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The circumstances which drove him to this course were the following.
Being no longer able to sustain the magnitude of the government which
had been undeservedly committed to him, in consequence of his want of
prudence and imperial understanding, he managed affairs in a base
manner, and with his mind unreasonably exalted in all things with
boastful pride, even toward his colleagues in the empire who were in
every respect his superiors, in birth, in training, in education, in
worth and intelligence, and, greatest of all, in temperance and piety
toward the true God, he began to venture to act audaciously and to
arrogate to himself the first rank. Becoming mad in his folly, he
broke the treaties which he had made with Licinius and undertook an
implacable war. Then in a brief time he threw all things into
confusion, and stirred up every city, and having collected his entire
force, comprising an immense number of soldiers, he went forth to
battle with him, elated by his hopes in demons, whom he supposed to be
gods, and by the number of his soldiers. And when he joined battle he
was deprived of the oversight of God, and the victory was given to
Licinius, who was then ruling, by the one and only God of all.
First, the army in which he trusted was destroyed, and as all his
guards abandoned him and left him alone, and fled to the victor, he
secretly divested himself as quickly as possible of the imperial
garments, which did not fitly belong to him, and in a cowardly and
ignoble and unmanly way mingled with the crowd, and then fled,
concealing himself in fields and villages. But though he was so
careful for his safety, he scarcely escaped the hands of his enemies,
revealing by his deeds that the divine oracles are faithful and true,
in which it is said, "A king is not saved by a great force, and a
giant shall not be saved by the greatness of his strength; a horse is a
vain thing for safety, nor shall he be delivered by the greatness of
his power. Behold, the eyes of the Lord are upon them that fear
him, upon them that hope in his mercy, to deliver their souls from
death." Thus the tyrant, covered with shame, went to his own
country. And first, in frantic rage, he slew many priests and
prophets of the gods whom he had formerly admired, and whose oracles
had incited him to undertake the war, as sorcerers and impostors, and
besides all as betrayers of his safety. Then having given glory to the
God of the Christians and enacted a most full and complete ordinance
in behalf of their liberty, he was immediately seized with a mortal
disease, and no respite being granted him, departed this life. The
law enacted by him was as follows:
Copy of the edict of the tyrant in behaIf of the Christians,
translated from the man tongue.
"The Emperor Caesar Caius Valerius Maximinus, Germanicus,
Sarmaticus, Plus, Felix, Invictus, Augustus. We believe it
manifest that no one is ignorant, but that every man who looks back
over the past knows and is conscious that m every way we care
continually for the good of our provincials, and wish to furnish them
with those things which are of especial advantage to all, and for the
common benefit and profit, and whatever contributes to the public
welfare and is agreeable to the views of each. When, therefore,
before this, it became clear to our mind that under pretext of the
command of our parents, the most divine Diocletian and Maximianus,
which enjoined that the meetings of the
Christians should be abolished, many extortions and spoliations had
been practiced by officials; and that those evils were continually
increasing, to the detriment of our provincials toward whom we are
especially anxious to exercise proper care, and that their possessions
were in consequence perishing, letters were sent last year to the
governors of each province, in which we decreed that, if any one
wished to follow such a practice or to observe this same religion, he
should be permitted without hindrance to pursue his purpose and should
be impeded and prevented by no one, and that all should have liberty to
do without any fear or suspicion that which each preferred. But even
now we cannot help perceiving that some of the judges have mistaken our
commands, and have given our people reason to doubt the meaning of our
ordinances, and have caused them to proceed too reluctantly to the
observance of those religious rites which are pleasing to them. In
order, therefore, that in the future every suspicion of fearful doubt
may be taken away, we have commanded that this decree be published, so
that it may be clear to all that whoever wishes to embrace this sect and
religion is permitted to do so by virtue of this grant of ours; and
that each one, as he wishes or as is pleasing to him, is permitted to
practice this religion which he has chosen to observe according to his
custom. It is also granted them to build Lord's houses. But that
this grant of ours may be the greater, we have thought good to decree
also that if any houses and lands before this time rightfully belonged
to the Christians, and by the command of our parents fell into the
treasury, or were confiscated by any city—whether they have been sold
or presented to any one as a gift—that all these should be restored to
their original possessors, the Christians, in order that in this also
every one may have knowledge of our piety and care."
These are the words of the tyrant which were published not quite a year
after the decrees against the Christians engraved by him on pillars.
And by him to whom a little before we seemed impious wretches and
atheists and destroyers of all life, so that we were not permitted to
dwell in any city nor even in country or desert—by him decrees and
ordinances were issued in behalf of the Christians, and they who
recently had been destroyed by fire and sword, by wild beasts and birds
of prey, in the presence of the tyrant himself, and had suffered every
species of torture and punishment, and most miserable deaths as
atheists and impious wretches, were now acknowledged by him as
possessors of religion and were permitted to build churches; and the
tyrant himself bore witness and confessed that they had some rights.
And having made such confessions, as if he had received some benefit
on account of them, he suffered perhaps less than he ought to have
suffered, and being smitten by a sudden scourge of God, he perished
in the second campaign of the war. But his end was not like that of
military chieftains who, while fighting bravely in battle for virtue
and friends, often boldly encounter a glorious death; for like an
impious enemy of God, while his army was still drawn up in the field,
remaining at home and concealing himself, he suffered the punishment
which he deserved. For he was smitten with a sudden scourge of God in
his whole body, and harassed by terrible pains and torments, he fell
prostrate on the ground, wasted by hunger, while all his flesh was
dissolved by an invisible and God-sent fire, so that the whole
appearance of his frame was changed, and there was left only a kind of
image wasted away by length of time to a skeleton of dry bones; so that
those who were present could think of his body as nothing else than the
tomb of his soul, which was buried in a body already dead and
completely melted away. And as the heat still more violently consumed
him in the depths of his marrow, his eyes burst forth, and falling
from their sockets left him blind. Thereupon still breathing and
making free confession to the Lord, he invoked death, and at last,
after acknowledging that he justly suffered these things on account of
his violence against Christ, he gave up the ghost.
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