That it was a miracle, wrought in favour of Constantine and of Christianity: That it was a pious fraud, a mere stratagem of Constantine, to animate his soldiers, and to engage the Christians firmly on his side. Fabricius, as an honorarius arbiter, comes between both, and allows the fact, but rejects the miracle, Bibl. Gr. vi. S. There is, says he, a natural appearance, a solar halo, which sometimes represents a lucid cross; and this is so rarely seen, that it is no wonder if Constantine and they who beheld it with him, accounted it miraculous, especially at that juncture. If this was no miracle, yet it tended to the service of Christianity, and to bring about the great revolution which then happened, There are in historians ancient and modern, and in the Philosophical Transactions, descriptions of such phanomena, and also of lucid circles or crowns accompanying them, Fabricius gives an account and a representation of some. Thus far all goes well enough: but the great difficulty is the inscription, τέτω νίκα, for which Fabricius offers this solution that * γραφή means a picture • Eusebius uses ypapǹ for a picture, speaking of the cross, represented in a picture of Constantine. Ὁ μὲν δὴ καὶ ἐν ΓΡΑΦΗΣ ύψηλολάτῳ πίνακι πρὸ τῶν βασιλικῶν προθύρων ἀνακειμένῳ, τοῖς πάντων ὀφε θαλμοῖς ὁρᾶσθαι προτίθει, τὸ μὲν σωτήριον ὑπερκείμενον τῆς αὐτο κεφαλῆς ΤΗ ΓΡΑΦΗ, παραδός· τὸν δὲ ἐχθρὸν καὶ πολέμιον πῆρα, τὸν τὴν ἐκκλησίαν τῇ Θεῖ διὰ τῆς τῶν ἀθέων πολιορκήσαντα τυραννίδος, κατὰ βύθια φερόμενον ποιήσας ἐν δράκοντος μορφή. — διὸ καὶ βασιλεὺς ὑπὸ τοῖς αὐτ τὸ καὶ τῶν αὐτῇ ποσὶ, βέλει πεπαρμένον κατὰ μέσα το κύτος, βυθοῖς τε θαλάσσης ἀπεῤῥιμμένον, διὰ τῆς κεροχύτα ΓΡΑΦΗΣ ἐδείκνυ τοῖς πᾶσι τὸν δράκοντα.ὃν καὶ δυνάμει τοῦ ὑπέρ κεφαλῆς ανακειμένα picture as well as a writing, and that xéyer, when applied to a picture or image, means to denote or imply, and that the words of Constantine and Eusebius may be thus interpreted; To the cross was adjoined a picture or image, intimating that by this he should conquer, which image was a lucid crown, a representation or symbol of victory. To this I add, that Eusebius, by not using the words τοιχεία οι γράμματα, nor mentioning in what language it was written, seems to speak rather of an emblem or picture than of a writing. Add to this, that in the standard which Constantine ordered to be made in form of a cross, in memory of this omen, he placed a crown of gold and jewels on the top of it, and a cypher denoting the name of Christ, but not the words TÚTW vína. Euseb. Vit. Const. i. 31. Amongst the Panegyrici Veteres, the eighth is in praise of Constantine, and celebrates his victory over Maxentius, but says not a word of the cross. The author of this panegyric was a pagan. The ninth also (ωτηρία τροπαίς, καλὰ βυθων ἀπωλείας κεχωρηκέναι ἐδήλα. Quinetiam in sublimi quadam tabula ante vestibulum palatii posita, cunctis spectandum proposuit salutare quidem signum capiti suo superpositum : infra vero hostem illum et inimicum generis humani, qui impiorum tyrannorum opera Ecclesiam Dei oppugnaverat, sub draconis forma in præceps ruentem.---Idcirco Imperator draconem telis per medium ventrem confixum, et in profundos maris gurgites projectum, sub suis suorumque liberorum pedibus cera igne resoluta depingi proponique omnibus voluit:quem salutaris illius tropæi quod capiti ipsius superpositum erat, vi ac potentia in exitii barathrum detrusum esse significabat. Vit. Const. iii. 3. Philostorgius supplies that defect, and says that it was in Latin: In boc vince, p. 478. But Philostorgius did not see it, and his tes timony ought to go for nothing. also, composed by Nazarius, is silent concerning this prodigy. One of the panegyrists speaks of a bad omen, by which he might mean the cross. See Tillemont H. des Emp. iv. 632. not. But, after all, it seems rather more natural to interpret ypapur aéyourar of a writing than of a picture. It is an ugly circumstance, and I wish we could get fairly rid of it. Licinius, if we may believe the writer de Mortibus Persecutorum, was instructed by an angel how to obtain the victory over Maximinus, cap. xlvi. p. 276. This seems to have been a military stratagem of Licinius, to regain the favour of the Christians, and to animate his soldiers. It hath been controverted whether Licinius