit came upon him, and he fell

headlong upon the floor, and the torturer removed the screw. And

immediately the boy began, in a clear, sweet voice that filled the great

hall with music, to chant the same words again: 'Joy to the land of

Syria! Joy to the holy ones of Egypt!'--and the emperor sprang forward,

and with the point of a dagger he tore up a finger-nail of the boy,

watching his face intently; but the lad's countenance changed not, and

he continued his chant evenly and serenely. And the emperor commanded

that fire be brought to him in a brazier, and he laid a coal thereof

upon the boy's naked breast, and blew upon it until the burned flesh

smelled all about, but the boy showed no consciousness of pain, and

continued to chant sweetly until his song was ended. And for a short

space the lad lay as one dead, and then a strong convulsion contorted

his limbs, and lifted him from the floor, and violently cast him down

again; and then once more he chanted the same words, and the emperor

listened and watched him with fear and wonder. And when the attack had

passed away, Licinius said: 'Let this boy be guarded carefully, but let

him be treated with the greatest kindness; for surely, beyond any doubt,

he hath a demon!'

"And the lictors with great astonishment and fear led the boy away.

"And having been fully informed of all these things on the same night,

by a Christian whom we had allowed to sacrifice and so retain his place

in the palace, for the good of the Church, upon the next morning went I

up to the gates and boldly demanded admission, declaring to the

centurion on duty who I was, and that I had been informed that the

emperor was seeking me throughout the city; and speedily they brought me

into the presence of Licinius, and he said, 'Art thou Eusebius, the

Bishop of Nicomedia?'

"'Yea, I am he!'

"'And like all of thy treasonable sect, that lurk within my city of

Nicomedia, thou art still offering up prayers for the Emperor

Constantine?'

"'Yea, doubtless!'

"'And thou dost not pray for me, nor propitiate God for me, thine own

lawful emperor, at all?'

"'Yea, daily I pray God for thee that he would soften thy flinty heart,

and turn thee from the devices of wickedness unto the wisdom of the

just!'

"'But thou prayest not for my prosperity, and for the glory and

perpetuity of mine empire?'

"'Nay, verily. I have no faith to pray for the triumph of the cruel and

of the wicked!'

"Then said he, 'Dost thou know the boy Gaius of Chalcis?'

"'Yea! He was with me at my house until the third day past, but he hath

disappeared, and I am anxious concerning him.'

"'Is there anything peculiar about the boy?'

"'He hath a peculiar and terrible malady called epilepsy!'

"And then attentively regarding me with his hard and searching eyes, he

said, 'Doth the boy prophesy?'