37 - Book X, Part 3

BOOK TEN. PART THREE. CHAPTERS SIX THROUGH NINE. CHAPTER SIX. COPY OF AN IMPERIAL EPISTLE IN WHICH MONEY IS GRANTED TO THE CHURCHES. CONSTANTINE AUGUSTUS TO CYCILIANUS, BISHOP OF CARTHAGE. Since it is our pleasure that something should be granted in all the provinces of Africa and Numidia and Mauretania to certain ministers of the legitimate and most holy Catholic religion to defray their expenses, I have written to Ursus, the illustrious finance minister of Africa, and have directed him to make provision to pay to thy firmness three thousand folies. Do thou therefore, when thou hast received the above sum of money, command that it be distributed among all those mentioned above according to the brief sent to thee by Hosius. But if thou shouldst find that anything is wanting for the fulfillment of this purpose of mine in regard to all of them, thou shalt demand without hesitation from Heracleides, our treasurer, whatever thou findest to be necessary. For I commanded him when he was present that if thy firmness should ask him for any money, he should see to it that it be paid without delay. And since I have learned that some men of unsettled mind wish to turn the people from the most holy and Catholic church by a certain method of shameful corruption, do thou know that I gave command to Annulinus, the proconsul, and also to Patricius, vicar of the prefects, when they were present, that they should give proper attention not only to other matters but also above all to this, and that they should not overlook such a thing when it happened. Wherefore, if thou shouldst see any such men continuing in this madness, do thou without delay go to the above-mentioned judges and report the matter to them, that they may correct them as I commanded them when they were present. The divinity of the great God preserve thee for many years. CHAPTER VII. THE EXEMPTION OF THE CLERGY. COPY OF AN EPISTLE IN WHICH THE EMPEROR COMMANDS THAT THE RULERS OF THE CHURCHES BE EXEMPTED FROM ALL POLITICAL DUTIES. Greetings to thee, our most esteemed Annulinus, since it appears from many circumstances that when that religion is despised, in which is preserved the chief reverence for the most holy celestial power, great dangers are brought upon public affairs, but that when legally adopted and observed, it affords the most signal prosperity to the Roman name and remarkable felicity to all the affairs of men, through the divine beneficence, it has seemed good to me, most esteemed Annulinus, that those men who give their services with due sanctity and with constant observance of this law, to the worship of the divine religion, should receive recompense for their labors. Wherefore it is my will that those within the province entrusted to thee, in the Catholic Church, over which Caecilianus presides, who give their services to this holy religion, and who are commonly called clergymen, be entirely exempted from all public duties, that they may not by any error or sacrilegious negligence be drawn away from the service due to the Deity, but may devote themselves without any hindrance to their own law. For it seems that when they show greatest reverence to the Deity, the greatest benefits accrue to the State. Farewell, our most esteemed and beloved Annulinus. CHAPTER VIII. THE SUBSEQUENT WICKEDNESS OF LICINIUS AND HIS DEATH. Such blessings did divine and heavenly grace confer upon us through the appearance of our Saviour, and such was the abundance of benefits which prevailed among all men in consequence of the peace which we enjoyed. And thus were our affairs crowned with rejoicings and festivities. But malignant envy and the demon who loves that which is evil were not able to bear the sight of these things, and moreover the events that befell the tyrants whom we have already mentioned were not sufficient to bring Licinius to sound reason. For the latter, although his government was prosperous and he was honored with the second rank after the great Emperor Constantine, and was connected with him by the closest ties of marriage, abandoned the imitation of good deeds, and emulated the wickedness of the impious tyrants whose end he had seen with his own eyes, and chose rather to their principles than to continue in friendly relations with him who was better than they. Being envious of the common benefactor, he waged an impious and most terrible war against him, paying regard neither to laws of nature, nor treaties, nor blood, and giving no thought to covenants. For Constantine, like an all-gracious Emperor, giving him evidences of true favor, did not refuse alliance with him, and did not refuse him the illustrious marriage with his sister, but honored him by making him a partaker of the ancestral nobility and the ancient imperial blood, and granted him the right of sharing in the dominion over all as a brother-in-law and co-regent, conferring upon him the government and administration of no less a portion of the Roman provinces than he himself possessed. But Licinius, on the contrary, pursued a course directly opposite to this, forming daily all kinds of plots against his superior, and devising all sorts of