Excerpt from The Peace of Constantine To appreciate the full force of these. Words we need to remind ourselves of the circumstances under which this Edict of Milan was issued, of the causes dee-p laid in the history of the three previous centuries which called it forth. When, after the Ascension of our Blessed Lord, His Apostles, returning to Jerusalem, pondered over the terms of the commission they had just received, its stupendous charac ter, weighed in the balance of human probabilities, must have appalled them. True, they were very different men from what they had been in the past, now that their faith was con firmed by the many intimate conversations they had held with their risen Lord during the forty days. Yet they were still only a few unlettered men of the lower sort, who knew no language save their own, who had never been outside their own small country, who had little in common with the Gentile officials who dwelt in their midst, not to speak of the party in power and influence among the Jews, which held them in hatred and contempt. How. Was it possible that they should obtain a hearing from' all nations, gather dis. Ciples from their midst, and' establish a world-wide rule of spiritual authority over so vast a number as their Master's words seemed to predict? 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.