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some provinces the magistrates only shut up the places of worship: but for the most part they were burnt down, and the vessels of gold and silver, which in some churches were very abundant, were seized as public property. In a small town of Phrygia, it is related that the Christians, with their wives and families, took possession of the church; and when they found themselves unable to defend it, would not retire, but willingly perished in the ruins.

Some slight disturbances in Syria, and on the frontiers of Armenia, were supposed by the persecuting party to arise from the efforts of the bishops: and Diocletian was so much irritated, that he declared in several cruel edicts his intention of abolishing Christianity altogether. The first of these edicts was directed against the clergy, and the prisons were soon filled with a multitude of all orders. By the second edict the magistrates were commanded to employ every means to reclaim the deluded Christians, and to oblige them to return to the worship of the gods.

Gaul seems to have been the only part of the Roman empire in which the Christians were safe, and many took refuge there: the amiable Constantius only carried out the imperial edicts for the destruction of the churches, and still kept the Christians about his person and would not suffer them to be injured. Spain was, probably, beyond his immediate control or protection; for, in that country, an inscription is said to have been found to the following effect: "Diocletian Jovian; Maximinian Herculeus; Cæsares Augusti, for having extended the Roman empire in the East and West, and for having extinguished the name of Christians." And another, which ran thus: " Diocletian and Maximinian, for having adopted Galerius in the East,-for having everywhere abolished the superstition of Christ,-for having extended the worship of the gods." A medal was also struck, bearing the name of Diocletian, with this inscription: The name of Christians being extinguished."

Thus did the kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Christ, not knowing that the very gates of hell could not prevail against his Church, and that they must finally bow before the name that they despised. Persecution is, in fact, but as the knife in the hand of the husbandman cutting off the fruitless branches, and pruning those that bear fruit.

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ABDICATION OF DIOCLETIAN.

In the twentieth year of his reign, a. D. 305, Diocletian went to Rome for two months, and celebrated the last triumph that was ever beheld in that city. Maximinian alone shared in his honours, as the victories of the Cæsars were attributed to their respective fathers. Africa, Britain, the Rhine, the Danube, and the Nile, all furnished suitable memorials of their restoration and subjection to the empire of Rome; and the Persian victory was set forth by an ingenious representation of the country, and by the exhibition of the images of the princesses who had been taken captives and restored to liberty at the conclusion of the treaty.

Diocletian was displeased by the rude familiarity of the Roman citizens who had not learned the manners of his courtiers, and he was glad to retire to Nicomedia. There he passed a winter of much suffering from ill health, and it was at one time reported that he was dead; but on the first of March, he appeared once more in public; and, before a large concourse of people assembled in a spacious plain near the city, he declared his determination to resign the empire. On the same day, Maximinian went through the same form at Milan, as Diocletian had required him to follow his example: but he did not resign his dignity with good-will, and was never contented with a life of retirement.

Diocletian, on the contrary, enjoyed the beautiful retreat that he had prepared in his native country, and amused himself in building, planting, and gardening; often declaring to the few friends in whose company he delighted, that there was no art so difficult as that of reigning. When the restless Maximinian entreated him to take up the power he had laid down, he replied that, if he could show him the cabbages he had planted, he would not wish him to sacrifice health and happiness for the sake of imperial honours. It is probable that Diocletian had long intended to retire, as he had built a magnificent palace at Salona, in the province of Dalmatia; it is said to have covered nine or ten English acres, and some suppose that the modern town of Spalatro was built from its ruins.

Diocletian's edicts against the Christians, and his weakness in yielding to the suspicious cruelty of an inferior mind, throw a deep shade over the close of a reign which was for the most part beneficial to his subjects. No one seemed so fitted to govern this great people as himself; and the events that fol

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lowed during the nine years that he survived his retirement, must have caused him sorrow and regret, if he had any thought beyond his own gratification. The great sources of disorder, both in the Church and in the world, seem to be that those who have ability to rule are prevented from using it either by their own slothfulness or by others; and those who have no ability given them by God, occupy and abuse the place of power.

CHAP. XL.

THE EMPERORS AND CÆSARS.-CONSTANTINE SUCCEEDS TO HIS FATHER'S DOMINIONS.-MAXENTIUS AND HIS FATHER.-CIVIL WARS. PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIANS. TERRIBLE DEATH OF GALERIUS.

