From Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the "earth" as it was then known, the gospel went forth in the early decades and centuries of the new millennium, and daily many were added to the community of saints. From the perspective of the Roman Empire, Christianity went from a persecuted movement on the fringe of society to a tolerated religious sect. But everything changed from the early fourth century with the conversion of a 40-year-old politician. In the words of one historian, Christianity was on the threshold of absorbing a whole society. (1)
The Conversion of Constantine
The politician in question, Constantine, was the son of a soldier and a well-seasoned politician by the time of his campaign to become sole ruler of the West, from Rome to surrounding regions. As Constantine marched against other generals vying for power, he came to believe that he and his armies had the Lord on their side. Because of a prebattle vision, Constantine had his soldiers mark their shields with an X and a circle with a line running down the middle. This signified the emperor's conversion, for he understood the Lord to have told him, "In this sign you will be a victor." In effect, the shields represented an early Christian symbol for the first two letters of Christ, or "Christos" (XPI?TO?) in Greek: a Chi (XÏ? or "X" in transliteration) and a Rho (P? or "R" in transliteration).
Indeed, Constantine took his victory on the field of battle that day’October 28, 312’and proceeded to enter Rome to consolidate his rule and inaugurate the religious transformation of the empire. The year following, the Edict of Milan granted religious rights to Christians in the West. By 324, Constantine was the ruler of Eastern and Western empires alike and chose as his new capital a small fishing village, slated now to become a great city, a new "Rome," renamed from Byzantium to Constantinople after its new founder.
- 257 Edict against Christians
- 303 The Great Persecution
- 306-337 Constantine
- 312 Battle of Milvian Bridge
- 324 Foundation of Constantinople
- 325 Council of Nicaea
- 337-361 Constantius II
- 379-395 Theodosius I
- 410 Sack of Rome (2)
A "Christian" Empire
The conversion of Constantine was "preceded, for two generations, by the conversion of Christianity to the culture and ideals of the Roman world," specifically the ideal of imperial unity. In a process of cultural coordination, Constantine, his son Constantius II, and Theodosius I progressively "forbade public sacrifices, closed temples," and generally orchestrated the rise of a loosely theocratic "Christian" empire that came to dominate the late-ancient and medieval world. "Christendom" was born; religion was not just tolerated and sanctioned, but actively promoted by the state. (3)
2 [ Back ] Adapted from Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity, A.D. 200-1000, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2003), 39.
3 [ Back ] Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom, 74. See also Robert Louis Wilken, The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity (Yale University Press, 2012).
