Constantine the Great and Christianity

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Constantine's vision and the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in a 9th-century Byzantine manuscript.

During the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (AD 306–337), Christianity began to transition to the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. Historians remain uncertain about Constantine's reasons for favoring Christianity, and theologians and historians have often argued about which form of early Christianity he subscribed to. There is no consensus among scholars as to whether he adopted his mother Helena's Christianity in his youth, or, as claimed by Eusebius of Caesarea, encouraged her to convert to the faith he had adopted himself.

Constantine ruled the Roman Empire as sole emperor for much of his reign. Some scholars allege that his main objective was to gain unanimous approval and submission to his authority from all classes, and therefore chose Christianity to conduct his political propaganda, believing that it was the most appropriate religion that could fit with the Imperial cult (see also Sol Invictus). Regardless, under the Constantinian dynasty Christianity expanded throughout the Empire, launching the era of State church of the Roman Empire.[1][full citation needed] Whether Constantine sincerely converted to Christianity or remained loyal to Paganism is a matter of debate among historians (see also Constantine's religious policy).[2] His formal conversion in 312 is almost universally acknowledged among historians,[1][3][full citation needed] despite that it was claimed he was baptized only on his deathbed by the Arian bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia in 337;[4][5][6] the real reasons behind it remain unknown and are debated also.[2][3] According to Hans Pohlsander, Professor Emeritus of History at the University at Albany, SUNY, Constantine's conversion was just another instrument of realpolitik in his hands meant to serve his political interest in keeping the Empire united under his control:

The prevailing spirit of Constantine's government was one of conservatorism. His conversion to and support of Christianity produced fewer innovations than one might have expected; indeed they served an entirely conservative end, the preservation and continuation of the Empire.

— Hans Pohlsander, The Emperor Constantine[7]

Constantine's decision to cease the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire was a turning point for early Christianity, sometimes referred to as the Triumph of the Church, the Peace of the Church or the Constantinian shift. In 313, Constantine and Licinius issued the Edict of Milan decriminalizing Christian worship. The emperor became a great patron of the Church and set a precedent for the position of the Christian emperor within the Church and raised the notions of orthodoxy, Christendom, ecumenical councils, and the state church of the Roman Empire declared by edict in 380. He is revered as a saint and isapostolos in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Church, and various Eastern Catholic Churches for his example as a "Christian monarch”.

Before Constantine[]

The first recorded official persecution of Christians on behalf of the Roman Empire was in AD 64, when, as reported by the Roman historian Tacitus, Emperor Nero attempted to blame Christians for the Great Fire of Rome. According to Church tradition, it was during the reign of Nero that Peter and Paul were martyred in Rome. However, modern historians debate whether the Roman government distinguished between Christians and Jews prior to Nerva's modification of the Fiscus Judaicus in 96, from which point practising Jews paid the tax and Christians did not.[8]

Christians suffered from sporadic and localized persecutions over a period of two and a half centuries. Their refusal to participate in the Imperial cult was considered an act of treason and was thus punishable by execution. The most widespread official persecution was carried out by Diocletian. During the Great Persecution (303–311), the emperor ordered Christian buildings and the homes of Christians torn down and their sacred books collected and burned. Christians were arrested, tortured, mutilated, burned, starved, and condemned to gladiatorial contests to amuse spectators.[9] The Great Persecution officially ended in April 311, when Galerius, senior emperor of the Tetrarchy, issued an edict of toleration, which granted Christians the right to practice their religion, though it did not restore any property to them.[10] Constantine, Caesar in the Western empire, and Licinius, Caesar in the East, also were signatories to the edict of toleration.[11] It has been speculated that Galerius' reversal of his long-standing policy of Christian persecution has been attributable to one or both of these co-Caesars.[12]

Conversion[]

It is possible (but not certain) that Constantine's mother, Helena, exposed him to Christianity. In any case, he only declared himself a Christian after issuing the Edict of Milan.[13][14] Writing to Christians, Constantine made clear that he believed that he owed his successes to the protection of the High God alone.[15]

Vision of Apollo[]

