Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 2 (1897).djvu/592

 566 APPENDIX

agreement. Burckhardt, in his attractive monograph, developed the view that Constantine was “‘ ganz wesentlich unreligiés,” constitutionally indifferent to religion, because he was a “‘ genialer Mensch,” dominated by ambition ; and that in his later years he exhibited personal inclinations rather towards paganism than towards Christianity. H. Richter has some remarkable pages on Constantine’s system of parity between the two religions ; and Brieger, in an excellent article in his Zettschrift f. Kirchengesch. (iv., 1881, p. 163 sqq.), agrees with Gibbon that Constantine’s Christianity was due entirely to political considerations. Many of the data admit of different interpretations. Those who ascribe to him a policy of parity, or the idea of a state religion which might combine elements common to enlightened paganism and Christianity (so Schiller), appeal to the fact that the sacerdotales and jlamines in Africa were granted privileges ; but it is replied that they had ceased to carry on the ritual and simply, as a matter of equity, had the old rights secured to them, while they no longer performed the old duties. If the ‘cult ” of Tyche at Constantinople is alleged, it is urged that she had no temple- service. The temples of Constantinople are explained away ; and the “aedes Flaviae nostrae gentis ” of the remarkable inscription of Hispellum (date between 326 and 337; Orelli, 5580) is asserted not to have been intended for the worship of the Emperors, but simply as a fine hall for public spectacles.! (See V. Schultze, in Brieger’s Zeitschrift, vii. 352 sqq.) The indulgence to paganism was simply the toleration of a statesman who could not discreetly go too fast in the accomplish- ment of such a great reformation. And certainly on the hypothesis that Con- stantine had before his eyes, as the thing to be achieved, the ultimate establish- ment of Christianity as the exclusive state religion, his attitude to paganism would be, in general, the attitude we should expect from a really great statesman. Ranke’s remark hits the point (Weltgesch. iii. 1, 532): ‘‘Er konnte unmoglich zugeben dass an die Stelle der Unordnungen der Verfolgung die vielleicht noch grosseren einer gewaltsamen Reaction traten ”.

It seems to me that Seeck, in holding that Constantine had really broken with the old religion and was frankly a Christian, is nearer the mark than Gibbon or Schiller. From the evidence which we have, I believe that Constantine adopted the Christian religion and intended that Christianity should be the State religion. As to a great many details, there may be uncertainty im regard to the facts themselves or their interpretation, but I would invite attention to the following general considerations.

(1) The theory that the motives of Constantine’s Christian policy were purely political, and that he was religiously indifferent, seems perilously like an anach- ronism,—ascribing to him modern ideas. There is no reason to suppose that he was above the superstitiousness of hisage. (2) The theory that he was a Deist, that he desired to put Paganism and Christianity on an equality, emphasizing some common features, and that circumstances led him to incline the balance towards Christianity in his later years, is not the view naturally suggested by the (a) Christian education he gave his children, and (b) the hostility of the pagan Emperor Julian to hismemory. (3) The fact that he countenanced Paganism and did not completely abolish the customs of the old State religion proves nothing ; the remark of Ranke quoted above is a sufficient answer. In fact, those who have dealt with the question have sometimes failed to distinguish between two different things. It isone thing to say that Constantine’s motives for establishing Christianity were purely secular. It is quite another to say that he was guided by secular considerations in the methods which he adopted to establish Christianity. The second thesis is true—Constantine would have been a bad statesman if he pa not been so guided ;—but its truth is quite consistent with the falsity of the

rst.

Schiller (iii. 301 #94) has conveniently summarized the chief facts, and his results may be arranged as follows :—

(1) Corns. In Constantine’s western mints coins appeared with Mars, with

1 Compare the words: ne aedis nostro nomini dedicata cuiusquam contagiosae supersti- tionis fraudibus polluatur, insisted on by Seeck, Untergang der antiken Welt, p. 439.