CONSTANTINE
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In the fourth century there appeared
an Emperor, Constantine (A.D. 306-337) who, born in York and succeeding his father as ruler of Spain, Gaul and
Britain, could never from the first have visualized Rome save as the capital of his rival Maxentius. When Constantine's father was associated in the government by Diocletian, his son was retained at court as a hostage, but after Diocletian and Maximian had laid down the reins of government, Constantine fled to Britain, to his father, to escape from Galerius. On his father's death in A.D.306 he was proclaimed Caesar by the legions at York; and took possession of the countries which had been subject to his father namely, Gaul, Spain, and Britain. But for many years he was just one of several claimants to the imperial purple. |
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| Constantine, Caius Flavius Valerius Aurelius CLAUDIUS, Roman emperor, surnamed the Great, son of the Emperor Constantius Chlorus, born A.D. 274. | He more than once defeated the Franks who had obtained a footing in Gaul and drove them across the Rhine; and then directed his arms against, Maxentius who had joined Maximian against him. | |
Christianity was not an officially tolerated religion in the early Roman Empire, for Christians refused to recognise the cult of the state and emperor. During the first three centuries AD there were sporadic outbursts of fierce persecution by the Romans. The persecutions did not hinder the growth of Christianity, but they had the effect of introducing new elements one such was the cult of saints, which began with the Christian martyrs. Hayng suffered and died for their faith, the martyrs were believed to be especially close to Christ. Suffering for the faith is part of Christianity, and did much to encourage the ascetic tradition, which first arose in Egypt in the 3rd century. Many Christians fled to the desert to seek God in their own way, through prayer and solitude. These hermits, living in loosely organised groups for protection, were the fathers of Christian monasticism.
According to the legend of his biographer Eusebius in 312 before the battle of the Milvian Bridge, near Rome, Constantine saw, the vision of a flaming cross in the heavens, beneath the sun, bearing the inscription, 'In. hoc signo vinces.' "By this sign you shall conquer"; a second vision instructed him to emblazon his army's shields with the Christian symbol. Therefore, under the standard of the cross, by the walls of Rome he vanquished the army of Maxentius, and entered the city in triumph.
Christianity was transformed after the Milvian Bridge victory, the Roman imperium and the Christian religion came together. Regarded through western eyes Constantine, instead of being labelled "the Great" might have passed down to history as "the bad," had it not been that he changed the course of European civilization by becoming a Christian.There is some doubt about Constantine's own religious convictions and he was not baptised until he was on his death bed, but his mother, Helena (St.), was an ardent convert, and from the time he became sole emperor he showed marked favour to the hitherto struggling Church. Jerusalem was also transformed by Emperor Constantine after his mother Helena believed she had discovered the True Cross where the church of the Holy Sepulchre now stands.
In 313, together with his son-in-law, the eastern emperor, Licinius, published the memorable edict of toleration (Edict of Milan) all Christians were given complete freedom of worship, and there was an immediate restitution of goods which had been confiscated under Diocletian's persecutions of 10 years earlier.
Although the Edict of Milan (A.D. 313), published just after his conquest of Rome, had merely granted toleration to all the religions of the Empire alike, there soon followed tax and property concessions to the clergy of the "very holy Catholic Church". The first Christian symbols on coinage appeared in 315, while the last pagan ones disappeared in 323. The judgments of episcopal courts, even in purely civil cases, were recognised by the state, and churches were allowed to benefit from legacies. Christians quickly began to take up the highest offices of state, such as the consulship and the prefectures of Rome and the Praetorium.
In 321 Sunday was recognised. "All judges, city- people and craftsmen shall rest on the venerable day of the Sun. But countrymen may without hindrance attend to agriculture, since it often happens that this is the most suitable day for sowing grain or planting vines."
There was a boom in church building, the basilica - a rectangular building divided into naves by rows of columns with a curved apse at the end - became commonplace, with Rome alone having more than 40, and dozens of others in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Byzantium (Constantinople).
The spread of Christianity demanded more complex structures to maintain discipline, the organisational structure mirrored that of the state; bishops based in the chief cities met in synod in the provincial capitals. Though conflicts over papal supremacy were still in the future, the bishopric of Rome, the see of Peter, (St.) had an honoured status along with those of Antioch, Alexandria and, later, Jerusalem and Constantinople.
