Early in the fourth century, as has been said, a great change took place in religious matters. Constantine, surnamed the Great, who began to reign as sole Emperor of Rome a.d. 324, became a Christian. It is said, that when going to fight against a rival who claimed the Imperial power, Constantine saw, or dreamed that he saw in the sky, a bright cross, and upon it the words, "In hoc vince" (in this conquer). He gained the victory; and ascribing it to the God worshipped by the Christians, (whose emblem was a cross,) he became a convert to their religion, and adopted the cross as his standard. The example of Constantine was followed by the greater part of his subjects, so that Christianity was established as the religion of the Roman Empire, though many of the inhabitants still remained Pagans.

The city of Jerusalem, which Adrian had called Elia, took again its own name; and many beautiful churches were built in it by Constantine. But the establishment of the Christian religion was by no means a favourable circumstance for the Jews, who were looked upon as its worst enemies: against them, Constantine, in the beginning of his reign, made some very severe laws. The Jews in Persia had grown insolent in consequence of the prosperity they had enjoyed: they insulted and abused all Christians, and were even supposed to have put to death some of their brethren who had embraced Christianity. Constantine, indignant at such conduct, visited it upon the Jews in his own dominions, and treated them with the greatest severity, even forbidding Christians to eat with them. In short, the unhappy Israelites were now subjected to every sort of insult and suffering.

The Persian Jews were very angry at such treatment of their brethren; and as they had great influence over the King of Persia, they now tried to avenge the Jews in the west, by raising a bloody persecution against Christians in the east: numbers of Christ's followers were accordingly killed; their churches destroyed; and their sacred book burnt. This persecution was carried on, until every trace of Christianity was almost rooted out of the country.

But the cruelty of the Persian Jews did not go unpunished, although the Roman Empire was now greatly disturbed by internal strife, as well as by the attacks of foreign enemies.

Constantine the Great died in a.d. 337; and after his death the Roman Empire rapidly declined, both in extent and power; but of this we need say nothing here, as our business is with the Jews. Constantius, who succeeded Constantine as Emperor, hated the Jews, and by his cruel treatment, drove them to raise an insurrection in Palestine. This only enraged the Emperor still more, and led him to add new and more severe laws to those already made against these unhappy creatures, by former Emperors. Any Jew who dared to marry a Christian, was to be put to death; and the same punishment was inflicted upon one who tried to make a proselyte of his own slave; or who kept in slavery any man who had become a Christian.

On the death of Constantius, a.d. 361, the Jews experienced some relief from his successor the Emperor Julian, surnamed the Apostate; because, after having been brought up as a Christian, he renounced that true religion, and lived as a Pagan.

When Constantine the Great died, he left Constantius and two other sons, who were to divide his dominions amongst them: and he left two brothers, who had sons also. Gallus and Julian were the sons of one of these brothers, and were consequently cousins to Constantius. The generals and ministers of Constantine, persuaded the people after his death, that there would be constant struggles for power between the brothers and sons of the late Emperor. The soldiers, who were very fond of Constantine, declared that no one but a son of their beloved Emperor should reign over his dominions, or rule in the city of Constantinople, which he had built to be the capital of his dominions, and the royal residence. The soldiers stirred up the people, and formed a plot to destroy the brothers and nephews of Constantine.

Constantius, when he first came to Constantinople after his father's death, had solemnly promised to protect his uncles and cousins from all their enemies; but in spite of this, he was easily persuaded to join in the plot for their destruction; and a pretext was soon found for carrying out the scheme. A paper was produced, which was pretended to have been written by Constantine just before his death. In this paper, the Emperor was made to declare his belief, that he had been poisoned by his brothers; and he desired his sons to revenge his death, and secure their own safety, by the destruction of their uncles and cousins. Such a pretext was quite sufficient; and the soldiers, without waiting for any inquiry or trial, murdered the suspected princes and all their sons, excepting the two young boys Gallus and Julian, who were hidden by their attendants from the fury of the soldiers; and thus escaped the fate of the two brothers and seven nephews of Constantine, who were now murdered.

