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34 the province of history to penetrate still deeper into the inquiry as to whether the so-called conversion of Constantine brought with it a real change of character. He was large-minded, generous, pacific before this; and he remained so afterwards. Yet he cannot be acquitted of charges of savage outbursts of cruelty even after his "conversion." Possibly he was not guilty of the murder of his wife Fausta, but he could not plead innocence with regard to that of his sou Crispus. Reasons of State have been urged in defence of his action in this matter; evidently it was a political murder. Still, the guilt of blood and that the blood of his own child lies on Constantine in the Christian period of his life. In other respects he was an honourable and upright man, and a faithful husband, free from all accusations of impurity among the great temptations of an Oriental court.

Most men act from mixed motives, and certainly we could not credit Constantine with the single eye of a George Washington or a John Bright. There were high reasons of State to encourage so astute a master of the art of government to follow up his undoubted sympathy with Christianity and more or less solid convictions of its truth with vigorous practical patronage. He was farseeing enough to perceive that it was the winning side in the conflict of princes and parties. He had been a hostage at Nicomedia when the Diocletian persecution had broken out; he had witnessed the mad fanaticism of Galerius which had failed to subdue the calm courage of the Christians; Maxentius the usurper, and later Licinius, his partner, but also his rival, had enlisted their forces in favour of paganism. Manifestly it was to the interest of Constantine to have the powerful, growing influence of Christianity thrown into the scale in his favour. It is highly to the credit of his discernment that he perceived how futile the long intermittent conflict of the empire with the Church had been, and saw that the time had come, not merely to make peace, as even Galerius and still earlier Gallienus had seen, but to accept the situation frankly and