hey used words which sounded quite right, except to the few
persons who, like Athanasius, were quick enough to understand what bad
meanings might be disguised under these fair words. And whenever they
wished to get one of the faithful bishops turned out, they took care
not to attack him about his faith, but about some other things, as we
have seen in the case of Athanasius. Thus they managed to blind the
emperor, who did not know much about the matter, so that, while they
were using him as a tool, and were persuading him to help them with all
his power, he all the while fancied that he was firmly maintaining the
Nicene faith.

Constantine, after all that he had done in religious disputes, was still
unbaptized. Perhaps he was a _catechumen_, which (as has been explained
before),[5] was the name given to persons who were supposed to be in a
course of training for baptism; but it is not certain that he was even
so much as a catechumen. At last, shortly after the death of Arius, the
emperor felt himself very sick, and believed that his end was near. He
sent for some bishops, and told them that he had put off his baptism
because he had wished to receive it in the river Jordan, like our Lord
Himself; but as God had not granted him this, he begged that they would
baptize him. He was baptized accordingly, and during the remaining days
of his life he refused to wear any other robes than the white dress
which used then to be put on at baptism, by way of signifying the
cleansing of the soul from sin. And thus the first Christian emperor
died, at a palace near Nicomedia, on Whitsunday in the year 337.

[5] Page 18.

PART II. A.D. 337-361.

At Constantine's death, the empire was divided between his three sons.
The eldest of them, whose name was the same with his father's, and the
youngest, Constans, were friendly to the true faith. But the second son,
Constantius, was won over by the Arians; and as, through the death of
his brothers, he got possession of the whole empire within a few years,
his connexion with that party led to great mischief. All through his
reign, there were unceasing disputes about religion. Councils were
almost continually sitting in one place or another, and bishops were
posting about to one of them after another at the emperor's expense.
Constantius did not mean ill; but he went even further than his father
in meddling with things which he did not understand.

The Arians went on in the same cunning way a