[Footnote B: Eusebius' Life of Constantine, bk. i, 27.]
[Footnote C: Hist. Eccles., vol. i, bk. i, ch. 17.]
[Footnote D: Zosimus, bk. ii, p. 104.]
The Conversion of Constantine: It is as difficult to settle upon the time of Constantine's conversion as it is the means and nature of it. Neander inclines to the opinion that he was early influenced in favor of Christianity through the example if not the teachings of his parents, who, if not fully converted to the Christian faith, were at least tolerant of it; and may be reasonably counted among the number who at least admitted Christ to the pantheon of the gods. By an act of his in 308 A. D., after the death of his father, and he himself had been proclaimed emperor of the West, shows that he was at that time still respected the pagan forms of worship; for hearing that the Franks, who had been inclined to rebel against his government, had, on his preparations to make war upon them, laid down their arms, he offered public thanks in a celebrated temple of Apollo, and gave a magnificent offering to the god.[A]
[Footnote A: Neander's Ch. Hist., vol. ii, p. 8.]
The story of Constantine's conversion, as related by Eusebius, would fix that event in the year 312 A. D.; and surely if the open vision of the luminous cross and the subsequent appearing of Christ in his dream were realities, Constantine had sufficient grounds for a prompt and unequivocal conversion to the Christian faith. But after that, if we consider the conduct of the emperor, we shall find him, however astonishing it may seem, still attached to pagan ceremonies of worship. As late as 321 A. D., nine years after the visitation of Christ to him, we find him accused of artfully balancing the hopes and fears of both his pagan and Christian subjects by publishing in the same year two edicts; the first of which enjoined the solemn observance of Sunday; and the second directed the consultation of the Haruspices[A]—the soothsayers of the old pagan religion. Of this circumstance, Neander, who is disposed to palliate the conduct of Constantine as far as possible, after intimating that this lapse might be accounted for on the grounds of state policy, says: "Yet the other hypothesis, viz., that Constantine had actually fallen back into heathen superstitions, may indeed be regarded as the more natural."[B] Five years after his supposed miraculous conversion "we find marks of the pagan state religion upon the imperial coins."[C] "A medal was struck," says Dr. John W. Draper, doubtless referring to the same thing, "on which was impressed his (Constantine's) title of 'God,' together with the monogram of Christ." "Another," he continues, "represented him as raised by a hand from the sky while seated in the chariot of the Sun. But more particularly the great porphyry pillar, a column one hundred and twenty feet in height, exhibited the true religious condition of the founder of Constantinople. The statue on its summit mingled together the Sun, the Savior, and the Emperor. Its body was a colossal image of Apollo, whose features were replaced by those of Constantine, and around the head, like rays, were fixed the nails of the cross of Christ, recently discovered in Jerusalem."[D] While on the day Constantinople was formally made the capital of the empire, he honored the statue of Fortune with gifts. In view of all these acts, ranging as they do over the greater part of the first Christian emperor's life, and through many years after his supposed conversion, I think Gibbon is justified in his remarks upon this part of Constantine's conduct: "It was an arduous task to eradicate the habits and prejudices of his education, to acknowledge the divine power of Christ, and to understand that the truth of his revelation was incompatible with the worship of the gods."[E]
[Footnote A: Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. iii, ch. xx.]
[Footnote B: Neander Ch. Hist., vol. ii, p. 21.]
[Footnote C: Neander Ch. Hist., vol. ii, p. 21.]
[Footnote D: Intellectual Development of Europe, vol. i, p. 280.]