stantinople than he could at Rome; a fact which in itself may have influenced him in setting up his new capital. Constantinople was definitely founded as a Christian city, in contradistinction to Rome which remained chiefly pagan; almost all the population which crowded into her became Christian-at least nominally -and yet even there we find strange outcrops of pagan ritual. When the city was dedicated in 330 the ceremony was only half Christian. The chariot of the SunGod was set in the market-place, and above it was placed the cross of Christ. So also the statue of the Emperor was allowed to remain in heathen temples until quite a late period in his reign. Some historians have concluded from these and similar facts that Constantine was never wholly Christian at heart, but really favoured some kind of syncretic religion. The political difficulties of the position, however, are quite sufficient to account for all.

We must remember that until 323 Constantine was not reigning alone, but in union with his colleague Licinius, who was tending more and more to be inclined to favour a pagan reaction. The position of Constantine was, therefore, peculiarly difficult for these first ten years of his reign, and it was quite impossible for him to declare himself in any way an open enemy of paganism.

The Building of St. Peter's.

All that he could do in these years was to raise up Christianity and to help it not only to repair the damage of the last years of active persecution, but also to show itself in a more dignified way to be at least the rival and the equal of the State religion. For this purpose, beyond anything else, a great central cathedral and place of worship was urgently required. Christianity could not rival the pagan religion in the

number of her churches-that was obviously impossible—but she might at least have just a few which could bear comparison with even the finest of the pagan temples. Until this was done she could never make an adequate appeal to the minds and imagination of the people, but must always be content to occupy a merely subordinate position.

This idea, coupled no doubt with a genuine desire to do honour to the Prince of the Apostles, was probably responsible for the determination, arrived at as early as 315, to build a vast basilica over the tomb of St. Peter on the Vatican. It was built in a great hurry, and in as economical a fashion as possible. The Emperor was not yet throwing the whole of his influence on the side of Christianity. The foundations of the Circus of Nero were cleverly utilized for the new church, and this must have saved many thousands of pounds. The materials, too, were almost entirely second-hand, and had done duty before in pagan edifices. The notebooks of Antonio da Sangallo the younger, an architect of the time of the destruction of old St. Peter's in the sixteenth century, which are preserved in the Uffizi at Florence, give details about a large number of the columns, and show us what a nondescript collection they must have been; drawn from every quarry and decorated in every style of art. Grimaldi says that he could not find two capitals or two bases alike. Many of them bore pagan inscriptions, which showed the uses they had previously been put to. In one place a bust of the Emperor Hadrian was visible between two acanthus leaves.

The old pagan edifices were still in active use, and the collection from such sources of material for a large building had not become so easy as was afterwards the case, and this must have hampered the builders very considerably. Still the building of St.

Peter's marks an epoch, in a way which is less true of the earlier handing over of the Lateran palace, and the dedication of its basilica as the cathedral of Rome. Christians now had a vast edifice of their own; one which could in some sort vie with the great pagan temples; and they were in consequence able to carry out public ceremonies with fitting pomp, and to take their proper place as members of a great and worldwide religion.

But even after the building of St. Peter's, and for many a long year to come, Christianity, so far as externals are concerned, could only take a very subordinate place when she was compared with the glories of paganism. It is hard for us to form an adequate idea of the magnificence of Imperial Rome, even in its decline under Constantine. The regionary catalogue compiled by him, about 334, enumerates no less than 423 temples still existing. When Constantius, Constantine's second son, came to Rome from Byzantium for the first time in 357, he was utterly overwhelmed by the greatness of the city. At that time the old buildings were still intact, and the work of destruction had not yet been commenced.

Constantine's Later Years.

A period of greater freedom for the Emperor began in the year 323, when the battle of Chrysopolis put an end to the reign of his pagan coadjutor Licinius, and left him alone in undisputed power. Accordingly we find that a fresh note was struck in his proclamation to his new subjects in the East. Licinius at the end of his days had attempted a pagan reaction, and his doings during this period had now to be reversed. The situation was in many points very like that which obtained at the time of the issuing of the Edict of