CHAPTER XLVII

THE EMPEROR WROTE A LETTER ALSO IN CONDEMNATION OF IDOLATRY

MOREOVER the emperor, who continually made further progress in piety towards God, despatched an admonitory letter to the inhabitants of every province, respecting the error of idolatry into which his predecessors in power had fallen, in which he eloquently exhorts his subjects to acknowledge the Supreme God, and openly to profess their allegiance to His Christ as their Saviour. This letter also I have judged it necessary to translate from the Latin in his own handwriting into the present work, in order that we may hear, as it were, the voice of the emperor himself uttering the following sentiments in the audience of all mankind.