Constantine I and Christianity
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| Saint Constantine the Great | |
|---|---|
 |
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| mosaic in Hagia Sophia, Constantinople, c. 1000 | |
| Isapostolos, 13th Apostle | |
| Born | Feb 27, 272 in Niš |
| Died | May 22, 337 in Nicomedia |
| Venerated in | Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Catholic Churches, Lutheran Church |
| Major shrine | Church of the Holy Apostles |
| Feast | May 21 |
| Attributes | In hoc signo vinces, Labarum |
| Troparion From the Byzantine Menaion | Your servant Constantine, O Lord and only Lover of Man, beheld the figure of the Cross in the Heavens; and like Paul (not having received his call from men, but as an Apostle among rulers set by Your hand over the royal city) he preserved lasting peace through the prayers of the Theotokos. |
The relationship between Constantine I and Christianity entails both the nature of the conversion of the emperor to Christianity, and his relations with the Christian Church. Though Emperor Constantine I was exposed to Christianity by his mother, St. Helena, there is scholarly controversy as to whether he adopted his mother's humble Christianity in his youth, or whether he adopted it gradually over the course of his life.[1] Whatever the case, the accession of Constantine was a turning point for the Christian Church. In 313, Constantine issued the Edict of Milan, legalizing Christian worship, and the emperor would be a great patron of the Church and set a precedent for the position of the Christian Emperor within the Church that would be followed for centuries.
Contents |
[edit] Persecutions
The first recorded significant persecution of Christians at the hands of the authorities of the Roman Empire was that of the year 64, when, as reported by the Roman historian Tacitus, the Emperor Nero blamed them for that year's great Fire of Rome. According to Church tradition, it was under Nero's persecution that SS. Peter and Paul were each martyred in Rome. For 250 years Christians suffered from sporadic and localized persecutions for their refusal to worship the Roman emperor, considered treasonous and punishable by execution. The most widespread of these was the Great Persecution (303-311) of Diocletian. He ordered Christian buildings (and the homes of Christians) torn down, their sacred books collected and burned, and Christians themselves were denied the protection offered other citizens by Roman law. Christians were arrested, tortured, mutilated, burned, starved, and forced to gladiatorial contests to amuse spectators. The Great Persecution officially ended in April of 311, when Galerius then 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.[2]
[edit] Conversion
The Emperor Constantine I was exposed to Christianity by his mother, Helena. There is scholarly controversy, however, as to whether Constantine adopted his mother's humble Christianity in his youth, or whether he adopted it gradually over the course of his life.[3] Constantine was over 40 when he finally declared himself a Christian.[4] Writing to Christians, Constantine made clear that he owed his successes to the protection of that High God alone.[5]
[edit] Edict of Milan
In 313 Constantine I and Licinius announced toleration of Christianity in the Edict of Milan, which removed penalties for professing Christianity (under which many had been martyred in previous persecutions of Christians) and returned confiscated Church property. However, it neither made paganism illegal nor made Christianity a state-sponsored religion.
