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'Fragrant smoke is sacred unto the gods'
GUESTBOOK
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The Oh So Christian Constantine?
Constantine the Great, was the Roman responsible for promoting Christianity and arguable the most influential figure in the growth if the Church. It was this imperial support for Christianity which was one of the key factors which secured his place in history. It has inspired York Museums Trust’s new exhibition, Constantine the Great – York’s Roman Emperor. The exhibition, which runs from 31 March to 29 October, 2006, will showcase treasures from across Europe dating from Constantine’s prosperous rule in the fourth century AD and celebrating the anniversary year of his proclamation as emperor in York on 25 July, 306.
So was Constantine a believer, or did he adopt the Christian faith as a shrewd political move to further his power? Perhaps it was somewhere in between. But we cannot know for sure. After all, as Dr Kelly points out, 'we don’t have Constantine’s private diaries'. And to a great extent to ask such a question is to misunderstand the nature of the connection between religion and the state that existed in the ancient world. In the Roman Empire there had always been a much tighter bond between politics, the state and religion. Certainly, Constantine is recorded as having openly confessed his belief in Christianity: 'my whole soul and whateverbreath I draw, and whatever goes on in the depths of the mind, I am firmly convinced, is owed by us wholly to the greatest God.' The emperor legislated to promote Sunday as day of rest; he banned gladiatorial games; he promoted Christians to high office; he was the first Roman emperor to be buried rather than cremated. Against the genuineness of Constantine's beliefs, it is often pointed out that he was only baptised on his deathbed. But Dr Kelly argues that Constantine's deathbed baptism is not really evidence of his failure to embrace Christianity fully. Many upper-class Christians in the fourth century AD delayed baptism. They believed that baptism washed away all sin. They wished to be baptised as late as possible so as not to sin again before death. Constantine was certainly convinced. Dressed in simple white garments he told the court; 'I know that I am in the true sense blessed, that now I have been shown worthy of immortal life, and now that I have received divine light.'In the end, however we choose to assess Constantine's own beliefs, what's really important, according to Dr Kelly, was the emperor's strong support for a minority religion.
The Roman Empire did not become Christian overnight; that was a much longer process. Constantine was responsible for changing the course of history. He re-unified the Roman Empire, founded a new capital city and backed a new religion. As Dr Kelly told us 'there is no doubt that without Constantine's active support and commitment, Christianity would not have become the majority religion of the Roman Empire. Without Constantine, the history of Europe would have been strikingly different.' Dr Christopher Kelly is a Roman historian and Fellow of Corpus Christi College Cambridge. Picture copyright info. TOP: The head of
Constantine, found in York, roughly twice life size. ©York Museums |
York,
1700 years ago, in the year 306, Constantine was proclaimed emperor by his
troops on the death of his father, the Emperor Constantinus, while both were
on a military campaign to defeat the Picts
Of
course, whether this dramatic dream took place is not certain, but what is
clear is that the Battle of the Milvian Bridge was Constantine's first
outright, public affirmation of his Christianity. Constantine associated the
Christian deity with the victory while continuing to honour the Roman sun
god Sol Invictus.
At
the time of the Battle of the Milvian Bridge, at the beginning of the fourth
century AD, only around ten per cent of the Roman Empire's population was
Christian. The majority of the wealthy, ruling elite worshipped the old gods
of Rome, and recognised the divinity of the emperors. The emperor
Diocletian, one of Constantine's immediate imperial predecessors, had
associated himself closely with Jupiter, the king of the Gods. Peasants too
clung tenaciously to traditional beliefs; our word 'pagan' comes from the
Latin word paganus which simply means 'rural'. For these Christians,
whose religion had been persecuted under Diocletian, Constantine's
conversion had a dramatic effect. Christianity was suddenly very public. The
building of large churches was state-funded, and Constantine provided the
money, either directly or through substantial tax breaks for the Church and
clergy. Dr Kelly said 'Christians in cities would have noticed the
extraordinary effect of Constantine’s support for Christianity. Almost all
major cities in the Roman Empire had churches built within fifteen years of
Constantine’s conversion. The Christian Church was suddenly transformed from
a persecuted minority into a privileged institution.'