legions refused to join in the time-honored solemnities for
propitiating the gods. The mutiny spread so quickly, the
emergency became so pressing, that the Emperor Diocletian was
compelled to hold a council for the purpose of determining what
should be done. The difficulty of the position may perhaps be
appreciated when it is understood that the wife and the daughter
of Diocletian himself were Christians. He was a man of great
capacity and large political views; he recognized in the
opposition that must be made to the new party a political
necessity, yet he expressly enjoined that there should be no
bloodshed. But who can control an infuriated civil commotion? The
church of Nicomedia was razed to the ground; in retaliation the
imperial palace was set on fire, an edict was openly insulted and
torn down. The Christian officers in the army were cashiered; in
all directions, martyrdoms and massacres were taking place. So
resistless was the march of events, that not even the emperor
himself could stop the persecution.

THE FIRST CHRISTIAN EMPEROR. It had now become evident that the
Christians constituted a powerful party in the state, animated
with indignation at the atrocities they had suffered, and
determined to endure them no longer. After the abdication of
Diocletian (A.D. 305), Constantine, one of the competitors for
the purple, perceiving the advantages that would accrue to him
from such a policy, put himself forth as the head of the
Christian party. This gave him, in every part of the empire, men
and women ready to encounter fire and sword in his behalf; it
gave him unwavering adherents in every legion of the armies. In a
decisive battle, near the Milvian bridge, victory crowned his
schemes. The death of Maximin, and subsequently that of Licinius,