Divine Institutes & On the Deaths of the Persecutors 2 part 4/4

3 We therefore believed that this counsel ought to be entered upon by a wholesome and most upright reasoning, namely, that we should think the opportunity must be denied to no one at all, whether he had given his mind to the observance of the Christians or to that religion which he himself perceived to be most fitting for himself, so that the supreme Divinity, to whose religion we render obedience with free minds, may in all things vouchsafe to us His accustomed favor and benevolence. 4 Wherefore it befits your Devotion to know that it has pleased us that, all conditions whatsoever being removed which were contained in the earlier writings sent to your office concerning the name of the Christians—conditions which seemed altogether sinister and alien from our clemency—these should be done away.

And now let each one of those who hold this same will of observing the religion of the Christians strive to observe that very thing freely and simply, without any disturbance or molestation to himself. 5 These things we have believed ought to be most fully signified to your Solicitude, that you might know that we have given to those same Christians free and unrestricted opportunity of practicing their religion. 6 And since you perceive this to have been granted by us to them, your Devotion understands that to others also, for the tranquillity of our times, like open and free power of their religion or observance has been conceded, so that each may have free opportunity in worshiping whatever he has chosen.

This has been done by us so that nothing may seem to have been taken away by us either from any honor or from any religion. 7 And moreover we have judged that this further provision ought to be established in the case of the Christians: that if those same places, to which they had previously been accustomed to assemble—concerning which a fixed form had earlier been set down in the letters sent to your office—appear in an earlier time to have been purchased by any persons, whether from our treasury or from anyone else whatsoever, these they shall restore to the Christians without money and without any demand of a price, all evasion and ambiguity set aside; those also who obtained them by gift shall likewise return them as quickly as possible to those same Christians;

and also let those who have either bought them or obtained them by gift, if they request anything of our benevolence, petition the vicar, so that provision may be made for them too through our clemency. All these things will have to be handed over at once to the body of the Christians through your intercession and without delay.

9 And since those same Christians are known to have possessed not only those places to which they were accustomed to assemble, but also others belonging to the right of their body—that is, of the churches, not of individual men—you shall order all these to be restored, by the law which we have set forth above, without absolutely any ambiguity or controversy, to those same Christians—that is, to their body and to their assemblies—the aforesaid principle being of course preserved, namely, that those who restore the same without price, as we have said, may hope for indemnity from our benevolence.

10 In all these matters you shall be bound to exhibit your most effective intercession on behalf of the aforesaid body of the Christians, so that our command may be fulfilled as quickly as possible, whereby in this too, through our clemency, provision may be made for the public tranquillity. 11 Thus far it shall come to pass that, as has been set forth above, the divine favor toward us, which we have experienced in such great affairs, may through all time persevere prosperously in our successes together with the public felicity.

12 And in order that the form of this our ordinance and benevolence may be able to come to the knowledge of all, it will be fitting that you, having issued your proclamation, set forth these writings everywhere and convey them to the knowledge of all, so that the ordinance of this our benevolence may not be able to lie hidden." 13 When these letters had been published, he also exhorted by word of mouth that the meeting-places be restored to their former state. Thus, from the overthrow of the church to its restoration, there were ten years, more or less four months. But thereafter, when Licinius with his army came on, the tyrant withdrew in flight and again made for the defiles of Mount Taurus.

Having built fortifications and towers there, he attempted to block the road, and, thrust out from there as the victors broke through everything, he at last fled to Tarsus. 2 There, when he was now being hard pressed by land and sea and hoped for no refuge, in the anguish of his soul and in fear he fled to death as if to a remedy for the evils which God had heaped upon his head. 3 But first he stuffed himself with food and gorged himself with wine, as those are wont to do who think they are doing this for the last time, and so he drank down poison. Its force, beaten back by his crammed stomach, could not prevail for the present, but was turned into a foul languor resembling a plague, so that, his breath being drawn out for a longer time, he might feel the torments. Already the venom had begun to rage against him.

When his innards raged with the force of this disease, he was carried by unbearable pain to the very point of madness of mind, so that for four days, driven by insanity, he devoured earth scooped up with his hands, as if famished. Then, after many grievous torments, when he dashed his head against the walls, his eyes leapt out of their sockets; then at last, having lost his sight, he began to see God passing judgment on him with ministers clothed in white. He cried out, therefore, as those who are tortured are wont to do, and said that it was not he but others who had done the deed. Then, as though driven by tortures, he confessed, again and again beseeching Christ and imploring Him to have mercy on him. Thus, amid the groans which he uttered as though he were being burned, he breathed out his guilty spirit by a detestable kind of death.

In this manner God overcame all the persecutors of His name, so that of them neither stock nor any root remained. For Licinius, having gained supreme power, ordered to be put to death first of all Valeria—whom Maximinus in his anger had not dared to kill even after her flight, when he saw that he himself must perish—and likewise Candidianus, whom Valeria, on account of her barrenness, had adopted, he being born of a concubine. The woman, however, when she learned that Licinius had conquered, changed her dress and mingled herself with his retinue, that she might watch over the fortune of Candidianus; but he, because he had presented himself at Nicomedia and seemed to be held in honor, fearing no such thing, was slain. And she, when she heard of his death, at once fled.

Likewise he put to death Severianus, the son of Severus, now of mature age, who had followed the fleeing Maximinus from the battle line, condemning him to a capital sentence on the ground that he had, after Maximinus's death, considered taking up the purple. All these had long feared Licinius as an evil, since, while Licinius was slow to yield to him by his own right of inheritance in all the goods of Maximian, he had likewise refused this to Maximinus. He also destroyed the son of Maximinus himself, the eldest, who was already eight years old, and his daughter, seven years old, who had been betrothed to Candidianus. But first their mother was cast headlong into the Orontes; there she herself had often ordered chaste women to be drowned. Thus all the impious, by the true and just judgment of God, received the very things which they had done.

Valeria too, after wandering for fifteen months through various provinces in plebeian garb, was at last recognized at Thessalonica, and being seized together with her mother, paid the penalty. The women therefore were led to execution amid a great spectacle and the pity aroused by so great a fall; and their heads being struck off, their bodies were thrown into the sea. Thus their chastity and their rank proved their ruin. All these things, according to the truth—for I speak as one who knows—I have thought I ought to commit to writing, just as they were done, lest the memory of such great events should perish, or lest, if anyone should wish to write history, he should corrupt the truth either by passing over in silence their sins against God or the judgment of God against them.

We ought to give thanks to His eternal mercy, who at last looked down upon the earth, in that He deigned to restore and gather again His flock, partly laid waste by ravening wolves, partly scattered, and to root out the evil beasts which had trampled down the pastures of the divine flock and scattered its folds. Where now are those magnificent and famous surnames, renowned among the nations, of the Jovii and the Herculii? Surnames which, first insolently assumed by Diocletian and Maximian and afterwards transferred to their successors, flourished? Truly the Lord has destroyed them and blotted them out from the earth.

Let us therefore celebrate the triumph of God with exultation, let us frequently proclaim with praises the victory of the Lord, let us celebrate it with prayers day and night, that He may confirm forever the peace granted to His people after ten years. You above all, dearest Donatus, who deserve to be heard by God, beseech the Lord that He may, gracious and gentle, preserve His mercy also toward His servants; that He may ward off from His people all the snares and assaults of the devil; that He may guard the perpetual repose of the flourishing Church.