[edit] Battle of Milvian Bridge
Christian sources record that Constantine experienced a dramatic event in 312 at the Battle of Milvian Bridge, after which Constantine would claim the emperorship in the West. According to these sources, Constantine looked up to the sun before the battle and saw a cross of light above it, and with it the Greek words "Εν Τουτω Νικα" ("by this, conquer!", often rendered in the Latin "in hoc signo vinces"); Constantine commanded his troops to adorn their shields with a Christian symbol (the Chi-Ro), and thereafter they were victorious.[6]
Following the battle, Constantine ignored the altars to the gods prepared on the Capitoline to receive sacrifices appropriate for the celebration of his victorious entry into Rome, and the new emperor instead went straight to the imperial palace without performing any sacrifice.[7] How much Christianity Constantine adopted at this point, however, is difficult to discern; most influential people in the empire, especially high military officials, were still pagan, and Constantine's rule exhibited at least a willingness to appease these factions. The Roman coins minted up to eight years subsequent to the battle still bore the images of Roman gods.[8] Neither did the monuments he first commissioned, such as the Arch of Constantine, contain a reference to Christianity.[9]
[edit] Patronage of the Christian Church
The accession of Constantine was a turning point for the Christian Church. After his victory, Constantine supported the Church financially, built various basilicas, granted privileges (e.g. exemption from certain taxes) to clergy, promoted Christians to high ranking offices, and returned property confiscated during the Great Persecution of Diocletian.[10] Between 324 and 330, Constantine built, virtually from scratch, a new imperial capital at Byzantium on the Bosphorus (it came to be named for him: Constantinople) – the city employed overtly Christian architecture, contained churches within the city walls (unlike "old" Rome), and had no pagan temples.[11]
[edit] Public office
Once imperial favor was granted to Christianity by the Edict, new avenues were opened to Christians, including the right to compete with pagan Romans in the traditional cursus honorum for high government positions, and greater acceptance into general civil society. Constantine respected cultivation, and his court was composed of older, respected, and honored men. Leading Roman families that refused Christianity were denied positions of power, yet pagans still received appointments, even up to the end of his life, and two-thirds of his top government was non-Christian.[12]
[edit] Church building
Constantine has been called, "a Christian donor of overpowering generosity".[13] He set up many various basilica churches: in Rome, Saint Peter's, San Giovanni in Laterano, and San Lorenzo fuori le Mura; in the Holy Land: the Church of the Nativity and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre; and in Constantinople the Church of the Holy Apostles where he was entombed. These buildings were generally not merely stand alone churches, but they included a bishop's palace and hall, warehouses for supplies for the poor, and a courtyard for public meetings, the distribution of alms, and banquets.[14]
[edit] Legal reforms
Constantine's laws enforced and reflected his Christian reforms. Crucifixion was abolished for reasons of Christian piety, but was replaced with hanging, to show there was Roman law and justice. On 7 March 7, 321, Sunday was declared the official day of rest, on which markets were banned and public offices were closed (CJ 3.12.2) (except for the purpose of freeing slaves). However, there were no restrictions on farming work (which was the work of the great majority of the population).[15] Some were even humane in the modern sense, possibly originating in his Christianity[citation needed]: a prisoner was no longer to be kept in total darkness, but must be given the outdoors and daylight, a condemned man was allowed to die in the arena, but he could not be branded on his "heavenly beautified" face, just on the feet (because God made man in his image)[citation needed], gladiatorial games were ordered to be eliminated in 325, although this had little real effect, and a slave master's rights were limited, but a slave could still be beaten to death.
[edit] Christian Emperorship
[edit] Enforcement of Orthodoxy
The reign of Constantine established a precedent for the position of the Christian Emperor in the Church. Emperors considered themselves responsible to God for the spiritual health of their subjects, and thus they had a duty of maintain orthodoxy.[16] The emperor did not decide doctrine - that was the responsibility of the bishops - rather his role was to enforce doctrine, root out heresy, and uphold ecclesiastical unity.[17] The emperor ensured that God was properly worshiped in his empire; what proper worship consisted of was for the Church to determine.[18]
In 316, Constantine acted as a judge in a North African dispute concerning the heresy of Donatism. More significantly, in 325 he summoned the Council of Nicaea, effectively the first Ecumenical Council (unless the Council of Jerusalem is so classified), to deal mostly with the heresy of Arianism.
[edit] Paganism
Constantine, though he made his allegiance clear, did not outlaw paganism; in the words of an early edict, he decreed that polytheists could "celebrate the rites of an outmoded illusion," so long as they did not force Christians to join them.[19] In a letter to the King of Persia, Constantine wrote how he shunned the "abominable blood and hateful odors" of pagan sacrifices, and instead worshiped the High God "on bended knee",[20] and in the new capital city he built, Constantine made sure that there were no pagan temples built.[21] Sporadically, however, Constantine took measures to render pagan worship incapable of being performed in public and closed pagan temples; very little pressure, however, was put on individual pagans, and there were no pagan martyrs.[22]
[edit] Reactions and reflection
[edit] Persian reaction
Beyond the limes, east of the Euphrates, the Sassanid rulers of the Persian Empire had usually tolerated their Christians. A letter supposedly from Constantine to Shapur II (who was proclaimed king in 309 before he was born, and reigned till his death in 379), written in c. 324 urged him to protect the Christians in his realm. With the edicts of toleration in the Roman Empire, Christians in Persia would now be regarded as allies of Persia's ancient enemy, and were thus persecuted. Shapur II wrote to his generals:
- You will arrest Simon, chief of the Christians. You will keep him until he signs this document and consents to collect for us a double tax and double tribute from the Christians … for we Gods have all the trials of war and they have nothing but repose and pleasure. They inhabit our territory and agree with Caesar, our enemy. (Quoted in Freya Stark, Rome on the Euphrates 1967, p. 375.)
