"Thou must also understand," said Eusebius, with malicious pleasure, "that, while the will of the emperor is the law of the land, it is no longer the standard of right and wrong for Christians. Thy statutes may control political life, and prescribe the external forms of worship for the Church: its conscience hath passed even beyond thy control."
Constantine turned white with wrath.
"The impudent beggars!" he cried, "whom I redeemed from tortures and from death! Where, then, was their 'conscience' when the council subverted the kingdom of heaven upon earth, and they all signed the decree which abolished the earthly sovereignty of Christ? But," checking his furious anger with a mighty effort, "what next?"
"If a man hath done a crime," said Eusebius, "no matter how cruel and unnatural, the Christians understand that he may obtain forgiveness for his sin by repentance and faith, even as King David did in the matter of Bath-sheba."
"Well!" said Constantine, impatiently.
"The Christian world will never pardon thee without this repentance and faith, or the appearance of it," said Eusebius, and he uttered the last few words in a low, peculiar tone.
"And what shape might 'the appearance of it' assume?" asked the emperor, with a laugh.
"Thou mightst go in sackcloth and ashes unto the church and publicly pray to God and man for pardon!"
"And I might far sooner hang up a bishop and exterminate a sect that would seriously insist upon any such degrading terms!"
"So I supposed," said Eusebius, "and even then such a course would only be 'the appearance' of faith and repentance, not the things themselves. But thou mightst build a church and dedicate it unto the memory of Cæsar; or set up his statue, with an inscription intimating that he was the victim of a mistake, and the object of affectionate and sorrowful remembrance. Either of these 'appearances of it' might be sufficient."