The Arian Controversy.—?Sanguinary Conflict between Paganism and Christianity.—?Founding of Constantinople.—?The Council of Nice.—?Its Decision.—?Duplicity of some of the Arians.—?The Nicene Creed.—?Tragic Scene in the life of Constantine.—?His Penitence and true Conversion.—?His Baptism, and Reception into the Church.—?CharlesV.—?The Emperor NapoleonI.

HE Arian controversy, which subsequently so distracted the Church, commenced about this time,—A. D. 318. Arias, a pastor of Alexandria, introduced the doctrine, that the Son was not equal to the Father; that he was created by him, and that there consequently was a time when the Son did not exist.

This denial of the divinity of Christ, and consequently of the doctrine of the Trinity, involved, as it was deemed, the necessary denial of the stone which was regarded as the fundamental doctrine of Christianity,—the corner-stone upon which the whole edifice of the salvation of sinners was reared. The controversy greatly agitated the Church for ages, and has not fully subsided even to the present day.

As Constantine had embraced the cause of the Christians, and Licinius that of the pagan party, it is not strange that the two emperors should soon find themselves arrayed in arms against each other. On the 13th of July, 324, the two armies of the rival emperors met near Adrianople.181 Licinius had a hundred and fifty thousand infantry and fifteen thousand cavalry: Constantine had a hundred and twenty thousand infantry and ten thousand cavalry. It was clearly understood on both sides that it was a battle between the two religions, as in olden time between God and Baal.

Constantine took with him as chaplains several Christian bishops. The banner of the cross, like the ancient ark of the covenant, was very conspicuously borne before the troops. Constantine set apart the day before the battle for a season of fasting and prayer with his whole army.

Licinius gathered around him the magicians of Egypt and the idolatrous priests. The most imposing sacrifices were offered to the pagan gods. He assembled all his officers in a grove filled with idols, and thus addressed them:—

“Behold, my friends, the gods of our fathers, whom we honor as we have been taught to do by them! Our adversary has abandoned them for Iknow not what strange God, whose infamous standard profanes his army. This battle will decide which of us is in error.

“Should the strange God of Constantine, whom we deride, give him the victory, notwithstanding our superiority in numbers, we shall be compelled to recognize him. If, on the contrary, our gods should give us the victory,—of which there can be no doubt,—we will utterly exterminate those wretches who have rejected them.”

Eusebius records this speech, saying that he received it from the lips of those who heard it.182

The battle raged fiercely from dawn till dark. In the night Licinius fled, leaving twenty thousand of his soldiers dead upon the field, and abandoning his camp and all his magazines. Gathering recruits as he retreated, he made another stand on the plains of Thrace. Constantine, who had vigorously pursued, again attacked him, and nearly annihilated his army. From a force of a hundred and thirty thousand men, scarcely three thousand escaped. Licinius fled to the mountains of Macedonia, and sued for peace. Constantine, out of regard to his sister Constantia, treated his brother-in-law generously. He, however, wrested from him nearly all his domains in Europe, leaving him sovereign only in Asia and Egypt.

Eight years of comparative tranquillity passed away, when the two emperors again found themselves in arms against each other. Licinius, though an infirm old man, displayed on the occasion amazing energy. He assembled on the fields of Thrace a hundred and fifty thousand infantry and fifteen thousand horse. The Bosphorus and the Hellespont were crowded with his fleet of three hundred and fifty galleys, with three banks of oars. Constantine met them with a hundred and twenty thousand horse and foot and two hundred transports. There was another of those awful scenes of blood and woe called a battle. How faintly can imagination picture the scene!—two hundred and eighty-five thousand men hurling themselves against each other in the most desperate hand-to-hand fight; the cry of onset, the clangor of weapons, the shrieks of death. In a few hours, thirty thousand of the troops of Licinius were dead in their blood. The monarch himself, with the disordered remainder of his troops, fled wildly to Byzantium.

