270
THE DECLINE AND FALL
chap, important to allure, by every gentle condescension, into the pale of the church; and Constamtine was permitted, at least hy a tacit dispen-sation, to enjoy most of the privileges, before hehad contracted any of the obligations, of a Chris-tian . Instead of retiring from the congregation,when the voice of the deacon dismissed the pro-fane multitude, he prayed with the faithful, dis-puted with the bishops, preached on the mostsublime and intricate subjects of theology, ce-lebrated with sacred rites the vigil of Easter ,and publicly declared himself, not only a par-taker, but, in some measure, a priest and hiero-phant of the Christian mysteries/ The prideof Constantine might assume, and his serviceshad deserved, some extraordinary distinction,an ill-timed rigour might have blasted the un-ripened fruits of his conversion; and if the doorsof the church had been strictly closed against aprince who had deserted the altars of the gods,the master of the empire would have been leftdestitute of any form of religious worship. Inhis last visit to Rome , he piously disclaimedand insulted the superstition of his ancestors,by refusing to lead the military procession ofthe equestrian order, and to offer the publicvows to the Jupiter of the Capitoline hill /Many years before his baptism and death, Con-stantine had proclaimed to the world, that nei-ther his person nor his image should ever more
r See Eusebius in Vit. Const. I. iv, c. 15-32, and the whole tenor ofConstantine ’s sermon. The faith and devotion of the emperor hatfurnished Baronins with a specious argument in favour of bis earlybaptism.