Constantine The Great Transformation

One of the most powerful emperors in Rome and the first one to identify himself as a Christian was Constantine the Great. He was known for many things especially his religious reforms. Being the son of a Roman official, this put him in line to be the next heir to the throne of the Western Empire. Constantine was very committed to his religious beliefs as well as how he followed it.

Before the reign of Constantine, there were many things someone had to go through in order to become a Christian, this process very long and stressful. When regarding the process, the person trying to convert to Christianity would need to be dedicating their lives not only to becoming a Christian, but must also be able to change their beliefs, the way they behave, and how they live. To do this they would have to go through many different stages in which they would

eventually become a Christian.
Some of the things each person needed to go through would be meeting with a church or someone that is a Christian and deciding if that was really something they wanted to go through.

If this was something he or she decided then they would need to get accepted by the church to continue on with the journey. After being accepted to the church it would be time to change the behaviors that one would have. The church would ask to meet a couple times a week to observe and give advice on what things would need to be changed. Following that the final progress in order to fully become a Christian is that the individual would need to be Baptised and become a born again Christian.

Men as well as women that went through this journey to change their lives to follow Christ often knew that doing this there was a chance that something bad could happen. There were people back then that did not agree with Christianity and would end up murdering ones who were. It is believed that many people decided to become Christians to become apart of something more than what they are used to and they even believed that they would have a better

afterlife.
Before the battle against Constantine’s rival he claimed to have seen a sign in the sky, a symbol which was later called the Chi-Rho. Beside the symbol he saw the words, “By this symbol, conquer.” He then told his men to mark their shields with that symbol as they began to get ready to go into battle. As the army found, fought, and defeated his enemy Constantine became the new emperor and the symbol stuck with him everyday after that.
There were many things that Constantine was good at, especially the way he secured the political and social rights for the Christians. He went out of his way trying to create and build something to be proud of. He spend all of his time and money building churches and supporting the Christian rights. Instead of going through all of the steps to follow Christ he offered the citizens a better deal. You were able to become a Christian without having to be baptized and/or catechized. During the end of his reign he confessed his faith in Christ, and told everyone that he got to be where he was because of God. Given that Constantine skipped passed some of the rules in officially becoming a Christian, before he had passed away he was finally baptized and joined the church. Constantine impacted Christians all over, and was one of the most influential figures in the Christian history.