THE BISHOPS HONOURED. 49 CHAP. XXV.-HONOUR PAID TO THE BISHOPS BY THE EMPEROR. 1 AT the very time that these decrees were passed by the council, the twentieth anniversary of the reign of Constantine was celebrated: for it was a Roman custom to have a feast on the tenth year of every reign. The emperor, therefore, invited the bishops to the festival, and presented suitable gifts to them: and when they prepared to return home, he called them all together, and exhorted them to be of one mind and at peace among themselves, so that no dissensions might henceforth creep in among them. After many other similar exhortations, he concluded by commanding them to be diligent in prayer for himself, his children, and the empire, and then bade them farewell. He wrote to the churches in every city, in order that those who had not been present at the council might be informed of what had transpired; and addressing himself more particularly to the Alexandrians, he urged them to receive unanimously the exposition of faith which had been set forth by the council, and had been proved to be according to the Divine will by the fact that so many bishops, appointed by the Holy Spirit, had, after lengthened disputation and investigation, consented to it. BOOK II. CHAP. I.-THE DISCOVERY OF THE CROSS AND OF THE HOLY NAILS. WHEN the business at Nicea had been transacted as above related, the priests returned home. The emperor rejoiced greatly at the restoration of unity of opinion in the church, and, desirous of expressing, in behalf of himself, his children, and the empire, the gratitude towards God which the unanimity of the bishops inspired, he directed that a house of prayer should be erected at Jerusalem, near the place called This feast, called Vicennalia, is mentioned by Eusebius. See Life of Constantine, iii. 14—16. Calvary. At the same time his mother Helena repaired to that city, for the purpose of offering up prayer, and of visiting the sacred places. Her zeal for Christianity made her anxious to find the wood which had formed the adorable cross. But it was no easy matter to discover either this relic or the Lord's sepulchre, for the Greeks, who in former times had persecuted the church,' and who, at the first promulgation of Christianity, had had recourse to every artifice to exterminate it, had heaped up mounds of earth upon the holy places, and, the more effectually to conceal them, had enclosed the place of the resurrection and Mount Calvary within a wall, and had moreover ornamented the whole locality, and paved it with stone. A temple and statue dedicated to Venus had also been erected on the same spot by these people, for they imagined that those who repaired thither to worship Christ, would appear to bow the knee to Venus, and that thus the true cause of offering worship in that place would, in course of time, be forgotten; and that as Christians would be unable to frequent the place in safety, the temple and statue would come to be regarded as exclusively appertaining to the Greeks. At length, however, the secret was discovered and the fraud detected; some say that the facts were first disclosed by a Hebrew who dwelt in the East, and who derived his information from some documents which had come to him by paternal inheritance; but it seems more accordant with truth to believe that God revealed the fact by means of signs and dreams; for I do not think that human interposition is requisite when God has determined upon the manifestation of hidden things. When by command of the emperor the place was excavated, the cave whence our Lord arose from the dead was discovered; and, at no great distance, three crosses were found and another separate piece of wood, on which were inscribed in white letters, in Hebrew, in Greek, and in Latin, the following words, "Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews." These words, as the sacred book of the Gospels relates, were placed by command of Pilate, governor of Judæa, over the head of Christ. There yet, however, remained a difficulty in distinguishing the divine cross from the others, for the inscription had been wrenched 1 See Socrates, Eccl. Hist. b. i. ch. 17. 2 Or sepulchre. The Greek word is ävτpov. DISCOVERY OF THE CROSS OF CHRIST. 51 from it, and thrown aside, and the cross itself had been cast aside with the others, without any distinction, when the bodies of the crucified were taken down. For, according to history, the soldiers found Jesus dead upon the cross, and they took him down, and gave him up to be buried; while, in order to accelerate the death of the two thieves who were crucified on either hand, they broke their legs, and then took down the crosses, and flung them out of the way. It was no concern of theirs to deposit the crosses in order, for it was growing late, and, as the men were dead, they cared not to remain to attend to the crosses. A more divine revelation than could be made by man was therefore necessary in order to distinguish the true cross from the others, and this revelation was given in the following manner. There was a certain lady of rank in Jerusalem who was afflicted with a grievous and incurable disease: Macarius, bishop of Jerusalem, accompanied by the mother of the emperor and her attendants, repaired to her bed-side. After engaging in prayer, Macarius, signified by signs to the spectators that the divine cross would be the one which, on being brought in contact with the invalid, should remove the disease. He