The Sassanids were perennially at war with Rome (which incidentally raises further doubt on the authenticity of this letter). Christians were now suspected for potential treachery. The "Great Persecution" of the Persian Christian churches occurred in a later period, 340 to 363, after the Persian Wars that reopened upon Constantine's death. In 344 came the martyrdom of Catholicos Shimun bar Sabbae, with five bishops and 100 priests.
[edit] Sainthood
Constantine is celebrated as a major saint of Eastern Orthodoxy, together with his mother Helena (both feasted on 21 May). The emperor is not only considered an example of a "Christian monarch" (isapostolos - "equal to the Apostles"), he is associated, albeit in retrospect, with the idea of a "Second Rome" - the Byzantine Empire
[edit] References
- ^ R. Gerberding and J. H. Moran Cruz, Medieval Worlds (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004) p. 55
- ^ Lactantius, De Mortibus Persecutorum ("On the Deaths of the Persecutors") ch. 35-34
- ^ R. Gerberding and J. H. Moran Cruz, Medieval Worlds (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004) p. 55
- ^ Peter Brown, The Rise of Christendom 2nd edition (Oxford, Blackwell Publishing, 2003) p. 61
- ^ Peter Brown, The Rise of Christendom 2nd edition (Oxford, Blackwell Publishing, 2003) p. 60
- ^ R. Gerberding and J. H. Moran Cruz, Medieval Worlds (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004) p. 55; cf. Eusebius, Life of Constantine
- ^ Peter Brown, The Rise of Christendom 2nd edition (Oxford, Blackwell Publishing, 2003) p. 60
- ^ R. Gerberding and J. H. Moran Cruz, Medieval Worlds (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004) p. 55
- ^ Peter Brown, The Rise of Christendom 2nd edition (Oxford, Blackwell Publishing, 2003) p. 60; J.R. Curran, Pagan City and Christian Capital. Rome in the Fourth Century (Oxford, 2000) pp. 70-90
- ^ R. Gerberding and J. H. Moran Cruz, Medieval Worlds (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004) pp. 55-56
- ^ R. Gerberding and J. H. Moran Cruz, Medieval Worlds (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004) p. 56
- ^ MacMullen 1969,1984; New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1908.
- ^ Peter Brown, Rise of Christendom 2nd edition (Oxford, Blackwell Publishing, 2003) p. 77
- ^ Peter Brown, Rise of Christendom 2nd edition (Oxford, Blackwell Publishing, 2003) p. 78
- ^ MacMullen 1969; New Catholic Encyclopedia, 1908; Theodosian Code.
- ^ Richards, Jeffrey. The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages 476-752 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979) pp. 14-15
- ^ Richards, Jeffrey. The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages 476-752 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979) p. 15
- ^ Richards, Jeffrey. The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages 476-752 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1979) p. 16
- ^ Peter Brown, Rise of Christendom 2nd edition (Oxford, Blackwell Publishing, 2003) p. 74; cf. Codex Theodosianius 9.16.2
- ^ Peter Brown, Rise of Christendom 2nd edition (Oxford, Blackwell Publishing, 2003) p. 60; cf. Eusebius, Life of Constantine 4.10
- ^ R. Gerberding and J. H. Moran Cruz, Medieval Worlds (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004) p. 28
- ^ Peter Brown, Rise of Christendom 2nd edition (Oxford, Blackwell Publishing, 2003) p. 74
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The Full Text of the "Edict of Milan"
- OrthodoxWiki:Constantine the Great
- The First Missionary War - a non-Christian perspective aftermath of Constantinian's actions
