His Father Constantius Refuses to Persecute

At a time when four emperors shared the government of the Roman Empire, Constantius alone followed a course different from that of his colleagues and entered into the friendship of the supreme God. [a]

For while they besieged and laid waste the churches of God, leveling them to the ground and wiping out the very foundations of the houses of prayer, he kept his hands pure of their abominable impiety and never in any way resembled them. They polluted their provinces by the indiscriminate slaughter of godly men and women, but he kept his soul free from the stain of this crime. They, entangled in the mazes of impious idolatry, enslaved first themselves and then all under their authority to the errors of evil demons. He, meanwhile, established the deepest peace throughout his territories and secured for his subjects the right to celebrate the worship of God without hindrance. In short, while his colleagues oppressed everyone with the heaviest demands for money and made their lives unbearable, even worse than death, Constantius alone governed his people with a mild and peaceful rule and showed them a truly fatherly and nurturing care. Countless indeed are this man’s other virtues, which all people praise. Of these I will record one or two instances, as samples of the kind I must pass over in silence, and then I will go on to the planned order of my narrative. [b]