The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1913-05-03
HOW CONS TAN me
ENTERED no N T
ACCLAIMED A HERO BY THE Ro-
MAN PoPULAcE-THE CROSS
GLISTENED ON HIS STANDARD
HE GAVE PEACE TO THE IN
FAINT CHURCH.

The Rev. Thomas M. Schwertner, O.
P, contributes to the current issue of
the American Catholic Quarterly an
article on the Liberation of the
Church by Constantine, from which
we quote the following account of how
Constantine entered Rome. The sign
Of the Cross had triumphed at the
Milvian Bridge. The tyrant Maxentius
was dead-drowned in the Tiber-and
the victor, bearing the Labarum, took
possession of Rome.
'The entry of Constantine into the
City of the Caesars on the morrow of
the battle-October 20, A. D. 312-
was real triumph, because peoples
soul was in it. The pleasure-mad Ro-
mans, for once in their lives, did not
seek by ovation to satisfy their own
love of display and diversion, but
meant in downright earnest to show
their gratitude to. hero who had
broken the oppressor's chains from
their necks. The procession was
ecumenic in character, because in it
marched those whom we should never
have expected to find there-the poor
the lowly, the women, the children
in word, all Rome. There, too, we
might have seen the several Senators
whom Constantine had freed from the
jails, where these patriots, who had
refused to keep servile silence, had
been confined by Maxentius for their
freedom of speech. The crowd was
mad with enthusiasm. 1t was drunk
with the new wine of freedom. It fol-
lowed Constantine to the Palatine Hill,
cheering him whom the heavens had
protected and, forgetting the pagan
prejudices of the past, bowling in rev.
erence before the sign of the cross
which glistened on the Roman stand
ards and the soldiers bucklers. And
no one asked himself the question why
Constantine had foregone the sacri-
fees to the gods and the visit to
Jupiter Capitolinus which were Gus
tomary on such occasions. And as the
banners fiuttered in the air a mighty
cry went up from the people when
Constantine appeared on the balcony
of the palace which stood on the hill
and the cry seemed to come from
one throat, probably because it came
from hearts that were one in gratitude
to the hero. Eusebius tells us that the
people almost forced their way into
the palace in their efforts to show
visibly to the man that had freed them
the great love that was in their hearts.
Later on, the Senate decreed that
in each year, two days should be kept
as holidays in honor of the First
Augustus a temple built by Maxen-
| thus was turned into shrine bearing
the name of Constantine; a basilica
was built in which the story of the
battle was told in mosaics; through
out the empire there were daily pro-
cessions for a month, and in many
other ways the people rejoiced in
their freedom. In the hour of his tri-
umph the Emperor proved that he was
great in character as well as in
achievement. We are told:
"Constantine's great heart must
have gone out in love to his people,
who chung to him with the affection
and abandon of children. Be that as
it may, he set about at once to heal
the social wounds from which the
empire bled. Radium-like, his meas
ures of reform brought light into a
world that had lost it's way in the
worse than Etruscan darkness of Max
entius' misrule. He suppressed the
debasing system of informing which
wrought much havoc amongst the peo-
pie, because each man watched his
neighbor narrowly, like criminal, in
order to draw pecuniary profit from
his mistakes past and present. BY
this very means, too, he was able to
protect the men who had formerly cast
in their lot with Maxentius and were
for that reason hated by a people
burning with resentment for past evils
suffered at their hands. Indeed, the
Emperor showed great leniency for the
partisans of his former opponent he
did not require fresh hecatombs of
victims to satisfy his outraged honor
that had been avenged at Saxa Rubra
now only the sons of Maxentius and
his most intimate agents were led out
to the second milestone beyond the
walls on. the F'laminian or Salerian
Ways to be beheaded In order TO