Excerpt from A Note-Book of Mediaeval History: A. D. 323 A. D. 1453 Constantine the Great (joint-emperor from 306, sole emperor 323 - 37) becomes a Christian catechumen; he is only baptized on his death-bed. In large measure he recog nizes Christianity as the most favoured State religion. Yet he abstains from open war against Pagan cults as a whole, pro fessing indeed a wish to reform them. His court remains largely, his bureaucracy almost wholly, Pagan. But he forbids the State sacrifices of Paganism, and the occult and openly immoral parts of Pagan worship (witchcraft, divination, evil magic lying oracles and the religious orgies of certain Oriental rites and their imitators in the West). This involves the neglect and disfavour of Pagan beliefs and cults, as Christianity will not, like other creeds of the gracco-roman World, take the position of one among many. The Christianity of Constantine must be allowed in a more vague and qualified sense [than often asserted] the nicest accuracy is required in tracing the grada tions by which the monarch declared himself the Protector, and at length the Proselyte, of the Church [gibbon, ch. Xx]. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.