Constantine’s Speeches and Addresses

For his own part, he sometimes spent sleepless nights filling his mind with divine knowledge, and much of his time went into composing speeches, many of which he delivered in public. For he thought it his duty to govern his subjects by appealing to their reason, and to secure in every way a reasoned obedience to his authority. So he would sometimes call an assembly himself, and on these occasions vast crowds attended, hoping to hear an emperor play the part of a philosopher. If in the course of his speech an occasion came to touch on sacred subjects, he at once stood upright, and with a grave face and a lowered voice he seemed reverently to be initiating his hearers into the mysteries of divine teaching. And when they greeted him with shouts of applause, he would signal to them with gestures to lift their eyes to heaven, to keep their admiration for the Supreme King alone, and to honor him with worship and praise. He usually divided the subjects of his address. First he thoroughly exposed the error of polytheism and proved the superstition of the pagans to be mere fraud and a cloak for ungodliness. Then he would assert the sole rule of God, and pass from there to his providence, both general and particular. Next he went on to the plan of salvation, showing why it was necessary and how well it fitted the nature of the case. After that, in order, he took up the teaching on the divine judgment. And here above all he appealed most powerfully to the consciences of his hearers, as he denounced the grasping and the violent and those who were slaves to an excessive thirst for gain. Indeed, he made some of his own acquaintances who were present feel the sharp lash of his words and stand with downcast eyes, conscious of their guilt, while he testified against them in the plainest and most forceful terms that they would have to give an account of their deeds to God. He reminded them that God himself had given him the empire of the world, and that he, acting on the same divine principle, had entrusted parts of it to their government; but that all would in due time be summoned alike to give an account of their actions to the Supreme Sovereign of all. Such was his constant testimony; such were his warnings and his teaching. He himself both felt and spoke these convictions in the genuine confidence of faith. But his hearers were slow to learn and deaf to good advice. They received his words with loud applause indeed, but in practice their insatiable greed led them to disregard them. [a]