Jugate gold multiple issued by Constantine at Ticinum in 313, showing the emperor and the god Sol, with Sol also depicted in his quadriga on Constantine's shield.[16]
Follis issued by Constantine at Lugdunum c.309–10, with Sol holding a globe and wearing a radiate crown. Constantine is described as SOLI INVICTO COMITI, 'Companion of Sol Invictus'

In 310 a panegyric, preserved in the Panegyrici Latini collection and delivered at Trier for the joint occasion of the city's birthday and Constantine's quinquennalia, recounted a vision apparently seen by the emperor while journeying between Marseille and Trier.[17] The panegyricist recounts that the god Apollo appeared to Constantine in company with Victoria and together presented him with three wreaths representing thirty years of power.[17] This vision was perhaps in a dream experienced by the emperor while practising incubation at the shrine of Apollo Grannus in Grand, Vosges.[17] Eusebius was aware of this vision, or reports of it, and refers in his own Panegyric of Constantine of 336 to "tricennial crowns"[18] bestowed by the hand of God in Christianity on Constantine, "augmenting the sway of his kingdom by long years".[19][17]

Battle of Milvian Bridge[]

Eusebius of Caesarea and other Christian sources record that Constantine experienced a dramatic series of events sometime between his father Constantius I's death in 306 and the Battle of the Milvian Bridge on 28 October 312.[17] The battle secured Constantine's claim to the title of augustus in the West, which he had assumed unilaterally when his father died.[17] According to the Life of Constantine, written after Constantine himself had died by Eusebius, who admitted he heard the story long after it had happened from the emperor himself, and who is not specific about when or where it occurred, Constantine saw a vision of "a cross-shaped trophy formed from light" above the sun at midday.[17]

The Emblem of Christ Appearing to Constantine, as imagined by Rubens (1622). Constantine's army sees a chi-rho in the daytime sky.

About the time of the midday sun, when the day was just turning, he said he saw with his own eyes up in the sky and resting over the sun, a cross-shaped trophy formed from light, and a text attached to it which said, "By this conquer." (τούτῳ νίκα) Amazement at the spectacle seized both him and the whole company of soldiers which was then accompanying him on a campaign he was conducting somewhere, and witnessed the miracle.

— Eusebius of Caesarea, Vita Constantini, 1.28.2

The Greek words "Ἐν Τούτῳ Νίκα" (in this sign, conquer) are often rendered in a Latin version, "in hoc signo vinces" (in this sign, you will conquer).[20] According to Eusebius, Constantine also had a dream that same night.[17] In the dream,

the Christ of God appeared to him with the sign which had appeared in the sky, and urged him to make himself a copy of the sign which had appeared in the sky, and to use this as a protection against the attacks of the enemy.

— Eusebius of Caesarea, Vita Constantini, 1.29

Eusebius himself, writing his Church History shortly after 313, makes no mention of this story in that work, and does not recount it until composing his posthumous biography of Constantine decades afterwards.[17] Lactantius, writing 313–15 and around twenty years before Eusebius's Life, also does not mention a vision in the sky.[17] Instead, Lactantius mentions only that Constantine's dream took place on the eve of the climactic battle on the Pons Milvius across the Tiber, with the crucial detail that the "sign" was marked on the Constantinian soldiers' shields.[17] According to Lactantius:

Constantine's dream in a 9th-century Byzantine manuscript
Medallion issued by Constantine at Ticinum in 315, with chi-rho on the emperor's crest and Romulus and Remus and the Lupa on his shield.
Late Roman sarcophagus with a combined cross and wreathed chi-rho.

Constantine was advised in a dream to mark the heavenly sign of God on the shields of his soldiers and then engage in battle. He did as he was commanded and by means of a letter X turned sideways, with the top of its head bent around (transversa X littera, summo capite circumflexo), he marked Christ on their shields (Christum in scutis notat). Armed with this sign, the army took up its weapons.

— Lactantius, De Mortibus Persecutorum, 44.5–6
Follis issued by Constantine at Constantinople in 337, with a chi-rho on a labarum.

It is unclear from these sources what Constantine saw and what was marked on his army's shields.[17] Eusebius's description of the daytime vision suggests a cross-shaped (either Τ or †) symbol, whereas Lactantius's description suggests a staurogram (⳨), although the crux ansata (☥) or the Egyptian hieroglyph ankh (