CHAPTER XLI

REJOICINGS THROUGHOUT THE PROVINCES; AND CONSTANTINE’S ACTS OF GRACE

THUS the pious emperor, glorying in the confession of the victorious cross, proclaimed the Son of God to the Romans with great boldness of testimony. And all the inhabitants of the city with one consent, both senate and people, reviving as it were from the pressure of a bitter and tyrannical domination, seemed to enjoy the rays of a purer light, and to experience the renovating power of a fresh and new existence. All the nations too, as far as the limit of the western ocean, being set free from the calamities which had heretofore distressed them, and gladdened by joyous festivals, ceased not to praise him as the victorious, the pious, the common benefactor: all indeed, with one voice and one mouth, declared that Constantine had appeared through the special favour of God as a general blessing to mankind. The imperial edict also was every where published, whereby those who had been wrongfully deprived of their estates were permitted again to enjoy their own, while those who had unjustly suffered exile were recalled to their homes. Moreover, he freed from imprisonment, and from every kind of danger and fear, those who by reason of the tyrant’s cruelty had been subject to these sufferings.