Constantine's interventions into Church affairs were not always constructive, however, and sometimes had fateful implications for the future. From its beginnings Christianity, like Judaism, had attracted suspicion, even persecution, because of its refusal to compromise with other religions (especially the official emperor-worship). Constantine needed to preserve the unity of the empire, and thus it was essential to establish peace and doctrinal uniformity in what was becoming the empire's religon. It was Constantine who prompted the persecution of the Donatists, a breakaway sect in North Africa who refused to accept control by the state. This was the first instance of Christian persecution of heretics - those who did not accept standard doctrine.
In 325 he called a council at Nicaea to settle the intense theological debate, of ARIANISM aroused by the Alexandrian priest Arius (c250.336), who taught that Jesus Christ was not divine but that the two persons were substantially similar (homoiousion) rather than the same (homoousion). Constantine called and presided over the first of the great Church councils at Nicaea in Bithynia (in modern Turkey). The judgment of the 300 or so assembled bishops survives in the words of the Nicene Creed . The council declared that the Son of God, incarnate in Jesus, was 'begotten not created', and was 'of one substance with the Father'. Thus the divinity of Christ was defined. But the controversies were not over, and during the next 125 years several further councils were called to resolve them. The outcome was the doctrine formulated at the Council of Chalcedon in 451. This stated that the One God exists as three persons - Father, Son and Holy Spirit - one substance. Jesus Christ. The Son of God, is one person with two natures - his eternal divine nature and his created human nature. It formed a blueprint for the way the Church was to formulate doctrine. It established the practice whereby articles of faith and aspects of moral behaviour were worked out by reasoned debate.
Constantine changed the face of Christianity, some dangers were obvious - his espousal of Christianity did not deter him from killing several members of his own family, including his second wife and eldest son. More insidious was the compromise of his principles and the insincerity of an Emperor who wished to control the Church. Licinius, becoming jealous of his fame, twice took up arms against him, but was on each occasion defeated, and finally put to death.
Thus in 325 Constantine became the sole head of the Roman Empire. His internal administration was marked by wise spirit of reform, and by many humane concessions with regard to slaves, accused persons, widows, &c.
The declining importance of the city of Rome was partly due to geography; since, though the site had proved eminently suitable for the government of Italy alone, Milan, within easy distance of the Alpine passes, was far more accessible from the point of view of the Empire. There was also a change of outlook. Since the election of Vespasian many of the Emperors had been provincials without any feeling of the sacredness of Rome; Diocletian, for instance, for military reasons preferred to live in Nicomedia.
When he had defeated Maxentius and also Licinius who was ruling in the East, Constantine was lord of the whole Roman world; but he did not choose to live in Rome. Instead, he built himself a beautiful capital at Constantinople, on the European side of the Bosphorus, where the Greek colony of Byzantium had once stood, and set up a golden milestone to show that this was to be the centre of the civilized world.
In 329 he laid the foundation of a
new capital of the empire, at Byzantium, which was called after him Constantinople, and soon rivalled Rome herself. This brought the Eastern Churches, and thr
Patriarch of Constantinople, firmly under state control, while the Patriarch of the West, the Bishop of Rome, was
left more free of imperial dictates.
From a strategical point of view he was right. Constantinople withstood the assaults of pagan barbarians for over
a thousand years: Rome opened her gates to the Goths in less than a hundred; but to that unity of civilization
the Empire had once represented, the change of capitals was to prove disastrous.
From the founding of Constantinople (330) the rift between East and West widened steadily, until in the Middle Ages there were two Empires, each claiming to be the one descendant of "immortal Rome," and two Churches declaring they alone had received the authority of Christ and His Apostles.
In 332 he fought successfully against the Goths, relieved the empire of a disgraceful tribute which his predecessors had paid to these barbarians, and secured his frontier upon the Danube.
In 337 after a reign of thirty-one years, he was taken ill near Nicomedia, and shortly before his death baptised, leaving his empire between his three eons, Constantine, Constantius, and Constans.
