nus, the president or governor of Spain,
actuated either by zeal or policy, chose rather to execute the public
edicts of the emperors, than to understand the secret intentions
of Constantius; and it can scarcely be doubted, that his provincial
administration was stained with the blood of a few martyrs. [166]

The elevation of Constantius to the supreme and independent dignity
of Augustus, gave a free scope to the exercise of his virtues, and the
shortness of his reign did not prevent him from establishing a system
of toleration, of which he left the precept and the example to his son
Constantine. His fortunate son, from the first moment of his accession,
declaring himself the protector of the church, at length deserved the
appellation of the first emperor who publicly professed and established
the Christian religion. The motives of his conversion, as they may
variously be deduced from benevolence, from policy, from conviction,
or from remorse, and the progress of the revolution, which, under his
powerful influence and that of his sons, rendered Christianity the
reigning religion of the Roman empire, will form a very interesting and
important chapter in the present volume of this history. At present
it may be sufficient to observe, that every victory of Constantine was
productive of some relief or benefit to the church.

[Footnote 165: Eusebius, l. viii. c. 13. Lactantius de M. P. c. 15.
Dodwell (Dissertat. Cyprian. xi. 75) represents them as inconsistent
with each other. But the former evidently speaks of Constantius in the
station of Caesar, and the latter of the same prince in the rank of
Augustus.]

[Footnote 166: Datianus is mentioned, in Gruter's Inscriptions, as
having determined the limits between the territories of Pax Julia, and
those of Ebora, both cities in the southern part of Lusitania. If we
recollect the neighborhood of those places to Cape St. Vincent, we may
suspect that the celebrated deacon and martyr of that name had been
inaccurately assigned by Prudentius, &c., to Saragossa, or Valentia.
See the pompous history of his sufferings, in the Memoires de Tillemont,
tom. v. part ii. p. 58-85. Some critics are of opinion, that the
department of Constantius, as Caesar, did not include Spain, which still
continued under the immediate jurisdiction of Maximian.]

The provinces of Italy and Africa experienced a short but violent
persecution. The rigorous edicts of Diocletian were strictly and
cheerfully exe