approached her in turn with each of the crosses; but when two of the crosses were laid on her, it seemed but vanity and mockery to her, for she was at the gates of death. When, however, the third cross was in like manner brought to her, she immediately opened her eyes, regained her strength, and arose. It is said that a dead person was, in the same way, restored to life. The divine cross having been thus identified, the greater portion of it was deposited in a silver case, in which it is still preserved in Jerusalem: but the empress sent part of it to her son Constantine, together with the nails by which the body of Christ had been fastened. Of these, it is related, the emperor had a head-piece and bit make for his horse, according to the prophecy of Zechariah, who referred to this period when he said,-"That which shall be upon the bit of the horse shall be holy to the Lord Almighty." (Zech. xiv.) These things indeed were formerly known to the sacred prophets, and predicted by them, and at length, in God's own time, were confirmed by wonderful works. Nor does this appear so marvellous when it is remembered that, even among E 2 the Greeks, it was confessed that the Sibyl had predicted that thus it should be, 'Oh most blessed tree, on which our Lord was hung." Our most zealous adversaries cannot deny the truth of this fact, and it is hence evident that a pre-manifestation was made of the wood of the cross, and of the adoration (σéßaç) it received. The above incidents we have related precisely as they were delivered to us by men of great accuracy, by whom the information was derived by succession from father to son; and others have recorded the same events in writing for the benefit of posterity. CHAP. II.-CONCERNING HELENA, THE MOTHER OF THE EMPEROR; SHE VISITED JERUSALEM, BUILT TEMPLES IN THAT CITY, AND PERFORMED OTHER GODLY WORKS: HER DEATH. ABOUT this period, the emperor, having determined upon erecting a temple in honour of God, charged the governors to see that the work was executed in the most sumptuous and elaborate manner possible. His mother Helena also erected two temples,2 the one at Bethlehem near the cave where Christ was born, the other near the top of the Mount of Olives, whence he ascended to heaven. Many other pious acts of hers are on record; among which the following is not the least remarkable. During her residence at Jerusalem, it is related that she assembled the sacred virgins at a feast, ministered to them at supper, presented them with food, poured water on their hands, and performed other similar services customary on such occasions. When she visited the cities of the East, she bestowed gifts on all the churches, enriched those individuals who had been deprived of their possessions, supplied the necessities of the poor, and restored to liberty those who had been long imprisoned, or condemned to exile or the mines. It seems to me that so many holy actions demanded a recompence; and, indeed, even in this life, she was raised to the summit of mag On these oracles the reader may consult with advantage Beveridge's Codex Canon. Eccl. ch. 14, and the speech of Constantine "ad sanctorum cœtum," ch. 18, usually appended to his Life by Eusebius. 2 See Euseb. Vit. Const. iii. ch. 42, 43. A. D. 325.] CONSTANTINOPLE BUILT. 53 nificence and splendour; she was proclaimed Augusta; her image was stamped on golden coins, and she was invested by her son with unlimited authority over the imperial treasury. Her death too was glorious, for when, at the age of eighty, she quitted this life, she left her son and her descendants, (like her of the race of Cæsar,) masters of the Roman world. And if there be any advantage in being remembered after death, it is certain that her name will be transmitted to future generations, for two cities are named after her, the one in Bithynia, and the other in Palestine. Such is the history of Helena. CHAP. III. TEMPLES BUILT BY CONSTANTINE: THE CITY CALLED BY HIS NAME:-THE TEMPLE DEDICATED TO MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL, THE emperor, always intent on the advancement of religion, erected magnificent temples to God in every place, particularly in metropolises, such as Nicomedia in Bithynia, Antioch on the river Orontes, and Byzantium. He greatly improved this latter city, and made it equal to Rome in power and influence; for, when he had settled the affairs of the empire according to his own mind, and had freed himself from foreign foes, he resolved upon founding a city which should be called by his own name, and should be equal in celebrity to Rome. With this intention he repaired to a plain at the foot of Troy, near the Hellespont, above the tomb of Ajax, where, it is said, the Achaians intrenched themselves when besieging Troy; and here he laid the plan of a large and beautiful city, and built the gates on an elevated spot of ground, whence they are still visible from the sea to mariners. But when he had advanced thus far, God appeared to him by night, and commanded him to seek another site for his city. Led by the hand of God, he arrived at Byzantium in Thrace, beyond Chalcedon in Bithynia, and here he was desired to build his city, and to render it worthy of the name of Constantine. In obedience to the command of God, he therefore enlarged the city formerly called Byzantium, and surrounded it with high walls; he also erected magnificent dwelling-houses, and being aware that the former 1 See Procopius Cæsariensis de Edificiis, p. 96. |