1.1.1 After the tyrants Diocletian and Maximian resigned the royal purple robe and retired to their own private lives, just as Eusebius says, “when not much time had passed, Emperor Constantius died. His entire life he was very gently and most kindly disposed towards his subjects and most dearly disposed to the divine Word. He left his biological son Constantine as absolute ruler and Augustus in his place, as is the natural and common custom. After Constantius’s death, Constantine was worthy of all the honor one owes to an emperor.

1.1.2 Constantius was the best and kindest emperor, and indeed, he also was the only one of the emperors of our time who continued to be worthy of that authority throughout his entire reign. And since, in respect to all else, he showed himself to be most courteous and most generous to all, he received an honored and thrice-blest end to his life. He alone died both ruling with favor and glory over his empire and having as his successor his own biological son, a man of prudence and the highest piety in everything.

1.1.3 His son Constantine began ruling immediately, having been publicly proclaimed as the all-powerful emperor and Augustus by the legions and, much earlier than that, by God himself, the Absolute Emperor. Constantine became a zealous follower of his father’s piety in regard to our teaching.”

1.1.4 Eusebius later writes, “Constantine, as we have said, was a pious emperor and the son of an emperor who was most pious and prudent in all things. Thus, since he was honored with intelligence and piety, he was stirred up by God, the Absolute Emperor and Savior of all, against the most impious tyrants. And with God most wondrously fighting alongside him, he waged a just war. Maxentius fell at the hands of Constantine at Rome, and Emperor Maximinus in the east did not survive much longer than he did. He ended his life in a most shameful death at the hands of Licinius, who had not yet gone mad at the time.” (Licinius had been sent against him by the most God-loving Emperor Constantine.)

1.1.5 “Constantine, now foremost of the empire in honor and rank, was also the first to take pity on the ones tyrannized at Rome. After he called in prayer upon the one who was fighting with him, the God of heaven and his Word, that is, Jesus Christ the Savior of all, he advanced with his whole army, trying to obtain for the Romans the freedom which came from their ancestors.”

 

Next Chapter – 1.2 Constantine’s co-emperors, Maxentius and Maximinus

Previous Chapter – 1.0 Introduction

Click here to read Book 1 in its entirety.

 

Created by NJ 4-18-17

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