There was a long and cruel siege. Constantine was victorious: the world was again under one monarch, and he a nominal Christian. This extraordinary man issued a decree to his subjects, especially to those of his newly-conquered Eastern empire, assuring them of his conviction that the God of the Christians, the true and Almighty God, had given him the victory over the powers of paganism, in order that the worship of the true God might he universally diffused. He also issued the following prayer:—

“I invoke thy blessing, OSupreme God! Be gracious to all thy citizens of the Eastern provinces; bestow on them salvation through me, thy servant. And well may Iask this of the Lord of the universe, Holy God; for by the guidance of thy hand have Iundertaken and accomplished salutary things. Thy banner, the cross, everywhere precedes my armies: whenever Iadvance against the enemy, Ifollow the cross, the symbol of thy power. Hence Iconsecrate to thee my soul imbued with love and fear. Sincerely Ilove thy name; and Ivenerate thy power, which thou hast revealed to me by so many proofs, and by which thou hast confirmed my faith.”

This would be deemed extraordinary language to appear in the proclamation of any, even of the most Christian monarch of the present day. How much more remarkable must it have seemed coming from a Roman emperor just emerging from paganism, and addressed to the whole Roman world!

It was the wish of Constantine that Christianity might be the recognized religion of the empire, and that all his subjects might be united in the worship of the one true God. Still he favored perfect toleration. Yet Christianity was every way encouraged. Distinguished Christians were placed in the highest offices of state. Chaplains were appointed in the army. Though no compulsion was exercised, all the soldiers were invited and encouraged to attend public worship.

The city of Rome for a long time had ceased to be the only capital; and Constantine chose, with great sagacity, Byzantium, at the mouth of the Bosphorus, as the new capital, giving it the name of Constantinople, after himself. This imperial city enjoyed a very salubrious clime, and occupied a position, for the accumulation of wealth and the exercise of power, unsurpassed by that of any other spot upon the globe. It was situated upon an eminence which commanded an extensive view of the shores of Europe and Asia, with the beautiful Straits of the Bosphorus flowing down from the Black Sea on the north, emptying into the Sea of Marmora, and thence descending through the Dardanelles, or Hellespont, to the Mediterranean on the south. These were avenues of approach through which no foe could penetrate. The city was favored with a harbor, called the Golden Horn, spacious and secure. The site of Constantinople seems to have been designed by Nature for the metropolis of universal European dominion.

The wealth, energy, and artistic genius of the whole Roman empire were immediately called into requisition to enlarge and beautify the new metropolis. The boundaries of the city were marked out fourteen miles in circumference. Almost incredible sums of money were expended in rearing the city walls, and in works of public utility and beauty. The forests which then frowned unbroken along the shores of the Euxine Sea afforded an inexhaustible supply of timber. Aquarry of white marble, easily accessible, upon a neighboring island, furnished any desired amount of that important building-material.

The imperial palace soon rose in splendor which Rome had never surpassed. With its courts, gardens, porticoes, and baths, it covered several acres. The ancient cities of the empire, including Rome itself, were despoiled of their noble families, who were persuaded to remove to the new metropolis to add lustre to its society. Magnificent mansions were reared for them. The revenues of wide domains were assigned for the support of their dignity. Thus the splendors of decaying Rome upon the Tiber were eclipsed by the rising towers of Constantinople upon the Bosphorus.

Few men have been more warmly applauded, or more bitterly condemned, than Constantine. Fifteen centuries have passed away since his death, and still he is the subject of the most venomous denunciation and the most impassioned praise. He was in person tall, graceful, majestic, with features of the finest mould. Intellectually he was also highly endowed. None of the ordinary vices of the times stained his character. Conscious of his superior abilities, and sustained by the popular voice, he pursued a career to which we find no parallels in history.

The Arian controversy was now greatly agitating the Church. The emperor, having in vain endeavored to quiet it by a letter, decided to call an ecumenical council; that is, a general council of bishops from all parts of the world. It was a measure then without an example.

The city of Nice, one of the principal cities of Bithynia, was selected for the assembly. Three hundred and eighteen bishops met, besides a large number of subordinate ecclesiastics. The emperor defrayed the necessary expenses of the members of the council. The session was opened on the 19th of June, in the year of our Lord 325. The meeting was held in the large saloon of the palace, with benches arranged on either side for the bishops. The members of the council first entered, and silently took their seats: they were followed by a small group of the distinguished friends of the emperor. Then, upon a given signal, all rose, and the emperor himself came in. He was robed in imperial purple, and his gorgeous attire glistened with embroidery of gems and gold. Agolden throne was prepared for him at the end of the hall, where he took his seat to preside over the deliberations.

