is, vicars, which defended Rome, and fought for her, and for the Empire. After the said Constantine, which reigned more than thirty years, first in command of Rome, and then in command of Constantinople, there were left three sons, Constantine, and Constantius, and Constans, which had war and contentions among themselves, and one of them, to wit, Constantine, was a Christian, and the next, Constantius, was a heretic, and persecuted the Christians by reason of his heresy, which was begun in Constantinople by one named Arius, and this heresy was called Arian, after his name, which spread much error throughout all the world, and throughout the Church of God. These sons of Constantine by their dissensions greatly laid waste the Empire of Rome, and in a sense abandoned it, and henceforward it always seemed as if it were declining, and its sovereignty becoming less; and there began to be two and three emperors at one time, and one would be reigning in Constantinople, and another in the Empire of Rome, and one would be Christian, and another an Arian heretic, persecuting the Christians and the Church, and this endured long time, so that all Italy was infected thereby. Of the other emperors before and after, we shall make no ordered record, save of those which pertain to our subject; but he who desires to find them in order should read the Martinian Chronicle, and therein he will find the emperors and the popes which were in those times set forth in order. Sec. 60.--_How the Christian faith first came to Florence._ [Sidenote: Par. xvi. 47, 145, 146.] [Sidenote: Inf. xiii. 143-150.] [Sidenote: Par. xvi. 25, 47.] [Sidenote: Par. xvi. 42.] [Sidenote: Inf. xix. 17-20. Par. xv. 134, 135.]