The Conversion of Constantine was a pivotal event in Roman and world history which occurred on 28 October 312 AD when the Roman emperor Constantine the Great converted to Christianity. While later historians would sometimes question whether the conversion was genuine or a "power grab", Constantine's conversion and his legalization of Christianity with his Edict of Milan led to several Roman aristocrats adopting the faith, and the religion spreading after centuries of persecution.
History[]
Background[]
Constantine the Great was born in Naissus in the Balkans, and he was raised worshipping a variety of pagan gods such as the gods of his hometown, the gods of his family, gods connected with the armies he served, and the gods of Rome itself. The son of Constantius I, he rose through the ranks of military and political service over the years, serving as a junior military officer under Diocletian and under Galerius, who realized the potential problem with Constantine, who expected to become Caesar. Constantine was not named to the position and harbored some resentment, and Galerius responded by plotting to remove Constantine from the scene by regularly putting him in harm's way during various military endeavors, allegedly including fighting a lion one-on-one. Constantine emerged from these attempts unscathed, and, after Constantius became Augustus, he requested his son's transfer to his own service, which Galerius agreed to. Constantius quickly headed to his father's camp in Gaul before Galerius could change his mind, and he joined his father's military campaigns in Britain at Hadrian's Wall. On 25 July 306, Constantius took ill and died, and the second Tetrarchy collapsed.
Constantine's visions[]
The labarum symbol
In the ensuing wars which accompanied the dissolution of the Tetrarchy, Constantine was forced to invade Italy to overthrow the tyrant Maxentius, and, while he was within striking distance of Rome, he claimed to have had a vision. One of his visions occurred at Grand in Vosges, Gaul, where he had a vision of the god Apollo outside of his temple, where he offered Constantine 30 years of life in the form of several laurel wreaths. Apollo also indicated that Constantine would rule the owrld, and that he was a human manifestation of him. He then became a henotheist (worshipping one god, but accepting others' existences) who worshipped Sol Invictus. After praying to the one supreme god before battle, he and his entire army witnessed a cross-shaped trophy in the sky formed from light, resting over the sun. It said, "By this conquer", and he and the whole company of soldiers accompanying him were gripped by amazement after watching the miracle. That night, Jesus appeared to him with the same sign Constantine had seen in the sky, directing him to make a copy of it as protection from the attacks of his enemies. Constantine did not know which God had given him the vision, but he created the copy of the symbol. It was a tall pole plated with gold, with a crossbeam that gave it the shape of a cross. At the very top was a jeweled and gilded wreath on which were superimposed the Greek letters chi and rho, the first two letters of the Greek word for "Christ". Constantine then took the object, known as the labarum, into battle with him, and it ensured victory each time.
A third account from the Christian historian Lactantius claimed that Constantine had an epiphany the night before the battle with Maxentius. Constantine was instructed to place the "heavenly sign of God" on the shields of his soldiers before going to battle, and he proceeded to have his soldiers decorate their shields with the letter X crossed through the middle by the letter I, the top of which was to be rounded, appearing to be a Chi-Rho. Armed with these shields, Constantine's troops went into battle and routed the opposition. Constantine ultimately decided that Sol Invictus was the god of the Christians, and he became a convert. He did not undesrtand much about the faith at the time, with both his faith and knowledge being rudimentary. Although he did not know about the refined theological views and serious debates about the nature of God, the identity of Christ, and the relationship of Christ and God, he knew that he wanted to worship only the Christian god.
Religious freedom and persecution[]
Following the Battle of Milvian Bridge and the death of Maxentius in 312, Constantine made peace with his other rival claimant, Licinius. In 313 AD, they agreed to legalize Christianity, and Licinius authored the Edict of Milan in Bithynia, ending the persecution of Christians in the East. In 324, however, as relations soured between the two emperors, Licinius resumed the persecution, leading to Constantine going to war and defeating him at the Hellespont that year. In 326, on the 20th anniversary of his rise to the throne, Constantine incensed pagan members of the Roman Senate and the ruling elite by refusing to make a token sacrifice to Jupiter upon entering the city as conqueror, and he also began to build a new capital city for Rome in the east, an explicitly Christian city which was to become known as Constantinople. He had sacred sites from around his empire pillaged, depriving pagan religions of their cult images, desacralizing their statues and making them secular artwork, and giving Christians the ability to mock the pagans. Constantine also stripped temples of their doors and roofs, and gold-plated cult statues were melted down. He sent several members of his inner circle on a destructive campaign to every province, city by city, country by country to bring out the pagan gods with mockery and contempt. Not only did they melt pagan statues, but they also denuded them. The Christians were now backed by the government in persecuting paganism, and the tide would never turn back again, except for a brief period under Julian the Apostate. While Constantine publicly supported religious freedom, he backed the persecutions.
Relationship with the Church[]
Not only did Constantine take a vital interest in internalChristian affairs, buthe also sought to improve the lot of the Christian Church and its clergy. He issued legislation that absolved the clergy (mostly local aristocrats) from having to serve in civic capacities and their financial obligations, and he provided them with extensive treasury funds to use in their congregations. He also arranged for the building of major churches throughout his empire, including the Lateran in Rome. He completely destroyed prized pagan temples and stripped splendidly-adorned pagan shrines. Five Roman sites were destroyed, three of which worshipped the love goddess Aphrodite (which sponsored sacred prostitution). Constantine's mother Saint Helena oversaw the building of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, making it the most blessed site in the city. Helena also oversaw the construction of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Ascension on Mount Olivet, where Jesus was taken up into heaven after his resurrection.
Summary[]
Constantine did not make Christianity the official state religion of the empire, with only 4 million of the empire's 60 million inhabitants being Christian at the time of his conversion. He established a dynasty which would rule over the empire until 363, but he had no mission to convert the pagans of the empire, as he remained remarkably open to those of other persuasions. Christianity became the favored religion of the empire, with members of the imperial elite converting to help their chances for advancement, and elites being tabbed for church service in order to be given the economic privileges enjoyed by the clergy. Constantine's use of persuasion to attract converts would later be replaced by persecution under Theodosius, whose Edict of Thessalonica outlawed every other faith in the empire.