Constantine's Impact On Christianity Essay

Introduction

Emperor Constantine (Flavius Valerius Constantinus) (272/3-337) ruled Rome during the acceptance of Christianity (307-337 AD), and was the first Roman Christian emperor. His impacts on the age in which he lived are manifold, but three of his most important contributions are his influence on the role of Christianity in the world, the development of the city of Constantinople, and the resulting impacts on architecture that are still seen today.

Constantine’s Impact on Christianity

Constantine ruled Rome from 307-337 AD, at a time when the Roman Empire was in a state of radical change. At a time when Christians were persecuted by followers of pagan beliefs, Constantine issued the Edict of Milan (313), granting legal status to Christianity.

This was the first known legislation that permitted the freedom of religion , and perhaps most importantly, it mitigated the persecution of Christians, who were subject to slavery and even execution.
Constantine gave money to Christian clergy and exempted them from taxes, and set aside Sunday as a day of rest.

Constantine also convened the Council of Nicea in 325 AD, which developed the Nicene Creed, the backbone of Catholic Mass and still taught by rote to Catholic children today. “We believe in God, the Father, the Almighty, Creator of Heaven and Earth, of all that is, seen and unseen . . .” The words of the Nicene Creed are repeated every Sunday by hundreds of millions.

Before a decisive battle against the emperor Maxentius at the Milvan Bridge in 324 AD, Constantine had a vision of a cross in the sky, surrounded by stars that formed the words “With this, conquer,” in Latin. A church historian, Philostorgius, writing in the 4th or 5th Century,

writes,
“. . . the reason for the conversion of Constantine the Great from paganism to Christianity was the victory over Maxentius, in which the sign of the cross appeared in the east extending to a great distance and formed of a brilliant radiance.”
Eusebius of Caesarea wrote about this in his Life of Constantine in 339, perhaps the best-known treatise on the life of the emperor.

Constantine converted to Christianity before the battle, and had his soldiers inscribe crosses on their shields and banners as their standard. This was the first official adaptation of Christianity in government, and after soundly defeating Maxentius at the Milvan Bridge, the world regarded Constantine as divinely appointed. Constantine, more than any other single figure, is responsible for the political adaptation of Christianity.

Constantinople Gets the Works

Constantine made Byzantium, the Byzantine capitol, into a second capitol for Rome, and renamed it Constantinople. (Now, of course, it’s Istanbul, not Constantinople. Been a long time gone, old Constantinople. Still, it’s Turkish delight on a moonlit night.) But the location of Constantinople gave Rome leverage and a power projection point over the eastern part of the empire, and Constantinople lasted another thousand years after the fall of Rome. Constantinople was also called New Rome. Constantinople survived in part because after the fall of Rome, Constantinople became the de facto end of the Silk Road.

Constantinople was consecrated as a Christian city, although Constantine’s legislative emphasis on religious freedoms allowed pagans to coexist with Christians inside New Rome. Christian art and ceremony dominated Constantinople going forward, until the city was sacked by crusaders

in 1204.
Last Man Standing: Art and Architecture
One of the first acts by Constantine after declaring Constantinople as New Rome was to enlarge the city considerably and surround it with walls that made it essentially impregnable and virtually resistant to the types of siege warfare that developed during the early Middle Ages. These walls were certainly a major contributing factor to Constantinople standing for almost a thousand years longer than Rome.
Constantine did away with the Roman institution of gladiatorial games and instead built an enormous Hippodrome (horse-racing theater) in Constantinople that may have seated a hundred thousand people. He acquired a great deal of Roman statuary, including statues of the emperors. These were pilfered directly from Rome and places throughout “New Rome.” Roman influence in engineering extended to the system of aqueducts, necessary for the rapid expansion of the population; some of these aqueducts continued to function well into the next millennium. Constantine also erected a massive column topped with a statue of himself as Apollo.
Christian art and architecture merged with Byzantine and Roman architecture. The popularization of Christianity led to the creation of the basilica, a rectangular church with a long nave and a peaked roof. Byzantine church architecture also included domed churches with the walls of the nave and transept forming a cross. Many of these still stand today.
Constantinople became one of the largest cities in the world, with 300,000 inhabitants by the 5th Century, and nearly a million by the time it was sacked in the Fourth Crusade in 1204. It survives today as the city of Istanbul, and much of the architecture influenced by Constantine and his role in the adaptation of Christianity remains.
Conclusion
Emperor Constantine’s impacts live on today, and can be seen in the proliferation of Christianity and the Roman Catholic Church, the development and influence on Istanbul, and the still-standing architecture and art resident in orthodox cathedrals across what was once the greatest empire in the world.