Conversion of Constantine
Permanent change
Hard to explain on strategic grounds
Starts the Christianisation of Roman Empire
Been illegal for 250 years
Romans killed Jesus
Polytheism and its ceremony was rife
First becomes tolerant
Then favoured
Then official and almost only religion
Paganism – polytheistic
Local variation
Eclectic – different gods in places times and times of life
Emotional vacuum
Denied longing of more to life
Innerness – important
Other religions – mystery
Eg Mithraism
Promise of afterlife
Appeal to elite and common
But it was alien
Romans did not always persecute
Didn’t like intolerance
Judaism recognised Roman Leader
Christianity
Rejected pleasures
Emperor worship
Celebrations
Killjoy religion
Persecution was not that intense
Nero
Third century
Diocletian
Enough persecution to give it backbone but not enough to crush it
Constantine son of one of the Caesars – helpers
Of the west
Sent east to serve Galerius eastern
Not chosen next
306 Constantine rebelled
Raised empire in England
Maxentius rebelled in Rome
Milvian Bridge 312 battle
2 stories of conversion
One had a dream – Angel spoke to him and told him to make symbol
Chi and rho
Other story later
Eusebius
Marching with army
Saw a cross in the sky
On the sun
In this sign you will conquer
Chi rho
No reason to doubt Constantine’s sincerity – hard to imagine any emperor thinking Christianity was good for empire
Christianity was pacifist
Commands not to fight hit back
Saw himself favoured by fortune
Need to placate
Quite clever
Latin literature
Some Greek
Doesn’t become totally committed Christian
Coins kept invincible son
Only later – just the cross
Edict of toleration
Constantine and Licinius
Christianity legalised
Returned property confiscated from Diocletian
No tax for church
Left pagan centre for moment
Built St Peters
Laterin Basilica
At his death about half of the empire had converted
What did it mean to the church?
Establishes the problem of the
Church in the world
St Augustine dealt with some of this
At start very successful
390 about 90% Christian (nominal)
Held out
Peasants – weather God
Army
Intellectual elite – Greek Roman philosophy
Battle of Chrysopolis
Found importance of
Byzantium
Constantinople
Istanbul
Bosporus – narrow canal or river
Can get to Danube and Persian border quite easily
The Difficult borders
City in richest part of empire
Like Brazil and Portugal
Brazil bigger and more important now
Facilitated division by addition of new capital like Rome
Forum
Sporting stadiums
Victory column
Palaces
Gets more devout and less tolerant
Gets more involved with doctrine
Donatists
Taught that priests were not legitimate if had sinned
People appealed to emperor 317
Involved in Arian heresy
Christ subordinate to God the father
Harsher crimes for sexual sins
Rape, concubines
Nicea 32
Dealt with Arian
Appears as head of the church
But not a bishop
Vs Diocletian
Similar
Military and Admin structure
Heavy taxes
Diocletian persecuted church but Constantine strengthened it
Ended tetrarchy but division strengthened with new capital
Constantine more successful economically
476 fall