.—Sacred Service in the Church of the Apostles on the Occasion of Constantine’s Funeral.
soon
as [Constantius] had withdrawn himself with the military train, the
ministers of God came forward, with the multitude and the whole
congregation of the faithful, and performed the rites of Divine worship
with prayer. At the same time the tribute of their praises was given to
the character of this blessed prince, whose body rested on a lofty and
conspicuous monument, and the whole multitude united with the priests
of God in offering prayers for his soul, not without tears,—nay, rather with much weeping; thus performing an office consonant with the desires of the pious deceased. In this respect also the favor of God was manifested to his servant, in that he not only bequeathed the succession of the empire to his own beloved sons, but that the earthly tabernacle of his thrice blessed soul, according to his own earnest wish, was permitted to share the monument of the apostles; was associated with the honor of their name, and with that of the people of God; was honored by the performance of the sacred ordinances and mystic service; and enjoyed a participation in the prayers of the saints. Thus, too, he continued to possess imperial power even after death, controlling, as though with renovated life, a universal dominion, and retaining in his own name, as Victor, Maximus, Augustus, the sovereignty of the Roman world.