One of the most prominent of the bishops, Eustache of Antioch, then rose, and, in the name of the council, thanked the emperor for all the favors he had conferred upon Christianity. The emperor briefly replied, expressing the joy he felt in presiding over such an assembly, and his hope that they might come to a perfectly harmonious result. He spoke in Latin, his native language. An interpreter repeated his words in Greek for the benefit of those who were most familiar with that language.

The council continued in session until the 25th of August,—sixty-seven days. The principal, the almost exclusive attention of the council was directed to the new doctrine of Arius,—that Christ, the Son, was not equal to the Father, but was created by him, and was subordinate to him. The decision of the council, called the Nicene Creed, rebuked, in the most emphatic terms, the Arian doctrine as heresy. Its language upon this point was as follows:—

“We believe in one only God, Father all-powerful, Creator of all things visible and invisible; and in one only Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son, engendered of the Father (that is to say, of the substance of the Father), God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten and not made, consubstantial with the Father, through whom every thing has been made in heaven and on earth; who for us men, and for our salvation, has descended from the skies, has become incarnate and made man, has suffered, rose on the third day, ascended to the skies, and will come to judge the living and the dead.”

Thus words were heaped upon words, to express, beyond all possibility of doubt, the sense of the council of the entire equality of the Son with the Father. The Arians seemed disposed to accept the same language used by the Trinitarians, while they affixed a different signification to the words.

“The bishops,” writes the AbbÉ Fleury, “seeing the dissimulation of the Arians, and their bad faith, were constrained, that they might express their meaning more unequivocally, to include in a single word the sense of the Scriptures, and to say that the Son is consubstantial with the Father, making use of the Greek word homoousios, which this dispute has since rendered so celebrated. They thus declared that the Son was not only like the Father, but the same,—identical with him.”

All the bishops but two signed this creed. After some conference, those two signed also.

“It is said,” writes Eusebius,—“and it is Philistorge, an Arian author, who says it,—that these two, Eusebius of Nicomedia, and Theognis of Nice, used fraud in their subscriptions, which they made together. They inserted the letter i in the word homoousios, so that it read homoiousios; which signifies similar to, not identically the same.”

The doctrine of Arius was thus condemned, as contrary to the teachings of the Scriptures, by this numerous council of pastors from all parts of the then known world. Several other subjects of minor importance were discussed, and decided upon. The Holy Spirit was declared to be also, like the Son, equal with the Father, and identically the same. The emperor wrote a letter, which was published with the decrees of council, urging that they should be accepted in all the churches. “The results,” said he, “of these sacred deliberations of the bishops, must be in accordance with the will of God.” In the most severe terms he condemned the doctrine of Arius, commanding that his writings, wherever found, should be burned. It was a dark age. Toleration was but little known. The emperor even went to the unwarrantable length of saying,—

“Whoever shall conceal any thing which Arius has written, instead of delivering it up to be burned, shall be put to death immediately upon being taken.”

Conversions from paganism were becoming frequent and numerous. Under the fostering care of the emperor, churches rose all over the land.

A tragic event in the life of this extraordinary man deserves record. His second wife was a beautiful woman named Fausta, much younger than himself. She was about the age of the emperor’s very handsome son Crispus. Fausta fell in love with the young man. Virtuously he repelled her advances. It is written,—

Fausta rushed to Constantine, and accused Crispus of atrocious crime. The imperial father, in the frenzy of his rage, ordered his innocent son to be led instantly to execution. His headless body was hardly in the tomb ere the truth of his wife’s guilt and his son’s innocence was made known to the unhappy emperor beyond all possibility of doubt. In the delirium of his anguish, he ordered Fausta to be drowned in her bath.

Henceforward, for Constantine, life was but a dismal day. He never recovered from the gloom of these events; and it is said that he was never known to smile again. For forty days he fasted, weeping and groaning, and denying himself all comforts. He erected a golden statue to Crispus, with this simple, pathetic inscription:—

The conversion of Constantine to Christianity was at first intellectual only, not the regeneration of the heart. He was a nominal Christian, believing in Christ. Still there is no evidence that he had been born again of the Holy Spirit, or that he had accepted Christ as his personal, atoning Saviour. The cares and sorrows of life tend to lead every thoughtful mind to Jesus. Constantine had become a world-weary, heart-broken old man, sixty-four years of age. Rapidly-increasing infirmities admonished him that he must soon appear before the judgment-seat of Christ,—before that Saviour whose authority his intellect had been constrained to recognize, but to whom, as yet, he had not fully surrendered his heart.