ever was a Christian. Cardinal Noris takes the negative, Pagi and Basnage the affirmative. The truth of the case seems to have been, that he pretended for some time to be a Christian, but never was so; and that, finding the Christians to be much more fond of Constantine than of himself, he threw off the mask. See S. Basnage Ann. ii. 667. When the church under Constantine and his successors enjoyed the protection of the civil powers, the Christians compared their present with their past condition, and called to mind the sufferings of their predecessors, and the patience and fortitude which they had exerted, particularly in the last and severest persecutions. These considerations raised in them an high, and indeed a just veneration for the martyrs: but it did not stop here, it ran into excess, and produced bad effects. Every rumour concerning the behaviour of those saints was received without due examination, the number of the sufferers was augmented, the sufferings ferings of some of them were exaggerated, and many fictitious miracles were added to the account. Their bodies were discovered by the help of visions and revelations, and were said to emit perfumes, and to work miracles without end. This drew a great resort to their graves, and every one had his story to tell of the benefits which himself or his neighbour had received. To have been suspicious or slow of belief on such occasions would have passed for little better than atheism, and thus the frenzy grew epidemical. In the time of Augustin, many real or pretended monks went strolling about, as hawkers and pedlars, selling the bones, and reliques of martyrs*. August. de Op. Monach. 28. The fathers of those times, as Athanasius, Gregory Nazianzen, and who not, but particularly Chrysostom with his popular eloquence, contributed to the utmost of their power to encourage the superstitious veneration and invocation of saints, the love of monkery, and the belief of miracles wrought by monks and reliques. Some of these fathers, particularly Gregory, were in other respects valuable men, but this was the distemper of the age, and they were not free from it. See Chrysostom T. i. Orat. 40. p. 485. Ed. Par. Thence arose religious addresses to the martyrs, who were considered as patrons and intercessors, which tended to lessen the reliance and gratitude due to Christ, and to substitute new expedients in the room of rational piety and strict morality; and those Christians who were conscious of their own defects began to pay immoderate honours to the martyrs, that • See a Dissertation of Mabillon, De Cultu Sanctorum ignotorum, in the Act. Erud. 1699. p. 107. that by their interest they might obtain remission of sins. Prudentius, who had a fine genius, and was a good poet for the time in which he flourished, to atone, as he says, for the follies of his youth, spent his latter days in defending the catholic faith, and in composing hymns to the martyrs, and expresses his hopes that Saint Romanus would do him a considerable service at the day of judgment, for the sake of a poem in which he had celebrated that martyr. Vellem sinister inter Hodorum greges Ut sum futurus, eminus dinoscerer, Atque hoc precante, diceret Rex optimus, Romanus orat, transfer huc hædum mihi ; Sit dexter agnus; induatur vellere. Περὶ Στεφ. 10. These practices suited the half-converts and nominal Christians, who came over for the loaves, under Christian emperors. The gay and splendid appearance of the church helped to allure them; they found new religious amusements to make up for those which they had quitted, and if they were superstitious before, they might be so still, mutatis mutandis. In the room of gods and goddesses they had saints male and female, lord and lady protectors, to whom they might pay their respects and instead of sleeping in their own temples, they could slumber over the bones of the martyrs, and receive as good information and assistance. If they longed for miracles, portents, prodigies, prophecies, visions, dreams, omens, divinations, amulets, charms, &c. they might be supplied. Thus the fathers of the fourth century in general introduced an irregular worship of the saints. I am sorry that I cannot entirely acquit Eusebius upon this head: He speaks thus in his Præparatio, xiii. 11. σε των |