CHAPTER LI

CONSTANTINE, WHEN A YOUTH, UNDERSTOOD FROM HIM WHO DIRECTED THE PERSECUTION, THAT “THE RIGHTEOUS MEN” WERE THE CHRISTIANS

“I CALL now on Thee, most high God, to witness that, when very young, I heard him who at that time was chief of the sovereign rulers of the Roman empire (unhappy, truly unhappy as he was, and labouring under deep delusion of soul), make earnest inquiry of his attendants respecting these righteous ones on earth, and that one of the Pagan priests then present replied that they were the Christians. This answer he eagerly received, like some honied draught, and resolved to unsheath the sword which was ordained for the punishment of crime, against those whose holiness was beyond reproach. Immediately, therefore, he issued those sanguinary edicts, traced, if I may so express myself, with a sword’s point dipped in blood; at the same time commanding his judges to tax their ingenuity for the invention of new and more terrible punishments.