Gallus and Julian, who alone escaped the slaughter, were of the respective ages of twelve and six years. Constantius justly felt, that to put these children to death in cold blood, would be looked upon by all mankind as an act of wanton and needless cruelty: perhaps, too, he felt some sorrow for the crime already committed. At any rate, the two boys were allowed to live, and were sent to some city in Bithynia, or Ionia, where persons were appointed by the Emperor to educate them. As Gallus and Julian grew up, Constantius feared that they might plot against him; and he therefore chose for their residence a strong castle, standing in a pleasant situation, with extensive grounds belonging to it: having been an ancient palace, it contained very good rooms. Here, attended, or rather guarded, by a numerous household, the young princes lived for six years: they were carefully instructed by the best teachers, in all branches of learning, as well as in active exercises; but in spite of every attention and comfort, they felt themselves to be prisoners, shut out from all society except that of persons devoted to Constantius, and ready to obey him in every matter. A very strict observance of all the outward forms of Christianity, had been forced upon them; but upon the heart of Julian, at least, the blessed truths and precepts of the Gospel had taken no hold. He had rather learnt to connect Constantius and his religion, with cruelty and tyranny; and the violent disputes carried on by the bishops, who professed to be the followers of Jesus Christ, still further increased his dislike to a religion, associated in his mind with his own sufferings.

When Gallus was twenty-five years old, disturbances in his dominions induced Constantius to release him, and even to place him as governor over part of the country. The cousins, therefore, met, and took a solemn oath, never to do anything to injure each other; and then Gallus was settled at Antioch, to rule over the neighbouring provinces. Gallus was not unmindful of his brother, but also obtained liberty for him. Julian, now nineteen years of age, having been so long restricted in his choice of society, eagerly sought that of learned men, the greater part of whom were unfortunately Pagans; to whose ideas of religion he willingly listened, until he became convinced that Paganism was a better religion than Christianity, which he accordingly renounced; and from that time, became a devout and sincere worshipper of the gods of Rome and Athens. On the death of Constantius, a.d. 361, Julian became Emperor of Rome, and he proved a just and wise ruler. As it was his great wish entirely to destroy the Christian religion, Julian gave great encouragement to its enemies the Jews; allowing them the free exercise of their religion, and treating them with the greatest kindness. This emboldened the Jews to destroy the churches of the Christians, and commit other acts of violence against them—an example followed by their brethren in Egypt, who destroyed the finest churches in Alexandria. Julian issued a law establishing Paganism as the religion of his empire; but he did not put to death those who held contrary opinions.

He hated the Christians, and would not allow them to have any power in the State; he forbade them to teach any sort of science in the public schools; he fined and banished their clergy; and also fined all who refused to offer sacrifices to the Pagan deities. But nothing he could do had any effect upon the Christians, who held firm to the true faith.

The Emperor then determined to rebuild the temple, and settle a powerful colony of Jews in JudÆa; where they would be always ready to join in any measure against the Christians. The destruction and desolation of the temple having been foretold by Jesus Christ, Julian thought, that by rebuilding it, and re-establishing in it the ancient worship, he should shake the faith of mankind as to the truth of Christianity.

Great preparations were made for the work; but when the workmen began to clear out the foundations, they were hindered by balls of fire which broke out, scorching and burning the unfortunate people. Some writers doubt the truth of this account; but though we cannot be quite sure, there is great reason to believe that it really did happen. We may well believe that the Almighty worked this miracle, to prove the truth of prophecy; and to show that the Christians were now his chosen people, instead of the Jews, who had filled up the measure of their iniquities by crucifying the Saviour of mankind. At any rate, Julian gave up the attempt to rebuild the temple. Julian was killed in battle a.d. 363, and was succeeded by Christian Emperors. Christianity was then re-established as the national religion, although both Pagans and Jews were allowed to practise their own forms of worship in peace, until the close of the fourth century, when the Emperor Theodosius put an end to Paganism in the Roman Empire: sacrifices to the heathen deities were absolutely forbidden; and all the heathen temples were destroyed, or shut up.