Oration of Constantine "to the Assembly of the Saints"

To you, Piety, I ascribe the cause of my own prosperity, and of all that I now possess. To this truth the happy issue of all my endeavors bears testimony: brave deeds, victories in war, and triumphs over conquered foes. This truth the great city itself allows with joy and praise. The people, too, of that much-loved city accord in the same sentiment, though once, deceived by ill-grounded hopes, they chose a ruler unworthy of themselves, a ruler who speedily received the chastisement which his audacious deeds deserved.

But be it far from me now to recall the memory of these events, while holding converse with you, Piety, and essaying with earnest endeavor to address you with holy and gentle words. Yet will I say one thing, which haply shall not be unbefitting or unseemly. A furious, a cruel, and implacable war was maintained by the tyrants against you, Piety, and your holy churches: nor were there wanting some in Rome itself who exulted at a calamity so grievous to the public good. Nay, the battlefield was prepared; when you stood forth, and present yourself a voluntary victim, supported by faith in God.

Then indeed it was that the cruelty of ungodly men, which raged incessantly like a devouring fire, wrought for you a wondrous and ever memorable glory. Astonishment seized the spectators themselves, when they beheld the very executioners who tortured the bodies of their holy victims wearied out, and disgusted at the cruelties; the bonds loosened, the engines of torture powerless, the flames extinguished, while the sufferers preserved their constancy unshaken even for a moment.

What, then, have you gained by these atrocious deeds, most impious of men? And what was the cause of your insane fury? You will say, doubtless, these acts of yours were done in honor of the gods. What gods are these? Or what worthy conception have you of the Divine nature? Do you think the gods are subject to angry passions as you are? Were it so indeed, it had been better for you to wonder at their strange determination than obey their harsh command, when they urged you to the unrighteous slaughter of innocent men.

You will allege, perhaps, the customs of your ancestors and the opinion of mankind in general, as the cause of this conduct. I grant the fact: for those customs are very like the acts themselves, and proceed from the self-same source of folly. You thought, it may be, that some special power resided in images formed and fashioned by human art; and hence your reverence, and diligent care lest they should be defiled: those mighty and highly exalted gods, thus dependent on the care of men!