The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-01-03
CONSTANTINE THE GREAT
WAS IN TWO SENSES THE FOUND
Err OF A NEW ROME.

In the course of sermon preached
at the Catholic University, Very Rev.
DIR. Healy, Professor of Ecclesiastical
History, said:
Constantine the Great was in two
senses the founder of a New Rome.
He gave Rome a new constitution
and a new capital. He transformed
the pagan Rome into a Christian
state, and he set up Christian city
on the Bosphorus to take the place
Of the pagan city on the Tiber. The
glorious architectural creation which
bears his name was the concrete
symbol of the other Rome, which has
come into being through his reforms,
political, social and religious. The
City of New Rome could not have
met the exigencies of the situation
it was created to cope with nor
could it have long survived its
creator had not new spirit of order,
of justice and of law been infused
into the decaying institutions of
the old Empire. Constantinople, the
New Rome, was the embodiment of
the ideas of government and admin
istration which Constantine among
the rulers of men was the first to
make effective. 1t was an answer to
the failures of the past and chal
lenge to the unrevealed riddles OF
the future.
The career Of Constantine the
Great brings to a close one period
in universal history. With him ended
the ancient world. When he made
the fundamental law of universal love
and brotherhood, operative as a prin.
ciple of craftsmanship and politics
human affairs entered on a new stage
of progress and civilization. BY a
strange coincidence, or perhaps be
cause of more intimate connection,
the city which he established passed
from the hands of the last of the
Constantines when another great
epoch in the affairs of men was draw
ing to an end. Constantinople fell;
the medieval age, the age of faith,
was already passing away.
In all, therefore that concerns the
higher things of life, the fundamen.
tails of law order and civilization, cul.
ture and religion, Constantiople held
a place OF prominence for a thou
sand years. From that time in the
fourth century, when its walls rose
beside the rapid waters of the
Bosphorus and when it was made
the depositary and guardian alike of
the treasures Of Greece and Rome
through thousand years and more,
Constantinople stood aloft, an organ
lied state in the midst of disorder
and anarchy, a home Of culture in a
sea of ignorance, a highly developed
civilized community in food of bar
barism. 1t maintained its place and
its power by force of intellect rather
than by force of arms. It was within
certain restrictions, the enduring en-
bodiment of the life and purposes of
Constantine.
Constantinople passed from ecu
menical history when it became the
prey of the Turks. It gave them
much, but received little in return.
It remains today a Christian captive
in the hands of the infidels. Il is
inconceivable that its destiny ended
in the fifteenth century, and that its
eleven centuries of usefulness are to
be crowned with a slow death of
inanition in MosIem hands. It is not
without the bounds Of possibility that
changes may come ConstantinOple
is European city. IT'S face il to the
Orient It's life may be renewed. 1t