character must be.

What their provided they are homogeneous with the character of Him who has established it and with the character of the Society itself. Believing in a God who has constituted families, who has constituted nations, we may ask whether there is any Universal Human Constitution which is in harmony with these; for which these may prepare us. We may joyfully admit that Judæa, that Greece, and that Rome, had the preparation of these secondary causes; that without them the Christian Society would have been utterly unintelligible to those among whom it first appeared. If we do not acknowledge their worth it will be unintelligible to us; the most incredible of all anomalies.

The
Human

ἦθος.

You may say to me perhaps : 'But there must be a certains which is characteristic of the Universal or Human Society as such; it cannot be merely the support of the subordinate morality.' Yes! the old doctrine of Cardinal Virtues I have no doubt is a sound one. I may have something to say about them hereafter. Here I will only repeat the sentence, "And now abideth Faith, Hope, Charity, these three; but the greatest of these is Charity."

Any 25.1695.

LECTURE XV.

THE UNIVERSAL FAMILY SUBJECT TO THE UNIVERSAL
EMPIRE (CONSTANTINOPLE).

A

WHETHER Constantine was or was not taught by a
vision-as he affirmed in his latter days-that he would
conquer if he took the Cross for his sign, there can be
no doubt that he had some reason to despair of con-
quest unless he could find some other weapon than any
which was supplied by the Roman armoury. The Em-
pire had lost its unity. Through a trial of ten years
the Church appeared to have preserved its unity.
man of less foresight and enterprise than Constantine-
in less difficult circumstances-might have asked him-
self whether he could have more cordial friends than
men whom he had suddenly delivered from a great
persecution. No one has pretended that he began his
toleration with any strong faith in Christ. Eclecticism
had diffused itself among philosophers; it had many
attractions for intelligent soldiers whose lives were spent
in action, who had no leisure for balancing opinions; it
might easily be represented as a recurrence to the old
Roman treatment of different forms of worship. That
the Edict of Milan, like any other, was not a mere off-
spring of a man's will, that the Emperor was not the

The Edict what it

of Milan;

meant.

The motives of Constantine in publishing

it.

Why it could not issue in

ration.

King of kings, those who hold the Christian faith must, of course, maintain. That the ordinary motives of selfishness and ambition were concerned with the publication of it, those who hold that faith are not the least obliged to deny.

It is far more important to consider the inevitable effects of this step. Impartial permission of Christian mere tole- and Pagan worship was all that Constantine at first dreamed of. The impossibility of stopping at that point was not evident to him with all his sagacity, with all his knowledge of the deadly battle between the two Societies which had lasted for more than two centuries. Facts soon proved too strong for him. Other rivals being crushed, his colleague Licinius became the champion of heathenism. Constantine must become the avowed patron of its opposers.

He fulfils

the purpose of Diocletian.

The new capital.

The

Empire only

In taking this course he seemed to be departing as widely as possible from the policy of his predecessor. He was really aiming at the same objects as his predecessor. The ingenious scheme of saving the unity of the Empire by giving it different rulers had been tried and failed. But all the reasons against allowing Rome to remain the centre of an Oriental Government were as strong for Constantine as they had been for Diocletian. And if a new capital could be found, how much more effectually might it be stripped of old Italian associations if it could start with new temples, with a new worship. The discerning eye of the Emperor fixed upon the best site in the world for the experiment. For a thousand years Constantinople was

to be the theatre for it.

When one talks of an alliance between the Empire and the Church, there is much danger of miscon

by be.

Oriental.

ception. No terms were arranged, no agreements con- changed cluded. The Emperor remained what he was. All coming powers that belonged to his predecessors rested in him. more He was able to adopt new titles of Eastern origin. which old Romans knew not. He was able to cast away many restraints and limitations which impeded the action of a military despotism that had been developed out of a Republic. The Eastern Empire was precisely what Augustus or the most arbitrary of his successors might have wished to make his own if he had been able. There were no vestiges in Byzantium of a People; no Orders; officials were officials merely. Domestic life was less sacred, more directly insulted, No traces in the new court than in the ancient. The records of tic MoConstantine's family are bloody records. The worst rality. creatures of Eastern despotism were soon the guardians of the palace, specially of its women.

of domes

ance.

Where then was the Christian Family? Its presence was indicated by the name of Patriarch. He stood near the Emperor in the capital. Each city had some one higher or lower in office who bore a name kindred to that, suggesting domestic associations. These ministers of the Christian body had the The Alli honour of being officials of the government; had privileges and exemptions which distinguished them from ordinary men. The Emperor and his Court performed Christian rites in temples dedicated to Christ or to one of His Apostles. The Emperor could summon the Bishops or Fathers from different lands to discuss questions in theology which were producing strife. He could preside at their deliberations; if he pleased, he could enforce their decrees. That was the alliance. Those who were baptized into the name of the In

The new
Dignities

of the

Christian
Body.

Importance given

to the Church controversies.

visible Father the Creator of all things, of a Son who had redeemed mankind and established His Kingdom over all men, of a Spirit who worked in men to overcome their enmities and bring them into fellowship with each other, paid practical homage and worship to a visible Emperor, acknowledged him to be the Lord of men. The contradiction of these Kingdoms remained just as real as it had been in the previous centuries. But Constantine had won a victory which his heathen forerunners had failed to win. The rulers and officers of the Christian body performed that sacrifice to the imperial Image which the Martyrs had suffered death for refusing.

It is impossible, as every reader of Gibbon must by Gibbon have perceived, to separate the history of the Empire from the theological controversies in which the Church was engaged. Indifferent as the historian might be to the subjects of these controversies, his conscience as a narrator of facts obliged him to give them prominence. No one on the whole has done the Christian teachers in the Greek world so much justice as he has done. The figures of Athanasius, of Gregory of Nazianzus, of Cyril, of Chrysostom, which in most purely ecclesiastical narratives are dry skeletons, whether they are chosen as subjects for applause or condemnation, acquire in his pages flesh and blood; we feel that they were not doctors in a school, but human beings exercising a powerful influence on the life of society. The nature of this influence, and how it was compatible with the dominion which the Empire undoubtedly claimed over the body that had been taken under its patronage, we have now to consider.