Imperial Titles and Honours

 EUSEBIUS was emphatically the court bishop, but he did not observe the ecclesiastical rule in calling Constantine "most pious," § 14, Lett. App. Decr. "most wise and most religious," § 4, "most religious," § 8, § 10. ( Nic . n. 47, etc.) He goes in his Vit. Const. further than this, and assigns to him the office of determining the faith (Constantine being as yet unbaptised). E.g. "When there were differences between persons of different countries, the Emperor, as if some common bishop appointed by God, convened Councils of God's ministers; and, not disdaining to be present, and to sit amid their conferences," etc. i. 44. When he came into the Nicene Council, "it was," says Eusebius, "as some heavenly Angel of God," iii. 10, alluding to the brilliancy of the imperial purple. He confesses, however, he did not sit down until the Bishops bade him. Again, at the same Council, "with pleasant eyes, looking serenity itself into them all, collecting himself, and in a quiet and gentle voice," he made an oration to the Fathers upon peace. Constantine had been an instrument in conferring such vast benefits, humanly speaking, on the Christian body, that it is not wonderful that other writers of the day besides Eusebius should praise him. Hilary speaks of him as "of sacred memory," Fragm. 5, init. Athanasius calls him "most pious," Apol. contr. Arian. 9, "of blessed memory," Ep. Æg. 18, 19. Epiphanius "most religious and of ever-blessed memory," Hær. 70, 9. Posterity, as was natural, was still more grateful.

 Up to the year 356, when Constantius took up the AnomSans, this was Athan.'s tone in speaking of him also. In his Apol. contr. Arian. init. (A.D. 350,) ad Ep. Æg. 5, (356,) and his Apol. ad Constant. passim (356,) he calls the Emperor most pious, religious, etc. At the end of the last-mentioned work, § 27, the news comes to him while in exile of the persecution of the Western Bishops and the measures against himself. He still in the peroration calls Constantius, "blessed and divinely favoured Augustus," and urges on him that he is a "Christian, [ philochristos ], Emperor." Vid. supr. art. Athanasius .

 The honour paid to the Imperial Statues is well known. "He who crowns the Statue of the Emperor of course honours him whose image he has crowned." Ambros. in Psalm. 118, x. 25. vid. also Chrysost. Hom. on Statues, Oxf. Tr. pp. 355, 6, etc. Fragm. in Act. Conc. vii. (t. 4, p. 89, Hard.) Chrysostom's second persecution arose from his interfering with a statue of the Empress, which was so near the Church that the acclamations of the people before it disturbed the services. Socr. vi. 18. The Seventh Council speaks of the images sent by the Emperors into provinces instead of their coming in person; Ducange in v. Lauratum. Vid. a description of the imperial statues and their honours in Gothofred, Cod. Theod. t. 5, pp. 346, 347, and in Philostorg. ii. 18, xii. 10. vid. also Molanus de Imaginibus ed. Paquot, p. 197.

 From the custom of paying honour to the Imperial Statues, the Cultus Imaginum was introduced into the Eastern Church. The Western Church, not having had the civil custom, resisted. vid. Döllinger, Church History, vol. iii. p. 55. E. Tr. Certain Fathers, e.g. S. Jerome, set themselves against the civil custom, as idolatrous, comparing it to that paid to Nebuchadnezzar's statue, vid. Hieron. in Dan. iii. 18. Incense was burnt before those of the Emperors; as afterwards before the Images of the Saints.