“If you consider this amount insufficient for the purpose of testifying my regard for all of you in Africa, you are to ask without delay Heraclidas, the procurator of the imperial domains, for whatever you may think necessary. For I have personally instructed him that whatever sum your Reverence asks for is to be paid without hesitation. “And since I have heard that certain persons of ill-balanced mind (_quosdam non satis compositæ mentis_) are acting in such a manner as to corrupt the people of the most holy and Catholic Church with wicked and adulterous falsehoods (_improba et adulterina falsitate_), I would have you know that I have given verbal instructions to Anulinus, the proconsul, and to Patricius, the vicar of the præfects, to include among their other duties a sharp lookout in this matter, and, if this movement continues, not to neglect or ignore it. “Consequently, if you find persons of this character persevering in their mad folly (_in hac amentia perseverare_) you will at once approach the above mentioned judges and lay the matter before them, that they may punish the culprits (_in eos animadvertant_) in accordance with my personal instructions. “May the divinity of the Supreme God (_Divinitas summi Dei_) preserve you for many years.” In conjunction with this must be taken the letter addressed by Constantine to Anulinus, the proconsul of Africa: “Greetings to our best beloved Anulinus! Inasmuch as it is abundantly proven that the neglect of the religion which preserves the greatest reverence for divine majesty has reduced the State to the direst peril, while its careful and due observance has brought the most splendid prosperity to the Roman name and unspeakable felicity to all things mortal, thanks to divine goodness, we have resolved, best beloved Anulinus, that those, who with due righteousness of life and continual observance of the law, perform their ministry in this divine religion shall reap the reward of their labours. “Wherefore, it is our wish that all who, in the province under your care and in the Catholic Church over which Cæcilianus presides, minister to this most holy religion—those, viz., whom people are wont to call the clergy—shall be absolved[81] from all public duties of any kind, lest, by some slip or grave mischance, they may be distracted from the duties they owe to the Supreme Divinity, and that they may do the better service to their own ritual without any disturbing influences. “Inasmuch as these people display the deepest reverence for the Divine Will, it seems to me that they ought to receive the greatest reward the State can bestow.” ----- Footnote 81: _Ab omnibus omnino publicis functionibus immunes volumus conservari._ ----- [Illustration: THE AMPHITHEATRE AT ARLES. EXTERIOR VIEW. PRESENT DAY. ]