IN A.D. 306, after the abdication of Diocletian and Maximinian, Constantius and Galerius were raised to the rank of emperors. The adoption of Maximin and Severus as Cæsars, who were both of the temper of Galerius, and entirely under his influence, gave him real possession of three-fourths of the empire; and he anxiously expected the death of Constantius, whose declining state of health gave him the prospect of becoming sole emperor. The sons of Constantius by his second wife were still quite young, but Constantine was more than thirty years of age; and his attractive appearance and manners, with his military talents, made him the favourite of the army in which he served. They were very indignant that he was not made Cæsar; but Galerius had purposely kept him back, and would gladly have got rid of such a dangerous rival. But Constantius, suspecting that his son was in perilous circumstances, hastily called him out of the power of his associate, desiring his assistance in an expedition into Britain. young prince was joyfully welcomed by his father and the Western army, and it was the general desire of the provincials that he should succeed to the dominions of Constantius. beloved emperor died at York, only fifteen months after the abdication of Diocletian. He left three sons and three daughters by his second wife; and, on his death-bed, commended them to the brotherly affection of Constantine. He did not

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fail to protect them, and to give them a princely education and high honours in the State; and they in their turn proved their gratitude by making no effort to overturn their brother's authority.

Galerius was exceedingly angry when a messenger reached him with a letter from Constantine, announcing his father's death and his own appointment as successor. The enraged emperor threatened to throw the messenger and the letter into the flames; but when he had duly considered the character and strength of the son of Constantius, he felt it was wiser not to resist his claims. He therefore contented himself with sending him his permission to reign as Cæsar in the Gallic provinces, telling him at the same time that Severus was emperor in the room of his deceased father. The ambitious Galerius was, however, but little reconciled to the loss of the fine provinces of Britain, Spain, and Gaul, when he was more deeply wounded by the intelligence of a revolt in Italy. The people of Rome proudly determined that a sovereign, who chose to reside in Asia, should no longer look upon them as the inhabitants of a tributary city; and they called upon Maxentius, the son of Maximinian, to assist them in recovering their freedom and independence. Maxentius, animated by Constantine's success, and aided by his father, declared himself the protector of Rome; and Severus, as the servant of Galerius, was put to death. Maximinian immediately set out for Gaul to seek the friendship of Constantine; and secured his alliance by giving him his daughter, Fausta, in marriage.

The father and son then declared themselves emperors of Rome; and Galerius, finding every effort to regain Italy in vain, still refused to acknowledge them, and declared Licinius, one of his favourites, emperor in the place of the murdered Severus. The Cæsar, Maximin, was displeased that another should be preferred to himself; and, being determined not to remain in a lower rank, he caused himself to be proclaimed emperor of Egypt and Syria; the provinces that suffered from his oppressive government. There were now, for the first and last time, six emperors: namely, Galerius and Licinius, Maximinian and his son, Constantine and Maximin. For a little time they seemed obliged to tolerate each other; and Maximinian was acknowledged as a father and senior emperor by Con

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stantine and Maxentius, while Galerius was honoured in the same manner by Licinius and Maximin.

The next disturbance was occasioned by the unpopularity of Maximinian; and the old emperor was driven away from Rome by the jealousy of his son, and the hatred of the guards, towards whom he had shown some severity. He then took refuge with his son-in-law; pretending that he was at last convinced of the vanity of ambition, and that he had no more desire for empire. But the temporary absence of Constantine, in an engagement with the Franks, proved the falsehood of this profession, as Maximinian took this opportunity of usurping the imperial authority. Upon the return of his son-in-law, he took refuge in Marseilles, a town which was so strongly fortified that he might long have defended himself; but the inhabitants, through fear, gave him up to Constantine; and he was only allowed the privilege of choosing his own mode of death. It is believed that he was strangled in prison; but Constantine pretended that he had destroyed himself in remorse on account of his past crimes.

Constantine pursued the same conduct as his father towards the Christians; and the tyrants of Italy seemed too much engaged in general acts of cruelty and oppression to care about them; but Galerius and Maximin carried out the edicts of Diocletian with the utmost fury.

Africa was distinguished for the number of its martyrs; and, in Egypt, the immediate residence of Maximin, their tortures were most horrible. Fire, boiling water, wild beasts, starvation, and crucifixion, were all resorted to by turns: and, it is said, even the executioners were fatigued, and their weapons blunted while the faith and patience of the Christians still held out. If we cannot read without horror the various tortures that were used at this time, we may form some idea of the greatness of His power, who kept his people steadfast, when these things touched not merely their imaginations, but their bodily frames.

Some of the African martyrs were torn asunder by the bent boughs of trees; some were crushed; even women were hung up by one foot till they died: others had their flesh torn with scourges or iron nails; others had their limbs dislocated or cut off; and, in many cases, those who had been dreadfully wounded were carefully healed and again tempted to sacrifice,