Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1827) Vol 2.djvu/420

 ^' CHAPTER XX. THE MOTIVES, PROGRESS, AND EFFECTS OF THE CON- VERSION OF CONSTANTINE. LEGAL ESTABLISHMENT AND CONSTITUTION OF THE CHRISTIAN OR CATHOLIC CHURCH. The public establishment of Christianity may be con- sidered as one of those important and domestic revolu- tions 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 in- stitutions of his reign are still connected, by an indis- soluble chain, with the opinions, the passions, and the interests of the present generation. Date of the In the consideration of a subject which maybe ex- of Constan- an^ined with impartiality, but cannot be viewed with tine. indifference, a difficulty immediately arises of a very unexpected nature ; that of ascertaining the real and precise date of the conversion of Constantine. The A. D. 306. eloquent Lactantius, in the midst of his court, seems impatient '^ to proclaim to the world the glorious ex- ample of the sovereign of Gaul ; who, in the first moments of his reign, acknowledged and adored the majesty of the true and only God ^ The learned Eu- a The date of the Divine Institutions of Lactantius has been accurately discussed, difficulties have been started, solutions proposed, and an expedi- ent imagined of two original editions; the former published during the per- secution of Diocletian, the latter under that of Licinius. See Dufresnoy, Prefat. p. v. ; Tillemont, Mem. Ecclesiast. torn. vi. p. 465 — 470 ; Lardner's Credibility, part ii. vol. vii. p. 78 — 86. For my own part, I am almost con- vinced that Lactantius dedicated his Institutions to the sovereign of Gaul, at a time when Galerius, Maximin, and even Licinius, persecuted the chris- tians; that is, between the years 306 and 311. •> Lactant. Divin. Institut. i. 1. vii. 27. The first and most important of these passages is indeed wanting in twenty-eight manuscripts ; but it is found in nineteen. If we weigh the comparative value of those manu- scripts, one of nine hundred years old, in the king of France's library, may