But this treacherous calm was soon to be again broken. The superstitious tyrant Maximin endeavoured to revive the dying paganism, and to renew the persecution. He paid Christianity the high compliment of attempting a complete organization of the heathen priesthood on the model of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and restored the ancient worship with unwonted pomp. He prohibited the assemblies in the cemeteries, and reiterated the edict of extermination against the Christians.[131] But the loathsome death of this brutal voluptuary soon delivered the church from the most implacable of its foes. From the distant island of Britain--that ultimate far Thule of the empire--had arrived the Cæsar who should enthrone the new faith on the seat of its persecutors, and establish it as the religion of the state,[132] an event more perilous to its purity and spiritual power than the direst oppression it had ever endured. Constantine having overcome the enemies of Christianity, who were also his own, became its protector, more, it is easy to believe, either from conviction of its truth or from policy than on account of the alleged miraculous vision of the cross of Christ, the presage of a bloody victory.[133] He issued at Milan, A. D. 313, that decree of full and unlimited 93 toleration[134] which became thenceforth the charter of the church’s liberties.[135] The sufferings of the more illustrious victims of persecution are 94 alone recorded in history, which is silent concerning the great army of unknown martyrs, whose names are recorded only in the Book of Life. The bishops of the church were ever the first to feel the tyrants’ rage. The episcopal chair was often but the stepping-stone to the scaffold. Yet faithful shepherds were not wanting to lead the flock of Christ, and to testify their devotion to their trust by the sacrifice of their lives. We have seen how Caius suffered even before the final outbreak of persecution. Marcellinus, his successor, incurred the resentment of the tyrant Maxentius, was degraded to the office of groom of the public stables, where the horses of the circus were kept, and soon sank beneath the weight of his miseries and those of the church.[136] Marcellus, sometimes confounded with Marcellinus, paid the penalty of exile for his firmness in maintaining the ecclesiastical discipline against those who apostatized from the faith in those times of fiery trial. This event is recorded in the Damasine inscription: VERIDICVS RECTOR LAPSOS QVIA CRIMINA FLERE PRAEDIXIT MISERIS FVIT OMNIBVS HOSTIS AMARVS HINC FVROR HINC ODIVM SEQVITVR DISCORDIA LITES SEDITIO CAEDES SOLVVNTVR FOEDERA PACIS CRIMEN OB ALTERIVS CHRISTVM QVI IN PACE NEGAVIT FINIBVS EXPVLSVS PATRIAE EST FERITATE TYRANNI HAEC BREVITER DAMASVS VOLVIT COMPERTA REFERRE MARCELLI VT POPVLVS MERITVM COGNOSCERE POSSET.[137]