Learning from his predecessors that divine assistance was needed for a more powerful aid than his military forces, Constantine, Caesar of the Western Roman Empire, went on a quest to find a god he can rely on for protection and assistance. After having a vision of a “trophy of a cross of light in the heavens, above the sun, bearing the inscription, Conquer by this,” he affirmed it was not the pagan gods but rather, “God, the only begotten Son of the one and only God.” Hence, he determined to devote himself to the readings of the Bible. Leading his army with his newfound allegiance to the Christian God, Constantine became the sole emperor of the Roman Empire. In the year 313, he issued the Edict of Toleration, ending the persecution of Christians. Although Constantine’s conquest of the Roman Empire appeared to be a positive event for Christianity, the original biblical canon of Christianity manifested into a liberal doctrine of faith that lacked the true devotion of a real disciple.
Eusebius’ Life of Constantine, the first written document of the history of Constantine in the 4th century, expressed the gratifying victories of Constantine sanctioned by the power of God. Eusebius describes the reign of Maxentius, who “had proceeded to great lengths in impiety and wickedness, so as to venture without hesitation on every vile and impure action.” He separated women from their husbands putting them in shame to cater to his desires. He partook in the massacre of countless Roman citizens in their own city. He abused and slaughtered women, children, and animals as a means for comfort and victory. Constantine, “filled with compassion on account for all these miseries” defeats the tyrannical rule of Maxentius. Rome praised Constantine a...
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...s authority similar to that of a Senator, losing its religious sentiment.
Constantine’s conversion of the Roman Empire had a lasting effect on Christianity. Eusebius represents the conversion as a noble and respectable event for Christianity; however, early Christians know that the true beliefs of Christianity were heavily undermined. Because Christianity lost its true foundation, Christians were forced to find new ways to practice their beliefs and express their devotion. This watered-down version of Christianity opened the door to various divisions in the Church that still exist to this day. Although Constantine’s conquest of the Roman Empire appeared to be a positive event for Christianity, the original biblical canon of Christianity manifested into a liberal religion that lacked the true devotion of a real disciple.
Works Cited
Eusebius, Life of Constantine
...eligious practices. Christianity affected not only the Roman Empire but many other countries as well, altering their practices and making way for worship in the present day.
However, this was different compared to Constantine who converted to Christianity and evangelized people to convert to Christianity as well. Constantine ruled as emperor from 306-337 A.D. and was the first Christian emperor of the time and credited
The rise of Christianity in Rome did not come easily. It came with much destruction and death. The spark of Christianity in Rome came from an appearance of Martyrs in Rome. Martyrs were people that were executed for going against the common beliefs of pagan (polytheistic) ways. (Tignor, 2011, p. 286) Because of these awful executions, Christianity is said to be based off of “the blood of martyrs.” One of their main ways of spreading Christianity was through the sharing of their writings and by 300 CE there was an exceptional amount of book production throughout Rome. (Tignor, 2011, p. 289) “Christianity operated as one among many minority religions in the Roman Empire, and on several occasions experienced widespread persecution, especially under the emperors Nero (r. 54–68), Decius (r. 249–251), and Diocletian (r. 284–305). However, the situation changed radically under the emperor Constantine (r. 306–337), who in 313 issued the Edict of Milan that made Christianity a legitimate religion in the empire.” (Melton, 2010, p. 634)
Gaius Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus, or Constantine, is commonly referred to as the fist Christian emperor of the Roman Empire and as the defender of Christianity. Such grand titles are not necessarily due for the reasons that people commonly think of them today.
When he won the throne, similar to Emperor Han Wudi’s conversion to Confucianism in Han Dynasty China, converted to Christianity. Because of this conversion, Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire. The Christian way became very involved in government in the Roman Empire. Even though Christianity’s message is a sense of universal love, because of it intolerance of other religions, there was persecutions of pagans that lead to death. It was not until 450 CE. that a small majority of the Roman Empire was Christian. There ultimately was a split in the empire between the east and the west. The Western Empire struggled on its survival unlike the eastern Empire. The Eastern Empire strived because it stayed involved in Roman politics, administration, and armies. Because the east stayed involved within the government, they were able to last longer. The east was able to spread Christianity more effectively than that of the
As the greatest empire in the western world began to crumble one city at a time, the leader of the Roman Empire, Constantine, under pressure from external and internal sources moved the capital of Rome to Constantinople around 330 AD. The movement of the capital was after his conversion to Christianity in 312 AD, a growing religion throughout the empire despite being officially illegal. Constantine was not the devote saint that the church may speak of today, “from 312-320 Constantine was tolerant of paganism, keeping pagan gods on coins and retaining his pagan high priest title "Pontifex Maximus" in order to maintain popularity with his subjects, possibly indicating that he never understood the theology of Christianity” (Ferguson & Grupp, 1998). The first Christian Emperor claimed to have converted after a victorious battle with his brother and there are many that corroborate this story it appears highly suspicious to only promote Christian ideals and worship. Constantine was not even the Emperor that made Christianity the religion of the Roman people, but simply permitted religiou...
Eusebius’ account of Constantine’s conversion is comparable to Gregory of Tours’ accounts of Clovis’ and Gundobad’s conversions to Christianity, in the sense that they all initially called upon the “Christ-God” (albeit Gundobad perhaps indirectly) to come to their aid, which he did, during periods of military crisis. The si...
