Saint Constantine Research Paper

Constantine is often regarded as the first Christian emperor, receiving veneration as a saint in both the Eastern and Western churches. The myth of “Saint Constantine” states that he awoke in the middle of the night, a bead of sweat might have been dripping down his temple, as he recalled the dream that initiated the rise of Christianity . Visions of Christ had told him in this dream to paint the first letter of Jesus’s last name on his army’s shields and for the spears to be made into crosses . With the legions adorn with Christian iconography, they marched into battle and claimed victory over their enemies. A triumph declared and an arch was erected depicting the story of the conquest. Constantine rode his horse a transformed man, pranced …show more content…
The era preceding Constantine was one of condemnation and hardship for Christians in the Roman Empire , however for much of its history, the government of Rome had not actually declared an official ban on Christianity, most attacks on Christians were done by mobs in response for misfortune, but in other times Christians afforded more rights than their Jewish counterparts . Sometimes the Christians, and not the Jews, were even allowed to have special tax exemptions . A period of back and forth acceptance and condemnation started, and around 270 the emperor Aurelian even got involved with clergy matters . It was the rise of Diocletian that was the greatest era of persecution for Christians in the Roman Empire; expulsion of Christian soldiers, burning of churches, and encouragement of executing Christians all contributed to this Era of Persecution . When Constantine had formally allowed Christians to practice their religion in the edict of Millan it only seemed a stark contrast to the Era of Persecution. The scene that Constantine inherits was of condemnation for the Christians, but it wasn’t without president that Christians enjoyed formal recognitions, protections, and benefits . His legal allowance of Christianity does not prove his conversion any more than his pagan predictors that hadn’t condemned the …show more content…
In 325 Constantine called the first ecumenical council, the council of Nicaea, and presided as judge on the issue of the trinity . On one side we had Arius, who argued Arianism, or that Jesus was subservient to God the father, having been allegedly been created by the father. On the other side, we had Athanasius of Alexandria arguing that Jesus and the Father were equals, created at the same time, and never existing without each other. What was important was that these two sides of the issues appealed and argued to Constantine, and in the end when Constantine decreed that the father and the son were equals, he banished Arius from the kingdom . Constantine placed himself as head of the Church, and now not only was the Emperor of Rome, but now was the Emperor of Christianity. We see him place himself into the church by compiling some of the first written bibles, and donating fifty bibles to early churches, literally dictating the worship practices . While Diocletian had tried to control the Christians with brutal force, forcing the Christians to become an underground religion, he could never stamp out these peoples. Constantine was better able to control the Christians by infiltrating their religion and place himself as