mischief, that he might repay his benefactor with evils. At first he attempted to conceal his preparations, and pretended to be a friend, and practiced frequently fraud and deceit, in the hope that he might easily accomplish the desired end. But God was the friend, protector, and guardian of Constantine, and bringing the plots which had been formed in secrecy and darkness to the light, he foiled them. So much virtue does the great armor of piety possess for the warding off of enemies, and for the preservation of our own safety. Protected by this, our most divinely favored emperor escaped the multitudinous plots of the abominable man. But when Licinius perceived that his secret preparations by no means progressed according to his mind, for God revealed every plot and wickedness to the God-favored emperor, being no longer able to conceal himself, he undertook an open war. And at the same time that he determined to wage war with Constantine, he also proceeded to join battle with the God of the universe, whom he knew that Constantine worshipped, and began, gently for a time and quietly, to attack his pious subjects, who had never done his government any harm. This he did under the compulsion of his innate wickedness which drove him into terrible blindness. He did not therefore keep before his eyes the memory of those who had persecuted the Christians before him, nor of those whose destroyer and executioner he had been appointed, on account of the impieties which they had committed. But departing from sound reason, being seized in a word with insanity, he determined to war against God himself as the ally of Constantine, instead of against the one who was assisted by him. And in the first place he drove from his house every Christian, thus depriving himself, wretched man, of the prayers which they offered to God in his behalf, which they are accustomed, according to the teaching of their fathers, to offer for all men. Then he commanded that the soldiers in the cities should be cashiered and stripped of their rank, unless they chose to sacrifice to the demons. And yet these were small matters when compared with the greater things that followed. Why is it necessary to relate minutely and in detail all that was done by the Hater of God, and to recount how this most lawless man invented unlawful laws? He passed an ordinance that no one should exercise humanity toward the sufferers in prison by giving them food, and that none should show mercy to those that were perishing of hunger in bonds. That no one should in any way be kind or do any good act, even though herself to sympathize with one's neighbors. And this was indeed an openly shameful and most cruel law, calculated to expel all natural kindliness. And in addition to this it was also decreed, as a punishment, that those who showed compassion should suffer the same things with those whom they compassionated. And that those who kindly ministered to the suffering should be thrown into bonds and into prison, and should endure the same punishment with the sufferers. Such were the decrees of Licinius. Why should we recount his innovations in regard to marriage, or in regard to the dying, innovations by which he ventured to annul the ancient laws of the Romans, which had been well and wisely formed, and to introduce certain barbarous and cruel laws, which were truly unlawful and lawless? He invented, to the detriment of the provinces which were subject to him, innumerable prosecutions, and all sorts of methods of extorting gold and silver, new measurements of land, and injurious exactions from men in the country, who were no longer living, but long since dead. Why is it necessary to speak at length of the banishments which, in addition to these things, this enemy of mankind inflicted upon those who had done no wrong, the expatriations of men of noble birth and high reputation, whose young wives he snatched from them and consigned to certain baser fellows of his own, to be shamefully abused by them, and the many married women and virgins upon whom he gratified his passions, although he was in advanced age? Why, I say, is it necessary to speak at length of these things, when the excessive wickedness of his last deeds makes the first appear small and of no account? For, finally, he reached such a pitch of madness that he attacked the bishops, supposing that they, as servants of the God over all, would be hostile to his measures. He did not yet proceed against them openly, on account of his fear of his superior, but as before, secretly and craftily, employing the treachery of the governors for the destruction of the most distinguished of them. And the manner of their murder was strange, and such as had never before been heard of. The deeds which he performed at Amasea and in the other cities of Pontus surpassed every excess of cruelty. Some of the churches of God were again raised to the ground, others were closed, so that none of those accustomed to frequent them could enter them and render the worship due to God. For his evil conscience led him to suppose that prayers were not offered in his behalf, but he was persuaded that we did everything in the interest