16. It is difficult to determine the motives of Constantine for favoring the Christian cause and resolving upon the destruction of the pagan religion. Whether it was the appearance of the miraculous cross in the heavens, as some aver, the influence of Helena, his mother,[23] as Theodoret claims, or through the arguments of an Egyptian priest who promised him absolution for the crime of murder if he would accept Christianity.[24] But let the motive be what it may, benevolence, policy, conviction or remorse, coupled with a hope of forgiveness, Constantine from the time of his accession to the throne became the avowed protector of the Christian church; and at length by his powerful influence made Christianity the reigning religion of the Roman empire.[25] The exiles were recalled; those condemned to labor in the mines were released; those who had been robbed of their property were reinstated in their possessions, and the demolished Christian temples were ordered to be rebuilt and enlarged. The church militant after the emperor's edicts of toleration became the church tranquil, so far as external opposition was concerned. Her ministers were welcomed to the court of the emperor, admitted to the imperial table, and even accompanied the monarch in his expeditions. Wealth, honor and imperial patronage were bestowed almost without measure on the Christian church. From the position of a despised, persecuted religion, Christianity was suddenly exalted to {121} the very throne of the Roman world. Yet these things which are usually accounted among the good fortunes of the church, were, as we shall yet see, disastrous to the purity of the Christian religion. 17. Progress of the Church Under the Patronage of Constantine.--The court of Constantine was converted, of course; but it is to be feared that it was the hope of wealth and honor, the example of the emperor, his exhortations, his irresistible smile, rather than the truths of Christianity which wrought a change in the hearts of the obsequious crowd that filled the palace. A number of cities manifested a forward zeal in a voluntary destruction of their temples and idols, but it is more than likely that the municipal distinctions and popular donations which were held out as a reward for such conduct, rather than belief in the Christian faith are what inspired the iconoclasts. Twelve thousand men and a proportionate number of women and children were baptized in a single year in Rome; but how far did the twenty pieces of gold and a white garment promised to each convert by the emperor influence the conversion of this great number? Nor was the influence of Constantine in respect to the Christian religion confined within the provinces of the empire. It extended to the barbarous peoples outside; who, while they had held in disdain a despised and proscribed sect, soon learned to esteem a religion which had been so lately embraced by the greatest monarch, and the most civilized nation of the globe.[26]