The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-06-28

of subsequent ages.
And, then, further warrant of faith
in Christ is the victory itself won by
the Christian religion despite fiercest
persecutions-the victory proclaimed
to all nations by Constantine's edict of
peace.
1t was the battle of all earth's pow
ers, quickened into intensest activity,
borne onward by deepest and strong
est passion, against the Crucified of
Calvary. "The Kings of the earth
stood up, and the princes met together
against the Lord and against His
Christ" They said: Let us break
their bonds asunder, and let us cast
away their yoke from us"
The task of determination seemed
easy. What was Christ? What the
arms he welded? 1t was the artisan
of Galilee, the Crucified of Jerusalem
daring to teach cultured Greek and i'm
perial Roman. 1t was the handful of
despised fishermen and tax-gatherers
serving as his apostles. 1t was new
preachment, at which philosophers
scoffed, against which racial religions
and codes of morals, persistent pan
derers to pride and passion, rose in in
furiated rebellion. 1t was challenge
to the gods of Rome, to the majesty
4 of the empire, to which Rome's sword
was to be the quick reply. What eye
scanning the horizon, as the battle
Iopened could or would descry amid
the skies of the morrow the trium-
phant signal that Christ had con-
quered?
The battle opened with the impris-
onment of Peter and John in Jeru-
salem, with the burning of Roman
Christians in the Neronian gardens of
the Vatican Hill. For three centuries
it ragged throughout the empire. Dur
ing that long period of time the law
of prescription and death to the Chris
tian name reddened the imperial stat
Il utesbook, Only now and then, here
and there, the sword, as mon very fae
tigue, fell back into the scabbard. At
ten special periods the persecution lit
up into such ferocity that history re-
Lcalls them as those of the ten great
prosecutions The last of those, under
Diocletian, reached such a pitch of
apparent success that no Christian
was supposed to have escaped death
or prison; and by order of the en-
peror medals were struck with the
devise-"The Christian name blotted
from the EARTH
"And now, o We Kings, understand:
receive instruction you that judge the
earth" Christ and His religion are
dead, said imperial Rome: Heaven
said, Christ and His religion are vic
tors and live forever. The despot
Maxentius was, as he believed, achiev-
ing in the City of Rome the cruel work
: of Diocletian. Meanwhile, his rival,
} Constantine, yet pagan, was hurrying
, his legions towards the Tiber. One
day, at full noon, the cross shone
bright in the skies-seen and won
! dered at by the tens of thousands of
his followers-inscribed upon it: "In
this sign thou shalt conquer" The rep
lica of the cross of the skies-the
Labarum-was uplifted as the stand
ard of Constantine, and beneath it's
, inspirations he marched to the Mil
Wan Bridge, where he crushed in de-
feat the soldiers of Maxentius, and
thence to the Capitoline Hill, where
heretofore Jupiter had reigned SUI
preme, where henceforward was to be
throned the Crucified of Calvary. A
few months later, at Milan, Constan-
tine and his Colleague, Licinius, signed
the edict of peace, granting to every
, citizen of the empire freedom to pro-
, fess and openly to practice the relig-
ion to which his conscience piled obe-
, dience, opening wide the portals of
prisons wherever Christians lay in
chains, lowering to the ground for
/ good and all the sword so long sus-
: ipended over their heads. Christ had
: conquered: Christ reigned.
: Christ had conquered. 1t was the
force of His truth, the persuasiveness
, of His grace, that sustained the mar
tyred Christians, that made of their
: blood the fertilizing dew, whence new
i legions of disciples were to spring up
, to fill, a thousand times over, the
!; places made vacant by the sword of
the despot, so that, while it was
thought none could have survived,
their number had so increased as to
constitute a power within the empire
that no clear-minded statesman could
longer afford to ignore or neglect.
Christ it was whom philosophers had
derided, whom infuriated populaces
had hated, whom imperial swords had
striven to annihilate. But all was in
vain. ''Thou shalt rule them, had it
been said by the Eternal Father,
with rod of iron, thou shalt break
them in pieces like potter's vessel. :"
The Constantinian peace was the
Il victory of Christ: commemorative it,
we commemorate the victory of Christ.
Meet and proper, then, it is that this
sixteen-hundredth anniversary be re-
called by all Christendom in Joyous
observance, in acts of thankfulness to
Heaven, in renewed promises of al
legiance to the divine Conqueror, in
pledges of faith that, however violent
the storm beating against its battle
ments, the Church founded by Him
win endure until time is no more.
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