of the God-beloved emperor, and that we supplicated God for him. Therefore he hastened to turn his fury against us. And then those among the governors who wished to flatter him, perceiving that in doing such things they pleased the impious tyrant, made some of the bishops suffer the penalties customarily inflicted upon criminals, and led away and without any pretext punished like murderers those who had done no wrong. Some now endured a new form of death, having their bodies cut into many pieces with the sword, and after this savage and most horrible spectacle being thrown into the depths of the sea as food for fishes. Thereupon the worshipers of God again fled, and fields and deserts, forests and mountains again received the servants of Christ. And when the impious tyrant had thus met with success in these measures, he finally planned to renew the persecution against all. And he would have succeeded in his design, and there would have been nothing to hinder him in the work, had not God, the defender of the lives of his own people, most quickly anticipated that which was about to happen, and caused a great light to shine forth as in the midst of a dark and gloomy night, and raised up a Deliverer for all, leading into those regions with a lofty arm his servant Constantine. CHAPTER IX. THE VICTORY OF CONSTANTINE, AND THE BLESSINGS WHICH UNDER HIM ACCRUED TO THE SUBJECTS OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE. To him, therefore, God granted, from heaven above, the deserved fruit of piety, the trophies of victory over the impious, and he cast the guilty one with all his counsellors and friends prostrate at the feet of Constantine. For when Licinius carried his madness to the last extreme, the Emperor, the friend of God, thinking that he ought no longer to be tolerated, acting upon the basis of sound judgment, and mingling the firm principles of justice with humanity, gladly determined to come to the protection of those who were oppressed by the tyrant, and undertook, by putting a few destroyers out of the way, to save the greater part of the human race. For when he had formerly exercised humanity alone and had shown mercy to him who was not worthy of sympathy, nothing was accomplished, for Licinius did not renounce his wickedness, but rather increased his fury against the peoples that were subject to him, and there was left to the afflicted no hope of salvation, oppressed as they were by a savage beast. Wherefore the protector of the virtuous, mingling hatred for evil with love for good, went forth with his son Crispus, a most beneficent prince, and extended a saving right hand to all that were perishing. Both of them, father and son, under the protection as it were of God, the universal King, with the Son of God, the Saviour of all, as their leader and ally, drew up their forces on all sides against the enemies of the Deity, and won an easy victory, God having prospered them in the battle in all respects according to their wish. Thus suddenly, and sooner than can be told, those who yesterday and the day before breathed death and threatening were no more, and not even their names were remembered, but their inscriptions and their honors suffered the merited disgrace. And the things which Licinius with his own eyes had seen come upon the former impious tyrants he himself likewise suffered, because he did not receive instruction nor learn wisdom from the chastisements of his neighbors, but followed the same path of impiety which they had trod, and was justly hurled over the same precipice. Thus he lay prostrate. But Constantine, the mightiest victor, adorned with every virtue of piety, together with his son Crispus, a most God-beloved prince, and in all respects like his father, recovered the East which belonged to them, and they formed one united Roman Empire as of old, bringing under their peaceful sway the whole world from the rising of the sun to the opposite quarter, both north and south, even to the extremities of the day. All fear, therefore, of those who had formerly afflicted them was taken away from men, and they celebrated splendid and festive days. Everything was filled with light, and those who before were downcast beheld each other with smiling faces and beaming eyes. With dances and hymns, in city and country, they glorified first of all God the universal King, because they had been thus taught, and then the pious Emperor with his God-beloved children. There was oblivion of past evils and forgetfulness of every deed of impiety. There was enjoyment of present benefits and expectation of those yet to come. Edicts full of clemency and laws containing tokens of benevolence and true piety were issued in every place by the victorious Emperor. Thus, after all tyranny had been purged away, the Empire which belonged to them was preserved firm and without a rival for Constantine and his sons alone, and having obliterated the godlessness of their predecessors, recognizing the benefits conferred upon them by God, they exhibited their love of virtue and their love of God, and their piety and gratitude to the Deity by the deeds which they performed in the sight of all men.