Constantine

Constantine I (ruled 307 – 337 CE) was the first Roman emperor to adopt Christianity, and is one of the most important figures in the history of Christianity. When he came to power an estimated 5-7% of the Roman Empire was Christian. By the end of the fourth century, after decades of anti-pagan legislature, the figure stood at around 50%.

During his reign, Constatntine showered money and privileges on the Church. All clergy were granted immunity from taxes and public funds were made available for churches throughout the empire. Christian individuals and communities were actively favoured and promoted by the State. He also gave Christian bishops striking new powers, allowing them to judge on legal disputes. Being a Christian became politically and socially important, comparable to being a party member in a Communist state.

Constantine outlawed sacrifice, a central part of pagan worship, and prevented any new temples from being built. He also destroyed many temples to the gods, including the temple of Apollo at Didyma, the temple of Asclepius at Aigeai, and many temples of Aphrodite in the Levant.

Constantine is listed as a saint by the Orthodox Churches, but he was hardly a pleasant man who upheld ‘Christian values’. He murdered countless people, and even had his own wife and son executed for a suspected incestuous affair. He allegedly killed his wife by having her boiled in the bath. He was only baptised on his deathbed, believing it would expurgate his many sins. In Constantine’s eyes, not being a baptised Christian allowed him to commit whatever crimes and unpleasant acts he deemed necessary to fulfil his agenda.

Eusebius (263 – 339 CE) was a close friend of Constantine, and chronicled the emperor’s life. He wrote of his ruler’s death,

‘Being at length convinced that his life was drawing to a close, he felt the time was come at which he should seek purification from sins of his past career, firmly believing that whatever errors he had committed as a mortal man, his soul would be purified from them through the efficacy…of baptism.’ (The Life of Constantine 4.61)

Pagan writers later suggested that Constantine only became a Christian to gain forgiveness for his sanguine deeds. Julian II wrote a satire called The Caesars, in which he portrayed Constantine as running around heaven desperately trying to find a god who will help him, and only Jesus would offer him forgiveness for his crimes.

Although he was the first emperor to adopt Christianity, Constantine appears to have had no great religious conviction. There’s no evidence he ever even attended a church service. Before adopting Christianity, Constantine had already affiliated himself to the gods Apollo, Mars and Sol Invictus, the latter of which was still appearing on his coins as late as 320-1 CE.

In his various letters that have been preserved he never quotes Jesus, and rarely mentions Old Testament scripture. Yet he constantly talks of ‘God’, the ‘Divinity’, the ‘Most High God’ and the ‘Supreme Being’. The inscription on the triumphal arch he erected in Rome referred to the ‘inspiration of the Divinity’. The arch contains no Christian imagery, but has reliefs of Mars, Jupiter and Hercules. There is also no imagery of Constantine’s famous vision nor any Christian symbols like the Chi-Rho on his soldiers’ shields.

The reality is that Constantine was an authoritarian ruler who probably saw Christianity as a useful tool to promote his vision of one god, one empire, and one divinely appointed emperor, the representative of this god on Earth.

Eusebius made this vision clear in both his Life of Constantine and Tricennalian Oration, where he states that the earthly kingdom is a microcosm of the heavenly one, and the emperor is the earthly image of God. Constantine liked to refer to himself as ‘the thirteenth apostle’, and gave himself Christ-like status in his mausoleum in Constantinople. His tomb lay surrounded by twelve other sarcophagi, each containing supposed relics from the twelve disciples.