Although popular knowledge of early Christians emphasize their persecution and severe ostracism within the Roman Empire, a closer study of Roman law reveals that Christianity and being Christian were not crimes in and of themselves. As a matter of fact, citizens of the Roman Empire were free to worship any god. Even their proclamations about Jesus were not considered heretical. On the contrary, it was not out of the ordinary to declare a human to be divine. After all, the emperor himself was thought by many to have been divine. In addition, the “secret meetings” of Christians to celebrate the Lord’s Supper often portrayed, as highly covert and something the Christians attended in fear of being found out, also were not illegal. As a matter of fact, most of the rituals and beliefs associated with being a Christian in ancient times were not deemed criminal. In actuality, the Roman Empire punished Christians for breaking laws that were applicable to every Roman citizen.
Constantine I (February 27, 280 C.E.- May 22, 337 C.E.), also known as Constantine the Great, was the first Roman emperor to not only abolish persecution of Christians, but he was also the first to convert to Christianity in 312 A.D. Around 200 years later, in 496 A.D. Clovis I (466 C.E.- 511 C.E.), the King of the Franks, converted to Christianity, in which he was called a “new Constantine” . Constantine and Clovis’ reign through Christianity were alike in the way that they decided to convert. However, the two emperors were different in their commitment to God and their impacts on the church and state.
After taking the throne at age twenty, Alexander took responsibility for fighting in the battlefield and personally fought in the battles for territory and conquest (Plutarch, 251). Alexander put a “speedy stop to the disturbances and wars among the barbarians” by launching an “army as far as to the river Danube” (Plutarch, 253). Plutarch decides to focus on Alexander’s leadership qualities on the battlefield in order to prove his success in running and expanding an empire. Under his rule, the empire could expand and flourish. For Plutarch, military skill and accomplishment are what lend themselves to being a successful leader. Unlike Plutarch, Eusebius links Constantine’s success in maintaining an empire to his devotion to Christianity and the power of God. Constantine, when faced with the failures of his enemies, turned to Christianity (Eusebius, XXVII). He used “divine assistance” to guide him on his quests to destroy tyrants, unlike Alexander who relied solely on his skills in fighting (Eusebius, XXVII). In addition, the defining feature of Constantine’s rule was his conversion after witnessing a diving intervention of a cross in the sky which bore the inscription: “conquer by this” (Eusebius, XXVII). By giving religion a role in the success of empire building, Eusebius says that Christianity can translate into success in what you do. Plutarch and Eusebius differ in the way in which they
Constantine was able to remain true to his religious beliefs and Christianity was allowed to flourish in the open. The edict protected Christians from being tortured by the pagan leaders and restored their places of worship into the hands of Christian leaders. Having possession of their religious artifacts gave Christians encouragement as they returned to worship in their churches. Christian freedom led to their presence in community where they could openly express their religious beliefs and moral values. The pagans continued to try and prevent the growth of Christianity and more wars ensued but at least the Christians now had legal recourse.
As one looks over this history, it is hard to believe that Christianity survived at all. The Romans were so afraid of a new religion, and the bad things that it might bring to the empire that they killed thousands of people. It was this fear that kept Rome from advancing, and kept the Christians in hiding. It is my belief that if tolerance had been Rome’s agenda from the beginning, that many conflicts could have been avoided. When it comes down to it ironically enough everyone should have just followed the Christian saying, “Do unto others, as you would have done to you.” (Luke)
In conclusion, Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire despite the barriers of Judaism, the Empire itself, and problems within the church. Ironically, the Jews rejection of Jesus as Messiah was the catalyst for the leaders of the church to take the message to the Gentiles. This growing movement threatened the foundation of the Roman Empire. Although controversial, the Bible is used as a primary source document to understand the beliefs and customs of Judaism and Christianity. For the majority of Christians, the Bible is seen as historically accurate and is fundamental to their faith. The difficulties that the early church faced such as racism, tradition, and immorality are the same struggles we face today. For many throughout the world, the Bible is used as a “how to guide” for human behavior, has stood the test of time, and continues to be relevant.
As the Imperial system gained hold, it was common practice for the Emperors to accept divine honors before their deaths. These living gods, in some cases, required sacrificial rituals as signs of loyalty and ingrained themselves with the older more traditional pagan gods. The requirement of a sacrifice to the emperor, as well as the forced belief in the complete pantheon became a significant source of conflict with early Christians. As Christians refused to worship the emperor as a god, persecution of the Christians and conflict with the cult was a constant source of strife. Emperor worship would continue until late in the western Empire until the reign of Constantine. In the early 4th century AD, Constantine either converted to Christianity or made it an acceptable part of Roman religion, eliminating the emperor deification altogether. Later Emperors such as Julian attempted to revive the old ways, but the deeply rooted Mithraism, and Christian cults combined were firmly set within Roman society. By 392 AD, Emperor Theodosius I banned the practice of pagan religions in Rome altogether and Christianity was, without question, the official religion of the state.
Christianity became more prevalent in Roman society as time went on because it appealed to Rome and what Roman ideals were. In the beginning Romans were skeptical of changing religion, but as the years went by, the Romans adopted and changed. Christianity appealed to the Roman ideals, as it gave certain perks that their current polytheistic religion did not offer to them. The emperors of Rome had many different views on Christianity; some emperors encouraged change, and others were more traditional and wanted to stick to their current, polytheistic religion. Roman views on Christianity have changed drastically from the early years of the Roman Empire to the 4th century, as well as its appeal to the ordinary Roman citizen.