The historians, secular and ecclesiastic, have alike failed to do justice to the vast abilities of Constantine the Great. Those who have questioned his superiority to all other Roman emperors (if, indeed, not to all other men) have united in ascribing to accident, to the mere drifting of events, facts which were really the forecastings of profoundest statesmanship, guided by a political sagacity that pierced through to the very core of the whole social and religious life of the vast empire over which he ruled, almost untroubled by the influences of human passions, fears, and faith. On the other hand, those who have felt constrained to give even the slightest credence to his alleged profession of faith in Christ have attributed to religious zeal, enthusiasm, or fears, the most salient actions of a life that was, from beginning to end, dominated only by the lust for dominion, incapable of any creed but atheism, and absolutely content with the negation of the existence of any Being greater than himself. To those who take a more rational view of his magnificent but criminal career, and who, looking behind the mask of reverence for paganism which he cast aside at precisely the politic moment, in order to assume a false pretense of reverence for Christianity, discern the cool, deliberate atheist, who was ready to profess any creed and foster any superstition that might best serve to smooth the road to absolute power, and make mankind his slaves: to them the astute politician, the successful warrior, the consummate ruler of men, assumes such colossal proportions that, compared with him, Alexander, Cæsar, and Napoleon, seem to sink into the lower grade of butchers and stabbers, only half-taught in the science of government, of which Constantine alone was master. For it is no more certain that he despised and pitied paganism while he was solemnly offering sacrifices to Jupiter, and winning the admiration and love of the Roman world for his imperial piety, than it is certain that he pitied and despised the Church of Christ, even while he was manipulating the faith into a sure and reliable support of the empire; in both courses he only played with the world, giving men any religious toy which the greater part might prefer to have, in exchange for the liberty of which he robbed them so plausibly and successfully that they scarcely perceived his theft, and enthusiastically caressed the royal thief.
The Christians of that age died at the stake, or by the sword, or by wild beasts, rather than to cast a pinch of incense into the sacred fires and say, "Proh Jupiter!" The pagans would have plunged into civil war, and would have endured or inflicted any pain, rather than acknowledge any feeling for Christ except hatred, loathing, and contempt. But Constantine both adopted the cross as a military standard, and also observed the heathen rites with customary ostentation and solemnity; having absolutely no conscientious scruples for or against any religion; regarding both the old and the new faiths as things proper enough for common men, but altogether indifferent to him; and using both alike as mere instruments convenient for the advancement of his own political purposes.
After he had defeated Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge, he caused his own statue to be erected at Rome; and, while the general design and execution of the work were unexceptionable to his pagan subjects, the image bore in its hand the symbol of the cross, which, until that day, had been esteemed to be a badge of crime and infamy, as disgraceful to any Roman as the lewd Priapi of the gardens could have been to the Christians; and the thanksgiving which he offered to commemorate his victory was couched in such enigmatical terms that in applying it to Mars or Jupiter, the pagan did no more violence to the text than the Christian would do in ascribing it to Christ and God. So, when, to please the Christians, he decreed the solemn observance of Sunday, he inspired the pagans with confidence and respect, by calling the sacred day Dies Solis (the Day of the Sun), a formula of heathendom with which they had been familiar all their lives.
Utterly devoid of faith in anything else except himself and his own destiny, unyielding in that ambition to exercise dominion which nerved him for the doubtful war against Maxentius, he regarded both mankind and religion with pity and contempt, and sought to rule men for their good and his own glory, by means of any faith which they might prefer; and hence, as Christianity became more known and popular, he identified himself with it more and more, only in order to foster an agency which seemed to be available in the work of consolidating the warring factions of the empire and securing the permanency of his throne. But the gospel of love and peace over which he extended the imperial protection did not deter him from exterminating the whole race of Maxentius after he had defeated him in battle; nor from the deliberate and politic murder of Maximin, who was the father of Fausta his wife, and who had been the benefactor of his father Constantius; nor from the destruction of his wife herself, nor of his sons; nor from the assassination of the Emperor Licinius and his son, the offspring of his sister Constantia--crimes so infamous and unnecessary that the first spark of real animosity against the gods of Rome that ever flashed across the serene and boundless depths of his almost superhuman intelligence gleamed for a moment past his consummate and life-long duplicity when the pagan priests refused all expiation for such crimes; and be turned away more decidedly to a religion which promises pardon for every sin: not that he cared anything for the sacred rites of either church; but because he was the first Roman ruler to attach any definite meaning to the words "public opinion," and he desired to maintain the confidence of his people, and also to secure the full benefit of those crimes which he committed to place his own authority beyond the reach of accident.
