“Go, my son, and finish with your comrades this short journey, that you may not be one of the last to appear in the presence of your God.” In the mean time, Constantine was more and more favoring the Christians. He issued edicts recommending the universal observance of the Lord’s day; he abolished all those laws which forbade Christians when dying to bequeath their property to the Church; and he forbade the _cross_ from ever again being used as an instrument of punishment. CHAPTER XVI. THE CONVERSION OF CONSTANTINE. The Arian Controversy.――Sanguinary Conflict between Paganism and Christianity.――Founding of Constantinople.――The Council of Nice. ――Its Decision.――Duplicity of some of the Arians.――The Nicene Creed.――Tragic Scene in the life of Constantine.――His Penitence and true Conversion.――His Baptism, and Reception into the Church. ――Charles V.――The Emperor Napoleon I. THE Arian controversy, which subsequently so distracted the Church, commenced about this time,――A. D. 318. Arias, a pastor of Alexandria, introduced the doctrine, that the Son was not equal to the Father; that he was created by him, and that there consequently was a time when the Son did not exist. This denial of the divinity of Christ, and consequently of the doctrine of the Trinity, involved, as it was deemed, the necessary denial of the stone which was regarded as the fundamental doctrine of Christianity,――the corner-stone upon which the whole edifice of the salvation of sinners was reared. The controversy greatly agitated the Church for ages, and has not fully subsided even to the present day. As Constantine had embraced the cause of the Christians, and Licinius that of the pagan party, it is not strange that the two emperors should soon find themselves arrayed in arms against each other. On the 13th of July, 324, the two armies of the rival emperors met near Adrianople.[181] Licinius had a hundred and fifty thousand infantry and fifteen thousand cavalry: Constantine had a hundred and twenty thousand infantry and ten thousand cavalry. It was clearly understood on both sides that it was a battle between the two religions, as in olden time between God and Baal. Constantine took with him as chaplains several Christian bishops. The banner of the cross, like the ancient ark of the covenant, was very conspicuously borne before the troops. Constantine set apart the day before the battle for a season of fasting and prayer with his whole army. Licinius gathered around him the magicians of Egypt and the idolatrous priests. The most imposing sacrifices were offered to the pagan gods. He assembled all his officers in a grove filled with idols, and thus addressed them:――