With what
other cloak did our Nimrods[4] cover their brigandage, when they
embezzled the money of their Churches and wasted the patrimony of
Christ? Take on the contrary Constantine the Great, that scourge
of the persecutors of Christ, to what Church did he restore
tranquillity? To that Church over which Pope Silvester presided,
whom he summoned from his hiding-place on Mount Soracte that by
his ministry he might receive our baptism. Under what auspices
was he victorious? Under the sign of the cross. Of what mother
was he the glorious son? Of Helen. To what Fathers did he attach
himself? To the Fathers of Nice. What manner of men were they?
Such men as Silvester, Mark, Julius, Athanasius, Nicholas. What
seat did he ask for in the Synod? The last. Oh how much more
kingly was he on that seat than the Kings who have ambitioned a
title not due to them! It would be tedious to go into further
details. But from these two [Emperors, Decius and Constantine],
the one our deadly enemy, the other our warm friend, it may be
left to the reader's conjecture to fix on points of closest
resemblance to the one and to the other in the history of our own
times.
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