Deeply depressed in spirits, and sinking beneath his maladies, he retired to some warm springs in Asia. Death was slowly but steadily approaching. Constantine repaired to the church, and with tears and prayers, and deep searchings of soul, sought preparation to meet God. Having obtained, as he thought, assurance that his sins were forgiven, he assembled all the bishops of the neighboring churches in his palace, near the city of Nicomedia, and, with as much publicity as could be exercised without ostentation, confessed his Saviour before men, received the rite of baptism, and the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.

Eusebius, the renowned Bishop of Nicomedia, performed the rite of baptism, and administered the sacred elements. It is to the pen of this illustrious bishop that we are indebted for most of the incidents in relation to the religious history of Constantine. From this time until his death, which occurred soon after, he seemed to live as a sincere and devout follower of the Redeemer. Eusebius says, “Constantine, on receiving baptism, determined to govern himself henceforth, in the minutest particulars, by God’s worthy laws of life.”

The emperor died at Nicomedia on the 21st of May, in the year 337. He was sixty-four years of age, and had reigned thirty-one years. This was the longest reign of any Roman emperor since the days of Augustus CÆsar. His funeral was attended with all the marks of homage which love and gratitude and imperial power could confer.

How singular and how touching are these triumphs of Christianity! The poor benighted slave in his cheerless hut, bleeding and dying beneath the lash, finds in the religion of Jesus that peace and joy to which the monarch in his palace is often a stranger. The martyr in the dungeon, wan and wasted with material misery, with pallid lips sings hallelujahs to Him who hath redeemed him to God by his blood.

The imperial Constantine, robed in the purple of nearly universal empire, in the gorgeous palace of Nicomedia, surrounded with all the pomp and splendor of an Oriental monarch, finds his heart yearn for those consolations which the religion of Jesus alone can give. He bows his head to the water of baptism; he partakes of the sacred bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper, solemnly, devoutly, tearfully; and finally, when sinking away in death, he breathes the prayer, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”

A few centuries rolled away, and there was another monarch, the Emperor Charles V., whose sceptre ruled almost the whole known world. Weary of life, and oppressed with the sense of sin, he sought a religious retreat in the solitary Vale of Estremadura. In the cloisters of the Convent of St.Justus the abdicated emperor wept over his sins, and sought forgiveness through the atoning Saviour. He announced to the whole world his penitence, and his trust in Jesus. The regal mind, which had proudly stood untottering beneath the cares of universal empire, bowed in humble submission to the religion of Jesus, which alone can meet the yearnings of the humble and contrite soul.

A few centuries pass, and another emperor arises who attracts the gaze of the world. Neither Constantine nor Charles V. wielded a sceptre, which, in the elements of grandeur and power, surpassed that of Napoleon I. Look at the dethroned monarch, as, through the long agony of St.Helena, he sinks into the grave. He, before whose imperial will all Europe had bowed, was dying upon his miserable pallet at Longwood. That eagle eye was dimmed with tears, as, bolstered up in his bed, with penitence for sin, and avowed trust in the atoning Saviour, he received the emblems of that body which was broken, and that blood which was shed, for our sins: then, a peaceful penitent, surrendering himself to the arms of that Saviour who has said, “Whoso cometh unto me Iwill in no wise cast out,” he fell asleep; we trust,

How signal are these triumphs of Christianity!—triumphs which fill so many pages of history and biography. How beautiful is this religion of Jesus in its adaptation to every conceivable condition and want of life! The Emperor Constantine, master of the world, with almost limitless power in his hand and boundless wealth in his lap, needs this religion just as much as the humblest slave or the feeblest child in his realms.

There is no royal road to heaven. Constantine, like all others, could only find peace by penitence for sin, the public acknowledgment of his faith in an atoning Saviour, and the prayerful consecration of himself to God. You andI, my readers, can find salvation only where Constantine found it. There is but one door through which we can enter the heavenly kingdom: that door is Christ.