rus.

pire, except those who had the felicity to be placed under the mild and equitable government of Constantius ChloThe shameful manner in which multitudes of them were punished, it would be difficult to relate without violating the rules of decency, and, in the present day, would scarcely obtain credit; while others were put to death, after having their constancy tried by tedious and inexpressible torments, and not a few sent to the mines, where they were doomed to linger out the remains of a miserable life in poverty and bondage.

In the third year of this horrible persecution (A. D. 304.) a fourth edict was published by Diocletian, at the instigation of Galerius, commissioning the magistrates to force all Christians, without distinction of rank or sex, to sacrifice to the gods, and authorizing them to employ, all sorts of torments, with the view of driving them to this act of apostacy. The diligence and zeal of the Roman magistrates in the execution of this inhuman edict, ultimately reduced the Christian profession to a very low ebb; for this horrid persecution lasted ten years.

The rigorous edicts of Diocletian were strictly and cheerfully executed by his associate Maximian, who had long hated the Christians, and who delighted in acts of blood and violence. It is the remark of Gibbon, when speaking of Maximian and Galerius, that the minds of those princes had never been enlightened by science. Education had never softened their temper. They owed their greatness to their swords; and in their most elevated fortune they still retained their superstitious prejudices of soldiers and peasants. Maximian swayed the sceptre over the provinces of Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, where he gratified his own inclination by yielding a rigorous obedience to the stern demands of Diocletian.

A learned French writer, Monsieur Godeau, computes that in this tenth persecution, as it is commonly termed,

there were not less than seventeen thousand Christians put to death in the space of one month. And that “ during the continuance of it, in the province of Egypt alone, no less than one hundred and fifty thousand persons died by the violence of their persecutors; and five times that number through the fatigues of banishment, or in the public mines to which they were condemned."*

Galerius now no longer made a secret of his ambitious designs. He obliged Diocletian and Maximian to resign the imperial dignity, and got himself declared emperor of the east, resigning the west, for the present, to Constan tius Chlorus, at that time in Britain, with the ill state of whose health he was well acquainted.

But Divine Providence was now preparing more tranquil times for the church; and, in order to this, it con founded the schemes of Galerius, and brought his counsels to nothing. In the year 306, Constantius Chlorus, finding his end approaching, wrote to Galerius to send him his son Constantine, who had been kept as an hostage at court. The request was refused; but, coming to the ears of young Constantine, and aware of the danger of his situation, he resolved to attempt his escape, and seizing a favourable moment, he made the best of his way for Britain, and, to prevent pursuit, is said to have killed all the post horses on his route. He arrived at York just in time to witness the death of his father Constantius, who had in the mean time nominated his son as his successor; and the army, without waiting to consult Galerius, immediately pronounced Constantine emperor of the west, in the room of his father-a proceeding which must have

* See a sermon of Dr. Calamy's, on Matt. xvi. 18. I am well aware that Mr. Gibbon has laboured to diminish the number of martyrs on this trying occasion, and to shew that they were inconsiderable indeed; but even his own account of things, when impartially weighed, will be found to justify all I have said of it.

stung the tyrant to the heart, who was nevertheless obliged to submit, and even to confirm the appointment with the outward marks of his approbation.

Not long after this (A. D. 311.) Galerius himself, the author of all this series of complicated suffering to the Christians, was reduced to the brink of the grave by a dreadful and lingering disease, in which he suffered horrors that no language can express. "The frequent disappointments of his ambitious views," says Gibbon, "the experience of six years of persecution, and the salutary reflections which a lingering and painful distemper suggested to the mind of Galerius, at length convinced him that the most violent efforts of despotism are insufficient to extirpate a whole people, or to subdue their religious prejudices." Desirous of repairing the mischief that he had occasioned, he published in his own name, and in those of Licinius and Constantine, a general edict, which, after a pompous recital of the imperial titles, proceeded in the following manner:

66

Among the important cares which have occupied our minds for the utility and preservation of the empire, it was our intention to correct and re-establish all things according to the ancient laws and public discipline of the Romans. We were particularly desirous of reclaiming, into the way of reason and nature, the deluded Christians who had renounced the religion and ceremonies instituted by their fathers; and presumptuously despising the practice of antiquity, had invented extravagant laws and opinions according to the dictates of their fancy, and had collected a various society from the different provinces of our empire. The edicts which we have published, to enforce the worship of the gods, having exposed many of the Christians to danger and distress, many having suftered death, and many more, who still persist in their impious folly, being left destitute of any public exercise

of religion, we are disposed to extend to those unhappy men the effects of our wonted clemency. We permit them, therefore, freely to profess their private opinions, and to assemble in their conventicles without fear of molestation, provided always that they preserve a due respect to the established laws and government. By another rescript, we shall signify our intentions to the judges and magistrates; and we hope that our indulgence will engage the Christians to offer up their prayers to the Deity whom they adore, for our safety and prosperity, for their own, and for that of the republic."*

This important edict was issued and set up at Nico*media, on the 13th April, 311; but the wretched Galerius did not long survive its publication; for he died about the beginning of May, under torments the most excruciating, and in the nature of his complaint and manner of his death, very much resembling the case of Herod. After his death, Maximin succeeded him in the government of the provinces of Asia. In the first six months of his new reign he affected to adopt the prudent counsels of his predecessor; and, though he never condescended to secure the tranquillity of the church by a public edict, he caused a circular letter to be addressed to all the governors and magistrates of the provinces, expatiating on the imperial clemency, acknowledging the invincible obstinacy of the Christians, and directing the officers of justice to cease their ineffectual prosecutions, and to connive at the secret assemblies of those enthusiasts. In consequence of these orders, says Gibbon, great numbers of Christians were released from prison, or delivered from the mines. "The confessors, singing hymns of triumph, returned into their own countries; and those who had yielded to the violence of the tempest, solicited with tears of

* Gibbon's Decline and Fall, vol. ii. ch. 16.

repentance, their re-admission into the bosom of the church."*

This treacherous calm, however, was of short duration. Cruelty and superstition were the ruling passions of the soul of Maximin-the former suggested the means, the latter pointed out the objects, of persecution. He was devoted to the worship of the pagan deities, to the study of magic, and to the belief of oracles. Happily, while this bigotted monarch was preparing fresh measures of violence against the Christians with deliberate policy, a civil war broke out between himself and his colleague Licinius, which occupied his whole attention; and his defeat and death taking place soon after, delivered the Christians from this last and most implacable of their

enemies.

The government of the Roman world, which, a few years before, had been administered by no less than six emperors at one time, now became divided between Constantine and Licinius, who immediately granted to the Christians permission to live according to their own laws and institutions, a privilege which was still more clearly ascertained by an edict drawn up at Milan, in the year 313. By this edict every subject of the empire was allowed to profess either Christianity or paganism unmolested. It also secured the places of Christian worship, and even directed the restoration of whatever property they had been dispossessed by the late persecution. The rival princes, however, were not long in seeking or finding occasion to turn their arms against each other, in the issue of which, Licinius fell, and left his competitor in the undisturbed possession of the empire.

No character has been exhibited to posterity in lights more contradictory and irreconcileable than that of Con

Decline and Fall, vol. ii. ch. 16.