Church History

Constantine 's Conversion : Good or Bad

How did the scattered and hiding congregations of apostolic times become Catholic or universal Christianity ? What made it possible ? These questions can be answered and traced back

to the conversion of Constantine itself . Many historians hail him as a good emperor because of his positive contributions to the Church . Before his reign , the church was underground and was hardly recognized as legitimate religion in the Roman Empire . In fact , Christians were viewed as either cannibals (because of the ordinance of the Lord 's Supper ) or

atheists (Christians do not believe in pantheon of pagan gods ) and hated for their lifestyle of secrecy . Historically , Christianity began as a tiny offshoot of Judaism but three hundred years later it became the and eventually the officially sanctioned religion of the whole Roman Empire . Despite the extensive and determined efforts to eradicate the new faith , it continued to live on and flourish . By the time the Emperor Constantine reigned (312-337 , who was the first Christian emperor , there were churches in every large town in the empire and in places as distant from each other as Britain , Carthage , and Persia

Obviously , the most popular change that Constantine had contributed to the Church was the acceptance of Christianity by the Roman Empire as its legal religion in fact , it had become the official religion of the state . The then persecuted church has become , because of the Emperor 's conversion , a ruling religion . Prior to A .D . 312 , Christianity had been outlawed and persecuted . Suddenly it was favored and pampered Constantine thrust it into public life

There are scholars who have considered Constantine 's conversion ' a political maneuver because even then , plenty of paganism remained . He conspired he murdered he even retained his title Pontifex Maximus as head of the state religious cult . But a purely political conversion is hard to maintain in the light of his public and private actions From the year 312 , he favored Christianity openly . He allowed Christian ministers to enjoy the same exemption from taxes as the pagan priests he abolished executions by crucifixion he called a halt to the battles of gladiators as a punishment for crimes and in 321 he made Sunday a public holiday . Thanks to his generosity , magnificent church buildings arose as evidence of his support for Christianity . This public Christianity was matched by changes in Constantine 's private life Making no secret of his Christian convictions , he had his sons and daughters brought up as Christians and led a Christian family life Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia baptized him shortly before he died in 337 After his baptism , Constantine refused to wear again the imperial purple and thus left this life dressed in his white baptismal robe

The advantages for the church were real enough , but there was a price to pay . Constantine ruled Christian bishops as he did his civil servants and demanded unconditional obedience to official pronouncements , even when they interfered with purely church matters . There were also the...