this any oppression or infringement of religious liberty. If any of them had hesitated, his comrades probably would have laughed him to scorn, and have said to him, as one slave in Terence says to another who seemed to boggle at perjury,

Nova nunc religio te istac incessit.

The Christians at that time, being just delivered from persecution, must have had some sense of the odious nature of such cruel proceedings. Prudence also directed them not to terrify and provoke the pagans too much; and therefore Constantine declared that he would compel no man to receive the Christian religion.

The first imperial law in favour of Christianity, which was published by Constantine and Licinius, began with this reasonable preamble:

Ηδη μεν πάλαι σκοπῶνες τὴν ἐλευθερίαν τῆς θρησκείας ἐκ ἀρνηθέαν εἶναι, ἀλλ ̓ ἑνὸς ἑκάςκ τῇ διανοίᾳ και βυλήσει ἐξασίαν δοτέον τὰ τὰ θεῖα πράγματα τημελεῖν κατὰ τὴν αὐτῷ προαίρεσιν -Jamdudum quidem, cum animadverteremus non esse cohibendam religionis libertatem, sed uniuscujusque arbitrio ac voluntati permittendum ut ex animi sui sententia rebus divinis operam daret,-Eusebius, x. 5.

But the Christians soon learned to sing a new song, and to acquire a taste for wholesome severities. First they deprived heretics of their places of worship, then they forbad them to assemble any where, and then they fined, imprisoned, banished, starved, whipped, and hanged them, for the advancement of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and for the honour of Christianity. Such were the dictates of public wisdom. In the mean time the bishops, in their councils, made canons forbidding any Catholic to marry his children to Heretics, or to

leave them any legacy, though they were the nearest relations.

The laws against heretics, collected in the Theodosian Code, stand as a shameful monument of the persecuting antichristian spirit, which brake out in the fourth century, and grew more and more violent in the following times.

It is the duty of historians to give an impartial and just account of such cruel proceedings, that people may be taught to love their liberties, civil and religious, and to beware of those who would strip them of these blessings, and also, ut qui insontes damnaverunt, ipsi causam dicant omnibus saculis,

He ordered churches to be built where they were necessary, and even where they were not, as in places which were inhabited only by Jews, says Epiphanins, Heer. xxx. 11.

He condemned those who should βλασφημῆται Χρισόν, speak evil of Christ, to lose half their estate, if we may credit Nicephorus, vii. 34. This was an imprudent and unreasonable law, giving too much encouragement to indiscreet over-zealous Christians, or busy informers, to accuse Jews or Pagans, or perhaps Heretics, of words spoken in the heat of dispute, or in common conversation. For the honour of Constantine, we will suppose either that this law was never made, or that it was made in terrorem, and never executed. Such decrees are beneath a prince, and only fit for an inquisitor-general.

Afterwards, under Constantius, the severity of the laws against Paganism was increased, and sacrificing, together with idolatrous worship, was made a capital crime, which without question filled the church with

new Christians, such as they were; for there is not, I think, one pagan upon record, who died a martyr for his religion in those days. Under Honorius, A, D. 408. we find a Pagan confessor, one Generidus, an officer in the Roman ariny, who threw up his commission, because he would not conform to Christianity; but the emperor could not well spare him, and so would not part with him. Zosimus L. v.

He made a law against heretics, by which he forbad them to have any convențicles, and to meet together in public or in private to perform acts of religion. Eusebius Vịt. Const, iii. 64, 65, Sozom. ii. 32. This was mere insolent tyranny; and Eusebius deserves to be censured for having spoken favourably of it; and yet he is forced to own that it made many hypocritical conformists, and nominal catholics. A Α fine acquisition! But Constantine, by commanding armies in his youth, and by his success and victories, and by being master of the empire, got a royal and military habit and disposition of giving orders in a very absolute way, and had no just notion of religious toleration,

He also commanded that heretical books should be sought for and burnt.

He made a severe law against those who should embrace Judaism. This likewise was unreasonable.

But we are not to conclude that all the laws of Christian emperors against paganism, heresy, and schism, were strictly executed, The contrary often appears the Roman senate was much attached to idolatry, and Sozomen observes of Constantine, that he did not use/to inflict all that he had threatened in his edicts, ii. 32. and several pagan writers, under

Christian

Christian emperors, declare themselves openly, and speak boldly enough in behalf of their old religion.

There is a law of Constantine, which shews that himself was not altogether free from pagan superstition, in which he orders the Haruspices to be consulted, if any public edifice was struck with lightning. See Le Clerc Bibl. A. et M. xxviii. 157. &c. Dacier on Horace Carm. I. ii. 3. Cod. Th. L. xvi. Tit. x. p. 257. and S. Basnage Ann. ii, 673. who endeavours to excuse the emperor. We may add to this, that a temple of the goddess Concord, being decayed by length of time, was repaired or rebuilt by Constantine, if we may trust to an inscription in Lilius Giraldus. Zosimus pretends that he built some temples at Constantinople.

Constantine was severe in his punishments, which shews that by temper he was disposed to cruelty. If any civil officer drew a matron out of her house by violence, he decreed that he should be punished not only capitali pœna, but exquisitis suppliciis, i. e. says Gothofred, that he should be burnt alive. Cod. Th. L. i. Tit. x. p. 57, 58. He appointed this punishment for various offences. See Cod. Th. L. x. Tit. iv. p. 406. Vivicomburii porro pœnam et aliis pluribus constitutionibus, et facinoribus facile imposuit Constantinus: quomodo et alias idem in exacerbandis pœnis aliquando nimius fuit. Gothofred.

To burn men alive became thenceforward a very common punishment, to the disgrace of Christianity. At last it was thought too cruel for traitors, murderers, poisoners, parricides, &c. and only fit for heretics.

One cannot help charging Constantine both with absurdity and with hypocrisy on this occasion. He thought it a barbarous thing to brand a malefactor in

the

the cheek or on the forehead, and he made no scruple to burn him at a stake!

The military laws enacted by him and his successors are pretty severe, and burning alive was one of the punishments for greater offences.

Perhaps it is impossible to keep up military discipline without rigour; but certain it is that the case of soldiers and sailors hath been frequently most deplorable, in their being so often subject to the arbitrary insolence of men who had not so much humanity as a wolf or a tiger; for a brute, when his hunger is satisfied, is not mischievous, but men who are cruel, are so, full and fasting.

The Christians, being blessed with an emperor of their own religion, were of opinion that the Divine Providence had in a signal manner appeared in raising up and protecting Constantine, and in destroying the enemies of the church. There is usually much rashness and presumption in pronouncing that the calamities of sinners are particular judgments of God; yet if from sacred and profane, from ancient and modern historians, a collection were made of all the cruel persecuting tyrants, who delighted in tormenting their fellow-creatures, and who died not the common death of all men, nor were visited after the visitation. of all men, but whose plagues were horrible and strange, even a sceptic would be moved at the evidence, and would be apt to suspect that it was der ti, that the hand of God was in it. But the case of the persecuting emperors and princes is still more particular, if we consider, first, the matter of fact, and, secondly, the prophecies concerning it.

Herod the Great was the first persecutor of Christianity, as he attempted to destroy Christ in his in

fancy,