Page:History of the First Council of Nice.djvu/38

28 all his bloody crimes without feeling their real enormity. But his character and influence cast a dark shade over the Christianity which he established.

"It is one of the most tragical facts of all history," says John Stuart Mill, "that Constantine, rather than Marcus Aurelius, was the first Christian Emperor. It is a bitter thought how different the Christianity of the world might have been, had it been adopted as the religion of the empire under the auspices of Marcus Aurelius, instead of those of Constantine."—Essay on Liberty, p. 58.

Dr. Stanley, of the Episcopal Church, gives some pointed, finishing touches to this sketch. He says the horrors of Constantine's domestic life, which he tried in vain to conceal, occurred about the time he conquered Maxentius. While he was at Rome, an inscription was found one day over the gates of the Palatine, catching at his weak points, Oriental luxury, and cruelty:—

Which I translate,—

Hosius, the emperor's counsellor in the West, came to Rome about that time with Helena, and relieved him of his deep distress, by assuring him that there are no sins so great, but in Christianity they may find forgiveness.

The emperor has been charged with a great many crimes besides these, which are proved. He was said to have sought absolution from the pagan priests, and even had an infant sacrificed and its entrails examined at the suggestion of a Jew. Many suspicions and legends against him are quoted at length by both heathen and Christian historians.