churches, to open schools, or even publicly to reply to what was spoken
against them, at the theatres, at the forum, or at the baths: so that they
seemed to exist at Rome only in order to give a greater _eclat_ to the
dominion of idolatry."--(Vol. i., p. 75.) It was no wonder that such a
religious disposition of Rome had placed it in a continual and strenuous
opposition to Constantine, and his Christian successors; and this
circumstance may be considered as an additional motive which induced
Constantine to transfer the capital of the empire from Rome to Byzantium,
though this measure may have been chiefly brought about by political
considerations. In removing his residence to a more central point of the
empire, he at the same time drew nearer to the eastern provinces, where
Christianity had many devoted adherents. Constantinople became the capital
of the Christian party, whence it gradually developed its sway over the
other parts of the empire, but the Pagans maintained meanwhile their
ground at Rome, in such a manner, that it seems to have been uninhabitable
to the Christian emperors; because we see even those of them who ruled the
western provinces fixing their residence either at Milan or Ravenna, and
visiting only on some occasions the city of the Caesars, which had become,
since the foundation of Constantinople, the fortified camp of
Paganism.(30)

Constantine proclaimed full religious liberty to all his subjects. This
measure, dictated by a sound policy, and in perfect harmony with the true
spirit of his new religion, was not, however, sufficient to relieve him
from the difficulties of his personal position, as he united in his person
two characters diametrically opposed one to another. Being a Christian, he
was at the same time, as the emperor of Rome, the head and the
representant, not only of its political, but also of its religious
institutions. This circumstance forced him into a double line of policy,
which I shall describe in the words of M. Beugnot:--

"There were in Constantine, so to say, two persons,--the Christian and the
emperor. If that monarch had not been endowed with a rare intellect, he
would have, by confounding these two characters, raised in his way
obstacles which he could not overcome. As a Christian, he showed
everywhere his contempt for the vain superstitions of the ancient worship,
and his enthusiasm for the new ideas. He conferred with the bishops; he
assisted _standing_ at their long