Constantine I

Life

Constantine was the son of Helena and Constantius Chlorus, a general and junior emperor. When his father died in Britain in 306, the troops under his command proclaimed him emperor. He then entered the civil wars in which several emperors were contending for power, and in 312 he defeated Maxentius at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge near Rome. According to tradition, before this battle he saw in the sky the sign of the cross or letters signifying Christ. The story comes from the writings of Eusebius of Caesarea and Lactantius, whose accounts differ somewhat. In 324 he defeated Licinius, the emperor of the East, and became sole emperor. In 330 he dedicated Byzantium as his new capital, and the city later came to be called Constantinople. In 337 he was baptized by Eusebius, bishop of Nicomedia, and died shortly afterward.

Work and Achievements

• Legalization of Christianity: In 313, together with Licinius, he issued the so-called Edict of Milan, which granted freedom to all religions and ordered the return of church property confiscated during the persecutions. This ended the official persecution that the early church had endured.
• Council of Nicaea: In 325 he summoned bishops from throughout the empire to resolve the Arian controversy, a dispute over whether the Son is a created being. The council rejected Arianism, and its decisions became the foundation of the Nicene Creed and of the doctrine of the Trinity.
• Patronage of the church: He granted the clergy privileges such as exemption from public duties. He is also known to have sponsored the construction of large church buildings in Jerusalem, Rome, and elsewhere.
• Sunday as a legal day of rest: In 321 he made the "day of the sun" (Sunday) a legal day of rest.

Later Influence

Constantine's Sunday rest law is often raised in the debate over the Sabbath and the Lord's Day. The Seventh-day Adventist Church contends that this law and later decisions of the church changed the Sabbath to Sunday. Most denominations, such as Presbyterian and Methodist churches, hold that worship on the Lord's Day dates from the apostolic age, citing Acts 20:7, 1 Corinthians 16:2, and Revelation 1:10. The claim that the Council of Nicaea fixed the list of biblical books is also widespread in popular belief, but church historians hold that the council did not determine the canon.

In Korean Protestant churches, church history teaching and preaching frequently cite the year 313 as the turning point that ended the age of persecution.

Assessment

The Eastern Orthodox Church venerates him as a saint "equal to the apostles." Western church tradition also generally remembers him as the emperor who delivered the church from persecution. He is also widely criticized, however, for opening the way to the union of church and state. Theologians in the Anabaptist tradition call the resulting state-church system "Constantinianism" and regard it as the point at which the church began to rely on power and privilege. In Korea, too, this critique is cited in discussions of the relationship between church and politics.

Assessments of his personal faith are likewise divided, because he postponed baptism until the end of his life and is reported to have caused the deaths of his son Crispus and his wife Fausta in 326. His rehabilitation of Arius and exile of Athanasius after the Council of Nicaea are also cited in support of the interpretation that he placed the unity of the empire ahead of theology.