CHAP. did capital, which now embraces an ample terriXIX. tory on either side of the Seine, was originally confined to the small island in the midst of the river, from whence the inhabitants derived a supply of pure and salubrious water. The river bathed the foot of the walls; and the town was accessible only by two wooden bridges. A forest overspread the northern side of the Seine; but on the south, the ground, which now bears the name of the university, was insensibly covered with houses, and adorned with a palace and amphitheatre, baths, an aqueduct, and a field of Mars for the exercise of the Roman troops. The severity of the climate was tempered by the neighbourhood of the ocean; and with some precautions, which experience had taught, the vine and fig-tree were successfully cultivated. But, in remarkable winters, the Seine was deeply frozen ; and the huge pieces of ice that floated down the stream, might be compared, by an Asiatic, to the blocks of white marble which were extracted from the quarries of Phrygia. The licentiousness and corruption of Antioch, recalled to the memory of Julian the severe and simple manners of his beloved Lutetia, where the amusements of the theatre were unknown or despised. He indig nantly contrasted the effeminate Syrians with the brave and honest simplicity of the Gauls, and alrespective Notitias of ancient Gaul), the Abbé de Longuerue De#cription de la France, tom. i, p. 12, 13, and M. Bonamy (in the Mem, de l'Academie des Inscriptions, tom. xv, p. 656-691). * Την φίλην Λευκέτιαν. Julian, in Misopogon. p. 340. Leucetia, or Lutetia, was the ancient name of the city which, according to the fashion of the fourth century, assumed the territorial appellation of Parisii. XIX. most forgave the intemperance, which was the CHAP. only stain of the Celtic character.* If Julian could now revisit the capital of France, he might converse with men of science and genius, capable of understanding and of instructing a disciple of the Greeks; he might excuse the lively and graceful follies of a nation, whose martial spirit has never been enervated by the indulgence of luxury; and he must applaud the perfection of that inestimable art, which softens and refines and embelFishes the intercourse of social life. * Julian. in Misopogon. p. 359, 360. 1 CHAP. XX. Date of the CHAP. XX. The motives, progress, and effects of the conversion of Constantine.-Legal establishment, and constitution of the Christian or Catholic Church. THE public establishment of christianity may be considered as one of those important and domestic revolutions which excite the most lively curiosity, and afford the most valuable instruction. The victories and the civil policy of Constantine no longer influence the state of Europe; but a considerable portion of the globe still retains the impression which it received from the conversion of that monarch; and the ecclesiastical institutions of his reign are still connected, by an indissoluble chain, with the opinions, the passions, and the interests of the present generation. In the consideration of a subject which may be conversion examined with impartiality, but cannot be viewed stantine. with indifference, a difficulty immediately arises of Con of a very unexpected nature; that of ascertaining the real and precise date of the conversion of ConA. D. 306. stantine. The eloquent Lactantius, in the midst of his court, seems impatient to proclaim to the The date of the Divine Institutions of Lactantius has been ac curately discussed, difficulties have been started, solutions proposed, and an expedient imagined, of two original editions; the former pub. lished during the persecution of Diocletian, the latter under that of Licinius XX. world the glorious example of the sovereign of CHAP. Gaul; who, in the first moments of his reign, acknowledged and adored the majesty of the true and only God." The learned Eusebius has ascribed the faith of Constantine to the miraculous sign which was displayed in the heavens whilst he meditated and prepared the Italian expedition.CA: D. 312. The historian Zosimus maliciously asserts, that the emperor had embrued his hands in the blood of his eldest son, before he publicly renounced the gods of Rome and of his ancestors. The per- A. D. 326, plexity produced by these discordant authorities, is derived from the behaviour of Constantine himself. According to the strictness of ecclesiastical language, the first of the christain emperors was unworthy of that name, till the moment of his death; since it was only during his last illness a. D. 337. that he received, as a catechumen, the imposition d Licinius. See Dufresnoy, Prefat. p. v. Tillemont, Mem. Ecclesiast. tom. vi, p. 465-470. Lardner's Credibility, part ii, vol. vii, p. 78-86. For my own part, I am almost convinced that Lactantius dedicated his Institutions to the sovereign of Gaul, at a time when Galerius, Maximin, and even Licinius, persecuted the christians; that is, between the years 306 and 311. b Lactant. Divin. Institut. i, 1; vii, 27. The first and most im. portant of these passages is indeed wanting in twenty-eight manuscripts; but it is found in nineteen. If we weigh the comparative value of those manuscripts, one of 900 years old, in the king of France's library, may be alleged in its favour; but the passage is omitted in the correct manuscript of Bologna, which the P. de Montfaucon ascribes to the sixth or seventh century (Diarium Italic. p. 409). The taste of most of the editors (except Isæus, see Lactant. edit, Dufresnoy, tom. i, p. 596) has felt the genuine style of Lactantius. Euseb. in Vit. Constant. 1. i, c. 27-32. A. XX CHAP. of hands, and was afterwards admitted, by the initiatory rites of baptism, into the number of the faithful. The christianity of Constantine must be allowed in a much more vague and qualified sense; and the nicest accuracy is required in tracing the slow and almost imperceptible gradations by which the monarch declared himself the protector and at length the proselyte, of the church. 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. The obstacles which he had probably experienced in his own mind, instructed him to proceed with caution in the momentous change of a national religion; and he insensibly discovered his new opinions, as far as he could enforce them with That rite was always used in making a catechumen (see Bingham's Antiquities, 1. x, c. 1, p. 419. Dom. Chardon, Hist. des Sacremens, tom. i, p. 62); and Constantine received it for the first time (Euseb. in Vit. Constant. 1. iv, c. 61) immediately before his baptism and death. From the connection of these two facts, Valesius (ad loc. Euseb.) has drawn the conclusion which is reluctantly admitted by Tillemont (Hist. des Empereurs, tom. iv, p. 628), and opposed with feeble arguments by Mosheim (p. 968). Euseb. in Vit. Constant. l. iv, c. 61, 62, 63. The legend of Constantine's baptism at Rome, thirteen years before his death, was invented in the eighth century, as a proper motive for his donation. Such has been the gradual progress of knowledge, that a story of which Cardinal Baronius (Annal. Ecclesiast. A. D. 324, No. 43-49) declared himself the unblushing advocate, is now feebly supported, even within the verge of the Vatican. See the Antiquitates Christianæ tom. ii. p. 232; a work published with six approbations at Rome, in the year 1751, by Father Mamachi, a learned dominican. |