OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE.

pd by undeserved applause, the specious pietyof Constantine , if at first it was only specious,might gradually, by the influence of praise, ofhabit, and of example, be matured into seriousfaith and fervent devotion. The bishops andteachers of the new sect, whose dress and man-ners had not qualified them for the residence ofa court, were admitted to the imperial table;they accompanied the monarch in his expedi-tions ; and the ascendant which one of them,an Egyptian or a Spaniard, h acquired over hismind, was imputed by the pagans to the effectof magic . 1 Lactantius , who has adorned theprecepts of the gospel with the eloquence ofCicero ; k and Eusebius , who has consecratedthe learning and philosophy of the Greeks tothe service of religion , 1 were both received intothe friendship and familiarity of their sovereign:and those able masters of controversy couldpatiently watch the soft and yielding momentsof persuasion, and dexterously apply the argu-ments which were the best adapted to his cha-racter and understanding. Whatever advan-

h This favourite was probably the great Osius, bishop of Cordova,who preferred the pastoral rare of the whole church to the governmentof a particular diocese. His character is magnificently, though con-cisely, expressed by Athanasius (tom, i, p. 703). See Tillemont, MenuEccles. tom. vii, p. 524-5G1. Osius was accused, perhaps unjustly, otretiring from court with a very ample fortune.

' See Eusebius (in Vit. Constant, passim), and Zosiraus, 1. ii, p. 104.

k The Christianity of Lactantius was of a moral, rather than of amysterious cast. “ Erat p«ene rndis (says the orthodox bull) disciplLt( nae Christian ®, et in rhctoric4 melius qtiam in thcologik versatus.”Defensio Fidei Nicense, sect, ii, c. 14.

' Fabricius, with his usual diligence, has collected a list of betweenthree and four hundred authors quoted in the Evangelical Preparationsof Eusebius . See Bibliothec. Grace. 1. v, c. 4; tom. vi, p. 37-56.

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xx.