Page:History of the First Council of Nice.djvu/26

16 was of square form, and over it (beneath the cross) was placed a golden half-length picture of the emperor and his children. This standard he ordered to be carried at the head of all his armies."

Eusebius often calls it the "saving signal," the "salutary symbol," the "salutary trophy," &c., and he moreover says the emperor told him that none of those who bore this standard ever received a wound. All the enemies' darts would stick in the spear and not touch the bearer. It is singular that Eusebius seemed to believe all the miracles Constantine ever narrated, and they were numerous.

It is said in Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, that Eusebius was probably mistaken in regard to the emperor's vision being really seen by him; because the sign of the cross had long been used by the Christians; and it is more reasonable to suppose that Constantine only dreamed that he saw it in the heavens, as he described, with the inscription about conquering.

Eusebius is sometimes blamed for his adulation of this hero. In one place he says, God himself was present to aid him all through his reign, "holding him up to the human race as an exemplary pattern of godliness."

The first tyrant to be destroyed was Maxentius, who had been exceedingly wicked, but "his crowning point was having recourse to sorcery." When this colleague was overthrown, Constantine sang: "Who is like to Thee, O Lord, among the gods?" Then the victor set up his statue in Rome, holding in his hand the Labarum, with this inscription engraved upon it: "By virtue of this salutary sign, which is the true symbol of valor, I have preserved and liberated your city from the yoke of tyranny," &c.