l-i. Jacob Btjeckhaedt : Die Zeit Const, des Gr. Bas. 1853. Axbert de Beogije : L'eglise et I'empire romain au IV™ si&cle. Par. 1856 (vols. i. and ii.). A. P. Staxley : Lectures on the Hist, of the Eastern Church, 1862, Lect. vi. p. 281 sqq. (Am. ed.). Theod. Keim: Der Tlebertritt Constantins des Gr. zum Christenthum. Zurich. 1862. ^ah apology fui' CoDofajm' atijia'.agiuust BurokhaidL^a vlliw)r-/L^->'-vft*^>v^^ ef&Y~ The last great imperial persecution of tlie Christians under Diocletian and Galerius, which was aimed at the entire up- rooting of the new religion, ended with the edict of toleration of 311 and the tragical ruin of the persecutors.' The edict of toleration was an involuntary and irresistible concession of the incurable impotence of heathenism and the indestructible power of Christianity. It left but a step to the downfall of the one and the supremacy of the other in the empire of the Caesars. 1 ' Comp. vol. L § TW. Galerius died soon after of a disgusting and terrible disease (morbus pedicularis), described with great minuteness by Eusebius, H. E. viii. 16, and Lactantius, De mort. persec. c. 33. " His body," says Gibbon, ch. xiv. " swelled by an intemperate course of life to an unwieldy corpulence, was covered with ulcers and devoured by innumerable swarms of those insects which have given their name to a most loathsome disease." Diocletian had withdrawn from the throne m 305, and in 313 put an end to his embittered life by suicide. In his retirement he found more pleasure in raising cabbage than he had found in ruling the empire ; a con- fession we may readily believe. (President Lincoln of the United States, during the dark days of the civil war in Dec. 1862, declared that he would gladly exchange his position with any common soldier in the tented field.) Maximin, who kept up the persecution in the East, even after the toleration edict, as long as he could, died likewise a violent death by poison, in 313. In this tragical end of their last three imperial persecutors the Christians-saw a.palpable judgment of God. i 12 THIRD PEEIOD. A.D. 311-590. This great epoch is marked by the lefiigfl of Constantine L' He understood the signs of the times and acted accordingly. He was the man for the times, as the times were prepared for him by that Providence which controls botli and fits them for each other. He placed himself at the head of true progress, while his nephew, Julian the Apostate, opposed it and was left behind. He was the chief instrument for raising the church from the low estate of oppression and persecution t(.> well deserved honor and power. For this service a thankful posterity has given him the surname of the Great, to which he was entitled, though not by his moral character, yet doubtless by his military and administrative ability, his judicious policy, his appreciation and protection of Christianity, and the far- reaching consequences of his reign. His greatness