So thoroughly indifferent to all sense of religion was this greatest of the rulers of mankind that dissimulation was an easy task which involved no conscientious scruples of any kind; and was so gracefully and perfectly enacted that even Eusebius, the father of ecclesiastical history, himself no ordinary man, was for a long time very thoroughly deceived into believing that the atheistic emperor was God's vicegerent for the establishment of the Christian Church on earth. "Constantine, therefore, in the very commencement" (says Eusebius), "being proclaimed supreme emperor and Augustus by the soldiers, and much longer before this by the universal sovereign, God--Constantine, the protector of the good, combining his hatred of wickedness with the love of goodness, went forth with his son Crispus, the most benevolent Cæsar, to extend a caring arm to all them that were perishing. Both, therefore, the father and the son, having, as it were, God the Universal King and his Son, our Saviour, as their leader and aid, drawing up the army on all sides against the enemies of God, bore away an easy victory." "With choirs and hymns," says Eusebius, "in the cities and villages, at the same time they celebrated and extolled first of all God the Universal King, because they were thus taught; then they also celebrated the praises of the pious emperor, and with him all his divinely-favored children," including Crispus Cæsar whom he caused to be murdered afterward.
Only the lone and incorruptible seer of Patmos, John the Divine, foresaw the mighty pagan in his real character, and depicted him in words of scathing denunciation and rebuke which the prostituted Church then failed to understand when the things were transacted before her eyes--a prophetic and apocalyptic view of Constantine and Constantinople which becomes of easier interpretation as the centuries glide away, revealing more and more clearly what things John foretold, that were to follow upon the subversion of Christianity by the most potent human enemy that Jesus ever had, and locating the seat of Antichrist upon seven hills above the sea to which the commerce of the world resorted--a description inapplicable to any capital on earth except the city of Constantinople.
The tentative effort made by Constantine in 312 and 313, when he had used the influence of the Christians against Maxentius, had proved entirely successful, and the great ruler at once began to make inquiries to ascertain to what extent the same faith might prevail throughout the Empire of the East, and how far he might depend upon its aid in subverting the sovereign power of Licinius, who then reigned over the Eastern Empire. For, upon the death of Diocletian, Constantius and Galerius had parted the empire between themselves in accordance with the emperor's will, dividing both the provinces and the legions, which was the first division of Roman sovereignty. Constantine succeeded his father Constantius, and, by the overthrow of Maxentius, had become master of all of the Western Empire, although north of the Mediterranean Licinius ruled Pannonia, Dalmatia, Dacia, Greece, and Thrace; and, having overthrown Maximian, ruled the East, including Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt.
But it was always Constantine's set purpose to restore the unity of the empire, and to concentrate the whole imperial authority in his own hand--a purpose of which he never for one moment lost sight, and which is the explanation of his whole magnificent career. The present difficulty in the way was the fact that he had permitted, perhaps solicited, Licinius to sign with him the Decree of Milan, which gave peace to the Church; and this celebrated document had been issued in both their names, by their joint authority, and had been so published throughout the empire. In addition to this was the fact that the Christians universally regarded the defeat of Maximian and the triumph of Licinius as providential, for the former had persecuted the Church, and the latter had protected it in conjunction with Constantine. The public actions of Maximian gave countenance to this opinion: for, while he had great faith in the heathen gods and priests, and had resorted to magic in order to conduct the war with Licinius triumphantly, after he had been defeated in battle "he slew many of his priests as jugglers and impostors, and as the destroyers of his own safety, since by their oracles he had been induced to undertake the disastrous war. Moreover, having heard that Constantine and Licinius were both Christians, he supposed that their success was the result of their religion, and himself immediately issued a decree providing safety for the Christians whom less than a year before he had ordered to be persecuted, by decrees engraved on brazen tablets; he gave them liberty to rebuild their churches, and commanded that all of their property which had been seized and sold under the former decrees should be restored to them. Shortly afterward he miserably died, and Licinius ruled alone."
Licinius was a firm believer in Christianity, and his faith and the decrees of Maximian alike confirmed both himself and his subjects in the opinion that he was under the divine protection.
Constantine was not long in perceiving the greatest political error, perhaps the only one, committed by him, the affixing of the signature of Licinius to the Decree of Milan; but, at the time it was done, human foresight could hardly have anticipated such a wholesale abandonment of paganism, and such an ardent and enthusiastic adoption of Constantine's new ecclesiasticism, on the part of the people, as did actually occur. To have left the name of Licinius out of the decree would have fostered any ambitious views which that emperor might have entertained, by enabling him to set up himself as the especial guardian of the heathen religion, and so concentrating in his own hands all the resources of the pagan world. Constantine was compelled, therefore, either to divide the influence of the Christians with Licinius, or else to array himself and Christianity on the one side, against Licinius and paganism on the other; and he was too wise a ruler not to perceive that such a civil and religious war would be disastrous to both rulers, if not the ultimate ruin of the empire; and, not knowing the vast numerical strength of the Christians, he chose the former alternative. But no sooner had he succeeded in getting all power in the North and West concentrated firmly in his owe hands, than he began to seek for means whereby to undermine the power of his rival, and so carry into effect his life-long purpose--the reuniting of the divided empire, and the concentration of all power in his own hands.